Dunscomb was followed to his room by Millington, between whom and
himself, John Wilmeter had occasion to remark, a sudden intimacy had
sprung up. The counsellor had always liked his student, or he would
never have consented to give him his niece; but it was not usual for him
to hold as long, or seemingly as confidential conversations with the
young man, as now proved to be the case. When the interview was over,
Millington mounted a horse and galloped off, in the direction of town,
in that almost exploded manner of moving. Time was, and that within the
memory of man, when the gentlemen of New York were in their saddles
hours each day; but all this is changing with the times. We live in an
age of buggies, the gig, phaeton, and curricle having disappeared, and
the utilitarian vehicle just named having taken their places. Were it
not for the women, who still have occasion for closer carriages, the
whole nation would soon be riding about in buggies! Beresford is made,
by one of his annotators, to complain that everything like individuality
is becoming lost in England, and that the progress of great improvements
must be checked, or independent thinkers will shortly be out of the
question. If this be true of England, what might not be said on the same
subject of America? Here, where there is so much community as to have
completely engulphed everything like individual thought and action, we
take it the most imitative people on earth are to be found. This truth
is manifested in a thousand things. Every town is getting its Broadway,
thus defeating the very object of names; to-day the country is dotted
with Grecian temples, to-morrow with Gothic villages, all the purposes
of domestic architecture being sadly forgotten in each; and, as one of
the Spensers is said to have introduced the article of dress which bears
his name, by betting he could set the fashion of cutting off the skirts
of the coat, so might one who is looked up to, in this country, almost
set the fashion of cutting off the nose.
Dunscomb, however, was a perfectly original thinker. This he manifested
in his private life, as well as in his public profession. His opinions
were formed in his own way, and his acts were as much those of the
individual as circumstances would at all allow. His motives in
despatching Millington so suddenly to town were known to himself, and
will probably be shown to the reader, as the narrative proceeds.
“Well, sir, how are we getting on?” asked John Wilmeter, throwing
himself into a chair, in his uncle’s room, with a heated and excited
air. “I hope things are going to your mind?”
“We have got a jury, Jack, and that is all that can be said in the
matter,” returned the uncle, looking over some papers as the
conversation proceeded. “It is good progress, in a capital case, to get
a jury empannelled in the first forenoon.”
“You’ll have the verdict in, by this time to-morrow, sir, I’m afraid!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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