The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-11-18

| out, ior d uay, gnawlng hunger. There were
also utensils, weapons, kniek -nacks; cases of
Jewelry, birthday given watches, that had raised
money for the faro-table mothers diving gifts
pawned for bread authors brain children, put
here TO buy ink, or may be a shirt, in which to
assume decent appearance before your pub
Usher; bridalrings, given up in bitter anguish
to buy food tor the poor dying fruit of the union
that ring was memorial of All, Heaven
could every complacent well-to-do but play AS
modeus for brief four-and-twenty hours,
think that their hands would find purse strings
much easier to unloose.
Behind the counter was lean, pale young
man, with faded eyes and dead yellow hair
whom one felt intuitively to be knock -kneed in
has legs and pipingy quaverng in his voice--a
young man who =" thought-ah--but didn't
ah- know and who broke down irretrieyably
if he caught your eye. 1t needed not second
glance at him to be assured that he had grown
up like squash, with an excessive preponder-
ance OF the watery element; that there was lack
of iron III his blood-a soft, habby fellow; a
jelly bag, that would take the impression of any
mould into which il might be squeezed but had
not cohesion enough OF itself to retain that i'm.
preston, the mould being removed; one felt
convinced, too, that he lived upon half salary,
! and got the worst cut of beef at his boarding.
house-a miserable, soft, uncolored unsavory
, cheese, at which every mouse and cockroach
: might nibble. a. ...... a. .I
: What does Jasper here, waiting until that
6 shivering woman, with the rag of greasy
/; shawl thrown over her head, and the thin cheek
hectic with disease is served? What does he
: Jasper the wealthy, Jasper from his ''palatial
y halls as the newspapers phrase it, Jasper
: whose every. wish has heretofore been antic
: pated, what does he here?
+ Now he accosts the nibbled cheese, with i'm
\ ont hot, lad oh 4
y chain-his watch, often had he consulted it to
, see how near it was to the hour for the dismiss
l. al of the children from the little white school
house, in the grove of oaks, at the end of the
: lane where the blackberries used to grow SO
n plentiful wonder if there are many this sum
d mer his watch, which that queenly mother
had given him on a birthday, long, long ago
when he was good little boy, and she had
never deceived him, and he loved her so very
ELECTROMAGNETIC are mother and Ruth to
him now-Ruth, who had so much admired his
! handsome watch, and had so often pleasantly
/ joked him about his dandy ways with that pref
> ty-linked chain
e 81 want to borrow fifty dollars upon this
d watch"
e Nibbled Cheese really didn't know-looking
at the Jewels and the works, touching it here
e and there with his inane fingers, which looked
y as if the mice and cockroaches had nibbled
e away their nails
+ : Bring me some one who does know, then
l have no time to waste. / am in hurry"
, Yeas. Mister Coi:tre-if YOU please, a gen
t tleman--- to speak with YOU"
Y From behind desk in a dark corner, from
the thumbed pages of mighty ledger, comes
Mr.. Cotfre, an old man, with brown fur car
: on his head, with silver spectacles wrapped with
: thread over his nose, with his face yellow as
: deed in chancery wrinked as the hand of some
e antique midwte-each line, as it were. toker
5 of some article deposited with gray eve
keen, twinkling, measuring, determining, hk,
y a slate full of hgures--with long, yellow teeth
munching the feather end of pen-this was
Mr. Coffre, genius loci. Rich, they say, for h,
:. is shrewd, hard, high as to per centum-;
priest of Mammon--a wrinkled old wretch
P Fifty dollars on that watch? Ell, ell, my
e young friend is joking face-ti-ous, he! he! W,
Will loan--let me see-how long?"
''Six months"
: NJ n l.s,A.. .tirts fve"
/ cit is not enough.
g "Now-now- stOp-stop- go-Icba
e bod, that woman, lchabod and not too much
? lchabod-my young friend, | know that this i,
/ a good watch-but we lose so much--sO yer,
il much-there now-stop-so impatient--wt
think can let you have the money-yes--si
months-now-l will make out your ticket
Mr.-ah, yes-Mr. Smith-how many Master
Smiths there are, to be sure--he, he-Tobias
Chronometer-etter A F-number 6ll-o,.o
chain. There, now, you will get it at any
time by paying the proper per centuIn-rely
e moderate-now-look over that-there--ten
/ and five's ffteen-very good note, little torn
e hut no discount-and twentys thirty-fve and
tens forty-five, and ones torty-six, and two
halls forty-seven, one, two, three, four, forty
eight, and ones forty-nine, and ive-franc'>
forty-nine ninety-four, and-let me see-I
! really havnt sixpence anywhere
: And so Jasper procured wherewith to pur
+ chase his outfit.
b His next step was to seek hotel, write a
note, and enclose the pawn ticket in it. This
!, note he directed to the gardener at the Hall
. old Richard, with instructions and farewells
that need not be laid before the reader. Hav
q ing deposited this letter in the post office, he
+ haSstens his steps, for it is already night
Z he enters slop shop, and, after much hag-
!, CLING, effects an exchange of his broadcloth
J. for | know not what of sailor rament-trow-
sers of duck and coarse woollen pumps, coarse
socks, Jackets for storm weather and for calm,
Guernsey frocks, check and flannel shirts, Scotch
caps tarpaulins, sOu-westers, oiled-cloth over
2 alls-a chest, jack-knives, towels cups-a sailor s
wardrobe, in fact-he buys, or exchanges for.
Then, clad in his frock aud duck trousers, with
tarpaulin on his head and pumps on his feet,
4 he shoulders his stout chest, and carries it
l aboard ship. There might have been some
affectation in all this, but it was in the right
direction His chest was filled and slowed
away, his bunk selected he was to sail in the
I morning, and there yet remained some dollars
jngling in his pockets. SO Jasper left the ship
5 again, and came upon a stall for the sale of old
, books The vender was about closing for the
= night, but Jasper persuaded him to wait until
: he had looked over his stock His purchases
were unique. Gummers Surveying, Bowditeh' S
Navigator--ambitious Jasper hobs .nobbed
r with-what think you? Burton's Anatomie of
Melancholy a Leipsic edition of Eschylus. the
! works of FRANCOIS Rabelais, and the Book of
( Nature of DR.. Mason Good Notable reading,
, these, thou wilt say /" but could he not have
7 made better choice ?" Bible and Prayer Book,
for instance and Pious Meditations W of the
, Reverend Francis Smoothly. ! grant you it,
my dear friend, from my heart. Much better
for him to learn wisdom in these books, than
to Gull quaintness from Burton, or crack Jokes,
not the delcatest Jokes either, with the histo-
/ ran of Pantagruel. Butt viii not permit you
2 therefore to reprobate my poor Jasper as an
, unworthy hero, in comparison with my lady
friends, their ideal, as set forth in certain
"goodhe boxes" very popular with the dear
unreasoning creatures
n Thou mayst have read book from the pen
OF that wonderful woman, Countess Margaret
f Fuller Ossoli, entitled, Summer on the Lakes"
J and, if So must have been impressed with an
count contained therein of certain Madame
Hauffe, styled the Seeress of Prevorst. Well,
this Seeress* has given the explanation of dis
tinction existing between SOUL and sPIRIT-a dis
tincton which mast exist in testimony where
Of, read Thessalonans, Chap. !, verse %, where
the Apostle speaks of g Y our whole spirit and