LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1994, 15 July 1880, Page 3

LITERATURE.

CRUTCH, THE PAGE. [By “ Gath,”] I.—Chips. The Honorable Jeemes Bee, of Texas, sitting in his committee room half an hour before the convening of Congress, waiting for his negro familiar to compound a julep, was suddenly confronted by a small boy on cratches. ‘ A letter!’exclaimed Mr Bee, ‘ with the frank of Reybold on it—that Yankeest of Pennsylvania Whigs I Yer’s familiarity I Wants me to appoint one U—U U, what ? ’ ‘ Uriel Basil,’ said the small boy on crutches, with a clear, bald, but rather sensitive voice. ‘Uriel Basil, a page in tho House of Representatives, bein’ an infirm, deservin’ boy, willin’ to work to support hia mother. Infirm boy wants to be a page, on the recommendation of a Whig, to a Dimmycratic committee. I say, gen’lemon, what do you think of that, heigh?’ This last addressed to some other members of the committee, who had meantime entered. * Infum boy will make a spry page,’ said the Hon Bax Izard, of Arkansaw. ‘ Harder to get infum page than the Speaker’s eye,’ said the orator, Pontotoc Bibb, of Georgia.’ ‘Harder to get both than a’pintment in these crowded times on a opposition recommendation when all ole Yirginny is yaw to be tuk care of,’ said Hon. Fitzchew Smy, of the Old Dominion. The small boy standing up on crutches, with large hazel eyes swimming and wistful, so far from being out down by these criticisms, stood straighter, and only hia narrow little chest showed feeling, as it breathed quickly under his brown jacket, ‘I can ran as fast as anybody,’ he said impetuously. ‘My sister says so. You try me I ’ * Who’s yo’ sister, bub ?’ * Joyce.’ ‘Who’s Joyce V ‘Joyce Heeil—Miss Joyce Beail to you, gentlemen. My mother keeps boarders. Mr Reybold boards there. I think it’s hard when a little boy from the South wants to work, that the only body to help him find it is a Northern man. Don’t you ?’ ‘ Good hit!' cried Jeroboam Coffee, Esq., of Alabama. ‘ That boy would run, if he could 1’ ‘ Gentlemen,’ said another member of the committee, the youthful abstractionist from South Carolina, who was reputed to be a great poet on the stump, the Hon. Lowndes Clebnrn, ‘gentlemen, that boy puts the thing on the igeel merits and brings it home to ua. I’ll ju my jooty in this issue, Abe, wba’a my julep ? ’ ‘ Gentlemen, ’ said the chairman of committee, Jeeme Bee, ‘it ’pear to me tnat there’s a social p’int right here Reybold, bein’ the only Whig on the Lake and Bayou Committee, onght to have something if he sees fit to ask for it. That’s courtesy I We, of all men, gentlemen, can’t afford to forget It.’

‘ No, by durn ! ’ cried Fitzchew Bmy. ‘You’re right. Bee!’ cried Box Izard, you give It a constitutional set,’

* Reybold,’ continued Jeems Bee, thus encouraged, * Reybold is, to speak out, no genius ! He never will rise to tho summits of usefulness. He lacks the air, the swing, the pose, as the sculptors say; he won’t treat, but he’ll lend a little money, provided he knows where you goin’ with it. If he ain’t open hearted, he ain’t precisely mean! * ‘ Tou’re right, Bee!’ .[(General expression.) ‘ Farther on. It may be said that the framers of the Govment never Intended all the patronage to go to one side. Mr Jeffs on put that on the steelyard principle ; the long beam here, the big weight of being in the minority there. Mr Jackson only threw it considabnl more on one side, but even he, gentlemen, did’nt take the whole patronage from the Outs; he always left ’em enough to keep up the courtesy of the thing, and we can’t go behind him. Not, and be true to our traditions. Do I put it right ? ’ ‘ Bee, ’ said the youthful Lowndes Cleburn, extending his baud, * you put it with the lucidity and spirituality of TCulhonn himself ! ’ ‘ Thanks,’ Cleburn,’ said Bee ; ‘this is a compliment not likely to be forgotten, coming from you. Then it is agreed, as the chairman of yo’ committee, that I accede to the request of Mr Reybold, of Pennsylvania.’ ‘Aye!’ from everybody. ‘And now,’ said Mr 8., ‘as we wair all up late at the olnb last night, I propose we take a second julep, and as Reybold is com-' ing In he will jlne ns.’ ‘ I won’t give you a farthin 1’ cried Reybold at the door, speaking to some one. ‘ Chips, indeed! What shall I give you money to gamble away for ! A gambling beggar is worse than an imposter ! No, sir! Emphatically no !’ ‘ A dollar for four chips for brave old Beau !’ said the other voice, ‘l’ve stuck ’em all bat yon. By the State Arms 1 I’ve got rights in this dlstreek! Everybody pays toll to brave old Beau! Come down !’

