First and Second Loves.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 223, 17 February 1874, Page 7

First and Second Loves.

A great '•deal .hop (been paid, and*.written) about the relative inerits.of first and .second ] l<we. The adyocatos of. the former contend i th'atin Tcidbu't ,/ '£t'nd' unselfishness 'it. hab no ■ rival) afe’d that se’lf-sactitieer 1 and self-abricga- 1 'tion, under its. influence,'are carried to a ; more exalted degree of perfection, than that ] of any other passion.’ On the other hand'it ; is urged that one’s ‘first experience is simply ; a dangerous form of emotional insanity ; un- i certain in its duration, and often disastrous | ( in its! ■precipitancy ; and as gold and silver i are made purer by the furnace, which burns j, off their alloys and amalgamation, so love is | ( only pure and intelligent and enduring when j its inflammable dross and dangerous hallnci-! nations have been dispelled by the'live of the j first experience. The hatter is perfectly the! ground Deacon Higgins took last Sunday! night in a protracted interview with Widow j Stebbins. It was quite late before he finished j his argument. Then he had to tell how many I silk dresses Mrs Higgins loft when she died ' that had never been made up ; and what per-! feet little cherubs all six of the little Hig-1 ■ ginses are; so at last, when the interview! closed with a blissful donation, it was so late i that he did not want Elder Skinner, who i lives just opposite, to see him leave the house ;! and Mrs Stebbins thought it would be just; as well for him to go down the back-sta.il s: and across the yard to the back street, if he j would only be.careful not to hit against the j fresli paint on the sides of the staircase, and i try' not to make enough noise ' to waken the i | downstairs family. So Mr Higgins took his ! cane in his right hand, and his hat in his 1 | left, and the skirts of his coat under his. I elbows, so as not to hit the paint, and started; |on tiptoe. When on the stair he turned round , ;to tell Mrs Stebbins that he could see jusc as • i plain as day. As he did so his cane hit the j j right-side of the stairway ; twitching it back his hat struck the left side ; he looked to see i | how much paint" he had got on it, and the ; | right skirt of his coatslipped from beneath' i his elbow; endeavouring to replace it he! • brought his cane between his feet just as lie; | was stepping to the fourth stair. Then came : jii moment of awful suspense,- in which he: j struggled with the fundamental law of the j 1 solar system. In that moment Mrs Stebbins ; I made a pass at his collar to catch him, hut, 1 | missing her aim, she dropped the lamp and 1 | fastened on the Deacon’s wig. Then there ‘ came a sound as of many horsemen, then a| | crash, and the door at the foot of the stairs 1 j Hew-from its hinges, and Air Higgings, his! j wiglesfe head glistening in the pensive muon-1 | light,shot through the narrow entry arid i i rolled down the back stairs into the yard, ! • closely followed by his hat and cane, and one iof Mi's Stebbins’s slippers, which she had i ' kicked off at the head of the stairs, and bran- j • dished that wig and screamed. The down-1 | stairs man has an illiterate bull dog chained i 1 in ;r kennel close by. the gate, which,'when he j ; saw the Deacon rkochet'dow ri the st eps, thought if that wits .what.was meant by Darwin’s De-' scent of Man, lie did not approve of it; sol he began to tug at the chain and clamour for ; blood. Air Higgins straightened out his j limbs, one at a time, to see how many of j them were broken ; tlien rose to his feet..; |. He could heir the downstairs man swearing; i because he could not find the Carving-knife, ! | and his wife calling “Police!” from one; | window, while the boy was snapping a horse-1 j pistol at him from another. He could not ; | get by that deg to go through the gate, but i ! perhaps by stepping on the hen coup he could i i spring over the picket fence. lie stepped on 1 j the coop easily enough, but when he jumped ! i the coop toppled over, and he came down, | across the top of the pickets, which caught: | in his pants just below his centre of gravity, ; and held him suspeudded in an inverted j position. But “the most unkiudost cut of jail” was that the'hen, whose maternal solid--1 tilde he had awakened by upsetting the coop, I thought, and made all the neighbours think, ; that her abduction was tiie special object of ; | Deacon Higgins’s visit to the yard. And I while'he was flourishing his No. IPs high j j above the fence, and grasping frantically at 1 ; space with Iris hands, she went under the fence i and began to scratch and pick and slip down '' on his head and fill his mouth and eyes, with j dirt and feathers, and express her resentment ! i as only a female can. When the neighbours 1 ; had thrown all the brickbats and stones and ‘ i pieces of board they could find, Elder Skin- [ | ner leading, they ventured to approach. ’ j Their surprise and grief on discovering who Hit was surpassed even their indignation, i; They unhitched him and carried him to the 1 i nearest doctor to have his shoulder set, and ‘ I poultices applied t > such parts as had been ‘ | most exposed to missiles. When he gets ' I well enough to go out, the church, before 1 j taking any. decided action, is going to give 3 1 him a ,chance to explain, before a special H committee, why, if he wanted that, lien, lie : , did not go and buy it of Widow Stebbins, 5 i like a gentleman and a Christian, instead of ‘. of sneaking round at one o’clock in the morn- ' ing, and waking up the whole Third-ward, 1 ; trying to steal it.— Danhu.nj News.