Newspaper Page Text
Southern Field and Fireside.
; vol. i.
[communicated For. the southern field and fireside. 1
(The following lines are from the pen of tbo late Hon.
Abel P. Upsiiub, Secretary of State, who was hilled 2Sth
February, 1844, by the bursting of a cannon on board the
U. S. steam frigate, the Poichattan. They have been
kindly communicated by a lady of Virginia, and have
never before, we believe, appeared in print.)
LINES WRITTEN ON THE PEAKS OF OTTER
EV THE LATE HON. A. P. UPSHUR.
Firm on thy base of everlasting rock,
Proud pyramid! thou standest, aad thy head
Far, far above the clouds, looks up to Heaven.
Thou art above the lightning, and the peal
Which shakes the nether earth with awe and dread.
Bursts at thy feet, innocuous. Thou wast
When earth's foundations first were laid ;
And thou shaltbe tfll earth shall fade away.
Still, In primeval grandeur unimpaired.
Time, the Destroyer, makes no change in thee—
Ood is thy builder.
—•» -
[For the Southern Field and Fireside.]
‘ MUCH MORE AGREEABLE TO ALL
PARTIES.’
A. TALK OF AUG-USTA, GEO.
BV PROF. WILLIAM HENRY PECK.
Chap. I. — He adopts the orphan.
Tobias Vaughan was an economical, money
making bachelor, thirty-one years of age, blunt
and very matter-of-fact in his address, unpol
ished, almost rude in his manners, fond of
money; yet as honest as the day is light, and
having withal a heart much more gentle and
generous than the short-sighted world was dis
posed to believe.
He was the only son of John Vaughan, who
had reared him from infancy in the auriferous
belief that gold was everything that was worth
breaking one’s neck for ir. the getting; and
therefore 'twas not to be marveled at that the
heart of Tobias had become somewhat indura
ted from constant contact with his father's me
tallic nature, and that he began to measure hu
manity in general by the length of purse.
When Tobias’ beard grew strong and dark
with the heat of twenty Georgian summers, his
father died of an apopletic fit. brought on by the
sudden announcement of the loss of a richly
freighted ship, totally uninsured: and after that
lamentable event. Tobias, who had eyes for the
beautiful, suddenly discovered that there was
something else, besides gold, worth breaking his
neck to get. That something was concentrated
in the person of Laura Amar, a damsel of eigh
teen, and of glorious beauty and great mental
worth.
Had Tobias Vaughan declared his passion in
season, I have no doubt the charming maiden,
the belle of Macon, would have made him happy
in the possession of her hand: but with a fatal
distrust of his attraction, Tobias hesitated so
long that Laura, deeming his, heart nothing
more or less than a coin, yielded to the earnest
solicitations and wearying menaces of her pa
rents, and became the reluctant bride of Henry
Bersham—a victim of worldly-minded friends
upon the altar of mammon.
After this loss—and lie felt it more than ho
had the loss of his narrow-minded father—the
heart of Tobias grew harder and harder, till, at
the time when I introduce him to the reader,
every corner and crevice of it was filled with
love of the dollar.
But that its native worth was by no meau3
entirely smothered, it is the purpose of this
•story to prove.
One morning, on entering his office, which
was situated somewhere on Broad Street, Ah
gusta, Ga., Tobias received a sudden summons
that hurried him to the bedside of the dying
Henry Bersham, who had buried his wife Laura,
within a year after his marriage.
When Henry Bersham felt the approach of
death, and when his baffled physician had grave- j
ly informed him that if he had any unsettled
business on hand, he had best arrange it forth
with, he sent for his former unsuspected rival.
Tobias, smelling money in the affair, hastened
on the wings of mercury to the dying man, and
was about, as is the custom, to pour forth la
mentations over the unhappy event, when Ber
sham checked him with a grim smile, and said,
in a feeble voice:
‘•Don’tdo it, Vaughau, for you know'twould i
be all nonsense. lam dying, and you are glad
of it."
