The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1866-02-12
LETTER FROM MR.. SETH PIKE.

and they will be abundantly satisfied
LETTER FROM MR.. SETH PIKE.
BosroN February s, 1868
Mr.. Post--Seeing one's-self in print
for the first time is quite a sensation,
and in such company. That I am, as
you state, tone of Boston's most gifted
sons, !" is all right, but that / was one of
the gentlemen who entertained the
historian (Pollard), while prisoner of
war in the hub of the universe, )" is news
to me. However, as you say so, he must
be one of those "unawares angels" one
gets so much credit for entertaining.
What "sweet scented shrub P must
be. But he has cut cut his work too
soon. What blacker ink can he dip
his potential pen into--where find more
gall? After bis saying of us, that eli
centiousness pollutes every class of So
ciety,' what can he say more? If he
follows the subject he necessarily must
weaken. You inquire after Scolloy's
buildings, and some other of our cele-
brities in brick, wood, flesh and blood,
and putty. Do you doubt our sta
bility? Do you doubt that you nightbe
buried for years and years, and If resur-
rected, and dropped down in Boston, you
would know the nearest place for a
drink? Wherefore ale we the Hnb ?
We have some movement butolways in
the same place and way without foreign
contact. The same man feels still unap-
preciated. The very same men believe
in speech making. Thesame Pecksnitis
are soliciting subscriptions to chapels,
&C., and some one is always proposing a
statue to some great man, who has been
an honor to his country, to be placed in
some conspicuous Vocation" (that.word
will kill us J where it eau he All ornament
to the city, the occasion of emulation to
our ingenious youth, and an object of
admiration to future generations--pro-
vided 1t be e1ecuted by IVm. W. Story.
You ask who drew up the resolutions
in the case of the shipwreck of the Ger
trude; suppose you mean the Craft
tude? Why, look you there you are !!
You have touched the very point why
Yankees in general. and Bostonians in
particular, can afford TO be laughed at
and ridiculed for their thousand and one
oddities, incongruities and snobberies.
Boston Yankees do great things but
something absurd is inevitably connect
ed with whatever thsy do. never read
the resolutions. dare say they were
absurd. But / know what was done.
On Monday morning, during that Bit
ter cold weather, when it was known
that the Fredopia had rescued upwards
of three hundred poor enlIgrants, and
had arrived with them, and that they
were suffering from cold and hunger and
in need of everything, Boston was =
boil. Food and clothing and every COM
fort poured i'm from allquarters,- - clothing
In such abundance that there was suf-
ficient surplus TO fit out those gentle
men connected with the press,h the
newsboys. The merchants had meet
ing, and in a few days sufficient money
was raised to give Captain Burke five
thousand dollars, and his mates proper
tionate sums, and each sailortwo hundred
dollars. And this is all over. 1t is not
talked about it is a thing of tho past.
1t was matter of course-thing with
these Boston Yankees. These people
who were rescued had nothing romantic
or interesting about them. They were
poor specimens of humanity-poor and
from each other and
their rescuers.
And now for an incident, not in the
papers, which will touch you deep un-
der the left side of the editorial waist
coat. Some of these emigrants had left
September last, been near
ly wrecked, carriedto ireland, and trans
ferred to the Gratitude. Among them,
we're little boy and a little girl, brother
and sister, whose parents had died on
the voyage. They were utterly destitute;
the little girl shivering in scanty, rag
ged wrapper, her only garment. The
sailors of the Fredonia are of the old
type, some of them having sailed in the
same employ for ten years. They took
the orphans into the forcastle and get |
ling out their stores of clothing, FASH
oned and hewed out, as well as they |
might, garments for them. Now, If
heaven would permit me one great
work for the whole of my life / should
like to be able to paint that scene as
l can imagine it. Think of these
burly rough tars in consultation, their
spare garments are spread upon
their knees, their scissors and needles
their sailor palms on, but,
how to commence. Imagine the won
lering look of the boy and the shapely
figure of the little girl, their great diff