The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1861-03-23
Brown 81 Co.
A STORY OF LOVE AND DEBT.
BY P. PODHAMMER.


intention was frustrated. Hence resulted a
gentleman of expensive and expansive
tastes-whicl1 taste the inconsiderable sums
he received from the liberal proprietors OF
"Harpers Magazine" in consideration OF
monthly installments of his brain, by NO
means enabled him to crafty. Hence, in
eVitably, non-receIpted bills-hence, finally,
duns
This brings me to speak of my arch per-
| secutor-a demon in feature and malignity
a merchant tailor by vocation, Brown (of
Brown & Coy by name.
1t is but due justice to Brown to mention
that he had not always seemed the fend be
proved to be. Indeed had once thought
him, if not an angel, at least the ninth
moiety of one. Angelic were his speech
and manner when I first casually visited
his fashionable establishment with my
friend Brigham, the half-millionaire. He
| spread in resistless array before me rare and
costly fabrics, culled from the most
! recherche feeces and looms of Europe. He
commended them to me for purposes of
coats, waiscoats, and combinations, with
moving eloquence. When expiring Virtue
limited at present pecuniary stringency, he
stifed her dying sigh with the honeyed,a as
surance that he would await my con-
venience. Could anything have been more
liberal?
Human virtue alas is weak.
My love Of goodly raiment was strong.
yielded
Months passed, during which was the
| cynosure of Broadway and the Academy of
music.
New Years came, and with 1t bill from
Brown Co. My surprise at its amount
only increased my grateful sensg of obliga-
ton to Brown.
A few weeks afterward came dun No. / ;,
or the Dun Delicate-a polite note, conf
ding to me the fact that the firm of Brown
& Co. had heavy payments to meet on the
next day, for which act of liquidation the
amount of cash in their Golfers was made
quate. " How sad" thought, " that such
beneVolence should end in insolvency p
A fortnight later came No. 2, or the Dun
Urgent-recapitulator and pathetic, con-
cluding with an allusion to legal measures;
delivered by a thick set young man, who
seemed in doubts as to whether it were not
part of his duty to knock me down.
Soon after No. 3, or the Dun Diabolical.
Brown himself his errand manifest in
every line of his ill-omened face, and each
glance of his evil eye-appeared in the par
lor of my boarding-hou just after dinner,
miring circle of young ladies'
That day | ceased to be the lion of my
boarding-ho house.
will not dwell on the narrowing details
of the persecution that finally drove me to
seek another home. Like some mariner
impelled by the very fury of hostile ele-
ments into haven of tropical delights, so
/, in fleeing from the vindictiveness of
Brown, was led by relenting Fate to the
portals of ElySium. To be circumstantial,
l removed to a quiet boarding-house in a
remote part of the city. Ny suit of apart
ments Comprising chamber and closet)
was as usual, The third floor back 1t
commanded rds-eye view of two very
limited back yards. Beyond them rose,
four stories high, the rear of a large double
house, which, my landlady had informed
me in enumerating the advantages of my
room, was Madame Crochet's boarding
school for young ladies.
AT Madame's windows appeared, from
time to time the usual variety of school
girl physiognomies-br round, aud at
tenuated, sallow, pale, and freckled, merry,
mischeviOus and stolid. soon, however,
| remarked at the window just opposite mine
one of surprising attractiveness. Dimpled
cheeks, lustrous blue eyes, profusion of
sunny ringlets-pshaw how feeble is Ian
guage
have dealt copously in the inceptive
| and progressive phenomena of love in my
contributions to Harper's Magazine afore-
| said, as the readers of that excellent journal
know yet cannot thus violate the sanctity
! of my personal experience. 1 have the
! more reluctance, because | know that every
| correct minded reader will pronounce the
/ affair highly reprehensible, if not--as Mad
anne Crochet Indignantly characterized it
outrageous To such 1 can only plead, in
! extenuation of my conduct, that was then
very young
l will not, therefore, reproduce the thrill
! ing epoch, when our windows, and, indeed,
our souls, were first brought into communi-
cation by pair of stares. / will pass over
the successive stages of the f1uttered hand
kerchief-the projeetile kiss-the deaf and
dumb alphabet. Nor must |, out of regard
for the tranquility of Madame Crochets
mendge, divulge the secret of the postal ar
| rangement by means of which we were at
length enabled, in defiance of espionage, to
! discharge full broadsides of affection to each
other on gilt-edged note-paper. --~
! Lest, on the other hand, this Ueni Uadi Uici
like summing up of the history of so rich a
conquest should seem to SAVIOR of vanity, |
| humbly record my Indebtedness to two i'm
portant auxiliary circumstances first, in
Madame Crochets model establishment the
pupils were guarded against filtration with
lynx-like vigilance that it is no wonder the
proclivity thereto, inherent in young femi-
nine nature, had in them strengthened into a
positive mania; second, was yet in the
almost undimmed glory of the apparel fur
nished me by Brown Il Co.
l was seated in my room one day reading
the following note, which had just, reached
4 me in perfumed condition and pink en-
velope:
"DEAREsT ADoLPHUs II have been in
my room all day pretending to be sick, but
in reality reading your sweet note again
and again. Oh how can tell you the
feelings that agitate and overwhelm me p
Terror at thoughts of what Madame Crochet
would say if she only knew-joy unspeaka.