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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature,
-Science, and Art, No. 744, March 30, 1878, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, No. 744, March 30, 1878
-
-Author: Various
-
-Editor: William Chambers
-        Robert Chambers
-
-Release Date: August 18, 2020 [EBook #62970]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL, MARCH 30, 1878 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
-
-
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-
-
-[Illustration: CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
-
-OF
-
-POPULAR
-
-LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
-
-Fourth Series
-
-CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS.
-
-NO. 744.      SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1878.      PRICE 1½_d._]
-
-
-
-
-ASHORE IN THE STRAITS OF MALACCA.
-
-
-The corvette _Lyre_, one of Her Majesty’s vessels, is to be imagined
-as lying at anchor off the mouth of the river Langhat, in the Straits
-of Malacca, a long heavy ground-swell rolling her lazily from side to
-side, as though even the sea found the climate too trying for much
-exertion. It is a glorious scene which lies before us: a white beech
-curtained with brilliant foliage, above which rises Parcelar Hill, a
-cone-shaped mountain, with its steep sides covered with dense jungle;
-but on board, the pitiless sun is pouring down his cloudless rays,
-making the pitch bubble out of the seams of the deck even through
-the double awning which is spread overhead. It is one o’clock in the
-afternoon, the dinner hour, and the officers, clad in white tunics and
-helmets, are listlessly lounging in long chairs abaft the mizzen-mast;
-while on the forecastle, blue-jackets and marines are in little groups
-smoking, and some who find even that amusement too hot, are stretched
-about the deck sleeping or reading. Suddenly there is a slight stir
-among them, and the shrill whistle of a boatswain’s mate is heard,
-followed by a hoarse bellow at the hatchway: ‘D’ye hear there? A
-seining-party will leave the ship at four bells [two o’clock]. All you
-as wish to go give your names to the master-at-arms. Away there, first
-cutters and dingey boys! Lower your boats!’
-
-While the crews thus named are preparing their boats for the
-expedition, volunteers in plenty are sending in their names; for a
-seining, or in other words a fishing-party, which involves a run on
-shore and a sort of picnic on the beach, is always popular on board a
-man-of-war. At this time too, we had been nearly a month at sea, and
-our store of fresh meat in the wardroom having soon been exhausted,
-we had been living on the ship’s provisions for a fortnight past;
-and H.M.’s salt beef (generally though disrespectfully known as
-‘salt horse’), never very popular at any time, had become extremely
-distasteful to our palates, though our Chinese cooks had exhausted
-their science and our patience in inventing new methods of cooking
-the obnoxious article. I may mention here that the _Lyre_ formed part
-of a squadron which had assembled in the Straits for the suppression
-of piracy, for the inhabitants of the Malay states have an interesting
-custom, handed down from remote ages, of making indiscriminate war on
-each other. The British government, not taking the view that this was
-a wise dispensation of Providence for getting rid of a useless race by
-mutual extermination, instead of leaving them to settle their disputes
-like the famous Kilkenny cats, resolved to put down this lawless state
-of affairs with a strong hand; so some of the powers that be, arranged
-a scheme for sweeping the rivers of the piratical craft which infested
-them.
-
-The plan was beautifully simple and efficacious in theory: part of the
-squadron was to ascend a branch of the Salangore River, and drive all
-the boats they should find there round to the Langhat River, where
-the remainder, of which the captain of the _Lyre_ had command, was to
-catch them. It ought to have been a success; but somehow or other the
-ungrateful pirates declined to come out of their hiding-places and be
-captured; and after spending a fortnight at anchor without making a
-single haul, our only duty being to send a detachment occasionally to
-relieve the guard at a stockade we had taken, we began to get tired of
-the cruise and the invariable ‘salt horse,’ boiled, fried, or devilled,
-that formed the ‘standing part’ of every meal; so that any proposal
-to break the monotony of our daily grind, such as this seining-party
-promised, was eagerly welcomed both by officers and men.
-
-At two o’clock a heavily laden cutter left the ship, towing the dingey,
-with the large seine-net which is supplied to every man of war, coiled
-up in it. Some of the older hands have taken a spare shift of clothes,
-for a great deal of rough dirty work may be expected, and a wise man
-likes to be prepared for emergencies; but the majority have been
-content with putting on the oldest suits they can find. As we have no
-chart in the boat, we find some difficulty in approaching the shore,
-as a long reef runs off it, on which the heavy cutter strikes again and
-again as we pull up and down looking for a passage. ‘Jump out there,
-half-a-dozen hands, and look for deep water,’ sings out the lieutenant
-in command of the party; and directly a number of men are overboard,
-glad to cool themselves from the blazing heat; and they wade and
-splash about in all directions, till the sudden disappearance of one
-man, amidst the laughter of the rest, announces that he has found the
-channel rather suddenly; and pulling in his direction, the boat reaches
-the shore without difficulty.
-
-Not a promising place for a cast where we are landing—the mouth of a
-deep rapid river, with steep banks of mud, behind which is a narrow
-belt of sand and bushes and then a dense jungle; but the dingey—a
-handy little boat—which has been sent to reconnoitre, returns with
-a report of a shelving sandy beach a few hundred yards away, which
-will just suit our purpose. So, telling off a few hands with axes
-to cut down wood and light a fire—a very necessary precaution when
-men are wet through—the remainder, after anchoring the cutter in the
-river, march off to the spot where the dingey is paying out the seine
-so as to inclose a large space of water. Long ropes are fastened to
-each end of the net, one of which is already held on shore, and the
-dingey soon brings in the other. Now comes the real hard work, as
-the heavy net is slowly and laboriously hauled to land, the two ends
-being gradually brought together by the direction of the experienced
-fishermen in charge. As the centre part of the net approaches, the
-excitement becomes great; and some of the men, regardless of sharks and
-alligators, swim behind, splashing water to frighten back the fish who
-are endeavouring to leap over the barrier which separates them from
-freedom. Then, amidst the cheery notes of a fishing chorus, most of us
-wading up to our waists in water, the purse or bulge of the net is run
-high and dry on the sand, and we eagerly examine our spoil. A curious
-collection they are, and many of them no use for cooking or any other
-purpose that we can tell. There are crabs of all sizes and brilliant
-colours, with claws out of all proportion to the size of their bodies,
-which immediately make their presence felt by severely nipping the
-bare legs and feet of the men nearest to them, of course much to the
-amusement of the rest of the party.
-
-Another peril to the unwary are the catfish, unpleasant creatures, that
-have a playful knack of darting their poisonous spines into the flesh
-of any one incautiously touching them, thereby causing excruciating
-agony for some little time. Then come some little round fish, that have
-a very peculiar habit of swelling themselves out when touched, until
-they actually burst as it were with their own importance. I am not
-naturalist enough to tell the name of this peculiar fish, but the men
-used to call them ‘beadles.’ These and many others are thrown back into
-the sea as unfit for food; but even after this wholesale rejection, we
-have several buckets of good eatable fish, which are sent off to the
-fire, which is now blazing brightly on the strip of sand at the mouth
-of the river. A question now arises as to who shall be cook, and one of
-the men is promptly chosen by the others, and placed in charge of the
-fish. There is a joke about selecting this particular individual. Some
-months previously, in the course of a chaffing-match with the wardroom
-cook’s mate, he had made a retort so peculiarly cutting that the
-enraged knight of the gridiron applied an _argumentum ad hominem_ in
-the shape of a saucepan, which laid him on the deck with a broken head;
-so whenever there was a question of cooking to be done after this, he
-was invariably selected for the office, as the others said he must have
-gone deeply into the subject.
-
-We make cast after cast now, and fill all our spare buckets with fish,
-getting rather tired ourselves with the exertion of hauling a heavy
-net, up to our necks in water, till the night comes on apace, and we
-edge off towards the fire, making a final cast in front of it, as the
-glare attracts the fish in great numbers. We have become satiated with
-sport by this time; so the net is coiled up in the dingey, and all
-hands draw round the blazing fire; those that have taken the precaution
-to bring dry clothes now donning them; and the others, who have been
-less prudent, drying themselves in the grateful heat.
-
-It is a strangely picturesque scene; the flickering blaze of the
-fire lighting up the groups of men stretched on the sand in various
-attitudes of negligent ease, their bare muscular limbs contrasting
-in almost startling whiteness with their bearded faces, bronzed
-almost black with exposure to the tropical sun. Some are drinking the
-scalding hot tea, which is now passed round in pannikins; while others
-are toasting fish, spitted on a stick for want of a more elaborate
-apparatus, and served up on a biscuit; a few grains of powder from the
-cartridges—which had been brought in case of an attack, supplying the
-place of salt, which had of course been forgotten. Our hunger is too
-great after our arduous exertions to notice any little defects in the
-cooking, and a hearty meal is enjoyed by all. Soon a pleasant odour
-of tobacco arises, as a circle is formed round a glorious fire, and a
-measure of grog is handed round by a corporal to each man. This latter
-luxury is supplied by the officers, who have in turn been indebted to
-the men for the tea which they had hospitably pressed on them.
-
-‘Now, my lads, for a song,’ says the officer in command; and after some
-little demur as to who shall commence, a man strikes up an old sea-song
-describing the wreck of the _Ramilies_, near Plymouth, a number of
-verses with a chorus to each:
-
-    With close-reefed tops’ls neatly spread,
-    She sought for to weather the old Rame Head.
-
-A fine effect is produced as the chorus is taken up by thirty deep
-voices, many of the men, with a sailor’s natural aptitude for music,
-singing the second and bass; and the unusual volume of sound drowns
-for a moment the deafening noises of the beasts and insects that are
-holding their usual nocturnal concert in the neighbouring jungle.
-
-‘Well done the starboard watch!’ says a man when the song is concluded.
-‘Now the port.’ And soon another song begins:
-
-        ’Twas in Cawsand Bay lying,
-        With the Blue-Peter flying,
-    And all hands aboard for the anchor to weigh,
-        There came a young lady,
-        As fair as a May-day,
-    And modestly hailing, this damsel did say—
-
-I forget the exact words that the lady made use of, though the quaint
-phraseology much amused me at the time, but I remember that she wanted
-her true love, a seaman on board; but the captain declined her request,
-although
-
-        He said with emotion,
-        ‘What son of the ocean
-    But would his assistance to Ellen afford.’
-
-In the climax, however, the lady unexpectedly turned the tables in her
-favour, for
-
-    Out of her pocket she hauls his discharge!
-
-Chorus—
-
-    For out of her pocket she hauls his discharge!
-
-Song followed song after this, the crackling of the roaring fire and
-the ceaseless din of the jungle forming an obligato accompaniment,
-which somehow seemed appropriate to the occasion, till a gun from the
-distant ship warned us that our time was up. Hereupon the officer in
-charge sent a couple of hands to haul in the cutter, which had been
-left at anchor in the river. Easier said than done, however, seeing
-that after a prolonged absence they returned, looking somewhat alarmed,
-and reported that they could not find the boat anywhere. This caused
-rather a commotion among the party, which a whisper of ‘Pirates’ did
-not diminish; so a rush was made for the rifles; and thus armed we
-marched to the beach; but not a sign of the boat could be found. There
-was just a chance that she had broken adrift; so the dingey was quickly
-manned and shoved off in search; but almost directly a loud shout
-announced that the cutter had been found full of water and apparently
-sinking. A number of men swam off to her at once; but the steep banks
-prevented our hauling her up; and we had just time, by dint of hard
-work, to remove her sails, oars, &c., when she sank, leaving us to our
-resources on the sand.
