The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-02-23
HOW L CAME TO MARRY.

You are wrong, altogether wrong, Dick
Chaffner, and I'm surprised ut you
That you should think me capable of de-
iberately contemplating matrimony-of
dropping in of an evening ut Mrs.
Brands, praising Mrs. Brands tea and
Mrs. Brands knitting, and all with a
sinister eye to the second Miss Brand,
Miss Julia Brand, who has since become
my wife-cuts me to the heart it does,
upon my word ; and / must say that it
looks like taking most unfair advantage
of our old friendship to insult and de-
fame me.
L am not OF an Over-sensitive, or even
.over-scrupulous, nature far from it
but L cannot allow my actions to be
placed i'll so black a light, and will there
fore lay the case clearly before you as it
stands. OF Miss Julia-I beg her par
don, Mrs. Grizzleton-I need say moth
ing; for as she had nothing whatever to
do with my marrying her, she can be
left entirely out of the discussion, which,
as she is Mrs. Grizzleton, and most re-
spectacle person, very much prefer she
should-though not of an over-sensitive
nature, as l before observed.
am sure you have remarked, as /
have, that people so very respectable as
Miss Julia Brand (NIrs. Grizzleton) DO
not like being much spoken of, and as to
be taken down in print, that is an I'M
pardonable offense of course and only to
be excused by a birth, death or marriage.
My friend O'Manady, on the contrary, is
a public character, being a poet and
the more therefore that is spoken or
written about him, the better pleased he
Is. Not that l would cast even the
shadow of a doubt upon our friend
O'Manady's responsibility; only public
characters are not private characters-an
argument which no one will, L am sure,
dispute, averse as / am III general to all
new and startling doctrines. l remem-
Der once, when reading a quiz upon
Margate and its visitors, popping upon
oaricature of my friend O'Manady-blue
veil, green spectacles, and all complete,
one penny Fearing his just wrath,
kept it as long as possible from him, and
when he saw it at last, he was actually
pleased
They'll know at least who L am
when they see me; ell, Grizzleton %
quoth the poet; and from that day forth
about him when promenading the sands
that had not observed in him before.
You, Chaffner, knew the O'Manady as
well as l do. You speak of him as "my
friend the poet, and so do l. Though,
were he not the poet, l don't think either
of us would care SO much to call him
friend. For poets are, as n rule, better
bound up in cloth, with gilt edges, than
any other way-they being anyhow so
entirely bound mp i'll themselves. Then,
too poets, as rule again, have not
pleasant tempers. i think it must be the
constant rhyming that, like the ceaseless
motion of saw, sets their nerves on
edge. / hope that nothing | have here
said will be taken as slight passed upon
my friend the O'Alanady, who has written
some beautiful things, about which
need not now speak, thank heaven: for
how could /, not having understood
line? All [ have to do is to write few
lines about his wedding, which led in SO
strange n manner to my own.
Now the OManady's marriage caused
no slight stir among his own set When
ever his friends got together, and had
nothing better TO talk about, they talked
about that.
"All London's full of it, L suppose;
ell, Grizzleton 2" said the O'Manady Ian
guidly to me one day, smiling half in
acknowledgment, half in scorn of his
popularity, and throwing back his hair,
which he wears long, and rather encour-
ages to tumble over his nose, that he
may have the satisfaction of finging it
back with weary, impatient sort of
movement that looks well and shows off
his hand. "You hear of nothing else
wherever you go, ell ?"
Not uniting all London in my person,
and not responsible, therefore, for all it
says and thinks, / could not answer the
poets query, nor did he seem to expect
it, having made it question and answer
1n one.
Now it so CHANGED that, walking down
Russell Square, and morally convinced
that | had it entirely to myself, as indeed
Ishouli have had had not another shared
it with me, i received a sudden greeting
on the back that made me start and cry
as loud as if / had been a runaway thief,
and Reginald Shipper detective in plain
clothes. For Reginald Shipper it was;
a worshiper of the O'Manady, and close
imitator. He, too, writes what no one
can understand, wears his hair long and
throws it back, sneers at everybody but
himself and his master, and everything
but their verses.
You've heard of the O'Manady' mar
riIsgeg"
Now master and disciple differ only in
one respect, that whereas the former
thinks nothing worth thinking or talking
OF but himself, the latter makes of the |
one pronoun two, and necessarily puts
the him before the self. the O'Manady |
before the Reginald Shipper. It is only |
therefore when there is nothing TO saw |
about the him that SELF takes his place |
and usurps the conversation.
You've heard of the O'Alanady's !
wedding?"
"Yes."
eyes. 4"