The Personal History of Jim Duncan. A chronicle of small beer

Chapter I

Somewhere about the year 1845, in Stapleton, one of the small villages which line the shores of Staten Island, there stood a small wooden house, remarkable in nothing but its similarity to dozens of others in the same street. It was a white wooden house with green shutters, a style of building so common in those days that when ambiguity was aimed at by the small boy of the period in his directions to the passer-by, who asked his way to a certain place, he told him to go along the road to a " white house with green shutters, and then vol. I. B turn down the next street," by following which advice the unlucky stranger would soon find himself anywhere or nowhere, as the case might be. Still, as this humble structure once carried me and my fortunes, it is deserving of the all importance which attaches to this truthful story.

My family, consisting of my father, mother and one sister, had moved to this place a few months before my birth ; having settled upon it, as an advantageous spot, from which to make explorations with a view of finding and locating a permanent home further up country. My father was an oculist and had a large practice in those days, in the city of New York, whither he went every day to attend to his business, crossing New York bay in a small steam ferry boat. During the few years before I came upon the scene my parents had not lived happily together. My father was of a quick, im pulsive nature, full of aspirations, which having budded in the country home he had left as a boy, had blossomed under the influences of city life, into a character, the materials of which were excellent, but the composition faulty.

There was a certain lack of balance. Too much quickness in seeing an end for the amount of con servatism by which legitimate ends are generally reached. Too many good instincts in proportion to his power of controlling them. But take him, for all in all, he was a kindly and a generous man. Honest, high minded and sincere ; of untiring energy and deep convictions. I think of him now in looking back upon those days as one to whom it came naturally to be good. His mistakes were largely due to misdirected impulses, themselves creditable. He was physically a handsome man, tall, of slight mould, dark hair, blue expressive eyes, and a brown beard which he generally kept close cut. His hands were delicately formed and admirably adapted to the minute operations of his profession. A natural sense of beauty and fitness prevailed in his selection of dress and all his belongings.

He bore the stamp of a born gentleman. B My mother was totally different in tem perament, and the union of my parents should have produced the happy result which often attends the association of dissimilar minds, but this was unfortunately not the case. With antecedents all tending to conservatism, and the practical virtues, some unhappy circumstance or condition had interfered with the proper development of her nature, and left in the place of what might have been a strong and kindly character, a disposition remarkable in its ability to make herself and every one around her miserable. My father had married young, and at the time I am speaking of, found himself tied to a woman older than himself, totally unsympathetic with his rising ambitions, unattractive in person, and negligent of his comforts.

His pride was humiliated every day by the ruthless manner in which his unfortunate marriage broke up all his plans for the adornment of his family life ; and as sociating as he did with the best people of a great city, the contrast that he found between his own home and theirs, must have been mortifying indeed. Thus my early years were spent in an atmosphere of dissension and unhappiness. I can well remember the quarrels and bickerings which generally arose in the discussion of some trifling matter, such as the manner of dressing a child or attending to its health. These disputes would often lead to days of estrangement, during which neither would speak to the other, the communication between them being carried on through the medium of a servant. The children of such a marriage could not be expected to refrain from forming their own views as to whom this condition of things was attributable, and with one accord we took up arms on the side of our father.

He was our champion and defender, as well as our delight. It was he who planned all our amusements and directed our childish enterprises. He was a child with us. Young' as we were, he had our full sympathy in his marital troubles, and the poor man often turned to us for comfort or advice. The childish interest we took in his business, his ambitions and his troubles, must have touched him deeply, and the tears often stood in his eyes, when after a scene with my mother, he would turn to us appealingly, as if wondering whether the justice of his case did not reach even our youthful intelligence. He never appealed in vain. Sorrow, and a certain sense of responsibility had already made us older than our years, and at that tender age, we discussed subjects which are generally reserved for maturer life.

There came a time when my father could no longer endure his surroundings. He saw his children growing up with no elevating home influences about them. My mother's temper became more and more insupportable. Other children were added to the family, and with them came a certain disintegration, I might call it, of the poor woman's nervous system, which rendered her at times almost insane. A change in our family life took place about this time, which had a decided influence upon its subsequent fortunes. There was an English family in our street, by the name of Black. The household consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Black, and a maiden sister of the latter, named Janet Crowley. The intimacy between the two families had grown naturally from the close contact of village life, and there was much in Mr. Black that attracted the admiration of an enthusiast like my father.

