The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-10-21

wild, weird and most unhappy Hoffman,, ar
nhnlshed, designless Arabesque. Aud it is
only IN college that we form these grand friend
ships, only during our warm booded college
days that our hearts are capable of expanding
into their infnity.* =
Au Reste, Jasper went to college. Where
it is not important to this history to saw He
went an innocent lad, not rustic, for he had
seen not little of life in his mothers carpeted
halls. He learned there several things amono
others, what are the honors ia whist, the
" right bower In euchre what sort Of hand
is worth "quarter better" in bluff, how to knock
of the neck OF bottle of champagne, what is
the difference in taste between "delicate gold.
en- and old south side" aud the fne flavor
of Scotch ale His mother sent him with the
expectation that he would reap all the honors,
aud was persuaded that great injustice had been
done him when he came out " way down in the
twenties.' Poor Plato Classic hen'd and prod
to terrible extent, but Ruth was very we'll sat.
ished when he sent her copy of the q Literary
Nothing" with a poem in fair metre about
The Old Trysting Tree" which jasper had
written, and which was respectfully inscribed
to Miss R--G--." He was very popu.
lar fellow, this Jasper, aud, where cor popiai
had the decision, you may be sure that honors
fell thick upon him. He made speech or two,
ana was called an orator-wrote a poem or
Two, and was pronounced a genius-headed a
spree or two, and was very suspciously re
garded by the faculty as a dangerous fellow.
One or two hirtations with susceptible Young
ladies of the vicinage entitled him to the
name of "lady killer !" and brush with
a snob," in defence Of student.rghts, gained
hum the reputation of a" fighting, man. Bet,
bless you, reader dear, he was none of these al
all, and when, at the age of nineteen he came
home, thinking to study law, he was altogether
the same old Jasper that played with "Jewel, y
and leased the good Classic. La a single respect
only had he progressed into manhood--he WAS
not the same Jasper exactly that had crushed
the black berries
One thing somewhat puzzled Jssper's moth
er, and this was the tremendous affection he
had conceived for his tutor. Every vacation
| required portion of its time to be sacrificed
In looking up Plato, and he was never satisfied
with less than wo-weeks visit. lie had not
used to be 80 fond of the worthy man, but Mrs
Fleming took it as proof, if proof were need
ed, OF his generous, loving, grateful nature, that
her magnanimous son was willing to devote SO
much of his time to poor dried up old book
worm, who could have no attractions whatever
Tor one 80 ebulliant in wild young life as Jasper
80 Jasper came home, and began to read
those fascinating volumes Familiarity known as
Blackstone He seemed to have large cor
respondence, his mother thought, but ahe did
not look at the almost diurnal epistles he re-
ceived, and therefore could not guess that the
larger half of them were in the same delicate
| handwriting. Nor was she aware how many,
similarly superscribed, were carefully treasured
| away with locks OF hair, verses, q ring or two,
| lew faded roses and violets, and an old stain
| ed mitten OF nankeen, under lock and kew in his
| eseritoire. She was not a curious mother, Mre.
Fleming, happily for her, for curious mothers
are apt to be very miserable beings Nor did
she care to know that all his fequent Journeys
were to see his beloved old Plato Classic, A. M.
And 30, year slipped by, and Jasper was
twenty, and Ruth eighteen. Nor had the child
love been dissipated, az, sad to relate, ninety.
nine in hundred such loves are, except with
my lords of the Byron kind, who are happily
able TO preserve through life the memory of the
grand boy passion, and write many pretty verses
ebert Rs it iptsFHaRs Of s sen,
posser te temps" In truth, however. Jasper's
was very exceptional case. The bud which
which we have described had now opened into
iuli and perfect bloom, and its aroma perfuned
the garden. Jasper was a man, nearly, and
Ruth woman, quite. The growth of their
love had quite outstripped the maturing of their
minds and OF their physique aud it was now be-
come, as it were, law of their being, to be pro-
claimed, to be sworn by, to distin guish them
from all others. 1t had, in its growth and
progress, resembled the god Zsus, which, when
young and tender, they, Corybanies like, had
nursed out of sight, and kept undreamt of even
among others, by means OF their own clamor-
ous cymbals, the joys, heedlesaness. and sports
of their young life; but the feeble, muling in.
FAINT had now grown into Cloud Compeller.
whom every one must perforce recognise as DO
tent, defiant, and competent to crush out every
opposing Titan. Acknowledging this, Jasper felt
it incumbent upon him, simply as a matter of
duty, to inform his mother Of an existence she
did not yet imagine, but which was neverthe-
less fact and by no means to be ignored.
Jasper's mother was not one whom he would |
have chosen for conf liant however much he may |
have loved her, as he did, with true, earnest, |
almost passionate devotion. stately widow,
with an mperious beauty, che seemed to adapt
herself to her princely residence and fortune,
and to represent in her person aud her manners
the exalted relations which surrounded her.
very queenly woman, wearing her forty years
az If they were not thirty; one of those who
look best in sweeping robes of black velvet,
warm yet distancing, with above the brow n
tall diamond tiara, flashing in the gas-light a
kindred pride. A white round arm was hers.
not to be equslled in its gracefulness of sweep
and gesture. She was one whose nod of rec.
ognition, vital'zed by the moved brow, could
according to its import, exalt OF humble One
born for long saloons was she, you thought,
long stately saloons, with flash of light and gas
life; for high.ceed halls, shaded and rich
for boudoirs, where the day comes dimly in
through panes that blush with blood of kings"
for corridors where frown faces of ancestral
sres," whom the great world hath reverently
bowed TO. The simpering turnkey covered be
fore her, lest word from the scornful lin
should wither him. The true, warm generous
ones saluted her as grand Maria Theresa was
Moridnaur pro nostro REGE" She
was the embodiment and incarnation of that
subtitle aristocratic power which prompts mems
hearts to inevitable reverence; which they ser.
vilely essay to initiate, and, failing, CRY out:
1t is dangerous, pernicious, poisonous, las it
truly isl and then try to crush out with great
Rebellions and French Revolutions, bringing
ts individual types, with queeny head, Antoi.
e'wise, to the block for the poor bewildered
ools know not what better to do with it.
Such women, when we see their calm seren.
ty, their wondrous way of walking through life
With undisturbed brow, and lips that do not
luiver, we are wont to term cold, heartless. Yet
vho doubts but we misconstrue them2 Most
u US are used to hurl out our woes to the world
byron'llke wailings, parading them, telling !
very one to come and look at the sore. to come !
nd see how fast the cancer spreads it's domin.
on over the corroding flesh, and then asking {
hem, Are we not very miserable Certainly we Q
re, tor seltshness is itself misery. Some few {
here are who cloak their woes in decorous c
obes, and go about smilingly conversing, like .
ne boy OF Old Sparta, though even now the fox
nay have snapt life-cord. From these the v
'orld has Its heroes, though, sooth to saw come