Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1878-05-11
A ROMANCE BY RUM-LIGHT,

III were 10 say That we hoped TO light up the
whole of Harris with the blaze of that plum
pudding which we were preparing to do homo
to our English guest, John Brokenshire,
should be indulging in one of those figures OF
speech which, poet as ! am, think should be
used rather in verse than in prose. But No
emle, the children, aud had resolved that
there should be enough rum round that pud
ding to remind our English friend in no dub,
lOuS fashion OF Christmas in his own inSular
home. NOemie had spent two days in com
bining the ingredients, the number and
StranCeDesS whereof made our French min Is
wonder; and it was good as picture to see
her stand with wooden spoon in one hand
and list in the other, asking herself whether
after ali she had not forgotten something. We
were both agreed that the dish which John
BlOkenShire and his cOuntTymen love must
have been Invented by grocer in Difficult les,
anxious to sell of varegated stock, and
willing, by the same occasion, to do good
turn to his friends. The Doctor and the chemist.
Pudding, though, formed but one feature in
our preparations, for had ransack I'd the
books that treat OF English customs, and
found that John BrOkenShire would feel un
welcome uness we all kissed him under a
branch of Druidical mistletOe and encouraged
him to do the same by us. So mStetOe hulg
from a hook in the ceiling. Then the side
board was graced by six bottles of British ale,
labeled with little red pyramids; and two OF
OpOrto, not to be touched with a p lir OF tongS
for the crus;s and cObwebS on them, and three
payne, which You will allow me to think is a
not uncOnyivial wine when capped with gold
leaf, and bearing the Duke de NJ ,nte bello's
carte blanche mark to guarantee its being
the sunny slopes near Rheims.
Meanwhile, an OdOr OF soup AMI roasting
came from the little kitchen, where NoemIe
had just enough room to move about among
her ruddy saucepans and white dishes, with
her sleeves rolled up to her Shapely elbows,
and her cheeks pink from the glow of the
StOve-range. The two children. Victor and
Louisette, sat each on stool making them
selves useful. Victor was scraping truf1e
Of pungent perfume; LOuisette was cutting
out one of those paper frillS that are fastened
goose i'm baking-dish was Kissing VeSpers
pIaintivelyin his own juice, pending the when
he should be laid upon his supreme bed of ap
ultima e destiny, may not his career On earth
be described in the words of my brother poet
Horace, as an or0 usque ad mdLae l beg your
NO6me Leblanc was not my wife, nor was
her children's uncle-Only their godfather
We dubbed much together, for We all lived on
the fifth floor of one of those big Partisan
houses whose roofs seems to reach up to the
skies whenever the weather is misty, and cast
shadows right across the street when the sun
shines. The lOwermOst story was occupied by
printing office, where NOemie was employed
as reader to two newSpaperS-one RepuoIi
can, the other ROyaliSt-Whch were struck
on by the same presses and published under
one roof, though their principles differed like
fire and water Her work occupied her dur
ing twelve hours of every day: and while she
was punctuatng the articles that were to ia
struct our cOuntrymen in the principles en-
gendered by the fruitful series of revolutions,
i, Sittingin my attic and writing, used to keep
an eye on the children My door remained
open that they might run across the landing
from their apartment to mine. What games
they had. If they were not up to some piece
OF mischief that kept The whole upper part of
the house In an uproar, they scarcely conSid-
cred that they were playing. One of their Ia
vOrile amuSementS was to tiIch some damp
clay from neighbOring scuiptor's studio, and
to make exploding pancakes. Having fl It.
tened out the clay to the size of a cnee Sepit e,
tmey inn rtssed "a little hollow in the middle
with the thumb, then threw the pancake win
force on the floor. The sudden compression
of air in the hollow caused it to explode wi h
a noise ike the eruption of gaSometer. 1t
was d delightful spot.
Victor was seven, and LOuiSette six They
were good children, with affectionate ways
and merry voiceS-he, an inteliigen ut LITTLE ur-
chin, much addicted 10 spelling bits of wo I'd
IN the carpenters shop next door on the pre-
tense OF learning upholstery: she damSel
with gay blue eyes, already VerSed in the
wisS of her sex for getting what she wanted
even when it might not be convenient to let
communal school every morning with KNAPP
sacks on their backs full of books and bread
and-batter: and il my door was not opened
when they set out, they raped at il, and
called me lazy through the key hole. At four
they returned, and rather think that was the
pitasantest hour i'll the day TO me, nOtWith-
standing thar they would herald their arrival
by terri ic clatrer of their small shoes on the
wooden staircase, which the concierge was at
such pains to polish twice a week with bees
wax. From four to seven, when their mother
came back, rather fired OF her proof correct
ing. to make supper ready, l had Victor and
LOuisette alto myself, or, to speak more truly,
they had NE ALI them. Many are the poetic
inspirations which they have nippad short by
playing hide-and-Seek behind my bed, and
dragging me into their game by the cOat-tails
when l was immersed in that difficult task of
finding rhymes-as laborious often as fishing
tOr pearls.
verses that are widely read and p ordered over
by thoughtful minds but, unlike my'cOunIry-
NAH Victor Hugo, attune my Tyre TO sing the
products of mans industry rather than tie
works of Nature, which may be, have panegy-
riSIS enough. i indite VerSihed advertise
mentS for pushing firms, whose names cover
large spaces in the outer sheets Ofnewspapers :;
ton of a, ticies suitable for or human attire,
chiefly feminine. have turned sOnIets upon
bODnets, but am not above rhyming to a pill
or nickle. One Of the most fancied things
gram in four lines, which the purchsseS.' "a a
hair dresser, ambitiOusly gave out as his own,
and caused to be stuck on all the pomatum
pots that left his. shop. The best of this sort
Of work is that it keeps man in beefsseaks,
which the higher sorts OF epics do not, so far
as my experience of them goes but the m )re
important point to me was that, by picking up
HUE HiOIc DlONcy tudH was tSSeullal I'D my
needs. was enabled to assist my neighbOr
NOemie Leblanc in bringing up the children,
her own slender earnings being much ear
tailed by the sums which she sent regularly
every quarter day to her absent husband.
Where was that husband? had he deserted
her? Had he gone away, as 50 many hu stands
do, with grand hopes of making fortune
which had all come to nothing, and Obliged
him To fall back on his Wifc'S wages? No.
Jules Leblanc was Political exile in New
Caledonia.
He had got mixed up i'm the dOings of the
Commune, and had been sentenced to trans
pOrtation for life, though a milder man tn IN
he, and one less disposed to upset existing ar
engagements for the government of mankind,
never saw. Talk TO him of charters and bar
ricades, why he could not SO much as under
stand what was the use of the vote which the
Constitution had conferred on him, and he
would have given it to the first canvasser as
readily as sou to beggar. But Jules was a
humoriSt; and in that drOll honest head
of his nature had implanted gift for carrica-
ture, which served him to sketch you off a
Cabinet Minister with monkeys tail, or a
Cardinal with long ears. in no time. He called
this mere fun, and thought he was only doing
laughable thing when he stopped in Paris
during the civil war and brought out a comic
cartoon of one of the Generals or ROyalist
statesmen of the Versailles party. Fun in.
deed when the Generals got hold Of him they
showed him what fun was He would have
been shot but for NOemie'S throwing herself
at the feet of some man in authority who had
just influence enough to get the sentence com
muted into one of transportation. We were
obliged to be content with that. One weary
dry Summer day NOemie travelled down to