The Story of a Summer Part 11

"The corsets which so aroused his ire were quite different from those of the present day. At that time, you must know, the Empire dress, that you have seen in portraits of the time of the first Napoleon, was all the fashion; no crinoline, skirts so extremely scant and gored that they clung to the figure like drapery upon a statue, and waists a finger and a half in depth, with inch-wide bands instead of sleeves.

This style of dress was very graceful and becoming when worn by a woman of slender figure, and those who were not thus favored by Nature made the best of their figures by wearing what was then called 'busks,' or more popularly 'boards.' The corsets worn in those days did not clasp in front, but merely laced behind, and inserted in the lining of the front was the 'busk,' a piece of steel, or (among poorer people) wood two inches wide, and the depth of the corset. This busk, with the addition of very tightly drawn lacing-strings, was supposed to give great symmetry to the figure. No village belle ever liked to own that she laced tightly, or that she wore a board; as it was a tacit admission that her figure could not bear unaided the test of the Empire dress; consequently brother's remarks would be received by his young friends with an injured air, and a vehement protest against such a false accusation. Brother would then test their truth by dropping his handkerchief and requesting them to pick it up; if they 'wore a board,'

stooping would be impossible, or, at all events, very difficult; an ordeal that would cover them with confusion, when the philosopher of thirteen years old would resume his moral lecture upon the laws of hygiene, and the follies of fashion."

CHAPTER XIV.

The Morning Mail--A letter to Mrs. Cleveland--Strange Contents--Ida's Letter Bag--Appeals for Money, for Clothing, and for her Hand--An Original Letter from a Trapper.

_July 13_.

Going to the post-office for the morning mail is, I think, our greatest daily pleasure. For some reason, we seldom have many letters by our second mail, the 6.30 P.M. train, but in the morning our box is always well filled, for we receive regularly the dear daily _Tribune_, six weekly journals, and the leading magazines, and as we all have quite a number of correspondents, we feel deeply aggrieved if our box is not filled to repletion at least _once_ a day.

Ida, of course, is blessed with the greatest number of letters in the family, for besides those from her own and her father's friends,

"The cry is, still they come!"

in shoals from unknown people of high and low degree, sometimes containing merely poems, or expressions of sympathy and interest in the sad history of our beautiful cousin, but varied occasionally by some of the extraordinary appeals for help which I have already mentioned.

This morning I went down to the office when the mail came in. There was the usual number of expectant faces--Miss Murray and Miss c.o.x in their carriages, and our more rural neighbors standing about the pigeon-hole; however, every one makes way for us in Chappaqua, and I approached nearer, and asked for our letters. A very rough-looking man standing near by, looked on with interest while the postmaster handed out letter after letter, and finally said:

"You belong to the family, do you not?"

"Yes," I said, for I always answer the rustic salutations of the people about here, knowing them to have had a sort of feudal attachment to uncle.

"I thought a great deal of the old gentleman," he said with a rude pathos in his voice that was very touching. "I used to see him very often, for I live in these parts, and he always used to say good-morning so pleasant, and was never ashamed to shake my dirty, hard hand!"

This reminds me of a little incident that mamma related yesterday. She was standing upon the balcony when an old gentleman who was driving past, seeing mamma, stopped his horses, looked up and bowed, hesitated, and then said:

"Excuse me, but is thee the sister of Horace Greeley that was?"

Mamma a.s.sented.

"I thought so," he said, "I saw it in thy countenance."

He then told mamma his name, and, after making a few remarks about uncle that showed thoroughly good feeling, drove on.

It is not uncommon for those driving past to slacken their horses and gaze earnestly at the house, and, if any of us are upon the piazza or at the windows, they always bow--a mark of respect that is also shown us by all the farmers and working people about here.

But I am forgetting Ida's letters. I brought her this morning as many as six or eight, some of which were put up in yellow-brown envelopes, and directed in very questionable chirography. In a few moments she knocked at mamma's door and said,

"I have brought you a few letters from some of my extraordinary correspondents, Aunt Esther."

"We will compare notes, my dear," said mamma, looking up from a rose-colored sheet embellished with decidedly scrawly writing. "I have just received one that is quite astounding."

"From Tennessee," said Ida, looking at the postmark. "I know the writing; that man has sent me as many as half a dozen letters, wishing to enter into correspondence. I suppose that finding me so unresponsive he thinks he will try another member of the family."

"He comes to the point in a most emphatic manner this time," said mamma, "by asking me for your hand; and as the letter is really a curiosity in a literary point of view, I will read it to you." [1]

"NASHVILLE, TENN.

