dollar per ANNUM, invariably in advance.
TOAVA ND A :
£!]AVoiit'i ftlorumo, December ISSIj.
jrelfctcb IJotfrij.
[From tin- On'.ilia l.'uivcr-ity Magazine.]
AUTUMN.
Tlie Autumn liglit is sleeping
I'j, ,n the yellow plain ;
The harvest men are reaping
The swarths <>f (ioUtrit grain ;
The merry maids the furrows throng,
ml l.iiui the sheaves with rheelTtii song,
While ehihlivu stoop the ears to glean,
That lull the niaUlen'.s hands between.
At length, with day's deeiining.
The westering sun sinks bright ;
The harvest moon, now shining.
Floods heaven with mellow light;
F.iou the green sward merrily,
To notes of rustic minstrelsy,
Voting men and maidens, five from care,
I lame in the evening Autumn air.
Xow sere the leaves are growing
\\ ith many a russet streak,
JuT i:ke the death bloom glowing
on .1 dying maiden's cheek,
>.l bleakly I I ovs the Autumn breeze.
Ami -a eps the leaves from moaning trees,
Ami r.u.i by day and frost by night
O'er-:.1. ;.1 the flowers and liehls with blight.
llat tiei igh the leaves are dying.
And dowers iiave lost their Mount—
Though blight on earth is lying,
And heaven is tilled with gloom,
I), trustful heart! he of go,, j cheer,
For time brings r mm! the rolling year :
Win •; Winter and Spring and Summer are o'er,
Tin ■ 'den \rl imn will te itu once more.
sele cll b C;il c.
[From Putnam's M:iga7.inc.]
TilK COl NTliiil KIT COIN.
CIJAITKK I.
Litie otic Saturday afternoon, in a certain
JV. ember, 1 sat by a good sea coal tire in my
niliee, trying to muster courage enough for tin
li.eoiuiHr with the cold winds and driving
-t iin outside. Half ashamed to confess my
iwnnliee to my self, I had done every ttune
em-ary tiling I could think of to kill time, till,
•b.t, 1 was reduced to the necessity of count
ing over the contents of my purse. This, how
ever, wu.s but a brief resource. " A short
nst hi- pro verb bath it, "is soon eur
r:. i " The only coin worth lingering oil was
'■-111, m-.v hali'-eagle, given me that morn
i:.g ! y sonieeliauceeiistoiuer, as my reeompetice
f.T " doing a deed."
l.in.ited a- my practice and mv fees bad nl
v.ays been, half-eagles were not entirely a no
v-ify tn me ■ and yet, from a pp-ionged atten
tion with which, in tny procrast: atitig fratiu
•■!' mind. 1 regarded if, ii looker-io might have
'Osed ! was studying some rare antique,
-lead of a very ordinary specimen of I m-ie
daily spending money I examined it
re-'clogieally, with r< fereiice to the date, and,
-i "graphically, in respect to the mark of the
"et whence it issued. I compared the eagle,
i tie one side, with my remembrance of such
* !•!lio'ogiettl specimens as 1 had seen in tra
iingmuseums, and of the effigy—then solemn
ly believed to lw> of solid gold—which, in my
y : -!i day-, kept watch and ward over Tom
ray Tow ax nd's coffee-house. I scrutinized the
■ml o| liber'y wftli tin- eyes of a physiogno
M'-t ; and in attempting, with n sharp-pointed
k !c, to give the hvbrid profile a more
ii'.:i 'a'- nmnth, I accomplished sundry seratch
• whirl, might very well have passed for a
ittstaehe, b< ,-id< s cutting my fingers, and break
- at once, the knife blade and the third eoiu
iwhni'iit.
