Stephen H. Branch's Alligator, Vol. 1 no. 03, May 8, 1858
General
Stephen H. Branch's Alligator, Vol. 1 no. 03, May 8, 1858
New York (N.Y.) -- Politics and government
works of fiction, which fill her impulsive genius with the profoundest
romance and fatality. It is about the period of her appearance, and I
desire you to take a position at the window, and behold how prettily,
and gracefully, and archly, she leaves her mysterious note for her
adored Otto.” We sat near the window, screened by the lattice and
gauzy curtains, and presently we behold her in the distance; and,
after gazing at Otto’s window, she discovers him on the watch, and
rapidly crosses the street, and, after leering cautiously around,
she softly places the letter on the steps, and hastily departs, when
down comes Otto, like a vulture for its prey, or like Putnam down the
rocky precipice, or like the Falls of the eternal Niagara, and seizes
the pretty note, and flies like an eagle to his celestial cloister.
Julia gently smiles, and intently gazes at us, and we at her, in the
profoundest silence, when we arise, and pace across the moonlight rays
that gild the rainbow carpet, in disconcerted meditation. Julia becomes
alarmed, and exclaims: “Stephen, you seem agitated and bewildered,
and I fear you will disclose in Bennett’s _Herald_ what you have seen
to-night.” We assured her that we would not, and then she besought
us, in plaintive tones, never to divulge our painful observations to
the Reverend Doctor Potts, and we assented, and soon retired, but
could not repose, and arose and paced the room, and in fancy rambled
through our early days, and parted the lattice, and gazed upon the
autumnal firmament, and counted its brilliant constellations. We saw
the meteors fall, and heard the watchman’s solemn cry, and closed
the lattice and retired, (with the imprudent Parson’s daughter, like
an affrighted ghost, flitting before our midnight vision,) and there
was no repose for us. We tossed hither and thither, like a vessel in
a storm, and heard the doleful clock measure the passing hours, and
heard the shrill music of the King of hens, and gladly hailed the
first pale ray of the morning twilight that lit upon our nose, and
we arise, and enter the exhilerating atmosphere, and stroll with the
earliest rays of Aurora, as she gilds the hills and sacred skies. We
pace the streets in excited contemplation, and waggons, and rustics,
and butchers, and debauchees, and homeless wanderers pass us in rapid
succession, for whose hard and mysterious destiny, our poor heart
beats high in tearful sympathy. We pass on, and intoxicated girls, of
incomparable beauty, reeled by our side, who had just emerged from
dens of infamy, where they had been decoyed, and their virginity
forever blighted by incarnate demons. We rove through the commodious
Park, bearing the enchanting name of Washington, and recline beneath
its mellifluous foliage, and soliloquize in the mental disquietude of
Aristotle, when he apostrophised on his expiring pillow, with his arms
across his breast, and his deluged vision turned to Heaven: “O God!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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