Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1848-04-28
MISCELLANEOUS.
Record of a Police Office.

move on' was Tie warning addressed by Il
police constable to an old man on whom toll
as well as tine had pressed heavily, hut who
yet seemed less bowed down by these than
by some great and bitter trouble. lie appea-
red to have been writing with a piece of
chalk some unintelligible words on the wall.
On he moved without a remonstrance, unless
a deep sigh might be so interpreted.
1t was = bleak, raw evening in autumn
Heavy rain succeeding to the dust of IA fort
nights dry weather, had made The streets
wet and slippery rs after the breaking up OF
ii frost. Thick lowering clouds, through
which not a star struggled, threatened yet
more rain. Wandering on apparently with
out any settled course, the old man stopped
in another street (it was somewhere IN the
extreme west Of the metropolis) with the
same intention as before. His chalk was
already applied to a dwarf garden-wall, over
which, among some leatless trees, hung a
lamp; when he was again interrupted by a
constable on duty, who charged him with a
design of leaping the wall a harder task to
him Of the bent frame and shrivelled limbs,
than scaling the walls of Newgate would
have been to the sturdy queslioner. But it
was the constable's business to be suspicious,
and the wanderer seemed to feel that it was
in the nature Of his task, whatever it might
be, TO excite suspicion. Again he moved on
as directed. with the admonition not to be
again found lurking in that neighborhood.
The wind, as he traversed the streets, see
med to oppose his progress at every turn {;
and the rain. which now began to fall, was
sure 10 beat in his face, whether he moved
north or south, east or west. The poor old
| Nyo MI ro,, % n 10, - a., , e4apletil o,,ra
The spot was lonelier and darker, and while
the shower beat fiercely against him, he had
recourse to his chalk, and contrived to scrawl
upon some rough boards that enclosed the
scaffolding of an unfinished building, amidst
bricks and rubbish, a sentence or two, form
ed in lines anything but parallel, and of let
ters Of many shapes and sizes. He labored
hard to make every letter distinct, and con-
nected them as well as he could in the un-
certain light; but the rough surface would
have puzzled an ADLER penmon to write legi-
bly,. What he at last managed with such
pain and difficulty to chalk on the boards,
few could have deciphered in broad daylight;
even supposing that the p%elting rain did not
wash the inscription away before day dawn
ed.
Having finished it, he threw upward to the
Nv" NhNlIClJ ObStuItu ny cunning
and dreary vapor. a look in which a feeling
of hope temporarily struggled with anguish
and despair; and the smile with which he
turned to proceed on his comfortless and wea-
ry way, seemed to tell of something lighter
at his heart than a dull and sitting sense of
the utter uselessness Of persevering.
For three or four hours he continued TO
wander on, stopping at intervals, as often as
opportunity offered, to chalk upon the enclo-
sures of new buildings, on dead walls, or on
the doors OF outhouses, or stabling, words
which he could not spell, and had barely a
chance of making legible. Patiently did he
repeat the essay, and slowly did he labor to
give diStinctness to what he wrote. Often
interrupted, he constantly resumed his endea-
vor when the interruption ceased. = "
= And frequent and fierce were the as
saults to which his perseverance exposed
him, as he slowly and silently crawled on
his way, and then recommended the seeming
ly forlorn and crazy experiment with his
piece of chalk. Not with harsh and threat
ening words alone, but often with rude and
violent thrusts, was the aged pedestrian dri-
ven along hut he renewed his attempt when
out of sight, and raised his eyes every two or
three minutes to the s~tarless and Implying
sky, in muttered and inarticulate prayer for d
blessing on his endeavor.
He had now threaded his way through a
vast number Of streets, generally avoiding the
leading and crowded t~horoughfares, when he
found himself in one of the obscurer parts of
Marylebone. Sick at the very heart, weary
to a d&Eree that under less stimulating cir
cumstaBces, would have been utter exhaus-
ton, the Shops nearly all closed, and the
streets scant Of passengers, while the rain,
descending less ftfully with abated gusts OF
wind, gave sign of its continuance; the old
man did now feel desolate almost beyond en-.
durauce; when, as he passed a house thai
stood somewhat backward in a quiet corner
of the street, a sound of merry-making, Of
jecund, lau ching, screaming, human voices
broke upon his ear. The wanderer sudden
ly stopped. What a contrast between thei
noisy shouting %revels, and the blank anC
dreary silence of that old mans aching heart
But his heart now beat, gently at first, ant
then more strongly and more quickly-bea
with a pulse that owned a keen and penetra
ting pleasure for its mover, as his ear caugh
in those signs of unrestrained and %riotous re
joicings the voices Of children. r
1t was a holiday-making, a birthday cele
OioFASbi NV f'SJ WIZ olthlllH up ldlEg VIII
sparkling eyes that seemed as if they wer
never to know sleep again, to a genuin
snap-dragon, anticipating Christmas. Tn
old man felt the rain less than ever, thong
it poured fast upon him from the ledge owe
the shutters, while he listened %intently to dis
criminate the various voices of the shouters
and catch them separately as they broke fort
and blended into one wild tumult of deligh
Each in succession he seemed to note an
dwell upon; from the low, inward, bubblinG
heart-shaking laugh, intensely joyous. an
struggling to escape into the relief of louc
ness, to the high-pitched, long-breathed, VI
. comfortable scream of rapture that terminate;
only just in time, in tears and paintings. TIL
same happy voice and the same wild laug
he recognised again and again yet the plea
sure within him died away, and his heai
I, shrunk up, and lost its glow, and felt still