-
-Our position looked unpleasant enough now, thus cast away in a
-piratical district; and besides, the gathering clouds to windward,
-of inky blackness, foretold to our experienced eyes that one of the
-violent squalls of wind and rain called Sumatras, which are of daily
-occurrence at this season, would soon be upon us. Seamen, however, are
-the handiest of mortals; and in a surprisingly short space of time a
-tent was rigged from the boats’ sails and spars, under which we all
-huddled from the storm, which was now in full strength. How the rain
-did come down! As if the very flood-gates of heaven were open! And how
-the furious wind shook our frail tent till we expected every moment to
-have it down about our ears. The situation was becoming every moment
-the more trying, as with sails soaked through, we were subjected to
-the full brunt of the awful drench. In spite of the trenches that we
-had dug in the sand with our oars to serve as water-ways, we were soon
-lying in a pool of water.
-
-Strange to say, however, this was found rather a relief from the cold
-breeze, and many men proceeded to deepen their beds so as to immerse
-the whole body in water. Of the two elements the water was found to be
-the warmer! All the mosquitoes within hail had of course made their
-rendezvous in our tent; and even worse than they, the abominable
-sand-flies commenced their assaults with such zeal that nothing was to
-be heard but slaps and anathemas, bestowed with great impartiality.
-Strange to say, many men actually slept calmly through all the din; but
-most of us kept awake, singing and smoking; and so the wretched night
-passed away till the last touch was given to our misery by seeing the
-fire put out by an unusually heavy squall and rain. To supplement even
-the last touch, a cruel stop was put to our smoking, as our matches had
-become soaked and useless. Our pipe was literally put out; and as the
-last drop of grog had been served out, we had to content ourselves with
-singing and yarning till the first faint streaks of dawn appeared and
-the rain ceased.
-
-What miserable, bedraggled creatures we were when the morning sun
-broke bright and cloudless on the beach, our dripping clothes stained
-with mud and sand, and our faces so swollen with bites that it was
-with difficulty we could recognise each other! However it did not do
-to stand and shiver—that is an absurdity which Jack has never been
-guilty of—so one party set to work trying to light a fire with the
-help of a cartridge (a futile endeavour, everything being so soaked);
-while others endeavoured to launch the cutter, which was lying high
-and dry on the mud, a large hole in her bottom explaining the hitherto
-unaccountable mystery of her sinking. Our ingenuity was fully taxed in
-our attempts to again wed the somewhat unwieldy craft to the water;
-but Jack’s resources seem never to fail him, as with many an ingenious
-artifice we at length succeed in patching the leak and floating the
-cutter.
-
-We were hungry enough by this time to eat anything; but it was no use
-piping to breakfast, for we had no food; and even had we caught some
-more fish, they were no use without a fire, and all attempts to create
-even a spark had been in vain. So we sauntered about the beach or tried
-to penetrate the jungle; in the latter case getting well bitten for our
-pains by the red ants, till our eyes were gladdened by the sight of two
-boats pulling in our direction from the ship. This was lucky, for we
-had just decided on risking the passage in the cutter. It was a long
-time before the boats could reach us, for they too had a difficulty
-in finding the channel; but at last they pulled into the river and
-landed with some provisions. Oh, how enjoyable was that glass of rum!
-How precious the matches wherewith to rekindle the beloved baccy! Even
-the raw pork was pleasant enough to our hungry stomachs. But after
-we had lit our pipes, we forgot all our troubles, and expressed our
-willingness to remain another night and have some more fun. It was
-not to be, however. Our relief brought us orders to return aboard
-immediately; and in another hour we found ourselves alongside the ship,
-receiving the congratulations and chaff of our shipmates, and after all
-none the worse for our seining-party.
-
-
-
-
-HELENA, LADY HARROGATE.
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII.—AT OLD PLUGGER’S.
-
-London boarding-houses being regulated by no statute law, and as little
-liable to the supervision of the police and the interference of the
-Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Home Department as are
-other free commercial concerns, are very much harder to classify than
-are London hotels, inns, and public-houses. Their very exterior, which
-is decorated by no gaudy signs or gold-lettered inscriptions relative
-to viands, neat wines or cordials, might cause them to be mistaken for
-schools, workshops, or private dwellings. Even when a brass plate on
-the door bears the name of Bloss or Grewer or Pawkins—people who keep
-boarding-houses do appear, for some inscrutable reason, to parade the
-oddest patronymics—nobody not enlightened enough to know who Pawkins,
-Bloss, or Grewer may be, would gather much information from the laconic
-announcement. In all London there was not, taking one place with
-another, a much queerer boarding-house than one which stood on the
-Southwark or Surrey side of the Thames, and so nearly opposite to the
-Tower that the gaunt turrets of the grim old fortress were always (save
-in a fog of peculiar density) visible from its upper windows. This
-boarding-house, at the corner of what was called Dampier’s Row, was
-very solidly built, chiefly as it would seem, of the massive timbers
-of ships dissected in the breakers’ yards close by; and with its
-bow-windows and bulging outline, seemed to stand hard by the water’s
-edge, like some sturdy collier craft that had accidentally got stranded
-and was trying to accustom itself to life ashore. This particular
-boarding-house, the green door of which bore no distinguishing mark,
-was known in the neighbourhood and far along the river below bridge, as
-‘Old Plugger’s.’
-
-Whether there was a Plugger still in existence or not, it may be
-surmised that the original and veteran possessor of that name had
-enjoyed a widespread connection among mariners, for most of the present
-inmates of the house were seafaring persons. Most, but not all. And of
-the nautical boarders at Plugger’s none were common seamen. The title
-of ‘Captain’ was in as constant requisition within its weather-bleached
-porch, overgrown with scarlet-runners, as it could possibly be at a
-military club farther west. Two-thirds of the swarthy, restless-eyed
-customers claimed to have a right to that honorary prefix, or at
-the least to have been ‘officers’ of one branch or another of the
-mercantile marine. The remainder, apparently attracted to the spot by
-the smell of the tar and paint from the neighbouring wharfs, or by
-the sight of the forest of masts that rose up between them and the
-Middlesex shore, or by congenial company, had much to say as to gulches
-and placers and auriferous river-bars, and gold-dust which, after
-months of toil and hunger, had been fooled away in a week’s mad revel;
-and colossal fortunes that could infallibly be realised by any one who
-had a pitiful thousand pounds at command, and would be guided by sound
-advice as to its investment.
-
-It was not a cheap boarding-house, according to the tariff of such
-establishments, this one of Old Plugger’s. Rivals and humbler imitators
-held it in respect, for it was a thriving concern. Its rooms seldom
-stood empty for long, and its frequenters somehow found the wherewithal
-to pay their score. It was not a noisy place; by no means comparable
-to the riotous dens about Tiger Bay and elsewhere, or to the sailors’
-publics at Wapping or Rotherhithe; but now and then there was a din
-from within it, a shouting of hoarse voices, a trampling of heavy feet,
-a crashing of woodwork or of glass, and then silence. And if just then
-a patrol of the police happened to be passing down the main street, and
-some one said that the disturbance was at Old Plugger’s, the sergeant
-would shake his head as meaningly as Lord Burleigh in the _Critic_. But
-nobody seemed to care to inquire too curiously into the nature of the
-altercation in what was euphemistically known, among the trades-folk of
-the vicinity, as the captains’ boarding-house.
-
-It was, as has been said with reference to contemporary events at
-Carbery, sultry August weather, and if it was hot even on the spurs
-of breezy Dartmoor, assuredly it was hotter in the east of London.
-The strong sun brought out with great effect the combined perfumes of
-pitch and paint, of gas refuse and train-oil, of tide-mud and fried
-flat-fish, of old tarpaulins, rotten timber, and animal and vegetable
-refuse, never so pungent as beside the Thames. Society, gasping for
-air of purer quality than that town-made article which during the
-season and the parliamentary session it had respired perforce, had left
-London. But the captains who patronised Plugger’s bore the loss of
-Society with philosophical equanimity, and were content to incur, by
-stopping where they were, a reputation for being wholly unfashionable.
-
-A controversy might have been waged with reference to Old Plugger’s as
-to which was the back and which the front of that hospitable mansion.
-The main-door certainly opened on the street, or rather row, named
-in honour of Dampier, and by the position of a main-door that of a
-house-front is commonly to be determined. But then Plugger’s turned
-all its smiles, all its attractions towards the river. The best rooms
-were on that side, with their bow-windows and lumbering balconies; and
-there was even a narrow strip of garden, where snails ran riot among
-the neglected cabbages and tall sunflowers, and where the half of an
-old boat, set on end and festooned with sweet-pea and the inevitable
-scarlet-runner, did duty for an arbour, perilously near to the wash and
-ripple of the flood-tide.
-
-In the broad wooden balcony that projected from the low first-floor
-of Plugger’s and in part overhung this delectable garden, were some
-six or seven men in their shirt sleeves mostly, for coolness’ sake,
-but otherwise not ill clad. Through the open bow-windows of the
-long room of which the balcony was an appendage, glimpses might be
-caught of some ten or twelve other customers, very similar in garb
-and bearing to those outside. It was early as yet, and breakfast—as
-betokened by the empty cups, empty bottles, and confusion of knives
-and forks and dirty plates—was already over. Some of the company
-were smoking a solemn morning pipe of the yard-long ‘churchwarden’
-variety, affected by sea-going persons when on shore; two seated at a
-round-table were engaged in a game at cards; and one copper-visaged
-and gray-haired captain, with a glass of steaming rum-and-water at
-his elbow, sat on the flat top of the wooden balustrade itself, and
-alternately swept the waters with the aid of a gleaming brass-bound
-telescope, or glanced critically at the cards and the players. In all
-this there was nothing to distinguish Plugger’s from many another
-long-shore boarding-house, wherein mates and skippers take their
-spell of rest, as it were, between the hardships of the last voyage
-and those of the next; and those who have seen much of men of this
-class are aware how much of sterling worth is apt to underlie the
-harmless peculiarities traditional to the calling. But a physiognomist
-who should have, himself unseen, accompanied some Asmodeus bent on
-taking a bird’s-eye view of the company, could scarcely have failed
-to draw his own deductions from the countenances thus beheld. There
-were faces there in plenty which would have seemed in keeping with
-their surroundings had they been seen above the bulwarks of a long,
-black-hulled schooner, rakish as to her masts, and clean and sharp as
-to her run and cut-water, beating to windward off the Isle of Pines,
-or within sight of the mountain mass of Cuba. There were others,
-newly shaven, that would have harmonised well with a shaggy beard and
-tattered cabbage-palm hat, surmounting the red shirt and pistol-studded
-belt of the Australian bushranger. And again, others which might be
-conceived to have been tanned to their mahogany hue by the reflection
-of the sun from the tawny surface of some African river, where,
-behind the mangrove swamp, might be seen the cane-thatched top of
-the barracoon, where the cargo of ‘live ebony’ lay shackled. A very
-dangerous set of scamps, unless their looks belied them, were the bulk
-of Plugger’s patrons, and the more dangerous perhaps because they were
-not reckless—because they knew how to abstain from the overdose of
-liquor that sets the brain afloat and loosens the tongue.
