The Caucasian. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1874-1875, 1874-06-06
BOiIs-A Sad Story.

The following affecting recital Of
bodily and mental suffering is Civ.
en- by a resident Of Cooperstown,
n. Y, through the columns OF the
Plainfield Register. A man with a
!. boil on his thight could hardly be
expected to be OH good terms with
anybody:
Dear Register useless! useless!
If I've tried once I have tried a do
zen times to sit down and write You
regular old scalp -peeler Of let
ter. 1t Isn't that love Caesar less
II mean it isn't that / am not able
to do the mental part of the propo-
sltion, but it is that | am unable to
sit down.
How common the written sen
tence, l sit down to pen few lies
II meanslines, etc. But how much
unwritten anguish may result from
the attemptl
How gladly l would say. it if
I could, "It is with pleasure, dear
Register, that ] sit down to an
nounce to you the arrival of a boy"
etc. But, good gods, how can |!
The thought of sitting down makes
me boil. The thought Of the boil
prevents my 0tting. The fact Of
the boil makes me mad. And the
act of sitting makes me leap like
unto hurried sky rocket.
Why, my love, ] havn't sat down
III five weeks-or in anything else
to stay! l am a most miserable,
miserable man.
Along at first J. tried to. do my
writing for the Atlantic Monthly
(ssh! standing at my desk, but be-
coming absorbed in thoughts of
those things that are before, and
forgetting those things which are
behind, I-would pull forward my
tall desk-s;ool and settle. Then /
would nnsettle, quick.
And there would follow a
u prolonged and dismal howl Of
pain, a wild tramping to a fro; one
arm waving like our banner in the
sky, the other holding the panta-
looms away from the cause of all nv
agony.
SO behold me now, supported I'M
der my arms by my Revolutionary
grandmother's quilting frames,
which reach from piano to mantle
piece; with a pair Of light summer
trousers on, which are kept dis
tended and away from that boil by
a fish hook, q cord and i staple ID
The wall-al drawn taut.
And yet am not happy. Why,
If United States Treasury Spinner
should say To me, !" Here, George,
SIT down on tins haif-cord OF green
backs, AMI they are yours I should
answer, ''Go WY, Spinner: Idon't
want yoar ducats; / am not hun
CRY. TEND to voui ovn knitting:
] know my business"
My wife says my aftiietiOD ought
10 deyeIope any religious tendency
that may lay dormant III me. She
thinks 1t has I'm the earlier stages
at my sutleringS She says she aWoke,
one silent night and heard me, she
was sure, quoting Scripture and
Watts hymns
Lord love her. but wasn't YOU
know. ] vas doing The other
thing, d e., rocitins from profane
, history.
"Georgc," said she softly, some
time aiterward, "Gcorge, / am
afraid ] was mistaken the other
night. ] now believe thai your
language, which, l hopefully and
joyfully thought to he the express
sivc OF y con'rIte and grace seeking
soul Was swearing. Oh, why, dear,
Lost thou not ih.nL more often of
redemption as,;i louf latter end"
Thunder, madam" [ scream
ed. you don't know What YOU are
talking about lth'nk OF my latter
end I'm always thinking of it. /
couldn't forget il J vas stepped in
oblivion. or surrounded with cotton
bales! Why. / was telling q funny
story to q parry the othcr day, and
he comes up 10 ma> ana ne says;
Old man, chat WAS q bully thing;
you ought to ~ 2. minister, yon
ought. iou could make Il cvngrc
sation cry ~ teiIim o, en- a loke."
and then he ,iAppcd me Oh the
,high-on tbaJ thigh, woman, on
which anguish anu misery hold a
first mortgago' Think Of 1edemp.
zion! Why, tcDaIo, di1 you give
half the attention 10 keeping the
Jumps out Of my poultices that do
III bordering on the illusions of
that old 6'iblo scholar, Job, who
used Oscar 50 in blank verse,
you'd he a better and a richer. wife r
Withercd, she wept.
I was softened. ] could poi sec
those tears ,in7uoYpI what male