Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1858-08-21

WIS Illc CUT llll ana ruined Nv machinery!
Just H. the rapid rattle on the rail
DESTROYS the calm of some secluded vale.
She saw the new Inventions tiny shaft,
as in its nmble task it piled and ticked;
II seemed rs II the wicked mnion laughed
AZ the slow thiinblc, and the fingers pricked
with weary stitches, and cried cut IN glce,
Give mp the race, you can't compete with me-
The sclmstress sinks before the Patcnteo.
She looked for help to her own sex, to those
Srong.mindo women who have come to blows
With al mankind, and publish their intensions
IN fierce debates ana furious conventions;
10 one oi thcec she went and sat and wondered,
As tie Oympian ,lunos stormcd and thundcred;
II was exciting. but the heated place
Threw not ray Of light upon her case.
She did not long TO cut the social throat
She did not want two husbands one vote,
Or to discard her gentle, womanly nature,
For any seat IN any legislature.
If she had owned an acre on its axis,
While the world turned. She would have paid her taxes
With or without representative
For what She wanted chance TO live,
a seat at Natures table, and share
In human sympathy and love and care.
Poor chilll she found the march Of Women's Rights
Is not for her who suffers, but who fights.
And the prime maxim. in its foremost van,
Not love 10 Woman but Revenge on Mani
In her despair She turns to Firkin Who will
not recognise the habitat of the gentleman?
she sought linn at his house, that lofty pile,
Built on the avcnue in the latest style
Ot Merchant Princes, grand. grOesquc and nord
Out OF the finest reestonc ever quarried
In its erection, he Oft declared
To wondering visitors, no expense was spared,
And had he said no order of architecture,
! IwOuld have been truer still, rs conie ecture.
The builders with their taste so fine and funny,
Laid Themselves ont, as well rs Firkin's money
Aud in way that bcggar. all description,
Blcudcd Corinthian Gothic and Egyptian
And other famous styles with classic rarities
In one grand jumble Of brown-stone vulgarltics
Twas bad enough outside, bu once within,
i was like probing deeper than the skin
Some mammoth festure, such its tainted mixtures
OF decorations, furniture aud fixtures.
II seemed as if a bomb-shcll, charged and loaded
With paint, and gilt and plaster, had exploded
Without regard TO anybody's feelings,
On walls and columns, cornices and ceilings.
he ambitious plasterers had eclipsed the builders
And in their turn were oudoue by the gilders;
The painters thcn-beside whose rich adoning,
lhe brightest rainbow would have seemed deep
mourning;
From lowest basement up to topmost attic
he whole was gorgeous, gariug and pr,inatc
Panneled and kasomined. and striped, and starred,
Paint by the bucket, lrescoes by the yard,
Laid on in fickest layer, by battalioas
OF eXed red Republican Italians
With pots and brushes, blues and greens aud vellows
They scaled the walls, the bold designing fellows.
Ana TOOK the house by storm with their mythology
Fruits, flowers, tlamngoc, landscape, aud zoology,
Mcrmni' and Fauus, Arcalian ,hephcriessc.,
Long in the rnclct-, scanty in the dresses
Heroes aud god ana godic,se> and ogres
Nvmphs IN PINK tunic>, sages IN red togls
Heads OF Old Masters, shaded somewhat duler
And full length Nenuses, all in fresh color,
Then following up the grand Two Million plan,
Where paint left Of. upholstery began;
The latest artist at fresh mnrvels aims
Acre, OF mirrors in prodgious frames.
Aud mile, OF damask spread in rich expansion
Oi gilt and crimson through the costly mansion;
Incredible carpets, which outstarcd the ceiling
With flaming hues that set the brain tn rrenr,
And with the walls in one fierce blaze united
q what a sight, when all the ga wa, lighted,
And firkin, seated with some fellow snob
Surveyed the the hrillfatf
Declared the carpets were "a splendid job,
" hich went ahead Of all the Collins steamers;
Taylors saloon, when every let is on;
Or the Capitol at Washington" :"
AMI echoed back the truthful observation.
"Ihcres nothing like it in the whole creution!'
She is "quarantined in the portco" by the
footman, lest the plague of poverty should
spread further. Contrast the picture Just given
with her abode -
The TENEMENT IIorsH, DER which no friendly move
mcnt
Has waved the Enclanter's wand Of "Molern In
provcment,"
With hall-cncked walls and window, all askew,
Stamped with the blight Of bcggary through and
through,
l.ntcl and door-po,t sprinklcd with its sign,
House after house, extends the dismal linc
\ dreary sight To philanthropc eyes,
Between the gutter aud the distant skies,
By filth and noiNomc oiors marked aud tracked
Through the dense districts where the poor packed
Crowded and svatning in those wretched hives.
Layer on iaVer Of cheap human lives
Or, if Won think the picture overirwn
Go for yourself, II you have never gone;
20 IN mld-w inter, when the drifting slcet.
Through the bare hall pursucs your freezing feet,
An Ana rs from room to room you hurry past,
The crazy building mtting in the blast
AT doors aar gaunt faces peep and glare
IN hopes some friendly step may linger there.
90 IN mld-summer-when the August ravs
Pour on the place their fierce untempercd blaze,
From the scorched pavement TO the suns,ruck caves
No point of shade the flaming mass relieves
And the hot air, with rank and poisonous breath
through doors and windows pulls disease and death.
Or 60 as Firkin went-an some bright dav
When all without gows in the cheerful ray:
And as your footsteps cross the Wondering SILL
Feel the cold dampness and the sudden chill
strike through your shiyering sense with omens i'll;
He felt it not through all the livelong year,
lie walked, encircled in atmosphere,
Filtered and rarillel to that degree
BY his Two Million power Of solvcncy
hat such impressions had no power of steang
Into his perfect vacuum of feeling
Firliin is brought to the spot to look after his
rents, meets Rachel, is stcrnly rebukcd, goes
home, looks over his papers, and is found in
the morning apparently dead, the two segments
of his will torn assunder, cutched in either hand.
1t is nice question for the lawyers, whether
the destruction of the will was intentional or an
accidental result of a dying conyulsion. Coun-
sci meet at the summons of haSty relatives be-
fore he is buried -
At once two parties in that house Of Death,
Sprang into life, full armed with poisoned breath
UW' and "NO wa" their test and shibboleth
And, when the Lawyer came, both sets of heirs
pounced iiercely on him, claiming he was theirs
lie cained the uproar, heard the story through,
And strove in vain to catch the hidden clue.
To tear his VIII had Firkin really meant,
Or was it only a strange accident?
pcrchance question purely of intent,
perchance of doubtful law in either view,
lhe case was novel and the point was new;
And, it was plain at the first observation,
Good for Trojan War of litigation.
Straight on the lawyers clear, prophetic sight
llIE fIRkIN WILL CASE rises into light,
--latest and greatest of the iamons causes
Above last wills their codicils and clauses
lie sees the eager birds Of prey who wait
Around the carcasc of the huge estlte,
In the din chambers Of the surrogate;
Three bulky quartOs stuffed with the proceedings
Ten leading Lawyers crammed with special pleadings;
hundred witnesses on either side
With crOsS-eNaminatiOns sacrificed
And twenty doctors, pony and persistent,
With twenty theories, all inconsistent
But, iairest sight of all, besides, he sees
4 princely revenue of costs and fees,
No risk Of loss, no client to be dunncd,
All the expenses charged upon the Fund.-
The original of this sketch is not probably far
to seek. The lawyers advice we do not remem-
ber to have seen before in any printed proceed
ings. 1t is too long to quote, and too good to
be neglected. We recommend all parties con-