News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1883-02-01

CREDIT AL The BAR.
HE had been refused credit at the
bar"
Nothing could be more blighting to
mans business reputation IN the com
munity of Turbot Town than the circu-
Iation of the above made statement. Had
he been black-balled by a secret society;
expelled from local troop of horse; de-
feated as a candidate for Hayward or
hung in grotesque effigy, his reputation
might have withstood one, if not all, of
these humiliations, but refusal of credit
at the bar was simply and irrevocably
loss of character. Thus we see that the
commercial standard was very elevated
in the whaling and coasting community
of Turbot Town, where everything
smelt of fish and oil, and everybody Of
tobacco and spirits. So long as man
had credit at the bar that length of time
he was solvent and reputable, and the
capacity at moments notice to treat a
crowd was sufficient to consccrate a
mans name in the hearts of his TurbOt
Town cOumtrymen. Turbot Town re-
spected such a man, and humbly touched
its tarpaulin to him.
Francis Torrent, the luckless mortal
who had been shorn of his good name
by simply the negative shake of the bar
tenders head, had collapsed into an OBJ
scure corner, and was moOdily contem-
plating through the window the mixed
prospect of land and sea. Even for a
prosperous man it was a dreary prospect.
The cold, surly sea, wrapped IN its gray
mantle of mist and enlivened only by
the struggling flight of a sea fowl; Nor
wegian barque in quarantine, with yel-
low flag languidly flying; a lighthouse,
with unextinguished lantern looming
Whitley through the early morning fog,
| like a giant somnambulist, with burning
lamp, and advancing noiselessly; and
ashore burial lot for unidentified mar
iners, with little wooden crosses upon
! the uncOuth mounds, as if some day in
those parts it had rained daggCrs.
Nine years ago Francis Torrent aban-
dOned his home for voyage to Green
land. He spent his first and second
years earnings frivolously in foreign
ports, reshipped, and after four years
more of sailors fare returned home with
| a weather-sheathed cheek, light heart
and pocket jingIng with gold pieces,
| to find, however, as many gay rover
has found before him, that the hungriest
| of all rodents, Time, had destroyed or eff
faced everything that his boyish fancy
had cIung to. After much and varied
suffering, his aged parents had sought
rest from the cares of earth beneath the
the churchyard cypress--sleepingwith
the sound of the sea that bore their way
ward boy upon its stormy bosom; his
schOolmates were scattered, as the wind
separateth and scattereth the fleets of the
home fishermen, and his sweetheart had
married his bOastful rival.
Surely, thought the disappointed sailor,
there are cups of drink deep enough to
drown the memory of all this; and there
after Francis Torrent roamed about,
throwing away his pieces of gold among
sharking men and unprincipled women
as heedlessly as the summer stroller
plucks the yellow dandelion heads and
tosses them to the passing breezes. The
result of this prodigality was the positive
shake of the bartender's imperial head.
As Torrent gazed discOnsolately upon
the dreary scene without, he felt that he
would like to fling himself from the BLACK
cliff out there into the sea and let his life
end, as he had ended his hopes, i'll bubble
and foam; but without his wonted stimu
liant, he lacked the physical nerve to dc
it. The early bar-room birds were gather
ing upon their perches-the sturdy tOpe1
with stomach of brass, who drank hi
undiIuted tipple without a shudder, anC
with crack of the lips like the explosion
of a pod of trampled rOck-wced, and the
tremulOus, twO-handed inebriate, whose
head shook in remOrsoful rhythm witt
his shaking hands. Suddenly there en-
ters with great tumult Captain Calel
Rudge, bringing in with him the fuseC
odors of pipe, grog and herring. Tho
captain was Il veritable marine monster
or monster marine-a human cetacean O
the cachalOt species, moist, breathfu
and blubbery-clad in a stark, pilot
; cloth garment, with nakeful, white bon
buttons, very wide and very blue trou
sers, and glazed, sun-cracked cap o
extraordinary dimensity.
''Shipmates p roared the captain, il
speaking trumpet tones, as if addressing
men at the masthead, '1et's all hand
splice the main-brace."
: Now, in Turbot Town, a general invi
tation to drink was like the beat of tn
reveille-drUm to disciplined soldicry
Every man sprang to his feet, but one
and he was Francis Torrent.
Come, young man" exhortcd tn
ruddy captain, "take suthin' and chez
up. You look too heavily loaded fol
| ard"
''Excuse me, with thasks, Captain,
was the courteous reply.
Eagerly athirst as were many of th
captains bibulous bencficiaries, and E
proximate as were then. glasses to the
lips, yet no one ventur6d an indulgence
for Turbot Town had its exacted statute
upon the subject of drinking, and at Il
time were these unwritten laws so invit
late as on the occasion of a public trea
Therefore, all Turbot Town-that i
such portion of Turbot Town as WI
formed into a green oasis and separate
from the great desert of general thirst
the captains invitation silently awaite
the inviter's motions. Slowly the ca
tain threw back his head and laxly j
fall his under jaw. and with a semi-circ
lar action of his arm, like that of Il
sword-swallower at the circus, curved h
tumbler to his mouth. TrTbOt Tow