Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1872-01-08

THE vENTRlL0QUIST.

My friend and chum, Tim Jocelyn, pos
sessed to an astonishing degree the power
of ventriloquism. We had entered col
lege together; l was his room mate--and
many were the times that my friend. while
we were sitting together of an evening,
after all had retired to rest, had given me
proofs of this astonishing faculty, by fill
ing the garret with the screams of turkies,
the squealing of pigs, and with different
limitations of the human voice, which he
would convey away to some remote dis
tance, and then gradually bring it nearer,
until it reached the place where we We're
sitting. 1t was unknown to any of the
students except myself, that Tim possess
| ed this power, and he exercised it only on
a few occasions while at college, and in
one instance made it subservient to the
accomplishment of at least his own good,
and thwarted the purpose of vilIany.
Tim was humorous, yet frank and no.
bic minded fellow--an excellent scholar,
and much beloved by his classmates.
There was a fellow in the sophomore class
| by the name of Benson, the son of
wealthy landholder, who possessed but
| little talent but who had that superficial
and insolent, contemptuous bearing to-
wards all the students whose circum-
stances were inferior in wealth to his, that
rendered him deservedly unpopular
among the class yet notwithstanding, as
he was the son of Major Benson, who was
an aristocrat of the old school, and who
was desirous that his son shouldbe placed
in the highest rank of academic honors,
the tutors (as il duty. or rather in interes.
boundD made much of David, and did not
scruple to exercise leniency and forbear-
| l. al, .
tend to others; and although dozens of
the farmers sons, among whom was my
friend Tom, outstripped him in study and
the attainment of science, still there was
evidently desire on the part OF the tutors
to put him ahead, and to prophesy that
he was destined to become the greatest
scholar of them all. This misplaced fa-
voritism, added to the insolent and conse-
quential demeanor of Benson, procured
for him the unanimous dislike of all the in
mates of the school, and many were the
pranks that were played off upon him.
David affected sentimentality and ro-
nance, which was in him perfectly rdic-
thousand he would sometimes perpetrate
doggerel, which he submitted to the crit
icism of the tutors, and sometimes to the
Standardization in meaning or meas
urc, except where he had stolen entire
snatches from Byron's Hours of Idleness,'
and which never failed to gain him the
sneers of the school in the same proper
ton as his verses were commended by the
teachers. On one occasion he appeared
at the adjoining village with copy of his
latest effort tackled to the skirt of his coat,
which some mischievous student had
| pinned there during school hours, and be-
fore Benson's departure,
During summer vacation, ball was
given at the neighboring village; and Ben
son and Tim, among other students who
remained during the vacation, were invi-
ted to attend. Among the young ladies
in attendance ut the ball was Eliza Ayers,
beautiful girl of eighteen, whom report
said was great heiress. She was an Or
phan, and under the guardianship OF her
uncle, a missrly old fellow, whose tyran-
MES, though often extended over his
household, had as yet been kept from his
ward. Benson was here introduced to Miss
Ayers, and exercised the whole of his
powers to render himself agreeable to her.
Tim was also introduced-and before the
evening drew to a close. it was easy to
discover that the intelligent and beautiful
girl had in her own mind drawn the differ
ence between the two young men. She
seemed annoyed at the aped tom-fooleries
of Benson, while she listened with re-
spectful attention and a smile to the con-
versation of Tim. Tim was standing by
Miss Ayers, who, after some remarks as
to the happy manner in which the evening
had passed away, concluded by inviting
Tim to call upon her, at her uncle's. Be-
fore she had finished this sentence, Benson
came up, and politeness offered no other
I.,lt ~ tlnvn fn tafs
to him. He was about to offer to accom-
pany her home, but Tim had been too
quick for him there. Tim accompanied
the lady home, and Benson returned NOR
titled to his room. He, however, formed
the determination of visiting Miss Ayers.
feeling the assurance that Tim would come
off second best, when it was known that
he was but the son of farmer in moder-
ate circumstances, while he was the son
of Major Benson, with a fortune at his
command. lie accordingly often called
on Miss Ayers; and her uncle, for reasons
that will hereafter be explained, encour-
aged his visits, and eXerted himself in his
behalf, as a suitor to his neice. Benson
was fairly in love, and as many lovers do,
he assumed virtue and amiability of de-
pertinent which was but ill-teighned, and
his real character would often appear in
spite of himself. Tim had also avaied
himself of Eliza's invitation, and often
visited her. A mutual attachment was
the consequence, which soon ripened into
an affection between the two-and ex-
change of vows and II promise Of her hand
were won from Eliza. Benson, under the
encouragement of her uncle, still contin-
ued his suit, proposed and was rejected
He now grew amazingly melancholy, OF
at least affected to be so, and would wan
der in this mood to the banks of the river
and gaze upon the stream, probably con
templating an acquaintance with suicide
and giving his body to the fishes for dis
section. But Benson was not such a foe
as that either His disappointment be-
came known at the college, and numerou:
We're the jibes and taunts the poor fellow
got from those over whom he had so inso
lently domineered. This, of course, did
not tend to add much to the amability OF
his temper, and on one occasion he show
ed his magnanmity and courage by knock
ing down "A bright-eyed lad. some five or
81 y yaarS his innor for saving that "a