Sustained honor: The Age of Liberty Established

  CHAPTER V.

  FERNANDO'S JOURNEY EAST. HE MEETS WITH QUEER PEOPLE.

  From the day Fernando Stevens began to read and learn of the great worldbeyond the narrow confines of his western home, he was filled with thelaudable ambition to know more about it. The solitude of the wildernessmay be congenial for meditation; but it is in the moving whirl ofhumanity that ideas are brightened. Fernando was promised that if hewould master the common school studies taught in their log schoolhouse,he should be sent to one of the eastern cities to have his educationcompleted. Albert Stevens, the lad's father, was becoming one of themost prosperous farmers of the west. He had purchased several tracts ofland which rapidly increased in value, and his flocks and herdsmultiplied marvelously. He was in fact regarded as "rich" in those daysof simplicity. He had sent several flatboats loaded with grain down theOhio and Mississippi to New Orleans and sold the cargoes at greatprofit, so that, in addition to his fields, his stock and houses, hehad between three and four thousand dollars in money.

  Fernando grew to be a tall, slender youth, and in 1806 having finishedhis education, so far as the west could afford, his father determined tosend him to the East, where it was hoped he would develop into a lawyeror a preacher. The mother hoped the latter. His brother and sister hadgrown up, married and were settled on farms in the neighborhood, takingon the same existence of their parents; living honest, peaceful andunambitious lives.

  The youth Fernando was more inclined to mental than physical activity,and his parents, possessing an abundance of common sense, decided not toforce him to engage in an occupation distasteful to him.

  What school should he enter? was a question which the father longdebated. There were Harvard and Yale, both famous seats of learning, andthere were any number of academies all over the country. Captain Stevensfinally decided to allow the youth to make his own selection, giving himmoney sufficient to take a little tour in the eastern States, beforesettling down.

  Captain Stevens had a well-to-do neighbor, who lived across Bear Creek,by the name of Winners. Old Zeb Winners was one of those quaintproducts of the West. He was an easy-going man, proverbially slow ofspeech and movement, and certainly the last person on earth one wouldexpect to become rich; yet he was wealthy. With all his slothfulness hewas shrewd, and could drive a better bargain than many men twice asactive in mind and body. One morning after it had become noised abroadthat Fernando was going away to college, Mr. Winners rode up to thehouse on his big sorrel mare, her colt following, and, dismounting, tiedthe mare to the rail fence and entered the gate.

  "Good mornin', cap'in, good mornin'," said the visitor.

  "Come in, Mr. Winners. Glad to see you. Hope you are all well!"

  "Oh, yes, middlin' like," answered the farmer entering the house withoutthe ceremony of removing his hat. A chair was offered, and he sat for amoment with his hands spread out before the fireplace, his hat still onhis head. There was no fire in the fireplace, for it was late in May;but Mr. Winners held his hands before it, from habit.

  "Wall, cap'in, I do hear as how yer goin' ter send yer boy Fernando tocollege."

  "I am."

  "Wall, that air a good notion. Now I ain't got no book larnin' myself;but I don't object to nobody else gittin' none. I've made up my mind tosend one of my boys along with 'im, ef ye've no objection."

  Of course Captain Stevens had no objection. Which of his boys was hegoing to send?

  "I kinder thought az how I'd send Sukey."

  Sukey was a nickname given a tall, lazy youth named Richard Winners. Whyhe had been nicknamed Sukey we have never been able to ascertain; butthe sobriquet, attached to him in childhood, clung to him all throughlife. Sukey was like his father, brave, slow, careful, but a steadfastfriend and possessed of considerable dry humor. He took the world easyand thought "one man as good as another so long as he behaved himself."

  It was arranged that Sukey and Fernando should start in a week for NewYork, from which point they might select any college or school theychose. The mail stage passed the door of farmer Winners, crossed the bigbridge and then passed the home of Captain Stevens. Captain Stevens'house was no longer a cabin in the wilderness. It was a large,substantial two-story farm mansion, with chimneys of brick instead ofsticks and mud. The forests had shrunk back for miles, making place forvast fields, and the place had the appearance of a thrifty farm.

