New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-07-20
MARIAN N q.
a aauutbfuI Atusintsefnst.

It was during afternoon school,. The brigh
midsummer sun was making all manner of ab
surd and Intellectual attempts to pierce the dim
diamond shaped panes which-to speak as gla
zier-lighted that naked, inky, ugly, well-re
membered school.ro Anything more palpa
bly, ridiculous it is not easy to suggest Wha1
was gold without turned dross within, like thai
fallacious pocket-money with which, according
to Arabian story, a certain elderly enchanter
used to 90 buying butchers meat in the White
chapel market of Bagdad' The long, slanting
dusty rays fell in melancholy patches of coarse
yellow-ochre upon heads and states and dingy
floor. 1t was a failure, and contemplate one
There is a low monotonous hum arising from
some ive-and- twenty boys engaged in resolving
certain recondite problems pertaining to, the art
and mystery of Algebra. The first and second
classes have been brigaded among the desks i'm
mediately surrounding the lofty rostrum of the
Rev. Mr.. Tigerley to that especial end The
sound emitted by boys whilst culiing knowledge
amid the fowery walks of science resembles that
of bees in q summer garden. A curious and
suggestive fact.
Suddenly there is sharp rap with paper
knife upon the imperial palm, :" Briggs-come
tame in point of effect
. A small boy, i'll at ease, advances from desk
in the centre of the room He has an indescri-
badly guilty look, and dispassionate observer
would Instantly conclude that he had been sur
prised in the act of comprising high treason, or
robbery accompanied by violence at the very
least. He approaches the tribunal with the gait
of a Juveaiile whose parents, from sense of what
was due to society,-Aad been obliged to bring
him up in the stocks.
Briggs, what are you deing?"
"Doing, sir p says Briggs-who, to save
trouble, is or was no other than the unfortunate
writer himself -
g Bring your slate here.n
Briggs returns to his desk, and makes an
abortive effort to induce the fat boy on his right
hand to change states with him for the emer-
gency. But long, slim boy. with vieiously
clever expression of countenance, pinches the fat
boy in tender quarter, and the appeal is un-
needed Briggs accordingly returns with his
own. He laysit before the Rev. Mr.. Hgerley
with the air of a peniteut felon handing Jack
Ketch the warrant for his immediate execution
Whether. the design depicted upon the afore-
said slate may have been the draft Of an intend
ed valentine, or merely the half-unconseious
embodiment of some waking vision, is too much
at this distant period, to expect me to recall.
am ready to be as candid as you like, but would
not " cook" my early reeollections to please al
editor. The sketch itself, ,however-prosaic and
|lamentably common place as it was-seems be-
| fore me at this moment In the right hand cor
| ner, at the top, there is a parish church, very
much out of perspective, with an elaborate wea-
| thercock, very much out of the perpendicular
| Immediately in front of the west door stands a
parson, arrayed in surplice as white as slate
pencil can make it, attended by a decent man
| in white coat, who appears to have some inten-
| ton of officiating as clerk. The parson and his
church, must mention, are depicted upon ex.
tremely different scales, the former being great
many bricks too tall Indeed, if bent upon per
| forming divine service within the religious edi.
fee in question, it is quite clear he must have
recourse to the clumsy expedient of taking his
stand in the steeple, and addressing an al frescG
congregation through the belfry shutters.
From what we may distinguish as the evan
gelical portion of the picture, broad winding
walk, tastefully ornamented with u variety o
| laisies, leads to the bottom corner on the left
There nicely dressed young gentlemen is es
corting fine young woman enthusiastically VI
the path The portraits are something smudgy
to be sure, and bear token of good deal o
pains taking but the former, divested of pail
Of impossible spurs and a possible contingenc,
in the shape of whiskers, is evidently intended
for myself. The latter, not apparently having
quite fulfilled the conceptions Of the impassione,
artist, is cautiously labelled SO Marianne TIL
darkening of Mr. Tigerley's countenanee, as h
gazes upon this unique production, is something
terrible to behold. There was myth abou
him--a sort of dim tradition, handed down fror
pupil to pupil through many generations, to tn
/ effect that he had once been refused by duke
eldest daughter, with forty five thousand
year and it was this crushing and never-tt
lbe-expected calamity which, we were all agrees