CHAPTER I.
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Towards the latter part of the summer of 18—,
on one of those cool, delightful, and invigorating
mornings which are frequent in the southern regions
of the United States, there issued from the
principal hotel on the valley-side of Harper's Ferry
two travellers, attended by a venerable and stately
southern slave. The experienced eye of the old
ferryman, as he stood in his flat-bottomed boat
awaiting the arrival of this party, discovered at
once that our travellers were from the far South.
The first of these, Victor Chevillere, entered the
“flat,” leading by the bridle a mettlesome southern
horse; when he had stationed this fine animal to
his satisfaction, he stood directly fronting the prescriptive
Charon of the region. This young gentleman,
who appeared to be the principal character
of the party just entering the boat, was handsomely
formed, moderately tall, and fashionably dressed.
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His face was bold, dignified, and resolute, and
not remarkable for any very peculiar fashion
of the hair or beard which shaded it. He appeared
to be about twenty-three years of age,
and though so young, much and early experience
of the world had already o'ershadowed his face
with a becoming serenity, if not sadness. Not
that silly, affected melancholy, however, which is
so often worn in these days by young and romantic
idle gentlemen, to catch the errant sympathies of
some untravelled country beauty.
The next personage of the party (who likewise
entered the boat leading a fine southern animal),
was a fashionable young gentleman, about the
middle size; his face was pale and wan, as if he
had but just recovered from an attack of illness.
Nevertheless there was a brilliant fire in his eye,
and a lurking, but too evident, disposition to fun
and humour, which illness had not been entirely
able to subdue. Augustus Lamar, for such was
his name, was the confidential and long-tried friend
of the first-named gentleman: their mutual regard
had existed undiminished from the time of their
early school days in South Carolina, through their
whole college career in Virginia up to the moment
of which we speak.
The third and more humble personage of the
party bore the time-honoured appellation of Cato.
He was a tall old negro, with a face so black as to
form a perfect contrast to his white hair and brilliant
teeth. He was well dressed and cleanly in
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his person, and rather solemn and pompous in his
manners. Cato had served the father of his present
highly honoured young master, and was deeply
imbued with that strong feudal attachment to the
family, which is a distinguishing characteristic of
the southern negroes who serve immediately near
the persons of the great landholders.
Our travellers were now smoothly gliding over
that most magnificent “meeting of the waters” of
the Shenandoah and Potomack, which is usually
known by the unpretending name of “Harper's
Ferry.” It was early morning; the moon was
still visible above the horizon, and the sun had not
yet risen above those stupendous fragments whose
chaotic and irregular position gives token of the
violence with which the mass of waters rent for
themselves a passage through the mountains, when
rushing on to meet that other congregation of
rivers, with whose waters they unite to form the
Bay of the Chesapeake. The black bituminous
smoke from the hundred smithies of the United
States' armory, had just begun to rise above the
towering crags that seemed, at this early period, to
battle with the vapours which are here sent up in
thick volumes from the contest of rocks and rivers
beneath.
Old Cato had by this time assumed his post at
the heads of the three horses, while our southerns
stood with folded arms, each impressed with the
scene according to his individual impulses. As
they approached nearer to the northern shore,
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Chevillere, addressing Lamar, observed: “An unhappy
young lady she must be who arrived at our hotel
last evening. I could hear her weeping bitterly as
she paced the floor, until a late hour of the night,
when finally she seemed to throw herself upon the
bed, and fall asleep from mere exhaustion;” and
then, turning to the weather-beaten steersman, continued:
“I suppose we are the first passengers in
the `flat' this morning?”
“No, sir, you are not; a carriage from the same
tavern went over half an hour ago. There was
an old gray-headed man, and two young women
in it, besides the driver, and the driver told me
that they were all the way from York State,—the
mail stage, too, went over.”
“The same party,” said Chevillere, abstractedly;
“Did you learn where they were to breakfast,
boatman?”
“About ten miles from this, I think I heard say.”
They were soon landed and mounted, and cantering
away through the fog and vapours of the
early morning. Nor were they long in overtaking
a handsome travelling-carriage, which was moving
at a brisk rate, in accordance with the exertions of
two fine, evidently northern, horses. The carriage
contained an elderly, grave, formal, and magisterial
gentleman; his locks quite gray, and hanging loose
upon the collar of his coat; his countenance harsh,
austere, and forbidding in the extreme. By his
side sat a youthful lady, so enveloped in a large
black mantle, and travelling hat and veil, that but
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little of her form or features could be seen, except
a pair of brilliant blue eyes.
It is not to be denied, that these sudden apparitions
of young and beautiful females, almost completely
shrouded in mantles, drapery, or veils, are
the very circumstances fully to arouse the slumbering
energies of a lately emancipated college Quixotte.
A lovely pair of eyes, brimful of tears,—a
“Cinderella” foot and ankle,—a white and beautifully
turned hand and tapered fingers, with perhaps
a mourning ring or two,—or a bonnet suddenly
blown off, so as to dishevel a magnificent head of
hair, its pretty mistress meanwhile all confusion,
and her snowy neck and temples suffused with
blushes,—these are the little incidents on which the
real romances of human life are founded. How
many persons can look back to such a commencement
of their youthful loves! nay, perhaps, refer
to it all the little enjoyment with which they have
been blessed through life! We venture to say,
that those who were so unfortunate as never to
bring their first youthful romance to a fortunate
denouement, can likewise look back upon such
occurrences with many pleasing emotions. A
bachelor or a widower, indeed, may not always
recur with pleasure to these first passages in the
book of life,—but the feelings even of these are
not altogether of the melancholy kind. The fairy
queens of their spring-tide will sometimes arise in
the present tense, until they almost imagine themselves
in the possession again of youth and all its
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raptures,—its brilliant dreams, airy castles, “hair-breadth
'scapes,” and miraculous deliverances,—
cruel fathers, and perverse guardians, and stolen
interviews, and lovers' vows and tokens,—winding
up finally with a runaway match—all of the imagination.
After the equipage before alluded to had been
for some time left behind, our travellers began to
descry, at the distance of several miles, the long
white portico of the country inn at which they
proposed to breakfast. The United States mail-coach
for Baltimore was standing at the door, evidently
waiting till the passengers should have
performed the same needful operation. Servants
were running hither and thither, some to the roost,
others to the stable, as if a large number of the
most distinguished dignitaries of the land had just
arrived.
But, behold, when our travellers drew up, they
found that all this stir among the servants of the
inn was called into being by the real or affected
wants of a number of very young gentlemen. We
say affected, because we are sorry to acknowledge
that it is not uncommon to see very young and
inexperienced gentlemen, on such occasions, assume
airs and graces which are merely put on as a travelling
dress, and which would be thrown aside at
the first appearance of an old acquaintance. At
such times it is by no means rare to see all the
servants of the inn, together with the host and
hostess, entirely engrossed by one of these
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overgrown boys or ill-bred men, while their elders and
superiors are compelled either to want or wait
upon themselves. At the time we notice, some
young bloods of the cities were exercising themselves
in their new suit of stage-coach manners.
“Here waiter! waiter!” with an affectedly delicate
and foreign voice, cried one of these youths,
enveloped in a brown “Petersham box” coat, and
with his hands stuck into his pockets over his hips.
Under the arm of this person was a black riding-switch,
with a golden head, and a small chain of
the same precious metal, fastened about six inches
therefrom, after the fashion of some old rapier
guards. He wore a rakish-looking fur cap, round
and tight on the top of his head as a bladder of
snuff; this was cocked on one side after a most
piratical fashion, so as to show off, in the best possible
manner, a great profusion of coarse, shining
black hair, which was evidently indebted to art
rather than nature for the curls that frizzled out
over his ears, while the back part of his head was
left as bare and defenceless as if he had already
been under the hands of a deputy turnkey. He
practised what may be called American puppyism,
as technically distinguished from the London species
of the same genus. “Here waiter! waiter!”
said he, “bring me a gin sling,—and half-a-dozen
Bagdad segars,—and a lighted taper,—and a fresh
egg,—and a bowl of water, and a clean towel,—
and polish my boots,—and dust my coat,—and then
send me the barber, do you hear?”
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“O, sir! we has no barber, nor Bagdab segars
neither; but we has plenty of the real Baltimores,—
real good ones, too,—as I knows very well, for
I smokes the old sodgers what the gentlemen throws
on the bar-room floor.”
“It is one of the most amusing scenes imaginable,”
said Victor Chevillere to Augustus Lamar,
as they sat witnessing this scene, “when the waiter
and the master pro tempore are both fools. The
fawning, bowing, cringing waiter, with his big lips
upon the qui vive, his head and shoulders constantly
in motion, and rubbing his hands one over the other
after the most approved fashion of the men of
business. In such a case as that which we have
just witnessed, where puppyism comes in contact
with the kindred monkey-tricks of the waiter, I
can enjoy it. But when it happens, as I have
more than once seen, that the waiter is a manly,
sensible, and dignified old negro of the loftier sort,
such as old Cato,—then you can soon detect the
curl of contempt upon his lip,—and he is not long
thereafter in selecting the real gentlemen of the
party,—always choosing to wait most upon those
who least demand it.”
“I would bet my horse Talleyrand against an
old field scrub, that that fellow is a Yankee,” answered
Lamar.
“He may be a Yankee,” continued Victor Chevillere,
“but you have travelled too much and reflected
too long upon the nature of man, to ascribe
every thing disgusting to a Yankee origin. For
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my part, I make the character of every man I
meet in some measure my study during my travels,
and as we have agreed to exchange opinions upon
men and things, I will tell you freely what I think
of that fellow who has just retreated from our
laughter. I have found it not at all uncommon, to
see the most undisguised hatred arise between two
such persons as he of the stage-coach,—the one
from the north, and the other from the south,—
when in truth, the actuating impulse was precisely
the same in both, but had taken a different direction,
and was differently developed by different
exciting causes.
“The puppyism of Charleston and that of Boston
are only different shades of the same character,
yet these kindred spirits can in nowise tolerate
each other. As is universally the case, those are
most intolerant to others who have most need of
forgiveness themselves. The mutual jealousy of
the north and south is a decided evidence of littleness
in both regions, and ample cause for shame to
the educated gentlemen of all parties of this happy
country. If pecuniary interest had not been mixed
up with this provincial rivalry, the feeling could
easily have been so held up to the broad light of
intelligence, as to be a fertile source of amusement,
and furnish many a subject for comedy and farce
in after-times.”
This specimen was by no means the only one
among the arrivals by the stage-coach. Every
waiter in the house was pressed into the service of
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these coxcombs,—some smoked,—some swaggered
through the private rooms,—others adjusted their
frizzled locks at the mirrors with brushes carried
for the purpose,—and all together created a vast
commotion in the quiet country inn.
As our two young southerns sat in the long
piazza, eying these stage-coach travellers and waiting
for breakfast, the same equipage which they
had passed on the road, and containing our northern
party, drew up to the door.
Not many minutes had elapsed before a black
servant stood in the entry between the double
suite of apartments, and briskly swung a small
bell to and fro, which seemed to announce breakfast,
from the precipitate haste with which the gentlemen
of the stage-coach found their way into the
long breakfasting-hall of the establishment. Our
southerns followed their example, but more quietly,
and by the invitation of the host. At the upper
end of the table stood the hostess, who, like most
of her kind in America, was the wife of a wealthy
landholder and farmer, as well as tavern-keeper.
She was a genteel and modest-looking woman, and
did the honours of the table like a lady at her own
hospitable board, and among selected guests. It
is owing to a mistake in the character of the host
and hostess, that so many foreigners give and take
offence at these establishments. They often contumaciously
demand as a right, what would have
been offered to them in all courtesy after the established
usages of the country.
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On the right of the hostess sat the youthful lady
who had spent such an unhappy night at the ferry,—
in the hearing of Victor Chevillere,—and whom
they had passed on the road. She was still so enveloped
in her travelling dress and veil as to be
but partially seen. On the same side, unfortunately,
as he no doubt thought, sat Chevillere with
Lamar. The grave-looking old gentleman, the
companion of the youthful lady mentioned, sat immediately
opposite to her. The gentlemen of extreme
ton (as they wished to be thought), were
ranged along the table, already mangling the dishes,
cracking and replacing the eggs, and apparently
much dissatisfied with the number of seconds they
had remained in heated water. Nor were they
long in striking up a conversation, as loud and full
of slang as their previous displays had been. During
this unseemly and boisterous conduct, some
more tender chord seemed to be touched within
the bosom of the lovely young female, than would
have been supposed from the character of the assailants.
Victor Chevillere turned his head in that
direction, and saw that her face had become more
deadly pale; at the same moment he heard her say,
in an under-tone, to the old gentleman her companion,
“My dear sir, assist me from this room,—my
head grows dizzy, and I feel a deathlike sickness.”
Chevillere was upon his feet in an instant, and
assisted the lady to rise; by this time, the old gentleman
having taken her other arm, they carried
rather than led her into one of the adjoining
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apartments, where, after depositing their beautiful burden
upon a sofa, Chevillere left her to the care of
the hostess, who had followed, and returned to the
breakfast-table.
Let us describe a country breakfast for the uninitiated.
At the head of the table was a large
salver, or japanned waiter, upon which was spread
out various utensils of China-ware,—the only articles
of plate being a sugar-dish and cream-pot.
On the right of this salver stood a coffee and teaurn,
of some composition metal, resembling silver
in appearance. At the other end of the table,
under the skilful hands of the host, was a large
steak, cut and sawed entirely through the sirloin
of the beef. Half-way up the table, on either side,
were dishes of broiled game, the intermediate
spaces being filled up with various kinds of hot
bread, biscuit and pancakes (as they are called
in some parts of the north). This custom of eating
hot bread at the morning and evening meal, is
almost universal at the south. Immediately in the
centre stood a pyramid of fresh-churned butter,
with a silver butter-knife sticking into the various
ornaments of vine-leaves and grapes with which
it was stamped.
To this fare Chevillere found his friend Lamar
doing the most ample justice, nor was his own
keen appetite entirely destroyed by the temporary
indisposition of the lady who had so much excited
his curiosity and his sympathy. He could have
congratulated himself on the little occurrence
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which had given him some claims to a farther acquaintance,
and doubtless could have indulged in
delightful reveries as to the fair and youthful
stranger,—had not all his gay dreams been put to
flight by the boisterous laughter and meager attempts
at wit of the other travellers. As he returned
towards the table, the one whom we have
more particularly described elevated a glass, with
a golden handle, to his large, full, and impudent
eye. Chevillere returned the gaze until his look
almost amounted to a deliberate stare. The
“bloods” looked fierce, and exchanged pugnacious
looks, but all chance of a collision was prevented
by the return of the hostess. Notwithstanding the
disagreeable qualities of most of the guests at the
table, Chevillere found time to turn the little incident
of the sudden indisposition and its probable
cause several times in his own mind; and, as may
be well imagined, his mental soliloquy resulted in
no injurious imputation upon the youthful lady,—
there was evidently no trait of affectation.
At length the meal was brought to a close,—not
however, before the driver of the mail-coach had
wound sundry impatient blasts upon his bugle,—
general joy seemed to pervade every remaining
countenance after the departure of the coxcombs.
Both the northern and southern travellers, who
were journeying northward, and who had breakfasted
at the inn, were soon likewise plodding along
at the usual rate of weary travellers by a private
conveyance.
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CHAPTER II.
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The misery of the young and the beautiful is
at all times infectious. Few young persons can
withhold sympathy in such a case,—especially if
the person thus afflicted be unmarried—of the other
sex—and near one's own age.
Victor Chevillere could not expel from his imagination
the image of the fair stranger. Again
and again did he essay to join Lamar in his light
and sprightly conversation, as they, on the day
after the one recorded in the last chapter, pursued
their journey along the noble turnpike between
Fredericktown and Baltimore. The same profound
revery would steal upon him, and abide
until broken by the merry peals of Lamar's peculiarly
loud and joyous laughter, at the new mood
which seemed to have visited the former. When
a young person first begins to experience these
abstracted moods, there is nothing, perhaps, that
sounds more harsh and startling to his senses, than
the mirthful voice of his best friend. He looks up
as one would naturally look at any unseemly or
boisterous conduct at a funeral. He seems to
gaze and wonder, for the first time, that all things
and all men are jogging on at their usual gait.
Thus were things moving upon the Fredericktown
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turnpike: Lamar riding forty or fifty paces in front,
singing away the blue devils; Chevillere in the
centre, moody and silent; and old Cato, stately as
a statue on horseback, bringing up the rear.
From hearing sundry merry peals of laughter
from Lamar's quarter, Chevillere was induced at
length to forego his own society for a moment, to
see what new subject his Quixotic friend had found
for such unusual merriment; and a subject he had
indeed found in the shape of a tall Kentuckian.
The name of the stranger, it seems, was Montgomery
Damon. He was six feet high, with broad
shoulders, full, projecting chest, light hair and complexion,
and a countenance that was upon the first
blush an index to a mind full of quaint, rude, and
wild humour. His dress was any thing but fashionable;
he wore a large, two-story hat, with a
bandana handkerchief hanging out in front, partly
over his forehead, as if to protect it from the great
weight of his castor. His coat and pantaloons
were of home-made cotton and woollen jeans, and
he carried in his hand a warlike riding-whip, loaded
with lead, and mounted with silver, with which,
now and then, he gave emphasis to his words, by
an unexpected and sonorous crack.
Our Kentuckian was no quiet man; but, like most
of his race, bold, talkative, and exceedingly democratic
in all his notions; feeling as much pride in
his occupation of drover, as if he had been a senator
in Congress from his own “Kentuck,” as he emphatically
called it. He was a politician, too,
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inasmuch as he despised tories, as he called the federalists,
approved of the late war, and had a most
venomous hatred against Indians, of whatever
tribe or nation. We shall break into their dialogue
at the point at which Victor became a
listener.
“How did it happen,” said Lamar, “that you
did not join the army either of the north or south,
when your heart seems to have been so entirely
with them?”
“O! as to jineen the army to the north,” said
Damon, “I was afraid the blasted tories would sell
me to the British, me and my messmates, like old
Hull, the infernal old traitor, sold his men for so
much a head, jist as I sell my hogs. As to t'other
business, down yonder, under Old Hickory, I
reckon I did take a hand or so aginst the bloody
Injins.”
“You prefer a fight with Indians, then, to one
with white men.”
“To be sure I do; I think no more of taking
my jack-knife, and unbuttonin the collar of a Creek
Injin, than I would of takin the jacket off a good
fat bell-wether, or mout-be a yerlin calf. Old
Hickory's the boy to sculp the bloody creters; he's
the boy to walk into their bread-baskets; and Dick
Johnston ain't far behind him, I can tell you,
stranger; he's the chap what plumped a bullet
right into old Tecumseh's bagpipes. Let him alone
for stoppin their war-whoops.”
“You were a rifleman, I suppose,” said Lamar.
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“Right agin, stranger. Give me a rifle for ever;
they never spiles meat, though, as one may say,
Injin's meat ain't as good as blue-lick buck's; but
for all that, it's a pity to make bunglin work of a
neat job; besides, your smooth bores waste a
deal of powder and lead upon the outlandish
creters.”
“Were you ever wounded?” asked Lamar.
“Yes! don't you see this here hare-lip to my
right eye? Well! that was jist the corner of an
Injin's hatchet. Bob Wiley jist knocked up his arm
in time to save me for another whet at the varmints;
if so mout be that we ever has another
brush with 'em, and Bob goes out agin, maybe I
may do him a good turn yet; he's what I call a
tear down sneezer (crack went the whip). He's
got no more fear among the Injins than a wild cat
in a weasel's nest; O! it would have done your
heart good to see him jist lie down behind an old
log, and watch for one of the varmint's heads bobbin
up and down like a muskovy drake in a barn
yard, and as sure as you saw the fire at the muzzle
of his gun, so sure he knocked the creter's hind
sights out. You see he always took 'em on the
bob, jist as you would shoot a divin bird, and that's
what I always called taking the bread out of the
creter's mouth, for he was watchin for the same
chance.”
“Did you scalp the slain?” said Lamar.
“No!” replied Damon, “we had plenty of
friendly Injins to do that, and it used to make me
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laugh to see the yallow raskals sculpin their kin;
that's what I call dog eat dog.”
“Do you think an Indian has a soul?” said
Lamar.
“Ha! ha! ha!” roared the Kentuckian, giving
a crack of unusual emphasis, “that's what I call a
stumper; but as you're no missionary, I 'spose I'll
tell you. I knows some dumb brutes—here's this
Pete Ironsides that I'm ridin on, has more of a
Christian soul in him than any leather-skin between
Missouri and Red River. Why! stranger! what's
an Injin good for, more nor a wild cat? You
can't tame ne'er a one of 'em.”
“But those missionaries you spoke of, don't you
think they will civilize, if not Christianize them?”
“Ha! ha! ha!” shouted Damon, with another
loud crack, and rolling a huge quid of tobacco
to the opposite side of his mouth, “they might as
well mount the trees and preach to the 'coons
and tree-frogs; one of your real psalm-singers
mout tree a coon at it, but hang me if he can ever
put the pluck of a white man under a yellow jacket.
Catch a weasel asleep or a fox at a foot race. I
rather suspicion, stranger, that I've seen more
Injins than your missionaries, and I'll tell you the
way to tame 'em;—slit their windpipes and hamstring
'em.”
“Perhaps you are an enemy to religion, or prejudiced
against the missionaries?”
“No! no! stranger, no! I likes religion well
enough of a Sunday; but hang me if I should not
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die of laughin to see 'em layin it down to the red-skins.
I'd as soon think of going into my horse
stable and preachin to the dumb brutes. Old Pete
here knows more now than many an Injin, and he's
got more soul than some Yankees that mout be
named; but come, stranger, here's a public house,
let's go in and cut the phlegm.”
“Agreed,” said Lamar, “but it must be at my
expense.”
“Well,” said Damon, “we'll not quarrel about
that;” and turning to Victor, “Stranger, won't
you join us in a glass of tight?”
“No! I thank you,” said Chevillere, “but I will
look on while you and my friend drink to the better
acquaintance of us all.”
After the parties had refreshed themselves and
their horses, and remounted, the conversation was
resumed. “Well now,” said the Kentuckian, addressing
Victor, “I wish I may be contwisted if
you ain't one of the queerest men, to come from the
Carolinas, I have clapped eyes on this many a
day. You don't chaw tobacco, and you don't
drink nothin; smash my apple-cart if I can see
into it.”
“I am one of those that don't believe in the
happy effects of either brandy or tobacco,” replied
Chevillere.
“Then you are off the trail for once in your life,
stranger, for I take tobacco to be one of God's
mercies to the poor. Whether it came by a rigular
dispensation of providence (as our parson used
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to say), or in a natural way, I can't tell; but hang
me, if when I gets a quid of the real Kentuck twist
or Maryland kite-foot into my mouth, if I ain't as
proud a man as the grand Turk himself. It drives
away the solemncholies, and makes a fellow feel
so good-natured, and so comfortable; it turns the
shillings in his pocket into dollars, and his wrath
into fun and deviltry. Let them talk about tobacco
as they choose among the fine gals, and at their
theatres, and balls, and cotillions, and all them sort
of things; but let one of 'em git twenty miles deep
into a Kentuck forest, and then see if a chew of
the stuff ain't good for company and comfort.”
“But you did not tell me,” resumed Lamar,
“whether you had ever shot at a white man?”
“No! no! I never did; and I don't know that
I ever will. I think I should feel a leetle particlar,
at standin up and shooting at a real Christian man,
with flesh and blood like you and me. You see,
when we boys of the long guns shoot, we don't
turn our heads away and pull trigger in a world
of smoke, so that nobody can tell where the lead
goes; we look right into the white of a fellow's
eye, and can most always tell which side of his
nose the ball went, and you see that would be but
a slayin and skinnen business among white people;
but as to shootin and sculpin Injins, that's a thing
there is no bones made about, because out on the
frontiers at the west, if a man should stand addlin
his brains about the right and the wrong of the thing,
the red devils would just knock them out to settle
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the matter, and sculp him for his pains into the bargain.
Shooting real Christian men's quite another
thing. It's what I ha'nt tried yet; but when we
Kentuck boys gits at it, it won't all end like a logrollin,
with one or two broken shins and a black
eye. But I'm told the Yankees always sings a
psalm before they go to battle. Now, according
to my notion, a chap would make a blue fist of
takin a dead aim through double sights, with the
butt end of a psalm in his guzzle.”
“Some person must have told you that as a
joke,” said Lamar.
“No, no, I believe it, because we had just such
a fellow once in our neighbourhood—a Yankee
schoolmaster—and we took him out a deer-driving
two or three times, and he was always singing a
psalm at his stand. He spoilt the fun, confound
him! Hang me if I didn't always think the fellow
was afraid to stand in the woods by himself without
it. I went to his singin school of Saturday
nights, too; but I never had a turn that way. All
the master could do, he could'nt keep me on the
trail,—I was for ever slipping into Yankee Doodle;
you see, every once in a while, the tune would take
a quick turn, like one I knowed afore, so I used to
blaze away at it with the best of 'em, but the same
old Yankee Doodle always turned up at the end.
But the worst of it was, the infernal Yankee spoiled
all the music I ever had in me; when I come out
of the school, I thought the gals at home would
have killed themselves laughin' at me. They said
-- 026 --
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I ground up Yankee Doodle and Old Hundred
together, all in a hodge-podge, so I never sings to
no one now but the dumb brutes in the stable,
when they gits melancholy of a rainy day. Old
Pete here raises his ears, and begins to snort the
minute I raises a tune.”
“Your singing-master was, like his scholar, an
original.”
“An original! When he come to them parts,
he drove what we call a Yankee cart, half wagon
and half carriage, full of all sorts of odds and ends;
when he had sold them out, he sold his horse and
cart too, and then turned in to keepin a little old-field
school; and over and above this, he opened a
Saturday night singin-school,—and I reckon we
had rare times with the gals there. At last, when
the feller had got considerable ahead, the word
came out that he was studyin to be a doctor; and
sure enough, in a few months, he sold out the school
for so much a head, just like we sell our hogs; then
off the Yankee starts to git made a doctor of; and
hang me if ever I could see into that business.
How they can turn a pedlar into a doctor in four
months, is a leetle jist over my head. It's true
enough they works a mighty change in the chaps
in that time. Our Yankee went off, as well-behaved
and as down-faced a chap as you would wish to
see in a hundred, and wore home-made clothes like
mine; but when he had staid his four months out,
and 'most everybody had forgot him, one day as
I was leanen up against one of the poplar trees in
-- 027 --
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the little town, I saw a sign goin up on the side of
a house, with Doctor Gun in large letters. I'll
take my Bible oath, when I saw the thing, I thought
I should have broke a blood-vessel. Howsomever,
I strained'em down, till an old woman would have
sworn I had the high-strikes, with a knot o' wind
in my guzzle. But I quieted the devil in me, and
then I slipped slyly over the street, behind where
the doctor was standing with his new suit of black;
one hand stuck in his side, and the other holding
an ivory-headed stick up to his mouth in the most
knowing fashion, I tell you. I stole up behind
him, and bawled out in his ear, as loud as I could
yell, `faw—sol—law—me.' Oh! my grandmother!
what a smashin rage he flew into; he shook his
cane—he walked backwards and forwards—and
didn't he make the tobacco juice fly? I rather
reckon, if I hadn't had so many inches, he'd have
been into my meat; but the fun of it all was, the
feller had foreswore his mother tongue; dash me
if he could talk a word of common lingo, much less
sing psalms and hymns by note; he rattled off
words as long as my arm, and as fast as a windmill.
Some of the old knowing ones says they've
got some kind of a mill, like these little hand-organs,
and that chops it out to the chaps eny
night and morning, pretty much as I chop straw to
my horses; but I'm going in to see that doctor-factory,
when I git to Philadelphia, if they don't
charge a feller more nor half a dollar a head.”
“I hope we shall travel together to Philadelphia,”
-- 028 --
[figure description] Page 028.[end figure description]
said Lamar; “and if so, I will introduce you into
the establishment, free of expense.”
“Thank you, sir, thank you,” said the Kentuckian;
“but I'm rather inclined to think that we
will hardly meet again after to-day; 'cause, you
see, I'm 'bliged to do a might of business in Baltimore
afore I can go on. After that, then I can
go on as I please; as I'm only goin to see the
world abit, afore I settle down for life.”
“But,” said Lamar, “if you will call at Barnum's,
and leave word what day you will set out, I will
see that we travel together, for I will suit my time
to yours; and I would advise you to send your
horse a short distance into the country, both for the
sake of convenience and economy.”
“What! part with old Pete here! Bless my
soul, stranger! he would go into a gallopin consumption!
or die of the solemncholies, if a rainy
spell should come on, and he and I couldn't have a
dish of chat together; and then I shouldn't know
no more what to do in one of your coaches nor a
cow with a side-pocket.”
“My word for it,” replied Victor, “you would
soon enjoy yourself inside of a stage-coach. Come,
let us make a bargain. I will engage to have your
horse well taken care of in the country, and provide
him with a groom that will soon learn his
ways, and be able to cheer him up when he gets
low-spirited.”
“Yes, do!” said Lamar, jocosely; “we are
anxious to have your company during our visit to
-- 029 --
[figure description] Page 029.[end figure description]
the cities. We are from Carolina, and you are
from Kentuck; and after you get through with
your business, we shall all be on the same errand—
pleasure and improvement.”
“And a wild-goose chase it's like to be, I'm
afraid; especially if I'm to be of your mess. But
suppose you should meet with some fine lady
acquaintances, what, in the name of old Sam, would
you do with me? I should be like a fifth wheel to
a wagon.”
“Were you never in the company of fine ladies?”
asked Chevillere.
“Yes! and flummuck me if ever I want to be
so fixed again; for there I sat with my feet drawn
straight under my knees, heads up, and hands
laid close along my legs, like a new recruit on
drill, or a horse in the stocks; and, twist me, if I
didn't feel as if I was about to be nicked. The
whole company stared at me as if I had come
without an invite; and I swear I thought my arms
had grown a foot longer, for I couldn't get my
hands in no sort of a comfortable fix—first I tried
them on my lap; there they looked like goin to
prayers, or as if I was tied in that way; then I
slung'em down by my side, and they looked like
two weights to a clock; and then I wanted to cross
my legs, and I tried that, but my leg stuck out like
a pump handle; then my head stuck up through a
glazed shirt-collar, like a pig in a yoke; then I
wanted to spit, but the floor looked so fine, that I
would as soon have thought of spittin on the
-- 030 --
[figure description] Page 030.[end figure description]
window; and then to fix me out and out, they asked us
all to sit down to dinner! Well, things went on
smooth enough for a while, till we had got through
one whet at it. Then a blasted imp of a nigger come
to me first with a waiter of little bowls full of something,
and a parcel of towels slung over his arm;
so I clapped one of the bowls to my head, and
drank it down at a swallow. Now, stranger, what
do you think was in it?”
“Punch, I suppose,” said Lamar, laughing; “or
perhaps apple toddy.”
“So I thought, and so would anybody, as dry as
I was, and that wanted something to wash down
the fainty stuffs I had been layin in; but no! it
was warm water! Yes! you may laugh! but it
was clean warm water. The others dipped their
fingers into the bowls, and wiped them on the
towels as well as they could for gigglin; but it
was all the fault of that pampered nigger, in bringin
it to me first. As soon as I catched his eye, I gin
him a wink, as much as to let him know that if ever
I caught him on my trail, I would wipe him down
with a hickory towel.”
“But I suppose you enjoyed yourself highly before
it was all over?” said Chevillere.
