Year: 1866




will commence at once, without any un-
necessary introduction-plunge in nedias
res, which suppose is Latin for "make
your running from the jump" and first
forcibly uttered by some sharp fellow who
despised the Greek chorus and the Italian
recltative. / have commenced life twice
once when went into business on nv
account and the second time when got
married. don't count my entrance into
the world, disliking introductions as
said before.


Ten years ago got married. Nice lit
tie creature, my wife! Brown hair-gol-
den, as the poets would say. She was a
purdent little creature, my wife, quiet, and
of stature that could have been stated
only by inches, as one could never say she
was so many feet high. Perhaps If
suggest Titania's court, and herself as one
of the smallest of the fairy ring who took
to the shelter of violets in storm, 1 should
convey something like the fancies that
usedrtf cross my mind in vagrant way,
when I caught a glimpse of her OCCASION
ally before our marriage.


She was an orphan, and lived under the
way of Tppoo Saib in petticoats, a step
mother. | don't know how she made up
her mind to marry me, as was so entire
ly matter-of-fact; but have faint recol-
lection of one day asking her to take a
walk with me, which pedestrian feet ter
minated at church door, through which
we passed two people, and came out one
demonstrating that the days of sorcery
had not entirely vanished. 1t is not at all
pertinent to the story to say that she had
brother who was my intimate friend /;
that ne was an artist, poor, and lived prin-
cipally upon dreams; that l loaned him a
sum OF money--a purely business trans
action, as | took his note of hand for it;
that he was q delicate creature, that he
fell into consumption, wasted away, and
vanished ike one of his own cloud dreams
that | watched with him by night, and
buried him at last under the wild-howers
Poor fellow In the worlds estimation he
would have been great man if he had
lived. He was better than that in mine
"a good man, honest and true; and when
he died he grasped my hand, looked at
his little sister, who was silently weeping
over him, and gave me a glance which
plainly said, "Take care of her; she will
be alone in the world, with no companion
but bitter mennoriesp / believe this ac-
counts for the fact that not many months
afterward Alice and 1 walked quietly to
the church.


Alice believed that 1 was most desper-
ately in love with her, but being a mere
matter-of-fact business man, must main
tain that the idea was a pure impossibility.
Every one will readily admit, wheniI state
that l was in the queensware, glass and
procelain line, the supposition to have been
grossly improbable, to say the least How
ever, married we were; left Tippoo Saib
to her solitude-a sovereign without sub
jects-and went to housekeeping in nice
little cottage where we still live.


Alice was an economical little creature,
and having known poverty, was continu-
ally gazing at mental landscape, the prin-
cipal feature being a steep declivity at the
foot of which stood forbidding looking
aims house. Nothing during the first year
of our marriage could dispel the illusion
that it was to be the terminus of my mer-
camille career; sacrifice of the house
hold furniture, and permanent imprison-
ment in the establishment especially pro-
vided for reckless paupers. My little wife,
however, fought strongly against this fore
shadowed horror, and kept wakeful watch
and ward over those insidious marauders,
the household expenditures; while the
solitary servant received lectures, in
quiet way, such as would have doubtless
astonished and confounded Adam Smith
himself l can safely say that nothing
was wasted except on beggars, and they
focked to the house in regiments and bat
talions. dislike beggars myself It's
not business like way of getting aliving.
| don't object to feeding the hungry-in
fact l protest energetically against any
suffering Of the kind. No one can attend
to business on an empty stomach; but, as
| pay my taxes, | am opposed to the city
fathers allowing set of vagabonds max
ing a trade of begging, and extracting
sixpences from the unprotected females of
the community through a recital of ficti-
tious sorrows. A firm belief in the out
rageous r9mances invented by these rag
ged harpies was an unhappy weakness
with Alice, whose sympathies were al
ways instantaneously awakened at the
first whine Of sturdy mendicant


One of the consequences of this morbid
dread of poverty entertained by Alice in
our early married life, was a persistence
on her part of indulging in a species of
practical economy, the point of which 1
could not be brought to see. She would
insist on the advisability of making her
purchase of dresses, and such woman gear,
from pedlars-a race of people who no