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A. K. RIDEEEIII, Proprietor.'
Wm. M. PORTER, Editor. f
VOL. 62.
[From tho Atlantic Monthly.)
LOVE AND SKATES
IN TWO PARTS
l' .1 I? l' I
CHAPTER, I. ,
A KNOT AND A MAN TO CUT IT
Uonsternation ! Consternation in the
tack office of Benjamin Brummage, Esti,
banker in wall street.
Yesterby down came Mr. Superinten
dent Whiffler, flout dunderbunk, up the
North Diver, to say that '° unlesss some
thing be done, at once, the Dunkerbunk
Foundry and Iron-Works must wind up."
President Bruannage, forthwith convoked
his Director:3. And here they sat around
the green talus, forlorn as the guests at a
Bartnecide feast.
Well they might he forlorn I At was
the rosy sololner solstice, the longest and
fairest day of all the year. 13at, rIHe-col
or and sunshine had fled from Wall Street.
Noisy Crisis towing back Panic, as a puf
fin.- ,tram-tug drags a three-decker cocked
;old pinned fur destruction, had suddenly
sailed in upon Credit.
As all the green-inch worms vanish, on
the tenth of that June all the money in
America had b tried itself and was as if
it were nut. Everybody and everything
was ready to fail. If the hindmost brick
went clown, down would go the whole file.
There were. ten Directors cf the Dun
-I:Ana roundrY,.
Now, not seldom, a Board of ten Di
rectors, five arc wise and five are foolish :
Live wise, who bag all the Compiny's
funds in salaries and commissions for en
dorsing its paper; five foolish, who get
no-salaries, no commissions ; nu dividends
—nothing indeed, but abuse front the
stockholders, and the reputation of thieves.
That is to say, five of the ten are pick
pockets; the other Live, pockets to be
pi ked.
It happened that the Dunkerbunk Di
rectors were all honest and foolish
but one. He, John Churin, honest and
wise, was off at the West, with his Her
culean shoulders at the wheels of a dead
locked railroad. These honest billows
did not wish Dunderbunk to fail fm sev
eral reasons. First, it was not pleasant
to lose. their investment. Second, one
important failure might betray Credit to
Crisis with Panic at its heels, where
upon every investment would be in dan
ger. Third, what would become of their
Directorial reputations ? lion Presi
dent Brunituage down, each of these gen
tlemen was one of the pockets to be pick
ed in a great many coMpanies. Each
was of the first Wall Street fashion, invi
ted to lend his name and take stock in
every new enterprise. Any *odd 'of them
might have walked down town in a long
patchwork toga made of the newspaper
advertisements of boards in whieh his
name proudly figured. If Dunderhunk
failed, the toga was torn, and might present
ly go to rags beyond repair. The, first rent
would inaugurate universal rupture.
How to avoid this disaster ?—that was
the question.
" State the case, Mr. Superintendent
Prdsident llruwwage, in
his pompous manner, with its pomp a lit
tle collapsed, pro tempure.
Inefficient Whiffler whimpered out his
story.
The confessions of an impotent execu
tive aro sorry stuff to read. Whiffler's
long, dismal complaint shall not be re
peated. He had taken a prosperous con
cern, had carried on things in his own
way, and now failure was inevitable. He
had bought raw material lavishly, and
worked it badly into half-ripe mate
rial, which nobody wanted to buy. lie
was in arrears to his hands. lie had
-.tried to bully them, when they asked for
their money. They had insulted him,
and threatened to knock off work, unless '
they were paid at once. " A set of hor
rid ruffians," Whiffler said,--" and his
life wouldn't be safe many days among
them."
" Withdraw if you please, Mr. Super
intendent," President lirumumg,e request
td. " The board will discuss measures
of relief."
The more they discussed, the more the
consternation. Nobody said anything to
the purpose, except Air. Sam Gwelp, his
late father's lubberly son and successor.
" Blast !" said he ; " we shall have to
let it slide V' •
Into this assembly of imbeciles unex
pectedly entered •Mr. John Churn). lle
had set his Western railroad trains rollini;, -
and was just returned to town. Now he
was ready to put those Ilerculean,Aoul
ders'at any other bemired and rickety no-
go curt. •
Mr. Cilium was not accustomed to Ire
a Director in feeble companies. Ile came
into Dunderbunk recently as executor of
his friend .Damer ; a year age bored to
death by a silly wife.
Churui's bristly aspect and incisive
manner made him a sharp contrast to
13rummao b n. The latter personage was
flabby in flesh, and trite„ oppressively civil
counter-jumper style of his youth had
grown naturally into a deportment of most
imposing pomposity.
The tenth Director listened to the
kresident's recitative of their difficulties,
chorused by the board.
" Gentlemen," said Director Churm,
N Jou want two things. The first is Mon
, cyl"
He pronounced this cabalistic word
-with such magic, - power that all the air
-seemed instpritly - filled with a cheerful
flight of gold-American eagles ' eaoh car
rying a double eagle on its back and a
silver dollar. in its claws ; and•all thEi soil
of America seemed to sprout with coin,
4Eaftcr a shower a meadow sprouts with
ithe yelloW buds .of the dandeloin.
