New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-08-31

prevented their appearance at the festive board !;
| but though absent in person he was sure they
were PRESENT. in spirit and with this impression
he would beg permission to favor them with
song-a song Of hearth and home--a song which
had cheered, and warmed, and softened many
an honest heart and with this, Happy Jack
sang-and exceedingly well, too, but with a sort
of dreadfully ludicrous sentiment, the highly
appropriate ditty of My Hin Fireside.
Happy Jack was of no particular profession;
he was bit Of q Hterate,t-, a bit of a man Of
business, a bit of an agent, bit Of protector,
bit Of a city man, and bit Of west end
man. His business, he said, was Of a general
nature He was equally to be heard Of in con-
nection with apocryphal companies, and misty
speculations. He was always great as an agi-
tator. As soon as league was formed, Happy
Jack flew to its headquarters as yulture to a
battlefield Was it a league for the promotion
of yegetarianism !-or league for the lowering
of the price of meat "a league for reforming
the national costume '--or league for repeal
ing the law still existing upon the statute book
against witches Happy Jack was ever in the
thickest of the fray, lecturing, expoundng, ar
guing, getting up extempore meetings of the
frequenters of public houses, of which he sent
reports to the morning papers, announcing the
&c numerous, highly respectable and influential"
nature of the assembly, and modestly limiting
that Mr.. Happy Jack, &c who was received with
enthusiastic applause, moved, in a long and ar
gumentatiye address, a series of resolutions,
pledging the meeting to, ete Jack, IN fact fully
believed that he had done rather more for free
trade than Golden. Not, he said, that he was
jealous of the Manchester champion circun1-
s,an.os t,.s 10 TOR bitter known that
he admitted; still he could not but knoi'-ie.fa
knowing, feel-in his own heart Of hearts, bis
own merits and his own exertions.
The railway mania was, as may be judged, a
grand time for Happy Jack. The number of
,lines of which he was provisional director, the
number of schemes which came out-and often
at good premiums, too-under his auspices; the
number of railway journals which he founded,
and the number of academies which he estab-
lishedfor the instruction of youthful engineers
are they not written in the annals of the period
,, Jack himself started as an engineer, without
any previous educational ceremony whatever
,, His manner of laying out a direct line was
happy and expeditions. He took map and a
ruler, and drew upon the one, by the help of
the other a straight stroke in red inl-which
looked professional-from terminus to terminus
} Afterwards, he stated distinctly in writing, so
that there could be no mistake about the matter,
that there were no engineering ditficulties-that
the landed proprietors along the line were quite
enthusiastic in their promotion OF the scheme
I and that the probable profits, as deduced from
carefully drawn up traffic tables, would be
about 35 per cent. At this time Happy Jack
e was quite minor Hudson. He lived in an at
mosphere of shares, scrip and prospectuses
e Money poured in from every quarter. scraI
, of paper with an application for shares wa:
I worth the bright tissue Of the Bank-and Jacl
t lost no time in changing the one for the other
: Amid the mass of railway newspapers, he
s started the Railway Sleeper. Awakened, tht
}, Railway Whistle, the Railway Turntable, ant
: the Railway Timetable; and it was in the frs
s number of the last famous organ-it lived fol
= three weeks-in which appeared q letter signet
"A Constant Reader After the bursting O
: the bubble Happy Jack appeared to have burs
e too; for his whereabouts for a long time was un
h known, and there were no traditions Of his being
IS seen. Then he began to be heard of from dis
:, tant and constantly varying quarters of tn
l town. Now you had q note from Shepherd
e Bush and next day from Bermondsey. o.
e Tuesday, Jack dated Little King street, Clap
:. ham Road; on Thursday the Communication
II reached you from Little Queen street, Victori
! Villas, Hackney and next week perhaps yo
lie were favored with u note from some of the mino
g. little Inns of the Court. where the writer woul
a be found getting up a company on the fifth aool
lg in u grimmy room, furnished with a high des
4 desk, two ree-legged stools, and illimitabl
$, fooscap, pens and ink.
t. Where Mrs. Happy Jack and the young lad
as Happy Jacks went to at these times, the bodies
II speculator has failed to discover they vanished
lie as it were, into thin air, and were seen MOI
W until the sunshine came, when they returne
H. with the swallows. The lady herself was
4 meek, mild creature, skllful in the art of livn
y on nothing, and making up dresses without ma
n, terial She adored her husband; believed hir
lie the greast manin the world. On the occurrenc
of such little household incidents as an execu
o. ton, or Jack making rapid act of cabmanshi
It, from his own hearth to the cheerful residence
lg Mr. Levi in Cursior street, the poor little woman
}, after having indulged herself in the sma
I'd luxury of "good cry,' would go to wor
ne to pack up shirts and socks manfully, and wit
t. great foresight would always bring jacks dali
food in a basket, seeing that Mr.. Lewis bills al
constructed upon scale Of uncommon dinner
d, sions; after which, she would eat her Dime
with him in the coffee room, drink to better day
ne play cribbage, and at last get very nearly 6
e. joyous in that greasy, grimmy, sorrow lade
II, room, with bars on the outside Of the Window
nd as if it were the happy home she possessed fe
us weeks ago, and which she always hoped to POI
sess again AS for the girls, they were traine
as by too good master and mistress not to becon
apt scholars. They knew what bill of sa
ut was from their tenderest years the brokers' WI
i'll no unfamiliar face and they quite understoc
how to treat a man in possession. Their MAI
agement of duns was consummate. HapI
lie Jack used to listen to the comedy Of excuses al
ct coaxings; and when the importunate had d
bhu oAPoie, III eSSA So
nd emnly to kiss his daughters on the forehead ar
er, invoke all sorts Of blessings upon his preservcr
10 his good angels, his little girls, who were
ng clever, and faithful, and so true
elk And in many respects they were good girl
is The style in which they turned frocks, put ne
IS; appearance upon hoods, and cloaks and bol
nd nets and came forth in what seemed the vel
use lustre of novelty-the whole got up by skillf
:; mutual adaptation of garments and parts
he garments, was wonderful to all lady beholdel
In cookery, they beat the famous chef who Sc
as up five courses and desert, made from grea
Tx, pair of Jack boots and the grass from the ra
ng parts of the beseiged town. Their wonder
we little made dishes were mere scraps and fra
'he ments which in any other house would ha
ss, been flung away, but which were SO artistica
no handled by the young ladies, and so tossed ,
and titivated and eked out with gravies, a
lie, sauces, and strange devices of nondescr
sed pastry, that Happy Jack, feasting upon tht
oes wonderful creations of ingenuity, used to v
W. that he never dined so well as when there "
tes, nothing in the house for dinner.
sor To their wandering, predatory life, the VIII
DE family were perfectly accustomed. A sudd
ure turn out of quarters they cared no no more
cry than hardened old dragons. They never
ade pluck One speculation down, another came
ppy Sometimes the little household was united
ont bit of luck in the city or the west had bs
:, as achieved and Happy Jack issued cards for Ct.
Home" and behaved, and looked and spoke l