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W W 3H> 22 IS 2*t 32 J&. 18? 3ISo
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. '. . .- " = '*$\ X\V\ fit I TTT ju) U IX 111-LIU* ¦
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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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t ; the bright , glad sunshine to lighten and warm it ; while fresh mantel-Sowers should woo for us visits from humming-bird and drowsy bee . " For pictures , I'd look from out my windows upon a landscape painted by the Great Master—ever fresh , ever varied , and never marred by envicrus cross lights ; ' now , wreathed fa morning ' s silvery mist ; now , basking in noon ' s broad beam ; now , flashed with sunset's golden glow now , sleeping in dreamy moonlight . " For statuary , fill my house with children—rosy dimpled , laughing children ; now , tossing their sunny ringlets from open brows ; r . ow , veiling their merry eyes in slumbrous dreams , ' neath snow-white lids ; now , sweetly grave , on bended knee , with clasped hands , and lisped
words of holy prayer . " Did I Say I'd have nothing' best V 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 early songs of birds , and wafted upward , with flowers' incense , to Him whose 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 I' From whence does this sad lament issue ? From under your roof , oh mistaken bnt 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 . ' " Ob , mistaken parent ! relax the overstrained bow—prevent the fearful rebound , and make the Sabbath what God designed it , not a weariness , but the ' oes « ' and happiest of all the seven . "
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We should do biar utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . ^—Goethe .
W W 3h≫ 22 Is 2*T 32 J&. 18? 3iso
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 biulliant genius chained to an unappreciating clod . And what 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 isafc , 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-pi aces 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 motive 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 obligato 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 one man 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 his substantial , yet recherche six o ' clock dinner every day , at Hornsey- —for he piqued himself on his dinners , which were " quite homely , yet he should not be asliamed to ask a friend to sit down . " Now driving operations somewhat too largely and too fast for inferior mortals below , he discovered a want in his establishment—the want —I want a check upon my energy , on the hastiness which , unfortunately , the best of us have at times , I want a mean man ?"
66 g ^ aF you think there is not time , tell Mr . Smith to come here , " said £ ¦ 2 ^ k- Jarrett , to a sober , grey-headed person , who looked mortified gig and sullen . ¦ : §>¦§ ¦¦ " Oh ! I dare say , sir , that if you particularly wish it—" < tSS § " Tell Mr . Smith I want him . " : The clerk retired . " \ V " e must finaV a berth somewhere else for Wilson . " said Mr . Jarrett , rattling- his 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-d epartment , his very " jimior" partner . Having been
errandboy to old Parkes , when he was a retail bookseller and stationer on I . udgatehill , John _ Jarrett had done that modest person the successive favours to become his righthand man , his son-in-law , his partner , and his successor ; converting a small retail business into the princely establishment of " a merchant , " which it 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 Jarrefct" stood in his own
comfortable but business-like room , jingling his sovereigns and shillings , which 1 'e piqued himself on never mistaking or losing , though he always kept them loose in his 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 5 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 Parkes , Jarrett , and Co . appeared in great force ; but he meddled too directly as an amateur trader in " , crotchet , and gewgaw . " u Ho should confine himself to crystal palaces and semstresses , and leave stationery alone . " Mr . Jarrett had , an opinion on everything , immediate , based on fact , and final ; and his opinion of Smith was , that ho had had a success lately .
" How do you know that ? " asked the Co ., sarcastically ; for he knew that Jarrott 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 finger down to the seam of his trouser , but without a sound . ? His muacular system is in a Btate of prime elasticity . I could not have done it better myself . His cerebral condition is one of hopeful excitement ; ho has confidence . " By this time plain John Jarrott 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 ia young , " sneered the Co . ; "that is , " he said airgumentativcly , " youngish ; and all your men contract that quick , quiot way . " Jarrett smiled stunningly .
" Ahl" said Dutton , " you clioso me for other qualities ; " and his faultering , spiteful countenance returned to his desk . His pale lips reflected a palor white from the paper , for the man -was under a paroxysm of his own white-livered passions . Yes , it was for other qualities that he was the chosen one . The man ' s history waa curious . He was an hereditary sneak—for inheritance is not the delusion that it is imagined by many—an invidious democrat whoso own nature proves what he denies . He had a vain belief that his futhcr was not his mother ' s husband , a small tradesman and smaller man . but a portion
And without disguise he promoted Dutton to be a partner on that footing . Dutton laughed in his sleeve . He chuckled over his good fortuneor rather liis 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 contempt for the aristocracy ; thanked God Ms mother , like his wife , was an honest woman ; and thought an English merchant- —he preferred the wt ed to tradesman—better than any baronet or baron either , much more the Jfcltry claimant of a bar sinister . And what is worse , the hereditary tradesman , Dutton , thou ght so too , and yet that plain matter-of-fact nian 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 past 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 , lie 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 injtiis house , except of course once in two years , hated the man for his sufferings .
Dutton felt it coming on now . His eyes were dazzled and dim ; the white paper made him feel sick ; Mr . Jarrett ' s robust and ostentatious voice hurt him ; as lie sat he hated towards the other side of the table , and was conscious of a new hate out of the room . Smith miglit rise and supplant him . That was his standing dread ; ho had a terror that before he could succeed in supplanting Jarrett , lie might himself be outstripped . True he was partner , and could not be shaken off summarily : yet suspicion might stop his progress . And Jarrctfc , who still liad the overwhelming balance of power , did suspect him— -ho knew it , —he always did when these headaches came on ; and afterwards laughed at himself for his fears . l
But that was not all his wretchedness . Smith ' had had a success "—and who was Smith that he should have a success ? What was he , that Providence Dutton delighted to sneer at Providence , to whose power he ascribed all crosses in his own life , pestilences , wars , bankruptcies for others , diseases , deformities , infirmities , deafness , wry mouths , stunted heads and limbs , squeaking voices , and squints : what was Smith that Providence should think it worth while to take any note of him ? A common wan , with n common life ! Ho must learn more about John Smith . The thought haunted Mr . Dutton—it posseted him . Smith became his demon . Ho watched the man . Jarrett had evidently taken a liking to him and hia * success . " The chief partner ' s strong mind waa under no trouble ; Jie was indifferent to Smith , except as a good clerk , rendered more good by las
prosperity . Mr . Jarrett had no misgiving of a mistake in assuming a success , but ho did not care to know what success it was . Dutton hated his chief for the stupidity of tbo indifference , us wo hate 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 . " No , thank God I" And he said it seriously ; fox Dutton ' s enthusiasm on t * io score of his own vigilance roused the otherwise dead instinct of p iety at the bottom of hia heart . Ho know whenever Smith came into the room ; followed his voice and manner ; saw him with the back of his head ; watched his accounts , hatefully correct ; followed him out of tho establishment—to his homo at Brixton ; made inquiries , and found that ho waB right—that Smith wua a common man , of no parts , no position , no means , —destitute oi any right to success .
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884 THE LEADER ; [ Saturday ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 16, 1854, page 884, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2056/page/20/
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