Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1875 — BLIFINCH’S WEDDING. [ARTICLE]

BLIFINCH’S WEDDING.

RaoGfei), saturnine and cynical as to appearance; crabbed, miserly and reticent as to disposition; such was Blifinch & Co., general merchandise brokers and provision dealers. For Blifinch was Blifinch, and Company also; the latter attachment of the firm being purely fictitious, and designed possibly for euphony—perhaps to give distinction to the firm title. Blifinch dwelt in a ram-shackle, tum-ble-down old rookery in Pearl street, an establishment which had come to him strictly in the way of business, having fallen into his clutches through the foreclosure of a mortgage, by which process an estimable but impecunious family were summarily ejected into the street one raw November afternoon, from which period they vanished out of man’s cognizance. • As there could be found no tenant for the rookery Blifinch moved into it himself, being enabled thereby to lease his former dwelling-place, in a more agreeable location, to excellent advantage. Blifinch was “as universally disliked and contemned as it is possible for a man to be. His hardness at driving a bargain, his w r ant of charity—either for frailty or misfortune—his absolute disregard for the customary amehifies’df life; these peculiarities caused him to be shunned by all who were not driven to intercourse with him through business exigencies. Of these latter, however, there were very many, and his line of trade was so successful in its competition with the rest of the business world that Blifinch had amassed no inconsiderable amount of property, which was securely invested in the best possible securities at profitable interest. There was, however, in regard to Blifinch one single redeeming feature: he had a daughter—Polly Blifinch—whose characteristics were in such marked contrast to those of her father that they shed a halo of reflected brightness and beauty over the latter which made even the surly meanness of Blifinch seem less obnoxious when she was by. Polly was by-this time twenty years old, and as sweetly-pretty a girl’ as one would wish to see. Her charms of disposition seemed to have given a special loveliness to her every expression, and her amiability and kindliness went far in the estimate of those who knew both to atone for the rugged and unhandsome' protuberances of character which caused Blifinch to be so disliked. Of course Polly had many admirers; for, though she was not permitted to see any oompany whatever under the inhospitable roof which covered her gloomy habitation, there were still ways and , means innumerable by which she could fenn companionships, and through which these could, grow into affectionate interests. But though many pleasing and wholly unobjectionable young men sought Polly from time to time with a dfrect view to matrimonial results, these

