Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 8, Number 26, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 22 December 1877 — Page 2

'ft'*

very much interested in the spectacle. Then he bought raisins, and candyt and oranges, Mr. Monger |iu«rti|^oior» smiling every minute. "Going to keep Christmas, I guess," said he, rubbing his hands together. "That I am 'Christmas comes but once a year,' and there are little folks up at our house who've been looking for it with all their eyes for a fortnight."

Then he bought a bqshel of apples,and, filling a peck measure with them, passed them around among the men who sat and stood about the stove. "Take 'em home to your little folks if you don't want'em," he said when any one hesitated.

There were three or four apples apiece, and Mr. Boyd.pat all in his pockets, with a slight feeling of Christmas warmth beginning to thaw his heart.

After this cheery purchaser had gone, some one asked: "Who is that chap?" "He's the new Superintendent of the Orphant Asylum," answered Mr. Munger, rubbing his hands again "and a mighty nice man be is, too. PayB for all them things out of his own pocket. Very fond of children. "Always likes too see 'em happy."

There were two or three men' arotlhd that stove who hung their heads, and Mr. Boyd was one of them. He hung his the lowest, perhaps because he had the longest neck. I don't know what the other men did—something good and pleasant, I hope—but Mr. iioyd thought and thought. First he thought how the "orphants" were going to have a brighter and merrier Christinas than his own children, who hud both father and mother. Then he thought about sweet, patient little Jttney, and quiet Mary, and generous Jack, who had taken so much pains to give pleasure to his sisters, and a great rush of shame filled his heart. Now, when Mr. Boyd was once throughly aroused, he was alive through the whole of his long frame. He thumped his knee with his fist, then arose and walked to he counter, where he dealt out rapid orders to the astonish, ed groccr for nuts, candies, and oranges not in such large quantities, to be Bure, as the "orphants"' friend had done,but generous enough for three children. And he bought a calico dress for his wife, a pair of shoes for each of the little girls,' andT a cap for Jack. That store contained every thing, from grind-stones to slate-pen-cils, and from whale-oil to pepponnlntdrops. These purchases, together with some needful groceries, took all Mr. •Boyd's money, except a few pennies, but a Christmas don't-care feeling pervaded 'his being, and he boi^wed a bag, into which he stowed his goods, and set out for home.

It was a pretty heavy bagful, but its heaviness only made Mr. Boyd's heart the lighter. When he reached home, he stood the bag up in one corner, as if it held turnips, and said, "-Don't meddle with that, children." Then he went out and spent tho rest of the short day in chopping wood, whioh wasvery cheering to his wife. 80 many Sundays had dawnod with just wood enough to cook breakfast, that Mrs. Boyd began to dread that day particulary, for her husband was almost sure to go right away after breakfast and spend the whole day at the neighbors' houses, while his own fctfnily shivered around a half-empty stove.

Mr. Boyd si^ld never a worfa about the bag, and tho unsuspecting household thought it contained corn Or somo other uninteresting vegetable, and pal4 liitle attention to it. It also stood there all the next day, and the children grew quite used to the sight of it.

Sunday went by quietly, and, to the surprise of all, Mr. Boyd stayed at home, making it his especial business to hold Janey on his lap, and keep the stove well filled with wood. Janey wasn't feeling well that day, and this unusual attention to her made the family very kindly disposed toward their father, whom of late they had come to regard almost as an alien. »i ,*.

Jack, whose shoes were not yet worn put, went to Sunday-school, and after hu return the winter day vras soon gone. Then he began to fidget, and was very ,1 desirous that his mother should put the little girls to bed while, strange to say, his father was desirous that the whole family should go to bed, except himself.

ID course of time the little girls were asleep In their trundle bed, with their little red stockings hanging behind the door. Mr. Boyd sat with his back to the door, scf Jack slipped in his presents without his father's seeing him, and went to his cold bed up stairs. "Ain't you going to bang up your stocking, motherT" asked Mr. Boyd, after Jack had gone.

Mrs. Boyd looked startled. "Why no," she answered, hesitatingly, not knowing whether the question was asked ID irony or in earnest. "You'd better,"said Mr. Boyd, going to the bag in the corner and beginning to untie the string?.