"Money 1 yes, Money I".niurlnured the
Directors.
•
It seemed a word 'of.good omen,' now.
4, The Seeond.thing," resumed the, new. :
enimr,' is Man 1"
' Directors looked at.,eaoli other and
aid 'not see such a being.
4( The actual SuperintendefitaDunder
bunk is a dundeiiicad,"..said Churin.
Several of the Directors, thus ititruct
" l'un 1" cried Sam Gwelp, waking up
from a snooze.
ed, started a complimentary laugh.
" Order, gentlemen ! Orrderr I'' said
the President, severely, rapping with a
paper-cutter.
"We must hive a Man, not a Whiff
ler !" Charm continued. " And I have
one in my eye.
"Would be so good as to name him r.
said old Brummage, timidly.
He wanted to see a Man, but feared
the strange creature might be dangerous.
" Richard Wade," said Churm.
They did not know him. The. nawe
sounded forcible.
" He has been in California," the nom
inatot.said.
A shudder ran around the green table
They - seemed to ss,,c a frowzy desperado,.
shaggy as a bison, in a red shirt and jack
boots, hung shout the waist with an as
sortment of six shooters and bowie-knives,
and standing against a back-ground of
mustangs, monte-banks, and lynch-law.
"We must get llrade Churn' says,
with authority. - "He lqows Iron
,by
heart. lle can handle I will back
him with 'my blank cheek, to any amount,
to his order."
Ifcre a inurtner ~r applause, swelling
to a cheer, burst from the Directors.
Everybody knew that the Geological
Bank deemed Cluirm'B deposits the fun
damental stratum of its wealth. They
'lay there in - the vaults, like mulct-lying
granite. When hut times came, they
boiled up in a mountain to buttress the
world.
Churm's bank check seemed to wave in
the air like an oriflamwe of victory: Its
payee might come from Botany 13ay ; he
might wear his beard to his knees, and
his belt stuck full of howitzers and boom
erangs ; he might have been repeatedly,
hung by Vigilance Committees, and as
often cut down and revived by galvanism;
but brandishing that ehee'.., good for
auy
thing less than a million, every Director
in Wall Street was his slave, his friend,
and, brother.
" Let us vote Mr. Wade in by aecla
mation,",cried the Directors.
" But, gentlemen," Uhurm interposed,
" if I give him my blank cheek, he must,
have carte blanche, and no one to inter•
fere in his mana7rnent."
Every Director, from President Brum
mar.r,e down, drew a long face-at this con
dition
It was one of their great privileges to
potter in the Bun kerbunk affairs and pro
pose ludicrous impossibilities.
"Just as you please," Uhurm contin
ued. " I name a competent man, a gen
tleman and fine fellow. back him with
all the cash he wants. But be must have
his own way. Now take him, or leave
him I"
Such despotic talk bad never been
heard before in that DirectorsVtoom.—
They reflected a moment. But they
thought of their togas of advertisments
in danger. The blank check shook its
Wandishments before their eyes.
" We take him," they said, and Rich
ard Wade was the new Superintendent
unanimously.
" He shall be at Dunkerbunk to take
hold to-morrow morning," said Churm,
and went elf to notify him.
Upon this, Consternation sailed out of
the heart of Brummage and associates.
They lunched with good appetites over
the green table, and the President confi
dently remarked :
" 1 don't believe there is going to be
much of a crisis, after all."
CHAPTER 11
=1
Wade racked his kit, and took the
Hudson-ltiver train for Dunderbunk the
Fame afternoon.
Ile swallowed his dust, he gasped for
his fresh lie, he wept over his cinders, he
refused his " lozengers," he was admired
by all the pretty girls and detested by all
the puny men in the train, and in good
time gut down at the station.
Ile stopped on the platform to survey
the land and water privileges of his new
abode.
" The June sunshine is unequalled,"
he soliloquized, " the river is splendid,
the hills aro pretty, and the Highlands,
north, respectable; but the. village has
gone to seed. Place and people, fray,
vicious, and ashamed. I suppose those
chimneys arc my Foundry. The smoke
ises as if' the furnaces were ill : fed and
weak in the lungs. Nothing, I can see,
looks alive, except the queer little steam
boat coming in,— the Ambuster/
jolly -name fora . boat !"
Wade left his traps at the station, and
walked through the village. All the
gilding of a golden sunset of June could
not make it anything but commonplace.
It would be tiniorn on a:gray day, and
utterly..dismal in a storm.
"I must look up a civilized house to
lodge in;" thought the stranger. "1 em
not posSibly camp at the tavern. Its
offence is rum, and smells to heavon.”
Presently s our explorer found a neat,
white two-story, home-like abode on the
upper street, overlooking the river.
"This promises," he thought. "Here
arc roses on the porch, a piano, or at
least a melodeon, by the parlor-window,
and they are insured in the Mutual, as
the Mutoal's plate announces. Now; if
that , nice-looking person in black I see
sitting-at a table in the back-room is a
widow, I will camp here."
