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884 THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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We should do our utmost to encourage the...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
A Batch Of Books.* The Literary Dearth C...
it ; the bright , glad sunshine to lighten and warm it j while fresh mantel-flowers should woo for as visits from humming-bird and drowsy bee . " For pictures , I'd lock from out rny . windows upon a landscape painied by the Great Master—ever fresh , ever varied , and never marred by envious' cross lights ; ' now , wreathed in morning ' s silvery mist ; now , basking in noon ' s broad beam ; now , flushed with sunset ' s golden glow ; . now , sleeping in dreamy moonlight . " For statuary , fill my house with children—rosy dimpled , laughing children ; now , toss- * ing their sunny ringlets feom open brows ; now , veiling their merry eyes in slumbrous dreams , ' neath snow-white lids ; eow , sweetly grave , on bended knee , with clasped lands , and lisped
words of holy prayer . " Did I say I'd have nothing best ?* Pardon me . Sunday should be the best day of all the seven—not ushered in with ascetic form , or lengthened face , or stiff and rigid manners . Sweetly upon the still Sabbath air should float the matin hymn of happy childhood , blending with the eatly songs of birds , and wafted upward , with flowers' incense , to Him whos « very name is Love . It should be no day for puzzling the half-developed brain of childhood with gloomy creeds , to shake the simple faith that prompts the innocent lips to say ' Our Father . ' It should be no day to sit upright on stiff-backed chairs , till the golden sun should set . No ; the birds should not be more welcome to warble , the flowers to drink in the air and sunlight , or the trees to toss their lithe limbs , free and fetterless .
"' I'm so sorry that to-morrow is Sunday ' From whence does this sad lament issue ? From under t / our roof , oh- mistaken but well-meaning Christian parents—from the lips of your child , whom you compel to listen to two or three unintelligible sermons , sandwiched between Sunday schools , and finished off at nightfall by tedious repetitions of creeds and catechisms , till sleep releases your weary victim ! No wonder your child shudders when the minister tells him that' Heaven is one eternal Sabbath . ' "Oh , mistaken parent ! relax the overstrained bow—prevent the fearful rebound , and make the Sabbath what God designed it , not a weariness , but the ' best and happiest of all the seven . "
884 The Leader. [Saturday,
884 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
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We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the -Beautiful , for the Useful encoxiragee : itself . —Goethe .
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. ¦ : ¦ ; WW © 2 B 3 B » -SB 4 &» . a $ 3 Ba ' S & F y ° think there is not time , tell Mr . Smith to come here , " said PM ; Mr . Jarrett , to a sober , grey-headed person , -who looked mortified | w | and sullen . .. •>• - .. ¦¦ | H § ' "Oh ! I dare say , sir , that if you particularly wish it— - " . I ^ S " Tell Mr . Smith I want him . " The clerk retired . " We -must find a berth somewhere else for Wilson , " said Mr . Jarrett , rattling Ms cash in his trousers' pocket ; "he is growing slow , or at least unelastic . " We require men with the spring in them ;"—he spoke to his head man in the book-department , his very "junior" partner . Having been errandboy to old Parkes , when he -was a retail bookseller and stationer on LudgatemllJoh
, n jJarrett had done that modest person the successive favotirs to become Ms righthsnd man , his son-in-law , his partner , and his successor ; converting a small retail business into the princely establishment of " a merchant / ' which i- t was his boast to say he was . Still in the prime of life , adored at home by a-wife who knew him entirely through his successes , and by children who found themselves continually rising in the world and getting better ^ off than their accustomed companions ; he was liked by his men for the briskness of the business , its constant extension and promotion , the new and "improved " look of the house , with its " departments" and its gay mahogany , brass , and decorations . " Plain John Jarrett" stood in his own comfortable but business-like room , jingling his sovereigns and shillings , which he piqued himself on never mistaking or losing , though he always kept them loose in lis right hand pocket , " to be handy : the art of making money , sir , " he would say , " is the art of spending properly and promptly . " " Mr . Smith , I -want that paper to go to Liverpool to-day instead of tomorrow . ; but the time is short as I have not told them at the warehouse , and Mr . Wilson fears there won ' t be time . Get the packing finished , and send it . "
