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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6516377 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #68125 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/68125) diff --git a/old/68125-0.txt b/old/68125-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f26f8ec..0000000 --- a/old/68125-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2111 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Chambers's Journal of Popular -Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 118, vol. III, April 3, -1886, 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 -will 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, fifth - series, no. 118, vol. III, April 3, 1886 - -Author: Various - -Release Date: May 19, 2022 [eBook #68125] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Susan Skinner, Eric Hutton and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The - Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF POPULAR -LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, FIFTH SERIES, NO. 118, VOL. III, APRIL 3, -1886 *** - - - - - -[Illustration: - -CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL - -OF - -POPULAR - -LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART - -Fifth Series - -ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832 - -CONDUCTED BY R. CHAMBERS (SECUNDUS) - -NO. 118.—VOL. III. SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1886. PRICE 1½_d._] - - - - -THE SCOTTISH BEADLE. - -HALF A CENTURY AGO. - - -Just as the old familiar landmarks of a place undergo in the course -of time that change and decay which are the common lot of all things -earthly ere they are finally removed from sight, nevermore to exist -save as a name or memory, so many of the features or characteristics -of our social life are continually being submitted to that process of -transformation, and, in many respects, of obliteration, which prevails -alike in the moral and the physical world. That process is to be -witnessed every day. It is a result of the inevitable law to which -everything human, every institution of man’s making or developing, is -finally subservient. Assuredly, there is no feature or characteristic -of life, whether viewed in a national or in an individual sense, but -has to submit sooner or later to this universal order of things; and -so, naturally, we may look, and look in vain to-day for that which but -yesterday was an interesting and distinguishing trait in a certain -aspect of the social life of those who then filled, as we do now, the -measure of the time. - -This reflection is irresistible in considering such a subject as that -of ‘Beadles,’ a class of individuals who once filled a unique and -peculiar place in the humbler walks of the social life of their time; -for, as a class, they certainly cannot be said to form a feature in -the social life of the present day. Of course, even yet the number of -persons fulfilling the orthodox functions appertaining to the beadle -is as large as ever—in all probability, larger. No minister surely, in -Scotland at least, but enjoys his appurtenance in the person of his -‘man’ or officer. But the beadle of fifty years ago, the beadle with -whom Dean Ramsay delighted to ‘forgather,’ where now is he? Sadly do -we fear that he is at length sleeping his last long sleep within the -quiet precincts of his ‘ain kirkyard,’ while another performs, after a -fashion, those functions of his office which were ever his delight and -pride, and which brought him in their performance not a little of that -social renown which assuredly belonged to him, and to him alone. - -The many stories told of the doings and sayings of beadles—the old -originals—would fill, we believe, a goodly-sized volume. Not a few such -stories have already been related by Dean Ramsay in his delightful -_Reminiscences_, while many more are collected in other well-known -books of Scottish anecdote. These stories go to prove the beadle to -have been a character which, as has been said, is all but extinct -in our times. A few remote parishes may yet retain worthy enough -representatives of the quaint and ancient ‘bedellus,’ but, generally -speaking, they are mere milk-and-water copies of the old originals. -Initially, he has lost his very name, which mincing modern speech has -corrupted from beadle to ‘church-officer.’ Then, as to his personal -identity, in place of the old-time periwig he was wont to wear, he has -now—why often, he has nothing to show! Instead of the blue swallow-tail -coat with the brightly burnished buttons, and the quaint knee-breeches -whereby there were displayed those ‘shrunk shanks’ of his which -betokened their possessor to have arrived at that sixth age of the -human cycle, he now wears ‘a customary suit of solemn black.’ Instead -of that delightful affection and familiarity which existed between -himself and his minister, there is now a due and proper regard paid to -their respective ‘places.’ Instead of the minister and his elders being -ever in awe of their ‘man,’ he has now to bear himself with appropriate -respect and deference towards the minister and his session. All, -indeed, is now changed; and his ancient worthiness cannot surely be -identified among the plain and—in point of public character—featureless -individuals who methodically and perfunctorily follow in his footsteps. -If he survive at all, it is only here and there in a few stray stories -and traditions embodying a pathetic remembrance of him as having lived -in a bygone time in that social life of our country to which he was -peculiarly indigenous, and of which he was, in a remarkable degree, so -distinctive and interesting a feature. - -Perhaps the time when the beadle flourished at his best and attracted -to himself most of that social renown which made him a personage of -no little importance—in rural districts at anyrate—was from half a -century to a century ago. Of course many persons will yet vividly -remember certain beadles of their acquaintance who were extant even -within a decade or two ago, and enjoying in the flesh all that ‘pride -of place’ to which their connection with ecclesiastical affairs had -elevated them. Indeed, not a few may yet be living in various parts -of the country who may not unworthily claim to share in that peculiar -notorious regard which so many of their predecessors in office enjoyed; -but it is to be feared that even they are every year becoming more -and more a minus quantity, and the time is all but come, if it has -not already come, when, so far as their social popularity as a class -of characteristic individuals is concerned, they will soon, like the -flowers of the forest, be ‘a’ wede away.’ - -Half a century ago or so, however, it was a poor country parish that -had not within its confines some entertaining worthy in the person of -the beadle; for where the parishioners lacked entertainment, whether -of a social or a graver kind, in the efforts of their clergy, which, -indeed, was rarely the case, then they were almost certain to obtain -it in some form or other in the sayings and doings of the inferior -but not less interesting functionaries, their beadles. In not a few -places, the popularity of the latter far eclipsed that of the former: -a fact which was once at least ludicrously emphasised by the story of -the very jovial beadle who excused his too frequent indulgences in -strong drink—a propensity which had merited the repeated rebukes of his -minister, who naturally enough quoted his own sobriety as an example—on -the ground of the greater popularity he enjoyed, and to which the -minister could not, he declared, make anything like the same claim. - -Nor was this general regard in which, as a class, they were held, -derived solely from their connection with the church; for, in addition -to their more serious Sabbath-day functions and opportunities, -they were by no means unwilling to become, in a secular and an -unofficial sense, the valuable receptacles of all the local news and -tittle-tattle, albeit they were not unfrequently at the same time the -ready mouthpiece for the dissemination of the same. In one or two -country districts, we have heard the phrase, ‘to blab like a beadle,’ -which gives some colouring to this latter statement; but, on the whole, -it is only fair to say in his behalf that there were others who could -blab as well as he about those parochial secrets with which it was his -business, more or less, to become acquainted. To be a model to his -class, there was, in fact, no secret but he knew all about, and at -first-hand too; no scandal whispered ominously within the precincts of -the manse or session-house but was ‘piper’s news’ to him; and whether -the _fama_ in question related to the latest heterodoxy of the minister -himself, or to some serious moral defection on the part of the laird, -or had regard to the love ongoings of Matty the farmer’s lass, or even -had to do with such a temporal matter as the chronic rheumatism of the -Doctor’s lady, all was known to his beadleship long before the whisper -could be shapen into palpable words; and thus he was ever, Sabbath-day -and week-day alike, as wise as Sir Oracle himself. - -His local influence, therefore, was by no means despicable. Many -persons finding in him a man of information, of ripe wisdom, of -undeniable honesty, of excellent counsel, in which neither the village -doctor nor the schoolmaster, nor even the minister, could excel, -however nearly they may have approached him, looked up to him often -with genuine regard and affection, and were easily inclined to forgive -whatever faults and failings occasionally exhibited themselves whether -in his ‘walk’ or his ‘conversation;’ for sometimes even _his_ human -nature was liable to err. Thus, whatever he said, gained the ear of -the parish; whatever he did, filled the popular eye; and while the -doctor and the schoolmaster, ay, and even the minister, are each -and all now well-nigh forgotten, to this day _his_ name is still -remembered, and his sayings repeated. In some places, of course, he -occasionally figured small and unworthily; but, generally speaking, -the beadle of the time indicated was really a very notable and -important social character, although his fame did not extend beyond -the bourn of the parish to which he belonged; but of the result of the -pathetic, although petty part he played on his narrow human stage, all -that remains to us to-day is the not uninteresting though sorrowful -reflection that he was a distinguishing feature of a quiet, easy-going, -giving-and-taking time in the past history of Scotland. But with the -advance of the times, the personality of the beadle becomes less -striking, grows less interesting. His quondam local gossip and tattle, -what are they with the multitudinous-tongued newspaper? What are the -village secrets compared with the great doings in the mighty city, -humming yonder like a vast human hive? Soon did our worthy friend feel -that the big, busy world, of which he and his villagers had heard but -little, and knew less, was now beginning to push itself upon them, -until at length one day it was discovered that his and their identity -were being merged and lost in the ever-increasing crowds of men. But -it was only the way of the world, to which even beadles must submit -themselves. That they have done so is only too apparent to-day, when, -in this little corner of the world, of which they were once as native -as the thistle or the heather, perhaps not a score of them are to be -found of the good old style of fifty years ago. - -A few stories about these worthies may not be out of place in -concluding these reflections. Perhaps the most original saying, -embodying a rare thought, quaint yet beautiful, ever expressed by a -beadle was that attributed to Jamie M——, who served in that capacity -for nearly thirty years to the church of B——. His beadleship was, as -far as wages were concerned, trifling, and therefore Jamie had to work -as a stone-breaker to keep body and soul together. At length, after -a long life of patient toil, he took to his deathbed, where one day, -in reply to the minister, who had called to see him, and, by way of -reminding him of the heavenly joys on which he was about to enter, -doubted not that he would soon be joining in the choir celestial, Jamie -said that he had ‘full assurance of faith for certain, but that as for -the choiring, he was aye bad at a tune. Howsoever, when he got to the -New Jerusalem, _he was willin’ to work wi’ his hands if the Maister -wanted him!_’ - -The office of beadle was frequently, in many country parishes, -combined with that of sexton or gravedigger—an office which afforded -considerable scope for the display of those pathetic, if oftentimes -grotesque, traits of character. We remember one worthy who considered -the latter office of much more interest and importance than the former. -‘As beadle he only waited on the living; but as sexton and gravedigger, -he waited on the dead!’ Another worthy used to say that for performing -the duties of beadle he only got the ‘session’s siller;’ while for -assisting at those more solemn and sad burial-rites, he got the ‘deid’s -perquisites!’ - -Dr Begg, in his _Autobiography_, tells a story—not, however, for the -first time—of a grave-digging beadle who, in reply to a question put -to him by his minister, said that ‘Trade’s very dull the noo; I hae -na buried a leevin’ cratur for three weeks.’ This same beadle, who -was very much an eye-servant, was appointed to watch the gooseberries -(Scotticé _grosets_) during the days of the communion, when, amongst -a multitude of worthy people, some doubtful characters came about. On -one occasion, when the beadle saw some one coming out of the manse, and -therefore likely to observe and report, he exclaimed with the greatest -apparent zeal to strangers going near the garden: ‘How daur ye touch -the minister’s grosets?’ But as soon as the manse-people had vanished -out of sight, he proceeded to add, in an undertone: ‘Tak ye a pickle [a -few] for a’ that!’ - -Apropos of the sexton-beadle, the writer lately heard an excellent -story—which has never before been printed—regarding Thomas Carlyle and -a late beadle of Ecclefechan. In the churchyard, which has now been -made famous by the fact that it contains the mortal remains of the -great sage, there stood, and still stands, a very old and dilapidated -tombstone, on which are engraven some illegible hieroglyphics, which -the beadle pretended to decipher, translating their purport in such a -way as to reflect very flatteringly on the moral and social qualities -of the persons—his ancestors—to whom they referred. On one occasion, -when Carlyle visited this place of the dead, the beadle showed him -round, but first of all pointed to this mysterious stone, underneath -which reposed all that was mortal of the beadle’s supposed illustrious -ancestors, and dilated with his well-known exaggeration on the very -high characters which, according to the hieroglyphics of the stone, -they bore when in the flesh. Carlyle, knowing the beadle’s soft point -with regard to his ‘forebears,’ listened for a time in silence to the -glowing description of individuals who never had had any existence save -in imagination, and at length quietly remarked as he passed on: ‘Puir -cratur, ye’ll sune be gathered to them yersel’!’ - -The social popularity which many beadles enjoyed not unfrequently -encouraged them to take certain liberties, which, nowadays at all -events, would not be permitted either within or without the ‘sphere’ -in which they lived and worked. What would be thought of a beadle, for -instance, who would presume to correct the precentor in announcing -from his box a proclamation of marriage between parties, as once did -a beadle of a parish near Arbroath? The precentor had somehow been -provided with a ‘proclaiming’ paper, in which the name of one of the -parties had been wrongly stated, as the beadle supposed; and as the -precentor duly proceeded to make the announcement that ‘there was a -solemn purpose of marriage between Alexander Spink of Fisher’s Loan and -Elspeth Hackett of Burn Wynd,’ he was unceremoniously interrupted by -the beadle suddenly exclaiming: ‘That’s wrang, that’s wrang! It’s no -Sanders Spink o’ Fisher’s Loan that’s gaun to marry Elspeth Hackett, -but Lang Sanders Spink o’ Smithy Croft!’ - -The story of Watty Tinlin, the half-crazy beadle of Hawick parish, -is another proof of this license, which was, on certain occasions, -supposed to be due to his office. One day Wat got so tired of listening -to the long sermon of a strange minister, that he went outside the -church, and wandering in the direction of the river Teviot, saw the -worshippers from the adjoining parish of Wilton grossing the bridge on -their way home. Returning to the church and finding the preacher still -thundering away, he shouted out, to the astonishment and relief of -the exhausted congregation: ‘Say amen, sir; say amen! Wulton’s kirk’s -comin’ ower Teyit Brig!’ Such conduct on a Sunday in the present year -of grace, if it did not relegate the offender to the police cell, would -at anyrate result in a very solemn and serious sitting of the ‘session’ -on the following Monday. But the times are changed; and not only have -beadles, but ministers and churches, too, changed with them; and the -living embodiments of the class whose peculiar and, on the whole, not -unpleasant idiosyncrasies of character and ‘calling’ we have thus -briefly indicated, are now few and far between. - - - - -IN ALL SHADES. - -BY GRANT ALLEN, - -AUTHOR OF ‘BABYLON,’ ‘STRANGE STORIES,’ ETC. ETC. - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -‘We’d better go, Tom,’ Mr Dupuy said, almost pitying them. ‘Upon my -word, it’s perfectly true; they neither of them knew a word about it.’ - -‘No, by Jove, they didn’t,’ Tom Dupuy answered with a sneer, as he -walked out into the piazza.—‘What a splendid facer, though, it was, -Uncle Theodore, for a confounded upstart nigger of a brown man.—But, I -say,’ as they passed out of the piazza and mounted their horses once -more by the steps—for they were riding—‘did you ever see anything more -disgusting in your life than that woman there—a real white woman, and a -born lady, Nora tells me—slobbering over and hugging that great, ugly, -hulking, coloured fellow!’ - -‘He’s white enough to look at,’ Mr Dupuy said reflectively. ‘Poor soul, -she married him without knowing anything about it. It’ll be a terrible -blow for her, I expect, finding out, now she’s tied to him irrevocably, -that he’s nothing more than a common brown man.’ - -‘She ought to be allowed to get a divorce,’ Tom Dupuy exclaimed warmly. -‘It’s preposterous to think that a born lady, and the daughter of a -General Somebody over in England, should be tethered for life to a -creature of that sort, whom she’s married under what’s as good as false -pretences!’ - -Meanwhile, the unhappy woman who had thus secured the high prize of Mr -Tom Dupuy’s distinguished compassion was sitting on the sofa in the -big bare drawing-room, holding her husband’s hand tenderly in hers -and soothing him gently by murmuring every now and then in a soft -undertone: ‘My darling, how glad we are to know that, after all, it’s -nothing, nothing.’ - -Edward’s stupor lasted for many minutes; not so much because he was -deeply hurt or horrified, for there wasn’t much at bottom to horrify -him, but simply because he was stunned by the pure novelty and -strangeness of that curious situation. A brown man—a brown man! It was -too extraordinary! He could hardly awake himself from the one pervading -thought that absorbed and possessed for the moment his whole nature. At -last, however, he awoke himself slowly. After all, how little it was, -compared with their worst fears and anticipations! ‘Thomas,’ he cried -to the negro butler, ‘bring round our horses as quick as you can saddle -them.—Darling, we must ride up to Agualta this moment, and speak about -it all to my father and mother.’ - -In Trinidad, everybody rides; indeed, there is no other way of getting -about from place to place among the mountains, for carriage-roads are -there unknown, and only narrow winding horse-paths climb slowly round -the interminable peaks and gullies. The Hawthorns’ own house was on -the plains just at the foot of the hills; but Agualta and most of the -other surrounding houses were up high among the cooler mountains. So -the very first thing Marian and Edward had had to do on reaching the -island was to provide themselves with a couple of saddle-horses, which -they did during their first week’s stay at Agualta. In five minutes -the horses were at the door; and Marian, having rapidly slipped on her -habit, mounted her pony and proceeded to follow her agitated husband up -the slender thread of mountain-road that led tortuously to his father’s -house. They rode along in single file, as one always must on these -narrow, ledge-like, West Indian bridle-paths, and in perfect silence. -At first, indeed, Marian tried to throw out a few casual remarks about -the scenery and the tree-ferns, to look as if the disclosure was to her -less than nothing—as, indeed, but for Edward’s sake, was actually the -case—but her husband was too much wrapped up in his own bitter thoughts -to answer her by more than single monosyllables. Not that he spoke -unkindly or angrily; on the contrary, his tenderness was profounder -than ever, for he knew now to what sort of life he had exposed Marian; -but he had no heart just then for talking of any sort; and he felt -that until he understood the whole matter more perfectly, words were -useless to explain the situation. - -As for Marian, one thought mainly possessed her: had even Nora, too, -turned against them and forsaken them? - -Old Mr Hawthorn met them anxiously on the terrace of Agualta. He saw -at once, by their pale and troubled faces, that they now knew at least -part of the truth. ‘Well, my boy,’ he said, taking Edward’s hand in his -with regretful gentleness, ‘so you have found out the ban that hangs -over us?’ - -‘In part, at least,’ Edward answered, dismounting; and he proceeded -to pour forth into his father’s pitying and sympathetic ear the whole -story of their stormy interview with the two Dupuys. ‘What can they -mean,’ he asked at last, drawing himself up proudly, ‘by calling such -people as you and me “brown men,” father?’ - -The question, as he asked it that moment, in the full sunshine -of Agualta Terrace, did indeed seem a very absurd one. Two more -perfect specimens of the fair-haired, blue-eyed, pinky-white-skinned -Anglo-Saxon type it would have been extremely difficult to discover -even in the very heart of England itself, than the father and son who -thus faced one another. But old Mr Hawthorn shook his handsome gray old -head solemnly and mournfully. ‘It’s quite true, my boy,’ he answered -with a painful sigh—‘quite true, every word of it. In the eyes of -all Trinidad, of all the West Indies, you and I are in fact coloured -people.’ - -‘But father, dear father,’ Marian said pleadingly, ‘just look at -Edward! There isn’t a sign or a mark on him anywhere of anything but -the purest English blood! Just look at him, father; how can it be -possible?’—and she took up, half unconsciously, his hand—that usual -last tell-tale of African descent, but in Edward Hawthorn’s case -stainless and white as pure wax. ‘Surely you don’t mean to tell me,’ -she said, kissing it with wifely tenderness, ‘there is negro blood—the -least, the tiniest fraction, in dear Edward!’ - -‘Listen to me, dear one,’ the old man said, drawing Marian closer to -his side with a fatherly gesture. ‘My father was a white man. Mary’s -father was a white man. Our grandfathers on both sides were pure white, -and our grandmothers on one side were white also. All our ancestors -in the fourth degree were white, save only one—fifteen whites to one -coloured out of sixteen quarters—and that one was a mulatto in either -line—Mary’s and my great-great-grandmother. In England or any other -country of Europe, we should be white—as white as you are. But such -external and apparent whiteness isn’t enough by any means for our -West Indian prejudices. As long as you have the remotest taint or -reminiscence of black blood about you in any way—as long as it can -be shown, by tracing your pedigree pitilessly to its fountainhead, -that any one of your ancestors was of African origin—then, by all -established West Indian reckoning, you are a coloured man, an outcast, -a pariah.—You have married a coloured man, Marian; and your children -and your grandchildren to the latest generations will all of them for -ever be coloured also.’ - -‘How cruel—how wicked—how abominable!’ Marian cried, flushed and red -with sudden indignation. ‘How unjust so to follow the merest shadow or -suspicion of negro blood age after age to one’s children’s children!’ - -‘And how far more unjust still,’ Edward exclaimed with passionate -fervour, ‘ever so to judge of any man not by what he is in himself, but -by the mere accident of the race or blood from which he is descended!’ - -Marian flushed again with still deeper colour; she felt in her heart -that Edward’s indignation went further than hers, down to the very root -and ground of the whole matter. - -‘But, O father,’ she began again after a slight pause, clinging -passionately both to her husband and to Mr Hawthorn, ‘are they going -to visit this crime of birth even on a man of Edward’s character and -Edward’s position?’ - -‘Not on him only,’ the old man whispered with infinite tenderness—‘not -on him only, my daughter, my dear daughter—not on him only, but on -you—on you, who are one of themselves, an English lady, a true white -woman of pure and spotless lineage. You have broken their utmost and -sacredest law of race; you have married a coloured man! They will -punish you for it cruelly and relentlessly. Though you did it, as he -did it, in utter ignorance, they will punish you for it cruelly; and -that’s the very bitterest drop in all our bitter cup of ignominy and -humiliation.’ - -There was a moment’s silence, and then Edward cried to him aloud: -‘Father, father, you ought to have told me of this earlier!’ - -His father drew back at the word as though one had stung him. ‘My boy,’ -he answered tremulously, ‘how can you ever reproach me with that? You -at least should be the last to reproach me. I sent you to England, and -I meant to keep you there. In England, this disgrace would have been -nothing—less than nothing. Nobody would ever have known of it, or if -they knew of it, minded it in any way. Why should I trouble you with a -mere foolish fact of family history utterly unimportant to you over in -England? I tried my hardest to prevent you from coming here; I tried to -send you back at once when you first came. But do you wonder, now, I -shrank from telling you the ban that lies upon all of us here? And do -you blame me for trying to spare you the misery I myself and your dear -mother have endured without complaining for our whole lifetime?’ - -‘Father,’ Edward cried again, ‘I was wrong; I was ungrateful. You have -done it in all kindness. Forgive me—forgive me!’ - -‘There is nothing to forgive, my boy—nothing to forgive, Edward. And -now, of course, you will go back to England?’ - -Edward answered quickly: ‘Yes, yes, father; they have conquered—they -have conquered—I shall go back to England; and you, too, shall come -with me. If it were for my own sake alone, I would stop here even so, -and fight it out with them to the end till I gained the victory. But -I can’t expose Marian—dear, gently nurtured, tender Marian—to the -gibes and scorn of these ill-mannered planter people. She shall never -again submit to the insult and contumely she has had to endure this -morning.—No, no, Marian darling, we shall go back to England—back to -England—back to England!’ - -‘And why,’ Marian asked, looking up at her father-in-law suddenly, -‘didn’t you yourself leave the country long ago? Why didn’t you go -where you could mix on equal terms with your natural equals? Why have -you stood so long this horrible, wicked, abominable injustice?’ - -The old man straightened himself up, and fire flashed from his eyes -like an old lion’s as he answered proudly: ‘For Edward! First of all, -I stopped here and worked to enable me to bring up my boy where his -talents would have the fullest scope in free England. Next, when I -had grown rich and prosperous here at Agualta, I stayed on because I -wouldn’t be beaten in the battle and driven out of the country by the -party of injustice and social intolerance. I wouldn’t yield to them; -I wouldn’t give way to them; I wouldn’t turn my back upon the baffled -and defeated clique of slave-owners, because, though my father was an -English officer, my mother was a slave, Marian!’ He looked so grand and -noble an old man as he uttered simply and unaffectedly those last few -words—the pathetic epitaph of a terrible dead and buried wrong, still -surviving in its remote effects—that Marian threw her arms around his -neck passionately, and kissed him with one fervent kiss of love and -admiration, almost as tenderly as she had kissed Edward himself in the -heat of the first strange discovery. - -‘Edward,’ she cried, with resolute enthusiasm, ‘we will _not_ go home! -We will not return to England. We, too, will stay and fight out the -cruel battle against this wicked prejudice. We will do as your father -has done. I love him for it—I honour him for it! To me, it’s less -than nothing, my darling, that you should seem to have some small -little taint by birth in the eyes of these miserable, little, outlying -islanders. To me, it’s less than nothing that they should dare to look -down upon you, and to set themselves up against you—you, so great, so -learned, so good, so infinitely nobler than them, and better than them -in every way! Who are they, the wretched, ignorant, out-of-the-way -creatures, that they venture to set themselves up as our superiors? I -will not yield, either. I’m my father’s daughter, and I won’t give way -to them. Edward, Edward, darling Edward, we will stop here still, we -_shall_ stop here and defeat them!’ - -‘My darling,’ Edward answered, kissing her forehead tenderly, ‘you -don’t know what you say; you don’t realise what it would be like for -us to live here. I can’t expose you to so much misery and awkwardness. -It would be wrong of me—unmanly of me—cowardly of me—to let my wife be -constantly met with such abominable, undeserved insult!’ - -‘Cowardly! Edward,’ Marian cried, stamping her pretty little foot upon -the ground impatiently with womanly emphasis, ‘cowardly—cowardly! The -cowardice is all the other way, I fancy. I’m not ashamed of my husband, -here or anywhere. I love you; I admire you; I respect you. But I can -never again respect you so much if you run away, even for my sake, from -this unworthy prejudice. I don’t want to live here always, for ever; -God forbid! I hate and detest it; but I shall stay here a year—two -years—three years, if I like, just to show the hateful creatures that -I’m not afraid of them!’ - -‘No, no, my child,’ old Mr Hawthorn murmured tenderly, smoothing her -forehead; ‘this is no home for you, Marian. Go back to England—go back -to England!’ - -Marian turned to him with feverish energy. ‘Father,’ she cried, ‘dear, -good, kind, gentle, loving father! You’ve taught me better yourself; -your own words have taught me better. I won’t give way to them; I’ll -stay in the land where you have stayed, and I’ll show them I’m not -ashamed of you or of Edward either! Ashamed! I’m only ashamed to say -the word. What is there in either of you for a woman not to be proud of -with all the deepest and holiest pride in her whole nature!’ - -‘My darling,’ Edward answered thoughtfully, ‘we shall have to think and -talk more with one another about this wretched, miserable business.’ - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -The very next morning, as Edward and Marian were still loitering over -the mangoes and bananas at eleven o’clock breakfast—the West Indies -keep continental hours—they were surprised and pleased by hearing -a pony’s tramp cease suddenly at the front-door, and Nora Dupuy’s -well-known voice calling out as cheerily and childishly as ever: -‘Marian, Marian! you dear old thing, please send somebody out here at -once, to hold my horse for a minute, will you?’ - -The words fell upon both their ears just then as an oasis in the desert -of isolation from women’s society, to which they had been condemned for -the last ten days. The tears rose quickly into Marian’s eyes at those -familiar accents, and she ran out hastily, with arms outstretched, to -meet her one remaining girl-acquaintance. ‘O Nora, Nora, darling Nora!’ -she cried, catching the bright little figure lovingly in her arms, as -Nora leapt with easy grace from her mountain pony, ‘why didn’t you come -before, my darling? Why did you leave me so long alone, and make us -think you had forgotten all about us?’ - -Nora flung herself passionately upon her friend’s neck, and between -laughing and crying, kissed her over and over again so many times -without speaking, that Marian knew at once in her heart it was -all right there at least, and that Nora, for one, wasn’t going to -desert them. Then the poor girl, still uncertain whether to cry or -laugh, rushed up to Edward and seized his hand with such warmth of -friendliness, that Marian half imagined she was going to kiss him -fervently on the spot, in her access of emotion. And indeed, in the -violence of her feeling, Nora very nearly did fling her arms around -Edward Hawthorn, whom she had learned to regard on the way out almost -in the light of an adopted brother. - -‘My darling,’ Nora cried vehemently, as soon as she could find space -for utterance, ‘my pet, my own sweet Marian, you dear old thing, you -darling, you sweetheart!—I didn’t know about it; they never told me. -Papa and Tom have been deceiving me disgracefully: they said you were -away up at Agualta, and that you particularly wished to receive no -visitors until you’d got comfortably settled in at your new quarters -here at Mulberry. And I said to papa, nonsense; that that didn’t apply -to me, and that you’d be delighted to see me wherever and whenever I -chose to call upon you. And papa said—O Marian, I can’t bear to tell -you what he said: it’s so wicked, so dreadful—papa said that he’d met -Mr Hawthorn—Edward, I mean—and that Edward had told him you didn’t -wish at present to see me, because—well, because, he said, you thought -our circles would be so very different. And I couldn’t imagine what -he meant, so I asked him. And then he told me—he told me that horrid, -wicked, abominable, disgraceful calumny. And I jumped up and said it -was a lie—yes, I said a lie, Marian—I didn’t say a story: I said it -was a lie, and I didn’t believe it. But if it was true—and I don’t -care myself a bit, whether it’s true or whether it isn’t—I said it was -a mean, cowardly, nasty thing to go and rake it up now about two such -people as you and Edward, darling. And whether it’s true or whether it -isn’t, Marian, I love you both dearly with all my heart, and I shall -always love you; and I don’t care a pin who on earth hears me say so.’ -And then Nora broke down at once into a flood of tears, and flung -herself once more with passionate energy on Marian’s shoulder. - -‘Nora darling,’ Marian whispered, weeping too, ‘I’m so glad you’ve come -at last. I didn’t mind any of the rest a bit, because they’re nothing -to me; it doesn’t matter; but when I thought _you_ had forgotten us and -given us up, it made my heart bleed!’ - -Nora’s tears began afresh. ‘Why, pet,’ she said, ‘I’ve been trying to -get away to come and see you every day for the last week; and papa -wouldn’t let me have the horses; and I didn’t know the way; and it -was too far to walk; and I didn’t know what on earth to do, or how -to get to you. But last night papa and Tom came home’—here Nora’s -face burned violently, and she buried it in her hands to hide her -vicarious shame—‘and I heard them talking in the piazza; and I couldn’t -understand it all; but, O Marian, I understood enough to know that -they had called upon you here without me, and that they had behaved -most abominably, most cruelly to you and Edward. And I went out to -the piazza, as white as a sheet, Rosina says, and I said: “Papa, you -have acted as no gentleman would act; and as for you, Tom Dupuy, I’m -heartily ashamed to think you’re my own cousin!” and then I went -straight up to my bedroom that minute, and haven’t said a word to -either of them ever since!’ - -Marian kissed her once more, and pressed the tearful girl tight against -her bosom—that sisterly embrace seemed to her now such an unspeakable -consolation and comfort. ‘And how did you get away this morning, dear?’ -she asked softly. - -‘Oh,’ Nora exclaimed, with a childish smile and a little cry of -triumph, ‘I was determined to come, Marian, and so I came here. I got -Rosina—that’s my maid, such a nice black girl—to get her lover, Isaac -Pourtalès, who isn’t one of our servants, you know, to saddle the pony -for me; because papa had told our groom I wasn’t to have the horses -without his orders, or to go to your house if the groom was with me, -or else he’d dismiss him. So Isaac Pourtalès, he saddled it for me; and -Rosina ran all the way here to show me the road till she got nearly to -the last corner; but she wouldn’t come on and hold the pony for me, for -if she did, she said, de massa would knock de very breff out of her -body; and I really believe he would too, Marian, for papa’s a dreadful -man to deal with when he’s in a passion.’ - -‘But won’t he be awfully angry with you, darling,’ Marian asked, ‘for -coming here when he told you not to?’ - -‘Of course he will,’ Nora replied, drawing herself up and laughing -quietly. ‘But I don’t care a bit, you know, for all his anger. I’m not -going to keep away from a dear old darling like you, and a dear, good, -kind fellow like Edward, all for nothing, just to please him. He may -storm away as long as he has a mind to; but I tell you what, my dear, -he shan’t prevent me.’ - -‘I don’t mind a bit about it now, Nora, since you’re come at last to -me.’ - -‘Mind it, darling! I should think not! Why on earth should you mind -it? It’s too preposterous! Why, Marian, whenever I think of it—though -I’m a West Indian born myself, and dreadfully prejudiced, and all that -wicked sort of thing, you know—it seems to me the most ridiculous -nonsense I ever heard of. Just consider what kind of people these are -out here in Trinidad, and what kind of people you and Edward are, and -all your friends over in England! There’s my cousin, Tom Dupuy, now, -for example; what a pretty sort of fellow he is, really. Even if I -didn’t care a pin for you, I couldn’t give way to it; and as it is, I’m -going to come here just as often as ever I please, and nobody shall -stop me. Papa and Tom are always talking about the fighting Dupuys; -but I can tell you they’ll find I’m one of the fighting Dupuys too, -if they want to fight me about it.—Now, tell me, Marian, doesn’t it -seem to you yourself the most ridiculous reversal of the natural order -of things you ever heard of in all your life, that these people here -should pretend to set themselves up as—as being in any way your equals, -darling?’ And Nora laughed a merry little laugh of pure amusement, so -contagious, that Edward and Marian joined in it too, for the first time -almost since they came to that dreadful Trinidad. - -Companionship and a fresh point of view lighten most things. Nora -stopped with the two Hawthorns all that day till nearly dinnertime, -talking and laughing with them much as usual after the first necessary -explanations; and by five o’clock, Marian and Edward were positively -ashamed themselves that they had ever made so much of what grew with -thinking on it into so absurdly small and unimportant a matter. ‘Upon -my word, Marian,’ Edward said, as Nora rode away gaily, unprotected—she -positively wouldn’t allow him to accompany her homeward—‘I really begin -to believe it would be better after all to stop in Trinidad and fight -it out bravely as well as we’re able for just a year or two.’ - -‘I thought so from the first,’ Marian answered courageously; ‘and now -that Nora has cheered us up a little, I think so a great deal more than -ever.’ - -When Nora reached Orange Grove, Mr Dupuy stood, black as thunder, -waiting to receive her in the piazza. Two negro men-servants were -loitering about casually in the doorway. - -‘Nora,’ he said, in a voice of stern displeasure, ‘have you been to -visit these new nigger people?’ - -Nora glanced back at him defiantly and haughtily. ‘I have not,’ she -answered with a steady stare. ‘I have been calling upon my very dear -friends, the District Court Judge and Mrs Hawthorn, who are both our -equals. I am not in the habit of associating with what you choose to -call nigger people.’ - -Mr Dupuy’s face grew purple once more. He glanced round quickly at the -two men-servants. ‘Go to your room, miss,’ he said with suppressed -rage—‘go to your room, and stop there till I send for you!’ - -‘I was going there myself,’ Nora answered calmly, without moving a -muscle. ‘I mean to remain there, and hold no communication with the -rest of the family, as long as you choose to apply such unjust and -untrue names to my dearest friends and oldest companions.—Rosina, come -here, please! Have the kindness to bring me up some dinner to my own -boudoir.’ - - - - -POPULAR LEGAL FALLACIES.[1] - -BY AN EXPERIENCED PRACTITIONER. - - -_KISSING THE BOOK._ - -Perjury is a crime which strikes at the very root of the administration -of justice; for if no reliable evidence could be obtained, it would -be impossible to enforce by means of legal proceedings the rights of -those who had been wronged, or to settle in a satisfactory manner the -thousands of disputes which come yearly before the various courts. -And yet, we fear that this pernicious practice is more common than is -generally supposed. Our opinion is that nineteen persons out of every -twenty who will tell an untruth will swear to it as a truth—that is to -say, looking at the matter from the moral standpoint alone. The fear -of punishment has a deterring effect upon some; but the offence is one -which is very difficult of detection if well managed. If two or three -persons swear to a consistent story, and an equal, or even a greater, -number contradict their evidence on oath, who is to decide which -set of witnesses are to be believed, and which are to be prosecuted -for perjury? The punishment on conviction may be any term of penal -servitude not exceeding seven years, or imprisonment, with hard labour, -for a term not exceeding two years; and some people are afraid of -risking this—in which fear lies the principal practical advantage of -administering an oath to a witness before he gives evidence in court. - -Some persons have a variety of ingenious but vain expedients which -they hope will enable them to lie in the witness-box with impunity; -and while gratifying their personal spite, or earning the wages of -falsehood, to evade the pains and penalties attendant upon the practice -of perjury, and the object of this paper is to show how futile the -supposed precautions are, and in what consists the essence of the -oath, and the violation of it which will render the offender liable to -punishment for the perjury committed by him. - -The form of taking the oath varies in different nations; but in all, -the essence of the ceremony is the adjuration addressed to a superior -Power to attest the truth of what the witness is going to assert. -The witness who thought that if he told a lie after having taken the -oath, all the jurymen would be sent to everlasting perdition, was an -extreme illustration of the misconceptions which exist on this subject. -Most people know that the invocation of the Almighty—‘So help me -God’—is one the consequences of which are intended to be personal to -themselves. But they dishonour their Maker if they try to escape from -the consequences by a trick. - -The form of oath varies according to the circumstances and purpose -in and for which it is taken. The manner of administration to a -Christian witness south of the Border is the same. The witness takes -the Holy Gospels in his right hand, and after the form of oath has -been read over to him, he reverently kisses the book; that is to say, -he is supposed to kiss the book; but some persons will, instead of -the book, kiss their own thumb, or avoid contact between their lips -and the book by holding it at an imperceptible distance. This is a -very common, perhaps the most common, mode of attempted evasion. But -another is often attempted, which is more easy of detection—that is -to say, keeping on the glove, in order that the hand and book may not -become actually in contact with each other. It may appear unnecessary -to say that these devices are both equally unavailing for the purpose -intended.[2] The essence of the oath lies in the reverent assent to the -appeal to the Almighty and omniscient God. The witness must at least -pretend to assent to the formulary read over to him, and if he does -this, he is sworn to all intents and purposes. As the oath is complete -in its religious sense, so also is its legal effect the same whether -the hand and the lips actually touch the cover of the book or not. It -has long been the practice to insist upon the witness holding the book -in his or her right hand; but this is by some writers held to be wrong, -inasmuch as the left hand is supposed to be nearer to the heart, and -would receive a more bountiful portion of the blood which is the life, -were not its natural advantages counterbalanced by the effects of daily -labour; therefore, it is contended by them that the left hand ought to -be used in holding the book, when the oath is taken. - -Hebrews are sworn upon the Old Testament, and the witness puts on his -hat before taking the oath; while a Christian invariably uncovers -his head for the purpose. A Chinaman breaks a saucer, the idea being -somewhat similar to our oath—that is to say, he thereby devotes his -soul to destruction if his testimony should be untrue. A Brahmin swears -with his hand upon the head of one of the bulls devoted to his deity. -A West African kills a bird; while his sovereign immolates a few human -beings from among his subjects. And other nations have equally distinct -methods of attesting their intention to speak ‘the truth, the whole -truth, and nothing but the truth.’ - - -_UNDERWEIGHT AND OVERWEIGHT._ - -Formerly, farmers sold butter by customary pounds, some giving eighteen -ounces for a pound, and some twenty ounces; and numerous other articles -were sold by similar local weights. This is now illegal. By the Weights -and Measures Act, 1878, all customary and local weights were abolished. -As these weights of many irregular kinds had been largely used, various -trades were much exercised by their abolition, and evasions have been -frequent, and are not altogether unknown even now. By the Act of -Parliament referred to, the imperial standard pound is the unit of -weight from which all others are to be calculated: one-sixteenth part -of a pound is an ounce; one-sixteenth part of such ounce is a dram; and -one seven-thousandth part of the pound is a grain avoirdupois. A stone -consists of fourteen pounds; a hundredweight of eight such stones; -and a ton of twenty such hundredweights. Any person who sells by any -denomination of weight other than one of the imperial weights, or some -multiple or part thereof, is liable to a fine not exceeding forty -shillings for every such sale, with the following exceptions: gold, -silver, platinum, diamonds, and other precious metals and stones, may -be sold by the ounce troy or by any decimal parts of such ounce, which -is defined as containing avoirdupois four hundred and eighty grains; -and drugs when sold by retail, may be sold by apothecaries’ weight. It -is also enacted that a contract or dealing is not to be invalid or open -to objection on the ground that the weights expressed or referred to -therein are weights of the metric system, or on the ground that decimal -subdivisions of imperial weights, whether metric or otherwise, are used -in such contract or dealing. Any person who prints, and any clerk of a -market or other person who makes any return, price-list, price-current, -or any journal or other paper containing price-list or price-current -in which the denomination of weights quoted or referred to denotes or -implies any other than the standard weights, is liable to a fine not -exceeding ten shillings for every such paper. And every person who uses -or has in his possession for use in his trade a weight which is not of -the denomination of some Board of Trade standard, is liable to a fine -not exceeding five pounds, or in the case of a second offence, ten -pounds; and the weight is liable to be forfeited. - -There is, however, one distinction between underweight and overweight -which many persons lose sight of; or rather, they mistakenly deny its -existence. When any article is sold by weight, it is essential that -full weight should be given, or the person who sells will become liable -to a penalty. But if he uses the proper weights corresponding with -the standards, he will not incur a penalty by giving what is commonly -called ‘thumping weight;’ that is to say, any want of precision in -weighing, if it should result in an excess, would not form a good -ground for a prosecution; while a similar discrepancy on the other -side would do so. It is cruel to give a poor person a loaf of bread -which is less than the authorised weight paid for; but if the weight -is in excess of the amount purchased, there is not much harm done: the -overweight was voluntary, and the tradesman cannot be punished for -giving more than was paid for. - -The penalties, exceptions, &c., applicable to weights also apply to -measures; and the principal alteration made in our time is that the -heaped measures so familiar to us in our youth were abolished in -1878. The standard unit of measure of capacity is the gallon, both -for liquids and solids. The quart is one-fourth of a gallon, and the -pint is one-eighth thereof. Two gallons are a peck; eight gallons are -a bushel; eight bushels being a quarter; and thirty-six bushels, a -chaldron. In using a measure of capacity, the same is not to be heaped, -but either is to be stricken, as in the case of grain, with a round -stick or roller, straight, and of the same diameter from end to end; -or if the article sold cannot, from its size or shape, be conveniently -stricken, the measure must be filled in all parts as nearly to the -level of the brim as the size and shape of the article will admit. -Many articles which used to be sold by measure are now sold by weight, -such as fruit, vegetables, &c.; and therefore these regulations as to -measuring are not quite so universally interesting as they would have -been fifty years ago; while weights have acquired a greater degree of -importance than they ever had in the olden times. - -Every tradesman who values his reputation ought to have his scales -and weights verified frequently; and in any case of any part of his -weighing apparatus being out of order, the authorised inspector ought -to be visited without delay, or some other efficient test should be -applied. Nothing injures a tradesman more than a conviction for having -defective weights or inaccurate scales in his possession. Whatever -suspicions his customers may entertain as to their parcels being -underweight, the