Perfy Purt,ett was the name on
the door, awl opposite the sign
of an omniuni-gqtherwrit country-store
hinted that
; Perry was deceased. The
hint was a Arend one. Wade read, ,
"Itingdove,'Suocesor to late.P:Ptirtett:"
"It's worth a try to get in hero out of
the pagan barbarism around. - I'll propose:
--;afitiliiil.4-4o the - Widoi.r."
SO said Wade ; and',rang4he bell under
the roses. A'pretty, slim, deliOthe,'ihir
hairdd maiden. answered. • ..
. explains the.roSes and.the.me-.
lOdeon," thought Nab, and asked,
I. see your motherr • • • . '
- Mamma came, . 41 314 1411id;r4ocUr3-
OA, FaMB2 'ROM WFM - 3 1 atano mar CERGIFE.
toured to depend -on the late Perry, and
wants a friend." Wade analyzed, while
he bowed: Ho proposed himself as a
lodger.
"I" don't know' it was talked of gener
ally," replied the Widow, plaintively;
"but I have said that we felt lonesome,
Mr. Purtett bein' gone,- and if the new
minister"—
Here she paused. The cut of Wade's
; ; lib was unc!erical: He did not stoop,
like a new minister. He was not pallid,
meagre, and clad in unwholesome black,
like the same. His bronzed face was
frank and bold and unfamiliar with spec
ulations on Original Sin and Total De
pravity.
"I am not the new minister," said
Wade smiling slightly over his moustache;
"hut a new Superintendent for the Foun•
dry.”
"Mr. Whiffler is pin' ?" exclaimed
Mrs. Purtett.
She looked at her daughter, who gave
a little sob and ran . out the room.
"What makes my daughter Belle feel
bad," says the widow, "is, that she had
a friend,—well, it isn't too touch to say
that they were as good as engaged—and
he was foreman of the Foundry finishin'-
shop But somehow ‘Vbifiler spoilt him,
just as lie spoils everything he touches ;
and last winter, when Belle was away,
William Tarbox—that's his name, and
his head is Fannin' over with inventions
—took to spreein' and liquor, and got
liAlianied hi-adve; doWii
a foreinan,to a hand, and is all the while
lettin' down lower."
The widow's heart thus opened, Wade
walked in as consoler. ThiS also opened
the lodgings to him. lbe was presently
installed_ in the la lige • and small - -front:
rooms up-stairs, unpacking his traps, a. d
making himself permanently at home.
Superintendent Whiffler came over,
by-and-by, to see hid successor. lie did
not like his looks, 'The, new man should
have looked mean or weak or rascally, to
suit the outgoer.
"How long do you expect to stay ':"
asks Whiffler, with a half-sneer, watch
ing Wade hanging a map and a print
"Until the men and T, or the Compa
ny and I, cannot pull together."
"I'll give you a week to quarrel with
both, and another to see the whole con
cern go to everlasting smash. And now,
if you're feady, I'll go over the accounts
with you and prove it."
Whillhtr himself, insolent, cowardly,
and a humbug, if not a swindler, was
enough, Wade, thought, to account for
any failure. But he did not mention this
•
C[IAI'TER HI
HOW TO BEHEAD A HYDRA !
At ten next morning Whiffler handed
over the :s'afe-key to Wade, and departed
to ruin some other property, if he puld
get one to ruin. Wade walked with him
to the gate.
"I'M glad to be out of a sinking ship,"
said the ex-boss. "The works will go
down, sure as shooting. And I think
myself well out of the clutches - of these
men. They're a bullying, swearing,
.drinking set of infernal . - Fore
men are just as bad as lands. I never
felt safe of my life with 'em."
"A bad lot, are they ?" mused Wade,
as he returned to the office. "I must
give them a little sharp talk by way of
inaugural."
Ile had the bell tapped and the men
called together in the main building.
Much work was still go;og on in an
inefficient, unsystematic way.
While hot fires were roaritig in the
great furnaces, smoke rose from the duty
beds where Titanic castings were cooling
Great cranes, manacled with heavy chains,
stood over the fuinace-doors, ready to lift
steaming jorums of nicked metal, at:11
pour out, hot and hot for the moulds to
swallow.
Raw material in big heaps lay about,
waiting fur the fire to ripen it Here
was a stack of long, rough, rusty pigs,
clumsy as the shillclahs of the Anakim.
There was a pile of short, thick masses,
lying higgledy-piggledy, stuff from the
neighboring mines, which needed to be
crossed with foreign stock before it could
be of much use in civilization
Here, too, was raw material organized
flywheel, large enough to keep the
knobbiest of asteroids revolving without
a wabble; a cross'-head, cross-tail, and
piston rod, to help a great sea-going
steamer Brest the waves ; a light walking
beam, to help the puddles of a fast boat
on the river ; and other members of ma
chines, only asking to be put together
and vivified by steam and they would go
at their work with a will.