A kui.-k at the door checked the half-utter
' niali-diction, and was only repeated when I
""I " Cuim- in." Had spiritual tappings been
i then, I might have thought that Sa
" las patience exhausted by this new devel
; i:or of wickedness, was about to foreclose
" lnort.-aao lc- is popularly supposed to hold
lv, i'y uu ruber of onr profession ; as it was,
i'v rose and opened the door. The ruddy
: _!it streamed ont into the dark entry,and
' J:l figure thiit seemed almost the
n:ent of its coldness and gloom. The
- f'-. however, was too familiar to me to in
re any npcrnatural fears, being that of a
•'-'woman who earned a scanty livelihood
. "pv.r g for l iwy rs. Why need F describe
An employment requiring easy penman
mill Mime acquaintance with commas and
* "'\ :f not with the more essential parts of
':on. falls almost, as a matter of course,
~ p who, at some period, have greater ad-
: i'-'s— to those who, ill that common but
'"■ wiling phrase, " have known better
Ihe n ult is easily guessed. It might
■' ni many a talc of patient suffering and
": of bright eyes dimmed with late watch
- ■■? red c!k-( k- blanched to the hue of the
: ' f'Te tin in ; of young hopes withered
•" 'link, till they are as lifeless and void of
- to the weary heart, as the dry legal
'-f tin- copy to the tired hand that tran
tiu-m !
. ' ■ v 'ib- f had been lingering idly by my
, '-" aliiig to face the storiu, this seantily
'- r had walked all the way from her dis
- irr.-t. She did not tell mc that she was
- and ehilled to the ve y heart ; but I
. i" her pinched face, in the frozen sleet
"O'Tcd her dross of faded mourning, and
. ni' 1 *- w j<h which she drew toward
f a starving man would approach
; | protected as she was from the storm,
Watiaged to cover tlie papers she
1 roia its dreiiehiiig, with a care which
• "re strongly than any words, the hn
" '<> her of the trifling sum she was to
f 1 the enj,ving. This was the first
, • I ever employed her. In fact, I did
•'find it necessary to obtain such ox
<'i'i in getting through my busi
' '•! > -cut 'ire-asioil was due h-'SS
to the pressure of my own occupations than to
the whims of one of 1113* best clients, who had
declared that lie would see ine in a still worse
place than Wall street, before he would speud
time in deciphering my legal chirography, or
the school-boy pothooks and hungers of my
only and very juvenile clerk.
1 took the package and ran my,eye over its
contents. They were written in a neat piain
hand, just stiff enough to show that the con
sciousness of copying for a lawyer had marred
the writer's ease. As copies they were scru
pulously correct, and finished even to the num
bering of the folios in the margin. I silently
reekoued the price, and, as 1 did, it. occurred
to me that 1 could only pay it that evening by
the sacrifice of my half-eagle. It was in vain
that I once more opened my purse, which, cer
tainly, was not Fortuuatus', for 1 found noth
ing more there than I had seen in it an hour
before—small change of the very smallest va
riety. Could I put her off until Monday ?
Without that half-eagle, my Saturday night's
marketing would lie a very small affair.
Hut what will tier's he without it ?" said
my conscience. "If you feel the inconvenience
of an empty pocket so much, what must it be
to those who earn food and shelter from day
to day { Daily Dread is something more than
a mere form of speech 10 them !"
Perhaps a little, will serve her immediate
wants. ►Selfishness received this suggestion
very approvingly ; and 1 turned, from my pa
pers to the copyist, to make the suggestion.
She stood, on the other side of the fire-place,
as motionless as il'she had been a caned pil
lar, placed there to support the mantle,against
which her shoulder rested. One foot—a neat
one, even in its worn, wet shoe—peeped from
beneath her dress, as if drawn irresistibly to
ward the grateful warmth. Indeed, her whole
attitude seemed to express the same feeling.—
S' " did not bend ami crouch over the lire as
a beggar would have done. She did not sit
before it and court its cheerful heat as if it
had blazed on her own hearth-stone. Scarce
ly swerving from the most erect position as
she leaned against the marble, her clasped
hands hanging before her, she seemed to be
bracing herself against an attraction that
would draw her completely into the flame. I
could almost fancy that, ii' left to itself, her
slender form would be drawn closer and clos
er, till liuallv, it mingled with the dickering
blaze, and, with it, passed into viewless air.
Hut, when I lifted my eyes to her face, F
saw that she was, at least, unconscious of the
fancied impulse. Jler fixed eyes, and a faint
smile on her lip, told that some pleasant tho't
had beguiled her, even there, into a day-dream.
Following the direction of her gaze, 1 saw that
it rested on the same solitary coin which had
been the subject of my own meditations, and
which lay ju-'t where I had dropped*it, on the
table, when startled by her knock.