  Fernando's trunk was packed, and he sat on the door-step in his bestclothes awaiting the appearance of the stage. At last the rumblingthunder of wheels rolling over the great bridge smote his ears, and afew moments later the vehicle came up to the gate. The six prancinghorses were drawn up, and the vehicle stopped, while the driver cried:

  "All aboard!"

  Sukey was in the stage, his dark eyes half closed. He roused himself todrawl out:

  "Come on, Fernando, we're off now, for sure."

  While two farm hands, assisted by the driver, placed the trunk in theboot, Fernando bade father and mother adieu. Sister had come over withher husband and the baby. His brother with his young wife were presentto bid the young seekers after knowledge adieu. They followed Fernandoto the stage coach and cried:

  "Good bye, Sukey! take good care of Fernando!" and Sukey drawled out:

  "Who'll take keer o' me?"

  The last good bye's were said, and the great stage coach rolled on. Theimpressions of the young frontiersmen on approaching the first town werestrange and indescribable. The number of houses and streets quiteconfused them. There seemed to be little or no order in the constructionof streets, and everybody seemed in a bustle and confusion. Theystopped over night at a tavern, and at early dawn the stage horn awokethem, and after a hasty breakfast they were again on their journey.

  Several weeks were spent in traveling from town to town, and onSeptember 1st, 1807, they found themselves in New York City, stillundecided where they would go.

  One morning Fernando went for his usual walk toward the river, when alarge crowd of people at the wharf attracted his attention. Drawingnear, he saw a curious-looking boat on the water, the like of which hehad never seen before. It was one hundred feet long, twelve feet wideand seven feet deep. There was a staff or mast at the bow, another atthe stern. From a tall chimney there issued volumes of smoke, while froma smaller pipe there came the hissing of boiling water and white steam.Two great, naked paddle-wheels were on the boat, one on each side nearthe middle. Fernando thought this must be the toy of which he had heardso much, being constructed by Robert Fulton and Chancellor Livingston.On one side of the boat was painted the name _Clermont_.

  "What is that?" Fernando asked of a rollicking, fun-loving youngIrishman about twenty-two or three years of age, who stood near.

  "Faith, sir, it's a steamboat. We have all come to see her launched.They call her the _Clermont_; but it's mesilf as thinks she ought to be_Fulton's Folly_, for divil a bit do I believe she'll go acable's length."

  Fernando and his new acquaintance drew nearer. The hissing of the steamand the roaring of the furnaces were fearful.

  "Do you know Robert Fulton?" Fernando asked.

  "Indade, I do. Would you like to see the greatest lunatic out of Bedlam?Then it's mesilf as will point him out to yez."

  "I should like to see him."

  There were a number of men at work on the boat, all expressing thewildest eagerness and anxiety. They were rushing forward and aft, aboveand below, to those ponderous engines and boilers; but no one could seewhat they did. At last Mr. Fulton, the great inventor, appeared. He wasa large, smooth-shaved gentleman, with a long head and melancholy grayeye. On his nose was a smut spot from the machinery. Thousands were nowassembled to witness the trial voyage. Mr. Livingston gave the order tocast off, and start the vessel. The lines were loosed and the steamturned on. Loud hissed the confined monster; but the wheels did notmove. What was the matter?

  "Failure!" was on every tongue, and the crowd assembled already beganto hoot and jeer. Mr. Fulton's face expressed the deepest anxiety. Heran below to inspec
t the machinery. A bolt had caught. This was removed,and then the ponderous wheels began to move. The great paddles churnedthe water to a mass of foam, and the boat glided forward against windand tide at a rate of speed astonishing. Fernando saw Robert Livingstonstanding in the stern waving his handkerchief at the crowd which was nowsending up cheer after cheer. The American flag was run up on the staff,and the steamboat continued on her course up the river to Albany, makingthe distance of one hundred and sixty miles in thirty-six hours againstwind and tide; and from that time until now, navigation by steam, traveland commerce, has been steadily increasing in volume and perfection,until such vessels may be seen on every ocean and in almost every harborof the globe, even among the ice packs of the polar seas. This was thesecond of the great and beneficent achievements which distinguishedAmerican inventors at that early period of our country's struggles. Thecotton-gin, invented by Eli Whitney, was the first; an implement thatcould do the work of a thousand persons in cleaning cotton wool of theseeds. That machine has been one of the most important aids in theaccumulation of our national wealth.

