Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1837-12-27
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From the American Monthly Magazine.
THE HEAD CLERK.
p I.

Mr.. EOeucZer D1ySdiiSI was du uu
firing votary Of Mammon. He was an
importing dry goods merchant, and IN
habited a lofty building in the vicinity
og Wall-street. Here he might be said
to dwell, for here he might be found
from nine o'clock in the morning till
eleven at night, with only occasional
absences at certain accommodating
temples of Plutus, and a daily visit at
the Tontine. His age might have been
about threescofe and ten, and imprison.
ed in a glass ISL with a roll of papy-
rus in his hand, swathed in folds oCfac-
tory cotton, he would have made a We
ry good Egyptian mummy. He had a
pair of green glass eyes, which were
still keen and penetrating ; a slight
stoop, and a bald spot on the back of
his head. His favorite dress was a
snuff colored suit, with London smoke
CATERS; and he invariably carried a
Llue cotton umbrella. His mind was
stored withdivers pithy maxims, quaint
phrases, and sage apophthegms, with
which he was wont to interlard his
conversation, and which served to reg
ulate his conduct. Such was Mr.. Eb-
enezer Drysalter.
This great man had a clerk, nay, he
had many ; but | speak of the head
clerk, of the being who sat exalted on
q tripod inferior in height to that of
Mr.. Drysalter alone. The head clerk
was the reverse of his master. Mr..
Augustus Summary was a spruce, good
looking fellow, of twenty-five years,
very erect, and, withal, not a little of
a dandy. In fact he imported prints
of the fashions from Europe, and had a
secret correspondent, who sent him the
latest pantaloons, while they were yet
novelties in Bond street and the Boule-
wards. What a happy fellow was Mr..
Augustus Summary? Then, too, he
was suspected of having written a son..
net in a lady's album, and a confession
Of utter misery in a souvenir; but this
was kept under the rose, for the homes
ty of a clerk begins to be doubted when
he displays any symptoms of a taste
for the fine arts. Therefore, though
his face was not utterly unknown in
the circles of the theatre, and though
he was once detected in the act of en-
tering a booksellers shop, he was be-
lieved by all to be a very promising
young man, and faithful to his business.
During a brief space Of time, reluc-
family left at the disposal of Mr.. Sum-
merry by his employer, the head clerk,
who happened to be in i'll health, made
a trip to the Springs. He danced one
evening at Saratoga with a fashion,
able girl, whose name he did not hear
during the ceremony of introduction,
but who set his brain in a whirl by the
rapidity Of her waltzing and the splen.
dor Of her charms. She was just sew
enteen, that sweet age when the buds
of girlhood expand in all their beauty,
when the heart is warm, and the head
glddy, and the rosy lips are not asha-
med to whisper to the nearest listener
the feelings ofthe time. The head clerk
was enchanted to use an original
phrase of Mr.. Thomas Haynes Bayley
one of the greatest poets of the present
century-which, by the way, has pro-
duced a thing called Byron. The head
clerk, we repeat it was 'enchanted;'
and though his belle annie was walked
off by a grumpy papa in Wellington
boots, and a sanguinary brother in
suspicious whiskers, he yet remained
IN that delicious kind of reverie which
a man enjoys while sitting with a cigar
IN his mouth before an ignited coal fire,
dreaming hat his rich old uncle has
been carried off by the apoplexy, and
that his %tailor's account books have
been destroyed by fire. The next
morning Mr.. Augustus Summary re.
turned to the city and the counting
room, looking paler than ever, wear
ing a sea-green stock with his shirt
collar turned down. 1t was soon ap.
parent to the dullest observer that Mr..
Augustus Summary was that unhappl-
est OF beings, &C an altered young man."
lie pored as diligently as ever over the
on.backed books, and was quite as
much attached to his tripod but then
mere was a strange sort of CLEAN in
MS eye, which looked a little like in.
sanity and he was reported to have
written some stanzas of verse in an in.
terleaved copy of the almanac. His
health, too, was considerably impaired
and he talked ofgoing through a course
OF Hygeian medicine. What was We.
ny strange, when these appalling signs
were pointed u to Mr.. Drysalter bv
some ofthe junior clerks, he only laugh
ed in a mysterious manner, winked with
his left eye, and placed a fore finger
on the right side of his nose. AS Mr..
Drysalter was rarely guilty of a hu-
morous action, this practical piece of
wit drew bursts of laughter from the
clerks. whereupon their employer smi.
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