Newspaper Page Text
10
of the present, as they will—loving feet
will still wander thither ; and among all
the memorials that loving eyes will seek
after, very few will call up such grateful
flutter of the heart, as the tablet that
records the birth and the death of
Charles Dickens.”
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
Spring.
n/iS\NCS more, kind Nature, prodigal
with gifts,
Hath robed the earth with verdant
green;
£/*=> A And, like a timid maiden, Spring
comes forth
With smiles and tears, to beautify
the scene.
The brooks have learned of her a sweeter
song,
And sparkle out amid the grass and fern.
Like happy children wild with some great
joy
Their pent-up hearts had failed to learn.
The drowsy hills shake out their mantles
green,
And wreath themselves with gaudy hues;
And the sweet sunshine crowns them love
ingly
With coronets of sparkling dews.
Ah! all is bright with light, and life, and
joy,
And peace seems brooding like a dove
O’er hill and vale and streamlet gay.
So like a benediction from above!
Go, smiling Spring, on thy sweet mission go t
And scatter smiles and sunshine every
where ;
Let flowers gladden every heart and home,
And roses wreath the brow of care!
Mrs. Mary Ware.
Columbiana, Ala.
Written for Burke’s Weekly.
THE YOUNG EXPLORERS;
OR, BOY-UFB IN TEXAS.
BY JOHN C. DUVAL,
Author of “ Jack Dobell; or, A Boy's Ad
ventures in Texas," “ The Adventures
of Big-Foot Wallace," etc.
The City of Houston in 1838— A “ Quiet
Game'" of Poker —Trunk Stolen ,
but Recovered —First Appearance of
Mr. Pitt —Preparing for a Trip to
the Country.
kl
\ N my return to Texas, in the
spring of 1838, I landed at Gal
veston, and thence went by
steamboat up the bayou to the city of
Houston. The city at time com
prised about a dozen log and frame
houses, and perhaps forty or fifty cloth
tents or shanties; the latter occupied
principally by gamblers and the ven
ders of villainous compounds under the
names of whisky, brandy, gin, etc. Con
gress was then in session at Houston,
and a great crowd from all parts of the
country had collected there, and as the
accommodations for travellers were
upon a limited scale, many were com
pelled to bivouac in the open streets,
and under the shelter of the neighbor
BURKE’S WEEKLY FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
ing trees. However, I was more fortu
nate than many others, for I happened
to fall in with an acquaintance a few
hours after my arrival, who had been in
the city for some time and had learned
the ropes, and through his assistance I
secured a cot in the principal Hotel ,
and a chance now and then at a table
pretty liberally supplied with beef and
corn bread. I hired a negro boy to
carry my trunk up to this hotel, and
after seeing it safely deposited in the
office, I concluded I would stroll around
the city and take a peep at the “ lions.”
All the money I had in the world was
in this trunk, (about SI2OO in U. S.
Treasury notes and Louisiana bank
bills,) and as I wanted to purchase some
articles while in town, I went into the
office and unlocked my trunk to get out
one of the bills. After I had selected
the bill I wanted, from the roll which I
kept in a large pocket-book, together
with a number of miscellaneous papers,
I put the rest back, and was just in the
act of relocking my trunk, when, acci
dentally happening to cast my eyes
through an open door into an adjoin
ing room, I saw a suspicious looking
personage watching m y proceedings
with apparently the greatest interest.
I was young and inexperienced at the
time, and had seen but little of man
kind and their “ devious ways ” —but it
occurred to me that, as I w*as a “stran
ger in a strange land,” it would perhaps*
be most prudent to put my money inf
my pocket, and take it along witli me.
So I took the roll of bills out of the
wallet, and thrusting it in my vest pock
et I locked the trunk, and walked off
down town.
At that time, there was truly a hard
set congregated in the good city of
Houston —whose sole business, it seem
ed to me, was drinking liquor and play
ing cards, occasionally varied with a lit
tle recreation in the way of practicing
target shooting at each other, with their
double barrel guns and derringers. I
had scarcely gone half the length of
Main street, when I heard the report of
two or three guns in rapid succession,
and shortly afterwards I noticed a small
crowd collected in front of a shanty,
over the entrance to which was a board
with the following legend inscribed up
on it: “ DeardofFs Saloon.” Dear
doff was written in large Roman letters,
but the artist, finding the board was not
long enough to accommodate “ Saloon ’
in the same proportions, had painted
the latter word in characters so small
that they were only legible upon a very
close inspection. Going up to one of
the crowd collected about the door nf
this grocery, I enquired of him if any
thing unusual had happened.
“Oh! no,” said he, “Bob Sprowl
and Arkansas Jake had a little falling
out about a game of “ cut throat po
ker,” and Jake “upped” him with his
derringers—that’s all. There he lays,”
he continued, pointing to a human body
stretched upon the ground, which the
crowd, until then, had hidden from my
view; “ there he lays as dead as a mack
erel.”
