Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1867-02-14

.SCIfOOL AND ARMY.
FROM NORTHERN LIGHTS.
LITTLE BRIGGS AND !.
ny rITz HuGn LUDLOW.


own lives make up for themselves an ideal
of perfect living, 10 which they square their
facts The Rev. Mr. Rhodomontade does
not tell how he pulled all the hairs out of his
Greek professors horses tale, and the Hon.
Simon Pure gives us no "reminiscences OF the
day when he cheated at marbles. I've no
doubt that Payson got tight, and James
Brainerd Taylor stole sweetmcats off the top
shelf of his mothers closet that Benjamin
Franklin played hockey, and General Scott
cried when he got thrashed. Read their
memoirs, and you won't find stagger or n
stained apron, u black mark or blubber, in
the whole of them. If memoirs are meant
for personal puff, this is all very well. If
they are for the generation to come after us,
II couldn't be worse.
Many a trembling saint gets demoralized
by contemplation of such inaccessible excel
lence. He feels as If he were reading about
another mans having got to Newport with
out ever having passed through Massachu
sets or Connecticut, Narraganset Bay or
Long Island Sound His idol has the fruits
and, naturally considering him an exception
al case, he gives up the insoluble problem of
resembling him. l don't think Rousseau's
Confessions exactly the kind of book for
boording school reading, but for instruc-
tion in the conduct of human life its worth
dozen memoirs ofany Mr.. Optimus Para
gon, written by himself. Lets know where
the reefs are, if you did get that ugly bump
on yonr keel. So far as we have stecred
there's no remarkably plain sailing If you've
had it all the way, very well you're in port
now; hand your log over to the owners. -
We, who have plenty of foul weather, are
busy with charts, and, when there's fair
spell, find livelier reading in Robinson CRU
soc. If you don't like to tell how many
mistakes you've made. how rash you've
been, how mad, even how mcan-why,
you've etymology on your side, for modern
autobiography is derived from the fact thai
it's mans life as II ought-to-be. and not as
il was. In that sense I'm ruled out of youi
company, for this sketch is no onghtto-be-
ography at all.
NY name is Ben Ihirwall, and | am the
son of rich but honest parents. never bad
wish ungratifed until was twelve years
of age. My wish was then to stay on a two
year-old colt which had never been broken
He did not coincide with me, and vas
revelation of the resistances to individual
will of which the universe is capable, alst
of terrestrial horizon bottom upward
burst upon me during the brief space whicl
spent in flying over his head Picked VI
senseless, was carried to the bosom of m,
family on wheelbarrow, and awoke to TIN
consciousness that my parents had decided
on sending me to boarding school,-a rem
edy to this day sovereign in the opinion o
all wcll-regulated parents for all tangentia
alterations from the back of colt or tn
laws of society.
The principals name was Barker; and IN,
only clue to his character consisted in over
hearing that he was an excellent disciplin
arian. l was afraid to ask what that meant
but on reflection concluded it to be geogra
phical distinction, and associating him wit
Mesopotama or Beloochistan, expected
u
shaved his head, wore a tall hat of dye
Sleeps wool and did a large business in spice
with people. who visited him on camels in
front-yard surrounded by sheds, and havin
fountain that played in the middle.
Having read several books of travels,
was corroborated in my view when learne
that Mr. Barker lived at the east, and sti
further, when, going around Point Judit
on the steamboat with my father, becan
very sick at the stomach, as all the travelle
had done in their first chapter.
need not say that the reality of Mr.. Ba
ker was very terrible awakening, whiC
contained no lineament Of my purple drea
save the bastinado. Without distinction
age or reason the youths who, as per circ
lar, enjoyed the softening influences of Il
refined Christian home, rose TO the sound
the gong at five A. NJ, which may ha
been very nice in home for the early Chri
tains, but was reported among the boys
have entirely stopped the growth of Litt
Briggs. This was a child, whose mother HI
married again, and whose step father had fl
his duty to his future too keenly to depri
him of the benign influences of Barker al
time in the last six years.
After rising, we had ten minutes to wa
our faces and hands, Ia period by eSperien
of mankind demonstrably insufficient whe
the soap is of that kind very properly
nominated cast-steel Qhough purists have
different spelling,) and you have to break
inch of ice to get into the available region
your water-pitcher. Chunks who has sin
make large fortune on war-contracts, kt
himself in peanuts and four-cent pies for
entire winter session, by selling an invent
Of his own, which consisted of soap disso
ed in water on the stove during the d,
time, but in bottles hooked from the lai
room by means of a false key, to be carr
to bed and kept warm by boys, wh'
pocket-money and desire for prompt
tergent in the morning were adequate to
disbursement of half dime package.
myself took several violent colds fir
having the glass next my skin during sew
nights; hut this was nothing so bad as
ase of Little Briggs, who, from lack of
half-dime, often came down to prayers W
stripe of yesterdays pencil-black on {
side of his nose, and u shaving of so
which, in the frenzy of despair, he
gouged out OF his stony cake, on the 9th
The state of mind consistent with sucf
condition of countenance did not favor c
rect recitations of the tougher names
Deuteronomy; so, 1t can be q cause of $
prise to no one, that, when called OF
prayers and prompted by ridicul
neighbor, little Briggs sometimes asser
Joshua to have driven out the Hiv
and the Amorites, and the Can
ties and the Jebusites, and the Hit
and the Perizzites, and the Moabites and
Musquito-bites, for which he was regul,
sent to bed on Saturday afternoon, as
had no pocket-money to stop, his papa