The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1873-10-09
Mile. Olympe Zabriski.

| men are .lS much given to small talk rs
women, and il is undeniable that we have
produced the highest type Of gossiper eN-
| tant. Where will Nou find. in or out of
/ literature such another droll. delightful
, rlaltN hHsybody a. Samuel Pcpys, ESD
secretary to the admiralty in the reignS
of those fortunate gentlemen Charles H.
and James H. Of England? He is the
| King OF tattlers. rs Shakespeare is the
King OF poets.
II ii came to a matter of pure gossip. |
! would back Our Club against the SorOSiS
oranN Womans club in existence. When
| ever you see in our draw ing room four or
| five Young fellows loun@in@ in eaSv-chairs
cigars in hand. and now and then bringing
their heads together over the small round
japanese table which is ALWAYS the pivot
of these social circles. YOU may be sure
they are discussing Toms engagement, or
Dick 5 extravaganza, on llarry's hopeless
passion ion the Younger Miss Fleurdelys.
Itis here that old Tippleton gets cNecrated
for that everlasting BON mot of his which
was quite success at dinner-parties forty
Years ago; ii is here the belle Of the sea
son passes under the scalpels of merciless
Young sergeons ii is here BIS financial
| condition is handled in a way that would
| make BIS hair stand on end il is here, in
short that everything iscanvassed, every
thing that happens in our set, | mean,
much that never happens, and a great
deal that could not possibly happen 1t
was al Our Club that / learned the par
tcular, of the Van rwller affair.
1t WAS n great entertainment To Our
Club, the Van Twller affair though il
was rather a joylc~s thing. | fancy, for
Van lwillcr 10 understand the case
fully, ii should be understood that Ralph
Van IWillcr is one of the proudeSt and
most sensitive men living lie is a lineal
de>cendent Of Wouttr Van Twllcr, the
famous old Dutch governor Of New York,
NiruW Amsterdam, ;lS il was then; his
ancestors have always been hurgomaSters
or admlralS on generals, and his mother is
the MR.. Nanrcn$Selacr Nanzandt Van
IWillrr whose magnificent place will be
pointed out to Yea on the right bank of
the Hudson, A. YOU pass up the historic
river TO ldlcWil Ralph is about twenty
five Years old Birth made him gentle
man. and the rise Of real estate-somc of
il in the family since the old governors
time made him Il millionaire 1t was
kindly fairy that stepped in and made him
n good fellow also. Fortune, fake it.
was in her most ioelmd mood when She
hrappl her @t1S in this fashion on Van
Twillcr, who WAS. and will be again. when
thi@ clon,i blows over. the flower of Our
Clcb.
About a year a@o there came a whisper
if the word ''Whsper' is not too harsha
term to apply TO what seemed a mere
breath floating gently through the atmos-
phcre of the biliard-room-im -imparting the
intelligence that Van Twiller was in some
Kind Of trouble. Just as everybody sud
denly takes 10 wearing squarctoed boots,
orto drawing his neckscart through ring,
so it became all at once the fashion, with
out any preconcerted agreement for every
body TO speak Of Van Twilcr as a man in
some way under cloud But what the
cloud was, and how he GOT under it, were
points that lifted themselves into the realm
of pure conjecture. There was no man in
the club with strong enough wing to his
imagination 10 soar to the supposition that
Van TWiller WAS embarrassed in money
matters Wa, he in love? That appeared
nearly rs impossible; for if he had been
in love, all the world that is, perhaps a
hundred first families would have known
all about il instantly
''lIc has the symptoms, said Delaney,
laughing Il remember once when Jack
! Flemming-''
Ned = cried Elcmming. Il protest
against amy allusion TO that business"
This was one night when Van Twiller
had wandered into the club, turned over
the magazines absenlly in the reading
room. and wandered out again without
| speaking ten words The most careless
eve would have marked the change that
had come over Van Twillcr. Now and
then lie would play 4 game Of billiards
with Bret llarc or John Hay, or stop to
chat Il moment in the vestibule with
Mhitellw Reid but he was an altered
man When at the club, he was usually to
be found in the small smoking room up
stairs seated on a t;,uteuil fast asleep,
with the last number Of The Nation in his
hand Once if you went to two on three
places Of an evening, You were certain TO
meet Van 1willcr 1T them all You sell
dom met him in society now
BY and by came whisper number two, a
whisper more emphatic than number one,
but still untracc:tble to any tangible mouth
piece This time the whisper said Van
Twiller was in love. But with whom
The list OF possible Mrs Van Twilers was
carefully examined by experienced hands,
and a check placed against Il fine old
knickcrbocker name here and there but
nothing satisfactory arrived at Then that
same still small voice of rumor, but now
with an easily detected staccaLo sharpness
to it, sand chat Van Twillcr was in love
with an actress. Van Twiller, whom
ii had taken all these years and all this
waste of raw material in the way of an
cestors to bring to perfection, Ralph Van
Twiller, the net result and flower of hi,
race, the descendant Of Wouter, the son OF
Mrs Nanrensseacr Vanzandt Van Twiller
in love with an actress! That was too
ridiculous Ia lie believed. and so every
body believed il.
Six or seven members of the club abrupt
ly discovered in themselves IN unsuspectet
latent passion for the historic art. Ii
squads of two or three they stormed sue
cessively all the theaters in town--Boolh's
Wallack's Daly's Fifth Avenue (not burn
down then.) and the Grand Opera-house
t Even the shabby homes Of the drama oye
in the Bowery, where the Germani,
Thespius has not taken out his naturaliza
ton papers, underwent rigid exploration
Bat no clcW was found 10 Van Twiller.
mysterious attachment The opera bouft
which promised the widest field for inves
tigation, produced absolutely nothing, no
, even a crop of suspicious. One night
after several weeks Of this, Delaney and
faneied we caught a glimpse of Van Twile
, iii the private box in an uptown theat re
where some thrilling trapeze performanc
was going on, which we did not care t.
1 sit through; but we concluded afterward
, it was only somebody that looked liS
< him. Delaney, by the way, was unusuall
active in this search. dare say he never
quite forgave Van Twillcr for calling hin
| Muslin Delaney. Ned is fond of ladies
e society and that's fact.
n The Cimmerian darkness which sun
. rounded Van Twiller's inamorata left u