"Illustrious Vagrant, where is the Grand Tark?" "What do you mean, sir? whom do you mean? If you mean the Chief of the Bureau, he is out." "Will he visit the harem to-day?" The young man glared upon me awhile, and then went on reading his paper. But I knew the ways of those clerks. I knew I was safe, if he got through before another New York mail arrived. He only had two more papers left. After a while he finished them, and then he yawned, and asked me what I wanted. "Renowned and honored Imbecile: On or about-" "You are the beef-contract man. Give me your papers." He took them, and for a long time he ransacked his odds and ends. Finally he found the Northwest Passage, as I regarded it, he found the long-lost record of that beef-contract,—he found the rock upon which so many of my ancestors had split before they ever got to it. I was deeply moved. And yet I rejoiced,- for I had survived. I said with emotion, "Give it me. The government will settle now." He waved me back, and said there was something yet to be done first. "Where is this John Wilson Mackenzie ?" said he. "Of course not." 66 Well, you must get him. Have you got the tomahawk?" You "I never thought of such a thing." "You must get the tomahawk. must produce the Indian and the tomahawk. If Mackenzie's death can be proven by these, you can then go before the commis sion appointed to audit claims, with some show of getting your bill under such headway that your children may possibly live to receive the money and enjoy it. But that man's death must be proven. However, I may as well tell you that the government will never pay that transportation and those travelling expenses of the lamented Mackenzie. It may possibly pay for the barrel of beef that Sherman's soldiers captured, if you can get a relief bill through Congress making an appropriation for that purpose; but it will not pay for the twenty-nine barrels the Indians ate." "Then there is only a hundred dollars due me, and that isn't certain! After all Mackenzie's travels in Europe, Asia, and America with that beef; after all his trials and tribulations and transportation; after the slaughter of all those innocents that tried to collect that bill! Young man, why didn't the First Comptroller of the CornBeef Division tell me this?" "He didn't know anything about the genuineness of your claim." "Why didn't the Second tell me? why didn't the Third? Why didn't all those divisions and departments tell me?" "None of them knew. We do things by routine here. You have followed the routine and found out what you wanted to know. That is the best way. It is the only way. It is very regular, and very slow, but it is very certain." "Yes, certain death. It has been, to the most of our tribe. I begin to feel that I, too, am called. Young man, you love the bright creature yonder with the gentle-blue eyes and the steel pens behind her ears,-I see it in your soft glances; you wish to marry her, but you are poor. Here, hold out your hand, here is the beef-contract; go, take her and be happy! Heaven bless you, my children!" This is all that I know about the great beef-contract, that has created so much talk in the community. The clerk to whom I bequeathed it died. I know nothing further about the contract or any one connected with it. I only know that if a man lives long enough, he can trace a thing through | And every morning it was still one night the Circumlocution Office of Washington, and find out, after much labor and trouble and delay, that which he could have found out on the first day if the business of the Circumlocution Office were as ingeniously systematized as it would be if it were a great private mercantile institution. S. L. CLEMENS. LOSS OF THE ARCTIC. In autumn, 1854, hundreds had wended | their way from pilgrimages;-from Rome and its treasures of dead art, and its glory of living nature; from the sides of the Switzer's mountains, and from the capitals of various nations, all of them saying in their hearts, we will wait for the September gales to have done with their equinoctial fury, and then we will embark; we will slide across the appeased ocean, and in the gorgeous month of October we will greet our longed-for native land, and our heart-loved homes. And so the throng streamed along from Berlin, from Paris, and from the Orient, converging upon London, still hastening toward the welcome ship, and narrowing every day the circle of engagements and preparations. They crowded aboard. Never had the Arctic borne such a host of passengers, nor passengers so nearly related to so many of us. The hour was come. The signal-ball fell at Greenwich. It was noon also at Liverpool. The anchors were weighed; the great hull swayed to the current; the national colors streamed abroad, as if themselves instinct with life and national sympathy. The bell strikes; the wheels revolve; the signal-gun beats its echoes in upon every structure along the shore, and the Arctic glides joyfully forth from the Mersey, and turns her prow to the winding channel, and begins her homeward run. The pilot stood at the wheel, and men saw him. Death sat upon the prow, and no eye beheld him. Whoever stood at the wheel in all the voyage, Death was the pilot that steered the craft, and none knew it. He neither revealed his presence nor whispered his errand. And so hope was effulgent, and lithe gayety disported itself, and joy was with every guest. Amid all the inconveniences of the voyage, there was still that which hushed every murmur,-"Home is not far away." nearer home! Eight days had passed. They beheld that distant bank of mist that forever haunts the vast shadows of Newfoundland. Boldly they made it; and plunging in, its pliant wreaths wrapped them about. They shall never emerge. The last sunlight