-
-‘Let me tell yew, mister, yew’d be riddled, yew would, like any
-catamount treed, ef yew played thet sorter game in Georgia, whar I war
-raised, yew would,’ suddenly exclaimed one of the card-players, whose
-nasal drawl would of itself have revealed his nationality. ‘Thet’s
-three times I’ve seen yew try to pass the king.’
-
-‘Don’t cry afore you ’re hurt,’ retorted his adversary, whose air and
-tone were those of a sailor, and whose muscular wrists, emerging from
-shirt-cuffs linked by heavy sleeve-buttons of silver, were ornamented
-by mermaids and anchors and true-lovers’ knots in blue tattooing
-of the true salt-water pattern. ‘Guess this child wasn’t born last
-week, shipmate! Haven’t I sported the pasteboard at New York with
-Dead Rabbits; at New Orleans with Plug-uglies; and in California with
-fellows that stuck the points of their bowies in the table afore they
-set to a hand at poker! You’re a nice hand to tax a man with cheating,
-you, with two court cards up your sleeve now!’
-
-The American, who was spare and lightly built, compared with the
-opposite player, scowled as he thrust his bony right hand into an
-inner pocket of the loose coat which he alone of all the occupants of
-the balcony wore. It may have been for the concealment of the cards
-alluded to; it may have been to get a grasp of some hidden weapon. The
-latter was the supposition that the most commended itself to the other
-gamester.
-
-‘Shew your hand, Sam Barks!’ he said roughly, grasping a Dutch bottle,
-probably containing Schiedam, which stood in company with two glasses
-on the table, ‘or I’——
-
-‘Belay there, you brace of babies!’ interrupted the copper-visaged
-captain, thrusting his flashing telescope and his metallic face betwixt
-the disputants. ‘Dog don’t eat dog, my mates! I always was agin play
-between friends.—Sam, my lad, you won’t make much out of Captain
-Hold.—Dick, my Trojan, you’ll not find the American quite as green as
-spinach. Draw your stakes, my heroes, and let’s shake hands and have
-a drink all round, for the renewal of friendship!’ And this singular
-specimen of a peacemaker flourished his glass, swallowed its contents,
-and rattled the teaspoon against its sides until this substitute for a
-bell attracted the notice of a watchful attendant, wearing a striped
-cotton jacket, such as cabin-boys in hot latitudes affect.
-
-‘Three grogs, steward, and a goodish squeeze of lemon in mine, d’ye
-hear?’ called out he of the copper countenance; and the dark-skinned
-mulatto lad who was called ‘steward,’ as factotums in _The Traveller’s
-Rest_ were called Deputy, nodded his woolly head, and was not long in
-bringing the desired refreshment. The kettle must have been kept always
-boiling, even on hot August mornings, at Plugger’s, so ready was the
-supply of steaming spirits and water.
-
-‘Ah! my boys,’ said the venerable founder of the feast, as he took a
-second sip at the potent liquor, ‘here’s a blue blazing day for ye—puts
-me in mind, and you too mayhap, of a morning in the doldrums, where
-sun is sun, and the very sea seems to simmer like a can of hot broth.
-I’d like to smell blue water again, I would. I’d an offer, Monday,
-to command a decentish brig, West Ingies and Demerary way; regular
-molasses wagon; but old as I am, I’d rather have another bout in the
-South Seas. Black-birding for the Fiji and Queensland labour market is
-about the best sport a man can have, since they spoiled the fun we used
-to have off the West Coast.’
-
-‘Ay, but that game’s pretty near played out too,’ answered Hold
-meditatively. ‘Why, you yourself, Captain Grincher, lost your schooner
-that the man-o’-war captured off the Solomons, and were tried at Sydney
-for what the government fellows called kidnapping. No; give me Chinese
-waters, and a handy crew aboard a bit of a fast-sailing lorcha to’——
-
-‘Gentlemen, gentlemen!’ broke in the American, now in a good temper;
-‘allow me to say it air a pity to see men of your talents a-huddling of
-’em into corners wheer they’ll fail of their just reward. Now, listen,
-ef I could but get together a few spirited citizens and, mind ye, the
-handful of coin necessary for preliminary expenses, this child could
-point the place where lies, in fourteen fathom water, the treasure-ship
-_Happy Land_ that left San Francisco, bound for New York, in the fall
-of ’49, and never was heard of more. She had the value, in dust and
-bars, of’——
-
-But the precise amount of the golden freight which, on board the _Happy
-Land_, awaited the bold explorers who should reach that sunken vessel,
-is not destined to be set down in these pages, for the coloured steward
-at this juncture appeared holding a letter between his dusky finger and
-thumb. ‘For Cap’en Hold,’ said the mulatto; and Hold, recognising the
-handwriting, jumped to his feet in a trice, and snatched rather than
-received the envelope which the dark Ganymede of Plugger’s held out to
-him; and tearing it open, read as follows: ‘Come, and come at once.
-There is no time to lose. Something has occurred—something which makes
-your presence necessary. Come by noonday train. I will be at the park
-gate to the north soon after ten o’clock. Meet me there.’ The letter
-was signed ‘Ruth Willis.’
-
-Hold’s mind was instantly made up. ‘I must heave anchor in a hurry,’
-he said, as he thrust back the letter into his pocket. ‘So good-bye,
-Grincher; and good-bye, Barks!’ and without further delay, he withdrew
-to prepare for the journey to Carbery. To pay his reckoning, to push
-some needful articles into a bag, and to consign his sea-chest to the
-custody of the authorities of Plugger’s, well used to similar trusts,
-took but half an hour; and when the mid-day train started for the west
-of England it carried with it a second-class passenger, whose only
-luggage was a black bag, and who could easily have been mistaken for
-a man-o’-war’s man bound for Plymouth, there to rejoin one of those
-_Hornets_ or _Monkeys_ which have superseded the _Arethusas_ and
-_Hermiones_ of the past.
-
-Arrived at the station most convenient for his purpose, Hold trudged
-sturdily on until he reached his old quarters at _The Traveller’s
-Rest_, where he installed his bag in one of those single-bedded rooms
-which were always at the service of so solvent a customer as Mr Hold,
-who, while inland and among shore-going folks, dropped his titular
-distinction of captain. After supper, the fresh arrival at _The Rest_
-sallied forth, and making his way to Carbery, waited, pacing softly to
-and fro, under the shelter of the park wall.
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII.—UNDER THE PARK WALL.
-
-All through that August day which witnessed the hurried journey of Mr
-Richard Hold, master mariner, from the river-side bowers of Plugger’s
-to the silvan shades of _The Traveller’s Rest_, Sir Sykes Denzil’s ward
-was in a state of feverish agitation, which it was hard for even her
-to conceal from those about her. We may fairly own that women surpass
-us in the social diplomacy which they study from the cradle almost,
-and that their powers of suppressing what they feel—not seldom from a
-noble motive—are greater than ours. All of us must have wondered, as we
-read the marvellous narratives of such prisoners as Trenck and Latude,
-at the patient ingenuity that could contrive rope-ladders out of the
-flax thread of shirts, files out of scraps of rusty iron, tools from
-any fragment of metal that came to hand. None the less should we be
-astonished at the power of dissembling evinced by the captives on the
-watch for the propitious moment to break prison.
-
-What Ruth dreaded above all other things was what a woman always does
-dread, the scrutiny of her own sex. That men are credulous, careless,
-prone to give credit to the shallowest excuse, readily hoodwinked, and
-easy to pacify, has been an article of faith with Eve’s daughters
-since prehistoric times. The real spy to be feared, the real censor
-before whom to tremble, is decidedly feminine, in the estimation of
-women who have anything to hide. Ruth therefore devoted her whole
-attention to keeping up a brave outside before the eyes of her
-guardian’s daughters, Blanche and Lucy, two as honestly unsuspicious
-girls as could be met with in all Devonshire.
-
-But as all _a priori_ reasoning is tainted with the fatal flaw of
-bad logic, Ruth forgot Jasper Denzil, still shut up in the house on
-account of his recent accident, and whose crooked mind had not much to
-do save to employ itself in fathoming the crooked ways of others. Now
-a man, if circumstances coerce him to limit his powers of observation
-to the narrow sphere of domesticity, is capable of becoming a spy more
-formidable than women would readily admit. If he sees less, he reasons
-more cogently as to what he does see, and he has the further advantage
-of being an unsuspected scout from whom no danger is anticipated.
-
-Jasper Denzil had excellent reasons for the profound mistrust with
-which he regarded the Indian orphan. The very presence beneath his
-father’s roof of such a one as Ruth was in itself a standing puzzle and
-challenge to his curiosity. That she was Hold’s sister, the sister of a
-coarse-mannered adventurer of humble birth, was what the captain could
-not bring himself to believe. For Ruth seemed innately a lady. Either
-she must have had the advantages of gentle nurture and education, or as
-an actress in the never-ending social drama she displayed consummate
-skill. But whatever might have been her birth (and there were times
-when he was tempted to fancy that in her he saw that young sister of
-his own, long dead, the date of whose decease was supposed to coincide
-with that of the sad mood which had become habitual to Sir Sykes),
-Jasper with just cause regarded her as a most artful person.
-
-The ex-cavalry officer remembered well enough that interview between
-Sir Sykes and Hold, at which he had played the part of an unsuspected
-audience. The demand to which his father had acceded was that Sir
-Sykes should receive in a false character Hold’s sister as an inmate
-of Carbery. True the seafaring fellow—smuggler, pirate, or whatever he
-might be—had laughed mockingly, and had spoken in strangely ironical
-accents when dictating to the baronet on this subject. But be she who
-she might, Ruth must be either an accomplished schemer or the willing
-instrument of others, or she would not have been where she was.
-
-It may have been a petty malice, suited to his feline nature, that
-caused Jasper on that particular night to remain down-stairs later than
-usual, causing his sisters also to defer their retiring to rest for an
-extra half-hour. They kept early hours at Carbery as a rule, as rich
-people, in the profound dullness of the dignified ease which is not
-enlivened by guests, are sometimes apt to do. Sir Sykes, who always
-stayed long enough in the drawing-room to sip his coffee, was the first
-to disappear; but no one save himself and his valet knew when he left
-the library for his bedroom. When the captain was in health it was his
-custom to spend an hour or two in trying rare combinations of skill
-and luck among the ivory balls in the billiard-room; but since the
-steeplechase he had been glad to retire unfashionably early.
-
-It was because he fancied that Miss Willis was impatiently awaiting the
-moment for separating for the night, that Jasper chose to delay it; but
-at length the time came when the good-nights had been exchanged, and
-the drawing-room was abandoned. Captain Denzil’s room, which adjoined
-the picture-gallery on the first-floor, was immediately beneath that
-occupied by the Indian orphan. Repeatedly, after he reached it, did
-Jasper fancy that he heard a light swift step overhead, as if Sir
-Sykes’s ward were hurrying to and fro; and then his sharpened ear
-caught the sound of a stealthy tread upon the oaken staircase.
