The Advertisement
Sit down for a moment, we will not detain you long, our story will
interest you, we are sure, for it is most commendable, brief,
and--singularly true.
A poor widow, in the city of Philadelphia, was the mother of three
pretty children, orphans of a ship-builder, who lost his life in the
corvette Kensington, a naval vessel, built in Kensington for one of the
South American republics, and launched in 1826. T
e South Americans
being short of funds, the Kensington, after years of delay, was sold to
the emperor of all the Russias, and sailed for Constradt in 1830. Some
forty of the carpenters, who had built the vessel, went out in her; she
had immense, but symmetrical spars--carried vast clouds of canvass--was
caught off Cape Henlopen in a squall--her spars came thundering to the
deck, and poor Glenn, the ship builder, was among the slain.
The widow was allowed but a brief time to mourn for the departed;
pinching poverty was at her door; upon her own exertions now devolved
the care and toil of rearing her three children. Cynthia, the eldest,
was a pretty brunette, of thirteen; the neighbors thought Cynthia could
"go out to work;" the next eldest, Martin, a fine, sturdy and
intelligent boy, could go to a trade; and the youngest, Rosa, one of the
most beautiful, blue-eyed, blonde little girls of seven years, poetical
fancy ever realized, "the neighbors thought," ought to be given to
somebody, to raise. The mother was but a feeble woman; it would be a
task for her to obtain her own living, they thought; and so, kind,
generous souls, with that peculiar readiness with which disinterested
friends console or advise the unfortunate, "the neighbors" became very
eloquent and argumentative. But though the mother's hands were weak, her
heart was strong, and her love for her children still stronger.
It is rather a singular trait in the human character, it appears to us,
that people possessing the ordinary attributes of sane Christians,
should so readily advise others to attempt, or do, that from which
they would instinctively recoil; the mass of Widow Glenn's advisers
might have been far more serviceable to her, by contributing their mites
towards preserving the unity of her little and precious family, than
thus savagely advising its disbanding.
Newspapers, at this day, were far less numerous very expensive, and
circulated to a very limited degree, indeed. But the widow took a paper,
a family, weekly journal; and while casting her vacant eye over the
columns, at the close of a Saturday eve, after a severe week's toil for
the bread her little and precious ones had eaten, the widow's attention
was called to an advertisement, as follows:
"A Housekeeper Wanted.--An elderly gentleman desires a middle-aged,
pleasantly-disposed, tidy and industrious American woman, to take
charge and conduct the domestic affairs of his household. A
reasonable compensation allowed. Good reference required, the
applicant to have no incumbrances. Apply at this office, for the
address, &c."
The eager smile, that seemed to warm the wan features of the widow, as
she glanced over the advertisement, was dimmed and darkened, as the
shining river of summer is shadowed by the heavy passing cloud, when she
came to the chilling words--the applicant to have no incumbrances.
"No incumbrances," moaned the widow, "shall none but God deign to smile
or have mercy on the helpless orphans; are they to be feared, shunned,
hated, because helpless? Must they perish--die with me
alone--struggling against our woes, poverty, wretchedness? No! I know
there is a God, he is good, powerful, merciful; he will turn the hearts
of some towards the widow and the orphan; and though basilisk-like words
warn me to hope not, I will apply--I will attempt to win attention,
work, slave, toil, toil, toil, until my poor hands shall wear to the
bone, and my eyes no longer do their office--if he will only have mercy,
pity for my poor, poor orphans--God bless them!" and in melting
tenderness and emotion, the poor woman dropped her face upon her lap and
wept--her tears were the showers of hope, to the almost parched soil of
her heart, and as the gentle dews of heaven fall to the earth, so fell
the widow's tears in balmy freshness upon her visions of a brighter
something--in the future.
It was yet early in the evening; her children slept; the poor woman put
on her bonnet and shawl, and started at once for the office of the
newspaper. The publisher was just closing his sanctum, but he gave the
information the widow required, and favorably impressed with Mrs.
Glenn's appearance and manner, the publisher, a quaker, interrogated her
on various points of her present condition, prospects, &c.; and
observed, that but for her children, he had no doubt of the widow's
suiting the old man exactly.
