The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1885-10-03

and we talked the matter over calmly
and sensibly.
The conclusive arrangement we made
has been the cause of all that | have
written here about Phineas Owens,
common clerk and poetaster, and of
all that am going to write and have
printed about him in the future.
want to make my talk interesting,
and for that purpose, have let my
worthy associate on the nameless sheet
| edit assume my chair for brief reign
while l devote myself to a pleasant er
task, and attempt to portray and re-
veal, not the life-that would be too
dull and dreary for anybody to read
but some features of the life and liter
airy career of one Phineas Owens, a
poor clerk who sought the substance
for his bodily support at the shambles
of incessant toll, and the food for his
mental portion among vendors of Sec
ond- hand books and in the faces and
performances of the vast human family,
of which he and Benny and l, and per-
chance my readers too, are all worthy
enough members l hope.
Benny suggests that it would look
more proper and save me dig from
the critics not to build my little monu-
ment of words until after Phineas is
buried, at least, but sigh and refuse
his counsel, for may never be stirred
up again to such point as l am now,
and intend to write on through the day
and night until my work is finished in
such a manner that it will show here
and there, if not throughout glimpses of
warmth and my heart, and not appear
altogether constructed from the straight
laced aethetics of labored inspiration.
The critics will find enough to say
about my objectionable boldness in in
Producing such character to such a
public as the present has become, de-
spite all have or may say about its
being simply a little memorial tablet
Benny and l have undertaken to carve,
which passers by may join us in admir-
ing or condemning as 1t may merit.
Benny has all of Phineas' papers, all
has little pieces, "effusions" the coun-
try editors are fond of calling them, he
will hand them over to me and / will
Gull from them for you and l to read
together such as l think worthy SEN
sible every day mans perusal, and that
will add to his wisdom of the world
and things as well as tickle the pallet
of that fabulous sized fellow-Pleasure.
While Benny has gone searching for
the papers, down the narrow alley and
up the long flight of stairs to his own
loft-like Office, l must try to tell you,
at least a little bit, about PhineaS
Owens-who he was and what.
The large and somewhat luxurious
office of Perseverance, Pliewell & Co.,
on the northwest corner of Grove and
Laurel streets in this city, whose name
| have neglected to mention before,
and which, for Perseverance. Pliewell
& Co.'S, sake, will endoavor to neg
lect mentioning throughout my nara
tive, was the scene of all Phineas
Owens mental exploits ere the news o.
| his death came to me this morning
and l wager, when the welcome hou1
of S 80 p. M, arrived yesterday it found
him just quitting his desk on the thirc
floor of the Grove and Laurel street:
building, for, as Benny told me, he dice
suddenly and know he had not beer
i'll more than day, if that long. 1t i:
hardly the proper thing for an autho
to do, l know, in this year IS of thu
nineteenth century when everything i
life and hustle, rumble and activity, pro
gress, advancement, and important ma
tional and commercial issues, to ash
a certain number of that class who con
stitute these important issues and thu
, like, to pause a little while to read wha
one man whom they don't know o
care a snap of the finger FOR relate
j about another whom they know jus
about as well, and worst of all, who
i dead and should in all due reverend
;. to enterprising modernism be forgotten
r But ze are busy member of that sam
h race ourself, yet we pause willingly an
y heartily to talk sweetly and think sweet
h little while of Phineas Owens, com
y mon clerk and Poetaster.
Phineas Ovens father and mothe
S his sisters and brothers, were famil
;, OF Southern production and norther
q sub civilization, or Vice Versa, as m
n readers dwelling in one or the other
: these sections of the United State
choose to understand me. l give thel
e freedom to advocate the cause of eitht
e slave or slave-master, to prefer Prime;
" Owens or Alfred Tennyson, to admin
y my story of the common clerks life {
poor Boswell's narrative of dear Doctt
S, Tohnson's career. But | shall &C @
W with my eulogy, nevertheless, and the
O may go on with me or stay behind.
: have counted up and l find Phineas
d have been twenty years and some pet
d odds of months, weeks and days o.
d when he expired this morning: H
lie was born in the south; spent his earle
l. boyhood years in a quiet Maryland Vi
lie lage, emigrated with his family to til
at dusty commercial mart, entered II
arena at once with the eager impetuosi
l. of youth, became stung with the harsl