“When it was all over, I was glad enough; I
jumped and capered like a school-boy at the first
of the holydays.”
“Have you never been invited out since?”
asked Lamar.
“O yes, often,” said Damon; “but you don't
-- 031 --
[figure description] Page 031.[end figure description]
catch a weasel asleep again. I like to give a joke,
and take a joke; but then the joke was all on one
side. If I can take a hand in the laugh, I don't care
whether a person laughs at me, or with me.”
“But what say you?” said Chevillere; “shall
we send your horse to the country with ours?”
“Why! as you gentlemen seem to speak me so
fair, and to know the world so well, I don't care if
I do send old Pete out to board awhile. I shouldn't
be surprised though if he should give me up for
lost, and fret himself to death. But I must see the
man that goes to the country with them; 'cause
Pete couldn't bear shabby talk; he's what I call a
leetle particular in his company for a dumb brute.”
“The man rides behind us,” said Chevillere,
“who will perform that duty. Cato! this gentleman
wishes to speak to you.”
“Did you call, your honour?”
“Yes. Cato! Mr. Damon wishes to give you
some charges about his horse, which you are to
take into the country with ours.”
“Cato,” said Damon, “tell the farmer who takes
the horses, that old Pete Ironsides here has been
used to good company, and that he has been treated
more like a Christian nor a horse, and that I wish
him indulged in his old ways.”
During this harangue, Cato cast sundry glances
from his master to the speaker, as if to ascertain
whether he was in earnest, or only playing off one
of those freaks in which the young men had so often
indulged in his presence. Being accustomed,
-- 032 --
[figure description] Page 032.[end figure description]
however, to treat with respect those whom his master
respected, and seeing his eye calm and serious, he
bowed with grave deference, saying, “It shall be
done as you direct, your honour;” and then fell
back.
“Now,” said Damon, “that's what I call a well-bred
nigger. I would venture that old Scip
would'nt have puzzled me with the warm water;
'cause he knows that I'm not one of them there sort
of chaps what knows all their new-fangled kickshaws.
He knows in a case of real needcessity,
or life and death, as I may say, either to man,
woman, or horse, I'm more to be depended on than
a dozen such chaps as went along here in the stage
this morning.”
“You saw the dandies in the stage, then?” asked
Victor.
“Yes, and one of'em popped his head out of the
window, and says to me as they went by, `Country,'
says he, `there's something on your horse's tail.'—
`Yes,' says I, `and there's something in his head that
you hav'nt got, if his ears ain't so long.' ”
Thus were our acquaintances and their new
companion jogging along when the distant rumbling
of wheels upon the pavements and the dense clouds
of black smoke which seemed to be hanging in the
heavens but a short distance ahead, announced
that they were soon to enter the monumental city.
There is not, perhaps, a feeling of more truly
unmixed melancholy, incident to the heart of an
inexperienced and modest student, than that which
-- 033 --
[figure description] Page 033.[end figure description]
steals over him upon his first entrance into a strange
city; a feeling of incomparable loneliness, even
deeper than if the same individual were standing
alone upon the highest blue peak of the far stretching
Alleghany. The vanishing rays of twilight
were extending their lengthening shadows; the
husbandman and his cattle were seen wending their
way to their accustomed abodes for the night; and
the feathered tribes had already sought the resting-places
which nature so plentifully provides for
them in our well-wooded land. The sad, and it
may be pleasing reflections which such sights produced,
were occasionally interrupted by the clattering
of a horse's hoofs upon the turnpike, as some
belated countryman sought to redeem the time he
had spent at the alehouse; or as the solitary marketman,
with more staid and quiet demeanour, sped
upon a like errand. Occasionally the scene was
marred by some besotted and staggering wretch,
seeking his lowly and miserable hut in the suburbs.
At intervals too, the barking of dogs and the lowing
of cattle contributed their share to remind our
friends that they were about to take leave of these
quiet and pastoral scenes, for an indefinite period,
and to mix in the bustle and gay assemblage of city
life. Often, at such junctures, there is a presentiment
of the evil which awaits the unhappy exchange.
Warning clouds of the mind are believed
to exist by many of the clearest heads and soundest
hearts: we do not say that our heroes were thus
sadly affected, nor that the Kentuckian had a
-- 034 --
[figure description] Page 034.[end figure description]
foretaste of evil; but certain it is, that all were silent
until they arrived at the place of separation. All
things having been previously settled, they exchanged
salutations, and departed upon their separate
routes. They passed a variety of streets in
that most gloomy period of the day when lamplighters
are to be seen, with their torches and ladders,
starting their glimmering lights first in one
direction and then in another, as they hurry from
post to post. Draymen were driving home with
reckless and Jehu-like speed; and the brilliant
lights which began to appear at long intervals,
gave evidence that the trading community carried
their operations also into that portion of time
which nature has allotted for rest and repose to
nearly all living things. Our travellers now
alighted at Barnum's; but as their adventures
were of an interesting character, we shall defer
them till a new chapter.
-- 035 --
CHAPTER III.
[figure description] Page 035.[end figure description]
After a substantial meal had been despatched,
our travellers repaired to the livery-stable, to inspect
in person the condition of their horses. The establishment
was lighted with a single lamp, swung in
the centre of the building. The approach of the
two young gentlemen was not therefore immediately
noticed by old Cato and another groom (who
proved to be the coachman of the equipage they had
left on the road), as they were busily engaged in
rubbing down their horses, the dialogue between
them was not brought to a close at once.
“Who did you say the gentleman was?” said old
Cato.
“His name is Brumley,” replied coachee.
“And the young lady is his daughter, I suppose?”
continued Cato.
“Oh! as to that, I cannot say,” continued coachee,
“but I believe she is only his step-daughter; they
calls her Miss Fanny St. Clair, and sometimes of
late the old gentleman calls her Mrs. Frances; but
between you and me and the horse-stall, there is
some strange things about this family; I rather
guess that Sukey, the maid up yonder, could tell us
something that would make us open our eyes, if
she was not so confounded close; all that I know
-- 036 --
[figure description] Page 036.[end figure description]
about it is, that the harsh old gentleman sometimes
gives her a talk in the carriage that throws her
a'most into a faintin spell. But I could never
see into it, not I; I don't somehow believe in all
these little hurrahs the women kicks up just for
pastime.”
Our travellers did not think proper to listen further
to the gossip of the grooms, and having executed
their business at the livery, they retraced
their steps to the splendid establishment at which
they had put up. Notwithstanding the doubtful
source from which Chevillere had gained his latest
information concerning the singularly interesting
young lady whom they had seen at the inn, it made
its impression. Corrupt indeed must be that channel
of information relative to a beautiful and attractive
female, apparently in distress, which will not find
an auditor in the person of a sensitive young man
just emancipated from college. On such occasions,
and with such persons, the credibility of all witnesses
is the same, and the most improbable tale
is taken at once, and made the foundation of a whole
train of reveries, dreams, and plans.
It is not to be denied that Victor Chevillere had
worked his imagination up to a very romantic
height, and had allowed his curiosity concerning the
youthful lady to reach such a pitch that little else
gave occupation to his fancies.
He was in this state of mind, leisurely marking
time with lazy steps, and in an abstracted mood,
as he ascended the grand staircase of the
-- 037 --
[figure description] Page 037.[end figure description]
establishment, when his attention was again riveted by
the sound of the lady's voice in earnest entreaty
with the old gentleman.
“Consider, my dear Frances,” said the latter,
“that your health is now nearly re-established, and
that these are subjects that you must dwell upon;
why not, therefore, become accustomed to it at
once?”
“For heaven's sake! for my dear mother's!
never, sir, mention that fearful marriage, and more
fearful death to me again! Why should I recall
hideous and frightful dreams!”
Chevillere was compelled to move on, but it must
be confessed that his steps were slower than before;
and it may be readily imagined, that his fancy
and his curiosity were not much allayed by the
shreds of conversation which he had involuntarily
overheard. When he had ascended to his own
apartment, and could indulge freely in that bachelor
recreation of pacing to and fro, the two words
still involuntarily quickened his movements whenever
they flashed through his mind—“marriage”
and “death” were words of opposite import certainly,
viewed in the abstract, and we doubt whether
he had ever connected them together before;—
“Fearful marriage! and more fearful death!” what
could it mean? to whom could they refer? Only
one of them could refer to her, that was certain;
who then was married and died so fearfully?
“Ah!” thought he, “I have it! her mother has married
this old man, and died suddenly; and he has got
-- 038 --
[figure description] Page 038.[end figure description]
the fortune of both in his hands! Suspicious circumstance!
If fortune puts it in my power, I will
watch him narrowly! I disliked his countenance
from the first!—must be cool, however, and deliberate—
must watch—and wait! pshaw, what am I
at!” Thus ended Victor Chevillere's solution of
the enigma, when Lamar stepped into the room
and disturbed his revery.
“What! still musing, Chevillere. By my troth,
she must be a witch; but it will be glorious
news to write to our friend Beverly Randolph, of
old Virginia. What say you? Shall I sit down
and indite an epistle? Let me see—how do such
narratives generally begin? Cupid, and darts, and
arrows—blind of an eye—shot right through the
vitals of a poor innocent youth that never did him
any harm—never was struck before—covered with
a panoply, and shield, and armour, and all that;
and then worship prostrate before the shrine; and
vows, and tears, and tokens; and then the dart is
taken out—and the wound heals up—and then—
`Richard's himself again!' What say you to that,
or rather what would Randolph say to that, think
you?”
“He would say that Augustus Lamar was still
the same mirth-loving fellow, without regard to
time or place.”
“Then it is a serious affair, and too true to
make a joke of! Well, then I have done! She's a
beautiful young creature, it is true; but then from
what I had seen of your cold philosophy, I did not
-- 039 --
[figure description] Page 039.[end figure description]
think you were the man to be slain at first sight,
and surrender at discretion before a single charge.”
“I will acknowledge to you, Lamar, that my
curiosity is most painfully excited with regard to
that unhappy young lady, but nothing more, I
assure you. Some facts have, without my seeking,
come to my knowledge, with which you are entirely
unacquainted, and which have tended greatly
to increase that curiosity. I cannot at this time
explain; as soon as my own mind is satisfied on
the subject, my confidence shall not be withheld
from you.”
“Lovers are truly a singular set of mortals—
here is a young lady (and a Yankee too, perhaps)
of some dozen hours' acquaintance, and with whom
you have never exchanged a dozen words; and
yet you are already entrusted with profound
secrets, which excite you in the most painful
manner!”
“Come, come, Lamar, I see you are determined
to misunderstand me. Let us drop the subject.
What do you think of the Kentuckian?”
“I think he is an admirable fellow; and I intend
to patronise him; and induct him into fashionable
life; but do you think his singularities are the
natural products of the life, manners, and climate
of Kentucky?”
“I cannot decide whether there is much in him
that is peculiar to Kentucky. Some of the most
elegant and accomplished gentleman I have seen
were natives of that state.”
-- 040 --
[figure description] Page 040.[end figure description]
“He takes a laugh at his expense admirably.”
“He does, but you must be careful not to exceed
the limits he has laid down for himself and us, in
that respect. For my own part, I entertain a
serious respect for Damon and his unsophisticated
honesty, degenerating, as it sometimes does, into
prejudices and ludicrous fancies.”
“Good night, and pleasant dreams to you. I
will call early to interpret them for you.”
As Lamar closed the door, Chevillere drew from
his pocket a little basket segar-case, from which he
extracted a genuine Havana, and lighting a taper
at the candle, and throwing himself into one of those
easy attitudes familiar to smokers, with his head
back, and his eyes closed, gave himself up to those
absorbing reveries, generally delightful in proportion
to the goodness of the segar, which a southern
knows so well how to enjoy. To be fully relished,
segars should be resorted to only in the evening,
and then in moderation. The sensibility is blunted
by excess, and in that case, tobacco, like the intoxicating
drinks, will sometimes conjure up frightful
images upon the wall of a dimly-lighted chamber,
or among the embers of a dying fire. Victor,
however, had not converted his capacity for enjoyment
into fruitful sources of mental and physical
suffering—he sat for a long time gently throwing
the fragrant results of his efforts into various columns,
wreaths, and pyramids. Not that his mind
dwelt upon these things for a moment; he was
far distant in spirit; his imagination was calling up
-- 041 --
[figure description] Page 041.[end figure description]
delightful dreams of love and friendship, with
thoughts of a beloved cousin, of his friend and
room-mate Beverley Randolph—his mother, his
home, and the scenes of his childhood, and finally,
of the lady of the black mantle. He beheld airy
castles,—romantic adventures,—bridal scenes—
and flowers,—assemblies,—parties,—and the high
hills of the Santee.
Aladdin's lamp never wrought more rich and
highly-coloured scenes of enchantment than did
this same Havana; but the most pleasant dream
must come to an end, as well as the richest flavoured
segar—and so did Chevillere's. Tossing
the little hot remnant from him with a passionate
jerk, as if in anger at the insensible cause of his
interruption, he bounced into the centre of the floor
and began to pace to and fro, in his accustomed
mood, clenching his fists now and then, and by his
whole appearance showing a perfect contrast to
the calm and delightful revery attendant upon the
first stage of tobacco intoxication.
In this mood we shall leave him to seek his rest,
while we recount in the next chapter what farther
befel our late collegians on the following morning.
-- 042 --
CHAPTER IV.
[figure description] Page 042.[end figure description]
A brilliant morning found our collegians refreshed
in health and elastic in spirits. The more
gloomy fancies of the previous night, which had
beset Chevillere both in his waking and sleeping
hours—like the mists of the morning, had been dispelled
by the bright sunshine, and the refreshing
breezes of the bay. After the usual meal had been
some time despatched; and while Chevillere was
leisurely turning over the papers of the day (Lamar
having departed in pursuit of the Kentuckian) he
was surprised by the entrance of Mr. Brumley
(the austere gentleman), who saluted him with the
most friendly greetings of the hour and season,
and concluded by inviting him into their private
parlour. It may be readily imagined that this
invitation was not tardily complied with, for he
now imagined that the whole history of the lady
would be unravelled by a single word—so sanguine
is youthful hope, and so apt are we, at that interesting
period, to jump to those conclusions which
are desirable, without ever considering the previous
steps, and painful delays, and necessary
forms, and conventional usages which inevitably
intervene between our highest hopes and their
fruition. How often would the ardent wishes and
the bold hands of youth seize upon futurity,
-- 043 --
[figure description] Page 043.[end figure description]
despoiling it of the thin veil which separates us from
what we wish to know, especially when this could
be learned by dispensing with the accustomed formalities
and wholesome restraints of refined society.
A train of kindred thoughts was passing through
the mind of Chevillere as he was ushered into a
small but elegant saloon, connected with the back
chambers by folding-doors, which were now closed.
On the left of the door, and between the windows
opening upon a great thoroughfare, sat the lady
who occupied his thoughts. She was sitting, or
rather reclining upon one end of a sofa, her head
resting upon her hand in a thoughtful mood. As
is true of most daughters of this favoured land,
nature had evidently in nowise been thwarted,
either in her mental or physical education. She
appeared to possess that naïveté which is so apt
to be the result of a mixed town and country education;
with just enough of self-possession to
show that native modesty had been properly
regulated by much good society, but not too much
to forbid an occasional crimsoning of the neck and
face. Her eyes were blue, shaded by long dark
lashes, and so sparkling and joyous in their expression,
that the evident present sorrow which hung
over her spirits, could not efface the impression to
a beholder, that they were naturally much more
inclined to beam with mirth and gayety, than to
weeping; her features were regular—arch in their
expression, and finely formed—her complexion of
the finest shade—with a rich profusion of light
-- 044 --
[figure description] Page 044.[end figure description]
brown hair, braided and parted on the forehead
without a single curl; her figure was just tall
enough to be elegant and graceful, and exhibited
the graces of that interesting period, when the
school-girl is merging into the reserved woman.
As Chevillere was ushered into the presence of
this youthful lady, the old gentleman presented
him as Mr. Chevillere, of South Carolina, and the
lady by the name of (his step-daughter) Frances
St. Clair; she assumed the erect position barely
long enough to return the salutation of the gentleman,
then reclined again and lapsed apparently into
her sad mood; for a moment she pressed her
handkerchief to her face as if she would drive
away some horrible image, and then waited a moment
as if she expected her father to speak upon
some previously settled subject. Perceiving, however,
that she waited in vain, she with some difficulty
forced herself to say, “Mr. Chevillere, I requested
my father to invite you to our apartments
to”—here she seemed overpowered and stopped.
Chevillere seeing her distress, replied, “Madam,
you do me too much honour; but I see you are
distressed—let me say then, without any farther
formality, that if there is any way in the world by
which I can lighten that distress, command me.”
“It is about these very emotions that I would
speak,” she answered; “I was afraid you might
think the scene at the breakfast-table two days
since was got up in some silly girlish affectation,
in pretended disgust at the rudeness of the
-- 045 --
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young men present; but believe me when I say,
their conduct would at many times in my life have
furnished me with an ample fund for laughter; it
was not in their manners, it was in the subject of
one of their discourses that I felt so much affected—
I tried to subdue my feelings, but the more I
tried the more they overcame me; the truth is,
some painful recollections were awakened”—Here
again she covered her face with her handkerchief,
and seemed to be for a moment almost suffocated.
The lady resumed; “Nor should I have thought it
proper to offer this explanation to one who is apparently
a perfect stranger; but, sir, I have known
you for some time by reputation.”
“Indeed, madam, I must be indebted to some
most flattering mistake for my present good fortune;
I am but just emancipated from college
walls and rules, and have, of course, even a reputation
to make for myself.”
“No! no!” said the youthful lady (a beautiful
smile passing swiftly over her sad countenance),
“there can be no mistake about it,” and drawing
from her work-bag a small bit of paper, rolled up
in the shape of a letter, she presented it to him;
adding, “Do you know that hand-writing?”
He gazed upon the signature for an instant, and
then exclaimed, “My honoured mother's! by all
that's fortunate! then indeed we are old acquaintances—
with your permission; and I am perfectly
content with the reputation which you spoke of,
when I know that it originated in such a source.”
-- 046 --
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“Your mother was indeed a prudent and a
modest, but still a devoted herald of your good
qualities.”
“Believe me, dear lady, that I shall be more
proud than ever to appear in your eyes to deserve
some small share of her maternal praise; it was
always inexpressibly dear to me for its own sake,
but now I shall endeavour doubly to deserve it.
You saw her, I suppose, at the White Sulphur
Springs?”
“We did, sir; and a most fortunate circumstance
it was for me; for being an invalid, she did every
thing for me that my own mother could have
done. Oh! how I regretted that my mother did
not come, merely to have made her acquaintance.”
“Your mother! is your mother alive, madam?”
“I hope and trust she is—and well; she was
both when we last heard from her, and that was
but a few days since; but your agitation alarms
me! you know no bad news of my mother?” laying
her hand upon his arm.
“None, madam! none. I don't know what put
the foolish idea into my head, but I thought that
both your own parents were dead.”
“You alarmed me,” said she. “I conjured up
every dreadful image—I imagined that you had
been commissioned by some of our friends here, to
break the painful intelligence to me—but you are
sure she is well?”
Chevillere smiled, as he answered “You forget
that I am a total stranger to her, and she to me.”
-- 047 --
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“True! true! But tell me how you left your
charming young cousin Virginia Bell, of whom I
heard your mother speak so often. She told me, I
think, that she was at some celebrated school in
North Carolina?”
“At Salem. She is well, I thank you, or was
well when I came through the town: my mother
intends to take her home with her on her return.”
“So she told me,” said the lady.
“She did not tell you, I suppose, for I believe
she does not know, that I have promised the hand
of the dear girl in marriage, though she is scarcely
sixteen yet. You must know that I had in college
two dear and beloved friends—the one, Mr. Lamar,
you have seen; the other is Mr. Beverley Randolph,
of Virginia—we were both class and roommates.
Randolph has gone on a journey through
the Southern States, as he pretends; but, I believe,
in truth, to take a sly peep at his affianeed bride.
If he likes her looks, it is a bargain; and if not, he
will pass it all off for a college joke.” Here he was
interrupted by the lady gasping; and on looking in
her face, he found she was as pale as marble, and
terribly agitated. She asked her father for water,
which he handed to her instantly, while Chevillere
rang violently at the bell.
“It will all be over in a minute,” said she; “it is
only a return of the suffering to which I am
subject.”
Many strange ideas flitted through Chevillere's
mind during this interruption of the conversation.
-- 048 --
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He now recollected that one of the subjects of discourse
between the vulgar fops, at the breakfasttable
the previous morning, had been some runaway
marriage—and “the fearful marriage and
more fearful death” still sounded in his ears, and
now the same subject again introduced by himself
produced like consequences,—he thought it strange
and incomprehensible; he cheered himself, however,
with the reflection, that his mother was not
likely to form an intimacy with persons against
whom there was any charge of crime; nay, more,
he felt assured that they must have been well
sustained by public opinion, or introduced to her
acquaintance by some judicious friend.
“If I have unaptly said any thing offensive, I
hope Miss St. Clair will believe me, when I say
that such a design was the farthest from my
thoughts.”
“Rest easy on that score,” said she; “I am now
well again: you said nothing that it was not proper
for you to say, and me to hear, had I not been a
poor silly-headed girl.”
“Well, Miss Frances, I am anxious to hear your
opinion of Western Virginia.”
“My opinion is not worth having; but such as
it is, you are welcome to it, or rather to such observations
as a lady might make. First, then, I was
delighted with the wild mountain scenery, and the
beautiful valleys between the mountains; such are
those, you will recollect, perhaps, in which all of
those springs are situated. I doubt very much,
-- 049 --
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whether Switzerland, or Spain, could present as
many rich and beautiful mountain-scenes, as we
have passed between Lexington and the White
Sulphur and Salt Sulphur springs. We have similar
scenes along and among the highlands of the
Hudson, it is true; perhaps they are more grand
and majestic than these; but then, there is such a
stir of busy life, such an atmosphere of steam, and
clouds of canvass, that one is perpetually called
back in spirit to the stir and bustle of a city life.
But here, among the rugged blue mountains of
`old Virginia,' as these people love to call it, there
are the silence and the solitude of nature, which
more befit such contemplations as the scenes induce.
We can seat ourselves in one of the green
forests of the mountains we have just left, and
imagine ours to be the first human footsteps, which
have ever been imprinted upon the soil; and we
can repose amid the shades and the profound and
solemn silence of those scenes, with a calmness
and a serenity, and a soothing, delightful, melancholy
feeling, which no other objects can produce.
The very atmosphere seems teeming with these
delightful impressions; primitive nature seems to
have returned upon us with all its balmy delights,—
quiet and peacefulness. The profound solitude
would become tiresome, perhaps, to those
who have no resources in unison with such scenes,
or to those who admire and feign to revel in them,
because it is fashionable just now to do so. But
to an educated mind, a natural and feeling, and I
-- 050 --
[figure description] Page 050.[end figure description]
may say devout heart, they furnish inexhaustible
food for contemplation, and ever-renewing sources
of delight and improvement.”
“They are such scenes,” replied Chevillere, “as
I love to dwell upon, even in imagination. But
come, Miss Frances, I see by the hat and mantle
upon the table, that I have interrupted some intended
promenade; shall I have the honour to be
of your party?”
“Unquestionably, young gentleman—you may
take the whole journey off my hands; Frances
was only going out among the shops,” said Mr.
Brumley.
The plain, but tasteful apparel was soon adjusted,
and the youthful pair sallied forth upon the
promised expedition.
The tide of human life seems to be ever rolling
and tossing, and ever renewing, and then rolling
on again. Pestilence, and death, and famine may
do their worst, but the tide is still renewed, and
still moves on to the great sea of eternity.
Who that walks through the busy and thronged
streets of a populous city, and sees the gay plumage,
the fantastic finery, the smiling faces, and the
splendid equipages, could ever form an adequate
idea of the real suffering and wo, which constitute
the sum of one day's pains in a city life? If all the
miserable—the lame, the blind, the poor, the dumb,
the aged, and the diseased, could be poured out
along one side of the gay promenades, while
fashionables were parading along the other, a much
-- 051 --
[figure description] Page 051.[end figure description]
truer picture of life in a city would be seen. Such
were the ideas of Victor Chevillere, as he escorted
his timid and youthful companion through the gay
throng from shop to shop.
As they emerged into a part of the city less
thronged, interchange of opinions became more
practicable.
“I am impatient to hear your opinion of the
Southerns,” said Chevillere; “you had the finest
opportunity imaginable to see our southern aristocrats
at the springs.”
“Oh! I was delighted with the little society in
which I moved there,” replied she; “and, but for
one unhappy, and most untoward circumstance for
me, my enjoyments would have far surpassed any
thing which I had ever laid out for myself again in
this world.”
“You excite my curiosity most strangely,”
said he; “and, if it would not appear impertinent
or intrusive, I should like to know two things:
first, what untoward circumstance you speak of?
and next, what great bar has been placed between
you and happiness, that you should have laid off so
small a share for yourself in all time to come?”
“Oh! sir, your questions are painful to me, even
to think of; how much worse then must have been
the reality of those circumstances, which could
poison the small share of happiness which is allotted
to us under the most favourable circumstances. I
would gratify your curiosity if I could, but indeed,
indeed, sir, I cannot now relate to you the whole
-- 052 --
[figure description] Page 052.[end figure description]
history of my life; and nothing less could explain
to you the cruel train of circumstances by which
I am surrounded, and from which there is no
escape.
“One question you can, and I am sure you will,
answer me.
“Could a devoted friend, with a cool head and a
resolute hand, effect nothing in freeing you from
this persecution?”
“I will answer you, sir, most plainly. You misunderstand
my allusions, in the first place; for I
am not persecuted now, nor can I say that I have
been. It may seem enigmatical to you, but it is
all that I can in prudence say. There is no person
on this side of the grave who can relieve me from
the cause of those emotions which you have unhappily
witnessed; nay, more! if those persons
were to rise from the dead, who were, unfortunately
for themselves and for me, the cause of my painful
situation, my condition would be incomparably
worse than it is now.”
“Painful, indeed, must those circumstances be,
and incomprehensible to me, which seem to have
been produced by the death of some one; and yet,
if that person should rise from the dead, you would
be more miserable than ever,” said Chevillere.
During the latter part of this speech, the lady, as
was often her custom, pressed her handkerchief to
her face, as if she would by mechanical pressure
drive off disagreeable images from the mind; and
then said, “Now, sir, let us drop this subject.”
-- 053 --
[figure description] Page 053.[end figure description]
“One more question, and then I have done; and
believe me, it is not idly asked. Were the circumstances
you spoke of developed so recently as your
visit to the Virginia springs?”
“Oh! by no means, sir; the untoward circumstance
there that I spoke of, was the frequent and
unexpected presence of one who forcibly reminded
me of all the painful particulars; and what made
it so much worse was, that wherever I moved, he
moved; he followed the same route round the watering-places,
and seemed purposely to throw himself
in my way; and even now I dread every moment
to encounter him; and the more so, as I
have heard lately that his mind is unsettled. Poor
gentleman, I pity him.”
By this time they had arrived in a part of the
city from which Washington's monument could be
seen, elevating its majestic column above a magnificent
grove of trees.
“Suppose we extend our walk,” said the gentleman,
“to yonder beautiful grove.”
To this the lady readily assented. They found
rude seats, constructed perhaps by some romantic
swain; or by some country-bred youths, who came
there, after the toils of the day, to refresh themselves
with the pure and invigorating breezes
which sweep the green, fresh from their dear and
longed-for homes. Here they seated themselves,
to enjoy this delightful mixture of town and
country.
“This is a noble monument to the great and good
-- 054 --
[figure description] Page 054.[end figure description]
father of our Republic; and worthy of the high-minded
and public-spirited people of Baltimore,”
said Chevillere. “Give me such evidence as this
of their veneration for his memory, and none of
your new-fangled nonsense about enshrining him
in the hearts of his countrymen. Let him be enshrined
in the hearts of his countrymen as individuals;
but let cities, communities, and states
enshrine him in marble. These speak to the eyes;
and hundreds, and thousands will stand here, amid
these beautiful shades, and think of him with profound
veneration, who would never otherwise look
into any other kind of history. The effect of such
works as these is admirable; not only in showing
veneration for the great dead, but also upon the
living, in purifying the heart and ennobling its
impulses.”
“Baltimore, indeed, has set a noble example,”
said the lady.
“And richly will she be rewarded. A few years
hence, the far West will be brought to her doors;
and she will grow up to be a mighty city. Standing
on the middle ground, between the angry sectionists
of the North and the South, she will present
a haven in which the rivals may meet, and
learn to estimate each other's good qualities, and
bury or forget those errors which are inseparable
from humanity. But see! Miss St. Clair,” said he,
“what a singular looking man is just emerging
from within the column!”
“Heavens!” said the lady, in extreme terror,
-- 055 --
[figure description] Page 055.[end figure description]
“that is the person! Do take me from this place!
I would not encounter him for the world!”
She was too late; for already had the object of
her apprehension caught a glimpse of her person;
and no sooner had he done so, than with rapid
strides he advanced directly towards them. The
lady shook with terror and agitation. When he
had approached almost in a direct line to within
some forty or fifty feet, he riveted a long and steady
gaze upon the lady, and another of shorter duration
upon her companion, still walking onward. Victor
stood and gazed after him until he was entirely
without the enclosure.
He was a well-dressed man, apparently about
fifty-five years of age, tall, and straight in his
carriage as an Indian; his hair was slightly silvered;
his countenance expressed wildness, but
was steady and consistent in the expression of
present purpose; his eye was dark and deep,
and, when you looked upon it steadily for a short
time, appeared as if you were gazing at two black
holes in his head; his complexion was sallow;
its characteristics—energy and deep determination.
“And that is the maniac?” said Chevillere, in a
half-abstracted mood.
“I said not so,” replied the lady; “but he is, indeed,
that most unfortunate man, whose whole
business seems to be to haunt me in my travels;
otherwise our meeting has been most strangely
accidental and untoward.”
-- 056 --
[figure description] Page 056.[end figure description]
“If he is in ill health,” said Victor, “he may have
gone to the Springs without intending to meet you;
and now, when the season is nearly over, and he is
likewise on his return, there is nothing more natural
than his visiting this monument—every stranger
does so,—do not, therefore, aggravate your distress
by supposing these meetings to have been
sought on his part. I will endeavour to find him,
and demand of him whether he seeks to annoy an
unhappy invalid by pursuing her from place to
place, and what are his motives.”
“Oh! sir, for Heaven's sake, do not think of such
a thing. He is a powerful and a fearful man,
when in his right mind; and even in his derangement,
might do you some harm, especially if you
went as commissioned by me. Besides, sir, if he
was undoubtedly sane and respectful, he might demand,
as a right, to see me, and converse with me
too. Nay, he might possibly have some claim to
control my actions; but you see he does not.
Let him alone, therefore, and do not involve yourself
in any of my troubles. I am inextricably entangled,
and pinioned down to a certain routine of
suffering, perhaps unexampled, and that too by no
crime of my own.”
“Dear lady,” said Chevillere, taking her hand, as
he saw her blue eye filling with tears, and just
ready to run over; “you cannot imagine how
much I feel interested for you; and what I am
about to say, as it will risk your displeasure, is the
very best evidence that I can give of my deep
-- 057 --
[figure description] Page 057.[end figure description]
interest in your future peace and contentment. Believe
me, ear lady, that though I am young,
and may be inexperienced,—I am not an indifferent
observer of the secret machinery of men's
actions. I have been a steady observer and a
thinker for myself, without regard to the opinion
of individuals or the world, when I was conscious
that I was right, and that they were wrong. Listen
to me, then, with patience, while I give you my
opinion, with regard to the difficulties which seem
to be accumulating around you. Of course, this
opinion must be a general one; as the circumstances
upon which it is founded are only such as
are of a general character. Nor do I seek for more
confidence on your part towards me; I cannot expect
that you should unfold the intimate relations
of your family and your friends to a comparative
stranger. This, then, is my (of course vague)
opinion—I have generally observed, in my intercourse
with mankind, that the most trying situations
and the deepset distress are often brought about
by a small mistake—misfortune—or crime in the
beginning. The latter of these I would defy the
most malignant misanthrope to look upon your
countenance and charge you with; one of the two
former, then, is the point upon which all your distress,
and ill health, and melancholy hangs. My
advice then is, upon this general view of the case,
that you go back to that point, and rectify it as
speedily as possible; and do it boldly and fearlessly,
-- 058 --
[figure description] Page 058.[end figure description]
as I am sure you can. Burst asunder these chains
that fetter you, whatever they may be.”
“I see,” said the lady (tears fast stealing down
her cheeks), “that I am always destined to make
the same unhappy impression on every acquaintance,
male or female, valued or unvalued. Before
I have grown many degrees in their good opinion,
some of these unlucky things are seen to develop
themselves, and then I am subject to the greatest
misfortune to which an honourable and a sensitive
mind can be exposed; that is, to be supposed weak
or wicked, though at the same time conscious of
pure and upright motives. To be plain with you,
sir, I must tell you again, that in order for me to
be relieved of that which trammels me in some
shape or other at every step, the grave must give
up its own; and the law must give up its own; and
the avaricious must annul their decrees; and the
dead of half a century must undo their work; and
the wisdom of the sage must be instilled into the mind
of a child; and the slanders, and the wild and
wicked fancies of the lunatic must be convinced by
reason or actual demonstration of the foregoing
things—before the point you speak of can be
seized upon, and turned to my advantage.”
“Then, indeed, is it a hard case, and I will not
distress you further on the subject; I will not add
my persecution to that of others—I will not say
enemies; for one so young and so artless, so innocent
and so unfortunate, can have no enemies.”
“And therein consists part of my distress,”
-- 059 --
[figure description] Page 059.[end figure description]
replied she. “Is it not strange that I have not an
enemy living, to my knowledge, who has ever wilfully
injured me in word or deed? unless, indeed,
it be you wretched old man, whose mind is now,
and whose heart, I fear, has always been wrong.
Now, sir, let me beg of you, in future, whenever
any of these little occurrences embarrass me during
my stay here, to take no notice of them whatever;
let me move along as quietly and as unobtrusively
as possible. I love the retirement of the country, and
to the country and retirement I will go. My mother
loves me, and knows all my actions, and their motives
too; and even my father loves me in his own
way. They will be my companions for the remainder
of a short and weary life.”
The colloquy was cut short by their return to
the hotel.
Lamar, as has been already announced, was a
humorous gentleman, and would not lose an opportunity
of enjoying the remarks of one so new
to the busy world and its ways as Damon. He
was not long in finding out the retired quarters of
the gentleman of the west. At the bar-room he
inquired if there was such a lodger in the house.
“No,” said the barkeeper (so are these functionaries
called), “but he is expected every minute.”
Lamar seated himself near the files of morning
papers which lay strewed along a reading-desk,
and awaited the arrival of his singular new acquaintance.
In a few minutes Damon stalked in.
-- 060 --
[figure description] Page 060.[end figure description]
A new black had and blue frock-coat had so much
altered his appearance, that Lamar did not recognise
him until he took off his hat, wiped his dripping
brows with the handkerchief which he still
carried in it, and then, seeing Lamar for the first
time, waved it over his head.
“Hurrah! for old Kentuck!” was his characteristic
exclamation.
“Why, Damon, you have been under the tailor's
hands,” said Lamar.
“I believe I was in Old Sam's hands last night;
but come up-stairs, and I will tell you all about
it.”
They proceeded to the third story into a small
apartment, dimly lighted through a single window.
Damon, after seating Lamar, threw aside his coat,
and drawing from under the head of his bed the
one in which Lamar had first seen him, he quickly
inserted his arms through what remained of the
garment,—the lappels were torn off on each side
down to the waist, so that all the front of the coat
was gone, leaving nothing but the long straight
back, collar, and sleeves. What remained was
smeared with mud, and torn in many places. He
next proceeded to pull out of his pocket a collar,
and parts of two sleeves of a shirt, spreading them
on the bed, as a milliner would do her finery; and
holding out both his hands with the palms upward
in the manner of an orator,—
`There!” said he, “that's what I call a pretty
-- 061 --
[figure description] Page 061.[end figure description]
tolerable neat job, to shirt a stranger the first night
he comes to town.”
Lamar, who by this time began to see a little
into the affair, asked, “But, Damon, how did all
this happen? you seem to have been discomfited.”
“Now I'll be smashed if you ain't off the trail,
stranger, for you see I've only showed you half
yet.”
Upon which he drew from his other pocket a
pair of spectacles, bent, bloody, and broken,—then
a wig,—and, lastly, the remains of a little black
rattan with a gold head and chain broken into
inches. He displayed these on the bed as he had
done the others; only drawing his handkerchief as
a line between them. Upon this he fell, rather
than sat, back into a chair just behind him, and
burst out into a loud, long, and hearty laugh, seemingly
excited afresh at the sight of his spoils.
“Well, now,” said he, “I wish I may be horn
swoggled, if ever I thought to live to see the day
when I should `sculp' a Christian man; but there
it is, you see; I left his head as clean as a peeled
onion.”
“But how? and when? and who was your antagonist
in this frolic?”
“Frolic!” exclaimed Damon; “well, now, it's
what I would call a regular row; I never saw a
prettier knock down and drag out in all the days
of my life, even in old Kentuck.”
“But do tell me,” said Lamar, “was anybody
seriously hurt?”
-- 062 --
[figure description] Page 062.[end figure description]
“There was several chaps in the circus last
night with their heels uppermost, besides them
suple chaps on the horses; I can tell you that.”
“Oh! you were in the circus, were you?”
“Yes; and there was a rip-roaring sight of
slight o' hand and tumblin work there, besides their
ground and lofty tumblin they had in the handbills.”
“You did some of the ground tumbling yourself
then?” asked Lamar.
“No, I did the slight o' hand work, as you may
see by the skin that's gone off these four marrowbones.”
“And who did the ground tumbling?” asked
Lamar.
“There was a good deal done there last night;
the chaps in the ring and the chaps in the pit all
did a little at it; flummuck me if I didn't think the
heels of the whole house would be uppermost before
they were done; what an everlastin pity 'tis, these
critters elbows ain't as suple as their heels.”
“Then you think all the people of Baltimore a
little limber in the heels.”
“I can't say as to that; but I wish I may be
hackled, if there was not so much flyin up of the
heels there last night, that I was fidlin and tumblin
all night in my sleep, jumpin through hoops, and
tanglin my legs in their long red garters, which the
circus riders jumped over; and then I thought
they had my poor old horse, Pete Ironsides, jumpin
over bars, and leapin through fiery balloons, until
-- 063 --
[figure description] Page 063.[end figure description]
at last they smashed his head right into a tar barrel,
and then maybe I didn't fly into a tear down
snortin rage! I was crammed full of fight then,
and so I got to slingin my arms about in my sleep,
till I knocked out that head-board there,—then I
woke up, and I wish I may be hanged if I didn't
think it was all a dream; till I found that the forepart
of my coat had run away from the tail, and
that I had got an odd collar among my linen. And
then on t'other hand I began to think it was all
true, and rung the bell, and sent the nigger down
to the stable to see if Pete had his head in a tar
barrel sure enough; presently the nigger came
back, grinen and giglin, and said Pete had gone to
the country two hours ago; so I run the little
nigger down stairs, and sent my old boots after
him to get blacked; and as I was dodgin through
that long entry there, I saw the bottles, and tumblers,
and lemon-skins; so ho! said I, there's the
mad dog that bit me last night.”
“Then you began in a frolic at least,” said Lamar.
“Only a small breeze or so; a few tumblers of
punch, made of that doubled and twisted Irish
whiskey; it was none of your Kentuck low wines,
run off at a singlin, for I have made many a barrel.
It was as strong as pison, and it raised the Irish in
me pretty quick, or rather old Kentuck, for I
jumped up and kicked the table over, and broke
things, afore I would have been cleverly primed
with the low wines.”
“Were you drinking all alone?”
-- 064 --
[figure description] Page 064.[end figure description]
“No; there was half-a-dozen milksops set down;
I believe they board here; but no sooner had I
kicked the table over, and begun to smash things a
little, than they all sneaked out one by one, until
they were all gone but one, and I rather suspicion
that he's a blackleg, for he stuck pretty close to
me till the row at the circus was over, and then
when I had got clear, he come up here with me,
and sent for the chap who furnished me with my
new hat and coat; but it wasn't all for nothin, as
he thought, for he presently proposed that we
should go down street a piece, and see some fine
fellers, he said, who were friends of his, and who
were going to have a night of it. Well, said I, `a
little hair of the dog is good for the bite,' and down
we went to a large room up four pair of stairs in a
dark alley. And there, sure enough, there was a
merry-looking set of fellers; but you see they
overdid the job, for I soon smelt a rat; they most
all of 'em pretended to be too etarnal drunk. I
said nothin though, but 'possumed too a little; only
sipped a little wine, and that made me straight
instead of crooked. But at last they proposed a
game of cards. Well, said I, I'm not much of a
dabster at it, but if the stake ain't high, I don't care
if I do take a fling or two; so down we set to it,
and they pulled out their cards for loo. Stop!
stop! said I, we must have new cards; I never play
with other men's cards. They began to suspicion,
maybe, that they had got the wrong sow by the
ear, but they sent and got some new packs, and
-- 065 --
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then we took a smash or two at the game, and I'm
a Cherokee if I didn't give 'em a touch or two of
old Kentuck. I won all the money they had, but
it wasn't much, and they made me pay most of
that for the refreshments, as they said the winners
always paid for them things.”
“But you have not yet told me how you got
into the row,” said Lamar; “I wish to know the
whole story—come, let us have it?”
“Well, it's soon told. As I was telling you, the
black-leg chap and I went to the circus, and we
had'nt set long in the pit before there was a young
gal come in, and set on one end of the same bench.
She was'nt so ugly neither, but I took pity on her
because she looked like a country gal, and there
was no women settin near her. After a while, three
chaps come down from the boxes above, and set
right down by the gal, and began to push one
another over against her; at last the one next her,
and he was the same chap you saw in the stage yesterday
morning, only he had on them green specks—
well, he put his arm round her, and called her his
dear, and all that; well, you see, I had heard tell
of these city gals, and I thought if she was pleased
it was none of my business; but presently I heard
her sobbing and crying, with her apron up to her
eyes, and she told them they were no gentlemen,
or they would not treat a poor girl so away from
home. So the Irish whiskey, or old Kentuck, I
don't know which, began to rise in my throat. I
jumped up and raised the war-whoop. `Old
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Kentuck for ever!' said I; and with that, I took the
back of my hand and knocked the chap's hat off,
and his `sculp' went with it. Call your soul your
own, said I; he jumped up and gin me a wipe
with that little black switch across the nose; it
had hardly cleverly touched me, afore I took him
a sneezer, between the two eyes, glasses and all;
he dropped over like a rabbit when you knock 'em
behind the head; I rather suspicion he thought a
two year old colt's heels had got a taste of his
cocoanut.
“Then the other two took it up, and both on 'em
seized me, and swore they would carry me to the
police office; but I took 'em at cross purposes, for
while one of them held the collar of the old homemade,
I fetched the other a kick that sent him
over the benches a rip roaring, I tell you.
The other little chap was hangin on to me
like a leech to a horse's leg; I jist picked him
up and throwed him into the ring upon the sand,
for I did'nt want to hurt him: but then the real
officers come up and clamped me. I wished
myself back in old Kentuck bad enough then;
but while they held me there, like a dog that had
been killen sheep, the little gal came up to me, and
said she would go and bring her father, to try and
get me off; and then she asked me where I lived,—
I told her in old Kentuck; then she asked me
where I put up, and I put my mouth to her ear
and told her; and I could hardly get it away again
without givin her a smack, for she would pass for
-- 067 --
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a pretty gal even in old Kentuck; well, this morning,
her and her father were here by times to thank
me, and the old man invited me to stop at his house
as I go home; it's on the same road we came down
yesterday.”
“Did the girl go to the circus by herself?” asked
Lamar.
“No; the old man stopped at the door to buy a
ticket, and she went on, and lost him.”
“But you have not told me how you came by
this scalp,” said Lamar, taking up the large black
scratch with curled locks.
“Oh! you see, I grabbled that in the scuffle, and
slipped it into my pocket.”
“How did you get away from the officers?”
“Oh! that's the way I lost the old `home-made;'
you see they began to pull me over the benches,
and I told 'em I would walk myself if they would
let me, and so they did, but they held on to my
coat. I kept pretty cool until they got outside of
the house, and then a crowd gathered round, and
they began cologueing together, until I saw my
way out a little, and then I jist slipped my foot
behind one of 'em and pushed him down, and
tumbled the other feller over him, and then I showed
them a clean pair of heels. They raised the whoop—
and I raised my tail like a blue-lick buck, for
you see I had'nt much coat to keep it down;—
dash me if it was'nt tail all the way to the collar,
and stood out straight behind like it was afraid of
my pantaloons. I made a few turns to throw 'em
-- 068 --
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off the trail, and then with a curly whoop, and a
hurrah! for old Kentuck, I got to my own door,
where I found the black-leg chap. Now you know
the whole business, and I suppose you can tell me
whether there is any danger of their finding me
out in that little excuse for a coat that blasted
tailor, who was so stingy with his cloth, made me.”
“I should suppose there was none in the world.
Have no fear on that head; there is not a magistrate
in town who would not honour you in his
heart for what you did.”
“I should think so too, if they had any gals of
their own. The fact is, if there was a little knockin
down and draggin out once in a while among
them dandy chaps, they would take better care
how they sleeved decent men's daughters.”
“Well, good day, Damon,” said Lamar; “send
for me or Chevillere if you get into trouble.”
-- 069 --
CHAPTER V.
[figure description] Page 069.[end figure description]
It will readily be perceived, by the reader, that
Beverley Randolph, the person to whom the following
letter was written, is one of the three southerns.
Victor Chevillere to B. Randolph.
Baltimore, 18—.
“Dear Randolph,
“Five long years have we lived under the same
roof, pursued the same studies, or rather the same
studies pursued us;—engaged in the same dissipation,
drank of the same sour wine, shed the same
vinous tears, discussed the same dinners and suppers,
enjoyed the same dances,—stag dances, I
mean,—played the same music, belonged to the
same society, and, I was going to say, fallen in love
with the same nymphs; but that brings me to the
subject of this letter. I am in for it! Yes, you
may well look surprised! It is a fact! Who is
the lady? you ask. I will tell you,—that is, if I can;
her name is St. Clair. O! she is the most lovely,
modest, weeping, melancholy, blue-eyed, fairhaired,
and mysterious little creature you ever
beheld. If you could only see her bend that white
neck, and rest her head upon that small hand, her
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[figure description] Page 070.[end figure description]
eye lost in profound thought, until the lower lid
just overflows, and a tear steals gently down that
most lovely cheek; and then see her start up
stealthily to join again in the conversation, with
the most innocent consciousness of guilt imaginable;—
but what is it that brings these tears to sadden
the heart of one so youthful and so innocent?
`There's the rub,' as Hamlet says. Yourself,
Lamar, and I were unanimous, as you perhaps
remember, that men generally suffer in proportion
to their crimes, even in this world. I here renounce
that opinion, with all others founded upon
college logic. A half-taught college boy, in the
pride of his little learning and stubborn opinions, is
little better than an innocent. But, you ought to
see this fair sufferer in order fully to appreciate
the foregoing opinion. You would see child-like
innocence—intelligence—benevolence; in short,
all that is good, in her sad but lovely countenance.
“But to return to college logic; what is it?
Conclusions without premises, ends without means;
and opinions adopted without any of the previous
and inevitable pains and penalties attendant upon
the acquirement of human knowledge, or, in other
words, without experience! I would take one of
our old break-of-day club to tell the flavour of a
ham, or the difference between a bottle of Bordeaux
and Seignette brandy, as soon as any one; but
what else did they know? or rather what else
did we know? Nothing! not literally nothing,
but truly nothing. If I now wanted a judicious
opinion upon any subject, I would go to an
-- 071 --
[figure description] Page 071.[end figure description]
experienced man! one that had suffered in order to
learn; an original thinker for practical ends.
“You ask me concerning my cousin, Virginia
Bell; her with whose miniature, infantile as it
was, you fell so desperately in love, and whom, yet
unseen, I promised to yourself. She flourishes,
Randolph, and is as beautiful as you could desire;
she is yet unengaged in heart or hand, so far as I
know; but you know, that the little sly, dear,
delightful creatures will complete a whole life-time
of love affairs, while fathers, and brothers, and guardians,
and affianced lords unloved, may be looking
on none the wiser. And they will look as innocent,
and as demure, and as child-like, as my dear beautiful
little enigma of the Black Mantle.
“You say you `hate Yankees;'—my dear fellow,
you forget that you and I would be considered
Yankees in London or Paris. The national denomination
we have abroad, is `the nation of Yankees,
' or the `universal Yankee nation.' 'Tis galling
to our southern pride, I grant you, that we
should be a mere appendage, in the eyes of a foreigner,
to a people who are totally dissimilar to
us. We must brook it until we can outdo them,
in literature at least. They are (say many) retailers
of wooden nutmegs—unfair dealers, and a
canting, snivelling, hypocritical set; tell me where
the country is, where the population is growing
dense—where means of living are scarce—land
high—trades overstocked—professions run down—
and manufactures injured by foreign competition,
-- 072 --
[figure description] Page 072.[end figure description]
in which the little arts of trade, and `tricks upon
travellers' do not also flourish. Let the population
of your `old dominion' be once multiplied
by wholesome legislation, or rather let the yearly
emigrants be induced to stay in the land of their
sires, and the same cunning usages will prevail.
As to the `canting and snivelling,' you must allow
something for the descendants of the Pilgrims.
Besides, tell me, liberal sir, if you have not, in the
very bosom of your great valley, as genuine Presbyterians
and Roundheads as ever graced the
Rump Parliament, or sung a psalm on horseback.
And to give the devil his due, these same Presbyterians
are no bad citizens of a popular government.
But there is the lady of the Black Mantle. Observe
that she was born north of the Potomac, yet I would
wager any thing that you could not look steadily
upon her face for one minute, and curse the Yankees
as I have heard you do. I know you will
say, therein lies the cause of my sudden conversion
to Yankeeism. By no means! I had begun to
find out that the Yankees had souls like other
people, before I had ever seen her.
“I approve of your determination to travel, and
that even to the south, rather than not to travel at
all; but is there not some danger lest a Virginian
should become more bigoted, by travelling among
a people still more bigoted than himself. I know
your disposition; it is to hug up your dear southern
prejudices within your own bosom. Lamar and I
are becoming liberal, and then we will cast out
-- 073 --
[figure description] Page 073.[end figure description]
devils for you. Do not forget that I shall have a
mother and cousin there by the time you arrive at
the high hills of the Santee. Lamar has taken desperately
to a six foot Kentuckian, as fine a specimen
as you could wish to see; he is what may be
called an American yeoman of the west.
“Yours truly,
“Victor Chevillere.”
B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.
“Salem, North Carolina, 18—.
“Dear Chevillere,
“Thus far I have flown before the wind—sand,
I should have said. At any rate, here I am, in this
town of German religionists. Here dwells the first
unanimous people I have ever seen. They are
Moravians; and every thing is managed by this
little community for the common benefit. They
have one tavern, one store, one doctor, one tanner,
one potter, and so on in every trade or occupation.
Besides these, they have a church, and a
flourishing female seminary. The latter is conducted
upon the utilitarian plan—each lady, in turn,
has to perform the offices of cook, laundress, and
gardener; and, I need hardly say, that it is admirably
conducted. After I had visited all these
establishments — for every respectable looking
stranger is waited upon by some one appointed for
that purpose to conduct him thither,—I returned
to the large, cool, and comfortable inn, and had
-- 074 --
[figure description] Page 074.[end figure description]
scarcely seated myself to enjoy the comforts of
nicotiana, when a small billet was handed to me
by a handsomely dressed and polite black servant
with a glazed hat, which not a little astonished me,
you may be sure. I had not a living acquaintance
in the whole state that I knew of; except, indeed,
old Father Bagby, the master of ceremonies to the
little community. It could not be a challenge
from some Hans Von Puffenburg of these quiet
burghers: so I concluded it must be a billetdoux
from some of the beautiful creatures at the
seminary on the hill. You can easily imagine,
therefore, that I was no long time in tearing it
open; when, behold! it was, in good truth, from a
lady. Can you guess who? No. Then take the
note itself entire.
“ `Dear Sir,
“ `If, as I believe, you are the same Mr. Randolph
who was a room and class-mate of my son
Victor Chevillere, in college, I will be very glad
to see you. The servant will show you to our little
parlour.
“ `M. J. Chevillere.'
“ `I am the luckiest dog alive,' said I, jumping
nearly over the negro's head. `Is your young
mistress here also.'
“ `Yes, masta, she is just leaving school for home,
so please you.'
“ `Please me!' said I; `to be sure it does please
me; I never was more pleased in all my life. For
-- 075 --
[figure description] Page 075.[end figure description]
I was just about to forswear these eternal pinebarrens
and sand-hills, and face to the right-about.
So lead the way to your two mistresses.' Whereupon
he led the way, hat in hand, to a room in the
inn; and there, Chevillere, sat your honoured
mother. Commend me to our southern matrons
in high-life. Not that I know any thing against
your northern ladies, old or young; but there is
in our mothers a mild dignity, hospitality, and politeness,
which makes every one at home. But I
need not describe to you your own. But I will not
promise you as much of the little blushing southern
brunette, who gracefully arose on your mother's
saying, `Mr. Randolph, my adopted daughter Virginia
Bell Chevillere.' I saw in an instant that
you had told her of our college bargain, and my
falling in love with her miniature. By-the-by,
you ought to break that slanderous miniature, or
the head of the dauber who perpetrated it. Her
beauty never could be delineated on ivory or canvass.
Can any one paint the living, breathing soul
of a very young and beautiful female? No! and
I'll tell you why. If a man had the genius to do
so, the very enthusiasm which always attends it
would throw him into very unpainter-like raptures
at the sight of such a one; and that's the true reason
why artists so seldom succeed in delineating
young females. A precious piece of logic for you.
But to return to the original of the picture; there
was a blushing consciousness about the little Bell,
as everybody calls her, which was truly charming.
Her jet black hair and eyes shone like ebony; her
-- 076 --
[figure description] Page 076.[end figure description]
brilliant white teeth and brunette complexion were
radiant with blushing smiles at this first reception
of her long-promised husband. There was no
girlish pouting, or childish affectation, as is too
often the case when the parties have been laid off
for each other; she was at the same time modest
and self-possessed; her fairy figure glided about,
as if her little fairy foot scarcely touched the carpet.
I tell you these things, because you asked me
to do so in all plainness of speech. Your cousin is
all that a cousin of my dearest friend should be—
lovely, intelligent, and interesting.
“Your mother intended to wait here for some
male friend, who has diverged a day's ride from
their route home from the Springs; but she has now
determined to leave this place to-morrow. I shall
escort them as far as the Chevilleres' proud family
seat, Belville. You will, therefore, hear no more
complaints of the dreariness of the eternal pine-barrens,
or the fever-and-ague appearance of the
poor; except, that I will say now, once for all, that
the poor of a slave-country are the most miserable
and the most wretched of all the human family.
The grades of society in this state are even farther
apart than in Virginia. Here, there is one
immense chasm from the rich to the abject poor.
In the valley of Virginia, or in the country where
you are, there are regular gradations. The very
happiest, most useful, and most industrious class of a
well-regulated community, is here wanting. Their
place is filled up by negroes; in consequence of
-- 077 --
[figure description] Page 077.[end figure description]
which, your aristocrats are more aristocratic, and
your poor still poorer. The slaves create an immeasurable
distance between these two classes,
which can never be brought together until this
separating cause be removed. You know I am no
abolitionist, in the incendiary meaning of the term;
yet I cannot deny from you and myself, that they
are an incubus upon our prosperity. This we
would boldly deny, if a Yankee uttered it in our
hearing; but to ourselves, we must e'en confess it.
If I am, therefore, an abolitionist, it is not for conscience-sake,
but from policy and patriotism.
“We can never rival those northern people, until
we assume the modern tactics in this provincial
warfare; that is, throw aside all useless baggage,
and concentrate our energies upon a single point
at a time. I have done with this theme for the
present, and will repair to your friends.
“Your mother knows nothing of our college-treaty,
therefore she little thinks what a masked
enemy she has let into the camp. Little Bell
smiles, and enjoys our mutual understanding highly.
But there lies the mischief; she smiles too innocently,
and too calmly, and too openly, and has lost
too much of that blushing mood in which she first
received me; and I have thought several times
that the little arch gipsy was laughing at me. If
she had not been your cousin, and my affianced
bride for the last five years, I should have taken
leave. You know I never could stand to be exhibited;
and would prefer being shot, at any time,
-- 078 --
[figure description] Page 078.[end figure description]
to being laughed at. I shall watch the little fairy,
and see if she is making me her butt; if so, I will
see them safe to Belville, and then—you shall hear
from me again.
“You requested me to point out to you any
thing in which I should observe that the Carolinas
differed from Virginia. I must say then, with the
judges, when they are pronouncing sentence, `however
painful may be the duty imposed upon me,'
that your country appears more miserable the
more deeply I penetrate it. Not that you lack
splendid mansions, and magnificent cotton-fields
varied with flowers, rich and tropical gardens, the
orange and the `pride of India,' your wild and fragrant
swamp-flowers, princely hospitality, accomplished
men and women,—not that you lack any of
these. But the seeds of decay are sown at the
very point where energy — enterprise — national
pride—industry—economy—amusements—gayety—
and above all, intelligence, should grow, namely,
with your yeomanry!
“I would not, if I could, have your young
men and women transformed to spinning-jennies.
Heaven forefend! I would have your lowest class
of whites elevated to the dignity of intelligent and
independent yeomen. How would I effect it? you
ask. Apply the grand lever by which all human
movement is brought about—hope! Has a poor
North Carolinian hope? See him, on some cloudless
morning, when the glorious rays of the sun
are gladdening the hearts even of the unintelligent
-- 079 --
[figure description] Page 079.[end figure description]
creation, standing within the door of his pine-log
cabin, his hands in his pockets, his head leaning
against the door in melancholy mood. Some half-dozen
pale and swollen-faced children are sitting
on a bench against the side of the hut, endeavouring
to warm away the ague in the sunbeams. The wife
lies sick in bed. The little fields are barely marked
out with a rotten and broken-down pole-fence,
and overgrown with b room, or Bermuda-grass,
and blackberry-bushes. A miserable horse stands
beyond the fence, doubtful whether there is better
grazing within or without. A little short-cotton
and sweet-potato patch, flanked by an acre of
scrubby Indian corn; and, added to these, five
poor sheep, two goats, and a lean cow, complete
the inventory of his goods and chattels. You have
all his cause for hope! You have, too, his causes
for fear. He has in his pocket a summons for debt,
contracted for sugar and tea, and other needful
comforts, for his sick wife and children.
“Had he any cause for hope? God knows he
had none in this world. But you will say the picture
is exaggerated. As I am a true man and a
southern, it is not.
“I was benighted, and sought lodgings in the
very house I have described. `Who lives here,'
said I, on riding to the door. `One Fifer,' said a
white-headed, half-grown girl, so weak that she
could scarcely stand. I sat up nearly all night
with the sick woman and children. On relieving
the poor man's embarrassments in the morning, I
-- 080 --
[figure description] Page 080.[end figure description]
received the heart-felt thanks of the wretched
family; and almost rode my horse to exhaustion,
to get away from the wretched image imprinted
on my memory.
“Is this man a sample of the yeomanry of your
country? I say, in deep and profound sorrow, I
believe that he is. Where, then, does the evil lie?
This is a question which every southern must soon
ask himself, and one which Nullification cannot
answer.
“Here, then, is a triumphant answer—an answer
in deeds, instead of words—in the happiness, the
prosperity, and the substantial wealth of these simple
and primitive Moravians. Here, where I am
writing, is an industrious, intelligent, and healthy
community, in the very heart of all the misery I
before described. Let us then improve by the lesson,
seek out the sources of their prosperity, find
the point where their plans diverge from ours, and,
my word for it (if there be no reason in the case),
we become a great, a flourishing, and a happy
people.
“But I must take one small exception to the
Moravian political economy. They require all the
young gentlemen to be enrolled on one list, and all
the willing young ladies on another; and the first
gentleman on the list must marry the first lady;
so that they are drafted for marriage, as our Virginia
militia are drafted for duty. I do not know
that this is certainly true; but if it be true, that a
youth must marry the first that comes up, nolens
-- 081 --
[figure description] Page 081.[end figure description]
volens
, I would put in a plump negative. This excepted,
they are worthy of all imitation, even to the
drinking of home-brewed in their pewter mugs,
and smoking long pipes around their council-table,
when their little legislature meets.
“There are no slaves in this little nation, and
labour is no disgrace. In the extensive grounds, belonging
to the female seminary, I saw many pretty
little arms bared to work; not Moravian young
ladies only, but elegant and aristocratic young
ladies from all parts of the southern states, without
distinction, and of every sect and denomination;
and I never saw more beautiful complexions.
The little gipsies would come in from their work
in the morning, blooming as roses. Here is a
complete refutation of the assertion, that the whites
cannot work in a southern climate; here are as
fine lands, and as fine husbandry and horticulture,
as can be found in any country; here are the first
paved streets south of Petersburg; here the first
town, in which water is conveyed by pipes, as in
Philadelphia; here the first stone-fences and grass-plots.
“Your mother and little Bell are cheerful and
happy. Indeed, the latter looks as if she had never
suffered for a moment. How happy a life is that
of a girl at a boarding-school, exempt from all the
pains and penalties of collegians—the `hair-breadth
'scapes'—the formal trials for riding other people's
horses,—ringing church bells,—building fences
across the road,—hanging cake and beer signs at
-- 082 --
[figure description] Page 082.[end figure description]
magistrates' and elders' doors,—burnings in effigy,
fights at country weddings and dances,—exploring
expeditions in the mountains and caverns, professedly
for geological, but really for depredating purposes,—
shooting house-dogs,—expeditions upon
the water, and skating upon the ice,—swimming,
duelling, fighting, biting, scratching,—firing crackers
and cannons in college entries,—heavy meat
suppers, with oceans of strong waters,—and then
headache, thirst, soda and congress-water in the
morning, and perhaps a visit from the doctor or
the president,—presentments by the grand jury for
playing at cards and overturning apple-carts,—
personating ghosts with winding-sheets, and getting
knocked on the head for their pains,—serenading
sweethearts, and taking linchpins out of wagons,—
making sober people drunk and drunken people
sober,—battling with watchmen, constables, and
sheriffs,—running away from the tailors and tavernkeepers,—
kissing country girls, and battling with
their beaux,—tricks upon the tutors, and shaving
the tails of the president's horses,—stealing away
the lion or the elephant at an animal show, and
pelting strolling players,—putting hencoops upon
churches, painting out signs, and carrying off platforms,—
throwing hot rolls under the table, and biscuit
at the steward's head,—playing musical seals
at prayers, and saying prayers at rows,—gambling
in study hours, and filching at recitation,—having
one face for the president and another for the fellows,—
and, finally, being sent home with a letter
-- 083 --
[figure description] Page 083.[end figure description]
to your father, informing him that you are corrupting
the morals of your teachers in these pranks.