"MRS. JOHN F. CLEVELAND:--I reckon I am one of the spoilt children of the South, similar to what Mr. Greeley says of South Carolina. I want to Marry Miss Ida, because she is the daughter of the most powerful Man that has yet appeared on the American Continent. Mr. Greeley turned four millions of slaves loose with the Pen can't I win his daughter with the same facile weapon? Now Mrs. Cleveland won't you help me? I am not a Humbug, I have too many bullet holes through my body to be cla.s.sed with that tribe of insects. I begin to feel a little skittish about my age, 35 and not yet Married. Yet I have always been rather a fatalist and incline to Worship some star. The Greeks Worshiped the sun, And moon under the Name of Isis and Osiris, but I am more like the Arab look to the stars for something sublime and unchanging among all the bright lights that hang and move in the firmament. The North Star Appears to be the most important. The Axis on which our Earth daily turns. The point from which all Mariners calculate their course in mid ocean, and safely guides Them from continent to continent. Without the North Star there would be no Magnetic Meridian by which Governments could be surveyed and divided equitably to its inhabitants and civilization would lose its strong hold in being based on Justice. If there is any South Star that plays such an important part on this continent or Europe I have never heard of it. Miss Ida is the North Star made so by the fact her father was the great center around Which The whole country swung. And As she is the oldest the crown of greatness ought to rest on her head. And if she will Marry Me I will do as hard fighting as Caesar did to put it there. With great respects yours Truly

This letter would have excited more astonishment than it did, had it not been only a fair specimen of what Ida has been daily receiving since her father's death. She then read us one from Indiana, addressed to herself, and written, as the newspapers would say, with a view to matrimony, but couched in quite a business-like strain:

"MISS IDA GREELEY:

"May I not surprise you by the fact that I desire an acquaintance with you. I send you my photograph (which however is too light to be perfect), hoping yours in return. If answered, I in my next will give my age and history generally.

"Yours truly

Another was from a widow with a son at college, who was very badly in debt. The mother appealed to Ida as a lady of fortune and generosity, and the only person to whom they could look for aid, to pay the son's debts, "And," Ida added with mock indignation, "she does not even promise that I shall be ultimately rewarded with the young man's hand."

A third was dated Illinois, and bore the sonorous signature of Greeley Barnum M------. This epistle was extremely prolific, inasmuch as it gave the occupations, ages, and a personal description of not only the immediate members of the writer's family, but even extended to cousins once or twice removed. He had also much to say about his name of Greeley; sometimes he was proud of it, and sometimes the reverse, according to the company he was in. Pa.s.sing over all this prelude, we discovered that Greeley Barnum M------'s object in writing was to request a complete outfit for his sister who was about to go to school.

"You are a young Lady, Miss greeley," the writer touchingly said, "and know everything that my sister would be likely to want." The clothes, he kindly intimated, could be put up in a box, and sent by express, prepaid; and having done so, Ida was requested to notify his sister and also an uncle and aunt at some distant point, that they might not be distressed by thinking their niece was going to school without a suitable outfit.

The next letter that Ida took up was from a Kansas man, more modest in his requests than the others, for he neither asked for her hand nor a loan, but being anxious for self-improvement, solicited a little a.s.sistance from her in that line. This letter was written in an even, flowing hand, with very few mis-spelt words.

"WICHITA, KANSAS.

"MISS IDA GREELY:

"Well, here is another fool, will no doubt be the first thought that will pa.s.s through your mind, and it is quite likely that you may in the main be correct.

"I have a very high regard for all womankind. I have read so much about your sympathetic nature, I thought perhaps our sympathies might be mutual in some respects.

"I am always desirous of improving, and have heretofore looked to much to persons no better qualified than myself to instruct or improve in correspondence of any kind. Knowing that you are educated and refined I apply to you as a perfect Gentleman for a small portion of your time say one half-hour in four weeks as a time set aside to answer any letter I might write, at same time corract misspell'd words etc. And do it unreservedly. I am formerly from the east: come west less than one year ago, have lost my wife, am thirty years old, and like you without friends. In return for your favor I can write you a description of this great Arkansas Valley and county beyond, of the rapid growth of the country etc. which may in part repay you for your trouble to please one lonely heart far from home. Will not give you any description of Self or business unless I receive some answer but will say that I am of good family, in good business, and doing well.

"With respect

"Here is another letter that at all events is short," said Ida, continuing to read:

"MISS GREELEY: