Squatter sovereign., 1855-02-03
From Gleascn's Pictorial.
TIE QUEER HANS WILL.
BY GILBERT lie FEyRE.

VII. 1OGIdS DfentOn Cncie 1ODy, Hio
friends called him, ''queer man" being his
designation from his enemies and the pub
lie generality was certainly an eccentric
genius; one of those odd fishes it is alike
difficult to classify on describe-a rara aras
an terra, perfectly sati generis. In person
he seemed made up of odds and ends-a
..thing of shreds and patches and at no
two moments was the expression OF hls
countenance the same. His eyes were
not mates; his nose was neither aqulllon,
nor Roman, nor snub; his hair was parti-
colored; his arms and shoulders were of
unequal size he had to have his boots
made for him; his tailor was in despair
He lived with little why, restless house,
keeper-one Mrs. Fidgett-away up town
in New York, when the city proper ended
at the junction of Broadway and Bowery,
and the lanp-lighter ascended his ladder
for the first time at that mystic terminus.
Away up beyond Stuyvessnt Church, when
Stuyvesant Street yet knew few. trees
Iido UcCH pllIltcU vi
Peters s'bowerie" Here he lived in a
little old house, the foundations of which
were laid away back in the times of the
states-general. 1t stood upon knoll sur
rounded by a few secular trees. When the
city began to expand, Toby refused to sell
his house and lot, and held the spectators
and corporation at defiance for years. So,
in the grading of the neighborhood, the
soil was dug away all around him, and his
mansion looked like the wreck of some
huge argosy standing high upon beach,
with eoppering and keel laid bare to the
curious eye. He and the housekeeper, and
the butcher, baker and other radespeople
climed daily to his s'bad eminence," by
means of step ladder, which ON Sundays
was drawn up to prevent the incursions of
grown and half-grown loafers, who other
wise would have scaled to his eyrie and
robbed his little dominion Of the luscious
pears for which it was celebrated. Before
this subsidence of the soil, and insolation of
the landholder, he used to keep horse, a
wall-eyed, superannuated brute, that OBJ
tanned its subsistence by browsing on the
unfenced ccmmon-lands in the neighbor-
hood. When the last shovel-ful1 of earth
was removed, the old horse was In his sta
Bile and looked down with piteous eye on
the herbless plain that extended hopelessly
below him. Toby attempted the next day
TO make him descend the step-ladder but
the old horse refused to attempt such d
perilous feat, and accordingly after he had
eaten all he grass ON the summit of the
knoll, was either put to death by his own
er, or expired Of CONSERVATION at the pros
poets before him, and was buried under q
St. Michael pear-tree.
Toby didn't sell out, because he could
afford to hold ON. In fact he was i'm.
mensely rich. He had inherited property
and he was very parsimonious, and very
shrewd. His queer face was familiar on
change; and when money was tight, and
commanded three per cent. a month ON the
very best paper, always any amount could
be had of old Toby Brenton. Temperate
and tough, he babe fair to reach a century
but as he never did things like other peo.
5 pie, and always disappointed public expec.
tation, he 'sstepped out' one evening wher
I he appeared to be in perfect health.
His viii, like everything emanating from
him, was queer one. He gave all hi:
money to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Fanny
t Brenton, the widow Of his only son whe
had died a few years ago in Buffalo The
conditions annexed were that this lad,
should provide for the old housekeeper be-
fore alluded to, Mrs. Peter Fidget, ane
should marry one of his two nephews, Mr.
Joseph Crabstick, stock broker, and Mr.
Jack Topham, universal genius, goot
for nothing in particular, at the time of tn.
old gentleman's death residing in Boston
e where he had read law little, studded :
4 little medicine, painted a little, and wrot,
, great deal of Indifferent poetry. Th,
selection was to be made by lot OF amica
bic agreement-the looser to be entitled t.
S a legacy of twenty thousand dollars,
n As soon as she heard of the old gentle
o mans death, Mrs. Brenton-she was for
ty, but still lively and handseme-poste,
, down from Buffalo, arrived at the ,quee
old house, climbed up the queer old steps
: and had an interview with the little oil
" housekeeper, when she made her friend a
once. To her she impaired her desire t
h have fair chance to study the person an
e characters of the pretenders to her hand
v To carry out her Object, she proposed t
Mrs. Fidget to assume the character of
chambermaid and aid her In her domesti
). duties. But the first thing to- be done wa
-fto remove from the parlor wall a portrait &
thersaic--or, eYceTIept likeness of hand