San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-12-24

: sion, by crushing majority To crown
all he lost his wife, to whom he was de
votedly attached. She died Of typhoid
fever in 1868. He was left with two
, children, boy of 10 and girl of 6
, Mr.. Randolph, though of a naughty and
headstrong character, was not what il
called thorough. He was tall and Of
slender build, with high shoulders, a
gray mustache and imperial, and thick,
wavy hair, growing rather long. His
eyebrows were bushy and overhanging,
and gave to his eyes fiercer expression
than might otherwise have belonged to
them; he had habit of twisting them
between his thumb and finger when in
thought, which looked ominous to stran-
gers, but really amounted to nothing
His fingers were very long, and so were
his arguments and discussions; almost
the only short thing about him, in fact,
being his temper. His general aspect
was that of retired southern brigadier
whose slaves had been unrighteously
made contraband. His expression was,
ordinarily, profoundly serious, and he
smiled rarely; but it was not difficult to
make him break into shrill, giggling
laugh, which absurdly marred the severe
contour of his visage and betrayed the
| underlying weakness. ...
He was fond of phrases, and had a
fancy for calling himself 1.-The most in
dulgent of fathers" but whenever his
children transgressed the moral law of
their fathers good humor or Incidence
and fh1S ca1loy,, ha =
Ed, who was as restless and independent
as a hawk-he fell upon them with
sweeping broadsides of rebuke, culmina-
ting, if they answered him back, in vio-
lent assertions of their total depravity.
Ed was sent to school, but the study of
books had no part in his scheme of exist
ence. In the boys seventeenth year
Hamilton Jocelyn, friend of the fam
lily, being on visit of a few days to the
Randolphs, was tickled by Eds bearing
and the story of his exploits, and offered
to take him back with him to New York
city for month or so, to give him in
struction in the laws and amenities of
polite society.
He went off accordingly, and the
month had prolonged itself to six before
he came back. His father thought that
he had been improved by his sojourn
there. He had brought back with him
certainly a great deal of entertaining
talk, and gave Beatrix endless accounts
of the great city, its streets, its houses,
its horses, its theatres; above all, of its
operas and its concerts. Both she and
FL bod n luyoyo haap poac;op,tal,, lo,,o@
ed to music. They had understood it,
by the light of nature, as it were, from
very early age, and had constantly
practiced ever since. Eds voice was not
of much use, but he was an admirable
performer on the violin. Beatrix, on
the other hand, was above all things
singer, and her voice developed into a
ssTrano OF remarkable range aid power
Her studies were not confined to church |
music She knew by heart all the great |
operas and oratorios, and in pursuance
of the marked dramatic ability which |
she possessed she had, with Eds assist |
ance, acted out scenes from many of the |
former $50 far as two performers might |
on the stage of the back drawing room.
OhC WIZ lldu
heard all the famous singers of the world |
in his time, attended one of these private |
entertainments. Contrary to expecta- |
ton he turned out to be the most eulo-
CYSTIC auditor that BeatriX had ever had,
and he wound up his praises by declar-
ing that she must be provided with |
master to bring her voice out. The most |
inAT1lorant nf fofharc or,.ofiHad hx,I
this tribute of admiration from such a
source to his favorite child, and week
or so afterward the master was sent for
This was an elderly Englishman of
respectable antecedents, who twenty
years before, had begun his musical
career with what was considered the
finest tenor voice of the age, and whose
ish not to feel amiably disposed toward
him; but for Beatrix it was impossible
to love him. He lived in a little white
wooden house with green blinds, close
to the white, green blinded church. He
possessed an imposing library, in which
was not a single book that Beatrix could
have brought herself to read, and the
main object of his endeavors was, appar-
emily, to make all the rest of the world
think and live like himself. Moreover,
though he approved of music, he neither
knew nor cared anything about it.
Mr.. Vinal began his operations by a
private interview with Mr.. Randolph,
from which he came forth with coun-
tenance whose serenity made Beatrix's
heart sink. The dialogue which followed
- l. l. =