Karl Pearson

“ Pearson. The Baron d'Ardigny is not my husband.'
"'Not your husband!'
"He sprang up with a shout. The revolver clattered to the floor. If it was loaded it was a miracle that it did not go off. 'Not D'Ardigny! Is it possible that you duped him too?'
"'I am at your mercy, Mr. Pearson, and you are, of course, free to use towards me any language which, as a gentleman, may be consistent with your code of honour.'
"'My code of honour! Such words from you! You ruined me--is that not so? You tempted me to desert my ship. ”

“ Eugene Pearson was a young man, it was learned, who had first seen the light in the little town of Geneva, then a straggling little village with none of the pretensions it now presented. His parents were most exemplary people, and his father at one time had been a wealthy grain merchant, but during one of the financial panics that swept over the country, he was unfortunate enough to suffer embarrassments which stripped him of his fortune and left him penniless in his old age to begin again the battle of life. ”

“ Pope we knew was librarian of the Sunday School at home, and that if he knew any smugglers he had kept it a secret. Ed Mason had got rid of his pebble, and he now joined us again.
"Are you ready, men?"
"Ay, ay,—heave ahead!"
So we started once more. The streets were black as ink. They were paved with cobblestones, and there did not seem to be any side- walks. The buildings were fishermen's and clammers' huts, boat- houses, and small shops,—all dark and deserted. The fog shut out everything at a short distance. At the top of the hill there was one dim light in the rear of a little shanty. ”

“ Sociable as he was, fond of seeing a good play, his chief delight, if he was not out in the fields, was a book that would set him thinking or a poem that would touch his imagination, and Pearson was old beyond his years. ”

“ The first voice: "Oh, you big—I didn't do nothin' of the sort, teacher!"
[254]
A man, elbowing his way to the front, and relying on the fascinations of his dyed moustache and hat tilted to one side: "Say, jus' gimme this, will yer?"
While Miss Grant is charging the book, he leans over her confidentially:
"Say, don't you or that other young lady belong to the Order of the Golden Bazoo? Don't yer? Say, that's too bad—we're goin' to have a little dance to-morrer night at the Red Men's hall. We'd be glad to have yer come. ”

“ Pearson shut out of science everything which the nineteenth century had brought into it. He told his scholars that they must put up with a fraction of the universe, and a very small fraction at that,—the circle reached by the senses, where sequence could be taken for granted,—much as the deep-sea fish takes for granted the circle of light which he generates. “Order and reason, beauty and benevolence, are characteristics and conceptions which we find solely associated with the mind of man.” ”

“ The Progressive Republicans pointed out to their fellow-members of the party that only where a Progressive ran for office in a state election did the party win. Otherwise the Democrats were victorious. The lesson was plain; but the stand-patters did not care to see it. By the beginning of 1912 it was freely predicted in print that the Democrats would nominate [121] Governor Wilson of New Jersey, their strongest candidate, and that they would win if the Republicans insisted on naming Mr. Taft. But the old-line Republicans were above taking advice. ”

“ Chief.
"And coffee and rolls," added Pete, "what more do you want, you old lemon?"
"No, there are only three rolls. Some of us will have to eat crackers."
"I will eat marline-spikes," said Mr. Daddles, "if you've got any of them on board. I've never seen one,—though I've heard of them a great deal."
"I'll eat crackers," declared Jimmy Toppan.
"So will I," said Sprague, "and glad to get 'em. I might be gnawing a bone in jail, now, instead."
"And there's no milk," said the Chief, "we were going to get some, and some bread, this morning in Bailey's Harbor." ”

“ Eugene Pearson, in their opinion, was above suspicion; he was their ideal of a moral young man, his father was respected everywhere, and the base and unwarranted invasion of their home by my officers was an indignity which they were resolved they would not allow to pass unpunished. As the morning advanced the excitement increased, and several of the boldest of the angry citizens approached William, and in no complimentary terms expressed their contempt, not only for him individually, but for the methods which had been used to ferret out and apprehend men who were innocent of any wrong. ”