" Yes , sir . " " That man has . had a success lately , " exclaimed Mr . Jarrett , as Smith closed the door , noiselessly yet suddenly . Mr . Jarrett piqued himself on his insight into character . In fact , Mr . Jarrett piqued himself on a great number of things , including the virtues of his wife , his father-in-law , British commerce , and his native country in general ; not forgetting his distinct approval and sanction for everything done by Queen Victoria . Prince Albert- would have been equally fortunate if he had stuck to the Exposition , where Parkea , Jarrett , and Co . appeared in great force ; but he meddled too directly as an amateur trader in " , crotchet , and gewgaw . " " He should confine himself to crystal palaces and semstrosses , and leave
stationery alone . " Mr . Jarrett had an opinion on everything , immediate . stationery alone . " Mr . Jarrett had an opinion on everything , immediate , based on fact , and final ; and his opinion of Smith was , that he had had a success lately . 41 Ho-vy do you know that ? " asked the Co ., sarcastically ; for he knew that Jarrett liked his reasons to be challenged , as it enabled him to state them with crushing effect . " Did you see how he closed the door—smart as a soldier brings the middle fmger down to the seam of his trouser , but without a sound f His muscular system ia in a state of prime elasticity . I could not have done it better myself . His cerebral condition is one of hopeful excitement 5 ho has confidence . " By this timo plain John Jarrett was piquing himself on Smith ' s virtues and good fortune . He liked to have men about him that
were lucky—for " Luck is energy in the repose of fruition . " "The man is young , " aneerod the Co . ; " that is , " ho aaid argumentatively , " youngish ; and all your men contract that quick , qwiet way . " Jarrett smiled stunningly . •? Ah ! " said Dutton , " you chose me for other qualities ; " and his faulter ing , spiteful countenance returned to his desk . His pale lips reflected a paler white from tl » o paper , for the man was under a paroxysm of his own white-livered passions . _ Yes , it was for other qualities that ho was tl » o chosen one . The man ' s history was curious . Ho was an hereditary sneak—for inheritance is not the delusion that it ia imagined by many' —an invidious democrat whoso own naturp proves wha . t he denies . He had a vain belief that his father was not hia mother ' s husband , a small tradesman and smaller man , but a peraon
of consequence , and so it was that he bore the name of an ancient family . But the fellow ' s very belief lied ; for the mercenary mother had been unfaithful to her high paramour , and the boy was the son of her husband . Christina she was appropriately called ; and she had seen fit to render her husband ' s home attractive , that she might keep him inexpensively at home , and admiringly submissive . The less lawful Dutton adored her—to him she always appeared in the part of a brilliant genius chained to an unappreciating clod . And whet is wonderful , she had qualities , capacities , passions , heart even , that her husband knew nothing of—could not even have conceived if he had been told . So true is it , that the very thing we rest upon may belong to a sphere alien to us . Dutton inherited from the mother her intrigue , from the father his temperament ; he was the unlawful heir to a bar sinister and to the name of Dutton . The knowledge of his real father's name had expired
¦ with the son ' s youth . " With the bar sinister , to which he had no right , he told himself that he inherited an ambition which required a fortune . Contrary to Jarrett ' s theory , it was Dutton ' s , that "if you take care of the pence , " & c . For his common-places were stolen ; Jarrett ' s were worked for himself , or struck out with the flash of " plain" genius . But Dutton was along-headed , careful man , and he fairly earned his promotion in the establishment of Parkes , Jarrett , and Co . Now the union of those men was as notable in its motiye as the result Mr . Jarrett made no mistakes—he piqued himself on that . Only sometimes his plans were frustrated by the slowness , the dishonesty , or the neglect of others—always the fault of others . " I am too rapid , my combinations
are too extensive , ' Mr , Jarrett confessed , with the accompaniment obh ' gato of shillings and sovereigns ; for his confessions belonged to that series of proclamations to which the leather-covered dark burnished mahogany table had listened unmoved for so many years . Jarrett piqued himself on his attention to details ; but oneman can ' t do everything ^ and he might have confessed , in the frankness upon which he piqued himself , that he had-a growing penchant for punctual return to Ms substantial , yet . recherche six o ' clock dinner every day , at Hornsey—for he piqued himself on Ms dinners , which were " quite homely , yet he should not be ashamed to ask a friend to sit down . " Now driving bneratioTis somewhat too largely and too fast for inferior mortals below , lie discovered a want in . his establishment— -ifte want — -I want a check upon my energy ,. on ~ the hastiness which , unfortunatel y * the best of us have at times . I want arnean manV