Mr. Black in his early days had been upon the stage. This fact in itself was enough to inspire interest in a small community like ours, but in addition to the accomplishments which are supposed to be peculiar to an actor, he possessed a capital singing voice, a wonderful power of mimicry, and a certain deftness with his hands, in performing tricks with cards and other phenomena, which rendered him invaluable in the society which he adorned. He was a man of some attractions in other ways. Still young, perhaps thirty, at the time I speak of, of good address, and of fairly handsome exterior, rather inclined to fat, perhaps, but with enough elasticity and grace to carry it withal. There is an indescribable something about a man who has . been trained to bearing himself well, which frequently goes further than personal beauty or even intellectuality.

Black had neither the one nor the other, but he was a man who would he facile princeps in almost any society short of the best. There was a breezy assurance about him, which was calculated to take one off his guard, and which often put a much abler man at a disadvantage in dealing with him. Such a man was my father, young, enthusiastic, confiding, and in trouble. All the elements which a nature like Black's would revel in controlling ; and yet, in inherent worth, the two were to each other as a cobble stone to a diamond. Black surrounded himself with an air of mystery as to his financial resources. He had no apparent means of support, except teaching music, and in receiving a compensation for this, it was understood that it was done under protest, and with an anxious desire to relieve his pupils from what might otherwise appear as an obligation.

Intima tions were sometimes given by the ladies of the family, that Mrs. Black, a stout middle aged woman, was possessed of an income ; but if you judged by the manner in which they lived, it must have been a small one indeed. Their house was a tumble-down affair outside, but with the English instinct for making any surroundings, however humble, appear comfortable, the interior was cosy though homely. A few relics of better days were conspicuously prominent, such as a mahogany side-board with an ostentatious show of some time-honoured, but otherwise rather ordinary looking pieces of silver upon it. A few pictures representing their ancestors in more or less unbecoming costumes, but with expressions of selfsatisfaction on their faces, which made it an easy task to see where the Black savoir faire came from, hung on the walls.

Another relic was a large silver urn of a shape which rendered it absolutely unfit for any useful purpose whatever, bearing an inscription from which one could gather that it had been presented to the father of Mrs. Black, who must have been a physician, by a " grateful patient." " My father had an immense practice in London, you know, my dear," Mrs. Black would say, while exhibiting this urn to an admiring guest, " and used to receive the greatest number of valuable gifts from his patients." They were all sent by people he had cured, or who wanted to get their bills cut down by creat ing a counter obligation. But they all sent letters with the things, in which they signed themselves " your grateful patient," so and so. My mother, when she saw one of these parcels coming, used frequently to say, " There's another ' Gr.P.,' " and this became quite a household word in our family.

One would suppose, from Mrs. Black's account, that a large portion of the house must be devoted to the storage of these valuables ; but a minute inspection of the premises failed to reveal them to the eyes of us young folks. Their presence somewhere, however, was one of those beautiful forms of belief around which a child's fancies love to hover; and the idea of the invisible existence of these treasures was one which years of conflict with the world have failed utterly to extinguish. Certain indications now went to show that the Black family, with even these resources in reserve, had been for some time drifting into pecuniary embarrassments. There was a cloud occa sionally to be seen upon the smiling face of Black. It was observed to be periodical in its appearance, generally occurring about the four quarter days of the year.

At the time of its greatest obscuration Mr. Black's face was anything but a happy one ; but in a few days it would brighten up and the cloud would pass away. Lately however the obscurations came more frequently and lasted longer than was their wont, and stories affecting the solvency of our friend were in circulation. It was on one of these occasions that my father, walking home from the ferry to his own house, troubled, tired, and discouraged, ran against Black in the street. It was a dreadfully hot evening in August, one of those days when the vitality seems to have been literally baked out of the air. My father had had a hard day in town, his occupation, always a wearing one, was telling greatly upon him. The heat, his family troubles, perhaps the failure of some pet social ambition had all tended to oppress him, and as he strode along the village street in the fading twilight, his usually erect figure seemed to stoop as if wearied with its own weight.