These are a few of the classical studies into which
the dear little innocents are never initiated, while
they form no small part of collegiate education in
America, as we can testify from experience.
“Many a fine fellow makes the first trial of a
stump speech, with an extract from an Irish sermon
at a drunken row; his head perhaps stuck three
feet through the window of the little bar in a tavern,
and his audience sitting round on the beer-tables,
armed with sticks, stones, and staves. One,
who with drunken gravity keeps his head and stick
moving all the while, says, that he concurs fully
in opinion with the speaker; though, if asked what
the subject is, he swears it is the Greek question.
The question and the laugh go round. One avers
stoutly that it is Catholic emancipation; a third
vociferates that it is a complete justification of
Brutus for killing Cæsar; a fourth thinks it a part
of the recitation of the day, while the most drunken
man of the company jumps down from his seat on
the table, and swears that he can see through the
fellow clearly, `it's nothing but sleight of hand;'
with which he exclaims, as he rubs his eyes and
looks round, `Bless my soul, boys, how drunk you
all are; come, I'll help you to your room before
matters get worse,' leading off the soberest man in
the room. The party then breaks up in a regular
row; I think I see the old fellows now, marching
off two and two with the true would-be sober and
-- 084 --
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drunken gravity, every man thinking that he is
completely cheating his neighbour, by his picked
steps and exactly poised head and shoulders, like a
drunken soldier on drill. One gets into a carriage
rut; another climbs into a pig-sty, and thinks he
is getting over the college fence. A third falls
over a cow, while a fourth takes off his hat to a
blind horse, mistaking him in the dark for the president.
At length they are lodged in bed, with boots,
hats, and clubs, like soldiers expecting a surprise.
Some murder a song or two in a drunken twang,
while the rest snore in chorus.
“But next comes the awful reward of transgression
in the morning; dry throats, aching limbs,
torn coats, sick stomachs, haggard countenances,
swelled heads. The trembling and moody toilet is
made; the bell rings for prayers; and a more repentant
set of sinners never assembled under its
sound. All wonder what has become of the joyous
feelings of the previous night, and think with
shame of such actions and speeches as they can
recollect. Hereupon follows a gloomy and melancholy
day. They are home-sick. Relations,
friends, and the scenes of childhood, with all their
quiet, innocent, and heartfelt pleasures, glide before
the imagination. The head becomes dizzy; the
heart palpitates; the hands tremble, and the sight
grows double. Then comes the fear of illness,
and death in a strange land. Associates of the
`row' are avoided; several chapters in the Bible
are read; repentance is promised; sleep settles
-- 085 --
[figure description] Page 085.[end figure description]
the nervous system; and next morning they arise
gay and happy. This continues until the scene is
repeated, and so on, until one half forswear brandy
and the other half become confirmed sots.
“Here is a coherent epistle for you. But if you
dislike it, send it back, and I will divide it into—
first—secondly—thirdly, et cetera, as the old
president did his sermons.
“B. Randolph.”
-- 086 --
CHAPTER VI.
[figure description] Page 086.[end figure description]
After the visit to the monument, Chevillere
daily inquired concerning the health of the interesting
invalid; and as regularly was indisposition
pleaded for her non-appearance. Late in the evening
of the third day, he was slowly pacing the
pavement in front of the hotel; now and then throwing
a wistful glance at the lighted window of the
lady, when all at once he suddenly wheeled round,
and grasping in the dark, was surprised to find
that a person whom he had supposed to be impertinently
dogging his steps, had eluded his grasp.
He grimly smiled at his own exasperation for an
imaginary cause, hastily adjusted his cloak, and
turned down the street leading most directly to
the bay.
When he arrived at the quiet and deserted
wharf, and the rapid flow of his impetuous blood
was retarded by the cool invigorating breeze which
swept over the face of the water, he saw an old
yawl lying on the dock, with its broad bottom
turned to the bay. Negligently leaning his person
at full length against its weather-beaten bottom,
and drawing down his hat close over his brows, he
surrendered himself to one of those habitual reveries
which the southern well knows how to enjoy.
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Had his mind and feelings been attuned to such
things at the time, the scene itself would have furnished
no uninteresting subject, with its hundred
little lights, gleaming in the intense fog and darkness,
and the numberless vessels that lay upon the
bosom of the waters, with their dark outlines dimly
visible, like slumbering monsters of their own element.
He heeded them not; yet were his feelings
insensibly impressed with the surrounding objects,
and deeply tinctured with the profound gloom
of the time and scene. The direct current of his
thoughts pointed, however, in the direction of the
invalid. Her extreme youth, beauty, and apparent
innocence,—her deep distress and profound
melancholy, naturally produced a corresponding
depression in his own otherwise elastic spirits. He
was perfectly unconscious of the time he had spent
in this way, when accidentally turning his head to
one side, he was struck with the appearance of
something intercepting the line of vision in that
direction. He was just about to approach the
cause of his surprise, when a deep voice, issuing
from the very spot, added not a little to his superstitious
mood, by the exact manner in which it
chimed in with the present subject of his meditations.
“A beautiful young woman in affliction is a
very dangerous subject of meditation, under some
circumstances.”
“An honest heart fears no danger from any
earthly source,” was the reply.
-- 088 --
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“Honesty is no guard against external danger
in this world, whether moral or physical,” said the
figure.
“Discernment may lend a hand to honesty in
such a case.”
“Ha! ha! ha!” hideously retorted the intruder;
“Discernment, said you? Man's discernment is a
mighty thing; by it he reads the past, the present,
and the future; what can withstand his mighty
vision? He can descry danger at a distance, and
bring happiness within his grasp; he can tell the
objects of his own creation, and his Creator's first
beginning; he can read the starry alphabet in
yonder heavens, and fathom the great deep; he
can laugh at the instinct of grovelling creation, and
thunder the dogmas of reason in the teeth of revelation
itself! Discernment, indeed! ha! ha! ha!
why, man is not half so well off as the brutes.
What is their instinct but God's ever present and
supporting hand; but man—he has neither perfect
reason nor instinct! He has the conscience of an
angel, and the impulses of a devil; and reason sits
between them, for an umpire, with a fool's cap
upon her head! Impulse bribes reason, and reason
laughs at conscience. Impulse leads downward,
like the power of gravity; and conscience struggles
upward like the nightmare: but reason and
discernment will traffic and bargain with impulse
for one moment, and blind or cheat conscience the
next! Turn mankind loose with all their reason
without providence, and they will butt each other's
-- 089 --
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foolish brains out! Bribed conscience makes hypocrites,—
frightened conscience makes fanatics,—
but reason-drilled conscience makes incarnate
devils!”
“But,” said Chevillere, involuntarily interested
by this wild rhapsody, “a tender, conscience-instructed
reason, and christianized impulses, make
an honest and a discerning man, too.”
“Instructed reason! who teaches man's reason,
but the inward devils of his impulses? A few
good parents may point upward, periodically, but
the impulses pull down! down! down! for ever!
no intermission. If they would let go, I myself
could plunge into the sea; but the deeper we
plunge, the harder they pull! The farther we
sink, the heavier they become. Oh! man! of
what a cursed race art thou! Think you the inhabitants
of the moon are likewise under the ban
of God's displeasure?”
“I indulge in no such impracticable dreams,”
said Chevillere.
“No! no! you dream of paradise; but remember
what I now tell you, your paradise will not be
without its Eve, and its serpent too!”
“To whom do you allude?”
“To the lady of whom you were thinking but
now.”
“You know not what you say,” said Chevillere.
“Do I not? Perhaps you would have me speak
more plainly! Perhaps you could screw up your
resolution to the point, that I might amputate your
-- 090 --
[figure description] Page 090.[end figure description]
hopes one by one, as a poor fellow sees the surgeon
carrying off his bloody limbs; nay, I could do it!”
“Why, sir, you never saw me till within the
hour.”
“Have I not? perhaps not; I would to heaven
I could say as much about the lady.”
“To what lady do you so often allude?”
“To the lady with the black mantle.”
“Hold, she is all innocence and purity.”
“Innocence and purity! Eve was innocent and
pure too! yea, and surpassingly beautiful! but she
fell! Alas! her daughters are like her.”
“Come, sir,” said Chevillere, with some exasperation,
“let us put a stop to this discourse; it is
not pleasing to me, and I feel sure it is not useful
to you.”
“Be it so,” said the intruder, drawing up his
long goat's-hair cloak, and pulling a flat cloth cap
closely over his gray locks, as they for a moment
became visible by the reflection of the long horizontal
rays of a lamp from the deck of a neighbouring
vessel; “be it so, sir; there is no convincing
a child that a beautiful candle will burn until it
scorches its fingers.”
“In God's name, then, out with it, sir! what is
it that seems to burn so upon your tongue? come,
out with it!” said Chevillere, sharply.
“For what do you take me, young man? a gossip
or a stripling! I am neither one nor the other;
I am old enough to be your father; as well born
and as well educated as he ever was; and (
-- 091 --
[figure description] Page 091.[end figure description]
notwithstanding your southern blood and aristocratic
notions) it may be as proud; farewell, sir, and the
next time I offer to pull you from the edge of a
precipice, perhaps you will listen with more respect
to one of double your age, who can have no interest
in deceiving you. Farewell, sir!”
“Stay! stay! a moment,—one word more.
Did you not visit Washington's monument three
days ago, and see me there for the first time?”
“I could answer either yes or no to that question.
How do you know, sir, that we have not met
before, centuries ago? Do you not sometimes
foresee a whole scene, just as it afterward takes
place? Do you not sometimes look upon a strange
face with a shudder? Does not a feature—a smile—
or an expression of them combined—sometimes
awake the slumbering memory of ages? Is it not
so? have you never communed with the dead?”
“Never, sir.”
“I have, often! often!—and many times have I
been warned of approaching evils, by these dreamy
conversations; I never dream of seeing my father
smile upon me, that something good does not
speedily follow; nor of snakes and serpents, unattended
by bad news or bad fortune. Of these
things I usually dream the night before meeting
the lady yonder, after a long absence.”
“I supposed as much,” said Chevillere.
“How, sir.”
“I supposed that you had dreamed something
against that pure and unfortunate young lady.”
-- 092 --
[figure description] Page 092.[end figure description]
“Would to Heaven it were all a dream! Sunshine
would again break into the dark regions of
my thoughts.”
“Suppose I should undertake and pledge my
life to convince you that it is so.”
“You might convince me of your sincerity,
but not of your power. Can you raise the dead?”
“No, but what has raising the dead to do with
the lady?”
“More than you imagine, perhaps.”
“Ah, I see it is useless to attempt what I proposed
and hoped to effect for the sake of the lady's
peace. Have you no friends with you in this
city?”
“Yes, I have a dog! there sits the best friend I
ever had, save one!”
“My dear sir! permit me to say I think you
far from being well.”
“I never felt better in health than I do at this
moment.”
“But we are not judges of our own ailments:
Physicians do not often prescribe for themselves.”
“I tell you, sir, I am well!
“Have it so, sir! but if you are the person whom
I met a few days since at the monument, I would
mildly and respectfully recommend to you to think
no more of the lady you saw there with me. You
certainly labour under some grievous error, with
regard to her, at least.”
“You will find, when it is too late, perhaps, that
others instead of me are labouring under fatal
-- 093 --
[figure description] Page 093.[end figure description]
errors concerning that young lady! Farewell,
sir, farewell. When next we meet, you will listen
with a more attentive ear to what I have to say;
you will have observed many strange things yourself,
and you will naturally seek, rather than repel a
solution of the mystery.” Then with a signal to
his dog, he hastily went from the wharf, leaving
Chevillere in no enviable state of mind.
Youthful thoughts will not long voluntarily
dwell upon the gloomy aspect even of the circumstances
surrounding themselves; it was very
natural, therefore, that Chevillere should reflect
with much complacency upon the tendency of his
friend Lamar's laughing philosophy; nor was he
long in threading his way to the lodgings of the
Kentuckian. He had calculated with great certainty
upon finding his friend there, and on ascending
the three flights of stairs, he heard the voices
of both in full chorus of laughter, that of Lamar
indicating his most joyful mood. He rapped at
the door once or twice before he was heard.
“Come in!” shouted the backwoodsman, “what
the devil's the use of knocking with every mug of
punch.” Lamar sprang to his feet at the sight of
his friend, with volumes of smoke rolling over his
head, and laying one hand on Chevillere's back
and another on his breast, cried in the true mock
heroic;—“`Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
thou com'st in such a questionable shape, that I
will speak to thee.' `Revisit'st thou thus the
glimpses of the moon, making night hideous, and us
-- 094 --
[figure description] Page 094.[end figure description]
fools of' liquor—`so horribly to shake our dispositions,
with thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls;
say, why is this?' But, by old Shakspeare's beard,
you look like a ghost indeed! why, whence com'st
thou, man? see his cloak, too! it is covered with
sawdust!”
“Hurrah for old Kentuck!” said Damon, “he's
been to the circus! I say, stranger, was there any
knockin down and draggin out there. O! black
eyes and bruises! what a rascally appetite I've
got now for a knock down; I swear I think my
hands will git as tender as a woman's, if I don't
git a little now and then jist to keep'em in.”
“I may be soiled from leaning against a boat at
the dock,” said Chevillere.
“You certainly have the air of one who had
tried a few perils by land and sea,” said Lamar.
“The fact is, I do not feel well, nor in high
spirits, and I came here on purpose to see if Damon
could not brighten me up a little.”
“To be sure I can,” said he; “but why did'nt
you come sooner, and then we could all have gone
to the circus together; that's the place for my
money; you see you want something to make your
blood circulate: a small taste or two would soon
bring you round.”
“A taste of what?” asked Chevillere.
“A small bit of a regular row, to be sure; all
in good-nature, you know; a man need'nt git in a
passion, in takin a little exercise after bein cooped
up here all day, in one of these cocklofts—why,
if I sit here an hour, and go down in the street,
-- 095 --
[figure description] Page 095.[end figure description]
by hokies, but I want to snort directly; I feel like
old Pete when he's been stabled up for a week or
two, and jist turned loose to graze a little; and I'll
tell you what it is, stranger, I'm for making a
straight coat-tail out of this place, and that in a
hurry, for I've got through all my business now,
and I'm keen to be among the Yorkers; for I've
heard tell there's smashin work there every night.”
“Have you any acquaintances there?” asked
Lamar.
“No; but I expect to find some of our Kentuck
boys there, who come round by the lakes; and if
I do, I rather reckon we'll weed a wide row.”
“Take care you do not run against old Hays
in your mad pranks,” said Chevillere.
“They say he's a little touched with the snappinturtle,
but I'm thinkin he'd hardly try old Kentuck
at a fight or a foot-race.”
“He has had a good many fights and foot-races
in his day,” said Chevillere.
“Yes,” said Damon, “but always with rogues;
he'd find it rather a different business at an honest
ground-scuffle, where every man had to take care
of his own ears.”
“You think, then, he could not be so successful
in Kentucky as he is in New-York, at his occupation,”
said Lamar.
“He'd be off the scent there, and I rather
think he'd soon look like the babes in the woods;
you see he has the rogues in the city like a coon
-- 096 --
[figure description] Page 096.[end figure description]
when he's treed; an old dog's better than a young
one in such a fix.”
“But come, Damon, go on with your adventures
of the day which Chevillere's entrance interrupted.”
“Not till we have wet our whistles; come,
stranger (to Chevillere), you have'nt drank nothin
since you came into the room, nor into the city
either, for what I know.”
“You know,” said Chevillere, “that I am a
cold water man, upon taste and principle both.”
“And that's what I call ra'al hard drink; well,
here's to the little gal of the circus, and the little
gal down yonder at the hotel; cold water's but a
sorry drink to pledge such warm-hearted creters—
but I see talking of them makes you look solemncholy
again, and so here goes for my day's
work; let me see—where did I leave off?”
“At the commission house where you carried
the letter,” said Lamar.
“Ah, by the hokies! so it was. Well, you see, I
marched into the great store, as they had told me
it was, with my nose uppermost, like a pig in the
wind, I had an order on them for some of the eel-skins—
but I soon brought my snout down agin;
ho! ho! thought I, here's a pretty spot of work!
I'm a Turk if I aint tetotally dished.”
“What was the matter?” said Chevillere.
“Why, instead of all the fine things loomin out
in the wind as I expected for such great marchants,
I found nothing but a long empty store, and no
-- 097 --
[figure description] Page 097.[end figure description]
shelves even, and there sat two or three starched
lookin dogs, on so many old rum bar'ls; I swear
I thought in a minute about our old still-house,
and the school-master, and the miller, and the
blacksmith, and the stiller, talkin politics over
the bar'ls, and takin a swig every now and then
out of the old proof-vial.”
“Well! you presented your draft,” said Lamar,
“and what then?”
“No I did'nt—I got a straddle of a bar'l too; I
thought I would take a dish of chat, for that was
about the most I expected to get. Rat me! but I
began to feel a little particular about the gizzard
in thoughts of sellin old Pete to get home on; I
put on a long face. It's everlastin dull times for
business, said I. `O sir, you are quite mistaken,
business is taking a look up—it's getting very brisk
indeed.' And he rubbed his hands, and looked as
glad as if he had had a drink of that hot punch.
So, thought I, I'm off the trail; but I thought I
would tree him next time. `The best horses, said
I, will stumble sometimes.' `Sir?' said he, I said
`the honestest men sometimes make bad speculations.
' `Oh!' said he, `I understand you! but I
hope business is brisk and money plenty this season
in the west.' Now, thought I, he's got the boot
on the wrong leg, this time; `yes, said I, we
can't complain, but I must say I thought it looked
a little dull hereabouts.' `O, you western men are
such driving fellows, that you can't put up with our
slow way of makin money.' He's feedin me on
-- 098 --
[figure description] Page 098.[end figure description]
soft corn, thought I. `We do a little now and then,
but getting the money afterward is all our trouble,'
said I. `Why, sir, you have hit the nail upon the
head; that's the difficulty everywhere,' said he.
I thought I would run him into a stand 'fore long;
but he hoisted his tail and flung me clean off the
trail agin. `Can't I sell you half a dozen bar'ls
of cognac brandy to-day,' said he. I snapped my
fingers and jumped up, and by the long Harry I was
near raisin the whoop; for I thought old Pete and
the money was all safe, and so it was. `O! the
hunters of Kentucky! old Kentucky;' and he
began to sing and caper round the table.
“Did he pay the money?” asked Chevillere.
“Not exactly; these city chaps keep their money
buried, I believe, for you never see none of it; I
reckon they're 'fraid it'll spile; howsomever, he
gave me an order on the bank for the eel-skins.”
“Then you took your leave,” said Lamar.
“No; he asked me if I had ever seen an auction
of a ship's cargo; I said no, I had never seen more
nor a Kentuck vendue: he asked me to go along;
I'm your man, said I, for I expected there would
be smashin work if a whole ship-load was to be
sold, for I have seen some very clever little skrimmages
at a vendue; well, when we got there, there
was boxes and bags all laying in rows, and little
troughs laying under them, like them we catch
sugar-water in. Some had little long spoons made
on purpose to suck sugar with, and some had little
augers for boring holes; presently the crier began.
-- 099 --
[figure description] Page 099.[end figure description]
`Seven, seven, seven—eight, eight, eight cents a
pound, going, going,' and smash went the little
mallet; `how many do you take, sir? twenty, or
the hundred boxes?' said he. `Take the hundred,'
said a man, that looked like he wasn't worth the
powder that would blow him up.”
“Could you always tell who bid?”
“No; they mostly did it by winkin, I believe;
sometimes one fellow would grunt this side and
another that side; I kept my head bobbin after
them first one side and then the other; but whenever
I looked in their faces their eyes looked as
sleepy as a dog in fly-time, just waitin to snap a
fellow that was buzzin about his ears.”
“Did you find out at last who were the bidders?”
“No; they shut up their faces like steel-traps.
Once or twice, maybe, I saw a dyin-away
wrinkle round a feller's mouth, like the rings in
the water when you throw a stone in; but they
soon faded away, and they looked as smooth and
deceitful as a pool of deep water itself agin.”
“They tasted and tried the articles, of course,
before they bought?”
“Yes; some of them had their mouths daubed,
like children suckin 'lasses candy; and some of
their big noses was stuck full of Bohea tea, outside
and in, like old Pete when he's had a good feed of
chopped rye and cut straw.”
“And what sort of a man was the auctioneer?”
“Why, his mouth went so fast when he got to
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[figure description] Page 100.[end figure description]
`going, going, going,' that you couldn't say stop, if
you had had your mouth fixed; but his face I didn't
like at all.”
“What was there in his face objectionable?”
“O! I can't tell exactly, it looked out of all sort
of nature; a good deal I don't know howish. One
thing I'll be sworn to, you would never see such a
one in old Kentuck; there every man wears his
Sunday face on week days.”
“I suppose you mean that the man was disfigured
with affectation,” said Chevillere.
“You've hit it, stranger, you've hit it; that's the
very word I wanted to be at, but I couldn't get it
out. Well, from the vendue I took a stroll round
town, to see the lads and lasses; how they carried
their heads in these parts, and maybe to see how
they carried on their sparkin in a big town like
this; for, to tell you the truth, that's one of the
things I never could see how they carried on
here.”
“How did you manage such things in the west?
Is there any thing peculiar in your method?”
“I can't say we're different from other folks in
the country, but you see we have abundance of
chances to court the gals a little; for there's our
weddings.”
“There are weddings here, too, I hope,” said
Lamar.
“Yes, and a pretty business they make of 'em;
I blundered into a church the other day, and what
should be goin on there but a weddin; and smash
-- 101 --
[figure description] Page 101.[end figure description]
my apple-cart, if there wasn't more cryin and
snifflin than I've seen at many an honest man's
funeral, and all in broad daylight, too; and when
the parson had got through his flummery, with his
long white mornin gown, they all jumped into carriages,
and off they went away into the country
somewhere, to hide themselves. I rather suspect
they had stole a march on the old folks, else they
wouldn't have run so as if the devil was at their
heels.”
“How do you conduct such things in the west?”
asked Lamar.
“Oh! there we have quiltings, skutchings, and
sewin frolics, and makin apple butter, and all such
like; and they always wind up at the little end
with a rip-sneezin dance, and that's where we do
the sparkin; well, presently a weddin grows out
of it, and maybe then there isn't a little fun agoing,
dance all night, and play all sort of games, at least
all them sort that wind up in kissin the gals, and
that they manage to bring about by sellin pawns,
and one thing or other. For my part, I never could
see into any but the kissin part, and that you know
was the cream of the joke.”
“They do not often go to church to get married
then,” said Chevillere.
“No; I never saw anybody married at church
before t'other day, and I hope it'll be a long time
before their new-fangled ways travels out to old
Kentuck; there our gals and boys stands up before
the parson a few minutes, and he rolls his tobacco
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[figure description] Page 102.[end figure description]
two or three times over his teeth, and chaws a few
words, and it's all over before you could say `God
save the commonwealth' three times; and what's
the use in makin three bites of a cherry?”
“But you have wandered from your point,” said
Lamar; “you started out on an expedition to see
how the lads and lasses carried themselves here.”
“O! ay, sure enough; well, one of the first
things I come across was a parcel of gals and
boys on horseback, and I'm flummucked if it
wouldn't have been a pretty tolerable show in the
land of hogs and homminy. The gals rode well
enough, considering how they were hampered with
clothes and trumpery; but the men! O smashy!
how they rode! bobbin up and down on the saddle,
with three motions to the horse's one. I'm an
Injin if old Pete Ironsides wouldn't have kicked
up his heels and squealed at the very first motion
of the rider goin ahead of him; and then the saddles
were stuck on the shoulders of the animals,
like a hump on a man's back, or a pair of haims to
hitch traces to. One of them chaps would ride a
saddle about twice as hard as a horse. I was
lookin evry minute for one of 'em to light behind
his saddle.”
“Did all the gentlemen and ladies you met carry
themselves so unnaturally?” said Lamar.
“No; I met one young lady dressed in black
that I thought I had seen before somewhere, and
her spark too; but they were too busy to see me.
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[figure description] Page 103.[end figure description]
She looked more coy and shamefaced, like our
country gals, than any of them.”
“How did the gentleman bear himself? was he
polite and respectful in his carriage?” said Lamar,
smiling, and looking at Chevillere.
“Oh, yes! he bowed his head close down to the
bonnet of the pretty little lady, and walked that
way all through the street, as if he was afraid to
lose so much as a word; sometimes she seemed to
be just ready to cry, and looked pale and frightened.
I rather suppose her old dad's a little sour or cross,
maybe; but for all I couldn't help thinkin what a
clever nice young couple they would make to stand
up before the parson.”
Chevillere attempted reserve of manner, but
blushed and smiled in spite of himself, as he asked
Damon, “Not your chaw-tobacco parson, I hope?”
“And why not? what if he would roll his chaw-tobacco
into one cheek at you, while he coupled
you up with the other? I'll be bound you'd look
at somebody else's pretty cheeks more nor you
would at the parson's chaw-tobacco; besides, what
harm is there in a parson's chawin? I know an old
one who would no more git up into his pulpit of a
Sunday without a good smart plug in his mouth,
than I would strike my own brother when he's
down. I've seen him afore now, when his wind
held out longer than his tobacco, run his finger
first into one jacket-pocket, and then into the other,
and at last he'd draw a little piece of pigtail, just up
to the top of the water (as you may say), and then
he'd let it go again.”
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“Some virtuous shame, in view of the congregation,
I suppose,” said Chevillere.
“Yes, that was it; but I never heard any of the
sarmont after the old boy's ammunition run out.”
“Why, what had his tobacco to do with your
listening?”
“A great deal; no sooner would the old feller
begin to fumble in his pockets, than my hand
always run into mine, of its own accord, and
lugged out a chunk of a twist just ready to hand
to the old man, and then when I'd find it couldn't
be, I naturally took a plug myself, and chawed for
the old boss till his wind flagg'd.”
“Or, in other words, his desire for the weed
made you desire it, to cure which you chewed for
yourself, and flattered your conscience all the while
that you were rendering him a service,” said Chevillere.
“Very like! very like! for I know it makes a
feller husky dry to see another famishin for a little
of the cretur.”
“Not so much so, perhaps, as if a dry person, as
you call him, should see another drinking, and could
get none himself.”
“Oh! but that's a case out of all nature, as one
may say, in these parts, anyhow, where liquor runs
down the streets, after a manner.”
Chevillere and Lamar, both rising, exchanged
the usual salutations, and the good night! good
night! went the rounds of all present.
-- 105 --
CHAPTER VII.
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“Were you not delighted with the wild and
mountainous scenery of the country around the
Virginia Springs?” said Victor Chevillere to Miss
St. Clair, on the morning after the scene related in
the last chapter, as the lady reclined, in a pensive
mood, in the room before described.
“Oh, sir, you forget that I was too feeble in mind
and body to enjoy the scenery around me then, or
to partake of the enthusiasm of my friends on the
subject. The rich and romantic scenery of the
White Sulphur was highly attractive to me, when
I became somewhat convalescent; yet I shall
carry with me through life a sad remembrance of
scenes, which to many others of my age and sex
will ever be associated with the gay dance, the enlivening
gallopade, the stirring music, and with
adventurous equestrian excursions among the
mountains.”
“I believe,” said Chevillere, “that the most melancholy
reflections may be and are much softened
and mellowed in after-life, by being associated in
the mind with the profoundly poetical feelings excited
by the constant view of quiet mountain
scenery; such as the well-remembered, long, long
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line of blue peaks, stretching far away until they
reach the clouds and the horizon.”
“It is indeed true,” said she, “that kind and
beautiful nature, in the season of green leaves and
flowers, will sometimes almost tempt us to believe
that misery is not the inevitable lot of the human
family; but when the consciousness of the one and
the beauty of the other are together present to
us, it depends entirely upon the degree, whether
the beauty softens the suffering or not.”
“In other words,” said he, “whether the evil be
so irremediable that hope cannot enter the heart;
that the ravishing beauty of nature cannot excite
benevolence, devotion, and love.”
“That was not entirely my case,” said she, “for
I am grateful for having felt some pleasing excitement
at the time, and for being able now to call up
many pleasurable remembrances, clouded as they
are for the most part with sadness.”
“If I have been rightly informed, you did not
visit all the other springs around the White Sulphur.”
“My health would not permit of our making
the entire fashionable round.”
“Oh, then you have missed much pleasure,” said
he. “There are the Sweet Springs, rising out of
the earth like a boiling caldron, with brilliant little
balloons of gas ever ascending to the top of the
water, and bursting in the sunbeams. There is
not perhaps in the world such another natural
fountain of soda-water. And there is the Salt
-- 107 --
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Sulphur, with its high romantic hills covered with
herds, and its beautiful meadows, and its long village
of neat white cottages, and its splendid assembly-rooms,
and its sumptuous banquets of wild
game and artificial luxuries. But, above all, there
is the Warm Spring, with its clear blue crystal
baths, large enough for a troop of horse to swim
in; there, likewise, is an extensive green lawn,
flanked on the one side by the same kind of neat
white cottages, and on the other by the line of
blue mountains, rising abruptly from the plain
within gun-shot of the baths. On a clear moonlight
night, one may see the invalids sitting out on
the green in front of their doors, enjoying the placid
scenery of the valley, and the profound and solemn
monotony of the overhanging mountains,—
sometimes, indeed, interrupted by the bustle of a
new arrival, the neighing of horses, the crash of
the wheels, the hoarse voices of the coachmen as
they exchange advice upon the descent into the
valley, or by the meeting of old friends and fellow-invalids,
perhaps acquaintances of a former season,
and fellow-sufferers with the gout, bantering each
other upon their speed.”
“From what little I saw of them, I think they
perfectly justify the southern enthusiasm which we
found everywhere on the subject; and I should
think that there is no finer opportunity of seeing
southern fashionable society.”
“True; our wealthiest and most fashionable
people resort thither every season. Yet I cannot
-- 108 --
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say in truth, from what I have observed myself,
that our aristocracy are seen there to the best advantage.
They are too much in their holyday suit
of manners,—too artificial,—too unnatural. I
have seen people who were agreeable at home,
become affected and disagreeable at watering-places.
I have also seen some who were reserved
at home, become quite affable there. The latter
effect, however, was by no means so common as
the former.”
“I did not see much affectation, or many unnatural
people at the White Sulphur,” said the lady.
“I cannot say that it is one of the besetting sins
of the southern fashionables; all I meant to say
was, that they show more of it there than at
home.”
“For my own part, I was delighted with the
generous, free, and open-hearted manner in which
I was treated by the few female acquaintances I
made; and I am almost ashamed to acknowledge
that they were far more intelligent and accomplished
than my prejudices had taught me to
expect.”
“You acknowledge, then, that you had some
provincial prejudices. Let me see! then I must
take you regularly to account, and catechise you.”
“Well,” said the lady, as lightly as her habitual
sadness ever permitted, “I will answer truly.”
“I know you will speak truly whatever you do
answer; but will you speak the whole truth in answer
to whatever I shall ask?”
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A sad and afflicted expression appeared upon
her countenance as she replied, “I need hardly
say to Mr. Chevillere, that those questions which
are proper for him to ask and for me to hear shall
be fully answered.”
