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Title: The Continental Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 6, June, 1862

Author: Various

Release date: June 29, 2005 [eBook #16151]
                Most recently updated: December 11, 2020

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Norma
        Elliott and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
        https://www.pgdp.net


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, VOL. 1, NO. 6, JUNE, 1862 ***




Produced by Cornell University, Joshua Hutchinson, Norma
Elliott and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
https://www.pgdp.net








_THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY:_

DEVOTED TO

LITERATURE AND NATIONAL POLICY.

VOL. I.--JUNE, 1862.--No. VI.


       *       *       *       *       *


_THE CONSTITUTION AND SLAVERY._

There are two sections of the United States, the Free States and the
Slave States, who hold views widely different upon the subject of
Slavery and the true interpretation of the Constitution in relation to
it. The Southern view, for the most part, is:

1. The Constitution recognizes slaves as strictly property, to her
bought and sold as merchandise.

2. The Constitution recognizes all the territories as open to slavery as
much as to freedom, except in those cases where it has been expressly
interdicted by the Federal Government; and it secures the legal right to
carry slaves into the territories, and any act of Congress, restricting
this right to hold slaves in the territories, is unconstitutional and
void.

3. Slavery is a natural institution, and not to be considered as local
and municipal.

4. The Constitution is simply a compact or league between sovereign
States, and when either party breaks, in the estimation of the other,
this contract, it is no longer binding upon the whole, and the party
that thinks itself wronged has a right, acting according to its own
judgment, to leave the Union.

5. This contract between sovereign States has been broken to such an
extent, by long and repeated aggressions upon the South by the North,
that the slave States who have seceded from the Union, or who may
secede, are not only right in thus doing, but are justified in taking up
arms, to prevent the collection of revenue by the Federal Government.

These ideas are universally repudiated in the free States. It is not my
purpose to discuss the social or moral relations of slavery, but simply
to consider under what circumstances the Constitution originated, and
what was the clear intent of those who adopted it as the organic or
fundamental law of the country. The last assumption taken by the
seceding States grows out of the first four, and therefore it becomes a
question of vital interest, what did the framers of the Constitution
mean? We must remember that while names remain the same, the things
which they represent in time go through a radical change. Slavery is not
the same that it was when the Constitution was formed, nor are the
original slave States the same. If freedom at the North has made great
strides, so also has slavery South. Our country now witnesses a mighty
difference in free and slave institutions from what originally was seen.
The stand-point of slavery and freedom has altogether changed, not from
local legislation, but from natural causes, inherent in these two
diverse states of society. New interests, new relations, new views of
commerce, agriculture, and manufactures now characterize our country. It
will not do then to infer, from the existing state of things, what was
originally the respective condition of the slaveholding and the free
States, or what was in fact the import of that agreement, called the
Constitution, which brought about the Federal Union. The framers of the
Constitution did not reason so much as to what they should do for
posterity as for the generation then living. As fallible men, much as
they would wish to legislate wisely for the future, yet their very
imperfection of knowledge precluded them from knowing fully what fifty
or a hundred years hence would be the development of slavery or freedom.
Their actions must have reference to present wants, and consult
especially existing conditions of society. While they intended that the
Constitution should be the supreme law of the land, yet they wisely put
into the hands of the people the power of amending it at any such time
as circumstances might make it necessary. The question then at issue
between the North and the South is not what the Constitution should
read, not what it ought to be, to come up to the supposed interests of
the country; but what it does read. How is the Constitution truly to be
interpreted? All parties should acquiesce in seeking only to find out
the literal import of the Constitution as originally framed, or
subsequently amended, and abide by it, irrespective altogether of
present interests or relations. The reason is, in no other way can the
common welfare of the country be promoted. If the necessities of the
people demand a change in the Constitution, they can, in a legal way,
exercise the right, always remembering that no republic, no free
institutions, no democratic state of society can exist that denies the
great principle of the rule of the majority. It becomes us, then, in
order that we may come to a right decision respecting the duties that
grow out of our Federal Union, to consider what language the
Constitution makes use of, in relation to slavery, and how was this
instrument interpreted by the framers. The great question is, was
slavery regarded as a political and moral evil, to be restricted and
circumscribed within the States existing under the Constitution, or was
it looked upon as a blessing, a social relation of society, proper to be
diffused over the territories? It can be clearly shown that there was no
such state of feeling, respecting slavery, as to lead the originators of
our Constitution to look upon it as a thing in itself of natural right,
useful in its operation, and worthy of enlargement and perpetuation.
Rather, the universal sentiment respecting slavery, North and South,
was, that as a great moral, social, and political evil, it should be
condemned, and the widely prevalent impression was, that through the
peaceful operation of causes that evinced the immeasurable superiority
of free institutions, slavery would itself die out, and the whole
country be consecrated to free labor. Never did it enter the minds of
the framers of the Constitution, that slavery was a thing in itself
right and desirable, or that it should be encouraged in the territories.
It was looked upon as exclusively local in its character, the creature
of State law, a relation of society that was to be regulated like any
other municipal institution. It is not to be presumed that the authors
of our government would, in the Declaration of Independence, assert the
natural rights of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, and then contradict this cardinal principle of the revolution
in the Constitution. They found slavery existing in the Southern States;
they simply left it as it was before the Revolution, with the idea that
in time the local action of the State legislature would do away with the
system. But so far as the extension of slavery was concerned, the
predominant feeling, North and South, was hostile to it. The security
of the country demanded the union of the States under one common
Constitution. The dangers of foreign war, the exhausted finances of the
different States, the evils of a great public debt, contracted during
the Revolution, made it advisable, as soon as the consent of the States
could be got, to have a Constitution that should command security at
home and credit and respect abroad. It was regarded as indispensable for
union, that slavery should be left as it was found in the States. The
thirteen States that first formed our Union under the Constitution, with
the great evils that grew out of war and debt, agreed, for their own
mutual protection, that slavery should be permitted to exist in those
States where it was sanctioned by the local government, as an evil to be
tolerated, not as a thing good in itself, to be fostered, perpetuated,
and enlarged. Seeing that union could not be had without slavery, it was
recognized as an institution not to be interfered with by the free
States; but not acknowledged, in the sense that it was right, a blessing
that, like free labor, should be the normal condition of the whole
people. There was no such indifference to slavery as a civil
institution, as has been asserted. The reason is two-fold: first, the
States could not be indifferent to slavery, if they wished; and
secondly, they could not repudiate, in the Constitution, the Declaration
of Independence. Thus the word 'slave' is not found in the Constitution.
In the rendition of slaves, they simply spoke of persons held to
service, and as union was impossible, if the free States were open to
their escape, without the right being recognized of being returned, this
provision was accordingly made; and yet by the provision that no person
should be deprived of liberty or life, without due process of law, and
that the free citizens of one State, irrespective of color, should have
the same rights, while resident in any other State, as the citizens of
that State, the framers of our Constitution declared, in language most
explicit, the natural rights of all men. The question is not as to the
consistency of their profession and practice, or how they could fight
for their own independence, and yet deny freedom, for the sake of the
Union, to the slaves; but the question is simply whether, in preparing
the Constitution, they intended to engraft upon it the idea of the
natural right of slavery, and recognize it as a blessing, to be
perpetuated and enlarged. The question is simply, whether the
Constitution was designed to be pro-slavery, or whether, like the
instrument of the Declaration of Independence, it was intended to be the
great charter of civil and religious freedom, although compelled, for
the sake of union, not to interfere with slavery where it already
existed? Great stress is put upon that clause enjoining the rendition of
slaves escaping from their masters; but union was impossible without
this provision. The necessity of union was thought indispensable for
protection, revenue, and securing the dearly-bought blessings of
independence. The question with them was not, ought slavery to be
recognized as a natural right, and slaves a species of property like
other merchandise? but simply, shall we tolerate this evil, for the sake
of Union? Thus, as the indispensable condition of union, the provision
was made for the rendition of persons held to labor in the slave States.
Why is the language of the Constitution so guarded as not to have even
the word 'slave' in it, and yet of such a character as not to interfere
with local State legislation upon slavery? Simply to steer between the
Charybdis of no union and the Scylla of the repudiation of the
Declaration of Independence, teaching that all men are born free and
equal, and that all have natural rights, such as life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. And yet, in the slave States, the interpretation
of the Constitution is such, that the free States are accused of
violating it, unless they acknowledge that it recognizes slavery as a
natural right, and an institution to be perpetuated and enlarged, and
put upon the same level with the blessing of freedom, in the
territories. Slavery virtually must be nationalized, and the
Constitution be interpreted so as to carry it all over the territories
now existing, or to be acquired, or the free States have broken the
Constitution, and the slave States may leave the Union whenever it suits
their pleasure. It is easy to see how time has brought about such a
revolution of feeling and idea respecting slavery. It can be shown that
circumstances have changed altogether the relations of slavery, and
while names have remained the same, the things which they represent have
assumed a radical difference. It can be shown that the introduction of
the cotton-gin, and the increased profits of slave labor, have given an
impetus to the domestic institution that brings with it an entire
revolution of opinion. When slavery was unprofitable to the
slaveholders; when, in the early days of the republic, the number of
slaves was comparatively small; when, all over the country, the veterans
of the Revolution existed to testify to the hardships they endured for
national independence, and eulogize even the help of the negro in
securing it, then slavery was regarded a curse, an evil to be curtailed
and in time obliterated; then the local character of slavery, as the
creature of municipal law, not to be recognized where such law does not
exist, was the opinion universally of the people. But now, with the
growing profits of slavery, with the increase of the power of this
institution, other and far different language is held. Disguise it as we
may, there do exist great motives that have silently yet powerfully
operated within the last thirty or forty years, to change the popular
current of feeling and opinion. Not only have the slave States held the
balance of political power, but the spread of slavery has been gigantic.
The fairest regions of the South have been opened up to the domestic
institution, and Texas annexed, with Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida,
making an immense area of country, to be the nursery of slavery. The
political ascendency of the slave States has ever given to the South a
great advantage, in the extension of their favored institution, and the
result has proved that what our ancestors looked upon as an evil that
time would soon do away with, has grown into a monster system that
threatens to make subservient to it the free institutions of the North.

Slavery has now come to be a mighty energy of disquietude all over the
country, assuming colossal proportions of mischief, and mocking all the
ordinary restraints of law. The question of the present day to be
decided is not whether freedom and slavery shall exist side by side, nor
whether slavery shall be tolerated as a necessary evil; but in reality,
whether freedom shall be crushed under the iron hoof of slavery, and
this institution shall obtain the complete control of the country. It
has been said that the Constitution takes the position of complete
indifference to slavery; but the history of the slave States does not
lead us to infer that they were ever willing that slavery should be
tested by its own merits, or stand without the most persistent efforts
to secure for it the patronage of the Federal Government. Study the
progress of slavery, the last forty years, and none can fail to see that
it has ever aimed to secure first the supreme political control, and
then to advance its own selfish interests, at the expense of free
institutions. The great danger has always been, that while numerically
vastly inferior to the North, slavery has always been an unit, with a
single eye to its own aggrandizement; consequently, the history of the
country will show that so far from the general policy of the government
being adverse to slavery, that policy has been almost exclusively upon
the side of slaveholders. The domestic institution has been ever the pet
interest of the land.

In all that pertains to political power, the slaveholding interests have
been in the ascendant. Even when Lincoln was elected, it was found that
the Senate and House of Representatives, as well as the Judiciary, were
numerically upon the side of slavery, so that he could not, even had it
been his wish, carry out any measure inimical to the South. True, the
South had not the same power as under Buchanan; they could not hope ever
again to wield the resources of government to secure the ascendency of
slavery in Kansas; but for all that, Lincoln was powerless to encroach
upon their supposed rights, even if thus disposed. Is it not, then,
evident, that so far from the slaveholding States holding to the
opinions of the framers of the Constitution, there has been within the
last forty years a mighty change going on in the South, giving to
slavery an essentially aggressive policy, and an extension never dreamed
of by the authors of the Constitution? The ground of the Constitution
respecting slavery, was simply non-interference in the States where it
already existed. It left slavery to be curtailed, or done away with by
the local legislature, but it used language the most guarded, to
preclude the idea that slavery rested upon natural right, and that
slaves, like other property, could be carried into the territories. It
has been said, that the position of the Constitution is that of absolute
indifference, both to freedom and slavery; that it advocated neither,
but was bound to protect both. But how could the Constitution be
indifferent to the very end for which it was made? Was not its great
design to secure the liberty of the country, and promote its highest
welfare? The Constitution simply tolerated the existence of slavery, and
no more. As union was impossible without the provision for the rendition
of persons held to labor, escaping from one state into another, it
simply accommodated itself to an evil that was thought would be
restricted, and in due process of time done away with in the slave
States. To strain this provision to mean that it advocated the natural
right of slavery, and recognized the slave as property, to be sold and
bought like other merchandise, is simply to say that the framers of the
Constitution were the greatest hypocrites in the world, originating the
Declaration of Independence upon the basis of the natural right of all
men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and yet with full
knowledge and purpose giving the lie to this instrument in the
Constitution. Madison thought it wrong to admit in the Constitution the
idea of property in man. The word 'service' was substituted for
'servitude,' simply because this last encouraged the idea of property.

The constitutional provision for the rendition of slaves was simply a
compromise between union and slavery. Of the two evils of _no union_, or
_no slavery_, it was thought the former was the worse, and consequently
the free States fell in with the measure. But could the patriots of the
Revolution have foreseen the gigantic growth of slavery, and the use
that would have been made of the provision recognizing it, no
consideration would have induced them to adopt a course that has been
prolific of so much misrepresentation and mischief to the country. They
left the suppression of slavery to the States where it existed, but
there was no intention to ingraft the idea of property in man in the
Constitution, or to favor its extension beyond the original slave States
in any way. John Jay, the first Chief-Justice, was preëminently
qualified to judge respecting this. We have his testimony most
explicitly denying the natural right of property in slaves, and
declaring that the Constitution did not recognize the equity of its
extension in the new States or Territories. Who was there more
conversant with the genius of our country than Washington; and yet how
full is his testimony to the evil of slavery; its want of natural right
to support it, and the necessity of its speedy suppression and
abolition? Is it possible that he, himself a slaveholder and an
emancipationist, could utter such sentiments and enforce them by his
example, if he regarded the Constitution as establishing the light of
property in man, and the benefit of the indefinite expansion of slavery
over the country? No, indeed! If we may consider the Constitution in
relation to slaves an inconsistent instrument, we can not prove it an
hypocritical and dishonest one. The hard necessities of the times wrung
out of reluctant patriots the admission of the rendition of slaves, but
they would not by any reasonable construction of language, assert the
natural right of property in slaves, and the propriety or benefit of its
toleration in new States and Territories. It was bad enough to tolerate
this evil in the old slave States, but it would be infamous to hand down
to posterity a Constitution denying the self-evident truths of the
Declaration of Independence. Toleration is not synonymous with approval,
or existence with right. There is a most subtle error in the assumption
of the indifference of the Constitution to freedom and slavery--that it
advocated neither, but protected both. Certainly the framers of the
Constitution were not automatons, or this instrument the accident of the
throw of the dice-box. The great purpose of this instrument was to raise
the revenue, and defend the country. Its end was to protect the
liberties and command the respect of civilized nations. The old
Confederation was to give way to the Federal Constitution. The
independence of the United States had been achieved at a heavy cost. To
say nothing of frontiers exposed, country ravaged, towns burnt, commerce
nearly ruined, the derangement of finances--the pecuniary loss alone
amounted to one hundred and seventy million dollars, two thirds of which
had been expended by Congress, the balance by individual States. The
design of the Constitution was to preserve the fruits of the Revolution,
to respect State sovereignty, and yet secure a powerful and efficient
Union; to have a central government, and yet not infringe upon the local
rights of the States. It will, therefore, be seen that while the subject
of slavery was earnestly discussed, and presented at the outset a great
obstacle to the union of the States, yet it was thought, upon the whole,
best to leave to the slave States the business of doing away with this
great evil in such a manner as in their judgment might best conduce to
their own security and the preservation of the Union.

But no truth of history is more evident than that the authors of the
Constitution regarded slavery as impossible to be sustained upon the
ground of the natural rights of mankind, and deserving of no
encouragement in the Territories, or States hereafter to come into the
Union. It was thought that the best interests of the slave States would
lead them to abolish slavery, and that before many years, the Republic
would cease to bear the disgrace of chattel bondage. It is certainly
proper that the acts and language of the authors of the Constitution,
and those who chiefly were instrumental in achieving our independence,
should be made to interpret that instrument which was the creation of
their own toils and love of country. Because the circumstances of the
present day have brought about a mighty change in the feelings and
opinions of the slave States, it does not follow that the Constitution
in its original intention and spirit should be accommodated to this new
aspect of things. It is easy to get up a theory of the natural right of
slavery, and then say that the Constitution meant that the slave States
should carry slave property just where the free States carry their
property; but when this ground is taken, the Constitution is made, to
all intents, a pro-slavery instrument. It ceases to be the charter of a
nation's freedom, and resolves itself into the most effective agent of
the propagandism of slavery. The transition is easy from such a theory
to the fulfillment of the boast of Senator Toombs, 'that the roll of
slaves might yet be called at the foot of Bunker Hill Monument.' But no
straining of the language of the Constitution can make it mean the
recognition of the natural right of slavery, The guarded manner in which
the provision was made for the rendition of slaves, and all the
circumstances connected with the adoption of the Constitution, show
conclusively that slavery was considered only a local and municipal
institution, a serious evil, to be suppressed and curtailed by the slave
States, and never by the General Government a blessing to be fostered
and extended where it did not exist at the time the Union of the
thirteen States was perfected.

Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States, in a
speech at Atlanta, Georgia, said:

     'Jefferson, Madison, Washington, and many others, were tender of
     the word slave, in the organic law, and all looked forward to the
     time when the institution of slavery should be removed from our
     midst as a trouble and a stumbling-block. The delusion could not be
     traced in any of the component parts of the Southern Constitution.
     In that instrument we solemnly discarded the pestilent heresy of
     fancy politicians, that all men of all races were equal, and we
     have made African inequality, and subordination, the chief
     corner-stone of the Southern Republic.'

Here we have the great idea of an essential difference in relation to
the Constitution and slavery existing at the present day South, from
that which did exist at the time of its ratification universally by the
people of the thirteen States. The Vice-President of the Southern
Confederacy frankly admits that slavery is its chief corner-stone; that
our ancestors were deluded upon the subject of slavery; that the ideas
contained in the Declaration of Independence respecting the equality of
all men, and their natural right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, are only the pestilent heresy of fancy politicians;
consequently that in the Southern Constitution all such trash was
solemnly discarded. Can clearer proof be wanted to show that the
stand-point of slavery and freedom has altogether changed since the days
of Washington? Is it not true that our country at the present day
presents the singular spectacle of two great divisions, one holding to
the Constitution as interpreted by our ancestors North and South, the
other openly repudiating such interpretation? Is it strange, with such a
radical difference existing as to the import of the Constitution upon
the subject of slavery, that we should have such frequent and ever
persistent charges of Northern aggression? If the history of slavery be
kept in mind, it will be seen that it has steadily had its eye upon one
end, and that is national aggrandizement. Thus about two hundred
thousand slaveholders wield all the political power of the South, and
compel all non-slaveholders to acquiesce in their supremacy. But
whatever the South may choose to do, the North is under obligation to
give to slavery nothing more than what is guaranteed in the
Constitution. If more than this is asked for, the North is bound by a
just regard for its own interests and the prosperity of the country to
refuse compliance. It has been seen that even admitting that a State has
a just cause of complaint, or supposing as a matter of fact that the
Constitution is violated, she can not set herself up to be exclusively
the judge in this matter, and leave the Union at her convenience.

The history of our country reveals two memorable cases where the
question was decided that not the State, but the Federal Government was
to be its own judge of what was constitutional, and act accordingly.
First, the case of New-York; secondly, the course taken by Massachusetts
in relation to the Embargo law of 1807, which was believed to be
unconstitutional generally in New-England. In the case of New-York,
there was, as has been said, the surrender of any right to secede from
the Union at her pleasure; while in the Embargo law of 1807, which was
brought up to the Supreme Court for decision, there was the acquiescence
of New-England upon the simple point, who should be the final arbiter in
the dispute. Massachusetts and all New-England assented to a decision of
the Judiciary, not upon the ground that it was right, but that the
Supreme Court had alone the authority to say what was right.

In this case there was a perfect refutation of the whole theory of
secession; that theory falls back upon the idea that the State
government is to be its own judge of what constitutes a violation of the
Constitution, and act accordingly; but the Embargo law of 1807, when
carried up to the Supreme bench, and the way New-England assented to a
decision that was not believed to be in accordance with the
Constitution, is a signal rebuke of the assumption of State sovereignty
when arrayed against the General Government. The all-important question
was not, Was the decision of the Judiciary right, but simply, Who had
the authority to say what was right? Who should submit to that
authority? No person can fail to see in these two cases, under
circumstances so widely different, and with an end proposed in each
directly the reverse of the other, that the point so important to
establish was clearly made out, that the National Government reserves to
itself alone the right to decide as to what should be the course taken
in questions of dispute that arise between the States and the Federal
authority.

It is mournful to see the finest country on the earth--a land peculiarly
blessed with every element of material wealth, a land that has grown
like a giant, and commanded the respect of the world--now in her central
government made an object of contempt, and crippled in her strength by
those very States who should, upon the principle of gratitude for favors
granted, have been the last to leave the Union. While the Government at
Washington has shown the utmost forbearance, they have manifested the
greatest insolence, as well as disregard of the most sacred rights of
the Union. An Absalom the most willful and impetuous of his father's
family, and yet the most caressed and indulged, requites every debt of
parental kindness by seeking through treachery and the prostitution of
all his privileges to raise an insurrection in the household of David,
and turn away through craft the hearts of the people from their rightful
lord. So like Absalom, South-Carolina first unfurls the banner of
treason and war among the sister States, desperately resolved to secure
her selfish aggrandizement even at the price of the ruin of the country,
but like Absalom, also, she is destined to experience a reverse as
ignominious and as fatal.



_A STORY OF MEXICAN LIFE_

VIII.

'My neighbor gazed at the stranger with bewilderment, and remained
speechless. There was, nevertheless, nothing in his outward mien to give
rise to so much emotion. He was a robust and rather handsome fellow, of
about twenty-five, bold, swaggering, and free and easy in his
deportment--a perfect specimen of the race of half-breeds so common in
Mexico. His skin was swarthy, his features regular, and his beard
luxuriant and soft as silk. His eyes were large and black as sloes, his
teeth small, regular, and white as ivory, and his whole countenance,
when in repose, wore an expression which won confidence rather than
excited distrust. But when conversing, there was an indefinable
craftiness in his smile, and a peculiar cunning in the twinkle of his
eye, that often strikes the traveler in Mexico, as pervading all that
class who are accustomed to making excursions into the interior. His
costume, covered with dust, and torn in many places, led me to infer
that he had only just returned from some long journey.

'After waiting, with great politeness, for some few seconds, to allow
Arthur time to address him, and finding he waited in vain, the Mexican
opened the conversation:

''I fear your excellency will scold me for delaying so long on the road;
but how could I help it? I am more to be pitied than blamed--I lost
three horses--at monte--and if it had not been by good luck that the ace
turned up when I staked my saddle and bridle, I should not be here even
now; but the ace won; I bought a fresh horse--and here I am.'

''What success?' inquired Arthur, with a look of intense anxiety; 'did
you bring any?'

''Certainly,' replied Pepito, handing him very unconcernedly a small
package; 'I brought more than you told me, and, in fact, I might have
brought a mule-load if you had wanted so many.'

''Adéle!' cried Mr. Livermore, overcome with delight, as he rushed into
my room, 'Adéle, HE HAS FOUND IT!'

Pepito followed Arthur with his sharp eye, and on beholding Adéle, asked
me, in a low tone:

''Who is that lady, Caballero?'

''I can not say; I myself never saw her until to-day,' said I; and
noticing his gaze riveted on her in apparent admiration, I added:

''Do you think her pretty?'

''Pretty! Holy Virgin! she is lovely enough to make a man risk his
salvation to win her.'

'Feeling that my presence might be one of those superfluities with which
they would gratefully dispense, I was on the point of leaving, when
there was a knock at the door. Again Adéle sought refuge in my room, and
again Arthur advanced to the door:

''Open, it is I,' said a voice from the outside; 'I have come to inquire
after my friend Pepito.'

''Señor,' exclaimed Pepito, 'that must be my compadre, Pedro.'

'On the door being opened, they flew to one another's arms, and gave a
true Mexican embrace.

'The entrance of Pedro, which evidently annoyed Mr. Livermore, awakened
in my mind strange suspicions. I resolved at the earliest opportunity I
had of a private interview with him, to allude to what I had overheard
on the Alameda. In the mean time I would keep an eye on these two
cronies.

''Stand back, Pedro, and let me have a good look at you.'

''_There!_ well, how do you think I look?'

''My dear fellow, you are growing decidedly coarse and fat.'

''Bah! but how do you like my new rig?'

''I can not admire the cut; but, of course, you bought them
ready-made--one could see that with half an eye.'

''Well, Pepito, now that you are once more back in the city, I lack
nothing to make me perfectly happy. You will spend the rest of the day
with me?'

''Of course, my dear fellow.'

''Well, it is about dinner-time; let us be off.'

''Wait till I have first bid adieu to his excellency,' replied Pepito,
turning toward Mr. Livermore. Then advancing a few steps, he whispered a
few words to him, at the same time bowing very low. Arthur unlocked the
drawer of his table and took out a roll of dollars, which he handed to
the Mexican.

''Must you absolutely leave me so soon?' said he.

''Well, Caballero, after so long a journey, a man requires relaxation,
and enjoys a social glass; so, with your permission, I will see you
again to-morrow.'

'This answer was any thing but pleasing to Mr. Livermore, who turned to
me, and addressing me in English, said:

''My dear sir, once more I must trespass on your good-nature. It is
essential to the success of my plans, that these two men should not be
left together. Will you, _can_ you, tack yourself on to them, and keep
close to Pepito until they separate?'

''Your request is as strange as it is difficult of execution; but I will
do my best.'

''Gentlemen,' said I, to the two Mexicans, as we all three were going
down the stairs, 'you were speaking of dining--now I want to visit a
real Mexican _fonda_; I am tired of these French cafés; will you favor
me by taking me to a first-rate house, for I am not acquainted with this
city.'

''If you will accompany us to the Fonda Genovesa, Caballero,' said
Pedro, 'I will warrant you will have no cause to repent it.'

''I am infinitely indebted to you, and shall gladly accept your
guidance.'

'The Fonda Genovesa was certainly one of the vilest establishments I
ever visited, and the dinner was, of course, detestably bad. However, I
treated my two worthies to a couple of bottles of wine, which being to
them a rare luxury, they declared they had fared sumptuously.

''But, look here, Pepito,' said Pedro, 'you have not yet alluded to your
journey. Where have you been all this time?'

''Where have I been? Oh! well, that is a secret.'

''A secret! what, from me, from your compadre Pedro?'

''Even so, my dear Pedro, even so; I have sworn not to mention the
object of my journey nor my destination.'

''Oh! I dare say; but look here, what did you swear by--the holy Virgin
of Guadalupe? No? Well, was it the cross?'

''No, neither by the one nor the other.'

''What is there binding, then? nothing else ought to keep you silent
when _I_ am in question?'

''I pledged my sacred honor.'

''Your sacred honor! Give me your hand, you always were a wag, but you
humbugged me this time, I confess; well, that _is_ a good one--the best
joke I have heard for an age--excellent! well, go on, I am all
attention, all ears.'

''Well, you won't hear much, for I am a man of honor, and bound not to
speak; besides, I received a hundred dollars to keep mum.'

'Pedro for a moment appeared to be in a brown study; at last, gazing
hard at his friend, he said:

''Would two hundred tempt you to speak?'

''If such a proposition were to come from a stranger, I might,
perchance, accept it; but seeing it comes from you--never.'

''Why?'

''Because, when you offer me two hundred dollars for any thing, it must
be worth far more than you offer.'

''Well, now, admit, just as a supposition, that I am interested in this
matter, what harm will it do you, if we both turn an honest penny?'

''That is just the point; but I don't want you to turn ten pennies to my
one.'

''Your scruples, my dear Pepito, display a cautious temperament, and
evince deep acquaintance with human nature; you see through my little
veil of mystery, and I own your sagacity; now I will be honest with
you--with a man like you, lying is mere folly. It is true, I am to have
four hundred dollars if I can find out where you have been. I swear to
you by the holy Virgin of Guadalupe, I am making a clean breast of it.
Now, will you take that amount? Say the word, and I will go and fetch it
right away.'

'This proposition seemed to embarrass the scrupulous Pepito extremely,
and he remained some time lost in thought.

''But, if you only receive four hundred, and give me four hundred, what
the deuce will you make out of such an operation?'

''Trust entirely to your generosity.'

''What! leave me to do what I like! I take you up--by Jupiter! Pedro,
that is a noble trait in your character--I take you up.'

''Then it is a bargain. Will you wait here for me, or would you prefer
to meet me at our usual Monte in the Calle de los Meradores?'

''I prefer the Monte.'

''You will swear on the cross, to relate fully and truly every
particular relating to your journey?'

''Of course--every thing.'

''I will be there in a couple of hours.'

'After his friend's departure, Pepito sat silent; his brow was knit, and
yet a mocking sneer played around his lips; he seemed to be pursuing two
trains of thought at once; suspicion and merriment were clearly working
in his mind.

''This is a droll affair, Caballero; I can't clearly see the bottom of
it'

''There is nothing very unusual in it that I see,' I replied, 'for every
day men sacrifice honor for gold.'

''True, nothing more common, and yet this proposition beats all I ever
met with.'

''In what respect?'

''Why, the interest that these folks who employ Pedro, take in this
journey that I undertook for your friend, Señor Pride.'

''But, if this journey has some valuable secret object in view?'

''Valuable secret!' repeated Pepito, bursting into a fit of laughter;
'Yes, a valuable secret indeed! Oh! the joke of offering four hundred
dollars for what, 'twixt you and me, is not worth a cent. But who can it
be that is behind Pedro, in this matter? He must be some rival doctor,
or else a naturalist, on the same scent.'

''Is Señor Pride,' I inquired, 'a doctor--are you sure of that?'

''Yes--he must be--but I don't know,' exclaimed Pepito; 'I am at my
wits' end. If he is not, I have been working in the dark, and he has
deceived me with a false pretext; I am at a loss--dead beat. But one
thing is plain--I can make four hundred dollars, if I like.'

''And will you betray your employer?' said I indignantly.

''Time enough--never decide rashly, Caballero; I shall
deliberate--nothing like sleeping on important affairs; to-morrow--who
knows what to-morrow may bring forth?'

'So saying, Pepito arose, took his traveling sword under his arm, placed
his hat jauntily on his head, cast an admiring eye at the looking-glass,
and then brushed off some of the dust that still clung to his left
sleeve.

''The smile of Heaven abide with you, Señor,' said he, with a most
graceful bow. 'As for your friend's secret, do not be uneasy about it; I
am not going to meet Pedro to-night. I shall take advantage of his
absence to make a call on my lady-love. Pedro is a good fellow, but
shockingly self-conceited; he fancies himself far smarter than
I--perhaps he is--but somehow I fancy, this time he must be early if he
catches me asleep.'

'On his departure, I paid the bill, which both my friends had
overlooked, then walked out and seated myself on the Alameda, which at
that hour was thronged with promenaders. Isolated, buried in thought, in
the midst of that teeming throng, the various episodes in the drama of
which my mysterious neighbor was the principal character, passed before
my mind. I again and again reviewed the strange events which, by some
freak of fortune, I had been a witness to. What was the basis on which
my friend, with two sets of names, founded his dream of inexhaustible
wealth, this mission he had intrusted to Pepito? What the mission which
the agent laughed at, and which to gain a clue to, others were tempting
him with glittering bribes? And again, why the deceit practiced on
Pepito, by assuming the guise of a doctor? Each of these facts was a
text on which I piled a mountain of speculation.

'Vexed and annoyed at finding myself becoming entangled in this web of
mystery, as well as piqued at my failure to unravel it, I determined to
avoid all further connection with any of the actors; and full of this
resolve, I wended my way homeward, to have a final and decisive
interview with Mr. Livermore.

'The worthy Donna Teresa Lopez confronted me as I entered the inner
door:

''Plenty of news, is there not?' she asked; 'I heard a good deal of
squabbling, last night; that man in the cloak was noisy.'

''Yes; they had an interesting discussion.'

''You can not make me believe that was all. _Discussion_, indeed! When
there is a pretty woman in the case, and two men talk as loudly as they
did, it generally ends in a serious kind of discussion. 'When love stirs
the fire, anger makes the blood boil.' Tell me, now, will they fight
here, in the Señor Pride's room?'

'This question, which Donna Teresa put in the most matter-of-fact sort
of way, staggered me considerably, and confirmed me in the resolution to
avoid the whole business.

''I sincerely trust, Señora, that such an event is not probable. On what
do you base your supposition?'

''There is nothing so very astounding in rivals fighting; but it is all
the same to me. I only asked that I might take precautions.'

''Precautions! what, inform the police?'

''No, no! I thought it might be as well to take down the new
curtains--the blood might spoil them.'

'Need I say I terminated my interview with my hostess, more impressed
with admiration of her business qualities than of her sympathetic
virtues? But let me do the poor woman justice; life is held so cheap,
and the knife acts so large a part in Mexico, that violence and sudden
death produce a mere transient effect.


IX.

'Instead of going to my own apartments, I went direct to Mr.
Livermore's, intending thus to show him that I wished no longer to be
looked upon as the man in the next room.

''We were dying with anxiety to see you,' he said, as I entered; 'walk
into the other room, you will find Adéle there.'

''Well, Mr. Rideau,' said she, with intense anxiety visible on her
countenance, 'what passed between those two men?'

''Little of importance. Pedro offered Pepito four hundred dollars if he
would divulge the particulars of his journey; to which offer Pepito has
acceded. That is about all.'

'I was far from anticipating the effect my answer would produce on my
hearers. They were overwhelmed--thunderstruck. Adéle was the first to
recover.

''Fool! fool that I was,' she exclaimed, 'why did I select in such an
enterprise a man worn down by sickness and disease?'

'The look she cast on Arthur, rapid as it was, was so full of menace
and reproach, that it startled me.

''Well, Arthur,' she said, laying her hand on his arm; 'do you feel ill
again?'

'Roused by the sound of her voice, Arthur placed his hand on his heart,
and mutely plead excuse for the silence which his sufferings imposed on
him.

'As for me, I spoke no word, but mentally consigned my mysterious
neighbors to a distant port, whence consignments never return.

''My dear sir,' I replied at length, 'Pepito's treachery, which appears
so deeply to affect you, is not yet carried into execution, it is only
contemplated. I will give you word for word what transpired.'

'When I had concluded my narrative, to which they listened with
breathless attention, Adéle exclaimed:

''Our hopes are not yet crushed, the case is not utterly desperate; but
alas! it is evident our secret is suspected, if not known. Arthur,' she
continued, 'now is the time to display all our energy. We have some
enemy to dread, as I have long suspected. If we do not at once steal a
march on him, then farewell forever to all our dreams of happiness, of
wealth, or even of subsistence.'

''Sir,' said she, again addressing me; 'your honor alone has kept you in
ignorance of our secret. You could easily have tempted and corrupted
Pepito. We prefer you should learn it from us rather than from an
accidental source. We merely request your word of honor that you will
not use it to your own advantage, without our joint consent, nor in any
way thwart our plans.'

''I am deeply sensible, madame, of the confidence you repose in me; but
I must beg you will allow me to remain in ignorance.'

''You refuse, then, to give us the promise?' exclaimed Adéle, 'I see it
all! you will thwart us; you would preserve your liberty of action
without forfeiting your word.'

'If you had known me longer, such a suspicion would not have crossed
your mind. However, as I have no other means of proving it unjust, I
will give the pledge you desire, I am now ready to hear whatever you
have to communicate.'

'Mr. Livermore resumed the conversation:

''The secret which Adéle imparted to me will, I dare say, appear at
first very extravagant, but before you laugh at it, give me time to
explain. It is the existence of a marvelous opal mine in the interior;
the precise location of which is known to no one save Adéle and myself.'

'In spite of the greatest effort, I could not suppress a smile of
incredulity, at this announcement. Mexico is so full of strange stories
of fabulous mines, that this wondrous tale of opals looked to me like
some new confidence game, and I felt sure my neighbors were duped or
else trying to dupe me.

''Oh! I see you think we are deceived?'

''I admit,' I replied, 'it strikes me as possible that you have been the
victims of some crafty scheme. Did you hear of this mine before or since
your arrival in Mexico?'

''Before we left New-Orleans.'

''And yet it is not known to the natives?'

''It was from a Mexican we had our information.'

''Why did not this Mexican himself take advantage of it?'

''He could not, for he was banished. He is now dead. But what do you
think of these specimens?'

'He took from a drawer ten or twelve opals of rare size and brilliancy.
I examined them with care; they were, beyond all doubt, of very
considerable value. My incredulity gradually gave way to amazement.

''Are you certain these opals really came from the mine of which you
speak?'

''Nothing can be more certain; you saw Pepito hand me a package; you
heard his remark that he could have brought a mule-load; these are a
few of what he did bring.'

''This mine then really exists?' I said, my incredulity giving way to
the most ardent curiosity.

''Really exists! yes, my friend; if you listen, I will dispel all doubt
of that.'


X.

''On arriving in this country, my first step was to procure a guide and
the necessary equipage for reaching the opal mine. Although I felt sure
of its existence, I could not dispel the fear that the story of its
marvelous richness would prove false. Without loss of time, I started;
for to me it was a question of life and death. I had, however, barely
accomplished a third of the journey, when I was prostrated by fever. The
fatigue of traveling in the interior of this magnificent but wretched
country, combined with excitement and anxiety, preyed upon my mind, and
brought on an illness, from which at one time I gave up all hope of
recovering. I was compelled to return to Vera Cruz. The doctors were all
of the opinion that several months of perfect repose would be necessary
before I could undertake another such journey. Several months--oh! how
those words fell on my ears; they sounded like the knell of all my
hopes. A thousand expedients floated through my brain, and in adopting
the course I eventually did, time alone will prove whether I followed
the promptings of a good or evil genius. One evening, I explained to my
attendant that I was a medical man, deeply interested in botanical and
mineralogical discoveries; that my object in undertaking my recent
journey was to collect certain rare herbs and a singular description of
shell. I laid peculiar stress on the herbs, and added in relation to the
shells, that I merely wanted a few specimens, as they were rare in my
country. My attendant at once proffered his services, to go in search of
them. I appeared at first to attach but little importance to his offer;
but as he renewed it whenever the subject was alluded to, I at last
employed him. The mine is situated on the margin of a little brook. One
day's work of an active man will turn the stream into a fresh channel,
and a few inches beneath its bed will be found, mixed with the damp sand
and loam, the shells, which, when polished, form the opal. I gave my
servant the needful information as to localities and landmarks, and
promised him a gratuity of a hundred dollars over and above his wages,
in case he succeeded. Having given him instructions, I retained his
services until I reached this city, where I determined to await his
return, it being more healthy than Vera Cruz. Having selected my
lodgings and given him the pass-word by which alone a stranger could
obtain admittance to me, with an anxious heart I dispatched him on the
mission.

''For three months I had no tidings of him; night and day, I was the
prey of doubt and fear. No words can portray the agony of suspense that
I endured; the hours seemed days, the days months, and the bitterness of
years was crowded into that short interval. At last, thanks be to
heaven, my messenger returned.'

''Do you mean Pepito?' I exclaimed.

''The very man,' replied Arthur; 'his journey was successful. You have
seen the specimens he brought. I was intoxicated with delight; but Adéle
did not share my joy. Nature has given woman a faculty of intuition
denied to man. Alas! Adéle's presentiment has been verified; your
account of the interview between Pepito and his friend proves her fears
were well-grounded.'

''In what way?'

''In _this_ way; it shows we have an enemy who has an inkling of our
secret, and is striving to snatch the prize from us. What course to take
I am at a loss to know. Adéle advises to make sure of Pepito, at any
price.'

''And that strikes me as being your surest if not your only course.'

''Yes, the surest; but how to make _sure_ of him?'

''By outbidding your competitors, and proving to him that in adhering to
you he is best serving his own interests.'

''But he is base enough to take bribes from both sides, and betray
each.'

''Oh! that I were a man!' exclaimed Adéle, 'this fellow is the only one
who knows our secret. One man ought not to stand in fear of another.
Only _one_ man crosses your path, Arthur.'

''Unless I murder him, how can he be silenced?'

''_Murder_ him! It is not murder to kill a robber. Were _I_ a man, I
would not hesitate how to act.'

''The anxiety of Pedro,' I said, 'indicates you have an enemy. Have you
any idea who he is?'

''I believe,' said Adéle, 'that I know him.'

''Are you sure there is only one?'

''Why do you ask?' said the woman, fixing her eye upon me as though she
would, in spite of every obstacle, read my inmost thoughts.

''Because I fancy there are _two_, for instance, Brown and Hunt.'

'At the mention of these names Adéle started to her feet, exclaiming:

''On all sides there is treachery. I _demand_, sir, an explanation. What
leads you to associate the name of that firm with this matter? Either
you are our friend or you are not. Speak plainly!'

''Madame, by the merest chance, I overheard Pedro mention those names,
and since you have given me your confidence, I will give you some
information which may put you on your guard, and help to guide your
future plans.'

'I then briefly related the conversations I had overheard between
General Valiente and Pedro, both on the Alameda and in the gaming-house
in the Calle del Arco.

''Now, madame,' I continued, 'let me inquire whether the Mexican from
whom you derived your information, had any connection with this firm?'

''Yes, sir, he knew them,' she replied; then, after a slight pause, she
added: 'We have already told you so much that it would be folly to
conceal the way in which we became acquainted with the existence of this
mine. Soon after my marriage, I met a veteran officer of the Mexican
army, General Ramiro, then living in exile, at New-Orleans. For me he
conceived a paternal affection, and many a time remonstrated with Mr.
Percival, and entreated him to devote himself to his family, and abandon
the course of life which was leading him to ruin. He often spoke of his
desire to return to Mexico, and lived constantly in the hope of the
decree being revoked, which had driven him into exile. One day he
disclosed the chief cause of his desire to return, by revealing the
secret we have imparted to you.'

''Pardon me, madame,' I said, 'but tell me how General Ramiro gained his
information? Exploring for opal mines is hardly part of the duties of a
General, even in Mexico.'

''I was about to explain that,' replied the lady. 'An Indian, convicted
of murdering a monk, some three years previously, was condemned to
death. On being taken, according to Mexican usage, on the eve of
execution, to the confessional, he refused the slightest attention to
the exhortations of the priests, affirming that he had written a letter
to the Governor, which would secure his pardon.

''True enough, a party of dragoons arrived during the night, and took
him away. The letter was addressed to General Ramiro, then acting as
Governor, and contained promises of a revelation of the highest
importance.

''When conducted to the General, the Indian proved, by a host of
details, the existence of an opal mine, which he had accidentally
discovered, and in return for the revelation, demanded a free pardon.'

''I understand, perfectly, madame,' I added, seeing Adéle hesitate.

''I feel,' she said, 'a certain reluctance at this portion of my
narrative, for it forces me to lay bare an act which General Ramiro ever
after regretted, and which--' ''Madame, I will spare you the recital;
the fact is, the General gained the Indian's secret, and
then--unfortunately for the Indian--forgot to fulfill his promise.'

''Alas! sir, you have rightly judged. Two hours after the interview, the
Indian suffered the garrote, and General Ramiro became the sole
possessor of this important secret. I will not attempt to justify my
venerable friend. He sincerely lamented his sin, and retribution
followed him with long, sad years of exile and poverty. We often sat
together for hours, he talking of his wonderful mine, and longing for
his recall to his native land. His enemies, however, held a firm hold of
government, and growing weary of delay, he made overtures to this firm
of Brown and Hunt, through their correspondents in New-Orleans. Being
sadly in want of funds, he was even mad enough to give a hint of some
kind, relative to an opal mine, which was to be worked by them on joint
account.

''Before any definite arrangement was perfected, an event occurred which
is indelibly impressed on my memory. The General, after spending a
portion of the afternoon with us, had returned to his home; and about
eleven at night, a messenger begged my immediate attendance on him. He
had been taken suddenly ill; and my husband, who was cognizant of the
paternal affection the General felt for me, urged me to hasten to his
bedside.

''I found him at the point of death; but my presence seemed to call him
back to life. 'My child,' said he, placing in my hands a very voluminous
letter, 'this is all I have to give you. Farewell, dear child, I am
going. Farewell, forever.' In a few moments he was no more. I returned
home a prey to the most intense grief, and for several days did not
think of opening the letter I had received from my dying benefactor. It
contained the most precise details of the situation of the opal mine,
and advice as to the best means of reaching it.

''So you see, Mr. Rideau,' she added, after a slight pause, 'the secret
is known only to three persons--Arthur, Pepito, and myself. What, under
the circumstances, would you do?'

''I see but one course, madame--prompt action; by this means only can
you hope to succeed. You should start without a day's delay.'

''And Pepito?'

''Take him with you.'

''Your advice would be excellent were it practicable; but the state of
Mr. Livermore's health will not permit him to travel.'

''Oh! never fear, Adéle; your presence and your care will keep me up. I
shall gain strength by change of air and scene.'

'Adéle was, probably, about to protest against such a proof of his
attachment, when she was interrupted by a knock at the door.

''It is Pepito,' said I. My conjecture proved correct. Opening the door,
the Mexican appeared, dressed in a new suit, and evidently not a little
proud of his external improvements. He bowed politely to Mr. Livermore
and myself, and then bending before Adéle, took her hand and raised it
with true Mexican grace, to his lips.

''You arrive, Pepito,' said Adéle, 'at the very moment we are talking
about you.'

'Pepito again bowed to the lady.

''Señora,' said he, 'to please you I would die; to obey you I would kill
myself.'

'The exaggerated tone of Mexican politeness which prompted this reply
did not surprise Adéle, but it brought a smile to her lips.

''I trust my wishes will not lead to such disastrous results,' she
replied. 'The fact is, Señor Pride thinks shortly of undertaking another
journey; and as his health is delicate, we are anxious you should bear
us company. I need not add, the zeal you have already shown, will not
fail to secure our interest in your future welfare.'

''Indeed! does his excellency intend starting very soon? May I be
allowed to ask where is he going?'

''To the same place,' said Arthur.

''Oh! oh! I see; the herbs and shells I brought were not enough to
answer his excellency's purpose; you want more of the shells--eh,
Señor?'

'Yes, a few more,' said Arthur, with a deep sigh, for he felt acutely
the ironical tone which the Mexican assumed.

''Well, what would you say, Señor Pride, if, instead of the few I handed
you, I had brought a sack full--you would not feel angry, would you?'

''Scoundrel! you have not dared to thus deceive me?' exclaimed Mr.
Livermore, starting to his feet and advancing toward Pepito, with an air
of menace.

''Unfortunately, I did not; but you have proved to me what a fool I was,
not to suspect their value. You evidently attach immense importance to
them.'

''Control your temper, Arthur,' said Adéle, in English, 'or you will
ruin every thing.'

''After all,' resumed Pepito, 'it is only a chance deferred, not a
chance lost. With a good horse, I can soon make up for lost time.'

'His tone of defiance annihilated the self-possession even of Adéle;
while as for Arthur, he looked the very picture of despair. I,
therefore, resolved to smooth matters over, and if possible, to bring
Pepito to terms. At first he listened to me very unwillingly, and
answered sulkily and laconically; but wearied at last by my pertinacity,
he suggested that it was scarcely fair play for me to assume to sit as
judge in a cause wherein I was an interested party.'

''You are strangely mistaken, Pepito,' I said, in reply; 'I can swear to
you on my honor, and by the holy Virgin of Guadalupe, that I am not in
any way a party to this transaction; and that its success or its failure
will not affect me to the extent of a real.

''Oh! I beg your pardon, Caballero,' muttered Pepito, on whom my
adjuration by the holy Virgin of Guadalupe, had produced an unexpected
effect. 'In that case I will trust to your advice; I rely on your honor.
Now tell me--I know very well these shells are valuable--how much would
a mule-load be worth--two thousand dollars?'

''Yes, and perhaps more.'

''You speak frankly, like a man!' he exclaimed with delight; 'you don't
seek to take advantage of my ignorance; you are a true gentleman. Tell
me where I could sell these things.'

''You could find no one to buy them in this country; they must be sent
either to Europe or New-York.'

''The devil! that upsets my plans. I know no one in Europe, no one in
New-York; besides, I can neither read nor write; I should be cheated on
all hands. Is there no way to settle this business between ourselves?
Listen, now: I will agree not only to accompany Señor Pride as his
guide, but to do all the work when we arrive at our destination, on
condition that he pays me two thousand dollars for every trip we make.
What do you say to my proposition?'

''That it is Señor Pride who must answer you, not I.'


XI.

'Obeying the injunction laid upon him by Adéle, Mr. Livermore affected
to demur at the high price placed by Pepito on his cooperation, but
finally appeared to yield to our joint solicitation.

''Well, then, the bargain is closed,' said Pepito, smiling. 'Now I can
understand why Pedro was so anxious to have me betray my trust. Oh! how
delighted I am to think he will find I have left him in the lurch.'

''Señor Pepito,' said Adéle, with a most winning smile, 'do you happen
to know a family residing some short distance from this city, who, in
consideration of a liberal compensation, would not object to take a lady
to board with them?'