  Fernando Stevens stood on the wharf among the assembled thousands,watching the steamer until it disappeared far up the river. He was lostin wonder and amazement and was first aroused from his reverie by theyoung man at his side saying:

  "Don't she bate the divil?"

  It was his skeptical Irish friend.

  Fernando turned to him and asked, "What do you think of it now?"

  "Faith, she's a bird, so she is. Don't she cleave the water?"

  From this time, the two became acquainted, and Fernando learned that theyoung Hibernian's name was Terrence Malone. Terrence was a true Irishmanof the good old type. He was brave as a lion, full of native wit andhumor, and yet an intelligent gentleman. From the first, he took a greatfancy to Fernando and when he learned that he had come from the West toenter some academy or college, he informed him that he knew of theplace--the very place. It was the Baltimore Academy. He was a member ofthe Baltimore school himself and he was sure there was not another likeit in the world. In short, the dashing young Irishman soon persuadedFernando to try the Baltimore school.

  He went back to the tavern where he had left Sukey writing letters.

  "What was all that catterwaulin' and yellin' about down at the river?"Sukey asked.

  "The new steamboat began her trial trip," answered Fernando.

  "Wonder if that thing I saw with a stovepipe in it was a steamboat?"

  "It was."

  Sukey shook his head sagely and remarked:

  "It don't look as if it would ever amount to much."

  "Sukey, I have found a school for us at last."

  "Where?"

  "At Baltimore."

  "What d'you want to go there for?"

  "I met a young man who belongs there, and he advised us to go."

  "Who is he?"

  "His name is Terrence Malone, an Irishman."

  "That name's not French any way. How are we going to Baltimore?"

  "A schooner sails to-morrow."

  "Can we go in her?"

  "Yes."

  "Plague take the sea! I never tried it, and I don't want to."

  "It will be a short voyage."

  "Short, yes, but long enough to make me sick. I don't want to be in thegame. I am not a water dog. Keep me on the dry land, and I'm all right."

  But Fernando knew that a journey by land would take much longer than bysea. Terrence Malone came to see them that evening and informed themthat the schooner would sail next day. He was a jolly young fellow andhad so many droll stories and jokes, that he kept his companions in aroar of laughter. One joke followed another in such rapid successionthat the youngsters had scarce done laughing at one, before he firedanother at them.

  "Baltimore is the most wonderful city in the world, barin Cork," thefair-haired son of the Emerald Isle declared. "There you find gallantgintlemen and the prettiest girls on earth. Ah! if you could but see myKitty Malone! She's a beauty, just a trifle older than mesilf, but everyinch a darlint. Her head is red, her face a trifle freckled, her body'sso stout that the girt of a mule wouldn't encircle her waist," and hereTerrence winked, "She plays on the wash-board an illigant tune, forwhich she charges a half a dime a garment."

  "Did you ever meet with such a jolly fellow?" laughed Fernando when hewas gone.

  "No," Sukey answered. "He has made my sides ache."

  Next day found the westerners on board the schooner sailing out fromthe harbor of New York. The skipper was half tipsy, his crewinsubordinate, and for awhile no one seemed to know or care whither theywent. The captain had such frequent recourse to his demijohn, that itwas evident that he would soon be wholly unfit for duty. At lastTerrence declared he would have to take matters in hand himself.

  The sea was rough, and both Fernando and Sukey were too sick to leavetheir bunks long at the time.

  "Jist ye lie still there, like a darlint, and lave the skipper to me,"said Terrence to Fernando. "Not another divil of a drop shall he have,until we are safe in Baltimore."