-
-Extinguishing the lights for the time being, Captain Denzil threw open
-his window, which overlooked the park; and by the time his eyes grew
-somewhat accustomed to the darkness, he saw, or thought he saw, a
-female form glide from under the black shadow of the giant sycamores
-and flit bat-like away through the solitary gloom.
-
-‘If it were not for this provoking arm,’ said the captain, who was
-still, despite the skilful care of worthy little Dr Aulfus from
-Pebworth, suffering less from his hurts than from the Nemesis that dogs
-the steps of the hard-liver, ‘I’d win the odd trick to-night. But if I
-can’t follow to see who it is that she meets, at anyrate I shall get a
-second peep at yonder ingenuous creature when she comes back. A rare
-moonless night it is for such an errand!’
-
-Jasper’s eyes had not deceived him. It was Ruth whose slight figure had
-passed away into the deepening shadows of the night, crossing the park
-towards its northern boundary, which abutted upon the broken country
-leading to the royal forest, treeless, but none the less in sound law
-the forest of Dartmoor. It was so dark that even one better accustomed
-to the locality might have failed to keep to the right course among
-narrow and grass-grown paths, many of them trodden by no human foot,
-but by the cloven hoofs of the deer trooping down to pool or pasture.
-
-Yet Ruth threaded her devious way past holt and thicket, past pond
-and hollow, almost as well as the oldest keeper on the estate would
-have done, and presently gained the gate which, as has been already
-remarked, stood always open on the northern side of the park,
-corresponding to that on the southern or seaward side, for, as has
-been said, the public had an ancient right or user to traverse Carbery
-Chase. But as a right of ingress for men might imply a right of egress
-for deer, some zigzag arrangement of iron bars had been set up,
-screen-like, at either extremity of the footpath, and this effectually
-restrained the roving propensities of the antlered herd within.
-
-‘So—you are late, Ruth! I have kicked about here, till I began to think
-you’d thrown me over. No wonder, living among fine folks, that you’re
-getting to care little how long a rough fellow like yours to command is
-kept on the look-out.’
-
-Such was the surly greeting of the stout sailor-like man whom Ruth
-found irritably pacing to and fro under the lee of the wall.
-
-‘I could not come, brother, one moment earlier without arousing
-suspicion that might be the ruin of us both,’ answered the girl
-steadily, but in a conciliatory tone. ‘And what, after all, signify
-a few minutes more or less of expectation, compared with a life of
-constant effort, constant watchfulness, and the sense of depending on
-one’s self alone in the midst of enemies who sleep beneath the same
-roof and feed at the same table? I tell you that the tension on my
-nerves is far greater than I ever dreamed that it could be, and that
-there are times when I even fancy that I shall be driven mad by the
-strain imposed upon me of playing a part, ever and always, without rest
-or respite!’
-
-Ruth’s voice as she proceeded had grown shrill and tremulous with the
-effect of the emotions, long pent up, that found expression at last,
-and she pressed her slender hand upon her heated brow with a gesture
-which Hold was not slow to mark.
-
-‘Come, come, Missy,’ he said in accents far more gentle than those
-which he had first employed; ‘you’ve taken this thing, whatever it is,
-too much to heart. See, now; I’d never have suggested the plan if I
-had not believed that in the house of Sir Sykes Denzil, Baronet, you’d
-have been like a fish in water. Didn’t we always call you in joke “My
-Lady,” and that because your ways weren’t as our plain ways? Haven’t
-you got your head stuffed as full of book-learning as an egg is full of
-meat? Aren’t you dainty and proud and what not? Till folks declared, to
-be sister o’ mine, you must have been changed at nurse. And now do you
-find it a hardship to have to consort with yon Denzil people?—not your
-equals, I’ll be bound, if all had their due.’
-
-‘You can’t understand me, Brother Dick,’ said the girl softly, and
-turning away her face. ‘Give me, I say, a real stand-point; let not my
-life be a lie, and I should fear no comparison with those who are daily
-my dupes. But I hold my tenure of the bed I sleep on, the bread I eat,
-by mere sufferance, and I see no way as yet to’——
-
-‘That fop—the dandy Lancer fellow—Captain Jasper don’t seem to take
-to you then?’ asked Hold; and Ruth winced perceptibly at the blunt
-question.
-
-‘Captain Denzil will never, I imagine, care very much for any one but
-his dear self,’ she answered gently. ‘Now that he is an invalid—though
-he will soon be out and about again—he thinks that he pays me no small
-compliment in preferring my conversation to the insipid society of his
-excellent sisters. But I no more expect a proposal of marriage from
-Jasper Denzil than I expect the sky to fall.’
-
-‘That’s a pity,’ said Hold dryly; and then a pause ensued. ‘You didn’t
-send for me, Missy, to tell me that?’ he added, after some moments
-spent in thought.
-
-‘No!’ returned Ruth in her low clear voice. ‘I sent for you that you
-might read a letter—how obtained I leave you to guess—which concerns us
-both. Have you the means of doing so?’
-
-‘Catch me without light, Missy!’ complacently replied the seaman,
-drawing from one of his deep coat-pockets a small dark-lantern, which
-he lighted. ‘Now for this letter,’ he said; and receiving it from
-Ruth’s hand, read it attentively twice over. As he did so, some rays
-from the shaded lantern that he held illumined his resolute face.
-
-‘Wilkins, eh? Enoch Wilkins. That’s the name the craft hails by;
-and he’s a land-shark, it seems,’ muttered Hold, as he refolded the
-document.
-
-‘He is a London lawyer, as you see,’ explained Ruth; ‘and all I know
-of him, gleaned from various sources, is that he was the captain’s
-creditor for a large sum, which Sir Sykes has very recently paid. He
-is, I gather, a sort of turf solicitor of no very good repute, and has
-somehow a grip on poor weak Sir Sykes. Now the baronet, I feel sure,
-has but one secret’——
-
-‘That, you may be certain of!’ interjected Hold.
-
-‘And this man knows it and trades on it,’ said the baronet’s ward
-eagerly; ‘and in doing so his path crosses ours. See! The word
-“others,” which is underlined, must surely have reference to you and
-me. Rely on it, he has an inkling of our plans, and may counteract
-them.’
-
-‘Take the wind out of my sails, will he, eh?’ said Hold grimly, and
-with a threatening gesture.
-
-‘Brother Dick, Brother Dick, when will you learn wisdom!’ said his
-sister, smiling. ‘Your buccaneer tricks of clenched fist and angry
-frown are as out of place in peaceable England as it would be to strut
-about with pistols and cutlass. You are not on the West Coast now, or
-off the Isle of Pines, or in the Straits of Malacca, to carry things
-with a high hand. Our plain course is to make an ally, not an enemy of
-this lawyer. He knows much, but perhaps not all, and may be induced to
-accept as true the story that has been told to Sir Sykes. In any case,
-he cannot be very scrupulous; and will not be desirous, by bringing
-about a dispute and a scandal, to kill the goose that lays the golden
-eggs. The baronet’s purse is deep enough for all of us.’
-
-‘You’re right!’ rejoined the sailor, with a whistle that was meant
-to express unbounded admiration for his sister’s shrewdness. ‘I’ll
-make tracks to London, and see what terms can be made with Commodore
-Wilkins, before he shews his face here.’
-
-‘Tell him nothing that he does not know,’ said Ruth, as the pair
-separated.
-
-‘Trust me for that!’ was Hold’s confident reply.
-
-Jasper, still at his window, caught but a glimpse of the girl’s slight
-form as it glided by and re-entered the house.
-
-_To be continued._
-
-
-
-
-RECOLLECTIONS OF THE IRISH BAR.
-
-
-If the walls of the Dublin ‘Four Courts’ could speak, how many a
-pleasant story and witty repartee and sparkling bon-mot they could
-tell! Let me recall and string together some of these pearls of
-anecdote and wit, some of which, though perhaps not altogether new to
-lovers of anecdote, may well bear repetition.
-
-The first Viscount Guillamore, when Chief Baron O’Grady, was remarkable
-for his dry humour and biting wit. The latter was so fine that its
-sarcasm was often unperceived by the object against whom the shaft was
-directed.
-
-A legal friend, extremely studious, but in conversation notoriously
-dull, was once shewing off to him his newly-built house. The bookworm
-prided himself especially on a sanctum he had contrived for his own
-use, so secluded from the rest of the building that he could pore over
-his books in private quite secure from disturbance.
-
-‘Capital!’ exclaimed the Chief Baron. ‘You surely could, my dear
-fellow, read and study here from morning till night, and no human
-being be _one bit the wiser_.’
-
-A young and somewhat dull tyro at the bar pleading before him
-commenced: ‘My lord, my unfortunate client’—— then stopped, hemmed,
-hawed, hesitated. Again he began: ‘My lord, my most unfortunate
-client’—— Another stop, more hemming and confusion.
-
-‘Pray go on, sir,’ said the Chief Baron. ‘So far the court is with you.’
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-In those days, before competitive examinations were known, men with
-more interest than brains got good appointments, for the duties of
-which they were wholly incompetent. Of such was the Honourable —— ——.
-He was telling Lord Guillamore of the summary way in which he disposed
-of matters in his court.
-
-‘I say to the fellows that are bothering with foolish arguments, that
-there’s no use in wasting my time and their breath; for that all their
-talk only just goes in at one ear and out at the other.’
-
-‘No great wonder in that,’ said O’Grady, ‘seeing that there’s so little
-between to stop it.’
-
-It was this worthy, who being at a public dinner shortly after he got
-his place, had his health proposed by a waggish guest.
-
-‘I will give you a toast,’ he said: ‘The Honourable —— ——, and long may
-he continue indifferently to administer justice.’ The health was drunk
-with much merriment, the object of it never perceiving what caused the
-fun.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Lord Guillamore could tell a story with inimitable humour. He used
-to vary his voice according to the speakers, and act as it were the
-scene he was describing, in a way infinitely diverting. Very droll was
-his mimicry of a dialogue between the guard of the mail and a mincing
-old lady with whom he once travelled from Cork to Dublin, in the old
-coaching days.
-
-The coach had stopped to change horses, and the guard, a big red-faced
-jolly man, beaming with good-humour and civility, came bustling up to
-the window to see if the ‘insides’ wanted anything.
-
-‘Guard!’ whispered the old lady.
-
-‘Well, ma’am, what can I do for you?’
-
-‘Could you’—in a faint voice—‘could you get me a glass of water?’
-
-‘To be sure, ma’am; with all the pleasure in life.’
-
-‘And guard!’—still fainter—‘I’d—hem—I’d—a—like it hot.’
-
-‘_Hot_ water! Oh, all right, ma’am! Why not, if it’s plazing to you?’
-
-‘With a lump of sugar, guard, if you please.’
-
-‘By all manner of means, ma’am.’
-
-‘And—and—guard dear’—as the man was turning to go away—‘a small squeeze
-of lemon, and a little—just a thimbleful—of spirits through it.’
-
-‘Och, isn’t that _punch_!’ shouted the guard. ‘Where was the good of
-beating about the bush? Couldn’t you have asked out for a tumbler of
-punch at once, ma’am, like a man!’
-
-Another favourite story was of a trial at quarter-sessions in Mayo,
-which developed some of the ingenious resources of Paddy when he
-chooses to exercise his talent in an endeavour not to pay. A doctor
-had summoned a man for the sum of one guinea, due for attendance on
-the man’s wife. The _medico_ proved his case, and was about to retire
-triumphant, when the defendant humbly begged leave to ask him a few
-questions. Permission was granted, and the following dialogue took
-place.