He laid out package after package an the floor. His wife knelt down by them in a maxe of astonishment. Then, with a great deal of enjoyment, Mr. Boyd uni^jtfed them one by one, showing candy, nuts, oranges, shoes, and ail the rest, exceptthecaM^drc^whjch fee kej* oat of sight. -v

Aladdin felt my line when he found the cave full of precious stones, bat I don't believe he was much happier than I 4 Mrs. Boyd. Her eyes were so full of tears that there seemed to be about eight pairs of shoes, ten bags, and half a doten vMr. Boyd's but she managed to lay ^ands on the real one, and him she em/tfbhoed fervently. Then she brought out tv the-cookies and sugar balls she had made

"11 1' 'ii|iiiiHnjfriM,i rl"

(•"UiSHPfJf ?!»!}pip»»Hlf

and said to her husband, in a very shame-faced way: "See my poor presents I didnt know the children would have anything nice, and I made these. I guess I won't put 'em in their stockings though, now."

But Mr. Boyd insisted on their going in with the other things, and I think they were prized by the children a little more dearly, if such a thing could be possible, than those which they called their •boughten" presents.

Now, I cant begin to describe the joyiful time they had the next morning, and particularly, the astonishment of Jack, who didn't expect a thing, and hadn't era^img"up a "stacking. When4 that devoted boy recognized one of hii own gttty socks crammed full of knobs lid bundles, with a beautiful plush cap on top, lie was almost out dfios wits. Likewise, Mrs. Boyd's surprise was great at the diseovery of her new dress. The little girls were too happy»that day to do much else but count and arrange and re* arrange their delightful Christmas presents. ,, JS4 »"..

Mr. Boyd killed a chicken, and Jack contributed four quails which he had caught since market-day, and the festival of Christmas was kept with much httarity by the Boyd family

The neighbors, one by one, were surprised that Mr. Boyd hadn't dropped in, as he usually did on Sundays and holidays.*'" But Mr. Boyd

iwas engagedf pisewhere. And this was only the beginning of good days for fhat family, for, tehow, the|j ristmas feeing seemed to last through all the year with Mr jBoyd, iind thro' many 0ther years and ..the, it a jrolling 'by Jack it is a rups.gfew to be |i mighty globe if happiness foil* be whole famly.-*.

Dtmnwone of college vaations Daniel ^d his Tatither turned to their ather's, in Sailsury. Th'nklng had a light some retqra mon'y he hfd on heir education at he into their" andsand order them to mow. madea sweep*, |uid' thenwst is scythe, wipdthes west Irom his brow. His father said?' What's the mat»ter Dan?" "My ley the doesn't bang right sir," anew 'red.— His father fixed

it, and D&n went work again, ng^totter success. Something was wrong with the scythe, and it wanted .fixing again, and the father said a pet: "Well, hang it to suit yourself." Daniel Webster, with great composure, hung it on the next tree and retired.

RECALLINGS FROM A PUBLIC LIFE.

Western People and Politicians Forty

Uf I*

Years Ago. Sr

9\,

BY ROBKRT DALE OWKlf

In the autumn of 1834 I was returned member from Posey county to the Legislature of Indiana, and was twice re-elected for the succeeding years. The manner in which, during these primitive days, I was first invited to become candidate struck me at the time as whimsical enough, and I recall still with a smile.

Squire Zach Wade, fa'rmer and justice of the peace, tall, lank and hardy, illiterate but shrewd and plain-spoken, inhabitant of a rode but commodious log cabin in the woods, and making a scanty Bring by selling Indian corn at eight cents a bushel, and pork at two dollars a hundred,—eked oat by an occasional dollar when a yoang couple presented themselves to be married! —called on me one morning during the spring of the above year. -Mr. Owen," aatd the aqairt. "the neigh hot* have been talkie* matters over, and we've concluded to ask you to be oar candidate for the Legislator* this season." ••Squire," said T. "I think you can do

'How sor "Because I am a foreigner. It Is not yean since I left the eM eeunuy.* "Any how. yon're an American riticen.* "Yes. an adored one. Bet my birthplace will he sure to he brought up against

TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY EVENING MAIL.

"Well, it oughtn't to. A man isn't a horse, if he was born in a stable." *1 was

retj

proud 'of my ebantfy

"Caledonia, atwu and wild, lit norse for a poetic child."

Bat I had been long enough in the Weat to take the homely simile in good part, as it was doubfiess intended. Nor seeing that the squire was a Hard-shell Baptist in good standing, did I suspect .any inkling of irreverence in the allusion. I am-qoite Rare the good man, when he spoke, did not, for a moment, reflect who was born in a stable and cradled in a manger, though it flashed ^acrossjny own mind at the time. He spoke without guile, in good faith, and I replied in die same tone, thanking him far his preference, and promising an answer ini& few days.

