Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-08-18
miscellaneous.
From Dickens's Household Words,
s N U qGLED RELATIONS

S MUGGLED RELATIONS.
When | was a child, | remember to have had
my ears boxed for informing a lady-visitor who
made a morning call at our house. that q certain
ornamental object on the table, which was covered
with marble paper, was not marble Years of
reflection upon this injury have fully satisfied me
that the honest object in question never imposed
upon anybody; further, that my honored parents,
though of u ~sangnine temp ramcnt, never can have
conceived it possible that it might, could, should,
would, or did, impose upon anybody. Yet, |
have no doubt that | had my ears boxed for violat
lag u tacit compact in tho family. and among
the family visitors, to blink the stubborn fact Of
the marble paper, and agree upon II fiction of real
marble.
Long after this, when my ears had been past
boxing for a quarter of q century, | know n man
with. a cork leg. That he had a cork lcg,-or, at
all events, that he was at immense pains TO take
about with him a leg which was not his own leg,
or a real log--was so plain and obvious a circum-
stance, that the whole universe might have made
affidavit of it. Still, it was always understood
that this cork leg was to be regarded as n leg of
0esh and blood, and even the very subject of cork
in the abstract was to be avoided in the wearer'sI
society.
| have had my share Of going about the world
wherever | have been, l have found The marbled
paper and the cork leg. | have found them in
many forms, but of all their Protean shapes, at
once the commenest and strangest has been
Struggled Relations.
was on intimate terms for many, many years,
with my late lamcntel friond, Cogsford, Of the
great Greek house of Cogstord Brothers " Cogs-
ford. I was his executor. | believe he had no
secrets from me but ono-his mother. That the
agreeable old lady who kept his house for him ,eaS
his mother. must be his mother, could MT possibly
be anybody but his mother, was evident, not to
me alone, but to everybody who knew him, She
was not n refugee, she was not prescribed, she was
not in hi ling, there was no price put upon her
venerable head she was invariably liked and re-
speetel as 4 good hum )rcd, sensible, cheerful Old
soul. Then why did Cogsford smuggle his mother
all the days Of his life2 / huvo not the slightest
idea why. l cannot so much as say whether she
had ever contracted a second marriage, and her
name was really Mrs. Bean or whether that
name was bestowed upon her as n part OF the
smuggling transaction. | only know that there
she used to sit at one end Of the hospitable table,
the living image in q cap Of Cogsford at the Other
end, and that Cogsford knew that l knew who she
was. Yet, if | had teen n Custom house officer al
Folkestonc, ana Mrs Bean n FrencA clock that
Cogsford was fnrtively bringing from Paris in a
hatbox, he could not have made her the object o.
n moro determined and deliberate hretence. |
was prolonged for years upon years. 1t survived
the good old lady herself. One day | received al
agitated note from Cogsford, entreating me to g
to him Immediately / went, and found him, weep
ing, in the greatest alhiction: MY dear friend,
said he, pressing my hand, 81 have lost Mrs
Bean. She is no more" | went to the funera
with him. lie was in the deepest grief. lie spok,
Of Mrs. Bean, on the way back, as the best of wo
men. But, even then he never limited that Mrs
Bean was his mother and the first and last &C
acknowledgements of the fact that l ever had from
him was in his last will, wherein he entreated hi
said dear friend and executor" to observe that h
requested to be buried beside his mother-whon
he didn't even name, he was so perfectly coniden
that | had detected Mrs. Bean.
was once acquainted with another man VII
struggled a brother. This contraband relativ
made mysterious appearances and disappearance
aud knew strange things. lie was called John
simply John. hgye got into a habit of believing
that he must have been under a penalty to forfei
some weekly allowance if he ever claimed a SUI
name. lie came to light in this way I wante
some information respecting the remotest of tn
Himalaya range of mountains, and | applied I
my friend Benting, IA member Of the Geographica
Society, and learned on such points, to advis
me. After some cOnsid GRAFTON, Benting said, in
half reluctant and constrained way, very unlik
his usual frank manner, that he Thought he kne,
man" who could tell me, OF his own experience
what | wanted to learn. An appointment wa
made for 4 certain evening at Behring'S house.
arrived first, and had not observed for more tina
i've minutes that Benting was under a curiou
cloud, when his servant announced-in Il hushed
aud | may say, unearthly manner-"M Mr.. John.
A rather stiff and shabby person appeared, VIII
called Benting by no name whatever, Ia singular
ity that | always observed whenever / saw then
together afterwards, and whose manner was curl
ously divided between familiarity and distance
found this man to have been all over the Indies
and to possess an extraordinary fund of traveller
experience. 1t came from him drily at first bu
he warmed, and it flowed freely until he ~happenc
10 meet Bcnting's eye. Then he subsidized again
and lit appeared to mol felt himself, for some uu
known reason, in danger Of losing that weekly a
aowance. This happened a dozen of times in
couple Of hours, aud not the lcas It curious part {
the matter was, that Benting himself was Away
ms much disconnected ms the other man. 1t di
not occur to me that night, that this was Beuting
brother, for had known him very we'll for year
and had always understood him to have non
Neither can ] now recall. nor, if l could, would
matter, by what degrees and stages l arrived
the knowledge. However this may be, l knew
But, we always preserved the fiction that | cou
have nc suspicion that there was any sort of XII
dred or affinity between them. lie went TO Mel
co, this John-and he went to Australia-and
went TO Chiaa-and he died somewhere ia Pers
land one day, when We wouli'go down to dim
at Behring'S | would find him in the dining-rool
already seated, las If he had Just been COUNT,
tbe Sllowanee on the table cloth and another d.
would hear of him as being among the scarf
parrots in the tropics but, / never knew wheth
he had done anything wrong, or whether be h
ever done anything right or why ha went abo
che worid, or how. As ! haEe already signided,
get into habits of believing; and l have got Ia
the habit o( beheFing that Mr.. John had son
thing TO do with the dip ef the magnetic needle
that is all vague aud shadowy to nae, However, a
only knew him for certain 10 have been n smr
gled relation
Other people, again, put these contraband co
modltles entirely away from the light, ~ ssnuggh
OF wine and brandy b9ry tuba. ! have heard
u man who never impaired, 20 his ntimate friei
axe terrific secretthat be had & relation in (
world, excepi Hhsn be sost ems by deGthj 4
ahen he would be weighed down by the greatnr
of the esl&mity, and would refer 70 his bcreh
Enent as if he had aoct the very shadow Of hins'
from whom he had never been separated since
daye Of infancy. &ithin my ewn experience
havo observed ~sieugslel relations to possess q W
Serful quality Of eenaing out when they die. ]
own dear Tom, who married my fourth sister, a
~ahsis & great Smugg.er, never fails TO speak
nae or enc @ his relations newly deceased,
Eboogh, INSTEAD Of never having in tins remd
~sy EIiadsd 10 that relatives ~eIistenoe before,
Asa 5aeh perpetualy discoursing of it. ~
mac1- lsEr. Gazing EInmY.N he nnia 20 me viii