From the black ratters overhead hung
the heavy' folds of a dim atmosphere,
half dust, half smoke. A dozen sun
beams, forcing their way through grimy
panes of the Only upper windows, found
this compoin'd quite palpable and solid,
and they moulded out of it quite a series
golden bats set, side by side akift, like the
pipes of an organ , out of its perpendiou—
lar.
- 'Wade grew indignant, as he looked
about him and saw so much good stuff
and good force wasting for want of u
little will and skill to train the fora° and
manage the stuff. He abhorred'. bank
iupte,y and chaos.
"All they *ant here is a head j' he
thoUght:
He shook his own. The brain within
was well developed with healthy exorcise.
It filled its ease; and did,tiot•rattle like a
withered kernel, or sound Soft like a rot
ten one. It was al.vigorous, - muscular
brain. The oWner...:fek that ho . could
trust it for an effortaiiii could, his lungs
for a shout, his l'egS:for ti leap, or his fist
for. a knock-down argument. •
. At the tap of the bell the "bad lot" of
men came together. They timbered
More than two•Flundred, though tho Foun
dry was working short. They hadbeen
notified that ditbat gonoPh of a Whither
was kicked out, and a. no*.foller was in,
wig'''. looked ,eranky enough, And • mounted
CARLISLE, PA., FOp . AY, MARCH 7, 1862.
to seem and tell - iomAliflrer he wasa
damn' fool or not." •
So all hands collected f*Ahe different
~p.aapf the Foundry ter:4o,o the Head.
' s * . ey came up with eastiand somewhat
' l3 okiering bearing,-4 1 1 good many
roughs,. with hero and tiOre a ruffian.
Several, as-they approaehO r swung and
tossed, from mere everplu`g. of strength,
the sledges with which they had been
tapping at the bald shiny,p4es of their
anvils. Several wielded thefriong pokers
like lances.
Grimy chaps, all with : their faces
streaked, like Blacitfeet in their warpaint,
Their hairy chests showed,l' where some
men parade' elaborate shirt • bossoms
Some had their sleeves pushed up to their
elbow to -exhibit their compaet flexors
and extensors. Some had rolled their
flannel up to the shoulder, above the
'bulging muscles of the upper arm. They
wore aprons tied about the neck; like the
bibs of our childhood,---or- about the
waist, like the coquettish , Oticles which
young housewives affect. But, there
was no coquetry in these great flaps of .
leather or canvas, and they_Avere be
smeared and rust-stained quite beyond
any bib that ever suffered wider bread
and-molasses ur mud-pie treatment.
They louungcd and swaggered up, and
stood at case, not without rough grace, in
a sinuous line, coiled and knotted like a
snake
Ten feet back stood the new fierceles
who Was to take down that - aydra's two
.hundred crests of insubordikafion.
They inspected him, and lib them as
coolly. Hu read and ticketed each man
'as he came - up, —good, bad, or on the
.
fence,—and marked each so that he would
. know him among a myriad.
The Elands faced the Head: It was a
question whether the two hundred or the
one would be master in Dunderbunk_
Which was boss ? An old question. It
has to be settled whenever a now man
claims power, and there is always a strug
gle until it is fought out by main force of
brain or muscle.
Wade had made up his mind on this
subject. He waited a moment until the
j men were still. lie was a Saxon six
footer of thirty. Lie stood easy on his
pins, as if' be had eyed men and facts be
fore. His mouth looked firm, his brow
!freighted, his nose clipper,--that the
!hands could see. But clipper noses aro
not always hacked by a stout hull Sewn
'ingly freighted brows sometimes carry
j nothing but ballast and dunnage. The
firmness may be all in the motstache,
j while the mouth hides beneath,lg mere
silly slit. All, which the hands knew.
Wade buguaViliort amci trip
hammer when it has a bar to shape.
the new Superintcaftlent.,.. Rich
ard Mide is uiy name. I. rang the bell
because I wanted to see you and have
you see me. You know as well as
I do that these Works are in a bad way.
They can't stay so. They' must come up
and pay you regular wages and the com
pany profits. Every man of you has got
to be here on the spot when the bell
strikes, and up to the mark in his work/
Yuu haven't been—and you know 'it.
You've turned out rotten iron,—stuff
that any honest shop would be ashamed
of'. Now there's to be a new leaf turned
over here.—You re to be paid on the nail;
but you've got to earn your money. I
won't have any idlers or shirkers or
rebels about um. I shall work hard
myself, and every one of you will, or he
leaves the shop. Now, if any body has a
complaint to make, I'll hear him before
you all."
The men were evidently impressed
with Wade's Inaugural. It meant some
thing. But they were not to be put
down so easily, after long misrule, There
began to be a whisper,—
'MI in, Bill Tarbox lan talk up to
him !"
Presently Bill shouldered forward and
fiteed the new ruler.
Since Hill took to drink and degreda
tion, he had been the but end of riot
and revolt at the Foundry. He had had ,
his own way with Whiffler. He did not
like to abdicate and give in to this Dew
chap without testing him
In a better mood, Bill would have
liked )l'ade's looks and words ; but to
day he had a sore head, a sour time, and
a bitter heart from the last night's spree.