The Northern Congressman retreated before this pertinacious mendicant Into hia committee-room, and his pesterer followed him closely, nothing abashed, even into the priviled cloisters of the committee. The Southern members enjoyed the situation. ‘ Chips, Eight Honorable ! Chips for old Bean. Nobody this ten year has run so long as you. I’ve laid for you, and now I’ve fell on you. Judge Bee, the fust business befo' yo’ committee this mornin’ is a assessment for old Beau, who’s away down 1 Kheumatiz, bettiu’ on the black, failure of remittance from Fauqueeth, and other casualties by wind an’ flood, have put ole Beau away down. He’s a institution of hla country and must be sustained !’ The laughter was general and _ cordial amongst the Southerners, while the intruder pressed hard upon Mr Seybold. He was _a singular object; tall, grim, half comical, with a leer of low familiarity in his eyes, but his waxed mustache of military proportions, his patch of goatee just above the chin, his elaborately oiled hair and flaming necktie, set off his faded face with an odd gear of finery end impressiveness. His skin was that of an old roue's, patched up and chalked, but the features were those of a once handsome man of style and carriage. He wore what appeared to be a cast-off Spring overcoat, out of season and color on this blustering winter day, a rich buff waistcoat of an embossed pattern, such as few persons would care to assume, save, perhaps, a gambler, negro buyer, or fine ‘ buck' barber. The assumption of a large and flashy pin stood in his frilled shirt-bosom. He wore watch seals without the accompanying watch, and his pantaloons, though faded and threadbare, were once of fine material and cut in a style of extravagant elegance, and they covered his long, shrunken, but aristocratic limbs, and were strapped beneath his boots to keep them shapely. The boots themselves had been once of varnished kid or fine calf, but they were cracked and cut, partly by cse, partly for comfort; for it was plain that their wearer bad the gout, by bis aristocratic hobble upon & gold mounted cane, which was not the least inconsistent guarantee of his mendicancy. ‘Boys,’ said Fitzchew Smy, ‘ I s’pose we better come down early. There’s a shilling Beau. If I had one more sech constituent as you, I should resign or die prematurely’” , , , , x ‘There’s a piece o tobacker, said Jeems Bee languidly, ‘all I can afford, Beau, this mornin’. I went to the chicken-fight yesterday and lost all my change.* ‘Mine,’said Box Izard, ‘is a regulation pen-knife, contributed by the United States, with the regret, “Beau, that I can’t ’commodate you with a pine coffin for you to git into and git away down lower, than you ever been ’ ‘ Yaw’s a dollar,’ said Pontotoc Bibb ; ‘it 11 do for mo au’ Lowndes Cleburn, who’s a poet and genius, and never has no money. This buys me off, Beau, for a month.’ The gorgeous old medicant took them all grimly and leeringly, and then pounced upon the Northern man, assured by their twinkles and winks that the rest expected some sport. _. «And now, Eight Honorable from the banka ol the Susquehanna, Colonel Eeybold, you see, I got your name; I ben a lavin’ for you! come down handsome for tho Uncle and ornament of his capital and country. ‘ What’s yore’s ? ’ ‘ Nothing,’ said Eeybold in a quiet way. ‘I cannot give a man like you anything, even to get rid of him.’

You’re mean,’ said tho stylish beggar, winking to the rest. ‘You hato to put yer hand down In yer pocket mightily. I’d rather be ole Bean, and live cnenppers at the faro banks, than love a dollar like yon! ’ 1 I’ll make it a V for Beau,’ said Pontotoc Bibb, ‘if he gives him a mb on the raw like that another lick. Barn a mean man, Clebnrn!’

‘ Come down, Northerner,' pressed the incorrigible loafer again ; ‘it don’t become a Right Honorable to be so mean with old Bean.’

The little boy on cratches, who had been looking at this scene in a state of suspense and interest for some time, hero cried hotly:— ‘lf you say Mr Reynolds is a men n man, yon tell a story, you nasty beggar! He often gives things to me and Joyce, my sister. He’s just got me work, which is the best thing to give ; don’t yon think so, gentlemen?’ ‘Work,’ said Lowndes Clebnrn, ‘is the best thing to give away, and the most unhandy thing to keep. I like play the best— Bean’s kind o’ play!’ ‘Yes,’ said Jeroabram Coffee ; ‘I think I prefer to make the chips fly out of a table more than out of a log.’ ‘ I lite to work !’ cried the little boy, hia hazel eyes shining and his poor narrow body beating with unconscious fervor, half suspended on hia crutches, as if ha were of that good descent and natural spirit which could assert itself without bashfulness in the presence of older people, • I like to work for my mother. • If I was strong, like ether little boys, I would make money for her, so that she shouldn’t keep any boarders—except Mr Beybrll. Oh! she'has to work a lot; but she’s proud and won’t tell anybody. All the money I get I mean to give her _; but I wou’dn’t have it if I had to beg for it like that man !’ ‘ O Beau,’ said Colonel Jeems Bee, * you’ve cotched it now I Eeybold’s even with you. Little Crutch has cooked your goose 1 Crutch is right eloquent when hia wind will permit.’ The fine old loafer looked at the boy, whom he had not previously noticed, and it was observed that the last shaft had hurt hia pride. The boy returned his wounded look with a straight, undaunted, spirited glance, out of a child’s nature. Mr Reybold was impressed with something in the attitude of the two, which made him forget his own interest in the controversy, • Beau answeredwithatone of nearly tender pacification: ‘ Now, my little man ; come, don’t be hard on the old veteran I He’s down, old Bean is, senes the time ha owned hia blooded pacer and dined with the Corps Diplomatique ; Bean’s down sense then; but don’t call the old feller hard names, iV6 take it back, don’t we ?—we take them words baok V ‘ There’s a angel somewhere,’said Lowndes Cleburn, ‘even in a Washington bummer, which responds to a little chap on crutches, w ith a clear voice. Whether the angel takes the bummer or the little chap is a p’int out of our jurisdiction. Abe, give Beau a julep. He seems to have been demoralised by little Crutch’s last,’ {To he continued .)