-
-_Defendant._ ‘Docthor, you remember when I called on you?’
-
-_Doctor._ ‘I do.’
-
-_Defendant._ ‘What did I say?’
-
-_Doctor._ ‘You said your wife was sick, and you wished me to go and see
-her.’
-
-_Defendant._ ‘What did you say?’
-
-_Doctor._ ‘I said I would, if you’d pay me my fee.’
-
-_Defendant._ ‘What did I say?’
-
-_Doctor._ ‘You said you’d pay the fee, if so be you knew what it was.’
-
-_Defendant._ ‘What did you say?’
-
-_Doctor._ ‘I said I’d take the guinea at first, and maybe more at the
-end, according to the sickness.’
-
-_Defendant._ ‘Now, docthor, by vartue of your oath, didn’t I say: “Kill
-or cure, docthor, I’ll give you a guinea?” And didn’t you say: “Kill or
-cure, I’ll take it?”’
-
-_Doctor._ ‘You did; and I agreed to the bargain. And I want the guinea
-accordingly.’
-
-_Defendant._ ‘Now, docthor, by vartue of your oath answer this: Did you
-cure my wife?’
-
-_Doctor._ ‘No; she’s dead. You know that.’
-
-_Defendant._ ‘Then, docthor, by vartue of your oath answer this: Did
-you kill my wife?’
-
-_Doctor._ ‘No; she died of her illness.’
-
-_Defendant_ (to the bench). ‘Your worship, see this. You heard him tell
-our bargain. It was to kill or cure. By vartue of his oath, _he done
-neither!_—and he axes the fee!’
-
-The verdict, however, went against poor Pat, notwithstanding his
-ingenuity.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Something like the following story has been told before in these pages.
-It will, however, bear repetition. Mr F——, Clerk of the Crown for
-Limerick, was over six feet high and stout in proportion. He was the
-dread of the cabmen, and if their horses could have spoken, they would
-not have blessed him.
-
-One day when driving in the outlets of Dublin, they came to a long
-and steep hill. Cabby got down, and walking alongside the cab, looked
-significantly in at the windows. ‘His honour’ knew very well what he
-meant; but the day was hot, and he was lazy and fat, and had no notion
-of taking the hint and getting out to ease the horse while ‘larding the
-lean earth’ himself. At last Paddy changed his tactics. Making a rush
-at the cab, he suddenly opened the door, and then slammed it to with a
-tremendous bang.
-
-‘What’s that for?’ roared Mr F——, startled at the man’s violence and
-the loud report.
-
-‘Whist, yer honour! Don’t say a word!’ whispered Paddy, putting his
-finger on his lips.
-
-‘But what do you mean, sirrah?’ cried the fare.
-
-‘Arrah, can’t ye hush, sir? Spake low now—do. Sure, ’tis letting on I
-am to the little mare that your honour’s got out to walk. Don’t let her
-hear you, and the craythur ’ll have more heart to face the hill if she
-thinks you’re not inside, and that ’tis only the cab that’s throubling
-her.’
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Baron R——, one of the gravest and most decorous judges on the bench,
-had a younger brother singularly unlike him, who was a perpetual thorn
-in his side. A scapegrace at school, the youth would learn nothing, and
-was the torment of his teachers. Having been set a sum by one of the
-latter, he, after an undue delay, presented himself before the desk and
-held up his slate, at one corner of which appeared a pile of coppers.
-
-‘What is the meaning of all this, sir?’ said the master.
-
-‘Oh!’ cried the youth, ‘I’m very sorry, sir, but I really can’t help
-it. All the morning I’ve been working at that sum. Over and over again
-I’ve tried, but in spite of all I can do, it will not come right. So
-I’ve made up the difference in halfpence, and there it is on the slate.’
-
-The originality of the device disarmed the wrath of the pedagogue, and
-young R—— was dismissed with his coppers to his place.
-
-The youngster when grown up boasted an enormous pair of whiskers, of
-which he was very proud. One day a friend met him walking up Dame
-Street with one of these cherished bushy adornments shaved clean off,
-giving a most comical lop-sided appearance to his physiognomy.
-
-‘Hollo, R——!’ he exclaimed, ‘what has become of your whisker?’
-
-‘Lost it at play,’ he replied. ‘Regularly cleaned out last night at the
-gaming-table of every mortal thing I had—nothing left to wager but my
-whisker.’
-
-‘And why, man, don’t you cut off the rest, and not have one side of
-your face laughing at the other?’
-
-‘I’m keeping that for to-night,’ said the scamp with a wink, as he
-passed on.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The father of the Lord Chancellor—afterwards Lord Plunket—was a very
-simple-minded man. Kindly and unsuspicious, he was often imposed upon,
-and the Chancellor used to tell endless stories illustrative of his
-parent’s guileless nature.
-
-One morning, Mr Plunket taking an early walk was overtaken by two
-respectable-looking men, carpenters apparently by trade, each carrying
-the implements of his work.
-
-‘Good-morning, my friends,’ said the old gentleman; ‘you are early
-afoot. Going on a job, eh?’
-
-‘Good-morrow kindly, sir; yes, we are; and a quare job too. The quarest
-and the most out-of-the-way you ever heard of, I’ll be bound, though
-you’ve lived long in the world, and heard and read of many a thing.
-Oh, you’ll never guess it, your honour, so I may as well tell at once.
-We’re going to cut the legs off a dead man.’
-
-‘What!’ cried his hearer, aghast. ‘You don’t mean’——
-
-‘Yes, indeed, ’tis true for me; and here’s how it come about. Poor
-Mary Neil’s husband—a carpenter like ourselves, and an old comrade—has
-been sick all the winter, and departed life last Tuesday. What with
-the grief and the being left on the wide world with her five orphans,
-and no one to earn bit or sup for them, the craythur is fairly out of
-her mind—stupid from the crying and the fret; for what does she do,
-poor woman, but send the wrong measure for the coffin; and when it come
-home it was ever so much too short! Barney Neil was a tall man; nigh
-six feet we reckoned him. He couldn’t be got into it, do what they
-would; and the poor craythur hadn’t what would buy another. Where
-would she get it, after the long sickness himself had, and with five
-childher to feed and clothe? So, your honour, all that’s in it is to
-cut the legs off him. Me and my comrade here is going to do it for the
-desolate woman. We’ll just take ’em off at the knee-joints and lay them
-alongside him in the coffin. I think, sir, now I’ve told you our job,
-you’ll say ’tis the quarest ever you heard of.’
-
-‘Oh!’ cried the old gentleman, ‘such a thing must not be done. It’s
-impossible! How much will a new coffin cost?’
-
-The carpenter named the sum, which was immediately produced, and
-bestowed on him with injunctions to invest forthwith in the necessary
-purchase.
-
-The business, however, took quite an unexpected turn. Mr Plunket on
-his return home related his matutinal adventure to his family at
-breakfast, the future Chancellor, then a young barrister, being at the
-table. Before the meal was ended, the carpenters made their appearance,
-and with many apologies tendered back the coin they had received. He
-who had been spokesman in the morning explained that on seeing the
-gentleman in advance of them on the road, he had for a lark made a bet
-with his companion that he would obtain the money; which, having won
-his wager, he now refunded. Genuine Irish this!
-
-
-
-
-MONSIEUR HOULOT.
-
-IN THREE CHAPTERS.
-
-
-CHAPTER III.—TO-MORROW—LIBERTY.
-
-There is no phrase of abuse so apparently innocent and yet so cutting
-and disturbing as that, ‘I know all about you.’ It asserts nothing
-of which one can take hold, and yet it implies a great deal that may
-well be offensive. It is customary to say that the life of the best of
-men, could it be subjected to the full glare of daylight in all its
-bearings, would be found more or less spotty and blemished; and perhaps
-it is this secret consciousness of hidden iniquities that gives such
-force to the innuendo.
-
-But in the mouth of Houlot, who you will remember made use of the
-expression, and thus caused his speedy expulsion from my premises, the
-phrase was one that gave us all considerable uneasiness. Did he really
-know anything about my connection with the firm of Collingwood Dawson?
-It seemed hardly likely that he would have come to borrow money of me,
-had such been the case. But this, after all, might have merely been a
-device to throw dust in our eyes. His visit might have been a spying
-one, for the purpose of seeing how the land lay. He might indeed have
-seen his wife and recognised her.
-
-Mrs Collingwood was full of terror lest such should have been the case.
-She dreaded that he was coming to claim her. Every passing footstep,
-every ring at the bell of the outer gate caused her a vivid throb of
-fear. For my own part I did not think the danger thus great in that
-direction. It was hardly likely that a man who had taken such pains to
-escape from a tie that must have been profoundly irksome to him, would
-wish to renew it now. His habits were fixed and eccentric, and probably
-he would be as much dismayed at the prospect of being claimed by his
-wife, as she would at the idea of going back to him. These thoughts I
-did not divulge to Mrs Collingwood. They suggested to me, however, a
-plan of action.
-
-I determined to go and see M. Houlot, to beard the lion in his den.
-Probably I should be ill-treated and abused for my pains; but it was
-worth the trial. Houlot’s house was, as I have said, on the slope of
-one of the hills overlooking the town, the top of which was fringed
-with forest, whilst all down the sides were houses with terraced
-gardens, full of greenery, and with dividing walls covered thick with
-vines and pear-trees. It was a tall, timbered house, occupied by many
-families; and a common staircase, rickety and creaky, but with fine old
-carved oak balusters, led to the various floors. Houlot lived on the
-fourth stage, I found; and I made my way up panting, and not without
-fear lest the boards should give way beneath me. A sempstress who was
-busily at work in one of the rooms with her door wide open and her
-children scattered about the landing, indicated the door of Houlot’s
-room, and told me that she had just seen him go in.
-
-I knocked several times without any one taking notice of me. Finally,
-after I had made a considerable din, the door was suddenly opened and
-Houlot stood before me.
-
-‘What do you want?’ he cried, after glaring at me a few moments from
-under his pent-house brows. ‘Have you come to bring me the money?’
-
-‘Let me come in and explain matters,’ I said.
-
-He looked doubtfully at me for a moment, and then sullenly drew on one
-side and allowed me to pass in. His room was bare of furniture, except
-for one square deal table and a chair without a back. In one corner of
-the room a mattress and blanket were spread on the floor, in another a
-lot of books and papers were heaped confusedly together, all covered
-by a thick mantle of dust. A small cooking stove stood in the middle
-of the room, the black iron pipe from which went through a hole into
-the huge chimney; and a large open fireplace, which had once warmed
-the room, was covered with a rough framework of planks and sacking.
-The aspect of the place was squalid and comfortless, but it had one
-redeeming feature—there was a splendid view from the open window. A
-great fold of shining river, inclosing a stretch of marsh-land and wide
-green prairie, dotted with feathery aspens and monumental poplars,
-among which shewed here and there a cluster of farm buildings, and
-an occasional church spire. A black morose-looking windmill, with
-sails pugnaciously stretched out, as if daring an attack from some
-nineteenth-century Don Quixote, stood solitary on its grass toft. Range
-upon range of hills inclosed the landscape, dappled with the shadow of
-the lazy clouds; with here a dark ravine, and there a white gleaming
-chalk cliff.
