Eben Holden: A Tale of the North Country

by Irving Bacheller

  Chapter 29

  I came down Broadway that afternoon aboard a big white omnibus, thatdrifted slowly in a tide of many vehicles. Those days there were agoodly show of trees on either side of that thoroughfare--elms, withhere and there a willow, a sumach or a mountain ash. The walks werethronged with handsome people--dandies with high hats and flauntingneckties and swinging canes--beautiful women, each covering a broadcircumference of the pavement, with a cone of crinoline that swayed overdainty feet. From Grace Church down it was much of the same thing we seenow, with a more ragged sky line. Many of the great buildings, of whiteand red sandstone, had then appeared, but the street was largely in thepossession of small shops--oyster houses, bookstores and the like. Notuntil I neared the sacred temple of the Tribune did I feel a propersense of my own littleness. There was the fountain of all that wisdomwhich had been read aloud and heard with reverence in our householdsince a time I could but dimly remember. There sat the prophet who hadgiven us so much--his genial views of life and government, his hopes,his fears, his mighty wrath at the prospering of cruelty and injustice.

  'I would like to see Mr Horace Greeley,' I said, rather timidly, at thecounter.

  'Walk right up those stairs and turn to the left,' said a clerk, as heopened a gate for me.

  Ascending, I met a big man coming down, hurriedly, and with heavy steps.We stood dodging each other a moment with that unfortunate co-ordinationof purpose men sometimes encounter when passing each other. Suddenly thebig man stopped in the middle of the stairway and held both of his handsabove his head.

  'In God's name! young man,' said he, 'take your choice.'

  He spoke in a high, squeaky voice that cut me with the sharpness of itsirritation. I went on past him and entered an open door near the top ofthe stairway.

  'Is Mr Horace Greeley in?' I enquired of a young man who sat readingpapers.

  'Back soon,' said he, without looking up. 'Take a chair.'

  In a little while I heard the same heavy feet ascending the stairway twosteps at a time. Then the man I had met came hurriedly into the room.

  'This is Mr Greeley,' said the young man who was reading.

  The great editor turned and looked at me through gold-rimmed spectacles.I gave him my letter out of a trembling hand. He removed it from theenvelope and held it close to his big, kindly, smooth-shaven face. Therewas a fringe of silky, silver hair, streaked with yellow, about thelower part of his head from temple to temple. It also encircled histhroat from under his collar. His cheeks were fall and fair as a lady's,with rosy spots in them and a few freckles about his nose. He laughed ashe finished reading the letter.

  'Are you Dave Brower's boy?' he asked in a drawling falsetto, looking atme out of grey eyes and smiling with good humour.

  'By adoption,' I answered.'

  'He was an almighty good rassler,' he said, deliberately, as he lookedagain at the letter.'

  'What do you want to do?' he asked abruptly.'

  'Want to work on the Tribune,' I answered.'

  'Good Lord! he said. 'I can't hire everybody.'

  I tried to think of some argument, but what with looking at the greatman before me, and answering his questions and maintaining a decent showof dignity, I had enough to do.

  'Do you read the Tribune? he asked.'

  'Read it ever since I can remember.'

  'What do you think of the administration?

  'Lot of dough faces! I answered, smiling, as I saw he recognised his ownphrase. He sat a moment tapping the desk with his penholder.'

  'There's so many liars here in New York,' he said, 'there ought to beroom for an honest man. How are the crops?'

  'Fair, I answered. 'Big crop of boys every year.'

  'And now you're trying to find a market, he remarked.'

  'Want to have you try them,' I answered.

  'Well,' said he, very seriously, turning to his desk that came up to hischin as he sat beside it, 'go and write me an article about rats.'

  'Would you advise-,' I started to say, when he interrupted me.

  'The man that gives advice is a bigger fool than the man that takes it,'he fleered impatiently. 'Go and do your best!'

  Before he had given me this injunction he had dipped his pen and begunto write hurriedly. If I had known him longer I should have known that,while he had been talking to me, that tireless mind of his had summonedhim to its service. I went out, in high spirits, and sat down a momenton one of the benches in the little park near by, to think it allover. He was going to measure my judgement, my skill as a writer--myresources. 'Rats,' I said to myself thoughtfully. I had read much aboutthem. They infested the ships, they overran the wharves, they traversedthe sewers. An inspiration came to me. I started for the waterfront,asking my way every block or two. Near the East River I met apoliceman--a big, husky, good-hearted Irishman.

  'Can you tell me,' I said, 'who can give me information about rats?'

  'Rats?' he repeated. 'What d' ye wan't' know about thim?'

  'Everything,' I said. 'They've just given me a job on the New YorkTribune,' I added proudly.

  He smiled good-naturedly. He had looked through me at a glance.

  'Just say "Tribune",' he said. 'Ye don't have t' say "New York Tribune"here. Come along wi' me.'

  He took me to a dozen or more of the dock masters.

  'Give 'im a lift, my hearty,' he said to the first of them. 'He's agreen.'

  I have never forgotten the kindness of that Irishman, whom I came toknow well in good time. Remembering that day and others I always greetedhim with a hearty 'God bless the Irish!' every time I passed him, and hewould answer, 'Amen, an' save yer riverince.'

  He did not leave me until I was on my way home loaded with fact andfable and good dialect with a savour of the sea in it.