''I do, Señora, at Toluca.'

''How far is it from here?'

''Twelve or fourteen leagues.'

'' Are you intimate enough with the family to take me there to-morrow,
without previously informing them of my intention?'

''Certainly; the lady I allude to is my sister.'

''Then to-morrow morning early, at seven, say. But Señor Pepito, I had
forgotten to warn you that in escorting me you will run a great danger.'

''Oh! I am not afraid of the robbers on the road; they know me well, and
never molest me.'

''It is not of robbers that I stand in dread.'

''Of what, then?'

''Of a man--an enemy who hates me with a deadly hatred, and who, I fear,
seeks my life.'

''A man--_one_ man--and he seeks your life; well, well, I should like
to meet him face to face,' exclaimed Pepito.

''Then, Señor, you promise to protect me at any risk?'

''Protect you! _yes_,' replied he with vehemence, 'I pledge you my
honor, my body, and my soul. I will face the bravest of the brave, to
defend you from injury.'

''From my heart of hearts I thank you, Pepito,' said Mr. Livermore, 'you
shall find me not ungrateful, and in return for the zeal and devotion
you have shown, two hundred dollars shall be yours, on your return with
tidings of madame's safe arrival.'

''I will at once proceed to secure the necessary equipage, Señor.
Señora, rely on my punctuality; at seven, I shall attend you.'

''Are you related to Señor Pride?' asked Pepito, as we descended the
stairs.

''In no way; I have known him only a few days.'

''Well, Caballero, I own I am enchanted with his wife; I never met a
woman of such matchless beauty, such fascinating manners; why, Señor, if
she said to me, 'Pepito, kill your brother,' and I had a brother, which,
luckily, I have not, I think I should kill him.'

'These words were uttered with so much vehemence, that I deemed it
advisable to turn the conversation.

''It seems strange to me,' said I, 'that you should be so intimate with
Pedro, and yet be ever on the very verge of quarreling with him.'

''Well, it is perhaps astonishing to those who do not know us; but
somehow Pedro is my best, in fact, my only friend. We were brought up in
the same village, and are just like brothers. He is a good sort of
fellow, but is abominably vain and self-conceited; then he is deucedly
overbearing. He has no delicacy for his friend's feelings, and, in fact,
has a thousand failings that no one else but I could tolerate. True, we
have now and then a pretty rough time of it. The two gashes on his left
cheek are mementoes of my regard, and I confess I have two ugly marks,
one on my shoulder, the other on my right breast, which I owe to him.
But what galls me most, he is always talking of his six dead ones, while
I can claim only five; but then my five are all men, while two of his
six are women.'

''Horrible!' I exclaimed.

''Yes, it is not a fair count; but then it shows his insatiable vanity.
Vanity is one of the capital sins; it is hard to tell into what meanness
it may not lead a man.' With this sententious denunciation, the Mexican,
who had clearly misinterpreted my indignant ejaculation, raised his hat,
with an air of extreme politeness, and departed.

'When I again entered Mr. Livermore's apartment, the conversation
naturally turned on Pepito.

''Well, what think you of my cavalier?' said Adéle.

''As you are aware, my acquaintance with him is of but recent date; but
one thing speaks greatly in his favor: he has been for several months
attached to Mr. Livermore's person, both as guide and as attendant while
sick, and he has not attempted, as far as I have heard, either to
assassinate or poison him. This I take to be a striking proof of
meritorious moderation.'

''I fear, Adéle, we are acting imprudently,' said Arthur, 'in intrusting
you to the tender mercies of such an unprincipled scoundrel, a man you
have seen but twice.

''Good heavens! dearest Arthur, would it be less imprudent for that man
Percival to find me here? I shudder to think of ever again meeting him;
and moreover, by flattering this Pepito and pretending to place entire
confidence in him, I shall win him to a devoted submission to my every
wish.'

'After a somewhat protracted but by no means important conversation, I
retired, promising to see them in the morning, previous to Adéle's
departure.


XII.

'Shortly before the appointed hour, Pepito arrived, and announced that
all his preparations had been made. His fair charge quickly made her
appearance, dressed in complete Mexican costume. It suited her
remarkably well, and I was not surprised to observe the intense
admiration with which Pepito gazed upon her, for her beauty was truly
fascinating. Notwithstanding my suspicions of the absence of that inner
spiritual beauty which should adorn all female loveliness, I myself
could scarce resist the spell she exercised on my feelings, even in
spite of my judgment.

'Turning to Pepito, with a smile, she inquired gayly, 'Well, Señor, how
do you like my change of costume?'

'The Mexican replied merely by putting his hand on his heart, and bowing
almost reverentially.

'Having given Mr. Livermore an affectionate embrace, she exclaimed, in a
firm, determined voice: 'Let us be off: time is precious.'

'It had been arranged that I should accompany them until they were out
of the city. I therefore left Mr. Livermore alone, and followed the two
travelers. On reaching the street, Adéle took the Mexican's arm; but as
they turned the corner of one of the streets running into the Cathedral
Square, I noticed that she raised her hood and lowered the veil attached
to it. Surprised at this apparently uncalled-for act of caution, I
inquired the reason.

''Do you not see Mr. Percival?' she exclaimed, in Spanish.

''Who is he? Is that the man you said you dreaded? that
melancholy-looking man, who is walking so moodily ahead of us?'
exclaimed Pepito. 'I must have a good look at him.'

''Be cautious, I beseech you; if he sees me, all is lost.'

''Fear nothing, I will be discreet; I only want to get one good look at
him.' So saying, Pepito increased his speed, and was soon walking beside
the unconscious Percival.

'In a few minutes, Pepito turned suddenly down a narrow street, into
which we followed, and there we found a carriage awaiting us.

''Señora, I shall know your enemy among a thousand,' was Pepito's
remark, on again offering Adéle his arm, to assist her in entering the
vehicle.

'We were soon safely out of the city, and taking advantage of the first
returning carriage we met, I returned with it, Adéle thanked me with
much apparent gratitude for my past services, and begged me to devote as
much of my leisure as possible to cheering and advising her dear Arthur.

'On my return, I found him pacing his chamber with intense anxiety, and
evidently prostrated by the excitement he had undergone.

''Well, what news?' said he, almost gasping for breath.

''Adéle is beyond the reach of danger.'

''You met no one?'

''No one.'

''Heaven be praised; and yet I feel a presentiment I shall never see her
again--never.'

''Pshaw! love is always timorous; it delights in raising phantoms.'

''This is no phantom; death is a reality, and, mark my words, on earth
we shall meet no more.'

'Overcome by the violence of his emotions, he buried his face in his
hands, and gave way to an outburst of Intense grief. Yielding, finally,
to my reiterated entreaties, he threw himself upon his bed, and, as I
had some private business to settle, I left him to the care of our
officious hostess, who was only too happy to find one on whom she could
display her self-acquired knowledge of the healing art.

'The next day, Arthur, though still feeble, was able to walk about his
apartments. Toward dusk, a letter arrived from Adéle. She announced her
safe arrival at Toluca, spoke in terms of praise of Pepito's devotion
and attention, and expressed herself agreeably surprised at the
hospitality she had received from his sister. The receipt of this letter
produced a marked improvement in my patient's health. In a postscript,
reference was made to an accident which had happened to poor Pepito, who
was prevented from being the bearer of this letter, by having sprained
his ankle. This would retard his return to the city for a day or two;
nevertheless, she begged her 'dear Arthur' not to be uneasy, as even
this delay, annoying as it was, might prove of advantage, as it would
give him time to recover from the effects of the excitement of the past
few days.

'After Adéle's departure, I again fastened up the door of communication,
and although I saw him at least once every day, to some extent I carried
out my determination of ceasing to be on such intimate terms with Mr.
Livermore. I fell back into my former course of life, and yet I felt a
certain envy of the colossal fortune upon which he had, as it were,
stumbled. Though I sincerely wished my poor sick neighbor might succeed
in his enterprise, I gradually grew restless and morose. The opal-mine
became a painful and distasteful topic of conversation, and as Arthur
invariably adverted to it in some way or other, I by degrees made my
visits of shorter and shorter duration.

'In vain I strove to divert my mind from this one absorbing idea. I
visited the theatres, attended cock-pits and bull-fights, in the hope
that the excitement would afford me relief from the fascinating spell:
but it was useless, I was a haunted man.

'One night, returning from the opera, at about ten o'clock, I was
stopped by a large crowd at the corner of the Calle Plateros. From an
officer near me, I ascertained that a foreigner, believed to be a
heretic, had been stabbed, and was either dead or dying.

'The next morning, in the _Diario de Gobierno_, which Donna Teresa
brought up with my chocolate, I learned that 'at about ten on the
previous night, an American, named Percival, recently arrived from
New-Orleans, was murdered in the Calle Plateros.' His watch and purse
were missing; it was therefore inferred that robbery and not revenge had
prompted the foul deed.

'I instantly summoned Donna Teresa, and requested her to take the paper,
which I marked, to Mr. Livermore; and as soon as my breakfast was over,
I hastened to make my usual call. I found him looking very sombre.

''God is my witness!' he exclaimed, the instant I entered the room,
'that I did not seek this poor unfortunate man's death; but it relieves
Adéle from all fear. Have you heard any details of the event?'

''I have not; but assassination is not so rare here that you need be
under any fear about it. No suspicion can possibly attach to you.'

''I have no fear, for I know my own innocence; but it is inexplicable to
me. Poor Percival! he could have had no enemy in the city.'

''Doubtless he was murdered for his money and his watch; but have you
heard from Toluca?'

''Yes, and Adéle informs me that I may expect Pepito in the course of
the day. So I shall not delay my departure beyond to-morrow, perhaps
to-night. But there is some one at the door; doubtless it is Pepito.'

'Mr. Livermore opened the door; but instead of Pepito it was his friend,
Pedro, who entered.

''My presence surprises you, Caballero,' said Pedro, drawing a long
sigh; 'but alas! I have bad news.'

'What! bad news? speak, speak, quick!' exclaimed Arthur, turning
deadly pale.

'Pedro, before deigning to answer, drew forth a very soiled rag, which
served him as a handkerchief, and proceeded to rub his eyes with no
little vigor, a pantomime which was intended no doubt to convey the idea
of tears having dimmed his eyes.

''Alas! Excellency,' said he at length, in a lugubrious tone; 'poor
Pepito is in sad trouble.'

''Have you been fighting again? Have you killed him?' I exclaimed.

''Killed him? _I_ kill him!' he repeated indignantly; 'how can you
imagine such an outrage, Caballero? Kill my best friend! No, Señor; but
poor Pepito has been pressed into a military company. To-morrow, they
will uniform him and march him off to some frontier regiment.'

''Is there no way of buying him off?' inquired Arthur.

''Nothing more easy, Caballero. You have simply to write to the General
who commands the department, and state that Pepito is attached to your
person, as a personal attendant, and that will suffice to set him at
liberty. They never press people in service.'

'Mr. Livermore lost no time in following Pedro's advice. As soon as the
letter was handed to him, the latter waved it in triumph over his head,
and rushed forth to effect the deliverance of his dear compadre, Pepito.

'The impressment of Pepito surprised me, for I had not heard of their
taking any body who had reached the dignity of a pair of inexpressibles,
and the luxury of a pair of shoes. The Indians in the neighborhood of
the capital, besotted by drink and misery, almost naked, and living or
rather burrowing in caves, were usually the only victims of the
recruiting sergeant. However, as the letter given by Arthur to Pedro
could be of no use to the latter, I saw no reasonable ground to doubt
the story.

'As it seemed probable that Mr. Livermore would shortly leave the city,
I accepted his invitation, and promised to return and dine with him at
five o'clock, adding that I hoped then to meet Pepito, and receive from
him a full account of his adventures since we had parted.


XIII.

'About three o'clock, I returned home. I had ensconced myself, book in
hand, in my rocking-chair, when groans which seemed to proceed from Mr.
Livermore's room, attracted my attention. I listened at the door, and my
fears were realized. The groans were assuredly uttered by my neighbor. I
rushed into his room, and as I crossed toward his bed, a fearful
spectacle met my gaze.

'Lying across the bed, his face livid, every muscle in motion, a prey to
the most violent convulsions, I saw my unfortunate fellow-countryman. No
sooner, however, did the noise of my entrance fall upon his ear, than he
summoned strength enough to rise, and seizing a pistol that was beside
him, pointed it at me.

''Ah! it is you?' said he, lowering his weapon, and falling back, 'you
have arrived just in time to see me die.'

''Take courage, my friend; for heaven's sake, be of good cheer. It is
only one of your usual attacks, and will pass off; there is no danger.'

''No danger!' repeated the unfortunate sufferer, biting the sheet and
striving to stifle the cry which agony drew from him; 'no danger? why, I
am poisoned!'

''Poisoned! you must be mad,' I exclaimed: but without loss of time, I
summoned Donna Lopez, and sent instantly for a doctor, who fortunately
lived within a few doors of our house.

'Once more alone with Arthur, I inquired, during a momentary cessation
of his sufferings:

''What reason have you for thinking you are poisoned?'

''I am _sure_ of it,' he replied. 'About an hour since, I received a
visit from the Mexican General who is superintendent of the recruiting
service. He desired me to give him certain explanations relative to
Pepito, which, of course, I did. It was very warm, and he asked for a
glass of iced water. I offered him some claret to mix with it, and, at
his request, joined him in the drink. But a few moments elapsed after I
had taken my draught, when I felt a weakness steal over me; my eyelids
grew heavy, my knees gave way, and an intolerable heat burned my veins.
I was compelled to sit down upon my bed. At that moment, the General
changed his tone, and imperiously demanded the key of my desk. 'I do not
want your money,' he said, 'but I must have the papers relative to the
opal-mine.' I can not express the effect these words produced upon me.
'To deal frankly with you,' continued the General, 'you are poisoned,
and the Indian poison that is now coursing through your veins has no
antidote. Ten minutes, and your strength will begin to fail; two hours,
and your earthly career will end. If you do not at once give me your
keys, I shall force the lock.' These words, which he doubtless thought
would crush me, filled me with boundless rage, and for a few moments
revived my sinking energies. I started to my feet, and seized my
revolver.'

'''The devil! it seems the dose was not strong enough,' exclaimed my
assassin, taking flight; 'but I will return, be sure of that.''

'The doctor soon arrived. At the first glance at the patient, he knit
his brow, and his countenance became overcast.

''How long have you been ill?' he inquired.

''I was poisoned, about an hour since.'

''Ah! you know you have been poisoned?'

''Yes, doctor, and also the man who poisoned me. Tell me, I beseech you,
how long I have to live? Speak! you need have no fear; I am prepared for
the worst.'

'The doctor hesitated, and then said: 'I fear, my dear sir, another hour
is all you can hope for.'

''I thank you, doctor, for your frankness. No antidote, then, can save
me?'

''None. The poison you have taken, which the Indians call '_Leche de
palo_,' is deadly. Your present sufferings will soon cease, and
gradually you will sink, peacefully and painlessly, into the sleep of
death.'

''Send instantly, then, for a magistrate. I at least will be revenged on
my murderer,' said Arthur, 'let me at once make my statement.'

''You will only be wasting your dying moments,' interposed the doctor;
'day after day, I am called upon to witness the ravages of this
insidious poison, but never yet has the scaffold punished the assassin.
My dear friend, think not of your murderer; eternity is opening to
receive you; in its solemn presence, mere human vengeance shrinks into
utter nothingness.'

''Doctor, you speak wisely as well as kindly. Poor Adéle,' murmured
Arthur, and his eyes closed, though his lips still moved.

'After the doctor's departure, I sent to the American Legation, urgently
requesting some official to return with my messenger. I took a chair
beside the bed, while Donna Teresa knelt in the adjoining room, and
prayed and sobbed with much fervor. In a short while, Arthur rallied
from the stupor into which he had fallen. His features became calm, his
breathing regular though feeble, and the tranquil, almost happy,
expression of his eye made me for a time half doubt the fearful
prediction of the physician.

''Do you feel better?' I inquired.

''Much much; I am in no pain.'

''Let us hope, then, for the best. I will send for another doctor.'

''No, that would be useless. My lower extremities are swelling, and I
can feel the hand of death clutching at my vitals. The doctor was
right; death is not racking me with torture, it is gently embracing me.
But I want your assistance; sit down.'

'I resumed my seat, and Arthur continued, in a feeble tone, but
perfectly calm:

''How mean a thing is life! Good God! so mean, that at this moment I can
not explain to my own soul why man should cling to it. What do we meet
during our short career? Deceit, hypocrisy, and treachery. Ah! death
reveals the hollowness of life.'

''My dear friend, you are exhausting yourself. Did you not say you wanted
my assistance? Rely on my zeal, my fidelity, and my discretion.'

''Rely on you! How can I tell? You are only a man; perhaps avaricious and
treacherous as your fellow-mortals. No matter; though you should
forswear yourself; I, at least, will do what is right. Feel beneath my
pillow, there is a key; take it, open my desk. In the small drawer on
the left is a package of letters. Have you them? Good. Next to that
there is a sealed letter. Now, read aloud the direction on each.'

''Papers to be burnt after my death,' said I, obeying his injunction.

''Well, what do you intend doing with them?'

''Can you for one moment doubt?' I replied.

'What if I should tell you they contain the entire secret of my
opal-mine!'

'I made no reply; but struck a match against the wall, and setting them
on fire, resumed my seat.

''I could hardly have believed it; but you still have Pepito; from him
you hope to learn the secret,' said the dying man.

''Shall I bind myself by an oath not to seek him?'

''No; I leave you at liberty. Act as you think best. I burned those
papers because they were bought with blood, for no other reason.'

''Bought with blood?' I exclaimed.

''Yes; ten months ago, General Ramiro died at New-Orleans, by
poison--poison administered by Adéle. Do you wonder life has lost all
charm for me? Oh! life is the bitterness, not death.'

'His voice momently grew fainter. I leaned closer, to catch his fading
tones, till he ceased to speak. I gazed intently at his glassy eyes; the
lids closed for a moment, then partially opened, the jaw fell, and he
was no more.'

'I know not how long I had stood beside his lifeless body, pondering
over the uncertainty of life, and the mystery of death, and the
conflicting presentiments he had uttered: that he should live to achieve
success, yet die without again seeing her who had lured him to his
wretched end, when the door of the chamber suddenly opened, and five or
six dragoons entered, accompanied by an officer in undress uniform.

''What! you here, General?' I exclaimed.

''Why not?' was the cool reply, 'I am in search of a deserter named
Pepito, who, I was informed, was concealed here. I see he is not here;
but doubtless by searching among the papers contained in this desk, I
shall find some clue to him.'

''Your search, General, will be fruitless. The unfortunate young man
whose corpse lies here, instructed me, before he expired, to burn all
the papers in his possession, and I have obeyed his injunctions.'

''Curses on his infernal obstinacy!' exclaimed General Valiente, 'but
look you, Señor, I tell you I will search this desk.'

''By what right?'

''By the right of might.'

'Taking my stand in front of the desk, I was protesting against the
lawless act of violence, when the Secretary of the American Legation
fortunately arrived. Finding his plans defeated, Valiente, with
commendable prudence, decided on beating a retreat, and with his
followers, took rather an abrupt departure.

'The ordinary formalities of attaching the seals of the Legation having
been performed, and having secured a faithful person to take charge of
the remains of the unfortunate Livermore, I sallied forth to make
arrangements to leave, as soon as possible, for Toluca.

The first person I met was Pedro. It is impossible to express the horror
I felt of this villain. My hand was on my weapon before he had reached
my side.

''Have you heard the news, Caballero?' said he, in a low, mysterious
tone.

''No.'

''I was not fortunate enough to release Pepito; when I arrived with his
master's letter, he had already escaped from the barracks.'

''Tell me frankly, Pedro, did not General Valiente send you, this
morning, for that letter?'

''Why? What makes you ask?' inquired Pedro, quite disconcerted by the
abruptness of my question.

''Because Señor Pride is dead, and General Valiente has twice been to
his rooms.'

''Dead! Señor Pride dead!' echoed Pedro, in unfeigned astonishment.
'Caballero, I must be off.' And he instantly turned away, and was soon
lost to my sight.

'Before another hour had passed I was on horseback and on the way to
Toluca. The road was infested by gangs of robbers, but my pockets were
empty, and my brain was full, so I gave those gentry not even a passing
thought. The evening was fast closing in, and as the shadows gathered
round me, the tragic event which I had just witnessed gradually receded
from my mind. As I journeyed on, it grew more and more distant, until at
last it faded into a dim memory of the past; and through the long miles
of my lonely ride there went before me the glorious vision of an
opal-mine of untold wealth--an opal-mine without an owner--a countless
fortune, untold riches, waiting to fall into my hands.


XIV.

'It was past midnight when I reached Toluca. As it was too late to call
on Adéle, I alighted at a tavern, where I passed the night, pacing my
chamber, and not closing my eyes. Soon after daybreak I sought the house
of Pepito's sister; and notwithstanding the earliness of the hour, found
Mrs. Percival standing at one of the windows.

''You here, Mr. Rideau!' she exclaimed, with surprise, on seeing me.
'How did you find my retreat?'

''I was told of it by Mr. Livermore.'

''Ah! 'tis he who sent you.'

''Alas! not so, madame.'

''Alas!--you say, alas! What do you mean? Have you ill news?'

''I have, indeed, madame.'

''Arthur is dead!' she cried. 'I know he is dead! But, tell me, I
entreat you, tell me all. How--when did this happen?'

'I gave her a detailed account of Arthur's death, to which she listened
with rapt attention.

''This opal-mine, like the Golden Fleece, brings misfortune to all who
seek it,' she said, when I had finished, 'Poor Arthur! I loved him
fondly, devotedly; and his image will live forever in my heart. But at
such a crisis it is worse than folly--it is madness to waste time by
giving way to grief. Reason teaches us to bow before the inevitable. It
is idle to repine at the decrees of Fate. I am alone, now--alone,
without a friend or a protector. No matter; I have a stout heart, and
the mercy of Providence is above all. But to business: After the death
of Mr. Livermore, what became of the papers?'

''I burned them before his death, in obedience to his injunctions.'

''You burned them! I will not believe it!' she exclaimed, in a loud
voice, and with a penetrating glance.

'I felt the blood rush to my face; she noticed my anger, and at once
added, in milder tone:

''Pardon me! pardon me! I knew not what I said; I am well-nigh crazy; I
do believe you, I do indeed; forgive me, and think of the despair to
which the loss of those papers reduces me. I have no copy, and with them
my secret perishes. I am ruined--ruined irretrievably. The mine is
known now only to Pepito!'

''Then, madame, on him you must hereafter rely.'

''Explain to me, pray, how could Arthur, on his dying-bed, have been
guilty of so cruel, so mean an act? How could he despoil the woman who
had trusted him, and leave her not only forlorn, but destitute?'

'This question embarrassed me, and I was conning an answer, when Adéle
resumed:

''Let no false delicacy restrain you; speak out, Mr. Rideau; adversity
has taught me endurance, if not courage.'

''Since, madame, you absolutely extort it from me, I must admit that a
few moments before he expired, Mr. Livermore--'

''Speak out, plainly; I beg of you, conceal nothing.'

''Well, madame, the words he used were: 'I destroy these papers because
they were bought with blood. Ten months ago General Ramiro died, at
New-Orleans, by poison--poison administered by Adéle!''

''Poor Arthur! what agony he must have suffered--he must have been
delirious. O Arthur! why was I not beside you? Poor Arthur!' As she
uttered these words, she raised her streaming eyes to heaven; her lips
moved as if in prayer, and a deadly pallor overspread her countenance.

'In a short time her fortitude returned, and turning toward me, she
said, in a voice which betrayed no emotion:

''Let us turn from the past and look at the present. Difficulties
surround and threaten to overwhelm me. Before I can determine how they
are to be met, I have a proposition to make to you, Mr. Rideau, to which
I must have an immediate answer. Will you become my partner in this
business?'

''Have you enough confidence in me?'

''I have; and for this reason: you have not sought to meddle in this
matter, but from the outset have striven to shun it; you have not
obtruded yourself, but been drawn into it in spite of your wishes. Do
you accept my proposition? Yes, or no?'

''I accept,' I replied, moderating my joyful feelings as well as I
possibly could.

''Such being your decision, what course do you advise?'

''Immediate action, for minutes are precious.'

''I foresee we shall agree perfectly. To-day my host purposes starting
for the capital; I shall accompany him. If you return without delay, the
remainder of the day will suffice to prepare for the journey, and
to-morrow we will start for the opal-mine.'

''But where shall I meet you, madame?'

''At the Hotel de las Diligencias.'

''And where shall I find Pepito?'

''At a tavern near the Barrier del Nino Perdido. But you will not, if
you please, inform him of my address. For--well, it is an unpleasant
matter to mention--but this Pepito seems to be--'

''Desperately in love with you.'

''I hardly meant that--but his attentions are too oppressive to be quite
agreeable.'

''I fully understand you, madame. May I inquire if you have had any
tidings of Mr. Percival?'

''Do not, I beg, Mr. Rideau, allude to that painful topic--all feelings
of resentment are hushed in the grave.'

''What! have you heard of his assassination?'

'' Yes; the news reached me yesterday; I read it in the newspaper.'

'I shortly afterward took my leave--the last words of my new copartner
being:

''At five, then, at the Hotel de las Diligencias. Be sure you are
punctual.'

'Arrived in Mexico, my first thought was to seek for Pepito. Following
the directions given me by Mrs. Percival, I soon found him; and
repeating to him a portion of the interview I had with the lady, I
finished by proposing to take the place of Mr. Livermore in the bargain
that had been made between them.

''I ask nothing better,' was the reply. 'Here are my terms--two thousand
dollars the very day we return to Mexico, and I to hold the shells till
you hand over the money. That is fair, is it not?'

''Quite. When shall I see you again?'

''At eight to-night, on the Cathedral steps.'

'Hastening home, I devoted the rest of the day to preparing for my
journey, and a little before five started for the Hotel de las
Diligencias. Mrs. Percival had not yet arrived. Twice again I called,
but still in vain. The evening gradually wore away, and at eight I paced
the Cathedral Square, and for an hour loitered around the steps; but
Pepito, also, failed to keep the rendezvous.

'As the next day was Sunday, I felt assured the most likely place to
find Pepito, would be the bull-ring. On reaching it, I found a crowd
assembled near one of the entrances, and pushing my way through, I
beheld Pepito lying on the ground weltering in his blood. I rushed to
him, and kneeling down, raised him in my arms.

''Ah! it is you, Señor,' said he, in a feeble tone. 'This is Pedro's
work, but it was his last; for I have killed the traitor.'

''Pepito, tell me, for Heaven's sake, where did you find the shells?'I
inquired; for avarice and cupidity reigned, I am ashamed to own,
paramount within my breast.

''Those shells? In the plains of Chiapa--three days' journey from the
sea--near the little river--in a brook--Ah! glory to God! here comes a
priest!'

'At this moment a fat Franciscan friar pressed through the crowd.

''Absolution, padre! absolution!' cried Pepito, to whom the sight of the
friar brought back new life.

''Patience, my son, patience! I am very late--very late--and I must not
be detained. Wait a little--and after the sports of the day are over, I
will return.'

''But, padre, I shall be dead!'

''Well, then, be quick!'

''I have only two sins on my conscience: I have not attended mass for
three weeks.'

''That is sad! very sad! Well, what next?'

''Three days ago I stabbed an Inglez--a heretic.'

''Well, my dear son, your sins are venial sins; I absolve you.'

''Pepito, how did that dagger come into your hands?' I exclaimed, for I
was astonished to see in his belt the dagger I had lost on the night
when Adéle took refuge in my room.

''From my dear--Adéle.'

''And the _Inglez_--the heretic you stabbed--who was he?'

''Her husband--she wished it--promised to be mine--and I obeyed. But,
stand back--I want air--air.'

'I turned away my head, sickened at the fearful revelation. When I again
looked, my eyes fell on a corpse. I snatched the dagger, which was still
wet with Pedro's blood, from his belt, and hurried almost frantic to the
Hotel de las Diligencias. Mrs. Percival had been waiting for me about
two hours.

'The violent emotions which raged within me must have been portrayed on
my countenance, for on my entering the apartment, she started back in
dismay.

''Mrs. Percival,' said I, striving to master the repulsive feeling which
the mere sight of her excited, 'Pepito has, within the past hour, been
murdered.'

''Murdered!' she repeated. 'And the secret--'

''Is dead--for _you_--forever! Madame, that infernal mine has for years
been driving you to the blackest crime! It is time that the bait fell
from the devil's hook.'

''What do you mean by this altered tone?'

''I mean, madame, that, thanks to Heaven, your crimes have been revealed
to me. Shall I enumerate the list of your victims--General Ramiro,
Arthur Livermore, Edward Percival, your husband, and last of all,
Pepito? Your path, since you have sought this mine, is marked at every
step by treachery and crime. The boldest heart must shudder to look at
the ghastly procession led on by the General you poisoned.'

'''Tis false! God help me, 'tis false!'

''False--_is_ it false--that three days since your husband was murdered
at your instigation, by Pepito? Stay--hear me! Look at this dagger! did
you not steal it from my room and give it to Pepito to perpetrate the
crime? Madame, pause, ere you dare to swear it is false.'

'She trembled, and falling on her knees, exclaimed:

''My God! my God! forgive me!'

''It is not, madame, for erring man to limit the infinite mercy of
Heaven; but for such crimes as yours there must be a fearful
retribution. Farewell; may you go and sin no more.'

'I left the room, but in a few moments heard a piercing shriek; and
rushing back, found the wretched woman extended on the floor in the
agonies of death. She had picked up the dagger which I had thrown away,
and stabbed herself to the heart.

       *       *       *       *       *

'And the opal-mine?'

'I meant, at first, to leave the Nibelungen Hoard alone; but time tames
all things except the love of gold. I went there; it was rich, but not
inexhaustible. You have all had proof that I am neither poor nor
parsimonious; but neither am I extravagant. I have all that I want--a
cottage at Newport, a neat house in the Rue de la Paix, stocks, and real
estate. The opal-mine started me; I have kept myself going very well
ever since.

'Gentlemen, my tale is ended. I am sorry it has proved so long, and am
grateful to you all for the attentive hearing you have given me. I have
been constantly looking round expecting to detect some one of you
falling into a gentle slumber; I therefore feel really flattered at
finding you all still awake.'

'But what became of the child that Percival was seeking?' shouted one.

'Did you ever find out any thing about Adéle's previous history?' asked
another.

'And look here, Rideau, what did you--?'

'Gentlemen, take pity on me; while I have been spinning this long yarn,
you have been smoking and imbibing; I am very willing to join you in
both; but to-night I am tired out. The next time we meet, I shall be
delighted to tell you what particulars I learned on my return to New
Orleans, relative to Adéle and her poor orphan child; but no more
to-night.'




_THE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE._

  Red was the lightning's flashing,
    And down through the driving rain,
  We saw the red eyes dashing
    Of the merciless midnight train;
  Soon many crowded together,
    Under the lamp's red glow,
  But I saw one figure only--
    Ah! why did I tremble so?
  The eyes that gazed in the darkness
    After the midnight train,
  Are red with watching and weeping,
    For it brings none back again.
  Clouds hang in the west like banners,
    Red banners of war unfurled,
  And the prairie sod is crimson
    With the best blood of the world.

  White faces are pressed to the window,
    Watching the sun go down,
  Looking out to the coming darkness,
    That covers the noisy town.
  White are the hands, too, and quiet,
    Over the pulseless breast;
  No more will the vision of parting
    Disturb the white sleeper's rest.
  Over sleeper, and grave, and tombstone,
    Like a pitying mantle spread,
  The snow comes down in the night-time,
    With a shy and noiseless tread.

  Blue smoke rolls away on the north-wind,
    Blue skies grow dusk in the din,
  Blue waters look dark with the shadow
    That gathers the world within.
  Rigid and blue are the fingers
    That clutch at the fading sky;
  Blue lips in their agony mutter:
    'O God! let this cup pass by.'
  Blue eyes grow weary with watching;
    Strong hands with waiting to do;
  While brave hearts echo the watchword:
    'Hurrah! for the Red, White, and Blue.'




_MACCARONI AND CANVAS._

IV.

THE FAIR AT GROTTO FERRATA.

No matter how well and hearty you may be, if you are in Rome, in summer,
when the _scirócco_ blows, you will feel as if convalescent from some
debilitating fever; in winter, however, this gentle-breathing south-east
wind will act more mildly; it will woo you to the country, induce you to
sit down in a shady place, smoke, and 'muse.' That incarnate essence of
enterprise, business, industry, economy, sharpness, shrewdness, and
keenness--that Prometheus whose liver was torn by the vulture of cent
per cent--eternally tossing, restless DOOLITTLE, was one day seen
asleep, during bank hours, on a seat in the Villa Madama. The _scirócco_
blew that day: Doolittle fell.

At breakfast, one morning in the latter part of the month of March,
Caper proposed to Roejean and another artist named Bagswell, to attend
the fair held that day at Grotto Ferrata.

'What will you find there?' asked Roejean.

'Find?--I remember, in the _Bohemian Girl_, a song that will answer
you,' replied Caper; 'the words were composed by the theatrical poet
Bunn':

  'Rank, in its halls, may not find
  The calm of a happy mind;
      So repair
      To the Fair,
  And they may be met with there.'

'Unsatisfactory, both the grammar and the sentiment,' said Bagswell; 'it
won't work; it's all wrong. In the first place, rank, in its hauls,
_may_ find the calm of a happy mind: for instance, the captain of a
herring-smack may find the calm of a very happy mind in his hauls of No.
1 Digbys; more joy even than the fair could afford him. Let us go!'

Bagswell was a 'funny' Englishman.

They went--taking the railroad. Dashing out of the station, the
locomotive carried them, in half an hour, to the station at Frascati,
whirling them across the Campagna, past long lines of ruined or
half-ruined and repaired aqueducts; past Roman tombs; past _Roma
Vecchia_, the name given to the ruins of an immense villa; landing them
at the first slope of the mountains, covered at their base with
vineyards, olive and fruit-trees, and corn-fields, while high over them
gleamed glistening white snow-peaks.

The walk from Frascati to the Grotto, about three miles, was beautiful,
winding over hills through a fine wood of huge old elms and plane-trees.
In the warm sun-light, the butterflies were flitting, while the
road-side was purple with violets, and white and blue with little
flowers. From time to time, our three artists had glimpses of the
Campagna, rolling away like the ocean, to dash on Rome, crowned by St.
Peter's; the dome of which church towers above the surrounding country,
so that it can be seen, far and wide, for thirty miles or more. The road
was alive with walkers and riders; here a dashing, open carriage, filled
with rosy English; there a _contadino_, donkey-back, dressed in
holiday-suit, with short-clothes of blue woolen, a scarlet waistcoat,
his coarse blue-cloth jacket worn on one shoulder, and in his brown,
conical-shaped hat, a large carnation-pink. Then came more of the
country-people, almost always called _villani_, (hence our word,
villains!) These poor villains had sacks on their backs, or were
carrying in their hands--if women, on their heads--loads of bacon, sides
of bacon, flitches of bacon, hams, loaves of bread, cheese, and very
loud-smelling _mortadella_; which they had bought and were bringing away
from the fair.

'There was one task,' said Roejean, 'that Hercules declined, and that
was eating that vile _mortadella_. He was a strong man; but that was
stronger. Wait a moment, till I fill a pipe with caporal, and have a
smoke; for if I meet another man with that delicacy, I shall have to
give up the Grotto--unless I have a pipe under my nose, as
counter-irritant.'

The three artists tramped along gayly, until they approached the town,
when they assumed the proud, disdainful mood, assuring spectators that
they who wear it are of gentle blood, and are tired of life and weary of
traveling around with pockets filled with gold. They only looked coldly
at the pens filled with cattle for sale; long-horned, mouse-colored oxen
were there; groups of patient donkeys, or the rough-maned,
shaggy-fetlocked, bright-eyed small horses of the Campagna; countless
pigs, many goats; while above all, the loud-singing jackasses were
performing at the top of their lungs. Here were knots of country-people,
buying provisions or clothing; there were groups of carriages from Rome,
which had rolled out the wealthy _forestieri_ or strangers, drawn up by
the way-side, in the midst of all sorts and kinds of hucksters. The road
leading to the church, shaded by trees, was crowded with country-people,
in picturesque costumes, busily engaged in buying and selling hams,
bacon, bacon and hams, and a few more hams. Here and there, a
cheese-stand languished, for pork flourished. Now a copper-smith exposed
his wares, chief among which were the graceful-shaped _conche_ or
water-vessels, the same you see so carefully poised on the heads of so
many black-eyed Italian girls, going to or coming from so many
picturesque fountains, in--paintings, and all wearing such brilliant
costumes, as you find at--Gigi's costume-class. Then came an ironmonger,
whose wares were all made by hand, even the smallest nails; for
machinery, as yet, is in its first infancy around Rome. At this stand,
Roejean stopped to purchase a pallet-knife; not one of the regular,
artist-made tools, but a thin, pliable piece of steel, without handle,
which experience taught him was well adapted to his work. As usual, the
iron-man asked twice as much as he intended to take, and after a sharp
bargain, Roejean conquered. Then they came to a stand where there were
piles of coarse crockery, and some of a better kind, of classical shape.

Caper particularly admired a beautiful white jug, intended for a
water-pitcher, and holding about two gallons. After asking its price, he
offered a quarter of the money for it; to Bagswell's horror, the
crockery-man took it, and Caper, passing his arm through the handle, was
proceeding up the road, when Bagswell energetically asked him what he
was going to do with it.

'Enter Rome with it, like Titus with the _spolia opima_,' replied Caper.

'Oh! I say, now,' said the former, who was an Englishman and an
historical painter; 'you aren't going to trot all over the fair with
that old crockery on your arm. Why, God bless me, they'll swear we are
drunk. There comes the Duchess of Brodneck; what the deuce will she
say?'

'Say?' said Caper, 'why, I'll go and ask her; this is not court-day.'

Without another word, with water-pitcher on arm, he walked toward the
Duchess. Saluting her with marked politeness, he said:

'A countryman of yours, madame, has objected to my carrying this _objet
de fantaisie_, assuring me that it would occasion remarks from the
Duchess of Brodneck. May I have the good fortune to know what she says
of it?'

'She says,' replied the lady, smiling and speaking slowly and quietly;
'that a young man who has independence enough to carry it, has
confidence enough to--fill it.' She bowed, and passed on, Caper politely
raising his hat, in acknowledgment of the well-rounded sentence. When he
returned to Bagswell, he found the historical painter with eyes the size
of grape-shot, at the sublime impudence of the man. He told him what
she had said.

'Upon my honor, you Americans have a face of brass; to address a duchess
you don't know, and ask her a question like that!'

'That's nothing,' said Caper, 'a little experience has taught me that
the higher you fly, in England, the nearer you approach true politeness
and courtesy. Believe me, I should never have asked that question of any
Englishwoman whose social position did not assure me she was
cosmopolitan.'

'Come,' said Bagswell, 'come, after such an adventure, if there is one
drop of any thing fit to drink in this town, we'll all go and get
lushy.'

They went. They found a door over which hung a green branch. Good wine
needs no bush, therefore Italian wine-shops hang it out; for the wine
there is not over good. But as luck was with our three artists, in the
shop over the door of which hung the green bough, they found that the
_padrone_ was an old acquaintance of Roejean; he had married and moved
to Grotto Ferrata. He had a barrel of Frascati wine, which was bright,
sparkling, sweet, and not watered. This the _padrone_ tapped in honor of
his guests, and at their urgent request, sat down and helped empty a
couple of bottles. Moreover, he told them that as the town was
overcrowded, they would find it difficult to get a good dinner, unless
they would come and dine with him, at his private table, and be his
guests; which invitation Roejean accepted, to the tavern-keeper's great
joy, promising to be back at the appointed time.

Our trio then sauntered forth to see the fair. Wandering among the
crowded booths, they came suddenly on a collection of _Zingare_, looking
like their Spanish cousins, the _Gitañas_. Wild black eyes, coarse black
locks of hair, brown as Indians, small hands, small feet--the Gipsies,
children of the storm--my Rommani pals, what are you doing here? Only
one woman among them was noticeable. Her face was startlingly handsome,
with an aquiline nose, thin nostrils, beautifully-arched eyebrows, and
eyes like an eagle. She was tall, straight, with exquisitely-rounded
figure, and the full drapery of white around her bosom fell from the
shoulders in large hanging sleeves; over her head was thrown a crimson
and green shawl, folded like the _pane_ of the _ciociare_, and setting
off her raven-black hair and rich red and swarthy complexion.

Roejean stood entranced, and Caper, noticing his rapt air, forbore
breaking silence; while the gipsy, who knew that she was the admiration
of the _forestieri_, stood immovable as a statue, looking steadily at
them, without changing a feature.

'_Piu bellisima che la madonna!_' said Roejean, loud enough for her to
hear. Then turning to Caper, 'Let's _andiammo_,' (travel,) said he,
'that woman's face will haunt me for a month. I've seen it before; yes,
seen her shut up in the Vatican, immortal on an old Etruscan vase.
Egypt, Etruria, the Saracen hordes who once overrun all this Southern
Italy, I find, every hour, among live people, some trace of you all; but
of the old Roman, nothing!'

'You find the old Roman cropping out in these church processions,
festivals, shrines, and superstitions, don't you?' asked Caper.

'No! something of those who made the seal, nothing of the impression on
the wax remains for me. Before Rome was, the great East was, and shall
be. The Germans are right to call the East the Morning-Land; thence came
light.... The longer you live along the wave-washed shore of the
Mediterranean, the more you will see what a deep hold the East once had
on the people of the coast. The Romans, after all, were only opulent
tradesmen, who could buy luxuries without having the education to
appreciate them. So utterly did they ignore the Etruscans, who made them
what they were, that you seek in vain to find in Roman history any thing
but the barest outline of the origin of a people so graceful and
refined that the Roman citizen was a boot-black in comparison to one of
them. The Saracens flashed light and life, in later days, once more into
the Roman leaven. What a dirty, filthy page the whole Gothic middle-age
is at best! It lies like a huge body struck with apoplexy, and only
restored to its sensual life by the sharp lancet, bringing blood, of
these same infidels, these stinging Saracens. Go into the mountains back
of us, hunt up the costumes that still remain, and see where they all
come from--the East. Look at the crescent earrings and graceful twisted
gold-work, from--the East. All the commonest household ware, the
agricultural implements, the manner of cooking their food, and all that
is picturesque in life and religion--all from the East.'

'Strikes me,' quoth Caper, 'that this question of food touches my
weakest point; therefore, let us go and dine, and continue the lecture
at a more un-hungry period. But where is Bagswell?'

'He is seeking adventures, of course.'

'Oh! yes, I sec him down there among the billy-goats; let's go and pick
him up, and then for mine host of the Green Bough.'

Having found Bagswell, our trio at once marched to the Green Bough,
which they saw was filled to overflowing with country-people, eating and
drinking, sitting on rough benches, and stowing away food and wine as if
in expectation of being very soon shipwrecked on a desert island, where
there would be nothing but hard-shell clams and lemons to eat. The
landlord at once took the trio up-stairs, where, at a large table, were
half-a-dozen of his friends, all of the cleanly order of country-people,
stout, and having a well-to-do look that deprecated any thing like
famine. A young lady of twenty and two hundred, as Caper summed up her
age and weight, was evidently the cynosure of all eyes; two other
good-natured women, of a few more years and a very little less weight,
and three men, made up the table. Any amount of compliments, as usual,
passed between the first six and the last three comers, prefacing every
thing with desires that they would act without ceremony; but Caper and
Roejean were on a high horse, and they fairly pumped the spring of
Italian compliments so dry, that Bagswell could only make a squeaking
noise when he tried the handle. This verbifuge of our three artists put
their host into an ecstasy of delight, and he circulated all round,
rubbing his hands and telling his six friends that his three friends
were _milordi_, in very audible whispers, _milordi_ of the most genial,
courtly, polite, complimentary, cosmopolitan, and exquisite description.

After all this, down sat our trio, and for the sake of future ages which
will live on steam-bread, electrical beef, and magnetic fish, let us
give them the bill of fare set before them:

ALL THE WINE THEY COULD DRINK.

Maccaroni (_fettucia_) a la Milanese--dish two feet in diameter, one
foot and a half high.

Mutton-chops, with tomato-sauce, (_pomo d'oro._)

Stewed celery, with Parmesan cheese.

Stewed chickens.

Mutton-chops, bird-fashion, (_Uccélli di Castrato._ They are made of
pieces of mutton rolled into a shape like a bird, and cooked, several at
a time, on a wooden spit. They are the _kibaubs_ of the East.)

Baked pie of cocks' combs and giblets.

Roasted pig, a twelve-pounder.

Roast squashes, stuffed with minced veal.

Apples, oranges, figs, and _finocchio_.

_Crostata di visciola_, or wild-cherry pie, served on an iron plate the
size of a Roman warrior's shield; the dish evidently having been one
formerly.

MORE WINE!

The stout young lady rejoicing in the name of Angelucia, or large angel,
was fascinated by Roejean's conversational powers and Caper's
attentions; the rest of the company, perfectly at ease on finding out
that the _milordi_ were not French--Roejean turning American to better
please them--and that they were moreover full of fun, talked and laughed
as if they were brother Italians. A jollier dinner Caper acknowledged he
had never known. One of the Italians was farmer-general for one of the
Roman princes; he was a man of broad views, and having traveled to Paris
and London, came home with ultra-liberal sentiments, and to Bagswell's
astonishment, spoke his mind so clearly on the Roman rulers, that our
Englishman's eyes were slightly opened at the by no means complimentary
expressions used toward the wire-workers of the Papal government. One
Italy, and Rome its capital, was the only platform our princely farmer
would take, and he was willing to stake his fortune, a cool one hundred
thousand scudi, on regenerated Italy.

Conversation then fell on the fair; and one of the Italians told several
stories which were broad enough to have shoved the generality of English
and American ladies out of the window of the room. But Angelucia and the
two wives of the stout gentlemen never winked; they had probably been to
confession that morning, had cleared out their old sins, and were now
ready to take in a new cargo. In a little while Roejean sent the waiter
out to a café, and he soon returned with coffee for the party, upon
which Caper, who had the day before bought some Havana cigars of the man
in the Twelve Apostles, in the piazza Dódici Apostoli, where there is a
government cigar-store for the sale of them, passed them around, and
they were thoroughly appreciated by the diners. The farmer-general gave
our three artists a hearty invitation to visit him, promising them all
the horses they could ride, all the wine they could drink, and all the
maccaroni they could eat. The last clause was inserted for Roejean's
benefit, who had played a noble game with the grand dish they had had
for dinner, and at which Angelucia had made great fun, assuring Roejean
he was Italian to the heart, _e piu basso_.

Then came good-by, and our artists were off--slowly, meditatively, and
extremely happy, but, so far, quite steady. They walked to the
castellated monastery of San Basilio, where in the chapel of Saint Nilus
they saw the celebrated frescoes of Domenichino, and gazed at them
tranquilly and not quite so appreciatingly as they would have done
before dinner. Then they came out from the gloom and the air heavy with
incense of the chapel to the bright light and lively scenes of the fair,
with renewed pleasure. They noticed that every one wore in the hat or in
the lappel of the coat, if men--in their hair or in their bosom, if
women, artificial roses; and presently coming to a stand where such
flowers were for sale, our trio bought half-a-dozen each, and then
turned to where the crowd was thickest and the noise greatest. Three or
four donkeys loaded with tin-ware were standing near the crowd, when one
of them, ambitious of distinction, began clambering over the tops of the
others in an insane attempt to get at some greens, temptingly displayed
before him. Rattle, bang! right and left went the tins, and in rushed
men and women with cudgels; but donkey was not to be stopped, and for
four or five minutes the whole fair seemed gathered around the scene,
cheering and laughing, with a spirit that set Caper wild with
excitement, and induced him to work his way through the crowd and
present one old woman who had finally conquered the donkey, with two
large roses, an action which was enthusiastically applauded by the
entire assembly.

'Bravo! bravo! well done, O Englishman!' went up the shout.

A little farther on they came to a large traveling van, one end of which
was arranged as a platform in the open air. Here a female dentist, in a
sea-green dress, with her sleeves rolled up and a gold bracelet on her
right arm, held in both hands a tooth-extractor, bound round with a
white handkerchief--to keep her steady, as Caper explained, while she
pulled a tooth from the head of a young man who was down in front of
her on his knees. Her assistant, a good-looking young man, in very white
teeth and livery, sold some patent toothache drops: _Solo cinque
baiocchi il fiasco, S'gnore_.

Caper having seen the tooth extracted, cried, '_Bravissima!_' as if he
had been at the opera, and threw some roses at the _prima donna
dentista_, who acknowledged the applause with a bow, and requested the
Signore to step up and let her draw him out. This he declined, pleading
the fact that he had sound teeth. The _dentista_ congratulated him, in
spite of his teeth.

'But come!' said Bagswell; 'look at that group of men and women in
Albano costume; there is a chance to make a deuced good sketch.'