-
-‘You are well placed here,’ I said, making for the window. There was an
-overpowering smell of brandy in the room, that made one feel quite sick
-this fine summer morning. ‘You have a splendid view.’
-
-‘Well enough for that,’ growled Houlot. ‘But what is the good of a view
-to a hungry man?’
-
-I noticed now that he looked haggard and starved, and that there was an
-unhealthy fiery flush upon his face and a wild look in his eyes, as if
-he had been drinking without eating for a good while.
-
-‘You need not go hungry unless you like,’ I said. ‘I can’t lend you all
-the money you ask for; but anything you want for daily needs I will let
-you have till you get your remittances from England.’
-
-‘I have no remittances coming from England,’ said Houlot. ‘I have given
-up writing for the rascal who filched my work. But if you will only
-let me have that five-pound note we will put matters on a different
-footing. Let me shew up Collingwood Dawson!’
-
-‘Yes, that’s all very well; but what will you gain by it?’
-
-‘I shall vindicate my own name.’
-
-‘What! the name of Houlot?’
-
-He winced, but retorted angrily: ‘What business is it of yours what
-name?’
-
-‘If I lend you the money to carry out your plans, it seems that I am
-entitled to ask what chance I have to be repaid. But apart from that,
-having vindicated your name, how many five-pound notes will it be
-worth?’
-
-‘Why, look here,’ he said; ‘if that rascal can make a reputation and
-money by his stuff, which is only mine diluted and spoilt, surely for
-the genuine work of the real man’——
-
-‘If you are trusting to that, I must decline to advance any money for
-the speculation. Why on earth, man, when you had a sufficient income
-paid you regularly, and lived as you liked, did you give it up and
-embark on a sea of trouble?’
-
-‘Because I have a mission in this world, which I dream sometimes I
-shall accomplish.’
-
-‘And the mission is?’
-
-‘To open the eyes of fools.’
-
-‘My dear fellow, they object to the operation, and have punished a good
-many people for trying it.’
-
-‘Then I will be punished,’ he said. ‘But anyhow, I’ll expose these
-wretched smatterers, who serve up my things with all their wit and
-wisdom taken out of them, who travesty my best thoughts. Why, they have
-even made vulgar my very name!’
-
-‘Houlot?’ I said, ‘Houlot? Is that the French for Dawson or
-Collingwood?’
-
-‘That is not my real name,’ he said. ‘I abandoned that years ago. Every
-one turned his back upon the name. I did so myself at last.’
-
-‘One of the results of the eye-opening process, I suppose?’
-
-He nodded sullenly. ‘My name used to be Dawson,’ he said.
-
-‘You don’t mean to say,’ I cried, ‘that you are the Dawson who was
-supposed to have been drowned years and years ago?’
-
-‘I was that man—that unhappy man! But why,’ he cried, turning round
-fiercely upon me, ‘why do you make me go back to all these hateful
-things?’
-
-‘Then is the memory of your former life hateful to you?’
-
-‘I escaped from the most wretched condition that a man was ever in:
-tied to a woman who made my life an intolerable burden. She was not a
-bad woman, not an unworthy woman. She was—— Well, she had a mother who
-was fat and well to do, and lived in St John’s Wood.’
-
-Houlot laughed hoarsely, knocked out his pipe on the empty stove,
-looked mechanically for some tobacco in a jar on the chimney-piece.
-It was empty. I offered him my pouch, which he took with an indignant
-scowl.
-
-‘Well, I was meant for great things,’ he went on between the whiffs
-of his pipe—‘meant for great things; and here I am. Life fribbled and
-frittered away, and that woman the main cause of it! There was no
-escape from her any other way. I believe in my heart that the woman
-loved me in her fashion; all the greater was my unutterable woe.’
-
-‘And you ran away from her?’
-
-‘I disappeared from existence. I would not harm the woman. I would not
-spoil her life any longer. No; I adopted another plan. At the risk of
-my own life, I contrived that my death should be apparent. The means
-were simple enough, although they caused me some anxious thought and
-preparation. I went down to a little visited part of the coast with
-which I was well acquainted, and put up at an inn where I was known.
-Taking my cue partly from the well-known farce of _Box and Cox_, I went
-out one morning early and deposited a suit of clothes in a little niche
-in the cliffs: a wild and solitary spot, rarely visited by any living
-creature. Later in the day, I went out again, telling the people of the
-inn that I was going to bathe. I left my clothes on the beach and took
-to the water. I had chosen my time so that the set of the tide would
-carry me to the place where I had deposited my clothes, and I drifted
-along with little exertion. Arrived at the spot, I landed, found my
-clothes all right, and put them on. Then I started on foot along the
-coast till I reached a road-side station, made my way to London, and
-then crossed the Channel, intending to go to Paris. I thought that I
-should be able to get literary employment there; for French is as a
-second native tongue to me. My mother was a Frenchwoman; her name was
-Houlot; hence the name I adopted. But I took this place on my way; and
-on the journey I fell from the roof of the diligence, and the wheel
-went over my hand. Amputation was necessary; and by the time that I
-was cured, I had spent all my little store of money and owed something
-beside. But the people here were very humane and kind. I set to work
-to write with my left hand, and earned a little money meanwhile by
-teaching English; and by degrees I got into the knack of writing again,
-and contributed some articles to the English press, by which I got a
-little money. It was all a flash in the pan; my pupils fell away, my
-articles were no longer acceptable. My friend here’—pointing to the
-bottle—‘was always at my elbow. But I shall shake myself free one of
-these days.’
-
-‘And if it happened,’ I said, as he finished and was silent, sitting
-puffing at the pipe that had long since gone out—‘if it happened that
-the wife was still waiting for you—that she had heard a rumour of your
-existence, and had come to seek you’——
-
-‘No; don’t talk of that, for any sake!’ he cried, springing to his
-feet. ‘Wretched and miserable as I have been, I have never wished
-myself again tied in that hateful knot. There! you would never betray
-me?’
-
-‘But if she were rich, and able to give you a good home?’
-
-‘Never, never!’ he said. ‘What degradation, what abasement!’
-
-‘To take you out of this den of yours, to clothe you in well-made
-garments, to bring you again into society?’
-
-‘Never, never! I would hide myself in the remotest corner of the world.
-Tell me, man, what do you mean? You know something; you are a spy, a
-traitor!’
-
-Houlot looked here and there as if for a weapon, and I thought it
-prudent to make quickly for the door.
-
-I went home and told Mrs Collingwood all that had occurred, excepting
-the horror that M. Houlot had shewn at the idea of returning to her.
-That I thought it most prudent to suppress. She seemed a little
-softened, I thought, when I told her his account of his disappearance
-in the sea, and that his motive was a good one as far as she was
-concerned.
-
-We sat till late that night talking in the little pavilion, the
-light from the windows of which was reflected in the dark river. I
-fancied every now and then I heard a footstep softly pacing up and
-down the embankment between us and the water’s edge. I certainly
-thought I had securely locked the garden gate, and never dreamt of
-our being disturbed. Just as my guest had risen to take her leave,
-the door suddenly opened, and M. Houlot stood upon the threshold. Mrs
-Collingwood screamed, and ran to the furthest corner of the room,
-crouching behind the window curtains. Houlot glared at her for a
-moment, then slammed to the door and strode away. I ran after him.
-
-‘You have deceived me!’ he said savagely, as, breathless, I overtook
-him upon the embankment; ‘and I, like a fool, believed you, and
-pictured her to myself—still loving, still faithful to the memory of
-a wretched being; and I came to seek you, to know more about this
-wonderful phenomenon. And now I see it all; she dreads me as if I were
-a leper! Well, it matters not now; I am away to-morrow. Some kind
-friends have raised a little money for me; I don’t need your help now.
-To-morrow before daylight I start on my way to make my claim for that
-which is mine own. Tell her—tell her that she need not fear me, that I
-shall never trouble her, nor she me! I have been a slave long enough;
-but to-morrow, light; to-morrow, freedom!’
-
-‘Take care what you do,’ I said, ‘for the person whom you seek to ruin,
-whom you would expose and bring to confusion, is the woman whom you
-abandoned and left to the mercy of a pitiless world! Every step you
-take to that end is over her, poor creature! The harm you did before
-came right, after much misery; the harm you will do now can never be
-cured!’
-
-He uttered an exclamation of rage and despair, and disappeared in the
-darkness.
-
-‘Is he gone?’ cried Mrs Collingwood, as I returned once more to the
-pavilion.
-
-‘Yes, he is gone; he is away to London to-morrow to claim his rights,
-as he calls them—to ruin us if he can. We must go also, and fight him.’
-
-‘Do you know,’ faltered Mrs Collingwood, ‘that there has come a great
-change over me these last few minutes? The thought that he really loved
-me and sacrificed himself for my sake; and then he living here so
-lonely and wretched, and I luxuriating on the fruits of his genius! Oh,
-my heart has smitten me sorely, and I think if he came again I should
-not be frightened!’
-
-‘In that case,’ I said bitterly, ‘your course is easy enough; you
-have only to make him understand he is forgiven. I will go with you
-to-night.’
-
-‘O no, not to-night!’ she said. ‘No; it is too sudden. But don’t let
-him go away; tell him to stay, and that perhaps things may yet be well.’
-
-‘He can’t leave before the first diligence,’ I said, ‘and I will meet
-him there and tell him to stop.’
-
-‘Do, do!’ she cried. ‘Keep him here for to-morrow; then I may have made
-up my mind what will be for the best.’
-
-I went to see the diligence start next morning; but no M. Houlot was
-there. He had overslept himself probably. Well, I would go and see him
-at his apartment, and tell him how matters stood. I knocked at his
-door; but could not make him hear. Then I scribbled some words upon a
-visiting card I happened to have in my pocket, and thrust it under the
-door.
-
-The next time I saw that card it was in the hands of the _commissaire_
-of police, who came, accompanied by the _juge d’instruction_, to make
-some _perquisitions_ as to what I might know of the last hours of M.
-Houlot; for he had been found that morning lying dead on his mattress.
-
-The sad end of Houlot—well, of Dawson, if you like, but I have grown
-to think of him and talk of him as Houlot—quite unmanned me for a
-while. I could not help blaming myself as being in some way the cause
-of it. From the moment of its discovery, I took a violent antipathy
-to the work I had in hand. Houlot seemed to be always standing at
-my elbow, reproaching me with killing him over again. I don’t know
-whether the widow—really now a widow—had any such visions; I fancy not.
-After the first shock of the news, she found that Houlot’s death was
-really a great relief to her. It put an end to her troubles once for
-all. We found at his lodgings a great heap of manuscript, which she
-purchased from the agent acting for the landlord of the premises—who
-had taken possession of everything in satisfaction of rent—for a
-few francs. Whether she found the material among it for a series of
-novels, I don’t know, for as soon as I had finished the work in hand,
-I gave up my connection with Collingwood Dawson. I have since taken
-to writing improving books for the young, and find that it pays much
-better. Still I hear of him occasionally, and find that he continues
-to be a tolerably successful author; and the other day I met my late
-employer, who told me that she was married for a third time, and to a
-gentleman of great literary ability, who had undertaken the management
-of Collingwood Dawson. For my own part, I advised her to form him into
-a Limited company, with a preference in the allotment of shares for
-gentlemen of the press.
