The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1881-07-16
OUR C0iONEL'S STORY.
[Frnm London Society

"You all knew Sandy Mcpherson =:
said our colonel
Intimately Perfectly "As
well as my own brother, STRIP most OF
replied, though, if the truth be told,
| there was not a man at that mess table
who had ever heard of Mr.. Mcpherson
before. Yousee, it was the commanding
officer who spoke, and it was always
rather risky saying him nay when he ex
pected yea.
"They used to call him, you recollect
the "Great Unwashed;" a vulgar, but
appropriate soubriquet, nevertheless,
continued the chief. "Greaton account
of his burly and previously ugly per
son; unwashed, by reason of his ac-
credited scant acquaintance with Brown
| Windsor, spring water, and the func-
tons of the dhirzees and dhobies, i. e.
tailors and washermen of the land.
"On his coffee estate III the noun
| tains, and among the Undraped and I'M
| scrubbed coolies, this disregard for the
comforts aud convenience of life went
for nothing, perhaps it was even in keep
| ing with the surroundings; but when he
came down to this city, walked into its
public gardens and esplanade, or showed
with its swells at the band, his appear
| ance was too outrageous, and his brother
X. G. b. s meaning knights of the
Coffee Berry, and not, as you might
suppose, of the Order of the Bath,
dressy men hercabouts, whatever they
are on their plantations, cast him com
pletely in the shade by their get-up and
gorgeOusness.
Gas for the spinsters and young
widows of the widows of the station, by
Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, virorum,' as
Colonel Dumas i'll the play puts it, there
was scarce one but who fought shy of
admitting him into her presence as n
morning visitor, much less as a sutton,
though many of these blooming ladies
were on the sharp lookout for the silken
chains of matrimony, and Barkis-that
IS to say, Mcpherson was, as they knew,
willing
"But, disadvantages of person and at
tire Notwithstanding, he was right good
fellow, this same gentleman. He was
honest, hard working, thrifty, simple
minded; and from being mere adven-
turer without interest, friends or money,
he had, self-helped only, saved up the
bawbees little by little, had bought
patch after patch, acre after acre, of viz
gin land, cut down its timber, cleared ii,
planted it, aud now he had squatted
down tree from encumbrances on Ailsa
Craig, as he called his property, as pref
ty aud as fruitful a small coffee estate
as could be found in ok4 of the most
picturesque districts of this lovely island.
:" wish that | could give you even a
FAINT idea of the exquisite beauty of its
scenery, as 1t stood on range of lofty
hills looking out on still higher noun
tains, clothed to their very SUBMITS with
| hoary forest trees. | wish [ could paint
that mighty waterfall, almost beside the
house, as 1t came rushing and tearing
over beds and boulders of rock, tum-
bling with an incessant roar into foam
ing river below. | would | were able
to picture the slopes green with scented
grass, the fields white at one season with
the snowy blossoms, and at another red
with the ripening fruit of the coffee
bushes, the towering crags glowing with
bright tropical flowers, and the steep
declivities, verdant TO their very bases
with ferns and hchens. / can't do it,
boys, and [ won't try All that | want
to let YOU know is that il was a deuCed
nice sort of place, this habitat of the
Mcpherson; and that to be settled there
with ones household gods, and coffee
selling at seventy or eighty shillings per
hundred-weight In the market would pay
a precious deal better than does her
most gracious majesty-God bless her
and the command of this dear old
corps with its unruly subs.
SO, no doubt, too, thought its owner
as he lolled and smoked ut his cottage
front and gaZed at the silver bloom or
the ruddy cherries of his trees growing
almost up to the very door. But it was
poor, ungarnished, comfortless, hig-
gledy-piggledy sort of homestead, that
same dwelling house: for whatever else
friend Sandy had done toward the beau
tifyipg and fertIlizing of his land his
roof-tree, like his wardrobe, had been
utterly neglected. Both wanted Just ex-
actly what he thought they did the
wife element to set them ship-shape and
/ presentable; and as you have heard be-
i fore for that desideratum he was on the
/ qui vive.
Now, You young gentlemen who are
/ IL the habit Of lawn-tennising, afternoon
/ teasing, talking, spooning, walking, driv-
ing, with all the feminmes, plain and
colored, Of this place, and who think
/ that you have only to ask and be re-
I ceived-which / beg and entreat YOU
will not put to the test, cutting up the
mess and 50 on-can't perhaps realize to
yourselves the difficulties the worthy !
am speaking of had met with in even
4 this overstocked matrimonial emporium.
/ The Anglefralls, the Hunters, the Hook
ers, lots of girls whom | will not name,
/ had snubbed or turned up their pretty
noses ut him when he came a-wooing.
and so, noiens volens, he remained 8
bachelor, matchmaking his Ill luck,
and venting his disappointment upon
the backs of Sinking aud recusant Tamil
coolies, the recognized natural enc
mics of coffee and the scapegoats of 1t:
cultivators.
"Then as a last resource he sought
among his brethren of the berry around
i counsel as to the most advisable method
/ OT +Ja VaAjpl halr1rla 4