Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1860-04-27
THE CHICK ABIDDy HoUxE

knows how. Il was first whispered in solemn
couples, next louder, where iplets we're gath
cred, then spoken in a subdued voice amid
crowds OF four or five, until it came back to
Miss Julia's ears, who to her dozen intimate
friends told the whole story, weeping like a
NiObe, in tragic starts. 1t was this mystery
which was the trouble Of Miss Julia, beyond
her complexion. 1t was this mystery, which
while 1T threw halo Of romance about the
white arm, and whittier teeth was still to Miss
Julla, perpetual dream Of uncertainty. shut
ting her away from the sweets of welded bliss
and the joys Of matrimony. Making her
widowed maid, husbandless wife a married
HiSs, or what you will, that title can be
found for one who married, has never spoken
TO her husband, knows not his name or his
whereabouts, would not know him should she
meet him, and much more quite as wonderful,
and quite as roal. This is the story.
Miss Julia's papa, Mr.. Jason Doldrun was
what In the world would be called a hard man:
nc was hard in business, and as a natural Sc
J,uel, he was hard everywhere else, especially
at home lie had formed certain chimerical
IDEAS of grand match for Miss Julia, i'm which
duke In disguise seeking n wife disguised
from all, be it understood, but Miss Julia's
papa, should throw his cOronet and castles at
bis daughter s feet. Nursing these ideas while
Miss Julia grew, the young lady reached the
sge OF sixteen, sweet sixteen, brim full of rO-
msnce and sentiment, with strong thoughts of
ioye in a cottage, and bowers Of trellised vine.
restricting herself to four servants, not giving
large parties, and keeping only two horses, in
fact Of marrying entirely for love, a man with
an income Of FIVE hundred dollars per annum.
and spending yearly FIVE thousand out of it. 1t
was in these days of her early romance 1--WE saw
s1rLy, that il may be understood Miss Julia has
not yet entirely recovered ) she first met at the
ball Of the Smushray Independent Rangers,
sergeant Wilkin Stanley, as he was titled
while in uniform, but plain Wilkin Stanley,
~ 8
evening still glows fresh in the heart of Miss
julia, to the exclusion of all belief that any
ball can in these days be got up with half the
s'yle and effect of that ball of the Smushray
Independent Rangers. Wilkin Stanley, ESQ.
was young attorney, who two years before
had hung his shingle Is Smushray, and quietly
awaited the result. 1t was coming slowly, and
surely. For long time nothing better than
small cases of litigation had found their way
20 Stanley, Esq.s seyen-by-nine apartment,
until one day. by good fortune, a murder was
committed at SmuShray, a terrible murder, in
which a man who had run the gamut of all the
smaller crimes. ended off by kill NJ an old
man and two helpless children, burning the
house TO conceal the treble murder, and rob-
hery. Here was fame for somebody and to
Mr. Wilkin Stanley it fell. He had the
good fortune to hear of the murder within
fifteen minutes of its occurrence, and the CAP
ture OF the offender almost in the very act
Stanley, Esq, at the moment of receiving the
intelligence had his coat and boots off prepar-
ing to cOnsign his body to his virtuous couch:
there was no time for delay, the coat was on in
jiffy, but the boots had their duty performed
by pair of slippers, and before the m Magistrate
could be brought from his house to sign a COM
nitment, Wilkln Stanley Esq, had volunteered
and was accepted as counsel. This was the
food that bore him into fortune When the
old criminal lawyers of Smushray read the case
IN the morning papers, and came down to see
h.a t.tfn hal
there was some grumblIng about sharp practice.
Oyerreaching, etc, but the best was made of
their disappointment, and the whole manage
ment of the case left to Stanley, ESQ And ah,
what u magnificent thing it was. How he put
of the trial How he changed the penue. How
he .muggled the witnesses for the prosecution.
and found the witnesses for the defence How
ably he brought tho affair into Court before his
favorite Judge. How he withered the witness
ses for the prosecution, and smiled on those for
the defence. How he deferred to the Judge
and told the jury he asked nothing but Justice,
would have nothing but justice, and he only
had to look In the intelligent faces before him
to know that he would get it. And when that
same intelligent jury, after grand peroration
by Stanley, Esq, in which he wept and sobbed
until there was not dry eye in the courtroom
but those of the prisoner, could not agree and
were discharged by the fsvorite Judge How
Stsnley, Eco, WAS congratulated by the a.
sembled bar. And then, how, after carving
the case over several trials, the man was final.
~ acquitted, and turned out in Smushray, to
commit more murders. which he did and was
hanged. Stanley, Esq, his reputation being
made, refusing to take the case. And it was
this budding promise of a great man, whom
NJ IS Julia met at the annual ball of the Smush
ray Independent Rangers, with whom she
danced four consecutive quadrilles, with whom
she wsltzed, with whom she took ices and held
sick, and with whom she fell in love at sight
Stanley, was fine name, thought Miss Julia,
much more poetical than Doldrum. 'Did Mr.
Stauly ever write poetry" Mr. Stanley
thought if be had never yet written poetry,
now WAS the time to begin, under the inspira-
tion Of Miss Julia's beauty. And Stanley, ESQ
sand so, and, as a matter of course endorsed
the saying by sending to Miss Julia, at the pa
ternal mansion, next morning, full acrostic
on her name, written on pink tinted note, and
commencing:
June has its flowers and so have
Cnwearied meath the clear blue sky,
Love as I will, this love to me
Is like the sunshine on the sea
And wakes my soul to melody.
Is it any wonder that this was a whole shell
in the camp of Miss Julia, tearing her heart
into little bits, and causing surrender at
discretion. She was bopelessly smitten, and
Stanly, Esq, had nothing to fear at her hands,
but alas, '.'rhe course of'7' etc 1t is the same
il all ages, Doldrum pcre, could not be brought
t0 see the rising young lawyer, in any other
light, than as he himself termed him, IAN i'm
pudent pettifogger." Is it any wonder there
fore, that Miss Julia took TO ice-creams and
''Syllabub's Saloon" of afternoons, where as
remarkable cOincident, Stanley Esq, occa-
siOnally dropped in at the same time. Was it
strange that after sundry bewailings Of their
fate, in which Stanley Esq, positively asserted
that he wished Miss Julia had been a poor
sewing-girl, with no father, and no nothing
and Miss Julia wished the same, blind.y, that
carriage, well closed, should be seen one
dark evening standing on the corner of GER
tain street not very far away from the Doldrum
Mansion, with a very dark driver, and very
dark young man standing near, gazing earn
estly up n very dark street, that female
figure wrapped in dark cloak. should come
down that street, whom the dark young man
should pick up in his arms, and lift into the
carriage, and away they went.
There is q dark house standing in another
dark street, where Stanley, Esq, and his be-
loved Julia jump from the carriage which
brought them. What great events hang on
the smallest causes. Had but the corporation
gas been lit that evening, had but the Rev
erend Henry Hymen been that night at the