“You do me but justice in supposing that I
would not discredit my new dignity, by propounding
questions which would lessen me in the eyes
of a fair witness; but, to tell you the truth, I seriously
meditated putting a few in addition to such
as were local, and perhaps in a more serious mood
than these might demand.”
“Proceed, sir, proceed,” said the lady, somewhat
perturbed; “I must reserve the right to answer or
not. No trifling impediment, however, shall prevent
me from gratifying your curiosity.”
“Would you consider it a great misfortune to
reside in the southern states?”
“Places and countries are to me nearly alike.”
“How so? You surely prefer your native land
to all others?”
“Unhappiness soon makes us indifferent to mere
locality; situated as I am, many would prefer new
scenes.”
“Does not affliction enlarge the heart, and
extend the affections?”
“I believe that slight sufferings make us captious—
great ones, humane and benevolent.”
“Is it a natural consequence, that, when benevolence
becomes universal, personal affections and
partialities wither in proportion?”
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“Certainly not, as a consequence; but it is questionable
whether blighted hopes do not generally
precede the enlarged philanthropy spoken of.”
“May not much travelling and experience of the
world produce the same effect?”
“I cannot speak experimentally on that point;
but I think it is very probable they do upon a masculine
mind.”
As Chevillere was about to continue his half-serious,
half-jesting questions, Mr. Brumley abruptly
entered, and announced to his daughter-in-law
his determination to proceed northward early
on the following morning; and almost at the same
moment, old Cato, with his stately step, profound
bow, and cap in hand, presented a letter to his
master, which he instantly knew by the superscription
to be from Randolph. Presenting his regards
to them both, he retired to peruse the epistle,
which will be found in the next chapter.
-- 111 --
CHAPTER VIII.
B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.
“Belville, High Hills of the Santee, S. Carolina.
“Dear Chum,
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“The deserts of Africa are not to be compared,
for loneliness, to a South Carolinian swamp. Oh!
the comforts and blessings of a corduroy turnpike!
These, you know, are made of poles laid down in
the bottom of the swamps for a road, in humble
imitation of that same most durable web. But the
swamps gone through, and myself safely landed
here—this Belville of yours is a most desirable
place. Your father must have been a man of taste,
friend Victor. The grove of Pride of India trees,
in front of the villa, stands exactly as you left it;
the vines run up and around Bell's window as
beautiful as ever; the pigeons wheel over the
garden and cotton-fields as gayly as of old. The
flowers which perfume this delightful and balmy
air, send up their sweets from the garden and the
lawn as they have done these forty years; at least
so testifies old Tombo the gardener. Your favourite
horse thrives, and is none the worse for a
trial of his speed and bottom which I made the
other day in a race with my own impetuous
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thoughts. Your mother seems happier than I have
ever seen her; and little Virginia Bell is the fairest
flower on the Chevillere estate. Will you believe
it! she introduced me to the housekeeper on my
arrival as having been her affianced bridegroom
ever since she was three months old, and then enjoyed
a school-girl laugh. By St. Benedict, that
laugh cut nearer to my heart than a funeral
sermon.
“Why have you not written to her and extolled
some of my good qualities? She will never find
them out! and as to my becoming a serious, sighing
suitor, I am ten times farther from it than I was
the first day I blundered into such dangerous company.
If I were to elongate my phiz by way of
preparative for a sigh, she would split her little
sides with laughing at me. The fact is, I begin
to think myself pretty considerably of an ass among
the ladies, as your Yankees would express it.
What shall I do? shall I run for it? or shall I
stand here and die of the cold plague? If I laugh,
she laughs with me; if I look serious, she laughs at
me; if we visit, I am laughed at; if we are visited, I
am stared at; and thus it is, day after day, and week
after week. To your mother, I no doubt appear
like a more rational creature, but before Miss
Bell I am utterly at a loss and dumbfoundered.
“How can I show your charming cousin that I
am not the fool she takes me for? must I shoot
somebody? That would be too bloody-minded.
Must I write a book? Sicken and become
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interesting? Ah! I have it! I'll get the fever and
ague (no hard matter you know here); but then
a man looks so unromantic with his teeth, and his
hands, and his feet all in motion like a negro dancing
`Juba.' A lady would as soon think of falling in
love with a culprit on the gibbet. I shall certainly
try what absence will do; but then suppose that I
am a bore, and no one entreats me to stay! Your
mother might deem it indelicate, under the circumstances,
for she certainly sees that I am a lost sinner;
then I should be blown, indeed, with all my
sins upon my head! without one redeeming quality
for the little Bell to dwell upon in my absence.
If I had rescued somebody from a watery grave—
stopped a pair of runaway horses—saved somebody's
life—shot a robber—been wounded myself—
should turn out to be some lord's heir in England—
had jumped down the Passaic or the Niagara—distinguished
myself against the Indians or the Algerines—
or even killed a mad dog—it would not be
so desperate a case for the hero of a love affair.
“But here I am—a poor forlorn somebody, without
a single trait of heroism in my composition, or
a solitary past deed of the kind to boast of; unless
it may be bursting little brass bombs under the
tutor's windows in College, or shaving a horse's
tail, or one side of a drunken man's whiskers, or
laying two drunken fellows at each other's door.
Suppose I should get old Tombo, the gardener,
into the river by stratagem, merely that I might
pull him out again; as he seems to be a universal
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favourite here. But then suppose I should drown
him in these mock heroics? Ah, I see I shall have
to remain plain Beverly Randolph all my days!
Alas! the days of chivalry are gone! If I could
splinter a lance with some of these Sir Hotheads,
or Sir Blunderbys, the case might not be so desperate.
“Thank Heaven, however, that the age of poetry
is not gone too; for poetry, you know, is but the
shadow or reflection of chivalry—heroism—and
action! First an age of deeds, and then an age of
song—so here goes for the doggerel. But let me
see; are there not more than two ages? what
succeeds to an age of poetry? One of philosophy!
What succeeds philosophy? Cynicism or infidelity—
next a utilitarian age, and lastly we have a mongrel
compound of all—then we have revolutions,
bloodshed, sentiment, religion, and spinning-jennies.
Now you see I have hit it! we live in the
mongrel age; a hero of this era should fight—
write—pray—and spin cotton! Let's see how all
these could be united into a picture suitable for a
frontispiece to a work of the current age. First
there must be a spinning-jenny to go by steam, to
the wheel of which there must be a hand-organ.
The steam must be scattered against an enemy;
a long nosed fellow with the real nasal twang
must be seen upon his knees attending the jenny,
and singing doggrel to the music of the hand-organ—
there's a pretty coat of arms for you, and suitable
for the present age.
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“But seriously, my dear Chevillere, what am I
to do? I cannot get on without your assistance,
and yet I am ashamed to ask it; however, I shall
leave all these things to time—fate—and a better
acquaintance between the charming Miss Bell and
your humble servant.
“I find you have more negroes here than we have
in Virginia, in proportion to the whites; and existing
under totally different circumstances, so far as
regards the distance between them and their
masters.
“With us slavery is tolerable, and has something
soothing about it to the heart of the philanthropist;
the slaves are more in the condition of tenants to
their landlords—they are viewed more as rational
creatures, and with more kindly feelings; each
planter owning a smaller number than the planters
generally do here, of course the direct knowledge
of, and intercourse between each other is greater.
Every slave in Virginia knows, even if he does not
love, his master; and his master knows him, and
generally respects him according to his deserts.
Here slavery is intolerable; a single individual
owning a hundred or more, and often not knowing
them when he sees them. If they sicken and die,
he knows it not except through the report of those
wretched mercenaries, the overseers. The slaves
here are plantation live-stock; not domestic and
attached family servants, who have served around
the person of the master from the childhood of
both.
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“I have known masters in Virginia to exhibit the
most intense sorrow and affliction at the death of
an old venerable household servant, who was quite
valueless in a pecuniary point of view.
“Here, besides your white overseers, you have
your black drivers;—an odious animal, almost
peculiar to the far south. It is horrible to see one
slave following another at his work, with a cowskin
dangling at his arm, and occasionally tying
him up and flogging him when he does not get
through his two tasks a day. These tasks I believe
are two acres of land, which they are required to
hoe without much discrimination, or regard to age,
sex, health, or condition; now I have seen stout
active fellows get through their two tasks by one
o'clock, while another poor, stunted, bilious creature
toiled the whole day at the same portion of labour.
Another abomination here, and even known in
some parts of Virginia, is that the females are required
to work in the field, and generally to do as
much as the males. This system is unworthy
even of refined slave-holders. But the hardest
part is to tell yet; they receive their provisions
but once a week, and then, each has for seven days,
either one peck of Indian corn, or three pecks of
sweet potatoes, without meat, or any thing else to
season this dry fare.
“I will confess to you that, at first, I thought this
allowance much more niggardly than I now consider
it. In order to see how they lived, I went
into the thickest of the quarter, on purpose to share
-- 117 --
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a part of their food myself, and observe a little of
their economy; I found two or three stout fellows
standing at a large table, or frame, into which were
fixed two grindstones, or rather one was fixed and
the other revolved upon it, like two little millstones;
the upper stone was turned by a crank,
at which the two slaves seemed to work by turns.
The arrangements for this labour they made among
themselves. I then went into the best looking hut
of the quarter, just as they had all drawn round
a large kettle of small homminy, in the centre of
which I was pleased to see a piece of salt fat pork
about the size of a large apple. The family consisted
of six persons. They had all clubbed their
portions of food into a common stock.
“`How often do you draw meat?' said I; they
informed me that they had none except at Christmas,
and that none were able to buy meat except
those who finished their two tasks early in the day,
and then cultivated their own little `patches,' as
they are called. I then went round the huts to see
how many had meat, and was much rejoiced to
find that more than three-fourths lived substantially
well.
“I was exceedingly amused at one thing in these
singular little communities, which was, that matches
of convenience are almost as common among them
as among their more fashionable masters. I suspect
it would puzzle some of your fashionable
belles to guess how these have their origin, and
what is the fortune upon which they are founded.
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I will tell you, if you have never observed it yourself.
The most active and sober hands, who are
able to finish their tasks early, and of course live
well, are always in great demand for husbands;
and a well-favoured girl is almost sure to select
one of these for her helpmate in the true sense of
the word. Nor is this excellence confined to the
males; many of the women are in as much demand
among the lazy fellows for their prowess in
the field, as the active men are among the women.
“While the mothers are at work in the field,
their helpless offspring are all left under the care of
the superannuated women, in a large hut, or several
large huts provided for that purpose; and a more
unearthly set of wrinkled and arid witches you
never saw, unless you have more curiosity than
most of your Carolinians. These scenes, especially
if visited by moonlight, transport a man into
the centre of Africa at once; there is the dark,
sluggish stream, the dismal-looking pine-barrens,
and the palmetto, the oriental-looking cabbagetree,
aided by the foreign gibberish, and the
unsteady light of the pine logs before the door,
now and then casting a fitful gleam of light upon
some of these natives of the shores of the Niger,
with their tattooed visages, ivory teeth, flat noses,
and yellow and blood-shot eyeballs.
“I do not observe much difference between the
North and South Carolinians, except in the case of
those who inhabit the most southern portions of
the latter state. There your rich are more princely
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and aristocratic, and your poor more wretched and
degraded; but to tell you the plain truth, many of
your little slaveholders are miserably poor and
ignorant; and what must be the condition of that
negro who is a slave to one of these miserable
wretches? They are uniformly hard and cruel
masters, and the more fortune or fate frowns upon
them, the more cruel they become to their slaves.
This is a singular development of human character,
and not easily accounted for, unless we suppose
them to be revenging themselves of fate.
“Most of the accomplished ladies whom I have
seen, were educated either at Salem or at the
north, and sometimes at both,—the preference being
given to New-York and Philadelphia. Therein
Virginia has the advantage: for scarcely a town
of two thousand inhabitants is without its seminary
for girls. I have myself visited those at Richmond,
Petersburg, Fredericksburg, Charlottesville,
Staunton, Lexington, Fincastle, &c. &c. This,
you will acknowledge, shows deep-seated wisdom
and foresight in the people; for if our wives and
mothers are intelligent, their offspring will be so
too.
“Virginia Bell has just stolen into the parlour in
the south wing, where I am now writing, so there
is an end of slavery, and education, and all that
sort of thing; unless, indeed, your humble servant
may be said to have surrendered his freedom, and
to be now undergoing a new sort of schooling.
Her look is arch and knowing, as if she had read
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every word I have written; I will finish my letter
when she goes out.
“There now, I breathe more easily,—she is
gone! `Mr. Randolph,' said she, `I have a very
great curiosity to see the letter of a young gentleman;
I never saw one in my life.' `Indeed!' said
I, `then I will write you one before I leave my
seat.'
“`No, no, no!' said she, blushing just perceptibly,
`you understand me very well; I mean such letters
as you write to my cousin; there would be
something worth reading in them; as for your letters
to young ladies, I have seen some of them.
O! deliver me from the side-ache, and weeping
till my eyes are red with irrepressible laughter;
if they would write naturally and simply, it would
not be so bad. There would then be only the natural
awkwardness of the subject; but to get upon
stilts, merely because the letter is to a lady, is too
bad. But you have not answered my question;
do you intend to show me that letter?'
“`I will show you a better one.'
“`No, no! I want to see none of your set
speeches upon paper, all so prim and formal; if
you care any thing for my good opinion, you will
show me one of your careless ones,” said she.
“`Care any thing for your good opinion!' said
I, rising, and trying to seize her hand, which she
held behind her; `I value your opinion more than
that of the whole sex besides.' She raised her
eyes in mock astonishment, and puckering up her
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beautiful little lips, whistled as if in amazement,
and then deliberately marched out of the room,
saying, as she stood at the entrance, `Finish your
copy like a good boy, and be sure not to blot it,
and you shall have some nuts and a sweet cake;'
and I crushed the unfortunate epistle with chagrin.
She certainly takes me for a fool, and truly I begin
to think she is not very far wrong.
“B. Randolph.”
-- 122 --
CHAPTER IX.
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
“Baltimore, 18—.
[figure description] Page 122.[end figure description]
“You will have learned by the previous letters[1]
of Lamar and myself, every interesting circumstance
which has occurred to us, together with our
sage observations upon men and things as they
were presented.
“Lamar spends more than half his time with the
Kentuckian,—he declares that he will never rest
satisfied until he persuades him to remove to the
high hills of the Santee, where he can have him
for a neighbour. He has found a new source of
amusement to-day, in the supposed discovery that
Damon is in love with the pretty country girl, on
whose account, you will recollect, he got into the
affray at the circus. Her father invited him to
pay them a visit, and Lamar has been trying to
persuade him to take advantage of it immediately,
and has even offered to accompany him. I have
no doubt he would succeed, had not the Kentuckian's
idol, Pete Ironsides, been sent into the country
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`to board,' as he calls it. As it is, he has determined
upon accepting the invitation as he returns.
“My own affairs are assuming too sombre a hue
for me to enjoy Lamar's foolery as I used to do,
when we three lived together, and when you and I
were made joint partakers of his animal spirits; I
in fact lived upon his stock in trade in that respect,
while you added no little to the joint concern; I
was always, I fear, but a sullen companion for
such merry fellows. But have you never observed
that the most lasting and ardent friendships are
formed of such materials? Even in married life,
you will, in nine cases out of ten, see the most opposite
qualities form the most durable and happy
connexions. This is running, I know, right in the
teeth of the romantic twaddle of the day, about
congenial sentiments, and the like; but is it not
true? Look around you, and see in every instance
if the lively woman has not chosen a serious husband;
the man of genius, a dull drone; the bigot
and fanatic, a romp; the pious lady, a libertine.
These observations, however, like most others of
the college stamp, may be destined to give place
to others of a very different character. When I
look back upon all the various revolutions of opinion
which the mind undergoes, before it arrives
even at our present state of maturity, I am dismayed,
and almost afraid to look forward.
“Nor is it in matters of abstract opinion alone,
I fear, that we are destined to undergo changes.
Our hopes must be in some measure paralyzed, our
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hearts made colder, and our youthful friendships
broken asunder! Look what sad havoc a single
year has already made in our own catalogue.
Where now is that noble band of young and generous
spirits, who but a single twelvemonth ago
were all the world to each other? Two of them
have surrendered the bright hopes of young life
upon its very threshold, and the others are scattered
abroad over land and sea. But I have wandered
from the subject of our adventures, which
we have promised faithfully to record.
“Is it not strange how fate seems to play with
us, when once we are fairly embarked upon life's
great current? I am now completely wound up
in perplexities and embarrassments, which, a week
ago, I never once thought of. The actors in this
new drama in which I am confessedly entangled,
were then perfect strangers to me; and how handsomely
has providence, or fate, or whatever you
may choose to call it, paved the way for my more
complete introduction into these new mysteries?
The lady becomes intimate with my mother,
though coming from opposite ends of the Union.
She travels home again and is taken ill on the road,
at the very time when Lamar and I strike into
the same road. It seemed, too, as if I was placed
at the table where our acquaintance commenced,
in the very position where I could not avoid making
a tender of my services; and now that I have
become almost a part of their little family here, I
find that they have been afflicted in some way
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beyond measure. They seem to be surrounded
with mysteries and strange connexions; more than
once have I gone specially to break the spell, and
clear away the trammels which render this most
strange and interesting young lady miserable.
Various methods have I devised to acquire the
secret, but they have always ended in awkwardness
and embarrassment. It is no easy matter to
initiate one's self into the midst of family secrets,
when one is comparatively a stranger; yet it
must be done, and that shortly. I feel that it is
necessary to my own peace; indeed it is necessary
in order that I may see my own way clearly, to
have these cruel doubts solved. Every hour but
adds to my entanglement, and if there is a shadow
of foundation for the phantasies of the lunatic, the
sooner I make the plunge the better. Yet how
simple I become; if I had now the decision of
character for which I once had credit in college, I
should not long suffer the dreams of a maniac to
disturb my good opinion of this most lovely and
interesting girl. You may talk of your embarrassments
and difficulties with Bell's untamable
humour; they are all child's play,—mere romping,—
but the case is not so easy of adjustment here;
the old gentleman has just announced, that he shall
resume his journey early to-morrow morning; so
that something must be effected this afternoon or
evening. If there is no other way, I will formally
seek an interview with the lady, and, however
painful it may be to her, I will ask her to explain
-- 126 --
[figure description] Page 126.[end figure description]
her strange fear of the lunatic; of course I must
avow the reason; you shall hear the result.
“P.S. 12 o'clock at night—I have broken the
ice, my dear fellow, and no doubt you will think I
have got a cold bath for my pains.
“Soon after dark I knocked at the door, and
waited some little time with throbbing pulses, to
hear that gentle and silvery voice bid me “come
in!” for I had seen the old gentleman go off in a
carriage, to the theatre, as I hoped. No summons
came—I repeated my knock with the same result.
I do not know what prompted me to an act so
rude, but I mechanically pushed open the door before
I had reflected a moment. I was in the presence
of the little fairy. She held in her hand an
open letter, which was wet with tears; her head
was leaning far back against the wall; her comb,
carrying with it the large rolls of her fair brown
hair, was partly lying on the window, and partly
stuck into its place; the pearl of her cheeks
was still wet with recent tears. I did not know
which was now worst, to retreat or go forward.
At first I thought she had fainted, and would have
sprung to the bell; but I soon saw that she slumbered
gently and peacefully. Randolph, there is
something heavenly in the slumbers of a young,
innocent, and beautiful female; but I will leave
my reflections for another time. I was about to
retreat, and had so far closed the door as to hide
my person, when she suddenly awoke and said,
-- 127 --
[figure description] Page 127.[end figure description]
`Come in, dear father, come in!' the lights had
not yet been brought, but I could see the crimson
mantling her neck and cheeks as she discovered
who the visiter was, and replaced her hair at the
same time.
“I felt confused and ashamed, and stammered
some vague attempt at an apology. She made
light of my intrusion; but one thing attracted my
attention particularly. Just as the maid set the
lights upon the table in the centre of the room, I
thought that I recognised my mother's handwriting
in the letter which she now hastily folded up and
thrust into her reticule. As I mentioned, she had
been weeping over it. This set my imagination
to work; I could not divine on what theme my
mother could write to her; still less what subject
for grief they could have between them. I inquired
if she was well; she said `yes, as well as usual, but
exhausted for want of sleep the previous night.' I
instantly connected her want of sleep and restlessness
with my mother's letter; and before I had
sufficiently reflected upon the import of the question,
I asked her whether her first acquaintance
with my mother had not been formed during her
late visit to the springs. She answered in the
affirmative. `But why do you ask?' said she,
searchingly. `For no particular reason, but the
question occurred to me, from seeing the hand-writing
of the letter you have just folded up. I
thought it strange that you should receive a letter
from my mother, when I have received none.'
`This letter,' said she, `was not received at this
-- 128 --
[figure description] Page 128.[end figure description]
place; I was merely refreshing my memory with
its contents.' `It is not often,' said I, `that my
mother writes so as to bring tears into the eyes of
her friends, and if you would not consider the expression
of the wish too impertinent, and that too
when I have little expectation of its being granted,
I would say that I never before had so much curiosity
to see one of her letters.'
“`Your curiosity,' said she, `should be gratified
immediately, but this letter alludes to circumstances
which would perhaps be uninteresting to you; but
even were they otherwise, it would excite your
curiosity still more to read the letter, when I am
unable to give such explanations now as it requires.
'
“`You labour under a most grievous error,' said
I, `if you suppose there are any circumstances
connected in any way with the present distress of
Miss Frances St. Clair, which would be uninteresting
to me. The express object of my visit to-night
was to ask that very explanation. It may seem
strange and impertinent that I should seek that
which you evidently avoid; but my excuse is, and
it is the only one that I can plead, that this is your
last evening in the city; will Miss St. Clair be
offended, if I acknowledge that upon this explanation
turns my happiness? I am fearful of giving
offence by acknowledging that any previous history
is necessary of one who carries in her countenance
a refutation of all calumnies.'
“I had ventured to seize her unresisting hand,
-- 129 --
[figure description] Page 129.[end figure description]
but as I concluded the sentence, she withdrew it,
and covered her face with her handkerchief, pressing
it hard, and breathing short. At the same
time I noticed some confusion with her distress,
though without anger. This imboldened me to
proceed.
“`It may appear like double presumption in me
to ask an explanation before I can proffer a suit,
which may be instantly and indignantly rejected,
either with or without your history.'
“`I will not prudishly affect to misunderstand
you, in either of the prominent points of your remarks,
' said she, her head sinking in modest guise,
`but before I reply to them, will you tell me whence
you have ever heard any thing against me.'
“The question went straight to my suspicious
heart, and rankled there; insomuch that I coughed
and hemmed at it several times ineffectually; her
eyes being riveted on me all the while, like a judge's
upon a detected thief—I felt that her pure and
searching gaze was far more honest than my own,
and I should speedily have begun an explanation
if her father had not at that instant entered the
room. I thought he saw and disrelished the matter
in hand, for he seated himself in a chair, in a certain
manner, by which one understands a person
to say, `I'll stay all night, if you have no objections.'
I will be up by daylight in the morning, lest the
old gentleman steal a march upon me.
“Yours truly,
“V. Chevillere.”
eaf038v1.n1[1] These letters are omitted, of course, as the same information
has been already given to the reader.
-- 130 --
CHAPTER X.
B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.
“Savannah, 18—.
“Dear Friend,
[figure description] Page 130.[end figure description]
“After despatching my last letter, not knowing
exactly what else to do with myself in the present
state of affairs, I set out on horseback, telling the
family that I wished to see a little more of Carolina,
but inwardly resolved to follow the horse's
nose wherever he might lead, and continue thus to
ride and thus to be led until I might gather up my
scattered thoughts and determine what course to
pursue.
“I will not deny, that on the second day in the
afternoon, about three o'clock (truth is always precise,
you know), I discovered in one corner of the
storehouse of my thoughts a secret design to try
`Bell' by a leave-taking, absence, and reappearance.
If you had been upon the ground to charge me
with the intention, I should no doubt have sworn
upon a stack of Testaments that it was not so;
and I could have done so honestly. You have
looked inwards too often not to know, that in wandering
through the dreary passages of one's own
mind, we blunder by accident upon many obscure
-- 131 --
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motives, which, if boldly charged with them before
we set out on such a pilgrimage, we should stoutly
deny.
“When the horses were brought up on the gravelled
road, and all things in readiness for my departure,
I cast a furtive glance at that too-knowing
and too-beautiful little brunette, who calls you
cousin, to see how she was about to feel on the
solemn occasion. Her looks were perfectly inexplicable.
I have thought of them ever since, but
for my life I cannot say in what feelings they had
their origin. There was neither sorrow, joy, love,
hatred, revenge, hope, despair, nor any other definable
emotion. There was a scarcely perceptible
smile, a slight shutting of the corner of one eye,
and a mock solemnity of the other unruly features,
as if one was winking to the other rebels as much
as to say, `wait till he's out of hearing, and we will
have a rare laugh at his expense.' It was just
such a look as would make a man say, `Zounds
and fury, madam, you'll never see me again; farewell,
for ever;' and then be laughed at for his
pains.
“But what sort of a look was it? It was a
very knowing look, I am sure of that. She looked
as if she read all the inward workings of my moral
machinery. It was a serio-comic look; produced,
no doubt, by the idea that she was scanning me
thoroughly, while I imagined that I could see just
as clearly through her. In other words, as I have
somewhere else beautifully expressed it, she thought
-- 132 --
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me `pretty considerable much of an ass,' and I am
pretty considerable much of her opinion, at least
before ladies. It is somewhat singular that this
tendency to display my weak side should have developed
itself at the very time when I most desired
to appear to advantage.
“At last the parting moment came. I had
bidden your mother farewell in the breakfast-room,
and then proceeded to the front door, where stood
Virginia Bell.
“`I think it very doubtful,' said I, `whether I
shall be enabled to take your aunt's house in my
route home.'
“`You are not going to run away with cousin's
favourite horse, are you?' said she.
“By the Great Mogul! in my earnestness to invent
a pathetic lie, I forgot to arrange the consistency
of the plot.
“`True, true!' said I, stammering; `then I must
indeed run my head into danger again!' saying
which I sprang upon your horse, and rode like a
country doctor who has no practice. By-the-by,
that was nearer to an avowal than I have ever
come yet; your joyous, fun-loving creatures are
the most difficult to address in the world.
“Oh! if I only had such a one in love with me,
what a race I would lead her! I would punish
the whole class of unapproachable little mischievous
misses! I would make her ogle me at church;
hang on my arm to the theatre; sigh by the fire-side,
and weep when she went to bed; I would
-- 133 --
[figure description] Page 133.[end figure description]
almost break her heart before I would take the
least pity upon her.
“I am curious to know what sort of wives these
same little romps make. Do they romp it through
life, or do they settle down into your miserable,
sad, melancholy drones, who greet their husbands
when they come home with a sigh, or inexpressible
look, that drives more men to the bottle than
all the good wine and good company in the
world?
“You ask me, at least I know you would ask me,
what I saw, or what occurred on the road to the
place from which this letter is dated. I will tell
you what I have not seen since I entered this land
of nullification. I have not seen a clear limpid
river that could be forded on horseback. Your
water-courses are dark, deep, still, and gloomy.
The foliage on their banks is superlatively rich
and abundant, but it is occasionally interspersed
with a species of natural beauties which I don't
admire, namely, little alligators; by-the-by, I never
see alligators, lizards, or tadpoles, that I do not
think of those weary days when we read together
Ovid's Metamorphoses.
“Of a southern swamp I had no proper conception.
I thought they were black, dismal holes, covered
with old black logs, and black snakes, and
frogs, and vapours; instead of which, they bear a
nearer resemblance, in the summer, to a princely
(or Prince's) botanical garden. The very perfume
upon the olfactories is far more delightful than the
-- 134 --
[figure description] Page 134.[end figure description]
greatest assemblage of artificial odours. Then
there are the rich and variegated flowers of all
hues, sizes, and colours, set amid the deep green
of the rich shrubbery. The soil of which these
swamps are composed is as black as tar, and pretty
much of the same consistence.
“I observe, as I travel farther south, that bread
is seldom seen upon the table. What is called
here small homminy is used in its place, at breakfast,
dinner, and supper.
“I saw no ploughs in your fields. Horses
seemed to be used only for carriages, racing, and
for the private use of gentlemen and ladies. I saw
no brick houses; your mother's and that of Col. S.
being the only two I saw in the whole state. I
saw many private mansions very tastefully built
and ornamented; some of them were splendid,
but mostly built of wood and painted white.
“After three days pretty constant riding after
my horse's nose, he brought me to the banks of the
Savannah, at a little miserable-looking town, or
village, called Purysburg. Here I found a steamboat
just about to depart for Savannah. I immediately
engaged passage for myself, servant, and
two horses (one of which is yours; confound him,
I say, for betraying me). I amused myself by
shooting at the alligators, as we glided along the
water, and had kept up the sport some time, when
a mellow distant sound came along the surface of
the water, like an exquisitely played Kent bugle.
-- 135 --
[figure description] Page 135.[end figure description]
It was decidedly the most enchanting music I ever
heard, and seemed nearer and nearer until it
appeared to rise from under the very bow of the
boat. You will be surprised when I tell you that
it was made through a straight wooden tube, about
five feet long. The musician was a tall, ebony-coloured
old African, who stood up in one of your
singular-looking batteaux, amid half-a-dozen other
negroes, who seemed to be at their luncheon. It
looked much like a boat on the Niger; indeed, I
found my imagination carrying me into such distant
regions, that I instinctively bit my lip to see
whether I was awake or dreaming.
“The city of Savannah became distinctly visible
at a distance of about seven miles. A brilliant
city indeed it is. You cannot imagine any thing
finer than the view from the river. It is situated
on a high bluff, and commands an extensive view
up and down the stream. In the latter direction,
on a clear day, you can see, without glasses, the
lighthouse on the island of Tybee.
“By-the-by, I have been down among those
islands; they are all inhabited, and by a class of
men as much like our real old-fashioned Virginia
gentlemen as can well be imagined. This city is
nobly built, and is laid out on a magnificent scale,
having a public square, containing a grove of pride
of India trees, in the centre of every four squares,
and a row of the same along each side of every
street.
-- 136 --
[figure description] Page 136.[end figure description]
“Talk of Philadelphia, and New-York, and
Boston, and Richmond, and New-Haven—Savannah
outstrips them all, both in artificial and natural
beauty. It seems the residence of the prince of
the world and his nobility.
“Yours, most truly,
“B. Randolph.”
-- 137 --
CHAPTER XI.
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
“Baltimore, 18—.
“Dear Friend,
[figure description] Page 137.[end figure description]
“Though I had but two hours' sleep, I was up
betimes to catch a parting glimpse of an interesting
person who need not be named. When I descended
into the great vestibule of this extensive
establishment, I found the door of their parlour
open, and the entry nearly blocked up by band-boxes,
trunks, and all the little paraphernalia of
which you and I are as yet quite ignorant. A carriage
stood at the door; the lady and the old gentleman
sat side by side upon the sofa, the former
in her travelling habit, while the latter held in his
hand a cup of coffee, which he sipped, giving directions
from time to time to the servants. I paid
them the compliments of the morning, not in the
most bland and courtly style, for to tell you the
truth I felt a little inclined to poaching, and the
old gentleman looked to me not unlike a vigilant
and surly gamekeeper; however, he received me
with a welcome, perhaps it was a northern one;
but of that I will tell you more when we get fully
into the enemy's country, as your namesake of
-- 138 --
[figure description] Page 138.[end figure description]
Roanoke would say. My presence seemed to
hurry the old gentleman's coffee down his throat,
hot as it was, and in ten minutes, before I had exchanged
ten words with the lady, all was pronounced
in readiness.
