Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1851-05-22

or rHE HUSBANDS REFORM.
a stranger Of great distinction, and who
had played no inconsiderable part in the
political drama of the day, has lately re-
turned to Paris, where some years since
he dwelt for long time. On bis first
visit TO the capital, young and already ia
nous, he married into the ari>tocracy of
the Faubourg St German. The return
Of this parsonage has excited the curiosi-
ty of the Partisan world, justified, it would
seem by former eccen,rici,ies, and hy a
strangeness OF character which may be
traced in the anecdote now going the
rounds oil the talkmongers. The inaivid-
ual in question was not born and educated
in the class where he now finds himself
placed by the right of per rsonal merit. In
stead OF being tempered by early educa-
tion, his disposition, naturally violent, un-
restrained and uncultivated, was rendered
almost ungovernable by the habit of a life
spent amid camps. His fortune, too, like
his greatness, came TO him late and it has
been frequently remarked tha, those who
obtain riches by thei, own efforts, and in
middle life, possess lively and powerful
attachment for the wealth which long pri-
walton and laborious conquest have taught
them immoderately 10 value.
| At the time ofthis illustrious strangers
entrance into the world Of Paris, those
shrewd observers, the envious and jeal-
ous of others prosperity, remarked tha,
his shining qualities were darkened by
two very great faults-avarice and bru-
tali,y. The latter Of these faults was sad
feature in his married life, and was the
cause of poignant suffering to wife well
born, brought up in the most polished So
cie,y, surrounded by affectiona.e relatives,
and accustomed to al! the refinements of
aristocratic good-breeding. 1t was not
long before she wa. made TO feel the
change, for the character of her husband
began to display itself in the early days of
her married life, and shade of bitter to
mingle with the sweetness Of the honey
moon. This was sad, and all the prom
ised happiness faded away. The union
which had commenced under the most ia
vorablc ausp pices, saw its charms destroy
ed by stormy half-hours, which became
more and more frequent. 1t required all
the rare virtue of the young wife not to
succumb to the trials which humiliation,
terror, injury and grief compelled here to
undergo.
One day, after scene of conjugal vio-
lence which had occurred in the presence
of many witnesses, the irascible husband
entered his own apartment, whittier he
was followed by an old and untried friend,
who by his devotion and uprightness had
earned the right to speak plainly, a right
he did not hesitate to exercise. Without
needing the still unsurpassed rage, he
very freely commented on the conduct OF
his friend, so little becoming in gentle
man. The culprit listened with gloomy
, air, and when the lecture was terminated
said:
"Your reproof is just, deserve it, and
l reproach myself more bitterly than you
, have done but what would you have? il
is stronger than am, it is out Of my pow
, ersto control it; give way to my passion,
l fly into rage and forget myself. When
$ It's over am ashamed, despairing, and
= yet all this does not prevent me from re.
commencing, and sometimes even the very
, next day. 1t is fa:al.'
Eyes, very fatal"
II HAVE HSea W d Soou tosSoii, anu VIII
I teach It TO myself"
And the culprit for some minutes strobe
through the apartment with rapid steps
: and lowering brow, keeping silence, and
twisting in his fingers cigarette. The
? expression of his features and the con-
traction of his forehead, betrayed the pain
full thoughts and stormy conflict which
were going on within; then, his resolution
taken, he opened a drawer and took from
: it a bank bill for one thousand francs
His friend looked on with astonishment,
E unable to imagine what he was about to
l do. He rolled up the bill, put it in the ia
e per, and lighted his cigar by the flame Of
the precious paper. The friend, stupified
at this strange action, strange in man
r with whose excessive parsimony he was
! so we'll acquainted, rushed towards him.
"Leave me !" said the miser with cho-
5 king voice.
"But, you are mad"
"No, know what l am doing-I am
Furnishing myself"
, When the bill was nothing but small
heap of black ashes, our hero-and he
, may be called one after this action-added
in firm and solemn voice:
> Il swear, on my honor, that each time |
give way to any brutality towards my
wife, will punish myself in the most
, sensitive part, my love. of money"
= The oath was religionsly kept. Since
, that day the miser has strictly paid for The
| brutality of the husband. After scene
a of violence he appears before his self-ap-
pointed trbunaIa submitting to the law
. which he himself lays down, he pronoun-
e ces his sentence without appeal. The con-
demned opens the casket which contains
= his treasure. Pale and trembling with the
, effort beneath which bis passion bends, he
j takes a bank bill and burns it.
/. The expiation was always proportinneti
to the offence; he had tariff graduated by
? the degree. of crime; for simple harsh
n ness the price was five hundred francs,
h for harshness before witnesses, one
: thousand francs, and if gesture and
: action had followed the spoken bru-
e taity, it was two thousand francs. This
y course, his friend states, might have ruin
2 ed him, for in a single month it cost him
d thirty thousand francs. But happily it