The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-03-23

! farther than the years counted. VI 1t
may have been that his supreme indif-
! ference to all the alert and urging ele-
ments of every day life gave to him, in
their estimation, something of the lean
ing and waiting spirit of one aged be-
fore his time. Certainly he bore no
physical signs of being an old man.
He stood erect, lacking even the de-
preston of chest that is characteristic
of his craft; his eyes were full, clear
and steady; and the slight touch of sill
Yer in his whiskers made his face
stronger rather than weaker. He could
not have been more than forty; he
might easily have passed for thirty-tiye.
The oldest thing about him was his cos
tune. That was always and conspicu-
ously in the second childhood of decay,
and always, too, out of harmony with
the prevailing weather. thus appearing
to have been left over from the preced
ing season. The summer that | saw so
much of him he wore a heavy, dingy
beaver-cloth coat, usually buttoned to
the chin with clerical eXactness-tOo
often, | apprehend, only to hide the
want of shirt; aud he declared to me
with every indication of truth that a
pair of brown cotton overalls had
served to temper the bitter Illinois
winds to his shuddering frame through
the previous winter.
1.-The peacock is a pretty bird, he
remarked to me once, casually discours-
ing upon this matter of apparel, 90 but
it doesn't count; with all its gaudy
feathers, it can't sing worth a cent. 1t
looks well, but its music is the most
abominable noise | ever heard-and |
have boarded in a house where they
kept a melodeon," he added, with a
conclusive toss of the head
Like most printers, "Old Noah"
was good deal of a cynic, though
his cynicism was so closely woofed
with subduing sincerity that it was
very difficult, frequently quite inn
possible, to tell where the one left
off and the other began. AS l have said,
he looked upon life as play, and he
was fond of reciting Shakespeare's
"Seven Ages in support of this idea.
" It's all right" he would argue, as
long as you don't care. That's the
whole secret. Ignorance is bliss oftener
than we think; it's knowing too much
that bothers people, and if you're both
cred you can't enjoy the show, don'tyou
see? 1t isn't altogether unlikely, let me
tell YOU, that well-behaved dog, asleep
in the sun and sure of bone for his
dinner, isn't better off than we are,
with all our wisdom and all our doubts
And vet he reverenced wisdom, l am
sure, and respected all honest opinions,
and think that away down in his heart
lurked quiet faith in the saving power
of virtue; but doubt if he believed very
much in the naked moral strength of
human nature. | know he once sorely
tried my patience in that regard. l
was telling him how George Insley,
known to us both as hardened speci-
men of the printer-toper, had taken the
pledge and was manfully keeping it;
and after l had finished with the as
surance that Insley had not tasted liquor
for nearly six months Che subsequently
shot himself, poor fellow he dropped
his head a moment and then, looking
up with an incredulous smile, said
quietly:
There UaS some truth in those
Arabian Nights stories, then, after
ALP"
Singularly enough, too, his skepti
cism was confined to his own sex; sim
gularly, | say, for he was a man, you
know, and not a woman. 1t was Eve
that the snake had to charm and be-
tray" he was accustomed to put it;
adam fell as matter of course"
This was little sophistic, to be sure,
as much of his logic was apt to be, but
the sentiment of it was so knightly that
it readily won him credit among his
critical fellow printers, even at the ex-
pense of some disloyalty to their own
personal sense of masculine superiority.
He had been in love once in his life,
this battered prodigal, and the venture
had not been what could be called a
complete success He told me all about
it of his own accord, one restful night
as we sat on the bridge at the foot of
Kansas avenue, listening to the culver
of the cottonwood foliage and watch
ing the river slowly gather the shadows
to its tawny bosom. He was religious
ly sober that night, for wonder, and
| felt that it must have been some sub
tie witchcraft of the atmosphere, rather
than the few $3.50 remarks we had Just
been exchanging about Phil. Reade's
marriage with the winsome little singer,
Minnie Beals, that so suddenly drew
his eyes away from the water and out
into the vague perspective beyond the
opposite shore, and sent his thoughts
backward with bound, as it were, to
the rich days when every sky was
blue to him and every sound rapture
of harmony.
''She was good, solemn girl" he
began, . and think her intentions were
honorable all the time. know, now,
that she was not handsome, for her
cheeks were crossed slightly and her
cheek-bones were high, and her chin
had retiring turn-the face didn't
Justify you understand-and her hair
inclined to redness; but she was as
beautiful to me, then, as a flower, and
loved her then very dearly. | was
holding the ad.' cases on the Quincy
Herald, in Illinois, at the time, and
saving some money every week. l was
expecting to be a man of family, you
know. | had fixed in my own mind
what kind of house we would have,
where we would buy our groceries, how
the children would look and what we
would name them (there were to be sew