“The old gentleman did not leave her for a moment.
I of course handed her to the carriage,
and took, as I supposed, a last look. I suppose I
must have appeared dolorous enough. The parting
moment came, the last pressure of the hand
was given, the door closed, whip cracked, and the
carriage had gone some time, before I found myself
standing in the middle of the street, my head turned
to one side just far enough to catch a glimpse of Lamar
in his nightgown, half-way out of a three-story
window, laughing with that complacent self-satisfaction
which is peculiar to him. `Half-past four and a
dark stormy morning,' cried he, in true watchman
style. I pulled my hat down over my face, and
walked away from the hotel as fast as my impetuous
blood would drive me; indeed, I felt provoked
at the time. I had not walked far, before I recollected
having felt something in my hand, as if it
had found its way there by accident, while I was
exchanging adieus with my enslaver. I had mechanically,
while abstracted in the street, thrust it
into my waistcoat pocket. I now drew it forth,—
it was a small roll of paper, which you might have
put into a thimble,—I opened it very carefully, in
hope that there might be some even carelessly-scribbled
line, which I could preserve as a
-- 139 --
[figure description] Page 139.[end figure description]
memento. By heavens, Randolph, there was a memento
upon it! and evidently intended for my eye
alone.
“The writing was in pencil, and scarcely legible;
with some difficulty I could make out these words.
“ `The explanation sought by Mr. Chevillere has
not been surreptitiously avoided by me, nor will it
ever be; but if he is wise, he will forget one who
has already extended the influence of her unhappiness
too far.'
“I read these lines over again and again. I
walked round Baltimore as if it had been a hamlet.
It seemed to me that every person whom I met
could read in my countenance something strange
and hurried. At length, however, I found my way
to the breakfast table. Lamar, as my bad luck
would have it, sat almost opposite to me. I do not
think I ever saw him perfectly disagreeable before;
all his remarks seemed to me mal-apropos,
and he is not usually so unfortunate, you know. I
made a hasty breakfast, and hurried out on purpose
to avoid him, but in vain! he was with me in an
instant. `All settled, I suppose, Chevillere,' said he.
`Yes, all is settled for our journey to New-York,'
said I, `except our bills, and that you may attend
to as soon as you please.' I ordered old Cato to
see the luggage on board the steamboat for Philadelphia:
Lamar did the same. `But, Chevillere,'
said he, `you are not going to leave the Kentuckian,
' upon which he set off to summon our new
companion.
-- 140 --
[figure description] Page 140.[end figure description]
“Our next epistle will in all probability be from
Philadelphia or New-York; we shall only stay a
short time in the former place, as we conceive the
other to be the true point from which to make observations.
“Yours truly,
“V. Chevillere.”
-- 141 --
CHAPTER XII.
B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.
“High Hills of the Santee, 18—.
“Dear Friend,
[figure description] Page 141.[end figure description]
“From the city of Savannah, I paid my first
visit to our old heathen dad, Neptune, and if first
impressions of the sea were not as common and as
numerous as doggerel verses in a modern lady's
album, I might be tempted to become sublime for
your edification. I was rowed down from the
city, in a beautiful boat made of a single cypress,
by the hands of the gentleman who was so polite
as to give me this gentle passage. By this you
may know that they take as much pride in their
boats as the Venetians themselves. It was beautifully
painted, and rowed by eight well-formed
negroes. Inside of the seat at one end was a
marooning chest, as they called it, full of all kinds
of liquors and cold meat, with the necessary utensils
for their use. The gentleman was an islander;
and during the few hours in which we were gliding
over the seventeen miles between the city and the
ocean, he entertained me with an account of his
marooning expeditions. These are their excursions
upon the Sea Islands, for purposes of fishing
-- 142 --
[figure description] Page 142.[end figure description]
and hunting. These islanders are a peculiar, but
delightful people; however, I must not keep you too
long in the sea-breeze; at some other time, perhaps,
I may indite you a history of these hospitable
and isolated gentlemen.
“When I left Savannah, I determined to pursue
a different route from the one by which I came.
I therefore crossed the Savannah river fifteen or
sixteen miles above the city; I then crossed the
country in as straight a line as I could draw upon
the map, between the ferry and the high hills of
Santee; and in a short time found myself in as
complete solitude as ever Crusoe experienced upon
his desolate island. Nothing was to be seen but
the tall and gloomy-looking pines, stretching away
into the bosom of the atmosphere, and the interminable
sands which lay before me as far as the eye
could reach. Twilight presently came on, and
those horrible musicians, the tree-frogs, began to
chirp and sing. The dolorous note of the whippoorwill
was heard, with a horn accompaniment
from the throat of a screech-owl. Here was a
pretty serenade for a man with his heart attuned
for melody, and his stomach attuned for a slash at
a cold ham, for I had had no dinner. I struck up
an accompaniment from my own pipes, but I soon
found that the vacuum was too profound for a
due modulation in concert pitch with this sylvan
band. I wished them all at the d—l, with their
shrill pipes and full crops, and set my horse, or
rather your horse, at full gallop, in a vain effort to
-- 143 --
[figure description] Page 143.[end figure description]
escape from the intended honour; but the harder
I rode, the more enthusiastic they became. I soon
made another comfortable discovery; I found that
I had been riding for the last two hours in a perfect
wilderness, in utter contempt of what two
pioneer wheels had made for a highway; nor
could I tell the north from the south, nor the east
from the west, having foolishly enough turned the
horse round and round in order to gaze at the
stars. `Like master like man,' my servant did
the same, as if he could read in the pine tops
more than I could in the heavens. All my astronomy
had gone with my dinner; I could see nothing
in the starry regions but what is sometimes called
the Frying-pan. Oh! the shades of Thales of
Miletus, who first imported astronomy into Greece!
to think that a bachelor of such heavenly arts
could not look into the face of the Frying-pan
without thinking of grilled chickens and rashers
of bacon, and the crackling of fire, and the sputtering
of fat. I dismounted, and ordered Sam to do
likewise, and try to find me a piece of flint by
which to strike a light; he declared that he had
not seen a stone or a rock since he came into the
Carolinas. `So much for geology and astronomy,'
said I. `I rader tink they all bad fur empty
stumuck, masta,' said Sam, considering himself privileged
by the exigencies of the case. `True enough,
Sam,' said I, `it would be an apt scholar that could
produce bread or a stone either by his learning, in
our circumstances.'
“As I mounted, Sam mounted, not a word more
-- 144 --
[figure description] Page 144.[end figure description]
having been uttered; he seemed to be aware of the
fact, that language generally fails with the food;
a man's ideas in such a case run fast enough, but
they are all in humble life; below stairs, diving
among pots, and pans, and pantries, and receptacles
for cold victuals. As the ideas ran, so ran
the horses, until the water began to splash our legs
from a thick bushy swamp, into which we found
that we had initiated ourselves. `Now Sam,' said
I, `we are swamped.' Sam said nothing aloud,
but was evidently muttering something to himself,
being engaged, as I supposed, at his secret devotions,
for you must know that he would be a Puritan.
Like most of his race, however, he has
more faith in the effect of singing hymns, than devotions
of any other kind. I saw that he was
itching for a trial at his usual relief in all his
troubles. I therefore told him not to suppress it
on my account, but to give it free utterance; the
idea of it naturally excited ludicrous recollections
of old Noll and the veteran Rumpers, but Sam
saw the new vein I had so inappropriately fallen
into, and therefore resisted his inward strivings.
I must say, en passant, that I think him honest
and sincere in his faith, I therefore do not ridicule
him.
“We waded through the black regions of this
little pandemonium for some three-quarters of a
mile, before the dry sand again greeted our hearing.
The Frying-pan still stared me in the face,
and the sylvan band still plied their pipes. We
had not proceeded far by land before we came
-- 145 --
[figure description] Page 145.[end figure description]
directly against a fence. I was truly glad to see
it, for I was sure it must lead to some inhabited
place, and accordingly ordered Sam to let us into
the field, which we found to be an immense plain
covered with cotton,—the most beautiful of all
crops. We rode between the rows, for many a
weary foot, until at length the glimmering of many
lights greeted our longing eyes. We made directly
for them, and soon stood in the midst of an immense
negro quarter. On inquiring whether their
master's house was near at hand, we found that it
was many miles distant. The overseer's house,
they told us, was not more than half a mile off;
but to these animals I have always had an utter
aversion. I therefore bought some fodder for the
horses, and two fowls for ourselves, from the
driver, who had the privilege of raising them, and
employed his wife to pick and grill them upon the
coals, and a delightful and savoury prelude they
soon sent up to my famished senses; a heartier or
a sweeter meal was never made than I thus took;
a fowl seasoned with salt, and a large pot of small
homminy, served direct to my mouth from a large
wooden spoon, without the cumbrous intervention
of plates, knives, and forks. Our meal being finished,—
for you must know Sam and I dined at
the same time and from the same table, which was
none other than the ground floor, covered with
the head of a barrel,—hunger is a wonderful leveller
of distinctions,—as I was saying, our meal
being finished, a goodly number of the more aged,
-- 146 --
[figure description] Page 146.[end figure description]
respectable, and intelligent blacks of the quarter
assembled to entertain us, or be entertained themselves,
I scarcely know which. Many of these
negroes, I found, were born in Africa, and one
poor tattooed fellow claimed to be of royal blood.
He told me that his father, the king, had a hundred
children. I asked if any of those present could
write; they replied that there was one man in the
quarter who could write in his own language, and
several of them went out and brought in a tall,
bald-headed old fellow, who seemed to come with
great reluctance. After being told what was
desired, he acknowledged to me that he could
write when he last tried, which was many years
previous. I took out my pocket-book, tore out a
blank leaf, and handing him a pen from my pocket
inkstand, requested him to give me a specimen.
He took the head of the barrel on his lap, and
began, if I recollect right, on the right side of the
page; the following is a fac simile of his performance:
-- 147 --
[figure description] Page 147.[end figure description]
“The following is a liberal translation into English:—
“`In the name of God the merciful! the compassionate!
God bless our Lord Mohammed his
prophet, and his descendants, and his followers,
and propser them exceedingly. Praise be to God
the Lord of all creatures! the merciful, the compassionate
king of the day of judgment! Thee
we adore, and of thee we implore assistance!
Guide us in the right way, the way of those with
whom thou art well pleased, and not of those with
whom thou art angry, nor of those who are in
error. Amen!'
“The original is written in Arabic. The old
fellow's name is Charno, which it seems he has retained,
after being enslaved, contrary to their general
custom in that respect. I became quite affected
and melancholy in talking to this venerable old
man, and you may judge from that rare circumstance
that he is no common character.
“I now fixed my saddle under my head in a
cotton shed to rest for the night; but, weary as I
was, I could not directly get to sleep for thinking
of sandy deserts, old Charno, chicken suppers,
negro quarters, and Virginia Bell! You see she
is still the heroine, let my wanderings lay the scenes
where they will.
“I have no doubt but you will say, on the reception
of this letter, `Well! I thought Randolph
-- 148 --
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would run his nose into all the out-of-the-way
places in Carolina.' I plead guilty! I have a sort
of natural instinct for unbeaten paths, and the one
by which I arrived at Belville shall be given in my
next; until then, fare thee well.
“B. Randolph.”
-- 149 --
CHAPTER XIII.
Victor Chevillere to B. Randolph.
“New-York, 18—.
“Dear Friend,
[figure description] Page 149.[end figure description]
“At length we have arrived in this flourishing
city, not, however, without having experienced
many vicissitudes of weather, humour, and adventure,
the two latter especially; how could we help it,
when the Kentuckian formed so large a part of our
little crew, by steamboat and stage? His animal
spirits are worth a million.
“You cannot conceive any thing more agreeable
to an emancipated and sombre student, than to get
a comfortable high backed leather seat in one of
these fine northern coaches, his cloak collar put up
like a mask, and the rim of his cap drawn down
to meet it, just leaving a peeping-hole sufficient to
see and enjoy every thing worth enjoying, at
the same time defying the gaze of intruding eyes.
“If there should fortunately happen to be such
a reckless, yet generous spirit as Damon among
the company, the student's happiness is complete,
for you cannot imagine what a protector he is
against intruders. In our American stage-coaches
(and perhaps in all others) there are sometimes
-- 150 --
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men, full of brandy eloquence, which is kept so
constantly on the stretch by repeated libations; or
boisterous politicians, with their mouths so full of
the last importation of news from Washington, or
of the contents of the morning papers, that a complaisant
young man is almost compelled to make
himself ridiculous, by getting into a political controversy.
“Damon took all that sort of work off our hands,
in the most generous and chivalrous spirit imaginable.
His eye was ever bright and ready; there
was no sinking into dull student-like lethargy one
moment, and flashing out into erratic folly the
next; he was ready with lance in rest, to take a
tilt against anybody's windmill; at home upon
all subjects, being exactly in such a state of refinement
as not to be ashamed to show his ignorance,
and always eager to acquire information.
Nor is his mind dull or unapt; he will rebut or
ridicule an adversary with astonishing shrewdness.
One of his peculiarities amused me much; he was
evidently more excited in the stage-coaches than
in the boats. He was never satisfied until he had
let down the front glasses, so that he could see the
horses; then he would talk fluently to his near
neighbour, and keep his neck stretched all the
while, so as to have all the horses in view, throwing
out occasional digressive remarks as to their
various powers, as thus, `that's my little hearty,
make a straight back to it;' and then turning to
-- 151 --
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his antagonist he would continue his remarks, as
if nothing had drawn off his attention.
“But I must not take up all your time with our
comic adventures. When I get into that vein
more completely, you shall have his exploits in the
city. By-the-by, I suggested to Lamar that he
should take that part of the correspondence off my
hands, but he said, `Randolph knows I'm not one
of the writing sort, therefore you must write for
us both; action,' said he, with a mock heroic flourish,
`is my forte.'
“We are comfortably situated at the City Hotel
in Broadway. After we had selected our rooms,
I sallied out into that gay and brilliant promenade,
which intersects the city from north-east to
south-west. You may there see, on a fine sunshiny
afternoon, all the fashion and beauty of this
great city; the neat, tasteful, Parisian costume, in
close contrast with the more sober guise of London.
There you may hear intermingled the language of
the Gaul, the German, and the modern Roman. To
the right and left you see the spires of various
Christian temples; and smiling faces, and happy
hearts, will greet you at every step.
“To a secluded college novice like myself, there
is something new and moving in all this life and
bustle; it irresistibly brings to my mind ideas of
gay feats, tilts, tournaments, and brilliant fairs.
Within the finished bow-windows are wealth and
splendour, and brilliancy, which we poor southerns
have not seen in our own native land; marble
-- 152 --
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buildings, stores with granite columns, and the
streets crowded with immense omnibuses (these
are stages to transport persons from one part of
the city to another); splendid private equipages,
republican liveries, and carts loaded with merchandise.
“Seeing some trees and a comfortable green plat
a little farther up the street, I worked through the
crowd of persons, and carts, and stages, and found
myself in the midst of the far famed Park, and immediately
in front of that proud edifice the City Hall.
I ascended the marble platform, and surveyed the
gay throung, as they moved on in one continued and
dense current, with merry faces, miserable hearts,
and empty heads and pockets; but to talk of these
stale things, you know, in the present age, is all
stuff and sheer nonsense. I therefore put my reflections
in my portfolio to carry home with me,
and proceeded to the house-keeper's room, as I had
been directed, to obtain the good lady's pilotage,
or that of some deputy, to the governor's room,
which I readily found. There is nothing remarkable
in the two rooms which contain the paintings,
except that they command from the windows a
fine view of the park and the surrounding streets.
Yes, there are two venerable old stuffed chairs.
The one in the north wing was used by Washington
at his inauguration as first President of the
United States, and the one in the east room by
the elder Adams. There are portraits of George
Washington, George Clinton, Alexander
-- 153 --
[figure description] Page 153.[end figure description]
Hamilton, Commodore Bainbridge, Monroe, Jackson,
Duane, Varick, Livingston, Clinton, Willet, Radcliff,
Captain Hull, Governor Lewis, Macomb,
Yates, Van Buren, Brown, Perry, La Fayette,
Decatur, Tompkins, Colden, Allen, Paulding,
Hone, Stuyvesant, Bolivar, Columbus, Monkton,
Williams: some of these last are only half-length.
Over the portrait of Washington is a blue flag
rolled up, with the following inscription in golden
letters:—`This standard was displayed at the inauguration
of George Washington, first President
of the United States, on the 30th day of April, 1789.
And was presented to the Corporation of New-York
by the Second Regt. of N. Y. State Artillery,
Nov. 25th, 1821.'
“While I was standing at one of the front windows
again looking over the moving masses of
Broadway, I saw a lady approach on the eastern
footway of the Park, with a hurried step, until she
came nearly opposite to the Hall. Crossing Chatham,
she turned abruptly down one of the narrow
streets running at right angles to the eastern line
of the Park. There was something in the figure
and carriage of this lady which, unknown at first
to my consciousness, quickened my pulsations;
but when she approached to the nearest point in
her course, I felt morally certain that it was none
other than that mysterious charmer, who by her
father's connivance, or rather management, slipped
through my fingers at Baltimore, and that, too,
without my even having asked her address in this
-- 154 --
[figure description] Page 154.[end figure description]
city. The recollection of this latter circumstance
prompted me instantly to seize my hat and hurry
after her. Throwing the accustomed fee to my
obliging pilotess, I walked with all possible haste
to the corner of the street which I supposed she
had taken. I found that a little crowd of ragged
urchins had collected upon some occasion of their
own, and asked the most intelligent-looking among
them if he had seen a lady in black go down that
street,—pointing down the hill from Tammany
Hall; and, by way of reply, one of the most disgusting,
discordant, and ill-timed peals of laughter
that I ever heard burst upon my senses.
“`Lady in black!' said the most forward fellow,
`you will find plenty of black ladies down that
street, with black eyes to boot.' I retreated in
perfect disgust with these precocious vagabonds,
not, however, before I was saluted with another
peal of laughter, accompanied by the epithets—
`greenhorn,' `young 'un,' `bumpkin,' &c. &c.
“You cannot conceive of any more thoroughly
disgusting feeling than that produced upon the
mind of a young man bred up in the country, upon
this first exhibition of the detestable forms which
vice and dissipation assume in every large city,—
young females with bloated countenances,—boys
with black eyes and bruised faces, with their disgusting
slang and familiar nicknames, of Sal, Bet,
Kate, Tom, Josh, Jack, or Jim, and their unmeaning
oaths, Billingsgate wit, and filthy and ragged
garments. There are certain districts of the city
in which these are always to be seen, I am
-- 155 --
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informed,—but of these more anon. I turned down
the street, and pursued the course which I supposed
the lady had taken, until I got to the bottom of
what had once been a deep glen in its rural days.
I could see nothing but entrances to tanyards, and
warehouses full of leather and morocco. The
houses, too, looked at least a century and a half
behind those on the hill, in architectural taste.
Turning to a woman who was sweeping the little
narrow pavement in front of one of the houses, I
asked her what part of the city I was in.
“`This is called the swamp, sir,' was the reply.
“`This,' thought I to myself, `is a very different
affair from our swamps.' Just at that moment,
casting my eye along one of the narrow streets, I
caught a glimpse of the same figure, attended only
by her maid, entering a low, Dutch, dingy-looking
house, with the gable end to the street. I walked
as rapidly as I could in the same direction, and was
within some twenty yards of the house, when two
young men issued from the door, with the air and
dress of gentlemen. I did not immediately observe
their faces, because my mind was intently occupied
with the lady, and the probable cause of her visit
to such a strange part of the city. These reflections
were suddenly interrupted by some one slapping
me on the back, and exclaiming in my ear,
`Ha! my Chevillere! you here! how do you do?
what brought you here?' but I am resolved to
put your curiosity to a serious test; names in my
next. Yours, truly,
“V. Chevillere.”
-- 156 --
CHAPTER XIV.
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
(In continuation.)
“New-York, 18—.
[figure description] Page 156.[end figure description]
“Who do you think it was who met me at such
an unlucky moment, just, perhaps, as I was about
to stumble upon some clew to unravel the mysteries
of this fair little breathing ignis fatuus? It
was no other than young Arthur, our old school-fellow,
from Kentucky. He has come hither to
attend a course of medical lectures, though they
have medical lectures in his own State. Arthur
was not of our class, nor yet one of the glorious
three, but he was an old and respected friend and
schoolmate, and therefore his acquaintance could
not be cut quite so unceremoniously at the very
moment of its renewal; and even if I had made
some silly excuse to avoid him for the moment, he
would undoubtedly have seen me kicking my heels
in the street, `like a strange dog in a crowd,” as
Damon has it; so I reluctantly wheeled about with
him. His companion was also a student of medicine,
and a native of this city; he was introduced
to me by the name of Hazlehurst. I am aware you
are anxious to know what they could be seeking
-- 157 --
[figure description] Page 157.[end figure description]
in the identical house in which I had just blockaded
my fair fugitive. I wish, as heartily as you can do,
that I could explain that matter to our mutual satisfaction.
I pumped our inchoate doctors in vain;
they explained their own visit to the house very
satisfactorily, upon the grounds of professional
business, in the name and on behalf of their preceptor,
for it seems Arthur has been here all the
summer; but they neither saw nor heard of any
lady in the premises, and all further inquiries were
of course ended by the interpretation which Arthur
chose to put upon my inquiries concerning a fair
fugitive, so soon after my arrival. He was not a
little pleased to hear that Lamar was in the city, in
close league with a countryman of his own.
“By-the-way, Arthur is a noble fellow and an
accomplished gentleman. He has all the prerequisites
of natural capacity and elementary acquirements,
for the study of his arduous profession.
I know no young gentleman who has chosen a
profession in every way better suited to his peculiarities
of mind and temperament. You will
doubtless recollect that he always had a fondness
for the natural sciences, and this, after all, is the
true `condition precedent' for making a profound
and philosophic physician. How lamentable it is
that such minds are always thrown in the background
in our colleges! This results from that
everlasting dingdong hammering at languages,
before the pupil has discovered their uses, and
without any regard to his peculiarities of mind.
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Those students who, like Arthur, exhibit an apt
capacity for the study of things, and their properties
and relations, are almost always dull at the
study of their representatives, or, in other words,
languages; why, then, do the instructers in these
institutions destroy the energies and the vigour of
such a mind, by making him fail at those things
for which nature has disqualified him, or, rather,
for which nature has too nobly endowed him? I
am no enemy to the study of the vehicles by which
we communicate with our fellow-men, but I am an
enemy to the uniform, monotonous drilling, which
all collegians in this country receive alike, because
I have observed in this process, that third-rate
minds invariably rank first. There are, in every
college, numbers of young gentlemen who have
parrot-like capacities, and memories that retain
little words; but who, if required to originate ideas
of their own, would soon show the native barrenness
of their understandings.
“Look around you now in the world, and see
what has become of these distinguished linguists!
One out of a hundred, perhaps, has received a professorship
in some new institution, and the others
are all falsifying the promises of their precocious
youth; while of the thoughtful and abstract dunces,
as they were considered in college, many are building
up lasting reputations, upon the deep and solid
foundations which our hackneyed systems of education
could not develop. Necessity and the
world develop them; and these, we soon find, are
-- 159 --
[figure description] Page 159.[end figure description]
very different from college life. Now, college
discipline should imitate the world in this respect;
it should develope every man's peculiar genius.
Neglect of this is the true reason why so many
men distinguish themselves in the world, who were
considered asses in college, and why so many who
were considered amazingly clever in college, are
found to be little better than asses in the world.
“Now that I have somewhat recovered from the
chagrin of Arthur's mal-apropos appearance, I am
really glad that he is here. I must surely see
the lady again. Indeed, I am resolved to do so, if
I have to stay here twelve months; and then Arthur's
presence will much facilitate our design of
surveying the under-currents of the busy world.
You know that I am not prone to trust the surface
of things. I shall therefore follow him into many
places besides his fashionable resorts. He tells me
that a malignant epidemic is said to be prevailing
here, and that their visit to the sick person before
mentioned was with a view to ascertain whether
the patient really had malignant symptoms. They
think she had not. I was not so much interested
in the affairs of their patient during the discussion
on the subject, as I was in their possible consequences
upon others,—but of that more in my
next. Young Doctor Hazlehurst seems to be a
very fashionable personage, but gentlemanly in his
manners, and unaffected in his deportment.
“They walked with me to our hotel, in order to
see Lamar, but unfortunately he was out.
-- 160 --
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However, Arthur left college greetings for him, and
young Hazlehurst left his address, and invitations
for us both to call at his father's house, who, it
seems, lives in the city; so you see we have made
the first step towards seeing both the upper and
under-currents during our sojourn. Whatever
they bring forth shall be as faithfully chronicled as
your own adventures. Truly,
“V. Chevillere.”
-- 161 --
CHAPTER XV.
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
(In continuation.)
“New-York, 18—.
[figure description] Page 161.[end figure description]
“The little coincidences of real life are of much
more frequent occurrence than is generally allowed
by our prim historians. Arthur and his companion
had not long departed, when Lamar and Damon
came in. I mentioned their visit to the former,
when, picking up the card and examining it with
evident surprise, he placed his finger upon the number
of the street, and held it across the table for
Damon to see it, who immediately exclaimed,
`Well! I'm flambergasted now! if that ain't what
I call a leetle particular.'
“ `Why, what is the matter?' said I, astonished
in my turn at their astonishment.
“ `Oh, nothing more,' said Lamar, `than that
Damon and myself have but just come from the
very door upon which that name and number are
placed.'
“ `Are you acquainted with the family?' said I.
“ `No,' replied he; `I was standing opposite to
the door in question, when a young lady alighted
from her carriage and entered the house; not,
-- 162 --
[figure description] Page 162.[end figure description]
however, before she suddenly stopped and took a
searching look at your humble servant.'
“ `Had you ever seen her before?'
“ `If I am not mistaken she is the same young
lady whom I saw two years ago at the Virginia
springs, when I obtained leave from college to go
there on account of my health; she was then
quite young; just entering her teens, I should
suppose.'
“ `Ah! ha! have I caught you at last?' said I,
as Lamar began to redden under a searching
glance; `then there was some foundation for the
stories which followed you upon that occasion.'
“ `Bah!' said he, `they were all nonsense; but
come, Damon, tell Chevillere what fine stump
speeches you heard this morning at a New-York
election.'
“I saw his drift in amusing me with Damon, and
I was indeed quite willing to be so amused.
“ `Smash me if I heard any speeches,' said Damon,
`nor saw any candidates either; they manage
them things here quite after a different fashion.'
“ `Why, how do they manage them, if they
have no candidates and no speeches?' said I.
“ `By the art of hocus pocus, I believe,' continued
Damon; `I had whetted my appetite for a
New-York speech till I was completely on a wire
edge, by the time we got to the polls; then they
had a parcel of chaps standing behind a little counter,
with gold headed poles, like freemasons in a
cake-shop, playing at long-pole with the boys.
-- 163 --
[figure description] Page 163.[end figure description]
Why! where's the election,' said I, to a chap outside
the counter, with one black eye too many.
`Right under your nose,' said he; `clap down your
tickets and kiss the calf-skin, as I did just now;'
and then he cramm'd my hands full of little bits of
paper. `H—l in the West,' said I, `are we going
to have no speeches, no drink, no fighten?' `O!'
said he, `there's plenty of drink in the bar-room
next door, and you can get your stomach full of
fight, if you will walk down to the Five Points.'
“ `And how do the people know whom they vote
for?' said I to Lamar.
“His answer satisfied me that Damon's account
of the business was nearly correct as to matters of
fact; and that the New-Yorkers never have what
we call `stump speeches,' and never personally
know, or even see their representatives. These
city mobocracies, composed as they are, principally
of wild Irish, are terrible things; but I must
adhere to our bargain, to have nothing to do with
politics.
“Lamar has evidently ripped up an old wound
this morning, and I am truly rejoiced thereat; we
shall take an early day to pay the visit spoken of,
at which time I shall observe the gentleman's
movements, and see if I cannot treasure up a little
ammunition for future use, wherewithal to pay off
old scores against him.
“You recollect, perhaps, the old woman's comfort
in a time of great famine; `she thanked God
her neighbours were as bad off as herself.' I find
-- 164 --
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very little comfort in this truly philanthropic doctrine,
save from occasionally amusing myself with
anticipations of Lamar's more fashionable dilemma.
“The Kentuckian's pulsations seem to be regulated
by a gigantic and equipoised animal impulse.
There is very little sinking of the heart in gloomy
anticipation, with him; he enjoys the present, uninterrupted
by the past or future. After all, are
not these hardy and free sons of the west the happiest
of all created beings? They enjoy nearly
every thing that we do, perhaps not exactly in the
same degree, but certainly with as much of the
heart, if not so much of the head; I really envy
Damon his hearty and joyous laughs, such as I
could once indulge in myself, and I have often
asked what is it that has made the change? Can
you answer the question, Randolph?
“I once thought that you and Lamar would
laugh it on through life, but it seems that you have
scarcely started, each in his distinct career, before
you begin sowing the seeds of your future sorrows,
don't be frightened; it is the appointed race we
must all run, sooner or later; we cannot be joyous
and jovial college-lads all our days; but we may,
and I hope will, be calm and tranquil old country
gentlemen.
“But pshaw! I grow old before my time; `sufficient
for the day is the evil thereof;' lay that
flattering unction to your soul, and all will soon be
well, that is now ill with you.
“The more I see of these northern states, the
-- 165 --
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more I am convinced that some great revolution
awaits our own cherished communities. Revolutions,
whether sudden or gradual, are fearful things;
we learn to feel attachments to those things which
they tear up, as a poor cripple feels attached to
the mortified limb, that must be amputated to save
his life. A line of demarkation in such a case is
distinctly drawn between the diseased and the
healthy flesh. Such a line is now drawing between
the slave and free states, I fear. God send
that the disease may be cured without amputation,
and before mortification takes place. I know that
this latter is your own belief. What think you
now, since you have seen the greater extent of the
disease? Truly,
“V. Chevillere.”
-- 166 --
CHAPTER XVI.
B. Randolph to V. Chevillere.
“Belville, High Hills of the Santee.
“Dear Friend,
[figure description] Page 166.[end figure description]
“I HAVE heard of weeping willows, but I never
saw weeping pines and black Jacks (scrub oaks)
before I came into South Carolina; these are made
so by the moss which here grows from the trees
in long pendulous masses, which makes them look
like gigantic weeping willows.
“On the day of my arrival here, I was again
benighted within a few miles of Belville, and again
found my way into Christendom by a delightful
custom which prevails among your city refugees.
You know that they have a little village erected
here among your sandhills, which is entirely owned
by wealthy residents of Charleston; to these they
retire during the sickly season, and of course they
are now full of fashionables. Before each door is
a large wooden pillar, with a hearth on the top of
it, a kind of rude imitation of our urn. On these
they kindle pine-knot fires to keep the mosquitoes
away from the premises, and the effect is doubtless
at all times brilliant; but it is doubly so when
they are the means of restoring a poor benighted
-- 167 --
[figure description] Page 167.[end figure description]
traveller to the region of hope and comfort; such
was the case with your humble servant. I had
but just begun to look out for the usual concert, and
the Frying-pan, and the swamp, when I discovered
these fires away to my right; I was not more than
a mile out of my road.
“This little mushroom village was entirely deserted
when I passed through it before; I was
therefore surprised to find carriages standing by
each cabin, and fine ladies promenading along the
sandy roads with their attendant beaux.
