The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1867-04-18
Stones Love Affair.
ny DTTTTON CpOE

1t was agreed on all hands that Ned Stone
was very practical fellow. By some this
may have been said of him disparagingly,
though others undoubtedly applied the
words in complimentary sense. Practi-
cality has its eulogists, but it has also its
censors There are people who will find
fault with prose because it isn't poetry; the
same sort of people consistently denounce
practically because Of its deficiency in spec
ulativeness. For it is o common form of
criticism to condemn thing not so much
for being what it is, as for not being some
thing else; that desiderated something else
being, in most cases, something entirely an
tipodean and irrelevant to the original and
disrelshed thing.
If Ned Stone had ever fault found with
him on the score that he 3paS practical and
that he a708ab poetical, he might have an
swered with Mistress Audrey-supposin
(and it's doubtful case) that he was in
formed of the existence of that rustic,-''I
do not know what poetical is; is it honest in
deed and word? ls it true thing?" Ger
tainly in both word and deed he was him
self honest and true For things that were
otherwise he was quite without sympathy
Indeed he was for the most part without
knowledge concerning them; being a simple
straightforward gentleman, who went his
own way, lived his own life, and what it
fell to his lot to do, III a curiOusly sober,
steady, homely fashion. He never sWerved
to the right or to the left. 1t did not occur
to him, apparently, to deviate from COM
pact ,plan Of consistent couduct, He never
seemed to say anything he did not mean, or
10 hIpon ba did nj fb. ~ HI Ia
his openness had not about it that clement
of offensiveness which characterizes the un-
unreserve Of some people; with whom
speaking their minds as they phrase it,
is rather like cracking a bad egg-an oper-
alton better pretermitted than performed.
Ned Stones mind ran pure and clear as
brook You were Of course at liberty, il
such was your humor, to deride it as being
merely brook, after all-preferring
a fount Of strong claret perhaps. Still the
former, be it remembered, is available at all
times and delectable even its own mild way;
whereas the latter is only for occasions Of
festivity at long intervals, never running
for any protracted period, nor always quite
clear, and with all its charms capable upon
provocatiou Of giving you headache or OF
throwing you into fever.
He was a broker in the city-uothing
more nor less than that. Whether his la
Dor and profits had to do with tea or sugar
or ships or stock, am not certain.
found it sufficient to know that he was a
broker Of some kind in the city The fact
conveyed a certain idea to my mind. If
had sought to enlarge the idea by clarifying
the fact, might have found myself less en-
lightened than further confused about the
matter, for inquiry, notice often bewiders a,
much as it instructs. He had been very poo
at one time of his life, and he had to worl
very hard. His industry however, had il
the end met with its due reward. Arrived
at middle age he was very comfortabl,
circumstanced; and he saw no reason t
doubt that his prosperity would continue
When lie announced to his friends, there
fore, that he thought of taking to himself
wife, it was felt generally that the step h
meditated was a prudent and proper one
and only what might under all the circum
stances of the case, have been reasonab,
expected And when he further stated tina
he had made an offer Of his hand to on
Miss Georgiana Warren, the daughter Of
wealthy East India merchant, and that hi
offer had been accepted by the lady, we c
course hasten to tender him our heart.
congratulations on the happy occasion
When say 1--WE, must be understood a
employing the editorial first person plura
by way of yelling my own individuality