Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-03-09
THE ODp-LOnhING MAN.
Mildly Favored Autobiog@. phic
SiOry.

we're all seated at the tabled hote of a
fashionable hotel in Venice. eve, means
nv father, mother, sister AID myself.
The two former are long since departed
this life. Ny sister, young lady travel
ing for educational purposes, or, as old
John Dickens would have said, ito con
solidate hermodern languages and music,
is now wife and mother. [ had Just
finished my terms at Oxford and, us we
I'LL fancied we should benefit by change
of air and scene, We set out Tor twelve
months Continental tour. In due season
We reached Venice, where I overheard
the remark which suggest ed the heading
of the present article. Our vi.-a-vis was
an English Clergyman, with lis family.
whom we then met for the first time on
our travels The eldest daughter, glanc-
ing stealthily at her opposite ncighbor,
and with difficulty REFRESHING smile,
whispered audiiy enough il her fathers
ear What STRENGTHENING young man
that is facing us Horeupon Paterfa.ni
lias, putting his quizzing glass to his eye,
and staring deliberately Mt the object OF
the remark, exclaimed enphntically He
IS indeed all odd looking fellow =
The victim CT these untlatteriug obser-
yations was myself. / have always been
what cockncy would cali rum IN to
look at Perhaps no other definition
would suit me as well. am not, strictly
speaking The Ugly Msn'-neithor AM !
THE Lean Man THE Fat Man, The
Short Man, or Tho Tall Man Ny
features, individually, are neither plain
nor unprepossessing. Yet the ensemble
all there is the rub. There is II screw
loose somewhere Figurahyely, the shoe
pinches. But hHd my misfortunes been
confined to general popularity OF ap-
pearaXce, / should certainly have kept
my counsel, and, so to speak, consumed
my own smoke with the pipe Of philos-
opher But it was fur more than this.
Hereditary predisposition had bequeath-
ed to me 4 three-fold idiosyncrasy.
Speech, person ana nervous organHatlon
were alike out Of tune. Tho early COLI
sciousness of these failings rendered NE,
gree winch more healthily constituted
persons could scarcely even imagine as
grew to boyhood and youth these feel
ings became more intensified, and when
had reached my eighteenth year, l was
literally unable to frequent places of pub
lie resort and amusement, or even to en-
Joy quiet daily walk, without undergo
ing positive torture. My friends failed
hot to misiudge me, and attributed 10 me
most unjustly, n morose and misanthrop
ical disposition. / was thus, by a sort o
fatality, deprived OF the natural sympa
thies and counsel Of those who were near
est and dearest to me. In due season
my school days, which had been hourly
torture to me, whether in classroom o
play -grouDd, came to an end. IinpelleC
by natural ambition, and complying witt
tho wishes Of my parents, boldly re
solved TO rick the ordeal OF universit
life, with faint hope--Heaven cave til
mark of eventually embracing tn
clerical profession. So / entered m
name at a college, and in due time pre-
sented .lyself for naturalization. Alas
my amour 1'roprc was destined, at til
outset, to be rudely shaken. Chancin
to encounter, beneath the gateway Of m
cll, "a, II merry group OF my fellow
gow..snaen, one Of them, cycling me a.
H.. sc, audibly expressed a hope thG
IT,. odd looking fellow didn't intend t
come there !" This was 10 tlnttering we
come, on the part Of Alma Mater, to on
SO sensitive and self-oonscious rs ny
aelf.
But worse still was to follow. Will
undergoing the preliminary exa.niaatio
in the college hall--of which, in point
scholarship, 1 had little dread Lone
my fellow freshmen remarked to b
neighbor GOOD heavens did you ev,
See such phiz This plunged the irc
more deeply still into my sore and strict
Ell soul. 1t capped the. climax, as
were. Within less than week j vi
forced to leave my college, and renouut
all the fond and vain hopes which n
friends and myself had built on my III
versity career ''f.-
l now became desperate, md threw m
self into various fOrms- Of solitary Al
uDsocial dissipation. Having 1uhe,ite
from distant relative small legacy
enable me to follow some liberal caree
gquandered away the whole capital, {
attaining my majority, with insane reel
lessness. Having titus reduced myself
the condition OF the penniless prodigal
gratefully accepted the offer of accoI
panying my family abroad.
Byron tells us that foreign travel
the strongest mental stimulus next
ambition. notwithstanding my repeat
failures and disappOiitments, Il nc
chung to this last forloIn hope Of riddii
myself, by q strong effect, seconded
the influence OF novel and striking scene
OF the incubus Of circumstances
underworld to connteract my personal d
tciences by adopting various modes
dress, which | faucied uost suitable t
the purpose, regardless OF fashion or e
pense, so long as ! still had the fnmi
purse to resort to. | studied my impe
feet enunciNtion for hours together,
my Eom, and before my glass, fancy il
myself comedian preparing for his d
but, or an VI. r.. reheareing his maid'