He looked pale and care worn, and as he entered the little gate of his own yard he sighed as if to say, " I need rest, but what rest shall I find here ? " He had entered the yard and was just ascend ing the porch when he heard a voice calling to him from across the way. Turning round he saw Black beckoning to him. My father, tired as he was, would willingly have avoided the meeting w*hich he saw was inevitable, but could not do so without offending Black, who had already obtained great influence over him. In fact he had felt a presentiment that something unusual was about to occur between himself and his friend, so that it was with a certain degree of curiosity as well as disinclination that he re-opened the gate and crossed the street to where Black was standing. An indication of the balance of power which exists between men, is apparent in little things.

The strong man in intellect or in brute force has not to use his strength in controlling the weaker one. A tacit understanding that the one has the greater power in reserve is sufficient to compel the acquiescence of the other to his will. The way in which a man shakes hands with you, and taking you by the arm, leads you in the direction in which he happens to be going ; or the way in which another will send a messenger asking you to call on him instead of going to you, indicates that he is the greater power ; you admit it by non-resistance. So Black beckoned and my father came. As the distance was lessened between the two men, my father could see that Black was greatly agitated. He was leaning against the wooden railing which separated the street from the adjacent yards. His arms were folded, but not in contemplation ; he was evidently trying to nerve himself for a great effort — he was about to play for a stake which amounted to social life or death.

My father started as he observed the ex pression of calm despair in his friend's face ; he had never seen it there before, and, although he had heard the stories about Black's difficulties, they had not as yet assumed the form of conviction in his mind. My father held out his hand and wished his friend good evening. " Good evening," answered Black, moodily, An embarrassed pause ensued, neither evidently being inclined to begin the con versation. At last Black broke the silence by saying, "Duncan, I'm a ruined man." My father was about to reply when Black went on without heeding him, " I'm utterly and irretrievably ruined, and I don't know where to turn for help, unless you can do something for me." My father was about to express his willingness to do anything in his power, when Black interrupted him by saying, " Don't promise too quickly, or until you understand what you are going to under take."

There was something in the man's manner which indicated that although he was a suppliant, he had not abandoned the position of command he had always held over my father. " My case is a peculiar one," he continued, "and needs a special and complete remedy, or the crash might as well come now, as at any time. I have been living on make shifts long enough ; it is now a question as to whether I leave the village in disgrace, or make some arrangement by which I can live in it as a gentleman. My wife has had a beggarly income of a hundred pounds a year from a relative in England, whose circumstances are not what they were, and we are liable to lose even this. I have so far managed to make this answer for our wants, eking it out by teaching music, but I have gradually run into debt. My rent has been in arrears for many months.

I was induced to give a note to pay it. The infernal bill has become due, and I have no means of meeting it. That means, of course, a law suit, judgment, and a sheriff's sale of our furniture. " Besides this I owe money in every shop in the place. I have liked to live well, and the people here have been fools enough to trust me. But that is all over now, and they have all jumped upon me at once. I can't pay them without money, and money I have not got. " If I leave here," he went on, " I don't know where to go. I am not adapted to earning my living in any place where I am not known, and I see nothing but destruc tion wherever I turn. " Now, Duncan, I have a proposition to make to you which I think will serve us both ; your household is going to the devil, by a different road to mine, to be sure, but just as certainly.

Every child in the village can see that Mrs. Duncan is no housekeeper. Your living costs you twice what it should do, and you have only about half the comforts you ought to enjoy for the money you spend. Now you know what a splendid manager my wife is, and how well we live on a pittance of what you waste. My proposition is simply this. Let us join forces ; we will give up our house, and come and live with you. There is plenty of room in yours for us ; you can dismiss your servants, who are no good, and we will bring ours who, you know, are what servants ought to be. We will put our experience in managing against your furnishing the material to manage, and I warrant you we will both be gainers by the arrangement." My father tried to put in a word here, to the effect that the proposition had taken him by surprise, and that he would like to think it over, and so forth ; but Black stopped him short by saying, — " Don't decide this matter in a hurry, that is not in too much of a hurry ; if you take very long it will be too late, for I shall have come to grief ; but take a reasonable vol. 1. c time, and I am sure you will see the justice of what I say.

