Stebbins

“ Mr. Stebbins, he give the job to me and my wife, ’cause we’re honest, hard-working people, and he knew he could trust us not to tattle or tell no tales of your goin’s on. He says, ‘Thorpe,’ says he, ‘they’re a queer lot what’s comin’ up here, but they’re my tenants, and I don’t want ’em bothered none by gossip and tale-bearin’ to the village.’ Ain’t that right, Mr. Stebbins?”
[141]
“Just so,” said Stebbins, calmly. “Them’s just about my very words. You told me, Mr. Landon, that you were a crowd of spook-hunters, and so it was up to me to spare you all the annoyance I could. ”

“ After him trailed an army of young “farmers” and in another moment the visitor had ceased to be a stranger to anybody there.
“Let’s see-saw!” cried Joe Stebbins, seizing her hand and drawing her to the playground. Then somebody swung Mary Jane and the baby upon the beam beside her, some other girls took the opposite end, and they all went tilting up and down, up and down, in the most exciting manner possible. Then there was the Maypole, furnished with ropes instead of ribbons, from the ends of which they hung and swung, around and around, till they dropped off for sheer weariness. ”

“ Long before that, the road had been opened "beyond Stebbins's," and Vosh had joined them with his snow-shovel. His paths were all in a condition that spoke well for his industry, and the deacon told him so. Mrs. Stebbins was at the gate, and she remarked,—
"Tell ye what, deacon, if you think my Vosh can't do any thing but spell for dixinaries, you're mistaken. He's a worker, he is."
"That's so."
But there was no need of his saying much more, for there in the road behind him were Mrs. Farnham and aunt Judith, and Susie and Pen ”

“ It is difficult to reconcile such a career with the demeanour of the man, and especially with his present occupation. But Joshua Stebbins has not always been a schoolmaster; and the pedagogue of a border settlement is not necessarily, expected to be a model of morality. Even if it were so, this lord of the hickory-switch is comparatively a stranger in Swampville ”

“ Stebbins, of Cincinnati, Ohio, is mentioned as belonging to the party of tourists that visited the planet Mars, and as communicating with others at Split Rock, Kentucky, and for other good reasons, I have deemed it not inappropriate to incorporate herein a letter of Mr. Stebbins to the Spiritual Offering, a paper recently established at Ottumwa, Iowa, and which is ably conducted and devoted to the advancement of spiritualism. ”

“ Thus it was that, though curious faces peered in at the window, no person save Mrs. Stebbins crossed the threshold of their neighbor’s house, [45] and the two women were left unhindered to minister to the injured child as best they knew how. They were not able, indeed, to restore the little girl to consciousness; but they had cleared the soil of the street from her face and clothing and had placed the inert figure in an easy posture, long before there was heard the rattle and dash of another approaching vehicle, and a doctor’s phaeton drew up at the door. ”

“ The one great weakness in the character of Vosh Stebbins was that he could not help telling the truth, to save his life. It was very bad for him sometimes; and now, before Susie could smother her laugh, and make up her mind what to answer him, he held out his teacup to aunt Judith.
"Miss Farnham, mother told me to borrow a drawing of tea. We ain't out of tea, by a long ways; but she heard the deacon's sleigh a-coming, and she wanted to know if the folks from the city'd got here."
"They've come," said aunt Judith shortly, "Susie and her brother. ”

“ Don’t let them hear sech talk!”
“Perhaps,” continued Stebbins, without heeding the interruption, “perhaps that murderer fancies he might escape. He is mistaken if he do. One word from me in Swampville, and the hounds of the law would be upon him; ay, and if he could even get clear of them, he could not escape out of my power. I have told you I am an Apostle of the great Mormon Church; and that man would be cunning indeed who could shun the vengeance of our Destroying Angels. Now, Hickman Holt, which is it to be? yes or no?” The pause was ominous for poor Marian. ”

“ I don't want to sleigh-ride anybody else. They've all got company."
That was the reason why, a little afterwards, Vosh Stebbins's mother could not find him. He and Susie were jingling over the snow behind the sorrel colt, and it was a long way home before they returned to the house. ”

“ Our trees die out."
Likely as not they did; but the attack had fairly begun, and poor Mrs. Stebbins found herself out-numbered. The deacon pressed her with the cider, and Mrs. Farnham with the krullers. There was the heaped-up plate of snowy white popped corn, and beside it was the tempting little hill of cracked hickory-nuts and butternuts. Susie broke off for her a noble piece of maple-sugar; and aunt Judith herself took a candle, and went down cellar for a couple of the best mince-pies. It was all too much for conversation of the kind Mrs. Stebbins delighted in.
"O Vosh!" ”

“ Stealing forward in the same stealthy manner, he came in sight of the young man whom we have already described, and who, although several hours had elapsed, still sat gazing into the embers with the same absent, dreamy expression that old Stebbins and Teddy observed. He had doubtless replenished his fire since then, as it was burning quite vigorously, but he had returned to the deep reverie that first distinguished him.
“Wal, now, that’s what I call quite careless,” muttered the trapper; “thar seems to be plenty of white folks in these parts; wonder if we are in a civilized country arter all.” ”

“ And yet to those who loved him the world seems not quite the same since he has gone from it. There is an underlying feeling of something missing, of loss not to be overcome, that must be borne to the end.
In my early boyhood Horatio Stebbins was "the preacher from Fitchburg"—original in manner and matter, and impressive even to a boy. Ten years passed, and our paths met in San Francisco. From the day he first stood in the historic pulpit as successor of that gifted preacher and patriot, Starr King, till his removal to Cambridge, few opportunities for hearing him were neglected by me. ”

“ In 1839 he was appointed to the Racine and Southport Mission, as before stated, and remained on the Southport part the following year. After leaving Southport charge he was stationed at Platteville, Lake, Madison and St. Charles. Subsequently taking a location, he became a resident of Kenosha, in the vicinity of which place he still resides.
Brother Stebbins is a man of superior ability, and in his prime enjoyed considerable reputation as a Preacher. He is spending the evening of his life in quiet, trustingly awaiting the change that now cannot be long delayed. ”

“ The female of the same race is fast dying out; indeed, the time is not far distant when all the varieties of young woman will have vanished from New England, as the dodo has perished in the Mauritius. The young lady is all that we shall have left, and the mop and duster of the last Ahnira or Loizy will be stared at by generations of Bridgets and Noras as that famous head and foot of the lost bird are stared at in the Ashmolean Museum.
Abel Stebbins, the Doctor's man, took the true American view of his difficult position. ”

“ Surely Holt would not contribute to the ruin of his daughter—for in no other light did I regard her introduction to the society of the Mormon city? There was manhood in the man—somewhere down near the bottom of his heart—perhaps some remnants of rough virtue. This I had myself proved; and, if filial testimony were to be trusted, he was not so abandoned a character as he appeared. Was it possible he could be aware of the real intentions of the churl who was leading him and his to ruin? After all, he might not. It is true he was aware that Stebbins was a Mormon ”

“ They ain’t none of ’em implicated, and why let ’em know what’s goin’ on?”
“That’s right,” said Zizi. “Whatever we learn may not be entirely given to the public. Just call the rest of the party, Pen.”
As it happened, the men were all in the hall talking with Wise when Stebbins arrived, so Zizi went in search of the women. They were congregated in Milly’s room, and as they came downstairs, the detective noted their expressions, a favourite method with him of gaining information. ”

“ It can be stated with confidence that the intelligent resourcefulness of the Stock Exchange, in conjunction with the splendid public spirited work of the New York banks and the press, warded off a calamity the possible magnitude of which it would be difficult to measure. The success of this undertaking should be a source of pride and emulation to those future generations of brokers who will have to solve the problems of the great financial market when in the words of Tyndall, "you and I, like streaks of morning cloud, shall have melted into the infinite azure of the past." ”

“ In all the great European centers, where trading on the fortnightly settlement basis is in vogue, the restoration of dealings was terribly complicated by the herculean task of clearing up back contracts that extended over many days. In New York, when conditions so shaped themselves as to warrant reopening the Exchange, the back contracts of its members had all been settled up two months before. ”

“ When in future the perennial outcry against the Exchange is being fostered by those whose minds are exclusively occupied with the evils that are inseparable from every human institution, let us hope that once in a while some friendly voice may be raised to remind the world of July thirty-first, nineteen hundred and fourteen. ”

“ Stock Exchanges are a relatively recent product of modern civilization, and like new comers in every field they are suspected and misunderstood. The most complex of all problems are economic problems, and the functions of Stock Exchanges form a most intricate part of political economy. ”

“ The anatomy and physiology of our own bodily structures have their roots in the invisible. The grand chain-work of relations that binds all things in order thus loses itself at one extreme in the infinitely great, and at the other in the infinitely small. ”

“ The final outcome was that the New Street market did more good than harm. It relieved the situation by facilitating some absolutely necessary liquidation, and never grew to such proportions as to precipitate disaster, but during the long suspense and uncertainty of the closing of the Exchange it was a constant and keen source of anxiety to the Committee of Five. ”

“ Many people with ready money, who felt that securities had fallen to bargain prices, appeared as purchasers and relieved the necessities of those who had been embarrassed by the war crisis. A little later, however, when the progress of the war took on a more discouraging aspect, this "Clearing House Market" fell to the arbitrary minimum of the closing prices with a large excess of selling as compared to buying orders, and the "New Street Market" grew in proportion. ”

“ It is instructive, as showing the workings of some minds, that although the Committee of Five, in its capacity of regulator of minimum prices, issued a public statement that they were under no circumstances going to valorize or sustain prices but merely expected to maintain a safeguard against some unforeseen shock to confidence, many people wrote them urgent letters asking that in certain properties a minimum should be maintained which would render selling impossible. ”

“ A gradual transition is found passing from the Phalangers through the Paramelidæ to the kangaroos. All arboreal species have an opposable thumb. This thumb is rudimentary or wanting in the terrestrial species, but in both the carnivorous and herbivorous groups we find a gradual transition to the species possessing a well-developed thumb ”

“ With the cultivation of extensive areas, the destruction of beneficial insects, of birds and reptiles, and their forest-homes, with the introduction of new food plants, and adaptive changes in the food-habits of insects, we favor the multiplication of our native pests, while to these we have added through commerce all the foreign marauders which can be brought with imported produce, and without the enemies which retard their increase in their own countries. ”

“ Over its own members the New York Stock Exchange might exercise a rigid control, and it could safely be assumed that the other Stock Exchanges of the country would coöperate with it, but numberless outside agencies existed such as independent dealers unaffiliated with exchanges, and auctioneers, any of whom might establish a market. If declining prices were made through media of this description, and the press felt called upon to furnish them to the public, the closing of the Exchange might not suffice to prevent panic and disaster. ”

“ My soul is vexed, from day to day, because the writers of unrighteous fiction are so popular, while the devotees. . . of science and the promulgators of God's truths are to such a degree neglected, their writings unsought, unread. Yet not wholly so. I rejoice to believe that the number of students in the school of Nature is rapidly increasing. And I devoutly pray and hope that the beauties and attractions of nature may be so unfolded and presented that the youth of America may be turned from the unprofitable, innutritious, and demoralizing food of fiction to the bread and water of a true life. ”