“ Glad of it! Why, my dear friend, you are
not only dying; but, bless my soul, you are
crazy 1 Have I not cause to grieve when the
man, whoso heavy purse has so often helped the
firm of Vaughan & Son, is about to depart
for ?”
“No doubt,’’ said Bersham. “ But, of late
years, the house of Vaughan & Co. has been the
firm that helped Henry Bersham. Well, my
business began to fail of late, and now lam
about to die. Your house will enjoy a monopoly,
for who can outbid Tobias Vaughan when
Henry Bersha is food for worms?"
’ T “My dear friend, I have an extreme and un
mitigated disgust for those elongated animals—
be so kind as not to mention them. I assure
> JAMES GARDNER, <
I Proprietor. <
AUGUSTA, GA., SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1859.
you it will please me highly,” said Tobias, with
a shudder.
“Well, you are, or should be, very glad—l
confess it would please me much to bo sitting
there so strong, hale and hearty as you are, and
looking so contentedly upon Tobias Vaughan,
lying here, all "
•• My dear Bersham! really you will fatigue
yourself. I have not the least doubt that what
you would say is fact—but let us talk about
something else—it will be much more agreeable
to all parties,” said Tobias.
“No doubt,” groaned Bersham, and then
speaki»g very slowly, lie continued, with a sigh
so profound that Tobias wiped an invisible tear
from his right eye, “ Let us proceed to busi
ness."
“ That's it! That's the word—l like business
—what is it?” said Tobias, moving nearer to
the bed, and producing a pencil and note book.
“Go ahead, for if your time isn't short, then
mine is.”
“You were ever a man of stone and icc,
Vaughan,” said Henry Bersham, bitterly. “But
you are right—my time is short—and what I
have to say is important. Some day, Tobias
Vaughan, you shall say the same, and when,
like me, you are stretched on ”
“ Bless my soul! Never mind all that. That’s
all right. Let us proeceed to business—it will
be much more agreeable to all parties,’’ said
Tobias, rapidly sharpening his pencil.
~ “ Very well, Vaughan. Tobias, during the
sixty-nine years that I have lived, I have amas
sed quite a large fortune. Five days ago, I
thought I had next to nothing; but since Dr.
Philphial has told me my recovery is impossible,
and I find I must leave nay riches, I assure you
I think them a thousand times os great.”
“No doubt—no doubt—a very common idea,"
said Tobias, flourishing Us pencil. “Uowmuch
do you leave ?”
“Fully two hundred and eighty thousand dol
lars—in money, real estate and slaves," groaned
Bersham, griped bitterly by the thought that he
could take nothing with him.
“ Bless my soul! So much ? Why, you told
mo three months ago that you were as near
bankruptcy as tongue is to teeth,” sai'i Tobins.
“You mistake. My words were: ‘I am as
near being a bankrupt as my tongue is to my
teetli, Vaughan,’—aad as I lost my last tooth ia
Liverpool fifteen years ago, I think I spoke the
truth,” said Bersham, with a grimace.
“ Ah 1 that alters the case," remarked Tobias,
biting his pencil. “ But why did you refuse to
endorse my note at the time ?”
“ Did you not say that you were so hard push
ed that you trembled l'or your firm. I never en
dorse under such circumstances. But I must
tell you why 1 sent for you. I believe you know
I have a daughter—my only child —aged ten
years. Her mother died iu giving her birth. I
believe you were present at our marriage.”
“ Yes ; I remember. I have never been to a
wedding since. Never will go to another. I
thought at the time you were very rash, old as
you were, to marry such a young and beautiful
girl. Foolish —very !” said Tobias, fidgeting in
his seat.
“ Yet I believe Laura was faithful to me, To
bias?”
“No doubt of it, Bersham; no doubt it. At
any rate, it is much more agreeable to all par
ties to believe so. Go on: what next ?’’
“ I have willed all my property to my daugh
ter Laura, except a few legacies—one, amoDg
others, to yourself,” said Bersham, firmly.
“ One to me ! ah, thank you, thank you, my
dear friend. How much?’’ cried Tobias, taking
notes furiously.
“ Ten thousand dollars, Vaughan,” leplied the
sick man, groaning at the thought.