Modern critics are very fond of talking
about the sgg'.v/irc in art and literature. To
my own mind (because it. is hackneyed and
woFdly, I suppose they would say,) there is
tio '• •>!,; ;u t;„. language so suggestive a- /.-
uty —no work of art that brings up so varied
thoughts ns those very remarkable profiles and
eiligics which adorn our current coin. Dross
in itscit, if the philosophers will have it so ;
yet, as a means, a tool, a path, is it not won
derful in the versatility of its power '( What
magician ever worked such wonders in the ma
terial world ? What spirit works so univer
sally, so unfailingly, so unceasingly, in the
moral ? Kveu that single coin 011 my table—
that infinitesimal drop in the great ocean of
wealth—how much lies within the circumfer
ence of sin ii a small piece of metal ? To my
own mind—worldly and hackneyed as I have
before observed—it had been suggestive of a
great many things. Compressed within its
disc, I had seen my Sunday dinner, ample,
done to a turn, rich with dripping gravy, and
smoking hot from the roasting jack. From its
metallic rim 1 had already sipped, in imagina
tion, the rare old Amontillado. A fragment
of the gold had curled my lips in fragrant
wreaths of smoke. And if I, to whom even
half-eagles were not unfrcqueut visitors, and
who, if I had known poverty at all, had known
him only as a neighbor to be shunned, and not
as an inmate to be fought ; who, even in my
worst estate, had been spared the pain of see
ing him enter at my own door, and sit down
with my dear ones at their .scanty meal ; if I
could see so much in a half-eagle, whatu world
wide prospect of happiness might it not open
to that poor girl's eyes ? J dared not dwell
on the tilings she might see there, lest I should
loath myself and the well-fed Christian men
around me, who so rarely grant such visions
to the starved eyesight ; but I immediately
gave up all thoughts of sending tiie girl away
without her money.
Yes, her money ! For hers it was, by all
that can make good title in law or equity ;
earned by the fragment of her young life she
had given for it ; earned with the very flesh
from her wasted frame, and the blood from her
pale cheeks.
What badness had I to be speculating and
sentimentalizing thus about the affairs of a
young lady with whom I had only a little bu
siness transaction ? I might have known that
such an unprofessional train of thought would
lead to some blunder ; the earthen pot and
the iron one can never swim safely together,
in fact or fable. Consequently, I broke in ii|i
-011 the poor girl's reverie with the most auk
ward question in the world :
" Have you any change, miss
Tiie scarlet blood rushed to her face, as she
shook her head ; and mine was already on its
way there, when I tried to mend the matter by
hurrying out :
" No, no, of course you haven't V
And there I stuck ; and if ever a middle
aged counsellor—at-law felt like a fool, in his
own oflice, I did.
ller eyes were filled with tears at what must
have seemed the rudeness of my remark. I
could have gone oil my knees to a>k her par
don, if I had only known in what words to
phrase the entreaty. The scene was so em
barrassing, that 1 cut it short by pressing the
coin into her hand, and telling her that wc
would make it all right, if -he would come for
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT TO WAN DA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. O'MEARA GOODRICH.
" REcIARDLES-S OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER."
mire work on Monday. Very likely she would
have said something in reply 1; but. not feeling
inclined to test mv conversational powers fur
ther, after such an unlucky beginning, I
hastily bade her good-night, and opened the
door.
\\ hen her back was fuirlv turned, I took inv
candle and held it at the stair-head, till she
had reached the bottom of the last iougilight;
and then going back to my arm chair, wonder
ed what. Mrs. Quidum would say to a cold
Sunday dinner.
CHAPTER n.
" If that rascally boy of mine has not made
a good lire,' said I to myself, as I walked down
town, the Monday morning following, " I shall
certainly give him the thrashing in which I
have stood indebted him so long."
I'rom this novel species of accord and satis
faction, however, the lnuch-thcreof-descrving
youth was saved by an unexpected incident.—
Seated by the cheerless and neglected grate,
as 1 entered, 1 beheld my visitor of the preced
ing Saturday night. Her pule sad face was
even paler and sadder than before, and I
thought there were tears in her eyes, and tra
ces of many that had preceded them. But,
perhaps, this was owing to the smoke now
pouring from the mass of paper and wet
wood, with which Tom, as usual, greeted my
arrival.