“ In an hour or more we reached the beginning of the causeway, and fifteen minutes later we were in Bailey's Harbor.
"I wouldn't mind something to eat," said Ed Mason.
"Some ham and eggs," I suggested.
"And some of those mince turnovers," remarked Jimmy Toppan, almost breaking into a run.
"And some coffee," said Mr. Daddles.
"Do you suppose there is any of that chowder left?" asked Ed
Mason; "it's always better warmed over."
"The Captain must have had his supper long ago," said I. "And gone to bed, too," put in Mr. Daddles,—"say, do you know, it's pretty late?" ”

“ In the primary campaign, in the spring of 1912, the Progressive Republicans and Mr. Roosevelt proved their case up to the hilt. In every instance but one, where it was possible to get a direct vote of the people, Roosevelt beat President Taft, and overwhelmingly. Thus, in California he beat him nearly two to one; in Illinois, more than two to one, in Nebraska more than three to one, in North Dakota more than twenty to one, in South Dakota more than three to one. In New Jersey, Maryland, Oregon and Ohio, Roosevelt won decisively; in Pennsylvania by a tremendous majority. ”

“ Theodore Roosevelt thought that Americans were not so soft that they were afraid to hear the truth, and that it was a poor sort of American who dared not point out to his fellow-countrymen the mistakes they had made and the disasters which followed. It did not seem patriotic to him to dodge the fact that lack of wisdom at Washington had let our Army run down before the [16] war, so that our attempts to invade Canada were failures, and that we suffered the disgrace of having Washington itself captured and burned by the enemy. ”

“ This development may come, but it need not come necessarily, and, on the whole, the probabilities are against its coming at all.
Mr. Pearson is essentially a man of strength and courage. Looking into the future, the future seems to him gray and unattractive; but he does not preach any unmanly gospel of despair. He thinks that in time to come, though life will be freer than in the past from dangers and vicissitudes, yet it will contain fewer of the strong pleasures and of the opportunities for doing great deeds that are so dear to mighty souls. ”

“ Professor Pearson goes about to analyse the leaves of physics, but too often takes for granted the leaves of language. He has needlessly approached his task in such a fashion that it becomes much more a matter of psychology and logic than of physical science; yet his psychology is little better than a hand-to-mouth criticism, the mere business psychology of a physicist. His distinction between philosophical and physicist doctrine (pp. 93, 94) , to the effect that one appeals to temperament but the other not, is a sample of amateur psychology grievous to consider. ”

“ An aged Italian sat behind it, reading a newspaper. He sold us peanuts, and exchanged facetious remarks with Mr. Daddles. As we left the peanut man, we heard a far-off shouting. Down the street came a tall, thin man, ringing a great dinner-bell. He was very lame and made slow progress. Now and then he would halt, and shout something at the top of his voice.
"What's the matter?" Sprague asked a man, who stood in the door of a cigar-shop, "is there a fire?"
The man grinned.
"That's the town-crier," said he.
"Town-crier!" exclaimed Mr. Daddles, "I didn't know there were any of 'em left." ”

“ All this to say nothing of Pearson's own well-earned reputation for knowledge of custom, intelligence, and deftness in turning out the objects of his care in such form as to be a reference in themselves when a new place was wanted. Of course sometimes there were even real gentlemen who were most careless and indifferent to appearance, and who, if left to themselves, would buy garments which made the blood run cold when one realized that his own character and hopes for the future often depended upon his latest employer's outward aspect. ”

“ Peter was exasperated.
"Why, we've got to get them out," he asserted, "or they'll starve to death."
"How'd they get in there?" Ed Mason wished to know.
"What difference does that make? She captured 'em, I s'pose."
I thought I could throw a little light on this dark subject. It was Monday morning, and I had been looking over the fence into the Merrill garden only half an hour before.
"There ain't any distressed damsels there, Peter," I said earnestly; "I saw [258] 'em. One of 'em's Katie Clancy,—an' she lives there all the time, an' the other is Mrs. Muldoon, an' she's hangin' out the wash." ”

