The Shasta courier., 1871-05-27
The Bald-headed Pension Agent

This is wicked world. The path O
the righteous is beset with temptations
and few tread the narrow way to the end
A man may be temperate. honest and free
from the vices which so frequently shackle
the limbs and tarnish the reputation of the
great In this blameless manner NAV he
pass through two-thirds of lite time, turn
ing not into the seductive by-ways of sin
until his hair becomes thin and grizzled
and the world begins to regard him as {
saint; when suddenly, a female face throws
its sunlight across his path, and half life
time OF rectitude is cancelled by the in
iquities and follies of an hour. So We
regret to find it with gentleman who has
figured conspicuously in our dispatches
during the past ten days as defaultine
Pension Agent in New York He was
honest and virtuous for the first forty five
years of his life. He was a model Of pro-
priety. He drank sparingly, labored in
dustriously, was bountiful in charity, up.
right in his dealings, and turned deaf
ear to the Establishments of love- But in
the autumn of life he fell-fell like Luci-
fer never to rise again. He fell in love,
and stole over 100000 to demonstrate the
fervency of his passion. An exchange
says of him:
The absconding Pension Agent, Colonel
Joseph x. Lawrence, is the last man one
would have supposed Cupid would have
meddled with. He is about the middle
height, compactly built, fair complexion,
blue eyes, brown hair, we'll formed-a man
OF learning, refinement, and traveler-at
one time the editor of the Golden Era, San
Francisco, but so little inclined to the fair
sex that it was well understood that he was
neither flirting nor marrying man, so
they let him severely alone. In course of
time his hair got thin on top, and he be-
came decided woman -hater; this was
Immediately after that once queen of the
Bohemian New York world, Ada Glare,
had tried to turn his then particularly level
head. Between Gottschalk and Lawrence
she became insane, and showed it in the
usual way. She wrote book and called
it "Only Woman's Heart meaning
what was left of her own, which the critics
broke into flinders by their criticisms
Gathering up the bits she went out West,
on the stage, and off with an actor; and
having swung round his circle, Colonel
Lawrence meets his well-metited fate in
the shape of a woman She came; she
saw; she conquered and the Colonel with
the handsome face and heart of (supposed) J
adamant, fell a prey to her charms, and
sacrificed all for '.love."
This little sketch of the Colonel is sub
stantially correct. Many of our readers
will remember Ada Clare, who seduced
the Colonel from the path of propriety.-
She visited this city with the Menken,
some years ago, and was known as the
"Queen of the Bohemians" She was
noted during her residence here neither
for her virtue nor comely looks, and we
marvel at the Colonel's taste His fate
reminds us of one of Napoleon's grenadiers,
who, after passing through unscathed a
thousand battles, was killed by tapster
with gimlet. But he has paid dearly for
his folly, and we are disposed to believe
that the Goddess of Love made special
victims of both of the admirers of the lady
mentioned in the above paragraph. Colts
chalk was killed in Valparaiso, short
time ago, by a sand bag hurled at him by
a arollickine rough, and the Colonel is an
outcast, without even the comfort of pos
sessing any portion probably, of the money
which his monstrous infatuation induced
him to steal. The correspondent quoted
says he was bald-headed. This circum-
stance induces us to raise warming voice
against bald headed men generally. They
are not to be trusted.-Enterprise.
That bald-head suspicion is "no good"