Litchfield enquirer., 1871-02-02

| mouth myself. The friend of my youth had become a faded memory I had nei. l ther seen nor heard of him in the mean while; and the summer when planned to pass the whole of 8 long vacation at my boyhood's home, the Governor assumed but subordinate part in the associations naturally evoked by the proposed visit.
 In my first walk through the town after my arrival, it was with sort of comica, consternation that I beheld Governor Dorl standing in front of Walls Drug Store, smoking the very same cigar,it seemed, ,and skilfnlly catching the sunlight on the ia cets of that identical diamond ring. Lf9aa
 The same, and not the same. He looked older, and was not so well groomed as h( used to be; his lower jaw had grown heav. fer and his fgureisnot improved. There was hard expression in his face, and that Iinexplicable something all over him which says as plainly as a whisper to the ear ''This is Black Sheep.'' 7ae1
 At the crossing our eyes met. Would he recognize his quondam chum and dupe, after all these years? The Governor gazed at me earnestly for ten seconds, then slow. ly drew back, and lifting his hat with 6 magnificent grand air quite his own, made me an obeisance so involved and elaborate that I should fail if I attempted to describe it. si s-a
 l The lady at my side gave my arm little convulsive grasp, and whispered, "Who is that dreadful man?"
 70, that-that is the friend of my youthr' .aas.- s-..L '@1''
 Though made, light of the meeting ] was by no meansamused by it. I saw that if Governor Dorr- insisted on presumine on his old acquaintance. he might render 1t very disagreeable for me; might have I to snub him, perhaps quarrel with him. His presence was altogether annoying and depressing. 4l -
 It appears that the man had been lying about Rivermouth for the last twelYemonth I When he was there before he had mystifed the town, but now he terrified it. The people were afraid of him, and Governor Dorr knew it, and was having what he would have described as ga very soft thing" He touched his hat to all the pretty girls in the place, talked to every body. and ministered to the spiritual part of his nature, now and then, by walking down the street familiarly with an eminent divine who did not deem it prudent to re sent the impertinenee. For it was noticed by careful observers, that when any person repelled Governor Dorr, that persons wood-house caught fire mysteriously, or successful raid was undertaken in the di rection of that persons family plate.
 These little mishaps could never be tra ced to the Governors agency, but the re markable precision with which catastro phe followed any slight offered to him made the townspeople rather civil than otherwise to their lively guest. a.a l. The authorities, however, were on the alert. and one night, week after my arri val, the Governor was caught .tadyrdnte de hcto, and lodged by Sheriff Adams in the otUne Jall, to my great relief, be it said for the dread of meeting the man in mJ walks to the post-ofice and the reading room had given ma the air of 8 persoI seeking to eludo the vigilance of justice
 forget which of the laws the Governor had ofended-he was quite impartial iu his transgressions, by the way-but it was one that insured him 8 stationary resi- dence for several months, and consider ed myself well rid of the gentleman. But little knew the sources of Governor Dorr. ! He had been in the habit of contribu. ting poems and sketches of lurid nature to one of the local newspapers, and now, finding the time to hang heavily on his hands in the solitude of his cell-the win. | of the town-he began series of letters to the editor of the journal in question.
 These letters were dated from the H0te q dAdams Ia graceful tribute to the Sheriff of the county, and consisted of descrip. tions of what he saw from his cell window, with sharp, shrewd, and witty hits at the peculiarities of certain notable persons oi the town, together with some attempts at fine writing not so successful. His observ. ations. on the townspeople were delicious. He had neat, humorous touch, which, with training and under happier stars, might have won him reputation.
 How enjoyed those letters! How i'm. patiently 1 awaited the semi-weekly ap. pearance of the dingy journal containing them; with what eager fingers unfolded the damp sheet, until, alas! one lucklesa morning there came letter devoted whol. ly to myself. The ''Leayes from the Dia. ry of Gentleman of Elegant Leisure" no longer seemed witty to me. And in truth this leaf was not intended to be witty. Il was in the Governors best sentimental vein. He informed me that had "from afar" watched over my budding career with the fondness of an elder brother, and that his heart, otherwise humble and unassum. ing, owned to throb of pride and honest : exultation when he remembered that it was he who shad first guided my ''nursline feet over the fowery fields of English DO. esy, and bathed me up to the chin in that ''Pierian dood' which had since made all my owa. And so on through a column of solid nonpareil type. Altogether he placed me in more ridiculous light than any amount of abuse could have done. .His sentiment was g thousand times more l deadly than his satire. Though my vacation was not at an end by several weeks, quietly packed my va lise that night, and fled from the friend of my youth. l find that am using the capital letter rather freely in this sketch-a reprehensi- ble habit into which people who write au. biography are apt to fall; but really my in tention is to give as little of myself and as much of my friend as possible.
 In the two or three years that followed this ignominious flight from my native town, I frequently heard of Governor Dorr indirectly. He had become famous now in his modest way. I heard of him in 1 New Orleans and in some of the Western cities. Once, at least, he re,appeared in Rivermouth, where he got into some in- scratable difficulty with number of non combatant turkeys prepared for Thanks 1 giving, the result of which was that he \ .. ~8 aR IL .