“ He was of the same kind of North yeoman stock, and with greater opportunities might have made himself a name {117} in the annals of literature. As it is, like Elihu Robinson of Egglesfield, like Wilkinson of Yanwath, like the late Wilson Robinson of Winfell, Lorton, Pearson's name was not known far beyond his native valley, but of him, as of the others named, it is truth to say that he was a living monument of what 'the soul of Nature,' if it be received into the heart of man, can do to elevate, to strengthen and refine. ”

“ We heard from Pearson to-day. Pearson is the senior partner, you know, and my boy the junior--Pearson and Denver the firm. Cunning old dog is Pearson, as cute and as greedy as a Rio shark. Yet he goes off for a fortnight's leave, and puts my boy in full charge, with all that immense business in his hands, and a freehand to do what he likes with it. ”

“ Pearson,” said she, “you are just like Dr. Johnson, I think: I do not mean that you are a man of the greatest capacity in all the world like Dr. Johnson, but that you contradict one every word one speaks, just like him.”
Mr. Johnson told me the story: he was present at the giving of the reproof. It was, however, observable, that with all his odd severity, he could not keep even indifferent people from teasing him with unaccountable confessions of silly conduct, which one would think they would scarcely have had inclination to reveal even to their tenderest and most intimate companions ”

“ It seemed strange to him that a young, strong and active man like Pearson should not have manifested even ordinary courage in a crisis like this. He was behind the desk when the attack was made upon Miss Patton at the door, and saw what was transpiring before the second assailant had time to reach him. Even if powerless to defend her, it seemed reasonable that he could have raised an alarm, which would have attracted the attention of the passers by; or, failing in that, he could, at least, have hastily closed the vault doors, and thus have saved the money of the bank. ”

“ And, as she had borne children, a motherly solicitude was now awakened in her heart for Bub, and she pressed anxiously down the path, while the deepening twilight steadily increased the gloom that lingered in the shadows of the lofty trees. The cart track grew less distinct as she advanced; and, as she had not found Bub, she concluded to return and alarm the neighbors, but found her course impeded on every side by the thick underbrush, for she had lost the main path. With desperate efforts she pushed aside the strong-armed boughs, and struck once more the cart track, as she supposed ”

“ We had to be contented with their painted likenesses on the sides of the carts.
"Do you suppose they're inside there, now?" asked Rob Currier's small sister in a hushed voice.
"Of course they are," Ed Mason assured her scornfully; "I saw one of the hyenas through a crack when they went by."
"Look!" said Peter Bailey. "Here comes the steam calliope!"
Sure enough, there it was. A man in overalls was energetically shovelling coal into the boiler, and a charming lady with very pink cheeks sat at the keys. ”

“ Mayo, at the other end of the wire, "oh, that is impossible. I know crows when I see them. Why, this has a ruff, and a magnificent red coloring about its head. Oh, it's no crow!"
"Whom did you see in there?" inquired Miss Patterson. "Miss Bixby?"
"No," replied the young and timid stenographer, "it was that young man—I don't know his name."
She had entered the library service only the week before.
"Oh, Edgar! He doesn't know anything about anything. Miss Bixby must have left the room for a moment, and I [68] suppose he had brought in a book for a reader. ”

“ But these bags were marked a lot of strange names,—Toppan, and Edwards, and so on."
"T-Tell him about the n-name, S-S-Spike."
"Oh, yes. There was a strip of canvas hitched over the stern,—it had something painted on it in black letters. I hung over the stern, but I couldn't make it out,—because it looked upside down, of course. So I got out in the tender and read it, and it was 'Hannah J. Pettingell.' Then there was another name under that,—in gilt letters, in the regular way. That seemed kind of funny, and when I got back on the boat we unhitched the cords and pulled up the canvas sign. ”

“ You cannot think ill of a man who gives you peaches like those.
Ed Mason intended to find out about the old elm tree, and he broached the subject fearlessly.
"Cap'n, Sam says that you said they planted a piece of willow where the old elm came up."
"What's that? No; they didn't plant no willow, but all this about the young feller that came callin' on his girl, an' cut a stick to keep off the dogs, an' stuck the stick in the ground in front of her door, an' then went away an' forgot it, an' the tree grew outer that stick,—all that's bosh. Don't yer believe it." ”