The chief difficulty will be in overcoming the prejudices of your wife, who everyone knows is a peculiar woman," said Black, looking significantly at my father ; " but what does that amount to ? ask her consent for form's sake, and if she does not give in, make her ; and that is all there is about it." The conversation had lasted until well into the evening, and my father had not yet dined. Black knew this, but was willing to keep him waiting until his pro posed plan had been fully laid before him. This had now been done, and he allowed him to go with a parting admonition to let him know his decision in three days, which my father promised to do. He then re crossed the street and wearily entered his own house. He had hardly closed the door when my mother met him in the entry with the inquiry, — " Well, Edward, what on earth have you been talking with Mr. Black about all this time ?

I thought you would never be done. Your dinner is quite spoiled, and the children have gone to bed long ago." " Mr. Black wished to see me about a little matter of business," said my father, " and detained me longer than he intended to. What have you got for dinner ? " " We had fish," replied my mother ; " but after waiting an hour for you, it has gone to the kitchen, and I don't suppose the servants have left much of it." " Send for whatever you have," said my father, desperately, " and let me know when it is on the table. I am going up stairs to refresh myself." What the servants had left of the dinner was soon served, and my father notified. He sank languidly into his chair, and surveyed the unattractive display of ill prepared food, saying impatiently, — " Well, the remains of the dinner are like the remains of my own appetite, they neither amount to much."

" It's your own fault, my dear," re sponded my mother ; " you shouldn't be late for your meals." c "That's all very well, but I wasn't late for dinner yesterday, and you know what a mess I sat down to." " Mess, indeed ! " exclaimed my mother angrily ; " to be sure the meat was burnt, and the pudding was not a success, but the rest of the dinner was good enough, considering our circumstances, and you certainly ought not to complain when you think how many are worse off than our selves." " I don't wish to complain, my dear," said my father, " but it is not a question of economy entirely. Our friends, the Blacks, on a quarter of what that miserable dinner of ours cost, would have had a feast, or what is better yet, a simple but well-served meal." " You always bring up the Blacks," said my mother, whimpering; "I'm sure it's very unpleasant to hear comparisons which are always unfavourable to our own."

" The comparisons are just," said my father sadly ; " ' our own,' as you call them, are greatly, immeasurably inferior to other people's * own.' I see this because I come in contact with many families whose incomes are smaller than ours, but who manage to live much more comfortably. In fact, Lucy," said he, laying down his knife and fork, and turning towards her, " I am discouraged with the life we are leading. I do not blame you entirely for it, or, more properly, I don't find fault with your intentions, but what I think is this : you have had very little training in housekeeping, you are nervously excitable, and your children occupy much of your time. Now it occurs to me, that if you could find some one who would accept the position of housekeeper — some one of ex perience, you know — things might go better."

My father was feeling his ground gingerly for a foothold in the Black question. " That would be a great expense," said my mother thoughtfully, " and I don't see exactly where we could put her. There's the little room off the nursery, to be sure ; but we always want that in case of sickness ; and then I don't see how I could get along with any other woman in my own house. I have been very nervous of late, and I really don't think I could stand the excitement of such a change." " My dear," said my father, " suppose I could get a person like Mrs. Black, for instance, to take charge of our house, don't you think we could arrange to find room, temporarily you know, until our new house is finished?" " What are you thinking of ? " exclaimed my mother in great excitement. Mrs. Black ! why, she could not leave her family, and if she could, she is the last woman in the world I should want in my house.

I hate her. You are always holding her up as an example to me, which is quite enough, but besides that, I consider her common, low bred, egotistical, selfish, interfering." "Hold on!" said my father, laughing; " you are making the poor woman out a terrible character. I can't quite agree with you, however. She is, perhaps, not as refined as some ladies I know, but that is not exactly what I'm looking for. I want my comforts a little better attended to than I think you are capable of doing, and I also wish to relieve you of responsibility. I think I see a way now to accomplish both ends. Mr. Black tells me he wants to break up housekeeping, and has suggested our joining forces ; they coming to our house in the capacity of managers, and we to attend to the providing. I think some such arrangement might be made, and I should like you to think it over."