I may mention here, as illustrative of the style of thought and of idiomatic expression among the simple people with whom I had made my home, an incident 01 a later date, when I was in thq field for Congres&against George Profit* It was in a rustic portion of the district and, after we had spoken, 1 had been invited, as usual, to spend the night at a neighboring farmer's, Happening to sit, during the evening^ On my host's froot porch, I overheard, from jult round tbe corner of the cabin, the conversation of two men who did not suppose,! was/fithin

Franklin declared that be preferred the turkey to the eagle, on our national escutcheon, as being the more honest and civil bird. Why may not the generous horse, the farmer's main-stay and most efficient, aid, be emblem of force and spirit, in contradistinction to the ass, representative of sluggishness and obstinacy?"

Yet these and a hundred other similar incidents, provoking a good-natured smile, are but ripples on the surface of the Westen character. I gradually^came to know that, beneath these trivial eccentricities, there lsy concealed, as in the depths of the ocean. things rare and valuable. Twelve years after I had accepted Squire Wade's invitation to enter pnblic life, I had occasion, durisg the debute i« Congress on the bill organising the Smithsonian Institution, to speak as I felt, of the people among whom, during these twelve years, my lot bad been cast. Finding now, after thirty years' farther experience, nothing to ebange in that brief estimate, Ijpball be pardoned, perhaps, if I introduce it here. "1 have sojourned among the laborers of England I have visited, nmld their vineyards, the peaimntry of Prance I kave dwelt for years among tbchanfr mountaineers of Switceriand I have seen, and conversed, and sat down in their cottages with them all I have found often amo*? them simple goodness ignsjpcei oppression, cannot trample out that. 1 have witnessed patience under hopeless toil, resignation beneath grtevgus wrongs I have met with eivility, kindness, a cheerful smile, and a ready welcome. But the spirit of tbe seen was not the?*,—tbe spirit that can lift ap the beow with a noble confidence and feel

highest, are as|open as to yourself! You feel that it is an equal. The tone in which hospitality is tendered to yon, humble though means and forms may be, reminds you of it. The conversation, running over the great subjects of the day, branching off perhaps to questions of constitutional right, or even of international law, assures you of it. I have heard in many a backwoods' cabin, lighted only by the blazing log-heap, arguments on government views of national policy, judgments of men and things that, for sound sense and practical judgment would not disgrace any legislative body upon earth."

There was ip those timeq

Tone

txr ±mtm a.s

candidates.. •*,* 1 "Did you hear Owen speak?" asked one. '"Yes," said the other, "I hearn him."^ "Now, ain't he a hossT was the next question. "Well, yes they're both blooded nags. They make a pretty race."

Western

trait that is not to be met within like man•erto^ajgwMling of£ however, which is due to change of eircnm stances rather than of character. The early settler was Arabian in his hospitality. Houses of entertainment were infrequent the former was often comparatively isolated, and, though Scant of cash, he had usually enough, and to spare, that, while it is no man's master, neither is it any man's flave. Between them and the favorite of propitious fortune, one felt— they felt—that there was a great gulf fixed, broad, impassable. "Far ether is it evqpin the lowBeat cabin of our frontier Westi »an eqosl jWf meet there an eqt^*in politieal' rights one to whom fconofe ftifii tilfice even the

as a general rule, the chance traveler found welcome *nd shelter for himself and horse, if he knocked at any door which he chanced to approach toward night-fall. Payment, commonly offered, was almost always declined. "What do I owe you?" I asked a former, to whom I was indebted for a comfortable supper and breakfast, and plentiful provision for the animal I rode. _* JV "Well," he replied with a smile, "I haven't time this morning to make out the bill but I'll tell you how you can pay it. Promise me that if you ever come within striking distance of my little place again, you'll give me a call, so we can have anoth* er good long talk together."

