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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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We should do our utmoatto encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself .-GOKTHE
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SKETCHES FROM LIFE . By Harriet Martineau . II . —T HE COLLEGIAN , One day during the war , when the Orders in Council were producing more mischief in our manufacturing districts than those decrees of Napoleon upon which they Were meant to retaliate , the city of ¦ was thrown into consternation by the news that Mr . Woodcock had failed . Bad news had become so frequent of late that any ordinary mishap would have been received with a sigh and a few shakes of the head , and then have been
forgotten in the next incident that occurred ; but that Mr . Woodcock should fail came upon the city like a great fire , or an earthquake , or the news that Napoleon had really landed on the neighbouring coast . The ladies wept , as when the news came of Lord Nelson ' s death ; the gentlemen met at one another ' s houses to see if anything could be done . The poorest people in the street spoke of it as of a personal misfortune . And so it was to them , for Mr . Woodcock had always been as kind a neighbour as he was an upright magistrate . He had been sheriff and alderman ; and then his portrait , in his robes , had been hung up among those of the mayors in the city-hall .
In that hall his mayoralty feasts had been of the highest order ever given ; and his balls in the assembly rooms were talked of years after others were forgotten . Liberal as his expenditure had been , well as his wife was always dressed , and large as were his benefactions in the city , there was no sign of extravagance in himself or his household ; but , on the contrary , so much prudence and sagacity , that he was as much consulted for his wisdom as appealed to for his benevolence . Therefore , when the news spread from house to house that Mr . Woodcock had failed , the first remark made by every hearer was that there could be no fault in the case .
There was no fault . A sudden depreciation in the value of his stock—a fall which no wisdom could have foreseen or guarded against , was the cause of the misfortune . And the mischief done Was small to any but the Woodcocks themselves . There were no tradesmen ' s bills . The deficiency was small ; for Mr . Woodcock had stopped the very hour that he had reason to fear that he was insolvent , and his few creditors were those who had profited
largely by their preceding engagements with him . Not an ill word was known to be spoken against him or his ; but many a kind and sorrowful one when the family removed from their sunny house near the cathedral , and went , with one servant , into a small " right up , " just outside the city ; and when the phaeton was laid down , and young master Edward ' s pony was sold , and Mrs . Woodcock was seen going to market , dressed as plainly as any Quaker .
Hitherto they had never been thought proud . Now people began to think them so—Mrs . Woodcock certainly—and perhaps her husband too . He grew very grave , and more retired and dignified than formerly . Mrs . Woodcock had always been remarkably clever . But for the high principle and sound judgment which gave moral weight to what she said her sayings would have been sharp and satirical . Now there was more sharpness and satire , and they showed the more , from her saying less , and carrying herself in a higher manner . Her intimate friends knew that a single mortification lay heavy at her heart , and made her more unhappy than she acknowledged to herself . She was grieving for the blight which had come upon the prospects of her only child— " Edward /* as she was wont to call him—she , from whom tender words were very rare .
Her Edward was a clever boy—a very clever boy , and such a wag that other boys did not care about his cleverness in any other direction . He made such capital fun wherever he went that it was a secondary matter that he could learn whatever he chose in no time , and do better than the best whatever he set about . He had his mother ' s keen , observant—one might say , experienced , eye , under his curly light hair . He was not a handsome boy , but he had a bright , healthy face ; brows that he knit very close when he was learning his lessons ; and a mouth so incessantly working with fun that the question was how be ever kept grave while within the cathedral walls on Sundays . He had been destined , however , to spend a good many hours of
gravity in a church , in the course of his life ; for he was to have been a clergyman . It was the overthrow of this aim which was the heavy mortification to Mrs . Woodcock . Her husband thought they must give up the idea of a university education for Edward , and prepare him for trade . The mother tried to remember that we do not know what is good for us , and that it might possibly be better for her son to be in trade ; but when some such reflection was immediately followed by a few sarcasms on human life or human beings , her husband knew that she had been thinking how her Edward would have been sure to distinguish himself at Oxford , if he could have been allowed to show what he could do .
the grown-up people . He sat beside his mother ; and she would not laugh , say what he might , more than became her position as hostess to six hundred people . He asked the young ladies to dance ver $ r properly at the ball afterwards ; but he amused them so excessively that they were almost glad ^ at last to change partners and rest from laughing . What a thing this woulcf be to remember when he became a bishop ! Of course the university was again before him ; and his mother was now as gracious and right-minded in her shrewdness as ever .