And then he had Lard—it was as well
known already in Punderbunk as the
town-crier had cried it—that Wade was
lodging at Mrs. Purtett's, where poor
Bill' was exclUded. So Bill stepped for
ward as spokesman of the ruffianly cle
ment, and the immoral force gathered
behind and,backed him heavily.
Tarbox, too, was a Saxon six-footer of
thirty. But he had sagged one inch for
.want of solf-respeot. Ile had spoilt his
color and dyed his moustache. ' He wore
foxy'-black-pantaloons tucked into red-top
ped boots, with the name of the maker
on a gilt shield. His red flannel shirt
was open at the neck and caught with a
black handkerchief. His damaged tile
was in permanent crape for the late ,la
mented Poole.
- "-We allow," says Bill, a tone -half
way between Lablaohe's .De• piqundis
and a burglar's bull-dog's suarl f .'.' That
we've did our work as good as need to be
did , We 'xpect we know our rights. 'We
lia'nt ben treated fair, and I'm damned if
we're go'n to stars' it."
"Stop 1" says Wade. ".No swearing
in- this shop 1",
" Who the devil is gO'n to stop it ?"-
growled Tarbox.
"I am: Do you step back now, and
let - somemne come out who can talk like
a gentleman 1"
" I'm damned -if I stir till i l v - Ati.lAd my
say out," says Bill, shaking hiniself up
and looking dangerous.
" (IQ:batik - 1y
Wade lilON4ad'tlOfiCl to him; also looking
dangerous.
." Don't . tech 'me!" Bill thicatened,
squaring off.. • -
: Ile was not quick , enough.. Wade
knocked• him:, down flat one heap of
Moulding-sand. The hat in mourning for
PoOln found its place in a piddle,
Till did notlike the new Emperor's
method of compelling hotou. Round One
of the mill had not given him enough.
He jumped up from his soft bed and
made a vicious rush at Wade. But he
was damaged by his evil courses. He was
fighting against law and order, on the
side of-wrong and bad manners.
'The same fist met him again, and hea
vier.
Up went his heels ! Down went his
' head I It struck the ragged edge of a
fresh casting, and there he lay stunned
and bleedin ,, on his hard black pillow.
" Ring the bell to go to work !" said
Wade, in a tone that made the ringer
jump. "Now, men, take hold and do
your duty and everything will go smooth!"
The bell clanged in. The men looked
at their prostrate, champion, then at the
new boss standing there, 000 l and brave,
and not afraid of a regiment of sledge
h e rs.
They wanted an Executive. They
wanted to tie well governed, as all men
do. They wanted disorder out and order
in. The- new man looked like a man,
talked fair. hit hard. Why not all hands
give in with a'good grace and go to work
like honest fellows
The line broke up. The hands went
off to Iheir•duty. And there was never
any more insubordination at Dunderbunk.
This was June.
Skates in the next chapter.
• Love in good time afterward shall glide
upon the steno.
CII APT ER IV
A CHRISTMAS airr
The pioneer sunbeam' of next Christ
nas or ni ng rattled twvr the Dunderbunk
bills, flashed into Richard Wade's eyes,
waked him, and was elf, ricochetting
across the black ice of tl.e river.
Wade jumped up, electrified and jubi
lant. He had gone to bed, feeling quite
too despondent for so healthy a fellow.—
Uhristnitts.Eve, the time of family-meet
ings, reminded him how lonely lie was.
He had not a relative in the world, ex
cept two littlo niece;,—one as tall as his
knee, the other almost up to his waist;
and them he had safely bestowed In a
nook of New' England, to gain wit and
virtue as they gained inches
" I have had a stern and lonely life,"
thought Wade, as he blew out his candle
last night, "and what has it profited me?"
Perhaps the pioneer sunbeam answered ,
this question with a truism, not always as!
applicable as in this case,—" A braved
able, selfrespecti`ng manhood is fair profit I
for any man's first thirty years of life."
But, ans'w , ?red or net, the question
troubled Wade no more. He shot out of
bed in tip-Lop spirits ; shouted " Merry
Christmas !" at the rising disk of the sun;
looked over the black ice.; thrilled with
the thought of a long holiday for skating;
and proceeded to dress in a knowing suit
of rough clothes, singing, " Alt non gi
iinyc ."' as he slid into them.
Presently, glancing from his south win
dow, he observed several matinal smokes
-T,ising from the chimneys of a country
House a mile away, on a slope fronting the
river.
" Peter Skerrit must be back from Eu
rope at last," he thought. " I hope lie
is as fine a fellow as he was ten years ago.
I hope marriage has not made him a muff,
and wealth a weakling."
Wade went down to breakfast with an
heroic appetite. His " Merry Christmas''
to Mrs. Purtett was followed up by a ra
venous kiss and a gift of a silver butter
knife. The good widow did 'riot know
which to be most charmed with. The
butter-knife was genuine, shining, solidi
silver, with her initials, M. B. P., Martha
Bilsby Purtett, given in luxuriant flourd
ishes; but then the kiss had such,a,fine,
twang, such an exhilarating titillatiOn
The late Perry's kisses, from first to last,
had wanted point. They were, as the
SpaniLh proverb would put it, unsavory
as unsalted eggs, for want of a moustache.