has flashed from that deck. The last voyage is done to ship and passengers. At noon there came noiselessly stealing from the north that fated instrument of destruction. In that mysterious shroud, that vast atmosphere of mist, both steamers were holding their way with rushing prow and roaring wheels, but invisible. At a league's distance, unconscious; and at nearer approach, unwarned; within hail, and bearing right toward each other, unseen, unfelt, till in a moment more, emerging from the gray mists, the ill-omened Vesta dealt her deadly stroke to the Arctic. The death. blow was scarcely felt along the mighty hull. She neither reeled nor shivered. Neither commander nor officers deemed that they had suffered harm. Prompt upon humanity, the brave Luce (let his name be ever spoken with admiration and respect) ordered away his boat with the first officer to inquire if the stranger had suffered harm. As Gourley went over the ship's side, oh, that some good angel had called to the brave commander in the words of Paul on a like occasion, “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved." They departed, and with them the hope of the ship, for now the waters gaining upon the hold, and rising upon the fires, revealed the mortal blow. Oh, had now that stern, brave mate, Gourley, been on deck, whom the sailors were wont to mind,—had he stood to execute sufficiently the commander's will, we may believe that we should not have had to blush for the cowardice and recreancy of the crew, nor weep for the untimely dead. But, apparently, each subordinate officer lost all presence of mind, then courage, and so honor. In a wild scramble, that ignoble mob of firemen, engineers, waiters, and crew, rushed for the boats, and abandoned the helpless women, children, and men, to the mercy of the deep! Four hours there were from the catastrophe of collision to the catastrophe of SINKING! Oh, what a burial was here! Not as when one is borne from his home, among weeping throngs, and gently carried to the green fields, and laid peacefully beneath the turf and flowers. No priest stood to pronounce "The time for honest folks to be abed Is in the morning, if I reason right; Thomson, who sung about the "Seasons," said At ten o'clock A. M.,-the very reason "Tis, doubtless, well to be sometimes awake,- 'Tis beautiful to leave the world awhile For the sweet visions of the gentle night; And free, at last, from mortal care or guile, To live as only in the angels' sight, In sleep's sweet realm so cosily shut in, Where, at the worst, we only dream of sin! VOL. IIL THE BATTLE OF NASEBY. BY OBADIAH BIND-THEIR-KINGS-IN-CHAINS-AND-THEIR-N BLES-WITH-LINKS-OF-IRON, SERJEANT IN IRETON'S REGIMENT. Oh wherefore come ye forth, in triumph from the North, With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment all red? And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout? And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which ye tread? Oh evil was the root, and bitter was the fruit, Who sate in the high places, and slew the saints of God. It was about the noon of a glorious day of June, That we saw their banners dance, and their cuirasses shine, And the Man of Blood was there, with his long essenced hair, And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine. Like a servant of the Lord, with his Bible and his sword, The General rode along us to form us to the fight, When a murmuring sound broke out, and swelled into a shout, Among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant's right. And hark! like the roar of the billows on the shore, The furious German comes, with his clarions and his drums, His bravoes of Alsatia, and pages of Whitehall: They are bursting on our flanks. Grasp your pikes, close your ranks; For Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fail. 57 They are here! They rush on! We are broken! We are gone! Our left is borne before them like stubble on the blast, O Lord, put forth thy might! O Lord, defend the right! Stand back to back, in God's name, and fight it to the last. Stout Skippon hath a wound; the centre hath given ground: Hark! hark!-What means the trampling of horsemen on our rear? And She of the seven hills shall mourn her children's ills, And tremble when she thinks on the edge of England's sword; And the kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word. LORD MACAULAY. Whose banner do I see, boys? 'Tis he, thank God, 'tis JOHN ADAMS ON NATURAL AR he, boys. Bear up another minute: brave Oliver is here. Their heads all stooping low, their points all in a row Our cuirassiers have burst on the ranks of the Accurst, Fast, fast, the gallants ride, in some safe nook to hide Ho! comrades, scour the plain; and, ere ye strip the slain, First give another stab to make your search secure, Then shake from sleeves and pockets their broad-pieces and lockets, The tokens of the wanton, the plunder of the poor. ISTOCRACY. (FROM A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1813.) [JOHN ADAMS (1735-1826), second President of the United States, was educated at Harvard College and admitted to the bar in 1758. Endowed with an acute mind, a clear and powerful voice, and ready eloquence, he became one of the most conspicuous and influential advocates of colonial independence. In the Continental Congress, he served from 1774 to 1778, when he was appointed commissioner to France, and afterward to Great Britain, where he negotiated the treaty of peace of 1782. His voluminous writings, now little read, were mainly on jurisprudence and the science of government. His private letters (from one of which we quote) are the most readable and interesting of his writings, and his correspondence with his wife, who was a woman of superior intelligence, has been