been invariably unsuccessful until a period about one year prior to the date of the present narrative. At that time Polly had made the acquaintance of a young sailor, then mate of a merchant vessel trading with the West Indies, and who was the brother of one of Polly’s special friends. Constant association with this mariner when he was on shore, and as constantly listening to his praises when he was at sea, had at last their natural effects; and when Sam Collier proposed, just before sailing on one of his voyages, Polly \consented to be his wife before she had given Blifinch’s probable reception of the matter a single thought. When, after the first transports of the position had subsided, she djd reflect upon her father’s interest in the important question, her spirits went down with startling rapidity. Indeed, about five minutes of practical consideration of the subject resulted in her conveying to her lover, with many sobs and tears, the unqualified certainty that Blifinch would no more let them marry than he would present his son-in-law presumptive with a new ship. Young Collier was of a sanguine temperament, however, had a very good opinion of himself, and had never seen old Blifinch; so, of course, he had no doubts on the subject, and insisted on proceeding at once to communicate with the ‘“Captain,” as he brevetted Polly’s father in his reference to him. Polly consented finally, as the shortest -way.ol. surmounting the difficulty; and that same evening Sam Collier made his appearance at the rookery, and, being introduced t® Blifinch by his daughter, then and there, and in the most seamanlike language, proceeded to demand Polly’s hand as an accompaniment for her heart, of which he claimed present possession. Blifinch heard him through quietly, and then, turning to his daughter, said: “ Polly, is all this true that this young man has been saying?” “Yes, father.” “And you want to marry him, do you?” ’ “ If you please, father.” Blifinch meditated for about two minutes turning to Collier, he said: “You are mate of a ship, you tell me, young man?” “ Yes, sir,” replied Collier, patterning his replies after Polly’s laconic style. “ How would you like to be Captain of a ship?” said Blifinch. “Very much,” replied the sailor. “Very well,” continued Blifinch, returning as he spoke to some papers he had been examining when he was interrupted. “ Come to my store to-morrow at noon, I will get you the appointment of Captain of a ship in whicb I am interested; she sails next week for Callao. If you make a good voyage on her, you can "marry my daughter—when you come back. Good-night!” Polly turned pale and staggered visibly ; Sam Collier’s face brightened, and seizing Blifinch by the hand he thanked him effusively and the two left the room together. Sailorlike, Sam thought nothing of an extra voyage, and was fairly choked up with delight at his new dignity. Polly, on the contrary, foreboded all sorts of evil; and when a week later Sam sailed as Captain of the bark Polly (newly christened) she surrendered herself to the gloomiest anticipations. These would probably not have been lessened had she heard a remark made by Blifinch as the bark left her moorings. He was standing on the dock beside Polly, and as he waved his hand for the last time to Capt., Collier he said —under his breath: — “ Yes, you can marry my daughter—when you come back!" Four months passed—five, six—and the Polly put in no appearance; nor was there word of her nor of Capt. Samuel (jollier, her commander. The bark was an old vessel which had barely escaped condemnation after her previous voyage by a promise on the part of her owners that she should be thoroughly overhauled and refitted. She had certainly been cobbled up in a way and had received a third-class rating; she had likewise been heavily insured with an extra-hazardous premium; and when seven and eight months had elapsed and no tidings were heard of her Blifinch did not seem to see the matter in that light. That Polly should grow pale and careworn, refuse sustenance, and mope herself almost to death generally was no matter of surprise to those who observed the phenomenon; but that Blifinch, who was supposed to have no more heart than one of his own firkins of lard, should turn dejected and nervous, haunt the Exchange for tidings of his ship, sleep restlessly at night, and toss and mutter with bad dreams, as Polly averred he did—that this condition should oppress the hard-headed man of business was curious indeed. Perhaps had those who interested themselves in Blifinch’s condition of mind seen him one afternoon about a year from the date of the Polly's departure from New York, and after the insurance had been duly paid over, and Capt. Sam Collier mourned as dead by his many friends, and by the one good girl who loved him and was dying for him —had Blifinch been seen on this occasion, new light would have been thrown upon his untoward behavior. For, sitting at his desk, With his head bowed upon his hands, which clutched his tangled gray hair miserably, the old man moaned such phrases as these: “ I did it! I killed him! 1 — killed both of them, God forgive me! I’m ruined now and damned for hereafter! Poor Polly!” — and here Blifinch broke down and wept. There was a tap at his door, and a clerk announced a visitor —a seafaring man, he said, and Blifinch cursed him and told him to show the gentleman up, which he did. That evening Blifinch came to Polly, as she sat by a dim tire in the sittingroom, brooding over her sorrow, and called her: “ Polly.” “ Yes, father,” she said, quietly. . “ I want you to come to my wedding to-morrow.” “ Your wedding, father!” - “I said so; why should not I have a wedding? J Is there to be no more marrying or giving in marriage because an infernal, rotten old bark goes to the bottom?" * “ But this is so sudden, father,” said Polly, gently. “ How do you know it is sudden?” said Blifinch, savagely. “ You just' do as I tell you and don’t make remarks! I want you to go to my wedding at ten o’clock to-morrow. Dress up in your best and I will take you. It is to be at the chapel on the dock; do you hear?” “ Yes, father," said poor Polly. “ I hear, and I will be ready.” Blifinch went to bed, and Polly,to weeping, as was her nightly custom. But at half-past nine the next morning she was

ready to accompany her father, and the two walked arm-in-arm -to the little Mission Chapel on the dock, not far from the house. As they entered the door of the chapel Polly was met by a man who stood just inside and who suddenly clasped her in his arms, revealing Capt. Sam Collier in person. There was displayed weeping, congratulations, smiles and other evidences of feeling of various kinds. There were introductions to a respectable and amiable-looking clergyman, and there was a wedding. „ , And when Polly, after being duly married to Capt. Sam Collier aforesaid, asked her father about “ his wedding,” Blifinch replied: “ Isn’t this my wedding? Isn’t it my daughter and my son-in-law, and aren’t they going to have my money? My wedding!—l should say so, rather." And so it never came out that Blifinch had privately hired a man to scuttle the bark Polly, and that he had failed to do it because she sprung a leak off Cape Horn and sunk without his assistance. Sam Collier was taken off with the rest by an English ship bound to Liverpool; got wrecked again; was carried half round the world, while his communications failed to connect—and all that time Polly was dying of love and disappointment, and her father of remorse. Blifinch became a changed man ever thereafter, and as charitable and lenient as he had before been hard-hearted and miserly—alterations which the neighbors always attributed facetiously to that extraordinary subterfuge known as “ Blifinch’s Wedding.”