The widow now peneived i with mild re
gret, how much she had missed, when
she married "a man all shaven and shorn."
Her cheek, still fair, though forty, flush
ed with novel delight, and she apprecia
ted her lodger more than ever.
Wade's salutation to Belle Purtett was
more distant. There must be a little
friendly reserve between a handsome
young man and a pretty young woman
several gra es lower in the social scale,
living in the same house. They were on
the most cordial terms, however; and her
gift—of course embroidered. slippers—
and his to her—of course "-The Illustra
ted Poets," in Turkey morocco—were ex
changed with tender good-will on hall.
aides.
We shall meet on the ice, Miss
Belle," said Wade: "It is a day of a
thousand for skating."
"Mr. Ringdove says you are a famous
skater," Belle rejoined. "Ho saw you
on the river yesterday evening."
"Yes; Tarbox and I were practising
to exhibit to-day ; but could not do
much with my dull old skates." .
Wade breakfasted deliberately', as .a
holiday,morning allowed, and then walk
ed down to the Foundry. There would
be no work done to-day, except by
small gang keeping up the., fires. The
Superintendent wished only to give his
First Semi-Annual Report an hour's pol
ishing, before he joined all Dunderbunk
en the ice. •
It xvu a halcyon day,, worthy of its
motto " Peace.on earth, goodwill to mon."
The air was electric, the sun overflowing
with jolly shine, the , river Oniooth and
sheeny from the hither bank to the snowy
mountains opposite. • * :
"I wisii I wero,Rembrandt; to paint.
this 'grand' shadowy interior," thought
Wade as ho entered the silent, deserted
Fcandry:' "With the gleam of the snow
in my nos, it looks deliciously warm and
c7tiaroscuro: N,Vltert.the men .are here
an !firvel opus,'—thelot Call. l
not stop to see the picturesque."
H _
He opened his office, took - , kis IlepOrt
and begat' t,o complete it with ,s, is, anal
a, in. the,right - Places.
All at once the, 101 l of the Works rang
' out loud and clear. Presently the Su
perintendent became aware of tt tramp
and a bustle in the building. By-and-by
came a tap at the office door.
"Come in," said Wade, and, enter
young Perry Purtett.
Perry was a boy of fifteen, with hair the
,-color of fresh sawdust, white eye-brows,
and an uncommonly wide-awake look.—
Ringdove, his father's, successor, could
never teach Perry the smirk, the grace,
and the seductiveness of the counter, so
the boy had found his place in the fin
ishing shop of the Foundry.
" Some of the bands would like to see
you fur half a jiff, Mr. Wade," said ho.
Will you come along, if 'you please !"
There was a good deal of easy swag
ger about Perry, as there is always about
boys and men whose business it is to
watch the lunging of steam-engines.—
Wade followed him. Perry led the way
with a jaunty air that said,—
" Room here ! Out of the way, you
lubberly bits of cast-iron ! Be careful,
now, you big derricks, or I'll walk right
over you ! Room now for Me and 1l v
suite 1"
This pompous usher conducted the Su.
perintendent to the very spot in the main
room of the Works where, six"months be
fore, the Inaugural had been pronounced
and the first Veto spoken and enacted.
And there, as six months before, stool
the Hands awaiting their Head. But
the apron, the red shirts, and the grime
- of work - ing , days were off; atilt - the "Whole
were in holiday rig,--as black and smooth
and shiny from top to toe as the members
of a Congress of 1-'lidertakr74„
Ifade, following in the wak s e of Perry,
took his stand facing the rank, and await
ed to see what' he was stunimmed for.-
11e had not lo,ig to wait,
To the front stepped Mr. 'William Tar
hex, foreman of the tini,hing shop, no
loner a [my, but an erect, tine looking
fellow, with no nitrite in his moustache,
and his hat permanently out of mourning
for the late Mr. Poole.
" Gentlemen," said Bill, " I move that
this meeting organize by appointing Mr.
Smith ,Wheelwright Xbairman. As many
as are in favor of this motion, please to
say 'Aye.' "
" Aye!" said the crowd, very loud and
big. And then every man looked at his
neighbor, a little aba,lied, as if he him
self made all the noise.
"This is a free xonntry," continues
Bill. "Every voter has a right to a fair
shake. Contrary minds, 'No.'"
No contrary minds. The crowd utter
ed a great silence. Every man looked at
his neighbor, surprised to finl how welt
they agreed.
" Unanimous !" Tarbox pronounced.
No fractious minorities Acre, to block
the wheels of legislation !"
The crowd burst into a roar at this sig
nificant remark, and, again abashed, drop
ped portcullis on its laughter, culling off
the flanks and tail of the sound.
"31r. Purtett, will you please conduit
the Chairman to the Chair," says Bill,
very stately.