" I am sorry to tell you, sir," she said, after
answering tny salutation, " that the coin you
gave me was a bad one."
A bad one—my beautiful half-eagle a coun
terfeit ! In what of earth can confidence,
then, he placed ? I took it in my hand ; it
certainly had every appearance of being ge
nuine.
" Positively, you must be mistaken, mv dear.
I could not be deceived so easily." And feel
ing that 1 undoubtedly appeared to her as a
gentleman, whom the daily inspection <>f un
limited gold coin had made a perfcet Sir Ora
cle upon the subject, I drew myself up before
the lire,
" As who .-liould say,
" Let no dog Lark." "
ller lip quivered as she replied :
" Indeed, sir, I am very, very sorry ; but it
must be so, for—for you know I had 110 other
but that."
" And pray how did you learn it to be a
counterfeit ?"
"\\ lieu 1 left here, sir, I went directly up
to—to a place where some of our things were,
1 went to pay the little sum we had borrowed
of them when my mother was taken sick, and
the man took the half-eagle, and said it was a
counterfeit, and gave it hack to me."
" Nonsense, child, the man was mistaken."
She did not argue the point ; but made a
brief apology for the trouble she had given me.
and hesitated
" I trust," said I, still somewhat grandilo
quent and condescending, as a man whose re
sources have unjustly been suspected, " that
the fcilow s stupidity has caused you no incon
venience
A bright hectic flush crossed her pale cheek
as an instinctive denial rose to her lips. Fur
ther than that the falsehood could not come ;
her head sunk between her hands, and the
poor girl, weak, and cold, and starving, as 1
afterwards know, sobbed violently.
Little by little, I learned lier sail storv. It
need not be repeated here ; it lacks, alas ! tin*
ebarin of novelty. Years of still deepening
poverty—and yesterday, when .Mrs. tjuidam
and 1 were grumbling at our leg of cold mut
ton, this poor child and her sick mother passed
the long cold day without food or lire ; even
the warm clothes and bedding, which this mo
ney was to have redeemed from the pawnbro
ker's denied to their shivering limbs.
I put on niv hat, and stepped over to Bul
lion's to get change for the half-eagle. The
clerk threw it carelessly on a balance, and had
already handed me the change, when he saw
that the delicate arm, after vibrating a little,
did not decline with weight. He took it tip,
and handed it to the head of the linn, and, af
ter a short consultation between them, I was
a.-ked into the inner olliee. A chemical test
soon proved the worthless character of the
coin. Bullion asked uie if 1 knew where I
had received it ?
" Certainly."
" I have seen two or three, of lale, precise
ly like it. The counterfeit is a dextrous one,
and we have in vain tried to trace its origin.
If you can assist lis in tliis, it w ill be a great
service to the community."
I took up the deceptive coin, and scrutinized
it curiously. The workmanship was perfect ;
the thought at once (lashed across my mind,
tun perfect : where was the knife mark I my
self had made ? I could not be deceived—the
coin had certainly been changed. And this
was the end of all my fine sentiment about the
interesting young girl !
In a few words, I communicated the circum
stances connected with it, to .Mr. Bullion, w ho
jumped at once to the conclusion.
" I thought so," said lie, " i thought so ! I
knew that some fresh and unsuspected parties
must be made use of in this matter. The old
hands we know too well," lie added, with a
chuckle.
It was soon agreed between us tliat the girl
should be detained, and no time lost in extract
ing front her a confession, as to the persons
whose tool she undoubtedly was. We accord
ingly repaired together to my odiee, where we
found her patiently waiting. In answer to
my qnsstions, she repeated her story with much
apparent frankness, until I asked the name of
the person to whout she offered the coin. Af
ter some hesitation, she named a very respec
table pawnbroker, in C street, to whom,
as well as to the police oftice a messenger was
immediately dispatched.
