Litchfield enquirer., 1878-09-05
A CHANGE OF VIEWS.

Asa sporting event and wicked gambling proceeding the Derby is naturally out of ny | line A serious writer, 1 am we'll aware, should be carful how he contaminates his pen with | such a subject and especially if he doesnI understand it-but he may go some length; actuated by a moral purpose. This may pc seen any day in the way in which the most rc-s spectable journals handle the most dlsreputa- ble topics. ''They only touch upon the mat | ter ill the interests of morality" or 'for the purpose of holding it up for public reprehen- ! sion'-iust as though barn door should apoi- ogise for the polecat nailed upon It. l, now ever, have an excuse for alluding to 30 sad q 1 thing as a race course which is more than val | i'd the two Derbys have in my mind are ln- 1 dissoubly connected with reverent, Ii not a5 sacred, subject, in the person of the Rev. Theodore Pyx On the first occasion when II stood beside him on Epson Downs he was not! indeed a clergyman, but he was very near It.. 1 He was not the rose, but, so to speak, stood Tn the next pot to it for he had passed his s'vol-s untary," and was to be ''japanned" in fort l night That was the expression which, am 1 grieved to say, he used, in those unregenerate | days. for the ceremony of ordination. .s s4 i We Went together from London on drag, with a good many university men, and Py3 was not the gravest of the party. He ha9 never been remarkable for gravity, and this was almost the last occasion when he would be at liberty to indulge his natural instincts for liveliness and larks. He called it with toucfr3 ing pathos his ''last ffing''-and it was tol- erably high one. There was nothing he did 1 not do that Derby Day that was to be done l from throwing at his Aunt Sally up to losing | ''the tenner" which another aunt had sent him Gen hearing he had passed his Vor' in | backing the first favorite. can see him now with his hat stuck around with dolls having his fortune told by Gypsy, who with all her | talents for prevision and desire to prophecy smooth things, never dreamt of promising l him that he should be one day Archbishop of l Canterbury he looked exceedingly unlike even the very earliest formation-the merest chrys- alis-of any development of that nature. He | did not come back .On the drag, but inside ot | it along with the empty hampers, by reason of our sollcitude for his personal safety. Though his equilibrium was out of gear, the native | geniality of his disposition remained unlm- paired and we could hear him singing all the way underneath us no doubt at the top of his voice, but mellowed by distance and his posi- ton so as to resemble the lay of humble. bee between two panes of glass. The last saw of Theodore Pyx that day was his legs; he was taken out head foremost at his lodg- | ings in Bury Street, St. James's, and put to bed by two charitable undergraduates, whom he entreated to make an apology for him to Dr. Paley, with whom, he said, he had made | an engagement to sup that evening at Gre morne. In this impression he was of course | mistaken; but mention it in fairness to Pyx. since it shows that his recent course of theolog- | ical study had not been Obliterated, though he | just then confused it with matters of a some what different character.
 I had had some slight acquaintance with this gentleman during his college career, where he had distinguished himself as a good billiard player and a mellifuous and flowery speaker at the Union but we had not much in com mon together. He belonged to a fast set, and rather looked down upon me, as being only fast by fits and starts-as in that expedition | to the Derby (which was my first one blythe | by); he had knowledge too, of practical mathematics, which enabled him to make a book upon every great racing event of the | year-although it did not suffice to make him | win. A tall, handsome young fellow he was, and though not of an aristOcratlc type in oth- | CT respects, had fine white hands which at that time we thought little of. They were noticed chiefly in dealing at Loo or Vingt-et-nn,.s where it is ones own hands only in which one takes any particular interest but they after ward served him in some stead He did not make much money by those games, 1 believe, and had none of his own to start with but | those who knew him best were wont to aver 1 that Theodore Pyx was a shrewd fellow-an opinion which, though did not share it, 1 am bound to say has since been amply justified. About four years after left the University happened to be spending few weeks holi- day at certain seaside town on the south coast, with an aunt of mine who was given to ritualism She attended matins and vespers every day at the district church, and was rath- CT scandalized at my not accompanying her on those expeditions.
 q hope at all events, my dear," she said, 'that on Sunday you will not go to any church save St. Ethelburga's."
 1 This l readily promised, since it left me more alternatives than she was aware of, when she presently added, which decided me at once on accompanying her, 'that should then have the privilege of listening to that most el' ouuent of theologians, MT. Theodore Pyx."
 "Why, good gracious, know hin'' cried
 'I am truly glad to hear it," returned she gravely, ''for it shows that your acquaintances have been well chosen" There was re- proof in her voice, which at once understood to have been evoked by my having alluded to her favorite divine in too jocular and even somewhat disparaging tone, and 1 hastened to remove this unfortunate impression.
 I said that he had been most admirable speaker at the Union and she replied, to my surprise, 'that he was so now whenever op portunity offered" I subsequently, discover ed that she meant respectable assembly d
 High Churchmen called the Church UnioL
 and she was much pleased to4ind, or rathG to infer, that even in my undergraduate ca reer had been a constant attendant at 1t.
 I confess looked forward to the ensuing Sunday with even more than the wonted el
 thusiasm that the prospect of hearing a fast- ionable preacher always awakens within ne, for in the meantime I had gathered many IT, terssting particulars of my old college friend
 From the rich widow, Lady Gergoyle, wlo had erected and endowed the church, downte
 my aunt's ancient handmaiden, Betty, his cO- gregation it seemed adored the Rev. Theodore
 Pyx. He might have had pair of slipprs
 worked by fair hands for every day in the year if he could have brought himself to wear them but his habits were ascetic. He woe tight boots, not to showof his feet (though they certainly, as I afterwards observed, leoksd
 smaller in them), but for the sake of the ds-' comfort. Under his buttonless silk waistcoat it was understood that he had horsehir shirt, and there were whispers abruad thatin the cupboard of his private oratory hung scourge that had drunk deep of poor Thso- dore Pyx's blood. What was so charming about him, however, said my aunt, was that
 you would never guess these things to look at
 him; to the outward eye he appeared comfort
 able enough there was nothing to speak d fastings and watchings in his appearance, nor
 did he ever allude to them himself, except in
 such confidential communications with certain
 members of his congregation as were almost
 though not quite-under the seal of the Con-
 fessional.
 When, indeed, had the opportunity
 privilege" as it was the custom, found, to
 term it-of seeing the Rev. Theodore Pyxin
 his pulpit, he appeared to me to be in partieu-
 larly good ease, and to have suffered nothing
 from those mortifcations of the flesh to which
 it was his habit to submit himself He had, indeed, certainly made flesh, wheh-
 CT it was mortified or not; his hands were con-
 siderably bumper, and one of them wors . ring-perhaps a pastoral ring-with a fine
 diamond in it, which I am quite sure he hld never possessed as layman. He was saidto
 be very 'earnest worker" and it is certain
 that he worked with his hands, and that ir a very attractive and graceful manner when he
 raised them in supplicatiOn, my aunt said flat
 they reminded her of a dove with folded wings
 which in the act of benediction became pair