The Lambertville press. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1858-1???, 1859-10-13
g(N i5Gellauenns
IFRoM THE NEW YORK MERCURY.
NORWOOD BUTKINS,
THE VICTIM OF ACCIDENTS.
BY W. 0. HEAToN.

Viewed in an astrological light, Norwood
Butkins seemed to have been born under an
awkward star. Many wise man beliyes in his
own STAR Napoleon l. was one Of them. His
was pre- mintly a shooting star. 1t was GER
tainly morning star to his foes but his nephew
Louis, verifying Byron's saying that " time at
last sets all things euen, is making the Napo-
eonic star an evening star, and of redoubled
brightness Like Napoleon, Norwood But
kins was the victim of accidents, and of the seem
ing combination Of the world against him.
! All infants nave their little mischances but
the accidents Of our hero's infancy kept his moth
er in continual mourning, and his father in con-
tinual anger The old Butkins was nervous,
apprehensive, and irritable man and the help
less perpetuity of evils which befell his boy
throughout his Graded and toddling infancy, at
an early stage, almost exhausted his parental
sympathies for the child, who kept him in con-
slant mental pain.
He will never live to grow up, HANNAH"
said the senior Butkins, snappishly, one day,
when the child, at the age of two, crawled into
the ash-hole, and nearly smothered out his pre-
carious existence. To-day he was nearly suf-
located; yesterday he fell into the cistern day
before, the cat nearly scratched his eyes out !;
day before that, he tumbled down stairs day
before that, l think it was"
"No-two days before, interrupted the mo-
Their, defensively.
Well, two days before, he nearly ran himself
through by falling on the carving fork and as
far as / can look in his disastro us life, not day
has passed when some other narrowing thing
has not happened to him. He is covered with
accidental scars all over him, from burns and
scalds and cuts and bruises-all got in some
unaccountably awkward manner. His head has
so many accidental bumps that it resembles a
graveyard on hill and have died thou
sand deaths when I have been down town, in
dreading to find him dead when should come
home. Oh! would that he had never been
born y
"What name shall we christen him by ?n ask
ed the sorrowing mother, endeavoring to divert
her husbands thoughts into more pleasant cur
rent.
"Christened by ?" repeated he, half con-
temptuously. He will never live to pay for
the trouble. Let him die, and have no name to
be remembered by"
Mrs. Bntkins wept aloud.
He shall not be christened till he proves he
can live to be four years old, at any rate, in
sisted Butkins. 1t would be mockery to go
and christen a child that we expect every minute
to die the next"
This odd resolution was rigidly kept; and as
the miraculous boy did fare to struggle against
fate till he was four, his fathter, in revenge for
the pain he had caused him, christened him
/ WormWood
Having thus stigmatized his unlucky boy the
father seemed more complacent when he regard
ed him and the mother, in consequence, grew
more satisfied.
But the old Butkins died shortly after. 1t
might have been a judgement upon him or it
might have been blessing Thus the farm was
left to the widow, and the widow was left to
comfort her uncomfortable boy.
Like any other mother-divine trait in ma
ternity !-she loved her child all the better for
the adversities which caused her SO much sor-
row.
But his awkward star stuck to him, too; and
as Wormwood's eyes grew gradually open to
the peculiar nature of his clumsy fate he began
to be as ashamed oft as his father had been. -
But counsel and experience were lost upon him.
He took no extra precautions. With Turkish
stocism, be bowed his head to what he deemed
his destiny and still went careless on tonew mis-
fortunes
As his fatality became known, nervous peo
pie h opped aside for fear OF some accident, wher
he approached He became the subject of vari
GUS disagreeable nicknames till leagued adverse
ties made him look dismal as his fortunes. HI