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

From Harper's Maga
THE POT OF TULIPS.

TwESTY-ErGHT years ago l went TO spend
the summer at ar old Dutch villa which then
lifted Its head from the wild country that, in
present days, has been tanned down into site
for a Crystal Palace Madison Square was then
a wilderness of fields and scrub oak, here and
there diversified with some tall and stately elm.
Worthy citizens who could afford two establish
ments rusticated IN the groves that then flour
lshed where ranks of brown-stone porticoes now
form the landscape; and the locality of Fortieth
Street, where my summer palace stood was Just
" looked upon as at an enterprising distance
from the city
had an imPerioUs desire to live in this house
ever since I can remember. / had often seen ii
when a boy, and its cool veraudas and quaint
garden seemed, whenever passed, to attract me
IrresIstIbly. In after years, when / grew up to
mans estate, l was not sorry, therefore. when
one summer, fatigued with the labors of nv bu
siness, [ beheld a notice intimating that ii was
To be let furnished. l fastened to my dear
friend, Jasper Joye, painted the delights of this
rural retreat in the most glowing colors easily
obtained his assent to share the enioyments and
the expense with me, and in month afterward
we We're taking our ease in this new paradise.
Independent OF early associations other inter-
ests attached me 10 this house. 1t was somewhat
historical, and had given shelter to George ash
ington on the occasion of one of his visits to the
city. Furthermore, I knew the descendants of
the family to whom it had originally belonged
Their history was strange and mournful. and it
seemed to me as if their individuality was some
how shared by the eSlSee. 1t had been built by
L. L
younger son of rich mercantile firm in the Ha-
que, who had emigrated to this country in order
to establish branch of his fathers business in
NewA ork. which even then gave indications Of
the prosperity it has since reached with such
marvellous rapidity. He had brought with him
a fair young Belgian wife; a loving giri--;fI
may believe her portrait-with soft brown ewes,
chestnut hair and deep, placid contentmer.t
spreading over her fresh and innocent features
Her son, Alain Van koeren, had her picture-an
old miniature in red gold frame-as well as
that Of his father and in truth, when looking
on the two, one could not conceive n greater
contrast than must have existed between hus-
band and wife. Mr.. Van Kocren must have
been man of terrible viii and gloomy tenn
perament His face-in the picture-is dark
and austere, his eyes deep-sunked and burning
as if with a slow, inward fire The lips are thin
and compressed, with much determination of
purpose and his chin, boldly salient Is brimful
of power and resolution When first l saw those
two pictures l sighed inwardly, and thought
Poor child. you must often have sighed for the
sunny meadows OF BRUSSELS, in the long gloomy
nights spent in the company of that terrible
man r.
was not far wrong, as I afterward discovered.
Nr. and Mis-. Van koeren were very unhappy.
Jealousy was his nononania, and he had scarcely
been married before his girl-wife began to feel
the oppression of gloomy and ceaseless tyran-
ny Every man under fifty, whose hair was
not white and whose form was erect was an
object of suspicion to this Dutch Bluebeard
Not that he was vuigarly jealous. He did not
frowr at his wife before strangers or attack her
With reproaches IN the midst of her festivities
He was too well-bred man to bare his private
woes to the world. But at night, when the
guests had departed and the dull light of the
quaint old Flemish lamps but half illuminated
the nuptial chamber, then 1t was that with
monotoneus invective Mr.. Van koerer crushed
his wife. And Marie, weeping and silent, would
Sit on the edge of the bed listening to the cold
tren ,hant irony of her husband who pacing up
and down the room, would now and then stop
+ in his walk to gaze with his burning eyes upon
the Pallid face of his victim. Even the evidences
that Marie gave of becoming mother did not
/ check him He saw in that coming event that
most husbands anticipate with mingled JOY and
lear only an approaching incarnation of his dis
honor Tie watched with a horrible refinement
! OF suspicion Tor the arrival of that being in