  Then he went away, leaving Fernando wholly in ignorance of his plan. Atlast, becoming anxious about him, he went out to see what he was doing.The schooner was rolling heavily and Fernando was so sick he couldscarcely stand, yet he crept out under the lee of the cabin and saw asight that made him smile.

  Terrence and the captain were sitting on the deck playing cards. Theyoung Irishman had won two demijohns and three jugs of rum from thecaptain, and he was now playing for the last pint flask the skipperpossessed. The young Irishman won it and carried his property to hisstateroom, and when the skipper next applied for a drink,Malone answered:

  "Divil a drop will ye get, till we are safe in Baltimore." The captainplead in vain. Terrence was firm, and the skipper in time became sober.

  Next morning it was discovered that owing to the drunkenness andcarelessness of the captain and crew, they had drifted far out to sea.The waves rolled high, and the little schooner plunged about in a mannerfrightful to a landlubber.

  Fernando was awakened by a groan. It was Sukey, and going to his berthTerrence asked:

  "What's the matter, Sukey?"

  "I am dying!" he answered.

  "Courage, courage, me boy, ye'll get over it."

  "I don't want to get over it," answered Sukey, with a hollow groan.

  A few moments later the skipper came to beg for a morning dram.

  "Divil a drop, cap'in, until we are in Baltimore."

  "How long will it take to reach Baltimore, captain?" asked the seasickSukey.

  "Twenty-four hours."

  "Oh, Heavens!" groaned Sukey. "Can't you sink the ship?"

  "What do you want to sink for?" demanded the astounded skipper.

  "I'd rather drown than live twenty-four hours longer in this blamedboat."

  "You'll live over it," growled the thirsty skipper.

  "I don't want to live over it. I want to die."

  Terrence roared with laughter, then he told a funny story which seemedto increase the pangs of poor Sukey.

  By the middle of the afternoon, Fernando had recovered enough to go outon deck. He found the captain and his crew huddled up in the fore partof the deck, discussing a large, square-rigged ship, which was bearingtoward them. He heard one of the sailors say:

  "She flies English colors."

  A little later there was a puff of smoke from her forecastle and a balldashed into the water athwart their bow.

  "It's a cruiser, and that means to heave to; but blow my eyes if I doit!" cried the captain, who was opposed to search and impressment. Heput the schooner about and, with all sail spread, flew over the water ata rate of speed which defied pursuit. The cruiser fired several shotsafter them.

  "Who is that shootin'?" Sukey asked unconcernedly, as Fernando enteredthe wretched cabin.

  "A British man-of-war."

  "What is it shootin' at?"

  "At us."

  "I hope she will hit us and put me out o' this mis
ery," groaned Sukey.

  Fortunately for the chief characters of this story, the man-of-war didnot hit them, and next day they reached Baltimore. Sukey recovered hishealth with remarkable rapidity, and a few hours on shore made himquite himself.

  Terrence, who seemed to know the town thoroughly, conducted them to aninn where they were to remain until arrangements could be made forentering the school. Terrence took the two young men under his care in afatherly way, assuring them it would be bad luck to any who spoke ill ofthem; but Terrence could not be with them for several days. He hadurgent business in Philadelphia, which would require his absence.

  For a week after their arrival at Baltimore, their lives were of themost dreary monotony. The rain, which had begun to fall soon after theirarrival, continued to descend in torrents, and they found themselvesclose prisoners in the sanded parlors of the miserable inn. They couldbut compare this wretched place with the grand old forests and broadprairies of the West, and Sukey began to sigh for home.

  "Are you homesick already, Sukey?" asked Fernando.

  "I am not homesick--blast such a place as this--give me a country whereit don't rain 365 days out o' the year, and I'm content, home orabroad," growled Sukey.

  Their situation was by no means pleasant. Their front window looked outupon a long, straggling, ill-paved street, with its due proportion ofmud heaps and duck pools. The houses on either side were, for the mostpart, dingy-looking edifices, with half-doors, and such pretensions tobeing shops as the display of a quart of meal, salt, or string of redpeppers confers. A more wretched, gloomy-looking picture of woe-begonepoverty one seldom beheld.

