Mr. Douglas

“ Douglas," said she, making a profound reverence to him, and another to Mary, while she waved her hand for them to be seated. "Excuse me, Miss Douglas; but situated as I am, I find it necessary to be very distant to Mr. Gawffaw's friends sometimes. He is a thoughtless man, Mr. Douglas—a very thoughtless man. He makes a perfect inn of his house. He never lies out of the town, trying who he can pick up and bring home with him. It is seldom I am so fortunate as to see such guests as Mr. ”

“ That was nearly thirty years ago, and only the other day I met one of our Kirkcaple people in Edinburgh, and she said to me, with tears in her eyes, 'Hardly a day passes in our house without a mention of your name, and never a Sabbath comes but we say, "If only we could hear Mr. Douglas' voice again!" Who says the ministry is not a repaying job?' Well, we got to Glasgow—I think you children all went to Etterick, didn't you?"
"Only the boys," said Ann. "I went straight to Glasgow with you and Baby Rosamund. ”

“ At one o'clock, a committee of four hundred persons of Chicago and the adjoining counties, proceeded to Michigan City, where they met the train, and escorted Mr. Douglas to this city, and, on his arrival, he was greeted with vociferous cheering from the people, and the firing of cannon. A procession was immediately formed, and Mr. Douglas was conducted to the Tremont House, where he was welcomed in a brief speech in behalf of the citizens, by Charles Walker, President of the Board of Trade.
Mr. Lincoln was present and heard Mr. Douglas. Fireworks were discharged in several parts of the city. ”

“ But it wouldn't! The sooner you learn what a fool the old sky pilot is, the better. Or, I tell you, Douglas! You preach the next sermon and I promise to come and bring the crowd."
Douglas grinned feebly. "I value my life," he answered.
Mary Spencer, who was listening to the conversation which took place in her kitchen, now made a suggestion.
"Why don't you feed 'em, Doug? Announce a series of fifty-cent dinners up at the chapel and while the folks eat, let Mr. Fowler preach."
Douglas laughed delightedly. "That's a 'gregus' idea! I'll do it. I'll begin this Sunday with a venison dinner!" ”

“ I've no use for an honest man. He always lets you down.
Fortunately, he is rather rare—"
Mr. Heard slept badly that night, for the first time since his arrival on Nepenthe. It was unbearably hot. And that visit to Mrs. Meadows had also troubled him a little.
The Old Town looked different on this occasion. A sullen death-like stillness, a menacing stagnation, hung about those pink houses. Not a leaf was astir under the burning sirocco sky. Even old Caterina, when he saw her, seemed to be afflicted, somehow. ”

“ Mrs. Duff-Whalley always gave a long and pretentious meal, and expected everyone to pay for their invitation by being excessively bright and chatty. It was not in the power of the present guests to be either the one thing or the other. Mrs. Jowett was pensive and sweet, and inclined to be silent; her husband gave loud barks of disagreement at intervals; Mr. Jackson enjoyed his dinner and answered when spoken to, while Lewis Elliot was rendered almost speechless by the flood of talk his hostess poured over him. ”

“ That will be a quarter for each of us—David, Jock, Mhor, me."
Jean spoke as if the fortune was a lump of dough and Mr. Dickson the baker, but the lawyer did not smile.
"I understood you had only two brothers?"
"Yes, David and Jock, but Mhor is an adopted brother. His name's Gervase
Taunton."
"But—has he any claim on you?"
Jean's face got pink. "I should think he has. He's exactly like our own brother."
"Then you want him to have a full share?"
"Of course. It's odd how people will assume one is a cad! ”

“ Douglas went on as if he had not heard. "But you can't get Judith that way. She hasn't any emotions except temper and a sense of humor!"
"There isn't a woman born who isn't full of emotion," said Mr. Fowler, dryly. "And the deeper they conceal it, the more they have. I think I'll go to bed, Douglas. I feel as if I'd come through a hard day."
"Same here," agreed Douglas, and shortly the cabin was in darkness.
For a day or so the preacher stayed quietly in and about the cabin. He swept the chapel and cleaned out the stove and polished the windows and each day made a little fife. ”

