Silverland | Page 5

Jerome Park, or other race-track, and the good things come off wrong, you will find your account not much easier to settle than after a disastrous Newmarket meeting.
To be sure, the money that circulates so rapidly is oft-times lightly won; for the audacity of our 'bulls' and 'bears' pales before the ordinary operations of Wall Street not taking into account such crises as the Black Friday, or the recent conflict over Erie's. I doubt if the financial history of the worl can match, at least in rapidity and subtlety of construction, the stupendous fortune now owned by Vanderbilt, of whom more hereafter. But taking all in New York, enticing as it may be for brief sojourn, is scarcely the abiding-place for a pauper troubled with a conscience.
The papers, at that time, were still redolent of the Fisk tragedy; indeed, scarce a day passed without a legal wrangle about the assassin's impending trial. But Society seemed somewhat weary perhaps, somewhat ashamed of the subject; only a very few vouchsafed contemptuous pity to the dead, such as might have been felt in old times when a knavish court-buffoon had come to a violent end.
About the City and Custom House frauds, however, and the like misdemeanors, people were thoroughly in earnest; and the public was not apt to err on the side of clemency. At any rate, the huge mansion has a fair chance of being swept, if not garnished; and, whilst the 'other seven' are barred out, the motley household may hope to liv< cleanly.
Our courteous hosts backed their invitations with warnings, against the folly of trusting to the tender mercies of the Union Pacific; and, as a purely uncommercial traveller, I was moved to tarry amongst these convivial prophets. But the chiefs of our company, in their austere virtue, decided otherwise. So, on the sixth night we set our faces towards the West.
The party had been gradually augmented, till we counted eleven in all; the latest addition being a bride, whose matronhood was not a full week old. Would even Mrs. Malaprop have approved of such a honeymoon as awaited this intrepid couple? The other notables comprised a Professor of great repute, studious and careful, yet brisk and gay of demeanour withal under each and every trial; a Senator, who, before he represented his State, had been a luminary of Western law; a Lieutenant, B.K, with whom we had formed alliance on the voyage out; and last, though certainly not least, the eminent person who for the next two months was to be our guide and guardian. Very soon, in honour of his wondrous talent as director and purveyor, he was dubbed 'Commodore;' and many titles, civil and military, on that side of the Atlantic, are less justly earned.
I once sojourned at Homburg, in a right pleasant company, now scattered widely over the earth anc beneath it, for that matter. For first and foremost was a famous inditer of prose and rhyme; and, years ago,
Multis ille bonis flebilis, occidit.
Like most men of that grand stamp, he was merry as a school-boy in his holiday; and, wasting not his substance at the tables, was free to enjoy to the uttermost the varied entertainments. Partly in jest, partly in earnest, he was wont to avow a grateful and implicit trust in the Administration, who purveyed so liberally for their guests. One morning, a comparative stranger required his opinion as to weather prospects. Folding his hands meekly, 'with a child-like and bland-like smile,' answered the Professor,
"I cannot say. But I shall be content with whatever my 'good gentlemen' are pleased to provide."
Into some such beatific frame of mind, before we had been long under the Commodore's tutelage, both Tressilian and I subsided; taking no more thought of the morrow, so far as transport and food were concerned, than if we had been a couple of errant sparrows. The traveller, indeed, who would grumble at a Palace Car, so conducted, had best bide at home. It is the very sublimation of the old vetturino system; omitting the venal element and preliminary fight over the contract.
We left the streets of New York ankle-deep in mire; but it was mid- winter again when, on the following forenoon we stood over against Niagara. A white haze, denser than the thickest spray-mist, veiling the Fa]ls nearly to their crest, clung to the cliffs on either hand; through which, rank above rank, glimmered the giant ice-spears. The view upwards from the Suspension Bridge was somewhat blurred and dim: but there was reality enough in the awful turmoil immediately beneath it and below. The encroaching shore-ice seemed rather to provoke than allay the fury of the current, that in a few seconds ground huge bergs into clots of seething foam; and this side of the great picture was assuredly more marvellous