The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-10-08
THE BROTHERS,
OR,
In the Fashion and above the
Fashion.

FaSfliOn.
By the AuthOr Of Conquest and Self Conquest.
Some men are born to greatness-some a.
chieye greatness, and some have greatness
thrust upon them. Henry Manning belong
ed to the second of these three classes. The
son Of a mercantile adventurer, who had won
and lost a fortune by speculation, he found
choose between the life of Il western farmer,
with its vigorous action, stirring incidents and
rough usages, and the life of a clerk in one
of the most noted establishments in Broad
way the great source and centre of fashion
in New York. Mr.. Morgan, the brother of
Mrs. Manning, who had been recalled from
the distant west by the death of her husband,
and the embarrassments into which that event
had plunged her, had obtained the offer of
the last situation for one of his two nephews,
and would take the other with him to his prai-
RE home.
81 do not ask you to 90 with me, Matilda"
said he to his sister, " because our life is yet
too wild and rough to suit a delicate woman,
reared, as you have been, in the midst of lux
urious refnements. The difficulties and pri-
vations of life in the west, fall most heavily
on woman, while she has little of that sustain
ing power which mans more adventurous
spirit finds in overcoming difficulty and cop
in. with danger. But let me have one of
your boys, and by the time he has arrived at
manhood, he will be able, | doubt not, to offer
you in his home, all the comforts, if not all
the elegancies Of your present home"
Mrs. Manning consented and now the
question was, which of the sons should remain
with her, and which should Mr..
Morgan. To Henry Manning, older by two
years than his brother George, the choice of
situations was submitted. lie went with his
uncle to the Broadway establishment-heard
the duties which would be demanded from
him, the salary which would be given, saw
the grace with which the ~cleqantS behind the
counter displayed their silks, and satins, md
velvets to the e~IegantcS before the counter,
and the decision with which they promulga-
ted the DEGREES of fashion-and with that Just
sense Of his own power which is the accompa-
niment of true genius, he decided at once that
there lay his vocation. George, who had
with difficulty kept quiet while his brother
was forming his decision, as soon as it was an
nounced sprang forward with a whoop that
would have suited a western forest better
than a New York drawing room, threw the
Horace he wa reading across the table, clasp
ed first his mother and then his uncle in his
arms, and exclaimed, II am the boy for the
west. | will help you fell the forests and
build cities there, uncle. Why should not
we build cities as well as Romulus and Re-
mus ?"
81 will supply your cities with all their
silks, and satins, and v~elvets, and charge them
nothing, George" said Henry Manning, with
that air of superiority with which the worldly
wise often Looks on the sallies of the enthusi-
asst.
You make my head ache, my son." COM
planned Mrs. Manning, shrinking from his
boiSterous gratulation but Mr.. Morgan re-
turned his hearty embrace, and as he gazcd
into his bold, bright face, with an eye bright
as his own, replied to his burst of enthusiasm,
" Your are the very boy for the west, George.
1t is out of such brave stuff that pioneers and
clty-builders are always made"
Henry Manning soon bowed himself into
Of the ladies who formed the principal
customers Of his employers. BY his careful
and really correct habits, and his elegant taste
in the selection and arrangement of goods, he
became also a ~favorite with his employers
themselves. They needed an agent for the
selection of goods abroad, and they sent him.
He purchased cloths for them in England,
and silks in France, and came home a travel
led man. Having persuaded his mother to
advance a capital for him by selling out the
Bank stock in which Mr.. Morgan had funded
her little fortune, at twenty-four years of AGE
he entered business for himself as a French !
importer. Leaving a partner to attend the
sales at home, he went abroad for the ~selec-
ton of goods, and the further enhancement
Of his social reputation. He returned in two
years with a fashionable figure, a most re-
style of dress, moustachios of the most
approved cut, and whiskers of ~faultless curl
a finished gentleman in his W conceit.-
With such attractions, the prestige which he
derived from his reported travels and long
'esidence abroad, and the saUoir Caire of one
who made the conventional arrangements of
society his study, he quickly rose to the sum-
of his wishes, to the point which it had
been his life's ambition to attain. He became
the umpire of taste, and his word was ~receiv-
ed as the fiat of fashion. lie continued to re-
side with his mother, and paid great atten-
ton to her style of dress, and the arrangement