“ Douglas sighed again, and shook her head. "Oh—sic a worrit-lookin' wumman!" Ann quoted. Then, "I must say I enjoyed the tea-party. Mother, don't you like Mr. Sharp? I do. You needn't have rubbed it in about sermons being no use if they are read. He sat with such a guilty look like a scolded dog. I like his painstaking sermons and his sincere, difficult little prayers. He will never make a preacher, but he is a righteous man. Miss Ellen Scott cheered him by saying read sermons were generally more thoughtful. I do wish we could see the Scotts oftener. ”

“ Thomas went on with his bread-and-butter, and a silence fell on the company. It was broken by a startled cry from Elizabeth.
"Have you hurt yourself, girl?" asked her father.
"No, no. It's Mrs. Veitch's scones. To think I've forgotten them! She sent them to you, Father, for your tea. Buff, run—no, I'll go myself;" and Elizabeth left the room, to return in a moment with the paper-bagful of scones.
"I had finished," said Mr. Seton meekly.
"We'll all have to begin again," said his daughter. "Thomas, you could eat a bit of treacle scone, I know." ”

“ Duff-Whalley reared her head, but Muriel interposed, laughing. "You mustn't really be so severe, Mr. Jowett. I happen to possess two of the 'trifling beasts,' and you must come and apologise to them after dinner. You can't imagine more perfect darlings, and of course they are called Bing and Toutou. You won't be able to resist their little sweet faces—too utterly darling!"
"Shan't I?" said Mr. Jowett doubtfully. "Well, I apologise. Nobody likes to hear their dog miscalled.... By the way, Jackson, that's an abominable brute of yours. ”

“ Great-aunt Alison came to The Rigs first about thirty years ago. Do you, by any chance, know our landlord in London? Mr. Peter Reid is his name."
"I know him."
"He's frightfully rich, they say. I don't suppose you know him well enough to ask him not to sell The Rigs? It can't make much difference to him, though it means so much to us. Is he old, our landlord?"
"A man in his prime," said Peter Reid.
"That's pretty old, isn't it?" said Jean—"about sixty, I think. Of course," hastily, "sixty isn't really old. ”

“ Douglas,—It must now be something like fifteen years since Mr. John Lane, who was then compiling a bibliography of George Meredith, asked me to consent to his compiling a bibliography of my articles in the ‘Athenæum’ and elsewhere, and although I emphatically declined to sanction such a bibliography, he on several occasions did me the honour to renew his request. I told him, as I have told one or two other generous friends, that although I had put into these articles the best criticism and the best thought at my command, I considered them too formless to have other than an ephemeral life. ”

“ There is one other point. Judge Douglas has a very affectionate leaning toward the Americans and Old Whigs. Last evening, in a sort of weeping tone, he described to us a death-bed scene. He had been called to the side of Mr. Clay, in his last moments, in order that the genius of "popular sovereignty" might duly descend from the dying man and settle upon him, the living and most worthy successor. He could do no less than promise that he would devote the remainder of his life to "popular sovereignty"; and then the great statesman departs in peace. ”

“ Douglas would at least put his refusal on some more plausible ground than a mere squibble. The idea that Mr. Douglas is unable to meet Mr. Lincoln in debate because forsooth a Democratic Central Committe had already made some half dozen appointments for him, is pitiful—just as though those appointments could not be changed, or so modified as also to embrace a discussion with Mr. Lincoln or leaving those appointments out of the question, just as though there was not yet remaining full two months in which to make the canvass with Mr. ”

“ But such are the facts; we give them, not because we feel very deeply on this point, but to put the public right with regard to them. We can prove their proof by Mr. Hitt himself, if he will go upon the stand under oath. Even, however, after Senator Douglas' speeches are marred—by striking out words, here and there, by mangling sentences to hide their meaning, by mis-punctuations, etc. etc.—and after re-writing and polishing the speeches of Lincoln, those of Douglas so much excelled those of his opponent, in all respects, that we cannot find it in our hearts to complain much. ”

“ While Douglas was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he received a dispatch from his friend, Forney, announcing that the Republicans had carried Pennsylvania in the October State election. Similar intelligence came from Indiana. The outcome in November was thus clearly foreshadowed. Recognizing the inevitable, Douglas turned to his Secretary with the laconic words, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save the Union. I will go South." [880] He at once made appointments to speak in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, as soon as he should have met his Western engagements. ”

“ Sharp likes telling funny stories?"
"Shyness goads him to it," Ann said. "It's the same thing that makes me chatter like a swallow when I am with impressive people and ought to hold my peace. He's a decent lad, Mr. Sharp, but I wish that when I meet him outside he wouldn't treat me like a funeral. He doesn't look at me, but removes his hat when passing. Shyness again, I suppose."
"He has a housekeeper," Mrs. Douglas said, as she picked up a stitch. "It's a pity he hasn't a wife. In a quiet place like this the Manse should be a centre for the district. ”

“ Douglas, "and good, but they aren't my kind of people. We don't care about the same things. But Mr. Sharp makes me feel young again; he has the very atmosphere of a manse about him."
"The atmosphere of Mr. Sharp's Manse is chiefly paraffin oil," said Ann.
At that moment Marget came into the room, ostensibly to remind Ann of something needed at the village shop the next day, but really to talk over the tea-party.
"I think the minister enjoyed his tea," she remarked, "for there was an awfu' wheen scones eaten."
"He did, indeed, Marget," her mistress assured her. ”

“ We are very much alone just now—it was an odd chance that sent Mark and Charlotte to India and Jim to South Africa the same winter—but don't let's have to remember it as the winter of our discontent.... We must face facts. Neighbours we have almost none. Mr. Sharp, at the Manse, is practically the only one, and he is so shy that speaking to him is like trying to carry on a conversation with a very young rabbit in a trap. The Scotts aren't so very far away as the crow flies, only over the other side of the hill, but it is five miles round by the road. ”

“ It was properly Mr. Douglas' duty to challenge Mr. Lincoln, without waiting to receive one.
Mr. Douglas announces, towards the close of his reply, that it is probable that he can meet Mr. Lincoln before the people once in each Congressional district. We hope he will be able to; and in the meantime, if he is disposed to be an honest man, let him desist from such gross misrepresentations of Mr. Lincoln's position as he has thus far indulged in.
[Free-port, Ill., Journal, July 29, 1858]
AT FREEPORT
Mr. ”

“ I'll make a story for you in bed to-night all about what you would have if I were rich."
"And Jock, too?"
Being assured that Jock would not be overlooked Mhor grabbed Peter round the neck and proceeded to babble to him about bicycles and aeroplanes, motors and Newfoundland pups.
Jean looked apologetically at her guests.
"When you're poor you've got to dream," she said. "Oh, must you go, Mr. Reid? But you'll come back to-morrow, won't you? We would honestly like you to come and stay with us."
"Thank you," said Peter Reid, "but I am going back to London in a day or two. ”

“ He resides (1908) in New York City.
It was my good fortune to accompany Mr. Lincoln during his political campaign against Senator Douglas in 1858, not only at the joint debates but also at most of the smaller meetings where his competitor was not present. [1] We traveled together many thousands of miles. I was in the employ of the Chicago Tribune, then called the Press and Tribune. Senator Douglas had entered upon his campaign with two short-hand reporters, James B. Sheridan and Henry Binmore, whose duty it was to "write it up" in the columns of the Chicago Times. ”

“ In the vestry Elizabeth paraded the boys for inspection. "Billy, you're to sit on the seat to-day, remember, not get underneath it."
"Buff, take that sweetie out of your mouth. It's most unseemly to go into church sucking a toffee-ball."
"Thomas! What is that in the strap of your Bible?"
"It's a story I'm reading," said Thomas.
"But surely you don't mean to read it in church?"
"It passes the time," said Thomas, who was always perfectly frank.
Mr. Seton caught Arthur Townshend's eye, and they laughed aloud; while Elizabeth hastily asked the boys if they had their collection ready. ”

“ The grove was gaily decorated with national flags, with significant mottoes, the whole forming a scene which filled the heart of every democrat present with pride—Conspicuous among these banners we will note was one very large pennant, with "Douglas," in broad letters upon its folds, got up by the Springfield employees of the work shops of the Chicago and St. Louis Road. Upon the stoppage of the train the committee of reception, preceded by the "Capital Guards" and the capital band, escorted Mr. Douglas to the stand, where Mr. ”