“ Very good. What am Itodo to earn it ? For
I know I have a job on hand,” said the matter-of
fact Tobias, pausing to repair his pencil point
which he had broken in noting the SIO,OOO.
“ I have appointed you to be my dear child’s
guardian, till she shall have attained her twenti
eth birth day. If at that date, she shall be
fully satisfied with the manner in which you
have discharged the important duties of your
guardianship, I have attached a codicil to my
will, giving you an additional ten thousand dol
lars.”
“ I shall never win that last,” said Tobias,
scratching his eyebrow with his pencil! Wo
men ore never satisfied. Read the history of
Eve. She had plenty of peaches, pears in abun
dance, plums, and doubtless persimmons by the
busliei; yet she wanted an apple. Why ? Be
cause it was forbidden. Tell a woman she shan’t
—and she will, sure as life. Besides, what can
I, Tobias Vaughan, do. with a little skittish filly
like that ? lam a crusty, cross, cruel old bach
elor ; I know it; my female friends do not let
me forget it. lam hard as steel —I have no
more heart than a June bug. I see : I must
send her off to a fashionable female seminary—
to some elderly virgin, with a face like a fish-net,
and a temper like a pepper-box. When she
comes back, marry her to some unfortunate dev
il within a week. Is that it ?”
“ No, do no such thing ! or I will rise from
my grave and throttle you.” cried Bersham, an
grily. You must give up your bachelor habits.
Buy or rent a house —engage the services of an
excellent governess, rear the child as if it were
your own. Promise—swear that you will be to
my orphan daughter, as if she were your own
flesh and blood, Tobias Vaughan.”
“ Very good. I never swear, save when the
mail fails. But I promise you, sacredly, that I
will perform all that you desire to be done.—
Stop 1 Bless my soul! Suppose she marries
without my consent while she is my ward ?
What then ? I see l in my mind's eye, Hora
tio,’ not less than five hundred bewhiskered pop
iqja'-s besieging her young and susceptible heart
—she is very handsome—she will grow up
handsome—her mother was. Well, suppose she
marries ? Eh ?”
“If she marries without your consent, all the
property, except an annuity of five hundred lie
eomes your’s,” said Bersham.
“Is that all that set down in your will ? Is
this packet your will, Bersham ?” said Tobias,
laying his hand upon a sealed document near
j him.
“It is. That it is my last will and testa
; ment.”
i “ I think you will live loug enough to rectify
J the great mistake you have made, then, in se
lecting me as executor,” said Tobias, flinging the
| will across the room in great wrath.
“ What do you mean by that ?” said Ber
| sham.
“ Bersham,” said Tobias, rfs.ng and speaking
vehemently, “ I hove a false reputation of a
sordid and avaricious man. Perhaps the world
is right. Ido love money, but only when I
make it honestly, And with my own industry.—
1 But I do not intend to make my life miserable,
1 by smelling at such a temptation as that Now
: lam willing to try to please you. I will take
fatherly charge of yonr daughter, change my
' mode of life—buy a pleasant house, be bedev
, iled with servants, hunted down by a house
keeper, teased by this and that, jeered by him
1 and her, battle with bobtailed dandies, when
Laura grows up, and all and so forth, but I will
! not breathe temptation with every breath of my
nostrils. Strike out the condition that she shall
not marry without my consent, and I am your
man. Otherwise, lam oft' likoa scared dog!”
“ No such condition exists,” said Bersham,
with a smile of deep gratification. “ What I
said was meant to try you. Had you agreed
to such a condition, I would have dismissed you
on the spot. You are, what I have always said
you were—an honest and reliable man.”
It is unnecessary to say more of this interview.
Four days after it Tobias Vaughan followed the
eaathly remains of Henry Bersham to the grave,
and took immediate charge of the orphaned heir
ess.
Chap. 11. One of the bobtailed gentry gives great
uneasiness to the softened heart of Tobias.
Tobias purchased a neat residence on Green
stecet, engaged a trustworthy and remarkably
homely, but kind-hearted governess, hired a no
table housekeeper, and the requisite number of
servants, and forthwith began to live a life very
different from that which it had hitherto been
his boast to lead.