Mr. Forceps soou came, and we received
hiui in another apartment, llis answers to
the inquiries we made completely confirmed
our suspicions. Such a coin us we showed
him, (the counterfeit,) had beeu offered to him
on the previous Saturday night, by a young
woman ; and on being confronted with our
prisoner, (for such we now considered her,) lie
at once recognized her a- the same. Her own
frightened, pullied lace would have satisfied us
of the foot. Half-rising, as if to -neak, she
caught sight of a police officer, just entering
the door, and she fainted
I went homo that'night ill-pleased with my
(Itiy's work. That the girl was guilty, seemed
bui too clear. Dut I could not believe that
she was anything more than an instrument, and
my experience in eriniiual law, slight as it was,
i taught uie how slender the chances were of ar
resting the,guilty [Ktrlies. Had we obtained
a confession before she fainted, something might
have been done ; but, now tlie matter had got
into the hands of the police, such shrewd ras
cals as they evidently were, would pretty sure
ly get wind of it in time to escape.
" And so the whole upshot of the matter,"
said 1, to myself, " will be the ruin of the
young woman, .and tin article in to-morrow's
pa]tor, which fpr the effect it will have, might
as well be inserted under the head " Personal,"
and rend thus :
" If the gentlemen who have been in the
habit of employing a young person, in fading
, mourning, to disseminate fallacious half-eagles
i in this community, do not find it convenient to
remove their business, for the present, to soine
I other place, they will incur the danger of be-
I iug involved in the unfortunate disaster which
j has befallen her."
" And this, Legulcius Quidam," I conclud
| ed, " is the great service to tbeeouimuity which
\ you and Mrs. Quidaiu have rendered !" t
j An officer had called in the afternoon to tell
, me that the prisoner's residence had been found
and searched, but that no further discoveries
, had been made. This, however, enabled me
to find the unfortunate mother, and provide
| some scanty comforts for her in her terrible
I affliction. In doing this, I felt that I was but
performing a duty. Society, I reasoned with (
, myself, finds it needful for i!s own protection,
to take the guilty daughter, and shut her up j
in jail ; but the daughter is the innocent mo-,
liter's only support ; ergo, society must take I
thai daughter's place. And as 1 felt that so- |
, ciety, in the abstract, might be somewhat re- i
miss in the performance of its duty, I ordered !
I some fuel and groceries, and went home, feel-1
ing myself to be an embodiment of the whole
social economy.
That night I dreamed that I was playing in
a very poor and very tiresome tragedy, called
Lite, and that I was suddenly called on to
. take the part of Brutus, the Koiuau father.
CHAPTER 111.
The course of retributive justice, as adminis-1
tcred here on earth, has more different paces !
than Rosalind has attributed to time ; but. !
" those with whom it lags withal," arc not of- !
ten the poor and friendless. A few days only j
elapsed before I was summoned as a witness I
to attend the trial of Alice Sumner. In the !
meantime, both Mr. Bullion and myself made I
great, but fruitless efforts, to obtain a further |
insight into the true facts of the ease. The!
prisoner herself made no confession, but con- i
stoutly asserted In r innocence, to ilie great j
discomfiture of the broker, and the unutterable
perplexity of mvself. I sought in vain, for a j
Haw in tin; chain of evidence against her, or a j
chance to establish her innocence by other
facts. Even the general testimony of good '
character, the Inst frail reed on which she leant, i
seemed to bend beneath her. She and her j
mother had but lately come to the city, and to '
all our inquiries, as to their former home and j
friends, we received only courteous, but eva-j
sive answers. It was evident that some dark j
eloinl of sorrow, if not of crime, hung over
their past history ; and this, while it did not
diminish the interest 1 felt in her, sadly weak
ened mv confidence in her defense.
It was tlie day before the trial, and I satin
ruy oflice musing | >aiiii'ul 1 y on the dark features
of the ease, when a stranger entered. The first
glance assured nie, that he was one of a class
of clients with which most of our city lawyers
arc familiar A seedy, decrepit old man, hum
ble yet querulous, dejected, and yet visionary,
bearing about a tattered and worn collection
of papers, and pitifully urging his talc of wrong
and suffering, from which the patient listener
gleans at the same time, a belief that the sad
tale is true, and a melancholy conviction that
knavery has so cunningly hidden, or time so
long obliterated the evidences of the wrong,
that no court save that of the Omniscient, can
ever set it right.