recently reprinted.] We are now explicitly agreed upon one Fools! your doublets shone with gold, and your hearts important point, viz., that there is a natu were gay and bold, When you kissed your lily hands to your lemans today; You very ral aristocracy among men, the grounds of which are virtue and talents. justly indulge a little merriment upon this And to-morrow shall the fox, from her chambers in the solemn subject of aristocracy. I often rocks, Lead forth her tawny cubs to howl above the prey. laugh at it too, for there is nothing in tnis laughable world more ridiculous than the Where be your tongues that late mocked at heaven and management of it by all the nations of the hell and fate, And the fingers that once were so busy with your blades, Your perfumed satin clothes, your catches and your oaths, Your stage-plays and your sonnets, your diamonds and earth; agreed in one point, in words, it is not yet | certain that we are perfectly agreed in sense. Fashion has introduced an indeterminate use of the word talents. Education, wealth, strength, beauty, stature, birth, marriage, graceful attitudes and motions, gait, air, complexion, physiognomy are talents, as well as genius, science and learning. Any one of these talents that in fact commands or influences two votes in society, gives to the man who posesses it the character of an aristocrat, in any sense of the word. Pick up the first hundred men you meet, and make a republic. Every man will have an equal vote; but when deliberations and discussions are opened, it will be found that twenty-five, by their talents, virtue being equal, will be able to carry fifty votes. Every one of these twenty-five is an aristocrat, in my sense of the word, whether he obtains his one vote in addition to his own, by his birth, fortune, figure, eloquence, science, learning, craft, cunning, or even his character for good fellowship, and a bon vivant. What Susanna, Abigail, Judith, Ruth, down to Helen, Mrs. de Maintenon and Mrs. Fitzherbert. For mercy's sake do not compel me to look to our chaste states and territo ries to find women, one of whom let go, would in the words of Holophernes' guards, deceive the whole earth. as The proverbs of Theognis, like those of Solomon, are observations on human nature, ordinary life, and civil society, with moral, reflections on the facts. I quote him as a witness of the fact, that there was much difference in the races of men as in the breeds of sheep, and as a sharp reprover and censurer of the sordid, mercenary practice of disgracing birth by preferring gold to it. Surely no authority can be more expressly in point to prove the existence of inequalities, not of rights, but of moral, intellectual and physical inequalities in families, descents, and generations. If a descent from pious, virtuous, wealthy, literary or scientific ancestors, is a letter of recommendation or introduction in a man's favor, and enables him to influence only one vote What gave Sir William Wallace his in addition to his own, he is an aristocrat ; amazing aristocratical superiority? His for a democrat can have but one vote. strength. What gave Mrs. Clark her aris- Aaron Burr has 100,000 votes from the sin tocratical influence to create generals, admi-gle circumstance of his descent from Presi rals and bishops? Her beauty. dent Burr and President Edwards. gave Pompadour and Du Barry the power of making cardinals and popes ? And I have lived for years in the hotel de Valentois with Franklin, who had as many virtues as any of them. In the investigation of the meaning of the word "talents," I could write 630 pages, as pertinent as John Taylor's of Hazlewood, but I will select a single example, for female aristocrats are nearly as formidable as males. A daughter of a green grocer walks the streets in London daily, with a basket of cabbage sprouts, dandelions, and spinage on her head. She is observed by the painters to have a beautiful face, an elegant figure, a graceful step, and a debonair. They hire her to sit. She complies, and is painted by forty artists in a circle round her. The scientific Dr. William Hamilton outbids the painters, sends her to school for a genteel education, and marries her. This lady not only causes the triumphs of the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar, but separates Naples from France, and finally banishes the king and queen from Sicily. Such is the aristocracy of the natural talent of beauty. Millions of examples might be quoted from history, sacred and profane, from Eve, Hannah, Deborah, * * * Take away appetite, and the present generation would not live a month, and no future generation would ever exist; and thus the exalted dignity of human nature would be annihilated and lost, and in my opinion the whole loss would be of no more importance than putting out a candle, quenching a torch, or crushing a fire-fly, if in this world only we have hope. Your distinction between natural and artificial aristocracy, does not appear to me founded. Birth and wealth are conferred upon some men as imperiously by nature as genius, strength, or beauty. The heir to honors, riches, and power, has often no more merit in procuring these advantages, than he has in obtaining a handsome face, or an elegant figure. When aristocracies are established by human laws, and honor, wealth and power are made hereditary by municipal laws and political institutions, then I acknowledge artificial aristocracy to commence; but this never commences, till corruption in elections becomes dominant and uncontrollable. But this artificial aristocracy can never last. The everlasting en vies, jealousies, rivalries and quarrels among them; their cruel rapacity upon the poor ignorant people, their followers, compel them |