Nor was it long before he found his tender
and lovely charge becoming very dear to him ;
and as year after year glided pleasantly by, her
sweet and ravishing graces dislodged all of those
dollars from his heart ; first, one by one, and
then by heaps : till the smiles and happiness of
the beautiful orphan were the principal and up
permost gems therein.
“ Henry Bersham,” ruminated he, eight years
after the death of that gentleman, ns he marched
on his way along Broad street— marched , for he
was proud of the kiss that tingled on his bones
and cheek, fresh from the rosy lips of his lovely
ward. “ Henry Bersham gave me ten thousand
dollars to take care of her! Bless my soul! I
verily believe that I would give the same
amount now to be allowed 'the privilege! I
knew 1 would. I think I stand a fair chance to
get the other ten thousand by pleasing her—not
that I want it—in fact I won’t take it when it
shall fall duo. Bless my soul! how that sweet
Laura has changed ray heart! Must bo because I
loved her mother so much —she is her image.—
Just look at that monkey!”
Here his attention was drawn to a beggar
woman, who was praying for alms for herself
and the puny, wailing babe she held pressed to
her Ijpsom to a young and richly dressed gentle
man, strutting like a pea-cock a few paces before
him. His fashionable blue .oat, tight continua
tions, wliito beaver, and resplendent brass but
tons, especially attracted the cynical eye of To
bias, who was a firm votary of black habili
ments
“Go to the poor house, if there is one; and
if there isn’t, then go to the devil 1” was the bru
tal response of the man with the white hat, as
he hurried on from the presence of the beseech
ing, woe—begone woman.
“ Just what I used to say,” muttered Tobias as
ho caught the harsh words, and placed an eagle
in the thin palm of the crying babe, and almost
running from ihe eloquent thanks of the sad
mother. “Just what I would say now, it my
heart had not been softened by that sweet angel
at home. Heigho! Laura is wayward—l must
confess that—but I have petted her, and she is
only eighteen. Bless my soul! Eighteen I Why
I never thought of that before. Why,when girls
now-a-days, get so fur from cutting teeth as that
they begin to be anxious about other darlings
cutting teeth. Eighteen! Why it seems but as
yesterday since I took her to my new house a
little timid, short-frocked thing, fond of cake and
candy and dandling dolls. I must think of this
—ah—here is my office—wonder if the mail is in.
(rood morning, Mr. Reaps—any news to-day ?”
A gentleman, anxious to see you, is in your
private office, Mr. Vaughan,” replied the head
book-keeper, looking up,and then plunging head
long into his ledger.
Tobias walked through the largo outer office,
exchanging a kind word with each of his uuiner
i ous clerks as he passed along, and opening the
I green baize door of his sanctum, found there the
| gentleman with the blue coat, white hat and
| brass buttons.
The stranger seemed excessively at home and
j was seated in the favorite arm chair of Tobias.
! smoking a segar which our hero afterwards des
| cribed as larger than a dray-pin and stronger
than a dray-man.
The gentleman bowed and presented a letter.
Tobias eyed the letter all over as if he suspected
! there was a rattlesnake in it; then eyed the
i stranger is if he thought the rattlesnake had
crawled out and was coiling for a pop at his legs,
I and finally concluded by opening the letter with
| a jerk, as if ho meant to snap the snake’s head
1 off.
The gentleman waited negligently till Tobias
had finished the perusal and then bowed again,
this time showing a splendid set of teeth—all
the teeth smiled, all the buttons glittered, and
the blue coat agitated its tail.
Tobias surveyed the youth sharply with his
keen black eyes, and said:—
“So—you are Orlando Kociusko Boggs 1 sou
and heir of my step-sister. Hum 1 why didn’t she
call you John, or Jacob, James or Joseph—any
thing but Orlando Kosciusko? Why bless
my soul 1 Where did she find that name ? Did
you ever have the measels, oi the mumps?”
“Much obliged to you, sir,” said Orlando, “ I
have suffered excruciatingly from both disord
ers.”
