Newspapers / Spirit of the Age … / July 20, 1870, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of Spirit of the Age [1873-1???] (Raleigh, NC) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
" 1 t 1 11 Mmmvmwvvmm mm,, wi-0 g-. m,, him.hu nf-mm- jmimi iwhiin .,, n Ilm fool. rh : 13. fi. H. WHITAKERi EDITOR. RALEIGH, N. C, WEDNESDAY, JULY 20, 1870. TV0 DOLLARS PER ANNUM! V Jylili X v. vj w v v w v I : y No o 1; Cle IrienVof Cempnnre. TERMS: One copy one year. . " " six months. . . " " three months. .82 00 .. 1 00 .. f0 CLUBS A cltil of ten. feach, $1 75).. .Si 7 r,r twenty M 1 50 ...... SO 00 P, A cony, gratis, will be sent to the Ret terupof clubs of JO pnd 20. Kates of Advertising: SPACE. Kl Mo 12 Ms. i3 Ms.: 6 Ms.il Year. One Square. 2o0i 3 75 -5 25: 8 00; 12 00 Two Squares, ! 4 00; 6 25, 8 50-13 00 J 20 00 Three " I1 5 50! 8 COjll 50 1(T50! 26 001 Four ;7 00:10 00 13 00 19 50i 30 00 Fourth Colu'n 110 0014 00 17XX):25 00J 37 00 24 50 i 36 00 j CO 00 JIaif Column, ;1C 50 j 21 00 Whale Colu'n,;24 00;24 50;CG ,00;57 50, 100 00 ' LIVING EASY j on, OXE YEAR IX THE CITY. UY SARAH M. II A KTO UGH." "Jane, I think you are a perfect slayc - I .'would i not work as hard as you" do for three times what it brings you; Early and lae you are at it. No lime fcr anything but work;" " Oh I no, sister, I find time for re creation sometimes ; but it is true, I work very hard, and I often wish I could find a way to live.easier. When Nina gets older I shall have more help, I hope." ' v " Nina is bv far too delicate for the ronjih work of a' farm" Said the first P'Kaker. " But she would make a finei pea ranee in the , city. I do wish, Jane, that you could persuade James to move to the city." y "What better off would we be there ?" asked the other. " Why, you could live easier. My husband is getting a good salary , as foreman, and my family is as large a yours, and I am sure my work is not " half so drudging as yours." " I have thought- about it oft n," higlied-.-the farmer's wife, " and I have often told James so, too, but he will not listen to it." J 4 I will talk to him about it this very nirjht," said the first speaker. ' The above conversation look place in the sitting-room iu James Arnold'sJ house. He was a comfortable, well-to- do farmer. His family consisted vf himself, wife, two sons, aiuh a daugh ter. He had a sjood house, a welU stocked farm, and prided himself n his good living. IIis wife had b' en reared in the city, but had moved t' the farm shortly after her marriage, and had settled down as a thrifty far. iner's wife, contented with the labor. :md rewards of her life. True, sometimes-she felt a lonorjnrr for t,G excite d easy life which the city a fiords. And these longings were al ways intensified after a visit; from her sister, 3Irs Brown, who lived in the city. Mrs. Brown was always holding up to her the plensures of acity life contrasted to the " drudgery," as she termed it, o' a farmer's wife. Slie had succeeded in impregnating her sister, with her own jdeas; -'('specially' when" she pictured to -her the advantages it would brinjr to JCina, her daughter: how well she would appear in society there, and how she needed the refininir influence of a city life. AH these things had worked on Mrs. Arnold s mind, until she said "If James would only be persuaded they would sell everything and move to ihe city."' One evening, during one of Mrs. Brown's visits, as they were all sitting together on the front piazza, ""Mrs. Brown set the ball rolling: " James," she began, "how tired and careworn you look. I declare, , I never saw any one grow old so fast in my life as you do. You look as old now as my husband, who, I am sure, is live years your senior." " Well," replied the farmer, " I have to work pretty hard through the sum mer, both Jane and I; but through the winter we take it easy." " Yes, take it easy, and eat up all your summer's labor, and then go at it again when spring comes. I tell Jane I would pot vork as hard as she does lor three times what it brings you. Aiifl Jane looks careworn and thin, too." " Jane always was thin, Martha ; she belongs to Pharaoh's lean kine eh; mother ?" said he, patting her; up on the shoulder. But his wife did not respond to his pleasantness; she was thinking of her sister's word?. "Now," resumed Mrs. Brown, " you see how much better it would be fo? you So move foHlie city Toi;; haters good trade, and could make one hun dred dollars a monih as easy as noth ing, and 1 am certain you do not do as well. as that fiere, do you " Well, no ; not in greenbacks, but I reckon it amounts to about the same in the end." - r " But see how much easier we could live," quietly put hi-his wife. ." 