Two men and three women were seated in a circle; they were laughing and
talking, and cutting and eating large slices of raw ham and bread, while
they passed from one to another a three-gallon keg of wine, and drank
out of the bung. As one of the hearty, laughing, jolly, brown-eyed girls
lifted up the keg, Caper pulled out sketch-book and pencil to catch an
outline sketch--of her head thrown back, her fine full throat and breast
heaving as the red wine ran out of the barrel, and the half-closed,
dreamy eyes, and pleasure in the face as the wine slowly trickled down
her throat. One of the men noted the artist making a _ritratto_, and
laughing heartily, cried out: 'Oh! but you'll have to pay us well for
taking our portraits!' And the girl, slowly finishing her long
draught, looked merrily round, shook her finger at the artist, laughed,
and--the sketch was finished. Then Caper taking Roejean's roses, went
laughingly up to the girl with brown eyes and fine throat, in Albano
costume, and begged that she would take the poor flowers, and putting
them next her heart, keep them where it is forever warm--'as the young
man on your left knows very well!' he concluded. This speech was
received amid loud applause and cheers, and thanks for the roses and an
invitation to take a pull at the barrel. Caper waved them _Adio_, and as
our trio turned Rome-ward from the fair, the last things he saw as he
turned his head to take a farewell look, were the roses that the Italian
girl had placed next her heart.


THE TOMBOLA.

The exceedingly interesting amusement known as the Tombola is nothing
more than the game of Loto, or _Lótto_, 'Brobdignagified,' and played in
the open air of the Papal States, in Rome on Sundays, and in the
Campagna on certain saints' days, come they when they may.

The English have made holiday from holy day, and call the Lord's day
Sunday; while the Italians call Sunday Lord's day, or _Domenica_. Their
way of keeping it holy, however, with tombolas, horse-races, and
fire-works, strikes a heretic, to say the least, oddly.

The Roman tombola should be seen in the Piazza Navona democratically; in
the Villa Borghese, if not aristocratically at least middle
classically, or bourgeois-istically.

In the month of November, when the English drown themselves, and the
Italians sit in the sun and smile, our friend Caper, one Sunday morning,
putting his watch and purse where pick-pockets could not reach them,
walked with two or three friends down to the Piazza Navona, stopping, as
he went along, at the entrance of a small street leading into it, to
purchase a tombola-ticket. The ticket-seller, seated behind a small
table, a blank-book, and piles of blank tickets, charged eleven
_baiocchi_ (cents) for a ticket, including one _baioccho_ for
registering it. We give below a copy of Caper's ticket:

     No. 17 D'ORDINE, LETTERA C.

     CARTELLA DA RITENERSI DAL GIUOCATORE.

     8      12      32      87      60
    20       4      76      30      11
    45       3      90      55      63


The numbers on this ticket the registrar filled up, after which it was
his duty to copy them in his book, and thus verify the ticket should it
draw a prize.

The total amount to be played for that day, the tombola being for the
benefit of the Cholera Orphans, was one thousand scudi, and was divided
as follows:


    Terno,.................... $50
    Quaterno,................. 100
    Cinquina,................. 200
    Tombola,.................. 650
                            -------
                             $1000

How many tickets were issued, Caper was never able to find out; but he
was told that for a one thousand dollar tombola the number was limited
to ninety thousand.

The tickets, as will be seen above, are divided into three lines, with
five divisions in each line, and you can fill up the fifteen divisions
with any numbers running from one to ninety, that you may see fit.
Ninety tickets, with numbers from one to ninety, are put in a revolving
glass barrel, and after being well shaken up, some one draws out one
number at random, (the slips of paper being rolled up in such manner
that the numbers on them can not be seen.) It is passed to the judges,
and is then read aloud, and exposed to view, in conspicuous figures, on
a stand or stands; and so on until the tombola is won or the numbers all
drawn.

Whoever has three consecutive figures on a line, beginning from left
hand to right, wins the _Terno_; if four consecutive figures, the
_Quaterno_; if five figures, or a full line, the _Cinquina_; and whoever
has all fifteen figures, wins the Tombola. It often happens that several
persons win the _Terno_, etc., at the same time, in which case the
amount of the _Terno_, etc., is equally divided among them. These public
tombolas are like too many thimble-rig tables, ostensibly started for
charitable objects, and it is popularly whispered that the Roman
nobility and heads of the Church purchase vast numbers of these tickets,
and never fill them up; but then again, they are not large enough for
shaving, and are too small for curl-papers; besides, six hundred and
fifty _scudi_! Whew!

The Piazza Navona, bearing on its face, on week-days, the most terrible
eruptions of piles of old iron, rags, paintings, books, boots,
vegetables, crockery, jackdaws, contadini, and occasional dead cats,
wore on the Sunday of the tombola--it was Advent Sunday--a clean,
bright, and even joyful look. From many windows hung gay cloths and
banners; the three fountains were making Roman pearls and diamonds of
the first water; the entire length (seven hundred and fifty feet) and
breadth of the square was filled with the Roman people; three bands of
military music played uncensurable airs, since the public censor
permitted them; and several companies of soldiers, with loaded guns,
stood all ready to slaughter the _plebe_. It was a sublime spectacle.

But the curtain rose; that is to say, the tombola commenced. At a raised
platform, a small boy, dressed in black, popularly supposed to be a
cholera orphan, rolled back his shirt-cuffs--he had a shirt--plunged his
hand into the glass barrel, and produced a slip of paper; an assistant
carried it to the judges--one resembled Mr. Pecksniff--and then the
crier announced the number, and, presto! on a large blackboard the
number appeared, so that every one could see it.

Caper found the number on his ticket, and was marking it off, when a
countryman at his side asked him if he would see if the number was on
his ticket, as he could not read figures. Caper accordingly looked it
over, and finding that it was there, marked it off for him.

'_Padrone mio_, thank you,' said the man, evidently determined, since he
had found out a scholar, to keep close by him.

'Seventeen!' called out the tombola-crier.

'C----o!' said the contadino, with joy in his face; 'seventeen is always
my lucky number. My wife was seventeen years old when I married her. My
donkey was killed by the railroad cars the other day, and he gave just
seventeen groans before he died. I shall have luck to-day.'

We refrain from writing the exclamation the contadino prefaced his
remarks with, for fear the reader might have a good Italian
dictionary--an article, by the way, the writer has never yet seen.
Suffice it to say, that the exclamations made use of by the Romans, men
and women, not only of the lower but even the middling class, are of a
nature exceedingly natural, and plainly point to Bacchic and Phallic
sources. The _bestémmia_ of the Romans is viler than the blasphemy of
English or Americans.

It happened that the countryman had a seventeen on his ticket, and Caper
marked it off, at the same time asking him how much he would take for
his pantaloons. These pantaloons were made of a goat's skin; the long
white wool, inches in length, left on and hanging down below the knees
of the man, gave him a Pan-like look, and with the word tombola,
suggested the lines of that good old song--save the maledictory part of
it:

  'Tombolin had no breeches to wear,
  So he bought him a goat's skin, to make him a pair.'

These breeches were not for sale; they were evidently the joy and the
pride of the countryman, who had no heart for trade, having by this time
two numbers in one line marked off, only wanting an adjoining one to win
the _terno_.

'If you were to win the _terno_, what would you do with it?' Caper asked
him.

'_Accidente!_ I'd buy a barrel of wine, and a hog, and a--'

'Thirty-two!' shouted the crier.

'It's on your paper,' said Caper to him, marking it off; 'and you've won
the _terno_!'

The eyes of the man gleamed wildly; he crossed himself, grasped the
paper, and the next thing Caper saw was the crowd dividing right and
left, as the excited owner of the goat-skin breeches made his way to the
platform. When he had climbed up, and stepping forward, stood ready to
receive the _terno_, the crowd jeered and cheered the _villano_, making
fine fun of his goat-skin, and not a little jealous that a _contadino_
should take the money out of the city.

'It's always so,' said a fat man next to Caper, 'these _villani_ take
the bread out of our mouths; but _ecco_! there is another one who has
the _terno_; blessed be the Madonna, there is a third! Oh! _diavolo_,
the _villano_ will only have one third of the _terno_; and may he die of
apoplexy!'

A vender of refreshments passing along, the fat man stopped him, and
purchased a _baioccho's_ worth of--what?

Pumpkin-seeds! These are extensively eaten in Rome, as well as the seeds
of pine-cones, acorns, and round yellow chick-peas; these supply the
place occupied by ground-nuts in our more favored land.

There is this excitement about the tombolas in the Piazza Navona, that
occasionally a panic seizes the crowd, and in the rush of people to
escape from the square, some have their pockets picked, and some are
trampled down, never to rise again. Fortunately for Caper, no stampede
took place on Advent Sunday, so that he lived to attend another grand
tombola in the Villa Borghese.

This was held in the spring-time, and the promise of the ascension of a
balloon added to the attractions of the lottery. To enter the Villa, you
had to purchase a tombola-ticket, whereas, in the Piazza Navona, this
was unnecessary. At one end of the amphitheatre of the villa, under the
shade of the ilex-trees, a platform was erected, where the numbers were
called out and the awards given.

Caper, Roejean, and another French artist, not of the French Academy,
named Achille Légume, assisted at this entertainment. Légume was a very
pleasant companion, lively, good-natured, with a decided penchant for
the pretty side of humanity, and continually haunted with the idea that
a princess was to carry him off from his mistress in spectacles, Madame
Art, and convey him to the land of Cocaigne, where they never make, only
buy, paintings--of which articles, in parenthesis, Monsieur Achille had
a number for sale.

'Roejean,' said Légume, 'do you notice that distinguished lady on the
platform; isn't she the Princess Faniente? She certainly looked at _me_
very peculiarly a few minutes since.'

'It is the Princess,' answered Roejean, 'and I also noticed, a few
minutes since, when I was on the other side of the circus, that she
looked at ME with an air.'

'Don't quarrel,' spoke Caper,'she probably regards you both equally, for
--she squints.'

This answer capsized Achille, who having a small red rose-bud in his
button-hole, hoped that at a distance he might pass for a chevalier of
the Legion of Honor, and had conquered something, say something noble.

A wandering cigar-seller, with _zigarri scelti_, next demanded their
attention, and Roejean commenced an inspection of the selected cigars,
which are made by government, and sold at the fixed price of one and a
half _baiocchi_ each; even at this low price, the stock of the
tobacco-factory paid thirteen per cent under Antonelli's direction.

'Antonelli makes a pretty fair cigar,' said, 'but I wish he would wrap
the ends a little tighter. I'm sorry to hear he is going out of the
business.'

'Why, he would stay in,' answered Caper, 'but what with baking all the
bread for Rome, and attending to all the fire-wood sold, and trying to
make Ostia a seaport, and having to fight Monsieur About, and looking
after his lotteries and big pawnbroker's shop, and balancing himself on
the end of a very sharp French bayonet, his time is so occupied, he can
not roll these cigars so well as they ought to be rolled.... But they
have called out number forty-nine; you've got it, Légume, I remember you
wrote it down. Yes, there it is.'

'Forty-nine!'

'I wonder they dare call out '49 in this villa; or have the people
forgotten the revolution already, forgotten that this spot was made
ready for a battleground for liberty. The public censor knows his
business; give the Romans bread, and the circus or tombola, they will be
content--forever?'

'_Au diable_ with politics,' interrupted Achille; 'what a very pretty
girl that is alongside you, Caper. Look at her; how nicely that costume
fits her, the red boddice especially. Where, except in Italy, do you
ever see such fine black eyes, and such a splendid head of coal-black
hair? This way of having Italian nurses dressed in the Albano costume is
very fine. That little boy with her is English, certainly.'

'Och! master Jamey, come in out of that grane grass; d'yiz want ter
dirty the clane pinafore I've put on yiz this blissed afthernoon?' spoke
the nurse.

'In the name of all that's awful, what kind of Italian is she speaking?'
asked Légume of Caper.

'Irish-English,' he answered; 'she is not the first woman out of Old
Ireland masquerading as an Albanian nurse. She probably belongs to some
English family who have pretensions.'

'Ah bah!' said Légume, 'it's monstrous, perfectly atrocious, ugh! Let us
make a little tour of a walk. The tombola is finished. An Irish dressed
up as an Italian--execrable!'




_EN AVANT!_

  O GOD! let us not live these days in vain,
    This variegated life of doubt and hope;
  And though, as day leads night, so joy leads pain,
    Let it be symbol of a broader scope.

  God! make us serve the monitor within;
    Cast off the trammels that bow manhood down,
  Of form or custom, appetite or sin,
    The care for folly's smile or envy's frown.

  Oh! that true nobleness that rises up,
    And teaches man his kindredship to Thee;
  Which wakes the slaveling from the poison cup
    Of passion, bidding him be grandly free:

  May it be ours, in these the evil days,
    That fall upon our nation like a pall;
  May we have power each one himself to raise,
    And place God's signet on the brow of all!

  Not race nor color is the badge of slaves;
    'Tis manhood, after all, that makes men free;
  Weakness is slavery; 'tis but mind that saves
    God's glorious image as he willed it be.

  Out of the shadows thick, will coming day
    Send Peace and Plenty smiling o'er our land;
  And the events that fill us with dismay,
    Are but the implements in God's right hand.

  Where patriot blood is poured as cheap as rain,
    A newer freedom, phoenix-like, will spring;
  Our Father never asks for us in vain:
    From noble seed comes noble harvesting.

  Then let, to-day, true nobleness be ours;
    That we be worthy of the day of bliss,
  When truth's, and love's, and freedom's allied powers
    Shall bind all nations with fraternal kiss.

  Would we might see, as did the saint of old,
    The heavens opening, and the starry throng
  Listening to have our tale of peace be told,
    That they may hymn man's resurrection song!




_DESPERATION AND COLONIZATION._

As the war rolls on, and as the prospects of Federal victory increase,
the greater becomes the anxiety to know what must be done to secure our
conquests. How shall we reestablish the Union in its early strength? How
shall we definitely crush the possibility of renewed rebellion? The
tremendous taxation which hangs over us gives fearful meaning to these
questions. And they must be answered promptly and practically.

The impossibility of Southern independence was from the first a foregone
conclusion to all who impartially studied the geography of this country
and the social progress of its inhabitants. The West, with its growing
millions vigorously working out the problem of free labor, and of
Republicanism, will _inevitably_ control the Mississippi river and
master the destinies of all soil above the so-called isothermal line,
and probably of much below it. The cotton States, making comparatively
almost no increase in population, receiving no foreign immigration, and
desiring none, have precipitated, by war, their destined inferiority to
the North. It has been from the beginning, only a question of time, when
they should become the weaker, and goaded by this consciousness, they
have set their all upon a throw, by appeal to wager of battle, and are
losing. It is not a question of abolitionism, for it would have been
brought on without abolition. It is not a question of Southern wrongs,
for the South never had a _right_ disturbed; and in addition to
controlling our Government for years, and directly injuring our
manufactures, it long swallowed a disproportionably great share of
government appointments, offices, and emoluments. It is simply the last
illustration in history of a smaller and rebellious portion of a
community forced by the onward march of civilization into subordination
to the greater. The men of the South were first to preach Manifest
Destiny and the subjugation of Cuba and Mexico--forgetting that as
regarded civilization, they themselves, on an average, only filled an
intermediate station between the Spanish Creole and the truly _white_
man of the North. Before manifest destiny can overtake the Mexican, it
must first overtake the Southerner.

Despite all its external show of elan, courtesy, and chivalry, 'the
South,' as it exists, is and ever must be, in the very great aggregate,
inferior to the North in the elements of progress, and in nearly all
that constitutes true superiority. They boast incessantly of their
superior education and culture; but what literature or art has this
education produced amid their thousands of ladies and gentlemen of taste
and of leisure? The Northern editor of any literary magazine who has had
any experience in by-gone days with the manuscripts of the chivalry,
will shrug his shoulders with a smile as he recalls the reams of
reechoes of Northern writers, and not unfrequently of mere 'sensation'
third-rate writers at that, which he was wont to receive from Dixie. And
amid all his vaunts and taunts, the consciousness of this intellectual
inferiority never left the Southerner. It stimulated his hatred--it
rankled in his heart. He might boast or lie--and his chief statistician,
De Bow, was so notoriously convicted of falsifying facts and figures
that the assertion, as applied to him, is merely historical--but it was
of no avail. The Northern school and the Northern college continued to
be the great fountain of North-American intellect, and the Southerner
found himself year by year falling behind-hand intellectually and
socially as well as numerically. As a last resort, despairing of victory
in the _real_, he plunged after the wild chivalric dream of
independence; of Mexican and Cuban conquest; of an endless realm and a
reopened slave-trade--or at least of holding the cotton mart of the
world. It is all in vain. We of the same continent recognize no right in
a very few millions to seize on the land which belongs as much to our
descendants and to the labor of all Europe and of the world as it does
to them. They have _no right_ to exclude white labor by slaves. A
Doughface press may cry, Compromise; and try to restore the _status quo
ante bellum_, but all in vain. The best that can be hoped for, is some
ingenious temporary arrangement to break the fall of their old
slaveholding friends. It is not as _we_ will, or as _we_ or _you_ would
_like_, that what the Southerners themselves term a conflict of races,
can be settled. People who burn their own cities and fire their own
crops are going to the dire and bitter end; and the Might which under
God's providence is generally found in the long run of history to be the
Right--will triumph at last.

As has been intimated in the foregoing passages, the antipathy of the
South to the North is deeply seated, springing from such rancor as can
only be bred between a claim to social superiority mingled with a bitter
consciousness of inferiority in nearly all which the spirit of the age
declares constitutes true greatness. It is almost needless to say, that
with such motives goading them on, with an ignorant, unthinking mass for
soldiers, and with unprincipled politicians who have to a want of
principle added the newly acquired lust for blood, any prospect of
conciliation becomes extremely remote. We may hope for it--we may and
should proceed cautiously, so that no possible opportunity of restoring
peace may be lost; but it is of the utmost importance that we be blind
to no facts; and every fact developed as the war advances seems to
indicate that we have to deal with a most intractable, crafty, and
ferocious enemy, whom to trust is to be deceived.

There can be no doubt that the ultimatum of the South is secession or
death. We of the North can not contemplate such a picture with calmness,
and therefore evade it as amiably as we can. We say, it stands to reason
that very few men will burn their own homes and crops, yet every mail
tells us of tremendous suicidal sacrifices of this description. The ruin
and misery which the South is preparing for itself in every way is
incalculable and incredible, and yet there is no diminution of
desperation. The prosperity which made a mock of honest poverty is now,
as by the retributive judgment of God, sinking itself into penury, and
the planter who spoke of the Northern serf as a creature just one remove
above the brute, is himself learning by bitter experience to be a
mud-sill. Verily the cause of the poor and lowly is being avenged. Yet
with all this there is no hint or hope of compromise; repeated defeats
are, so far, of little avail. The Northern Doughfaces tell us over and
over again, that if we will 'only leave the slave question untouched,'
all will yet be right. 'Only spare them the negro, and they, seeing that
we do not intend to interfere with their rights, will eventually settle
down into the Union.' But what is there to guarantee this assertion?
What _proof_ have we that the South can be in this manner conciliated?
None--positively none.

There is nothing which the Southern press, and, so far as we can learn,
the Southern people, have so consistently and thoroughly disavowed since
the war began, as the assertion that a restoration of the Union may be
effected on the basis of undisturbed slavery. They have ridiculed the
Democrats of the North with as great contempt and as bitter sarcasm as
were ever awarded of old to Abolitionists, for continually urging this
worn-out folly; for now that the mask is finally thrown off, they make
no secret of their scorn for their old tools and dupes. Slavery is no
longer the primary object; they are quite willing to give up slavery if
the growing prosperity of the South should require it; their emissaries
abroad in every _salon_ have been vowing that manumission of their
slaves would soon follow recognition; and it was their rage at failure
after such wretched abasement and unprincipled inconsistency which, very
naturally, provoked the present ire of the South against England and
France. They, the proud, chivalrous Southrons, who had daringly rushed
to battle as slave lords, after eating abundant dirt as prospective
Abolitionists, after promising any thing and every thing for a
recognition, received the cold shoulder. No wonder that ill-will to
England is openly avowed by the Richmond press as one of the reasons for
burning the cotton as the Northern armies advance.

The only basis of peace with the North, as the South declares, is
Disunion; and they do most certainly mean it. No giving up the slave
question, no enforcing of fugitive slave laws; no, not the hanging of
Messrs. Garrison and Phillips, or any other punishment of all
Emancipationists--as clamored for by thousands of trembling
cowards--would be of any avail. It is disunion or nothing--and disunion
they can not have. There shall be no disunion, no settlement of any
thing on _any_ basis but the Union. Richmond papers, after the battle of
Pittsburgh Landing, proposed peace and separation. They do not know us.
The North was never so determined to push on as now; never so eager for
battle or for sacrifices. If the South is in earnest, so are we; if they
have deaths to avenge, so have we; if they cry for war to the knife, so
surely as God lives they can have it in full measure. For thirty years
the blazing straw of Southern insult has been heaped on the Northern
steel; and now that the latter is red-hot, it shall scorch and sear ere
it cools, and they who heated it shall feel it.

We may as well make up our minds to it first as last, that we must at
every effort and at _any_ cost, conquer this rebellion. There is no
alternative. This done, the great question which remains to settle, is,
how shall we manage the conquered provinces? There are fearful obstacles
in the way; great difficulties, such as no one has as yet calmly
realized; difficulties at home and abroad. We have a fierce and
discontented population to keep under; increased expenses in every
department of government; but it is needless to sum them up. The first
and most apparent difficulty is that involved in the form of government
to be adopted. As the rebellious States have, by the mere act of
secession, forfeited all State rights, and thereby reduced themselves to
territories, this question would seem to settle itself without
difficulty, were it not that a vast body of the ever-mischief-making,
ever-meddling, and never-contented politicians (who continue to believe
that the millennium would at once arrive were Emancipation only
extinguished) cry out against this measure as an infringement of those
Southern rights which are so dear to them. They argue and hope in vain.
Never more will the South come back to be served and toadied to by them
as of old; never more will they receive contemptuous patronage and
dishonorable honors. It is all passed. Those who look deepest into this
battle, and into the future, see a resistance, grim and terrible, to the
death; and one which will call for the strictest and sternest watch and
ward. It will only be by putting fresh life and fresh blood into
Secessia, that union can be practically realized. Out of the old
Southern stock but little can be made. A great portion must be kept
under by the strong hand; a part may be induced to consult its own
interests, and reform. But the great future of the South, and the great
hope of a revived and improved Union will be found in colonizing certain
portions of the conquered territory with free white labor.

A more important topic, and one so deeply concerning the most vital
prosperity of the United States, was never before submitted to the
consideration of her citizens. If entertained by Government and the
people on a great, enterprising, and vigorous scale, as such schemes
were planned and executed by the giant minds of antiquity, it may be
made productive of such vast benefits, that in a few years at most, the
millions of Americans may look back to this war as one of the greatest
blessings that ever befell humanity, and Jefferson Davis and his
coadjutors be regarded as the blind implements by which God advanced
human progress, as it had never before advanced at one stride. But to
effect this, it should be planned and executed as a great, harmonious,
and centrally powerful scheme, not be tinkered over and frittered away
by all the petty doughfaces in every village. In great emergencies,
great acts are required.

It is evident that the only certain road to Union-izing the South is, to
plant in it colonies of Northern men. Thousands, hundreds of thousands
now in the army, would gladly remain in the land of tobacco or of
cotton, if Government would only provide them with the land whereon to
live. Were they thus settled, and were every slave in the South
emancipated by the chances of war, there would be no danger to apprehend
as to the future of the latter. Give a Yankee a fat farm in Dixie, and
we may rely upon it that although a Southern nabob may not know how to
get work out of a 'free nigger', the Northerner will contrive to
persuade Cuffy to become industrious. We have somewhere heard of a
Vermonter, who taught ground-hogs or 'wood-chucks' to plant corn for
him; the story has its application. Were Cuffy ten times as lazy as he
is, the free farmer would contrive to get him to work. And in view of
this, I am not sorry that the Legislatures of the border wheat States
are passing laws to prevent slaves from entering their territories. The
mission of the black is to labor as a free man in the South, under the
farmer, until capable of being a farmer on his own account.

The manner and method of colonizing free labor in the South deserves
very serious consideration, and is, it may be presumed, receiving it at
the hands of Government, in anticipation of further developments in this
direction. We trust, however, that the Administration will _lead_, as
rapidly as possible, in this matter, and that the President will soon
make it the subject of a Message as significant and as noble as that
wherein this country first stood committed by its chief officer to
Emancipation, the noblest document which ever passed from president or
potentate to the people; a paper which, in the eyes of future ages, will
cast Magna Charta itself into the shade, and rank with the glorious
manumission of the Emperor of Russia.

The primary question would be, whether it were more expedient to scatter
free labor all over the South, or simply form large colonies at such
points as might serve to effectually break up and surround the
confederacy. Without venturing to decide on the final merit of either
plan, we would suggest that the latter would be, for a beginning,
probably most feasible. Should Virginia, certain points on the Atlantic
coast, embracing the larger cities and vicinity of forts, and Texas, be
largely or strongly occupied by free men, we should at once throw a
chain around the vanquished foe, whose links would grow stronger every
year. With slavery abolished--and it is at present abolishing itself
with such rapidity that it is almost time lost to discuss the
subject--immigration from Europe would stream in at an unprecedented
rate, and in a few years, all the old Southern system become entirely a
tradition of the past, like that of the feudal chivalry which the
present chivalry so fondly ape.

The enormous internal resources of Eastern Virginia, her proximity to
free soil, the arrogance and insubordination of her inhabitants, render
her peculiarly fitted for colonization. Not less attractive is Texas--a
State which, be it remembered, is capable of raising six times as much
cotton as is now raised in the whole South, and which, if only settled
and railroaded-ed, would, in a few years, become the wealthiest
agricultural State in America. But let our army once settle in the
South, there will be little danger of its not retaining its possessions.
He who can win can wear.

The country has thus far treated very gingerly the question of
confiscation, which is, however, destined to thrust itself very
prominently forward among the great issues of the day, and which is
closely allied to colonization. That the South, after forcing upon us
such a war as this, with its enormous losses and expenses, should be
subjected to no penalty, is preposterous. Confiscation there must
be--not urged inhumanly on a wholesale scale, but in such a manner as to
properly punish those who were forward in aiding rebellion. When this
war broke out, the South was unanimous in crying for plunder, in
speaking of wasting our commerce and our cities on a grand scale. But it
is needless to point out that punishment of the most guilty alone would
of itself half cover the expenses of the war.

It may be observed that already, since the decree of emancipation in the
District of Columbia, a fresh spirit of enterprise has manifested itself
there. Within a few days after the signature of the President to that
act, Northern men began to prepare for renewed industry and action in
the old slave field. The tide of free labor which will rush into
Virginia, after the chances of war or other action shall have
emancipated that State, will be incalculable. Its worn-out plantations
will become thriving farms, its mines and inexhaustible water-powers
will call into play the incessant demand and supply of vigorous industry
and active capital. We may hasten the movement or we may not, by direct
legislation. For the present, it seems advisable to await the rapidly
developing chances of war and their results; but the great rush of free
labor will come, and that rapidly, and Virginia, disenthralled, become,
in all probability, once more the first among the States.

We have spoken of the desperation of the rebels, and of the idleness of
expecting from them any peaceable compromise. Those who, in the South,
will take the oath of allegiance, and who have probably acted only under
compulsion, should be spared. But there is a vast number who are as yet
under the dominion of a madness, for which nothing but the most vigorous
measures can be of any avail. It is evident that at present, every where
except in Halleck's department, government is too indulgent. Traitors
flaunt and boast openly in the border States, and publicly scheme with
their doughface allies, to defeat the Union cause in every possible way,
too often with signal success. The more mercy they receive, the more
insolent do they become, and yet every effort has been made, and is
making, 'to conciliate.' Let Government be vigorous, and rely only on
its strong hand, so far as the management of avowed traitors is
concerned; such men hold to no faith, and keep no oaths. With such, a
threat of confiscation will be found of more avail than all the lenity
in the world.

We may quote, in this connection, from a letter to the Salem _Register_,
from Captain Driver, who hoisted 'Old Glory' at Nashville, when our
troops took possession of that city. After speaking of the immense
amount of property being destroyed through the State, he asks:

     'Is there one man North, who now expects to make peace, based on
     compromise with such men as lead here? Is there one who expects a
     lasting peace in this land, until the armed heel of freedom's
     soldiers marks every inch of slave soil? If there is, he knows
     little of the South or Southern men and women. One defeat of the
     Federal forces, and madness would be rampant here. In the hour of
     victory, they would destroy every Union family in the South. We
     live on a volcanic mass, which at any moment may upheave and blow
     us to glory without the benefit of the clergy, the most of whom are
     in the army of Dixie.

     'Our enemy is as bitter as death, as implacable as the savage of
     the forest; he will do any thing to gain his end. Twice has the
     'Black Flag' been flaunted in our faces, and cheered by a portion
     of our citizens. Our women are more bitter than the men, and our
     children are taught to hate the North, in church, in school, and at
     the fireside. Our city still presents a sullen, silent front; it
     will take as long time to root treason out of Nashville us it did
     the household sins of Egypt out of Israel.

     'Had I my way, I would confiscate the property of all traitors,
     work the slaves three or four years under overseers, on the land of
     their masters, sell the crops thus raised, and pay the war debt;
     this would save the people from taxation. The fifth year's crop
     give to the slaves, and send them to Texas or elsewhere; give them
     a governance, buy up the slaves of the loyal men, and let them be
     sent to their brethren. The land confiscated, I would divide among
     the soldiers of the North and the widows and orphans of those
     deluded poor men of the South who fell victims to false notions of
     'Southern Rights;' compel the Northern man to settle on his grant,
     or to send a settler of true, industrious habits, and give him no
     power to alienate his title for ten or more years. This will insure
     an industrious, worthy, patriotic people for the South. One man
     will make one bale of cotton, others ten; your spindles and looms
     will be kept running by free men, and slavery will cease forever,
     as it should do. Slavery is a curse, a crime, a mildew, and must
     end, or war will blast our fair heritage for all time to come.'

Such are the views of one who seems to know what a real
Southern-sympathizing secessionist is made of. Let it not be forgotten
that there are thousands of native Tennesseeans, as of other borderers
of intelligence, character, and influence, who have offered to raise
regiments to fight for the Union; and this fact is urged by the
doughface democrats as a reason for increased leniency to traitors. We
confess we do not see what connection exists between the two. If these
loyal borderers are sincere in their professions, they have certainly no
sympathy for the wretches around them, who visit with death or pillage
every friend of the Union. But it is idle to argue with traitors. Either
we are at war, or we are not; and if the history of the past eighteen
months has not taught the country the folly of procrastinating, nothing
will do it. 'When you feel the knife in your heart, _then_ wish that you
had fought!'




_THE EDUCATION TO BE._

II.

A right intellectual education presupposes three essential features: the
selection of the most suitable subjects for study; the proper
presentation of these, in the order of their dependence, and in view of
the gradual growth of the pupil's powers of comprehension; and, not less
important than either of these, the finding out and following of the
best method and order of presenting the truths belonging to each subject
to be studied. These are the problems with which, as something apart
from Metaphysics or Logic, the possible but yet unachieved pedagogical
science has to deal. To the first of these questions, What shall we
teach? or, as he phrases it, 'What knowledge is of most worth?' Mr.
Spencer (presuming the child already supplied with his bare implements,
reading, spelling, and penmanship) is led, after a long discussion, to
conclude that 'the uniform reply is, Science.' The 'counts' on which he
bases this verdict, are, the purposes of self-preservation; the gaining
of a livelihood; the due discharge of parental functions; qualification
for political responsibilities; the production and enjoyment of art; and
discipline, whether intellectual, moral, or religious. Taken at his own
showing, Mr. Spencer seems to contemplate, as his model of an educated
man, a prodigiously capable and efficient mute. But can he deny that the
ability _to express_ what one may know, and in speech, as well as in
production, is at once the final proof, and in a very real sense the
indispensable consummation of such knowing? _Language_ is the
counterpart and complement of _Science_. The two are but two sides, and
either separately an incomplete one, of one thing; that one thing we may
name _definite and practical knowledge_; and it is the only sort of
knowledge that has real value. Language is yet larger than all the
sciences proper which it embodies, namely, those clustering about
Philology, Grammar, and Rhetoric. Of these, all deal with words, or
those larger words--sentences; but under these forms they deal, in
reality, with the objective world as perceived or apprehended by us, and
as named and uttered in accordance with subjective aptitudes and laws.
In language, then, there stands revealed, in the degree in which we can
ascend to it, all that is yet known of the external world, and all that
has yet evolved itself of the human mind. Can we decry the study of that
which, whether as articulate breath, or through a symbolism of visible
forms, mirrors to us at once all of nature and all of humanity? But if
we yield this claim in behalf of language, noting meanwhile that the
mathematics are already well represented in our courses of instruction,
then much of Mr. Spencer's eloquent appeal is simply wasted by
misdirection. All that he had really to claim is, that a
disproportionate time is now surrendered to the studies of the symbols,
as such, and too often to characteristics of them not yet brought in any
way into scientific coördination, nor of a kind having practical or
peculiarly disciplinary value. If Mr. Spencer had insisted on a more
just division of the school studies between the mathematical, physical,
biological, and linguistic sciences, he would have struck a chord
yielding no uncertain sound, and one finding response in a multitude of
advanced and liberal minds. If he had gone yet deeper, and disclosed to
his readers the fact that the fundamental need is, not that we study
what in the more restricted sense is known as _Science_, but that we
begin to study all proper and profitable subjects, as we now do hardly
any of them, _in the true scientific spirit and method_, he would not
merely seem to have said, but would have succeeded in saying, something
of the deepest and most pressing import to all educators.

The volume of republished papers from Mr. Barnard's able _Journal of
Education_--the first of a series of five under the general title of
'Papers for the Teacher'--will afford to those desirous of investigating
the second of the problems above proposed, some useful material and
hints. Especially will this be true, we think, of the first series of
articles, by Mr. William Russell, on the 'Cultivation of the Perceptive,
Expressive, and Reflective Faculties;' and of the second, by Rev. Dr.
Hill, now President of Antioch College, upon the 'True Order of
Studies.' In the outset of his first essay, (which appeared in March,
1859,) Dr. Hill takes it '_for granted_ [postulating, we think, a pretty
large ground, and one that analysis and proof would better have
befitted] that there is a rational order of development in the course of
the sciences, and that it ought to be followed in common education.' The
order he finds is that of five great studies, Mathesis, [mathematics;]
Physics, or Natural History; History; Psychology; and Theology. 'We also
take it for granted,' he continues, 'that there is a natural order of
development in the human powers, and that studies should be so arranged
as to develop the powers in this order.' Here two very difficult
problems are undertaken--the hierarchy of the sciences, and the analysis
of the intellect--and though we seem to find in the elucidation of the
subject traces of that 'harmony of results of the two lines of inquiry,'
on which the author relies as one source of confirmation of the results
themselves, yet we can not admit that the solutions given us remove all,
nor even all the main difficulties of the case. While we regard the
mathematics, physics, psychology, and theology as quite well
individualized and distinct lines of scientific research, we can not
help feeling that the day has hardly come for embracing _physiology_
under either physics or psychology; the forming of the bile and the
growing and waste of brain are yet, to our apprehension, too far removed
from the gravitation of planets or the oxidation of phosphorus, on the
one hand, as they are from the scintillations of wit or the severe march
of reason on the other, for ready affiliation with either. We question
decidedly whether Theology proper can, at the most, be more than a very
restricted subject; and quite as decidedly whether the heterogeneous
matters grouped under History, namely, Agriculture, Trade, Manufactures,
the Fine Arts, Language, Education, Politics, and Political Economy, are
or can be shown to be linked by any principle of essential unity. Most
of these have their historical side; but their unhistorical and
scientific side most interests the great body of learners. And this
latter aspect of some of them, Education and Politics especially,
belongs after, not before Psychology. Then, the great fact of
expression--Language--has not adequate justice done it by the position
it is here placed in. Want of space is the least among our reasons for
forbearing to attempt here a classification of the sciences--a work
which Ramus, D'Alembert, Stewart, Bentham, and Ampère successively
essayed and left unfinished. But the principle that the faculties in
their order are called out by the branches named in their order, is
quite given up as the writer proceeds, and distinctly so in his Tabular
View of the studies adapted to successive ages. In actual life, usually
the first set teaching the infant receives is in language; and even
though it previously is and should be getting its ideas of forms,
colors, and other qualities, in the concrete, yet it remains far from
true that we should 'pay our earliest attention to the development of
the child's power to grasp the truths of space and time.' Dr. Hill has,
however, taken in these papers a step in a needful direction; and
perhaps the best we could at first expect, are hints and an
approximation toward a much desired result.

We may fairly assume that Mr. Willson's answer to the question, What to
teach? is in some good degree embodied in his elaborate series of
'School and Family Readers,' of which the first six of the eight
contemplated volumes have already appeared. These Readers aim to replace
in a good degree the more purely literary materials of most of their
predecessors, with a somewhat systematic and complete view of the more
generally useful branches of human knowledge. They begin, where the
child is sure to be interested, with studies of animals, illustrated
with good and often spirited drawings, and proceed through Physiology,
Botany, Architecture, Physical Geography, Chemistry, etc., up at last,
as is promised, to Mental and Moral Philosophy, Natural Theology,
Rhetoric, Criticism, Logic, the Fine Arts, including that one of those
arts, as we presume we may class it, with which pupils of the rural
schools will have best cause to become acquainted, namely, Gardening!
Readers on this plan have long been known in the schools of Prussia and
Holland, and are even lately well received in England, in the form of
Mr. Constable's popular series; though apparently, when finished, the
American series will be more full and complete in topics and treatment
of them than any preceding one. Of course, restricted space, and the
range of maturity of talents addressed, compel the presentation in
simplified form of scarcely more than 'a little learning' under the
several heads; and the compiler sensibly tells us his aim is not to give
a full exposition of any theme, but rather, 'to present a _pleasing
introduction_ to science.' We may grant, in the outset, that most pupils
will really comprehend, in and through the reading of it, but a modicum
of all the high and large fields of knowledge here intimated to them;
but who that can now look on his school-days as in the past, does not
remember how many grandiose sentences he was then called on to utter in
cadence duly swelling or pathetic, but of the meaning of which he had
not the most distant approach to a true comprehension? It was _ours_
once to be of a class whose enunciative powers were disciplined by
repeated goings 'through' of the 'Old English Reader,' and well do we
remember how the accidental omission of the full pause after 'shows' in
the quotation ending the piece entitled 'Excellency of the Holy
Scriptures,' caused a certain teacher to understand(!) and direct us to
read the whole sentence thus: 'Compared, indeed, with this, all other
moral and theological wisdom

     'Loses, discountenanced, and like folly shows' BEATTIE.'

Now, it is true, the whole sentence, in its best state, would have shown
to our green understandings like enough to 'folly,' if we had once made
the effort to find meaning of any sort in it; nor can it be considered
the most profitable use of school time, thus to 'like folly show' to
unknit juvenile brains the abstract and high thought of mature and great
minds, who uttered them with no foolishness or frivolity in their
intentions! We see reasons to expect substantial advantages from Mr.
Willson's books; and we believe teachers will appreciate and use them.
We could wish they had not gone so far to mechanicalize the pupil's
enunciation; by too freely introducing throughout the points of
inflection; but it is safe to predict that most pupils will take up with
interest the simplified readings in science; that they will comprehend
and remember a useful portion of what they read; that the lessons will
afford both them and the teachers points of suggestion from which the
mind can profitably be led out to other knowledge and its connections;
and that they who go through the series can at least leave school with
some more distinct ideas as to what the fields of human knowledge are,
and what they embrace, than was ever possible under the _régime_ of
merely fine writing, of pathetic, poetic, and generally miscellaneous
selections.

The educational interest that grew up in our country between the years
1810 and 1828, about the year 1835 gave place to a stagnation that has
marked nearly the whole of the period intervening between the last-named
and the present date. In the year 1858, the _New-York Teacher_ was made
the first medium of some thoughts in substance agreeing with those set
forth in the earlier part of this paper, claiming the indispensableness
to true education of a more true and liberal _work_ on the part of the
learner's intellectual faculties, and of a more true and logical
_consecution_ than has yet been attained, and one corresponding to the
natural order of the intellectual operations, in the books and lessons
through which the usual school studies are to be mastered. 'Make'--said
the first of the articles setting forth this thought--'the [form of the]
facts and principles of any branch of study as simple as you choose, and
unless the order of their presentation be natural--be that order, from
observation to laws and causes, in which the mind naturally moves,
whenever it moves surely and successfully--the child, except in the rare
case of prodigies that find a pleasure in unraveling complexity, will
still turn from the book with loathing. He will do so because he must.
It is not in his nature to violate his nature for the sake of acquiring
knowledge, however great the incentives or threatenings attending the
process.' 'The child's mind ... with reference to all unacquired
knowledge ... stands in precisely the attitude of the experimenters and
discoverers of riper years. It is to come to results not only previously
unknown, but not even conceived of. Because their nature and faculties
are identical, the law of their intellectual action must be the same.'
'Study is research.' In subsequent articles, it was claimed that the law
here indicated is for intellectual education, the one true and
comprehensive law; and it was expressed more fully in the words: 'All
true study is investigation; all true learning is discovery.'

We say, now, that when the first of these articles appeared, the leading
thought it contained, namely, that our pupils can and should learn by a
process of _re-discovery_, in the subjects they pursue, had not in
distinct nor in substantial statement in any way appeared in the
educational treatises or journals; and further, that it was not, so far
as their uttered or published expressions show, previously occupying the
attention of teachers or of educational writers, nor was it the subject
or substance of remarks, speeches, or debates, in the meetings of
Teachers' Associations. We say further, and because history and justice
require it, that in our country, especially in the educational movements
in the State of New-York, and in the several national associations of
educators, a marked change and revolution in the course of much of the
thought and discussion touching matters of education has, since the year
1858, become apparent, and that to the most casual participant or
observer, and in the precise direction in which the thought above
referred to points. The essential issue itself--the practicability and
desirableness of casting our studies into the form of courses of
re-discovery is somewhat distantly and delicately approached,
incorporated into speeches by an allusion or in the way of _apercû_, or
thrown out as a suggestion of a partial or auxiliary method with the
younger learners, all which is of a fashion highly patronizing to the
thought, spite of the scruples about confessing who was the suggester of
it. But other questions, which spring up in the train of this, which by
themselves had received attention long since, but had been mainly
dropped and unheard of among us during the past twenty-five years, have
come again into full and unconcealed prominence. Such are the questions
about the natural order of appearance of the faculties in childhood, as
to what are the elementary faculties of the mind, as to the adaptation
of the kinds and order of studies to these, etc. And thus, all at once,
is disclosed that Education itself, which many had thought quite a
'finished' thing, well and happily disposed of, or at least so far
perfected as to leave no work further save upon the veriest outskirts of
details, is in truth a giant superstructure with foundations in sand, or
so almost visibly lacking underneath it, that it threatens to fall. For,
in the name of the simplest of all common sense, how are we to educate
to the best, _not yet knowing_--and that is now acknowledged--_what are
the_ FACULTIES _of the very minds we are dealing with, nor what are the_
PROCESSES _by which those minds begin and keep up their advance in
knowledge?_ So, also, those who in the most charitable mood could see in
education only something too hum-drum and narrow for their better
fancies, find it now rising and expanding into a new and large field for
intellectual effort, full of interesting problems, and fraught with
realizations as yet undreamed of.

It may be said, that the young mind had always learned what it did
learn, by discoveries; we answer, our methods and our books have not in
any sufficient degree recognized the fact, provided for it, nor taken
advantage of it. It may be said, that writers had previously
acknowledged that the mind learns well--some of them even, that it
learns best--when it discovers: we answer, that nevertheless, no one had
recorded it as a well-grounded, universal conclusion and positive law,
that the mind only can learn, in all strictly scientific matters, as it
discovers, and that hence, the canons of the method of discovery become
rules for directing, in studies of this character, the education of the
young. Aristotle and Bacon have recognized and enforced upon the adult
mind its two master methods of advance by reasoning. But our children
have their knowing also to attain to, their discoveries to make, their
logic of proof, on occasions, to employ. Shall we lavish all the
treasures of method on those who have passed the formative stage of
mind, and acquired the bent of its activities? Rather, we think, the
true intellectual method--combining both Baconian _induction_ and
Aristotelian _deduction_--yet waits to realize some of the best of the
application and work for which its joint originators and their
co-workers have been preparing it; and that perhaps one of the highest
consummations of this one method of thought may yet appear in the
carrying forward, with more of certainty, pleasure, and success in their
attaining of knowledge, the lisping philosophers of our school-rooms and
our firesides.

From one source, disconnected latterly from those to which I have thus
far called attention, there has arisen a decidedly progressive movement
in the direction of right teaching, and one that, at least in
geographical studies, promises soon to result in a consummation of great
importance. Though Pestalozzianism, as further developed by the Prussian
educators and schools, has never yet realized the completely inductive
and consecutive character here contended for, it has been tending in a
degree toward such a result; and this is perhaps seen in the most marked
way in the method of teaching geography developed by Humboldt and
Ritter, and represented in this country by their distinguished pupil,
Professor Guyot. This method subordinates political to physical
geography, proceeding from facts to laws, and by setting out with the
grand natural features of the globe, leads the learner to comprehend not
only the existence, boundaries, capitals, and strength of nations, but
the reasons why these have come to be what they are. As tending in the
same true direction, we should not fail to mention also the
faithfully-executed series of raised or embossed maps of the late Mr.
Schroeter, presenting not only the profile but the comparative
elevations of the land-surfaces or continents and islands, and, in
detail, of the several political divisions of the globe, thus at once
making the ocular study of geography _real_, and not as formerly,
leaving the right conception of the land-surfaces to the pupil's unaided
imagination.

Among the decisive and important steps marking the revival of
educational interest among us, is that looking to the introduction into
our primary schools of the simple lessons for what is called the
'education of the senses,' and what is in fact the solicitation of the
perceptive faculties, and the storing of them, with their proper ideas,
through the avenues of sense. When employed about observing or finding
and naming the parts or qualities and uses of objects, as _glass,
leather, milk, wood, a tree, the human body_, etc., this sort of
teaching takes the name of 'Object Lessons;' when it rises to
philosophizing in the more obvious and easy stages about natural
phenomena, as _rain, snow,_ etc., or about parts of the system of
nature, as _oceans, mountains, stars,_ etc., it is sometimes termed
'Lessons in Common Things.' In the year 1860, Mr. E.A. Sheldon, the
enterprising superintendent of the schools of that city, first
introduced with some degree of completeness and system, this sort of
teaching into the primary schools of Oswego. In March, 1861, under the
leadership also, as we infer, of their superintendent, Mr. William H.
Wells, the Educational Board of the city of Chicago adopted a still more
minutely systematized and more extensive course of instruction of this
sort, arranged in ten successive grades, and intended to advance from
the simple study of objects, forms, colors, etc., gradually to the
prosecution of the regular and higher studies. The greater naturalness,
life-likeness, and interest of this kind of mental occupation for young
learners, over the old plan of restricting them mainly to the bare
alphabet, with barren spelling, reading, definitions, and so on, is at
once obvious in principle and confirmed by the facts; and for the
younger classes--a stage of the utmost delicacy and importance to the
future habits of the learner--the fruits must appear in increased
readiness of thought and fullness of ideas, and in a preparation for
more true and enlarged subsequent comprehension of the proper branches
of study; provided, we must add, that these also, when reached, be
taught by a method best suited to their subject-matter and to the higher
range of mental activity required to deal with it. Whether, now, the
object-lesson system and plan is the one competent to carry on the
learner through those later studies, is another and larger question, and
one to which we shall presently recur.

Under the recall of the minds of educators among us to fundamental
principles of methods and tendencies in teaching, which we have pointed
out, it was but natural to expect attempts to be made toward remedying
the defects and supplying the needs that could not fail to be detected
in our teaching processes. Naturally, too, such attempts would result in
the bringing forward, sooner or later, of novelties in the topics and
form of the school-books. What the pen--which, in the outset, proposed
the necessity of molding the school-work into a course of re-discoveries
of the scientific truths--should reasonably be expected to do toward
supplying the want it had indicated; or what it may, in the interim,
have actually accomplished toward furnishing the working implements
requisite to realizing in practice the possible results foreshadowed by
the best educational theories, it may be neither in place nor needful
that we should here intimate. Sometimes, indeed, there is in our social
movements evidence of a singular sort of intellectual _catalysis;_ and a
mute fact, so it _be_ a fact, and even under enforced continuance of
muteness, through influence of temporary and extraneous circumstances,
may yet, like the innocent _platinum_ in a mixture of certain gases, or
the equally innocent _yeast-plant_ vegetating in the 'lump' of dough,
take effect in a variety of ways, as if by mere presence.

We shall remember how even Virgil had to write:

     'Hos ego versiculos scripsi: tulit alter honores!'

And the veriest bumpkin knows the force of the adage about one's shaking
the tree, for another to gather up the fruit. But Virgil was patient,
and did well at the last; though the chronicles do not tell us how many
pears ever came to the teeth of him that did the tree-shaking. At all
events, it is satisfying to know that time spins a long yarn, and comes
to the end of it leisurely and at his own wise motion!

The English object-lesson system being now fairly and successfully
domesticated among us, and to such an extent as to call for the
invitation and temporary residence among us, in the city of Oswego, of a
distinguished lady-teacher from the English Training Schools, it is
again but natural that the system should call forth books adapted to its
purposes; and it was scarcely possible, under the circumstances we have
now shown to exist, that such books should come forth without presenting
a more conscious aim toward embodying something of the principle and
order of _discovery_ than has marked even their English prototypes.
These anticipations we find exactly realized in the first book of the
new pattern that has yet made its appearance--the 'Primary
Object-Lessons' of Mr. Calkins. Of this book, issued June, 1861, the
author thus states the motive: 'With an earnest desire to contribute
something toward a general radical change in the system of primary
education in this country--a change from the plan of exercising the
memory chiefly to that of developing the observing powers--a change from
an artificial to a natural plan, one in accordance with the philosophy
of mind and its laws of development, the author commenced the following
pages.'

