The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-01-05
A NEW YEARS CALLER.
Widow Van Dusenbery's Interview
with the Personal D.

widow Van Dusenbery's Interview
with the Personal D.
IT was one bright, crisp day, the LIST
of January, 1875. The wind was from
the northwest, but not in the least
boisterous. The sky was blue, and the
sun shone brightly causing the snow,
which had fallen the night before to a
sufficient depth to render sleighing on
the avenue possible, to sparkle brightly
and make weak-eyed people wink when
they looked out of doors A merry
jingle of sleigh-bells gave cheerful
sound in the air, and everybody said
Happy New-Year to everybody else,
with a hearty zest that plainly indicated
sincerity and enjoyment.
Every house on the magnificent ave-
nue.. except here and there one where a
small basket hung by black ribbon on
the door-bell, was open to callers; and
inside We're bright troops of pleasant
ladies waiting amiably to receive the
compliments of the season from the
gentlemen of their acquaintance. But
nowhere in the whole city could a pref
tier picture be seen of New York life on
NewYear's Day than in the parlor of
the Widow Dusenbery. 1t was a fine
house, with brown-stone front and
bay-window, and it contained a good
many fine things besides the fine lady
herself, who, on this particular occa-
sion, was the only visible occupant of
her richly-decorated drawing-room.
The widow had been fortunate in
marrying member of an old Knicker-
booker family; she adopted all his
ancestors as her own, and furnished her
apartments with all the quaint old
furniture that old families are popularity
supposed to leave to their descendants.
Old china, old clocks, dingy-looking
portraits, in furnished gilt frames, curl
GUS cabinets, and queer glasses and
faience dishes abounded in all her
rooms, which she had bought at auc-
tions; and if people chose to imagine
that they were heirlooms brought from
Holland by her ancestors when they
came over with Hendrick Hudson in
the Half Moon" it was none of her
business to correct their mistake. But
she by no means wanted to be consid-
cred old herself Quite the contrary.
Her hair was scant and gray; but she
wore perfectly lovely tresses, of rich
brown hue, which had once belonged
10 a peasant girl of Brittany. And, al
though it was many years since her
cheeks had been in the least suggestive
of the damask rose, on this occasion
they were so skillfully tinted by her
maid that no one would suspect that
the complexion was not her own-as,
indeed, it was. But if her complexion
was not real, her diamonds and laces
were, and they harmonized most adj
mirably with her dove-colored satin
dress and her pearl-handled marabout
fan.
Not only did the widows taste run in
the direction of old furniture and old
families, but she preferred the old re-
ligious forms to the new, and she had
one of the most high-priced pews in the
church of st. Bonifacius, which was
very high and ritualistic, and she en-
joyed the reredos, the candles on the
altar, the boy choir, the purple chasu-
BILE of Father Lansing, the acolytes, the
thurible, and all the other ornamental
accessories of that fashionable place of
worship immensely. She believed in a
personal D., and would not have
yielded her faith on that point for any
consideration.
Like a good many other good people
who begin the new year with good reso-
buttons, the Widow Van Dusenbery had
resolved to turn over new leaf and in
augurate a reform movement. She had
always been charitably inclined, and
had subscribed very generously to the
Anti-Mendicity Society; but, owing to
the failure of the Rainbow Insurance
Company, she had been a considerable
loser, and her income was diminished
to such an extent that she had been
compelled to sell her coach-horses and
to dismiss two of her servants, and she
was now trying to rub along in quiet
way with only three maid-servants and
a one-horse cab, in which she did her
shopping and took her airings in the
park. 1t was a rather humiliating con-
dition to be placed in. Her husband
had cruelty left her with the miserable
income of only $4,000, out of which
she had to defray her own expenses and
maintain her only child, promising
boy of twenty-five, who was then COM
pleting his education in Paris, after
having visited the Holy Land and
Egypt.
The name of this precious youth was
Balthazar. But she called him Bait,
because that was the way they called
his uncle, after whom he was named
and whose property he was expected to
inherit. 1t was for his sake that she
had determined to turn over new leaf.
1t was time she began to save up some
thing against Bait sreturn; for the poor
boy had met with several little acct
dents, which required his overdrawing
he sum she had allotted for his Euro
IAN expenses.
Scarcely had she seated herself in her