Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-01-22

to be his, was found, on investigation. to bav,
passed into other hands. There could he N.
doubt but that Tor years past Mr.. Var
hoeren had been steadily converting all his i'm
mense property into money, and what he had
done with that money no one knew. Alice Van
koeren and her mother, who at the old gentle
mans death were at first looked upon a. mil.
honaires, discovered when all was over. that
they Were better of than before. II was
evident that the old man, determined thai one
who, though bearing his name he believed not
10 be of his blood, should never inherit his
wealth, or any share OF it, had made away with
| his fortune before his death--a posthu1nous ven
geance, which was the only one by which the
laws of New York relative to inheritance couId
/ be successfully evaded.
L took peculiar interest in the case and
even helped to make some researches after the
lost property, not SO much, confess. from a
spirit of general philanthropy, as from certain
/ feelings which | experienced toward Alice Van
koeren, the heir to this invisible estate | had
/ long known both her and her mother when thev
were living In an honest poverty and earning a
scanty subsistence by their own labor; Mrs.
i Van koeren working as an embroideress. and
Alice turning to account, as preparatory gov
/ erness, the education which her good mother.
/ spite of her limited means, had bestowed on her
In few words then, | loved Alice Van Koe-
rem, and was determined to make her nv wife.
as soon my means would allow me to support
fitting establishment. Ny passion had never
been declared. ] was content for the time with
the secret consciousness of nv own love- and
the less grateful certainty that lice returned
it, all unuttered it was. l had therefore a
double interest in passing the summer at the
old Dutch villa, for | felt it to be connected
somehow with Alice, and could not forget the
singular desire to inhabit it which had so often
experienced a boy.
1t was lovely day in June when Jasper love
and myself took up our abode in our new resi-
dence, and smoked our cigars on the
piazza in the evening, We felt, for the first time
the unalloyed pleasure with which a townsman
breathes the pure air of the country
The house and grounds had quaint sort of
beauty that to me were eminently pleasing
Landscape gardening, in the modern acceptation
OF the term, then almost unknown in this
country, and the laying OUT of the garden that
surrounded our new home would doubtless have
shocked Mr.. Loudon, the late Mr. Downing, or
Sir Thomas Dick Lauder 1t was formal and
artificial to the last degree. The beds were cut
into long parallelograms rigid and severe of
aspect, and edged with prim rows Of stuff, dwarf
box The walks, of course, crossed always at
right angles, and the laurel and cypress trees
that grew here and there We're clipped into cones,
and spheres, and rhomhoids. 1t is true that at
ba time ,,,I 7 III, /
years of neglect had restored to this formal gar
den somewhat of the raggedness Of nature. The
box edgings We're rank and wild. The clipped
trees forgetful of geometric proprety, fourished
off into unauthorized boughs and rebel otfshoots
The walks were green with moss, and the beds
of Dutch tulips, which had been plant ed in the
shape of certain gorgeous birds, whose colors
were represented by masses of blossoms, each of
a single hue, had transgressed their limits, and
the purple of parrots wings might have, been
seen running recklesslv into the crimson of his
head while as bulbs, however well-bred, aciH
crea-e other bulbs the fiower-birds of this queer
old Dutch garden became in time abominably
distorted in shape. Flamingoes with humps
golden pheasants with legs preternaturally eIon-
gated; macaws afflicted with an attack of HYDRO
cephalus. each species of defor1nity being pro
portioned to the rapidity with which the roots
had spread in some particular direction Still.
this strange mixture of raegcdness and formal
ity-this coHClomerate of nature and art, had
It's charms. 1t was pleasant TO watch the strug-
gle, as 1t We're. between the opposing elements.
and to see nature triumphing by degrees in
every direction.
Then the IpTz i.soIf ,,Ia
modicus. Rooms that, though not lofty, were
spacious. Wide windows and cool piazzas ex-
tending over the four sides Of the building and
collection of quaint old carved furniture, some
of which, from its elaborateness might well
have come from the chisel of Master Grinling
Gibbons. There was a mantel-piece in the din
ing-room with which I remember being verv
much struck when first I came to take posses
sion. 1t was most singular and fantastical
piece OF carving. 1t was perfect tropical gar
den, menagerie, and aviary in one. Birds, beasts,
and flowers were sculptured the wood with
exquisite correctness of detail, and painted with
the hues of nature. The Dutch taste for color
was here fully gratitied. Parrots, ve-birds,
scarlet lorys, blue-faced balloons croeodiles pas
sion-fowers, tigers Egyptian lilies, and Brazil
ian butterflies, Were all mixed up In the most
gorgeous confusion. The artist, whoever be was
must have been an admirable naturalist for the
ease and freedom of his carving was only eGuaIed
by the wonderful accuracy with which the diff
ferent animals We're represented. Altogether it
was one of those oddities of Dutch conception
whose strangeness was, in this isntance re-
deemed by the excellence of the execution.
Such was the establishment that Jasper Jove
and myself were TO inhabit for the summer
months.
What a strange thing it was" said Jasper,
as we lounged on the piazza together the night
of our arrival, & that old Van koereu's property
/ should never have turned upf
:" 1t is a question with some people whether
he had any at his death" / answered.
/ Pshaw every one knows that he did not or
could not have lost that with which he retired
4 from business"
at i strange" said I thouchtflIIy: vet