certainty of such a conviction will impress them -far more; and many who never previously thought of weighing their -purchases, will begin to do so in consequence of seeing the conviction -reported in the papers; and yet we are willing to believe that in many -cases the conviction has been brought about by carelessness, and has -not been a punishment for deliberate fraud. - - -_IGNORANCE OF LAW AND OF FACT._ - -There is a great difference between the consequences of ignorance of -law and ignorance of fact. Law is supposed to be universally known, -though few if any persons are acquainted with all the multifarious laws -which are in existence, many of them being practically obsolete, others -repealed by implication, though not expressly, and the effect of others -being rendered doubtful by means of inconsistent enactments, which from -time to time puzzle the judges, who have to interpret the law in case -of differences of opinion on the part of other persons. The latter -class of laws lead to the necessity for frequent amending statutes, and -some of these are still imperfect, and need further amendments. The -legal system in its more positive department is thus frequently but a -doubtful path on which to walk; and the common law has its difficulties -as well as the statutory law. And yet the nature of the case requires -that all Her Majesty’s subjects should be held bound by all the laws -which are applicable to their respective positions. The rights of an -unfortunate ignoramus who is kept out of his property by fraud or -force are lost, and his estates become irrecoverable if those rights -are not enforced within the time limited by law, although he may never -have heard of there being a stipulated time for the commencement of an -action. - -Blackstone gives as an illustration the case of a person who, intending -to kill a burglar in his own house, by mistake kills one of his own -family. This being a mistake of fact, is not a criminal offence. But if -another man, mistaking the law, thinks that he has a right to kill a -person who is excommunicate or an outlaw, and acts upon that belief, he -would be liable to be convicted for wilful murder. It may be observed -that the right of a householder to kill a burglar in his dwelling-house -is not an unqualified right; for in that case, a private individual -would be empowered to inflict a greater punishment than would be -awarded by the law after conviction. In case a burglar should attempt -violence which appeared likely to lead to murder of any of the inmates -of the house, the law would hold the person attacked justifiable in -defending his own life, even though in doing so he were compelled to -take the life of the assailant; but the necessity ought to be clearly -proved, if the defence is to succeed. - -In civil actions, when the facts on which the supposed cause of -action arose are in dispute, and if either party has been led -to make concessions to the other party by means of fraudulent -misrepresentations, the ignorance of the victim of the fraud will not -prevent him from taking proceedings to set aside the agreement so -fraudulently obtained, when he becomes acquainted with the facts. But -if the compromise were founded upon a misconception of the law, he -would be bound by it; for he ought to have known the law, or employed -some person who knew it to protect his interests in the matter. But -having neglected this obvious precaution, he must submit to the -consequences with what grace he can assume. - -The system of enacting new laws is not altogether free from objection, -though it is not so easy to apply a remedy as to form an objection. -The laws are passed at irregular times, some coming into operation at -some fixed future time; while others are binding upon all from the very -day on which they receive the royal assent. It is true that when an -Act of Parliament creates a new offence, and a person ignorant of its -existence is convicted of the breach of such new enactment, a slight -penalty is inflicted as a warning to other persons rather than as a -punishment for the offender; but still the stigma remains of having -been convicted for an offence against the law, which is worse to some -sensitive men than a heavy fine would be to some other persons of -different temperament and less unblemished previous character. The -theory that all new laws should be thoroughly made known to all the -persons likely to be affected thereby is like many other well-sounding -theories, it possesses the inherent defect of being impracticable. This -inconvenience of involuntary ignorance of new enactments has been -greatly diminished of late years by the immense increase of newspapers -and the general diffusion of knowledge. The Elementary Education Acts -have so extended the facilities for the acquisition of the art of -reading, and the taste for reading is so cultivated by cheap periodical -literature, that there is much more chance now than formerly of all -classes knowing something of what is being done in the way of new -enactments for the guidance of the people, the parliamentary reports -forming an important part of the contents of every newspaper, and -newspapers have come to be classed among the necessaries of life, even -by those whose incomes are of the smallest. We should, however, be glad -if the legislature could devise some more efficient way of making known -to all persons the laws which they are bound to observe. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] It should be understood that this series of articles deals mainly -with English as apart from Scotch law. - -[2] In Scotland, the Testament is not made use of in taking the oath. -The witness is only required to hold up his right hand, and repeat the -words of the oath after the administrator. - - - - -THE SIGNALMAN’S LOVE-STORY. - - -IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAP. I. - -A song which was very popular when I was a boy, says, ‘Most folks fall -in love, no doubt, some time or other.’ It might with equal truth have -said that most folks fall in love two or three times over. I am sure it -was the case with me. It was also my fate to do what, I am told, is one -of the commonest things in the world—that is, to fall violently in love -with a person entirely out of my own circle; not below it, like the -king and the beggar-maid, but a great deal above me; with a girl, too, -who was as proud and haughty and stony as Juno or a sphinx. - -In the time to which I refer, nearly fifty years ago now—I am -seventy-one next birthday—the railway system was in its infancy, but -yet was spreading fast, and I was one of the earliest servants. It was -in no exalted position that I served. My father was dead; my mother -rented a small cottage on the land of the nobleman in whose service -her husband had lived and died; and this nobleman recommended me to -a railway Company which had just constructed a branch through his -estates. I was at first a porter, but afterwards a signalman, and, as -a great favour, I was assigned a post on the branch just mentioned, -close to my own house. The signal was not far from the junction of the -branch with the main line; a very lonely spot for a long way in either -direction, although there was a thriving town some five miles down the -branch; and there was a siding close by where the trucks used in the -scanty local traffic were collected. - -There were some cottages near my crossing—I ought to have said that -there was a level crossing not far from my box—in one of these I lived; -a sprinkling of farmhouses and several very good houses of a higher -class were within sight. In one of these latter, not by any means the -grandest, but handsome enough for all that, lived Squire Cleabyrn; and -it was with his only daughter, Miss Beatrice, that I chose to fall in -love. For that matter, I daresay a score of other young fellows as -poor as myself were as earnestly in love with her as I was, but they -probably had sufficient sense not to show their folly. I did show -mine. I could not help it; and when I recall all I felt and suffered -at the time, I feel I must retract my admission that others were as -much in love with her as myself, but had the sense to conceal it; such -a thing would have been impossible. They could not have concealed it; -they might have refrained from talking about it. I did not talk; but -had they seen the girl as often as I did, and looked into her face as -closely as I did, they could not have hidden their infatuation from -her. In return, she would have looked at them with the same haughty -indifference—which yet had a something of contemptuous wonder in it—as -I was treated with. - -Not that my story has anything of the Lady of Lyons flavour about it; I -was no Claude to an English Pauline; but this girl, this Miss Beatrice, -was so amazingly beautiful that she was famed for full twenty miles -around. In addition, she was one of the best horsewomen in the county, -and this enabled me to see more of her than I should otherwise have -done. She used to ride out, sometimes with a servant only, sometimes -with a party, nearly every day; and nearly every day she came through -the gates at my crossing. I tried not to look at her, feeling and -knowing that there sparkled from my eager eyes more feeling than I -should have allowed to escape me—but in vain. I could not withhold my -gaze from that cold, dark face—she was not a blonde beauty; golden hair -was not the rage in those days—or from her large, deep, unfathomable -eyes, that looked through me and past me as though I had not been -there, or was at best no more than a part of the barrier I swung open -for her passage. Yet these eyes, as I even then knew but too well, read -me to the core, while they seemed to ignore me. - -I am almost ashamed to own it now, and even at this distance of time -it makes my cheeks tingle to recall it, but I have wasted a whole -afternoon, when I had a ‘turn off,’ in hope of seeing Miss Cleabyrn. - -Her father’s house stood on a knoll, with smooth open lawns sloping -down from it on all sides, so that from my signal-box I could see when -any one was walking in the front of the mansion, and when a party -assembled to ride out. Well, I have actually lingered, on some feeble -pretence, for four or five hours about the signal-box, in hope that she -might walk on the lawn, or that she might mount and ride through our -gates. - -I well remember that it was on one of these afternoons that Miss -Beatrice rode through with a small party. Ah! I recall them easily -enough. There was one other lady, and three gentlemen. To open the gate -for them, for her, was the opportunity I had been longing, waiting -for, and wasting my few hours of holiday for; so I offered to do this -to assist my mate, who had relieved me, and who was glad enough to be -spared the labour; and I caught a full glance from the eyes of Miss -Beatrice. The look was one in which she seemed to exchange glances -with me. I knew it meant nothing, that it was all a delusion, and yet -it would be enough to haunt me for days. I knew that also. I had never -seen her look so beautiful before, and I felt my cheeks and brow turn -burning hot in the instant I met this glance. - -They passed. I watched them to the last—I always did—and I saw her -turn her head towards the gentleman who rode by her side. The movement -brought her profile so plainly in view that I could see she was -smiling. As I watched her, the gentleman turned round and looked in -my direction. He was smiling also; it was something beyond a smile -with him, and I then reddened more with shame, than I had before done -with excitement, for I knew he was laughing at me. So Miss Cleabyrn -must have been laughing also; and at what? I was the subject of their -ridicule, and it served me right. Yes; I knew that at the moment, but -to know it did not make the bitter pang less painful. - -I went back to my comrade at the signal-box. He, too, had noticed -the group, and said, as I entered the hut: ‘That was the party from -Elm Knoll, wasn’t it?—Ah! I thought so; and of course that was the -celebrated Miss Cleabyrn. You know who that was riding by her side, I -suppose?’ - -‘No,’ I said, answering as calmly as I could; I was almost afraid to -trust my voice. - -‘That’s a young fellow, a captain from somewhere,’ continued my mate, -‘who is going to marry Miss Cleabyrn. He has got a lot of money. So has -she. Sam Powell, who drives the night-mail, knows him, and told me all -about it.’ - -As the speaker had no idea of the absurd state I was in, he took no -particular notice of me, but changed the subject, and went on with some -indifferent topic. - -I was glad he did so, for although I had an utter contempt for myself -and for my folly in allowing the conduct or the future of Miss Cleabyrn -to excite me, yet I could not have conversed on such a theme as her -marriage; while the knowledge that the person to whom I had been -ridiculed—I felt sure of that—was her avowed lover, seemed to increase -the bitterness of the sting tenfold. - -I had ample opportunity of seeing that the report which I had heard -was likely, at anyrate, to be founded in fact, as the stranger, the -‘captain from somewhere,’ remained a guest at Elm Knoll for fully a -fortnight, during which time not a day passed without my seeing both -him and Miss Cleabyrn, and sometimes more than once each day. So I came -to know him by sight as well as I did her. He was a frank, handsome, -young fellow; that I could see, and was obliged to own; and in his -speech he was pleasant. This was shown by his stopping on two or three -occasions, when riding alone, to ask me some questions, as I opened the -gate for him. - -I was sure he made these occasions, and at first disliked him for it; -but I could not continue to bear ill-will against a man of such kindly -open manners, so I relented, and, ere he left the neighbourhood, used -to look forward with pleasure to seeing him. This was a sad falling-off -from my previous lofty mood, and so was my accepting a cigar from him -as he rode through. In fact, although I have no doubt ‘written myself -an ass,’ as our old friend Dogberry would have said, yet at the worst I -was not without some glimmering of sense, which saved me from making an -absolute example of myself. - -Even during the short time in which the captain—I did not know his -name—was visiting at Elm Knoll, the heat and surge of my absurd passion -had perceptibly moderated, and just then several circumstances combined -to restore me to a right frame of mind. - -After the captain’s departure, Miss Beatrice left home on a prolonged -visit, so that I did not see her; and at the same time I met Patty -Carr, who was, in her way, quite as pretty as Beatrice Cleabyrn, -although not nearly so haughty; and my heart being specially tender and -open to impression just then, I suppose, I speedily thought more of her -than of the young lady at Elm Knoll. Indeed we were married the next -year. - -At the time I speak of, a good many things were in vogue, or at least -had not died out, which have quite vanished now, and among these was -duelling. Every now and then, a duel was fought; but the ridicule -which attended bloodless meetings, and the greater activity of the -police in cases where harm was done, were diminishing them greatly; -yet still, they did occasionally happen. A great stir was made by -a violent quarrel among some officers of a regiment quartered in -Lancashire, in which a challenge to fight a duel had been given and -refused. It was called in the papers of the day, ‘The Great Military -Scandal,’ and arose in the following manner. A certain Major Starley -had offered a gross insult to a young lady, on whom, it appeared, he -had been forcing his attentions for some time; and her only relative, -a half-brother, was in the same regiment with the major. The details -were not pleasant, and it was no wonder that Captain Laurenston -challenged the major; but the latter declined the challenge on some -professional grounds; and when the parties met, high words passed. -These commenced, it appeared, with the captain; but each became violent -in the dispute, until at last the captain thrashed his antagonist in -the presence of several officers. This was not a make-believe beating; -a ‘consider-yourself-horsewhipped’ affair, but a right-down ‘welting,’ -the major being badly cut and bruised. This was serious enough, anyhow; -but what made it worse was that the officers were on duty at the time; -and by the strict letter of military law, the captain would certainly -be punished with death. - -He had expected, it seems, that after so public and such a painful -humiliation, he would infallibly receive a challenge from the injured -officer; but it was not so. He was placed in arrest in the barracks, -and expected to be brought to a court-martial. He heard, however, from -some friendly source that it was intended to hand him over to the civil -power, when he would be charged with an assault with intent to kill. - -In those days, almost anything was transportable, and as Major Starley -belonged to one of the most influential families in the kingdom, there -was no doubt that the captain would be sent to a convict settlement. -There was also no doubt that the prosecution would be conducted in the -most vindictive spirit and pushed to the bitterest end. - -Terrified at such a prospect, the young officer escaped from the -barracks, by connivance of the guard, there was reason to suppose, -although this was never completely proved; at anyrate, he got clear -away, and disappeared. Immediate advantage was taken of this fatal -although very natural step, and a reward was at once offered for his -apprehension. If he could get out of the country, he would be safe, -as there were then no engagements for giving up criminals, so the -ports were watched, an easier thing to do when there was not such a -tremendous outflow of emigration as now. - -Public sympathy was, naturally, strongly in favour of Captain -Laurenston, and against the major, who would be compelled, it was -generally said, to leave the service. But this would not save the -captain from being cashiered, nor from fourteen years’ transportation, -as he was certain to be made an example of, if only for the purpose of -showing that officers would be protected when they refused to accept a -challenge. - -I had taken an interest in all these details, as my mates had -done, and, as with them, my sympathies were on the side of Captain -Laurenston, yet only as a stranger, for I had never, to my knowledge, -heard of him before. But after a while it began to be said that the -captain was the officer who had been so long a visitor at Elm Knoll, -and was the accepted suitor of Miss Cleabyrn. This gave me more -interest in the affair, and I sincerely hoped he might make good his -escape. - -Miss Beatrice had returned to Elm Knoll; but she rarely left the house, -and still more rarely rode out, although it was the hunting season, so -that I hardly ever saw her. - -I was on night-duty at the signals; and when I went there one evening -to relieve the day man, he told me that there were several London -detectives ‘hanging about the place’—he knew this from one of the -guards who had formerly been in the police, and so recognised them. I -naturally asked if the Company suspected anything wrong among their -people, and my mate said no, not at all. The detectives of course would -not say anything about their business; but the guard suspected that -they were after Captain Laurenston, who was likely to try to see Miss -Cleabyrn before leaving England. This appeared feasible enough; and I -was able heartily to echo the wish of my mate, to the effect that the -young fellow might give his pursuers the slip. - -I have said that my signals and crossing were on a branch, of no great -traffic; so, when the last down passengers’ and first night goods’ -trains had passed—they followed each other pretty closely—there was -nothing stirring for several hours. Traffic through the gates at the -level crossing after dark, there was little or none, so my berth was -dull and lonely enough. I did not much mind this, for I was fond of -reading, and on this night—a stormy one it was—I was reading a terrible -ghost story. I laugh at such things now, but I know right well that -they made me ‘creep’ then. I daresay every one knows the sensation, and -has felt it over ghost stories. I was in the midst of the most terrible -part, when I heard a slight noise, and lifting up my eyes, saw at my -little window, quite close to me, that which startled me more than any -ghostly appearance ever will. I thought it _was_ a ghost. The glare of -my lamp fell upon the panes, and I recognised the large deep eyes which -had so often thrilled me. I saw, and knew to a certainty that Beatrice -Cleabyrn was looking at me. She knew by my electric start that she was -recognised. The face vanished from my window, and as I sprang from my -seat, there was a tap at my door. I threw it open. The furious blast of -wind which entered almost blew out my lamp, and I felt the driving rain -even as I stood within the hut. It was Miss Cleabyrn, and she at once -stepped over my threshold. She had on a large cloak, the cape of which -was turned up so as to form a hood, and this was dripping with wet; -great drops of rain were on her face too. I pushed my stool, the only -seat in my hut, towards her, and strove to ask what had brought her to -such a spot on such a night; but I could get out no intelligible words. -She had closed the door after her, and in her very manner of doing so, -there was something which suggested fear and danger, so that I caught -my breath in sympathetic alarm. - -‘You are Philip Waltress, are you not?’ she said. - -I had never heard her speak before, and either I was still under the -influence of my old enchantment, or she really had the most melodious, -most thrilling voice in the world; assuredly I thought so. Of course I -replied in the affirmative. - -‘We—I have heard you spoken of,’ she continued; ‘and always favourably. -I am sure you may be trusted; I am sure you will be faithful.’ - -‘If I can serve you in any manner, Miss Cleabyrn,’ I managed to say, ‘I -will be faithful to any promise I may give—faithful to death.’ This was -a rather strong speech, but I could not help it. As I made it, I felt -that she knew right well, without being led by any report or mention of -me—even if she had heard anything of the sort—why I might be trusted. - -She smiled as I said this. I knew how fascinating was her smile, but -I had never seen it with such sadness in it; it was a thousand times -more enthralling than before. ‘I will confide in you,’ she went on. ‘I -will tell you why I am here in such a tempest; to do this, will be to -confide in you most fully.—I will not sit down’—this was called forth -by another offer of the only seat already mentioned—‘I will stand -here’—she was standing in an angle behind the door, much screened by my -desk and some books which were heaped upon it—‘then no chance or prying -passer-by can see me.’ - -‘None will pass here for some time, Miss Cleabyrn,’ I said; ‘on such a -night as this, on any night, indeed, the place is deserted; but take -the precaution, if it will give you a feeling of greater safety.’ - -She did so; and then proceeded, firmly and collectedly—I was enabled -afterwards to judge how much the effort cost her—to tell me what had -brought her to my station. ‘You have heard of Captain Laurenston?’ she -began. - -I signified that I had done so. - -‘You know that he is pursued by the police; and you know, I have no -doubt, that he is the gentleman who was here in the early part of the -summer?—I thought so. He is in this neighbourhood; is not far from -here. He dares not enter our house at Elm Knoll, as that is not only -under special watch, but we have reason to think that one or more of -our servants are bought over, and would act as spies and informers. He -cannot get away without assistance; and you, he thinks, are the only -man he can trust.’ - -‘_I_ am!’ I exclaimed. ‘Why, what can I do?’ - -‘Perhaps nothing; perhaps everything,’ replied Miss Cleabyrn. ‘He has -been seen and recognised here, and every hour makes it more dangerous -for him to linger. He knows he can trust you. I am sure of it too,’ she -added, after a moment’s hesitation; ‘your very look justifies me in -saying so much.’ - -Ah! she knew what my poor stupid looks had revealed, months before, and -speculated rightly that I would have been taken out and shot dead on -the line, rather than have betrayed her slightest confidence. - -I told her that I would do anything to assist her, and the captain too. -‘In what way,’ I continued, ‘do you——?’ - -‘You must get him away in one of the carriages,’ she interrupted—‘some -carriage which leaves here; for if he ventures to the station, he will -certainly be arrested. You can, for the present, conceal him in your -cottage, where, as I know, nobody lives but your mother and yourself. -We leave all to you. He will come here to-morrow night. The rest is in -your hands.—These are all I can give you now,’ she continued. ‘What -ready money we can command, he will want; but in a short time you shall -be properly rewarded.’ As she spoke, I saw her hands were busy under -her cloak; and in the next instant she laid on the desk before me a -handsome gold watch and chain. - -‘Miss Cleabyrn!’ I gasped at last; ‘you do not think—do not suppose for -a moment that I want—would take from you anything to buy my aid! I am -only too willing to give it. I shall be proud’—— - -‘They are yours!’ she interrupted. ‘Watch for the captain to-morrow -night.—Do not follow me.—No; keep them! All we can do will be but -trifling to show our undying gratitude, if you aid us now.’ She opened -the door as she said this, and in a moment was lost in the darkness of -the night, leaving me standing with the watch and chain in my hand. - - - - -MY DETECTIVE EXPERIENCES. - - -Novel-readers are well acquainted with the modern detective. He is -almost as important a personage as the rich nabob, who was so lavishly -utilised by our progenitors in cutting the Gordian knot of difficulties -in their contemporary works of fiction. If ‘the good man struggling -with the storms of Fate’ required instant rescue from his troubles, -a rich uncle from India appeared upon the scene. So in our day the -villain is run to earth by a supernaturally gifted detective. But -making allowances for the fact that a great part of our fiction is the -work of women, who cannot (presumably) have come in contact with the -detective class, the sketches of these useful individuals by feminine -pens are tolerably close to nature, although they are copies of -pre-existing portraits; or evolved from their inner consciousness, in -the same way as the most vivid description of Switzerland is said to be -the work of Schiller, who had never seen the country. - -My first professional experience of a detective was as follows. On -a certain evening, I found, to my dismay, that the entrance-hall of -my house had been practically cleared of its contents—a hat, two -umbrellas, and a valuable sealskin cloak having disappeared. I gave -information at the nearest police station, and was informed that a -police-officer would wait upon me. On the following day, the servant -announced that a man wanted to speak to me at the street-door. I found -an herculean individual in the garb of a navvy, with large sandy -whiskers and red hair, who informed me that he was a detective. I -ushered him into the dining-room, where he seated himself, and listened -very patiently to my story. He inquired as to the character of the girl -who answered the door. ‘Tolerable,’ I replied. ‘But she is under notice -to leave.’ - -He expressed his conviction that the servant was in collusion with -the thief or thieves. At this moment I was again summoned to the -door, where I beheld a somewhat diminutive individual, attired -as a clergyman. He was an elderly man, with silver hair, a clear -pink-and-white complexion, and wore a suit of superfine broadcloth, -with a white cravat. His ‘get-up’ to the smallest detail was faultless, -even to the gold-rimmed double eyeglass. ‘You have a detective here?’ - -‘Yes.’ - -‘I am a sergeant of the E division; can I speak to him?’ - -In another minute the pair were seated side by side, as great a -contrast as it is possible to conceive. - -Finding that my business alone was not the cause of his visit, I -courteously left them to themselves. In a few minutes, the ‘clergyman’ -left the house, expressing a hope that I should obtain some tidings of -my lost property. The ‘navvy’ remained for about half an hour, relating -some of his experiences. ‘You see, sir, we have different tools for -different jobs. If there is to be any rough-and-tumble business, any -work requiring strength and muscle, anything dangerous, they employ a -man like me.’ The speaker stretched his powerful limbs as he spoke with -some natural pride. ‘Our sergeant would be of no use at all in such -work. He does the delicate work, the organising part of the affair—same -as a general.’ The ‘navvy’ then went on to relate how he had lately -been employed to detect the supposed defalcations of a barmaid at a -small beershop in a low quarter of the town. The customary expedient -of paying for supplies with marked coin was not deemed sufficient, -as an opinion existed that the girl was a member of a gang, whom -it was deemed prudent to discover. ‘So, for a fortnight, I haunted -that public, as you see me now, passing for a navvy who was taking a -holiday and spending his savings; sometimes sitting in the taproom, and -sometimes in front of the bar, smoking and chatting with all comers. -The suspicions formed proved to be correct; and the girl turned out to -be an agent of a gang of area-sneaks and burglars.’ - -I am compelled to record that my loquacious friend was not equally -successful in my case, no trace of the missing property ever having -been discovered. - -My next experience of detectives was on two occasions when I officiated -as a grand-juryman. The reader is probably aware that the grand-jurymen -sit in a room in the immediate proximity of the court, listening to -evidence for the prosecution only, the prisoner not being produced; -the object being to discover whether the prisoner shall be put on his -trial or not. Sometimes there is a perfect procession of detectives, -of every type, according to the nature of the case. One will appear -habited as a workman, unshaven, and giving one the notion of being -out of employment; to be followed by another dressed in the most -faultless style. They are all remarkable for giving their evidence -in an admirable manner, beginning at the beginning, never using a -superfluous word, and leaving off when the end has arrived. This is in -strong contrast to the ordinary witness, especially the female witness, -whom it is difficult to keep to the point. One of the detectives made -a lasting impression on me. He might have stepped on to the boards -of a fashionable theatre as the exponent of Sir Frederick Blount in -Lord Lytton’s play of _Money_—a very light overcoat, check trousers, -patent leather boots, white gaiters and pearl buttons, lemon-coloured -kid gloves, and a silver-headed Malacca cane. He was very pale, with -flaxen hair parted down the middle, and a light fluffy moustache. The -jury opened their eyes very wide when he commenced his business-like -statement by saying that he was a sergeant in the detective force. He -had been driving a swell dogcart in company with another detective, -on the look-out for some noted horse-stealers in one of the Eastern -Counties. He had met them driving a cart to which a stolen horse was -attached. They obeyed his command for a while to follow him to the -market town, but suddenly attempted flight across the fields, deserting -their cart and horses; but were pursued and captured. - -The following is a notable instance of shrewdness on the part of a -detective. Some burglars had been disturbed in their work in a house -near the Regent’s Park by a wakeful butler. He was armed with a gun, -and he succeeded in capturing one burglar and wounding another, who -escaped. There was no doubt of the latter fact, as spots of blood -were plainly discernible on the snowy ground. When the day for the -examination of the captured burglar arrived, a detective placed -himself in the police court in a position whence he could watch -the countenances of the general public. He wisely argued that some -friend of the prisoner would attend in order to convey the earliest -information to the wounded burglar of the result of the examination of -his friend. For a while the detective scanned the grimy features of the -audience in vain; at length he fancied that a woman betrayed more than -ordinary interest in the evidence adduced. At the conclusion of the -examination, he followed the woman to a humble lodging in the Borough; -and there, stretched on a miserable pallet, lay the burglar with a -bullet-wound in his leg. - -A detective who had followed a felonious clerk from England to the -United States, lost the scent at Buffalo, which is about twenty miles -from the celebrated Falls of Niagara. The detective argued that no one -would come so near to the Falls without paying a visit to them. He went -accordingly, and the first person he saw was the runaway clerk absorbed -in admiration of the Horse-shoe Fall. - -With a singular occurrence, which happened to myself, I will conclude -these rambling notes. On the 25th of January 1885, I was seated at tea -with my family in my house, which is located in a very quiet street -in West Kensington. The servant appeared and said a gentleman wished -to speak to me. He had not inquired for any one in particular, but -had said that ‘any gentleman would do.’ I must remind the reader that -all London was at this time ringing with the details of the dynamite -explosion at the House of Commons and the Tower on the preceding day. I -found a tall gentlemanly individual about thirty, of the genus ‘swell,’ -who spoke with all the tone and manner of a person accustomed to good -society. After a momentary glance at me, he turned his head and kept -his eyes intently fixed on the farther end of the street. He spoke in a -low tone, and in somewhat hurried and excited accents. ‘I want you to -assist me in arresting two Irish Americans. I have been following them -for some time, and they have just discovered that fact.’ - -‘Are you a detective?’ I inquired. - -‘I am,’ he replied with his gaze still concentrated on the somewhat -foggy street. ‘I can see them still,’ he continued. - -Now, I am afraid, when I record my reply, I shall be placed on the same -pedestal with Sir John Falstaff at the battle of Shrewsbury, so far as -physical courage is concerned. But I had only lately recovered from a -prostrating illness, which had left me very weak, and had been confined -to the house for a fortnight under medical certificate. I briefly -stated these facts, and added, that I feared I was not at that moment -qualified for an affair such as he alluded to. He sighed in response, -and without removing his gaze from his quarry, said: ‘I wish I could -see a policeman,’ and walked rapidly away in the direction of the two -men. - -Assuming his story to be a true one, the men must have purposely -decoyed him into a quiet street, and there waited, in order to solve -the point whether they were in reality being tracked. Reluctant to -attempt their arrest single-handed, the detective rang at the first -door he came to, to throw them off their guard, and cause them to -suppose that he had friends in the street; also on the chance that he -might obtain a stalwart assistant in his desperate adventure. I have -never heard anything further of my mysterious visitor. My readers can -easily imagine the diversified comments to which my cautious conduct -has given rise—how I have missed a golden opportunity of immortalising -myself, and of becoming the hero of the day! how I have probably -escaped death by knife or revolver from two desperadoes, who, under -the circumstances, could easily have effected their escape in a retired -street and in the gray dusk of a Sabbath evening. - - - - -A BONE TO PICK WITH ARTISTS. - - -I have a bone to pick with my friends the artists! I use the word -‘friends’ advisedly, for have I not had the entrée for years to several -studios in artistic Kensington? First and foremost was that of poor -T. L. Rowbotham, who was so suddenly removed from amongst us some ten -years ago, leaving a reputation for breezy coast scenery, which is -still green in the memory of the public. My ground of offence is this: -that they invest their subjects with so much of their own poetical -imagination, that when we subsequently make acquaintance with the -localities, an acute sense of disappointment is experienced. Thus, I -had been familiar for years with the exquisite engraving after Turner -of Abbotsford, wherein the abode of the Wizard of the North peers -forth like some huge baronial castle from a dense forest of trees -which extends to the bank of the murmuring Tweed. The happy time -arrived at length when I was fated to make acquaintance with Scotland -and its lovely scenery. Need I say that I included in my explorations -Abbotsford and Melrose. My heart beat high as I felt that I was within -a couple of miles of renowned Abbotsford. Could I not see in my mind’s -eye the massive entrance porch, as sketched by Sir William Allan, R.A.; -the baronial hall with the knights in armour, and so on? What was the -reality? A very comfortable country mansion, not of any great size, -and the dense forest melted into thin air! I must candidly admit, with -respect to the last point, that the artist was not responsible for this -omission, as the plantation had been cut down for sanitary reasons by -the descendants of the great Sir Walter. But the rooms were terribly -shrunken as compared with the images in my mind’s eye, as created by -the imaginative Turner and Allan. Melrose Abbey could not be better; -but I was disappointed to find the sacred fane so hemmed in by poor -buildings, which never appear in the artist’s sketches. - -On one occasion, I was carefully watching the deft fingers of my friend -Smith, as he rapidly placed upon paper the outward resemblance of a -picturesque water-mill in a valley in the Lowlands. Suddenly his pencil -described a swelling mountain in the far distance. In vain I protested -at this outrage on authenticity and vraisemblance. Smith was firm, and -descanted in eloquent terms on the improvement caused by the addition. -Herein lies the key of my ground of complaint. - -Haddon Hall is another of my painful awakenings. It is worthy a -pilgrimage to explore those tapestried halls, for they are full of -interest, and the Hall itself is beautifully situated. But he who has -never studied the hundreds of views of Haddon which are in existence, -will be the happier man. The chambers have a dwarfed and shrunken -appearance. The miniature terrace with its moss-grown steps looking -like a view seen through the wrong end of a telescope, completed my -disappointment. - -Fontainebleau was a success, because I was not familiar with any -magnified views thereof. Always excepting the famous courtyard in front -of the renowned horse-shoe staircase, down the steps of which the -defeated Emperor slowly trod ere he bade farewell to his legions, prior -to his departure for Elba. Do we not all know the celebrated print -after Horace Vernet, wherein Napoleon I. is depicted embracing General -Petit, while the stalwart standard-bearer of the erst victorious eagle -covers his weeping face with one hand. In the immense space, the -serried ranks of the Imperial Guard stand like mournful statues. I -sighed as I contemplated the moderate-sized square. Another illusion -had departed! - -Any one who has seen the chamber at Holyrood in which Mary Stuart -held high festival with her ladies, listening the while to the -love-songs of the Italian Rizzio, will candidly admit that it is one -of the smallest supper-rooms in existence! Snug, decidedly—‘exceeding -snug,’ as Sir Lucius O’Trigger remarks with respect to intramural -interment in the Abbey at Bath. And here I must admit that there is -one brilliant exception to the theory I have laid down—Edinburgh! I -have never heard a single individual express disappointment with the -first sight of ‘Auld Reekie!’ Climatic surroundings of course increase -or diminish the enthusiasm. Probably no city has been so profusely -illustrated, and when the special points are seen for the first time, -they are recognised as old familiar friends. Well do I remember my -first experience. The transit from the south at that time was not -managed with the same speed or the same punctuality as nowadays. I -was timed to arrive at the Caledonian station at eleven P.M. It was -considerably past midnight, and dark as pitch, when I stepped into a -cab amidst torrents of rain, and requested to be driven to a certain -hotel. During the journey, I fancied I caught a glimpse of the Scott -Monument, and felt a spasmodic thrill in consequence. When I descended -to the breakfast-room the following morning, all was changed. Before my -gaze stretched the long line of Princes Street, with the elegant Gothic -spire of Scott’s Monument tapering gracefully into the blue sunlit air. -The cries of the Newhaven fishwives were as music to my ear. - -I was so impatient to mount the Castle Hill and the Calton Hill, that -I wished I could be Sir Boyle Roche’s bird, and be in two places at -once. To describe the views from these celebrated eminences would be -to relate a ‘twice-told tale.’ But even at this distance of time I -smile at my outspoken delight as I ‘spotted’ places I had been familiar -with from childhood (on paper), and their unexpected relation to each -other. ‘Why, that is Holyrood below me!’ and then I remembered that the -old palace must have a local habitation somewhere. But there are two -effects which remain for ever imprinted on my memory. The rainclouds -had gathered again, and as they scudded rapidly across the heavens, the -Castle and Rock were one moment in bright sunlight, and then involved -in the deepest gloom, so that the green-covered base appeared as -unsubstantial in the mist as a fairy palace. The second effect was the -Old Town at night as viewed from Princes Street, with the twinkling -lights piled high in air, as if they denoted the lofty towers of a -palace of the gnomes. The walk of a few yards changes the entire scene. -Arthur Seat, Salisbury Crags, and the Pentlands seen from a different -angle create a new picture. Edinburgh, changeable and inexhaustible, -the kaleidoscope of cities! - -I wish to touch with becoming reverence on the disillusions which may -lie under the pictorial representations of the Holy Land. Inspired by -those illustrations, how often have I in imagination left Jerusalem by -one of the city gates, and explored the Valley of Jehoshaphat, ascended -the Mount of Olives, and followed the convolutions of the brook Kedron, -the gently rising moon illumining meanwhile the garden of Gethsemane! -Would a personal examination of some of those sacred places be attended -with perfect satisfaction? I fear not. - - - - -THE SICKROOM FIRE. - - -I am neither doctor nor nurse by profession, but have had twice in my -lifetime to abandon my ordinary occupation and take charge of members -of my family who suffered from severe illness. Like others who were not -taught ‘the regular way,’ I had to meet difficulties as they arose, -and, as often happens, necessity became the mother of invention. - -My first patient was my father: he suffered from nervous fever; and the -slightest noise caused him great suffering, every sound appearing to -be magnified to an extraordinary degree. It was, of course, important -that nothing should occur to break the light sleep which he got from -time to time. His illness occurred in winter, and the season was an -unusually severe one of frost. It was necessary to keep a fire in the -bedroom; yet I found that the poking of it, dropping of cinders on the -fender-pan, and the putting of coals on the fire, interfered sadly -with my patient’s rest; and I saw that I must get rid of the noise if -my nursing was to be a success. My first step was to send out of the -room both fender and fire-irons, and to get an ordinary walking-stick, -such as is sold for sixpence. With this I cleared the bars and did -what poking was necessary for several weeks. When it took fire, as -it occasionally did, a rub upon the hob put it out. All the rattle -of fire-irons and fender was got rid of, and my first difficulty was -overcome. My remaining trouble was putting coals on the fire. If I -shook them out of the scuttle into the grate, it made a deal of noise; -if I rooted them out with a scoop, the sound was nearly as great, and -more irritating, because more prolonged. I managed to get out of that -difficulty by making up the coal in parcels. I brought my coal-box -downstairs, and taking a couple of scoopfuls of coal at a time, I -folded it in a piece of newspaper, and then tied each parcel with -string. I put the parcels one upon another in it until the coal-box -was full, and took them to my patient’s room. When the fire wanted -replenishing, I placed a parcel upon it; the paper burned, away, and -the coal settled down gently with little or no sound. After this, the -fire was no longer a trouble to me or to my patient. - -Some years after my first experience at nursing, my wife was suddenly -attacked with typhus fever. I had to clear the house of children and -servants, and send for two hospital nurses. When I was preparing for -the night on the evening of their arrival, the nurse who was about to -sit up smiled when she saw me bring into the patient’s room a coal-box -full of paper parcels. She evidently looked upon it as the whim of an -amateur. The next morning, she took quite another view of the case, -and said: ‘I thought, sir, that I knew my business pretty well; but -you certainly have taught me something I did not know—how to manage a -sickroom fire. Why, I often let the fire out, and had to sit for hours -in the cold, for fear of wakening patients when they were getting a -good sleep, besides missing the fire afterwards, when they wakened, and -I had not a warm drink for them or the means of making it. With your -parcels, I had a good fire all night without a sound, and never had to -soil my fingers.’ - - - - -THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY’S WESTERN TERMINUS. - - -Port Moody, at the head of Burrard Inlet, was the point first selected -as a terminus for the Canadian Pacific Railway. The terminus finally -decided upon, however, lies on Coal Harbour, near the entrance to -this inlet, where the city of Vancouver is now springing up with -great rapidity. The Company’s machine-shops and terminal works will -be located here, and it promises to be an important commercial city -at no distant date. Tenders have been spoken of for a fortnightly -mail-service between that point and Yokohama and Hong-kong. It is also -probable that the carrying of the bulk of tea shipments for England and -the eastern American States and provinces will be done by this route. -This makes the outlook all the more promising for Vancouver. Town-lots -of land have been laid off by the provincial government fronting the -anchorage on English Bay, a large portion of which will be used by the -railway Company for terminal works. - - - - -‘LET THERE BE LIGHT.’ - - - ‘Let there be light;’ and through the abysmal deep, - Where Darkness sat enthroned in silent state, - A tremor passed, as though propitious Fate - Had roused some charmèd castle from the sleep - That sealed all eyes from battlement to keep; - For man or friend the warder dare not wait - To parley with the Voice outside the gate, - For living thing must walk, fly, swim, and creep. - - ‘Let there be light:’ thus at Creation’s dawn, - Ere earth had shape, the glorious mandate ran. - Nature obeyed; and o’er the face of night - Went forth the rosy streaks of our first morn. - Still Nature keeps to one unvarying plan, - And God-like souls still cry: ‘Let there be light.’ - - ALBERT FRANCIS CROSS. - - * * * * * - -Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, -and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH. - - * * * * * - -_All Rights Reserved._ - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF POPULAR -LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, FIFTH SERIES, NO. 118, VOL. III, APRIL 3, -1886 *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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III, April 3, 1886, by Various</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Chambers's Journal of Popular Literature, Science, and Art, fifth series, no. 118, vol. III, April 3, 1886</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Various</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 19, 2022 [eBook #68125]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Susan Skinner, Eric Hutton and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, FIFTH SERIES, NO. 118, VOL. III, APRIL 3, 1886 ***</div> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">{209}</span></p> - -<h1>CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL<br /> -OF<br /> -POPULAR<br /> -LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.</h1> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<p class="center"> - - -<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> - -<a href="#THE_SCOTTISH_BEADLE">THE SCOTTISH BEADLE.</a><br /> -<a href="#IN_ALL_SHADES">IN ALL SHADES.</a><br /> -<a href="#POPULAR_LEGAL_FALLACIES1">POPULAR LEGAL FALLACIES.</a><br /> -<a href="#THE_SIGNALMANS_LOVE-STORY">THE SIGNALMAN’S LOVE-STORY.</a><br /> -<a href="#MY_DETECTIVE_EXPERIENCES">MY DETECTIVE EXPERIENCES.</a><br /> -<a href="#A_BONE_TO_PICK_WITH_ARTISTS">A BONE TO PICK WITH ARTISTS.</a><br /> -<a href="#THE_SICKROOM_FIRE">THE SICKROOM FIRE.</a><br /> -<a href="#THE_CANADIAN_PACIFIC_RAILWAYS_WESTERN">THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY’S WESTERN TERMINUS.</a><br /> -<a href="#LET_THERE_BE_LIGHT">‘LET THERE BE LIGHT.’</a><br /> - -<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> - -</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<div class="figcenter" id="header" style="max-width: 37.5em;"> - <img class="w100" src="images/header.jpg" alt="Chambers’s Journal of Popular Literature, Science, -and Art. Fifth Series. Established by William and Robert Chambers, 1832. Conducted by R. Chambers (Secundus)." /> -</div> - -<hr class="full" /> -<div class="center"> -<div class="header"> -<p class="floatl"><span class="smcap">No. 118.—Vol. III.</span></p> -<p class="floatr"><span class="smcap">Price</span> 1½<em>d.</em></p> -<p class="floatc">SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1886.</p> -</div></div></div> - -<hr class="full" /> - - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SCOTTISH_BEADLE">THE SCOTTISH BEADLE.</h2> -</div> -<p class="ph3">HALF A CENTURY AGO.</p> - - -<p><span class="smcap">Just</span> as the old familiar landmarks of a place -undergo in the course of time that change and -decay which are the common lot of all things -earthly ere they are finally removed from sight, -nevermore to exist save as a name or memory, -so many of the features or characteristics of our -social life are continually being submitted to -that process of transformation, and, in many -respects, of obliteration, which prevails alike in -the moral and the physical world. That -process is to be witnessed every day. It -is a result of the inevitable law to which -everything human, every institution of man’s -making or developing, is finally subservient. -Assuredly, there is no feature or characteristic -of life, whether viewed in a national or in an -individual sense, but has to submit sooner or -later to this universal order of things; and so, -naturally, we may look, and look in vain to-day -for that which but yesterday was an interesting -and distinguishing trait in a certain aspect of -the social life of those who then filled, as we -do now, the measure of the time.</p> - -<p>This reflection is irresistible in considering such -a subject as that of ‘Beadles,’ a class of individuals -who once filled a unique and peculiar place -in the humbler walks of the social life of their -time; for, as a class, they certainly cannot be said -to form a feature in the social life of the present -day. Of course, even yet the number of persons -fulfilling the orthodox functions appertaining to -the beadle is as large as ever—in all probability, -larger. No minister surely, in Scotland at least, -but enjoys his appurtenance in the person of -his ‘man’ or officer. But the beadle of fifty -years ago, the beadle with whom Dean Ramsay -delighted to ‘forgather,’ where now is he? Sadly -do we fear that he is at length sleeping his -last long sleep within the quiet precincts of his -‘ain kirkyard,’ while another performs, after a -fashion, those functions of his office which were -ever his delight and pride, and which brought -him in their performance not a little of that -social renown which assuredly belonged to him, -and to him alone.</p> - -<p>The many stories told of the doings and -sayings of beadles—the old originals—would fill, -we believe, a goodly-sized volume. Not a few -such stories have already been related by Dean -Ramsay in his delightful <i>Reminiscences</i>, while -many more are collected in other well-known -books of Scottish anecdote. These stories go to -prove the beadle to have been a character which, -as has been said, is all but extinct in our times. -A few remote parishes may yet retain worthy -enough representatives of the quaint and ancient -‘bedellus,’ but, generally speaking, they are mere -milk-and-water copies of the old originals. Initially, -he has lost his very name, which mincing -modern speech has corrupted from beadle to -‘church-officer.’ Then, as to his personal identity, -in place of the old-time periwig he was wont -to wear, he has now—why often, he has nothing -to show! Instead of the blue swallow-tail coat -with the brightly burnished buttons, and the -quaint knee-breeches whereby there were displayed -those ‘shrunk shanks’ of his which -betokened their possessor to have arrived at that -sixth age of the human cycle, he now wears -‘a customary suit of solemn black.’ Instead of -that delightful affection and familiarity which -existed between himself and his minister, there -is now a due and proper regard paid to their -respective ‘places.’ Instead of the minister and -his elders being ever in awe of their ‘man,’ he -has now to bear himself with appropriate respect -and deference towards the minister and his -session. All, indeed, is now changed; and his -ancient worthiness cannot surely be identified -among the plain and—in point of public character—featureless -individuals who methodically -and perfunctorily follow in his footsteps. If he -survive at all, it is only here and there in a -few stray stories and traditions embodying a -pathetic remembrance of him as having lived -in a bygone time in that social life of our<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">{210}</span> -country to which he was peculiarly indigenous, -and of which he was, in a remarkable degree, -so distinctive and interesting a feature.</p> - -<p>Perhaps the time when the beadle flourished -at his best and attracted to himself most of that -social renown which made him a personage of -no little importance—in rural districts at anyrate—was -from half a century to a century ago. Of -course many persons will yet vividly remember -certain beadles of their acquaintance who were -extant even within a decade or two ago, and -enjoying in the flesh all that ‘pride of place’ -to which their connection with ecclesiastical -affairs had elevated them. Indeed, not a few -may yet be living in various parts of the country -who may not unworthily claim to share in that -peculiar notorious regard which so many of -their predecessors in office enjoyed; but it is -to be feared that even they are every year -becoming more and more a minus quantity, -and the time is all but come, if it has not -already come, when, so far as their social -popularity as a class of characteristic individuals -is concerned, they will soon, like the flowers -of the forest, be ‘a’ wede away.’</p> - -<p>Half a century ago or so, however, it was a -poor country parish that had not within its -confines some entertaining worthy in the person -of the beadle; for where the parishioners lacked -entertainment, whether of a social or a graver -kind, in the efforts of their clergy, which, -indeed, was rarely the case, then they were -almost certain to obtain it in some form or -other in the sayings and doings of the inferior -but not less interesting functionaries, their -beadles. In not a few places, the popularity of -the latter far eclipsed that of the former: a -fact which was once at least ludicrously emphasised -by the story of the very jovial beadle who -excused his too frequent indulgences in strong -drink—a propensity which had merited the -repeated rebukes of his minister, who naturally -enough quoted his own sobriety as an example—on -the ground of the greater popularity -he enjoyed, and to which the minister could not, -he declared, make anything like the same claim.</p> - -<p>Nor was this general regard in which, as a -class, they were held, derived solely from their -connection with the church; for, in addition to -their more serious Sabbath-day functions and -opportunities, they were by no means unwilling -to become, in a secular and an unofficial sense, -the valuable receptacles of all the local news -and tittle-tattle, albeit they were not unfrequently -at the same time the ready mouthpiece -for the dissemination of the same. In one or -two country districts, we have heard the phrase, -‘to blab like a beadle,’ which gives some colouring -to this latter statement; but, on the whole, -it is only fair to say in his behalf that there -were others who could blab as well as he -about those parochial secrets with which it -was his business, more or less, to become -acquainted. To be a model to his class, there -was, in fact, no secret but he knew all about, -and at first-hand too; no scandal whispered -ominously within the precincts of the manse or -session-house but was ‘piper’s news’ to him; -and whether the <i>fama</i> in question related to -the latest heterodoxy of the minister himself, -or to some serious moral defection on the part -of the laird, or had regard to the love ongoings -of Matty the farmer’s lass, or even had to do -with such a temporal matter as the chronic -rheumatism of the Doctor’s lady, all was known -to his beadleship long before the whisper could -be shapen into palpable words; and thus he -was ever, Sabbath-day and week-day alike, as -wise as Sir Oracle himself.</p> - -<p>His local influence, therefore, was by no means -despicable. Many persons finding in him a man -of information, of ripe wisdom, of undeniable -honesty, of excellent counsel, in which neither -the village doctor nor the schoolmaster, nor even -the minister, could excel, however nearly they -may have approached him, looked up to him -often with genuine regard and affection, and were -easily inclined to forgive whatever faults and -failings occasionally exhibited themselves whether -in his ‘walk’ or his ‘conversation;’ for sometimes -even <i>his</i> human nature was liable to err. Thus, -whatever he said, gained the ear of the parish; -whatever he did, filled the popular eye; and -while the doctor and the schoolmaster, ay, and -even the minister, are each and all now well-nigh -forgotten, to this day <i>his</i> name is still -remembered, and his sayings repeated. In some -places, of course, he occasionally figured small and -unworthily; but, generally speaking, the beadle -of the time indicated was really a very notable -and important social character, although his fame -did not extend beyond the bourn of the parish -to which he belonged; but of the result of the -pathetic, although petty part he played on his -narrow human stage, all that remains to us to-day -is the not uninteresting though sorrowful -reflection that he was a distinguishing feature -of a quiet, easy-going, giving-and-taking time in -the past history of Scotland. But with the advance -of the times, the personality of the beadle -becomes less striking, grows less interesting. -His quondam local gossip and tattle, what are -they with the multitudinous-tongued newspaper? -What are the village secrets compared with -the great doings in the mighty city, humming -yonder like a vast human hive? Soon did our -worthy friend feel that the big, busy world, of -which he and his villagers had heard but little, -and knew less, was now beginning to push -itself upon them, until at length one day it was -discovered that his and their identity were being -merged and lost in the ever-increasing crowds -of men. But it was only the way of the world, -to which even beadles must submit themselves. -That they have done so is only too apparent -to-day, when, in this little corner of the world, -of which they were once as native as the thistle -or the heather, perhaps not a score of them are to -be found of the good old style of fifty years ago.</p> - -<p>A few stories about these worthies may not -be out of place in concluding these reflections. -Perhaps the most original saying, embodying a -rare thought, quaint yet beautiful, ever expressed -by a beadle was that attributed to Jamie M——, -who served in that capacity for nearly thirty -years to the church of B——. His beadleship -was, as far as wages were concerned, trifling, -and therefore Jamie had to work as a stone-breaker -to keep body and soul together. At -length, after a long life of patient toil, he took -to his deathbed, where one day, in reply to the -minister, who had called to see him, and, by way<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">{211}</span> -of reminding him of the heavenly joys on which -he was about to enter, doubted not that he would -soon be joining in the choir celestial, Jamie said -that he had ‘full assurance of faith for certain, -but that as for the choiring, he was aye bad at -a tune. Howsoever, when he got to the New -Jerusalem, <i>he was willin’ to work wi’ his hands -if the Maister wanted him!</i>’</p> - -<p>The office of beadle was frequently, in many -country parishes, combined with that of sexton -or gravedigger—an office which afforded considerable -scope for the display of those pathetic, -if oftentimes grotesque, traits of character. We -remember one worthy who considered the latter -office of much more interest and importance than -the former. ‘As beadle he only waited on -the living; but as sexton and gravedigger, he -waited on the dead!’ Another worthy used to -say that for performing the duties of beadle he -only got the ‘session’s siller;’ while for assisting -at those more solemn and sad burial-rites, he -got the ‘deid’s perquisites!’</p> - -<p>Dr Begg, in his <i>Autobiography</i>, tells a story—not, -however, for the first time—of a grave-digging -beadle who, in reply to a question put -to him by his minister, said that ‘Trade’s very -dull the noo; I hae na buried a leevin’ cratur -for three weeks.’ This same beadle, who was -very much an eye-servant, was appointed to -watch the gooseberries (Scotticé <i>grosets</i>) during -the days of the communion, when, amongst a -multitude of worthy people, some doubtful characters -came about. On one occasion, when the -beadle saw some one coming out of the manse, -and therefore likely to observe and report, he -exclaimed with the greatest apparent zeal to -strangers going near the garden: ‘How daur ye -touch the minister’s grosets?’ But as soon as -the manse-people had vanished out of sight, he -proceeded to add, in an undertone: ‘Tak ye a -pickle [a few] for a’ that!’</p> - -<p>Apropos of the sexton-beadle, the writer lately -heard an excellent story—which has never before -been printed—regarding Thomas Carlyle and a -late beadle of Ecclefechan. In the churchyard, -which has now been made famous by the fact -that it contains the mortal remains of the great -sage, there stood, and still stands, a very old -and dilapidated tombstone, on which are engraven -some illegible hieroglyphics, which the beadle -pretended to decipher, translating their purport -in such a way as to reflect very flatteringly -on the moral and social qualities of the persons—his -ancestors—to whom they referred. On -one occasion, when Carlyle visited this place -of the dead, the beadle showed him round, but -first of all pointed to this mysterious stone, underneath -which reposed all that was mortal of the -beadle’s supposed illustrious ancestors, and dilated -with his well-known exaggeration on the very -high characters which, according to the hieroglyphics -of the stone, they bore when in the -flesh. Carlyle, knowing the beadle’s soft point -with regard to his ‘forebears,’ listened for a -time in silence to the glowing description of -individuals who never had had any existence -save in imagination, and at length quietly remarked -as he passed on: ‘Puir cratur, ye’ll -sune be gathered to them yersel’!’</p> - -<p>The social popularity which many beadles -enjoyed not unfrequently encouraged them to -take certain liberties, which, nowadays at all -events, would not be permitted either within or -without the ‘sphere’ in which they lived and -worked. What would be thought of a beadle, -for instance, who would presume to correct the -precentor in announcing from his box a proclamation -of marriage between parties, as once -did a beadle of a parish near Arbroath? The -precentor had somehow been provided with a -‘proclaiming’ paper, in which the name of one -of the parties had been wrongly stated, as the -beadle supposed; and as the precentor duly proceeded -to make the announcement that ‘there -was a solemn purpose of marriage between Alexander -Spink of Fisher’s Loan and Elspeth Hackett -of Burn Wynd,’ he was unceremoniously interrupted -by the beadle suddenly exclaiming: -‘That’s wrang, that’s wrang! It’s no Sanders -Spink o’ Fisher’s Loan that’s gaun to marry -Elspeth Hackett, but Lang Sanders Spink o’ -Smithy Croft!’</p> - -<p>The story of Watty Tinlin, the half-crazy -beadle of Hawick parish, is another proof of this -license, which was, on certain occasions, supposed -to be due to his office. One day Wat got so -tired of listening to the long sermon of a strange -minister, that he went outside the church, and -wandering in the direction of the river Teviot, -saw the worshippers from the adjoining parish -of Wilton grossing the bridge on their way home. -Returning to the church and finding the preacher -still thundering away, he shouted out, to the -astonishment and relief of the exhausted congregation: -‘Say amen, sir; say amen! Wulton’s -kirk’s comin’ ower Teyit Brig!’ Such conduct -on a Sunday in the present year of grace, -if it did not relegate the offender to the police -cell, would at anyrate result in a very solemn -and serious sitting of the ‘session’ on the following -Monday. But the times are changed; -and not only have beadles, but ministers and -churches, too, changed with them; and the living -embodiments of the class whose peculiar and, -on the whole, not unpleasant idiosyncrasies of -character and ‘calling’ we have thus briefly -indicated, are now few and far between.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="IN_ALL_SHADES">IN ALL SHADES.</h2> -</div> -<p class="ph3">BY GRANT ALLEN,</p> - -<p class="ph3"><span class="smcap">Author of ‘Babylon,’ ‘Strange Stories,’ etc. etc.</span></p> - - -<h3>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> - -<p>‘<span class="smcap">We’d</span> better go, Tom,’ Mr Dupuy said, almost -pitying them. ‘Upon my word, it’s perfectly -true; they neither of them knew a word about -it.’</p> - -<p>‘No, by Jove, they didn’t,’ Tom Dupuy answered -with a sneer, as he walked out into the piazza.—‘What -a splendid facer, though, it was, Uncle -Theodore, for a confounded upstart nigger of -a brown man.—But, I say,’ as they passed out -of the piazza and mounted their horses once more -by the steps—for they were riding—‘did you -ever see anything more disgusting in your life -than that woman there—a real white woman, -and a born lady, Nora tells me—slobbering over -and hugging that great, ugly, hulking, coloured -fellow!’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">{212}</span></p> - -<p>‘He’s white enough to look at,’ Mr Dupuy -said reflectively. ‘Poor soul, she married him -without knowing anything about it. It’ll be -a terrible blow for her, I expect, finding out, -now she’s tied to him irrevocably, that he’s -nothing more than a common brown man.’</p> - -<p>‘She ought to be allowed to get a divorce,’ -Tom Dupuy exclaimed warmly. ‘It’s preposterous -to think that a born lady, and the daughter -of a General Somebody over in England, should -be tethered for life to a creature of that sort, -whom she’s married under what’s as good as false -pretences!’</p> - -<p>Meanwhile, the unhappy woman who had thus -secured the high prize of Mr Tom Dupuy’s -distinguished compassion was sitting on the sofa -in the big bare drawing-room, holding her husband’s -hand tenderly in hers and soothing him -gently by murmuring every now and then in -a soft undertone: ‘My darling, how glad we are -to know that, after all, it’s nothing, nothing.’</p> - -<p>Edward’s stupor lasted for many minutes; -not so much because he was deeply hurt or -horrified, for there wasn’t much at bottom to -horrify him, but simply because he was stunned -by the pure novelty and strangeness of that -curious situation. A brown man—a brown man! -It was too extraordinary! He could hardly -awake himself from the one pervading thought -that absorbed and possessed for the moment his -whole nature. At last, however, he awoke himself -slowly. After all, how little it was, compared -with their worst fears and anticipations! -‘Thomas,’ he cried to the negro butler, ‘bring -round our horses as quick as you can saddle -them.—Darling, we must ride up to Agualta this -moment, and speak about it all to my father and -mother.’</p> - -<p>In Trinidad, everybody rides; indeed, there is -no other way of getting about from place to -place among the mountains, for carriage-roads -are there unknown, and only narrow winding -horse-paths climb slowly round the interminable -peaks and gullies. The Hawthorns’ own house -was on the plains just at the foot of the hills; -but Agualta and most of the other surrounding -houses were up high among the cooler mountains. -So the very first thing Marian and Edward -had had to do on reaching the island was to -provide themselves with a couple of saddle-horses, -which they did during their first week’s -stay at Agualta. In five minutes the horses -were at the door; and Marian, having rapidly -slipped on her habit, mounted her pony and -proceeded to follow her agitated husband up the -slender thread of mountain-road that led tortuously -to his father’s house. They rode along in -single file, as one always must on these narrow, -ledge-like, West Indian bridle-paths, and in perfect -silence. At first, indeed, Marian tried to -throw out a few casual remarks about the scenery -and the tree-ferns, to look as if the disclosure -was to her less than nothing—as, indeed, but for -Edward’s sake, was actually the case—but her -husband was too much wrapped up in his own -bitter thoughts to answer her by more than -single monosyllables. Not that he spoke unkindly -or angrily; on the contrary, his tenderness -was profounder than ever, for he knew now -to what sort of life he had exposed Marian; but -he had no heart just then for talking of any sort; -and he felt that until he understood the whole -matter more perfectly, words were useless to -explain the situation.</p> - -<p>As for Marian, one thought mainly possessed -her: had even Nora, too, turned against them -and forsaken them?</p> - -<p>Old Mr Hawthorn met them anxiously on the -terrace of Agualta. He saw at once, by their -pale and troubled faces, that they now knew at -least part of the truth. ‘Well, my boy,’ he said, -taking Edward’s hand in his with regretful -gentleness, ‘so you have found out the ban that -hangs over us?’</p> - -<p>‘In part, at least,’ Edward answered, dismounting; -and he proceeded to pour forth into his -father’s pitying and sympathetic ear the whole -story of their stormy interview with the two -Dupuys. ‘What can they mean,’ he asked at -last, drawing himself up proudly, ‘by calling -such people as you and me “brown men,” -father?’</p> - -<p>The question, as he asked it that moment, -in the full sunshine of Agualta Terrace, did -indeed seem a very absurd one. Two more perfect -specimens of the fair-haired, blue-eyed, -pinky-white-skinned Anglo-Saxon type it would -have been extremely difficult to discover even in -the very heart of England itself, than the father -and son who thus faced one another. But old -Mr Hawthorn shook his handsome gray old head -solemnly and mournfully. ‘It’s quite true, my -boy,’ he answered with a painful sigh—‘quite -true, every word of it. In the eyes of all -Trinidad, of all the West Indies, you and I are -in fact coloured people.’</p> - -<p>‘But father, dear father,’ Marian said pleadingly, -‘just look at Edward! There isn’t a sign -or a mark on him anywhere of anything but the -purest English blood! Just look at him, father; -how can it be possible?’—and she took up, half -unconsciously, his hand—that usual last tell-tale -of African descent, but in Edward Hawthorn’s -case stainless and white as pure wax. ‘Surely -you don’t mean to tell me,’ she said, kissing it -with wifely tenderness, ‘there is negro blood—the -least, the tiniest fraction, in dear Edward!’</p> - -<p>‘Listen to me, dear one,’ the old man said, -drawing Marian closer to his side with a fatherly -gesture. ‘My father was a white man. Mary’s -father was a white man. Our grandfathers on -both sides were pure white, and our grandmothers -on one side were white also. All our -ancestors in the fourth degree were white, save -only one—fifteen whites to one coloured out of -sixteen quarters—and that one was a mulatto -in either line—Mary’s and my great-great-grandmother. -In England or any other country of -Europe, we should be white—as white as you -are. But such external and apparent whiteness -isn’t enough by any means for our West Indian -prejudices. As long as you have the remotest -taint or reminiscence of black blood about you -in any way—as long as it can be shown, by -tracing your pedigree pitilessly to its fountainhead, -that any one of your ancestors was of -African origin—then, by all established West -Indian reckoning, you are a coloured man, an -outcast, a pariah.—You have married a coloured -man, Marian; and your children and your -grandchildren to the latest generations will all -of them for ever be coloured also.’</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">{213}</span></p> - -<p>‘How cruel—how wicked—how abominable!’ -Marian cried, flushed and red with sudden indignation. -‘How unjust so to follow the merest -shadow or suspicion of negro blood age after -age to one’s children’s children!’</p> - -<p>‘And how far more unjust still,’ Edward -exclaimed with passionate fervour, ‘ever so to -judge of any man not by what he is in himself, -but by the mere accident of the race or blood -from which he is descended!’</p> - -<p>Marian flushed again with still deeper colour; -she felt in her heart that Edward’s indignation -went further than hers, down to the very root -and ground of the whole matter.</p> - -<p>‘But, O father,’ she began again after a slight -pause, clinging passionately both to her husband -and to Mr Hawthorn, ‘are they going to visit -this crime of birth even on a man of Edward’s -character and Edward’s position?’</p> - -<p>‘Not on him only,’ the old man whispered -with infinite tenderness—‘not on him only, my -daughter, my dear daughter—not on him only, -but on you—on you, who are one of themselves, -an English lady, a true white woman of pure -and spotless lineage. You have broken their -utmost and sacredest law of race; you have -married a coloured man! They will punish -you for it cruelly and relentlessly. Though you -did it, as he did it, in utter ignorance, they will -punish you for it cruelly; and that’s the very -bitterest drop in all our bitter cup of ignominy -and humiliation.’</p> - -<p>There was a moment’s silence, and then Edward -cried to him aloud: ‘Father, father, you ought -to have told me of this earlier!’</p> - -<p>His father drew back at the word as though -one had stung him. ‘My boy,’ he answered -tremulously, ‘how can you ever reproach me -with that? You at least should be the last to -reproach me. I sent you to England, and I -meant to keep you there. In England, this -disgrace would have been nothing—less than -nothing. Nobody would ever have known of -it, or if they knew of it, minded it in any way. -Why should I trouble you with a mere foolish -fact of family history utterly unimportant to -you over in England? I tried my hardest to -prevent you from coming here; I tried to send -you back at once when you first came. But do -you wonder, now, I shrank from telling you the -ban that lies upon all of us here? And do you -blame me for trying to spare you the misery I -myself and your dear mother have endured -without complaining for our whole lifetime?’