The Portland daily press., 1879-05-28
THE PRESS.
from All the Year Round.]
Mr.. BOWker'S COurtShiD,
CONCLUDED
CHAPTER III.


things there were few scenes in the world
richer In picturesque and humorous elements
than that presented by an out-of-door Satur-
day night in the Black country. There were
always shows and stalls on the waste ground
at the upper end of High street on Saturday
nights in my time. The market, an unroof-
ed square space surrounded by wall, and
entered by great gates which were only open
ed on Saturday, might have found student
of midland life thousand themes for obser-
walton and discourse. Cheap Jack was out
side the lower gate, hOarse, voluble, assured.
There was the crock merchant, with his
stock in trade spread out on straw, shaking
and jingling his little goods noiselessly to-
gether, and skillfully dropping plate or ba-
sin now and again to show how strong and
unbreakable they WERE There were the
fried-fish stalls, and the oyster stalls, with
genuine natives at five penny, witha much
vinegar and pepper as you chose to take
thrown in for the money. Here were noun
tains of rock and other sweet stuff, side by
side with alps of new-baked rolls and seas
of treacle. Here you might buy apples
wherein had rained the CHASTITY dew of the
naptha lamps until they tasted and smelled
like veritable fruit of Tophet. TASTED those
apples once. How well I remember their
Dead Sea flavor! Here was gentleman in
a cart, with awful diagrams of the human
10y SNDPSiAuOu iIOlll lCetb lldiliC"Oih III
the rear-a gentleman who would sell you
pills for penny, and tell you for nothing,
IN 1lve minutes, variety of things about an
atomy and medicine, which the whole staff
of Bartholomew or st. Thomas would ev-
er dream of telling you at all, if you spent a
lifetime with them. And among all these
things the big Black country men, and those
strapping Black country women, went slow,
solid, stolid, heavy-the men in creased and
wrinkled suits of new and shiny black which
fitted nowhere, and huge many-colored com
forters dangling yard and half in front of
them, and very glistening hats; andthe wo-
men in green and red and blue and yellow
garments, with artificial roses in their bonnets
in size and hue resembling picking
-cheapening here and there with a long de-
liberate drawl and stolid faces of the land.
These things have faded ndvanished Civ
ilization is killing picturesqueness in cuta
color, and the accent of Cockney Brumma-
gem is spelling the only Saxon left us in the
whole country.
Through and among all these delights and
wonders roamed Selma and her cavalier.
How she despised that sheepish aud shame
faced youth, as she walked about with him!
How she almost grew to hate him for the
minute, and quite grew to hate herself when
she contrasted him with the absent William.
Not that Abraham was guilty of any remiss-
he went into the Red Cow to get his pint, he
brought Selma her half-pint into the street,
and saw her drink it, and carried the jug
back for her in the most gentlemanly manner.
For in the Black country it is not or it was
not, etiquette for a single young lady to en-
ter public house. Married ladies could ex-
ercise their own discretion, but a decent
young fellow abroad with his sweetheart
would always bring share of his beerto the
door OF the public house, and there good,
clumsy Phyllis and Damon drank together.
Nor was Abraham in other matters unequal
to his duties. He and Selma went into all
the shows together, and if she had demand
ed all the rocks and 'humbugs" in the mark
ct, she might have had them. But she was
sickening for cry all along, and she was
right glad to get away from her escort, and
to escape all question from her father, and
to unloose the flooq-gate of her tears in her
own bedroom. / dare say that when the
young princess has too deeply wounded the
prince, her lover, she feels something of the
same remorse. dare say the pains of de-
spised love were pretty much the same thing
to the princely melancholic Dane as they
were to Mr.. Bowker. The Dane had faculty
of eloquence and a gift of scholarship which
Mr.. Bowker had not; but that young gentle
man, glazing disconsolate into his own fire.
less CRATE, by the light of one candle, with
his ears still obscured by the big collars, saw
there pretty much what his more learned
and polished fellOw-sufferer looked at under
similar circumstances miserable, foolish
tumble of world, namely, in which it was
surely worth no sane mans while to bear
fardels any longer. We are pretty much of
the same flesh and blood all the world over,
and share toothache and heartache and other
ills in fairly equal manner.
There had been a little misunderstanding
between the sweethearts the night before,
but William knew that he had meant no. quar-
rel, rnd had supposed Selina's ill-humor to
be as transparent as his own. Selma had
put on few small airs and graces, with a
half unconscious intent to display and test
her power The moment chosen had been
inopportune-the most charming creatures
are not always WISE Therefore these two
young people were now engaged in breaking
their own hearts, sitting within half doz-
en- yards of each other-out of sight and
hearing.
''They'm a queer sort, be womenfolk,"
unused the young man sadly. "But if S'liner
wants to marry cretur as is more like
cross betwigst she'p an bullock nor like
a mon, it cent no affair O. mine. Take your
own road, wench, tax your own roadp'
Herewith he took his way to bed, and
lay down beside his love. The heads of their
two beds touched the same wall, and the
heads of the occupants of the beds were
within a foot of each other So near, and
yet so far away. You will observe that Will
liam had the bitterest of all jealousy's
draughts at his lips, which is brewed by
lovers contempt for his rival. Says the lau-
reate:
Having known me, to decline
On range of lower feelings, and narrower heart
than mine!
There's the rub! She has left me, me, me,
for that fellow! Had he been handsomer,
or richer, or cleyerer, have we not all fancied
that we could have borne it better? But
man every way my inferior, sir; person
with whom would scorn to compare my
self, physically, mentally, or spiritually-to
prefer him to me-'tis uncomfortable! So, al
so, have known Miss Smith to speculate
as to what her Wilkins could see to admire
in that insignificant Miss Brown. William
despised his rival, and in spite of that his
rival triumphed. The young fellow tossed
his stalwart limbs hither and thither in the
bed through the long, sleepless night, and
his sweetheart cried miserably and quietly
all night through, on the other side of the
wall, within foot of him.
''Her cent got as much 'eart as nd max
pins yed," mourned William to himself, un-
conscious of her tears.
"Oh, dear me, dear me-" Selma lamented,
1--WE throwed him away. Pm wicked,
udd SClis LIZ IL SOO Oub uO-luOllCl WI Ddlly
Rogers. I know he wull."
So the gray dawn rose on those two sleep
less and unhappy people William descend
ed to the pump in the back yard, and had a
wash in the halflight of four o'clock, and
Selma got out of bed and took sly peeps at
him through her tears. William, his ablu-
tons over, went out for a dreary stroll,
past the Hilly Piece, and over Stevenson's
hills, and dowu Jacobs Ladder and Dead
Mans Lane, and on to the brookside again.
There on June Bridge, he stood and watched
the eddies circle around the great stones,
and found that negative and bewildered COM
fort which trouble always finds in running
water. Meantime Selma had gone back to
bed, and had there renewed her tears, and
was finding some comfort in running water
also. And, at the moment when William
stood upon June Bridge, Mr.. Abraham
Cough, in suit of flannels, was making his
way to the day-shift in the Strip-and-at
Lest you should find yourself too much dis
turbed by the phrase, let me explain that the
Strip-and-at-it was coal-mine, so named by
its inmates from the cant phrase of some
''dodgy' or guager: "Now, lads, stip and at
it,"
Poor William regretted his holiday, and
longed for the hour when work should begin
again. He beguiled the heavy hours of the