SHUNNED.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1051, 4 March 1873, Page 4

SHUNNED.

A TRUE STORY OF GOI.DFIELD's LIFE. " You don't say bo,", exclaimed the manager of Golish Bank Sandhurst, one quiet evening as be and a few cronies were nobblerising at the select bar of the Shamrock Hotel. " Eh, mon, I'm astonished at it." " It's the tact, sir," responded the influential broker with whom he was confabulating, "he'sgone clean broke. Why, you never heard of such a muddle ; he seems to have been jumpu ing from a bad bog into a worse; first one bill then another, bills ail round, bills of sales, .mortgages —I can't tell what. His property's worth £20,000, but he'euabout r£40,000, in deb.t. He could not; have thought of what he was doing. The best Hennessy's brandy, the manager's favorite drink went down but badly that evening. . He had no pleasure in. it. " Eh, but I must hie.awa' at once," said he, " and see about his account, he's overdrawn some thoosands. Weel, weel, • "who would have thought it of Geordie i Grandlaw ?" The day that followed was one of horror to Geordie Grandlaw. Sum- ; mouses innumerable were served upon him; threats of criminal proceedings were showered fast and thick at him ; bailiff's were in his house, mortgages were foreclosed, one after another, and his claim advertised. He who bad risen the supposed possessor of thousands, went to bed penniless, having lost, in the estimation of all, i his honor, and almost made himself a • criminal. Vie had attended a meeting - of his creditors, and the scene had -. absolutely unmanned him. and he bad I left the room with his face red as fire, i and his heart ready to burst. He bad looked round on about thirty faces, on ■ each of which he had hitherto only seen smiles and friendly looks ; now every countenance was absolutely fiendish with hatred, and every voice, once so kindly ..when saying, "How are you, old fellow ?" grated with malice and intense aversion. He fled from the terrible storm, and the creditors had to do their best with the securities. George Grandlaw had been a lucky reefer. ■ Only a young man in an office a couple of years previous to the time when we introduce him to the reader, he had invested some of his savings in a claim on a celebrated line of reef, then not known. Ultimately, the claim fell into hia hands, by default of the other shareholders in paying their calls ; and, but a few months afterwards, a strike of a rich character being made in the next claim, < George obtained money to work his, the result being tho finding of the lode, which, when once fairly opened out on, gave him fortnightly. dividends of about £IOOO for some time. Besides this he had speculated in other claims, and was looked upou as the . richest young man in Sandhui st. . For about nine months George knew i nothing but prosperity. Ic was one ■ delectable dream —one panorama of light, and beauty, and pleasure. He had been a temperate young man, but his success made him so popular that he could be so no more. Popularity has over and over been the ruin of many a one. Wealth has its duties, which must be attended to, or it soon makes wings for itself, and flies away. George learned to drink champagne. to keep racehorses, and ,bet on the turf; to spend most of his time in the city, and to gamble. Open-hearted, frank, free, and unsuspecting, he was : as easy a prey to those who make their living at these practices, as one could : meet with. He thought all men like • himself, —honest. But, notwithstand- . ing all this George's luck saved him for the first nine months. His claim yielded steadily, every mining specula- . tion ho went into turned out well, and on the turf and at the 100-table, he was successful beyond compare. But at the end of that time the " streak" went under foot, to use a mining term. The mine stopped dividend paying, , and as the manager had worked it in a very bad way to meet George's . demand for money, the permanent works cost a great deal, aud took much time to affect. Forciug is bad in . farming, mining, or anything else. Every mining npeculation ho went , into turned out badly, and bis betting . and gambling ventures were equally unlucky. Hence he had to begin . overdrawing and meeting no opposition,, -.but, on the contrary, being ■ courted to " over-run tho constable," i he .went.■>into it extensively. When - the bank began to object -he went. to money-lenders ; when they drew in, he fell back on his friends: People will say, why did he not draw back ? All very well to say, but. it doesn't come off in practice. The fact wa.B, that George was in a fever; he. never stopped to think, he kept reason at the door, and refused to let him in. If, indeed, serious thoughts of the complications -of his position entered into ' bis mind, he always thought to himself that tho claim • would begin turning out - well, his speculations would come all right, or ho would have a good " run" at betting and gambling. None of-those desired events occurred, to put the.break on, and 'the downward ] ace was very rapid, The interest on the borrowed money, itself, amounted to something-frightful. Still, it he had paused, even then, ho might have been saved. But ho did not. An accommodation bill for £SOO became due, aud was paid by the acceptor. Another bill was readily signed by the friend, to whom George gave his chpque for £SOO. George then discounted tho bill at the bank where ho had his No. 2 account. He