Acknowledging his indebtedness to the manuals of Wilderspin, Stow,
Currie, the Home and Colonial School Society, and other sources, the
author tells us that the plan of developing the lessons 'corresponds
more nearly to that given in Miss Mayo's works than to either of the
other systems;' and we understand him to claim (and the feature is a
valuable one) that in this book, which is not a text-book, but one of
suggestive or pattern lessons for teachers, he directs the teacher to
proceed less by telling the child what is before it and to be seen, and
more by requiring the child to find for itself what is present. Again,
an important circumstance, the purpose of the book does not terminate in
describing right processes of teaching, but on the contrary, _'in
telling what ought to be done, it proceeds to show how to do it by
illustrative examples,' (sic.)_ Now, spite of some liberties with the
President's English, which may properly be screened by the author's
proviso that he does not seek 'to produce a faultless composition,' so
much as to afford simple and clear examples for the teacher's use, we
are compelled to inquire, especially as this is matter addressed to
mature and not to immature minds, which it is the author really meant us
to understand; that is, whether, in fact, the book 'proceeds to show
_how to do it by_ illustrative examples;' or whether, in reality, it
does not aim _to show by illustrative examples how to do it_--that,
namely, which ought to be done. If we still find Mr. Calkins's
philosophy somewhat more faultless than his practice, perhaps that is
but one of the necessary incidents of all human effort; and we can say
with sincerity that, in some of its features, we believe this a book
better adapted to its intended uses--the age it is designed to meet
being that of the lowest classes in the primary schools, or say from
four to seven or eight years--than any of its predecessors. It will not,
we hope, therefore, be understood as in a captious spirit, that we take
exception to certain details.

The author is clearly right in his principle that 'The chief object of
primary education is the development of the faculties;' though doubtless
it would have been better to say, _to begin_ the development of the
faculties; but then, he recognizes, as the faculties specially active in
children, those of 'sensation, perception, observation, and simple
memory,' adding, for mature years, those of 'abstraction, the higher
powers of reason, imagination, philosophical memory, generalization,'
etc. But that any one of all these is in the true psychological sense, a
_faculty_--save, it may be, in the single instance of imagination--we
shall decidedly question; and Mr. Calkins will see by the intent of his
very lessons, that he does not contemplate any such thing as 'sensation'
or 'observation,' as being a faculty: but, on the other hand, that he is
so regarding certain individual powers of mind, by which we know in
nature Color and Form and Number and Change and so on.

We must question whether 'in the natural order of the development of the
human faculties, the mind of the child takes cognizance first of the
_forms_ of objects.' Form is a result of particular _extensions:_
evidently, extension must be known before form can be. But again,
visibly, form is revealed through kinds and degrees of light and shade;
in one word, through _color_. Evidently, then, color also must be
appreciated before visible form can be. But this 'natural order of the
development of the human faculties,' is a seductive thing. In phrase, it
is mellifluous; in idea, impressively philosophical. It would be well if
this book, while cautiously applying developing processes to the little
learner, were to _dogmatise_ less to the teacher. But when the
development-idea is carried into the titles of the sections, it becomes,
we think, yet more questionable. Thus, a section is headed, 'To develop
the idea of straight lines.' First, would not the idea of _a straight
line_ come nearer to the thing actually had in view? Again, 'To develop
the idea of right, acute, and obtuse angles.' 'The idea,' taking in all
these things, must be most mixed and multifarious; it could not be
_clear_, though that is a quality mainly to be sought. Is not the
intention rather, to develop _ideas_ of _the right, the acute,_ and _the
obtuse angle?_ Instances of this sort, which we can not understand
otherwise than as showing a loose way of thinking, are numerous. But
then, again, it is assumed that the lessons _develop_ all the ideas
successively discoursed about. Far otherwise, in fact. In many
instances, of course, a sharper, better idea of the object or quality
discussed will be elicited in the course of the lesson. This is, at
best, only a sort of quasi-development, individualizing an idea by
turning it on all sides, comparing with others, and sweeping away the
rubbish that partly obscured it. In others of the topics, the learner
has the ideas before we begin our developing operations. But the great
misfortune of the usage of the term here is, that _develop_ properly
implies to _unroll, uncover, or disclose_ something that is infolded,
complicate, or hidden away; but mark, something that is always THERE
before the developing begins, and that by it is only brought into light,
freedom, or activity! Thus, we may develop faculties, for they were
there before we began; but we simply can not develop _objective ideas_,
such as this book deals with, but must impart them, or rather, give the
mind the opportunity to get them. First, then, this term thus employed
is needlessly pretentious; secondly, it is totally misapplied. Would it
not help both teacher and pupil, then, if we were to leave this stilted
form of expression, and set forth the actual thing the lessons
undertake, by using such caption as for for example, _To give the idea,
of a triangle,_ or to insure, or _to furnish the idea of a curve?_ We
think the misnomer yet greater and worse, when we come to such captions
as 'To develop the idea of God, as a kind Father;' especially when the
amount of the development is this: 'Now, children, listen very
attentively to what I say, and I will _tell you_ about a Friend that
_you all have_, one who is kind to all of you, one who _loves you
better_ than your father or your mother does,' and so on. All this, and
what precedes and follows, is 'telling,' as the author acknowledges; of
course, then, it is not developing. How is the child here made to _find_
and _know_ that it has such a Friend?--that this Friend _is_ kind to
all?--that this Friend loves it better than do parents, or, in fact, at
all? This is the way the nursery develops this and kindred ideas, and if
the child be yet too young for its own comprehension of the most obvious
truths of Natural Theology, then better defer the subject, or at least
cease to call the nursery method by too swelling a name!

As to arrangement of topics, though the geographical lessons properly
come late, as they stand, the idea of _place_, as well as those of
_weight and size_, all belong earlier than the positions they are found
in; and _number_, later. Such mental anachronisms as talking of _solids_
before the attempt has been made to impart or insure the idea of a
solid, should, where practicable, be avoided; and more notably, such as
bringing a subsequent and complex idea, like that of 'square measure,'
before scarcely any one of the elementary ideas it involves, such as
_measure, standard_, or even _length or size_, is presented. As to the
substance of the teaching, we will indicate a few points that raise a
question on perusal of them. What will the little learner gain, if the
teacher follows the book in this instance? 'Where is the skin of the
apple? _On_ its surface.'' This is in the lesson for 'developing the
idea' of surface. When, by and by, the young mathematician gets the true
idea of a surface, as extension in two dimensions only, hence, without
thickness, then will follow this surprising result, that the whole
thickness of the apple-skin is _on_--outside--the apple's surface, and
hence, is nowhere: a singular converse of the teaching of those smart
gentlemen who waste reams of good paper in establishing, to their own
satisfaction, that even the mathematical surface itself has thickness!
In the lesson on 'perpendicular and horizontal,' the definition of
perpendicular is correct; but all the developing, before and after,
unfortunately confounds the _perpendicular_ with the _vertical_--a bad
way toward future accuracy of thought, or toward making scientific
ideas, as they should be, definite as well as practically useful. If we
judge by the brevity and incompleteness of the lesson on 'Developing
ideas of Drawing'(!), ideas of that particular 'stripe' must be scarce.
The Object Lessons at the close of the book we find generally very good
models of such exercises, clear and to the purpose. Once in a while
there is a _lapsus_, as in this: The criterion of a _liquid_ is
presented as being in the circumstances that it does not '_hold
together_' when poured from a vessel, but 'forms drops.' Now, since it
forms drops, it _has cohesion_, and the criterion is wrongly taken; In
fact, the same thing appears in that the liquid, even in pouring out,
does hold together in a stream, and a stream that experiments with
liquid jets show it really requires considerable force to break up.

Finally, Mr. Calkins's book, in the bands of discerning and skillful
teachers, can be made the instrument of a great deal of right and
valuable discipline for primary classes; but without some guarding and
help from the teacher's own thought, it will not always do the best
work, nor in the best way. It is an approach to a good book for early
mental development; but it is not the consummation to be desired. Many
of its suggestions and patterns of lessons are excellent; but there is
too large a lack of true consecution of topics, of accuracy of
expression, and of really natural method of handling the subjects. We
say this with no unkindly feeling toward the attempt or the author, but
because, though no matter by how fortuitous circumstances, it comes to
us as in this country the _first effort_ toward a certain new style of
books and subjects, and certain more rational teaching; and we hold it,
as being the privilege of teachers whose time may be too much consumed
in applying, to criticise minutely, as no less our right and duty, and
that of every independent man, to recognize and point out wherein this
new venture meets, or fails to meet, the new and positive demand of the
pupils and the teachers in our time. If, in a degree, the working out
shows defects such as we have named, is it not yet a question, whether
we have in the book an illustration 'how this system of training may be
applied to the entire course of common school education'?--to say
nothing now of the question whether, even in its best form, it is a
system that ought to be so applied.

After the author of a book for young learners is sure of the
comprehensibility of his subjects, and the accuracy of his ideas and
expressions of them, the highest need--and one the lack of which is
fatal to true educative value--is that of a natural and true synthesis
and consecution of the successive steps of fact and principle that are
to be presented. We would not be understood that every successive lesson
and every act of voluntary thinking must thus be consecutive: to say
this, would be to confine the mind to one study, and to make us dread
even relaxation, lest it break the precious and fragile chain of
thought. Our growth in knowledge is not after that narrow pattern. We
take food at one time, work at another, and sleep at a third: and so,
the mind too has its variations of employment, and best grows by a like
periodicity in them. This is our point--that it is a peculiarity and law
of mind, growing out of the very nature of mind and of its knowings,
that no truth or knowledge which is in its nature a _consequent_ on some
other truths or knowledge, can by any possibility be in reality attained
by any mind until after that mind has first secured and rightly
appreciated those _antecedent_ truths or knowings. No later or more
complex knowledge is ever comprehensible or acquirable, until after the
elements of knowledge constituting or involved in it have first been
definitely secured. To suppose otherwise, is precisely like supposing a
vigorously nourishing foliage and head of a tree with neither roots nor
stem under it; it is to suppose a majestic river, that had neither
sufficient springs nor tributaries. Now, for the pupil, the text-book
maker, the educator, no truth is more positive or profoundly important
than this. He who fails of it, by just so much as he does so, fails to
educate. Let the pupil, as he must, alternately study and not study--go
even on the same day from one study to a second, though seldom to more
than a third or fourth. By all this he need lose nothing; and he will
tax and rest certain faculties in turn. But then, insist that each
subject shall recur frequently enough to perpetuate a healthy activity
and growth of the faculties it exercises, usually, daily for five days
in a week, or every other day at farthest; that each shall recur at a
stated period, so that a habit of mind running its daily, steady and
productive round with the sun may be formed; and that in and along the
material of every subject pursued, whether it be arithmetic, or grammar,
or chemistry, or an ancient or modern language, the mind shall so be
enabled to advance consecutively, clearly and firmly from step to
step--from observation to law, from law to application, from analysis to
broader generalization, and its application, and so on--that every new
step shall just have been prepared for by the conceptions, the mental
susceptibility and fibre, gotten during the preceding ones, and that
thus, every new step shall be one forward upon new and yet sure ground,
a source of intellectual delight, and a further intellectual gain and
triumph. Need we say, this is the _ideal_? Practice must fall somewhat
short of it; but Practice must first aim at it; and as yet she has
scarcely conceived about the thing, or begun to attempt it. In truth,
Practice is very busy, dashing on without a due amount of consideration,
striving to project in young minds noble rivers of knowledge without
their fountains; and building up therein grand trees of science, of
which either the roots are wanting, or all parts come together too much
in confusion.

First, then, we are not to make the presentation of any topic or lesson,
even to the youngest learner, needlessly inconsecutive; but with the
more advanced learners--with those in the academic and collegiate
courses--we should insist on the display, and in so doing best insure
the increase of the true _robur_ of the intellect, by positive
requirement that all the topics shall be developed logically; that
sufficient facts shall come before all conclusions; and rigid, sharp,
and satisfactory analysis before every generalization or other
synthesis. So, the more advanced mind would learn induction, and logic,
and method, by use of them upon all topics; it would know by experience
their possibilities, requirements, and special advantages; and it would
be able to recognize their principles, when formally studied, as but the
reflex and expression of its own acquired habitudes. Such a mind, we may
safely say, would be _educated_. But secondly, the foregoing
considerations show that we are not unnecessarily to jumble together the
topics and lessons; to vacillate from one line of study to another; to
wander, truant-like, among all sorts of good things--exploiting, now, a
_color_; then _milk_; then in due time _gratitude_ and _the pyramids_;
then _leather_, (for, though 'there's nothing like leather,' it may be
wisest to keep it in its place;) then _sponge_, and _duty to parents,
lying_, the _points of compass_, etc.! And here, for all ages above nine
or ten years, is a real drawback, or at the least, a positive danger, of
the Object-Lesson and Common-Things teaching. Just here is shadowed
forth a real peril that threatens the brains of the men and women of
the--we may say, 'rising' generation, through this fresh accession of
the object-lesson interest in our country. _Objects_, now, are
unquestionably good things; and yet, even objects can be 'run into the
ground.'

We had put the essential thought here insisted on into words, before
object-lessons had acquired the impetus of the last and current year.

     'The 'object lessons' of Pestalozzi and his numerous followers, had,
     in a good degree, one needed element--they required WORK of the
     pupil's own mind, not mere recipiency. But they have [almost]
     wholly lacked another element, just as important--that of
     CONSECUTION in the steps and results dealt with. In most of the
     schools in our country--in a degree, in all of them--these two
     fundamental elements of all right education, namely, true work of
     the learner's mind, and a natural and true consecution in not only
     the processes of each day or lesson, but of one day on another, and
     of each term on the preceding, are things quite overlooked, and
     undreamed of, or, at the best, imperfectly and fragmentarily
     attempted. But these, in so far as, he can secure their benefits,
     are just the elements that make the thinker, the scholar, the man
     of real learning or intellectual power in any pursuit.--_New-York
     Teacher, December,_ 1859.

A like view begins to show itself in the writings of some of the English
educationists. The object-teaching is recognized as being, in most
instances, at least, too promiscuous and disorderly for the ends of a
true discipline and development, and certainly, therefore, even for
securing the largest amount of information. It too much excludes the
later, systematic study of the indispensable branches, and supplants the
due exercise of the reasoning powers, by too habitual restriction of the
mind's activities to the channels of sense and perception. Isaac Taylor,
in his _Home Education_, admits the benefits of this teaching for the
mere outset of the pupil's course, but adds: 'For the rest, that is to
say, whatever _reaches its end in the bodily perceptions_, I think we
can go but a very little way without so giving the mind a bent _toward
the lower faculties as must divert it from the exercise of the higher._'
This thought is no mere fancy. It rests on a great law of _derivation_,
true in mind as in the body; that inanition and comparative loss of one
set of powers necessarily follows a too habitual activity of a different
set. Thus it is that, in the body, over-use of the nervous, saps the
muscular energies, and excessive muscular exertion detracts from the
vivacity of the mind. Logically, then, when carried to any excess over
just sufficient to secure the needed clear perceptions and the
corresponding names for material objects and qualities, the
object-lesson system at once becomes the special and fitting education
for the ditcher, the 'hewer of wood,' the mere human machine in any
employment or station in life, where a quick and right taking to the
work at the hand is desirable, and any thing higher is commonly thought
to be in the way; but it is not the complete education for the
independent mind, the clear judgment and good taste, which must grow out
of habits of weighing and appreciating also thousands of _non_-material
considerations; and which are characteristics indispensable in all the
more responsible positions of life, and that in reality may adorn and
help even in the humblest. In a recently published report or address on
a recommendation respecting the teaching of Sciences, made by the
English 'Committee of Council on Education,' in 1859, Mr. Buckmaster
says:

     'The object-lessons given in some schools are so vague and
     unsystematic, that I doubt very much if they have any educational
     or practical value. I have copied the following lessons from the
     outline of a large elementary school; Monday, twenty minutes past
     nine to ten, Oral Lesson--_The Tower of Babel_; Tuesday, _The
     Senses_; Wednesday, _Noah's Ark_; Thursday, _Fire_; Friday, _The
     Collect for Sunday_. What can come of this kind of teaching, I am
     at a loss to understand. Now, a connected and systematic course of
     lessons on any of the natural sciences, or on the specimens
     contained in one of Mr. Dexter's cabinets, would have been of far
     greater educational value, and more interesting to the children.
     _This loose and desultory habit of teaching encourages a loose and
     desultory habit of thought_; it is for this reason that I attach
     great value to _consecutive courses_ of instruction. I think, it
     will not be difficult to show that the study of _almost any branch
     of elementary science_ not only has a direct bearing on many of the
     practical affairs of every-day life, but also _supplies all the
     conditions necessary to stimulate and strengthen the intellectual
     faculties in a much greater degree_ than many of the subjects now
     taught in our elementary schools.'

All the lines of our investigation, as well as the most competent
testimony, thus converge in showing that the object-lesson and
common-things teaching is but a partial and preliminary resource in the
business of education; that, to avoid working positive harm, it must be
restricted within due limits of age, capacity, and subject; that it is
not, therefore, the real and total present desideratum of our schools;
and that, subsequently to the completion of the more purely sensuous and
percipient phase of the mind, and to the acquirement of the store of
simpler ideas and information, and the degree of capacity, that ought to
be secured during that period--hence, from an age not later than eleven,
or according as circumstances may determine, thirteen years--all the
true and desirable ends of education, whether they be right mental
habits and tastes, discipline and power of the faculties, or a large
information and practical command of the acquisitions made--all these
ends, we say, are thenceforward most certainly secured by the systematic
prosecution, in a proper method, of the usually recognized distinct
branches or departments of scientific knowledge. Let then, 'common
things,' _et id genus omne_, early enough give place to thorough-going
study of the elements of Geometry, of Geography, Arithmetic, Language,
(including Grammar,) of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Botany,
Physiology, and something of their derivations and applications. Thus
shall our schools produce a race not of mere curious _gazers_, but of
conscious and purposive investigators; not a generation of intellectual
truants and vagabonds, but one of definitely skilled cultivators of
definite domains in handicraft, art, or science.

We are compelled to take issue, therefore, with Mr. Spencer's
recommendation, indorsed in the Chicago Report, to the effect that
object-lessons should, after a 'different fashion,' 'be extended to a
range of things far wider, and continued to a period far later than
now.' Not so: after any possible fashion. But let us, as early as the
child's capacity and preparation will allow, have the individualized,
consecutive studies, and the very manner of studying which shall be made
to do _for the higher and the lower intellectual faculties together,
what well-conducted object-lessons can and now do perform, mainly for
the lower_. Of all school-method, this we conceive to be the true end
and consummation. This would be the ultimate fruitage of the Baconian
philosophy, and of philosophy larger than the Baconian--by as much as
the whole is greater than any part--in the school-life and work of every
boy and girl admitted to the benefits of our courses of instruction.

Thus we have endeavored, with some particularity of examination and
detail, to find and state not only what _are_, but what _should be_, the
tendencies of educational thought and effort in our country and times.
And we seem to find that those tendencies _are_, in spite of a
stand-still conservatism or perplexed doubt in some quarters, and of a
conflict of views and practices in others, largely in the direction in
which the ends to be sought show that they _should be_. The _Education
to be_, as far as the intellectual being is concerned, when time and
study shall better have determined the conditions, and furnished the
working instrumentalities, is to be, not in name merely, but in fact, an
education by simply natural employment and development of all the
perceiving, reasoning, originative, and productive faculties of the
mind. It is to be such, because it is to insist on proceeding, after
proper age, and then upon every suitable topic, by observation and
investigation, and so, by discovery of the principles and results the
mind is desired to attain; because it will be an education by rigidly
consecutive, comprehended and firm lines of advance, employing processes
analytic and synthetic, inductive and deductive, each in its requisite
place and in accordance with the nature and stage of the topics under
investigation. For the like reasons, it will have become, what we have
long foreseen and desired that education should be, rightly progressive
in form, and in character such as must develop, strengthen, and store
the mind; such as must best fit, so far as the merely scholastic
education can do this, for practical expression and use of what is
learned, showing all our acquired knowledge in the light of its actual
and various relationships, and conferring true serviceableness and the
largest value, whether for enjoyment or execution.

Such an education would be _real_ in its method as well as in its
substance. We have fairly entered upon the era in which education must
be, and, spite of any temporary recoil of timorous despotisms, must
continue to be, popular and universal. But many are too apt to forget
that, upon our planet, this thing of popular and universal education is
comparatively a new and untried experience; that, so far as its mode and
substance are concerned, it is, in truth, still in course of experiment.
There is at present a very general and but too just complaint of the
popular education, as tending to inflate rather than to inform; as
prompting large numbers of young men especially to aim at scaling to
positions above those in which the school found them, a thing that would
be well enough were it not inevitable that, in the general scramble, the
positions aspired to are at the same time too frequently those above
their capabilities, and quite too full without them: as, in few words,
inspiring youth with a disrelish for those less responsible pursuits to
which a large majority should devote their lives, rather than with a
desire to qualify themselves for their proper work. The tendency is
admitted; and it has become, in overcrowded professions and commercial
pursuits, the fruitful source of superficiality, of charlatanry, of
poverty at once of pocket and of honor, of empty speculations, and of
the worst crimes.

But, appreciating the unquestionable fact that universal education is to
be henceforth the rule in the most advanced nations, and that, in spite
of its apparent consequences or our fears, and remembering also that the
experience is, for the world, a new one, is there not some hope left us
in the thought that possibly the alarmists have been attributing to the
_fact_ of popular education itself what in truth is only a temporary
consequence of a false, an abnormally-educating _method and procedure_
on the part of our schools? Nay, more; does not the latter afford the
true solution of the evil? We believe it has been shown that our
teaching methods not only fail in great part, but in a degree positively
mis-educate; that the very 'head and front' of this failure and
non-developing appears in the want of bringing into just prominence the
discriminating and the applicative powers of the mind, the judgment, and
reason; in a word, the thinking as distinguished from the merely
receptive and retentive powers. Now, what are we to expect from a people
too many of whom are put in possession of stores of fact quite beyond
the degree in which their capacities to discriminate clearly, to judge
wisely, and to draw conclusions rationally have been strengthened and
furnished with the requisite guiding principles? What but a shallow
shrewdness that should run into all the evils we have above named? But
discipline all to think and reason more and more justly and assuredly
upon their facts, and to men so educated, the very thought of an
inordinate crowding of the so-called genteeler avocations, to the
neglect of the more substantial, _becomes appreciated in its true light,
as absurd and unfortunate in every way, and, in all its bearings upon
the individual as well as the social welfare_.

So, let us have popular education; and let a due proportion of fit minds
enter the professions, the posts of office, and commercial pursuits; let
a few even live by mere work of thought; but let all enjoy the luxury of
a degree of thought and rationality that shall forbid their richest
blessing turning to their rankest curse. That such must be the result of
a _true_ education, our faith in a wise Providence forbids us to doubt.
Such an education being _real_, and appealing to all the faculties, does
not eventuate in vain aspirings; but fits each for his place and
work--fits for making that great and happy discovery, that the best
talents and the most complete cultivation of them can not only find in
every employment scope for real exercise, but in the commonest and
simplest occupations will be more expert and successful than uncultured
ignorance can possibly be. In this view, the true education tends not to
_level_ but to utilize, to make the most of every man's special
aptitudes for his special field. Such an education monarchy and
aristocracy might dread, and reäctive tendencies have already, indeed,
blighted the once pattern school-system of Prussia, while they are
believed to threaten a like step in England. But the idea of such an
education as we have striven to portray, harmonizes with the spirit and
objects of a commonwealth, and if we mistake not, to the perpetuity and
perfection of free institutions it may yet be found the condition
precedent.




_TRAVEL-PICTURES._

A QUIET COURT IN PARIS.

No lodging on a village street could be quieter than my room in Paris,
and yet the court it opened upon was not more than an easy stone's throw
from the gayest part of the Boulevards. Once within the great wooden
gate and up the narrow lane conducting to the court, and you seemed to
have left the great world as completely behind you as if it had been a
dream. It was one of the smallest of Parisian courts, and--to me its
chief recommendation--one of the neatest. With its two or three small
stuccoed houses built around, it reminded one rather of inclosures that
you see in provincial towns in France than of the damp, high-walled
courts, so common in the capital. In one of these small houses, looking
out upon the sunny, cheerful yard, I had my room, and as I often sat at
the window, I began by degrees to take some interest in the movements of
my neighbors, as we can hardly help doing when the same persons pass in
and out before our eyes for many days in succession. The house was
rented or owned by an elderly lady, who, with her niece and an old
servant-woman, seemed to be its only occupants, with the exception of
two American boys, attending school by day at one of the large
_Pensions_ so numerous in Paris. Kinder people can not be found any
where, and fortunate indeed is the sojourner in a strange land who falls
in with such good hearts. Their history was a singular one, and I did
not really learn it till my return to Paris, after a long absence. They
interested me very much, from the first day. The lady and her niece had
seen better days, and were notable partisans of the Orleans family,
whose memory they deeply reverenced. Politics, indeed, could make but
little difference to them, passing, as they did, most of their lives in
their quiet rooms; but such interest as they had in it clung to what
they considered the model royal family of Europe, a family that carried
its affections and virtues equally through the saddest and most splendid
experiences. They could not sympathize with the oppressive and military
character of the present dynasty and the crowd of time-serving
adventurers that swarmed around it. The life of the younger lady was
devoted to her aunt, and all the spare hours that remained to her from
those occupied by the lessons she was compelled to give, to increase
their scanty income, were passed in her society. I have seldom seen a
life of such entire self-denial as that led by this refined and delicate
woman. The third figure of this family group, the old servant, Marie,
was a character peculiar to France. She seemed rather a companion than a
servant, though she performed all the duties of the latter, keeping the
rooms in neatest order, and making better coffee than I found at the
most splendid restaurants. She had a clear blue eye, with one of the
most faithful expressions I ever saw on human face, and seemed to take
as much interest in me and the two American boys as if we had been her
children. She was the housekeeper, buying all their little supplies; but
when her labors were over, passing her leisure hours in the society of
the ladies she had so long served. I soon saw that the connection
between these three beings would be terminated only by death. The chief
difference in the two ladies and their faithful old _bonne_, beyond the
circumstance of better education and greater refinement, was that for
the former the outer world no longer had much interest, while the old
Marie still seemed to retain a keen relish for what was going on around
her, and often amused me by the eagerness with which she would enter
into trifling details of gossip and general news. After sight-seeing all
day, and the experiences of a stranger in Paris, I was often glad to
join the trio in their little parlor, and talk over the Paris of former
days, during its revolutions and _fétes_, or answer their questions
about my every-day ramblings or my American home. I felt, during these
evenings, a relief from the general routine of places of amusement,
enjoyed their home-like quiet, and knew I could always give pleasure by
varying the monotony of these ladies' every-day life. So the three, so
devoted to each other, lived quietly on, winning my respect and
sympathy. I left them, with many regrets on their part and my own, and
on my return, after an absence of nearly a year, one of my first visits
was to these kind-hearted people. To my sorrow, I learned that death had
removed the elder lady some months before. I could hardly imagine a
death that would longer or more painfully affect a family group than
this, for they had so few outward circumstances to distract their
thoughts. They received me cordially; but grief for their irreparable
loss was always visible in every subsequent interview I had with them.
Meeting again one of the school-boys who had lodged there, he told me
the following circumstances of the death of the lady, and of the
relationship existing between them, which was so different from what I
had always imagined. Madame de B---- was the widow of a French officer
of high rank, during whose life she had been in affluent circumstances;
but through various causes, she had lost most of the property left her
at his death, and retained at last only enough to keep them in the
humble style I have described. The manner of her death was very
singular. In her better days, she had lived with her husband in a
handsome house near the Champs Elyseés. On the day of her death, she was
walking with a gentleman from Boston, a friend of the two pupils I have
mentioned, and was speaking to him of her more affluent days, when, as
they were near the house where she had once lived, she proposed to walk
on a little further, that she might point it out. He consented, and as
they drew near to it, she exclaimed, '_Ah! nous l'apercevons_,' and,
without another word, fell suddenly in a sort of apoplectic fit, not
living more than half an hour longer. The circumstance of this lady
dying suddenly so near the place where she had once lived, and which she
so seldom visited, was certainly very singular. To my surprise, I
learned that the younger lady was the daughter of old Marie, having been
adopted and educated by the person she had always supposed to be her
aunt; she having no children of her own. What made it more singular was,
that the younger lady had herself been in possession of this family
secret only a few years. It reminded me somewhat of Tennyson's Lady
Clare, though in this case no one had been kept out of an estate by the
fiction. It was merely to give the young lady the advantage of the
supposed relationship. This, then, accounted for the strong affection
existing between them, and lest any reader might think this conduct
strange, I must again bear witness to the kindness and true affection
always displayed toward the real mother. I would not narrate this true
story, did I not feel how little chance there is of my humble pen
writing any thing that would reach the ears of this family, living so
obscurely in the great world of Paris.

Just opposite us, in the court, lived another lady, who has played many
fictitious parts, as well as a somewhat prominent one, on the stage of
real life. This was Madame George, the once celebrated actress; in her
younger days, a famous beauty, and at one time mistress of the great
Napoleon. Though long retired from regular connection with the stage,
she still makes an occasional appearance upon it, almost always drawing
a full audience, collected principally from curiosity to see so noted a
personage, or to remark what portion of her once great dramatic power
time has still left her. One of these appearances was made at the Odéon,
while we were in Paris. Marie informed us of the coming event before it
was announced on the bills, and seemed to take as much interest in it as
if it had been the _débût_ of a near relative. We had sometimes caught a
glimpse of the great actress, tending her geraniums and roses at the
window, or going out to drive. On the evening in question, a very large
audience greeted the tragedienne, and she was received, with much
enthusiasm. She appeared in a tragedy of Racine, in which she had once
been preëminently distinguished. Magnificently dressed, and adorned with
splendid jewels, trophies of her younger days, when her favors were
sought by those who could afford to bestow such gifts, she did not look
over thirty-five, though now more than twice that age. I am no admirer
of French tragedy, but I certainly thought Madame George still showed
the remains of a great actress, and in some passages produced a decided
impression. Her tall, commanding figure, expressive eyes, and features
of perfect regularity, must have given her every natural requisite for
the higher walks of her profession. As I watched her moving with
majestic grace across the stage, irrepressible though trite reflections
upon her early career passed through my mind. What audiences she has
played before, in the days of the first empire! How many soldiers and
statesmen, now numbered with the not-to-be-forgotten dead, have
applauded her delivery of the same lines that we applaud to-night.
Napoleon and his brilliant military court, the ministers of foreign
nations, students such as are here this evening, themselves since
distinguished in various walks of life, have passed across the stage,
and made their final exit, leaving Madame George still upon it. And the
not irreproachable old character herself--what piquant anecdotes she
could favor us with, would she but draw some memory-pictures for us!
Women in Europe, in losing virtue, do not always lose worldly prudence,
as with us, and go down to infamy and a miserable old age. Better,
however, make allowance for the manners of the time--French manners at
that--and contemplate the old lady from an historical point of view,
regarding her with interest, as I could not help doing, as one of the
few remaining links connecting the old Napoleon dynasty with the new.
How strange the closing of a life like hers! Except for the occasional
reäppearance on the scene of her old triumphs, not oftener than once or
twice a year, how quiet the life she now leads! what a contrast to the
excitement and brilliancy that mark the career of a leading actress in
the zenith of her reputation! _Then_, from the theatre she would drive
in her splendid equipage through streets illuminated perhaps for some
fresh victory gained by the invincible battalions of her imperial lover.
_Now_, in a retired house, she probably sometimes muses over the past,
pronouncing, as few with better reason can, 'all the world's a stage,
and all the men and women merely players,' such changes has she
witnessed in the fortunes of the great actors by whom she was once
surrounded. So here were the histories of two of the occupants of our
court. The others may have had experiences no less strange; and in many
another court in this great city, from the stately inclosures of the Rue
de Lille to the squalid dens of the Faubourg St. Antoine, (if the names
have not escaped me,) lives well worth the telling are passing away.
Such is a great city.




THE COUNTRY OF EUGENE ARAM

There is a little river in England called the Nidd, and on its high
banks stand the ruins of a castle. There is much in this part of it to
remind one of the Rhine; the banks rise up in bold, picturesque form;
the river just here is broad and deep, and the castle enough of a ruin
to lead us to invest it with some legend, such as belongs to every
robber's nest on that famous river. No hawk-eyed baron ready to pounce
on the traveler, is recorded as having lived here; all that seems to be
remembered of it is, that the murderers of Thomas À Becket lay secreted
here for a time after that deed of blood, ere they ventured forth on
their pilgrimage, haunted by the accursed memory of it all their lives.
This is something, to be sure, in the way of historic incident, but the
real interest of this immediate region arises from the fact of its being
the home and haunt of Eugene Aram. A great English novelist has woven
such a spell of enchantment around the history of this celebrated
criminal, that I could not help devoting a day to the environs of the
little town of Knaresboro', in and around which the most eventful
portion of Aram's life was passed. A famous dropping-well, whose waters
possess the power of rapidly petrifying every object exposed to them, is
one of the most noticeable things in the neighborhood. There are also
one or two curious rockcut cells, high up on precipitous slopes, which
were inhabited years ago by pious recluses who had withdrawn from the
vanities of the world. Some were highly esteemed here in their lives,
and here their bones reposed; and the fact of their remaining
undiscovered sometimes for many years, was ingeniously used by Aram in
his defense, to account for the discovery of the bones of his victim in
the neighboring cave of St. Robert. This latter is one of the few places
connected with Aram's history that can be pointed out with certainty. It
lies about two miles below the castle before mentioned. It is even now a
place that a careless pedestrian might easily pass without remarking,
notwithstanding that its entrance is worn by many curious feet. The
entrance is very narrow, and the cavern, like caverns in general,
exceedingly dark. The river flows by more rapidly here than above; the
grass grows long and wild, and there is a gloomy air about it that would
make it an unpleasant place for a night rendezvous even without the
horrid associations connected with it. The exact place where Clark's
hones were discovered is pointed out, and probably correctly, as the
space is too narrow to admit of much choice. Here they lay buried for
years, while according to Bulwer, this most refined of murderers was
building up a high name as a scholar and a stainless reputation as a
man. A field not far off is pointed out as the place where were found
the bones which led to the detection of Aram. Though but few places can
now be indicated with certainty in connection with his tragic story, a
vague outline of the character of the man before the discovery of his
crime, is preserved in the neighborhood. As we read the true story of
Eugene Aram, lately published by an apparently reliable person, our
sense of the poetic is somewhat blunted; we feel that the lofty
character drawn by Bulwer is in many respects a creation of the
novelist, while the whole story of his love is demolished by the stern
fact of his having a wife, of no reputable character, with whom he lived
unhappily; but he was still a man of talent, of great mental, if not
moral refinement, and of indomitable ardor in the pursuit of learning.
The chief fault of his character until his one great crime was
discovered, seems to have been recklessness in pecuniary transactions,
by which he was often involved in petty difficulties. He seems to have
had a tenderness amounting to acute sensibility, for dumb animals, and
to have dreaded killing a fly more than many a man who could not, like
him, be brought to kill a fellow-being His mental acquirements, though
remarkable for an unaided man of obscure origin, would not probably have
attracted wide attention, had it not been for the notoriety caused by
the detection of his crime. How many fair girls have shed tears over
'his ill-starred love' and melancholy fate, who little dreamed that he
was a husband, in a very humble rank of life. Bulwer speaks of his
favorite walks with Madeline, and of a rustic seat still called 'The
Lovers' Scat.' It is not, I think, now pointed out, nor is the account
of his love probably more than an imaginary one, but it may be founded
upon fact, and some high-souled English girl may really, in his early
life, or when separated as he was for a long time from his wife, have
called forth all his better feelings and revealed glimpses of the beauty
of the life of two affectionate and pure beings keeping no secrets of
the heart from each other. How it must have tortured him to think that
such a life never could be his, well fitted for it as in some respects
he was, and ever haunted by the fear that the poor sham by which he was
concealed must some day be torn away, and an ignominious fate be
apportioned him! No situation can be more deplorable than that of a man
of refined and lofty nature, who has made one fatal mistake connecting
him with men far worse than himself, who are masters of his secret and
ever ready to use it for their own base purposes. Are there not many men
so situated--men near us now, who walk through life haunted by the
dreadful spectres of past misdeeds hastily committed, bitterly
repented--a phantom that can blast every joy, and from whose presence
death comes as a friendly deliverer?




THE GREAT ST. BERNARD.

We reached the Hospice about an hour after dark, somewhat stiff, and
very wet from the rain and snow that commenced falling as we entered the
region of clouds. We had passed unpleasantly near some very considerable
precipices, and though unable to distinguish the ground below, knew they
were deep enough to occasion us decided 'inconvenience' had we gone over
them. The long, low, substantial-looking building finally loomed through
the mist, and alighting, we were shown into a room with a cheerful fire
blazing on the hearth, and were soon joined by a priest of cordial,
gentlemanly manners and agreeable conversation. So this was the famous
monastery of St. Bernard, which we had read of all our lives, and the
stories of whose sagacious dogs had delighted our childish minds. A
substantial supper was provided for us, to which was added some
excellent wine, made in the valley below. Conversation was pretty
general in French, and somewhat exclusive in Latin; two of our party
understanding the dead language, but ignorant of the living, framed with
great difficulty ponderous but by no means Ciceronian sentences, which
they launched at our host, who replied with great fluency, showing that
for conversational purposes, at least, his command of the language was
much better than theirs. Being anxious to attend the early mass in the
morning, and tired from our ride, we were soon shown to our rooms.
Walking along the passages and viewing the different apartments, we saw
the house would accommodate a great number of persons. The rooms were
long and narrow, many of them containing a number of beds; but in this
bracing mountain air there is no fear of bad ventilation. No crack of my
window was open, but the wind blew furiously outside, and there was a
decidedly 'healthy coolness' about the apartment. The room was
uncarpeted and scantily furnished, but every thing was spotlessly clean,
and in pleasant contrast with the dirty luxury of some of the
Continental inns. A few small pictures of saints and representations of
scriptural subjects graced the white walls and constituted the only
ornaments of the room. Looking from my window I saw that the clouds had
blown away, and the brilliant moon shone on the sharp crags of the hills
and on the patches of snow that lay scattered about on the ground. The
scene was beautiful, but very cold; the wind howled around the house,
and yet this was a balmy night compared with most they have here. I
thought of merciless snow-drifts overtaking the poor blinded traveler,
benumbed, fainting, and uncertain of his path; of the terrors of such a
situation, and then glancing around the plain but comfortable room, I
could not but feel grateful to the pious founders of this venerable
institution. Long may it stand a monument of their benevolence and of
the shelter that poor wayfarers have so often found within its
hospitable walls!

At daybreak we made our way to the chapel, a large and beautiful room
with many pictures and rich ornaments, gifts of persons who have shared
the hospitality of the place. At the altar the brother who had welcomed
us on our arrival was officiating in his priestly robes, assisted by
several others. A few persons, servants of the establishment and
peasants stopping for the night, with ourselves, composed the
congregation. Two of the women present, we were told, were penitents; we
asked no further of their history, but at this remote place the incident
gave us cause for reflection and surmise. Heaven grant that in this
sublime solitude their souls may have found the peace arising from the
consciousness of forgiveness. I have never been more impressed with the
Catholic service than I was this morning, when the voices of the priests
blending with the organ, rose on the stillness of that early hour in one
of the familiar chants of the Church. It seemed, indeed, like heavenly
music. Here with the first dawn of morning on these lofty mountaintops,
where returning day is welcomed earlier than in the great world below,
men had assembled to pour forth their worship to God, here so manifest
in his mighty works. The ever-burning lamp swung in the dim chapel, and
it seemed a beautiful idea that morning after morning on these great
mountains, the song of gratitude and praise should ascend to Him who
fashioned them; that so it has been for years, while successive winters
have beat in fury on this house, and the snows have again and again shut
out all signs of life from nature. As my heart filled with emotion, I
could not but think of the aptness to the present scene of those
beautiful lines of our poet:

    'At break of day as heavenward
    The pious monks of St. Bernard
    Chanted the oft-repeated prayer.'

Time and place were the same, and the service seemed as beautiful and
solemn as might have been that chanted over the stiff, frozen body of
the high-souled but too aspiring boy. The service ended, and we were
left alone in the chapel. In one corner of it is the box in which those
who can, leave a contribution for the support of the establishment. No
regular charge is made, but probably most persons leave more than they
would at a hotel--and our party certainly did. I believe that the money
is well applied; at any rate, for years the hospice afforded shelter
before travel became a fashionable summer amusement, and in those days
it expended far more than it received.

Our breakfast was very simple, and the Superior of the establishment
confined himself to a small cup of coffee and morsel of bread. They have
but one substantial meal a day. I was interested in observing our host.
His appearance and manner were prepossessing and agreeable, but this
morning something seemed to weigh anxiously on his mind. He was
abstracted in manner, and once as I looked up suddenly, his lips were
moving, and he half checked himself in an involuntary gesture. Had the
confession of the penitents, perhaps, troubled him? I believe he was a
sincere, self-sacrificing man, and I have often thought of his manner
that morning.

We were, of course, very anxious to see the dogs, but were told they are
now becoming exceedingly scarce. They can not be kept very long in the
piercing air of the mountains, its rarefaction being as injurious to
them as to human beings. Most of them are therefore kept at Martigny, or
some other place below. We were told, however, that two 'pups' were now
at the hospice; and as we sallied out for a walk over the hills, we
heard a violent scratching at an adjoining door, which being opened, out
burst the pups. They were perfect monsters, though very young, with huge
paws, lithe and graceful but compact forms, full of life and activity,
and faces beaming with instinct. Darting out with us, they seemed
frantic with joy, snuffed the keen air as they rushed about, sometimes
tumbling over each other, and at times bursting against us with a force
that nearly knocked us down. They reminded me of two young tigers at
their gambols. I have never seen nobler-looking brutes. What fine,
honest, expressive countenances they had! At times a peculiar sort of
frown would ruffle the skin around their eyes, their ears would prick
up, and every nerve seem to be quickened. The face of a noble dog
appears to me to be capable of almost as great a variety of expression
as the human countenance, and these changes are sometimes more rapid.
The inquisitive and chagrined look when baffled in pursuit of prey, the
keen relish of joy, the look of supplication for food, of conscious
guilt for misdemeanor, the eyes beaming with intense affection for a
master, and whining sorrow for his absence, the meek look of endurance
in sickness, the feeble, listless air, the resigned expression of the
glassy eye at the approach of death, blending even then with indications
of gratitude for kindness shown! These dumb brutes can often teach us
lessons of meek endurance and resignation as well as courage, and few
things call forth more just indignation than to see them abused by men
far more brutish than they.

Accompanying one of the younger brethren on an errand to the valley
below, we watched them dashing along till the intervening rocks hid them
from our view. In the extensive museum of the Monastery we found much to
interest us. Many of the curiosities are gifts of former travelers, and
some of them are of great value. There is also a small collection of
antiquities found in the immediate neighborhood, where, I believe, are
still traces of an ancient temple. The St. Bernard has been a favorite
pass with armies, and is thought by many to have been that chosen by
Hannibal.

Not very far from the house is the 'morgue' so often noticed by
travelers, containing numerous bodies, which, though they have not
decayed, are nevertheless repulsive to look upon. The well-known figures
of the woman and her babe show that for once the warm refuge of a
mother's breast chilled and fainted in the pitiless storm.

After cordial well--wishes from the brethren, we left the hospice,
bringing away remembrances of it as one of the most interesting places
it has been our privilege to visit. It has, of course, changed character
within half a century, and there is now less necessity for it than
formerly. Many travelers complain of it as now wearing too much the
appearance of a hotel; but we were there too late in the season to find
it so; and even if true at other times, the associations with the
Monastery and the Pass are so interesting, the scenery so bold, and the
welcome one meets with so cordial, that he who regrets having made the
ascent must have had a very different experience from ourselves.

A few hours' ride brought us to the valley, where we met peasants
driving carts and bearing baskets piled up with luscious grapes. A
trifle that the poorest traveler could have spared, procured us an ample
supply.




THE HUGUENOTS OF STATEN ISLAND.

Staten Island, that enchanting sea-girt spot in the beautiful Bay of
New-York, early became a favorite resort with the French Protestants. It
should be called the Huguenot Island; and for fine scenery, inland and
water, natural beauties, hill, dale, and streams, with a bracing,
healthful climate, it strongly reminds the traveler of some regions in
France. No wonder that Frenchmen should select such a spot in a new
land, for their quiet homes. The very earliest settlers on its shores
were men of religious principles. Hudson, the great navigator,
discovered the Island, in 1609, when he first entered the noble river
which bears his undying name. It was called by its Indian owners,
_Aquehioneja, Manackong_, or _Eghquaous_, which, translated, means the
place of _Bad Woods_, referring, probably, to the character of its
original savage inhabitants. Among the very earliest patents granted for
lands in New-Netherland, we find one of June 19th, 1642, to Cornelius
Melyn, a Dutch burgomaster. He thus became a Patroon of Staten Island,
and subsequently a few others obtained the same honor and privileges.
They were all connected with the Dutch Reformed Church, in Holland; and
when they emigrated to New-Netherland, always brought with them their
Bibles and the '_Kranek-besoecker_,' or 'Comforter of the Sick,' who
supplied the place of a regular clergyman. Twice were the earliest
settlers dispersed by the Raritan Indians, but they rallied again, until
their progress became uninterrupted and permanent.

Between the Hollanders and the French Refugees, there existed an old and
intimate friendship. Holland, from the beginning of the Middle Ages, had
been the asylum for all the religious out-laws from all parts of Europe.
But especially the persecuting wars and troubles of the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries, brought hither crowds of exiles. Not less than
thirty thousand English, who had embraced the Reformed faith, found here
a shelter during the reign of Mary Tudor. Hosts of Germans, during the
'Thirty Years' War,' obtained on the banks of the Amstel and the Rhine,
that religious liberty, which they had in vain claimed in their own
country. But the greatest emigration was that of the _Walloons_, from
the bloody tyranny of the Duke of Alba, and the Count of Parma. For a
long period the Reformed faith had found adherents in the Provinces of
the Low Countries. Here the first churches were _under the Cross_, or
_in the Secret_, as it was styled, and they concealed themselves from
the raging persecution, by hiding, as it were, their faith, under mystic
names, the sense of which believers only knew. We will mention only a
few. That of Tournay, '_The Palm-Tree_;' Antwerp, '_The Vine_;' Mons,
'_The Olive_;' Lille, '_The Rose_;' Douay, '_The Wheat-Sheaf_;' and the
Church of Arras had for its symbol '_The Hearts-Ease_.' In 1561, they
published in French, their Confession of Faith, and in 1563, their
Deputies, from the Reformed Communities of Flanders, Brabant, Artois,
and Hainault, united in a single body, holding the first Synod of which
we have any account. These regions were an old part of the French
Netherlands, or Low Countries; and a small section of Brabant was called
_Walloon_; and here were found innumerable advocates of the Reformed
faith. The whole country would probably have become the most Protestant
of all Europe, were it not for the torrents of blood poured out for the
maintenance of the Roman religion by the Duke of Alba.

Welcomed by the States General, Walloon Colonies were formed from the
year 1578 to 1589, at Amsterdam, Harlaem, Leyden, Utrecht, and other
places. But new persecutions arising, the Reformed French retired to
Holland, where new churches arose at Rotterdam, in 1605, Nimeguen, 1621,
and Tholen, in 1658. It was natural, therefore, that the Huguenots of
France should afterward settle in a country of so much sympathy for the
Walloon refugees, whom they regarded as their brethren. When Henry III.
commanded them to be converted to the Romish Church or to leave the
kingdom in six months, many of them repairing to Holland, joined the
Walloon communities, whose language and creed were their own. After the
fall of La Rochelle, this emigration recommenced, and was doubled under
Louis XIV., when he promulgated his first wicked and insane edict
against his Protestant subjects. From that unfortunate period, during a
century, the Western Provinces of France depopulated themselves to the
benefit of the Dutch Republic. Many learned men and preachers visited
these Walloon churches, while endeavoring to escape the persecuting
perils of every kind, to which they were exposed. Among the ministers we
may mention the names of Basnage, Claude, Benoit, and Saurin, who
surpassed them all, by the superiority of his genius, who was the
patriarch of 'The Refuge,' and contributed more than all the rest to
prevail on the Huguenots to leave France.

During the last twenty years of the seventeenth century, the French
Protestant emigration into Holland rose to a political event, and the
first '_Dragonades_' gave the signal in 1681. The Burgomasters of
Amsterdam soon perceived the golden advantages which the Hollanders
would derive from the fatal policy of Louis XIV. The city of Amsterdam
announced to the refugees all the rights of citizenship, with an
exemption from taxes for three years. The States of Holland soon
followed the example of Amsterdam, and by a public declaration,
discharged all refugees who should settle there, from all taxes for
twelve years. In less than eight days all the Protestants of France were
informed of this favorable proclamation, which gave impulse to new
emigration. In all the Dutch provinces and towns collections were taken
up for the benefit of the French refugees, and a general fast proclaimed
for Wednesday, November 21st, 1685, and all Protestants were invited to
thank God for the grace he gave them to worship Him in liberty, and to
entreat him to touch the heart of the French King, who had inflicted
such cruel persecutions on true believers.

