Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-30

so. Blobbei'
There's much to be said both ways
| Blarn4by but what's the use of trying to
| swim before you get to the water2 F'other.
| ingham can put the asphalt contract
| through if the DEVILS own craftiness has
| any power over his aldermanic children but
| suppose he fails-suppose the L.. and 7. at
fair comes out stillborn-suppose-"
But | won't suppose anything of the
sort! We know that any venture may
| smash: but haven't within my grasp the
magic wand that will turn even ashes into
| coldl Be practical, Blobbe; you know the
| world as well as l do''
| BE practical, you say; and yet you are
| the visionary who dreams of inheriting for
| tunes not yet made through marriage not
| yet accomplished! One thing at time is
enough for practical man like me-
Blarnaby may have frightened his bite on
| his cigar, but nobody would have noticed
| that automatic signal of raging emotions.
n single pun preliminary of the calming
! smoke prepared Blobbe for the uncloudy
words that followed:
See here. Blobbe. YOU and l have stood
| together and fought together these dozen or
score of years, in storm. in sun shine-'
And in moonshine-''
! Eyes. and in the fogS that YOU lawyers
! like so well. We've done clean work and
| other work together, and together we have
| marched"
sometimes creeping, sometimes stuck in
| the mud
But we've climbed pretty near to the
top OF the tree; and now, for the first time,
you try to brighten me from plucking the
finest apple by suggesting that this may be
the one rotten bough of the tree.''
Not the olny rotten one by long way;
but the law of probabilities piles the odds
high up against the safety of 4 frail top
branch when the thick ones beneath barely
hold their Xyaiohf
that last one is to re loaded with the weight
of wedlock-"
This last word acted like sharp tonic to
BlaTnaby, who instantly assumed a master
ful air and attitude.
Now. I'm glad you have so pointedly in
dicated the trouble between US. You OBJ
ject, or you foresee outside objections to
(Blobbe nodded vigorous assent 10 this
latter way of putting it, the marriage |
contemplate. Very well now don't inter-
rupt me till I'm through. Here's my view
of the case. A man finds himself possessed
of talents calculated to cover a larger area
than that of his native place and occupation.
He finds the path that leads him into pub
lie life. He ascends from retail to whole
sale, from trading TO financing, from vii
lage councils to state conventions, from the
assembly to the house of representatives,
from a senatorship to the cabinet True,
the last honor may have been but short
lived but he realizes that, with ordinary
sagacity in manipulating men and move
ments, he is on the high road TO the White
House, with honors dangling as thick as
blackberries on either side, waiting for him
to pluck them"
well, 90 ahead"
That's just what mean to. I'll drop
the parable and take up my own self. Here
am |, ex-senator, eX-secretary, and ex-ever
SO many things else. small and large. I've
had my ms and downs OOlifiro1 and fin1n-
cial, but | never got down too low to get
up, nor have | ever stayed up long enough
to lose the fear of falling. To-day my every
cent is launched on the embryo Laramie
and Yellowstone Lake railroad. The new
discovery of asphalt in the territory l con-
troll may make me many times a millionaire,
or il may bring some millionaires down to
paupers-God only knows; but you and /,
Blo0be, ordain that the new railroad to the
asphalt regn shall fill one pocket, and the
new syndicate for paving New York with
the bes. asphalt in the universe shall fill the
other -
IF it so please the gods and little ishes,''
And the fame of so serving my country
and my city will enrich my public record
with the solid grace of practical statesman
ship. The man who develops the resources
of his native country, rs this new industry
Will, not only wins his country's gratitude
but is entitled to its highest honors. Yet
there mas always Deeu one llilllS Ill
my career, Blobbe, and not i'll mine only.
What is commercial eminence. what is pO-
litical celebrity, to an Ishmaelite like mei
] am not even classed and labelled as "a con-
tirmed bachelOr'-the semi-sacred profess
sional rank which opens the kingdom of
Society's heaven to the lucky few. Socially,
| go Careering round like q wlli-o'-the-wlSp,
ever twinklng, never fixed. And it's too
late in the day, Blobbe. for anyone but
fool to pretend that either wealth alone, or
political power alone, can run this repub-
lie without the potent aid of social in
tiuence."
Which is rich and plentiful product of
this American SOIL
WHO doubts it. Blobbe? l might have
married a hundred American women, as
fair as and more gifted than l could find in
Europe. ! say it again; l have had hun
dred opportunities, such as most men in my
then position land very likely myself, too,
had natural inclination prevailed) would
have greedily jumped at. But my time
hadn't come, Blobbe, and now that it has,
| find that my aspirations have taken
wider and higher sweep. Love may be
selfish thing. We indulge it for our own
personal advantage. We marry to double
our single bliss, as we think. But what,
when Selfshness expands into patriotism
think of that, Blobbe! l marry A and
household is the happier-perhaps two fam
proud country shares my joy; two nations
embrace and re-ilnit the tie of kinship! My
time has come. l accept the decree of des-
tiny You would balk it
Not at all; l simply say-make haste
slowly"
Yes. and let our enterprises slide half
way down the precipice before | hook them
on 10 the only holdfast that can stop their
fall
Are you SC sure of that, Blarnaby?"
sListen. Now for plain prose. The pipes
are so laid that if English capital can be
tempted to flow, everything is assured sue
cess. a happy combination of circum-
stances maze 1t patent to me when in Lon
don that the mere association of the OSsul-
stone name with my scheme would ensure
British support: and when / perceived that
marriage with her ladyship was a prize
easily within my reach, | should have been
4 traitor TO the highest interests of our
great undertaking. and to my country, and
to myself if had thrown the chance away.
| have said easily within my grasp, which
is perhaps premature expression; but we
will see l have conquered the two worlds
of commerce and politics. and | guess it
will be 4 bit ridiculous to find oneself baf1ed
by the third-two man-worldS Subdued and
wonan-world defiant!''
What the meditative Blobbe said to this
was inaudible for the clatter Blarnaby
made as he filed two glasses with a
strangely reckless flourish of the bottle.
We evidently did not miss much. as may be
seen by the tone of the few sentences with
which this chapter opens
CHAPTER IL-SoCIETY.
see. and sigh. because it makes me sad
Ihat peevish pride doth all the world possess,