-
-
-
-
-MR FAIR, ‘THE SILVER KING.’
-
-
-The prodigious quantities of silver recently dug from the mines of
-Nevada and California, have, as is generally known, had the effect
-of lowering the commercial value of silver to the extent of several
-pence per ounce, and thereby depreciated the American dollar from one
-hundred to about ninety cents; that is to say, the dollar has sunk
-nearly fivepence in value—a circumstance greedily seized hold of by
-certain parties in the United States, who propose, with more ingenuity
-than honesty, to pay the public creditors in silver money without
-making any allowance for depreciation. On this extraordinary policy so
-much has been said by the newspapers, that we do not need to go into
-particulars, further than to hint that before all the play is played,
-the supporters of this scheme may unpleasantly find that there is some
-truth in the old proverb that ‘honesty is the best policy.’
-
-Something like an idea of what enormous wealth is being realised by
-means of the above-mentioned silver mines is given in an account of
-Mr Fair, ‘The Silver King,’ in a late number of that smart London
-newspaper, _The World_. The following is an abridgment of this amusing
-paper.
-
-‘There is a man alive at this present moment who, if he were so minded,
-could give his daughter a marriage-portion of thirty millions sterling.
-He would then have about ten millions left for himself. He lives six
-thousand miles west of London, half-way up a mountain-side in Nevada;
-and his daughter lives with him. Seven years ago he was a poor man;
-to-day he is the Silver King of America. He has dug forty million
-pounds’ worth of silver out of the hill he is living on, and has about
-forty millions more yet to dig. If he lives three years longer he will
-be the richest man in the world. His name is James Fair, and he is the
-manager, superintendent, chief partner, and principal shareholder in
-the Consolidated Virginia and California Silver Mines, known to men as
-the “Big Bonanzas.” He has an army of men toiling for him day and night
-down in the very depths of the earth—digging, picking, blasting, and
-crushing a thousand tons of rock every twenty-four hours.
-
-‘Seven years ago there were two little Irishmen in the city of San
-Francisco keeping a drinking-bar of very modest pretensions, close to
-one of the principal business thoroughfares. Their customers were of
-all kinds, but chiefly commercial men and clerks. Among them was an
-unusually large proportion of stock and share dealers, mining-brokers
-and the like, who, in the intervals of speculation, rushed out of the
-neighbouring Exchange five or six times a day for drinks. Whisky being
-almost the religion of California, and the two little bar-keepers being
-careful to sell nothing but the best article, their bar soon became a
-place of popular resort. And as no true Californian could ever swallow
-a drink of whisky under any circumstances without talking about silver
-mines or gold mines or shares in mines, it soon fell out that, next
-to the Stock Exchange itself, there was no place in San Francisco
-where so much mining-talk went on as in the saloon of Messrs Flood
-& O’Brien, which were the names of the two little Irishmen. Keeping
-their ears wide open, and sifting the mass of gossip that they listened
-to every day, these two gentlemen picked up a good many crumbs of
-useful information, besides getting now and then a direct confidential
-tip; and they turned some of them to such good account in a few quiet
-little speculations, that they shortly had a comfortable sum of money
-lying at their bankers’. Instead of throwing it away headlong in wild
-extravagant ventures, which was the joyous custom of the average
-Californian in those days, they let it lie where it was, waiting, with
-commendable prudence, till they knew of something good to put it into.
-They soon heard of something good enough. On Fair’s advice they bought
-shares in a mine called the Hale and Norcross, and were speedily taking
-out of it fifteen thousand pounds a month in dividends. This mine was
-the property of a company, and though it had at one time paid large
-and continuous dividends, it was now supposed to be worked out and
-worthless. Mr Fair, however, held a different opinion; and when he came
-to examine it carefully, he found just what he expected to find—a large
-deposit of silver-ore. Thereupon he and Flood and O’Brien together
-bought up all the shares they could lay their hands upon, and obtained
-complete control of the mine.’
-
-Besides being a clever and experienced miner, Mr Fair entertained the
-belief that by patient examination into holes and corners of the mine
-he would discover a gigantic vein of silver-bearing ore. He discovered
-the vein, the estimated value of which was a hundred and twenty
-millions sterling.
-
-‘In the excitement caused by this astounding discovery it is scarcely
-more than the hard truth to say that San Francisco went raving mad. The
-vein in which the Bonanza was found was known to run straight through
-the Consolidated Virginia and California mines, dipping down as it
-went, and could not be traced any farther. But that fact was nothing
-to people who were bent on having mining stock; and vein or no vein,
-the stock they would have. Consequently they bought into every mine in
-the neighbourhood—good and bad alike—sending prices up to unheard-of
-limits, and investing millions in worthless properties that have never
-yielded a shilling in dividends, and never will. When Flood had bought
-a large quantity of the Bonanza stock, and had assured to himself and
-his partners the controlling interest in the mines, he recommended all
-his friends to buy a little; and O’Brien did the same. Those who took
-the advice are now drawing their proportionate shares of dividends,
-amounting to about five hundred thousand pounds a month. The majority
-of those who bought into other mines are, in Californian parlance
-“busted.” What these three men and their latest partner Mackay are
-going to do with their money is a curious problem, the solution of
-which will be watched with great interest in a year or two to come. The
-money they hold now is yielding them returns so enormous that their
-maddest extravagances could make no impression on the amount. Every
-year they are earning more, saving more, and investing more. They
-have organised a bank with a capital of ten millions of dollars; they
-control nearly all the mining interests of Nevada and California;
-they have a strong grip of the commercial, financial, and farming
-interests all along the Pacific slope; and by a single word they can at
-any moment raise a disastrous panic, and plunge thousands of men into
-hopeless ruin. It will be an interesting thing to wait and watch how
-this terrible power for good or evil is to be wielded.’
-
-
-
-
-THE MONTH:
-
-SCIENCE AND ARTS.
-
-
-Professor Osborne Reynolds, in his presidential address to the
-Scientific and Mechanical Society of Manchester, discussed the
-Smoke question; a very pressing question in a town with so grimy an
-atmosphere as Manchester. He pointed out that great part of the smoke
-is produced by the furnaces of small steam-engines carelessly managed,
-which are numerous throughout the town and neighbourhood, and suggested
-that it might be possible to do away with these by producing power at
-some great central establishment, and supplying it by transmission to
-all the little factories of a district. But how is the transmission
-to be effected? That is a question which has often been considered by
-engineers, ‘not so much as a means of preventing smoke, but because
-there are in our towns numberless purposes for which power is, or at
-all events might be, usefully employed, and for which it is almost
-impossible or very inconvenient to provide on the spot. Very small
-steam-engines are very extravagant in coal, besides requiring almost
-as much attention as large ones; and they are dangerous.... If,
-therefore,’ continues Professor Reynolds, ‘power in a convenient form
-could be obtained whenever and wherever required, at a fixed and
-reasonable charge, and with no other trouble than the throwing into
-gear of a clutch or the turning of a tap,’ it would be largely made use
-of, and would ‘supplant steam-engines, which are now kept working with
-little or nothing to do for the greater part of their time;’ whereby an
-important saving of coal would be effected. The suggestion of supplying
-steam-power on a retail principle is not new, and nothing but some
-practical difficulties stand in the way. All we want is a solution of
-the question by some competent engineer. Let the genius but arise; he
-will find fame as well as fortune waiting for him.
-
-The Council of the Statistical Society will give their Howard Medal for
-the present year and twenty pounds to the author of the best essay on
-‘The Effects of Health and Disease on Military and Naval Operations.’
-
-The Council of the Royal Geographical Society have resolved to devote
-five hundred pounds yearly—‘in grants to assist persons having proper
-qualifications, in undertaking special geographical investigations
-(as distinct from mere exploration) in any part of the world—To aid
-in the compilation of useful geographical data and preparing them for
-publication, and in making improvements in apparatus or appliances
-useful for geographical instruction, or for scientific research by
-travellers—In fees to persons of recognised high attainments for
-delivering lectures on physical geography in all its branches, as well
-as on other truly scientific aspects of geography, in relation to its
-past history, or the influences of geographical conditions on the human
-race.’ Adherence to this course for a few years will do more to advance
-geography as a science than having recourse to sensational meetings.
-
-Mr Dumas, the distinguished chemist, in giving an account to a
-scientific Society in Paris of the liquefaction and solidification of
-gases, stated that the specimen of oxygen produced by Mr Pictet of
-Geneva was the size of a hen’s egg, and resembled snow in the solid
-form, and water in the liquid form. Theoretically he had concluded that
-the density of liquid oxygen would be about the same as that of water;
-and this has been confirmed by experiment.
-
-As regards hydrogen, Mr Dumas explained that it was liquefied under
-a pressure of six hundred and fifty atmospheres with cold minus one
-hundred and forty degrees; and by evaporating the liquid thus obtained,
-the solid condition, shewing the colour of blue steel, was arrived at.
-Many years ago this possibility was foreseen, and the most advanced
-chemists admitted the existence of a theoretical metal—hydrogenium.
-‘This confirmation of the real nature of hydrogen,’ continued Mr
-Dumas, ‘is not to be regarded merely as a theoretical result useful to
-pure science; it appears to be of great importance for the future of
-industry. A certain knowledge of the metallic nature of hydrogen will
-have a certain influence on metallurgy, of which manufacturing arts
-will take advantage.’
-
-The phonograph has been exhibited, and made the subject of lectures
-and experiments in many places, and as we anticipated, has given ample
-demonstration that the statements put forth concerning it are true.
-Marvellous as the fact may appear, all the words spoken into the
-instrument seem to be there stored up ready for repetition whenever
-excited by the cylinder of tinfoil. They do not come out quite in
-the same tone as that in which they go in; but they are perfectly
-distinct, and retain the characteristics of the speaker or singer.
-At a scientific meeting in London, one of the company sung _God Save
-the Queen_ into the phonograph. On coming to the highest note, he had
-to make three attempts before he could reach it; and these failures
-excited much merriment when the stanza was (only too faithfully)
-repeated by the instrument. The same air was sung and produced
-without failures, and a comic ditty was sung and inscribed on the
-same cylinder: and very curious it was afterwards to hear the stately
-movement of the national hymn accompanied by the jingling notes of the
-funny melody. An instrument so ingenious as this ought to be applicable
-to many useful purposes. Already there are improvements on the original
-invention, and we shall doubtless hear of others.
-
-The very best photographs of the sun ever yet seen have been taken
-at the Observatory, Meudon, near Paris, by Mr Janssen; and copies on
-glass, twelve inches diameter, are now placed in the hands of some
-of our scientific societies. They well repay study, for they shew
-distinctly the granular appearance of the sun’s surface: millions of
-white specks imbedded, so to speak, in a dense dark cloud. This surface
-is liable to violent commotions, or ‘vortex movements,’ as Mr Warren
-De la Rue calls them, ‘of which we can form no conception whatever
-in thinking of tornados on the earth’s surface. The photosphere,’
-he continues, ‘had been whirled up in cloud-like masses in various
-parts of the sun; and he saw at once that that might be the origin of
-the luminous prominences with which we are all now so familiar.’ A
-conclusion drawn from these appearances is that sunspots are not the
-most important of solar phenomena. ‘There are changes taking place
-from day to day, from hour to hour, and in some cases from minute to
-minute, which completely change the aspect of the various parts of the
-sun, shewing an amount of activity which it is extremely necessary
-to study.’ And it is suggested that this could best be done by
-establishing a physical observatory devoted to ceaseless observation
-of the sun accompanied by photography. Such an observatory has been
-recently founded at Potsdam, near Berlin.