The Prince of Orange attached two preachers to his person from the
church of Paris, and the Huguenot ladies found a noble protectress in
the Princess of Orange. Thanks to her most generous care, more than one
hundred ladies of noble birth, who had lost all they possessed in
France, and had seen their husbands or fathers thrown into dungeons, now
found comfortable homes at Harlaem, Delft, and the Hague. At the Hague,
the old convent of preaching monks was turned into an establishment for
French women. At Nort, a boarding-house for young ladies of quality
received an annual benefaction of two thousand florins from her liberal
hands. Nor did she forget these pious asylums, after the British
Parliament had decreed her the crown. Most of the refugees came from the
Southern provinces--brave officers, rich merchants of Amiens, Rouen,
Bourdeaux, and Nantes, artisans of Brittany and Normandy, with
agriculturists from Provence, the shores of Languedoc, Roussillon, and
La Guienne. Thus were transported into hospitable Holland, gentlemen and
ladies of noble birth, with polished minds and refined manners, simple
mechanics and ministers of high renown, and all more valuable than the
golden mines of India or Peru. Thus Holland, of all lands, received most
of the French refugees, and Bayle calls it 'the grand ark of the
refugees.' No documents exist, by which their numbers can be correctly
computed, but they have been estimated from fifty-five to seventy-five
thousand souls, and the greatest number were to be found at Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, and the Hague. In 1686, there were not less than _sixteen_
French pastors to the Walloon churches at Amsterdam.

Thus intimately, by a common faith, friendship, and interest, did the
Huguenots unite themselves with the people of Holland, who, about this
period, commenced the establishment of New-Netherland in America. We
have traced this union the more fully for the better understanding of
our general subject. The Walloons and Huguenots were, in fact, the same
people--oppressed and persecuted French Protestants. Of the former, as
early as the year 1622, several Walloon families from the frontier,
between Belgium and France, turned their attention to America. They
applied to Sir Dudley Carleton, for permission to settle in the colony
of Virginia, with the privilege of erecting a town and governing
themselves, by magistrates of their own election. The application was
referred to the Virginia Company,[1] but its conditions seem to have
been too republican, and many of these Walloons looked, toward
New-Netherland, where some arrived in 1624, with the Dutch Director,
Minuit.

[1: Lond. Doc. 1, 24.]


At first, they settled on Staten Island, (1624,) but afterward removed
to _Wahle Bocht_ or the 'Bay of Foreigners,' which has since been
corrupted into Wallabout. This settlement extended subsequently toward
'Breukelen,' named after an ancient Dutch village on the river Veght, in
the province of Utrecht; so that Staten Island has the honor of having
presented the first safe home, in America, and on her beautiful shores,
to the Walloons or Huguenots. The name of Walloon itself is said to be
derived either from Wall, (water or sea,) or more probably, the old
German word _Wahle_, signifying a foreigner. It must be remembered that
this is a part of the earliest chapter in the history of New-Netherland,
which the 'West-India Company' now resolved to erect into a province. To
the Chamber of Amsterdam the superintendence of this new and extensive
country was committed, and this body, during the previous year, had sent
out an expedition, in a vessel called the 'New-Netherland,' 'whereof
Cornelius Jacobs of Hoorn was skipper, _with thirty families, mostly
Walloons, to plant a colony there_.' They arrived in the beginning of
May, (1623,) and the old document, from which we quote, adds:

     'God be praised, it hath so prospered, that the honorable Lords
     Directors of the West-India Company have, with the consent of the
     noble, high, and mighty Lords States General, undertaken to plant
     some colonies,'[2] ... 'The Honorable _Daniel Van Kriecke-beeck_,
     for brevity called _Beeck_, was commissary here, and so did his
     duty that he was thanked.'

     [2: Wassemaer's Historie Van Europa, Amsterdam, 1621-1628.]


In 1625, three ships and a yacht arrived at Manhattan, with more
families, farming implements, and one hundred and three head of cattle.
Hitherto the government of the settlement had been simple, but now,
affairs assuming more permanency, a proper 'Director' from Holland was
appointed, and Peter Minuit, then in the office, was instructed to
organize a provincial government. He arrived in May, 1626, and to his
unfading honor be it recorded, that his first official act was to secure
possession of Manhattan Island, by fair and lawful purchase of the
Indians. It was estimated to contain twenty-two thousand acres, and was
bought for the sum of sixty guilders, or twenty-four dollars! Lands were
cheap then, where our proud and princely metropolis now stands, with her
millions, her churches, palatial stores, residences, and shipping.

As yet there was no clergyman in the colony, but two visitors of the
sick, Sebastian Jansen Keol and Jan Huyck, were appointed for this
important duty, and also to read the Scriptures, on Sundays, to the
people. Thus was laid, more than two hundred years ago, the corner-stone
of the Empire State, on the firm foundation of justice, morality, and
religion. This historical fact places the character of the Dutch and
French settlers in a most honorable light. They enjoy the illustrious
distinction of fair, honest dealing with the aborigines, the natural
owners of the lands.

The purchase of Manhattan, in 1626, was only imitated when William Penn,
fifty-six years afterward, purchased the site of Philadelphia from the
Indians, under the famous Elm Tree. The Dutch and Huguenot settlers of
New-Netherland were grave, firm, persevering men, who brought with them
the simplicity, industry, integrity, economy, and bravery of their
Belgic sires, and to these eminent virtues were added the light of the
civil law and the purity of the Protestant faith. To such we can point
with gratitude and respect, for the beginnings of our western
metropolis, and the works of our American forefathers.

The Rev. Joannes Megapolensis, as early as the year 1642, took charge of
the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany, under the patronage of the Patroon
of Renssaelaerwick, and five years afterward became 'Domine' at
Manhattan. In 1652, he selected for a colleague, Samuel Drissius, on
account of his knowledge of French and English, and from his letters we
learn that he went, once a month, to preach to the French Protestants on
Staten Island. These were Vaudois or Waldenses, who had fled to Holland
from severe persecutions in Piedmont, and by the liberality of the city
of Amsterdam, were forwarded to settle in New-Netherland. We wish that
more materials could be gathered to describe the history of this
minister and his early Huguenot flock upon Staten Island. His ministry
continued from 1652 to 1671, and I have recorded all that I can find
respecting him and his people. About the year 1690, the New-York
Consistory invited the Rev. Peter Daille, who had ministered among the
Massachusetts Huguenots, to preach occasionally on Staten Island.

In August, 1661, a number of Dutch and French emigrants from the
Palatinate obtained grants of land on the south side of Staten Island,
where a site for a village was surveyed. In a short time its population
increased to twelve or fourteen families, and to protect them from the
Indians, a block-house was erected and garrisoned with three guns and
ten soldiers. Domine Drissius visited them, and from a letter of his to
the Classis of Amsterdam, we learn the names of these early emigrants,
and some are familiar ones[3], Jan Classen, Johannes Christoffels, Ryk
Hendricks, Meyndert Evertsen, Gerrit Cornelissen, Capt. Post, Govert
Lockermans, Wynant Peertersen, etc., etc. Previous to this period, the
island had been twice overrun by the savages and its population
scattered; but now its progress became uninterrupted and onward. Crowds
of people from Germany, Norway, Austria, and Westphalia had fled to
Holland, and their number was increased by the religious troubles of the
Waldenses and Huguenots. Several families of the latter requested
permission to emigrate with the Dutch farmers to New-Netherland, at
their own expense. They only asked protection for a year or two from the
Indians; and the English, now in possession of the New-York colony, were
most favorably disposed toward them. This transfer from the Dutch to the
British rule took place in 1664. Fort Amsterdam became Fort James, and
the city took its present name, imposed as it was upon its rightful
owners. Staten Island was called Richmond County, and the province of
New-Netherland New-York, the name of one known only in history as a
tyrant and a bigot, the enemy of both political and religious freedom.

    [3: Alb. Rec. xviii.]


From 1656 to 1663, some Protestant emigrants from Savoy came to Staten
Island, and a large body of Rochelle Huguenots also reached New-York
during the latter year. This fertile and beautiful spot, with its gentle
hills and wide-spread surrounding waters, became a favorite asylum for
the French refugees, and they arrived in considerable numbers about the
year 1675, with a pastor, and erected a church near Richmond village. I
have visited the place, but all that remains to mark the venerable and
sacred spot is a single dilapidated grave-stone! The building, it is
said, was burned down, and none of its records have been discovered. At
that period, there were only five or six congregations in the province
of New-York, and this must have been one of them. The Rev. David
Bonrepos accompanied some of the French Protestants in their flight from
France to this country, and in an early description of New-York, the
Rev. John Miller says: 'There is a meeting-house at Richmond, Staten
Island, of which Dr. Bonrepos is the minister. There are forty English,
forty-four Dutch, and thirty-six French families.' In 1695-1696, letters
of denization were granted to David Bonrepos and others. Among my
autographs is a copy of his; he wrote a fair, clear hand.

Under the tolerant rule of 'Good Queen Anne,' many French refugees
obtained peaceful abodes in Richmond county. In their escape from their
own land, multitudes had been kindly received in England, and afterward
accepted a permanent and safe shelter in the Province of New-York. What
a noble origin had the Staten Island Christian refugees! Their
ancestors, the Waldenses, resided several centuries, as a whole people,
in the South of France, and like the ancient Israelites of the land of
Goshen, enjoyed the pure light of sacred truth, while Egyptian darkness
spread its gloom on every side. In vain have historians endeavored to
trace correctly their origin and progress. All, however, allow them a
very high antiquity, with what is far better, an uncontaminated, pure
faith. A very ancient record gives a beautiful picture of their simple
manners and devotions:

     'They, kneeling on their knees, or leaning against some bank or
     stay, do continue in their prayers with silence, as long as a man
     may say thirty or forty _paternosters_. This they do every day,
     with great reverence, being among themselves. Before meat, they
     say, '_Benedicite_.' etc. Then the elders, in their own tongue,
     repeat: 'God, which blessed the five loaves and two fishes, bless
     this table and what is set upon it. In the name of the Father, Son,
     and Holy Ghost. Amen.' After meat, they say: 'Blessing, and
     worship, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, virtue, and strength,
     to God alone, for ever and ever. Amen. The Lord which has given us
     corporeal feeding, grant, us his spiritual life; and God be with
     us, and we always with him. Amen.' Thus saying grace, they hold
     their hands upward, looking up to heaven; and afterward they teach
     and exhort among themselves.'

To Staten Islanders it must be a pleasant reminiscence, that among their
earliest settlers were these pious Waldenses.

Like their brethren in Utrecht, the descendants of the Huguenots on the
Island sometimes occupy the same farms which their pious ancestors
obtained more than a century and a half ago. The Disosways, the Guions,
the Seguines, on its beautiful winding shores, are well-known examples
of this kind. The Hollanders, Walloons, Waldenses, and the Huguenots
here all intermarried, and the noble, spiritual races thus combined,
ever have formed a most excellent, industrious, and influential
population. Judges, Assemblymen, members of Congress, and ministers,
again and again, in Richmond county, have been selected from these
unions. During the Revolutionary struggle, the husband of Mrs. Colonel
Disosway had fallen into the hands of the common enemy; she was the
sister of the well-known and brave Captain Fitz-Randolph, or Randell, as
commonly called, who had greatly annoyed the British. When one of their
officers had consented to procure her husband's release, if she would
persuade her brother to quit the American ranks, she indignantly
replied: 'If I could act so dastardly a part, think you that General
Washington has but one Captain Randolph in his army?'

The early history of some of the emigrants is almost the reality of
romance. Henri de La Tourette fled from La Vendee, after the Revolution,
and to avoid suspicion, gave a large entertainment. While the guests
were assembled at his house, he suddenly left, with his wife, for the
sea-coast. This was not far off, and reaching it, he escaped on board a
vessel bound for Charleston. The ship was either cast away upon the
shores of Staten Island, or made a harbor in distress. Here La Tourette
landed, and a long list of exemplary, virtuous people trace their origin
to this source, and one of them has been pastor to the 'Huguenot,' a
Dutch Reformed church on the Island, and is now a useful minister among
the Episcopalians of the Western States. A branch of this family still
exists at the chateau of La Tourette, in France, and some years since,
one of them visited this country to obtain the 'Old Family Bible.' But
he was unsuccessful, as the holy and venerable volume had been sent long
before to a French refugee in Germany. But few of such holy books can
now be found, printed in French, and very scarce; wherever met with,
they should he carefully perused and preserved.

Dr. Channing Moore for a long time was the faithful pastor of St.
Andrew's, the Episcopal Church at Richmond. Afterward he was consecrated
the Bishop of Virginia. He was connected by marriage with an old
Huguenot family of the Island, and his son, the Rev. David Moore, D.D.,
succeeded him here, living and dying, a striking example of fidelity to
his most important duties. That eloquent divine, the late Rev. Dr.
Bedell, of Philadelphia, was a Staten Islander by birth, and of the same
French origin on the maternal side.

His son is the present Bishop Bedell of Ohio. There are scarcely any of
the original Richmond county families but claim relationship to the
French Protestants either on the father or mother's side. In all the
official records are to be found such names as Disosway, Fontaine,
(Fountain,) Reseau, Bedell, Rutan, Poillon, Mercereau, La Conte,
Britten, Maney, Perrin, (Perrine,) Larselene, Curse, De Puy, (Depuy,)
Corssen, Martineau, Morgane, (Morgan,) Le Guine, (Leguine,) Journey,
Teunise, Guion, Dubois, Andronette, Winant, Totten, La Farge, Martling,
De Decker, (Decker very numerous,) Barton, Ryers, Menell, Hillyer, De
Groot, Garretson, Vanderbilt, etc., etc.

Few communities are blest with a better population than Richmond county,
moral, industrious, thrifty, and religious, and they should ever cherish
the remembrance of their virtuous and noble origin. The island is not
more than twelve or fourteen miles long, and about three wide, with some
thirty thousand inhabitants; and within these small limits there are
over thirty churches, of various denominations, each having a regular
pastor; and most of the official members in these congregations are
lineal branches of the first settlers, the French Protestants. What a
rich and glorious, harvest, since the handful of Holland, Walloon,
Waldenses, and Huguenot emigrants, two centuries and a half ago, first
landed upon the wilderness shores of Staten Island!




_RECOLLECTIONS OF WASHINGTON IRVING._

BY ONE OF HIS FRIENDS.

The appearance of the first volume of the long-expected _Life of
Washington Irving_ has excited an interest which will not be satisfied
until the whole work shall have been completed. Its author, Pierre M.
Irving, sets forth with the announcement that his plan is to make the
patriarch of American literature his own biographer. It is nothing new
that this branch of letters is beset with peculiar difficulties. Some
men suffer sadly at the hand of their chronicler. Scott misrepresents
Napoleon, and Southey fails equally in his Memoirs of Cowper and of the
Wesleys. Friendship's colors are too bright for correct portraiture, and
prejudice equally forbids acuracy. Mr. Pierre M. Irving, though an
admirer of his distinguished kinsman, (and who that knew him could fail
of admiration?) avoids the character of a mere eulogist, while at the
same time he exhibits none of the obsequiousness of a Boswell,
fluttering like a moth about a huge candle. Being a man of independent
mind and of high culture, he brings out the character he portrays in
aspects true to life, and not exaggerated by excess of tone, while he
fully exhibits its exquisite finish.

Among the many incidents of deep interest which are contained in this
volume, the episode of Matilda Hoffman stands forth in most striking
relief. While lifting the veil which for a half-century covered the most
pathetic event in Irving's life, his biographer touches with a
scrupulous delicacy a theme so sacredly enshrined in a life-long memory.
In referring to this affair, which gave a tender aspect to Irving's
subsequent career, and in fact changed its whole tenor, we may remark
that the loves of literary men form a most interesting and, in some
cases, moving history. Some, like Petrarch, Earl Surrey, Burns, and
Byron, have embalmed the objects of their affection in the effusions of
their muse, while others have bequeathed that duty to others. Shakspeare
says but little about his sweetheart, while Milton, who was decidedly
unsuccessful in matters of the heart, seems to have acted on the motto,
'The least said, the soonest mended.' Poor Pope, miserable invalid
though he was, nervous, irritable, and full of hate and spleen, was not
beyond the power of the tender passion, and confessed the charms of the
lonely Martha Blount, who held the wretched genius among her conquests.
Swift, although an ogre at heart, had his chapter of love matters, which
never fail to give us the horrors when we bring them to mind, and the
episodes of Stella and Vanessa are among the minor tragedies in life's
great drama. Johnson had a great heart, and was born to love, though,
like the lion, he needed to have his claws pared, to fit him for female
society. What a tender attachment was that which he bore 'Tetty,' and
with what solemn remembrance he preserved her as his own, even after
death had robbed him of her presence!

The loves of these men exercised the strongest influence on their
destinies, while, on the other hand, disappointment and consequent
celibacy have done the same to their victims. To the bachelor list of
modern days, which can boast of Charles Lamb and Macaulay, America adds
the proud name of Washington Irving, whose early disappointment made him
an author.

My impressions of Irving's boyhood and youth are alive with the
freshness of an early memory, which conserves along with him the
Crugers, Clintons, Livingstons, Ogdens, and other old and honored names
of New-York. The biography which inspires this reminiscence gives a
sketch of the early history of the family, and as its author has thus
opened the subject, it will not, we presume, be considered an intrusion
if I pursue the thread of domestic incident a little farther than he has
done.

The Irving homestead, in William street, was, in its day, a place of
some pretension, when contrasted with the humble dwellings which
surrounded it. The street on which it stood was miserably built, but
here, in the suburb of the city, was a house whose appearance
corresponded with the solid and high-toned character of its owner. Old
Mr. Irving was, at the time to which I refer, a hale citizen of about
three-score and ten, of grave and majestic bearing, and a form and
expression which, when once fixed in the mind, could not easily be
forgotten. As I remember him, his countenance was cast in that strong
mould which characterized the land of his birth, but the features were
often mellowed by a quiet smile. He was a man of deep piety, and was
esteemed a pillar in the Brick Church, then the leading Presbyterian
church of the city.

His mode of conducting family worship was peculiarly beautiful, and even
to his last days he maintained this service. On such occasions, it was a
most touching spectacle to see the majestic old man, bowed and hoary
with extreme age, leaning upon his staff, as he stood among his family
and sung a closing hymn, generally one appropriate to his condition,
while tears of emotion ran down his checks. One of these hymns we well
remember. It runs in these lines,

'Death may dissolve my body now,
  And bear my spirit home;
Why do my moments move so slow,
  Nor my salvation come?

'With heavenly weapons I have fought
  The battles of my Lord;
Finished my course, and kept the faith,
  And wait the sure reward.'

In a few years, the words of this exquisite hymn were fulfilled; the old
man fell asleep, full of years and of honors, going to the grave like a
shock of corn in its season. His funeral was one of imposing simplicity,
and he was buried just at the entrance of that church where he had been
so long a faithful attendant.

Mrs. Irving, who survived him several years, was of a different type of
character, which, by its peculiar contrast, seemed to perfect the
harmony of a well-matched union. She was of elegant shape, with large
English features, which were permeated by an indescribable life and
beauty. Her manners were full of action, and her conversational powers
were of a high order. All of these graces appeared in the children, and
were united with the vigor of intellect which marked the character of
the father.

It would have been surprising if the offspring of such a union should
not have been distinguished, and it is only the peculiar relation which
the biographer sustains to it which prevents him from bringing this
feature out more prominently.

It was, however, acknowledged, at an early day, that the family of
William Irving had no equal in the city, and when we consider its
number, its personal beauty, its moral excellence, its varied talents,
without a single deficient or unworthy member, we can not wonder at the
general admiration which it commanded. From the eldest son, William, and
Ann, the eldest daughter, whom her father fondly termed Nancy, to
Washington, the youngest, all were endowed with beauty, grace,
amiability, and talent, yet in the latter they seemed to effloresce with
culminating fullness. Nancy Irving was the cynosure of William street,
concerning whose future destiny many a youth might have confessed an
impassioned interest. Her brother William had become connected
commercially with a young revolutionary soldier, (General Dodge,) who
had opened a trading-station on the Mohawk frontier, and the latter bore
away the sister as his bride. The union was one of happiness, and lasted
twenty years, when it was terminated by her death. Of this, Washington
thus speaks, in a letter in 1808: 'On the road, as I was traveling in
high spirits, with the idea of home to inspire me, I had the shock of
reading an account of my dear sister's death, and never was a blow
struck so near my heart before.... One more heart lies cold and still
that ever beat toward me with the warmest affection, for she was the
tenderest, best of sisters, and a woman of whom a brother might be
proud.' Little did the author of this letter then dream of that more
crushing blow which within one year was to fall upon him, and from whose
weight he was never wholly to recover.

William Irving, the brother of the biographer, was a model of manly
beauty, and early remarkable for a brilliant and sparkling intellect,
which overflowed in conversation, and often bordered on eloquence. Had
he been bred to the law, he would have shone among its brightest stars;
but those gifts, which so many envied, were buried in trade, and though
he became one of the merchant-princes of the city, even this success
could not compensate for so great a burial of gifts. As one of the
contributors to _Salmagundi_, he exhibits the keenness of a flashing
wit, while, in subsequent years, he represented New-York in Congress,
when such an office was a distinction.

Peter Irving, like his brother, united personal elegance with talents,
and conducted the _Morning Chronicle_, amid the boisterous storms of
early politics. This journal favored the interests of Burr; but it must
be remembered that at that time Burr's name was free from infamy, and
that, as a leader, he enjoyed the highest prestige, being the centre of
the Democracy of New-York. Burr's powers of fascination were peculiarly
great, and he had surrounded himself with a circle of enthusiastic
admirers. Indeed, such was his skill in politics, that in 1800 he upset
the Federalists, after a pitched battle of three days, (the old duration
of an election,) which was one of the most exciting scenes I ever
witnessed. Horatio Gates, of Saratoga fame, was one of his nominees for
the State Legislature, (Gates was then enjoying those undeserved laurels
which posterity has since taken away,) and it was surprising to see the
veterans of the Revolution abandoning their party to vote for their old
comrade and leader. The result was, that the Federalists were most
thoroughly worsted, and the party never recovered from the blow. Such
were the exciting events which identified the young politicians of the
metropolis, and which inspired their speeches and their press. Burr's
headquarters were at Martling's Tavern, 87 Nassau street. On being torn
down, the business was removed to Tammany Hall, which has inherited a
political character from its predecessor. Besides this, he used to meet
his friends in more select numbers at a Coffee-house in Maiden Lane. His
office was Number 30 Partition street, (now Fulton,) and his residence
was at Richmond Hill. This place has lately been pulled down; it stood
far away from the city, in a wild, secluded neighborhood, and in bad
going was quite an out of the way spot, though now it would be in the
densest part of the city. As there were no public vehicles plying in
this direction, except the Chelsea (Twenty-eighth street) stage, which
was very unreliable, one either had to hire a coach or else be subjected
to a walk of two miles. But such as had the _entrée_ of this
establishment would be well rewarded, even for these difficulties, by an
interview with Theodosia Burr, the most charming creature of her day.
She was married early, and we saw but little of her. From the interest
which the Irvings felt in Burr's fortunes, it might have been expected
that they should sympathize with him in his subsequent reverses.

The biographer presents Washington Irving as an attendant at the famous
trial at Richmond, where his indignation at some of Burr's privations
are expressed in a most interesting letter. This sympathy is the more
touching from the fact that Washington was a Federalist, and in this
respect differed from his brothers. We have an idea that his youthful
politics were in no small degree influenced by those of that
illustrious personage for whom he was named. Another of the sons was
John T., who became a successful and wealthy jurist, and for many years
presided at New-York Common Pleas, while Ebenezer was established in
trade at an early day. Such was the development of that family, which in
rosy childhood followed William Irving to the old Brick Church, and
whose early progress he was permitted to witness. The biographer passes
lightly over the scenes of boyhood, and there was hardly any need for
his expatiating on that idolatry which surrounded the youngest. He was
no doubt the first child ever named after the father of his country, and
the touching incident of Lizzie's presenting the chubby, bright-eyed boy
to Washington, is hit off in a few touches. It was, however, in itself a
sublime thing. Nearly seventy years afterward, that child, still feeling
the hand of benediction resting upon him, concludes his _Life of
Washington_ by a description of his reception in New-York, of which he
had been a witness. Why does he not (it would have been a most
pardonable allusion) bring in the incident referred to above? Ah!
modesty forbade; yet, as he penned that description, his heart must have
rejoiced at the boldness of the servant who broke through the crowd and
presented to the General a boy honored with his name. Glorious incident
indeed!

As the family grew up, the young men took to their different
professions, which we have briefly designated. Peter read medicine, and
hence received the title of 'doctor;' though he hated and finally
abjured it, yet, as early as 1794, he had opened an office at 208
Broadway. This, however, was more a resort for the muses than for
Hygeia, notwithstanding its sign, 'Peter Irving, M.D.' In 1796, William
Irving, who had been clerk in the loan office, established himself in
trade in Pearl--near Partition--street, and from his energy and elegance
of manners, he became immediately successful, while farther up the
street, near Old Slip, John T. opened a law office, which was
subsequently removed to Wall street, near Broadway. We mention these
facts to show that Irving entered life surrounded by protecting
influences, and that the kindness which sheltered him from the world's
great battle had a tendency to increase his natural delicacy and to
expose him to more intense suffering, when the hand of misfortune should
visit him. One who had 'roughed it' with the world would have better
borne the killing disappointment of his affections; but he was rendered
peculiarly sensitive to suffering by his genial surroundings.

This fact sets off in remarkable contrast, the noble resolution with
which such an one as he, when he had buried all the world held in the
tomb with the dead form of his beloved, rose above his sorrows. It is
well observed by his biographer, that 'it is an affecting evidence how
little Mr. Irving was ever disposed to cultivate or encourage sadness,
that he should be engaged during this period of sorrow and seclusion in
revising and giving additional touches to his _History of New-York_.'
Those who may smile at the elegant humor which pervades the pages of
that history, will be surprised to learn that they were nearly complete,
yet their final revision and preparation for the press was by one who
was almost broken of heart, and who thus cultivated a spirit of
cheerfulness, lest he should become a burden to himself and others. As
he writes to Mrs. Hoffman: 'By constantly exercising my mind, never
suffering it to prey upon itself, and resolutely determining to be
cheerful, I have, in a manner, worked myself into a very enviable state
of serenity and self-possession.'

How truly has Wordsworth expressed this idea:

  'If there be one who need bemoan
    His kindred laid in earth,
  The household hearts that were his own,
    It is the man of mirth.'

We are glad to know that in time Irving sought a better consolation.

But to return from this digression, or rather anticipation of our
subject. At the time of which we now write, New-York was comparatively a
small town; true, it was the chief commercial city in America, and yet
its limits proper could be described by a line drawn across the island
some distance below Canal street. Yet even then New-York was full of
life, and seemed to feel the promise of subsequent greatness. Her
streets echoed to the footsteps of men whom the present generation, with
all its progress, can not surpass. At Number 26 Broadway, might have
been daily seen the light-built but martial and elegant form of
Alexander Hamilton, while his mortal foe, Aaron Burr, as we have stated,
held his office in Partition street. John Jacob Astor was just becoming
an established and solid business man, and dwelt at 223 Broadway, the
present site of the Astor House, and which was one of the earliest
purchases which led to the greatest landed estate in America. Robert
Lenox lived in Broadway, near Trinity Church, and was building up that
splendid commerce which has made his son one of the chief city
capitalists. De Witt Clinton was a young and ambitious lawyer, full of
promise, whose office (he was just elected Mayor) was Number 1 Broadway.
Cadwallader D. Colden was pursuing his brilliant career, and might be
found immersed in law at Number 59 Wall street. Such were the legal and
political magnates of the day; while to slake the thirst of their
excited followers, Medcef Eden brewed ale in Gold street, and Janeway
carried on the same business in Magazine street; and his empty
establishment became notorious, in later years, as the 'Old Brewery.'

About this time young Irving was developing as one of the most
interesting youth of the city. His manners were soft without being
effeminate, his form finely molded, and his countenance singularly
beautiful. To this might be added the general opinion that he was
considerably gifted in the use of the pen. Yet with all these promising
features, the future was clothed with shadows, for his health was
failing, and his friends considered him too lovely a flower to last.
Little did his brothers and sisters think that that delicate youth
would, with one exception, outlive the whole family. It was at this time
that he first went abroad; and his experiences of travel are given by
Pierre Irving in the sparkling letters which he wrote to his brothers.

In 1807 I used to meet him once more in social gatherings in the city,
for he had returned in full restoration of health, his mind expanded,
and his manners improved by intercourse with the European world, while
_Salmagundi_ had electrified the city and given him the first rank among
its satirists. The question of profession crowded on him, and he
alternated between the law and the counting-room, in either of which he
might find one or more of his brothers. The former of these was a road
to distinction, the latter was one to wealth; but feeling the absence of
practical business gifts, he shrank from trade, and took refuge in the
quiet readings of an office. Josiah Ogden Hoffman, of whose daughter so
much has recently been written, was a family friend, as well as a lawyer
of high character. He lived first at Number 68 Greenwich street, but
afterward moved up-town, his office being in Wall street, first Number
47, and afterward Number 16. Young Irving finished his studies with Mr.
Hoffman, and immediately took office with his brother John, at Number 3
Wall street. To these two was soon added the presence of Peter, who was
still connected with the press, and thus might have been found for a
short time a most interesting and talented, as well as fraternal trio.

Washington was still, to a considerable degree an _habitué_ of Mr.
Hoffman's office, and it seems quite amusing that one who was so dull at
reading law that he makes merry with his own deficiencies, should have a
connection with two offices. But the name of Matilda was the magnet
which drew him to one where he vainly struggled to climb Alp on Alp of
difficulties in hope of love's fruition, while at the other he might
smile at the bewilderments of Coke, brush away the cobwebs from his
brain, and recreate himself with the rich humors of _Salmagundi_.

The place and time where this remarkable attachment had its inception,
are not known; but like all such affairs, it arose, no doubt, from
felicitous accident. In one of his sketches, Irving speaks of a
mysterious footprint seen on the sward of the Battery, which awoke a
romantic interest in his breast. This youthful incident comes to our
mind when we remember that Mr. Hoffman lived at Number 68 Greenwich
street, not a stone's throw from the Battery, and we have sometimes
thought that the mysterious footprint might have been Matilda's. At any
rate, the Battery was at that day a place of fashionable resort, and
hence the fair but fragile form of Matilda Hoffman could almost any day
have been seen tripping among bevies of city girls in pursuit of health
or pleasure. But whatever be the history of its origin, the attachment
became one of mutual strength; and while young Irving was surrounded by
piles of lawbooks and red tape, his hope of success was identified with
the name of Matilda. My remembrance of Matilda (her name was Sarah
Matilda, but the first was dropped in common intercourse) revives a
countenance of great sweetness, and an indescribable beauty of
expression. Her auburn hair played carelessly in the wind, and her
features, though not of classic outline, were radiant with life. Her eye
was one of the finest I have ever seen--rich, deep-toned, and eloquent,
speaking volumes in each varying expression, and generally suggestive of
pensive emotion. Irving was about eight years her senior, and this
difference was just sufficient to draw out that fond reliance of female
character which he has so beautifully set forth in the sketch of 'The
Wife.' The brief period of this courtship was the sunny hour of his
life, for his tender and sensitive nature forbade any thing but the most
ardent attachment. What dreams of future bliss floated before his
intoxicated vision, soon to change to the stern realities of grieving
sorrow!

In 1809, Mr. Hoffman removed to a suburban residence in Broadway,
(corner of Leonard street,) and the frequent walks which the young lover
took up that sequestered avenue may have suggested some of the
descriptions of the same street in the pages of the _History of
New-York_, and his allusions to the front-gardens so adapted to ancient
courtship. While at this mansion, amid all the blandishments of hope,
Matilda's health began to fail beyond the power of restoratives, and the
anxious eye both of parent and betrothed, marked the advance of
relentless disease. The maiden faded away from their affections until
both stood by her bed and saw her breathe her last.

The biographer informs us that after Mr. Irving's death, there was found
in a repository of which he always kept the key, a memorial of this
affair, which had evidently been written to some friend, in explanation
of his single life. Of the memorial the following extract is given:

     'We saw each other every day, and I became excessively attached to
     her. Her shyness wore off by degrees. The more I saw of her the
     more I had reason to admire her. Her mind seemed to unfold itself
     leaf by leaf, and every time to discover new sweetness. Nobody knew
     her so well as I, for she was generally timid and silent, but I, in
     a manner, studied her excellence. Never did I meet more intuitive
     rectitude of mind, more native delicacy, more exquisite propriety
     in word, thought, or action, than in this young creature. I am not
     exaggerating; what I say was acknowledged by all who knew her. Her
     brilliant little sister used to say that people began by admiring
     her, but ended by loving Matilda. For my part, I idolized her. I
     felt at times rebuked by her superior delicacy and purity, as if I
     was a coarse, unworthy being, in comparison.

     'This passion was terribly against my studies. I felt my own
     deficiency, and despaired of ever succeeding at the bar. I could
     study any thing else rather than law, and had a fatal propensity to
     belles-lettres. I had gone on blindly like a boy in love, but now
     I began to open my eyes and be miserable. I had nothing in purse or
     in expectation. I anticipated nothing from my legal pursuits, and
     had done nothing to make me hope for public employment, or
     political elevation. I had begun a satirical and humorous work,
     (_The History of New-York_,) in company with one of my brothers;
     but he had gone to Europe shortly after commencing it, and my
     feelings had run in so different a vein that I could not go on with
     it. I became low-spirited and disheartened, and did not know what
     was to become of me. I made frequent attempts to apply myself to
     the law; but it is a slow and tedious undertaking for a young man
     to get into practice, and I had, unluckily, no turn for business.
     The gentleman with whom I studied saw the state of my mind. He had
     an affectionate regard for me--a paternal one, I may say. He had a
     better opinion of my legal capacity than it merited. He urged me to
     return to my studies, to apply myself, to become well acquainted
     with the law, and that in case I could make myself capable of
     undertaking legal concerns, he would take me into partnership with
     him and give me his daughter. Nothing could be more generous. I set
     to work with zeal to study anew, and I considered myself bound in
     honor not to make farther advances with the daughter until I should
     feel satisfied with my proficiency with the law. It was all in
     vain. I had an insuperable repugnance to the study; my mind would
     not take hold of it; or rather, by long despondency had become for
     the time incapable of any application. I was in a wretched state of
     doubt and self-distrust. I tried to finish the work which I was
     secretly writing, hoping it would give me reputation and gain me
     some public employment. In the mean time I saw Matilda every day,
     and that helped distract me. In the midst of this struggle and
     anxiety, she was taken ill with a cold. Nothing was thought of it
     at first, but she grew rapidly worse, and fell into a consumption.
     I can not tell you what I suffered. The ills that I have undergone
     in this life have been dealt out to me drop by drop, and I have
     tasted all their bitterness. I saw her fade rapidly away--beautiful
     and more beautiful, and more angelic to the very last. I was often
     by her bedside, and in her wandering state of mind she would talk
     to me with a sweet, natural, and affecting eloquence that was
     overpowering. I saw more of the beauty of her mind in that
     delirious state than I had ever known before. Her malady was rapid
     in its career, and hurried her off in two months. Her
     dying-struggles were painful and protracted. For three days and
     nights I did not leave the house, and scarcely slept. I was by her
     when she died. All the family were assembled around her, some
     praying, others weeping, for she was adored by them all. I was the
     last one she looked upon. I have told you as briefly as I could,
     what, if I were to tell with all the incidents and feelings that
     accompanied it, would fill volumes. She was but seventeen years old
     when she died.

     'I can not tell you what a horrid state of mind I was in for a long
     time. I seemed to care for nothing; the world was a blank to me. I
     abandoned all thoughts of the law. I went into the country, but
     could not bear solitude, yet could not enjoy society. There was a
     dismal horror continually on my mind that made me fear to be alone.
     I had often to get up in the night and seek the bedroom of my
     brother, as if the having of a human being by me would relieve me
     from the frightful gloom of my own thoughts.

     'Months elapsed before my mind would resume any tone, but the
     despondency I had suffered for a long time in the course of this
     attachment, and the anguish that attended its final catastrophe,
     seemed to give a turn to my whole character, and threw some clouds
     into my disposition, which have ever since hung about it. When I
     became more calm and collected, I applied myself, by way of
     occupation, to the finishing of my work. I brought it to a close as
     well as I could, and published it; but the time and circumstances
     in which it was produced rendered me always unable to look upon it
     with satisfaction. Still, it took with the public, and gave me
     celebrity, as an original work was something remarkable and
     uncommon in America. I was noticed, caressed, and for a time
     elevated by the popularity I had gained. Wherever I went, I was
     overwhelmed with attentions. I was full of youth and animation, far
     different from the being I now am, and I was quite flushed with
     this early taste of public favor. Still, however, the career of
     gayety and notoriety soon palled upon me. I seemed to drift about
     without aim or object, at the mercy of every breeze; my heart
     wanted anchorage. I was naturally susceptible, and tried to form
     other attachments, but my heart would not hold on. It would
     continually revert to what it had lost; and whenever there was a
     pause in the hurry of novelty and excitement, I would sink into
     dismal dejection. For years I could not talk on the subject of this
     hopeless regret; I could not even mention her name; but her image
     was continually before me, and I dreamed of her incessantly.'

The fragment of which the above is an extract, is doubly interesting as
not only clearing up a mystery which the world has long desired to
penetrate, but also as giving Irving's experience in his own words. It
proves how deeply he felt the pangs of a rooted sorrow, and how
impossible it was, amid all the attractions of society, for him to
escape the power of one who had bidden to all earthly societies an
everlasting farewell. That his regrets over his early bereavement did
not arise from overwrought dreams of excellence in the departed, is
evident from the character she bore with others; and this is illustrated
by the following extract from a faded copy of the _Commercial
Advertiser_, which reads as follows:

     'OBITUARY,

     'Died, on the 26th instant, in the eighteenth year of her age, Miss
     Sarah Matilda Hoffman, daughter of Josiah Ogden Hoffman. Thus
     another youthful and lovely victim is added to the ravages of that
     relentless and invincible enemy to earthly happiness, the
     _consumption_. In the month of January we beheld this amiable and
     interesting girl in the glow of health and spirits, the delight of
     her friends, the joy and pride of her family; she is now cold and
     lifeless as the clod of the valley. So falls the tender flower of
     spring as it expands its bosom to the chilling blight of the
     morning frost. Endowed by nature with a mind unusually
     discriminating, and a docility of temper and disposition admirably
     calculated to reap profit from instruction, Miss Hoffman very early
     became an object of anxious care and solicitude to the fondest of
     fathers. That care and solicitude he soon found richly rewarded by
     the progress she made in her learning, and by every evidence of a
     grateful and feeling heart. After completing the course of her
     education in a highly respectable seminary in Philadelphia, she
     returned to her father's house, where she diligently sought every
     opportunity to improve her mind by various and useful reading. She
     charmed the circle of her friends by the suavity of her disposition
     and the most gentle and engaging manners. She delighted and blessed
     her own family by her uniformly correct and affectionate conduct.
     Though not formed to mingle and shine in the noisy haunts of
     dissipation, she was eminently fitted to increase the store of
     domestic happiness, to bring pleasure and tranquillity to the
     fireside, and to gladden the fond heart of a parent.

     'Religion, so necessary to our peace in this world and to our
     happiness in the next, and which gives so high a lustre to the
     charms and to the virtues of woman, constantly shed her benign
     influence over the conduct of Miss Hoffman, nor could the insidious
     attempts of the infidel for a moment weaken her confidence in its
     heavenly doctrines. With a form rather slender and fragile was
     united a beauty of face, which, though not dazzling, had so much
     softness, such a touching sweetness in it, that the expression
     which mantled over her features was in a high degree lovely and
     interesting. Her countenance was indeed the faithful image of a
     mind that was purity itself, and of a heart where compassion and
     goodness had fixed their abode. To the sweetest disposition that
     ever graced a woman, was joined a sensibility, not the fictitious
     creature of the imagination, but the glowing offspring of a pure
     and affectionate soul.

     'Tenderness, that quality of the heart which gives such a charm to
     every female virtue, was hers in an eminent degree. It diffused
     itself over every action of her life. Sometimes blended with a
     delicate and happy humor, characteristic of her nature, it would
     delight the social circle; again, with the most assiduous offices
     of affection, it would show itself at the sick couch of a parent, a
     relative, or a friend. In this manner the writer of this brief
     memorial witnessed those soothing acts of kindness which, under
     peculiar circumstances, will ever be dear to his memory. Alas!
     little did she then dream that in one short year she herself would
     fall a sacrifice to the same disease under which the friend to whom
     she so kindly ministered, sunk to the grave.'

This testimony to departed worth bears the impress of deep sincerity,
and its freedom from the fulsome praise, which so often varnishes the
dead, seems to add to its force. Peter Irving, also, pays a tribute to
her character in the following utterance, in a letter to his bereaved
brother: 'May her gentle spirit have found that heaven to which it ever
seemed to appertain. She was too spotless for this contaminated world.'

The biographer states that 'Mr. Irving never alluded to this event, nor
did any of his relatives ever venture in his presence to introduce the
name of Matilda,' 'I have heard,' he adds, 'of but one instance in which
it was ever obtruded upon him, and that was by her father, nearly thirty
years after her death, and at his own house. A granddaughter had been
requested to play for him some favorite piece on the piano, and in
extricating her music from the drawer, she accidentally brought forth a
piece of embroidery with it. 'Washington,' said Mr. Hoffman, picking up
the faded relic, 'this is a piece of poor Matilda's workmanship.' The
effect was electric. He had been conversing in the sprightliest mood
before, but he sunk at once into utter silence, and in a few moments got
up and left the house. It is evidence with what romantic tenderness
Irving cherished the memory of this early love, that he kept by him
through life the Bible and Prayer-Book of Matilda. He lay with them
under his pillow in the first days of keen and vivid anguish that
followed her loss, and they were ever afterward, in all changes of
climate and country, his inseparable companions.'

The scene at the house of Mr. Hoffman, to which the biographer alludes,
took place after Irving's second return from Europe, and after an
absence of nearly twenty years from his native land. During this time he
had become famous as an author, and had been conceded the position of
the first American gentleman in Europe. He had been received at Courts
as in his official position (Secretary of Legation) and had received the
admiration of the social and intellectual aristocracy of England.
Returning full of honors, he became at once the lion of New-York, and
was greeted by a public dinner at the City Hotel. How little could it
have been imagined, that amid all this harvest of honors, while he stood
the cynosure of a general admiration, he should still be under the power
of a youthful attachment, and that outliving all the glories of his
splendid success, a maiden, dead thirty years, held him with undying
power. While others thought him the happy object of a nation's
popularity, his heart was stealing away from noise and notice to the
hallowed ground where Matilda lay.

     'Oh! what are thousand living loves To that which can not quit the
     dead?'

The biographer observes that 'it is in the light of this event that we
must interpret portions of 'Rural Funerals,' in the _Sketch-Book_, and
'Saint Mark's Eve,' in _Bracebridge Hull_.' From the former of these, we
therefore make an extract, which is now so powerfully illustrated by the
experience of its author:

     'The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to
     be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal; every other
     affliction to forget; but this wound we consider it a duty to keep
     open; this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude. Where
     is the mother that would willingly forget the infant that perished
     like a blossom from her arms, though every recollection is a pang?
     Where is the child that would willingly forget the most tender of
     parents, though to remember be but to lament? Who in the hour of
     agony would forget the friend over whom he mourns? Who, when the
     tomb is closing upon the remains of her he most loved, when he
     feels his heart, as it were, crushed, in the closing of its portal,
     would accept of consolation that must be bought by forgetfulness?
     No; the love that survives the tomb is one of the noblest
     attributes of the soul. If it has its woes, it has likewise its
     delights; and when the overwhelming burst of grief is calmed into
     the gentle tear of recollection; when the sudden anguish and the
     convulsive agony over the present ruins of all that we most loved
     is softened away into pensive meditation on all that it was in the
     days of its loveliness, who would root out such a sorrow from the
     heart? Though it may sometimes throw a passing cloud over the
     bright hour of gayety, or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of
     gloom, yet who would exchange it even for the song of pleasure or
     the burst of revelry? No; there is a voice from the tomb sweeter
     than song; there is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn even
     from the charms of the living.... But the grave of those we love,
     what a place for meditation! There it is that we call up in long
     review the whole history of virtue and goodness, and the thousand
     endearments lavished upon us almost unheeded in the daily
     intercourse of intimacy; there it is that we dwell upon the
     tenderness, the solemn, awful tenderness of the dying scene. The
     bed of death, with all its stifled griefs, its noiseless
     attendance, its mute, watchful assiduities. The last testimonies of
     expiring love! The feeble, fluttering, thrilling--oh! how
     thrilling--pressure of the hand! The last fond look of the glazing
     eye turned upon us even from the threshold of existence! The
     faint, faltering accents struggling in death to give one more
     assurance of affection!'

How truly is this passage 'to be interpreted in the light of the event
in Irving's history', when it is evident from a comparison of it with
the memoranda, that it is a sketch of that scene which wrecked his
brightest hopes, and that here he is renewing in this unequaled
description of a dying-bed, the last hours of Matilda Hoffman. The
highly-wrought picture presents a complete detail to the eye, and yet
still more powerful is that simple utterance in the memoranda: '_I was
the last one she looked upon_.'

_St. Mark's Eve_,' to which reference is also made, was written several
years subsequently, and as may be gathered from its tone, under
circumstances of peculiar loneliness. It was while a solitary occupant
of his lodgings, a stranger in a foreign city, that he felt the
inspiration of precious memories, and improved his lonely hours by this
exquisite production. 'I am alone,' he writes, 'in my chamber; but these
themes have taken such hold upon me that I can not sleep. The room in
which I sit is just fitted to foster such a state of mind. The walls are
hung with tapestry, the figures of which are faded and look like
unsubstantial shapes melting away from sight.... The murmur of voices and
the peal of remote laughter no longer reach the ear. The clock from the
church, in which so many of the former inhabitants of this house lie
buried, has chimed the awful hour of midnight.' It was a fitting time to
yield to the power of that undying affection which abode with him under
all changes, and the serene presence of one snatched from him years ago
must at such times have invested him as with a spell. Thus he writes:

     'Even the doctrines of departed spirits returning to visit the
     scenes and beings which were dear to them during the body's
     existence, though it has been debased by the absurd superstitions
     of the vulgar, in itself is awfully solemn and sublime.... Raise it
     above the frivolous purposes to which it has been applied; strip it
     of the gloom and horror with which it has been surrounded; and
     there is none of the whole circle of visionary creeds that could
     more delightfully elevate the imagination or more tenderly affect
     the heart.... What could be more consoling than the idea that the
     souls of those we once loved were permitted to return and watch
     over our welfare?--that affectionate and guardian spirits sat by
     our pillows while we slept, keeping a vigil over our most helpless
     hours?--that beauty and innocence which had languished in the tomb
     yet smiled unseen around us, revealing themselves in those blest
     dreams wherein they live over again the hours of past
     endearments?.... There are departed beings that I have loved as I
     never shall love again in this world--that have loved me as I never
     again shall be loved. If such beings do ever retain in their
     blessed spheres the attachments they felt on earth; if they take an
     interest in the poor concerns of transient mortality, and are
     permitted to hold communion with those they have loved on earth, I
     feel as if now, at this deep hour of night, in this silence and
     solitude, I could receive their visitation with the most solemn but
     unalloyed delight.'

The use of the plural in the above extract obviated that publicity of
his especial bereavement which would have arisen from a reference to
_one_, and it is to be explained by the deaths of three persons to whom
he sustained the most endearing though varied relations of which man is
capable: his mother, his sister Nancy, and his betrothed. The first two
had become sacred memories, and were enshrined in the sanctuary of his
soul; but the latter was a thing of life, whose existence had become
identified with his own, and was made sure beyond the power of disease
and mortality. Who, indeed, would have been so welcome to the solitary
tourist on that weird midnight as she whose Bible and Prayer-Book
accompanied his wanderings, whose miniature was his treasure, and of
whom he could say: 'She died in the beauty of her youth, and in my
memory she will ever be young and beautiful.'

That a reünion with all the beloved of earth was a controlling thought
in his mind, and one bearing an especial reference to this supreme
bereavement, is manifest from the following, from the same sketch:

     'We take each other by the hand, and we exchange a few words and
     looks of kindness, and we rejoice together for a few moments, and
     then days, months, years intervene, and we see and know nothing of
     each other. Or granting that we dwell together for the full season
     of this mortal life, the grave soon closes its gates between us,
     and then our spirits are doomed to remain in separation and
     _widowhood_ until they meet again in that more perfect state of
     being, where soul will dwell with soul in blissful communion, and
     there will be neither death, nor absence, nor any thing else to
     interrupt our felicity.'

Such was the view which cheered the life of one thus early stripped of
promised and expected happiness, and to which he dung during all changes
of time and place. Amid the infirmities of advancing years, while
surrounded by an endearing circle of relatives, who ministered to him
with the most watchful affection, there was one that abode in still
closer communion with his heart. While writing in his study at
Sunnyside, or pacing, in quiet solitude, the streets of New-York, at all
times, a fair young form hovered over him and beckoned him heavenward.
Years passed on, until a half-century had been told. All things had
changed, the scenes and characters of early life had passed away. The
lover had become a kindly old man. The young essayist had become a great
author and an heir of fame. The story of life was complete. The hour of
his departure was at hand, when suddenly the same hand which had
separated the lovers reünited them forever. Who shall say that the last
image which flitted across his mind at the awful moment of dissolution,
was not that fresh and lovely form which he had cherished in unchanging
affection for fifty years?