"But thee must not be neglected, or discarded from honest industry,
because of thy responsibilities, which God hath given thee," said the
quaker. "If thy lad is stout of his age, and a good boy, I will provide
for him; he may learn our business, and be off thy charge, and thee may
be enabled to keep thy two female children about thee."
On the following Monday, the widow signified her intention of writing a
few lines as an applicant for the situation of housekeeper, and
afterwards to consult with the publisher in regard to her boy, Martin,
and then bidding the courteous quaker farewell, she sought her humble
domicil, with a much lighter heart than she had lately carried from her
distressed and lonely home.
In an ancient part of the Quaker city, facing the broad and beautiful
Delaware river, stood a venerable mansion; but few of this class now
remain in Philadelphia, and the one of which we now speak, but recently
passed away, in the great conflagration that visited the city in 1850.
In this substantial and stately brick edifice, lived one of the wealthy
and retired ship brokers of Quakerdom. He was very wealthy, very
eccentric, very good-hearted, but passionate, plethoric, gouty, and
seventy years of age. Mr. Job Carson had lived long and seen much; he
had been so engrossed in clearing his fortune, that from twenty-five to
forty, he had not bethought him of that almost indispensable appendage
to a man's comfort in this world--a wife. He was the next ten years
considering the matter over, and then, having built and furnished
himself a costly mansion, which he peopled with servants, headed by a
maiden sister as housekeeper, Job thought, upon the whole--to which his
sister added her strong consent--that matrimony would greatly increase
his cares, and perhaps add more noise and confusion to his household,
than it might counterbalance or offset by probable comfort in "wedded
happiness," so temptingly set forth to old bachelors.
"No," said Job, at fifty, "I'll not marry, not trade off my single
blessedness yet; at least, there's time enough, there's women enough;
I'm young, hale, hearty, in the prime of life; no, I'll not give up the
ship to woman yet."
Another ten years rolled along, and the thing turned up in the retired
merchant's mind again--he was now sixty, and one, at least, of the
objections to his entering the wedded state, removed--for a man at sixty
is scarcely too young to marry, surely.
"Ah, it's all up," quoth Job Carson. "I'm spoiled now. I've had my own
way so long, I could not think of surrendering to petticoats, turning
my house into a nursery, and turning my back on the joys, quiet and
comforts of bachelorhood. No, no, Job Carson--matrimony be hanged.
You'll none of it." And so ten years more passed--now age and luxury do
their work.
"O, that infernal twinge in my toe. O, there it is again--hang the
goat, it can't be gout. Dr. Bleedem swears I'm getting the gout.
Blockhead--none of my kith or kin ever had such an infernal complaint.
O, ah-h-h, that infernal window must be sand-bagged, given me this pain
in the back, and--Banquo! Where the deuce is that nigger--Banquo-o-o!"
"Yis, massa, here I is," said a good-natured, fat, black and
sleek-looking old darkey, poking his shining, grinning face into the old
gentleman's study, sitting, playing or smoking room.
"Here you are? Where? You black sarpint, come here; go to Jackplane, the
carpenter, and tell him to come here and make my sashes tight, d'ye
hear?"
"Yis, massa, dem's 'em; I'se off."
"No, you ain't--come here, Banquo, you woolly son of Congo, you; go open
my liquor case, bring the brandy and some cool water. There, now clear
yourself."
"Yis, massa, I'se gone, dis time--"
"No, you ain't, come back; go to old Joe Winepipes, and tell him I send
my compliments to him, and if he wants to continue that game of chess,
let him come over this afternoon, d'ye hear?"
"Yis, massa, dem's 'em, I'se gone dis time--shuah!"
"Well, away with you."
Old Job Carson was yet a rugged looking old gentleman. He had survived
nearly all his "blood, kith and kin;" his sister had paid the last debt
of nature some months before, and in hopes of finding some one to fill
her station, in his domestic concerns, his advertisement had appeared
in the Weekly Bulletin.
"Ah, me, it's no use crying about spilt milk," sighed the old gent over
his glass. "I suppose I've been a fool; out-lived everybody, everything
useful to me. Made a fortune first, nobody to spend it last. Yes,
yes," continued the old man, in a thoughtful strain, "old Job Carson
will soon slip off the handle; 'poor old devil,' some bloodsucker may
say, as he grabs Job's worldly effects, 'he's gone, had a hard scrabble
to get together these things, and now, we'll pick his bones.' Well, let
'em, let 'em; serves me right; ought to have known it before, but blast
and rot 'em, if they only enjoy the pillage as much as I did the
struggles to keep it together, why, a--it will be about an even thing
with us, after all."
