The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1873-05-10
9istorir Shettlr,
BLENNERHASSETT.
ny JAMES PARTON.

may at least serve to illustrate the homcly
old saying, that fool and his money are
soon parted, He was the younger son of
an ancient and somewhat wealthy Irish
family, of the county of Kerry though he
himself was born in England, while his
parents were visiting friend in that coun-
try, in 1765. After attending the usual
period at Westminster school, in London,
and at Trinity college, Dublin, he was put
to the study of the law, and in 1890, when
he was twenty-five years of age, he was
admitted to the Irish bar, as a barrister.
He never practised his profession for
he had no sooner completed his legal stud
les than the death Of his elder brother made
him the heir to the family estates. In
stead, therefore, of settling down to life
time of honorable labor, he put money in
his purse, and started to make the tour of
Europe He happened to arrive at Paris
about the time when the French people
were in the early delirium of their revolu-
ton, and he was present at the first annual
celebration of the destruction of the Bas-
tile, when five hundred thousand French
men, assembled in one vast amphitheatre,
took the oath of fidelity to the Nation, to
the Constitution, and to the King. He
returned to Ireland full of those dreams
and fancies which characterized the light
headed liberal of the period. He was a
republican /; and, seeing no prospect of the
emancipation of his native land, he deter
mined to sell off his estates, and remove to
the republic on the other side Of the At
lantic, over which General Washington
was presiding with so much eclat and dig
nifty. His Irish property yielded him
twenty thousand pounds which, small as
it sounds to our ears, was, for that day, a
really handsome fortune. 1t was probably
equivalent, in purchasing power and in the
Importance it gave to its possessor, to more
than quarter of a million of our present
! dollars.
While making his arrangements TO re-
move, he fell in love with young lady,
Miss Agnew, the child of distinguished
military family, She was of romantic
turn of mind, and thought it delightful to
marry an Irish republican whose sister was
an Irish peeress, and to emigrate with him
TO the wilderness Of America On the
first of August, 1896, when Blenerhassett
was thirty,one years of age, they landed
N. York where, it seems, the mosquitoes
attacked them with such unrelenting per-
tinacity, that they were glad to go into the
country for few weeks until the hot
weather was over.
His first letter from New York gives
curious account Of the fury Of speculation
then prevailing among business men; which
he thought was the cause of the extrava-
giant prices of every thing and the high
rate Of wages. Men servants, he said, re-
ceived twelve dollars a month, mechanics
sixteen shillings day, and good house
was two hundred pounds year. There
was perfect mania for speculation in real
estate-fortunes made and lost every day
by buying and selling lots and lands He
saw almost everything in favorable light
Witness his description of Newark, nine
miles from the city of New York;
Newark is perhaps the handsomest
village in the world. OF extent, nearly
three miles; it is seated in plain, clear
and level as parlor floor, on the banks of
the Passaic, in an amphitheatre environed
by gently swelling hills. Its academy,
court house, and two neat buildings for
public worship, added to nine stages, which,
besides an ininity of wagons, every day
pass through it between New York and
Philadelphia, give an air of business and
gayety to the place. 1t is also the resi-
dence of many private families of respec-
liability
1t is only very old inhabitants of New
ark, which is now grown to great manu-
featuring city of one hundred thousand
inhabitants, who will realize the truth of
Blennerhassetts picture.
Our romantic Adventures were bound
westward-for the far west-which was
then the shores Of the Ohio river, between
Pittsburgh and the site Of Cincinnati.
The next winter found them at Marietta,
in Ohio, whence he made excursions into
the universal wilderness in quest of suita-
bic land upon which to establish himself
Near the village is an eminence of some
elevation, from the summit Of which an
extensive view is afforded of the river and
the surrounding country. No site could
have been more inconvenient; but, as in
the old world many picturesque height
was crowned by picturesque castle, the
relic of barbarous times, the Blennerhas-
setts thought it would be fine thing to
place upon this height the mansion they
intended to build. Abandoning this ab-
surdity, they plunged into another still
more ridiculous.
| Near Marietta, there is low island in
the Ohio river, about three miles long, and
perhaps one hundred yards wide. 1t lies
fiat upon the surface Of the water, bending
with the bend Of the stream, like long
green snake, the lofty banks Of the Ohio
hemming il in on every side, like two
ranges Of woOd-covercd mountains. The
river is so narrow there, that man upon