" Make way here!" says Perry, with
the manner of a man seven feet high.—
`Step out now, Mr._Chairman
lle took a big, grizzled, docile looking
fellow patronizingly by the arm, led him
forward, and chared him on a large cylin
der-head, in the rough, just hatched out
of its mould.
"Bang away with that, and sine- oat
Silence !' " says the knowing boy, hand
ing Wheelwright an iron bolt, and taking
his place beside him, as prompter.
The docile Chairman obeyed. At his
breaking silence by hooting "Silence!"
the audience had another mighty bob
tailed laugh.
"Say, 'will some honorable member
state the object of this meeting'?' " whis
pered the prompter.
" Will some honorable mumbler state
the subject of this 'ere meetin' ?" says
Chair, a little bashful and confused.
Bill Tarbox advanced, and, with a for
mal bow, began,-_
" M r . Chairman"—
" Say, Mr. Tarbox has the floor," piped
Perry.
"Mr. Tarbox has the floor," diapan,.
Boned the Chair.
" Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen"
Bill began and stopped.
" Say, 'Proceed, Sir I' " suggested Per
ry, which the senior did, magnifying the
boy's whisper a dozen times.
Again Bill began and stopped.
" Boys," says lie, dropping grandilo
quence, " when I accepted the office- of
Orator of the Day at our primary, and
promised to bring forward our Resolu
tions in honor of Mr. Wade.with my best
speech, I didn't think I was going to
have,such a head of steam on that the
valves would get stuck and the piston
i jammed and I couldn't say a word."
" But," he continued ( ' warming up,
"when I thiLlr of the Indian powwow we
had in this very spot six months ago,—
and what a mean bloat I was, going to
the stub-tail dogs, with my hat over my
eyes, 7 —and what a hard lot we were all
round, living on nothing but argee whis
key, and rumpin' off on benders, instead
of makin' good iron,—and how the Works
was flat Lroke,—and how Dunderbunk
was full of women crying over their bus
`bands and motheni ashamed of their sons
—boys, when !I think bow things was,
and.see what 'they are, and look at Mr.
Wade standing there like a"—-
Bill hesitated for a comparison.
"Like' a thoustind of brick," Perry
Purtett suggested, s otto voce.
The Chairman took this as a hint to
himself.
"Like a theuaand of brick,"
. ho says,
with the 70iCe of a Senator. • •
Hero themudienee roared and cheered, and
the Orator.got a fresh Start. - . • :g.• ,
When you Came, Mr. Wade," be resumed,
"•fwe was aboutotick of puttpheads and
sneaks that didn't know enough or didn't
dare to malie us stand around and bone
You walked in, h'ilin' over -with -grit. You
took holdgab if you belonged hero. You made
wags jump= like a tuM:headed tarrier;, All
ere wanted,was„,"Er. live man , to say, - Here,
,boysi4altOgb4eafiai;ol • Yi:Lu've gotyourgstiiir,
and I've got mine,f I'mboss in' this shop,-
hut I ,ean't the first thing, unless every
$1 50 per annum In advanc e
$2 00 If not paid In advance
titan milts hie polind. 'NOW, then, my hand is
on the throttle, grease the wheels, oil the
waives, poke the fires, hook on, and I'll yank
her through with a will !' "
Al. this figure the meeting showed a tenden
cy to cheer. " Silence !" Porry sternly sug
gested. Silence repeated the chair.
",Then," continued the Orator, " you wasn't
one of the uneasy kind, always fussin' and
cussin' round. You wasn't always spyin' to
see we didn't take home a cross tail or a hun
dred-weight of cast-iron in our pants' pockets,
or go to swiggiu' hot metal out of the ladles
on the sly."
Here an enormous laugh requited Bill's
joke. Perry prompted, the Chair banged with
his belt and cried, "Order!"
" Well, now, boys," Tarbox went on, " what
has come of having one of the right sort to bo
boss? Why, this. The Works go ahead,
steady as the North River. We work full time
and full-handed. We turn out stuff that no
shop needs to ho ashanied of. Wages is on
the nail. We have a good time generally.—
How is that, boys,—Mr. Chairman and Gen
tlemen ?"
" That's so !" from everybody.
" And there's ROmething better," Bill re- ,
sumed. Dunderbonk used to be full of cry
ing women. They have stopped crying now."
Here the whula assemblage, Chairman and
all, burst. into an irrepressible cheer.
"But I'm malting my speech no long as a,
lightning rod," Fuld the speaker. "Vidput
on the bralte,t, hhort. I gue4S Mr. Wade
understands pretty well, now, how we feel ;
and if he don't, here it all is in shape, in
this document, with "Whereas" at the top
and "Resolved entered along down in five
places. Mr. Portett will you hand the Res
olut iuns to the Superintendent ?"
Perry alvaceod and did his office loftily,
witch to the amusement of Wade and the
work mon.--
"Now," Bill reeituned, "we wanted, besides,
to mike you a little. gift Mr. Wade, to remem ,
her the day by. S., we got up a subscription,
and every ni.in put, in his dime.. liere's the
present,—kand 'em over l'erry !