had an overdraft here also, aad tho manager, who had got some inkling of his difficulties, judiciously retained tho proceeds of the bill, and sent it back, marked "Not Provided Eor." George's friend looked upon this as a positive dishonesty, aud would hear no explanation, going as far a 8 to ask the detectives if George could not >be criminally prosecuted. The result was that he went at once into the public resort*, and published the whole matter, eventuating in the crash we have mentioned. Once the bubble had burst, George was " gone" irrevocably. It is wonderful how, in spite of all precedent, men will mistake themselves for their position or their m-oney; and in the vanity of their hearts, think that without these they will be held in equal regard. George laboured under this error. As he stood in the garden of the house that no longer was bis, he thought to himself, after a'l, he bad only lost his property and money; after all he was still George Grandlaw, the admired of the admired, the friend of hundreds, who wouid set him on his feet once more under happier auspices. He almost passed condemnation upon himself for having passed so many restless days and nights; for being such a fool as to thinkgof suicide. Of an elastic temperament, George soon recovered himself, and taking down his hat, he carefully adjusted his favorite geranium in his button-hole, and he departed for the city, certain that happiness was not all sealed to him. As he passed down the street, he marvelled not a little to notice the change that appeared. Passing Smike and Scarperall's office, he noticed the partners who every morning regularly used to meet him, and invite him to liquor up, by way of begining—intent on a share list not deigning to look up, as he loitered a moment, thinking it was accidental. A little beyond their office he met with Takemiss, a 100-player, who had won fabulous sums off him, and who had always stuck like a brother to him, he now intently surveyed certain shawls in a window. Strange to say, Takemiss was not married, and had never been known to enter a draper's shop, George Grandlaw now noticed that as he went along, groups were standing looking at him. and even pointing at him. His courage began to fail. Arrived in the thick of the verandah crowd, he was utterly surprised to find himself, once the observed of all observers, unnoticed. Every morning before this his arrival on the flags had been the signal for a sort of impromptu levee. The,, whole crowd of brokers came round him, and inquired particularly about his health, his wishes about scrip, and for the latest " tip - " Speculator after speculator would; cheerily shake him by the hands, and every face wore to him a smile of welcome ; every eye beamed with friendship. Here was a reverse. Not a soul noticed him, faces were turned from him as if he were a basilisk ; but every one behind his back looked at him till their eyes were blinked, and whispered witticisms at his expense, some of which came to his ear—" Will you take my bill ?" " Give us your name old fellow," &c. There could be no mistake; he was cut dead. The money, the position was gone, and George Grandlaw was alone there. He was a cypher. Even his jackal, Lickfoot, whose servility to the great speculator had been almost painful, now would not condescend to look his way. George could have stook the blows of the noble, but from the insults of such as Lickfoot, shrank. As George stood, solitary watching the crowd, he wondered whether he had changed from a handsome young man into a leper. There was a mirror opposite. He had not altered save so far as the anxiety of the past few weeks had imparted to his face a worn appearance. He was still young, handsome, well-made, and attractive. But he had lost the talisman, and was no more a fit associate for. the worshippers of Mammon. At first he could not believe that the many he saw round him, who had received so much from him, who had fawned upon him in the days of his grandeur, could turn upon hin. He found out the bitter truth of his own nothingness, and the power of the gold that but for his folly, would still have been his. George Grandlaw went home that night cursing mankind, cursing himself, and wishing only to die He found that he was completely ostracised, thrown out of all hope of getting a chance to better bis condition, of even abtaining a livelihood. He was proud as Lucifer, and in his desperate rage be resolved to cast all behind him, and to labour with bis hands. He became a miner, at first but a mere drudge, but soon ,his earnestness and intelligence told, and .he took rank as a first-class baud, and had £2 ss. a week for wages. He inhabited a little hut in a lone place, which he himself called Despair Gully. Wild and despairing, indeed, was the inmate of that hut, filled with hate and bitterness. "Where have you been to-day?" asked young Elykito of Bill Dashaway, the flash reporter of the principal journal. "Up near the -Golden Fleece," was the reply. "And who do you think I saw while I was down one of the mines? Why George Grandlaw who was aillhe go here some timo since. He's a mere miner now, I was going to speak to him, but he looked as if ho would have eaten me, and turned away. He does look savage."