I turned from the man more pettishly than
1 should have done but for tlte subject that en
grossed my thoughts. The poor old man's
spirits were too much broken to take offense
at my rudeness. .Beseechingly he added
" 1 did not mean to give yon trouble for
nothing, sir. i have lint little to offer yon
now, but 1 will pay you liberally when 1 gain
my ease. You shall have—■you see 1 mean to
lie generous—let me see—l cannot recover less
than twenty thousand dollars—it may be thir
ty, or even forty—and you shall have a quar
ter of it all. Think of that, sir ! Ten thou
sand dollars for one' case !"' And my client
threw himself back in his chair, feeling for the
thousandth time, poor fellow ! that his trouble
were almost over, and the phantom, in pursuit
of which his life lrad been wasted, at least
within his grasp, >'o doubt in his blissful vis
ion, he already began to look on me us a re
cipient of his bounty and to wonder at the cool
ness with which I regarded the glittering prize
before me. Hut I had been dazzled more than
once in the same wav.
" How much can you afford nie as a retain
er T
" Now ?" I ft* seemed to be engaged in an
abstruse calculation as if over the resources of
H nation. " Ten thousand dollars when the
ease is finished, sav, six months or a year hence.
Suppose we say live dollars, sir, ou account."
There was something so painfully eager in
the look that accompanied these words, that I
suppressed the smile which had been prompt
mi by the pathos in his oiler, and signified my
acceptance. My client drew from his pocket
a lank purse, and from the purse a solitary
coin. Poor dreamer ! he was paying his all
for this one more ticket in the lottery.
I had opened my lips to bid hun leave his pa
pers and take back the coin when my eye fell
on it. One scrutinizing glance, and 1 jumped
from my si at as if electrified by the little piece
of gold.
" Where did you get this money, sir ?"
A transient gleam of former fire shone in
the old man's eye.
" I do not see, sir, what that has to do with
my ease."
" By heavens !" I shouted, collaring the old
man and fairly lifting him out of his seat : " if
you do not tell me this instant
Just at this moment tny office door ojiencd
to admit my learned and eloquent brother
Flourish.
What that eminent counsel, thought of the
scene, I do not care to guess. The personal
appearance of my client was not suggestive of
any temptation to a felonious assault, nor did
his maimer indicate any provocation which
could have called for chastisement; and those
two suppositions being impossible, Flourish
stared with undisguised amazement at mv un
professional conduct. His presence brought
me to myself, and, with many apologies, I ex
plained that this coin, which, as my hearers
would notice, was peculiarly marked and for
merly been in my own possession and that I
was anxious, for particular reasons, to trace
its subsequent history. The old man hesitat
ed, and stammered, and east so many side glan
ces at the door, that I began to think we had
fallen upon one of the chief conspirators.—
Here Mr. Flourish came to my assistance, with
his bland smile, and most mclifbious tone,
and in five minutes had drawn from my client
all that he knew about it. Assuring mvseif
that he would attend and testify to the same
facts on the following day, I dismissed him,
and then rapidly recounted to Flourish the facts
of the ease. The hard old lawyer listened
complaisantly, and when I had finished, drvlv
expressed an opinion, that the young woman
should be acquitted.
I had conceded a hope, while telling tin-sto
ry, ot interesting Mr. Flourish sufficiently in
the case to induce him to undertake tiie man
agement of the defence. For that task I felt
myself disqualified by other causes beside my
want of experience in criminal law. 1 was li
able to be called as a witness for the prosecu
tion, and was a most important one for the de
fense ; and above all, I felt that inv own per
sonal sympathies were too strongly excited for
the prisoner to manage the affair with requi
site coolness and skill. Flourish, however,
who saw in the case nothing but a very com
monplace incident of criminal practice, was
no! easily to be persuaded. The sensibilities
of an elderly lawyer, in large practice, lie ve
ry far down, and are covered by a thick rind
of world I v wisdom.
" Consider, inv, dear sir," said lie, " how ma
ny cases of this kind are occurring every day,
and how precious my time is to me. Ton my
word, my clients would be in a pretty mess if
1 spent my time on petty affairs like this."
" l'etty affair to you, Mr. Flourish, 1 know,
but not to that young girl, the late of whose
whole life here, and perhaps hereafter, hangs
on that trial. One hour of such assistance as
vonrs may save her."
