The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-12-05

i'ohiS, ohu peoiuSSf ~ 10 litSHloiidhiS
and Mrs. Petrops son is already at Yale.
Alexander Hanlilton-thisi is the name
the mother bestowed upon the youth, be-
cause Mrs. Gossypium's dear dead faith
er's name was Alexander Hamilton
Anvil-makes a treaty with his parents;
for, bear in mind, this is the first in.
stance in the life of the wonder, so far
that the putative father is visible,-and
he consents togo to Harvard on condi-
lions. These conditions are that he can
come home when he likes, have his own
account with his own tailors, credit at
the college stable, and twenty four dol
lars a week--the annual allowance of a
student at West Point, where the intel
lectual life of the youthful Scots, and
Grants, and Shermans and McClellans
is hammered into hope and promise
with the codiciI, that if there shall be
an occasional two hundred dollars for
follies to relieve the austerics Of studies
and long nights, nothing, lis to be said
but to pay it. These fashionable y
sipulations---which, as the mother well
said to Mr.. Gossypium as they were about
to retire to bed, ARE reasonable, and
nothing more than everybody's son
whose father is in position in society, is
allowed. On the sixteenth anniversary
of his birthday, Alexander Hamilton
Gossypium enters upon his college life.
IT is a little tedious at first, lAlt it inn
proves and comes more to his liking,
as he goes on. He meets many DASH
ing fellows; and some, to his fancy, that
ought not to be therefor they are the
offspring of matters and small shop-keep-
ers; and even John Razor, the son of
the barber on Commonwealth Avenue,
is among the students. This is
awful, but he does not tell his mother.
-Four years roll on, the farewell day or
/" commencement Ito be classic and
fenian both-is rolled out; but there is
no Mr.. Alexander Hamilton Gossyp-
ium on the list which bears the
names of those who are to speak ora
tons in Latin. No: John Razor-owing
to the singular impartiality of the COL
lege folk, and the superior intellect and
requirements of the BARRIERS son--is
orator number three, the very position
in which the gayly dressed Mrs.
Gossypium,-behind her fan, there
in the gallery, Expected to find her
oldest's name. Alexander Hamilton's
absence from the rostrum was source
of great modification and disappoint.
ment to the mother; but, thanks to
fiddlers, she survives the
and disappointment, for
the sake of her son q man grown. The
young man goes abroad he is still
very green, and upon the doctrines of
his mind is a blank. Indeed
It never occurred TO his mother to mem
ton ethics TO her son; and the father of
the boy, thought itenough that he had
headed the family procession to church
On the first day in the week. A. Ham
lton Gossy-such is his style now ,--and
u is well to observe here the latent smart
ness of the American STRIPPING in Eng
land, and how quickly il developes it
self in the adoption of the English aris-
tocratic mode of initiating the first
name, spelling out the second, and alb
the third when it lacks eu-
phony,--is ina full London outfit. 1t
IS un-American and it pleases him. He
snocks about the great city for month,
md then goes to Paris. He does not like
he imperial capital, because the French
newspaper boys shout
heir wares i'm it's so common. lie
'ists Italy, but the poverty and piety
If the simple people, both confound and
lsgust him and he writes home three
n four sheets of dishonest platitudes, re-
the degeneration of race who |
pend half their time ut shrines and at !
he celebration of mass. His mother
hows Alexander's observations on the |
Italian cathedrals and on Italian archi- |
ect generally, to her neighbors, who
with Mrs. Gossypium neither
he mother nor the neighbors having a |
light to dream that they had before
hem a manuscript extract from Muir
ay's Guide--and after much thumbing,
he Letter from Tourist" gets into |
he local paper. Alexander Hamilton is
raveling all the while, and lie gels into
rome i'm the course of his wanderings
lie thinks the famous city is old and
ogyish. He looks in vain for the mag
lificent granite warehouses of Boston,
he towering marble fronts of New York,
nd the sedate brick work of Philadel
hia he has never seen the Treasury
for he has never been
outh; and to his horror, he found can
les burning i'm dingy and over-praised
7. Peters in the day time! The humil-
~ and obesances which all classes
kept the sturdy English make to the
'ope shocks him, and as for the venera-
lie holy father himself, our tourist
would rs soon bend his knee to Peter
cooper as to make show of reverence to
he successor of Saint Peter. lie is, by
his time, weary of Rome. This
$ shown by his second letter to
lis mother, and from what he
1