The only hesitation seemed to be when they feared the stranger might be dissatisfied with such fare as they could offer. On one oocasion 1 encountered a' tempestuous snow storm during a horseback journey to Indianapolis to attetid aft eighth of January celebration, and, espying a decent-looking double log-cabin, I resolved to seek shelter there. "Can I put up with you to-nigat, madamf I asked a patient-looking woman, who came to the door at my call. "Well |she said, hesitating. 'It don't iteem like a body should torn a stranger from the deor on a night like this, but wo haiitf fixed to, keep travelers. Wc haint got no meat in the house,*1

Tbe snow was driftinff right in my face, and it was getting eolder every minute. "Have you bread and butter and tea? I asked. "STo ten, bet coflee, and plenty of bread and butter, and eggs, of course." "I don want better fare than tloCfttid I, about to dismount. "Bet he aia't at heme," she ejected, "and there's nobody to take your critter." "Kever mind. You expect him soonf* "Within an hour, I guess." "AD right, I can take cajn d[my own

rnOmWU

In the stable I found eern, fodder and

prairie hay in abundance and I had fed and curried my horse before he came back. When I returned to the house, my hostess renewed her apologies. \.t. "I most wish I hadn't let' you stay. I know we hunt nothing to give you like what you've beeu used to at home.'*

I repeated my assurances that I should be quite satisfied with what she had. Then, happening to cast my eye around the room: A "Madam, said I, "I thought you said you had no meat in the house but surely these are prairie-fowls," pointing to thre« or tour that hung against the wall. "Oh, sir," she said, "would you eat a praine-fowl! Then I can make you out a supper?" "Pray," asked, (whit made von suppose that Idifliked prairie-fowl?" "Ah," she replied*, *if you had them morning, noon and night as we have, you wouldnt wonder. We can shoot them fnost aUy day, in our barn yard but it*s all right."

And so it was. He m&de his &ppes,ranee in time for supper. The broiled prairiefowl was done to a wish the bread was e? cellent, tbe coffee fair with rich cream, and the butter and eggs unexceptionable. 1 have aeJdoai eateu abetter supper with bet ttfr appetite if it was in a housq where there was no meat to be had. My hostess felt quite at h$r ease when I exa in to that I lived in a heavily timbered part of the counin prairie fovda were not to be had for the shooting, and where, in consequence, they were valued as a raritv.

I did not think it necessary to add ha if the "meat," of which she deplored the absence,had been forthcoming, so ha he have offeree) me (as she doubless would instead of the worthless bird)a mess of fat perk swimming in re as as a dish which one

as ha to before any one, nothing but sheer politeness would have induced me to touch it.

Such an avowal might have Set the geod woman to wondering in what uncivilised portion ef the world I had been born Mid bred. •ABrra OR THE

FKOFLE.

Among these people there were

crimes. During a forty years' resia

locked an outside door nor barred window, often leaving plate or

other valuables wholly exposed yet no thief ever entered my premises. Another class of offenses were very infrequent—those which invade the domestic circle. Elopements did not oocur. In our village or surrounding neighborhood I do net recall a single instance of violence caused by marital jealously, nor, during my long term of residence, more than three or four cases of illegitimacy.,

But every medal has its reverse. Twothirds of the crimes and offenses which did occur in what was then a frontier country had their origin in a vice which prevailed to a lamentable extent—intem perance. It is a vice which has since materially diminished, and at this day is disreputable in those times'it was shameless. The drunkard was indulgently spoken of as a good fellow, or excused as nobody's enemy but his own. If he kept' out of lawless brawls he did not lose caste among his fellows,

L-\-

.4^

At political gatherings and on election days, drinking was the rule, and that habitually, to a certain extent,' at tlw expense of the candidate. Tbe chances of success were small in the ease of any aspirant for office if he tftted on his conviction that such a custon was more honored In the breach than in the observance. His conduct would not he ascribed to principle, but was sure to he set down ap proof of a pharisaical pride or else of* mean parsimony that grudged a few dollars to be spent in hospitable entertainment of friends.

Our family was. brought np in strictest principles of temperance, from which none ef its members, so for as I know, has ever been tempted to deviate* in his own oerson. I wish I woe able to add that, as candidate for a seat is the Legislature,! wesas scrupulous in the case of others as in my own. remained unconvinced, indeed, by the sophistry of Squire Wade and his friends when they sought to persuade a»e that there would be the same amount of liquid drank 1 paid for part of it or not. Qu&

when they added, what was probably true, that if I held out I should lose my election, I did: what I have often since repented* weakly consenting that my leading political friends might act for me in the premises, and of course paying the bills when presented. I have no apology for this, and can only plead, in mitigatioo of cqMare. that I sought office in those days, not for aggrandizement, but because I had some favorite reforms jrhieh hoped to aid in carrying out.

