Eastern times., 1855-12-06

an idea OF my feelings on reading and drink
ing in the contents Of that damning page be-
fore me. | read it, and re-read it, again and
again, and impulsively, mechanically, scarce
ly knowing what did, or why did it, copied
the whole of it on my note book. was still
porng over it, in a state of utter forgetfulness
TO all else. when was aroused from my sad
reverie by the gruff voice of policeman, who
wished to examine the book, and who asked
me ina surly tone, if was going TO keep it
all day.' made some fiippani reply to him,
and handed him the book. His eye rested on
the glaring caption, Two hundred dollars re-
ward y and after reading it carefully, he
turned 10 me and said:
If l amt very much mistaken. l saw that
chap with you the Fourth of July"
1t was true we had been together all that
day, and that very day had together entered
that same police Office, and conversed with
that same disciple of Dogberry.
simply replied that guessed not and as
soon as could safely, without exciting sus-
picion, left the Office.
With speed as rapid as was capable of,
started for the Office of the Morning -. A
friend whom met on the way, the next day,
! laughngly demanded an apology from me for
the rough manner had jostled him aside,
when he grasped my hand and would have
spoken with me. But remembered it not
4
that afternoon. The din OF carts and carriages
and newsboys fell on my ear. But one
thought filled me-but one hope animated me,
and that was to see my poor friend C. in
time to save him from the clutches of the law.
| rushed madly into the office, and found G.
quietly sitting at the desk engaged in writing.
| seized him wildly, and babe him not to
speak, but to follow me 10 my room. Arm in
arm we went together, and pulled him along
with a rapidity that must have alarmed him.
Not word was said Till my attic chamber
seated, pulled out my notebook and told him
TO read the transcript had made-the record
of his crime. He read it through quietly and
calmly, and when he had reached the ending,
the notebook dropped from his hand, and he
following it, fell upon the floor, where tears
and sobs for a moment, choked his utterance,
as he tried TO speak to me. | babe him be
calm, and whispered words of hope into his
ear; and when the first gush OF sorrowlul de-
spair had passed away, he seated himself upon
my bed and told me the secret of his life and
for the first time fully learned why it was he
had so long been hoping for the Lethe of for
getfulness,
He was the emily son of somewhat cele-
brated divine in the State of -, and his
mother was a widow his father had, ere he
died, intended him TO follow in the footsteps
of his sacred calling, and all that paternal
fondness could offer, was lavished on his edu-
cation. When Is years of age he entered col
lege at -, and there his brilliant intellect
and his noble qualities of the heart, young as
he was, drew around him crowd of admirers.
He was loved and he was fa;tered. MiugIing
with the gay and reckless youths, who in col
lege life are usually made up of the most in
tellectual, he joined them in their revels, and,
in an evil hour, became an initiate at the gam
ing-tabe, which was found at that time, even
in the Puritan city OF -, from this moment
he became victim. His liberal allowance
was squandered always at the hell TO which
he had been introduced, and after three con-
stani years of torture, such as the gambler on
ly knows, he found himself dsgraced with
debt, from which he saw no hope of release.
His father had in the meantime died, and he
had well nigh exhausted his poor mothers pa
tience and her purse, BY his frequent demands
upon the latter. During this time his nervous
intellect could not be slumbered, even by the
deadening influence of gaming, and he became
ripper scholar, but misery had marked him
for victim, and already he began 10 long for
the Lethe of forgetfulness. AT last, when in
a state of utter desperation, temptation seized
him, and one day, after nights debauch at
the gaming-table, knowing that one of the pro-
fessors had sum of money in the bank, he
procured check, filled it with the sum of
$4,000, forged the professors signature, and
drew the money. Utterly desperate, he start
ed that night for New York, and two days af-
ter, finding ship to sail for Callao, he took
passage in her, and in four months found him
self in Lima.
For three years and over, he was wander
er through the cities and wilds of South
America. His nervous brain would not let
him rest, and so he continued to study and to
learn, always having with him one or more
books, from which he acquired the languages,
In which he became so proficient. He roamed
into the heart of Peru, lived for many months
among the natives on the banks of the wildly
flowing Amazon, roved over the broad pam
! pas, lived the life OF an outcast-but always
looking to The Lethe OF forgetfulness. At
last, his means were exhausted, and in utter
despair again he went on board an American
ship at Valparaiso, and worked his passage
home, hoping that he and his crime were for
gotten, and that yet he might find his Lethe
among his fellow-men, and intending if it was
hfe's labor, to atone as fully as he could for
his youth s crime. An advertisement had at
tracted him to the Office of the Morning -,
| after he had spent DAYS of hunger. and NIGHTS