1 am not, so sure of that, Jane," he replied., " There are more things than money to look alter. v ouio it ue as well for the bovs and Nina?" " Better, better," said Mrs. Brown eagerly. ' William could get a situa tion somewhere, and Jdmes arid Nina could go to such good, scliool. And Nina could learn music'too, which she so much desires to do." i -.- " But yon would not have me sell the place ?" and the farmer's tone was sad. " Oh ! no," said both women, " rent it out. The rent of the farm . would pay your own rent in the city." '"'Oh! it would be so nice, father," said Nina. , . . -; .. - " So it wowlcl," said William, a lad of eighteen years, and the oldest of the children. " For my part, I hate fai m ing, and mean to quit ijt soon, any way." "It will, not be ni6e at all," said James, the youngest child. " I do not want to be cooped up in your dusty city, with only a yard alxufc six feet feet square, and. not a blade of grass or a bird to bo sCeir, except hanging up against a window somewhere in fancy cages. I got homesick enough that time I went home with auntie." - "But yon will not get homesick if father and mother are there, will vou?" said Nina. u Well, I know I shall not like . ib and I do not want to go,. either." The conversation was kept up by the children for awhile ; but soon they, too, .fell to thinking, and thus tfye subject was dropped! A few days after, and Mrs. Brown left, declaring that she cmld not bear to see Jane slaving her life away, and Nina lusting out, down there in the country, and urged her sister to keep at James until he should consent to leave the farm and remove to the city. " It will be so. nice," she added, " to live near each other again." After Mrs. Brown had gone, Mrs. Arnold was so full of the thoughts of a city life, and gave herself so complete ly to it, that she became perfectly mis erable. Labors that had been light and pltasan t before, now were looked upon as most arduous, and she made it the theme of their conversation every time thev were alone. " But, Jane," he said one evening, tvhen -she .had been 4 sermonizing,' as James, the younger, had called it, "I cannot see what profit this will be to us. Surely, I must work wherever Ave are"; and why not stay here, where we have always lived comfortably ?" , " But, James," she replied, j" I think the. children can have more privileges and advantages in the city. William can go to a trade, and board at home ; and Nina can learn music, and perhaps in time tench it, if need be. You know she is very apt at music." , " Well, but did not J ulia May offer to teach her for ten dollars a quarter?" ics; out Martha says that Julia is not mucti ot a teacher ; and, as long as she is to learn, why not have the best teacher ? And, besides, we have no -v -fc A ' t; WelJ, wife, we can get a piano here as well as there. ; " I suppose we can," she answered ; " but, really, 1 am tired of farmmg. want rest, too. I think we mightTlive as easy as others when we can." Inn iran ( J&Z' . ! xuu iv-'u uisconteut Had set Mrs. Arnold's honest heart to foment. ing: After a long pause, Mr1. Arnold saia nijt wnat will I do with the farm, and the stock, and everything?" itent it an out. There's Abe Raw lings wouia tase it to-morrow, aud give your own price for it, too." But he does not want the stock; he Mr. Arnold said no more, He had almost come to think that reasoning with a woman about , something she' had - set herseif V to accomplish, wa about as hard ?work as eating th norm wmu. . . " I think mother must be crazy," said James to William on night, after .1 the f'lirdd' gone, to their room. . " If I was father ! would let her go to the city and try it. I'll bet she'll be as i keen to come back as she is to go." 4 I only hopethey will go," said Wil liam. "I am tired of living on a farm, anyhow. It would be so much nicer for a fellow to go spend an ' evening at the theatre now and then. Cousin Ralph Brown says he goes two or three times every wreek." "Well, I don't like Cousin Ralph I much," said James. " He's al ways making fun of everything around the place, saying he would not live down here. I notice he is glad to come in fruit season, when he can make some thing." " ' A continual dropping will wear a stone." Mrs. Arnold, following her sister's advice, kept at James until he reluctantly consented to rent his snng farm, sell off his stock, and move to the city. Mrs. Urown had been informed of this state of aftairs, and had been ap pointed agent to hunt up city quarters for our country friends, being instruct ed not to engage rooms above tw o bun died and fifty dollars a year. Every person knows that that sum will not procure rooms any more than comforta ble, even for people accustomed to the cramped living afforded by the city. What, then, must it have been toJ the molds, accustomed to plenty of room down-stairs all their lives; besides cel lar and garret Mrs. Brown had done the best she could for them, by secu ring a back basement and second story in a genteel neighborhood, Where the landlord lived in the same house. "How .can I ever find room for all my furniture ?" said Mrs. Arnold to her isfci as dray load after dray load was brought in. 