Milford chronicle., 1883-01-19
CREDIT AT THE BAR.

'He had been refused credit at the
bar.
Nothing could be more blghting to a
mans business reputation in the com.
munity of Turbot Town than the circu-
lation of the above made statement. Had
he been black-balled by a secret society;
expelled from a local troop of horse: de-
feated as a candidate for Hayward or
hung in grotesque efigy, his reputation
might have withstood one, if not all, Of
these humiliations, but arefusal 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 eoasting community
of Turbot Town, where everything
smelt of fish and oil, and everybody of
tobacco and spirits. So long as a man
had credit at the bar that length Of time
he was solvent and reputable, and the
capacity at a moments notice to treat a
crowd was sufficient to consecrate a
mans name in the hearts. of his Turbot
Town countrymen 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
prosperous man it was dreary prospect.
The cold, surly sea, wrapped in its gray
mantle Of mist and enlivened ONLY bv
the struggling flight Of sea fowl: a Nor
weeian barque in quarantine, with a vol
low flag languidly flying; n lighthouse,
with unextinguished lantern looming
whitley through the early morning fog,
like giant somnambulist, with burning
lamp, and advancing noiselessly; and
ashore a burial lot for unidentified mar
iuers, with little wooden crosses upon
the uncouth mounds, as if some day in
those parts it had rained daggers.
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, a light heart
and a pocket iingling with gold pieces,
10 find, however, as many a gay rover
mas found before him, that the hungriast
If all rodents, Time, had destroyed or eff
aced everything that his boyish fancy
lad chung to- After much and varied
his aged parents had sought
est from the cares of earth beneath the
he churchyard cypress--sleeping within
he sound Of the sea that bore their way
yard boy upon its stormy bosom; his
choolmates were scattered, as the wind
eparateth and scattereth the fleets Of the
ome fishermen, and his sweetheart had
married. his boastful rival.
Surely, thought the disappointed sailor.
here are cups of drink deep enough to !
rown the memory of all this; and there
fter Francis Torrent roamed about.
lrowing away his pieces of gold among T,
barking men and unprincipled women :
5 heedlessly as the summer stroller
lucks the yellow dandelion heads and q
'sses them to the passing breezes. The I
suit Of this prodigality was the positive {
lake of the bartender's imperial head. S
As Torrent gazed disconsolately upon
le dreary scene without he felt that he ?
ould like to fling himself from the black
iff out there into the sea it1d let his life .
al, as he had ended his hopes, in bubble a
ID foam; but without his wouted stinu- t.
mt, he lacked the physical nerve to do I'
The early bar-room birds we're gather b
g upon their perches-the sturdy topper a
it'll stomach of brass, who drank his "
ldiluted tipple without a shudder, aud b
ith a crack Of the lips like the explosion tC
pod Of trampled rock-weed, and the d.
emulous, two-handed inebriate. whose h
,ad shook in remorseful rhythm with W
s shaking hands sud- uly there en- CT
RS with great tumult Captain Caleb Il
ldge, bringing in with him the fused h
ors of pipe, gTog and herring. The hi
ptain was a veritable marine monster ia
monster marine-a human cetaeean Of hi
e eacnalot species, moist, breathrul w
d blubbery-clad iu a stark, pilot le
'th garment with nakeful, white bone OF
ttons, very wide and very blue trou- st
s, and a glazed, sun-cracked cap Of su
5raordinary dimensity. le'
'Shipmates r roared the captain, in a
tones, as if addressing
N at the masthead, 'lets all hands We
ice the main-brace. be
Vow, in Turbot Town, a general inu- w'