And without disguise he promoted Dutton to be a partner on that footing . Dutton laughed in his sleeve . He chuckled over his good fqrtuneror rather his steady progress in becoming his master ' s master , For he resolved to play the cuckoo in that nest . Yes , he would be revenged on Jarrett for the motive of his appointment . He confessed its truth ; but he hated Jarrett to know the sacred secret .. Besides , the vulgar Jarrett knew nothing of his ambitions- —or little ; could not appreciate the "bar sinister . Jarrett piqued himself on his con-tempt for the aristocracy ; thanked God his mother , like his wife , was an honest woman ; and thought an English merchant—he preferred the word to . tradesman—better than any baronet or baron either , much more the paltry claimant of a bar sinister . And what is worse , the hereditary tradesman , Dutton , thought so too , and yet that plain matter-of-fact man lived in a dream of supposititious " ambition , " wretched pretext to gild a meanness in which he revelled , while he blanched to have it discovered . ^
He sat at a subordinate desk in one of Jarrett ' s two rooms— -every room in the establishment was Jarrett ' s—and envied the man whom he doomed to ruin in revenge for the promotion . Dutton was sick with the paat and the future , and no enjoyment could the present give . His was a moral dyspepsia . And if Jarrett had done justice to his own immense frankness , he would have confessed that he would have lost ten times what he had to be quit ot an incubus whose mean and sickly nature was a blight upon him . Dutton was subject to nervous headaches ; and Jarrett , who had never had a doctor in his house , except of course once in two years , hated the man for his sufferinirs .
Dutton felt it coming on now . His eyes were dazzled and dim ; the white Eaper made him feel sick ; Mr . Jarrett ' s robust and ostentatious voice hurt im ; as he sat he hated towards the other side of the table , and was conscious of a new hate out of the room . Smith might rise and supplant him . That was his standing dread ; he had a terror that before he could succeed in supplanting Jarrett , lie might himself be outstripped . True he was partner , and could not bo shaken off 1 summarily : yet suspicion might stop his progress . And Jarrett , who still had the overwhelming balance of power , did suspect him—he knew it , —ho always did when these headaches came on ; and afterwards laughed at himself for his fears .
But that was not all his wretchedness . Smith " had had a success "—and who was Smith that ho should have a success P Wliat was he , that Providence Dutton delighted to sneer at Providence , to whoso power he ascribed all crosses in his own life , pestilences , wars , bankruptcies for others , diseases , deformities , infirmities , deafness , wry moutlis , stunted heads and hnabs , squeaking voices , and squints : what was Smith that Providence should think it worth while to take any note of him ? A common man , with a common life ! He must learn more about John Smith . The thought haunted Mr . Dutton—it possessed him . Smith became his demon . He watched the man . Jarrett had evidently taken a liking to him and his " success . " The chief partner's strong mind was under no trouble ; tie was indifferent to Smith , except as a good clerk , rendered more good by his
prosperity . Mr . Jarrett had no misgiving of a mistake in assuming o success , but he did not care to know wliat success it was . Dutton hate < l his chief for the stupidity of the indifference , as we hato a man that is nearly run over ; for Dutton , who meant to run over Jarrett , transferred his own fears of Smith to the unconscious chief . He -was not thus unconscious . "Ho , thank God !' And he said it seriously ; for Dutton ' s enthusiasm on t * io score of l » ia own vigilance roused the otherwise dead instinct of piety at the bottom of his heart . He know whenever Smith came into the room ; followed his voice and manner ; saw him with the back of his head ; watohe < l his accounts , hatefully correct ; followed him out of the establishment—to his home at Brixton ; made inquiries , and found that ho -was right—that Smith was a common man , of no parts , no position , no moane , —destitute of ftny right to success .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 16, 1854, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16091854/page/20/
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