I have stated my opinion that it was Irving's disappointment which made
him the great American author, and to this opinion I now return with
increased confidence. Had the plans of his youth been carried out; had
he become a partner of Mr. Hoffman, and had the hands of the lovers been
united, the whole tenor of his life would have been changed. He would
have published some fine things, in addition to the Knickerbocker
history, and would have ranked high as a gentleman of elegant humor; but
where would have been his enduring works? We sympathize with the
disappointed lover; but we feel thankful that from his sorrow we gather
such precious fruit. The death of Matilda led him abroad--to Spain,
where he compiled his _Columbus_ and gathered material for his
_Alhambra_--and to England, where the _Columbus_ was finished and
published, and where his name became great, in spite of national
prejudice. Beside this, the sorrow which cast its sacred shadow upon him
gave his writings that endearing charm which fascinates the emotional
nature and enabled him to touch the hidden chords of the heart.

If Ogilvie could congratulate him on the bankruptcy which drove him from
the details of trade to the richer fruition of literary promise, we may
consider it a beneficent working of Providence, which afforded to Irving
a still earlier emancipation from the law, cheered as it might have been
by the kindness of Mr. Hoffman and the society of Matilda.

Such being the remarkable chain which unites the names of the author and
his love, we can not but consider her as a part of his character through
the best years of his life and amid all the splendid success of his
literary career. Indeed, through coming generations of readers, the
names of Irving and Matilda will be united in the loveliest and most
romantic of associations.

I have prolonged this reminiscence to an unexpected length, and yet can
not close without a few additional thoughts which grow out of the
perusal of the biography. Perhaps the chief of these is the nationality
of Irving's character, particularly while a resident of Europe. Neither
the pungent bitterness of the British press nor the patronage of the
aristocracy could abate the firmness with which he upheld the dignity of
his country. He was not less her representative when a struggling author
in Liverpool or London than when Secretary of Legation at the Court of
St. James, or Ambassador at Madrid. His first appearance abroad was at a
time of little foreign travel, and an American was an object of remark
and observation. His elegant simplicity reflected honor upon his native
land, and amid all classes, and in all places, love of country ruled
him. This high tone pervaded his views of public duty. A gross defaulter
having been mentioned in his presence, he replied, that 'next to robbing
one's father it is, to rob one's country.'

It is also worthy of note that while Irving lived to unusual fullness of
years, yet he never was considered an old man. We do not so much refer
to his erect and vigorous frame as to the freshness of his mind. It is
said that Goethe, on being asked the definition of a poet, replied: 'One
who preserves to old age the feelings of youth.' Such was a leading
feature in Mr. Irving's spirit, which, notwithstanding his shadowed
hours, was so buoyant and cheerful. His countenance was penseroso when
in repose, and allegro in action, and these graces clung to him even in
life's winter, like the flower at the base of the glacier.

Among the varied elements which constituted Irving's popularity, one of
them might have been the beauty of his name, whose secret is revealed by
the laws of prosody. Washington is a stately _dactyl_; Irving is a sweet
and mellow _spondee_, and thus we have a combination which poets in
ancient and modern days have sought with sedulous care, and which should
close every line of hexameter verse. Hence a measure such, as that found
in 'Washington Irving' terminates every line in _Evangeline_, or the
works of Virgil, thus:

    'Saying a sad farewell, Evangeline _went from the mission_,
    When, over green ways, by long and _perilous marches_,
    She had attained at length the depth of the _Michigan forest_.'

or

    'Supplicia hausorem ecopulis: et _nomine Dido_,
    Et recidiva manu posuissem _Pergama vetis_.'

It will be readily perceived that the name of the American author can be
substituted for the feet italicized above, without injuring the measure,
while in some of Moore's finest stansas beautifully alternates the same
verse, thus:

    'Oh! fair as the sea-flower, _close to thee growing_,
      How light was thy heart till love's witchery came!
    Like the wind of the South, o'er a _summer lute blowing_,
      And hushed all its music, and withered its flame.'

At the close of his last great work, Mr. Irving sought for rest. He laid
aside his pen, even from correspondence, and felt that his work was
done. When in New-York, he was often to be found at the Astor Library,
of which he was a trustee; but his visits to the city became few, and he
seemed to realize that his time was come. To one who kindly remarked, 'I
hope you will soon be better,' He calmly replied, in an earnest tone: 'I
shall never be better.' The words came true too soon, and amid an
unequaled pomp of unaffected sorrow, they bore him to a place of rest,
by the side of his parents and all of his kin who had gone before him.




_BYRONIC MISANTHROPY._

  He has a grief he can not speak;
    He wears his hat awry;
  He blacks his boots but once a week;
    And says he wants to die!




_NEW-ENGLAND'S ADVANCE._

  Hurrah! for our New-England,
    When she rose up firm and grand,
  In her calm, terrific beauty,
    With the stout sword in her hand;
  When she raised her arm undaunted,
    In the sacred cause of Right,
  Like a crowned queen of valor,
    Strong in her faith and might.

  Hurrah! for our New-England!
    When the war-cry shook the breeze,
  She wore the garb of glory,
    And quaffed the cup of ease;
  But I saw a look of daring
    On her proud features rise,
  And the fire of will was flashing
    Through the calm light of her eyes.

  From her brow serene, majestic,
    The wreath of peace she took,
  And war's red rose sprang blooming,
    And its bloody petals shook
  On her heaving, beating bosom;
    And with forehead crowned with light,
  Transfigured, she presented
    Her proud form to the fight.

  Hurrah! for our New-England!
    What lightning courage ran
  Through her brave heart, as she bounded
    To the battle's fearful van;
  O'er her head the starry banner;
    While her loud, inspiring cry,
  'Death or Freedom for our Nation,'
    Rang against the clouded sky.

  I saw our own New-England
    Dealing blows for Truth and Right,
  And the grandeur of her purpose
    Gave her eyes a sacred light;
  Ah! name her 'the Invincible,'
    Through rebel rank and host;
  For Justice evermore is done,
    And Right comes uppermost.

  Hurrah for our New-England!
    Through the battle's fearful brunt,
  Through the red sea of the carnage,
    Still she struggles in the front;

  And victory's war-eagle,
    Hovering o'er the fiery blast,
  On her floating, starry standard.
    Is settling down at last.

  There is glory for New-England,
    When Oppression's strife is done,
  When the tools of Wrong are vanquished,
    And the cause of Freedom won;
  She shall sit in garments spotless,
    And shall breathe the odorous balm
  Of the cool green of contentment,
    In the bowers of peace and calm.




_WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?_

     'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Every one _lives_
     it--to many it is _known_; and seize it where you will, it is
     interesting.--_Goethe_.

     'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or
     intended.'--_Webster's Dictionary_.

CHAPTER I.

The little village of Burnsville, in Connecticut, was thrown into a
state of excitement by the report that Hiram Meeker was about to remove
to the city of New-York. Two or three elderly maiden ladies with whom
Hiram was an especial favorite, declared there was not a word of truth
in the ridiculous rumor. The girls of the village very generally
discredited it. The young men said Hiram was not such a fool; he knew on
which side his bread was buttered; he knew when to let well enough
alone, and so forth. Still the report was circulated. To be sure, nobody
believed it, yet it spread all the faster for being contradicted. I have
said that the young ladies of Burnsville put no faith in the story.
Possibly Sarah Burns was an exception, and Sarah, it was well
understood, was an interested party, and would be apt to know the truth.
She did not contradict the statement when made in her presence, and
once, when appealed to for her opinion, she looked very serious, and
said it might be so for all she knew. At length there were two parties
formed in Burnsville. One on whose banner was inscribed: 'Hiram Meeker
is going to New-York.' The other with flag bearing in large letters: 'No
such thing: Hiram is not going.'

It would have been easy, one would suppose, to settle the important
controversy by a direct appeal to Hiram Meeker himself. Strange to say,
this does not appear to have been done, both sides fearing, like
experienced generals, to risk the result on a single issue. But numerous
were the hints and innuendoes conveyed to him, to which he always gave
satisfactory replies--satisfactory to both parties--both contending he
had, by his answers, confirmed their own particular view of the case.

This state of things could not last forever. It was brought suddenly to
an end one Friday afternoon.

Hiram Meeker was a member, in regular standing, of the Congregational
Church in Burnsville. The Preparatory Lecture, as it is called, that is,
the lecture delivered prior to 'Communion-Sabbath,' in the church, was
always on the previous Friday, at three o'clock P.M. On a pleasant day
toward the end of April, Hiram Meeker and Sarah Burns went in company
to attend this lecture. The exercises were especially interesting.
Several young people, at the close of the services, who had previously
been propounded, were examined as to their 'experience,' and a vote was
separately taken on the admission of each. This over, the clergyman
spoke as follows: 'Brother Hiram Meeker being about to remove from among
us, desires to dissolve his connection with the Congregational church in
Burnsville, and requests the usual certificate of membership and good
standing. Is it your pleasure that he receive it? Those in favor will
please to signify it.' Several 'right hands' were held up, and the
matter was concluded. A young man who sat nearly opposite Sarah Burns,
observed that on the announcement, her face became very pale.

When the little company of church-members was dismissed, Hiram Meeker
and Sarah Burns walked away together as they came. No, not _as_ they
came, as the following conversation will show.

'Why did you not tell me, Hiram?'

'Because, Sarah, I did not fully decide till the mail came in this very
afternoon. I had only time to speak to Mr. Chase, and there was no
opportunity to see you, and I could not tell you about it while we were
walking along so happy together.'

Hiram Meeker lied.

Sarah Burns could not disbelieve him; it was not possible Hiram would
deceive her, but her heart _felt_ the lie, nevertheless.

Hiram Meeker is the hero of this history. It is, therefore, necessary to
give some account of him previous to his introduction to the reader on
the afternoon of the preparatory lecture. At the date of the
commencement of the narrative, he was already twenty-two years old. He
was the youngest of several children. His father was a highly
respectable man, who resided in Hampton, about fifteen miles from
Burnsville, and cultivated one of the most valuable farms in the county.
Mr. and Mrs. Meeker both had the reputation of being excellent people.
They were exemplary members of the church, and brought up their children
with a great deal of care. They were in every respect dissimilar. He was
tall, thin, and dark-complexioned; she was almost short, very fair, and
portly in appearance. Mr. Meeker was a kind-hearted, generous,
unambitious man, who loved his home and his children, and rejoiced when
he could see every body happy around him. He was neither close nor
calculating. With a full share of natural ability, he did not turn his
talents to accumulation, quite content if he made the ends of the year
meet.

Mrs. Meeker was a woman who never took a step from impulse. She had a
motive for every act of her life. Exceedingly acute in her judgments of
people, she brought her shrewdness to bear on all occasions. She was a
capital housekeeper, a most excellent manager, a pattern wife and
mother. I say, 'pattern wife and mother,' for she was devoted to her
husband's interests, which, to be sure, were equally her own; she made
every thing very comfortable for him indoors, and she managed
expenditures with an economy and closeness which Mr. Meeker was quite
incapable of. She looked after her children with unremitting care. They
were sent to better schools, and their associations were of a better
description than those of her neighbors. She took personal pains with
their religious culture. Although they were sent to Sunday-school, she
herself taught them the Catechism, the Commandments, the Lord's Prayer,
and the Sermon on the Mount, beside a great variety of Gospel hymns and
Bible-stories. But along with these excellent teachings they were
taught--what is apt to be taught in almost every family, to almost every
child--to regard appearances, to make the best possible show to the
world, to _seem_ what they ought to _be_; apparently a sort of short-cut
to goodness, but really a turnpike erected by the devil, which leads any
where rather than to the desired point. Mrs. Meeker was a religious
woman, scrupulous and exact in every outward observance; in this
respect severe with herself and with all around her. Yet this never
prevented her having an eye to the 'main chance,' which was, to get on
in the world. Indeed, to attempt to do so, was with her a fundamental
duty. She loved to pray the Lord to bless 'our basket and our store.'
She dwelt much on the promise of 'a hundred-fold' in this world in
addition to the 'inheritance of everlasting life.' She could repeat all
the practical maxims which abound in the book of Proverbs, and she was
careful, when she feared her husband was about to give way to a generous
impulse in favor of a poor relation or neighbor, to put him in mind of
his own large and increasing household, solemnly cautioning him that he
who looked not well after it, was 'worse than an infidel.' In short,
being fully convinced by application of her natural shrewd sense that
religion was the safest thing for her here and hereafter, she became
religious. In her piety there was manifested but one idea--self.
Whatever she did, was from a sense of duty, and she did her duty because
it was the way to prosperity and heaven.

I have remarked how different were husband and wife. They lived
together, however, without discord, for Mr. Meeker yielded most points
of controversy when they arose, and for the rest his wife was neither
disagreeable nor unamiable. But the poor woman had experienced through
life one great drawback; she had half-a-dozen fine children. Alas! not
one of them resembled her in temper, character, or disposition. All
possessed their father's happy traits, which were developed more and
more as they grew older, despite their mother's incessant warnings and
teachings.

Frank, the first-born, exhibited fondness for books, and early
manifested an earnest desire for a liberal education with a view to the
study of medicine. His father resolved to gratify him. His mother was
opposed to it. She wanted her boy a merchant. 'Doctors,' she said, 'were
mostly a poor set, who were obliged to work very hard by day and by
night, and got little for it. If Frank would only be contented to go
into her cousin's store, in New-York, (he was one of the prominent
wholesale dry-goods jobbers,) why, there would be some hope of him, that
is, if he could cure himself of certain extravagant notions; but to go
through college, and then study medicine! Why couldn't he, at least, be
a lawyer, then there might be a chance for him.'

'But the boy has no taste for mercantile life, nor for the law,' said
Mr. Meeker.

'Taste--fiddlesticks,' responded his wife, 'as if a boy has a right to
have any taste contrary to his parents' wish.'.

'But, Jane, it is not contrary to _my_ wish.'

Mrs. Meeker looked her husband steadily in the face. She saw there an
unusual expression of firmness; something which she knew it to be idle
to contend with, and with her usual good sense, she withdrew from the
contest.

'Have it your own way, Mr. Meeker. You know my opinion. It was my duty
to express it. Make of Frank what you like. I pray that he may be
prospered in whatever he undertakes.'

So Frank was sent to college, with the understanding that, after
graduating, he was to pursue his favorite study of medicine.

A few months after he entered, Mrs. Meeker gave birth to her seventh
child--the subject of the present narrative. Her disappointment at
Frank's destination was severe. Besides, she met with daily evidences
that pained her. None of her children were, to use her expression,
'after her own heart.' There were two other boys, George and William,
who she was accustomed to say, almost bitterly, were 'clear father.' The
three girls, Jane, Laura, and Mary, one would suppose might represent
the mother's side; but alas! they were 'clear father' too.

In her great distress, as Mrs. Meeker often afterward declared, she
resolved to 'call upon the Lord.' She prayed that the child she was
soon to give birth to might be a boy, and become a joy and consolation
to his mother. She read over solicitously all the passages, of Scripture
she could find, which she thought might be applicable to her case. As
the event approached, she exhibited still greater faith and enthusiasm.
She declared she had consecrated her child to God, and felt a holy
confidence that the offering was accepted. Do not suppose from this, she
intended to devote him to the ministry. _That_ required a special call,
and it did not appear such a call had been revealed to her. But she
prayed earnestly that he might be chosen and favored of the Most High;
that he might stand before kings; that he might not be slothful in
business; but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. The happy frame of
mind Mrs. Meeker had attained, at length became the subject of
conversation in the neighborhood. The clergyman was greatly interested.
He even made allusion to it in the weekly prayer-meeting, which, by the
by, rather scandalized some of the unmarried ladies present.

Mr. Meeker took all this in good part. The truth is, he regarded it as a
very innocent whim, which required to be indulged in his wife's delicate
situation; so he always joined in her hopeful anticipations, and
endeavored to sympathize with them. It was under these auspicious
circumstances that Hiram Meeker first saw the light. All his mother's
prayers seemed to have been answered. The boy, from the earliest
manifestation of intelligence, exhibited traits which could belong only
to her. As he advanced into childhood, these became more and more
apparent. He had none of the openness of disposition which was possessed
by the other children. He gave much less trouble about the house than
they ever did, and was more easily managed than they had been at his
age. It must not be inferred that because he was his mother's favorite,
he received any special indulgence, or was not subject to every proper
discipline. Indeed, the discipline was more severe, the moral teachings
more unremitting, the practical lessons more frequent than with any of
the rest. But there could not exist a more tractable child than Hiram.
He was apparently made for special training, he took to it so readily,
as if appreciating results and anxious to arrive at them. When he was
six years old, it was astonishing what a number of Bible-verses and
Sunday-school hymns he had committed to memory, and how much the child
_knew_. He was especially familiar with the uses of money. He knew the
value of a dollar, and what could be purchased with it. So of half a
dollar, a quarter, ten cents, and five cents. He had already established
for himself a little savings bank, in which were placed the small sums
which were occasionally presented to him. He could tell the cost of each
of his playthings respectively, and, indeed, of every article about the
house; he learned the price of tea, sugar, coffee, and molasses. This
information, to be sure, formed a part of his mother's course of
instruction; but it was strange how he took to it. Systematically and
unceasingly, she pursued it. Oh! how she rejoiced in her youngest child.
How she thanked God for answering her prayers. I had forgotten to state
that there was considerable difficulty in deciding what name to give the
boy. Mrs. Meeker had an uncle, a worthy minister, by the name of
Nathaniel. Mr. Meeker suggested that the new-comer be called after him.
His wife did not like to object; but she thought Nathaniel a very
disagreeable name. Her cousin, the rich dry-goods merchant in New-York,
who had four daughters and no sons, was named Hiram. Hiram was a good
name, not too long and very expressive. It sounded firm and strong. It
was a Bible-name, too, as well as the other. In fact, she liked it, and
she thought her cousin would be gratified when he learned that she had
named a child for him. There were advantages which might flow from it,
it was not necessary to specify, Mr. Meeker could understand to what
she alluded Mr. Meeker did not understand; in fact, he did not trouble
his head to conjecture; but it was settled Hiram should be the name, and
our hero was baptized accordingly. He was a good boy; never in mischief,
never a truant, never disobedient, nor willful, nor irritable, nor
obstinate. 'Too good for this world;' that is what folks said. 'Such an
astonishing child--too wise to live long.' So it was prophesied; but
Hiram survived all these dismal forebodings, until the people gave up
and concluded to let him live.

We pass over his earlier days at school. At twelve, he was sent to the
academy in the village, about a mile distant. He was to receive a
first-rate English education, 'no Latin, no Greek, no nonsense,' to use
his mother's language; but the real substantials. Hiram proved to be an
excellent scholar. He was especially good in figures. When he came to
study bookkeeping, he seemed as happy as if he were reading a romance.
He mastered with ease the science of single and double entry. He soon
became fascinated with the beauties of his imaginary business. For his
instructor had prepared for him a regular set of books, and gave him
problems, from day to day, in mercantile dealings, which opened up to
the youth all the mysteries of 'Dr.' and 'Cr.' Out of these various
problems, he constructed quite a little library of account-books, which
he numbered, and which were representations of various descriptions of
trade, and marked with the name of some supposed company, and labeled
'Business Successful,' or 'Business Unsuccessful,' as the case might be.

We must now turn from Hiram, engaged in diligently pursuing his studies,
and enter on another topic.


CHAPTER II.

Mrs. Meeker had been a church-member from the time she was fourteen
years old. There was an extensive revival throughout the country at that
period, and she, with a large number of young people of both sexes,
were, or thought they were, converted. She used to speak of this
circumstance very often to her children, especially when any one of them
approached the age which witnessed, to use her own language, 'her
resignation of the pomps and vanities of life, and her dedication to the
service of her Saviour.' Still, notwithstanding her prayers and
painstaking, not one of them had ever been under 'conviction of sin;' at
least, none had ever manifested that agony and mental suffering which
she considered necessary to a genuine change of heart. She mourned much
over such a state of things in her household. What a scandal that not
one of _her_ children should give any evidences of saving grace! What a
subject for reproach in the mouths of the ungodly! But it was not her
fault; no, she often felt that Mr. Meeker was too lax in discipline,
(she had had fears of _him_, sometimes, lest he might become a
castaway,) and did not set that Christian example, at all times, which
she could desire. For instance, after church on Sunday afternoon, it was
his custom, when the season was favorable, frequently with a child
holding each hand, to walk leisurely over his fields, humming a cheerful
hymn and taking note of whatever was pleasant in the scene, perhaps the
fresh vegetation just bursting into life, or the opening flowers, or it
might be the maturing fruit, or the ripening yellow grain. On these
occasions, he would endeavor to impress on his children how good God
was; how seed-time and harvest always came; how the sun shone on the
evil as well as on the good, and the rain descended both on the just and
on the unjust. He, too, would inculcate lessons of diligence and
industry, agreeable lessons, after quite a different model from those of
his wife. He would repeat, for example, not in an austere fashion, but
in a way which interested and even amused them, the dramatic description
of the sluggard, from the hook of Proverbs, commencing:

_'I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man,
void of understanding;

'And lo! it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the
face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.'_

It is a memorable fact that Hiram was never in the habit of accompanying
his father on these Sunday-excursions. Not that his mother positively
interdicted him. She was too judicious a person to hold up to censure
any habitual act of her husband, whatever might have been her own
opinion, or however she might have remonstrated with him in private. She
had no difficulty in keeping Hiram by her side on Sunday afternoons, and
the little fellow seemed instinctively to appreciate why. Indeed, I
doubt if the green fields and pleasant meadow, with the pretty brook
running through it, had any charms for him even then. At any rate, he
was satisfied with his mother's reason, that it was not good for him; he
had better stay at home with her.

At fourteen, Hiram was to become 'pious.' So Mrs. Meeker fervently
hoped, and to this end her prayers were specially directed. Her son once
secure and safe within the pale of the church, she could be free to
prosecute for him her earthly plans, which could not be sanctioned or
blessed of Heaven, so long as he was still in the gall of sin and bonds
of iniquity. So she labored to explain to him how impossible it was for
an unconverted person to think an acceptable thought or do a single
acceptable act in the sight of God. All his labor was sin, while he was
in a state of sin, whether it was at the plow, or in the shop, or store,
or office, or counting-room. She warned him of the wrath to come, and
she explained to him with minute vividness the everlasting despair and
tortures of the damned. Hiram was a good deal affected. He began to feel
that his position personally was perilous. He wanted to get out of it,
especially as his mother assured him if he should be taken away--and he
was liable to die that very night--then alas! his soul would lie down in
everlasting burnings. At last, the youth was thoroughly alarmed. His
mother recollected she had continued just one week under conviction,
before light dawned in on her, and she considered that a proper period
for her son to go through. She contented herself, at first, by
cautioning him against a relapse into his old condition, for then seven
other spirits more wicked than the first would have possession of him,
and his last state would be worse than the first. Besides, he would run
great risk of sinning away his day of grace. It was soon understood in
the church that Hiram was under concern of mind. Mrs. Meeker, on the
fourth day, withdrew him from school, and sent for the minister to pray
with him. He found him in great distress, I might say in great bodily
terror; for he was very much afraid when he got into bed at night, he
might awake in hell the next morning. The clergyman was a worthy and a
sincere man. He was anxious that a true repentance should flow from
Hiram's present distress, and the lively agony of the child awakened his
strongest sympathy. He talked very kindly to him, explained in a
genuine, truthful manner, what was necessary. He dwelt on the mercy of
our heavenly Father, and on his love. He prayed with the lad earnestly,
and with many affectionate counsels he went away. Hiram was comforted.
Things began to look in a pleasanter light than ever before. He had only
to repent and believe, and it was his duty to repent and believe, and
all would be well. So it happened that when the week was out, Hiram felt
that he had cast his burden on the Lord, and was accepted by him.

There were great rejoicings over this event. Mrs. Meeker exclaimed,
while tears streamed from her eyes, that she was ready to depart in
peace. Mr. Meeker, who had by no means been indifferent to his son's
state of mind, and who had sought from time to time to encourage him,
(rather, it must be confessed, to his wife's annoyance,) was thankful
that he had obtained relief from the right source. The happy subject
himself became an object of a good deal of interest in the congregation.
There was not the usual attention, just then, to religious matters, and
Hiram's conversion was seized on as a token that more fruits were to be
gathered in from the same field, that is, among the young. In due course
he was propounded and admitted into the church. It happened on that day
that he was the only individual who joined, and he was the observed of
all observers. Hiram Meeker was a handsome boy, well formed, with an
interesting face, blight blue eyes, and a profusion of light hair
shading a forehead indicative of much intelligence. All this was
disclosed to the casual observer; indeed, who would stop to criticise
the features of one so young--else you would have been struck by
something disagreeable about the corners of his mouth, something
repulsive in the curve of those thin lips, (he had his mother's lips,)
something forbidding in a certain latent expression of the eye, while
you would remark with pain the conscious, self-possessed air with which
he took his place in the broad aisle before the pulpit, to give his
assent to the church articles and confession of faith. The good minister
preached from the text, 'Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy
youth,' and in the course of his sermon held up Hiram as an example to
all the unconverted youth of his flock. On Monday he returned to school,
prosecuting his studies more diligently than ever. He felt that he had
secured the true salvation, and was safe now in whatever he undertook.
He was very careful in the observance of all his religious exercises,
and so far as I can ascertain, never neglected any of them. Thus happily
launched, Hiram continued at school till he was nearly seventeen. He
had, for the last two years, been sent to Newton Institute, one of the
best institutions in the State, where his advantages would be superior
to those of the academy in his native town. There he learned the higher
branches of mathematics, and studied with care mercantile and
descriptive geography with reference to the different products of the
earth. During this time his proficiency was excellent, and his conduct
always most exemplary.

At length his course was completed, and Mrs. Meeker felt that her
cousin, the wholesale dry-goods jobber in New-York, would be proud of
such an acquisition in his establishment. He had been duly apprised that
the boy was named for him, and really appeared to manifest, by his
inquiries, a good deal of interest in Hiram. Although they generally met
once or twice a year, Mrs. Meeker did not apprise her cousin of her
plans, preferring to wait till her son should have finished his
academical course before making them known. Her first idea was to send
him to New-York with a letter, in which she would fully explain her
hopes and wishes. On second thought, she concluded to write first, and
await her cousin's reply. It will be seen, from the perusal of it, she
took the proper course.

Here it is:

                                        '_New-York, May 15th, 18--._

     'DEAR COUSIN: Your letter of May 12th is before me. I am glad to
     hear you are all well at Hampton. We are much obliged for your kind
     invitation for the summer. I think you may count confidently on a
     visit from my wife and myself some time during the season, and I
     have no doubt one of the girls will come with us. I know _I_ shall
     enjoy it for one, and I am sure we all shall.

     'As to my namesake, I am glad to hear so good an account of him.
     Now, cousin, I really take an interest in the lad, and beg you will
     not make any wry faces over an honest expression of my opinion. If
     you want the boy to make a first-rate merchant, and SUCCEED, don't
     send him to me at present. Of course, I will receive him, if you
     insist upon it. But, in my opinion, it will only spoil him. I tell
     you frankly, I would not give a fig for a city-bred boy. But I will
     enter into this compact with you: I will undertake to make a
     first-class merchant of Hiram, if you will let me have my own way.
     If you do not, I can not answer for it. What I recommend is, that
     you put him into one of the stores in your own village. If I
     remember right, there are two there which do a regular country
     trade, and have a general stock of dry goods, groceries, crockery,
     clothing, stationery, etc., etc., etc. Here he will learn two
     things--detail and economy--without a practical knowledge of which,
     no man can succeed in mercantile business. I presume you will
     consider this a great falling off from your expectations. Perhaps
     you will think it petty business for your boy to be behind a
     counter in a small country store, selling a shilling's worth of
     calico, a cent's worth of snuff, or taking in a dozen eggs in
     exchange, but there is just where he ought to be, for the present.
     I repeat, he will learn detail. He will understand the value of all
     sorts of merchandise; he will get a real knowledge of barter and
     trade. When he learns out there, put him in another retail store of
     more magnitude. Keep him at this three or four years, and then I
     agree to make a merchant of him. I repeat, don't be disappointed at
     my letter. I tell you candidly, if I had a son, that's just what I
     would do with him, and it is just what I want you to do with Hiram.
     I hope you will write me that you approve of my plan. If you do,
     you may rely on my advice at all times, and I think I have some
     experience in these matters.

     'We all desire to be remembered to your husband and family.

                                  'Very truly, your cousin,

                                           'HIRAM BENNETT.'

He had added, from habit, '& Co.,' but this was erased.

The letter _was_ a heavy blow to the fond mother; but she recovered from
it quickly, like a sensible woman. In fact, she perceived her cousin was
sincere, and she herself appreciated the good sense of his suggestions.
Her husband, whom she thought best to consult, since matters were taking
this turn, approved of what her cousin had written, and so it was
decided that Hiram should become a clerk of Mr. Jessup, the most
enterprising of the two 'store--keepers' in Hampton. How he got along
with Mr. Jessup, and finally entered the service of Mr. Burns, at
Burnsville, must be reserved for a separate chapter.




_MONROE TO FARRAGUT._

  By brutal force you've seized the town,
  And therefore the flag shall not come down.
  And having told you that it shan't,
  Just let me show you why it can't.
  The climate here is very queer,
  In the matter of flags at this time of year.
  If a Pelican touched the banner prized,
  He would be _immediately_ paralyzed.
  I'm a gentleman born--though now on the shelf,
  And I think you are almost one yourself.
  For from my noble ancestry,
  I can tell the _élite_, by sympathy.
  Had you lived among _us_, sir, now and then,
  No one can say what you might have been.
  So refrain from any sneer or quiz,
  Which may wound our susceptibilities.
  For my people are all refined--like me,
  While yours are all low as low can be.
  As for shooting women or children either,
  Or any such birds of the Union feather,
  We shall in all things consult our ease,
  And act exactly as we please.
  For you've nothing to do with our laws, you know,
  Yours, merely 'respectfully,           JOHN MONROE.'




_AMONG THE PINES._

Alighting from the carriage, I entered, with the Colonel, the cabin of
the negro-hunter. So far as external appearance went, the shanty was a
slight improvement on the 'Mills House,' described in a previous
chapter; but internally, it was hard to say whether it resembled more a
pig-sty or a dog-kennel. The floor was of the bare earth, covered in
patches with loose plank of various descriptions, and littered over with
billets of 'lightwood,' unwashed cooking utensils, two or three cheap
stools, a pine settee--made from the rough log and hewn smooth on the
upper-side--a full-grown blood-hound, two younger canines, and nine
dirt-encrusted juveniles, of the flax-head species. Over against the
fire-place three low beds afforded sleeping accommodation to nearly a
dozen human beings, (of assorted sizes, and dove-tailed together with
heads and feet alternating,) and in the opposite corner a lower couch,
whose finer furnishings told plainly it was the peculiar property of the
'wee-ones' of her family--a mother's tenderness for the youngest thus
cropping out even in the midst of filth and degradation--furnished
quarters for an unwashed, uncombed, unclothed, saffron-hued little
fellow about fifteen months old, and--the dog 'Lady.'

The dog was of a dark hazel-color--a cross between a setter and a
gray-hound--and one of the most beautiful creatures I ever saw. Her neck
and breast were bound about with a coarse cotton cloth, saturated with
blood, and emitting a strong odor of bad whisky; and her whole
appearance showed the desperate nature of the encounter with the
overseer.

The nine young democrats who were lolling about the room in various
attitudes rose as we entered, and with a familiar but rather deferential
'Howdy'ge,' to the Colonel, huddled around and stared at me with open
mouths and distended eyes, as if I were a strange being dropped from
some other sphere. The two eldest were of the male gender, as was shown
by their clothes--cast-off suits of the inevitable reddish-gray--much
too large, and out at the elbows and the knees; but the sex of the
others I was at a loss to determine, for they wore only a single robe,
reaching, like their mother's, from the neck to the knees. Not one of
the occupants of the cabin boasted a pair of stockings, but the father
and mother did enjoy the luxury of shoes--coarse, stout brogans,
untanned, and of the color of the legs which they encased.

'Well, Sandy, how is Lady?' asked the Colonel, as he stepped to the bed
of the wounded dog.

'Reckon she's a goner, Cunnel; the d----d Yankee orter swing fur it.'

This intimation that the overseer was a 'countryman' of mine, took me by
surprise, nothing I had observed in his speech or manners having
indicated it, but I consoled myself with the reflection that Connecticut
had reared him--as she makes wooden hams and nutmegs--expressly for the
Southern market.'

'He _shall_ swing for it, by ----. But are you sure the dog will die?'

'Not shore, Cunnel, but she can't stand, and the blood _will_ run. I
reckon a hun'red and fifty ar done for thar, sartin.'

'D---- the money--I'll make that right. Go to the house and get some
ointment from Madam--she can save her--go at once,' said my host.

'I will, Cunnel,' replied the dirt-eater, taking his broad-brim from the
wooden peg where it was reposing, and leisurely leaving the cabin.
Making our way over the piles of rubbish and crowds of children that
cumbered the apartment, the Colonel and I then returned to the carriage.

'Dogs must be rare in this region,' I remarked, as we resumed our
seats.

'Yes, well-trained bloodhounds are scarce every where. That dog is well
worth a hundred and fifty dollars.'

'The business of nigger-catching, then, is brisk, just now?'

'No, not more brisk than usual. We always have more or less runaways.'

'Do most of them take to the swamps?'

'Yes, nine out of ten do, though now and then one gets off on a
trading-vessel. It is almost impossible for a strange nigger to make his
way by land from here to the free States.'

'Then why do you Carolinians make such an outcry about the violation of
the Fugitive Slave Law?'

'For the same reason that dogs quarrel over a naked bone. We should be
unhappy if we couldn't growl at the Yankees,' replied the Colonel,
laughing heartily.

'_We_, you say; you mean by that, the hundred and eighty thousand nabobs
who own five sixths of your slaves?'[4]

     [4: The statistics given above are correct. That small number of
     slaveholders sustains the system of slavery, and has caused this
     terrible rebellion. They are, almost to a man, rebels and
     secessionists, and we may cover the South with armies, and keep
     a file of soldiers upon every plantation, and not smother this
     insurrection unless we break down the power of that class. Their
     wealth gives them their power, and their wealth is in their
     slaves. Free their negroes by an act of Emancipation, or
     Confiscation, and the rebellion will crumble to pieces in a day.
     Omit to do it, and it will last till doomsday.

     The power of this dominant class once broken; with landed property
     at the South more equally divided, a new order of things will arise
     there. Where now, with their large plantations, not one acre in ten
     is tilled, a system of small farms will spring into existence, and
     the whole country be covered with cultivation. The six hundred
     thousand men who have gone there to fight our battles, will see the
     amazing fertility of the Southern soil--into which the seed is
     thrown and springs up without labor into a bountiful harvest--and
     many of them, if slavery is crushed out, will remain there. Thus a
     new element will be introduced into the South, an element that will
     speedily make it a loyal, prosperous, and _intelligent_ section of
     the Union.

     I would interfere with no one's rights, but a rebel in arms against
     his country has no rights; all that he has 'is confiscate.' Will
     the loyal people of the North submit to be ground to the earth with
     taxes to pay the expenditures of a war brought upon them by these
     Southern oligarchists, while the traitors are left in undisturbed
     possession of every thing, and even their slaves are exempted from
     taxation? It were well that our legislators should ask this
     question now, and not wait till it is asked of them by THE PEOPLE.]

'Yes, I mean them, and the three or four millions of poor whites--the
ignorant, half-starved, lazy vermin you have just seen. _They_ are the
real basis of our Southern oligarchy, as you call it,' continued the
Colonel, still laughing.

'I thought the negro was the serf, in your feudal system?'

'Both the negro and the poor whites are the serfs, but the white trash
are its real support. Their votes give the small minority of
slave-owners all their power. You say we control the Union. We do, and
we do it by the votes of these people, who are as far below our niggers
as the niggers are below decent white men. Who that reflects that this
country has been controlled for fifty years by such scum, would give a
d---- for republican institutions?'

'It does speak very badly for _your_ institutions. A system that reduces
one half of a white population to the level of slaves can not stand in
this country. The late election shows that the power of your 'white
trash' is broken.'

'Well, it does, that's a fact. If the States should remain together, the
West would in future control the Union. We see that, and are therefore
determined on dissolution. It is our only way to keep our niggers.'

'You will have to get the consent of that same West to that project. My
opinion is, your present policy will, if carried out, free every one of
your slaves.'

'I don't see how. Even if we are put down--which we can not be--and are
held in the Union against our will, Government can not, by the
Constitution, interfere with slavery in the States.'

'I admit that, but it can confiscate the property of traitors. Every
large slaveholder is to-day, at heart, a traitor. If this movement goes
on, you will commit overt acts against the Government, and in
self-defense it will punish treason by taking from you the means of
future mischief.'

'The Republicans and Abolitionists might do that if they had the power,
but nearly one half of the North is on our side, and will not fight us.'

'Perhaps so; but if _I_ had this thing to manage, I'd put you down
without fighting.'

'How would you do it--by preaching Abolition where even the niggers
would mob you? There's not a slave in South-Carolina but would shoot
Garrison or Greeley on sight.'

'That may be, but if so, it is because you keep them in ignorance. Build
a free-school at every cross-road, and teach the poor whites, and what
would become of slavery? If these people were on a par with the farmers
of New-England, would it last for an hour? Would they not see that it
stands in the way of their advancement, and vote it out of existence as
a nuisance?'

'Yes, perhaps they would; but the school-houses are not at the
cross-roads, and, thank God, they will not be there in this generation.'

'The greater the pity; but that which will not nourish alongside of a
school-house, can not, in the nature of things, outlast this century.
Its time must soon come.'

'Enough for the day is the evil thereof, I'll risk the future of
slavery, if the South, in a body, goes out of the Union.'

'In other words, you'll shut out schools and knowledge, in order to keep
slavery in existence. The Abolitionists claim it to be a relic of
barbarism, and you admit it could not exist with general education among
the people.'

'Of course it could not. If Sandy, for instance, knew he were as good a
man as I am--and he would be if he were educated--do you suppose he
would vote as I tell him, go and come at my bidding, and live on my
charity? No sir! give a man knowledge, and, however poor he may be,
he'll act for himself.'

'Then free-schools and general education would destroy slavery?'

'Of course they would. The few can not rule when the many know their
rights. But the South, and the world, are a long, way off from general
education. When it conies to that, we shall need no laws, and no
slavery, for the millennium will have arrived.'

'I'm glad you think slavery will not exist during the millennium,' I
replied, laughing; 'but how is it that you insist the negro is naturally
inferior to the white, and still admit that the 'white trash' are far
below the black slaves?'

'Education makes the difference. We educate the negro enough to make him
useful to us, but the poor white man knows nothing. He can neither read
nor write, and not only that, he is not trained to any useful
employment. Sandy, here, who is a fair specimen of the tribe, obtains
his living just like an Indian, by hunting, fishing, and stealing,
interspersed with nigger-catching. His whole wealth consists of two
hounds and their pups; his house--even the wooden trough his miserable
children eat from--belongs to me. If he didn't catch a runaway nigger
once in a while, he wouldn't see a dime from one year to another.'

'Then you have to support this man and his family?'

'Yes, what I don't give him, he steals. Half-a-dozen others poach on me
in the same way.'

'Why don't you set them at work?'

'They can't be made to work. I have hired them time and again, hoping to
make something of them, but I never got one to work more than half-a-day
at a time. It's their nature to lounge and to steal.'

'Then why do you keep them about you?'

'Well, to be candid, their presence is of use in keeping the blacks in
subordination, and they are worth all they cost me, because I control
their votes.'

'I thought the blacks were said to be entirely contented?'

'No, not contented. I do not claim that. I only say that they are unfit
for freedom. I might cite a hundred instances in which it has been their
ruin.'

'I have never heard of one. It seems strange to me that a man who can
support another can not support himself.'

'Oh! no, it's not at all strange. The slave has hands, and when the
master gives him brains, he works well enough; but to support himself he
needs both hands and brains, and he has only hands. I'll give you a case
in point: At Wilmington, N.C., some years ago lived a negro by the name
of Jack Campbell. He was a slave, and he was employed, before the river
below the town was deepened so as to admit of the passage of large
vessels, in lightering cargoes up to the city. He hired his time of his
master, and carried on business on his own account. Every one knew him,
and his character for honesty, sobriety, and punctuality stood so high
that his word was considered among merchants as good as that of the
first business-men of the place. Well, Jack's wife and children were
free, and he finally took it into his head to be free himself. He
arranged with his master to purchase himself within a specified time, at
eight hundred dollars, and was to deposit his earnings, till they
reached the required sum, in the hands of a certain merchant. He went
on, and in three years had accumulated nearly seven hundred dollars,
_when his master failed_. As the slave has no right to property, Jack's
earnings belonged by law to his master, and they were attached by the
creditors, and taken to pay the master's debts. Jack then 'changed
hands,' received a new owner, who also consented to his buying himself,
at about the price previously agreed on. Nothing discouraged, he went to
work again. Night and day, he toiled, and it surprised every one to see
so much energy and fixedness of purpose in a negro. At last, after four
more years of labor, he accomplished his purpose, and received his
free-papers. He had worked seven years--as long as Jacob toiled for
Rachel--for his freedom, and like the old patriarch found himself
cheated at last. I was present when he received his papers from his
owner, a Mr. William H. Lippitt--who still resides at Wilmington--and I
shall never forget the ecstasy of joy which he showed on the occasion;
he sung and danced and laughed and wept, till my conscience smote me for
holding my own niggers, when freedom might give them so much happiness.
Well, he went off that day and treated some friends, and then, for three
days afterward, lay in the gutter, the entreaties of his wife and
children having no effect on him. He swore he was free, and would do as
he 'd----d pleased.' He had previously been a class-leader in his
church, but after getting free-papers, he forsook his previous
associates, and spent his Sundays and evenings in a bar-room. He
neglected his business; people lost confidence in him, and step by step
he went down, till in five years he stink into a wretched grave. That
was the effect of freedom on _him_, and it would be so on all his race.'

'It is clear,' I replied, 'he could not bear freedom, but that does not
prove he might not have 'endured' it if he had never been a slave. His
overjoy at obtaining liberty, after so long a struggle for it, led to
his excesses and his ruin. According to your view, neither the black nor
the poor white is competent to take care of himself. The Almighty,
therefore, has laid upon _you_ a triple burden; you not only have to
provide for yourself and your children, but for two races beneath you,
the black and the clay-eating white man. The poor nigger has a hard
time, but it seems to me you have a harder one.'

'Well, it's a fact, we do. I often think that if it wasn't for the color
and the odor, I'd be glad to exchange places with my man Jim.'

The Colonel made this last remark in a half-serious, half-comic way,
that excited my risibilities amazingly, but before I could reply, the
carriage stopped, and Jim, opening the door, announced:

'We's h'ar, massa, and de prayin' am gwine on.'

Had we not been absorbed in conversation, we might have discovered the
latter fact some time previous to our arrival at the church-door, for
the preacher was shouting at the top of his lungs. He evidently thought
the good Lord either a long way off, or very hard of hearing. Not
wishing to disturb the congregation at their devotions, we loitered near
the doorway until the prayer was over, and in the mean time I glanced
around the premises.

The 'meeting-house,' of large unhewed logs, was a story and a half in
hight, and about large enough to seat comfortably a congregation of two
hundred persons. It was covered with shingles, with a roof projecting
some four feet over the wall, and was surmounted at the front gable by a
tower, about twelve feet square. This also was built of logs, and
contained a bell 'to call the erring to the house of prayer,' though,
unfortunately, all of that character thereabouts dwelt beyond the sound
of its voice. The building was located at a cross-roads about equally
distant from two little hamlets, (the nearest nine miles off,) neither
of which was populous enough to singly support a church and a preacher.
The trees in the vicinity had been thinned out, so that carriages could
drive into the woods, and find under the branches shelter from the rain
and the sun, and at the time of my visit, about twenty vehicles of all
sorts and descriptions, from the Colonel's magnificent barouche to the
rude cart drawn by a single two-horned quadruped, filled the openings.
There was a rustic simplicity about the whole scene that charmed me. The
low, rude church, the grand old pines that towered in leafy magnificence
around it, and the soft, low wind, that sung a morning hymn in the
green, wavy woods, seemed to lift the soul up to Him who inhabiteth
eternity, but who also visits the erring children of men.

The preacher was about to 'line out' one of Watts' psalms, when we
entered the church, but he stopped short on perceiving us, and, bowing
low, waited till we had taken our seats. This action, and the
sycophantic air which accompanied it, disgusted me, and turning to the
Colonel, I asked jocosely:

'Do the chivalry exact so much obsequiousness from the country clergy'?
Do you require to be bowed up to heaven?'

In a low voice, but high enough, I thought, for the preacher to hear,
for we sat very near, the Colonel replied:

'He's a renegade Yankee--the meanest thing on earth.'

I said no more, but entered into the services as seriously as the
strange gymnastic performances of the preacher would allow me to do, for
the truth is, he was quite as amusing as a circus clown.

With the exception of the Colonel's and a few other pews in the vicinity
of the pulpit, all of the seats were mere rough benches, without backs,
and placed so closely together as to interfere uncomfortably with the
knees of the sitters. The house was full, and the congregation as
attentive as any I ever saw. All classes were there; the black
serving-man away off by the doorway, the poor white a little higher up,
the small turpentine-farmer a little higher still, and the wealthy
planter, of the class to which the Colonel belonged, on 'the highest
seats of the synagogue,' and in close proximity to the preacher.

The 'man of prayer' was a tall, lean, raw-boned, angular-built
individual, with a thin, sharp, hatchet-face, a small sunken eye, and
long, loose hair, brushed back and falling over the collar of a seedy
black coat. He looked like nothing in the world I have ever seen, and
his pale, sallow face, and cracked, wheezy voice, were in comic keeping
with his discourse. His text was: 'Speak unto the children of Israel,
that they go forward.' And addressing the motley gathering of poor
whites and small-planters before him as the 'chosen people of God,' he
urged them to press on in the mad course their State had chosen. It was
a political harangue, a genuine stump-speech, but its frequent allusion
to the auditory as the legitimate children of the old patriarch, and the
rightful heirs of all the promises, struck me as out of place in a rural
district of South-Carolina, however appropriate it might have been in
one of the large towns, before an audience of merchants and traders, who
are, almost to a man, Jews.

The services over, the congregation slowly left the church. Gathered in
groups in front of the 'meeting-house,' they were engaging in a general
discussion of the affairs of the day, when the Colonel and I emerged
from the doorway. The better class greeted my host with considerable
cordiality, but I noticed that the well-to-do, small planters, who
composed the greater part of the assemblage, received him with decided
coolness. These people were the 'North county folks' on whom the
overseer had invoked a hanging. Except that their clothing was more
uncouth and ill-fashioned, and their faces generally less 'cute' of
expression, they did not differ materially in appearance from the rustic
citizens who may be seen on any pleasant Sunday gathered around the
door-ways of the rural meeting-houses of New-England.

One of them, who was leaning against a tree, quietly lighting a pipe,
was a fair type of the whole, and as he took a part in the scene which
followed, I will describe him. He was tall and spare, with a swinging,
awkward gait, and a wiry, athletic frame. His hair, which he wore almost
as long as a woman's, was coarse and black, and his face strongly
marked, and of the precise color of two small rivulets of tobacco-juice
that escaped from the corners of his mouth. He had an easy,
self-possessed manner, and a careless, devil-may-care way about him,
that showed he had measured his powers, and was accustomed to 'rough it'
with the world. He wore a broadcloth coat of the fashion of some years
ago, but his waistcoat and nether garments of the common, reddish
homespun, were loose and ill-shaped, as if their owner did not waste
thought on such trifles. His hat, as shockingly bad as Horace Greeley's,
had the inevitable broad brim, and fell over his face like a
calash-awning over a shop-window. As I approached him he extended his
hand with a pleasant 'How are ye, stranger?.'

'Very well,' I replied, returning his grasp with equal warmth, 'how are
you?'

'Right smart, right smart, thank ye. You're--' the rest of the
sentence was cut short by a gleeful exclamation from Jim, who, mounted
on the box of the carriage, which was drawn up on the cleared plot in
front of the meeting-house, waved an open newspaper over his head, and
called out, as he caught sight of the Colonel:

'Great news, massa, great news from Charls'on!'

(The darky, while we were in church, had gone to the post-office, some
four miles away, and got the Colonel's mail, consisting of letters from
his New-York and Charleston factors, the Charleston _Courier_ and
_Mercury_ and the New-York _Journal of Commerce_. The latter sheet, at
the date of which I am writing, was in wide circulation at the South,
its piety (!) and its politics being then calculated with mathematical
precision for secession latitudes.)

'What is it, Jim?' shouted his master. 'Give it to us.'

The darky had somehow learned to read, but holding the paper at arm's
length, and throwing himself into a theatrical attitude, he belched out,
with any amount of gesticulation, the following:

'De news am, massa, and gemmen and ladies, dat de ole fort fore
Charls'on hab hen devacuated by Major Andersin and de sogers, and dat
dey hab stole 'way in de dark night and gone to Sumter, whar dey can't
be took; and dat de ole Gubner hab got out a procdemation dat all dat
don't lub de Aberlishen Yankees shill cum up dar and clar 'em out; and
de paper say dat lots ob sogers hab cum from Gorgia and Al'bama and 'way
down Souf, to help 'em. Dis am w'at de _Currer_ say,' he continued,
holding the paper up to his eyes and reading: 'Major Andersin, ob
United States army hab 'chieved de 'stinction ob op'ning de cibil war
'tween American citizens; he hab desarted Moulfrie, and by false
fretexts hab took de ole Garrison and all his millinery stores to Fort
Sumter.'