  Hope and Uncle Eb were sitting together in his room when I returned.

  'Guess I've got a job,' I said, trying to be very cool about it..

  'A job! said Hope eagerly, as she rose. 'Where?

  'With Mr Horace Greeley,' I answered, my voice betraying my excitement.

  'Jerusalem! said Uncle Eb. 'Is it possible?'

  'That's grand! said Hope. 'Tell us about it.'

  Then I told them of my interview with the great editor and of what I haddone since.

  'Ye done wonderful!' said Uncle Eb and Hope showed quite as muchpleasure in her own sweet way.

  I was for going to my room and beginning to write at once, but Hope saidit was time to be getting ready for dinner.

  When we came down at half-past six we were presented to our host and theguests of the evening--handsome men and women in full dress--and youngMr Livingstone was among them. I felt rather cheap in my frock coat,although I had thought it grand enough for anybody on the day of mygraduation. Dinner announced, the gentlemen rose and offered escortto the ladies, and Hope and Mrs Fuller relieved our embarrassmentby conducting us to our seats--women are so deft in those littledifficulties. The dinner was not more formal than that of every eveningin the Fuller home--for its master was a rich man of some refinement oftaste--and not at all comparable to the splendid hospitality one maysee every day at the table of a modern millionaire. But it did seem verywonderful to us, then, with its fine-mannered servants, its flowers, itsabundant silver. Hope had written much to her mother of the details ofdeportment at John Fuller's table, and Elizabeth had delicately impartedto us the things we ought to know. We behaved well, I have since beentold, although we got credit for poorer appetites than we possessed.Uncle Eb took no chances and refused everything that had a look ofmystery and a suggestion of peril, dropping a droll remark, betimes,that sent a ripple of amusement around the table.

  John Trumbull sat opposite me, and even then I felt a curious interestin him--a big, full bearded man, quite six feet tall, his skin and eyesdark, his hair iron-grey, his voice deep like David s. I could not getover the impression that I had seen him before--a feeling I have hadoften, facing men I could never possibly have met. No word came outof his firm mouth unl
ess he were addressed, and then all in hearinglistened to the little he had to say: it was never more than somevery simple remark. In his face and form and voice there was abundantheraldry of rugged power and ox-like vitality. I have seen a bronze headof Daniel Webster which, with a full blonde beard and an ample coveringof grey hair would have given one a fairly perfect idea of the look ofJohn Trumbull. Imagine it on a tall, and powerful body and let it speakwith a voice that has in it the deep and musical vibration one may hearin the looing of an ox and you shall see, as perfectly as my feeblewords can help you to do, this remarkable man who, must, hereafter,play before you his part--compared to which mine is as the prattle of achild--in this drama of God's truth.

  'You have not heard,' said Mrs Fuller addressing me, 'how Mr Trumbullsaved Hope's life.'

  'Saved Hope's life!' I exclaimed.

  'Saved her life,' she repeated, 'there isn't a doubt of it. We neversent word of it for fear it would give you all needless worry. It was aday of last winter--fell crossing Broadway, a dangerous place' he pulledher aside just in time--the horse's feet were raised above her--shewould have been crushed in a moment He lifted her in his arms andcarried her to the sidewalk not a bit the worse for it.

  'Seems as if it were fate,' said Hope. 'I had seen him so often andwondered who he was. I recall a night when I had to come home alone fromrehearsal. I was horribly afraid. I remember passing him under a streetlamp. If he had spoken to me, then, I should have dropped with fear andhe would have had to carry me home that time.

  'It's an odd thing a girl like you should ever have to walk home alone,'said Mr Fuller. 'Doesn't speak well for our friend Livingstone orBurnham there or Dobbs.

  'Mrs Fuller doesn't give us half a chance,' said Livingstone, 'sheguards her day and night. It's like the monks and the Holy Grail.

  'Hope is independent of the young men,' said Mrs Fuller as we rose fromthe table. 'If I cannot go with her myself, in the carriage, I alwayssend a maid or a manservant to walk home with her. But Mr Fuller andI were out of town that night and the young men missed their greatopportunity.

  'Had a differ'nt way o' sparkin' years ago,' said Uncle Eb. 'Didn'tnever hev it please anybody but the girl then. If ye liked a girl yewent an' sot up with her an' gin her a smack an' tol' her right outplain an' square what ye wanted. An' thet settled it one way er t'other. An' her mother she step' in the next room with the door half-openan' never paid no 'tention. Recollec' one col'night when I was sparkin'the mother hollered out o' bed, "Lucy, hev ye got anythin 'round ye?"an' she hollered back, "Yis, mother," an' she hed too but 'twan'tnothin' but my arm.'

  They laughed merrily, over the quaint reminiscence of my old friendand the quainter way he had of telling it. The rude dialect of thebackwoodsman might have seemed oddly out of place, there, but for thequiet, unassuming manner and the fine old face of Uncle Eb in which thedullest eye might see the soul of a gentleman.

  'What became of Lucy?' Mr Fuller enquired, laughingly. 'You nevermarried her.'

  'Lucy died,' he answered soberly; 'thet was long, long ago.'

  Then he went away with John Trumbull to the smoking-room where I foundthem, talking earnestly in a corner, when it was time to go to thechurch with Hope.