“Sounds of infantile laughter, sweet music, and
the still sweeter notes of frying-pans (very different
affairs from my assortment), saluted my delighted
ears as I cantered through the encamped throng.
I did not stop, because the distance was but short
to your own house, at which I soon arrived, and,
for once in my life, not before I was wanted.
“As I briskly rode up the long sandy avenue, I
heard a strange confusion of noises and sounds
from the direction of the quarter, which you have
here dangerously near, but from benevolent views
I suppose; I next discovered Bell walking to and
fro along the little esplanade which surmounts the
front portico, wringing her hands, weeping, and
calling upon your mother's name most piteously.
I dismounted, and ran towards the nearest entrance
with all my speed, and there I met the dear girl,
just in time to catch her in my arms for fear of a
worse resting-place. As soon as she had recovered
a little from her exhaustion, the effect of her
-- 168 --
[figure description] Page 168.[end figure description]
previous excitement, she exclaimed, `Oh! Mr. Randolph,
how glad I am to see you!'
“`Not more so than I am to see you, my dear
Bell; but tell me the cause of all this noise at the
quarter, and of your alarm.'
“She told me, as well as she could for her
short and convulsive breathing, that the driver had
undertaken, in the absence of the overseer, to whip
a young negro who is a great favourite among his
fellows; and it seems that he had beaten him unmercifully.
Some time after, a party had assailed
his house where he had shut himself in; as I came
up, they had just succeeded in breaking down the
door; but the bird had been some time flown, out
of a back window. Your mother had gone to
drink tea with one of the refugees, a city acquaintance
of hers, at the little encampment before mentioned.
Under these circumstances, I seized a
cudgel and departed to the scene of action, not,
however, with Bell's consent. She declared that
they would murder me, and clung to my garments
until I gently disengaged myself and committed
her to her maid. It is not to be denied that I
almost blessed the rebellion, for its showing me
that I was a person to be preserved in the eyes of
your cousin.
“When I arrived upon the ground, it was some
minutes before I could make the principal actors
conscious of the presence of any one not in the
number of their confederates; however, by dint
of lungs and violent gesticulations, I at length
-- 169 --
[figure description] Page 169.[end figure description]
gained an audience, and no sooner had I done so,
than the victory was gained. I merely promised
to have the matter investigated, and the offender
punished himself, if he should prove, upon investigation,
to have whipped the favourite either without
cause, or unmercifully, with cause. This desirable
conclusion to the affair could not have been brought
about in every quarter in this neighbourhood, or at
any one where they had been less accustomed to
have their mutual wrongs redressed.
“When I returned to the house, the news of the
result had preceded me, and Bell had retired to
her room; she soon, however, again made her appearance,
more beautiful, if possible, than when I
left her; she found it exceedingly difficult to amalgamate
her present evident gratitude with her former
comico-quizzico treatment of me,—and though
the latter decidedly had the advantage, the struggles
between the little devil of mischief within,
and a proper behaviour to me on the present occasion,
kept me quite amused, considering our late
excitement, until your mother, who had been sent
for, arrived with a number of gentlemen from the
sandhills. With these we formed quite a party;
your mother was less moved than I expected,
owing, I suppose, to her having so long been in the
habit of putting her energies to the test. She was
undisguisedly pleased to see me.
“Among the gentlemen who returned with her,
my green eyes soon discovered a suitor of Bell's;
whether one formerly discarded, or at present
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encouraged, I could not tell; but I rather suspect
the latter, as your mother's visit was to his
sister, and Bell had excused herself from going
upon some grounds, for which he was now taking
her to task.
“I was not so much surprised as I have been,
at her easy control of my poor generalship, when
I saw with what admirable discipline she managed
her troops, both raw militia and regulars; of course
I class myself with the latter.
“I was not too much delighted to hear many
parties and excursions talked of and arranged;
what a selfish animal I must have become since I
have undertaken this southern tour! I wonder if
the northern air and manners have had the same
effect upon you and Lamar?
“After our visiters had departed (you see I am
domiciliated), Bell said to me, starting up suddenly,
`Mr. Randolph, if my memory serves me, you
told me at the door, on the morning of your departure,
that indispensable business would put it entirely
out of your power to take our house in your
way home; I hope you have heard favourable
accounts from that urgent business?'
The little devil within was now completely
triumphant; and then, to make my intended pathos
still more ridiculous, by inventing more than half
of my speech! I had a great mind to say, `Oh,
Mr. Randolph, how glad I am to see you!' and
almost run into her arms; but your mother's dignity,
Chevillere, though it is mild and benevolent,
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keeps me always on my good behaviour in her
presence; so I only answered, `The horse! the
horse! you forget the horse!' and then she enjoyed
a peculiarly sincere and triumphant laugh; and
the first, too, with which she has greeted my
return. I love them so much that I can almost
bear to hear her laugh at myself, provided it is at
my knavery and not at my folly.
“B. Randolph.”
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CHAPTER XVII.
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
“New-York, 18—.
[figure description] Page 172.[end figure description]
“I TOLD you in my last of our surprise at the
little coincidence of the number on the card, and
that on the house where the lady alighted, with
whom Lamar had exchanged some intelligent
glances in her more girlish days; but I did not
complete the relation, which I will do presently.
“In the mean time, was there ever a man of
any travel or adventure, who has not been alarmed
at these seeming accidents, or, what is more probable,
made superstitious by their frequent recurrence?
I think that I hazard nothing in saying,
that more of such strange coincidences have occurred
to me than I have ever seen in any work
of fiction; not the clap-traps, and other little contrivances,
which are intended to electrify the
blunted nerves of veteran readers; but the coincidences
of ordinary life in society, which reveal
to us occasionally the finger of Providence in the
course we vainly suppose we are chalking out for
ourselves. What is it to a man to possess the will,
when all the circumstances upon which that will
is to operate, are ready arranged to his hand? I
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do not repine at this, if it be a fact. On the contrary,
it is often a matter of consolation to me to
think, how narrow is the choice which the Creator
has given us; thereby, of course, decreasing our
means of doing wrong; nor is this all his beneficence
to us,—he has made it easier for us to do
right than wrong; often leaving us but two plain
roads to follow, the right one being the easier,
plainer, more attractive to a cultivated head and
heart, and more profitable in this world. There!
you see I never preach beyond this world; and
hard enough it is to see clearly all around us in
that.
“This brings me, by a very circuitous route you
will no doubt think, to the further coincidence
spoken of.
“As Damon does not take up his abode with us,
besides other reasons, he was not of our party
when we went to pay our respects to the Hazlehurst
family. On entering the parlour, we found
the young gentleman who had invited us, with
Arthur and the lady, who were sitting, at the time
of our entrance, engaged in an apparently interesting
conversation, in the recess of one of the
windows. Arthur and Lamar seemed pleased to
meet again. The lady smiled upon Lamar, and
acknowledged her recollection of his countenance.
She is elegant and lofty; not in height, indeed, for
she is not remarkably tall, but lofty in her demeanour
and bearing. There are none of the
gentle whisperings which come directly from the
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heart of a certain little unhappy runaway. The
one would captivate an assembly; the other has
made terrible inroads upon the heart of a single
gentleman; and this brings me to the matter with
which I began this epistle.
“Lamar, having mentioned to Arthur something
about the young lady we had met on our travels,
and having thrown many gratuitous remarks and
glances towards me, the lady seemed at length to
take some interest in the subject, and in Lamar's
description. She then appealed to me for the
name.
“`Miss St. Clair!' exclaimed she, when I had
succeeded in uttering it, `and have you really
fallen into her toils? Alas, I pity you!'
“Why the plague should she pity me, Randolph?
It was evident enough that she did not mean the
mock pity, which is only another way for saying,
`how I am rejoiced!'
“`But,' continued she, `the lady is a dear and
valued friend of mine, and you shall see her.'
“`But when?' said I, eagerly, awakening out of
a brown study.
“All laughed; and I cannot say from my own
experience, that I like the sport any better than
yourself.
“You could have amused yourself (it was no
amusement to me) with the odd looks of Lamar,
in presence of the object of a first and youthful
attachment. There is something pure and primitive
in these boyish loves, and they are too much
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out of fashion in the present age, even in this country.
It is not certainly because matches of mere
convenience have supplanted them, so much as
because it has become too much the custom to treat
very young affairs of the heart with ridicule and
contempt. People are apt to say `Oh! it is nothing
more than puppy love!' (a refined expression
truly) and to throw derision upon all such demonstrations,
at the very time, too, when we are most
sensitive upon such subjects, and when our impressions
of the fair one are but too easily modified
by the pretended opinions of our seniors and
superiors. Opposition, direct and serious, will
indeed sometimes make the youth steady in his
course, but ridicule of the object, never!
“From the little I know of the science of political
economy and human happiness, I am inclined
to run right into the teeth of the prevailing doctrines
on this subject. I have never known a
couple who married, whether young or old, upon
the strength of a first and mutual passion, who
were not contented, prosperous, and happy. There
are doubtless exceptions to this sweeping rule, but
I have not seen them.
“Its enemies urge that the youthful pair are not
capable of estimating each other's qualifications.
But do age and experience qualify them? Or is
the judgment of so much avail in these matters as
is pretended? Look at the men most remarkable
for discretion and judgment; I will venture to say
you will find that most of them have trusted too
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much to their judgments, and too little to their
hearts, to be happy. The truth is, that nature has
made the heart the magnetic point of mutual attraction
in these affairs, and the head of the wisest
man is here out of its sphere.
“It is too true, that many of your slow, cautious,
miserly characters, attempt to reduce the whole
business to a question in the single rule of three;
as thus: if Caroline B. with a sweet face and a
prudent turn makes a thrifty wife, what will Adeline
B. make, with a sweet face, thrifty ways, and
a heavy purse?
“Thanks be to an overruling providence, they
are often carried a rule or two farther in their
mathematics than they intended; the honey-moon
winds up with doleful calculations, in the ashes of
the chimney-corner, with the end of their rattans;
such as Vulgar Fractions, Profit and Loss, Tare
and Trett, et cetera.
“You must not imagine, from what I have here
said, that I am one of those dreamers who contend
that the world might again become a paradise;
if, in these things, men would always consult the
dictates of the heart.
“If we look forward at the marriages which are
to come, we can discern nothing. This you may
think is too true to make a joke of, and too serious
to discuss. But look back over all the world that
you have seen, and I think you will own that
Providence or destiny has had a great design constantly
in view in their fulfilment. The human
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character has been equipoised, extremes have been
avoided, the humble elevated, the exalted humbled;
all the genius, and the wit, and the judgment, and
the virtues, have not been suffered to be concentrated
in the descendants of a single pair, but
have been as nearly as possible divided among us,
the descendants of the multitude. Opposite, or
rather diverging characters, are frequently enamoured
of each other—the brave man loves the
gentle woman; the gentle man, the gay woman;
and thus in their descendants we have the grand
compromise of nature.
“There is a sermon, now for the text—`neither
is the battle to the strong nor the race to the swift.'
“V. Chevillere.”
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph. (In continuation.)
“New-York, 18—.
“The day being Sunday, I sent old Cato this
morning to arouse Lamar quite early, in order to
ascertain if he was disposed to walk before breakfast,
and view some of the boasted parks, groves,
and gardens of these hospitable Gothamites. Old
Cato soon returned, saying that Lamar had but
that moment fallen asleep, but that he would be
with me as soon as he could make a hasty toilet;
hasty it indeed was, for he was not many minutes
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behind Cato, in his morning-gown and slippers,
yawning and stretching his clenched fists through
the room as if he had sat in his chair all night.
“`Beshrew me, Chevillere,' said he, `but you
are an uneasy and restless spirit, to be waking a
man up at all hours of the night in this style. I
thought, at least, when I saw old Cato's grisly
head, that you had had a surfeit, or a fit of indigestion.
'
“I suppose then you are disappointed to find
me well; but tell me, Lamar, how you intend to
spend the day?
“`Why, I have not laid it down in a regular
campaign, but I suppose, as you are too much of
a Roundhead to kill the day with me at cards, that
I shall have to submit myself to be whined to death
with nasal psalmody, at some conventicle or other.
Be that as it may, Damon shall sit on the stool of
repentance as well as myself.'
“`In the mean time, suppose we walk to the
Battery and Castle Garden?'
“`Agreed!' said he, `provided you wait till I
jump into a more seemly garb.'
“We were soon arm in arm, sauntering down
the southern extremity of Broadway, which terminates
in a beautiful oval grass-plot, called the
Bowling Green; surrounded by a handsome iron
railing, and containing a young and an old grove
of trees; in imitation, doubtless, of human life, the
young to supplant the aged. During the colonial
government, there stood in the centre of this
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beautiful spot a painted leaden equestrian statue of
George the Third, but as soon as the revolutionary
war broke out, it was melted into bullets, and shot
at his own ships and soldiers. On the opposite
side of the right branch of Broadway, in a south-westerly
direction, is the Battery—a noble lawn,
covering some acres of the southern extremity of
Manhattan Island, and of course looking into the
Bay of New-York. What is by a misnomer called
Castle Garden, stands out in the waters of the bay
on the south-west side, and is connected with the
lawn by a wooden bridge of some thirty or forty
yards length, and not too strong to give way under
some future pressure. Castle Garden is a castellated
structure, without turrets and battlements,
built of hewn stone, and pierced with a row of
port-holes. It seems to have been built for warlike
purposes, but is now used as a public promenade,
and exhibition garden, having tiers of seats
inside, and around an extensive area, in the manner
of an amphitheatre. In the centre of the area
is a little temple or dome, supported on columns.
Surmounting the whole body of the castle is an
esplanade, protected by plain railings; from the
top of this extends high into the air a flag-staff,
from which, on national festivals, the `star spangled
banner' proudly floats over the blue waves which
beat against its base.
“It was here that the corporation entertained
Lafayette, a platform having been thrown over the
area, and a canvass marquee over the top; this
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ball-room is said to have been capable of containing
from six to ten thousand persons.
“Lamar and I mounted the esplanade, and
seated ourselves upon the benches, just within the
railing.
“We could see the ships of every nation, as
they rode triumphantly over the waters of this
magnificent bay, gliding about like `things of life;'
marine birds screaming and diving among them,
and sometimes the porpoises in their clumsy gambols,
shooting their black masses above the water
and down again; steamers with their gay pennants,
thundering noises, and deafening bells; the rude
music and songs of the sailors, the hoarse voice of
the pilot, as he stepped on board some outward-bound
vessel, and the `ay! ay!' of the sailor,
as the order reached his ears, through the rattling
of the shrouds, and the whistling of the breeze.
“Farther out in the bay, between us and the
ocean, is a beautiful chain of islands; first Ellis's,
then Bedloe's, and lastly, next the ocean, Staten
Island.
“Gay throngs of well-dressed people began now
to crowd the gravelled walks of the Battery;
maids attending on children were seen with their
little charges, gambolling over the green in their
Sunday suits; the emancipated mechanics, with
their snow-white jackets and collars; and the
happy negro, with his tawdry and cast-off finery,
as free (personally, not politically, free) as any of
the loungers. There was something in this
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Sunday scene inexpressibly soothing and delightful to
my feelings.
“Every southern should visit New-York. It
would allay provincial prejudices, and calm his
excitement against his northern countrymen. The
people here are warm-hearted, generous, and
enthusiastic, in a degree scarcely inferior to our
own southerns. The multitude move as one man,
in all public-spirited, benevolent, or charitable
measures. Many of these Yorkers are above
local prejudices, and truly consider this as the commercial
metropolis of the Union, and all the people
of the land as their customers, friends, patrons, and
countrymen.
“Nor is trade the only thing that flourishes.
The arts of polished and refined life, refined literature,
and the profounder studies of the schoolmen,
all have their distinguished votaries,—I say distinguished,
with reference to the standard of science
in our country.
“This much I have written before going to
church. The further adventures of the day, in the
evening.
“V. Chevillere.”
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V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
(In continuation.)
“10 o'clock P. M.
“About ten o'clock this morning the bells began
to ring, from Trinity to St. John's. A forest of
steeples seemed to have let loose their artillery at
once upon us tardy Christians. These gongs
seemed to take effect in about fifteen minutes, for
simultaneously the houses poured out their thronging
occupants, until the streets literally swarmed
with these church-going people.
“`Whither shall we bend our steps?' said I;
`here are various routes to heaven; which do you
choose, Episcopal, Methodist, or Presbyterian?'
“`Not any one of the three,' said he.
“`Indeed! Perhaps Jewishly inclined?'
“`No; I thought that you were aware of my
partiality for the close-communion Baptists,' said
he, with mock gravity.
“`But seriously, Lamar, you accused me of
wishing to drag you to some conventicle or other;
choose for us both; indeed for three, for here comes
Damon.'
“`Then,' said he, `I choose the most celebrated
preacher! you will thus be most likely to see a
certain demure little runaway.'
“`And there,' said I, `you will be most likely to
see her friend, with Arthur by her side.'
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“Damon now coming up, was asked by me
where he would choose to spend the forenoon of
the day.
“`I can't tell exactly,' replied he, `for the truth
is, I feel pretty much like a fish out of water even
of week days; but Sunday I'm completely dished;
I was thinking of walking out into the country, and
bantering somebody for a foot-race.'
“I proposed that we should all go and hear Dr.
* * *, and forthwith led the way, my two companions
following on, much like truant boys on their
return march to school. We entered a low white
church, I don't recollect where exactly, but on the
western side of Broadway. The preacher was
already in the pulpit, and the aisles and pews on
the lower floor were crammed with hearers, insomuch
that we were compelled to seek seats in the
small gallery, where with great difficulty we found
them.
“The preacher, who had already begun, was a
commanding-looking gentleman, clothed in black,
and, like most of our dissenting clergymen, without
gown or surplice; his features were large and
well-formed; his forehead lofty beyond any thing
I have ever seen, but falling back at the top until
it was lost in little short bristly curls; his attitudes
were lofty and dignified. He had, as I said
before, announced the portion of Scripture which
he was attempting to elucidate, before we entered
the church. The subject seemed to be, the practicability
and means of a direct revelation from
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God! When he spoke of the Great Spirit who
rules our destinies revealing himself, and his manner
of doing it, he was almost sublime. I must
try to recollect a few passages for your edification,
but you must remember that they are transposed
into my own language.
“He painted in vivid and striking colours, the
utter incapacity of man to conceive identically of
such a being as God. `The little puny brain of
man,' said he, `which you may hold in the hollow
of your hand, cannot contain a true conception of
God in all his majesty! the little arteries and fibres
of our poor heads would rend and burst asunder
with such an idea.
“`To form one single correct thought of so great
a Spirit, you must first conceive of those things
which surround him; as, when we view a painting
of some earthly object, there must first be a background
to relieve the eye. So when you would
conceive of that great Being truly and fully, you
must be able to realize the duration of eternity,
obliterate the little periods of time and chronology,
which require a starting and a resting-place in our
human minds,—soar out of the reach of the sickly
atmospheres which surround these little planets, and
stand erect in the broad and fathomless light of
God's own atmosphere! Could the human eye see
with such rays, and stretch its glances over the
great waves and boundless oceans of light in
which he dwells, one single ray of it would blast
your optic nerves.
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“`Even here upon earth, if we are suddenly
brought from a dark dungeon into the bright rays
of his reflected glory, our little optical machinery
quails and dances with the shock; but take that
same creature from his gloomy dungeon, and place
him in the glassy sea of light in which God dwells!
The utter horrors of such a moment, if they did
not instantly explode the soul into its elements,
would be worse than the terrors of convulsions,
and earthquakes, and the black and fathomless
chasms of the sea. And yet! some of us desire
in our hearts a direct revelation to ourselves from
this sublime Being! Know you what you desire?
You desire that God should stretch out his mighty
power, and draw away the friendly veil of the
heavens, and burst upon an astounded world in all
his fearful attributes! Before such an immediate
presence, the sun and moon would become dark
in contrast. The natural laws which he has given
us for our protection, of gravitation, electricity,
and magnetism, would burst loose from their reflected
positions, and all animate and inanimate
nature would fall before their First Great Cause!
We cannot have direct physical intercourse with
God. We are physically incompetent to encounter
him, either in his goodness or in his wrath.
“You say in your hearts, that there is mystery
in this revelation of the Bible! Can mystery be
separable from sublime or profound greatness,
when viewed through human powers? Are not
height, and depth, and space, and air, all mysterious
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[figure description] Page 186.[end figure description]
to your minds, when beyond the reach of the eye?
Is not darkness alone profoundly mysterious?
mysterious in its effects and in its properties! Can
any mind analyze darkness? Is it positive or negative?
Does it extend through eternal and measureless
space? or is it only a creative property
dependent upon the functions of the eye? Our
darkness is to one part of creation light, and our
light their darkness.
“Is measureless space a positive creation, or a
negative nonentity! No human intellect can
fathom these subjects; not from any of their delusive
properties, but from our limited capacities!
These then are but the beginning of those things
which interpose between us and our great and
sublime Creator!
“You can now, perhaps, form some idea of the
difficulties of revealing God to man!
“What would you have with a more powerful
and sublime revelation than this? Would you
disorganize the minds of the whole human family,
by opening to them frightful volumes which would
craze and bewilder, rather than direct them? Do
you complain of mystery, and yet call upon God
for more?
“But the greatest difficulty between us and a direct
revelation from our Creator, has yet to be
considered.
“This revelation of the Bible was necessarily
conveyed to us through the medium of human
language. Now let us examine what this human
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language is. It is a system of words or signs,
which convey to our minds the ideas of things.
These words only represent such ideas as we ourselves
have formed from the things we have seen,
and their various combinations. How then can
these signs and symbols convey identical ideas of
God and his attributes? All the imperfections of
this revelation then are confessedly owing to our
imperfections, both as it regards mind and language.
“I have given you but a faint outline of this
powerful and vehement speaker's discourse. During
its delivery I once or twice turned to Lamar and
the Kentuckian, to see how they were affected.
The former had insensibly risen during the fervency
of the preacher's eloquence, and stood leaning
over the balustrade, drinking in the sounds of
a voice which are truly powerful though not musical,
until he came to a pause; he then sank into
his seat, a grim smile passing over his pale sickly
features, clearly showing to those who knew him,
how intently he had listened. Damon chewed
tobacco at a prodigious rate, and the more eloquent
the speaker became, the more energetic was the action
of his jaws. His eye was wild and savage, like
that of a forest animal when it suddenly finds itself
in the midst of a settlement. He sometimes cracked
his fingers together, for the same purpose, I suppose,
that he used to crack his whip when travelling
on horseback, to give emphasis and round
his periods.
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“But I had not long to consider these effects upon
different characters, for at this moment Lamar pointed
over the balustrade at two moving figures on the
lower floor. You already guess, if you are any thing
of a Yankee, what these were. Lamar and I simultaneously
arose to our feet and gazed at the heads
which filled up every crevice, as a veteran soldier
would have gazed at so many bristling bayonets
upon an impregnable bastion. We soon heard the
steps of a carriage let down, and then the rolling
of the wheels. Lamar bit his lip till the blood
almost started from it. Whether the pressure
was increased by his having seen that Arthur
joined the ladies near the door, I shall not undertake
to say.
“The sermon now being over we had merely to
throw ourselves into the tide of human figures
which moved down stairs, to be carried safely to
the bottom.
“When there, Damon drew one long and whistling
breath, and an inarticulate sound not unlike
the snort of a whale.
“`I'm flambergasted! if that ain't what I call
goin the whole cretur, he'd go to Congress from
old Kentuck as easy as I could put a gin sling
under my jacket. O Christopher! what a stump
speech he could make, if he would only turn his
hand to it, instead of wasting his wind here among
the old wives!'
“`Well, Lamar, what did you think of him?'
“`Think of him! (rousing himself from a brown
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[figure description] Page 189.[end figure description]
study), I never knew before that I had nerves in
the hairs of my head.'
“`And where did you now obtain that precious
piece of anatomical news?'
“`In the church, to be sure! Were not my
locks dancing all the while to the music of that
eccentric man's voice? The cold chills ran over
me, as if I had been under the influence of miasma.'
“I watched Damon through an unusually long
silence, while he several times snapped his fingers
and took a fresh chew of tobacco.
“`I'll tell you what it is, that's what I call a real
tear-down sneezer,' ejaculated he; `he's a bark-well
and hold-fast too; he doesn't honey it up to
'em, and mince his words—he lets it down upon
'em hot and heavy; he knocks down and drags
out; first he gives it to 'em in one eye and then in
'tother, then in the gizzard, and at last he gits your
head under his arm, and then I reckon he feathers
it in, between the lug and the horn; he gives a
feller no more chance nor a 'coon has in a black
jack.'
“`Then you give him more credit for sincerity
than you usually do men of his cloth,' said I.
“`Yes, yes! there's no whippin the devil round
the stump with him; he jumps right at him, tooth
and toe-nail, and I'm flambergasted if I don't think
he rather worsted the Old Boy this morning; and
he's the best match I ever saw him have, he looks
so stout and soldier-like; and then his eye! Did
you see his eye, stranger? I'm shot if he didn't
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[figure description] Page 190.[end figure description]
look as if he could 'a jumped right a-straddle of
the devil's neck, and just run his thumbs in, and
scooped out his two eyes, as easy as I would scoop
an oyster out of his shell.'
“`You don't go to church often when you are at
home?'
“`No; but I would go, if we had such a Samson
as this; he raises old Kentuck in me in a minute.
I feel full of fight, and ready for any thing
now! But our old parson! he's an entirely different
cut in the jib. He whines it out to us like an
old woman in the last of pea-time; he doesn't
thunder it down to 'em like this chap, and like old
Hickory did the grape-shot at New-Orleans.'
“We had now arrived at that point of the street
where we were to separate. Damon abruptly informed
us of his intention to return soon to Baltimore.
I asked him if he was not pleased with
New-York.
“`O, yes;' said he, `it's a real Kentuck of a
place, a man can do here what he likes; they don't
look at the cut of a feller's coat, but at the cut of
his jib. I could wear my coat upside down here,
and my hat smashed all into a gin-shop, and nobody
has time to turn round and look at me. Yes, yes,
stranger, they are a whole-souled people, and I
like 'em, but I have staid long enough.'
“Here we separated for the day. Lamar intends
to try and prevail upon him to accompany
us to the theatre, and the Italian opera. I have
great curiosity to see him at the latter place.
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Pedrotti, they say, can tame a tiger with her melodious
and touching voice. As you may suppose,
I am anxious to hear it myself, and to see its effects
upon one so unschooled in the music of luxurious
and effeminate Italy.
“I have written you more at length than I intended,
but I could not do otherwise in return for
your amusing, friendly, and satisfactory epistle.
We shall meet again, as in days of yore, and then
we will gather up all these scribblings, and enjoy
these scenes again. In the mean time, believe
that I wish you success in your present suit, for
the sake of three of us,—but more particularly
and selfishly that of
“V. Chevillere.”
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CHAPTER XVIII.
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
“New-York, 18—.
“Dear Chum,
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“Events which seem to me worth recording,
crowd upon us so fast now, that it is almost impossible
to give you, according to promise, even a
profile view of our movements.
“This morning, about the same hour at which
we went to church yesterday, we strolled down
Wall-street (and we seemed the only strollers
there) to see the Shylocks in their dens, if any
such could be found. I was instantly struck with
the concentrated looks, and absorbed countenances
of all the persons we met. Most of them were
running in and out of the banks, with their little
bank books in their hands, making mental calculations
of notes to be taken up, deposites where
made, and how much. Brokers were standing
behind their counters, ready to commence their
brisk, and (in this country) almost unhazardous
game. Many of them amass immense fortunes;
it is not at all uncommon for one of these houses
to loan to a state several millions at once.
“We went upon 'change at the hour of twelve.
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There, in the large room of the rotunda, or circular
part of the exchange, merchants, and brokers, and
bankers, and moneyed men meet, pretty much
after the same fashion as our jockeys and racers
upon the turf. The light falls from the dome upon
these faces, and reveals the best study for a picture
I have ever seen. The seller and the sellee, the
shaver and the shavee, or diamond cut diamond,
as Damon expresses it:—bear with me but a moment
while I go over these dull details, and in return
I will tell you something more of the lady
with the black mantle.
“The most predominant expression that I saw
upon 'change was affectation; the affectation of
business; not the silly school-boy affectation which
wears off with the improving mind, but that which
is first put on by business men, to disguise the real
operations of the mind, and which afterward
grows into a confirmed habit, and is seen deeply
set in wrinkles, long after the first exciting cause
has disappeared.
“This symptom, among the moneyed men, varies
according to character and strength of mind
in the individual. One man I saw standing with
his back against a window, his thumbs stuck into
the armholes of his waistcoat, his quill toothpick
tight between his teeth,—his features large and
fleshy, his complexion between a copper and an
apoplectic dapple of blue and red,—his teeth large,
white, and flat, his eye small and gray, and his head
grizzled; he had evidently been a free, but what
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is called a temperate liver. I tried to trace back
through the wrinkles in this man's face, what the
emotions were which in his younger days he had
attempted to engrave upon it, and which long
habit had now made part of his nature; but I
should first attempt to describe the expression
itself. His upper lip was turned into a curl of
contempt; his eye was thrown a little down, and
the eyelid raised high, so as to show much of the
white of the eye, as when a person is in the attitude
of profound thought upon some far distant
subject. This man had, I thought, the best chosen
affectation; it expressed profound abstraction in
one direction, when he was no doubt really abstracted
in another.
“His right-hand neighbour had not been so fortunate
in his selection of a vizor for the moneyed masquerade.
He had chosen comedy; and attempted
to hide pounds, shillings, and pence under a comic
visage. It was not well chosen. His business-laugh
was too horrid. It displayed teeth, gums,
and throat, and was too affectedly sincere. He too
frequently passed his glances quickly round from
one face to the other, to see if they enjoyed the
sport. This species of affectation had its origin in
a settled contempt for the sense of his associates,
and an exalted conception of his own, and especially
of his powers to amuse. He frequently
drew the corners of his mouth towards his ears, by
a voluntary motion, without exercising the corresponding
risible muscles; elevating his eyebrows at
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the same time in a knowing way. Do this yourself,
and you will have the expression instantly.
His only additional comic resource consisted in
sticking one thumb directly under his chin, like a
pillar. This man is celebrated on 'change for telling
what he considers a good story.
“Another description of affectation here seen,
and by far the most common, is the affectation of
decision, firmness, stability, and concentrated
purpose.
“Various methods, I saw, had been practised
through long lives to attain this safe look. Some,
to whom it was not natural to do so, pushed out
the under jaw, like a person who (to use a Southern
term) is jimber-jawed. Others carried the head on
one side, drew up the muscles at the outer angle
of one eye, and kept the nostrils distended.
Others clenched the teeth, looked fierce and steady,
and habitually patted one foot upon the floor, as if
in high-spirited impatience. Some looked pensive
and sad, and occasionally drew long sighs. Beware
of these, if you ever trade in the money-market.
“The most ludicrous of all moneyed whims is a
desire to make others suppose that you think yourself
poor. A heartless man begging for sympathy
is, of all kinds of affectation, the most contemptible.
But the most dangerous of all others, and the
most apt to deceive a candid and upright mind,
is the affectation of being unaffected. Such is the
sin of those who affect bold, independent, and
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reckless looks. If good fortune had not made them
brokers, bad fortune (they seem to say) might have
made them robbers.
“There is yet another class to describe—the sincere
and the honest. These are easily descried.
Something like an electric intelligence passes from
the eye of one honest man to that of another.
These are usually modest, retiring, and humble.