</p> - -<p>‘Father,’ Edward cried again, ‘I was wrong; -I was ungrateful. You have done it in all -kindness. Forgive me—forgive me!’</p> - -<p>‘There is nothing to forgive, my boy—nothing -to forgive, Edward. And now, of course, you -will go back to England?’</p> - -<p>Edward answered quickly: ‘Yes, yes, father; -they have conquered—they have conquered—I -shall go back to England; and you, too, shall -come with me. If it were for my own sake -alone, I would stop here even so, and fight it -out with them to the end till I gained the -victory. But I can’t expose Marian—dear, gently -nurtured, tender Marian—to the gibes and scorn -of these ill-mannered planter people. She shall -never again submit to the insult and contumely -she has had to endure this morning.—No, no, -Marian darling, we shall go back to England—back -to England—back to England!’</p> - -<p>‘And why,’ Marian asked, looking up at her -father-in-law suddenly, ‘didn’t you yourself leave -the country long ago? Why didn’t you go where -you could mix on equal terms with your natural -equals? Why have you stood so long this horrible, -wicked, abominable injustice?’</p> - -<p>The old man straightened himself up, and fire -flashed from his eyes like an old lion’s as he -answered proudly: ‘For Edward! First of -all, I stopped here and worked to enable me -to bring up my boy where his talents would -have the fullest scope in free England. Next, -when I had grown rich and prosperous here at -Agualta, I stayed on because I wouldn’t be -beaten in the battle and driven out of the -country by the party of injustice and social -intolerance. I wouldn’t yield to them; I wouldn’t -give way to them; I wouldn’t turn my back -upon the baffled and defeated clique of slave-owners, -because, though my father was an English -officer, my mother was a slave, Marian!’ He -looked so grand and noble an old man as he -uttered simply and unaffectedly those last few -words—the pathetic epitaph of a terrible dead -and buried wrong, still surviving in its remote -effects—that Marian threw her arms around his -neck passionately, and kissed him with one -fervent kiss of love and admiration, almost as -tenderly as she had kissed Edward himself in -the heat of the first strange discovery.</p> - -<p>‘Edward,’ she cried, with resolute enthusiasm, -‘we will <i>not</i> go home! We will not return to -England. We, too, will stay and fight out the -cruel battle against this wicked prejudice. We -will do as your father has done. I love him -for it—I honour him for it! To me, it’s less -than nothing, my darling, that you should -seem to have some small little taint by birth -in the eyes of these miserable, little, outlying -islanders. To me, it’s less than nothing -that they should dare to look down upon you, -and to set themselves up against you—you, so -great, so learned, so good, so infinitely nobler -than them, and better than them in every way! -Who are they, the wretched, ignorant, out-of-the-way -creatures, that they venture to set themselves -up as our superiors? I will not yield, -either. I’m my father’s daughter, and I won’t -give way to them. Edward, Edward, darling -Edward, we will stop here still, we <i>shall</i> stop -here and defeat them!’</p> - -<p>‘My darling,’ Edward answered, kissing her -forehead tenderly, ‘you don’t know what you -say; you don’t realise what it would be like for -us to live here. I can’t expose you to so much -misery and awkwardness. It would be wrong -of me—unmanly of me—cowardly of me—to let -my wife be constantly met with such abominable, -undeserved insult!’</p> - -<p>‘Cowardly! Edward,’ Marian cried, stamping -her pretty little foot upon the ground impatiently -with womanly emphasis, ‘cowardly—cowardly! -The cowardice is all the other way, I fancy. -I’m not ashamed of my husband, here or anywhere. -I love you; I admire you; I respect you. -But I can never again respect you so much if you -run away, even for my sake, from this unworthy -prejudice. I don’t want to live here always, for -ever; God forbid! I hate and detest it; but I<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">{214}</span> -shall stay here a year—two years—three years, if -I like, just to show the hateful creatures that I’m -not afraid of them!’</p> - -<p>‘No, no, my child,’ old Mr Hawthorn murmured -tenderly, smoothing her forehead; ‘this is -no home for you, Marian. Go back to England—go -back to England!’</p> - -<p>Marian turned to him with feverish energy. -‘Father,’ she cried, ‘dear, good, kind, gentle, -loving father! You’ve taught me better yourself; -your own words have taught me better. -I won’t give way to them; I’ll stay in the land -where you have stayed, and I’ll show them -I’m not ashamed of you or of Edward either! -Ashamed! I’m only ashamed to say the word. -What is there in either of you for a woman -not to be proud of with all the deepest and -holiest pride in her whole nature!’</p> - -<p>‘My darling,’ Edward answered thoughtfully, -‘we shall have to think and talk more with one -another about this wretched, miserable business.’</p> - - -<h3>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> - -<p>The very next morning, as Edward and Marian -were still loitering over the mangoes and bananas -at eleven o’clock breakfast—the West Indies keep -continental hours—they were surprised and pleased -by hearing a pony’s tramp cease suddenly at the -front-door, and Nora Dupuy’s well-known voice -calling out as cheerily and childishly as ever: -‘Marian, Marian! you dear old thing, please -send somebody out here at once, to hold my -horse for a minute, will you?’</p> - -<p>The words fell upon both their ears just then -as an oasis in the desert of isolation from women’s -society, to which they had been condemned for -the last ten days. The tears rose quickly into -Marian’s eyes at those familiar accents, and she -ran out hastily, with arms outstretched, to meet -her one remaining girl-acquaintance. ‘O Nora, -Nora, darling Nora!’ she cried, catching the -bright little figure lovingly in her arms, as -Nora leapt with easy grace from her mountain -pony, ‘why didn’t you come before, my darling? -Why did you leave me so long alone, and make -us think you had forgotten all about us?’</p> - -<p>Nora flung herself passionately upon her friend’s -neck, and between laughing and crying, kissed -her over and over again so many times without -speaking, that Marian knew at once in her -heart it was all right there at least, and that -Nora, for one, wasn’t going to desert them. -Then the poor girl, still uncertain whether to -cry or laugh, rushed up to Edward and seized -his hand with such warmth of friendliness, that -Marian half imagined she was going to kiss -him fervently on the spot, in her access of -emotion. And indeed, in the violence of her -feeling, Nora very nearly did fling her arms -around Edward Hawthorn, whom she had learned -to regard on the way out almost in the light -of an adopted brother.</p> - -<p>‘My darling,’ Nora cried vehemently, as soon -as she could find space for utterance, ‘my pet, -my own sweet Marian, you dear old thing, -you darling, you sweetheart!—I didn’t know -about it; they never told me. Papa and Tom -have been deceiving me disgracefully: they said -you were away up at Agualta, and that you -particularly wished to receive no visitors until -you’d got comfortably settled in at your new -quarters here at Mulberry. And I said to papa, -nonsense; that that didn’t apply to me, and that -you’d be delighted to see me wherever and -whenever I chose to call upon you. And papa -said—O Marian, I can’t bear to tell you what -he said: it’s so wicked, so dreadful—papa said -that he’d met Mr Hawthorn—Edward, I mean—and -that Edward had told him you didn’t wish -at present to see me, because—well, because, he -said, you thought our circles would be so very -different. And I couldn’t imagine what he meant, -so I asked him. And then he told me—he told -me that horrid, wicked, abominable, disgraceful -calumny. And I jumped up and said it was a -lie—yes, I said a lie, Marian—I didn’t say a -story: I said it was a lie, and I didn’t believe -it. But if it was true—and I don’t care myself -a bit, whether it’s true or whether it isn’t—I -said it was a mean, cowardly, nasty thing to go -and rake it up now about two such people as -you and Edward, darling. And whether it’s -true or whether it isn’t, Marian, I love you both -dearly with all my heart, and I shall always -love you; and I don’t care a pin who on earth -hears me say so.’ And then Nora broke down -at once into a flood of tears, and flung herself -once more with passionate energy on Marian’s -shoulder.</p> - -<p>‘Nora darling,’ Marian whispered, weeping -too, ‘I’m so glad you’ve come at last. I -didn’t mind any of the rest a bit, because they’re -nothing to me; it doesn’t matter; but when -I thought <i>you</i> had forgotten us and given us -up, it made my heart bleed!’</p> - -<p>Nora’s tears began afresh. ‘Why, pet,’ she -said, ‘I’ve been trying to get away to come -and see you every day for the last week; and -papa wouldn’t let me have the horses; and I -didn’t know the way; and it was too far to -walk; and I didn’t know what on earth to do, -or how to get to you. But last night papa and -Tom came home’—here Nora’s face burned violently, -and she buried it in her hands to hide -her vicarious shame—‘and I heard them talking -in the piazza; and I couldn’t understand it all; -but, O Marian, I understood enough to know -that they had called upon you here without me, -and that they had behaved most abominably, most -cruelly to you and Edward. And I went out -to the piazza, as white as a sheet, Rosina says, -and I said: “Papa, you have acted as no gentleman -would act; and as for you, Tom Dupuy, -I’m heartily ashamed to think you’re my own -cousin!” and then I went straight up to my -bedroom that minute, and haven’t said a word -to either of them ever since!’</p> - -<p>Marian kissed her once more, and pressed the -tearful girl tight against her bosom—that sisterly -embrace seemed to her now such an unspeakable -consolation and comfort. ‘And how did you -get away this morning, dear?’ she asked softly.</p> - -<p>‘Oh,’ Nora exclaimed, with a childish smile -and a little cry of triumph, ‘I was determined -to come, Marian, and so I came here. I got -Rosina—that’s my maid, such a nice black girl—to -get her lover, Isaac Pourtalès, who isn’t -one of our servants, you know, to saddle the -pony for me; because papa had told our groom -I wasn’t to have the horses without his orders, -or to go to your house if the groom was with me,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">{215}</span> -or else he’d dismiss him. So Isaac Pourtalès, -he saddled it for me; and Rosina ran all the -way here to show me the road till she got nearly -to the last corner; but she wouldn’t come on -and hold the pony for me, for if she did, she -said, de massa would knock de very breff out of -her body; and I really believe he would too, -Marian, for papa’s a dreadful man to deal with -when he’s in a passion.’</p> - -<p>‘But won’t he be awfully angry with you, -darling,’ Marian asked, ‘for coming here when -he told you not to?’</p> - -<p>‘Of course he will,’ Nora replied, drawing -herself up and laughing quietly. ‘But I don’t -care a bit, you know, for all his anger. I’m -not going to keep away from a dear old darling -like you, and a dear, good, kind fellow like -Edward, all for nothing, just to please him. He -may storm away as long as he has a mind to; but -I tell you what, my dear, he shan’t prevent me.’</p> - -<p>‘I don’t mind a bit about it now, Nora, since -you’re come at last to me.’</p> - -<p>‘Mind it, darling! I should think not! Why -on earth should you mind it? It’s too preposterous! -Why, Marian, whenever I think of -it—though I’m a West Indian born myself, and -dreadfully prejudiced, and all that wicked sort -of thing, you know—it seems to me the most -ridiculous nonsense I ever heard of. Just consider -what kind of people these are out here -in Trinidad, and what kind of people you and -Edward are, and all your friends over in -England! There’s my cousin, Tom Dupuy, now, -for example; what a pretty sort of fellow he is, -really. Even if I didn’t care a pin for you, I -couldn’t give way to it; and as it is, I’m going -to come here just as often as ever I please, and -nobody shall stop me. Papa and Tom are always -talking about the fighting Dupuys; but I can -tell you they’ll find I’m one of the fighting -Dupuys too, if they want to fight me about it.—Now, -tell me, Marian, doesn’t it seem to you -yourself the most ridiculous reversal of the -natural order of things you ever heard of in -all your life, that these people here should pretend -to set themselves up as—as being in any -way your equals, darling?’ And Nora laughed -a merry little laugh of pure amusement, so -contagious, that Edward and Marian joined in -it too, for the first time almost since they came -to that dreadful Trinidad.</p> - -<p>Companionship and a fresh point of view -lighten most things. Nora stopped with the -two Hawthorns all that day till nearly dinnertime, -talking and laughing with them much as -usual after the first necessary explanations; and -by five o’clock, Marian and Edward were positively -ashamed themselves that they had ever -made so much of what grew with thinking on -it into so absurdly small and unimportant a -matter. ‘Upon my word, Marian,’ Edward said, -as Nora rode away gaily, unprotected—she positively -wouldn’t allow him to accompany her -homeward—‘I really begin to believe it would -be better after all to stop in Trinidad and fight -it out bravely as well as we’re able for just a -year or two.’</p> - -<p>‘I thought so from the first,’ Marian answered -courageously; ‘and now that Nora has cheered -us up a little, I think so a great deal more than -ever.’</p> - -<p>When Nora reached Orange Grove, Mr Dupuy -stood, black as thunder, waiting to receive her -in the piazza. Two negro men-servants were -loitering about casually in the doorway.</p> - -<p>‘Nora,’ he said, in a voice of stern displeasure, -‘have you been to visit these new nigger people?’</p> - -<p>Nora glanced back at him defiantly and -haughtily. ‘I have not,’ she answered with a -steady stare. ‘I have been calling upon my -very dear friends, the District Court Judge and -Mrs Hawthorn, who are both our equals. I am -not in the habit of associating with what you -choose to call nigger people.’</p> - -<p>Mr Dupuy’s face grew purple once more. He -glanced round quickly at the two men-servants. -‘Go to your room, miss,’ he said with suppressed -rage—‘go to your room, and stop there till I -send for you!’</p> - -<p>‘I was going there myself,’ Nora answered -calmly, without moving a muscle. ‘I mean to -remain there, and hold no communication with -the rest of the family, as long as you choose to -apply such unjust and untrue names to my -dearest friends and oldest companions.—Rosina, -come here, please! Have the kindness to bring -me up some dinner to my own boudoir.’</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="POPULAR_LEGAL_FALLACIES1" title="POPULAR LEGAL FALLACIES.">POPULAR LEGAL FALLACIES.<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> -</div> -<p class="ph3">BY AN EXPERIENCED PRACTITIONER.</p> - - -<h3><i>KISSING THE BOOK.</i></h3> - -<p><span class="smcap">Perjury</span> is a crime which strikes at the very -root of the administration of justice; for if no -reliable evidence could be obtained, it would be -impossible to enforce by means of legal proceedings -the rights of those who had been wronged, -or to settle in a satisfactory manner the thousands -of disputes which come yearly before the various -courts. And yet, we fear that this pernicious -practice is more common than is generally supposed. -Our opinion is that nineteen persons out -of every twenty who will tell an untruth will -swear to it as a truth—that is to say, looking -at the matter from the moral standpoint alone. -The fear of punishment has a deterring effect -upon some; but the offence is one which is very -difficult of detection if well managed. If two or -three persons swear to a consistent story, and an -equal, or even a greater, number contradict their -evidence on oath, who is to decide which set of -witnesses are to be believed, and which are to be -prosecuted for perjury? The punishment on -conviction may be any term of penal servitude -not exceeding seven years, or imprisonment, with -hard labour, for a term not exceeding two years; -and some people are afraid of risking this—in -which fear lies the principal practical advantage -of administering an oath to a witness before he -gives evidence in court.</p> - -<p>Some persons have a variety of ingenious but -vain expedients which they hope will enable them -to lie in the witness-box with impunity; and -while gratifying their personal spite, or earning -the wages of falsehood, to evade the pains and -penalties attendant upon the practice of perjury, -and the object of this paper is to show how futile -the supposed precautions are, and in what consists<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">{216}</span> -the essence of the oath, and the violation of it -which will render the offender liable to punishment -for the perjury committed by him.</p> - -<p>The form of taking the oath varies in different -nations; but in all, the essence of the ceremony -is the adjuration addressed to a superior Power to -attest the truth of what the witness is going to -assert. The witness who thought that if he told -a lie after having taken the oath, all the jurymen -would be sent to everlasting perdition, was -an extreme illustration of the misconceptions -which exist on this subject. Most people know -that the invocation of the Almighty—‘So help -me God’—is one the consequences of which are -intended to be personal to themselves. But they -dishonour their Maker if they try to escape from -the consequences by a trick.</p> - -<p>The form of oath varies according to the circumstances -and purpose in and for which it is taken. -The manner of administration to a Christian witness -south of the Border is the same. The witness -takes the Holy Gospels in his right hand, and -after the form of oath has been read over to -him, he reverently kisses the book; that is to -say, he is supposed to kiss the book; but some -persons will, instead of the book, kiss their own -thumb, or avoid contact between their lips and the -book by holding it at an imperceptible distance. -This is a very common, perhaps the most common, -mode of attempted evasion. But another is often -attempted, which is more easy of detection—that -is to say, keeping on the glove, in order that the -hand and book may not become actually in contact -with each other. It may appear unnecessary -to say that these devices are both equally unavailing -for the purpose intended.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The essence of the -oath lies in the reverent assent to the appeal to -the Almighty and omniscient God. The witness -must at least pretend to assent to the formulary -read over to him, and if he does this, he is sworn -to all intents and purposes. As the oath is complete -in its religious sense, so also is its legal effect -the same whether the hand and the lips actually -touch the cover of the book or not. It has long -been the practice to insist upon the witness holding -the book in his or her right hand; but this -is by some writers held to be wrong, inasmuch -as the left hand is supposed to be nearer to the -heart, and would receive a more bountiful portion -of the blood which is the life, were not its natural -advantages counterbalanced by the effects of daily -labour; therefore, it is contended by them that -the left hand ought to be used in holding the -book, when the oath is taken.</p> - -<p>Hebrews are sworn upon the Old Testament, -and the witness puts on his hat before taking the -oath; while a Christian invariably uncovers his -head for the purpose. A Chinaman breaks a -saucer, the idea being somewhat similar to our -oath—that is to say, he thereby devotes his soul -to destruction if his testimony should be untrue. -A Brahmin swears with his hand upon the head -of one of the bulls devoted to his deity. A West -African kills a bird; while his sovereign immolates -a few human beings from among his subjects. -And other nations have equally distinct methods -of attesting their intention to speak ‘the truth, -the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.’</p> - - -<h3><i>UNDERWEIGHT AND OVERWEIGHT.</i></h3> - -<p>Formerly, farmers sold butter by customary -pounds, some giving eighteen ounces for a pound, -and some twenty ounces; and numerous other -articles were sold by similar local weights. This -is now illegal. By the Weights and Measures -Act, 1878, all customary and local weights were -abolished. As these weights of many irregular -kinds had been largely used, various trades were -much exercised by their abolition, and evasions -have been frequent, and are not altogether -unknown even now. By the Act of Parliament -referred to, the imperial standard pound is the -unit of weight from which all others are to be -calculated: one-sixteenth part of a pound is an -ounce; one-sixteenth part of such ounce is a -dram; and one seven-thousandth part of the -pound is a grain avoirdupois. A stone consists -of fourteen pounds; a hundredweight of eight -such stones; and a ton of twenty such hundredweights. -Any person who sells by any denomination -of weight other than one of the imperial -weights, or some multiple or part thereof, is -liable to a fine not exceeding forty shillings for -every such sale, with the following exceptions: -gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, and other precious -metals and stones, may be sold by the ounce -troy or by any decimal parts of such ounce, -which is defined as containing avoirdupois four -hundred and eighty grains; and drugs when sold -by retail, may be sold by apothecaries’ weight. -It is also enacted that a contract or dealing is -not to be invalid or open to objection on the -ground that the weights expressed or referred to -therein are weights of the metric system, or on -the ground that decimal subdivisions of imperial -weights, whether metric or otherwise, are used -in such contract or dealing. Any person who -prints, and any clerk of a market or other -person who makes any return, price-list, price-current, -or any journal or other paper containing -price-list or price-current in which the denomination -of weights quoted or referred to denotes or -implies any other than the standard weights, is -liable to a fine not exceeding ten shillings for -every such paper. And every person who uses -or has in his possession for use in his trade a -weight which is not of the denomination of some -Board of Trade standard, is liable to a fine not -exceeding five pounds, or in the case of a second -offence, ten pounds; and the weight is liable to -be forfeited.</p> - -<p>There is, however, one distinction between -underweight and overweight which many persons -lose sight of; or rather, they mistakenly -deny its existence. When any article is sold by -weight, it is essential that full weight should -be given, or the person who sells will become -liable to a penalty. But if he uses the proper -weights corresponding with the standards, he -will not incur a penalty by giving what is commonly -called ‘thumping weight;’ that is to -say, any want of precision in weighing, if it -should result in an excess, would not form a -good ground for a prosecution; while a similar -discrepancy on the other side would do so. It -is cruel to give a poor person a loaf of bread -which is less than the authorised weight paid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">{217}</span> -for; but if the weight is in excess of the amount -purchased, there is not much harm done: the -overweight was voluntary, and the tradesman -cannot be punished for giving more than was -paid for.</p> - -<p>The penalties, exceptions, &c., applicable to -weights also apply to measures; and the principal -alteration made in our time is that the -heaped measures so familiar to us in our youth -were abolished in 1878. The standard unit of -measure of capacity is the gallon, both for liquids -and solids. The quart is one-fourth of a gallon, -and the pint is one-eighth thereof. Two gallons -are a peck; eight gallons are a bushel; eight -bushels being a quarter; and thirty-six bushels, -a chaldron. In using a measure of capacity, the -same is not to be heaped, but either is to be -stricken, as in the case of grain, with a round stick -or roller, straight, and of the same diameter from -end to end; or if the article sold cannot, from its -size or shape, be conveniently stricken, the measure -must be filled in all parts as nearly to the -level of the brim as the size and shape of -the article will admit. Many articles which -used to be sold by measure are now sold by -weight, such as fruit, vegetables, &c.; and therefore -these regulations as to measuring are not -quite so universally interesting as they would -have been fifty years ago; while weights have -acquired a greater degree of importance than they -ever had in the olden times.</p> - -<p>Every tradesman who values his reputation -ought to have his scales and weights verified -frequently; and in any case of any part of his -weighing apparatus being out of order, the -authorised inspector ought to be visited without -delay, or some other efficient test should be -applied. Nothing injures a tradesman more than -a conviction for having defective weights or -inaccurate scales in his possession. Whatever -suspicions his customers may entertain as to their -parcels being underweight, the certainty of such a -conviction will impress them far more; and many -who never previously thought of weighing their -purchases, will begin to do so in consequence of -seeing the conviction reported in the papers; and -yet we are willing to believe that in many cases -the conviction has been brought about by carelessness, -and has not been a punishment for -deliberate fraud.