"Yis, massa, here I is," chuckled Banquo, again putting his black bullet
pate in at the door.
"You are, eh? Well, clear yourself--no, come back; go down to Oatmeal's
store, and tell him to let old Mrs. Dougherty, and the old blind man,
and the sailor's wife, and--and--the rest of them, have their groceries,
again, this week--only another week, mind, for I'm not going to support
the whole neighborhood any longer--tell him so."
"Yis, massa, I'se gone."
"Wait, come here, Banquo; well, never mind--clear out."
But Banquo returned in a moment, saying:
"Dar's a lady at the doo-ah, sah; says she wants to see you, sah, 'bout
'ticlar business, sah."
"Is, eh? Well, call her into the parlor, I'll be down--ah-h, that
infernal twinge again, ah-h-h-h, ah-h! What a stupid ass a man is to
hang around in this world until he's a nuisance to himself and every
body else!" grunted old Job, as he groped his way down stairs, and into
the parlor.
"Good morning, ma'am," said he, as he confronted the widow, who, in
the utmost taste of simple neatness, had arranged her spare dress, to
meet the umpire of her future fate.
Mrs. Glenn respectfully acknowledged the salutation, and at once opened
her business to the bluff old man.
"Yes, yes; I'm a poor, unfortunate creature, ma'am; I'm nothing, nobody,
any more. I want somebody to see that I'm not robbed, or poisoned, and
that I may have a bed to lie upon, and a clean piece of linen to my back
occasionally, and a--that's all I want, ma'am."
The widow feigned to hope she knew the duties of a housekeeper, and
situated as she was, it was a labor of love to work--toil, for those
misfortune had placed in her charge.
"Eh? what's that--haven't got incumbrances, have you, ma'am?"
"I have three children, sir," meekly said the widow.
"Three children?" gruffly responded the old gentleman; "ah, umph, what
business have you, ma'am, with three children?"
"Ah, umph, what business have you, ma'am, with three
children?"--Page 393.]
The widow, not apparently able to answer such a poser, the old gentleman
continued:
"Poor widows, poor people of any kind, have no business with
incumbrances, ma'am; no excuse at all, ma'am, for 'em."
"So, alas!" said Mrs. Glenn, "I find the world too--too much inclined to
reason; but I shall trust to the mercy and providence of the Lord, if
denied the kind feelings of mortals."
"Ah, yes, yes, that's it, ma'am; it's all very fine, ma'am; but too many
poor, foolish creatures get themselves in a scrape, then depend upon the
Lord to help 'em out. This shifting the responsibility to the shoulders
of the Lord isn't right. I don't wonder the Lord shuts his ears to half
he's asked to do, ma'am."
"Well, sir, I thought I would call, though I feared my children would
be an objection to--"
"Yes, yes,--I don't want incumbrances, ma'am."
"But I--I a--"--the widow's heart was too full for utterance; she moved
towards the door. "Good morning, sir."
"Stop, come back, ma'am, sit down; it's a pity--you've no business,
ma'am, as I said before, to have incumbrances, when you haven't got any
visible means of support. Now, if you only had one, one incumbrance--and
that you'd no business to have"--said the old gent, doggedly, tapping an
antique tortoise-shell snuff box, and applying "the pungent grains of
titillating dust," as Pope observes, to his proboscis, "if you had only
one incumbrance--but you've got a house full, ma'am."
"No, sir, only three!" answered widow Glenn.
"Three, only three? God bless me, ma'am, I wouldn't be a poor woman with
two--no, with one incumbrance at my petticoat tails--for the biggest
ship and cargo old Steve Girard ever owned, ma'am."
"I might," meekly said the widow, "put my son with the printer, sir; he
has offered to take my poor boy."