'Get down, you d----d nigger,' said the Colonel, laughing, and mounting
the carriage-box beside him. 'You can't read. Old Garrison isn't
there--he's the d----d Northern Abolitionist.'

'I knows dat, Cunnel, but see dar,' holding the paper out to his master,
'don't dat say he'm dar? It'm him dat make all de trubble. P'raps dis
nig' can't read, but ef dat ain't readin' I'd like to know it!'

'Clear out,' said the Colonel, now actually roaring with laughter; 'it's
the soldiers that the _Courier_ speaks of, not the Abolitionist.'

'Read it yoursef, den, massa, I don't seed it dat way.'

Jim was altogether wiser than he appeared, and while he was equally as
well pleased with the news as the Colonel, he was so for an entirely
different reason. In the crisis which these tidings announced, he saw
hope for his race.

The Colonel then read the paper to the assemblage. The news was received
with a variety of manifestations by the auditory, the larger portion, I
thought, hearing it, as I did, with sincere regret.

'Now is the time to stand by the State, my friends,' said my host as he
finished the reading. 'I hope every man here is ready to do his duty by
old South-Carolina.'

'Yes, _sar!_ if she does _har_ duty by the Union. We'll go to the death
for har just so long as she's in the right, but not a d----d step if she
arn't,' said the long-legged native I have introduced to the reader.

'And what have _you_ to say about South-Carolina? What does, she owe to
_you?_' asked the Colonel, turning on the speaker with a proud and angry
look.

'More, a darned sight than she'll pay, if ye cursed 'ristocrats run her
to h---- as ye'r doing. She owes me, and 'bout ten as likely niggers as
ye ever seed, a living, and we've d----d hard work to get it out on her
_now_, let alone what's comin'.

'Don't talk to me, you ill-mannered cur,' said my host, turning his back
on his neighbor, and directing his attention to the remainder of the
assemblage.

'Look har, Cunnel,' replied the native, 'if ye'll jest come down from
thar and throw 'way yer shootin'-irons, I'll give ye the all-firedest
thrashing ye ever did get.'

The Colonel gave no further heed to him, but the speaker mounted the
steps of the meeting-house and harangued the natives in a strain of rude
and passionate declamation, in which my host, the aristocrats, and the
Secessionists came in for about equal shares of abuse. Seeing that the
native (who, it appeared, was quite popular as a stump-speaker) was
drawing away his audience, the Colonel descended from the driver's seat,
and motioning for me to follow, entered the carriage. Turning the horses
homeward, we rode off at a brisk pace.

'Not much Secession about that fellow, Colonel,' I remarked, after a
while.

'No,' he replied, 'he's a North-Carolina 'corn-cracker,' one of the
meanest specimens of humanity extant. They're as thick as fleas in this
part of the State, and about all of them are traitors.'

'Traitors to the State, but true to the Union. As far as I've seen, that
is the case with the middling class throughout the South.'

'Well, it may be, but they generally go with us, and I reckon they will
now, when it comes to the rub. Those in the towns--the traders and
mechanics--will, certain; it's only these half-way independent planters
that ever kick the traces. By the way,' continued my host, in a jocose
way, 'what did you think of the preaching?'

'I thought it very poor. I'd rather have heard the stump-speech, had it
not been a little too personal on you.'

'Well, it was the better of the two,' he replied, laughing, 'but the
old devil can't afford any thing good, he don't get enough pay.'

'Why, how much does he get?'

'Only a hundred dollars.'

'That is small. How does the man live?'

'Well, he teaches the daughter of my neighbor, Captain Randall, who
believes in praying, and gives him his board. Randall thinks that
enough. The rest of the parish can't afford to pay him, and I _won't_.'

'Why won't you?'

'Because he's a d----d old hypocrite. He believes in the Union with all
his heart--at least, so Randall, who's a sincere Union man, says--and
yet, he never sees me at meeting but he preaches a red-hot secession
sermon.'

'He wants to keep you in the faith,' I replied.

A few more miles of sandy road took us to the mansion, where we found
dinner in waiting. Meeting 'Massa Tommy'--who had staid at home with his
mother--as we entered the doorway, the Colonel asked after the overseer.

'He seems well enough, sir; I believe he's coming the possum over
mother.'

'Ill bet on it, Tommy; but he won't fool you and me, will he, my boy?'
said his father, slapping him affectionately on the back.

After dinner I went with my host to the room of the wounded man. His
head was still bound up, and he was groaning piteously, as if in great
pain; but I thought there was too fresh a color in his face to be
entirely natural in one who had lost so much blood, and been so severely
wounded as he affected to be.

The Colonel mentioned our suspicions to Madam P----, and suggested that
the shackles should be put on him.

'Oh! no, don't do that; it would be inhuman,' said the lady; 'the color
is the effect of fever. If you fear he is plotting to get away, let him
be watched.'

The Colonel consented, but with evident reluctance, to the arrangement,
and retired to his room to take a _siesta_, while I lit a cigar, and
strolled out to the negro-quarters.

Making my way through the woods to the scene of the morning's
jollification, I found about a hundred darkies gathered around Jim, on
the little plot in front of Old Lucy's cabin. Jim had evidently been
giving them the news. Pausing when I came near, he exclaimed:

'Har's Massa K----, he'll say dat I tells you de trufh;' then turning to
me, he said: 'Massa K----, dese darkies say dat Massa Andersin am an
ab'lisherner, and dat none but de ab'lisherners will fight for de Union;
am dat so, sar?'

'No, I reckon not, Jim; I think the whole North would fight for it if it
were necessary.'

'Am dat so, massa? am dat so?' eagerly inquired a dozen of the darkies;
'and am dar great many folks at de Norf--more dan dar am down har?'

'Yas, you fools, didn't I tell you dat?' said Jim, as I, not exactly
relishing the idea of preaching treason, in the Colonel's absence, to
his slaves, hesitated to reply. 'Hain't I tole you,' he continued, 'dat
in de big city ob New-York dar'm more folks dan dar am in all Car'lina?
I'se been dar, and I knows; and Massa K----'ll tell you dat dey--'most
on 'em--feel mighty sorry for de brack man.'

'No he won't,' I replied, 'and besides, Jim, you should not talk in this
way before me; I might tell your master.'

'No! you won't do dat; I knows you won't, massa. Scipio tole us he'd
trust his bery life wid _you_.'

'Well, perhaps he might; it's true I would not injure _you_.' Saying
that, I turned away, though my curiosity was greatly excited to hear
more.

I wandered farther into the woods, and a half-hour found me near one of
the turpentine distilleries. Seating myself on a rosin barrel, I quietly
finished my cigar, and was about lighting another, when Jim made his
appearance.

'Beg pardon, Massa K----,' said the negro, bowing very low, 'but I
wants to ax you one or two tings, ef you please, sar.'

'Well,' I replied, 'I'll answer any thing that I ought to.'

'Der yer tink, den, massa, dat dey'll git to fightin' at Charls'on?'

'Yes, judging by the tone of the Charleston papers you've read to-day, I
think they will.'

'And der yer tink dat de rest ob de Souf will jine wid Souf Car'lina, if
she go at it fust?'

'Yes, Jim, I'm inclined to think so.'

'I hard you say to massa, dat ef dey goes to war,'twill free all de
niggers--der you raily b'lieve dat, sar?'

'_You_ heard me say that; how did you hear it?' I exclaimed, in
surprise.

'Why, sar, de front winder ob de carriage war down jess a crack, and I
hard all you said.'

'Did you let it down on purpose?'

'P'r'aps so, massa. Whot's de use ob habin' ears, ef you don't h'ar?'

'Well, I suppose not much; and you tell all you hear to the other
negroes?'

'I reckon so, massa,' said the darky, looking very demure.

'That's the use of having a tongue, eh?' I replied, laughing.

'Dat's it 'zaxly, massa.'

'Well, Jim, I do think the slaves will be finally freed; but it will
cost more white blood to do it than all the niggers in creation are
worth. Do you think the darkies would fight for their freedom?'

'Fight, sar!' exclaimed the negro, straightening up his fine form, while
his usual good-natured look--passed from his face and gave way to an
expression that made him seem more like an incarnate fiend than a human
being; 'FIGHT, sar; gib dem de chance, and den see.'

'Why are you discontented? You have been at the North, and you know the
blacks are as well off as the majority of the poor laboring men there.'

'You say dat to me, Massa K----; you don't say it to de _Cunnel_. We are
not so well off as de pore man at de Norf! You knows dat, sar. He hab
his wife and children, and his own home; what hab we, sar? No wife, no
children, no home; all am de white man's. Der yer tink we wouldn't fight
to be free?' and he pressed his teeth together, and there passed again
over his face the same look it wore the moment before.

'Come, come, Jim, this may be true of your race; but it don't apply to
yourself. Your master is kind and indulgent to _you_.'

'He am kind to me, sar; he orter be,' said the negro, the savage
expression coming again into his eyes. For a moment he hesitated; then,
taking a step toward me, he placed his face down to mine, and hissed out
these words, every syllable seeming to come from the very bottom of his
being. 'I tell you he orter be, sar, FUR I AM HIS OWN FATHER'S SON!'

'Your brother!' I exclaimed, springing to my feet, and looking at him in
blank amazement. 'It can't be true.'

'It am true, sar--as true as there's a hell! His father had my mother:
when he got tired of her, he sold her Souf. _I was too young den eben to
know her_!'

'This is horrible, too horrible!' I said.

'It am slavery, sar! Shouldn't we be contented?' replied the negro with
a grim smile. Drawing, then, a large spring-knife from his pocket, he
waved it above his head, adding: 'Ef I had all de white race dar--right
dar under dat knife, don't yer tink I'd take all dar lives--all at one
blow--to be FREE!'

'And yet you refused to run away when the Abolitionists tempted you, at
the North. Why didn't you go then?'

''Cause I had promised, massa.'

'Promised the Colonel before you went?'

'No, sar, he neber axed me; but _I_ can't tell you no more. P'raps
Scipio will, ef you ax him.'

'Oh! I see; you're in that league, of which Scip is a leader. You'll get
into trouble, _sure_,' I replied, in a quick, decided tone, which
startled him.

'You tole Scipio dat, sar, and what did _he_ tell you?'

'That he didn't care for his life.'

'No more do I, sar,' said the negro, as he turned on his heel with a
proud, almost defiant gesture, and started to go.

'A moment, Jim. You are very imprudent; never say these things to any
other mortal; promise me that.'

'You'se bery good, massa, bery good. Scipio say you's true, and he'm
allers right. I ortent to hab said what I hab; but sumhow, sar, dat news
brought it all up _har_,' (laying his hand on his breast,) 'and it wud
come out.'

The tears filled his eyes as he said this, and turning away without
another word, he passed from my sight behind the trees.

I was almost stunned by this strange revelation, but the more I
reflected on it, the more probable it appeared. Now, too, that my
thoughts were turned in that direction, I called to mind a certain
resemblance between the Colonel and the negro that I had not heeded
before. Though one was a high-bred Southern gentleman, claiming an old
and proud descent, and the other a poor African slave, they had some
striking peculiarities which might indicate a common origin. The
likeness was not in their features, for Jim's face was of the
unmistakable negro type, and his skin of a hue so dark that it seemed
impossible he could be the son of a white man, (I afterward learned that
his mother was a black of the deepest dye,) but it was in their form and
general bearing. They had the same closely-knit and sinewy frame, the
same erect, elastic step, the same rare blending of good-natured ease
and dignity--to which I have already alluded as characteristic of the
Colonel--and in the wild burst of passion that accompanied the negro's
disclosure of their relationship, I saw the same fierce, unbridled
temper, whose outbreaks I had witnessed in my host.

What a strange fate was theirs! Two brothers--the one the owner of three
hundred slaves, and the first man of his district--the other, a bonded
menial, and so poor that the very bread he ate, the clothes he wore,
were another's! How terribly on him had fallen the curse pronounced on
his race!

I passed the remainder of the afternoon in my room, and did not again
meet my host until the family assembled at the tea-table. Jim then
occupied his accustomed seat behind the Colonel's chair, and my host was
in more than his usual spirits, though Madam P----, I thought, wore a
sad and absent look.

The conversation rambled over a wide range of subjects, and was carried
on mainly by the Colonel and myself; but toward the close of the meal
the lady said to me:

'Mr. K----, Sam and young Junius are to be buried this evening. If you
have never seen a negro funeral, perhaps you'd like to attend.'

'I will be happy to accompany you, Madam, if you go,' I replied.

'Thank you,' said the lady.

'Pshaw! Alice, you'll not go into the woods on so cold a night as this!'

'Yes, I think I ought to. Our people will expect me.'

       *       *       *       *       *

It was about an hour after nightfall when we took our way to the
burial-ground. The moon had risen, but the clouds which gathered when
the sun went down, covered its face, and were fast spreading their
thick, black shadows over the little collection of negro-houses. Near
two new-made graves were gathered some two hundred men and women, as
dark as the night that was setting around them. As we entered the circle
the old preacher pointed to the seats reserved for us, and the sable
crowd fell back a few paces, as if, even in the presence of death, they
did not forget the difference between their race and ours.

Scattered here and there among the trees, torches of lightwood threw a
wild and fitful light over the little cluster of graves, and revealed
the long, straight boxes of rough pine that held the remains of the two
negroes, and lit up the score of russet mounds beneath which slept the
dusky kinsmen who had gone before them.

The simple head-boards that marked these humble graves chronicled no
bad biography or senseless rhyme, and told no false tales of lives that
had better not have been, but 'SAM, AGE 22;' 'POMPEY;' 'JAKE'S ELIZA;;
'AUNT SUE;' 'AUNT LUCY'S TOM;' 'JOE;' and other like inscriptions,
scratched in rough characters on those unplaned boards, were all the
records there. The rude tenants had passed away and 'left no sign;'
their birth, their age, their deeds, were alike unknown--unknown, but
not forgotten; for are they not written in the book of His
remembrance--and when He counteth up his jewels, may not some of them be
there?

The queer, grotesque dress, and sad, earnest looks of the black group;
the red, fitful glare of the blazing pine, and the white faces of the
tapped trees, gleaming through the gloom like so many sheeted-ghosts
gathered to some death-carnival, made up a strange, wild scene--the
strangest and the wildest I had ever witnessed.

The covers of the rude coffins were not yet nailed down, and when we
arrived, the blacks were one by one passing before them, taking a last
look at the faces of the dead. Soon, Junius, holding his weeping wife by
the hand, approached the smaller of the two boxes, which held all that
was left of their first-born. The mother kneeling by its side, kissed
again and again the cold, shrunken lips, and sobbed as if her heart
would break; while the strong frame of the father shook convulsively,
as, choking down the great sorrow which welled up in his throat, he
turned away from his boy forever. As he did so, old Pompey said:

'Don't grebe, June, he'm whar de wicked cease from trubbling, whar de
weary am at rest.'

'I knows it; I knows it, Uncle. I knows de Lord am bery good to take 'im
'way; but why did he take de young chile, and leab de ole man har?'

'De little sapling dat grow in de shade may die while it'm young; de
great tree dat grow in de sun must lib till de ax cut him down.'

These words were the one drop wanting to make the great grief which was
swelling in the negro's heart overflow. Giving one low, wild cry, he
folded his wife in his arms, and burst into a paroxysm of tears.

'Come now, my chil'ren,' said the old preacher, kneeling down, 'let us
pray.'

The whole assemblage then knelt on the cold ground, while the old man
prayed, and a more sincere, heart-touching prayer never went up from
human lips to that God 'who hath made of one blood all nations that
dwell on the face of the earth.' Though clothed in rags, and in feeble
old age, a slave, at the mercy of a cruel task-master, that old man was
richer far than his master. His simple faith, which looked through the
darkness surrounding him into the clear and radiant light of the unseen
land, was of far more worth than all the wealth and glory of this world.
I know not why it was, but as I looked at him in the dim, red light
which fell on his upturned face, and cast a strange halo around his bent
form, I thought of Stephen, as he gazed upward and saw heaven open, and
'the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the throne of God.'

Rising from his knees, the old preacher turned slowly to the black mass
that encircled him, and said:

'My dear bredderin and sisters, de Lord say dat 'de dust shill return to
de earth as it war, and de spirit to Him who gabe it,' and now, 'cordin'
to dat text, my friends, we'm gwine to put dis dust (pointing to the two
coffins) in de groun' whar it cum from, and whar it shill lay till de
blessed Lord blow de great trumpet on de resumrection mornin'. De
spirits of our brudders har de Lord hab already took to hisseff. 'Our
brudders,' I say, my chil'ren, 'case ebery one dat de Lord hab made am
brudders to you and to me, whedder dey'm bad or good, white or brack.

'Dis young chile, who hab gone 'way and leff his pore fader and mudder
suffrin' all ober wid grief, _he_ hab gone to de Lord, _shore_. _He_
neber did no wrong; he allers 'bey'd his massa, and he neber said no
hard word, nor found no fault, not eben w'en de cruel, bad oberseer put
de load so heaby on him dat it kill him. Yes, my bredderin and sisters,
_he_ hab gone to de Lord; gone whar dey don't work in de swamps; whar de
little chil'ren don't tote de big shingles fru de water up to dar knees.
No swamps am dar; no shingles am cut dar; dey doan't need 'em, 'case dar
hous'n haint builded wid hands, for dey'm all built by de Lord, and
gib'n to de good niggers, ready-made, and for nuffin'. De Lord don't
say, like as our massa do, 'Pomp, dar's de logs and de shingles,' (dey'm
allers pore shingles, de kine dat woant sell; but he say, '_dey'm_ good
'nuff for niggers, ef de roof do leak.) De Lord doan't say: 'Now, Pomp,
you go to work and build you' own house; but mine dat you does you task
all de time, jess de same!' But de Lord--de bressed Lord--He say, w'en
we goes up dar, 'Dar, Pomp, dar's de house dat I'se been a buildin' for
you eber sence 'de foundation ob de worle.' It'm done now, and you kin
cum in; your room am jess ready, and ole Sal and de chil'ren dat I tuk
'way from you eber so long ago, and dat you mourned ober and cried ober
as ef you'd neber see dem agin, _dar dey am, all on 'em, a waiting for
you_. Dey'm been fixin' up de house 'spressly for you all dese long
years, and dey'be got it all nice and comfible now.' Yas, my frens,
glory be to Him, dat's what our Heabenly massa say, and who ob you
wouldn't hab sich a massa as dat? a massa dat don't set you no hard
tasks, and dat gibs you 'nuff to eat, and time to rest and to sing and
to play. A massa dat doan't keep no Yankee oberseer to foller you 'bout
wid de big free-lashed whip; but dat leads you hisseff round to de green
pastures and de still waters; and w'en you'm a-faint and a-tired, and
can't go no furder, dat takes you up in his arms, and carries you in his
bosom. What pore darky am dar dat wudn't hab sich a massa? What one ob
us, eben ef we had to work so hard as we does now, wudn't tink hisseff
de happiest nigger in de hull worle, ef he could hab sich hous'n to lib
in as dem? dem hous'n 'not made wid hands, eternal in de heabens!'

'But glory, glory to de Lord! my chil'ren, wese all got dat massa, ef we
only knowd it, and he'm buildin' dem housn up dar, now, for ebery one ob
us dat am tryin' to be good and to lub one anoder. _For ebery one ob
us_, I say, and we kin all git de fine hous'n ef we try.

'Recolember, too, my brudders, dat our great Massa am rich, bery rich,
and He kin do all he promise. _He_ won't say, w'en wese worked ober time
to git some little ting to comfort de sick chile, 'I knows, Pomp, you'se
done de work, and I did 'gree to gib you de pay; but de fact am, Pomp,
de frost hab come so sudden dis yar, dat I'se loss de hull ob de sebenfh
dippin', and I'se pore, so pore, de chile must go widout dis time.' No,
no, brudders, de bressed Lord He neber talk so. He neber break, 'case de
sebenfh dip am shet off, or 'case de price of turpentime gwo down at de
Norf. He neber sell his niggers down Souf, 'case he lose his money on de
hoss-race. No, my chil'ren, our HEABENLY Massa am rich, RICH, I say. He
own all dis worle, and all de odor worles dat am shinin' up dar in de
sky. He own dem all; but he tink more ob one ob you, more ob one ob
you--pore, ignorant brack folks dat you am--dan ob all dem great worles!
Who wouldn't belong, to sich a Massa as dat? Who wouldn't be his
nigger--not his slave--He don't hab no slaves--but his chile; and 'ef
his chile, den his heir, de heir ob God, and de joint heir wid Christ.'
O my chil'ren! tink of dat! de heir ob de Lord ob all de earth and all
de sky! What white man kin be more'n dat?

'Don't none ob you say you'm too wicked to be His chile; 'ca'se you
an't. He lubs de wicked ones de best, 'ca'se dey need his lub de most.
Yas, my brudders, eben de wickedest, ef dey's only sorry, and turn roun'
and leab off dar bad ways, he lub de bery best ob all, 'ca'se he'm all
lub and pity.

'Sam, har, my children, war wicked, but don't _we_ pity him; don't _we_
tink he had a hard time, and don't we tink de bad oberseer, who'm layin'
dar in de house jess ready to gwo and answer for it--don't we tink he
gabe Sam bery great probincation?'

'Dat's so,' said a dozen of the auditors.

'Den don't you 'spose dat de blessed Lord know all dat, and dat He pity
Sam too? If we pore sinners feel sorry for him, an't de Lord's heart
bigger'n our'n, and an't he more sorry for him? Don't you tink dat ef He
lub and pity de bery worse whites, dat He lub and pity pore Sam, who
warn't so bery bad, arter all? Don't you think He'll gib Sam a house?
P'r'aps 'twon't be one ob de fine hous'n, but won't it be a comfible
house, dat hain't no cracks, and one dat'll keep out de wind and de
rain? And don't you s'pose, my chil'ren, dat it'll be big 'nuff for
Jule, too--dat pore, repentin' chile, whose heart am clean broke, 'ca'se
she hab broughten dis on Sam--and won't de Lord--de good Lord--de
tender-hearted Lord--won't He touch Sam's heart, and coax him to forgib
Jule, and to take her inter his house up dar? I knows he will, my
chil'ren. I knows--'

Here the old negro paused abruptly; for there was a quick swaying in the
crowd--a hasty rush--a wild cry--and Sam's wife burst into the open
space around the preacher, and fell at the old man's feet. Throwing her
arms wildly around him, she shrieked out:

'Say dat agin, Uncle Pomp! for de lub ob de good Lord, oh! say dat
agin!'

Bending down, the old man raised her gently in his arms, and folding her
there, as he would have folded a child, he said, in a voice thick with
emotion:

'It am so, Juley. I knows dat Sam will forgib you, and take you wid him
up dar.'

Fastening her arms frantically around Pompey's neck, the poor woman
burst into a paroxysm of grief, while the old man's tears fell in great
drops on her upturned face, and many a dark cheek near was wet, as with
rain.

The scene had lasted a few minutes, and I was turning away to hide the
emotion that was fast filling my eyes, and creeping up, with a choking
feeling, to my throat, when the Colonel, from the farther edge of the
group, called out:

'Take that d----d ---- away--take her away, Pomp!'

The old negro turned toward his master with a sad, grieved look, but
gave no heed to the words.

'Take her away, some of you, I say,' again cried the Colonel. 'Pomp, you
mustn't keep these niggers all night in the cold.'

At the sound of her master's voice the metif woman fell to the ground as
if struck by a Minie-ball. Soon several negroes lifted her up to bear
her away; but she struggled violently, and rent the woods with her wild
cries for 'one more look at Sam.'

'Look at him, you d----d ----, then go, and don't let me see you again.'

She threw herself on the face of the dead, and covered the cold lips
with her kisses; then rose, and with a weak, uncertain step, staggered
out into the darkness.

'The system' that had so seared and hardened that man's heart, must have
been begotten in the lowest hell.

The old preacher said no more, but four stout negro men stepped forward,
nailed down the lids, and lowered the rough boxes into the ground.
Turning to Madam P----, I saw her face was red with weeping. She rose to
go just as the first earth fell, with a dull, heavy sound, on the rude
coffins; and giving her my arm, I led her from the scene.

As we walked slowly back to the house, a low wail--half a chant, half a
dirge--rose from the black crowd, and floated off on the still night
air, till it died away amid the far woods, in a strange, wild moan. With
that sad, wild music in our ears, we entered the mansion.

As we seated ourselves by the bright wood-fire on the library hearth,
obeying a sudden impulse which I could not restrain, I said to Madam
P----:

'The Colonel's treatment of that poor woman is inexplicable to me. Why
is he so hard with her? It is not in keeping with what I have seen of
his character.'

'The Colonel is a peculiar man,' replied the lady. 'Noble, generous, and
a true friend, he is also a bitter, implacable enemy. When he once
conceives a dislike, his feelings become even vindictive; and never
having had an ungratified wish, he does not know how to feel for the
sorrows of those beneath him. Sam, though a proud, headstrong, unruly
character, was a great favorite with him; he felt his death much; and as
he attributes it to Jule, he feels terribly bitter toward her. She will
have to be sold to get her out of his way, for he will _never_ forgive
her.'

It was some time before the Colonel joined us, and when he at last made
his appearance, he seemed in no mood for conversation. The lady soon
retired; but feeling unlike sleep, I took down a book from the shelves,
drew my chair near the fire, and fell to reading. The Colonel, too, was
deep in the newspapers, till, after a while, Jim entered the room:

'I'se cum to ax ef you've nuffin more to-night, Cunnel?' said the negro.

'No, nothing, Jim,' replied his master; 'but, stay--hadn't you better
sleep in front of Moye's door?'

'Dunno, sar; jess as you say.'

'I think you'd better,' returned the Colonel.

With a 'Yas, massa,' the darky left the apartment.

The Colonel shortly rose, and bade me 'good night.' I continued reading
till the clock struck eleven, when I laid the book aside and went to my
room.

I slept, as I have said before, on the lower floor, and was obliged to
pass by the door of the overseer's apartment as I went to mine. Wrapped
in his blanket, and stretched at full length on the ground, Jim lay
there, fast asleep. I passed on, thinking of the wisdom of placing a
tired negro on guard over an acute and desperate Yankee.

I rose in the morning with the sun, and had partly donned my clothing,
when I heard a loud uproar in the hall. Opening my door, I saw Jim
pounding vehemently at the Colonel's room, and looking as pale as is
possible with a person of his completion.

'What the d---l is the matter?' asked his master, who now, partly
dressed, stepped into the hall.

'Moye hab gone, sar; he'm gone and took Firefly (my host's
five-thousand-dollar thorough-bred) wid him.'

For a moment the Colonel stood stupified; then, his face turning to a
cold, clayey white, he seized the black by the throat, and hurled him to
the floor. Planting his thick boot on the man's face, he seemed about to
dash out his brains with its ironed heel, when, at that instant, the
octoroon woman rushed, in her night-clothes, from his room, and with
desperate energy pushed him aside, exclaiming: 'What would you do?
remember WHO HE IS!'

The negro rose, and the Colonel, without a word, passed into his
apartment. What followed will be the subject of another chapter.




_PICAYUNE BUTLER._

'General Butler was a barber,'
  So the Pelicans were raving;
Now you've got him in your harbor,
  Tell us how you like his shaving?




_LITERARY NOTICES._

LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE. Delivered at the royal Institution
     of Great Britain in April, May, and June, 1861. By MAX MULLER,
     Fellow of All Souls College, etc. From the second London edition,
     revised. New-York: Charles Scribner, Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.

Within the memory of man one could in England or America be 'very well
educated,' as the word went, and yet remain grossly ignorant of the
simplest elements of the history of language. In those days Latin was
held by scholars to be derived from Greek--where the Greek came from
nobody knew or cared, though it was thought, from Hebrew. German was a
jargon, Provençal a '_patois_,' and Sanscrit an obsolete tongue, held in
reverence by Hindoo savages. The vast connections of language with
history were generally ignored. Hebrew was assumed, as a matter of
course, to have been the primeval language, and it was wicked to doubt
it. Then came Sir William Jones, Carey, Wilkins, Forster, Colebrooke,
and the other Anglo-Indian scholars, and the world learned what it ought
to have learned from the Jesuits, that there was in the East a very
ancient language--Sanscrit--'of wonderful structure, more perfect than
Greek, more copious than Latin, more exquisitely refined than either;
bearing to both a strong affinity,' and stranger still, containing a
vast amount of words almost identical with many in all European and many
Oriental tongues. This was an apocalypse of truth to many--but a source
of grief to the orthodox believers that Greek and Latin were either
aboriginal languages, or modifications of Hebrew. Hence the blind, and
in some cases untruthful warfare made on the Sanscrit discoveries, as in
the case of Dugald Stewart.

     'Dugald Stewart was too wise not to see that the conclusions drawn
     from the facts about Sanscrit were inevitable. He therefore _denied
     the reality of such a language as Sanscrit altogether_, and wrote
     his famous essay to prove that Sanscrit had been put together,
     after the model of Greek and Latin, by those arch forgers and
     liars, the Brahmins, and that the whole of Sanscrit literature was
     an imposture.'

But it was all of no avail. In 1808 Frederick Schlegel's work, _On the
Language and Wisdom of the Indians_, first 'boldly faced the facts and
conclusions of Sanscrit scholarship, and became,' with all its faults,
the 'foundation for the science of language.' Its great result may be
given in one sentence--it embraced at a glance the languages of India,
Persia, Greece, Italy, and Northern Europe, and riveted them by the
simple name 'Indo-Germanic.' Then in this school, begun by English
industry and shaped by German genius, came Franz Bopp, with his great
comparative grammar of the Indo-Germanic tongues, and the enormous
labors of Lassen, Rosen, Burnouf, and W. von Humboldt--a man to whose
incredible ability of every kind, as to his secret diplomatic influence,
history has never done justice. Grimm, and Rask--the first great Zend
scholar--were among these early explorers, who have been followed by so
many scholars, until some knowledge not merely of Greek and Latin, but
of the relations of _all_ languages, has become essential to a truly
good education.

Yet after all, Sanscrit, it was soon seen, was not the parent, but '_the
elder sister_' of the Indo-Germanic languages. Behind Greek, Latin, and
Sanscrit, Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic tongues, lurks a lost
language--the mysterious Aryan, which, reëchoed through the tones of
those six remaining Pleiades, its sisters, speaks of a mighty race
which once, it may be, ruled supreme over a hundred lands, or perchance
sole in the Caucasus. It is strange to see philologists slowly
reconstructing, here and there, fragments of the Aryan,

    'And speak in a tongue which man speaks no more.'

Among the many excellent elementary and introductory works on philology
which have appeared of late years, this of Müller's is on several
accounts the best. It is clearly written, so as to be within the
comprehension of any reader of ordinary intelligence, and we can hardly
conceive that any such person would not find it an extremely
entertaining book. Its author is a _genial_ writer--he writes with a
relish and with real power--he loves knowledge, and wishes others to
share it with him. Language, he holds--though the idea is not new with
him--springs from a very few hundred roots, which are the _phonetic
types_ produced by a power inherent in human nature. Every substance has
its peculiar _ring_ when struck--man, under the action of certain laws,
must develop first onomato-poietic sounds, and finally language. With
this we take leave of this excellent work, trusting that the public will
extend to it the favor which it so amply deserves.


THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. By his Nephew, PIERRE M. IRVING.
     Vol. I. New-York: G.P. Putnam. Boston: A.K. Loring. 1862.

This work has a strong, we might say an extraordinary claim to the
interest of the most general reader, in its very first paragraph, since
in it we are told that Washington Irving, on committing to his nephew
Pierre the vast mass of papers requisite to his biography, remarked:
'Somebody will be writing my life when I am gone, and I wish you to do
it. You must promise me that you will.' So with unusual wealth of
material, gathered together for the purpose by the subject of the
biography himself, the work has been begun, by the person whom Irving
judged best fitted for it.

And a delightful work it is, not a page without something of special
relish, as might be anticipated in the chronicle of a life which is
thickly studded with personal association or correspondence with almost
every intellectual eminence either of Europe or America during the past
half-century. But apart from this, there is a racy Irving-y flavor from
the very beginning, long before the wide world had incorporated Irving
into its fraternity of great men, in the details of life, of home travel
and of homely incident, as set forth in extracts from his letters, which
is irresistibly charming. Full as this portion of the life is, we can
not resist the hope that it will be greatly enlarged in subsequent
editions, and that more copious extracts will be given from those
letters, to the humblest of which the writer invariably communicates an
indefinable fascination. In them, as in his regular 'writings,' we find
the simplest incident narrated always without exaggeration--always as
briefly as possible, yet told so quaintly and humorously withal, that we
wonder at the piquancy which it assumes. It is the trouble with great
men that they are, for lack of authentic anecdotes and details of their
daily life, apt to retire into myths. Such will not be the case with
Irving. The _reality_, the life-likeness of these letters, and of the
_ana_ drawn from them, will keep him, Washington Irving the New-Yorker,
alive and breathing before the world to all time. In these chapters a
vail seems lifted from what was growing obscure in our knowledge of
social life in the youth of our fathers. Our only wish, in reading, is
for more of it. But the life gathers interest as it proceeds. From
America it extends to Europe, and we meet the names of Humboldt, De
Staël, Allston, Vanderlyn, Mrs. Siddons, as among his associates even in
early youth. So through Home Again and in Europe Again there is a
constant succession of personal experience and wide opportunity to know
the world. Did our limits permit, we would gladly cite largely from
these pages, for it is long since the press has given to the world a
book so richly quotable. But the best service we can render the reader
is to refer him to the work itself, which is as well worth reading as
any thing that its illustrious subject ever wrote, since in it we have
most admirably reflected Irving himself; the best loved of our writers,
and the man who did more, so far as intellectual effort is concerned, to
honor our country than any American who ever lived.

BEAUTIES SELECTED FROM THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS DE QUINCKY. With a Portrait.
    Boston: Ticknor and Fields.

We are not sure that this is not the very first book of other than
pictorial beauties which we ever regarded with patience. Books of
literary 'beauties' are like musical matinées--the first act of one
opera--the grand dying-scene from another--all very pretty, but not on
the whole satisfactory, or entitling one to claim from it alone any real
knowledge of the original whole. Yet this volume we have found
fascinating, have flitted from page to page, backwards and forwards, [it
is a great advantage in a book of 'unconnections' that one may
_conscientiously_ skip about,] and concluded by thanking in our heart
the judicious Eclectic, whoever he may be--who mosaicked these bits into
an enduring picture of De Quincey-ism. For really in it, by virtue of
selection, collection, and recollection, we have given an authentic
cabinet of specimens more directly suggestive of the course and
soul-idioms of the author than many minds would gather from reading
_all_ that he ever wrote. Only one thing seems needed--the great
original commentary or essay on De Quincey, which these Beauties would
most happily illustrate. It seems to rise shadowy before us--a sort of
dead-letter ghost of a glorious book which craves life and has it not.
We trust that our suggestion may induce some admirer of the Opium-Eater
to have prepared an interleaved copy of these Beauties, and perfect the
suggestion.


THE CHURCH IN THE ARMY; OR THE FOUR CENTURIONS. By Rev. WM. A. SCOTT, D.D.,
     of San Francisco. New-York: Carleton, No. 413 Broadway. Boston:
     Crosby and Nichols. 1862.

Since every one is doing their 'little utmost' for the army, Mr. Scott
hath contributed his mite in a work on the four captains of hundreds
mentioned in the Bible--the first whereof was he of Capernaum; the
second, the one commanding at the crucifixion; the third, that of
Cesarea; and the fourth, Julius, the centurion who had Paul in charge
during his voyage to Rome. We are glad to learn, from the close
researches and critical acumen of Rev. Mr. Scott, that there is very
good ground for concluding that all of these centurions were so
impressed by the thrilling scenes which they witnessed, and the society
with which they mingled, as to have eventually been converted and saved,
a consummation which may possibly have escaped the observation of most
readers, who, absorbed in their contemplation of the great _dramatis
personae_, seldom give thought as to what the effect on the minor
characters must have been. It is worth observing that our author is
thoroughly earnest in his exhortations--at times almost naively so. If
he be often rather over-inclined to threaten grim damnation to an
alarming majority, and describe with a relish the eternal horrors which
hang around the second death, in good old-fashioned style, still we must
remember that he sincerely means what he says, and is a Puritan of the
ancient stamp.




_EDITOR'S TABLE._

There is something intensely American in such phrases as 'manifest
destiny,' 'mission,' and 'call,' and we may add, something very vigorous
may be found in the character of him who uses them. They are expressions
which admit no alternative, no second possibility. The man of a
'mission,' or of a 'manifest destiny,' may be a fanatic, but he will be
no flincher; he will strive to the bitter end, and fall dead in the
traces; _but he will succeed_.

We are glad to learn that there is growing up in the army, and of course
from it in all the homes of the whole country, a fixed impression that
the South is inevitably destined to be 'Northed' or 'free-labored,' as
the result of this war. The intelligent farmer in the ranks, who has
learned his superiority to 'Secesh,' as a soldier, and who _knows_
himself to be superior to any Southern in all matters of information and
practical creative _power_, looks with scorn at the worn-out fields,
wasteful agriculture, and general shiftlessness of the natives, and
says, with a contemptuous laugh: 'We will get better crops out of the
land, and manage it in another fashion, when _we_ settle down here.' Not
less scornfully does the mechanic look down on the clumsy, labor-wasting
contrivances of the negro or negro-stupified white man, and agree with
his mate that 'these people will never be of much account until we take
them in hand.'

Master-mechanic, master-farmer, _you are right_. These people _are_ your
inferiors; with all their boasts and brags of 'culture,' you could teach
them, by your shrewder intelligence, at a glance, the short cut to
almost any thing at which their intellects might be employed; and you
indulge in a very natural feeling, when, as conquerors, in glancing over
their Canaan, you involuntarily plan what you will do some day, _if_ a
farm should by chance be your share of the bounty-money, when the war is
over. For it is absurd to suppose that such a country will continue
forever a prey to the wasting and exhaustive disease of the
plantation-system, or that the black will always, as at present,
inefficiently and awkwardly fulfill those mechanic labors which a keen
white workman can better manage. Wherever the hand of the Northman
touches, in these times, it shows a superior touch, whether in
improvising a six-action cotton-gin, in repairing locomotives, or in
sarcastically seizing a 'Secesh' newspaper and reëditing it with a storm
of fun and piquancy such as its doleful columns never witnessed of old.
In this and in a thousand ways, the Northern soldier realizes that he is
in a land of inferiors, and a very rich land at that. At this point, his
speculations on manifest destiny may very appropriately begin. There is
no harm in suffering this idea to take firm hold. Like ultimate
emancipation, it may be assumed as a fact, all to be determined in due
time, according to the progress of events, as wisely laid down by
President Lincoln, without hurry, without feverish haste, simply guided
by the firm determination that eventually it must be.

We can not insist too strongly on this great truth, that when a nation
makes up its mind that a certain event _must_ take place, and acts
calmly in the spirit of perfect persuasion, very little is really needed
to hasten the wished-for consummation. Events suddenly spring up to aid,
and in due time all is accomplished. Those who strive to hurry it retard
it, those who work to drag it back hasten it. Never yet on earth was a
real conviction crushed or prematurely realized. So it is, so it will be
with this 'Northing' of the South. Let the country simply familiarize
itself with the idea, and the idea will advance as rapidly as need be.
In it lies the only solution of the great problem of reconciling the
South and the North; the sooner we make up our minds to the fact, the
better; and, on the other hand, the more deliberately and calmly we
proceed to the work, the more certain will its accomplishment be. Events
are now working to aid us with tremendous power and rapidity--faith, a
judicious guiding of the current as it runs, is all that is at present
required to insure a happy fulfillment.

       *       *       *       *       *

The degree to which a vindictive and malignant opposition to every thing
for the sake of 'the party' can be carried, has been well illustrated in
the amount and variety of slander which has been heaped by the
Southern-rights, sympathizing Democratic press on the efforts of those
noble-hearted women who have endeavored to do something to alleviate the
condition of the thousands of contrabands, who are many without clothes,
employment, or the slightest idea of what they are to do. It would be
hard to imagine any thing more harmless or more perfectly free from any
thing like sinister or selfish motives than have been the conduct and
motives of the noble women who have assumed this mission. Florence
Nightingale undertook nothing nobler; and the world will some day
recognize the deserts of those who strove against every obstacle to
relieve the sufferings and enlighten the ignorance of the blacks--among
whom were thousands of women and little children. Such being the literal
truth, what does the reader think of such a paragraph as the following,
which we find going the rounds of the Boston Courier and other journals
of the same political faith?

     '_On dit_, that some of the schoolmarms who went to South-Carolina
     several weeks ago, are not so intent upon 'teaching the young ideas
     how to shoot,' as upon flirting with the officers, in a manner not
     entirely consistent with morality. General Hunter is going to send
     some of the misbehaving misses home.'

If there is a loathsome, cowardly, infamous phrase, it is that of _on
dit_, 'they say,' 'it is said,' when used to assail the virtue of
women--above all, of women engaged in such a cause as that in question.
We believe in our heart, this whole story to be a slander of the meanest
description possible--a piece of as dirty innuendo as ever disgraced a
Democratic paper. The spirit of the viper is apparent in every line of
it. Yet it is in perfect keeping with the storm of abuse and falsehood
which has been heaped on these 'contraband' missionaries, teachers, and
nurses, since they went their way. They have been accused of pilfering,
of lying, of doing nothing, of corrupting the blacks, of going out only
to speculate, and, as might have been expected, we have at last the
unfailing resort of the lying coward--a dirty hint as to breaking the
seventh commandment--all according to the devilish old Jesuit precept of,
'_Calumniare fortiter aliquis koerebit_'--'Slander boldly, something will
be sure to stick.' And to such a depth of degradation--to the hinting
away the characters of young ladies because they try to teach the poor
contrabands--can _men_ descend 'for the sake of the _party'!_

       *       *       *       *       *

Of late years, those soundest of philanthropists, the men of
common-sense who labor unweariedly to facilitate exchanges between
civilized nations, have endeavored to promote in every possible manner
the adoption of the same system of currency, weights and measures among
civilized nations. It has been accepted as a rule beyond all debate,
that if such mediums of business could be adopted--nay, if a common
language even were in use, industry would receive an incalculable
impulse, and the production of capital be enormously increased.

Not so, however, thinks John M. Vernon, of New-Orleans, who, stimulated
by the purest secession sentiments, and urged by the most legitimate
secession and 'State rights' logic, has developed a new principle of
exclusiveness by devising a new system of decimal currency, which he
thus recommends to the rebel Congress:

     'We are a separate and distinct people, influenced by different
     interests and sentiments from the vandals who would subjugate us.
     Our manners and customs are different; our tastes and talents are
     different; our geographical position is different; and in
     conformity with natural laws, nature and instinct, our
     currency,--weights and measures, should be different.

     'The basis of integral limit of value proposed for our currency, is
     the star, which is to be divided into one hundred equal parts, each
     part to be called a centime, namely: 10 centimes--1 tropic;
     10 tropics--1 star; 10 stars--1 sol.

     'These denominations for our currency have been selected for three
     reasons: first, they are appropriate to ourselves as a people;
     second, they are emblems of cheerfulness, honor, honesty of
     purpose, solidity, and stability; and third, the words used are
     simple, easily remembered, and are common to several languages. I
     will, in addition, observe that similar characteristics distinguish
     the proposed tables of weights and measures.'

'Stars'--'centimes'--'tropics,' and 'sols.' Why these words should be
more significant of cheerfulness, honor, honesty, and solidity, than
dollars and dimes, cents and mills, is not, as yet, apparent. As set
forth in this recommendation, it would really appear that the root of
all evil would have its evil properties extracted by giving the radical
a different name. To be sure, the wages of sin thus far in the world's
history, have generally been found equivalent to death, whether they are
termed guineas, francs, thalers, cobangs, pesos, sequins, ducats, or
dollars. But in Dixie--happy Dixie!--they only need another name, and
lo! a miracle is to be wrought at once.

There is something in this whole proposition which accurately embodies
the whole Southern policy. While the rest of the world is working to
assimilate into civilization, they are laboring to get away and
apart--to be different from everybody else--to remain provincial and
'peculiar.' It is the working of the same spirit which inspires the
desire to substitute 'State rights' or individual will, or, in plain
terms, lawlessness and barbarism for enlightenment and common rights. It
is a craving for darkness instead of light, for antiquated feudal
falsehood instead of republican truth; and it will meet with the destiny
which awaits every struggle against the great and holy cause of
humanity.




_KYNG COTEN._

A 'DARK' CONCEIT.

(_Being an ensample of a longe poeme._)

  O muse! that did me somedeal favour erst,
    Whereas I piped my silly oaten reede,
  And songs in homely guise to mine reherst,
    Well pleased with maiden's smilings for my meed;
    Sweet muse, do give my Pegasus good speede,
  And send to him of thy high, potent might,
    Whiles mortalls I all of my theme do rede,
  Thatte is the story of a doughty knight,
  Who eftsoons wageth war, Kyng COTEN is he hight.

  Kyng Coten cometh of a goodly race,
    Though black it was, as records sothly tell;
  But thatte is nought, which only is the face,
    And ne the hart, where alle goode beings dwell;
    For witness him the puissant Hannibal,
  Who was in veray sooth a Black-a-Moor;
    And Cleopatra, Egypt's darksome belle,
  And others, great on earth, a hundred score;
  Howbeit, ilke kyng was white, which doth amaze me sore.

  Kyng Coten cometh of a goodly race,
    As born of fathers clean as many as
  The sands thatte doe the mighty sea-shore grace,
    But black, as sayde, as dark is Erebus.
    His rule the Southron Federation was,
  Thatte was a part of great Columbia,
    Which was as fayre a clyme as man mote pass;
  And situate where Vesper holds his swaye,
  But habited wilome by men of salvage fray.

  Farre in the North he had an enimie,
    Who certes was the knight's true soveraine,
  Who likéd not his wicked slaverie,
    Which 'cross God's will was counter-wisely laine,
    Whiles he himself, it seemeth now right playne,
  Did seek to have a kyngdom of his kynde,
    Where he, as tyrant-like, mote lonly raine;
  So to a treacherie he fetched his mynde,
  Which soon was rent in four, and sent upon each wynde.

  His enimie thatte liveth in the North,
    Who, after all, was not his enimie,
  Ydeemed he was a gentilman of worth,
    Too proud to make so vile a villianie,
    And, therefore, did ne tent his railerie,
  But went his ways, as was his wont wilome;
    Goliah, he turned out eftsoons, ah! me,
  Who leaned upon his speare when David come,
  And laughed to scorn the sillie boy his threat'ning doom.

  But when his stronghold in ye Southron land,
    Of formidable front, Forte Sumter hight,
  Did fall into Kyng Coten's rebell hand,
    Who coward-wise did challenge to the fight,
    Some several men again his host of might;
  Then Samuel, for so was he yclipt,
    Begun in batail's gear himself to dight,
  As being fooled by him with whom he sippt,
  And hied him out, loud crying, 'Treason must be nippt!'

  O ye who doe the crusades' musters tell,
    In wise that maketh myndes incredulous,
  And paynte how like Dan Neptune's sweeping swell
    The North bore down on the perfidious!
    Ne nigh so potent thatte as was with us;
  Where men, like locusts, darkened all the land,
    As marched they toward the place that's treacherous,
  And shippes, that eke did follow the command,
  Like forests, motion-got, doe walk along the strand.

  Fierce battails ther were fought upon the ground,
  Thatte rob'd the heavens alle in ayer dunne;
  And shoke the world as doth the thunder's sound,
    Till, soth to say, it well-nigh was undone:
    But of them alle, ther is an one
  That frayle pen dispairs for to descrive,
  Which mortalls call the Battail of Bull Run;
  But why I mote ne tell, as I'm alive,
  Unless it haply he ther _running_ did most thrive.

LAWRENCE MINOT.





'Our Orientalist' appears this month with

_EGYPT IN TWENTY-FOUR HOURS._

BY A FAST TRAVELER.

'You ought to go to the East,' said Mr. Swift, with a wave of his hand;
'I've been there, and seen it under peculiar circumstances.'

'Explain, O howaga! Give us the facts.

'Immediately. Just place the punch-pitcher where I can reach it easily.
That's right! Light another Cabañas. So; now for it. In 1858, month of
December, I was settled in comfortable quarters in the Santa Lucia,
Naples, and fully expected to winter there at my ease, when, to my
disgust, I received letters from England, briefly ordering me by first
steamer to Alexandria, thence per railroad to Cairo, there to see the
head of a certain banking-house; transact my business, and return to
Naples with all possible dispatch. No sooner said than done; there was
one of the Messagérie steamers up for Malta next day; got my passport
visaed, secured berth, all right. Next night I was steaming it past
Stromboli, next morning in Messina; then Malta, where I found steamer up
for Alexandria that night; in four days was off that port, at six
o'clock in the morning, and at half-past eight o'clock was in the cars,
landing in Cairo at four o'clock in the afternoon. Posted from the
railroad-station to the banker's, saw my man, arranged my business, was
to receive instructions at seven o'clock the next morning, and at eight
o'clock take the return train to Alexandria, where a steamer was to sail
next day, that would carry me back to Naples, _presto_! as the jugglers
say.

'There, breathe a little, and take another glass of punch, while I
recall my day in the East.