</p> - - -<h3><i>IGNORANCE OF LAW AND OF FACT.</i></h3> - -<p>There is a great difference between the consequences -of ignorance of law and ignorance of -fact. Law is supposed to be universally known, -though few if any persons are acquainted with -all the multifarious laws which are in existence, -many of them being practically obsolete, others -repealed by implication, though not expressly, -and the effect of others being rendered doubtful -by means of inconsistent enactments, which from -time to time puzzle the judges, who have to -interpret the law in case of differences of opinion -on the part of other persons. The latter class of -laws lead to the necessity for frequent amending -statutes, and some of these are still imperfect, -and need further amendments. The legal system -in its more positive department is thus frequently -but a doubtful path on which to walk; and the -common law has its difficulties as well as the -statutory law. And yet the nature of the case -requires that all Her Majesty’s subjects should be -held bound by all the laws which are applicable -to their respective positions. The rights of an -unfortunate ignoramus who is kept out of his -property by fraud or force are lost, and his -estates become irrecoverable if those rights are -not enforced within the time limited by law, -although he may never have heard of there being -a stipulated time for the commencement of an -action.</p> - -<p>Blackstone gives as an illustration the case of -a person who, intending to kill a burglar in his -own house, by mistake kills one of his own family. -This being a mistake of fact, is not a criminal -offence. But if another man, mistaking the law, -thinks that he has a right to kill a person -who is excommunicate or an outlaw, and acts -upon that belief, he would be liable to be convicted -for wilful murder. It may be observed -that the right of a householder to kill a burglar -in his dwelling-house is not an unqualified -right; for in that case, a private individual -would be empowered to inflict a greater punishment -than would be awarded by the law after -conviction. In case a burglar should attempt -violence which appeared likely to lead to murder -of any of the inmates of the house, the law -would hold the person attacked justifiable in -defending his own life, even though in doing so -he were compelled to take the life of the -assailant; but the necessity ought to be clearly -proved, if the defence is to succeed.</p> - -<p>In civil actions, when the facts on which the -supposed cause of action arose are in dispute, -and if either party has been led to make concessions -to the other party by means of fraudulent -misrepresentations, the ignorance of the victim -of the fraud will not prevent him from taking -proceedings to set aside the agreement so fraudulently -obtained, when he becomes acquainted -with the facts. But if the compromise were -founded upon a misconception of the law, he -would be bound by it; for he ought to have -known the law, or employed some person who -knew it to protect his interests in the matter. -But having neglected this obvious precaution, -he must submit to the consequences with what -grace he can assume.</p> - -<p>The system of enacting new laws is not -altogether free from objection, though it is not -so easy to apply a remedy as to form an objection. -The laws are passed at irregular times, -some coming into operation at some fixed future -time; while others are binding upon all from -the very day on which they receive the royal -assent. It is true that when an Act of Parliament -creates a new offence, and a person ignorant -of its existence is convicted of the breach of such -new enactment, a slight penalty is inflicted as a -warning to other persons rather than as a punishment -for the offender; but still the stigma -remains of having been convicted for an offence -against the law, which is worse to some sensitive -men than a heavy fine would be to some other -persons of different temperament and less unblemished -previous character. The theory that -all new laws should be thoroughly made known -to all the persons likely to be affected thereby -is like many other well-sounding theories, it -possesses the inherent defect of being impracticable. -This inconvenience of involuntary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">{218}</span> -ignorance of new enactments has been greatly -diminished of late years by the immense increase -of newspapers and the general diffusion of knowledge. -The Elementary Education Acts have so -extended the facilities for the acquisition of the -art of reading, and the taste for reading is so -cultivated by cheap periodical literature, that -there is much more chance now than formerly -of all classes knowing something of what is -being done in the way of new enactments for -the guidance of the people, the parliamentary -reports forming an important part of the contents -of every newspaper, and newspapers have come -to be classed among the necessaries of life, even -by those whose incomes are of the smallest. We -should, however, be glad if the legislature could -devise some more efficient way of making known -to all persons the laws which they are bound to -observe.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SIGNALMANS_LOVE-STORY">THE SIGNALMAN’S LOVE-STORY.</h2> -</div> - - -<h3 title="CHAPTER I.">IN TWO CHAPTERS.—CHAP. I.</h3> - -<p><span class="smcap">A song</span> which was very popular when I was a -boy, says, ‘Most folks fall in love, no doubt, some -time or other.’ It might with equal truth have -said that most folks fall in love two or three -times over. I am sure it was the case with me. -It was also my fate to do what, I am told, is -one of the commonest things in the world—that -is, to fall violently in love with a person entirely -out of my own circle; not below it, like the -king and the beggar-maid, but a great deal above -me; with a girl, too, who was as proud and -haughty and stony as Juno or a sphinx.</p> - -<p>In the time to which I refer, nearly fifty years -ago now—I am seventy-one next birthday—the -railway system was in its infancy, but yet was -spreading fast, and I was one of the earliest -servants. It was in no exalted position that I -served. My father was dead; my mother rented -a small cottage on the land of the nobleman in -whose service her husband had lived and died; -and this nobleman recommended me to a railway -Company which had just constructed a -branch through his estates. I was at first a -porter, but afterwards a signalman, and, as a -great favour, I was assigned a post on the branch -just mentioned, close to my own house. The -signal was not far from the junction of the -branch with the main line; a very lonely spot -for a long way in either direction, although there -was a thriving town some five miles down the -branch; and there was a siding close by where -the trucks used in the scanty local traffic were -collected.</p> - -<p>There were some cottages near my crossing—I -ought to have said that there was a level crossing -not far from my box—in one of these I lived; a -sprinkling of farmhouses and several very good -houses of a higher class were within sight. In -one of these latter, not by any means the grandest, -but handsome enough for all that, lived Squire -Cleabyrn; and it was with his only daughter, -Miss Beatrice, that I chose to fall in love. For -that matter, I daresay a score of other young -fellows as poor as myself were as earnestly in -love with her as I was, but they probably had -sufficient sense not to show their folly. I did -show mine. I could not help it; and when I -recall all I felt and suffered at the time, I feel -I must retract my admission that others were -as much in love with her as myself, but had the -sense to conceal it; such a thing would have -been impossible. They could not have concealed -it; they might have refrained from talking about -it. I did not talk; but had they seen the girl -as often as I did, and looked into her face as -closely as I did, they could not have hidden -their infatuation from her. In return, she would -have looked at them with the same haughty -indifference—which yet had a something of contemptuous -wonder in it—as I was treated with.</p> - -<p>Not that my story has anything of the Lady -of Lyons flavour about it; I was no Claude to -an English Pauline; but this girl, this Miss -Beatrice, was so amazingly beautiful that she -was famed for full twenty miles around. In -addition, she was one of the best horsewomen -in the county, and this enabled me to see more -of her than I should otherwise have done. She -used to ride out, sometimes with a servant only, -sometimes with a party, nearly every day; and -nearly every day she came through the gates -at my crossing. I tried not to look at her, -feeling and knowing that there sparkled from -my eager eyes more feeling than I should have -allowed to escape me—but in vain. I could not -withhold my gaze from that cold, dark face—she -was not a blonde beauty; golden hair was -not the rage in those days—or from her large, -deep, unfathomable eyes, that looked through me -and past me as though I had not been there, or -was at best no more than a part of the barrier -I swung open for her passage. Yet these eyes, -as I even then knew but too well, read me to -the core, while they seemed to ignore me.</p> - -<p>I am almost ashamed to own it now, and even -at this distance of time it makes my cheeks tingle -to recall it, but I have wasted a whole afternoon, -when I had a ‘turn off,’ in hope of seeing Miss -Cleabyrn.</p> - -<p>Her father’s house stood on a knoll, with -smooth open lawns sloping down from it on -all sides, so that from my signal-box I could -see when any one was walking in the front -of the mansion, and when a party assembled to -ride out. Well, I have actually lingered, on -some feeble pretence, for four or five hours -about the signal-box, in hope that she might -walk on the lawn, or that she might mount -and ride through our gates.</p> - -<p>I well remember that it was on one of these -afternoons that Miss Beatrice rode through with -a small party. Ah! I recall them easily enough. -There was one other lady, and three gentlemen. -To open the gate for them, for her, was the -opportunity I had been longing, waiting for, -and wasting my few hours of holiday for; so -I offered to do this to assist my mate, who had -relieved me, and who was glad enough to be -spared the labour; and I caught a full glance -from the eyes of Miss Beatrice. The look was -one in which she seemed to exchange glances -with me. I knew it meant nothing, that it was -all a delusion, and yet it would be enough to -haunt me for days. I knew that also. I had -never seen her look so beautiful before, and I -felt my cheeks and brow turn burning hot in -the instant I met this glance.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">{219}</span></p> - -<p>They passed. I watched them to the last—I -always did—and I saw her turn her head -towards the gentleman who rode by her side. -The movement brought her profile so plainly -in view that I could see she was smiling. As -I watched her, the gentleman turned round and -looked in my direction. He was smiling also; it -was something beyond a smile with him, and -I then reddened more with shame, than I had -before done with excitement, for I knew he was -laughing at me. So Miss Cleabyrn must have -been laughing also; and at what? I was the -subject of their ridicule, and it served me right. -Yes; I knew that at the moment, but to know -it did not make the bitter pang less painful.</p> - -<p>I went back to my comrade at the signal-box. -He, too, had noticed the group, and said, as I -entered the hut: ‘That was the party from Elm -Knoll, wasn’t it?—Ah! I thought so; and of -course that was the celebrated Miss Cleabyrn. -You know who that was riding by her side, I -suppose?’</p> - -<p>‘No,’ I said, answering as calmly as I could; -I was almost afraid to trust my voice.</p> - -<p>‘That’s a young fellow, a captain from somewhere,’ -continued my mate, ‘who is going to -marry Miss Cleabyrn. He has got a lot of -money. So has she. Sam Powell, who drives -the night-mail, knows him, and told me all -about it.’</p> - -<p>As the speaker had no idea of the absurd state -I was in, he took no particular notice of me, but -changed the subject, and went on with some -indifferent topic.</p> - -<p>I was glad he did so, for although I had an -utter contempt for myself and for my folly in -allowing the conduct or the future of Miss -Cleabyrn to excite me, yet I could not have conversed -on such a theme as her marriage; while -the knowledge that the person to whom I had -been ridiculed—I felt sure of that—was her -avowed lover, seemed to increase the bitterness -of the sting tenfold.</p> - -<p>I had ample opportunity of seeing that the -report which I had heard was likely, at anyrate, -to be founded in fact, as the stranger, the ‘captain -from somewhere,’ remained a guest at Elm Knoll -for fully a fortnight, during which time not a -day passed without my seeing both him and -Miss Cleabyrn, and sometimes more than once -each day. So I came to know him by sight as -well as I did her. He was a frank, handsome, -young fellow; that I could see, and was obliged -to own; and in his speech he was pleasant. -This was shown by his stopping on two or three -occasions, when riding alone, to ask me some -questions, as I opened the gate for him.</p> - -<p>I was sure he made these occasions, and at -first disliked him for it; but I could not -continue to bear ill-will against a man of such -kindly open manners, so I relented, and, ere he -left the neighbourhood, used to look forward -with pleasure to seeing him. This was a sad -falling-off from my previous lofty mood, and -so was my accepting a cigar from him as he -rode through. In fact, although I have no -doubt ‘written myself an ass,’ as our old friend -Dogberry would have said, yet at the worst I -was not without some glimmering of sense, which -saved me from making an absolute example of -myself.</p> - -<p>Even during the short time in which the -captain—I did not know his name—was visiting -at Elm Knoll, the heat and surge of my absurd -passion had perceptibly moderated, and just then -several circumstances combined to restore me to -a right frame of mind.</p> - -<p>After the captain’s departure, Miss Beatrice -left home on a prolonged visit, so that I did -not see her; and at the same time I met Patty -Carr, who was, in her way, quite as pretty -as Beatrice Cleabyrn, although not nearly so -haughty; and my heart being specially tender -and open to impression just then, I suppose, -I speedily thought more of her than of the -young lady at Elm Knoll. Indeed we were -married the next year.</p> - -<p>At the time I speak of, a good many things -were in vogue, or at least had not died out, -which have quite vanished now, and among -these was duelling. Every now and then, a duel -was fought; but the ridicule which attended -bloodless meetings, and the greater activity of -the police in cases where harm was done, were -diminishing them greatly; yet still, they did -occasionally happen. A great stir was made by -a violent quarrel among some officers of a -regiment quartered in Lancashire, in which a -challenge to fight a duel had been given and -refused. It was called in the papers of the day, -‘The Great Military Scandal,’ and arose in the -following manner. A certain Major Starley had -offered a gross insult to a young lady, on whom, -it appeared, he had been forcing his attentions -for some time; and her only relative, a half-brother, -was in the same regiment with the -major. The details were not pleasant, and it -was no wonder that Captain Laurenston challenged -the major; but the latter declined the -challenge on some professional grounds; and -when the parties met, high words passed. These -commenced, it appeared, with the captain; but -each became violent in the dispute, until at last -the captain thrashed his antagonist in the -presence of several officers. This was not a -make-believe beating; a ‘consider-yourself-horsewhipped’ -affair, but a right-down ‘welting,’ the -major being badly cut and bruised. This was -serious enough, anyhow; but what made it worse -was that the officers were on duty at the time; -and by the strict letter of military law, the captain -would certainly be punished with death.</p> - -<p>He had expected, it seems, that after so public -and such a painful humiliation, he would -infallibly receive a challenge from the injured -officer; but it was not so. He was placed in -arrest in the barracks, and expected to be -brought to a court-martial. He heard, however, -from some friendly source that it was intended -to hand him over to the civil power, when he -would be charged with an assault with intent -to kill.</p> - -<p>In those days, almost anything was transportable, -and as Major Starley belonged to one -of the most influential families in the kingdom, -there was no doubt that the captain would be -sent to a convict settlement. There was also no -doubt that the prosecution would be conducted -in the most vindictive spirit and pushed to the -bitterest end.</p> - -<p>Terrified at such a prospect, the young officer -escaped from the barracks, by connivance of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">{220}</span> -guard, there was reason to suppose, although this -was never completely proved; at anyrate, he got -clear away, and disappeared. Immediate advantage -was taken of this fatal although very natural -step, and a reward was at once offered for his -apprehension. If he could get out of the -country, he would be safe, as there were then -no engagements for giving up criminals, so the -ports were watched, an easier thing to do when -there was not such a tremendous outflow of -emigration as now.</p> - -<p>Public sympathy was, naturally, strongly in -favour of Captain Laurenston, and against the -major, who would be compelled, it was generally -said, to leave the service. But this would not -save the captain from being cashiered, nor from -fourteen years’ transportation, as he was certain -to be made an example of, if only for the -purpose of showing that officers would be protected -when they refused to accept a challenge.</p> - -<p>I had taken an interest in all these details, -as my mates had done, and, as with them, my -sympathies were on the side of Captain Laurenston, -yet only as a stranger, for I had never, -to my knowledge, heard of him before. But -after a while it began to be said that the -captain was the officer who had been so long a -visitor at Elm Knoll, and was the accepted -suitor of Miss Cleabyrn. This gave me more -interest in the affair, and I sincerely hoped he -might make good his escape.</p> - -<p>Miss Beatrice had returned to Elm Knoll; -but she rarely left the house, and still more -rarely rode out, although it was the hunting -season, so that I hardly ever saw her.</p> - -<p>I was on night-duty at the signals; and when -I went there one evening to relieve the day -man, he told me that there were several London -detectives ‘hanging about the place’—he knew -this from one of the guards who had formerly -been in the police, and so recognised them. I -naturally asked if the Company suspected anything -wrong among their people, and my mate -said no, not at all. The detectives of course -would not say anything about their business; -but the guard suspected that they were after -Captain Laurenston, who was likely to try to -see Miss Cleabyrn before leaving England. -This appeared feasible enough; and I was able -heartily to echo the wish of my mate, to the -effect that the young fellow might give his -pursuers the slip.</p> - -<p>I have said that my signals and crossing were -on a branch, of no great traffic; so, when the -last down passengers’ and first night goods’ -trains had passed—they followed each other -pretty closely—there was nothing stirring for -several hours. Traffic through the gates at the -level crossing after dark, there was little or -none, so my berth was dull and lonely enough. -I did not much mind this, for I was fond of -reading, and on this night—a stormy one it -was—I was reading a terrible ghost story. I -laugh at such things now, but I know right -well that they made me ‘creep’ then. I daresay -every one knows the sensation, and has -felt it over ghost stories. I was in the midst -of the most terrible part, when I heard a -slight noise, and lifting up my eyes, saw at -my little window, quite close to me, that which -startled me more than any ghostly appearance -ever will. I thought it <i>was</i> a ghost. The glare -of my lamp fell upon the panes, and I recognised -the large deep eyes which had so often -thrilled me. I saw, and knew to a certainty -that Beatrice Cleabyrn was looking at me. She -knew by my electric start that she was recognised. -The face vanished from my window, and -as I sprang from my seat, there was a tap at -my door. I threw it open. The furious blast -of wind which entered almost blew out my -lamp, and I felt the driving rain even as I -stood within the hut. It was Miss Cleabyrn, -and she at once stepped over my threshold. -She had on a large cloak, the cape of which -was turned up so as to form a hood, and this -was dripping with wet; great drops of rain -were on her face too. I pushed my stool, the -only seat in my hut, towards her, and strove -to ask what had brought her to such a spot -on such a night; but I could get out no -intelligible words. She had closed the door -after her, and in her very manner of doing so, -there was something which suggested fear and -danger, so that I caught my breath in sympathetic -alarm.</p> - -<p>‘You are Philip Waltress, are you not?’ she -said.</p> - -<p>I had never heard her speak before, and -either I was still under the influence of my old -enchantment, or she really had the most -melodious, most thrilling voice in the world; -assuredly I thought so. Of course I replied in -the affirmative.</p> - -<p>‘We—I have heard you spoken of,’ she continued; -‘and always favourably. I am sure -you may be trusted; I am sure you will be -faithful.’</p> - -<p>‘If I can serve you in any manner, Miss -Cleabyrn,’ I managed to say, ‘I will be faithful -to any promise I may give—faithful to death.’ -This was a rather strong speech, but I could -not help it. As I made it, I felt that she knew -right well, without being led by any report or -mention of me—even if she had heard anything -of the sort—why I might be trusted.</p> - -<p>She smiled as I said this. I knew how -fascinating was her smile, but I had never seen -it with such sadness in it; it was a thousand -times more enthralling than before. ‘I will -confide in you,’ she went on. ‘I will tell you -why I am here in such a tempest; to do this, -will be to confide in you most fully.—I will -not sit down’—this was called forth by another -offer of the only seat already mentioned—‘I -will stand here’—she was standing in an angle -behind the door, much screened by my desk -and some books which were heaped upon it—‘then -no chance or prying passer-by can see -me.’</p> - -<p>‘None will pass here for some time, Miss -Cleabyrn,’ I said; ‘on such a night as this, on -any night, indeed, the place is deserted; but -take the precaution, if it will give you a feeling -of greater safety.’</p> - -<p>She did so; and then proceeded, firmly and -collectedly—I was enabled afterwards to judge -how much the effort cost her—to tell me what -had brought her to my station. ‘You have -heard of Captain Laurenston?’ she began.</p> - -<p>I signified that I had done so.</p> - -<p>‘You know that he is pursued by the police;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">{221}</span> -and you know, I have no doubt, that he is the -gentleman who was here in the early part of -the summer?—I thought so. He is in this -neighbourhood; is not far from here. He dares -not enter our house at Elm Knoll, as that is -not only under special watch, but we have -reason to think that one or more of our servants -are bought over, and would act as spies and -informers. He cannot get away without assistance; -and you, he thinks, are the only man he -can trust.’</p> - -<p>‘<i>I</i> am!’ I exclaimed. ‘Why, what can I do?’</p> - -<p>‘Perhaps nothing; perhaps everything,’ replied -Miss Cleabyrn. ‘He has been seen and recognised -here, and every hour makes it more dangerous -for him to linger. He knows he can trust -you. I am sure of it too,’ she added, after a -moment’s hesitation; ‘your very look justifies -me in saying so much.’</p> - -<p>Ah! she knew what my poor stupid looks -had revealed, months before, and speculated -rightly that I would have been taken out and -shot dead on the line, rather than have betrayed -her slightest confidence.</p> - -<p>I told her that I would do anything to assist -her, and the captain too. ‘In what way,’ I -continued, ‘do you——?’</p> - -<p>‘You must get him away in one of the -carriages,’ she interrupted—‘some carriage which -leaves here; for if he ventures to the station, -he will certainly be arrested. You can, for the -present, conceal him in your cottage, where, as -I know, nobody lives but your mother and -yourself. We leave all to you. He will come -here to-morrow night. The rest is in your -hands.—These are all I can give you now,’ she -continued. ‘What ready money we can command, -he will want; but in a short time you -shall be properly rewarded.’ As she spoke, I -saw her hands were busy under her cloak; -and in the next instant she laid on the desk before -me a handsome gold watch and chain.</p> - -<p>‘Miss Cleabyrn!’ I gasped at last; ‘you do not -think—do not suppose for a moment that I want—would -take from you anything to buy my aid! -I am only too willing to give it. I shall be -proud’——</p> - -<p>‘They are yours!’ she interrupted. ‘Watch -for the captain to-morrow night.—Do not follow -me.—No; keep them! All we can do will be -but trifling to show our undying gratitude, if you -aid us now.’ She opened the door as she said -this, and in a moment was lost in the darkness of -the night, leaving me standing with the watch -and chain in my hand.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="MY_DETECTIVE_EXPERIENCES">MY DETECTIVE EXPERIENCES.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">Novel-readers</span> are well acquainted with the -modern detective. He is almost as important a -personage as the rich nabob, who was so lavishly -utilised by our progenitors in cutting the Gordian -knot of difficulties in their contemporary works -of fiction. If ‘the good man struggling with the -storms of Fate’ required instant rescue from his -troubles, a rich uncle from India appeared upon -the scene. So in our day the villain is run to -earth by a supernaturally gifted detective. But -making allowances for the fact that a great -part of our fiction is the work of women, who -cannot (presumably) have come in contact with -the detective class, the sketches of these useful -individuals by feminine pens are tolerably close -to nature, although they are copies of pre-existing -portraits; or evolved from their inner consciousness, -in the same way as the most vivid description -of Switzerland is said to be the work of -Schiller, who had never seen the country.</p> - -<p>My first professional experience of a detective -was as follows. On a certain evening, I found, to -my dismay, that the entrance-hall of my house -had been practically cleared of its contents—a -hat, two umbrellas, and a valuable sealskin cloak -having disappeared. I gave information at the -nearest police station, and was informed that a -police-officer would wait upon me. On the following -day, the servant announced that a man -wanted to speak to me at the street-door. I found -an herculean individual in the garb of a navvy, -with large sandy whiskers and red hair, who -informed me that he was a detective. I ushered -him into the dining-room, where he seated himself, -and listened very patiently to my story. He -inquired as to the character of the girl who -answered the door. ‘Tolerable,’ I replied. ‘But -she is under notice to leave.’</p> - -<p>He expressed his conviction that the servant -was in collusion with the thief or thieves. At -this moment I was again summoned to the door, -where I beheld a somewhat diminutive individual, -attired as a clergyman. He was an elderly -man, with silver hair, a clear pink-and-white -complexion, and wore a suit of superfine broadcloth, -with a white cravat. His ‘get-up’ to the -smallest detail was faultless, even to the gold-rimmed -double eyeglass. ‘You have a detective -here?’</p> - -<p>‘Yes.’</p> - -<p>‘I am a sergeant of the E division; can I speak -to him?’</p> - -<p>In another minute the pair were seated side by -side, as great a contrast as it is possible to -conceive.</p> - -<p>Finding that my business alone was not the -cause of his visit, I courteously left them to -themselves. In a few minutes, the ‘clergyman’ -left the house, expressing a hope that I should -obtain some tidings of my lost property. The -‘navvy’ remained for about half an hour, relating -some of his experiences. ‘You see, sir, we have -different tools for different jobs. If there is to -be any rough-and-tumble business, any work -requiring strength and muscle, anything dangerous, -they employ a man like me.’ The speaker -stretched his powerful limbs as he spoke with -some natural pride. ‘Our sergeant would be -of no use at all in such work. He does the -delicate work, the organising part of the affair—same -as a general.’ The ‘navvy’ then went -on to relate how he had lately been employed -to detect the supposed defalcations of a barmaid -at a small beershop in a low quarter of the town. -The customary expedient of paying for supplies -with marked coin was not deemed sufficient, as -an opinion existed that the girl was a member -of a gang, whom it was deemed prudent to -discover. ‘So, for a fortnight, I haunted that -public, as you see me now, passing for a navvy -who was taking a holiday and spending his -savings; sometimes sitting in the taproom, and -sometimes in front of the bar, smoking and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">{222}</span> -chatting with all comers. The suspicions formed -proved to be correct; and the girl turned out -to be an agent of a gang of area-sneaks and -burglars.’</p> - -<p>I am compelled to record that my loquacious -friend was not equally successful in my case, no -trace of the missing property ever having been -discovered.</p> - -<p>My next experience of detectives was on -two occasions when I officiated as a grand-juryman. -The reader is probably aware that -the grand-jurymen sit in a room in the immediate -proximity of the court, listening to evidence -for the prosecution only, the prisoner not being -produced; the object being to discover whether -the prisoner shall be put on his trial or not. -Sometimes there is a perfect procession of detectives, -of every type, according to the nature of -the case. One will appear habited as a workman, -unshaven, and giving one the notion of being -out of employment; to be followed by another -dressed in the most faultless style. They are -all remarkable for giving their evidence in an -admirable manner, beginning at the beginning, -never using a superfluous word, and leaving off -when the end has arrived. This is in strong -contrast to the ordinary witness, especially the -female witness, whom it is difficult to keep to -the point. One of the detectives made a lasting -impression on me. He might have stepped on -to the boards of a fashionable theatre as the -exponent of Sir Frederick Blount in Lord -Lytton’s play of <i>Money</i>—a very light overcoat, -check trousers, patent leather boots, white gaiters -and pearl buttons, lemon-coloured kid gloves, -and a silver-headed Malacca cane. He was very -pale, with flaxen hair parted down the middle, -and a light fluffy moustache. The jury opened -their eyes very wide when he commenced his -business-like statement by saying that he was a -sergeant in the detective force. He had been -driving a swell dogcart in company with another -detective, on the look-out for some noted horse-stealers -in one of the Eastern Counties. He had -met them driving a cart to which a stolen horse -was attached. They obeyed his command for a -while to follow him to the market town, but -suddenly attempted flight across the fields, -deserting their cart and horses; but were pursued -and captured.</p> - -<p>The following is a notable instance of shrewdness -on the part of a detective. Some burglars -had been disturbed in their work in a house near -the Regent’s Park by a wakeful butler. He was -armed with a gun, and he succeeded in capturing -one burglar and wounding another, who escaped. -There was no doubt of the latter fact, as spots -of blood were plainly discernible on the snowy -ground. When the day for the examination of -the captured burglar arrived, a detective placed -himself in the police court in a position whence -he could watch the countenances of the general -public. He wisely argued that some friend of -the prisoner would attend in order to convey the -earliest information to the wounded burglar of -the result of the examination of his friend. For -a while the detective scanned the grimy features -of the audience in vain; at length he fancied -that a woman betrayed more than ordinary interest -in the evidence adduced. At the conclusion -of the examination, he followed the woman to a -humble lodging in the Borough; and there, -stretched on a miserable pallet, lay the burglar -with a bullet-wound in his leg.</p> - -<p>A detective who had followed a felonious clerk -from England to the United States, lost the scent -at Buffalo, which is about twenty miles from the -celebrated Falls of Niagara. The detective argued -that no one would come so near to the Falls without -paying a visit to them. He went accordingly, -and the first person he saw was the runaway -clerk absorbed in admiration of the Horse-shoe -Fall.</p> - -<p>With a singular occurrence, which happened -to myself, I will conclude these rambling notes. -On the 25th of January 1885, I was seated -at tea with my family in my house, which -is located in a very quiet street in West -Kensington. The servant appeared and said a -gentleman wished to speak to me. He had not -inquired for any one in particular, but had said -that ‘any gentleman would do.’ I must remind -the reader that all London was at this time -ringing with the details of the dynamite explosion -at the House of Commons and the Tower -on the preceding day. I found a tall gentlemanly -individual about thirty, of the genus ‘swell,’ -who spoke with all the tone and manner of a -person accustomed to good society. After a -momentary glance at me, he turned his head -and kept his eyes intently fixed on the farther -end of the street. He spoke in a low tone, and -in somewhat hurried and excited accents. ‘I -want you to assist me in arresting two Irish -Americans. I have been following them for -some time, and they have just discovered that -fact.’</p> - -<p>‘Are you a detective?’ I inquired.</p> - -<p>‘I am,’ he replied with his gaze still concentrated -on the somewhat foggy street. ‘I can see -them still,’ he continued.</p> - -<p>Now, I am afraid, when I record my reply, -I shall be placed on the same pedestal with Sir -John Falstaff at the battle of Shrewsbury, so -far as physical courage is concerned. But I had -only lately recovered from a prostrating illness, -which had left me very weak, and had been -confined to the house for a fortnight under -medical certificate. I briefly stated these facts, -and added, that I feared I was not at that -moment qualified for an affair such as he alluded -to. He sighed in response, and without removing -his gaze from his quarry, said: ‘I wish I -could see a policeman,’ and walked rapidly away -in the direction of the two men.</p> - -<p>Assuming his story to be a true one, the men -must have purposely decoyed him into a quiet -street, and there waited, in order to solve the -point whether they were in reality being tracked. -Reluctant to attempt their arrest single-handed, -the detective rang at the first door he came to, -to throw them off their guard, and cause them -to suppose that he had friends in the street; -also on the chance that he might obtain a stalwart -assistant in his desperate adventure. I have -never heard anything further of my mysterious -visitor. My readers can easily imagine the diversified -comments to which my cautious conduct -has given rise—how I have missed a golden -opportunity of immortalising myself, and of -becoming the hero of the day! how I have probably -escaped death by knife or revolver from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">{223}</span> -two desperadoes, who, under the circumstances, -could easily have effected their escape in a -retired street and in the gray dusk of a Sabbath -evening.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="A_BONE_TO_PICK_WITH_ARTISTS">A BONE TO PICK WITH ARTISTS.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">I have</span> a bone to pick with my friends the -artists! I use the word ‘friends’ advisedly, -for have I not had the entrée for years to -several studios in artistic Kensington? First -and foremost was that of poor T. L. Rowbotham, -who was so suddenly removed from amongst us -some ten years ago, leaving a reputation for -breezy coast scenery, which is still green in the -memory of the public. My ground of offence -is this: that they invest their subjects with so -much of their own poetical imagination, that -when we subsequently make acquaintance with -the localities, an acute sense of disappointment -is experienced. Thus, I had been familiar for -years with the exquisite engraving after Turner -of Abbotsford, wherein the abode of the Wizard -of the North peers forth like some huge baronial -castle from a dense forest of trees which extends -to the bank of the murmuring Tweed. The -happy time arrived at length when I was fated -to make acquaintance with Scotland and its -lovely scenery. Need I say that I included in -my explorations Abbotsford and Melrose. My -heart beat high as I felt that I was within a -couple of miles of renowned Abbotsford. Could -I not see in my mind’s eye the massive entrance -porch, as sketched by Sir William Allan, R.A.; -the baronial hall with the knights in armour, -and so on? What was the reality? A very -comfortable country mansion, not of any great -size, and the dense forest melted into thin -air! I must candidly admit, with respect to -the last point, that the artist was not responsible -for this omission, as the plantation had been -cut down for sanitary reasons by the descendants -of the great Sir Walter. But the rooms -were terribly shrunken as compared with the -images in my mind’s eye, as created by the -imaginative Turner and Allan. Melrose Abbey -could not be better; but I was disappointed to -find the sacred fane so hemmed in by poor -buildings, which never appear in the artist’s -sketches.</p> - -<p>On one occasion, I was carefully watching the -deft fingers of my friend Smith, as he rapidly -placed upon paper the outward resemblance of -a picturesque water-mill in a valley in the Lowlands. -Suddenly his pencil described a swelling -mountain in the far distance. In vain I -protested at this outrage on authenticity and -vraisemblance. Smith was firm, and descanted -in eloquent terms on the improvement caused -by the addition. Herein lies the key of my -ground of complaint.</p> - -<p>Haddon Hall is another of my painful awakenings. -It is worthy a pilgrimage to explore those -tapestried halls, for they are full of interest, -and the Hall itself is beautifully situated. But -he who has never studied the hundreds of views -of Haddon which are in existence, will be the -happier man. The chambers have a dwarfed -and shrunken appearance. The miniature terrace -with its moss-grown steps looking like a view -seen through the wrong end of a telescope, -completed my disappointment.</p> - -<p>Fontainebleau was a success, because I was -not familiar with any magnified views thereof. -Always excepting the famous courtyard in front -of the renowned horse-shoe staircase, down the -steps of which the defeated Emperor slowly -trod ere he bade farewell to his legions, prior -to his departure for Elba. Do we not all know -the celebrated print after Horace Vernet, wherein -Napoleon I. is depicted embracing General Petit, -while the stalwart standard-bearer of the erst -victorious eagle covers his weeping face with -one hand. In the immense space, the serried -ranks of the Imperial Guard stand like mournful -statues. I sighed as I contemplated the moderate-sized -square. Another illusion had departed!</p> - -<p>Any one who has seen the chamber at Holyrood -in which Mary Stuart held high festival -with her ladies, listening the while to the love-songs -of the Italian Rizzio, will candidly admit -that it is one of the smallest supper-rooms in -existence! Snug, decidedly—‘exceeding snug,’ -as Sir Lucius O’Trigger remarks with respect to -intramural interment in the Abbey at Bath. -And here I must admit that there is one -brilliant exception to the theory I have laid -down—Edinburgh! I have never heard a -single individual express disappointment with -the first sight of ‘Auld Reekie!’ Climatic -surroundings of course increase or diminish the -enthusiasm. Probably no city has been so -profusely illustrated, and when the special -points are seen for the first time, they are -recognised as old familiar friends. Well do I -remember my first experience. The transit -from the south at that time was not managed -with the same speed or the same punctuality as -nowadays. I was timed to arrive at the Caledonian -station at eleven <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span> It was considerably -past midnight, and dark as pitch, when I -stepped into a cab amidst torrents of rain, and -requested to be driven to a certain hotel. -During the journey, I fancied I caught a -glimpse of the Scott Monument, and felt a -spasmodic thrill in consequence. When I -descended to the breakfast-room the following -morning, all was changed. Before my gaze -stretched the long line of Princes Street, with -the elegant Gothic spire of Scott’s Monument -tapering gracefully into the blue sunlit air. The -cries of the Newhaven fishwives were as music -to my ear.</p> - -<p>I was so impatient to mount the Castle Hill -and the Calton Hill, that I wished I could be Sir -Boyle Roche’s bird, and be in two places at -once. To describe the views from these celebrated -eminences would be to relate a ‘twice-told tale.’ -But even at this distance of time I smile at -my outspoken delight as I ‘spotted’ places I -had been familiar with from childhood (on -paper), and their unexpected relation to each -other. ‘Why, that is Holyrood below me!’ -and then I remembered that the old palace -must have a local habitation somewhere. But -there are two effects which remain for ever -imprinted on my memory. The rainclouds had -gathered again, and as they scudded rapidly -across the heavens, the Castle and Rock were -one moment in bright sunlight, and then -involved in the deepest gloom, so that the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">{224}</span> -green-covered base appeared as unsubstantial in -the mist as a fairy palace. The second effect -was the Old Town at night as viewed from -Princes Street, with the twinkling lights piled -high in air, as if they denoted the lofty towers -of a palace of the gnomes. The walk of a few -yards changes the entire scene. Arthur Seat, -Salisbury Crags, and the Pentlands seen from a -different angle create a new picture. Edinburgh, -changeable and inexhaustible, the kaleidoscope of -cities!</p> - -<p>I wish to touch with becoming reverence on -the disillusions which may lie under the -pictorial representations of the Holy Land. -Inspired by those illustrations, how often have -I in imagination left Jerusalem by one of the -city gates, and explored the Valley of Jehoshaphat, -ascended the Mount of Olives, and followed -the convolutions of the brook Kedron, the gently -rising moon illumining meanwhile the garden -of Gethsemane! Would a personal examination -of some of those sacred places be attended with -perfect satisfaction? I fear not.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SICKROOM_FIRE">THE SICKROOM FIRE.</h2> -</div> - - -<p><span class="smcap">I am</span> neither doctor nor nurse by profession, but -have had twice in my lifetime to abandon my -ordinary occupation and take charge of members -of my family who suffered from severe illness. -Like others who were not taught ‘the regular -way,’ I had to meet difficulties as they arose, and, -as often happens, necessity became the mother -of invention.</p> - -<p>My first patient was my father: he suffered -from nervous fever; and the slightest noise -caused him great suffering, every sound appearing -to be magnified to an extraordinary degree. -It was, of course, important that nothing should -occur to break the light sleep which he got -from time to time. His illness occurred in -winter, and the season was an unusually severe -one of frost. It was necessary to keep a fire in -the bedroom; yet I found that the poking of it, -dropping of cinders on the fender-pan, and the -putting of coals on the fire, interfered sadly with -my patient’s rest; and I saw that I must get -rid of the noise if my nursing was to be a -success. My first step was to send out of the -room both fender and fire-irons, and to get -an ordinary walking-stick, such as is sold for -sixpence. With this I cleared the bars and did -what poking was necessary for several weeks. -When it took fire, as it occasionally did, a rub -upon the hob put it out. All the rattle of fire-irons -and fender was got rid of, and my first -difficulty was overcome. My remaining trouble -was putting coals on the fire. If I shook them -out of the scuttle into the grate, it made a -deal of noise; if I rooted them out with a -scoop, the sound was nearly as great, and more -irritating, because more prolonged. I managed -to get out of that difficulty by making up the -coal in parcels. I brought my coal-box downstairs, -and taking a couple of scoopfuls of coal -at a time, I folded it in a piece of newspaper, -and then tied each parcel with string. I put -the parcels one upon another in it until the coal-box -was full, and took them to my patient’s -room. When the fire wanted replenishing, I -placed a parcel upon it; the paper burned, -away, and the coal settled down gently with -little or no sound. After this, the fire was no -longer a trouble to me or to my patient.</p> - -<p>Some years after my first experience at nursing, -my wife was suddenly attacked with typhus fever. -I had to clear the house of children and servants, -and send for two hospital nurses. When I was -preparing for the night on the evening of their -arrival, the nurse who was about to sit up smiled -when she saw me bring into the patient’s room a -coal-box full of paper parcels. She evidently -looked upon it as the whim of an amateur. The -next morning, she took quite another view of the -case, and said: ‘I thought, sir, that I knew my -business pretty well; but you certainly have -taught me something I did not know—how to -manage a sickroom fire. Why, I often let the -fire out, and had to sit for hours in the cold, for -fear of wakening patients when they were getting -a good sleep, besides missing the fire afterwards, -when they wakened, and I had not a warm -drink for them or the means of making it. With -your parcels, I had a good fire all night without -a sound, and never had to soil my fingers.’</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak smalltext" id="THE_CANADIAN_PACIFIC_RAILWAYS_WESTERN">THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY’S WESTERN -TERMINUS.</h2> -</div> - - -<p>Port Moody, at the head of Burrard Inlet, -was the point first selected as a terminus for -the Canadian Pacific Railway. The terminus -finally decided upon, however, lies on Coal -Harbour, near the entrance to this inlet, where -the city of Vancouver is now springing up with -great rapidity. The Company’s machine-shops -and terminal works will be located here, and -it promises to be an important commercial city -at no distant date. Tenders have been spoken -of for a fortnightly mail-service between that -point and Yokohama and Hong-kong. It is -also probable that the carrying of the bulk of -tea shipments for England and the eastern American -States and provinces will be done by this -route. This makes the outlook all the more -promising for Vancouver. Town-lots of land -have been laid off by the provincial government -fronting the anchorage on English Bay, a large -portion of which will be used by the railway -Company for terminal works.</p> - - -<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="LET_THERE_BE_LIGHT">‘LET THERE BE LIGHT.’</h2> -</div> - - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘<span class="smcap">Let</span> there be light;’ and through the abysmal deep,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Where Darkness sat enthroned in silent state,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">A tremor passed, as though propitious Fate</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Had roused some charmèd castle from the sleep</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That sealed all eyes from battlement to keep;</div> - <div class="verse indent2">For man or friend the warder dare not wait</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To parley with the Voice outside the gate,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">For living thing must walk, fly, swim, and creep.</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Let there be light:’ thus at Creation’s dawn,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Ere earth had shape, the glorious mandate ran.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Nature obeyed; and o’er the face of night</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Went forth the rosy streaks of our first morn.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">Still Nature keeps to one unvarying plan,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And God-like souls still cry: ‘Let there be light.’</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Albert Francis Cross.</span></div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p class="center">Printed and Published by <span class="smcap">W. & R. Chambers</span>, 47 Paternoster -Row, <span class="smcap">London</span>, and 339 High Street, <span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>.</p> - -<hr class="full" /> - -<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved.</i></p> - - -<hr class="full" /> - -<div class="footnotes"><p class="ph3">FOOTNOTES:</p> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> It should be understood that this series of articles -deals mainly with English as apart from Scotch law.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> In Scotland, the Testament is not made use of in -taking the oath. The witness is only required to hold -up his right hand, and repeat the words of the oath after -the administrator.</p> - -</div> -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL OF POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART, FIFTH SERIES, NO. 118, VOL. 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