Boon's Lick times. [volume] (Fayette, Mo.) 1840-1848, 1842-06-04
THE ELOPEMENT.
A TRANscRIpT.-BY CHARLES WHITEHEAD.

a TRANsCRIPT.-BY CHARLES WHITEHEAD.
The doctor tells me must take no wine.
Pshaw! 1t is not that which mounts into
my brain; and sometimes-but / must not
wander-wine is the best corrector of
these fancies. One bottle more of sober
claret, and shall be able to finish before
midnight the brief sketch of my life which
promised Travers long ago.
1t were worse than useless to set down
any particulars of my boyhood. An only
son is usually spoiled one, and that which
is so easy and delightful a task to most
parents was by no means difficult or I'M
pleasant to mine; and yet, to do myself
Justice, believe was not more conceited,
insolent, selfish, and rapacious than others
are during those days of innocence, as they
are called, -those days of innocence which
form the germ of that noble and disinter-
ested creature, man.
At the age of Extraordinarily / sue
ceeded to my fathers estate. 1t was to
divert sense of loneliness which beset me,
that l plunged into--as they term it, but
the phrase is a wrong one--that | ventur-
ed upon the course Of folly and dissipa-
ton into which so many young men of
fortune like myself hurry themselves, OF
are led or are driven. But why recount
these scenes of pleasure--so called, or mis-
called-whose reaction is utter WEAKNESS,
safety, and disgust
was at the theatre one night, when the
friend who accompanied me directed my
attention to very lovely girl, who, with
her mother and a party of friends, occu-
pied the next box. She was, certainly, the
loveliest creature my eyes had ever lighted
upon; with sylph-like form, that is the
usual phrase, / believe,) wanting, perhaps,
that complete roundness of limb which is
considered essential to perfect beauty in a
wouaan-but she was barely sixteen-and
yet suggesting, too, the idea of consum-
mate symmetry. Her face-but who can
describe beauty who even can paint it?
Let any man look at the finest attempts to
achieve this impossibility by the old mas
tiers, and then let him compare them with
the faces he has seen, and may see every
day. Heavens! what insanities! Can a
man paint a soul upon canvass! And yet
the artist talks of his expression"
watched her closely during the per-
formance-Indeed had no power to with
draw my gaze from her; and once or
twice her eyes met mine, and thought !
could perceive she was not altogether dis
pleased at my attention. Her confusion
betrayed that to me, and in one short hour
was lost man.
When the play was over, ! framed a
miserable excuse, which, thought at the
time most ingenious one, to nay friend
for not accompanying him home to supper
as had promised; and fastening after my
unknown and her mother, who had left
the box, was Just in time to see them enter
acoach. contrived to keep pace with it.
and saw it deposit its beautiful freight at a
house in a small private street near Port
man Square.
could aforementioned as ] an
even to private laughing now-a-days-
when think, as do sometimes, on those
days of sentiment. 1t were as futile to at
tempt to renew that sentiment after thirty
as to strive to REGAL those days, and to
The green wood is out of the tree by tina
time; and the trunk becomes hard, ant
gnarled and stubborn. Now is the time
to enjoy life. At fve-and-thirty the bloot
and the brain act in concert, and the hear
beats not one pulse the quicker, while the,
do their spiriting-not gently always
To return.
l went home that night altogether al
altered man, and rose next morning fror
asleepless bed, absorbed with the one ide
which had woi 1 aed so miraculous chang
,.,,,o,n m, me- =. =" that day, amos. withou
antermission, did pace up s:sd down tn
street in the hope Of seeing her; pus
gain. Not once did she approach the win
dow; and did not deem it,prudent
question one of the servants who came OF
of the house several times during the &c,
/ betook myself therefore, towards eve!
ing, to a green-grocer's shop in the neigl
borhood; and the purchase of some fru
gave me a privilege to indulge in lit
chat with the good old woman who COZ
Quoted the business. l affected to
- chiefly solicitous respecting the elder
.ady, whom had seen by chance, and b.
lieved to be friend of my father, b'
whose name l could not, for the life
me, remember. The old woman smiled
nv shallow artifce, but proceeded to j
form ma that the elderly lady was Il