St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-02-14

purpose of staring at the duke They
would sit in rows on the steps-the
local gentry as a rule declining to adj
nit them into their pews-with, so to
speak, cooked eyeglasses ready to let
off appreciative chances so soon as the
great man made his appearance. Our
duke was very deaf, and used politely
to fix a patent arrangement in his ear
when the parson took his position I'M
der the sounding. board. This done he
would go quietly off to sleep. He was
very good-natured, and did his best 10
accommodate gazers, but his capacity
was lin this case only limited. He
used to wear white trousers and
spencer. A spencer was a sort of Elton
jacket worn over a long coat. L have
never seen any one in spencer since,
from which [ conclude that their day
is over. Most certainly there are no
men like our duke left to wear them.
Grocers, butchers, bakers, farmers
(who though not much considered
were yet far from having reached the
lower DEPTH of their present degrade
tion) occupied seats little removed
from the quality and from the naval
and military departments. The sailors
used to lounge in in their rough jackets
When they stood up in their allotte::
portion of the gallery their heads al
most touched the ceiling or upper deck,
which, l suppose suited them to a 7.
Somehow or other they seemed to
bring in the murmur of the sea; per-
haps they carried it about with them
as sea shells do. The bees in summer
used to come humming in through
the open windows, and the effect alto
gether on warm afternoons was decid-
eddy drowsy. AS a rule, people used to
slumber peacefully during the after
noon service; but to this there were
the usual exceptions. It was indeed
on one of these drowsy afternoons,
being home from school for the holi-
days, that, instead of yielding to the
SlumbrOuS influences of the place and
hour, l sat up very straight Oh my
seat, having just discovered that [ was
in love. The object of my youthful
affections was the daughter Of q little
neighboring squire whose village was
without q church, and whose family
therefore used frequently to attend
service at ours. Miss Julia Barton was
a great friend of my sisters, and it was
her custom Sunday, after assisting in
the choir, to dine at our house between
the services. Not that l thought she
''assisted' in the choir; to me she was
the choir. | used to gaze rapturously
on her charming face while it remained
above the horizon, and when it sank
las it used to at intervalS) below the
green baiZe curtain that embelliShed
the front of the organ-loft, | would fix
my eyes fondly on the spot where it
went down, and whence it might be
expected sooner or later q always fan
cied later to emerge. I have outlived
many illusions, but l still believe her
to have been the most charming girl
in the world. She was sweet Ooh, how
sweetD seventeen, tall and fair, with
the blueSt of blue eyes. She wore her
brown hair arranged in the broad side
plaits which were then the fashion,
at least in the country. No doubt she
made merry (she was always making
merry at my expense; but [ did not
know it, and if l had known, should
not have cared. I was utterly I'M
mindful of the wide gap between a
girl of seventeen and a boy of fourteen,
and saw nothing in the least absurd in
my devotion.
When poets sing the delights Of love
they are not generally supposed to be
abiding to calf love; yet 1 doubt
whether that phrase of the passion
deserves the contempt which is SO fire.
quently all the notice bestowed On it.
Possibly a poet or a writer of prose,
wearied with depicting the joys or sor-
rows of mature lovers, might fiRd lit
tie labor spent in portraying it not I'M
rewarded. The boyish victim feels a
rapture that he is probably not des-
tinp6 n nv0oriAnnn N Tho
tons that crowd his young bosom are
as strange as he finds them pleasing,
and he has not at first any idea as to
what ails him. On future occasions
the experienced youth will not be at a
loss to name the weapon wherewith he
has been wounded. Next time there
may be, there are sure to be, selfish
desires; now there is but a duty to per-
form, to lay the tiny Offering Ga poor
thing but his beSD on a perhaps not
totally unaccuStomed shrine.
Men have long since grown to be too
clever and too wise too see perfection
anywhere; but Julia was perfection to
me, and for several happy weeks 1
futtered gayly about the candle. | es-
corted her from church, sat next her
at dinner, and on one or two occasions
was even permitted to accompany her
home in the evenings. [ devoutly
wished C'now I am further off from
heaven than when l was a boy') that
there were six Sundays in the week
instead of one. But the sweeter the
dream the ruder often is the awaken
ing. | shall not have written in vain if
l succeed in impressing upon young
ladies of seventeen that boys of four
teen are not perhaps l should say were
noD always absolutely destitute of
feeling
Our parson was neither rector, vicar
nor curate. Like his parish, he was a
sort of nondeScript; neither fish nor
fowl. Men called him a perpetual Gu
rate. 1t is now so long since | have
met with any one holding that particu-
lar ecclesiastical rank that 1 presume
that, like other and possibly better
things, the perpetual curate has been
for some reason, good or Insufficient
abolished. 1t is passing strange that
can recall no other custom or institu-
ton, however useless, over whose
grave some laudator temporis acti
has not been ready to shed a tear.
Why he was called perpetual 1 was
never able to guess. The fact of the
race having persisted is proof sufficient
IlCtI Tic IlliS was d IlllSHOuSf. ouE
perpetual curate was a short, common
looking, middle-aged man, with a
freclIed face and a snub nose His
most striking personal characteristics
were an inordinate appetite for snuff
and a craving for small beer, a jug of
which beverage used to accompany him
to his bedroom when he sought re-
pose. 1t was probably not his fault
that his regulation black clothes were
always extremely shabby, and shone
not with newness. He lived, as also
had been the custom for the movable
perpetuals who had preceded him,
over the bakers shop at the fishing
end of the village, no rectory, vicarage
or parsonage having been provided for
his accommodation. nor is it likely
that any of these words would have
rightly described his professional dom
icile, supposing him to have had one.
I had enjoyed my dream of happiness
but for few short weeks when it ap-
peared to strike the perpetual that the
walk to and from the bakers shop be-
tween the services in hot weather WAS
a work of supererogation. Possibly