"So ho ought to do," said young Flykite, who "departed this colony,", some months afterwards, leaving many "sorrowing friends" behind him ; "any ono who played such pranks should hide themselves. I wonder he didn't have to go to gaol for his doings. The Golden Fleece was then in the first stage of -attracting public attention. George was a miner in it, and could not but admire the reef. He noticed, also, .the great excitement in mining, and looked around him at the unworked and unleased ground on every side. He had lived hard and had saved. .There was the huge piece of unleased ground lying between the Golden Fleece and the G. G. Consolidated. This he took up, and the other leases to the south. By the time ho had .completed the preliminaries the ground had risen enormously in value He took in one or two shareholders in each lease at high rates, and made companies of them. Once more he appeared on the Verandah, but not the pleasant jovial man 'he had been; he was now dark and gloomy, and dressed in miners' clothes. He never spoke to his old friends, although many would have renewed acquaintance, as the rumor was that he bad become rich again. Pie worked harder there than in the mine, and never stopped until he had sold every share—and he held over 50,000 —at enormous profits. He found himself a wealthy man just as tho excitement closed. Then all those who had been his creditors in the past were called together. They crowded into the room of meeting. There sat George at the heap of the table, stern and gloomy, his lawyer at his right hand, on his left little chamois leather bags, duly ticketed; one of these the lawyer handed to each creditor, receiving a formal discharge. There was a silence. Each money grub was chuckling with glee at receiving every farthing of his money, interest added. Old Gripall was even about suggesting a round of champagne to celebrate the event, but he judiciously restrained himself lest he should appear ostentatious and create a precedent. Shinflea had also in his mind a proposal for a Kentucky shout, that is one in which every one pays sixpence and the chairman shouts, but recollecting he wanted some tobacco, for which the sixpence would do excellently, he was silent. At length George rose and spoke in a suppressed tone, as if he feared to trust himself: " I have taken the earliest opportunity," said he, prefixing his speech by nothing, " to pay all the money I owed, with interest added, and heaven only knows what a load is lifted off my heart this day, when I can raise my head and look you in the face. Not that I want your good opinion. On the contrary I so thoroughly despise you, that your approbation and friendship would seem to me a misfortune. When I sat in this room last, a miserable and ruined man, it was in your power to have stayed my downward course by at once buying my claim from the bank and keeping it in trust. It has yielded, since I lost it, double the amount of my debts. No ; vou would not, but rather sought in everv way to aggravate my distress, and only thought how to wreak your pitiful malice on a fallen man. You gloated over the thought of my misery when I worked in the depths of the earth. When I did not want money vou pressed it upon me; when I was" in sore need you turned from me as if I were a leper. Thanks to a kind Providence, I fell only to rise. I learned at a terrible cost the great lesson, that there is but one friend ,-ih the world a man's pocket; and that he who mistakes himself for his money or his position, is an egregious fool. And now I will part from such serpents. When the dark day will come for some of you, and come it will, sure as the sun will set and rise, may the mercy you meted out to a young and inexperienced man, be meted out a thousandfold to you !" "Another Timon," said an elderly creditor, who was getting down the stairs as fast as he could, looking behind him. "I don't mind his hard speeches so long as I have this equivalent," tapping the bags of sovereigns. George Grandlaw has left Sandhurst, and is seeking, in other climes and countries, those who worship not Mammon, but the man, the soul the disposition, the affection. Let us hope he will meet with them, but, knowing what we do, we fear there is little hope of his search being successful in this world.—"Mysteries and Miseries of Scripopolis," by Demonax.

A lady of Boston, seeing among the religions notices that a certain clergyman would preach " D.V.," said at once that she would go and hear him, presuming as she did that the subject of ■the discourse was "Dolly Vardens." There are 126 breweries in Victoria, and the beer brewed last year amounted to "the enormous quantity of 13,061, 115 gallons, oranlß-gallon caskfulfor each man, woman, or child (teetotallers :included) in the colony." The capital invested in plant and premises is £170,000. This is the style in which irreverent Chicago announces a great revivalist:— " Elder Knapp having converted three sinners in 7.26£ will 'rastle with the fiend next Sunday." A.n Extensive Order.— O, please miss, will you give us two Vpeunies for a penny, and gi'me a drink o'water, au, tell us the right time ? An' father wants a pipe ; and lend mother yesterday's'Tizer?