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ee Cftea^aUetr. [Saujhiuy,
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We should do our utmost to encourage the...
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AN EPISODE IN A HISTORY. Pakt I.— The Le...
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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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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Ee Cftea^Auetr. [Saujhiuy,
ee Cftea ^ aUetr . [ Saujhiuy ,
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We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . — Gokthe .
An Episode In A History. Pakt I.— The Le...
AN EPISODE IN A HISTORY . Pakt I . — The Lesson . In March 1832 , 1 , Francis Harwell , being then twenty years of age , and a student at the University of Glasgow , formed a magnanimous resolution to regenerate the world . Out of the three million three hundred thousand and thirty-three plans for accomplishing the world's regeneration , I chose that of publishing a small periodical of which I was to be sole proprietor and editor , and which was to be sold to all and sundry for the sum of twopence a number .
My means for carrying out this great undertaking were rather limited . Of the main requisite—money —I had little enough ; and as , in order the more to startle men , I had communicated my scheme only to one or two brother students who were as poor or poorer than myself , I was cheerfully prepared to take all the risk as I expected all the glory . But indeed I did not consider there was any risk in the matter . I had
the most perfect conviction that the appearance of my periodical would work an immediate revolution in society , and that there would be such a demand for copies that the printer would find a difficulty in supplying them . In this , I suppose I was guilty of no more crime or folly than enthusiasm , a crime and a folly which I have often committed since and been punished accordingly .
As I was about to astonish , not only Glasgow , but Scotland , I thought I could not select a better title for my periodical than that of the Magician . The week in which the first number appeared was the busiest of my life . My brain and my body were in a complete fever of action . Over me hovered inspiringly the radiant form of the renown which was soon to be mine . I wrote , I corrected proofs , I was in and out of the printing-office twenty times a day . The Magician with its mysterious Latin motto was to come before the Glasgow public on the Saturday . All Friday night , from sunset to dawn , I remained
beside the printers . When the first sheet was taken from the press , and I saw in living type my own sublime imaginings , my revelations in prose and my prophecies in poetry , rr \ y rapture was indescribable . I felt myself for the moment a conqueror and a king . How divine it was for me to think that two thousand copies of the Magician with its Latin motto were to be that morning in the hands of the Glasgow citizens . Most unfortunately the Glasgow citizens are fond of salt herrings to their breakfast , and are not much given to idealisms . My Magician therefore produced no ma-iical effect on them . Of the two thousand
printed only three hundred were sold , and very likely the three hundred purchasers thought that they had ill bestowed their twopences . Nothing discouraged by the fate of the first number , I determined to publish a second . With pertinacious unteachablonoss I ordered as many copies to be printed of the second number us of the first . But Magician number two , sold still worse than Magician number one , though I strove to make it still more brilliant and attractive . This want of success scarcely depressed me , for I wan iirinly convinced that the
merits of the Magician must force themselves soon on the public attention , even if they remained unknown for a week or two . I have no doubt that I should have continued for miiny months to publish a periodical which nobody bought , if the printer had not told me that before he did any more work for me , he must bo paid for that which he had already done . Thin wiih perplexing . I thought him a sordid wretch , but I disdained to reason with him . 1 saw clearly enough , however , that my grand scheme must be abandoned and its realization postponed to some
more fortunate tune . 1 had now only to consider the means of paying the printer and coining honestly out of a thing on which 1 hud entered rashly . 1 had none to whom I could apply but my lather , nnd an he had already complained of my frequent demands for money during the session , I shrank with horror from asking £ 20 more , the sum necessary to pay the printer ' s bill . Hut as I knew ihat there wan no other door of escape open to me from what I regarded as infamy , I at length nut . down and wrote a long and penitent letter , detailing my embarrassments and their causes , and promising amendment if relieved
