Irving Bacheller

“ Through the open door of the bar-room I could see Colonel Buckstone standing in a group of friends, with his glass raised. He was saying in a deep, stentorian voice:
"’T is now the witchin' hour of night,
When churchyards yawn and graves give up their dead."
Then loud laughter, and another took the floor with:
Ye call me chief, and ye do well to call him chief who for twelve long years has met upon the arena every shape of man or beast the broad empire of Rome could furnish, and who never yet lowered his arm." ”

“ I have tried to make it clear that there were some good men in Griggsby, and I must not fail to tell of one of them, the Reverend Appleton Hall, head of the academy, a plain, simple, modest citizen. What a splendid figure of a man he was—big, strong-armed, hard-handed, with black eyes and the head of a demigod, with wavy masses of hair and a beard as yellow as fine gold! ”

“ Whatever the men might do or fail to do in Griggsby, it was the part of the women to work and save. They squandered to save—squandered their abundant strength to save the earnings of the family, the souls of husbands, sons, and daughters, the lives of the sick. ”

“ If it had not been for them, Griggsby would long ago have perished of dignity, indolence, and katzenjammer.
To sum up: the women stood for industry, the men sat down for it; the women worked for decency, and every man recommended it to his neighbor. But the women had no voice in the government of the town.
A year had passed since Ralph's departure. For months no word from him had come to me, or to Florence, as she informed me. ”

“ Then the tide turned for Ralph Buckstone. It is enough for me to say that he faced about, and became an able and successful man. Next to the defamed Daniel Webster himself Ralph had suffered most from those evil days in old Griggsby.
Yes, there are still swaggering D. W's in America—many of them; there are Griggses and Griggsbys; but our Griggsby is a changed town. The seats of leisure are now occupied by the ladies. They have suffered from the angel theory, and it is their own fault. They look like birds of paradise. ”

“ Florence and her brother had grown up on a ranch, and had been sent back to enjoy the educational disadvantages of Griggsby. They could ride like Indians, and their shooting had filled us with astonishment. With a revolver, Florence could hit a half-dollar thrown in the air before it touched the ground.
Her brother Henry, who was two years older and as many inches taller than I, had begun to emulate the leading lights of the neighborhood. He and Ralph Buckstone, the handsome and gifted son of the great colonel, were friends and boon companions. ”

“ This beater of a helpless animal is probably the most brutal man in the township and the most arrant coward.
"The Little Corporal" passed from hand to hand, and waves of joy and consternation swept over the community. Thoughtful and worried looks gathered under the hats of silk and beaver. Colonel Buckstone smote the bar of the Palace Hotel, and roared about the "Magna Charta of our Liberties," as he viewed his image in a mirror among the outlines of a bird drawn in soap.
Now, there lived in the village of Griggsby a certain lawyer of the name of Pike—G. Washington Pike. ”

“ The Mutual Adulation Company that had paid its daily dividends in compliments and good wishes at the bar of the Palace Hotel went out of business. The souls of the leading citizens ceased to flow. The babbling brooks of flattery ran dry.
In the next number of the "Corporal," among other items, appeared this:
Jerry McMann attacked his horse in the street the other day, and, without any provocation that the bystanders could observe, beat him over the head with the butt of his whip, for which he has had to pay the utterly inadequate fine of five dollars. ”

“ For the sake of the boys he fought against the powers of darkness. He was handicapped; he could not denounce the great men of the village by name as pestilential enemies of decency and order. Perhaps that should have been done by the ministers of religion. Old "App" Hall, as some called him, warned and watched us, but with his rugged figure, his old-fashioned clothes, and his farmer dialect, he had not the appeal—the dazzling appeal of Websterians like Griggs and Colonel Buckstone. ”

“ To Colonel Buckstone that was a serious matter, especially in view of the fact that Florence had expressed strong disapproval of his general conduct. Men like him are ever trying to hold the world in leash, and to pull it down to their own level.
Griggsby was like most country towns. The county fair had passed, the trotters had retired. Colonel Buckstone, with unusual sobriety, had not fallen from grace for some time, and the material for conversation had run low; somebody had to be sacrificed. The inventive talent of the village got busy. ”

“ I should like to see them give up sweetmeats and idleness, jewels and ethereal raiment, and rejoin the human ranks not as slaves, but as real women, with a work to do and with all the rights they may desire. ”

“ In a short time the flowers of rhetoric began to wither and die. Compliments turned to groans. The leading citizens were in trouble. Dan'l W. Smead has long since gone to his rest, with a name honored above all others in his own county; for having accomplished our purpose, we sold the "Corporal" to the man who had done much to make it. I qualified for the bar, and we settled in New York, and our lives have been blessed with children, great happiness, and a fair degree of success.
Ralph left Griggsby, broke down, and went a fast pace. ”

“ A less courageous spirit would have given up and gone home in disgust; but she stood her ground, with the fatherly encouragement of Appleton Hall, and stored the lightning that, by and by, was to fall from her hand upon the appalled citizens of Griggsby.
I was at work in my room one evening when Dan'l Webster Smead came to my door.
"Florence Dunbar and a friend have called to see you," he said. "They are waiting in the parlor."
I went down to meet them at once. Florence and Miss Elizabeth Collins, Colonel Buckstone's stenographer, rose to greet me. Then came their story. ”

“ Your example has a tremendous influence on the young men of this village. Often you have a highly moral pair of lungs in your breast, but your heart does not seem to agree with them. A man is known by his conduct, and not by his words. By your conduct you teach the young men to buy and sell votes, to go on sprees, to drink and gamble in public places, to have little regard for the virtue and good name of women."
Then a thing happened which gave me new hope of the colonel. ”