“No doubt of it—not a bit—if any man with
such a name escaped those complaints, I’d buy
him up and show him ’round,a sip a sight. It is
a miserable name— l4on’t like it.”
“ I profoundly hope that the aw dislike will
fail aw to comprehend in its scope, aw, the pro
foundly humble individooal who totters tinder !
the disgusting aw appellation,” remarked the
amiable and fascinating young gentleman, flip- i
pantly, as if he did not care a straw whether To
bias liked him or not.
“Can't say, Mr. 0. K. Boggs,” said Tobias,
poking the coals in the grate, as the morning
was cold. “ Saw you refuse a trifle to a poor
woman-a while ago. I was just in your rear.
“ Did you, now? Well, charitable people ore
so apt to be profoundly aw imposed upon,” said
0. K. Boggs. “ But demmy 1 you don’t shake
hands with your sister’s son, sir 1”
“ llow do you do, my boy ?” said Tobias, giv
ing him a grip that made Orlando K. Boggs grow
red in the face. “ But you are not my sister’s
son. I never had a sister. I’ll tell you how the
case stands. You see your mother was the j
daughter of your mother’s mother, your grand
mother, before your mother’s mother, your grand- |
mother, married my father your step-grand
father by marriage. Do you understand ?”
“ Profoundly,” said Orlando, who was butting i
his brains among all these grandmothers in fu- j
tile search of his relations. “Your explanation j
makes it all aw as translucent as mud.”
“ Your mother, the worthy Mrs. Boggs, who |
was undoubtedly crazy when she named you,
asks me to allow you to make my house your
home during your stay in Augusta. /How long
shall you stay?” asked Tobias.
“ A few days only. lam on my way from
Boston to California, to dig aw gold 1” said 0. K.
Boggs, puffing forth a cloud of smoke that made
Tobias sneeze dreadfully.
“ Allow me,” said Tobias, who among other,
and let us hope less heinous failings, detested
the perfume of Havanas; and snatching the
segar from the lips of Mr. Boggs, he tossed it into
the fire.
“You see,” said Tobias punching the offend
ing weed down into the heart of the glowing
coals, “ I don’t like smoking—it is not agreeable
to all parties—it makes me sick as a dog. So
you are on your way to California to dig gold, eh ?
Many go there to dig gold and dig such deep
holes that, bless my soul! they slip into them
and don’t get out again. But that is your affair.
Here is the address of my residence. You'll
find nothing to amuse you there, however, ex
cept a stuffed owl—a former pet of mine—and a
little girl—a ward of mine. Roam about the
city, and when you have seen all you wish to see,
cross over the long bridge—there is a tremen
dous metropolis on the other side called Ham
burg. You walk up the high hill and walk down
again. Fine exercise for tight pantaloons. We
dine at five o’clock. I’ll meet you then. Good
day—don’t forget Hamburg—there, clear out 1”
When 0. K. Boggs had ignited another segar
\ Two Dollar* Per Annum, I
I Always In Advance. (
i and fumed himself out of sight, Tobia3 began
! to ruminate.
“He is very handsome. Girls like that sort
, of thing. He is very showy ; girls dote on such
trash. He is as impudent as the devil; girls
like that. Why bless my soul 1 I believe 0. K.
Boggs is the handsomest fellow I ever let into
my garden of Kden 1 He comes from Boston,
wears a narrow brimmed hat and yellow gaiters!
I’ll bet a horse, a dray horse, that his pockets
are full of wooden nutmegs and horn flints ! I
shouldn't be astounded if he hasn’t a brass clock
in his hat, and a flannel sausage in his blue coat 1
I don’t half like him. But then, pshaw 1 Laura
is too young to think of loving him ! Young !
bless my soul! she's eighteen. Suppose she
: should take a fancy to that variegated baboon,
. and marry him! What would become of me—
; of Tobias Vaughan 1 The thought is hideous !
She shan’t marry him ! Shan't marry anybody!