" lleally, Quidam, "
" If such a fee as I could offer out of my
own pocket would tempt you,— —"
" it would tempt me, sir, if you offered it.
It would tempt me to kick you out of your
own office, and then go home, feeling that I
had broken friendship with the softest-hearted,
simplest-headed fool at the bar. Why, man,
you would turn the whole fraternity into a trailg
of knight-errants roaming up and down Wall
street seeking to set this crooked world straight
again."
And so they ought to bo, Mr. Flourish."
" Hum ! 1 can't say I'm ready to give an
opinion on that matter. liiit the girl, I sec,
i< fairly oil my hands. I'll just step down and
tell my young men to put one or two things
off till next day, and come back to go over the
case again with you."
Glorious old Flourish ! The sensibilities
are there, after all, hard as it is to find them.
Beneath all his rich clients, and worldly wis
dom, and long briefs, there is a true man's
heart beating, still, as there is in the bosom of
many a hard faced, wrinkled old lawyer beside.
Fraud, and wrong, mid heartlessuess there are
among us, Hod knows ! But lie and lie on
ly knows, also the deeds that have been done
i i secret in those dingy, dusty offices, which
shall stand forth effulgently when the great
book is opened at the Judgment day 1
cn vIT Kit IV.
I was busy with the police authorities that
evening, and had no time to communicate with
Alice ; but the next morning when I saw her
brought into court, looking so broken-hearted
and helpless, I blamed myself for having left
her thus to drink the enp of bitterness to the
very dregs. In a few whispered words I bade
her be of good cheer ; but she scarcely seemed
to heed me at all, so oppressed was she bv the
sight of the crowd, and the keen sense of her
forlorn condition Save her poor mother, who
had risen from a sick bed to accompany her,
she did not know that she had a friend there.
Hven I though she knew 1 meant her kindly,
had been the unwilling moans of placing lief
there. I looked eagerly around the court
room. On a front bench sat Mr. Forceps, the
pawnbroker, chief witness for the prosecution;
and some distance behind was my old client,
true to his promise, and pleased to have a part
to take in court. It seemed to him like a lit
tle rehearsal for the great drama of his own
case.
The district attorney opened the case, atul
was about to call rne as the first witness. Mr.
Flourish had not yet made his appearance.—
Greatly to my relief, the pawnbroker came for
ward, and whispered into the attorney's ear,
who immediately called him to the stand.
" 1 believe I must give Mr. Forceps the
precedence," he said to me.
" 1 think yon h id better, brother How land,"
answered Flourish, over my shoulder, at tin*
same time divesting himself of his overcoat, and
distributing good-humored though somewhat
patronizing recognitions among the smaller fry
of lawyers around him.
Mr. Forceps testified to the attempt made
to pass tin. counterfeit coition hitu, a orei !•.-
VOL. xy ir. IS O. 20.
• y 11. IIIs c.ireet examination was sooti
over, and jie turned to Air. Flourish with a
smile of confidence, which to me seemed not
altogether natural. It looked ns if lie were
bracing himself' up for a eontostof nerve with
the counsel for the defense. I have seen u
great many very honest witnesses do the same
thing.
Rut if Afi*. Forceps looked for a grand dis
i play of iiK|i\isitr>rial tactics, lie was destined to
|be mistaken. Air. Flourish simply turned one
moment towards him remarking;
" I only want to know if I have understoo I
you aright, Mr. Forceps ; I think you said this
was your only transaction with the prisoner—
I mean the only occasion on which you receiv
ed money from her."
| " I never received any money at all from
| her, unless you call that thing niuiiev," point
ing to the coin. " Perhaps you call that mo
ney ; but I don't, sir." And Air. Forceps
smiled approvingly at his own retort.
" How long did I understand that you had
this com in your possession ?" blandlv rejoined
the counsel.
" Mo time at all ; I knew it was bad the
minute it touched the drawer, and took it out
and returned it."
" Von took it out, and returned if," replied
Flourish,as if mechanically repeating the words.
" That will do, sir.''
Mr. Ruliiou then testified to the character
of the coin, and to the prisoner's admission in
my office that it was- the s.mie one she had of
fered to the pawn-hroker. The prosecution
rested.
