Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-03-12
CHAPTER II.
HIS LoRDsH1P TOWN HOUSE.

~
The residence Of Hyacinth Cronan, MD,
LRC.P., general practitioner, was in Cam
den street, Camden Town. His surgery, his
consulting room, and his red lamp were also
attached to the same house, where patients
not only received advice, but saw their
medicines mixed before their eyes, and
might also, if they wished, have their teeth
drawn. ~Probably-it is not safe to make
the statement with greater confdence-no
practitioner in Camden Town had a larger
practice; very few Of his brethren, except
among the youngest men-those just start
ing-made a smaller income. No man in the
parish, except the postman, walked a greater
number OF miles every day, nor did any
body, except the tram car conductor-and
even he gets every other Sunday off, which
the doctor does network for longer hours.
There were, in DR.. Cronan's case, the usual
compensations; though the income was small
the family was large; there were plenty of
wants to exhaust the scanty means; though
the loaves were few the mouths were many.
This is, as has often been remarked, one Of
Dame Natures playful ways. She substi-
tutes for the things which are missing those
which are snperfluous or least prayed for;
she adds to the things which are already
possessed others which may deprive them
of their value Thus, on him who has the
greatest good fortune, luck and worldly hap
piness, she bestows an asthma which deprives
him of the power of enjoying anything at all,
and when a poor man has succeeded with in
finite trouble and self-denial in saving a little
money, she sends him an illness or a misfor-
tune which gobb!es up his little all; to the
rich man she denies an heir, and to the poor
man, who has nothing to leave, she showers
heirs and heiresses. However, Dame Nature
means well, and we are but poor blind NOR
tails, and, doubtless, know not what is best
for us. On this principle of playfulness
Nature had enriched DR.. Hyacinth Gro
nan with ten children, Of whom Calista, the
eldest, now in her twenty-second year, was.
as we have seen, a sister at the Children's
Hospital The second, named Hyacinth,
after his father, was at University College
Hospital, on the point of completing his
student-time. After Hyacinth came Norah,
private secretary to a genealogist, recently
engaged to Hugh Aquila. Then followed
Patrick, who followed the sea, and was a
midshipman, or fourth officer, as, l think, 1t
is now called, IN board a F. o. boat in In
dian waters. After Pat followed those who
were still at school-Alberic, Terence, Ger
aldine, Larry, Honor and Kathleen.
It will be understood from these names
that DR.. Cronan was of Irish extraction, He
was born, in fact, in Dublin-he still pro-
nounced it Doblun-and he graduated at
Trinity college, and such relations as he had
were understood by his wife, who never saw
any Of them, to be still resident in the dis
tressful country, where Irish people are fond
Of talking about their families. DR.. Cronan.
however, hardly ever mentioned his people
Yet he gave all his children Christian
names more common in Ireland than on this
side Of the channel When a man is tact
turn on the subject Of his origin there is
generally a presumption that it is not such
as make men stick out their chins. On the
mothers side, however, to make up-Nature's
way again-the children could boast of
the most honorable connections. Their
grandfather had teen an alderman.
More important still, he had made
money at his trade of chronometer maker.
He rose to be an alderman, and was war
den Of his company, and in both capacities
devoured in his time quantities of turtle
soup every year. 1t was entirely through
his %virtuous self denial that Mrs. Cronan
his daughter, whom he did not live to see
was possessed Of a substantial income-no
less than two hundred pounds year. What
the ten children would have done without
that two hundred a year one cannot even
think. What became Of all the rest of the
alderman's money l know not. Some of the
grandchildren had, no doubt, run through
their portions, and were gone abroad. some
were clerks; ONE had shops; some were pro-
f~essional men; not one, lam sure, was initial.
ing the great example Of his grandfather
and saving money for those q the twentieth
century to spend.
One evening in June, about half-past nine
o'clock, while it is still almost light enough
to read without a lamp, DR.. Cronan sat bv
the empty fireplace in the family dining
room, surrounded by his family. It was not
every evening that he could thus sit at his
ease, in slippers, with a pipe between his
lips, and the materials" on the table. The
room was called the dining room, but it was
used as the family sitting room, work room
study, and anything else. They lived in it,
they received their visitors in it. and thew
took their meals in it. The window was
open, for it was actually a warm evening
though only at the beginning Of June: the
gas was lit, and if the room was rather
crowded it had a happy look, as if the fam
ny We're, on the whole, good tempered.
Among those family possessions which the
visitor at once involuntarily recognizes.
even before he has had aime to look at the
china and the pictures, good temper Is the
nrst Il 1t Is found in the house at all. !