NUMBER FOUR. "I see," quoth he, "the elephant Is very like a rope!" And so these men of Indostan Disputed loud and long, Exceeding stiff and strong, Though each was partly in the right, So, oft in theologic wars THE LAUNCHING OF THE SHIP.-H. W. LONGFELLOW. All is finished, and at length Has come the bridal day Of beauty and of strength. To-day the vessel shall be launched! With fleecy clouds the sky is blanched, And o'er the bay, Slowly, in all his splendors dight, The great sun rises to behold the sight. The ocean old, Centuries old, Strong as youth, and as uncontrolled, Paces restless to and fro, Up and down the sands of gold. His beating heart is not at rest; And far and wide, With ceaseless flow, His beard of snow Heaves with the heaving of his breast, He waits impatient for his bride. There she stands, With her foot upon the sands, Decked with flags and streamers gay, In honor of her marriage-day; Her snow-white signals fluttering, blending Round her like a veil descending, Then the Master, With a gesture of command, Waved his hand; And at the word, Loud and sudden there was heard, The sound of hammers, blow on blow, She starts, she moves,-she seems to feel And, spurning with her foot the ground, How beautiful she is! how fair She lies within those arms, that press Of tenderness and watchful care! Sail forth into the sea, O ship! Through wind and wave, right onward steer; The moistened eye, the trembling lip, Are not the signs of doubt or fear. Sail forth into the sea of life, What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,- Are all with thee-are all with thee. ON TO FREEDOM.-A. J. H. DUGANNE. Of the floods that strive with ocean, Of the atoms in the whirlwind, Of the seed beneath the ground; "Twas the cry that led from Egypt, O thou stony-hearted Pharaoh ! For the cry that led from Egypt, Speaks alike through Greek and Hebrew: In the Roman streets, with Gracchus, In the German woods, with Hermann, Still the old, old cry of Egypt, Struggling up from wilds of Edom, On to Freedom! On to Freedom! Out of all the shames of Egypt, MARK TWAIN'S "GREAT BEEF-CONTRACT.” SAMUEL L. CLEMENS. The origin of this distressful thing was this, and I assert here that every fact in the following resume can be amply proved by the official records of the General Government. John Wilson Mackenzie, of Rotterdam, Chemung County, New Jersey, deceased, contracted with the General Government, on or about the 10th day of October, 1861, to furnish to General Sherman the sum total of thirty barrels of beef. Very well. He started after Sherman with the beef, but when he got to Washington, Sherman had gone to Manassas; so he took the beef and followed him there, but arrived too late; he followed him to Nashville, and from Nashville to Chattanooga, and from Chattanooga to Atlanta,-but he never could overtake him. At Atlanta he took a fresh start and followed him clear through his march to the sea. He arrived too late again by a few days, but, hearing that Sherman was going out in the Quaker City excursion to the Holy Land, he took shipping for Beirut, calculating to head off the other vessel. When he arrived in Jerusalem with his beef, he learned that Sherman had not sailed in the Quaker City, but had gone to the Plains to fight the Indians. He returned to America and started for the Rocky Mountains. After eighteen days of arduous travel on the Plains, and when he had got within four miles of Sherman's headquarters, he was tomahawked and scalped, and the Indians got the beef. They got all of it but one barrel. Sherman's army captured that, and so, even in death, the bold navigator partly fulfilled his contract. In his will, which he had kept like a journal, he bequeathed the contract to his son Bartholomew W. Bartholomew W. made out the following bill and then died: THE UNITED STATES, In acct. with JOHN WILSON MACKENZIE, of New Jersey, deceased, Dr. To thirty barrels of beef for Gen. Sherman, @ $100 $3,000 To traveling expenses and transportation,. 14,000 Total, Rec'd Pay't. $17,000 He died then; but he left the contract to Wm. J. Martin, who tried to collect it, but died before he got through. He left it to Barker J. Allen, and he tried to collect it also. He did not survive. Barker J. Allen left it to Anson G. Rogers, who attempted to collect it, and got along as far as the Ninth Auditor's office, when death the great leveler came all unsummoned, and foreclosed on him also. He left the bill to a relative of his in Connecticut, Vengeance Hopkins by name, who lasted four weeks and two days, and made the best time on record, coming within one of reaching the Twelfth Auditor. In his will he gave the contract bill to his uncle, by the name of O-be-joyful Johnson. It was too undermining for Joyful. |