  It was no better if they turned for consolation to the rear of thehouse. There their eyes fell upon the dirty yard of a dirty inn, and thehalf-covered cowshed, where two famishing animals mourned their hardfate as they chewed the cud of "sweet and bitter fancy." In addition,they saw an old chaise, once the yellow postchaise, the pride and gloryof the establishment, now reduced from its wheels and ignominiouslydegraded to a hen house. On the grass-grown roof, a cock had taken hisstand, with an air of protective patronage to the featheredinhabitants beneath.

  Sukey stood at the narrow window gazing out on the dreary and melancholyscene, while he heaved an occasional sigh.

  "If this is what you call gitten an education I don't want it," hedrawled at last. "I would rather go back to Ohio and hunt for deer orblack bear, than enjoy such amusement as this is."

  "Oh, it will get better," said Fernando.

  "It has great room for growing better."

  "But it might be worse."

  "Yes, we might be at sea."

  Their landlady, a portly woman with two marriageable daughters, did allin her power to make their stay pleasant. She praised Baltimore for itsbeauty and health, its picturesqueness and poetry. It was surelydestined to be the greatest city in the United States.

  When they were alone, Sukey pointed to the mud heaps and duck pools andgravely asked:

  "Do they show the poetry and picturesk of which she speaks? Is that oldchaise a sign of health or prosperity?"

  "Be patient, Sukey; we have seen little or none of Baltimore."

  "Plague take me if I haven't seen more than I want to see of it now,"growled Sukey.

  At last the weather cleared a little, and the sun shone brilliantly onthe pools of water and muddy street. The young gentlemen strolled forthto look about the town.

  When about to start from the inn, Sukey asked:

  "Say, Fernando, how are we goin' to find our way back?"

  This was a serious question for even Fernando. He reflected over it amoment and then said:

  "It's the house at the foot of the second hill with the road or streetthat winds around the cliff."

  "Wouldn't it be better to take hatchets and blaze the corners of thehouses as we go along?" suggested Sukey. Fernando smiled and thought theowners might raise some serious objections to having their housesblazed. They were still somewhat undecided in regard to the matter, whentheir landlady, with a movement about as graceful as the waddle of aduck, came down the rickety stairs, and they in despair appealed to her.She relieved them of their trouble in short order. On a piece of tinover her door was the number 611. She told them the name of the street,and assured them if they would remember that and the number, any onewould point it out to them. Besides they had only to remember the widowMahone, everybody in the town knew the widow Mahone.

  With this assurance of safe return, the two youngsters ventured forthinto the city. They were not as verdant as the reader may imagine. Bothhad been reared in the western wilderness and retained much of thepioneer traits about them; but books had been society for them, andtheir four months spent in New York and Boston had given them an urbanepolish. Sukey, however, had many inherent traits, which all the schoolscould not wholly eradicate.

  "I don't like towns," he declared, as they ascended a hill, which gavethem an excellent view of the harbor and shipping. "They are too close.I want elbow room, and as soon as I get through my college course, I amgoing back to the woods."

  "Won't your education be lost there?"

  "No; can't I be a lawyer, or a doctor, or a preacher as well there ashere? Besides, if we only sit down and wait awhile in Ohio, the citieswill come to us."

  "Yes, Sukey, you are right. Civilization is going West, and in course oftime the largest part of the republic will be west of the mountains." Ofcourse Fernando referred to the Alleghany Mountains, for the RockyMountains were hardly thought of at this date. "But come; we don't seemto be in the most populous part of the town. Let us go over the hillwhere the houses are better and look cleaner."

  "I am willing, for, to tell you the truth, this place smells too much ofthe sea."

  They went along a narrow street, which had a decidedly fishy odor, forthere were two markets on it. They passed an old woman carrying on herback a great bag which seemed filled with rags and waste papers gatheredup from the refuse of the street. Sukey wondered if that was the way shemade her living. At the corner was a low public house in which were somesailors drinking and singing songs.

