The Crater | Page 4

of attention was paid to his
instruction, and fortunately for himself, his servitude under the eastern
pedagogue was of very short duration, and Mark continued to speak the
English language as his fathers had spoken it before him. The
difference on the score of language, between Pennsylvania and New
Jersey and Maryland, always keeping in the counties that were not
settled by Germans or Irish, and the New England states, and through
them, New York, is really so obvious as to deserve a passing word. In
the states first named, taverns, for instance, are still called the Dun Cow,
the Indian Queen, or the Anchor: whereas such a thing would be hard
to find, at this day, among the six millions of people who dwell in the
latter. We question if there be such a thing as a coffee-house in all
Philadelphia, though we admit it with grief, the respectable town of
Brotherly Love has, in some respects, become infected with the spirit
of innovation. Thus it is that good old "State House _Yard_" has been
changed into "Independence Square." This certainly is not as bad as the
tour de force of the aldermen of Manhattan when they altered "Bear
Market" into "Washington Market!" for it is not a prostitution of the
name of a great man, in the first place, and there is a direct historical
allusion in the new name that everybody can understand. Still, it is to
be regretted; and we hope this will be the last thing of the sort that will
ever occur, though we confers our confidence in Philadelphian stability
and consistency is a good deal lessened, since we have learned, by
means of a late law-suit, that there are fifty or sixty aldermen in the
place; a number of those worthies that is quite sufficient to upset the
proprieties, in Athens itself!
Dr. Woolston had a competitor in another physician, who lived within a
mile of him, and whose name was Yardley. Dr. Yardley was a very
respectable person, had about the same degree of talents and knowledge
as his neighbour and rival, but was much the richest man of the two. Dr.
Yardley, however, had but one child, a daughter, whereas Dr. Woolston,
with much less of means, had sons and daughters. Mark was the oldest
of the family, and it was probably owing to this circumstance that he

was so well educated, since the expense was not yet to be shared with
that of keeping his brothers and sisters at schools of the same character.
In 1777 an American college was little better than a high school. It
could not be called, in strictness, a grammar school, inasmuch as all the
sciences were glanced at, if not studied; but, as respects the classics,
more than a grammar school it was not, nor that of a very high order. It
was a consequence of the light nature of the studies, that mere boys
graduated in those institutions. Such was the case with Mark Woolston,
who would have taken his degree as a Bachelor of Arts, at Nassau Hall,
Princeton, had not an event occurred, in his sixteenth year, which
produced an entire change in his plan of life, and nipped his academical
honours in the bud.
Although it is unusual for square-rigged vessels of any size to ascend
the Delaware higher than Philadelphia, the river is, in truth, navigable
for such craft almost to Trenton Bridge. In the year 1793, when Mark
Woolston was just sixteen, a full-rigged ship actually came up, and lay
at the end of the wharf in Burlington, the little town nearly opposite to
Bristol, where she attracted a great deal of the attention of all the
youths of the vicinity. Mark was at home, in a vacation, and he passed
half his time in and about that ship, crossing the river in a skiff of
which he was the owner, in order to do so. From that hour young Mark
affected the sea, and all the tears of his mother and eldest sister, the
latter a pretty girl only two years his junior, and the more sober advice
of his father, could not induce him to change his mind. A six weeks'
vacation was passed in the discussion of this subject, when the Doctor
yielded to his son's importunities, probably foreseeing he should have
his hands full to educate his other children, and not unwilling to put this
child, as early as possible, in the way of supporting himself.
The commerce of America, in 1793, was already flourishing, and
Philadelphia was then much the most important place in the country. Its
East India trade, in particular, was very large and growing, and Dr.
Woolston knew that fortunes were rapidly made by many engaged in it.
After, turning the