Without any formal opening of the defense,
Mr. Flourish nodded to me, and T took the
stand. The district attorney threw himself
back in his chair, and listened carelessly while
1 detailed the particular- of my interview with
Alice on the eventful Saturday night. But
when I mentioned the knife-marks ou the coin
I hail given her, his practiced mind foresaw
at once our line of defense. It was,doubtless,
the first intimation he Imd received that anv
suhstantial defense would be attempted ; and
in his surprise he started to his feet, and di
rected a searching glance, first at me, and then
in rapid succession at the prisoner, her coun
sel, and his own witnesses.
" Have you ever seen that marked coin
since, Air. (juidiun T
" I have."
" When and where ?"
"It is here," said I, producing it ; "I re
ceived it back, about ten davs ago, from u
client, Air. Richard Grosvenor."
Having satisfied myself that 1 was jxisitivu
as to the identity of the coin, the district at
torney allowed me to stand aside, and Mr.
Flourish called Grosvenor, who, of course, con
firmed my statement, as to the receipt of the
coin from him, at the time of its reappearance.
" \\ ill you state, Air. Grosvenor, if you can,
how that coin came into your hands ?"
" I received it," said the ohl man—a slight,
color coming into his bloodless face—" on the
evening of Saturday, the—tli of Hecember,
from Air. Forceps, the pawnbroker."
" How can you be so positive as to the pre
cise date, Air. Grosvenor, and the identity of
coin f " asked the district attorney.
" The date, air, I fix by this," producing
one of Mr. Forcep's tickets; "and tin* coin
—all nic, sir, it is the only gold piece I have
had for many a long day. I have spent ray
money in the law, sir ; but I am going to get
it all back soon. Vou know I must have u
case, sir "
From the details of Mr. Grosvenor's case,
we were saved by the district attorney. His
hawkcye had caught, a glimpse of his chief
witness gliding softly through the crowd, to
ward the door.
" Mr. Forceps ! Mr. Forceps 1 officer,close
that door, and let no man pass/' he thundered,
"llbirg t .a; witness back here 1"
Flushed with excitemcut, his fine form draw n
nj) to its utmost height, and his glorious eyes
Hashing with indignation at the foul wrong
which had been attempted and almost cffctcd
in the sacred name of justice, he stood, sur
rounded by an astonished group, the only one
that seemed to retain any self possession. Fv n
we who had been in the secret, and planned
the surprise, were less masters of the scene.--
He looked, indeed, all that he was—tin* faith
fid minister of retributive justice, magnifying
hi? office by a love of right, before which afl
petty ambitions sank into nothingness.
Alas ! tlmt form and face live only in the
memory of us who loved him. A sad, sad day
it was when we heard that the lustre of those
ryes Was dimmed in untimely death, and heavy
hearts, mourning as but few sorrows can make
strong men mourn, bad we, the funeral train,
when the bar followed their chieftain to the
tomb. In the midst of Ids years and bis la
bors, as a great ship goes down in the van of
the battle, so went lie down into the depths of
tlie grave.
it scarcely need tip added, that the jury ac
quitted Alice, without leaving their box, ami
that the paw a broker, charged both with utter
ing counterfeit coin, and with perjury, slept
that night in the cells -ho had left. IVrhnps
sometime 1 may tell oi what afterwords hap
pened to her, as well as to my old client, and
his interminable ease, lint now there is sad
ness on my heart, as I think of that scene in
court, and I am garrulous no longer.
A brother of the distinguished TOdiuund
Burke was found in a reverie after listening !•
one ot his most eloquent speeches in I'urlia
meiit, and being asked the cause, replied, " I
have been wondering how Ned has contrived
to monopolize all the talents of the family ;
but then I remember, wheu we were at play
ho was always at work."
ftap-The following equivocal notice is said
to swing out on a sign-board somewhere in the
Western country : "Smith A lluggs—Select
School—<S/ ' k it'Aichrs Ute. Intus and Hi/ggs tha
girls. 1 ' lluggs iieed-> correction.
" My eyes, .lack," exclaimed a tar, on
seeing a soldier chained to a ball for pu N'i
iie.,', "if l!i, re ain't a •■oldier at on '