The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-18 00:00:00

OCCUPA7ION GONE.

Here is a poor fellow who used to be employed in a will'
but who has been 16 or 16 months with his occupation gone.
He has depending on him, an old mother, and a half •witted
brother; the last, subject to fits of violent madness at times.
I went to see this excellent fellow—the sane brother I mean'
He was in first-rate spirits—in far better spirits than
some of my wealthy acquaintances—lnt such a ruinousstate of things I have seldom come in contact with.
room into which we went from the street had a counter
stretching half way across it, a bare counter, with not eves
a beggarly account of empty boxes behind it. Theresvas
nothing to tell, but about the loom hungseveral bird-
cages, and three or four of them were 'tenanted. 111 e
owner of this wretched attempt at a shop was Bitting
within the useless counter by a bit of fire, and, sten ane
in a purposeless way in the middle of the apartment, Nr.3e
0.
the half-witted brother. Ho was a wild strong-lookiel
fellow, with a dangerous stare in his eye. He nt*
with his hands in his pockets, and wore a swallow-tail
dress. coat of great age, which I suppose some one had
given him. I must confess that he did not appear to me to
be best pleased with our intrusion, and it would not in the
least have surprised me if he had sprung over the counter
and inflicted serious damage upon myself or the friend:
who had introduced me. The half-witted man began soon
after we entered to comb his hair with a pin, and nePtinn"t
so to occupy himself with little intermission during nut
stay. . . . What a story was this of the two brothers;
The sane one—who will, by some practical people, be set
down as anything but sane for his pains—would not Pa!
with poor Mad Tom, even in spite of his reY
lent fits, in spite of the inconvenience ho must have eau'
in spite of the temptation of getting rid of his keep threugl
the help of an asylum. What devotion was this I
love 1 Mad Tom could be no sort of use. Far frr,
it. He had once, indeed, been sent out to sell '6"
penny periodicals for his brother, but this had ri°t
turned out a profitable transaction, as the poor fete
low (being mad, remember) gave away all the reonel"
got, before he came home again. This selling of ilenny
papers was one of the schemes in which the poor uneins
ployed elder brother had engaged, with a view of keeping
house over his head and a spark of fire going in the ST-ate
to
Besides this he had invested the little he had been able
save in better days, in the purchase of some odds and ow'
of furniture and other matters, with the idea of 041
them again at a trifling profit. That empty 00111/'-
already spoken of, had beensucb a purchase, and had been
picked up a bargain. It a business could only have been,
,
bought with that counter 1 But the setting up of C'
ters is one thing, and the transaction of busin. of
across the same is quite another. An enormous Pair
iron scales, with a beam of about five feet in length, was
another trifle which our poor amateur broker had picitedu,,
n;
cheap, and for which he told us, in the jolliest way irasgl4-t
able, he was open to an offer, at a very moderate Pr°'t'
Sometimes, and while these particulars were coming °11;
our conversation would turn on the eccentricities of 1)""
Mad Tom, and to all such matters he would himself listen,
standing behind the counter with his hands in his pockets,
or working away with his pin, and looking as if the.'7A,
aA
under dicusssion was that of some unfortunate ol'S,
vidual living, we will say, in the heart of Poland, ;
little did it appear to have to do with him. He did 11,
1-
„?
even rally to a sense of his connection with the matter
hand, when his brother, in reply to our expressions of 'fa
prise at the number of birdcages about the room, inf°lll3„,,i
us that they were this poor feather-brained fellow's °'-80
handiwork, and that his brain attacks—which had been
attributable to his having been crossed in love man)" ye-fe
ago—had been materially alleviated since he had taken
-
making these very birdcages.-411 the Year Bound.

NARA", I AS.

—WEDNESDAY. 81.4
IBarley, grinding. . 2296:1°0 lov:
Oats, old, ..
New do 203 t°
4 sg
1 Beans.. 445 t° 420
) Beans, new 380 to
38s to 465.