••There, Sir, 1- S.:vacs-to be
had in Yoik City, mule for wotk, and no
nunnse about 'e - ni We Duuderbunk boys
give 'mu to you, one fur all, and hope you'll
like 'cm 11111 i heat the world skating, as you
do in all the things we've knowed you try.
"Now. boy.," Bill perorated, "before I
retire to the shades of private life, 1 motion
we give Three Cheers—regular Toplifters—
for Richard Wade:"
"Hurrahl Wade and Good Government!"
“Hurrah : Wade and Prosperity' "Hurrah!
Wade and the Woman's Tears Dry l"
Cheers like the shout of Achilles I Wielding
sledges is good for the, bellows, it: appears.
T. , pli'ters 1 Why, the smoky black rafters
over head had to tug hard to hold the roof on .
Hurrah! Front every corner of the vast
building cents back ratt:ing echoes. The
works, the machinery, the furnaces,-the stair
all lad their voice to it Id to the verdict.
Magnificertt ! And our Anglo:Samen is
the only race in the world civilized enough
to join in ringing it. We are the only hurrah-.
log people—the only brood hatched in a
:::knee restored, the (Thnirmitn, prompted by
I'vrry, said. t•dtt.ntlt , ty tn, Mr. Wade has the
11001' 101' a few re:;iar::,."
Of course Wade had to speak, and did.
lie would not have been an American in
America, else. But his heart, was toe full to
say any more th to a few hearty and earnest
words of pool feeling.
-Now, men," tie closed, “I want to get
away on the river and sic it ray skates will go
us they ; so I'll end by propo,jug three
cheers for utith Wheelwright, our chairman,
three for our Orator. 'Tarbox, three for Old
Punderbunk,—W,ii I.s, meh, Women, and Chil
dren ; and our big cheer fur old Father Iron,
rs rousing a cheer as ever was roared."
So they gave their three times three with
enormous enthusiasm. The roof stoop, the
furnaces rattled, Perry I'urtott banged with
the 'Chairman's hammer, the great echoes
thundered through the Foundry.
And when they ended with one gigantic
cheer fur Iron, tough and true, the weapon,
the tool, and the engine of all civilization—it
seemed as if the uproar would never cease un
til Father Iron himself heard the call in his
smithy away under the magnetic pole, and
came clanking up, to return thanks iu person.
[(oNmsyno SI:VI' WEEK.]
TAXING I\SUWLELO WO lied the follow
ing item among the Washington correspon
dent of the New York frorhl:
"The abolition of the franking, privilege
carries with it the right of newspapers to ex
change without the payment of postage, an
important item in the newspaper business.
It will amount to a serious lax on papers
with large exchange lists. I find a strong
feeling here in favor of taxing newspaper
proprietora a quarter or half a cent for each
sheet they print. It would produce au
enorm ous incom e to the government, and it
is urg,id would be a public benefit in raising
the price of the journals, and concentrating
the business in the interest of the really
able and worthy large city newspaper. Few.
•er papers and better ones would be the re•
salt. It is doubted, however, whether the
members care to face the calmor this tax
would create among the journals in the
rural districts.
If there be any truth in this statement, it
only goes to show what exceedingly soft
and imbecile material Congressmen are
made of. The newspapers have been com
pelled to literally dog them into measures
to put the finances of the country on a solid
basis by taxation. It was only their fear,
as politicia,s of the people that prei'ented
Congress long ago from doing their duty in
this matter. They were waiting for the
newspapers to wiite up a , public sentiment
to give them' "backbone" sullisient to face
the music.? now, having thns got their
courage screwed up td the sticking point,
they not only 4 propose to tax the dis4emina
tion,of knowledge-in its most popular chain
nels, but to tax it for the benefit of the
"large city newspapers" at the expense of
those published in the country. -
We have no objection to paying postage
on our, exchange papers, or a war tax on
our real and personal , property, in any
proportion necessary - to . sustain the
government in the suppression of this re
bellion ; but w& do protest against anything
which even blinks towards laying a tax, upon
popular knowledge. To popular ignorance
in the South we this day owe the existence
of the war against the Union. Had news
papers been as abundant and cheap there
as they are at the North,fthe political scoun
drels who "precipitated". the seceded States
into rebellion, would never have-been: able
to lead the people astray. Let us have.nn,
such premium laid on ignorance •in the
loyal States. A .good round lAN on
. the
salaries and stealings of Congressmen . would
be much more popular*with the people than
a. tax on their newspapers.
Fas'Neis DATCHER, an old colored man }rho
Intrbeedi employed aa a messenger in the watt
office, tit Washington, for 40 years, died duet
week,. Ile had a, certificate of recoomendatiop
signed bY,every — Seeratary of War zinvo,Joini
O. C , sratou:sr, the pullifier.
IT Is sTATEU that: the sound of Ihe canonaci
ing- at Fort Donelson was heard tW4) hundred
miles. singular as it may appear i llie,.Sho
was felt at 'n'estieli greater distance:- •-
It is keprosenticl to hive been , tortio9.4s , fop
away as
NO 10.