The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1885-03-21

iects to it-quite the contrary; but the
mere fact of his continuing to exist,
and thereby retaining possession of his
money, which would otherwise come to
me, is an etfectual bar to our happiness.
Dear Julia is charming girl, but like
the young lady in the song, her face is
her fortune, and it is hardly to be sup
posed that l, Benjamin Grylls, clerk
in her Maiesty's Civil Service at ESQ
year, could marry on that, even with
the additional hundred or so my uncle
allows me. Really the parallel was
wonderfully close. In some respects,
indeed, mine was the strongest case.
For Rev. Walter Dene's uncle was not
(save by the mere fact of his existence)
Objectionable. Mine qOaS! Not to men
ton his disgusting habit of calling me
Benny, and of cracking what he was
pleased to consider Jokes at my expense,
he had sundry manners and customs
which, to a delicate-minded person,
were extremely offensive. He 1Oould
wear an old serge jacket and carpet
slippers, and not unfrequently he would
come down to breakfast without collar
or necktie, and not always in the clean
est of shirts. Now if there is one thing
more than another on which | pride
myself, it is my shirts. ] always wear
(Uncle Thomas pays the laundress'
billy a clean shirt every day, and my
cuffs and collars are the envy of all the
fellows in our Office.
Icome down to breakfast, 1 flatter my
self, like gentleman. Uncle Thomas
shambles in ten minutes or quarter of an
hour later, with his carpet slippers, his
shirt front rumpled as if he had slept in it,
and very often so frayed out at the button
holes that the studs won hold in them.
When | entreat him to show more self
respect, and to buy himself half doz-
en- of decent shirts, the old reprobate
actually has the coarseness to tell me
he can't afford it. ''Ah, Benny, my
boy" he often says, "you haven't an
extravaganza nephew to keep going, as
l have" And then he laughs till he
nearly chokes himself, and / have tC
slap him on the back to bring him to,
| hate a man who laughs at his own
jokes. And of an evening he drinks
two tumblers of hot gin-and-water, anG
then he throws his handkerchief (col
ored cotton) over his head and shores
Surely if Walter Dene was excusable il
getting rid of such comparatively in
offensive uncle as his, should be more
than justified in removing mine. AnC
| then, again, there was nobody to regre
nay uncle. Walter Dene's uncle may
have had any number of other relations
it is clear that he had at least one othe
; nephew, because Walter had a brother
$ My uncle had not soul in the world t
: regret HIM but myself, and if was pre-
/ pared to waive my personal feelings
). surely no one else had any right t.
interfere. OF course am not talkin!
. of the legal aspects of the question. L
has always been my principle to let tn,
S lawyers have as little as possible to d.
: with my affairs, and so delicate mat
a ter as the present must clearly be KEEP
= as remote as possible from legal com
L plications. Lawyers don't recogniz,
that higher law, that sublimated expe
: diency on which Walter Dene founde,
d his course of action. Walter Dene wa
r fully satisfied of the perfect propr
\ ETY. of his conduct, but he took goo
> care notwithstanding not to let the lay
y into his secret, and so must !.
IS Aq,d so must /! Good Heavens! wa
: / actually planning the destruction {
l. my innocent relative, from whom
I had only that morning received a chez
~ for ego? Perish the thought! And ye
there was Julia. Her happines
q surely ought to be considered, and he
y happiness, or very large portion of i
4 depended upon her being united to M
q So that it really was not questio
. solely of my duty to my uncle, but {
Or my duty to my uncle UerSuS my duty t
f Julia. And then, myself, surely l ws
entitled to a little consideration. A
# Walter Dene very neatly puts it: "Her
a was Christina happiness and his ow
ir on the one hand, set in the scale again'
Nv the feeble remnant of a selfish old man
AZ days on the other" For christina
a read Julia" and for "his own" I'm
7 own" and there you are! Then, agail
IL every one admits in these enlightene
7 days that the greatest happiness of IL
~ greatest number is the true test of nj
! rality. Julia and l were clearly I'll
10 number, for we were two to on
ID Really, the arguments all pointed OIL
st way.
Id tried to dismiss the matter from N
l. mind but it wouldn't be dismissed.
v argued the matter seriously with m
" self tried to trot up my uncle
d. virtues and to see precisely what Il
I'd world would lose by losing him. +
10 was good-natured-I felt bound to a.
a NIT that much in his favor. Second
al he was honest; though there WASH
v much credit in that, seeing that he ha
IL no temptation to the contrary. Third
IT. he was-he was No, for the life
err me couldn't think of any other vi
of tue that he could fairly claim cred
Is for Two virtues, all told. And was
It. man with this paltry allowance of NOR
Mt recommendations terribly set off p
rs contra, by his red cotton handkerchie
l = 4