'Til tell you what to do," said Mrs. Brown. "Just unpack what you need and stow the remainder away." ' "Where will I stow it?" inquired Mrs. Arnold inNdismay.? "Why, you have a nice wood-house in. the backyard ; put it into that, or sell it." But Mrs. Arnold could not think of selling the things she had possessed so loner, so she followed the other niece of advice, and stowed innumerable things away into a little eight-by twelve wood- house, and left them. It took a long time to unpack and set to rights ;" but that was finally ac complished, and city life to our country people was fairly begun. "(J) dear ! what shall I do with these without a cellar?" said Mrs. Arnold, as a barrel of apples was brought in. "The house is literally full, and where I shall Keep these without their getting frozen I can't tell." It was not the first time the good little woman had been perplexed by similar things. But she had resolved not to complain. She had often Ipok- ed around her narrow room, filled, as it was; with various things, and contrasted it with the roomy, pleasant kitchen at the farm. . And then her sittinsr-room w'as up two flights of stairs, and she had often said to herself that she would rather walk a mile than travel up those stairs so many times a day. Nor is it the pleasantest thing in the 'world for tenant and landlord fo occupy the same house. Mrs. Arnold thought so, at least, as James was often reprimanded for noise he made, such as whistlino: through the halls, singing on the front steps, and various other priviliges which to the country boy were free as air. ' ... ' "I should VJike to know what harm there is in a fellow singing, no matter where it is, or whitling, either, if he likes," said he. "But, James," said Aunt Martha, "it is not genteel to sit on the door steps and sing. People will wonder where you were brought up. "Well, auntie, I can tell them, with ! no shame, either, if they ask me," was the reply, 5r. Arnold had been fortunate enough to procure work at his trade in ; the fame shop where Mr. lit own was the foreman, so he found no difficulty in fforiding for his family. lina and William were delighted witB their new life, but James found it rj)t to be compared with- the coun- ish you would let mrrjrback to the faring he said to his father. "I will be Mr. Rawling's hired boy if yon will let me." uTut, tut, James, how you do talk," said William. ill think this is much better than going out cold mornings and helping with the stock." "Well,jyoti may think as yon please, Will ; but if father will let me I will go back." ! "No, Jimes," said his father, "I want you to go to school here this winter; perhaps in the summer, if you wish, you may go back." James was silent for a time. "James," said Nina, "I hope you do not want to be ''a hired by ! Why, that is beiflg somebody's servant." "1 want o be anything rather than a iprimpy like Ralph Brown, or a bad boy like Joitns Snell. I do not like those city chaps at all. And; sis, I think you are getting some of the 'gen- teel airs' .that auntie talks about, for you raise jour eyesbrovvs when you talk;, and, I vow, you can say horse equal to a horsejocky now." j "Silence, James !" said his mother. "Mother, you never can rtfuie James I am sure," said his father, smiling. "But, as I said before, James, go to school this winter, and in the summer vou may zo to Mr. -Rawlinars." The winter passed rapidly away. Mrs. Arnold was not quite happy. Va rious things had occurred to worry her, foremost of which was a desire on William's part to be absent evenings. Heat first had-attend school, but that had come distasteful to him, so his fath- er had been trying to get him into his own shop, but so far had been unsuc- cessml. William had fallen in - with some boys his own age, who were not calculated to do much if any good to ,such a boy as William. His mother had seui all this, and. her true mother's heart was grieved -inconsequence. Another source of annoyance was with Mr. Arnold himself. He was silent and sometimes sullen. She feared he was ill, but to her anxious inquiries he always returned a negative answer. The truth Was, he missed the free-and- easy life he had always led before he removed to the ' city. He missed his old neighbors ; in fact, he missed his entire farm, together with its surround- ings, and, in turn, his family missed his sunny temper and merry words. One afternoon Mrs. Brown came in, aud found Mrs. Arnold in tears.