'Through at the banker's, he recommended me to the Hotel ----, where I
would find a good table, clean rooms, and none of my English
compatriots. I love my native land and my countrymen _in it_, but as for
them out of it, and as Bohemians--ugh! I am too much of a wolf myself to
love wolves. Arrived at the hotel, with my head swimming with
palm-trees, railroad, turbans, tarbooshes, veiled women, camels, pipes,
dust, donkeys, oceans of blue calico, groaning water-wheels, the Nile,
far-off view of the Pyramids, etc., I at once asked the headwaiter for a
room, water, towels; he passed me into the hands of a very tall Berber
answering to the name of Yusef, who was dressed in flowing garments and
tarboosh, and who was one of the gentlest beings entitled to wear
breeches I have ever seen; he had feet that in my recollection seem a
yard long, and how he managed to move so noiselessly, unless both pedals
were soft-shod, worries me to the present time. Well, at six o'clock the
gong sounded for dinner, and out I went over marble floors to the dining
hall, where I found only three other guests, who saluted me courteously
when I entered, and at a signal from Yusef, a compromise between a bow
and a salaam, we seated ourselves at table. Of the three guests, one was
particularly a marked man, apart from his costume, that of a cavalry
officer in the Pacha's service; there was something grand in his face,
large blue eyes, full of humor and _bonhommie_, a prominent nose, a
broad forehead, burned brown with the sun, his head covered with the
omnipresent tarboosh, a mustache like Cartouche's; such was my
_vis-à-vis_ at the hotel-table.

'In conversation with this officer, it turned up that one of my most
intimate friends was his cousin, and so we had a bottle of old
East-India pale sherry over that; then we had another to finally cement
our acquaintance; I said finally--I should say, finally for dinner.

'I have seen the interiors of more than three hundred hotels in Europe,
Africa, and America; but I have yet to see one that appeared so
outrageously romantic as that of the Hotel ----, at Cairo, after that
second bottle of sherry! The divans on which we reposed, the curious
interlacing of the figures on the ceiling, the raised marble floor at
the end of the room overlooking the street, the arabesques on the doors,
and finally the never-ending masquerade-ball going on in the street
under the divans where we sat and smoked.

'I can't tell you how it happened, but after very small cups of very
black coffee and a pousse café, in the officer's room, of genuine
kirschwasser and good curaçoa, I was mounted on a bay horse; there was a
dapple-gray alongside of me; and running ahead of us, to clear the way,
the officer's _sais_ afoot, ready to hold our horses when we halted. We
were quickly mounted and off like the wind, past turbans, flowing
bournouses, tarbooshes, past grand old mosques, petty cafés, where the
faithful were squatting on bamboo-seats, smoking pipes or drinking
coffee-grounds, while listening to a storyteller, possibly relating some
story in the _Arabian Nights_; then we were through the bazaars, all
closed now and silent; then up in the citadel, and through the mosque of
Yusef; then down and scouring over the flying sand among the grand old
tombs of the Mamelukes and of the caliphs; then off at break-neck speed
toward the Mokatamma mountains, from a rise on the lower spur of one of
which we saw, in the shadow of the coming night, the Pyramids and the
slow-flowing Nile.

'Again we were in Cairo, and now threading narrow street after street,
the fall of our horses' hoofs hardly heard on the unpaved ways, as we
were passing under overhanging balconies covered with lace-work
lattices. As it grew darker, our _sais_ preceded us with lighted
lantern, shouting to pedestrians, blind and halt, to clear the road for
the coming effendis.

'_Halte la!_

'My foaming bay was reined in with a strong hand, I leaped from the
saddle, and found the _sais_ at hand to hold our horses, while we saw
the seventh heaven of the Koran, and by no means _al Hotama_.

'With a foresight indicating an old campaigner, the officer produced a
couple of bottles of sherry from the capacious folds of the _sais_'
mantle, and unlocking the door of the house in front of which we stood,
invited me to enter. Two or three turns, a court-yard full of
rose-bushes, and an enormous palm-tree, a fountain shooting up its
sparkling waters in the moonlight, a clapping of hands, chibouks, sherry
cooled in the fountain.

'Then, in the moonlight, the gleam of white flowing garments, the
nervous thrill breathed in from perfumes filling the evening air; the
great swimming eyes; the kiss; the ah!--other bottles of sherry. The
fingans of coffee, the pipe of Latakiah tobacco, the blowing a cloud
into dreamland, while Fatima or Zoe insists on taking a puff with you.

'But as she said, '_Hathih al-kissah moaththirah_, which, in the
vernacular, is. 'This history is affecting,' so let us pass it by. We
finished those two bottles of sherry, and if Mohammed, in his majesty,
refuses admittance to two Peris into paradise, because they drank sherry
that night, let the sins be on our shoulders, WE are to blame.

       *       *       *       *       *

'Next morning, at seven o'clock, I was at the banker's, and received his
orders, and at six o'clock that evening was steaming out of Alexandria,
bound to Naples _via_ Malta. A little over twenty-four hours, and I had
SEEN THE ORIENT THROUGH SHERRY--pale, golden, and serenely beautiful!

'Pass the punch.'

       *       *       *       *       *

Very welcome is our pleasant contributor--he who of late discoursed on
'honeyed thefts' and rural religious discipline--and now, in the
present letter, he gives us his views on meals, feeds, banquets,
symposia, or by whatever name the reader may choose to designate
assemblies for the purpose of eating.

     Please make room at this table, right here, for me. Surely at a
     table of such dimensions, there should be plenty of room. Many a
     table-scene do I now recall, in days gone by, 'all of which I saw,
     and part of which I was,' but nothing like this. Tables of all
     sorts and sizes, but never a CONTINENTAL table before. I suppose
     the nearest approach to it was _the_ picnic dinner the wee
     youngsters used to eat off the _ground_! A CONTINENTAL table! The
     most hospitable idea imaginable. Give place! Do you demand my
     credentials, my card, my ticket? Here we have it all; a little note
     from mine host, Mr. LELAND, inviting the bearer to this monthly
     repast, and requesting, very properly--it was the way we always
     did, when we used to get up picnics--that the receiver of the note
     bring some sort of refreshments along. Thank you. This seat is very
     comfortable. What more appropriate, at such a time, than the
     discussion of _the Meal?_

     I protest I am no glutton; in fact, I despise the man whose
     meal-times are the epochs of his life; yet I frankly confess to
     emotions of a very positive character, in contemplating the
     associations of the table, and I admit farther, that I take
     pleasure in the reality as well as in the imagination. I like to be
     'one of the company,' whether in palace or in farm-house. I always
     brighten up when I see the dining-room door thrown open to an angle
     hospitably obtuse, and am pleased alike with the politely-worded
     request, 'Will the ladies and gentlemen please walk out and partake
     of some refreshments?' or the blunt, kindly voice of mine host,
     'Come, friends; dinner's ready.' Still I assert my freedom from any
     slavish fondness for the creature comforts. It is not the bill of
     fare that so pleases me. In fact, some of the best meals of which I
     have ever partaken, were those the materials of which I could not
     have remembered twenty minutes after. Exquisite palatal pleasures,
     then, are not a _sine qua non_ in the enjoyment of table comforts.
     No, indeed. There is a condiment which is calculated to impart a
     high relish to the humblest fare; but without this charmed
     seasoning, every banquet is a failure. Solomon was a man of nice
     observation, even in so humble a matter as a meal. Let him reveal
     the secret in his own words: 'Better is a dinner of herbs, where
     LOVE is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.'

     By a merciful arrangement of Providence, man is so constituted that
     he may think, talk, and eat, all at one and the same time. Hence,
     the table is often the scene of animated and very interesting
     conversations, provided _love is there_. Many of our Saviour's most
     interesting and instructive discourses were delivered while
     'sitting at meat,' and the 'table-talk' of some authors is
     decidedly the most meritorious of all their performances.

     But the truth is, there are not many meals where love _is_ entirely
     absent. Cheerfulness is naturally connected with eating; eating
     begets it probably. It is difficult for a man to eat at all, if he
     is in a bad humor. Quite impossible, if he is in a rage; especially
     if he is obliged to sit down to his dinner in company with the man
     he hates. There are so many little kind offices that guests must
     perform for each other at table, so many delicate compliments may
     be paid to those we love or revere, by polite attentions to them,
     and so necessary, indeed, have these become to our notion of a
     satisfactory repast, that to banish such amiable usages from our
     tables would be not only to degrade us to the level of the brute,
     but would deprive us of a most humanising and refining means of
     enjoyment. How beautiful and necessary, then, is the arrangement by
     which, morning, noon, and night, (I pity folks who only eat twice a
     day,) the members of the household are brought together in such
     kindly intercourse around the family board! How seldom would they
     assemble thus pleasantly, were it not for the meal!

     The little wounds and scratches which the sharp edges of our
     characters will inflict upon each other, when brought together in
     the necessary contact of daily intercourse, would otherwise be
     suffered to fret and vex us sorely; but before they have had time
     to fester and inflame, meal-time comes, and brings with it the
     magic, mollifying oil.

     It is meet, then, (we spell the word with two e's, mind you,) that,
     on any occasion of public rejoicing, the banquet should be an
     indispensable accompaniment. The accomplishment of some important
     public enterprise, the celebration of the birth-days of great and
     good men, a nation's holidays, the reünions of friends engaged in a
     common cause, are occasions in which the dinner, very properly,
     constitutes one of the leading features.

     And what can be more exhilarating than the innocent mirthfulness,
     the unaffected kindnesses, the witty speeches, the sprightly
     conversations which are universally incident to such occasions? No
     wonder Lycurgus decreed that the Spartans should eat in public.
     Ostensibly, it was for the sake of the grave conversations of the
     elders at such times, but really, I imagine, it was to keep the
     citizens (who had been at swords' points with each other) in a good
     humor, by bringing them around a common table.

     He knew that if any thing would soften their mutual asperities and
     cultivate mutual good feeling, such a measure would. Would it not
     be well for modern times to take a hint here? Had I been appointed
     architect of the Capitol, I think I could have saved the feuds
     which long ago sprang up, and which have resulted in, and will yet
     bring about, alas! we know not how much bloodshed. I would have
     constructed a couple of immense dining-rooms, with all the
     necessary appurtenances. Just to think how different would have
     been the aspect of things in the chamber where Sumner once lay
     bleeding, and in the hall where a gentleman, in a mêlée, '_stubbed
     his toe and fell_!' There would have been Mr. Breckinridge, in a
     canopied seat at the head of one of the tables, rapping the Senate
     to order with his knife-handle, and Mr. Orr at the head of the
     other, uncovering an immense tureen, with the remark that '_the
     House will now proceed to business_!' How strange it would be to
     hear any angry debate at such a time! Imagine a Congressman helping
     himself to a batter-cake and at the same time calling his
     brother-member a liar! or throwing down his napkin, by way of
     challenge to '_the gentleman on the opposite side of the table_!'
     Think of Keitt politely handing Grow the cream-pitcher, and
     attempting to knock him down before the meal was dispatched. Had
     the discussion of the Lecompton Constitution been carried on
     simultaneously with that of a couple of dozen roast turkeys, I
     sometimes think we might have avoided this war.

     Not only in public but in private rejoicings, is the table the
     scene of chief enjoyment. When was it that the fatted calf was
     killed? On what occasion was the water turned into wine? What
     better way to rejoice over the return of a long-absent one than to
     meet him around the hospitable table? Ye gods! let your mouths
     water! There's a feast ahead for our brave soldiers, when they come
     home from this war, that will make your tables look beggarly. I
     refer to that auspicious moment when the patriot now baring his
     bosom to the bloody brunt of war, shall sit down once more to the
     table, in his own dear home, however humble, and partake of the
     cheerful meal in peace, with his wife and his little ones about
     him. Oh! for the luxury of that first meal! I almost feel as if I
     could endure the hardships of the fierce campaign that precedes it.

     There is no memory so pleasant to me as that of the annual reünion
     of my aunts and uncles, with their respective troops of cousins, at
     the house of my dear grandmother of blessed memory. It was pleasant
     to watch the conveyances one by one coming in, laden with friends
     who had traveled many a weary mile to be present on the great
     occasion. It was pleasant to witness the mutual recognitions of
     brothers and sisters with their respective wives and husbands; to
     observe the transports of the little fellows, in their hearty
     greetings, after a twelve months' separation, and to hear their
     expressions of mingled surprise and delight on being introduced to
     the strange _little_ cousins, whose presence increased the number
     considerably above the preceding census. But the culminating point
     was yet to come. That was attained when all the brothers and
     sisters had gathered around the great long table, just as they did
     when they were children, with their dear mother at the head,
     surveying the scene in quiet enjoyment, and one of the 'older boys'
     at the foot, to ask a blessing. There were the waffle-cakes, baked
     in the irons which had furnished every cake for that table for the
     last quarter of a century. There was the roast-turkey, which
     grandma had been putting through a generous system of dietetics for
     weeks, preparatory to this occasion. It rested on the same old
     turkey-plate, with its two great birds sitting on a rose-bush, and
     by its side was the great old carving-knife, which had from time
     immemorial been the instrument of dissection on such occasions. And
     there was maple-molasses from Uncle D----'s 'sugar-camp,' and
     cheese from Aunt N----'s press, and honey from Uncle T----'s hives,
     and oranges which Aunt I----, who lived in the city, had provided,
     and all contained in the old-fashioned plates and dishes of a
     preceding generation.

     I discover I am treating my subject in a very desultory manner.
     Perhaps I should have stated that under the head of the complete
     genus, _meal_, there are three distinct species, public, social,
     and private. That the grand banquet, celebrating some great man's
     birth, or the success of some noble public enterprise, with its
     assemblages of the great and the good from every part of the
     country; the Fourth of July festival, in honor of our nation's
     independence, with its speeches, its drums, its toasts, and its
     cannon; the '_table d'hôte_,' or in plain English, the hotel
     dinner-table, so remarkable for the multitude of its dishes and the
     meagreness of their contents; the harvest-feast, the exact opposite
     of the last-named, even to the mellow thirds and fifths that come
     floating over the valleys from the old-fashioned dinner-horn,
     calling in the tired laborers; its musical invitation in such
     striking contrast with the unimagined horrors of the gong that
     bellows its expectant victims to their meals; the family repast,
     where one so often feels gratified with the delicate compliment of
     a mother, a sister, or a wife, in placing some favorite dish or
     flower near his plate; the annual gatherings of jolly alumni; the
     delightful concourse of relatives and friends; the gleesome picnic
     lunch, with its grassy carpet and log seats; the luxurious
     oyster-supper, with its temptations 'to carry the thing too far;'
     the festival at the donation-party, which, in common parlance,
     would be called a dish of 'all sorts;' the self-boarding student's
     desolate corn-cake, baked in a pan of multifarious use: all these
     are so many modifications under their respective species.

     Let me remark, in conclusion, that there are some meals from which
     I pray to be delivered. There is the noisy dinner of the
     country-town _tavern_ or railroad station, where each individual
     seems particularly anxious that number _one_ should be provided
     for, and where, in truth, he is obliged often to make pretty
     vigorous efforts, if he succeeds. Again, have you ever observed how
     gloomy is the look of those who for the first time gather around
     the table, after the departure of a friend? The breakfast was
     earlier than usual, and the dishes were suffered to stand and the
     beds to go unmade, and housemaid, chamber-maid, cook, and
     seamstress, all engaged in the _mélée_ of packing up, and of course
     came in for their share of 'good-bys.' After the guests were fairly
     off, 'things took a stand-still' for a while. All hands sat down
     and rested, and looked very blank, and didn't know just where to
     begin. Slowly, confusion began to relax _his_ hold, and order, by
     degrees, resumed _her_ sway; (for the life of me, I can't bring
     myself to determine the genders in any other way.) But when, at
     last, the dinner-hour came, how strangely silent were the eaters!
     Ah! if the departed one have gone to his long home, how _solemn_ is
     this first meeting of the family, after their return to their
     lonely home! It may be the sire whose place at the head of the
     table is now vacant, and whose silvery voice we no longer hear
     humbly invoking the divine blessing; or perhaps the mother, and how
     studiously we keep our eye away from the seat where her generous
     hand was wont to pour our tea. Perhaps the little one, the idol of
     the household, whose chirruping voice was wont to set us all
     laughing with droll remarks, expressed in baby dialect. How we miss
     the little high-chair that was always drawn up 'close by papa!' How
     our eyes will swim and our hearts swell up and choke us when we see
     it pushed back into the corner, now silent and vacant! Hast thou
     not wept thus? Be grateful. Thou hast been spared one of life's
     keenest pangs.

Thou speakest well. Dr. Doran has pleased us with his _Table Traits_,
but a great book yet remains to be written on the social power of meals.
The immortals were never so lordly as when assembled at the celestial
table, where inextinguishable laughter went the rounds with the nectar.
The heroes of Valhalla were most glorious over the ever-growing
roast-boar and never-failing mead. Heine suggests a millennial banquet
of all nations, where the French are to have the place of honor, for
their improvements in freedom and in cookery, and Master Rabelais could
imagine nothing more genial than when in the _Moyen de Parvenir_, he
placed all the gay, gallant, wise, brave, genial, joyous dames and
demoiselles, knights, and scholars of all ages at one eternal supper.
Ah! yes; it matters but little what is 'gatherounded,' as a quaint
Americanism hath it, so that the wit, and smiles, and good-fellowship be
there.

       *       *       *       *       *

It is stated in the newspapers--we know not on what authority--that
Charles A. Dana, late of the New-York _Tribune_, will probably receive
an important appointment in the army. A man of iron will, of indomitable
energy, undoubted courage, and of an inexhaustible genius, which
displays itself by mastering every subject as by intuition, Dana is one
whom, of all others, we would wish to see actively employed in the war.
We have described him in by-gone days as one who was 'an editor by
destiny and a soldier by nature,' and sincerely trust that his career
will yet happily confer upon him military honors. No man in America--we
speak advisedly--has labored more assiduously, or with more sterling
honest conviction in politics, than Charles A. Dana. The influence which
he has exerted has been immense, and it is fit that it be recognized.
Men who, like him, combine stern integrity with vigorous practical
talent, have a claim to lead.

       *       *       *       *       *

Among the most striking songs which the war has brought forth, we must
class that grim Puritanical lyric, 'The Kansas John Brown,' which
appeared originally in the Kansas _Herald_, and which is, as we are
informed, extensively sung in the army. The words are as follows:

THE KANSAS JOHN BROWN SONG.

  Old John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave,
  While the bondmen all are weeping whom he ventured for to save;
  But though he lost his life a-fighting for the slave,
        His soul is marching on.
          Glory, glory, Hallelujah!
          Glory, glory, Hallelujah!
          Glory, glory, Hallelujah!
        His soul is marching on.

  John Brown was a hero undaunted, true and brave,
  And Kansas knew his valor when he fought her rights to save;
  And now, though the grass grows green above his grave,
        His soul is marching on.

  He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so few,
  And frightened Old Virginia till she trembled through and through;
  They hung him for a traitor--themselves a traitor crew,
        But his soul is marching on.

  John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see;
  CHRIST, who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be;
  And soon through all the South the slaves shall all be free,
        For his soul goes marching on.

  John Brown he was a soldier--a soldier of the LORD;
  John Brown he was a martyr--a martyr to the WORD;
  And he made the gallows holy when he perished by the cord,
        For his soul goes marching on.

  The battle that John Brown begun, he looks from heaven to view,
  On the army of the Union with its flag, red, white and blue;
  _And the angels shall sing hymns o'er the deeds we mean to do_,
        _As we go marching on!_

  Ye soldiers of JESUS, then strike it while you may,
  The death-blow of Oppression in a better time and way,
  For the dawn of Old John Brown is a-brightening into day,
        And his soul is marching on.
          Glory, glory, Hallelujah!
          Glory, glory, Hallelujah!
          Glory, glory, Hallelujah!
        His soul is marching on.

There! if the soldiers of Cromwell and of Ireton had any lyric to beat
_that_, we should like to see it. Among its rough and rude rhymes gleams
out a fierce fire which we supposed was long since extinct. Verily, old
Father Puritan is _not_ dead yet, neither does he sleep; and to judge from
what we have heard of the effects of this song among the soldiers, we
should say that grim Old John Brown himself, far from perishing, is even
now terribly alive. There is something fearful in the inspiration which
can inspire songs like this.

       *       *       *       *       *

'GALLI VAN T' is welcome, and will be 'welcomer' when he again visits us
in another letter like _this_:

     DEAR CONTINENTAL: I have a friend who is not an artful man, though
     he be full of art; and yesterday evening he told me the following:

     'In my early days, when I took views of burly farmers and their
     bouncing daughters in oil, and painted portraits of their favorite
     horses for a very moderate _honorarium_, and in short, was the
     artist of a small country town--why, then, to tell the truth, I was
     held to be one of the greatest painters in existence. Since
     studying abroad, and settling down in New-York--'

     'And getting your name up among the first,' I added.

     'Never mind that--I'm not 'the greatest painter that ever lived'
     here. But in Spodunk, I was. Folks 'admired to see me.' I was a man
     that 'had got talent into him,' and the village damsels invited me
     to tea. There were occasional drawbacks, to be sure. One day a man
     who had heard that I had painted Doctor Hewls's house, called and
     asked me what I would charge to paint his little 'humsted.' I
     offered to do it for twenty dollars.

     'He gave me a shrewd gimlet-look and said:

     'Find your own paint--o' course?'

     ''Of course,' I replied.

     ''What color?'

     ''Why, the same color you now have,' was my astonished answer.

     ''Wall, I don't know. My wife kind o' thinks that turtle-color
     would suit our house better than Spanish brown. You put on two
     coats, of course?'

     'I now saw what he meant, and roaring with laughter, explained to
     him that there was a difference between a painter of houses and a
     house-painter.

     'One morning I was interrupted by a grim, Herculean, stern-looking
     young fellow--one who was manifestly a man of facts--who, with a
     brief introduction of himself, asked if I could teach 'the pictur
     business.' I signified my assent, and while talking of terms,
     continued painting away at a landscape. I noticed that my visitor
     glanced at my work at first as if puzzled, and then with an air of
     contempt. Finally he inquired:

     '''S _that_ the way you make your pictures?'

     ''That is it,' I replied.

     ''Do you have to keep workin' it in, bit by bit, _slow_--like as a
     gal works woosted-patterns?'

     ''Yes, and sometimes much slower, to paint well.'

     ''How long 'll it take to learn your trade?'

     ''Well, if you've any genius for it, you may become a tolerable
     artist in two years.'

     ''Two--_thunder_! Why, a man could learn to make shoes, in that
     time!'

     ''Very likely. There is not one man in a hundred, who can make
     shoes, who would ever become even a middling sort of artist.'

     ''_Darn_ paintin'!' was the reply of my visitor, as he took up his
     club to depart--his hat had not been removed during the whole of
     the visit. 'Darn paintin'! I thought you did the thing with
     stencils, and finished it up with a comb and a scraper. Mister, I
     don't want to hurt your feeling--but 'cordin' to _my_ way o'
     thinkin', paintin' as _you_ do it, an't a trade at all--it's
     nothin' but a darned despisable _fine art!_'

     'And with this candid statement of his views, my lost pupil turned
     to go. I burst out laughing. He turned around squarely, and
     presenting an angry front not unlike that of a mad bull, inquired
     abruptly, as he glared at me:

     ''Maybe you'd like to paint my portrit?'

     'I looked at him steadily in the eyes, as I gravely took up my
     spatula, (I knew he thought it some deadly kind of dagger,) and
     answered:

     ''I don't paint animals.

     'He gave me a parting look, and 'abscondulated.' When I saw him
     last, he was among the City Fathers! GALLI VAN T.'

       *       *       *       *       *

_A SONG OF THE PRESENT._

BY EDWARD S. RAND, JR.

  Not to the Past whose smouldering embers lie,
   Sad relics of the hopes we fondly nursed,
  Not to the moments that have hurried by,
   Whose joys and griefs are lived, the best, the worst.

  Not to the Future, 'tis a realm where dwell
    Fair, misty ghosts, which fade as we draw near,
  Whose fair mirages coming hours dispel,
    A land whose hopes find no fruition here.

  But to the Present: be it dark or bright,
    Stout-hearted greet it; turn its ill to good;
  Throw on its clouds a soul-reflected light;
    Its ills are blessings, rightly understood.

  Prate not of failing hopes, of fading flowers;
    Whine not in melancholy, plaintive lays,
  Of joys departed, vanished sunny hours;
    A cheerful heart turns every thing to praise.

  Clouds can not always lower, the sun must shine;
    Grief can not always last, joy's hour will come;
  Seize as you may, each sunbeam, make it thine,
    And make thy heart the sunshine's constant home.

  Nor for thyself alone, a sunny smile
    Carries a magic nothing can withstand;
  A cheerful look may many a care beguile,
    And to the weary be a helping hand.

  Be brave--clasp thy great sorrows in thy arms;
   Though eagle-like, they threat, with lifted crest,
  The dread, the terror which thy soul alarms,
   Shall turn a peaceful dove upon thy breast.

       *       *       *       *       *

_A STRANGE STORY--ITS SEQUEL._

PREFACE.

The often expressed wish of the American Press for an explanation of the
meaning of 'A Strange Story,' shall be complied with. It is purely and
simply this: Many novels, most of them, in fact, treat of the World; the
rest may be divided into those vaguely attempting to describe the works
of the Flesh and the Devil. This division of subjects is fatal to their
force; there was need to write a novel embracing them all; therefore 'A
Strange Story' was penned. Mrs. Colonel Poyntz personated the World,
Doctor Fenwick the Flesh, and Margrave, _alias_ Louis Grayle, certainly,
I may be allowed to say, played the Devil with marked ability. To give a
fitting _morale_ to all, the character of Lilian Ashleigh was thrown in;
the good genius, the conqueror of darkness, the positive of the
electrical battery meeting the negative and eliciting sparks of
triumphant light--such was the heroine.

Man, conscious of a future life, and endowed with imagination, is not
content with things material, especially if his brain is crowded with
the thoughts of the brains of ten thousand dead authors, and his nervous
system is over-tasked and over-excited. In this condition he rushes
away--away from cool, pure, and lovely feature--burying himself in the
hot, spicy, and gorgeous dreams of Art. He would adore Cagliostro, while
he mocked Doctor Watts! Infatuated dreamer! Returning at last, by good
chance--or, rather, let me say, by the directing hand of
Providence--from his evil search of things tabooed, to admiration of the
Real, the Tangible, and the True; he will show himself as Doctor Fenwick
does in this sequel, a strong, sensible, family-man, with a clear head
and no-nonsense about him.


CHAPTER I.

'I think,' said Faber, with a sigh, 'that I must leave Australia and go
to other lands, where I can make more money. You remember when that
Egyptian woman bore the last--positively the last--remains of Margrave,
or Louis Grayle, to the vessel?'

'I do,' quoth Doctor Fenwick.

'Well, a pencil dropped from the pocket of the inanimate form. I picked
it up, and on it was stamped in gilded letters:

              'FABER, No. 4.'

I believe it may belong to one of my family--lost, perhaps, in the ocean
of commerce.'

'Who knows? We will think of this anon; but hark! the tea-bell is rung;
let us enter the house.'


CHAPTER II.

'Good gracious! Doctor Faber, I am so glad to see you. Sit right down in
this easy-chair. We've muffins for tea, and some preserves sent all the
way from dear Old England. Now, Allen, be lively to-night, and show us
how that cold chicken should be carved.'

Thus Lilian, Doctor Fenwick's wife, rattled on. She had grown very stout
in the five years passed since 'A Strange Story' was written, and now
weighed full thirteen stone, was red-cheeked and merry as a cricket.
Mrs. Ashleigh, too, had grown very stout and red-cheeked, and was
bustling around when the two doctors entered the room.

'How much do you think I weigh?' asked Fenwick of Doctor Faber.

'About fifteen stone,' answered the old doctor, while he dissected a
side-bone of the chicken. 'I think you did well to begin farming in
earnest. There is nothing like good hard work to cure the dyspepsia and
romantic dreams.'

'Indeed, dear doctor, and you have reason, to be sure,' said Mrs.
Ashleigh. 'And pray, don't you think, now, that Lilian is a great deal
more comely since she has given up worsted-work and dawdling, and taken
to filling her duties as housewife?'

'To be sure I do.'

The doctor here passed the muffins to Lilian. She helped herself to a
brown one, remarking:

'It is such a blessed thing to have a fine appetite, and be able to eat
half-a-dozen muffins for tea! Oh! by the way, Allen, I wish you would
buy three or four more barrels of pale ale--we are nearly out.'


CHAPTER III.

'Here ye are, gen-till-men! This fine de-tersive soap--on-ly thrippence
a tab-let--takes stains out of all kinds of things. Step up while there
air a few tab-lets left of this in-im-a-table art-tickle unsold.'

'Who's that guy in the soap-trade?' asked one policeman of another one
as they passed along Lowther Arcade and saw the man whose conversation
is reported above.

'He's a deep one, hi know,' said the one asked. ''Is name is Grayle,
Louis Grayle. There's hodd stories 'bout 'im, werry hodd. 'E tries to
work a werry wiry dodge on the johnny-raws, bout bein' ha 'undred hand
ten years hold. Says 'e's got some kind o' water wot kips hun' from
growink hold, My heye! strikes me if 'e 'ad, 'e wouldn't bein' sellin'
soap 'bout 'ere. Go hup to 'im hand tell 'im to move hon, 'e's ben
wurkin this lay long enough, I _ham_ thinkin'.

Such, gentle reader, was the condition of Louis Grayle when I last saw
him. By the assistance of confederates and other means, he had imposed
on our good friend Doctor Fenwick, in former years, and nearly driven
that poor gentleman crazy during his celibacy, especially as the doctor
in all this period would smoke hasheesh and drink laudanum
cocktails--two little facts neglected to be mentioned in 'A Strange
Story.' Now, he was poor as a crow, this Louis Grayle, and was only too
glad to turn the information he had learned of Haroun of Aleppo, to
profitable account--the most valuable knowledge he had gained from that
Oriental sage being the composition of a soap, good to erase stains from
habits.


CHAPTER IV.

Mrs. Colonel Poyntz having rendered herself generally disagreeable to
even the London world of fashion, by her commanding presence, has been
quietly put aside, and at latest accounts, every thing else having
failed, had taken up fugitive American secessionists for subjects, and
reports of revolvers and pokers (a slavish game of cards) were
circulated as filling the air she ruled.


CHAPTER V.

Doctor Fenwick is now the father of four small tow-headed children, who
poss the long Australian days teasing a tame Kangaroo and stoning the
loud-laughing great kingfisher and other birds, catalogue of which is
mislaid. His wife has not had a single nervous attack for years, and
probably never will have another. Doctor Faber married Mrs. Ashleigh!

Doctor Fenwick, it is needless to say, has thrown his library of
Alchemists, Rosicrucianists, Mesmerists, Spiritualists,
Transcendentalists, and all other trashy lists into the fire, together
with several pounds of bang, hasheesh, cocculus indicus, and opium. He
at this present time of writing, is an active, industrious, intelligent,
and practical man, finding in the truthful working out THE great
problem, Do unto others as you would have others do unto you, an
exceeding great reward.

THE END.

       *       *       *       *       *

_WHAT THEN?_

BY J. HAL. ELLIOT.

  God's pity on them! Human souls, I mean,
    Crushed down and hid 'neath squalid rags and dirt,
    And bodies which no common sore can hurt;
           All this between
  Those souls, and life--corrupt, defiled, unclean.

  And more--hard faces, pinched by starving years.
    Cold, stolid, grimy faces--vacant eyes,
    Wishful anon, as when one looks and dies;
           But never tears!
  Tears would not help them--battling constant jeers.

  Forms, trained to bend and grovel from the first,
    Crouching through life forever in the dark,
    Aimlessly creeping toward an unseen mark;
           And no one durst
  Deny their horrid dream, that they are curst.

  And life for them! dare we call life its name?
    O God! an arid sea of burning sand,
    Eternal blackness! death on every hand!
           A smothered flame,
  Writhing and blasting in the tortured frame.

  And death! we shudder when we speak the word;
    'Tis all the same to them--or life, or death;
    They breathe them both with every fevered breath;
           When have they heard,
  That cool Bethesda's waters might be stirred!

  They live among us--live and die to-day;
    We brush them with our garments on the street,
    And track their footsteps with our dainty feet;
           'Poor common clay!'
  We curl our lips--and that is what we say.

  God's pity on them! and on us as well:
    They live and die like brutes, and we like men:
    Both go alone into the dark--what then?
           Or heaven, or hell?
  They suffered in this life! Stop! Who can tell?

       *       *       *       *       *

The last stranger who visited Washington Irving, before his death, was
Theodore Tilton, who published shortly afterward an account of the
interview. Mr. Tilton wrote also a private letter to a friend, giving an
interesting reminiscence, which he did not mention in his published
account. The following is an extract from this letter, now first made
public:


     As I was about parting from Mr. Irving, at the door-step, he held
     my hand a few moments, and said:

     'You know Henry Ward Beecher?'

     'Yes,' I replied, 'he is an intimate friend.'

     'I have never seen him,' said he, 'tell me how he looks.'

     I described, in a few words, Mr. Beecher's personal appearance;
     when Mr. Irving remarked:

     'I take him to be a man always in fine health and cheery spirits.'

     I replied that he was hale, vigorous, and full of life; that every
     drop of his blood bubbled with good humor.

     'His writings,' said Knickerbocker, 'are full of human kindness. I
     think he must have a great power of enjoyment.'

     'Yes,' I added, 'to hear him laugh is as if one had spilt over you
     a pitcher of wine.'

     'It is a good thing for a man to laugh well,' returned the old
     gentleman, smiling. He then observed:

     'I have read many of your friend's writings; he draws charming
     pictures; he inspires and elevates one's mind; I wish I could once
     take him by the hand.'

     At which I instantly said:

     'I will ask him to make you a visit.'

     'Tell him I will give him a Scotch welcome; tell him that I love
     him, though I never have seen his face.'

     These words were spoken with such evident sincerity, that
     Sunnyside will always have a sunnier place in my memory, because
     of the old man's genial tribute to my dear friend.

                                      I am ever yours,
                                                THEODORE TILTON.

       *       *       *       *       *

The following paragraph from the _Boston Traveller,_ contains a few
facts well worth noting:

     'The secession sympathizers in the North have two favorite dodges
     for the service of their friends, the enemy. The first is, to
     magnify the numbers of the rebel forces, placing them at 500,000
     men, whereas they never have had above half as many men in the
     field, all told, and counting negroes as well as white men. The
     other is, to magnify the cost of the war on the side of the
     Federalists. They tell us that our public war-debt, by the close of
     the current fiscal year, June 30, 1862, will be $1,200,000,000,
     (twelve hundred million dollars.) They know better than this, for
     that debt will, at the date named, be not much above $620,000,000,
     which would be no greater burden on the country than was that which
     it owed in 1815, perhaps not so great a burden as that was. People
     should not allow themselves to be frightened by the prophecies of
     men who, if they could be sure of preserving slavery in all its
     force, would care for nothing else.'

It is always easy to make up a gloomy statement, and this has been done
of late to perfection by the demo-secessionists among us. It is an easy
matter to assume, as has been done, the maximum war expenditure for one
single day, and say that it is the average. It is easy, too, to say that
'You can never whip the South,' and point to Richmond 'bounce' in
confirmation. It will all avail nothing. Slavery is going--of _that_
rest assured--and the South is to be thoroughly Northed with new blood.
_Delenda est Dixie._

Our 'private' readers in the army--of whom we have enough, we are proud
to say, to constitute a pretty large-sized public--may rest assured that
accounts will not be settled with the South without very serious
consideration of what is due to the soldier for his services 'in
snatching the common-weal from the jaws of hell,' as the Latin memorial
to Pitt, on the Dedham stone hath it. It has been said that republics
are ungrateful; but in this instance the adage must fall to the ground.
The soldier will be as much needed after the war, to settle the South,
'North it,' and preserve the Union by his intellect and his industry, as
he now is to reestablish it by his bravery.

We find the following in the Boston _Courier_ of March 29th:

     'Our attention has been called to a statement in the
     _CONTINENTAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE_, to the effect, that certain
     interesting 'Notes on the Gulf States,' which have recently
     appeared in this paper were reproductions, with certain
     alterations, of letters which were printed in the _Knickerbocker
     Magazine_ several years ago. The statement made is not positive,
     but made with such qualifications as might lead to the inference
     that the comparison was not very carefully made. We can only
     say, that we have had no opportunity to confer with our distant
     correspondent, who handed us the whole series of 'Notes'
     together, in manuscript, for publication; nor had we any reason
     to believe that they were ever printed before, either in whole
     or in part. We can say nothing further, until we know more about
     the grounds for the intimation of the CONTINENTAL MONTHLY.'

We were guarded in our statement, not having at hand, when we wrote the
paragraph referred to, more than three or four numbers of the Courier
containing the Gulf States articles, and not desiring to give the
accusation a needlessly harsh expression, knowing well that the best
informed editor may have at times old literary notes passed upon him for
new ones. What we _do_ say, is simply that several columns of the
articles which appeared as original in the Boston _Courier,_ were
_literal reprints_ from a series which appeared in the _Knickerbocker_
Magazine in 1847.




_THE OFFICIAL WAR MAP--NOW READY_

_HAZARD'S_

_RAILROAD AND MILITARY MAP OF THE SOUTHERN STATES_

Compiled from the most authentic sources, and the United States Coast
Surveys, by the Committee on Inland Transportation of the Board of Trade
of Philadelphia, and superbly engraved in the finest style of map
making.

The information for this map was recently obtained by A PERSONAL TOUR
THROUGH THE SOUTH, as well as by the information given by THE PRESIDENT
OF EVERY RAILROAD; the corrections make it COMPLETE TO THE PRESENT HOUR;
and it gives so recent and such valuable facts concerning all the
Railroads, that the War Department immediately authorized its
publication, and distributed ONE THOUSAND COPIES among the Generals and
Colonels of the Army; that order having been supplied, no further delay
in issuing the map will occur, and subscribers can now be supplied at
the following prices:

In Sheets, Carefully Colored,                                  $1.00
In Sheets, Carefully Colored, in a Neat Cloth Case,             1.50
The Same,  Carefully Colored, Mounted on Muslin, Folded,        2.50
  Do.      Carefully Colored, on Rollers, Varnished,            2.50
  Do.      Carefully Colored, Beautifully Mounted and
                  Framed for Office Use,                        3.00

Several weighty reasons for purchasing "HAZARD'S RAILROAD AND
MILITARY MAP OF THE SOUTHERN STATES."

1st. It is the official map; and therefore must be the best and the most
reliable, which is everything, particularly at this time when a good map
is of such universal interest. This is the ONLY MAP that has been
officially adopted for Government purposes.

2d. The Coast is so distinct and accurate, it shows every little island
and inlet, and is as correct as the large maps issued by the Coast
Survey Office.

3d. It is very cheap. It is thirty-two by fifty-five inches, and is one
of the best specimens of map engraving ever done in this country.

4th. It presents the whole Southern States at one view, and the
railroads are so distinctly marked as to show at a glance the most
important strategical points.

GENERAL MCCLELLAN has acknowledged in several communications the "_great
importance to his movements of the accurate information in regard to the
Southern Railroads, conveyed in this map_."

Testimonials of the same character have been received from Prof. A.D.
BACHE, of the Coast Survey Department, as to the great accuracy of the
coast line; and _one hundred extra copies ordered "to distribute among
the Commanders of the Atlantic and Gulf Squadrons,"_ which have been
furnished.

While ADOPTED FOR ITS ACCURACY by the MILITARY AUTHORITIES, as has been
stated, it is yet more especially a COMMERCIAL MAP, and was at first
intended expressly for that purpose. Hence, its value will be
undiminished when the war is over, and renewed attention is directed to
that section.

After what has been said of THE GREAT VALUE OF THIS MAP TO EVERY
INTELLIGENT MAN, is there any one who will be without it? particularly
since its price has been made as low as that of inferior maps, in order
to keep up with the times. We are constantly told by those who already
have several of the maps rushed upon the public, that they have laid
them aside and use only this one.

ACCURACY AND DISTINCTNESS are the characteristics of this map, the only
one sanctioned by the Government.

Just published and for sale by

CHAS. T. EVANS, General Agent for New-York State,

532 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK





_WASHINGTON_

_LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY,_

NO. 98 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK.


THIS COMPANY ISSUES POLICIES OF ALL KINDS UPON THE MOST
FAVORABLE TERMS.

CLAIMS PROMPTLY SETTLED.


DIRECTORS.

Cyrus Curtiss,
Cleayton Newbold,
Robert B. Minturn,
George Griswold, Jr.,
Roland G. Mitchell,
Frederick G. Foster,
Henry S. Fearing,
John Caswell,
Arthur F. Willmarth.
Thomas Hope,
Ellwood Walter.
Benjamin W. Bonney,
Franklin F. Randolph,
Frederick W. Macy,
Henry Swift,
David A. Wood,
Frederick Tracy,
William H. Aspinwall,
Henry W. Peck,
George N. Lawrence,
Thomas H. Faile,
Lewis F. Battelle,
James Ponnett,
Levi P. Morton,
Effingham Townsend,
William F. Mott, Jr.,
Andrew V. Stout,
Abiel A. Low,
Gustav Schwab,
Wellington Clapp,
Merritt Trimble,
Leopold Bierwirth,
George A. Robbins,
Robert R. Willets,
James B. Johnston,
David Wagstaff,
Abraham Bininger,
James Thomson,
Thomas A. Patteson,
Robert H. Berdell,
John G. Vose,
John H. Sherwood,
W.A. Brewer, Jr.,
Jeremiah C. Garthwaite,
Frederick Wood,
Frederick Croswell,
Matthew Mitchell,
Thomas B. Fitch.

CLEAYTON NEWBOLD, _Vice-President_.
CYRUS CURTISS, _President_.
GEO. T. ELLIOT, JR., M.D., _Medical Examiner_.
W.A. BREWER, Jr., _Sec'ty_.
GEO. M. GRIGGS, _General Agent for the State of New-York_.

AGENTS WANTED IN EVERY STATE.





_HOME INSURANCE COMPANY_
_OF NEW YORK,_
OFFICE, ........ 112 and 114 BROADWAY.

CASH CAPITAL,               $1,000,000.
ASSETS, 1st January, 1860,  $1,458,396 28
LIABILITIES                     42,580 43


THIS COMPANY INSURES AGAINST LOSS AND DAMAGE BY
FIRE, ON FAVORABLE TERMS.
LOSSES EQUITABLY ADJUSTED AND PROMPTLY PAID.

DIRECTORS.

Charles J. Martin,
A.F. Willmarth,
William G. Lambert,
George C. Collins,
Danford N. Barney,
Lucius Hopkins,
Thomas Messenger,
William H. Mellen,
Charles B. Hatch,
B. Watson Bull,
Homer Morgan,
L. Roberts,
Levi P. Stone,
James Humphrey,
George Pearce,
Ward A. Work,
James Lowe,
Isaac H. Frothingham,
Charles A. Bulkley,
Albert Jewitt,
George D. Morgan,
Theodore McNamee,
Richard Bigelow,
Oliver E. Wood,
Alfred S. Barnes,
George Bliss,
Roe Lockwood,
Levi P. Morton,
Curtis Noble,
John B. Hutchinson
Charles P. Baldwin.
Amos T. Dwight,
Henry A. Hurlbut,
Jesse Hoyt,
William Sturgis, Jr.,
John R. Ford,
Sidney Mason,
Geo. T. Stedman, Cinn.
Cyrus Yale, Jr.,
William R. Fosdick,
F.H. Cossitt,
David I. Boyd, Albany,
S.B. Caldwell,
A.J. Wills,
W.H. Townsend.

CHARLES J. MARTIN, PRESIDENT.
JOHN MCGEE, SECRETARY.
A.F. WILLMARTH, VICE PRESIDENT.




_WILCOX & GIBBS_
SEWING MACHINE

PRICE, $30.

[Illustration of hand, used as a bullet] REMARKABLE FOR ITS SIMPLICITY.

"Has evident points of superiority as a FAMILY MACHINE over all
others."--_Philadelphia Press_.

MANUFACTURED BY
JAMES WILLCOX,
No. 508 BROADWAY, opposite St. Nicholas Hotel, New-York.





_NOW READY._
In one Vol., 12mo. $1.25.

Undercurrents of Wall Street:
The Romance of Business.

BY RICHARD B. KIMBALL,
AUTHOR OF "ST. LEGER."

Also, in one Vol., 12mo. $1.25. A new edition of
St. Leger.

_G. P. PUTNAM, 532 BROADWAY._

[Illustration of hand, used as a bullet] Orders should be sent at once to
secure a prompt supply.





_DESTINED TO BE THE BOOK OF THE SEASON._

As published in the pages of THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY, it has been
pronounced by the Press to be
"SUPERIOR TO UNCLE TOM'S CABIN."
"FULL OF ABSORBING INTEREST."
"Whether invented or not, True, because true to Life."--HORACE GREELEY.

WILL SHORTLY BE PUBLISHED,

_In a handsome 12mo vol. of 330 pages, cloth, $1,
AMONG THE PINES,_
BY EDMUND KIRKE.

Read the following Notices from the Press:

"It contains the most vivid and lifelike representation of a specimen
family of poor South-Carolina whites we have ever read."--E.P. WHIPPLE,
in the _Boston Transcript_.

"It is full of absorbing interest."--_Whig_, Quincy, Ill.

"It gives some curious Ideas of Southern Social Life."--_Post_, Boston.

"The most lifelike delineations of Southern Life ever written."--_Spy_,
Columbia, Pa.

"One of the most attractive series of papers ever published, and
embodying only facts"--C.C. HAZEWELL, in the _Traveller_, Boston.

"A very graphic picture of life among the clay-eaters and
turpentine-makers."--_Lorain News_, Oberlin, Ohio.

"The author wields a ready and graphic pen."--_Times_, Armenia, N.Y.

"There are passages in it of the most thrilling dramatic
power."--_Journal_, Roxbury, Mass.

"It is the best and most truthful sketch of Southern Life and Character
we have ever read"--R. SHELTON MACKENZIE; in the _Press_, Philadelphia.

"Has a peculiar interest just now, and deserves a wide
reading."--_Dispatch_, Amsterdam, N.Y.

"An intensely vivid description of things as they occur on a Southern
Plantation"--_Union_ Lancaster, Pa.

"The author is one of the finest descriptive writers in the
country."--_Journal_, Boston, Mass.

"It presents a vivid picture of Plantation Life, with something of the
action of a character that is more than likely to pass from story into
history before the cause of the Rebellion is rooted out."--_Gazette_,
Taunton, Mass.

"A most powerful production, which can not be read without exciting
great and continued interest"--_Palladium_, New-Haven.

PUBLISHED BY
J.R. GILMORE,
532 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK,
And 110 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON

Orders from the Trade will be filled in the order in which they are
received.
_Single Copies sent, postpaid, by mail, on receipt of $1._





_THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY._

PUBLISHER'S NOTICE.

THE CONTINENTAL MONTHLY Has passed its experimental ordeal, and stands
firmly established in popular regard. It was started at a period when
any new literary enterprise was deemed almost foolhardy, but the
publisher believed that the time had arrived for just such a Magazine.
Fearlessly advocating the doctrine of ultimate and gradual Emancipation,
for the sake of the UNION and the WHITE MAN, it has found favor in
quarters where censure was expected, and patronage where opposition only
was looked for. While holding firmly to its _own opinions_, it has
opened its pages to POLITICAL WRITERS _of widely different views_, and
has made a feature of employing the literary labors of the _younger_
race of American writers. How much has been gained by thus giving,
practically, the fullest freedom to the expression of opinion, and by
the infusion of fresh blood into literature, has been felt from month to
month in its constantly increasing circulation.

The most eminent of our Statesmen have furnished THE CONTINENTAL many of
its political articles, and the result is, it has not given labored
essays fit only for a place in ponderous encyclopedias, but fresh,
vigorous, and practical contributions on men and things as they exist.

It will be our effort to go on in the path we have entered, and as a
guarantee of the future, we may point to the array of live and brilliant
talent which has brought so many encomiums on our Magazine. The able
political articles which have given it so much reputation will be
continued in each issue, and in this number is commenced a new Serial by
Richard D. Kimball, the eminent author of the 'Under-Currents of
Wall-Street,' 'St. Leger,' etc., entitled,


_WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?_

An account of the Life and Conduct of Hiram Meeker, one of the leading
men in the mercantile community, and 'a bright and shining light' in the
Church, recounting what he did, and how he made his money. This work
which will excel the previous brilliant productions of this author.

The UNION--The Union of ALL THE STATES--that indicates our politics. To
be content with no ground lower than the highest--that is the standard
of our literary character.

We hope all who are friendly to the spread of our political views, and
all who are favorable to the diffusion of a live, fresh, and energetic
literature, will lend us their aid to increase our circulation. There is
not one of our readers who may not influence one or two more, and there
is in every town in the loyal States some active person whose time might
be profitably employed in procuring subscribers to our work. To
encourage such to act for us we offer the following very liberal

TERMS TO CLUBS.

Two copies for one year,                  Five dollars.
Three copies for one year,                Six dollars.
Six copies for one year,                  Eleven dollars.
Eleven copies for one year,               Twenty dollars.
Twenty copies for one year,               Thirty-six dollars.

PAID IN ADVANCE.
_Postage, Thirty-six Cents a year_, TO BE PAID BY THE SUBSCRIBER.

SINGLE COPIES.
Three Dollars a year, IN ADVANCE.--_Postage paid, by the Publisher_.

J.R. GILMORE, 532 Broadway, New-York,
and 110 Tremont Street, Boston.

_CHARLES T. EVANS, 532 Broadway, New-York,_
GENERAL AGENT.








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