“ Crackey !” said one of the by-stand
ers, pointing to an ugly wound in
Sprowls’ forehead, “that fellow Jake
handles a derringer scientifically, don’t
Jie? He has put both bullets in the
same hole, right bertwixt the eyes.”
“ Yes,” replied another, “what Ar
kansas Jake don’t know about shootin’
irons isn’t worth learning.”
“ And where is Arkansas Jake?” I
now ventured to ask of one of them.
“ Oh, he’s in there,” said the fellow,
pointing to the door of the grocery,—
“ Seth Blake has taken Bob Sprowls’
hand, and they are finishing the game.
And, by the way, my young man,” he
said to me, “you had better get out’n
the range of that door, for it wouldn’t
surprise me at all if another derringer
went off purty soon ; for I hearn Ar
kansas Jake jest now tell Seth he was
1 renigging,’ and it won’t be long before
a pistol fires.”
I got out of the “range” promptly,
as my friend advised, and returned to
my hotel, satisfied that the “ lions ”of
Houston, were of a very peculiar kind,
and withal a very dangerous sort of an
imal to tamper with.
I had purchased some little articles I
stood in need of whilst in town, and
going into the office to deposit them in
my trunk, I found that it was gone. I
immediately hunted up the landlord,
’and informed him of the disappearance
of my property. He said he could not
account for it, as he had noticed it in
the office himself, only a few moments
before I returned to the house. Every
nook and corner of the premises was
closely searched, but the trunk could
not be found. I gave it up as lost for
good; nevertheless, I congratulated
myself upon my prudence and fore
thought in having taken my money out
of it, just in time to save it —for it would
have been a very serious matter to me,
indeed, if I had lost both trunk and
money.
The landlord seemed to take the loss
of my trunk very much to heart, look
ing upon it, I suppose, as something
derogatory to the good standing of his
house, and he made every effort in his
power to trace it up. His persever
ance was at length rewarded with suc
cess, for a man he had hired to search
a strip of woods in the vicinity, came
back sometime in the evening, and re
ported that he had found it—that it had
been broken open, but that apparently
nothing had been taken out of it. I
returned with him to the spot where he
had found the trunk, and on opening it
ascertained that nothing had been stolen
from it except the large pocket-book in
which I had kept my money and a num
ber of worthless papers. After the
lock had been forced, it was evident
that the thief had hastily seized the
pocket-book, which was lying on the
top, and, supposing he had secured the
prize, had fled without even looking at
the other articles in the trunk. I can
well imagine what his disappointment
must bave been, when he ascertained
that, in place of U. S. Treasury notes
and bank bills, the pocket-book was fill
ed u p with only worthless papers ;
among which I remember there were
some “ lugubrious” verses to my sweet
heart, Jenny L , together with a
receipt for training setters and pointers,
and various cherished mementoes in the
shape of locks of hair, faded rose buds,
etc. I was very much grieved a t
the loss of these dear relics, it is true ;
nevertheless, I was greatly consoled by
the reflection that all my available
funds had not disappeared along with
them.
Such was my first introduction to the
city of Houston, in 1838—now a re
spectable city in reality, and one of the
most orderly and quiet in all the South
ern states. In the evening I went out to
hunt up an old schoolmate and friend,
who I knew was living either in the
city or somewhere in the vicinity. In
the last letter I had received from him,
he informed me that he had been ap
pointed to a clerkship in the House
of Representatives. I went to all the
hotels and boarding houses, but could
get no clue to his whereabouts. At
length, I bethought me of applying to
some member of the House, and was
informed by one of them that my friend
Pitt was then lying very ill at the house
of an acquaintance, who lived about a
mile from the city.
I immediately hurried to the only
livery stable in the place, where I hired
a half broke mustang, which I mounted
with considerable difficulty, and set out
in search of my friend. The mustang
was evidently “ fornenst ” the excur
sion in toto, and reared and pitched in
such a way that it was 'all I could do,
(though a tolerable rider,) to keep my
seat upon his back. But I managed to
“stick him,” nevertheless, and in
about half an hour dismounted at the
door of the house, in which my friend
Pitt had taken up his abode.
I found him very ill indeed, as I had
been informed, from the effects of a vi
olent attack of bilious fever. He was
delirious and did not recognize me, but
I told the people of the house that I
was an old and intimate friend, and
would take it as a great favor if they
would permit me to nurse him, until
the crisis of the disease was passed.
To this they willingly consented, and I
sent my mustang to the livery stable in
charge of a negro boy, with instructions to
bring back with him my trunk and other
“traps” from the hotel. For several
days Pitt lay at the point of death, but
at length a favorable change took place,
and he rapidly recovered.
As soon as I thought his strength was
sufficiently restored to enable him to
undergo the fatigue of travelling on
horseback, (the only mode of getting
from one point to another at that day in