- 'What is the matter, Jane ?" said she. "Is auything wrong, or has anything serious happened, or have you a fit of the blues?" "Quite a variety of questions, Mar tha," said Mrs. Arnold, making a feeble effort :.o smile, "but I believe, I can an- i swer yes,' to all of them. Soraeth'ng is the matter, and something has hap- pened, andl have got the blues ;" and the poor woman burst out again into tears. "A ow I will sit down and hear all about it, Jane." ' Mrs. Arnold dried her eyes and be gan; -"Martha, I am so worried about William. He is out every, evening, sometimes until midnight. He says he goes .to the - theatre,, sometimes some other place. Ho is . growing rough, chews tobacco and altogether is very different from what, he was a year ago, We have been here only four months, but four years ought not to have chang ed him so." "Now, Jano," said Mrs. Brown, "I think you notice these things too much. There's my Ralph, he goes out nights, and never think of asking him where he has been.. Boys of iheir age do not like to give an account of alf their ac- tions. ' - "Bat, Martha, jhey ought to-be re quired to giv'Can account of themselves. I think mothers cannot bs too careful about their boys. And when children t arrive at that point when they consider it none of their parents' concerns where m they are or wliat they are doing, thoy are not from the gates of evil. 4iPeople accrs oaied to Irving in the country look at these things in a differ ent light from what city people do. said Mrs. Brown poftly. "But -why should hey, sister ? - ''There is no amugeinent or enter tainment going on in the country, and boys are obliged to stay at home even ings. Kow that yon have moved here, William sees so much that is new and entertaining that he is carried away by it. After a time he may become satis fied and settle down." "Yes, but perhaps at a fearful cost," said Mrs. Arnold sadly. The conversation was not again re newed, but Mrs. Arnold did not stop thinking, nor did her thoughts become less troubled. "What it William should get to drinking ?" and the thought sent the blood to her heart in quick beat. "I almost wish I had never come to the city," she said to Nina one day. "Why?" .' "Oh!-cvervthincr seems different and 'strange. "But, mother, you do not work so haul, do you ?" . "I cannot see much difference as re gards that," replied her mother. "It takes much more time to fix and go to market than it did tp go to the cellar and get what I w ant for the table ; and I think your father works much harder now than when on. the farm." "I have noticd father looking pale," said Nina, "but I thought it was be cause he was indoors all the time." Spring came at last, but spring in the city is very different from spring in the country. There everything sings, a joyous welcome, from the boisterous, child to the tiny blossom wThich lifts its head in beauty, and lends its breath of fragrance to the vernal morn. "O mother !" said James, one beauti ful morning early in May, "how grand the old place must look in the sunshine this morning. I wonder if the robin has built his nest in the sweet-apple tree by the barn yet, or if the swallows have harbored . in the old hay-house yet ? Wouldn't I like to be there this miu. ute ?" "Well, I wouldn't," said William 1 You don't get me back to the farm again "What will you do?" inquired James. "I'll go.to sea if I don't get anything els3 to do." ' "I'm afiaid you will never get any- thing to do, my son, loafing on the streets as! you do," said his father a little sternly. "I thuik there will be an opening in the shop soon." I do not vant to learn the carpen ter's trade," said William. WThat trade do you want to learn ?" asked his father. "None at all." "Oh ! he wants to be a merchant or a professor," said James. "I do not want to be a Country Jake' a"aia, tending horses and cows. That work I'll leave for you, James." uWell," answered James, "you may be the professor, I will be the farmer, Mother, wouldn't you like to be fixing Up the garden now ?" ' i ' "Yes, James. And I should like to seethe old place this morning. The orchard must be all in blossom now." "Well, mother," said Nina, "I am sure you need not miss the garden, for you can get things as ! nice at the mar ket." , "I do not know where I am to keep mv butter and milk when the warm weather comes, without a cellar." "It'll be very easy keeping the