The Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Scott Co., Iowa) 1841-185?, 1852-06-17

e like a man and a brother. What mIgh
. have been bis fate bad he awaited in idle
despondency the arrival of a vessel? As
e tit was, the negroes crowded the beach, ano
5 fired off repeated sayos at his departure
0 Doubtless his name will descend through
$ many dusky generation as the teacher o
that art which they sill practice, carrying
. on lucrative commerce 10 gunpowder with
S tho neighboring tribes. A small, square
chest Of god-dust, which the escaped vic
tim Of Jesuit fraud brought back to Europe,
. was no inappropriate proof of the policy Of
/. doing something sin the mean ,ime,' while
j waiting, however anxiously, to do some
! thing else.
!, We knew another case in point, also con-
E nected with the late king Of the French
! NJ. de C. was, on the downfall of that
: monarch, in possession Of a very handsome
! pension for past services. The revolution
icame, and bis pension was suspended
: His wife was woman Of energy: she saw
that the pension might be recovered by
J making proper representations in the right
Quarters; but she, also, saw that ruinous
embarr assment and debt might accrue in the
, interim Her house was handsomely fur
! nisbed--she had been brought up in the lap
of wealth and luxury. She did not hesitate
she turned her house into lodging house,
} sank the pride OF rank. attended to all the
duties Of such station, and-what was the
result? What, at the end of three years,
NJ. de C. recovered his pension, he
! owed nobody far,hing, and the arrears
| sc do, OH
to marry gentleman Of large fortune, who
had become acquainted with her by lodging
/ in their house. Madame de G-'s fash
| ionable friends thought her conduct very
shocking. Bat what might have become
. of the family in three years Of petitioning
: Again: one Of our most intimate ac-
quain,ances was an English gentleman,
who, having left the army at the instance
$ Of rich faiher-in-law, had the misfortune
subsequently TO offend the irascble OLD
5 gentleman so utterly, that the latter sud
$ denly withdrew his allowance Of fl000
. per annum, aud left our friend 10 shift for
himself His own means, never very great
were entirely exhausted. He knew too
: well the imprac,icable temper OF his faith
9 er-in-law to waste time in attempting te
soften him. He also knew that by hi'
d wife's settlement he should be rich at the
J. death Of the old man, who had already pass
ed his seventeen year. lie could not bor
/ row money, for he had been sevcrel,
# wounded in Syria, and the insurance-offices
s refused him: but he felt spring of life nc
r youth within him that mocked their calcu
e la,ions. He took things cheerfully, and
II resolved 10 work for his living. He an
!" swered unnumbered advertisements, and
> made incessant applications for all sorts O
/ situations. At length matters came to ;
o crisis: his money was nearly gone; tins
e pressed; his Wife and child must be sup
ported A seat--not in parliament, bat OF
Il The box of an omnibus, was offered him..
c lie accepted it. The pay was equivaIen
J, to three guineas week. 1t was hard worl
r but he stuck TO it manfully. Not unfre
i quen,ly il was his lot 10 drive gentlemen
J. who had dined at his table, and drunk his
/ wine in former days. He never blushea
o at their recognition; he thought working
n easier than begging. For nearly ten years
f he endured all the ups and downs Of omni
. bus life. At last the tough old fa,her.in
/, law, who during the whole interval hae
d never relented, died; and our hero came in
/ to the possession Of some fl500 year
/ which he enjoys at this present moment.
/ Suppose he had borrowed and drawn bill.
J. instead of working during those ten years
i as many have done who had expectanciei
!, before them, where would he have been on
+ his exit from the Queens Bench at the ex
e piraton of the period? In the hands Of
;lthe Philistines, or Of the Jews!
/ Our next specimen is that ofa now sue
e cossful author, who, owing to the peculiar!
e ~ of his style, fell notwithstanding rath
), er dashing debut, into great difficulty and
l. distress. His family Withdrew all support
# because he abandoned the more regular
. prospects of the legal profession for the
n more ambitious but less certain career oi
/ literature. He felt he had the stuff in him
n to make popular writer; but he was also
compelled to admi, that popularity was not
$ in his case to be the work of day. The
! res augusta domi grew closer and closer
I and though not objecling TO dispense with
d the supposed necessity Of dining, he felt
/. that bread and cheese, in the literal accep.
n tation Of the term, were really indispensa-
+ BILE to existence. Hence, one day, he in
r vested his solitary half.crown in the print
D ing Of hundred cards, announcing that al
d the "Classical and Commercial Day-school
{ OF Mr.. --, &C., Young Gentlemen
d we're instructed in all the Branches, &c.
for the moderate sum Of two shilings week.
s IIy." These cards he distributed by the
!, agency of the milkman in the suburban and
j. somewhat poor neighborhood, in which he
v occupied couple Of rooms at the moderate
!. rent Offs weekly. II was not long before
= few pupils made, one by one, their up
: pearancc al the wonld-be pedagogue',. As
9 they were mostly the sons Of petty trades
!, men round about, he raised no objection to
/ taking out their schooling in kind, and by
4 this means earned at least subsistence
+ ill more prosperous times arrived, and pub
}, Fishers discovered his latent merits. But
5 for this device, he might not, improbabIy
). have shared the !atc of Chatterton an,
j. others less unscrupulous as TO a resourcs
4 for the "mean timo"--that rock on which
d many an embryo genius founders,
V The misfortune of our next case was, no