But softly f She’s a woman 1 she must marry
somebody—they all do it if they can, and, bless
my soul! there’s no lack of fools with beards
■ to help them. I declare she's very tall—very
womanly—l never thought she was so much as
eighteen till now. When I think of it—she’s a
full-grown, bouncing, marrying woman 1 That
accounts for all the howling, and caterwauling
‘and • cavorting ’ made under my windows at
' night! Her beaux mistake ray room for her’s,
aud serenade Tobi* Vaughan ! Some night
; I’ll fire a bicon-rimTat that fellow with the big
I fiddle! Ffc» at the fiddle, ble«s my soul, and
stave it to shivers ! Bnt she does not care a
panful of ashes for the ninnies. She won’t mar
| ry without my consent. Bah I what does a wo
| man care for the consent of any other than the
! especial one? What on earth will become of
me, if Laura should marry ? I must think of
that. Orlando Kosciusko Boggs ! Mr. 0. K.
j Boggs, you be bless my soul, I believe I
! cursed!”
All that day, Tobias brooded over his new
anxiety as a hen broods over eggs that will not
hatch. He caught himself entering in his ledger
this strange and unheard of item: “ Credited by
! 0. K. Boggs, Boston baboon—suppose Laura Ber
sliam the wife of Tobias Vaughan <fc Co.” "Bless
my soul,” thought he ; “I never imagined that,
did I ? I would not have old Reaps to see that
entry for fifty dollars. Spoiled a page in my
ledger. But is the thing impossible ? I am
thirty-nine, and she is eighteen. If I were to
marry her, would that be keeping my promise
to treat her like my flesh and blood ? Bless our
souls all around, that would be making her m j
flesh and bone ! Mr. Reaps,” said he, aloud,
“ do I look old ?”
“ By no means,” replied Mr. Reaps, who being
sixty-two, looked on the head of the firm as
quite a young man.
“ Mr. Reaps, I shall be happy to have you
dine with me next Sunday —roast pig and stuff
ed goose—raised among the ’and Hills,” said
Tobias, his heart warmed by the compliment.
"Thank you, Mr. Vaughan,” said Mr. Reaps,
much delighted, and in his joy, debiting the
house of Tobias, Vaughan & Co. to 5363 roast
pigs, and 796 stuffed geese ! per steamer Sand
Hills 1
On his way home to his dinner, Mr. Tobias fell
in with several of his brother merchants, and
laid several rash wagers that none could guess
his age within two years.
" Forty 1” said One.
" Forty-five 1” said Two.
** Thirty-three I” said Three.
“ Thirty, from his looks 1” said Four.
“ Sixty, from his looks 1” said Five ; and
when Five presented his note for discount the
very next day, Mr. Tobias Vaughan slapped an
extra three per cent on him—maliciously 1
Chap. 111. — The bobtailed dandy yoetsatvay with
a flea in each ear.
When Tobias entered his parlor, he found the
illustrious 0. K. Boggs and the lovely Laura
Bersbam chatting away as merrily as if
they had known each other for ten years, at
least.
“ Why, my dear uncle,” began the fascinated
0. K.
“ Don’t call me uncle /” said Tobias, rather
snappishly. “I am not your uncle ! You see,
your mother’s mother—your grandmother, had
a daughter, which daughter is your mother, when
your mother’s mother —your grandmother, mar
ried my father, your step grandfather—in short
and clearly, do you see, your mother’s mother
)>
“ Profoundly!” interrupted Orlando, who was
hopelessly mystified by this genealogical infor
mation, and despaired of ever seeing through it.
“ Well, pon maw honor, Mr. Vaughan, you have
given me aw a tremenduously agreeable sur
prise. You told me I should find nothing but a
stuffed owl, and a little girl. I find here aaw
magnificent woman—deinmy I” and Mr. O. K.
Boggs made a crescent of his back, two pendu
lums of his arms, one obtuse angle with his heels,
and a love battery of his eyes.
“ Did youl Bless my soul! I believe you
are right,” said Tobias, who began to wish Mr.
Boggs' blue coat in Turkey, his yellow gaiters
in China, his tights in Canada, his cravat in Pat
agonia, and the individual self of that handsome
re probate in the crater of Mt. Vesuvius.
NO. 32.