milk, mother, 'cause its more than half water. Guess it won't thicken much." f His mother smilled pleasantly, and .all arose from the breakfast-table, each one going about his own work. It was with many a sigh and tear 7 I . ' ' ' h08.1 Mrs. Arnold watched the changing course of her oldest sou. He took no l,ains t0 look for employment, but eve- ry night, when ho could get enough money, found him at the theatre, and when he could get no money to pay his way there, he loafed about with whatever churns he could find. Finally, one night he was brought home in a drunken state. What she had feared had, indeed, come upon hert O mother! where now are thy, fond -t hopes for thy first-btrfn ? Far less an guish would it be to &now that he rest ed upon the hill-side in the country graveyard than Iviug before thee, senser and honor lost in the poisonous cup. Mrs. Arnold helped her unconscious son up the stairs to hiswQwn3ooinf and alter seeing him in bed safely, she left the room, mentally determined that no one should know her boy's shame" and her own disgrace.. But we cannot always hide-such things when we wish to. Other eyes than Mrs. Arnold's had seen William. .Mrs. Taylor, the land-lad-, had heard the bustle at the door, and, as almost any other person would have done, she peeped out of her pal lor door, and saw what was going on'. "I am sorry for you," she said, as Mrs Arnold came through the hall; ' "but young men will commit wrong acts sometimes." MrsArnold made no reply. Slier felt all the indelicacy of the proffered sympathy, and could not laccept it. "Vhat was it, mother ?" asked Nina and James in one breath, as their moth er re-entered the sitting-room." "Nothing that would interest youny. children," was the quiet reply. Shortly after. James took a lamp,and went up to his room. , "Be careful not to disturb William." - i said his mother j "he is not very well to night." i i ' ' That was a night of mental anguish for Sirs-. Arncld, the first that she had ever known, and, oh! how bitter- 'was the cup. There was a twinge of re morse, too, withal, for she thought " if they had remained at the farm some off this might have been avoided. She"' could not help contrasting her life in the city to that in the couutry. Sho saw her inistake, and, noblo woman as she was, confessed it t-6 herself, and re solved to set herself to remedy it. ' The next morning found William awake, and perfectly a wire of the shame that ho had brought upon him self andothers. "How," thought he-, "will I ever face my mother agam ? How could I have so far forgottoii my-: self as to be led into such a thing?" He was aroused by a quiet knock at his room door. "Who's there ?" ; - n V "I, my son. Do you want your breakfast now ?" "Not yet. I will come down fircn ently." The more he thought ot what had happened, the more reluctance he felt at sceing his pareuts again. lie deter- mined to dress himself, slip out unseen,, and go he knew n t where but any where out of sight of those he knew.' So, acting upon this sudden impulse,, he arose and was soon dressed, and slipping down stairs sofilly, opencditba: ' frontdoor, and was gone.. Ah wayward boy !. many will ba thy heart-aches and hardships ere thy moth er's dear voice falls again on thy ear, . and far deeper the sorrow of her true heart to kno w her boy is gone from her, sight. - -. . Mrs. Arnold waited long for Wil liam to come downstairs, and finally ventured again to hi room. She first knocked gently at the door. Keceiv-. ing no answer, she called Still no anr. swer. Then she opened the door the. result the reader already knoWs but wordscannotexpressthemother'sanguiab when she saw that her boy had gone.. Nor can we attempt to describe boflf day after day she watohed aad waited for his return, or for some tiding o him. But none camfe. And thus weeks, lenghtened into months, and the sunv mer was, indeed, upon them. The city had been tolerable daring the winjter but now it was intolerable to the Aj nolds. James, according as had ; been, I promised, had gone to. the farm to worlq lor jur. ua wnngs. i ma siyi con.uauet at school and Mrs. Arnold had several times noticed her daughter's languid, step and pale fa.ee and bad questioned her as to her health. Bat Nina always said she was well. , "Nina studies too hard,,A said Mn Brown one day. I tbjok she needs rest. Vacation will soon come, th we will see her picljj up again " "I wish bhe was ir the country," t said her mother. ? "I.wish we were allth.er again" said " y. f r r r ... . . On-- :-:S 7K
Spirit of the Age [1873-1???] (Raleigh, NC)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 20, 1870, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75