The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-04-10


| am told that she is very impressive
| woman, and part of her charm lies in the
fact that she is a sort of bugaboo TO
young men, with whose foolishness she has
no patience. Patience she has none for
me, and says that / am a trivial old child
| when | laugh at her new fads and notions
about music, art, philosophy and what not,
for all book theories seem very absurd TO
me, who find all my knowledge of men in
| streets and honses, and to whom art mat
ters are matters of amusement and not the
peine forte and dure that people make of
them nowadays with their struggles to
comprehend all the various masters"
do not know whether or not Robert took
real interest in the things that interested
I her that summer six years ago at AleXan-
dria Bay. He may have done so, for he
was but twenty-five and had not got set
tied to business yet. Still | rather think
that when he rowed from the Thousand
Island House wharf every afternoon up in
to the DEVILS Oven with her and sat and
/ talked for hours about Spencer and Mill
and Chopin and Ruskin, it was rather for
the sake Of the deep-set, dark eyes of the
Sibyl in that curious cave and the waves
of brown hair that curled down over her
| dark forehead than for any wisdom that
might proceed from my niece Cicely's
pretty mouth that turns down so delicate
! ly at the corners like the old simile of a
| Cupid's bow
There was small garrison at Saclsetts
|
and as it was just around the corner, as
one may say, of the river and the lake,
| which meet at Cape Vincent, the officers
were forever running down 1.-THE bay" to
see their friends among the summer Wis
| itors.
Among them was young Lieutenant of
infantry, Blankenburg, think, by name, a
nice young barbarian, whom Cicely had
met in Washington, and whose simple
nature she greatly enjoyed for expert
L =.
against the Piutes or the Apaches, or some
| other of the red barbarians, whom white
| barbarians like this young Lieutenant
chase around that uninteresting Western
| country every summer. As a consequence
| he had as many tales as Othello. and moth
ing suited my niece Cicely better, after
| she had settled the artistic tendencies of
| the age with Robert in the afternoon at
the Devils Oven, than to relax her MUD
! by listening to the young Lieutenants
stories about the death of his Major, the
! tremendous strategy of General Crook at
the affair of Led Horse Canon and the real
| reasons, plagiariZed by artful Lieutenant
| Blankenburgh from Captain Mclnness.
| formerly of the Papal Zouaves, why Gus
ter's command was lost at the Big Horn.
| These seances took place at evening, in one
| corner of the third-story veranda, while
| the band crashed out waltZes on the ball
| room floor beneath, and the lights of Harris
and Titusville across the steamboat chan
mel threw crimson fire upon the dark water.
| During them my Sister-in-law would
| descant in my browsing ears upon the de-
| terioration of the assemblies since the
| first one she attended in the year 1855,
young Blankenburg would appropriate all
| the experiences of his arm of the service
in order to keep his stream of anecdotes
strictly personal for my niece's benefit,
and Robert Martin would glover in the
| dark
Cicely never paid any attention to him
on these occasions. The Lieutenant had the
| field in the evening" and in the afternoons,
as she told me at the time, she would ana
| lyze his character to Robert in the DEVILS
| Oven. They held long debates over the
| L1eutenants character. she said, just as if
| it were piece of antique armor. They
| assigned it sometimes to the fifteenth and
| sometimes to the sixteenth century, again
| putting it clear back into mid me ievalism,
and again finding some similar specimen of
military bric-a-brac among the Highlanders
| of Dundee's time. Despite these daily
revenges, Robert rowed off to his yacht
across the crimson bars on the rivers
breast every night in very bad humor.
Robert and some friends of his had hired a
cabin sloop to Toronto, and were making a
| tour of the upper river and lower lakes.
The thing had gone on, think, for five
| nights, when Lieutenant Blankenburgh
mourned for the third time in that period
the loss to the service in the death of Gen
eral Candy in the lava beds, closing for the
third time also by dilating upon that
gallant officers bravery. When the recital
was finished | saw ebuilient symptoms in
| Robert, and kicked him. 1t was no use.
| SIT seems to me, he said in a coldly criti-
cal tone of voice, as much possible as the
| SATURDAY ReUieW would talk if had a tongue
| instead of type, that in our era we should
look for very different outward manifesto
| tions of what is called bravery than in any
past era. Don't you think so, Miss DraperW
| My sister-in-law had gone into her room,
which was Just behind where we were sit
ting, and lighted the gas to look for shawl.
| The light shone very clearly on Clcelys
face, and saw her broad, white forehead
contract in a frown. She did not like the
notion, as thought to myself of Roberts
breaking in upon her study of the Lieuten-
ants character Besides, being clever
| girl, of course she knew that something UNI
| pleasant was coming. Il think you are
| talking a little over our heads,n she an
swered; but perhaps you can bring your
self down to our plane of thought. Do you
| think he can, Lieutenant
IF he can show me how bravery is any
| different now from what it was hundred
years ago he is pretty good lawyer" said
the gallant warrior. Il believe you are
lawyer, amt you, Mr.. Martini
80, mean,h Robert blurted out, that
| we leave rows and rumpuseS and riots to
| policemen and that sort of people nova
days. We pay taxes for them to fight for
|
| gree of physical courage myself; neither
does any sensible man | know Of If | was
foolish enough to get into a fight hope |
| should be sensible enough to run away by
the time it got fairly started. People to-
| day see that a mans body is merely case
| full of valuable and perishable goods, and
think him worse than fool to go out and
| get it stove in and smashed up in any way,
and thus let its contents be lost to the
world Now, what call true courage is
this l have a little tailor at home who
makes my clothes. He used to have a shop
on Thirteenth street. This spring he looked
the thing over, took in all the points for
and against his grand strategy, and put
every cent he had into the rent and stock
of big shop on Chestnut street
He CHANGED the savings of a lifetime
when he signed that lease and was i'll his
shop when the lawyers clerk brought it
! down, and saw his hand tremble when he
| did sign it. That was true courage
II a Canadian bomb had come screaming
across from one of the Martello towns in
Kingston Bay, and pumped down on the
parapet at Sackett's Harbor during guard
| mount, Lieutenant Blankenburgh would
not have been more surprised What he
thought, however, of being classed with
policemen and subordinated in courage to
tailors, we never knew. The last whistle
of the boat for Cape Vincent blew at that
moment, and, making hurried adeux to
everybody but Robert, he rushed for the
| L - L.