  "Fernando, there is a fellow with a plaguy red coat on!" suddenly criedSukey, seizing his companion's arm.

  "Yes, he is an officer of the English army or navy."

  "Do they allow him here?"

  "Of course; we are at peace with England."

  "Well, I'd like to take that fellow down a bit. He walks too straight.Why he thinks he could teach Alexander somethin' on greatness."

  "Never mind him; come on."

  Next they met a party of half-drunken marines, who began to chafe them,and Sukey, though slow to wrath, was about to give them an exhibition offrontier muscle, when his friend got him away, and they hastened to abetter part of the city.

  Here they found beautiful residences, and on the next street weremagnificent stores and shops. Elegant carriages, drawn by horses inshining harness, indicating wealth, were seen. Elegantly dressed ladiesand gentlemen were premenading the street, or exchangingcongratulations. Sukey thought this would "sort o' do," and he wonderedwhy Terrence Malone had quartered them down in that miserable frog pond,when there was higher ground and better houses.

  While standing on the corner watching the gay equipages and handsomelydressed people, a carriage drawn by a pair of snow-white horses camesuddenly dashing down the street. The equipage, though one of the finestthey had ever seen, was stained with travel as if it had come froma distance.

  "There, Fernando, by zounds, there is some rich fellow you can be sure!"said Sukey as the vehicle drove by. "Egad! I would like to see who isinside of it."

  He had that privilege, for the carriage paused only half a block away,and an elderly man with a rolling, sailor-like movement got out andassisted a young girl of about sixteen to alight.

  "Jehosophat--Moses and Aaron's rod, my boy! do you see her?" gaspedSukey.

  "Yes."

  "Ain't she pretty?"

  "Hush! she may hear you."

  "Well
, if she'd get mad at that, she is different from most girls."

  "Her father might not think it much of a compliment."

  The coachman, closing the door of the carriage mounted his box and tookthe reins, while the pretty girl took her father's arm and came down thestreet passing the young men, who, we fear, stared at her rudely. Theywere hardly to be blamed for it, for she was as near perfection as agirl of sixteen can be. Tall, willowy form, with deep blue eyes, soft asa gazelle's, long, silken lashes and arched eyebrows, with golden hair,and so graceful that every movement might be set to music.

  Fernando gazed after her until she disappeared into a fashionable shop,and then, uttering a sigh, started as if from a dream.

  "What do you say now, old fellow?" asked Sukey.

  "Let us go home."

  "Home?"

  "Well, back to the widow Mahone's inn."

  "All right; now let us try to find the trail."

  It was no easy matter, although they had the street and number wellfixed in their mind. Finally they asked a watchman (policemen werecalled watchmen in those days) and he conducted them to the abode ofMrs. Mahone.

  The first person to greet them was Terrence. There was a bright smile onhis jolly face as he cried:

  "It's right plazed I am to see ye lookin' so cheerful, boys; and it's agood time ye be having roaming the streets and looking at the beauty ofBaltimore. Much of it you'll find, to be sure. To-morrow we'll go to theacademy, pay our entrance fee and begin business."

  [ILLUSTRATION: AS NEAR PERFECTION AS A GIRL OF SIXTEEN CAN BE.]

  "Terrence," said Fernando in a half whisper, "Can't we find a morecomfortable place than this to live in?"

  "Oh, be aisy, me frind, for it's an illegant a house I've got for allof us, and we'll be as comfortable there as a banshee."

  Not knowing what a "banshee" was, Fernando, of course, could draw noconclusion from the comparison. When the three young men had enteredtheir room, Terrence began to tell them of a beautiful "craythur" he hadthat day seen in town, and on inquiry learned she lived a few miles awayon the coast. She was the daughter of an old sea captain and came almostdaily to the city.

  "What is her name?" asked Fernando.

  "Lane."

  "Great Jehosiphat, Fernando! Lane was on that carriage we saw," criedSukey, starting suddenly from a couch on which he had been reclining.