"Two girls and a boy?" inquiringly asked the old gent, applying the
dust, and manipulating his box. "How old? Eldest thirteen, eh?--boy
eleven, and the youngest seven, eh?" and working a traverse, or solving
some problematic point, Job Carson stuck his hands under his morning
gown, and strode over the floor; after a few evolutions of the kind, he
stopped--fumbled in a drawer of a secretary, and placing a ten dollar
note in the widow's hand, he said:
"There, ma'am; I don't know that I shall want you, but to-morrow
morning, if you have time, from other and more important business, call
in, bring your children with you; good morning, ma'am--Banquo!"
"Yis, sah; I'se heah."
"Show the lady out--good morning, ma'am, good morning."
"I like that woman's looks," said old Job, continuing his walk; "she's
plain and tidy; she's industrious, I'll warrant; if she only hadn't that
raft of incumbrances; what do these people have incumbrances for,
anyway?--"
"Lady at the doo-ah, sah," said Banquo.
"Show her in. Good morning, ma'am; Banquo, a seat for the lady; yes,
ma'am, I did; I want a housekeeper. I advertised for one. How many
servants do I keep? Well, ma'am, I keep as many as I want. Have
visitors? Of course I have. What and where are my rooms? Why, madam, I
own the house, every brick and lath in it. I go to bed, and get up, and
go round; come in and out, when I feel like it. What church do I worship
in? I've assisted in building a number, own a half of one, and a third
of several; but, ma'am, between you and I--I don't want to be rude to a
lady, ma'am, but I do think, this examination ain't to my liking--you
don't think the place would suit you, eh? Well, I think your ladyship
wouldn't suit me, ma'am, so I'll bid your ladyship good morning," said
old Job, bowing very obsequiously to the stiff-starched and acrimonious
dame, who, returning the old gentleman's bow with the same "high
pressure" order, seized her skirts in one hand, and agitating her fan
with the other, she stepped out, or finikined along to the hall door,
and as Banquo flew around, and put on the extras to let her ladyship
out, she gave the darkey a pat on the head with her fan, and looking
crab-apples at the poor negro, she rushed down the steps and
disappeared.
"Tank you, ma'am; come again, eb you please--of'n!" said the pouting
negro.
"Yes, sah; here's nudder lady, sah," says Banquo, ushering in a rather
ruddy, jolly-looking and perfectly-at-home daughter of the "gim o' the
sae." The old gentleman eyed her liberal proportions; consulting his
snuff-box, he answered "yes" to the woman's inquiry, if he was the
gintleman wanting the housekeeper.
"Did you read my advertisement, ma'am?"
"Me rade it? Not I, faix. Mr. Mullony, our landlord, was saying till
us--"
"Are you married, too?"
"Married two? Do I look like a woman as would marry two? No, sur;
I'm a dacent woman, sur; my name is Hannah Geaughey, Jimmy Geaughey's my
husband, sur; he, poor man, wrought in the board-yard till he was sun
sthruck, by manes of falling from a cuart, sur."
"Well, ma'am, that will do, I'm sorry for your husband--one dollar,
there it is; you wouldn't suit me at all; good morning, ma'am. Banquo,
show the good woman to the door."
"But, sur, I want the place!"
"I don't want you--good morning."
"Dis way, ma'am," said Banquo, marshalling the woman to the hall.
"Stand away, ye nager; it's your masther I'm spakin' wid."
"Go along, go along, woman, go, go, go!" roared the old gent.
"But, as I was saying, Mr. Mullony said--says he--who the divil you
push'n, you black nager?" said the woman, grabbing Banquo's woolly
top-knot.
"Dis way, ma'am," persevered Banquo, quartering towards the door.
"Mr. Mullony was sayin', sur--"
"Dis way, ma'am," continued the darkey, crowding Mrs. Geaughey, while
his master was gesticulating furiously to keep on crowding her.
Finally, Banquo vanquished the Irish woman, and received orders from his
master to admit no more applicants--the place was filled.
That afternoon, old Captain Winepipes--a retired merchant and
ship-master, an old bachelor, too, who was in the habit of exchanging
visits with Job Carson, sipping brandy and water, talking over old times
and playing chess--came to finish a litigated game, and Job and he
discussed the matter of taking care of the widow and children of the
dead ship-builder. At length, it was settled that, if the second
interview with the widow, and an exhibition of her children, proved
satisfactory to Job Carson, he should take them in; if found more than
Job could attend to--
"Why a--I'll go you halves, Job," said Captain Winepipes.
