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Queer Estimate

Queer Estimate image
Parent Issue
Day
21
Month
November
Year
1862
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

'How much did it welgh?' 'Is it possible?' 'I never! You don't say?' ThousandB of times has the question been asked, and thousanda of times hag it been vvondered at and 'I nevere'd.' And what commodity is it tliat ia great at ten pounds, and a marvel at thirteen? Don't mind the Price Curreut for it isn't. there. It was something bundjed in a flannel blanket- thp blanket securely pinned and knotted at tho corners- the sometbng in au active state of unrest. - The sieeiyurds had been called into requisition, and its bended iron was indeed 'hooks to hang a hope on.' The little bundie wnsswung up the weight clicked along the bar. 'That's the notch! Eight and a half!' Eight and a half of vrhat? Why, of- hunianity. By the memory of AJalthijs, tbera's a baby in thg blanket! Lo there is, a little voter or, if not that, as Shakspeare says, 'a child.' Somcthing that uiay cut a figure in the norld, break heads and hearts- have a great name, aud be a man or a woinan. Eight pouiids and a huif af s [ero or a Ijeroiae, a raon? ster or a minister. Piety and patriotism by the pound. Beauty and baseness by tho blanketful. Queer raeasurement, isn't it? But there are queerer still Time wears on apaoe with us all, and the soraething in the blanket too. He is a boy of five. He stands erect as God made bint, 'that he may look,' as tho writer says, 'upon the stars'. But they are talkiñg again, but the steelyards hang undisturbed in the cellar way No u.o for thei now. But they are talking and we aro listeniug. 'Tall of bis age, isn't he? He looks over the tablo like a man; the 'high chair' was put away months ago !' Tall, s he? Turee feet and an inch hih, and this 13 the altitudo of humanity. Weight is out of tbc question; estimates all rnn to height. Arnbition is but anotber name for altitude, and success a synonym fur getting higlier. The boy is a man; the man climbs a rcatrum to get higher. Mouuments go up; favoritos go up to court; couquerors go up to glory. Height, height, everywheie height. Six feet of glorv; si? feet two of honor and dignity. Queer agiiu - dcm't J'ou thiuk so? By and by - melancholy trio - the form is bent a little, aud there goes an iuch or two froiu stature. He or she is looking at somebody in tho dust. What ean jt be? Suruly, it is not a grave that thcy look at. To see? Wbat can tbero be to be seen. we wonder? By andby, they weary, and throw thernselves along the bosocu of the dusky mother of us all. They sleep - sleep, but do they dream? Where are your altitudes now, your mountains, tnonutncnts and throces? Men take up the sleeper, carefully, slowly, as if it were a treasure. And so it is - a treasure of dust. The old estimate is resumed, weight bascóme again; 'tis 'dead weight' - nothiug more. And this would be queer, too, if ouly it were not sad. But they are talking again. !She had threc names, hadn't sheV' 'Indeed, but I can remember but two.' Remember but two, eau they. Names of what? Why, of all th.at weight and height of fame and love, and hope and fear, and thought and passion. And two words - two breaths of air - two murmurs, is all that is left of what was once a man, a woinan. Years elapso, and Hge is talking again; 'There was - wns - I cannot remembar the name now - well, well, il's what we are all coming to and the old man sigba sadly. The last syllable of ají has died on the lip, is erased froin uiemory, ripples not on the still and listening air - is lost; not a murmur of it liugers in 'the fearful hollow' of human earl 'Pah ! hof the dtjst flies !' I)ust did you say? Listen, and we will whisper just a word; that dust was warm once, íoved once, beauty once. "Iniperious Caïsar, doad and turned to clay. Hight stop a hole to keep the wind away; Oh! that the earth, which lfept the world in awe, Should patolj a wall to expel the wiijter's flaw !"

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Subjects
Old News
Michigan Argus