I speak of real humility, which is best displayed in
a respect for the understanding of other men; a
desire to place one's companions at their ease; and
a tenderness and sympathy towards the failings
of the bankrupt, the vicious, and the unfortunate
generally.
“Not that these indications occur only on'change;
they may be seen in the pulpit, at the bar, at the
bedside, and behind the counter. As you read
my descriptions, try to produce the expression upon
your face; then call up some individual of your
acquaintance, who may have sat for such a picture—
poor, indeed, in its finish, but if it convey to
you the idea, my ambition is satisfied. This is a
severe test, but I think you may muster up dramatis
personœ for all the characters.
“As I am now upon this subject, permit me to
make one or two general remarks.
“I have learned to hold no intimacy with those
men who are harsh and uncompromising towards
unfortunates and criminals. These feelings often
arise from the identical weaknesses, or faults,
which drove their victims to ruin. You have,
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doubtless, seen two slaves quarrel because one
belonged to a rich and the other to a poor
man.
“As one well-fed dog is sure to be snarlish to a
poorer brother—poor human nature—this currish
principle is but too true when applied to us.
“There is none who appears so virtuously indignant
at crime as the man who is a rogue in his
heart. A horse-stealer who has blundered into
better fortune is scandalized at his former craft;
and a sheep-stealer can weep in the very face of
the lamb which another has stolen.
“Those ladies, the purity of whose characters is
most questionable, are uniformly the first to cease
visiting an openly suspected sister.
“But I see plainly that if I go on, the subject
must become too revolting; at all events I must
give it to you in broken doses; and by the time
Arthur introduces me into the human catacombs,
where the living are soul-dead, you will be ready
to take another view of those dark and dismal
abodes, and attempt further observations of humanity
in its darker developments.
“A malignant disease, as Arthur thinks, has
broken out in the portions of the city alluded to;
if so, I will remain with him. This is the time to
see fearful sights; and we Southerns, you know,
have looked the grim monster too often in the face
in this shape to be easily frightened from a cherished
purpose.
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“Damon begins to be very uneasy under these
reports of sudden deaths, and black infections
sweeping through the air.”
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
(In continuation.)
“New-York, 18—.
“I have seen her, Randolph, and seen her far
more captivating and beautiful than ever!
“Yesterday, after I had finished the former part
of this letter, I met, on my way down to dinner,
Arthur and young Hazlehurst. The latter had
come expressly to invite Lamar and myself to
spend the evening at their house. As you may
suppose, it was not refused; we pressed them to
go in with us, as they had not yet dined, to which
they finally consented.
“I find Hazlehurst an intelligent young man,
but with many erroneous opinions concerning the
south, of which he must be disabused. He imagines
us to be a generous and hospitable people, but
in a rather semi-barbarous state.
“As this very subject occupied our attention in
presence of the ladies, I prefer giving you an imperfect
sketch of the discourse. I must not omit
a table lecture of Lamar's on nicotiana, however
impatient you may be to hear more of a certain
fair one.
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“The subject of tobacco was introduced simultaneously
with the segars, after most of the company
had retired. One having been offered to
young Hazlehurst, he declined it, saying that he
did not use tobacco in any shape.
“`Not use tobacco! not smoke!' said Lamar;
`why, sir, you have yet to experience one of the
most calm, delightful, and soothing pleasures of
which human nerves are sensible.'
“`I have always understood,' said the other,
`that the stimulus leaves one far more miserable
than if he had not applied it.'
“`Then you labour under some mistake,' said
Lamar; `and if you will permit, and your doctorships
will forbear laughter, I will explain to you
the effects of a fine segar upon my system, and
`suit the action to the word.'
“`When a man takes a genuine, dappled Havana
segar in his mouth, places his legs upon a
hair cushioned chair, his head thrown back on that
upon which he sits, or against the wall; his arms
folded upon his chest,—the following phenomena
occur:
“`First stage. He becomes heroic and chivalrous,
or perhaps eloquent; if the last, and thinks himself
alone, you will see him wave his hand in the most
graceful and captivating style of oratory. His
eye is the soul of imaginary eloquence, his features
are all swelled out until they seem grand—gloomy—
and profound; his nostrils pant and show their
red lining, like a fiery and blooded steed. He
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rolls out thick volumes of smoke, and puffs it from
him like a forty-two-pounder. He draws down
his feet, and raises his head and looks after it, as if
victory or conviction had been hurled upon its
clouds. Perhaps some one laughs at him, as you
laugh now at me.
“`He replaces his legs, leans back his head
again; the second stage is come; he smiles, perhaps,
at the laurels just won; he closes his eyes,
delightful visions of green meadows and lawns,
fragrant flowers, meandering streams, limpid
brooks, beautiful nymphs, twilight amid tall and
venerable trees, and lengthening shadows, flit before
his imagination. His face now is towards
the heavens; his features are calm and serene;
he wafts the smoke gently upward in long continued
columns, and wreaths, and garlands; his
hands fall by his side—the diminished stump falls
from his hand.
“`And now, in the third stage, he is in a revery.
A servant touches him three times, and tells him a
gentleman wants to see him; he kicks his shins;
servant retreats. Eyes being still closed, he draws
a long sigh or two, but full, pleasant, and satisfactory.
Servant returns; shakes him by the shoulder;
he jumps up and throws an empty bottle at
his head, as I do this one, at that grinning fellow
there (making a mock effort), and then the trance
is over.
“`Now where are the bad effects, except upon
Cato's shins, if he should happen to be the man?'
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“We all applauded Lamar for his treat, with
three hearty cheers, in a small way.
“I am sorry to see a little sly, stealthy, unmentionable
coldness arising between Lamar and
Arthur. I first discovered it in little acts of what
the world calls politeness, but which I call formality,
towards each other. They are unconscious
of it, as yet, for it seems to have sprung up by
irresistible mutual repulsion between them: deep
seated self appears to have warned each of a dangerous
rival in the other. These are little secret
selfishnesses of the soul, which lie deep, dark, and
still, running in an unseen current, far below the
soundings of the self-searching consciousness.
How mysterious is the mind of man! We may
draw up the flood-gates, and let loose the dammedup
waters in order to find some secret at the bottom;
but the flood rolls by, and the secret still
lies buried as profoundly as before. At some
future day, when the thunder and the storms shall
come, these secrets may, perhaps, be washed up
to the surface, like wonders of the deep, when least
expected!
“At about eight o'clock, Lamar and I sallied out
to find Mrs. Hazlehurst's house in Broadway;
amid music from clarionet, violin, and kent bugle.
These were stationed in the balconies of the different
museums. Carriages were just setting down
their company at the old Park Theatre. Little
blind and lame boys sat about the iron railing at
St. Paul's church, grinding hand-organs, and
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making music little better than so many grindstones—
all for a miserable pittance which they
collect in the shape of pennies, perhaps to the
amount of a dozen a day.
“Negroes were screaming `ice-cream' at the
top of their lungs, though it is now becoming cold
in the evenings and mornings. At every corner
some old huckster sang out `Hot corn! hot corn!'
though the regular season of `roasting-ears,' has
long since passed by. Little tables of fruit, cakes,
and spruce-beer were strewed along the walks
and under the awnings, which often remain extended
during the night.
“We at length found the house, and entered
with palpitating hearts. I had a sort of presentiment
that I was to meet Miss St. Clair, from what
the lively Isabel had said.
“When we entered the saloon she was nowhere
to be seen! my disappointment was no doubt visible,
for I saw an arch smile upon Isabel's countenance,
and, I must say, a very singular one upon
that of her brother. The idea first struck me that
he is either now, or has been, a suitor of the absent
lady! Was there a lurking jealousy at the bottom
of my own heart, at the very time that I was fishing
up green monsters from Lamar's mental pandemonium?
Randolph, Oh! the human heart is
deceitful above all things; and it oftener deceives
ourselves than others. We have radiated rays of
light for our mental vision outwards which we may
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extend ad infinitum, but once turn our observations
inwards, and it is like inverting the telescope.
“We were presented to the lady of the mansion
immediately upon our entrance. She is benignant
and bland, yet aristocratic withal. She discovers
a warm heart towards the South, probably from
an idea of a kindred aristocratic feeling in us.
The two are, however, very different in their developments.
It is necessary here to have many
more bulwarks between this class and those below
them than is needful with us; as there is here a
regular gradation in the divisions of society. The
end of one and the beginning of the next are so
merged, that it would be impossible to separate
them without these barriers. What are they? you
would ask. They consist in little formalities,—
rigid adherence to fashion in its higher flights,—
exhibition of European and Oriental luxuries, et
cetera, et cetera.
“We were presented to the company in general;
most of the fashionable ladies were sitting
or standing around a fine-toned upright piano-forte,
at which two of the party were executing, in a
very finished style of fashionable elegance, some
of Rossini's compositions, accompanied by a gentleman
on the flute. And in good truth, they produced
scientific and fashionable music; but, Randolph,
it was not to my taste. You know that I
have cultivated music as a science, from my earliest
youth; that I am an enthusiast here, and not
altogether a bungler in my own execution. I have
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now discovered either that I lack taste, or that the
fashionable world is therein deficient. You shall
decide between us at another time.
“Lamar very soon contrived (how, heaven only
knows) to throw me completely in the shade; but
the first evidence I had of it was his sitting bolt
upright between the gay Isabel and her mother.
He had already betrayed them into laughter,—not
fashionable laughter, for I saw the old lady wiping
the tears from her eyes. It is almost impossible
for any one to adhere long to conventional forms,
when he is of the party,—so manly, generous, and
sincere is he. My chagrin at not finding myself
situated equally to my heart's content did not
escape him, and he perhaps discovered my awkwardness,
for he attempted to draw me into a discussion
concerning the provincial rivalry of the
North and South. I evaded his friendly hand, but
soon the younger lady renewed the attack.
“`Come, Mr. Chevillere, you will tell us what
peculiarities you have observed, as existing between
the northern and southern ladies as to polish,—
fashion,—education,—any thing! This gentleman
is so wonderfully free from prejudices and
rivalry, that he declares the instant he beholds a
beautiful woman, he forgets that she has a local
habitation upon earth. You, sir, I hope, are not so
catholic an admirer of beauty?'
“`I too, madam, am always disarmed of local
prejudices when I see a beautiful northern lady;
but that is not what you wish me to answer. If I
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understood you right, I suppose you wish to know
whether any peculiarity in fashion, habits, or manners
strikes us at first sight disagreeably.'
“`Precisely. Your general opinion of us.'
“`I am glad to be able to say, then, that with
regard to this city I am a perfect enthusiast. Every
thing is arranged as I would have it. Nature appears
to be the criterion here in matters of taste;
utility and improvement seem to prompt the efforts
of your men of talents, and that delightful politeness
to prevail, which consists in placing all wellmeaning
persons at their ease, without useless
conventional forms.'
“I hate this formal speech-making, Randolph,
across a room at people, so I thought I would be
myself at once. I therefore continued my remarks
for the remainder of the evening rather more in a
nonchalant way, and as an introduction to a more
free and easy tone to the company. I asked Lamar
to repeat his lecture of the day, on smoking.
Hazlehurst, as soon as he heard the subject mentioned,
began to describe it to a party of young
ladies who stood round the piano. Their curiosity
was excited immediately; and though Lamar
frowned at me, the ladies entreated until he was
forced to comply.
“He set the room in a perfect roar of laughter,
and then a delightful confusion prevailed. Lamar
did not repeat exactly the same things which he
had treated us with at the dinner-table, but he
preserved the stages, dwelling a much shorter
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time on the heroic, and much longer on the two
latter.
“He introduced a heroine into his shades and
bowers, and painted Isabel as he saw her at the
Springs; so, at least, I suspect from a certain
mantling of the colour into her cheeks.
“`Then,' said he, speaking of the third stage,
`his hands fall by his side, his eyes are closed, he
sighs profoundly, but comfortably and somnolently;
perhaps he is married; his wife steals gently up
and kisses him. `My dear, the milliner's bill has
come.'—`O dam the miller!' In a short time she
returns—`My dear, my pin money is out: come
now, you are not asleep, I know: and that is
not all—the carriage wants painting; the house
wants repairs; the children want toys; servants
want wages.' He rolls his head over on one
shoulder, opens his eyes, and fixes them in a deliberate
stare, as I do now, upon Miss Isabel.'
This last idea became either too sentimental or too
ludicrous for Lamar; and he jumped up in an unsuppressed
fit of laughter. You know Lamar,
therefore I need not tell you that this is a very imperfect
sketch of the manner in which he acted the
ludicrous and careless, but hen-pecked, husband. I
do not wonder that he laughed, when he looked at
Isabel, for her face was indescribably arch and
sanctimonious.
“Hilarity and glee seemed now to be the order
of the evening with all except poor Arthur. I
thought that Lamar would actually sow the seeds
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of a future quarrel, while discussing something relating
to the West. How introduced I do not
know, unless Lamar was talking of Damon. However,
Arthur stated one fact which surprised us all,
and of which we had been all equally ignorant.
He stated that Kentucky had one more college
than any other State in the Union; half as many
as all New-England; and more than North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama,
united.
“While these things were going on, I heard a
gentle and scarcely perceptible step behind me, on
the carpet; and seeing the other gentlemen rise, I
mechanically rose also—to be electrified by the
vision of Miss St. Clair. She was pale and trembling,
but far more beautiful than I had ever seen
her. It was not the beauty of the waxen figure,
or the picture; it was the beauty of feeling, sensibility,
and tenderness. You have seen that little
plant which shrinks at the rude touch of man, Randolph;
that should be her emblem.
“She glided into a rather darkened recess of the
room, near where I stood, and seated herself alone,
as if to be out of the reach of observation; yet by
some means I was seated by her side, almost as
dumb as a statue. I even longed for more of Lamar's
delineations, if for nothing else but to see her
smile again, and light up those features which nature
evidently made to smile. Her hair was still
parted over the forehead in the Grecian manner;
a single ringlet stole down behind her ear. Her
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dress was simplicity itself, exceedingly plain and
tasteful.
“I need not tell Miss St. Clair how much gratified
I am at again meeting her in a circle composed
almost entirely of my friends and my friends'
friends; but, if I have been rightly informed, we
are more indebted to accident than to any benevolent
designs on her part for this meeting.
“`A strange accident indeed, my being here.
Not less so than your own. But you are not a believer
in accidents.'
“How beautiful a little act sometimes appears,
Randolph, when it sits upon the countenance of
one so artless by nature that you can see all the
machinery which she imagines is so completely
hidden, as a child often hides its eyes and vainly
supposes itself unseen. This ruse, intended to
draw me into some argument about accidents, and
to avoid the real case at issue, really amused me;
I was willing, however, to follow her lead for a
time. `Accidents,' said I, `seem to us, at first
sight, to be without the usual train of cause and
effect; but, if they were all placed in my hands, I
think I could govern the destinies of the world, so
long as I could control my own destiny.'
“`I do not understand you, sir,' said she, with
the simplest cunning imaginable; feigning deep interest,
though her countenance would not join in
the plot.
“`The condition,' I continued, `and the present
circumstances of every individual now in this room
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might be traced back to some accident which has
happened—to the person, his father, or his grandfather;
the death of one friend, the marriage of another,
may affect the destinies of the persons themselves
and all connected with them.'
“Ah, Randolph! there was a tender chord
touched. Did you ever see a person shot through
and through? The countenance expresses a whole
age of misery in an instant. The soul is conscious
of it before the body. One will even ask whether
he is shot—while his countenance proclaims death
more forcibly than a hundred tongues could utter it.
There is a writhing, convulsive, retreating misery;
part of which I saw I had inflicted upon this gentle
being. This mystery must be solved. The system
on which she is treated by those around her is
false.
“You have, perhaps, seen a whole family after
the death of one of its members, religiously observe
profound silence on the subject. Should any one
rudely or even gently mention the deceased, all are
instantly horrified. Each fears that the feelings of
all the rest have been shocked. At this moment, a
calm and judicious friend, when the ice is once
broken, may cure all this amiable weakness by
steadily and tenderly persevering. I was determined
to try the experiment in this case. A bold
measure, when you consider the person and the
circumstances.
“`Miss St. Clair,' said I, after she had recovered
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her composure; `allow me to ask whether your
family is related to that of General St. Clair?'
“`I believe not,' she composedly answered.
“`Has your father been long dead?'
“`Not a very long time: and the loss is the
greater, as I have never known the value of a
brother or a sister.'
“`You do not seem to labour under the usual
disadvantages of step-daughters.'
“`Never was step-father more devoted and
affectionate than mine, in his own peculiar way;
and with that I am quite contented.'
“Now, Randolph, you know that impertinence
had no share in dictating these questions, but could
impertinence have gone farther? what ramification
could I next attempt? Here was nearly the
whole genealogical tree, but farther down there
was no hope of touching the true branch.
“Her own gentle heart alone remained to be
suspected. How could I suspect it, Randolph?
so young, so pure, so gentle, so beautiful! Alas!
that is but a poor protection against suitors. Besides,
she is said to be rich. Must the question be
asked? I resolved upon it! Was I not justifiable
in doing so? Am I not an avowed suitor? at
least have I not shown myself ready to become so?
The opportunity was good; the company were all
engaged in little coteries around the saloon. My
previous questions seemed rather to have tranquillized
her than otherwise; it was a trying moment!
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but no other step could be gained until this obstacle
was surmounted. I therefore proceeded to make
one or two anxious inquiries, critical as it regards
my happiness, but which a lover cannot confide
even to the ear of Randolph.
“My object was to know whether I had aught
to fear from rivalry. Her lips moved, but no sound
issued from them. I resumed: `Believe me, that
this pain would not have been inflicted, if my supposed
relation to yourself had not imboldened me
to ask whether any other man were so happy as
to render me miserable.'
“`I see no impropriety in answering your question,
though it can avail nothing; my affections are
now as they have always been—disengaged.'
“These words were wafted along the vestibule
of my ear, like some gentle breathings of magic;
you have heard the soft vibrations of the æolian
harp, as a gentle summer breeze bore them along
the air, redolent of the rich perfumes of summer
flowers, and attuned to the wild music of songsters
without.
“Sweeter, far sweeter, was her voice; a silvery
voice is at all times the organ of the heart, but
when it dies away in a thrilling whisper from the
profoundness of the internal struggle, the ardent
sympathy of the hearer is involuntary. Tragedians
understand this language of the heart, insomuch
that custom has now established the imitation,
in deep-toned pathos.
“She placed emphasis on the word affections;
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why was this, unless her hand is engaged without
them? This idea flashed upon me with electric
force; you can well imagine how suddenly it broke
asunder the links of the delicious revery of which
I have attempted to give you a glimpse. Another
more painful question than any of the former now
became absolutely necessary; consequently I resumed:
`I think that I know Miss St. Clair sufficiently
well to presume with a good deal of certainty
that her hand is not pledged where her heart
cannot accompany it?'
“`My hand, sir, is like my affections.'
“Her head now hung down a little, and her eye
sought the carpet; my own expressive glances,
sanguine as they perhaps had occasionally been,
were themselves much softened and humbled; but
again I summoned my scattered thoughts to the
charge.
“`Will Miss St. Clair grant me an interview on
the morrow, or some other day more convenient
to herself?'
“The words had hardly escaped my mouth,
when Isabel stood before us. Lamar was soon by
her side. I also arose.
“`My dear Frances,' said she, taking my seat,
and locking her hand where I would have given
kingdoms to have had mine; `we are talking of
making up a little equestrian party to the Passaic
Falls. Will you be of the company? Pray join
us, like a dear girl; it is only fifteen miles.'
“The lady addressed shook her head gravely.
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Isabel arose, and turning to me, `I leave the case
in your hands, sir, and you are a poor diplomatist
for a southern, if you do not succeed in persuading
her to go.'
“I was much alarmed to hear many ladies calling
for shawls and bonnets. I was not long, therefore,
in urging the case, for it was emphatically my
case.
“`I cannot go,' said she; `in the first place, I
have not been on horseback since my boarding-school
days; and in the next place, I could not
undergo the fatigue.'
“`But if all these objections could be obviated?'
I eagerly inquired.
“`Then I should certainly be pleased to go, and
still more pleased to gratify others by going.'
“To make the story a short one, as my letter
has already become too long, she finally consented
that I should drive her in a cabriolet, provided her
father, who was not present, thought it proper for
her to go.
“I reported progress to Isabel, who looked sly
and arch; her brother was as solemn as a tomb-stone.
I do not say this in triumph, Randolph, for
God knows I have little cause as yet. I merely
state the fact in all plainness and honesty, that you
may have the whole case before you.
“`This augurs well for you, Mr. Chevillere,'
whispered the lively girl.
“`I am not so certain of that,' said I.
“Finally, we agreed to go, `weather permitting,'
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as they say at country sales, on the day after to-morrow.
“I did not urge this interview any farther, for a
reason which you will easily perceive. What has
become of you? I write two pages to your one
now. Is the North more prolific than the South
in incidents?
“Your Friend and Chum,
“V. Chevillere.”
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CHAPTER XIX.
V. Chevillere to B. Randolph.
“New-York, 18—.
“Dear Friend,
[figure description] Page 215.[end figure description]
“Certainly I must be one of the most unfortunate
fellows that ever lived. And none the less
so because the bitter strokes come upon me in the
midst of apparent prosperity; but before I tell
you of one disappointment, I must tell you of the
things which preceded it, in the order of their
occurrence.
“On the evening after the assemblage of our
little party at Hazlehurst's, Lamar, Damon, and
myself went to the Italian Opera; and to please
Lamar no less than Damon, we took seats in the
pit.
“The assemblage was brilliant beyond any thing
I have seen, in the two lower tiers of boxes. All
the fashion, and wealth, and beauty of this fair
city seemed to be assembled around us, with their
gay plumage and foreign head-attire, and opera-glasses.
As a shading to this gay picture, there
were the gentlemen, with enormous whiskers and
mustaches curling sentimentally and greasily
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over the upper lip; their teeth glistening through
the bristles, ghastly as Peale's mummy itself.
“The passion for hairy visages is a singular
characteristic of this phrenological age. Large and
frizzled locks puffed out on each side of the head
to hide the absence of development are easily
enough accounted for; but this supererogatory disfiguration
of ugly faces is altogether unaccountable
on the same principles.
“`I'll be dad shamed if it ain't all cowardice,
and I hate to see it practised,' said Damon.
“There is, perhaps, more truth in this remark
than you would at first suppose. No man is so
desirous to appear fierce, courageous, and even
piratical as he that is a dastard in his heart. Indeed
most men are fond of making a parade of
those qualifications with which they are least endowed
by nature.
“There is one bewhiskered class, however, from
whom we ought to expect better things; I mean
young and thoughtless men, who are led away by
fashion; many of whom have rubbed through the
walls, if not through the studies, of college; and
whose taste ought to have been more refined by
associating with gentlemen, however great their
stolidity or idleness.
“Finally, as to whiskers, I have seen most of
the American naval and military heroes; and I
cannot now recall a single one of them who ever
wore remarkable whiskers, or bristles on the upper
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lip. Nor have I ever seen a polished southern
gentleman remarkable for either. There is one
fact which, if generally known, would root out the
evil at its source; and that is, that men who flourish
large whiskers are very apt to become bald!
“`O! corn-stalks and jews-harps!' said Damon,
after worrying on his seat during the performance
of the overture by the orchestra; `will they tune
their banjoes all night, and never get to playin?'
“`That is called fine Italian music,' said Lamar.
“`Yes! yes!' replied he, `there's `four-and-twenty
fiddlers' sure enough! but I rather suspicion
that it would puzzle some of our Kentuck gals
to dance a reel to that music. O my grandmother!
what jaunty heels they would have to sling after
such elbow-greese as that. But you are stuffing
me with soft corn—I see you are by your laughing.
They know better than to pass that for
music; no, no, catch a weasel asleep!'
“The opera now commenced, and I must own
that I saw more of Damon than I did of the play.
He was struck dumb with astonishment; seemed
scarcely to believe his own senses, but looking
round the house after an unusual silence, and seeing
the audience serious and apparently attentive, he
burst into a cachinnation.
“`Well,' said he, with a long breath, `I wish I
may be tetotally smashed in a cider-mill, if that
don't out-Cherokee old Kentuck; why that ain't
a chaw-tobacco better nor Cherokee! Just wait a
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minute, and they'll raise the whoop, it's likely;
and if they do, if I don't give them a touch of Kentuck
pipes that'll make them think somebody's
busted their biler. Look! some of the men have
got rings in their ears too; and leather skinned.
Now I'm snagged if I was to meet that feller in a
Mississip cane-brake, and my rifle on my arm, if I
wouldn't be apt to let the wind through his whistle
cross-ways.'
“`Not if he was to speak to you, and tell you he
was a Christian like yourself?'
“`Speak to me! he would do a devilish sight
better to play dummy: for sure as he spoke, I should
let fly at him, because I wouldn't know but he belonged
to some of those far away tribes of Black-feet,
or the likes of that.'
“`But you do not really think that they look
and speak any thing like the western savages,
Damon?' said I.
“`I'm smashed if I don't bet that I can put
blankets and leggins on the whole tribe, and pass
them through the Cherokee nation for friendly
Black-feet.'
“The incomparable Prima Donna (as she is
called here) now made her first appearance; her
voice is exquisite, Randolph, and her execution
beyond the conception of an unsophisticated student.
“The music is pleasing to the ear, and may
touch an Italian heart, but it found no response
from mine. I tell this to you in all sincerity and
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confidence, but it would lower a man, I fear, to
say so in the fashionable circles.
“`Well, Damon, would the Italian ladies pass for
squaws?'
“`No, no; they are better than the men, and
they are right pretty too, if they didn't talk such
outlandish gibberish; but that dark skinn'd man
there, I swear Pete Ironsides would kick him if he
was to go in my stable; for he hates an Injin, as
I do an allegator; poor Pete! I reckon he thinks
I'm skulped.'
“`Pete is well cared for, I will guaranty,' said
Lamar, very pathetically.
“`Look! look!' exclaimed Damon; `what's
that under the green umbrella there, at the front of
the stage among the lights?'
“`That is the prompter, to put them right when
they go wrong.'
“`Yes, yes! I see, I see!' continued he; `he
gives them a wink every now and then.'
“In the operas it is very frequently the case that
one of the subordinate characters comes to the
front of the stage after the principals have made
their exit, and explains what rare sport is coming.
“`What does that fellow slip out here every
now and then like a dropped stitch for?'
“We explained to him the meaning of it, as well
as we understood it ourselves.
“`Ay, ay! I see it now; he is the Nota Bene!'
“We found great difficulty in getting Damon to
understand, with his shrewd natural view of things,
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that an opera was nothing more than a common
play; the parts being sung, instead of spoken.
“`Now I wish my head may be knocked into a
cocked-hat, if a man had told this to me of the
Yorkers in old Kentuck, if I wouldn't have thought
he was spinnin long yarns; there is no sense in it,
nor there's no fun in it, as they all take it up there
in the pews; if so moutbe now that they were all
of my way of thinking, and would only join in a
leetle touch of the warwhoop, why we might show
them fellers a little of the real Cherokee, that I
rather suspicion they haven't seen.'
“`Why, what would you do, Damon?'
“`Jist set them four-and-twenty fiddlers to
playin of something like Christian reels; hand the
gals down on the floor; then I reckon there would
be a little sort of a regular hand-round! Confound
their jimmy simequivers, and their supple elbows!
Smash me, if they don't think the whole cream of
the ball lies in rattlin the bones of their elbows.
Give me your long sweeping bow hands, that
saws the music right in under your ribs, and sets
your legs to dancin, whether they will or not. Do
you think them fellers ever made anybody feel in
the humour for a hand-round?'
“`I can't say that I think they ever did.'
“`No, nor they never will! they may set people's
teeth on a wire edge, or make their flesh crawl, or
set them into an ague fit with their shakin, and
grindin, and squawkin. And now I think of it,
the whole business sounds more like grinding
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ramrods in an armory, than any thing I ever come
across; there's the squeakin of the wheels, that
would go for them goose guzzles them fellers are
pipin on. The ramrods on the grindstones will go
for the fiddles,—only I don't see any fire flyin out
of the catgut, but I've been watchin sharp for it
some time. Then there's the old leather bellows
groanin and gruntin away, jist like those two fellers
seesawin there, on them two big-bellied fiddles,
and the leather bands flappin every time they
come round, keeps the time for the whole concern.
'
“`Well, have you seen any fire yet?' after a
long pause.
“`Yes, plenty of it! they make it fly out of my
eyes, if they don't out of the catguts; confound
them, I say, they keep me all the time drawin
down first one eye and then another, first one corner
of my mouth and then another, jist as if a
horse was on a dead strain, and you were bowing
your neck and stickin your leg straight in the
ground, and then strainin with all your might as if
you could help him; but this is worse! a confounded
sight worse! for every now and then all
the fiddlers and trumpeters comes rattlin down
their tinklin quivers, like a four-horse load of
china, goin to the devil down a steep hill at the
rate of ten knots an hour; and then it all dies
away agin, as if horses, wagon, and chinaware
had all gone over a bank as high as a church
steeple. Then! I begin to draw a long breath
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agin, and feel a little comfortable. But here's a
dyin away sound! hop and come agin, rising and
whooping, until the whole team's going full tilt,
pull dick, pull devil, here they go again! old Nick
take the hindmost. See their elbows now, how they
move out and in, out and in, like spinning jinnies.
And see that feller that sets at the top of the
mob, on the high chair in the middle, how his head
goes. See how he looks at that book before him,
as if that stuff could be put down there in black
and white.'
“`It is all down there, Damon.'
“`Come, come, now, strangers, you have stuffed
me enough! I can't swallow that exactly neither!
All the lawyers in Philadelphia couldn't write down
half the wriggle-ma-rees one of them chaps has
made since I set here! Smash my apple-cart, if
I wouldn't like jist to see a goosequill goin at the
rate of one of them elbows. Ink would fly like
mud at a scrub-race, and when it was done it
would look like my copy-book used to do at school;
more stops than words.'
“`But you keep your eye on the orchestra all
the while; why not look on the stage?'
“`I do, I do; and that puzzles me the blamedest,—
how they all come out square at the stops,
fiddlers and all. Every now and then they seem
to git into a fair race, and one feller's eye is poppin
out of his head, and the veins on the woman's neck
is ready to burst, and the fiddlers and the pipers
and the trumpeters are all puffin and blowin, like
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our Kentuck jockeys at a pony sweepstakes; and
then all at once, jist as there begins to be a little
sport, to see who has the wind and the bottom, their
heads begin to move first one side and then the
other all so kind, and ready to make a draw game
of it, blabbering all the time; till the trumpeter
sees they're pretty well blown, then he begins to
come down a little with his toot! toot! toot!
That's to call all hands off, you see, and they slip
down as easy and as quiet as if it had all been in
fun. Then they all clear out but one, and he
watches his chance till they're all gone. Then he
comes here to the front, and flaps his wings and
crows over them, as if he had done some great
things, if we hadn't been here to show fair play.'
“I am sure, Randolph, that I give you but a
poor idea of the reality, but you must supply the
deficiencies by your imagination. Damon talked
incessantly, and I enjoyed it far more than I could
have done the opera, even if I had been a perfect
Italian scholar. I find that I must defer the
account of our disappointment till another time,
when I will tell you some matters of interest.
“Truly yours,
“V. Chevillere.”
END OF VOL. I.
Back matter
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Caruthers, William Alexander, 1802-1846 [1834], The Kentuckian in New York, or, The adventures of three Southerns. Volume 1 (Harper & Brothers, New York) [word count] [eaf038v1].