THB BKQ1XHING OF A REFORM* Some weeks before 1 Accepted Squire Wade's invitation, an incident occurred in our little village of New Harmony, fitted to stir in any generous mind sympathy and indignation. Two worthless young fellows from Kentucky who had recently married sisters, the daughters of a well, to-do fanner of that State, bringing their brides to the village, persuaded them en the plea of economy, to occupy a cabin about a mile in the country, until, as they said, a Wabash boat should pafes by—the girls leaving behind them five or six ponderous boxes conUining numerous substantial articles of home manufacture, bed and table linen, towelings, coverlets, blankets and the like, together with a large stock of domestic clothing all, as we afterwards learned, the product of years of industry and saving, such as thriving farmers' daughters,in those days, were wont to lay by as marriage portion. Next day the scoundrels, opening their wives' boxes, sold off at auction every article they contained, and obsconded with the money the night following, leaving the poor girls desolate and penniless in their solitary cabin. ,v i.r,. 1 ascertained next morning that the sale had taken place entirely without the knowledge or consent of the victims, and 1-still remember the hot impulse that, prompted me to get together a posse, moutiled and armed, and go in pursuit of the villains but no magistrate would grant us a writ for their arrest. How could he? I found that, by the law of Indiana, the property sold belonged not to the woman of whose labor it was the product, but, to tho scamps who had entrapped and deserted them. -There was no remedy except to raise by subscription, as we did, a sum sufficient to send them back to their Kentucky home.

But then and there I made a vow, since kept, that if I over had the change and the power to change a.law working results so iniquitous, 1 would not cease effort till 1 had procured its repeal. I did not then imagine that more than a sixth of a century was to elapse before, after repeated trials, 1 a

I KOISI.ATTVS JOKES.

Like Most of my colleagues who lived in remote portions of the State, I traveled on horseback to attend the Legislature part of the way along bridle-paths, sometimes swimming creeks, or,if we were fortunate enough to find a canoe,5 depositing therein Baddies and saddie-bags, and trailing our horses swimming behind. A trunk for those who indulged in such a luxury was Sent on by a carrier.

The legislature was composed chiefly of formers, plain, honest, genial men, with a few sharp witted lawyers and other professionals often taking prominent parts. Now and then I could not forbear a smile at the ignorance, especially in common facts in science, that sometimes peeped out. The ball in which we met being often irregularly heated by two large cast iron stoves, my friend, Chris. Graham, member from Warwick County, moved that the door-keeper be authorized to buy two themometers so that an eyen temperature might be maina in he re up on an a a remote county objected. He did not know, he said, just what sort of machines the gentleman wanted to keep us warm but these eut of tbe way patent oontrivances were always expensive, and he supposed it would need a man to attend to each and keep it in order for his part, a stove, or—what he liked much better—a big wood fire, was good enough for him.

But if science was not adequately represented among US, sound judgement in many practical matfeft and an earnest sense of duty were. The venality which now stains so many of our legislative bodies was unknown. Econotay, occasionally degenerating into parsimony, was practiced, and I am very sure that no member went home richer than he came except by what he may have saved out of three dollars a day after paying expenses. And they were a lively, genial body in their way. Nothing tooked better with them than a merry story or a practical joke. Of the latter, one instance came very oea|J^i|jng a ^erious result -v

It was toward the close of tbe session» when we were waiting to receive bills from the Senate, with little else to do meanwhile. Several yeung ladies of my acquaintance came into the speaker's lobby, where 1 then happened to be. One of them told roe that, a few evenings before, Mr. Cutter, a young member, had made to them a seldom promise that he would introduce a bill taxing old bachelors, and that they bad come to sfeethat he kept bis work would I please tell him so? 1 did her bidding, of course.

Now, O. W. Cutter was our poet, and

one

of no mean order author of tbe celebrated "Song of Steam," beginning: & «Barass* msdewawfth yotu Iron bands,

*4 1

1 1

Sift

tity*

pnxtj

Benmofioucarbud nio Fpr I «orti aw- power of yoor

fat man aMMntieM

band*, ».

AN THT TMSMMFT IMIIHF A CAMUB* How I leagbed, I l*r concealed from tight,

to«r. igg

At tbe cWraUb boMt at human might, And the pride of banuia power a p^om which "Blackwood," not overproae to commend American literature, pro* neunced to be "the best lyric of tbe century." Its author afterwards married the welFknown actress, Mrs. Drake, many years his senior.