The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 19, May, 1859: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 19, May, 1859: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
Mormon, on his own soil, than the bayonet of the Federal soldier.
BULLS AND BEARS.
[Continued.]
CHAPTER XXIV.
The next day, Monroe went with the artist to good Mr. Holworthy,
and proposed to undertake the task of instructing a school. The
preliminaries were speedily arranged: he was to receive a small weekly
stipend, enough, with prudence, to meet his household expenses, and
was to commence at once. Both of the gentlemen accompanied him to the
quarter where his labor was to begin. A large room was hired in a
rickety and forlorn-looking house; the benches for the scholars and a
small desk and chair were the only furniture. And such scholars!--far
different from the delicate, curled darlings of the private schools. The
new teacher found his labor sufficiently discouraging. It was nothing
less than the civilization of a troop of savages. Everything was to be
done; manners, speech, moral instincts, were all equally depraved. They
were to be taught neatness, respect, truth-telling, as well as the usual
branches of knowledge. It was like the task of the pioneer settler in
the wilderness, who must uproot trees, drain swamps, burn briers and
brambles, exterminate hurtful beasts, and prepare the soil for the
reception of the seeds that are to produce the future harvest. We leave
him with his charge, while we attend to other personages of our story.
Mr. Sandford and his sister, upon leaving their house, took lodgings,
and then began to cast about them for the means of support. The money on
which he had relied was gone. His credit was utterly destroyed, and he
had no hope of being reinstated in his former position. The only way
he could possibly be useful in the street was by becoming a curbstone
broker, a go-between, trusted by neither borrower nor lender, and
earning a precarious livelihood by commissions. Even in that position
he felt that he should labor under disadvantages, for he knew that his
course had been universally condemned. It was a matter of every-day
experience for him to meet old acquaintances who looked over him, or
across the street, or in at shop-windows, to avoid recognition. And the
half-patronizing, half-contemptuous nods he did receive were far worse
to bear than downright cuts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account