The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-06-02


Whom others faults do not defeat,
Bar hoagh fail him yet ms IT Goth play"
HeTbert
4 month passed--two, three, four. The sea
son went on without. Within, Herman's cell
grew hot, and SO full of mosquitoes, that the
spiders, instead of being, as heretofore, disa-
.reeable intruders, became welconie sgnests.
Little MAY brought him in wild flowers and
apple-blossoms, then Strawberries, and then
peaches. A quarter Of his last year was gone !;
and every day was happier than the one before.
The shorter and darker it grew, the brighter it
seemed to him. Only twothirds IF autumn now
to come; and then winter; and then--oh, what
spring. He wrote monthly, to say that he
was WELL contented, and happy, in the thought
of reunion with his espondents-perhaps,
on the whole as happy where he was, as he
could have been anywhere away from them.
Every steamship brought him back good news.
Edward constantly reported to him that the
girls were well, and recovering their spirits
more and more as the time of their and his re-
turn drew nearer; and, as Herman read Con-
stances brilliant and charming descriptions of
every brilliant and charming scene she saw
written as if the very genii of Art, Nature, and
Love, had possessed themselves of her as their
proper mediHm-he enjoyed it all, and felt it
all with her and in her.
When we open the first letter from any friend
to US, we are about to learn something about
that friend besides what he or she is conscious
of telling US. As Byron said, in substance,
though in words which / do not now recollect,
The being that writes ID something apart from
the being that is. One of the most gentlemanly
men that / ever saw in parlor, was boorish
upon paper Two or three of the most unhap-
py women ever knew, we're playful when they
wrote. Easy people may be stiff and simple
ones, affected, and, on the other hand, ugly and
awkward ones beautiful and graceful in their
epis'les- When ones nature is very complete
and harmonious throughout, ike that apparent
ly of the most distinguished female philanthro-
pist that the world has ever seen, the person,
pen, tongue, and act, may ali breathe the same
language; but most of US are chaotic, more or
less, and act in style, look in another, speak
in another, and write in still another.
Now, if Constance had let all her paragraphs
run together, like portions of molasses-candy in
warm cupboard, or, worse still, had begun
them at the very edge of her pages-if she had
uuderscored half her words, and even mis-
spelt one OF them now aud then--if she had
characterized ~ all the women whom she met
and liked as sweet" and all the men as " pleas
ant and if she had furnished only geograph-
zeal statements of the names and 81 uatiOns OF
the places which she visited, or described them
in stereotyped and constantly -recurring guide
book phrases, interspersed at random with the
merest babblings of sincere Affection believe
that Herman would have shut up his brain,
read them with his heart, found them enchanting,
for the sake of her who wrote Them and asked
no better. Wherefore | think that he deserved
to receive just such letters as he did. / am
sorry that | cannot show you any of them but
/ will tell you a little about them.
Constances letters were in all respects of a
piece with the rest of Constance very intelli-
gent, very spirited, very graceful, and very lady
like. The hand i'll which she wrote was almost
as beautiful as the hand with which she wrote.
As elegant and finished rs her toilette, it adorn-
ed and set off her words, and seemed instead
of obscuring her pages, to illuminate them with
Its cleaning, flowing lines. The cadence of her
written was as musical as as that of her spoken
sentences. Her language was transparent and
spontaneous, refined, yet racy, and witty, ten
der, sublime, or bewitchingly pretty, in turn ac-
cording to her subject. She always expressed
the right thing. Whenever Herman had read
one of these letters Of hers, he felt as if he had
seen her, and as if he could hardly wait sin
gle day to see her again. He had Just read
one of them-in which she informed him that
Edward was having her picture taken-for the
third fourth time, one Saturday morning,
when the overseer called him:
Say, Arden, jest you step here, will you, an
see to Bludgeon. I've found him all doubled
81 L Ill al Loo
or suthn."
Herman fastened to the cell. He had pass
ed its occupant in one of the passages, the
night before, on his return from the woods,
where he had had leave TO go for the afternoon
to gather wild grapes. He had come back in
high spirits, and apparently high health, re-
treshed by taste of freedom and fresh air.
Ii is very sad thing to see man in the
lockjaw; but the sight prepared for the young
prisoner was one more frightful still to see,
where life is crowded, and flight from the i'm
pending death impossible. The patient lay
on his back, with his knees drawn up to his
chin, and his lips drawn back from his teeth,
with the grin of agony. He was violetcolOred.
His voice whistled and pulled as he tried to
speak. His breath was chill as that of his
tomb would be presently His features were
shsrpened and sunken like those of corpse.
His skin was wrinkled already--he was not
ABOVE thlrty-anu as cOIu as LnaI OF JOdus
Old age, death, and decay, seemed let loose to-
gether upon him, to make him at once their
prey and their sport. His eye-bals were dis
torted, bordered with purple, and patched with
red and the black pigment of the inner coat
was beginning to show through the transparent
and shrivelling whites. In word, he was in
an advanced stage of Asiatic cholera.
Herman wrung his hands behind his own
back as he first looked at him, but kept calm
face, and gave the disorder no name but cramp.
He did what he could to relieve him-worked
over him hard all day-heard his last groans
at eleven o'clock at night, mingled with cries
of pain from the neghboring guardroom, COW
cred up his body, sent for the wardens, and
told them what had happened. He wished to
give them time, before they saw the other pris-
oners again, to get over their first CONSERVATION
at the news, and to concert such measures as
they could, TO prevent the spread of the malady,
and especially that of panic, which would be
very likely to act as a predisposng cause.
Then he went to his cell /; and it was like new
Gethsemane.
To die! not merely to die so youngl not
merely to die alone not merely to die in a
Jail-not merely to be dragged down to corrup-
ton in day, by the ugliest of deaths-but to
die with home and her so near! Might not
some recantation, some submission, now avail
him, and obtain his freedom and flight, to safe
~, JOY, and length of days? He knew that it
might. Again and again already he had been
visited by members of the Legislature and
maglStracy, plying his youth, ashamed of the