by my father ' s kindness from my difficulty . My father was not a harsh man , was besides being a noble-hearted , rather an indulgent man , but he was far from being rich , and whatever money he possessed , he had gathered together by hard and incessant toil . Besides he could not help looking on me as an egregious and incorrigible fool ; I had no reason , therefore , to be astonished or angry , when he replied with becoming brevity that I must get out of the entanglement into which my indiscretions had led me , in the best way I could . This drove me to despair . I was
too proud , too sensitive , had too keen a sense of honour to think of exposing myself to the importunities of a dunning printer . My wisest plan would have been to go like a prodigal to my father ' s house , and throw myself on his mercy . But I dismissed such a notion after entertaining it for a moment . I then thought , that as I seemed very unfit for this world I had better make my exit into another . But I was young , clung to life , felt within me a fund of energies which I had not the courage to bury by one decisive stroke in the grave , dreaded the curse that
rests on the suicide ' s name , and recollected , as I have done in other temptations as terrible , that I had a mother . At length , after much and painful pondering , I resolved to go to Edinburgh and there turn either player or soldier , I did not quite decide which . I have never been dilatory , so I at once proceeded to carry my resolution into effect . I had only a few shillings remaining—not enough to pay for a place in the coach—I , therefore , was content to travel in a humbler fashion . I took a steerage passage in one of the canal boats , which at that time conveyed , and
perhaps do still convey , the poorer classes of travellers between the two great cities . The passage was long , tedious , and dismal . The rain fell m a deluge , without stopping for an instant . My companions , however , seemed merry enough ; they smoked and they joked , they drank and they sang . Some of them made good-natured attempts to render me merry , too . But this was in vain ; the more their joy abounded , the more tragic did I feel my sorrow to be . After nine or ten hours' confinement to the wretched den , where all kinds of smoke and
all kinds of drunken smells half stifled me , I was glad enough to escape from it and its inmates . I had not to hesitate a moment on getting out ; for I had made up my mind that there was something contemptible in the profession of a player . It was a relief to me that , though I was about to do what I very much disliked , I had at least determined to do something . I asked my Avay to the Cavalry barracks , and trudged on through the mud and rain . I met a
beggar , who told me that he had recently lost all his family by the cholera . My pocket was light enough ; I had nothing but a shilling—I gave him that . As I entered the gate of the barracks , I knew that I was treading a region of degradation and bestiality , foreign to the dreams and aspirations I had from my childhood indulged . But there was a deed to be done , and with a manful air I did it—though , perhaps , the gloom of a rainy twilight made me in greater haste than I should otherwise have been . I found
then , that on the , ' 5 rd of April , 1832 , I had enlisted into a regiment of Light Dragoons . A recruit is always an object of kindness and attention to the other soldiers . He in for a time a novelty ; thoy are drawn toward him by natural companionship—they wish him to think well of his new trade . Besides , on the whole , soldiers , especially in cavalry regiments , are much better fellows than they are usually represented . That evening then , was , in spite of the many anxieties that oppressed me , rather a pleasant one . There was a charm merely in the newness of the
circumstance ; there was something in knowing that I was now no longer lonely ; and it was not to be despised by one ho hungry , wet , and tired , that there was a good supper to t : at and a good bed to lie down in . Next day took place the beginning of my regular transformation into a soldier . I was at that time somewhat of a dandy , and had on a handsome suit of clothes . Jack Saunders , a young , good-looking , frank-seeming JKnglishman , " told me that he could
sell them and my bat to advantage . I took a prodigious liking to Jack for his obliging offer . Ah soon , therefore , as I had been provided with my military outfit , I handed over my civilian clothes and . hat to Jack to dispose of as he thought proper . iSomo hours after , Jack informed nu ; that he had sold them for ten shillings , which however , he always forgot to puy me . After a week or two , Jack grew exceedingly cool to rn « , though doubtless hi « friendship would