-
-Professor Wolf of Zurich has spent many years in collecting from
-every possible source records of sun-spots from the beginning of the
-seventeenth century, and the beginning of the telescope. And after
-careful examination he arrives at the conclusion that they do not bear
-out the theory of an eleven years’ period, for since 1610 there are
-twenty or thirty different maxima and minima, extending to sixteen
-years in some instances, and in others contracting to seven years.
-This is a fresh proof that many more observations are required for a
-settlement of the question.
-
-Put a lump of zinc into the boiler of a steam-engine, and it will
-prevent the formation of ‘scale;’ that is, the stony crust which, as
-all engineers know to their sorrow, is very injurious and involves
-constant expenditure. The experiment having been successfully tried
-during four years by certain manufacturers in France, the Minister of
-Public Works appointed a Commission to inquire into and report upon it.
-From their Report, which was published last year in the _Annales des
-Mines_, we learn that the zinc is to be placed in the boiler as far
-as possible from the furnace, the quantity being a quarter-pound for
-every five square feet of boiler-surface if the water be soft, and a
-half pound if the water be hard. The boiler is then worked in the usual
-way; and when opened for the usual cleaning the appearances as the
-Commission describe will be—‘If the water be but slightly calcareous,
-the deposits, instead of forming solid and adherent scale, are found in
-a state of fluid mud, which is easily removable by simple washing. The
-iron being clean and free from rust, no picking or scraping is needed,
-whereby an important saving of time and labour is effected.’
-
-On the other hand, if the water be strongly calcareous or hard, ‘the
-deposits are as coherent and strong as though the zinc had not been
-employed; but this strong coat does not stick to the iron. It can be
-pulled off by hand, or at the worst detached without much effort,
-leaving the iron clean. A simple washing clears it from the boiler;
-and in this case, as in the foregoing, picking and scraping are
-avoided.’
-
-Here the question arises—What has become of the zinc? The answer given
-is, that it is not strictly correct to say it has disappeared, for it
-has been transformed into oxide of zinc, a white and earthy substance,
-which often preserves the lamellar texture of the metal, the central
-part sometimes continuing metallic and unattacked. At the same time it
-is worth remark that no trace of dissolved zinc is found in the water
-taken from the boilers.
-
-A communication to the Royal Institute of British Architects by Mr
-Penrose makes known certain important ‘improvements in paint materials
-invented by Mr W. Noy Wilkins,’ which have been satisfactorily tested
-in the decoration of St Paul’s Cathedral. In the words of Mr Penrose,
-‘The results arrived at are of such extreme simplicity as to make
-their general application extremely easy, and also to give a strong
-_a priori_ conviction of their permanence. In the matter of pigments,
-white-lead is entirely banished from the painter’s stock, and the
-substitution of kaolin, mixed with a smaller proportion of zinc-white,
-combined with the limitation of the palette to the mineral colours.
-Mr Wilkins has practised for twenty-five years exclusively with
-these materials.... His discovery is that the chemical driers, which
-produce a very unfavourable effect upon painter’s work, whether of the
-house-painter or the artist, causing it to darken and to crack, can be
-entirely dispensed with, by simply boiling for a short time a small
-quantity of Turkey umber in the oil to be used for painting—whether
-linseed, poppy, or nut oil—producing as desired a drying painting oil
-or a varnish, and the residuum forming a valuable oil cement.’ Mr
-Wilkins permits cultivators of art, desirous of more particulars, to
-address him at ‘The Cottage, Elm Grove, Peckham’ (London).
-
-In another communication, by Mr I’Anson, on the Architecture of Norway,
-the wooden churches were of course mentioned, and something was said
-about Norwegian timber which will bear repetition. ‘The Scotch fir
-furnishes the red wood, and the spruce-fir the white. What strikes
-one,’ said the speaker, ‘is, that the Scotch fir, which with us is
-regarded as the least valuable kind of fir-wood, scarcely fit for
-railway sleepers or fences, is the best fir in Norway. I account for
-that superiority of the Norwegian over the English tree in some measure
-by the greater length of time that Scotch fir takes to come to maturity
-in Norway than in this country. Scotch fir grows at the rate of as much
-as two feet a year in Britain, and takes about fifty years to become a
-usable tree; whereas in Norway it would take probably a century to grow
-to a tree of equal size.’
-
-In the last annual Report of the Royal Asiatic Society it is stated as
-a now nearly accepted fact, that the language of Madagascar is a Malay
-language from Sumatra, and that its connection with the African Suahili
-is only that of loan-words, just as Persian has borrowed largely from
-Arabic. Philologists and others interested in Eastern Africa will
-perhaps be glad to hear that a grammar of Malagasi has been recently
-published.
-
-Plantations of the cinchona tree were first begun in Jamaica in 1860,
-at the cost of the government. The experiment has proved so successful
-that more than eighty thousand trees are now growing in different
-parts of the island. Henceforth the West Indies will compete with India
-in supplying the world with quinine.
-
-It is well known that in some churches and large halls a reverberation
-prevails which annoys the persons assembled, and prevents their
-hearing distinctly. A few years ago the discovery was made that the
-reverberation could be deadened by stretching threads across the
-building from wall to wall below the ceiling. This curious fact has
-been further confirmed at the Palace of Industry, Amsterdam, and in the
-church of Notre-Dame des Champs, Paris, in each of which, by the simple
-means of threads, the reverberation is silenced.
-
-The importation of fresh meat from the United States of America
-commenced in the autumn of 1875. Since then the quantity brought to
-this country from New York, Philadelphia, and other ports, has reached
-a total of more than sixty million pounds; and great as the trade
-has become, it tends to increase. The graziers and agriculturists
-of Europe will have to consider whether some means may not be found
-for increasing and cheapening cattle-food, if they desire to compete
-with the transatlantic graziers. Whether the way shall be by improved
-irrigation, extended drainage, or creation of pastures, remains to be
-discovered. On this subject much valuable information is contained in a
-work entitled _Food from the Far West_, with special reference to the
-Beef Production and importation of Dead Meat from America (W. P. Nimmo,
-London and Edinburgh).
-
-‘On Some Means used for testing Lubricants’ is the title of a paper
-by Mr W. H. Bailey, read before the same Society. There needs no
-argument to prove that if it be possible to discover the oil or grease
-which will best prevent friction, it ought to be discovered; and the
-engravings in this paper shew the contrivances for effecting this
-discovery. To Dr Joule, F.R.S. all who use machinery are indebted for
-having, as Mr Bailey remarks, ‘enabled us to look upon the cost of
-friction and the cash value of heat as mere questions of arithmetic.
-The energy which passes away in wasted heat may be measured and valued
-with nearly as much facility as any article of commerce. The science of
-heat teaches us that the relations between heat and mechanical motion
-are regulated by well-defined, accurate, and rigid principles. Those
-who would command Nature’s forces must first learn her laws; the first
-rudiments of which say, that when we produce frictional heat in our
-machinery, we become law-breaking prodigals, who have incurred fines
-and penalties, which are generally paid when a cheque is given to
-settle the coal-bill.’
-
-Perhaps not many people south of the Border are aware that there are
-gold-fields in Scotland; but that gold can be found in Sutherlandshire
-and in the south-west, has long been known to the dwellers in those
-localities; and now in the _Scottish Naturalist_, Dr Lauder Lindsay
-describes the gold-fields of Lanarkshire. In the Upper Ward of that
-county he tells us that ‘of alluvial gold, from nuggets big enough to
-make breast-pin heads down to granular dust, there is no scarcity. It
-may be collected at any time by simple washing from the beds or banks
-of any streams of the district. Whenever a supply of gold is wanted
-for museum specimens or for presentation jewellery, a sufficiency is
-forthcoming. A few hours’ work of a miner, and still more the conjoint
-efforts of a band of miners extending over several days, produce the
-number of grains or ounces required.’ The people of Scotland have
-long known that gold can be found in various parts of the country.
-The difficulty, however, is to find it in sufficient quantities to
-pay the expense of working, or even in searching for it. Persons of
-an eager turn do not sufficiently think of this, and hence endless
-disappointments.
-
-Our notice (No. 726, p. 750, 1877) of Dr Sayre’s method of treating
-curvature of the spine has led to inquiries for further particulars:
-we have pleasure therefore in mentioning that Smith, Elder, & Co. have
-published a book by Dr Sayre, entitled _Spinal Disease and Spinal
-Curvature—their Treatment by Suspension, and the Use of the Plaster
-of Paris Bandage_. Besides clear descriptions, the book contains
-engravings which represent the method of treatment, and may be easily
-understood.
-
-
-
-
-BUTTERFLIES.
-
-
-    Once more I pass along the flowering meadow,
-    Hear cushats call, and mark the fairy rings;
-    Till where the lych-gate casts its cool dark shadow,
-    I pause awhile, musing on many things;
-    Then raise the latch, and passing through the gate,
-    Stand in the quiet, where men rest and wait.
-
-    Bees in the lime-trees do not break their sleeping;
-    Swallows beneath church eaves disturb them not;
-    They heed not bitter sobs or silent weeping;
-    Cares, turmoil, griefs, regrets, they have forgot.
-    I murmur sadly: ‘Here, then, all life ends.
-    We lay you here to rest, and lose you, friends.’
-
-    By no rebuke is the sweet silence broken.
-    No voice reproves me; yet a sign is sent;
-    For from the grassy mounds there comes a token
-    Of Life immortal—and I am content.
-    See! the soul’s emblem meets my downcast eyes:
-    Over the graves are hovering butterflies!
-
-            G. S.
-
-
-
-
-WASTE SUBSTANCE.
-
-
-A correspondent suggests that the refuse from broken slate which is
-thrown aside at the quarries as useless, might be ground down into
-powder and used as paint. The writer informs us that he has tried
-powdered slate, and found that it not only made good paint but that the
-paint lasted well for outdoor work.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-The Conductors of CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL beg to direct the attention of
-CONTRIBUTORS to the following notice:
-
-_1st._ All communications should be addressed to the ‘Editor, 339
-    High Street, Edinburgh.’
-
-_2d._ To insure the return of papers that may prove ineligible,
-    postage-stamps should in every case accompany them.
-
-_3d._ MANUSCRIPTS should bear the author’s full _Christian_ name,
-    surname, and address, legibly written.
-
-_4th._ MS. should be written on one side of the leaf only.
-
-_5th._ Poetical offerings should be accompanied by an envelope,
-    stamped and directed.
-
-_Unless Contributors comply with the above rules, the Editor cannot
-undertake to return ineligible papers._
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON,
-and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-_All Rights Reserved._
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-[Transcriber’s Note—the following changes have been made to this text.
-
-Page 193: beech to beach—“a white beach”.]
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chambers's Journal of Popular
-Literature, Science, and Art,, by Various
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