Before Edward went to Oxford his father died . The honest and benign face , under the brown wig , was no more seen in the market-place , nor was the cheerful voice , with a reasoning tone , heard in the magistrates' hall ; nor , for a while , were pleasant parties assembled in the bright and handsome drawing-room , before whose windows the cathedral tower and spire uprose in the sunset , like a sculptured mountain reflecting the western lights . In those summer evenings the mother was seen , leaning on her son ' s arm , taking the last walks with him before his going to Oxford .
There was less gossip about the Woodcocks than might have been expected by those who hear much of the vulgarities of provincial towns . Edward gave such fair occasion for talk , that it is surprising there was not more of it . When he came home for the first vacation it was remarked—it could not but be remarked—that he and his mother were rarely seen together . When once she had his arm , he did not at all condescend to her short stature ; he twirled his cane about , ndgetted , and struck the pebbles as he walked . But he was often seen galloping out of the city on a spirited horse , or lounging near the newsroom , or lolling out of the window of the billiard-room there . His
mother walked alone . She was seldom visible when neighbours called ; and , when found at home , she appeared to be growing caustic again . With this there was a slight affectation about her son ; a little ostentation about deriving all her information from Oxford , or from Edward ' s lips . " My son writes "" My son tells me "—was the preface to most things she said . One incident which occurred during this vacation could not escape remark . She was now just out of mourning , and had declared her intention of inviting her friends the week
again , as soon as Edward should come home . She had one party after his arrival . He did not appear . Flushed , fidgetty , and with that knit of the brow which in her countenance told so much , she exerted herself to the very utmost , talking and setting everybody talking , moving about and letting nobody sit still too long . Some of the party had to return home through the market-place that summer night . The windows of the billiardroom were open , and it was well lighted ; and among the moving figures within they perfectly distinguished Edward Woodcock .
After that vacation , it was long—I think it must have been three yearsbefore he appeared again at home . Little was said , but much was understood , of the weariness of those years to his mother . It was known that there had somehow been losses . Her great charities were much contracted . She went out so little that she had no occasion for any kind of carriage ; but the livery-servant disappeared . If any stranger called or met her , she still said , when college or church was mentioned , " My son is intended for the Church ; " but it was as if she was stung to say it . It was said so tartly that the conversation never lingered upon the Church . As for old acquaintances ,
they found it required some resolution now to go to the house—Mrs . Woodcock ' s manner had become so sharp , and her eye so suspicious . One autumn she was going to the sea . It was only twenty miles off ; but it was long since she had gone from home at all . A family of neighbours were there too , and they saw what they can never forget . Now and then she walked alone , frowning , and lost in thought , along the cliffs . Sometimes she sat on a bench below , glancing about up and down the sands , and turning restlessly when any footstep approached . Oftener she sat at an open window , in a little common , ugly cap and a cheap gown , gazing at the jetty below .
And why at the jetty ? Because he was there . Hardly any one would have known it was he , but for the direction of his mother ' s gaze . His bright eyes were hidden under green goggles ; his once curly hair was lank and thin ; it is impossible to fancy the cheeks of a living person more hollow , — the whole face more ghastly . He walked with two sticks ; but his time was
spent chiefly in sitting at the end of the jetty or the window of the billiardroom , quizzing , giggling , and striving after a mirth which brought tears from some who were within hearing . His giggle was a convulsion ; his quizzing was slander ; his mirth was blasphemy . He once or twice appeared in his native place , painfully making his way to the billiard-room ; and once with his mother on his arm : but it is thought that they met such looks in the streets—such astonishment—such involuntary grief—that they could not
bear it ; at least , she could not ; and he ceased to appear . He was heard of for two years more . Not in connection with the Church . No one could , for shame , join the ideas of Edward Woodcock and the Church . In connection with Oxford he was often spoken of . Mothers of sons trembled , and even fathers doubted , when they were told that Edward Woodcock ' s case \ va 3 by no means a remarkable one . He had lost his ability altogether under the exhaustion of disease and dissipation . He had lost his health in debauchery ; he had lost his money and his mother ' s fortune in gaming : but so had many other young men of promise equal to his . It' any sisked how such things could be common in such a place , some answered that they did not know , and others had always been told that they could not be helped .
At last Mrs . Woodcock ' s door was closed against all visitors except the physicians . Edward was there ; and ho was dying . Great decorum and tcntlcnicyy were observed about the secrets of that dreary house ; but it was
Before many years all was bright again . A good fortune was unexpectedly left to Mr . Woodcock . First , he paid all his creditors , debts , interest , and compound interest . Then he went into his old house again ; and his old servants came back to him joyfully . His fellow-citizens made him mayor again ; and the guild-feast was as handsome as before . There are many now who remember Edward ' curly head in the mayor ' s carriage , and the wonder of his school-fellows us tu how tUc boy would behave ut the great dinner , among nil
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 23, 1850, page 836, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1860/page/20/
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