" Edward, I think you must have lost your senses," said my mother. " Do you suppose I would ever consent to another woman assuming my place in my house hold ? I cannot consent. You might as well make up your mind to that at once, and for ever." " Well, my dear," said my father, " think it over for a few days. You may change your mind." " I never shall, Edward. Of course, you have the power to do as you will in the matter, but I can't think you will make me submit to such an indignity. You must see that a woman could never endure it for a moment." My father saw, as often happens in the history of family life, that the time had come when he must assert himself, or relinquish all idea of supremacy under his own roof. He had been working himself up to this position for some time ; but it was with a struggle that he undertook a responsibility so grave as that of bringing two women of strong prejudices togetherunder the arrangement he proposed.

He did not wish to appear tyrannical, but he did desire a change, and he was too young and inexperienced to see the whirl pool into which he was drifting. " Well, Lucy," he said, " God knows I wish to consult your views as far as I can, but in this case I really think my judgment is better than yours ; and if I don't see any better reason to change my mind in the next three days than I do now, I shall decide in favour of the move, and you must make the best of it you can. The time has come when we must have some organization in our family, and I think the opportunity is providential." My poor, mother protested and begged my father to reconsider his plans, but, at the end of three days, the latter had given his friend notice that he had accepted his pro position, and arrangements were made for a speedy removal of the Black family to our dwelling.

Chapter II

Adequately to express the feelings with which my poor mother regarded the up heaval which now took place in our home would take a more practised pen than mine. Added to the natural indignation with which any wife would resent her dethrone ment in her own home by another woman, there was a clinging to old superstitions, and an inherent dislike of change so deeply in grafted in my mother's nature, that it made her trial doubly hard to bear. Woe be to any one who assails a woman in the citadel of her peculiar rights. Our family history shows the truth of this saying. My mother in a few weeks found herself sitting at the side of the table which in all right and justice she should have headed. She had nothing to say in the management of her own household. Mrs. Black super seded her in everything except the actual care of the children, and even as to that, she made so many suggestions that my mother soon found herself almost reduced to the position of a nurse in her own family.

It is fair to say, however, that a vast improvement was soon observable in our little manage. The house had a trig, com fortable look to which it had been a stranger before the advent of the Blacks. Our slatternly servants had been replaced by a thoroughly good English cook and a man servant. We had only retained one woman, a nurse, to whom my mother and the elder children clung with such desperation that the Blacks agreed with my father that it would be an act of needless cruelty to dismiss her. This young woman, it is needless to say, took up cudgels on the side of my mother with a vindictiveness and hatred of the new comers which was only measured by the love she bore that injured lady and her children. So that while the organization of our household was progressing favourably to all out ward appearances, mines were being laid and cabals formed which were ultimately des tined to disrupt the whole fabric of our home.

It was about this time that my father began to think seriously of carrying out his long cherished plan of buying land, and building a dwelling worthy the house of Duncan. In this, and all his ambitious schemes, he was stimulated by Black, who had gained an almost complete ascendency over him. My father was now experiencing for the first time the satisfaction which every man feels in the possession of a well-ordered home. He took pride in asking his friends to dine with him, feeling sure that he could offer them an entertainment of which he need not feel ashamed. His profession also felt the stimulus of his new ambitions. He was enjoying a large and increasing income, and his only desire was to elevate his social and family life. My father, of course, credited Black with the improve ment in his fortunes.

My father and his inseparable companion now began making explorations into the country in quest of land suitable for building upon. One Sunday morning they had strolled out, partly to enjoy the walk, and partly to look at a small farm which had been offered for sale, when, on taking a short cut through a piece of woodland, they came to an open field, rather elevated above the surrounding country, and yet not enough so to be called a hill. They reached a spot from which they obtained a charming view of a sort of amphitheatre, lying beautifully among the low hills of that part of the country, the eminence on which they were standing being located about in the middle of it. Both gentlemen were struck at once with the suitableness of this spot for their purpose. Black was enthusiastic, saying it reminded him of the midland counties of England, where he had lived.