At one of our public meetings, the superintendent introduced as a speaker, a man by the name of Holmes, and wishing to impress the boys favorably, he announced him as Professor Holmes. The orator was annoyed at being called professor, and trying to be "funny," commenced by saying: "I am not Professor Holmes, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass--" At this point, quick as a flash, up jumped one of our wharf rats, and shouted: "Well, if you ain't Professor Holmes' ass, whose ass be ye?" Then the little barbarian, evidently maddened by the sneering pomposity of our eloquent guest, strutted across the floor in perfect imitation of Holmes' affected grandiloquence; then he launched into the coon song:-- "De bigger dat you see de smoke De less de fire will be, And de leastest kind ob possum Climbs de biggest kind ob tree. "De nigger at de camp-groun' Dat kin loudest sing an' shout, Am gwine ter rob some hen-roos' Befo' de week am out." Thus, often, from a bud seemingly withered and dead, would unexpectedly blossom out an unknown flower of startling brilliancy and unprecedented attractiveness. CHAPTER IX. SUNLIGHT AND DARKNESS IN PALACE AND COTTAGE. My pupils at the reform school were from the dens and hovels of the Bowery, while those at S---- were from the palaces of Fifth Avenue; but to my utter astonishment, the children of the slums were morally and perhaps intellectually superior to those of the plutocrats. I was occasionally the guest of both the poverty-stricken and the millionaire parents of my scholars, and I verily believe that I saw as much depravity and misery in the abodes of the rich as in those of the poor. On my arrival in Berkshire County, I found both of my employers were off on a spree, and that I was ordered to do the work of receiving and organizing. One day, a princely equipage with liveried coachman and outrider halted at the schoolroom door, a "bloated bondholder" and his wife, arrayed in purple, fine linen, and diamonds, pulled a flashily appareled, humpbacked boy up to me, every lineament of whose face showed depravity and cunning. "There," said the father, "is my d---- d son, he drinks, swears, and breaks all the commandments every day. Take him, and send the bill to me." He handed me his card and away they went.