have revived , if he had discovered that I had again become fat enough to be worth the plucking . "When lounging about the barracks the day after my enlistment , a puppy of an officer , two or three years younger than myself , drawlingly asked me if I had been a weaver before becoming a soldier i This question" I was silly enough to be angry at , and bore the creature a grudge ever after . The same day , a young woman , the wife of one of the soldiers , seeing me at a loss for something to do , asked me to fetch a bucket of water . This was rather a descent from the dignity of the Magician ; but I cheerfully enough
complied , always glad to be obliging . I was sworn in before an Edinburgh magistrate , who bored me with some twaddle about serving faithfully my king and country . I had seen George the Fourth in Edinburgh ten years before , and had conceived somewhat of a disgust at kings . The first fortnight of my military life had a kind of charm about it which I could not resist , notwithstanding painful recollections and still more painful forebodings . I was delighted to renew my acquaintance with glorious old Edinburgh , though I could not help remembering that it was as a happy , innocent boy , and holding my kind
father ' s hand , that I had formerly trod its streets . I was no less delighted to acquire a knowledge of manners so new and strange as those with which I was nightly and daily brought into contact . Besides , as the regiment was under orders to inarch , I had till we left Edinburgh , no heavier duty than making my own bed and cleaning my own boots , in both of which operations I never arrived at any very remarkable dexterity . About the middle of April the regiment set out on its march . I and the other recruits were appointed to guard the baggage , armed with no other weapons than unloaded carbines , and provided
with no other horses than our legs . Just as we were quitting Edinburgh , a gentleman , whom I had formerly known at Glasgow , passed me , but did not seem to recognize me . Our journey was a merry one ; nobody attacked the baggage , or put to the proof our unloaded carbines- Two troops , one of them , that to which I belonged , were ordered to Hamilton , the rest of the regiment going to Glasgow . When we arrived at Hamilton my duties began in right earnest . I had to rise at half-past five , and help in my turn to clean out the stable . I had to
devote two hours every day , one in the morning , the other in the evening , to my horse , scrubbing him , feeding him , and keeping his stall in order . I had to preserve his accoutrements and my own arms and clothes in spotless and perpetual brightnese . I had to go to drill twice a-day , and to the riding-school once or twice . There were sundry other occupations , some of which came regularly and some occasionally . Altogether , from the time I rose till the time I went to bed , I had scarcely a moment that I could call my own . I should have rejoiced in all this hard work if
I had been able to stand it . But I had been very tenderly brought up , and both from constitution , and from never having had any severer labour than handling an oar now and then , I was as ill-fitted as a man could be for any new employment . I began to grow weak from the combined effects of cough , of rheumatism , and of over-fatigue . Yet I was not disposed to yield childishly . One day , however , in the riding-school , I got such a severe fall from my horse that I was obliged to be carried to the hospital . I continued in the hospital a week or two . My abode there did not prove ho miserable nfl I had
expected . We had some capital story-tellers , especially an Irishman , who was the greatest liar and tho most amusing person I have ever met . The old soldier also , who had the care of tho hospital , sometimes lent us books and newspapers . We likewise held conversations occasionally with some of tho Hamilton folks , who lived in houses which overlooked the hospital grounds ; and tender-hearted women among thorn threw books to us now and then over tho barrack walls . JStill there was enough , in addition to our own bodily sufferings , to make us gloomy , in seeing wounds dressed , and in lying a few feet , sometimes only a , few inches , from the dying in
and the dead . During the first night that I np « nt the hospital a man died in the same ward in which I was . These and other annoyances I might have thought little about , if I had been well and moving actively about , but in my present state I recalled tho magnificent phantasies in which I had revelled from my boyhood , and my prcHent life seemed n mockery and an infamy in tragic contrast with them all . As soon , therefore , as 1 recovered , I asked and obtained leave of absence for two days , my purpose being * go to my father ' s house and persuade my parents l . o purchase my discharge . I ought to say that nil thin time , I had never written to tbeni , as I dreaded to tell them the truth .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 18, 1851, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_18011851/page/18/
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