American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-02-21
ANNABEL BROWN.


ANNABEL BROWN.
WHEN l consider the difficulty witt
which | manage to support a rigit
and penurioAs household on an incom,
which, although small, accrues regularly
and is paid to the day, l am all the NOR,
astounded at the way in which some PEG
pie contrive to live. There's my friend
William Brown, now. He is a married
man, has half a dozen children, lives il
nice little house, Chaplain way, alway
has something hot for supper and glas
of grog for himself and friend after
ward, and yet, as far as l know, he ha!
no income whatever. He's an old school
fellow,Of mine, which gives him a kline
of claim upon me; and ever since l have
renewed my early acquaintance witt
hlm-he called upon me some years ago
when-I first entered Her Majesty's civil
service as a Junior clerk, to request my
interest with the authorities to procure
him an appointment of some kind-eveI
since then he has been out of employment
and on the lookout for an opening [ am
afraid that in the selfimportance OF
youth Lgave William too exalted idea
of my influence with the "authorities"-
whoever they may be-that | patroniZed
him a little, and held out some hopes,
come across something that might pro
vide him with the wishedfor opening.
Indeed NAV say that l was as good as
my word, and did put him in the way OF
obtaining a public situation of some
emolument, having succeeded in placing
his name on a list of candidates for an
open competition for a situation in the
Excise, for which the poor fellow was
uncOmmonly grateful. 1t turned out, by
y n hat fho pfa for
situations was from eighteen to twenty,
and William was going on for thirty
five But this. obstacle, which would
have been fatal. should have thought,
didn't Seem to daunt William at all. He
was thirty-five, it was true; but he had
had a brother once who was dead, poor
fellow, who, if he had lived, would have
b4en just the right age, and it was evil
dent he was wrOn ying nobody by making
use of the baptismal certificate and other
papers that would have been poor Bob's
if be had been alive. He showed, indeed,
such energy and address in overcoming
the various difficulties that presented
themselves in making this arrangement
that l thought it argued very well for the
fellows real qualities, and that such in
dustry and perseveran &c would, if they
once found an opening. be sure of success.
But unfortunately, as he told me after
ward, the time and energy he had devot-
ed - overcoming these preliminary
difficulties had prevented his giving him
SELF to the necessary preparation for
pJssisg the examination itself He was
plucked in the Rule of Three; rule, he
informed me, that isn't of the slightest
use in mercantile affairs, and is indeed
considered quite obsolete by men of bust
ness. But still, as 1 told him, civilian,
you ought to have got it up" Obsolete
and stupid as might have been the system
of examination, he ought to have accom-
mOdated himself to circu nstances-he
ought to have gone in for the Rule of
Three; for it's very simple thing. You
put your figures in row with dots be-
tween them, and if the answer comes out
wrOng-and it does sometimes, tremen-
dously-you may be sure you've put the
wrong figures in the middle, and you
must alter 'em. Blu. I've found that mer-
camille men, as a rule, are pigheaded.
Will. m was a mercantile man; William
was. pigheaded. He wouldn't go in for
the Rule OF Three, and, "Then, William"
/ said, you must abandon all thoughts of
entering the public service of your cOun-
try" He did so with the greatest philos-
ophy, not appearing much cast down by
his ill-success.
The next time I met William he told
me he was in the building trade. |
couldn't learn that he had done anything
in the way of building himself, but he
was on commission he told me. AT all
events he had succeeded in obtaining a
very nice little house, the one he at pres
ent inhabits and on such advantageous
terms that he had three landlords, each
one of whom forbade him to pay any rent
To the other. 1t was true that they Occa
sionally varied the proceedings by putting
in an execution, as they called it, upon
William, who, however, with his usual re-
source, had hit upon an ingenious way OF
defeating their maneuvers by means of a
bill of sale, the operation of which he ex-
planned to me, but l can't exactly recol-
lect the particulars.
William came to me one day in state
of jubilant excitement. The opening had
come at last William was on the high
road to fortune. When explained, the
opening was found to consist of an opera
ton, and in the building trade. 1t con-
sisted in buying houses and selling them
again at an immense profit; really on paper
it looked most promising; but then one
must make allowance for The sanguine
nature of projectors. There was one little
requisite, William added, a very trifliDo
obstacle-capital.
Now, you know" be said, eyou can't
expect me to have capital"
"Clearly not" | said.
al look upon my family" William
went on, "as my capital, the children I've
brought up and educated; they represent
an immense fund, but it is at the present
sunk-unavailable, in fact"
Yes, didn't see how they could be
turned to account.
"Then," went on William, "the ques-
tion,arises, how is the thing to be met?
Clearly by somebody advancing the req
n1site capital-putting himself, as 1t
were, in the place of the original investor,
sharing his profits without sharing his
risks but that advantage" said William,
Pm quite content he should have. Now
the question is, where to find the man"
Yes, there it is" said l; "therc must
he plenty of men who'd be glad of such
chance; but | can't think of ANYBODY at
present.
81 thought of you once" said William;
"but 1 dismissed the idea. "No; it
wouldn't do for you"
a3h, I don't see that" said, eff the
amount were a reasonable one"
"Reasonabler' said William; cts ri
diculous. Fifty pounds. The half share in
fortune for fifty poundsl Bah! the
things absurd
Now it so happened that / had little
more fifty pounds to my credit at
the London and Westminster Bank, on
deposit, and they'd just reduced the in
terest two per cent, which was disgust
in@; hut still I'm such a cautious bird
that wouldn't give William an answer
till had an opportunity of consulting an
old friend of mine, a lawyer of large
practice in the city. And, strange to say,
he didn't think so highly of the scheme
as William did, and yet they were both
clever men-but sometimes these lawyers