Next day, Widow Glenn and her pretty children appeared at the door of
Carson's mansion; and Banquo, full of pleasant anticipations, ushered
them into the retired merchant's presence.
It was evident, at the first glance the old gentleman gave the group,
that the battle was more than half won.
"Fine boy, that; come here, sir--eleven years of age, eh? Your name's
Martin--Martin Glenn, eh? Well, Martin, my lad, you've got a big world
before you--a fussing, fuming world, not worth finding out, not worth
the powder that would blow it up. You've got to take your position in
the ranks, too, mean and contemptible as they are; but you may make a
good man; if the world don't benefit you, why a--you can benefit it;
that's the way I've done--been obliged to do it, ain't sorry for it,
neither," said the old man, with evident emotion.
"Your name is Cynthia, eh? And you are a fine grown girl for your age,
surely. Cynthia, you'll soon be capable of 'keeping house,' too; you've
got a world before you, too, my dear; a wicked, scandalous world; a
world full of deceit and misery--look at your mother, look at me! Ah,
well, it's all our own fault; yours, madam, for having these--these
incumbrances, and mine, poor devil--for not having 'em. Cynthia,
you're a fine girl; a good girl, I know. Ah, here's mamma's pet, I
suppose; Rose Glenn, very pretty name, pretty girl, too, very pretty.
Lips and cheeks like cherries, eyes brighter than Brazil diamonds.
Ma'am, you've got great treasures here; a man must be a stupid ass to
call these incumbrances. They are jewels of inestimable value. What's
my filthy bank accounts, dollars and cents, houses, goods and chattels,
that fire may destroy, and thieves steal--to these blessings that--that
God has given the lone widow to strengthen her--cheer her in the dark
path of life? God is great, generous, and just; I see it now, plainer
than I ever did before. Banquo!"
"Yis'r, I'se here, massa."
"Go tell Counsellor Prime to call on me immediately; tell Captain
Winepipes to come over--I want to see him. I'm going to make a fool of
myself, I believe."
"Yes, sah, I'se gone; gorry, I guess dere's suffin gwoin to happen to
dat lady and dem chil'ns--shuah!" said Banquo, rushing out of the house.
The fate of the ship-builder's family was fixed. Job Carson
proposed--and the widow, of course, consented--that Martin Glenn should
become the adopted son of the old gentleman, Job Carson; and that he
should choose a trade or profession, which he should then, or later,
learn, making the old gentleman's house as much his home as
circumstances would permit; the two girls were to remain under the same
roof with the mother, who was at once installed as housekeeper for the
bluff and generous old gentleman.
Old Captain Winepipes insisted on a share in the settlement, to wit:
that both girls should be educated at his expense, which was finally
acceded to, adding, that in case he--Captain Joseph Winepipes--should
live to see Rose Glenn a bride, he should provide for her wedding, and
give her a dowry.
"Set that down in black and white, Mr. Prime," said Job, "and that I,
Job Carson, do agree, should I live to see Cynthia Glenn a wife, to give
her a comfortable start in the world--set that down, for I will do it,
yes, I will," said the old gent, with an emphatic rap on his snuff-box.
* * * * *
Ten years passed away; Captain Winepipes has paid the debt of nature; he
did not live to see Rose Glenn a wife; but, nevertheless, he left a
clause in his will, that fully carried out his expressed intentions when
Rose did marry, some two years after she arrived at the age of sweet
seventeen. Martin Glenn Carson graduated in the printing office, and
very recently filled one of the most important stations in the judiciary
of Illinois, as well as a chivalrous part in the recent war with Mexico.
Cynthia was wedded to a well known member of the Philadelphia bar, an
event that Job Carson barely lived to see, and, as he agreed to, donated
a sum, quite munificent, towards making things agreeable in the progress
of her married life. Widow Glenn remained a faithful servant and friend
to the old merchant, and, upon his death, she became heir to the family
mansion, and means to keep it up at the usual bountiful rate. Large
bequests were made in Job Carson's will, to charitable institutes, but
the bulk of his fortune fell to his adopted son, Martin, who proved not
unworthy of his good fortune. Banquo ended his days in the service of
the widow, who had cause for and took pleasure in blessing the vehicle
that conveyed to herself and orphans their rare good fortune, in guise
of a NEWSPAPER ADVERTISEMENT.