Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-26

so, Blobbe?''
There's much to be said both ways,
Blarnaby; but what's the use of trying to
swim before you get to the watera Fother-
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 Y. af-
| 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
golG2 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 a 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.
| A single puff 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 sunshine
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 10 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 a frail top
| branch when the thick ones beneath barely
| hold their own weight-especially when
| that last one is to be loaded with the weight
| of wedlock-''
This last word acted like 4 sharp tonic to
| Blarnaby, who instantly assumed a master
! full air and attitude.
Now, Pm glad you have so pointedly in
| Dictated the trouble between us. You OBJ
| ject, or you foresee outside objections to
| (BlObbe nodded a vigorous assent to this
| latter way of putting it, the marriage l
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 q 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 10 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
| mcntS, he is on the high road to the White
| House, with hOnors dangling as thick Us
| blackberries on either side, waiting for him
| 10 pluck them
"Well, go ahead. -
''Ihat's just what l mean to. III drop
| the parable and take up my own self Here
| am l, ex-senator, eX-secretary, and eX-ever
so many things else, small and large. I've
had my ups and downs, political and finan-
cial, but l 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 [ con-
| troll may make me many times millionaire,
or it may bring some millionaires down 10
| pauperS-God only knows; but you and l,
Blobbe, ordain that the new railroad to the
| asphalt regin shall ill one pocket, and the
new syndicate for paving New York with
the bes. asphalt in the universe shall fill the
other -
eff it so please the gods and little fishesr'
"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, as this new industry
will, not only wins his country'S gratitude
but is entitled to its highest honors. Yet
there has always been one thing lacking in
my career, Blobbe, and not in mine only
| What is commercial eminence, what is po-
litical celebrity, to an Ishmaelite like me!
l am not even claSSed and labelled as "a con-
firmed bachelor'-the Semi-Sacred profess
sional rank which opens the kingdom OF
society's heaven to the lucky few. Socially,
l go careering round like will-o' the-wisp,
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
fuence''
(Which is a rich and plentiful product of
this American soil
WHO doubts it, Blobbe? | might have
married hundred American women, as
fair as and more gifted than | could find in
Europe. | say it again; l have had hun
bred opportunities, such as most men in my
then position (and very likely myself, too,
had natural inclination prevalled) would
have greedily jumped at. But MY time
hadn't come, Blobbe, and now that it has,
l 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 selfishness expands into patriotism
think of that. Blobbe. l marry a and
household is the happier-perhapst two fam
lies, ten at most. l marry 8, and my
proud country shares my joy; two nations
embrace and re-knit the tie of kinship! My
time has come. l accept the decree of des-
tiny. You would balk it,
Not at all; I simply say-make haste
slowly"
Yes. and let our enterprises slide half
way down the precipice before hook them
on TO the only holdfast that can stop their
fall
Are YOU so sure of that, Blarnaby2''
Listen. Now for plain prose. The pipes
are so laid that if English capital can be
tempted to flow, everything is assured sue
cess. \ happy combination of circum-
stances made it 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, l should have been
traitor to the highest interests of our
great undertaking, and to my country. and
10 myself, if l had thrown the chance away.
have said easily within my grasp, which
is perhaps premature expression; but we
will see have conquered the two worlds
of commerce and politics, and 1 guess it
will be bitridiculous to find oneself baffied
by the third-two man-worlds subdued and
woman-world deiant.'
What the meditative Blobbe said to this
was inaudible for the clatter Blarnaby
made as he filled two glasses with q
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 u.-SoCIETY.
I see, and sigh, because it makes me sad
That peevish pride doth all the world possess,
rh1f Syr han rs tad l1- astS