“ They rarely love a man until they have taken him apart and put him together again by the surgery of conversation. They want to know how he stands it.
VIII Good food, and plenty of it, were required to maintain the talents for leisure, racing, and Websterian grandeur that distinguished the men of Griggsby. As a rule, the women, therefore, were overworked. Men who could not afford the grandeur or the sport indulged in dreams of it, and surrendered their lives to inelegant leisure. Some left their farms and moved into the village to make Dan'l Websters of their sons. ”

“ IX Graduation day had arrived, when Florence was to complete her course at the academy. The best women, as though by general agreement, had combined to right the wrong done her. No girl so noble and splendid had ever stood on the platform of the old academy. That very day she assumed control of "The Little Corporal" and began her work, with Dan'l Webster Smead as associate editor.
The first issue of the paper under its new management had an editorial to this effect:
Things are going to happen in Griggsby—things that have never happened before in Griggsby or elsewhere. ”

“ I sat in a thoughtful silence, and Smead went on:
"It 's a kind of an auction-sale. 'How much am I bid?' the girl says with her eyes. You say, 'I offer my love.' It is n't enough. You offer houses an' lands. Still she shakes her head no. By an' by you speak up with a brave voice, an' offer the strong heart of a hero an' a love as deep an' boundless as the sea, an' you mean every word of it. That fetches her. You see, love is the biggest thing in a woman's life—or in the world, for that matter. ”

“ We have a number of idlers and gamblers in Griggsby whose exploits have also been shrouded in obscurity. They, too, may rejoice that at last full justice is to be accorded them in this paper, so that their winning and losing shall no longer be a subject of inaccurate knowledge. Some are blamed who ought not to be blamed, and some are not blamed who ought to be blamed, and there is no health in the present situation. ”

“ We have a large number of young men who are looking to their elders for an example worthy of emulation. The Little Corporal will let its light shine hereafter upon the example set by the elder generation of Griggsby, to the end that none of it may be lost. ”

“ I decided to leave school soon, and go to New York to seek my fortune. So I should have done but for my next adventure.
VII There were days when there was a mighty ferment in the minds of Griggsby.
On a gray, chilly Saturday in the early autumn the village was full of farmer-folk who had come to market their produce. With these people and the mill-hands Saturday was apt to be a busy day, with all doors open until eight or nine o'clock. Most of the farmers went home in good order after their selling and buying. ”

“ Yes, it was the old, old plan, and more easily managed in those days, when England was very far from us, and one who had crossed the ocean was more of a curiosity.
"Ralph ain't the right timber for a hero," said Smead as we sat together one day. "He won't do."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Too easily bamboozled. For one thing, a hero has got to be bigger than his father, especially when his father is only knee-high to a johnny-cake. If I were young an' full o' vinegar, I 'd jump in an' cut him out." ”

“ The people are a patient ox. A big woolen mill polluted the stream that flowed through the village. It was our main water-supply. The people permitted the pollution until the water was not fit to use. Then they went back to the wells and springs again. There was some futile talk about the shame of it. Letters of complaint were printed in "The Little Corporal," our local paper. ”

“ Dad suddenly decided that for me here in New York, and we 've had an awful row. It seems as if 1 ought to be there with you, but I can't. Luck is against me. I should have to walk to Griggsby and go to work for my living, for I should have no home. Don't worry; everything will come out all right. Dad says I may write to you and come home in a year. What do we care what people say so long as we are true to each other, which I will always be? Dad says that Henry is leading me astray. ”

“ A well-known and highly respected innkeeper, at whose bar a minor had bought drinks, was compelled to give a bond against any repetition of the offense or take a bitter and ruinous draft of publicity. ”

“ Florence inquired.
"It will run about like this," Dan'l W. went on: "The first occupation of man was keepin' up with Eve. She got tired of seein' him lie in the shade an' of hearin' him lie in the shade. So she contrived a situation in which it was necessary for him to get busy: she got him a job. It was no temporary thing; it was a real, permanent job. Many have tried to resign an' devote their lives to rum, eloquence, an' trottin'-hosses. We have seen the result in Griggsby. It is deplorable. 'The Little Corporal' calls them back to their tasks." ”

“ I took the only vacant chair by the side of a maudlin old soldier, who did chores for his keep, and who addressed me with incoherent mumbles. The air was heavy with tobacco smoke and the odor of rum and molasses. "Rat" Emerson, a driver, was telling how he had worn out a faster horse than his in the scoring, and won a race. ”

“ Young man, I maintain that a lady cannot lie; but it ain't always best to believe her. You did n't expect that she was goin' to toss her heart into your lap at the first bid, did ye? They don't do that, not if they 're real cunnin'. They like to hang on to their hearts an' make ye bid for 'em. ”

“ In the middle of the afternoon a stern-faced old man, with a hickory cane in his hand, entered the school-house, and Betsy hurried to meet and kiss him. Then she helped him to a seat at the teacher's desk. He was stoutly built, and wore a high collar, a black stock, and a suit of faded brown. There was a fringe of iron-gray hair above his ears, with tufts of the same color In front of them. ”

“ The boys are gettin' awfully noble an' inhuman. I 'm glad that Havelock has reformed."
XI That was the end of the interview, and of the Websterian age in Griggsby. It still lives, the Websterian impulse, but, like many better things, it has gone West.
Our citizens had begun to fear and respect "The Little Corporal." Special officers with a commission from its editor paroled the streets. Our leading lights ceased to enter the public bar-rooms. Midnight brawls and revels were discontinued. The poker-players conducted their game with the utmost secrecy and good order. ”