按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
nt their way; and I saw them no more。 On my way back; I fell into talk with James Grayden。 Born in England; Lancashire; in this country since be was four years old。 Had nothing to care for but an old mother; didn't know what he should do if he lost her。 Though so long in this country; he had all the simplicity and childlike lightheartedness which belong to the Old World's people。 He laughed at the smallest pleasantry; and showed his great white English teeth; he took a joke without retorting by an impertinence; he had a very limited curiosity about all that was going on; he had small store of information; he lived chiefly in his horses; it seemed to me。 His quiet animal nature acted as a pleasing anodyne to my recurring fits of anxiety; and I liked his frequent 〃'Deed I don't know; sir。〃 better than I have sometimes relished the large discourse of professors and other very wise men。
I have not much to say of the road which we were travelling for the second time。 Reaching Middletown; my first call was on the wounded Colonel and his lady。 She gave me a most touching account of all the suffering he had gone through with his shattered limb before he succeeded in finding a shelter; showing the terrible want of proper means of transportation of the wounded after the battle。 It occurred to me; while at this house; that I was more or less famished; and for the first time in my life I begged for a meal; which the kind family with whom the Colonel was staying most graciously furnished me。
After tea; there came in a stout army surgeon; a Highlander by birth; educated in Edinburgh; with whom I had pleasant; not unstimulating talk。 He had been brought very close to that immane and nefandous Burke…and…Hare business which made the blood of civilization run cold in the year 1828; and told me; in a very calm way; with an occasional pinch from the mull; to refresh his memory; some of the details of those frightful murders; never rivalled in horror until the wretch Dumollard; who kept a private cemetery for his victims; was dragged into the light of day。 He had a good deal to say; too; about the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh; and the famous preparations; mercurial and the rest; which I remember well having seen there;the 〃sudabit multum。〃 and others;also of our New York Professor Carnochan's handiwork; a specimen of which I once admired at the New York College。 But the doctor was not in a happy frame of mind; and seemed willing to forget the present in the past: things went wrong; somehow; and the time was out of joint with him。
Dr。 Thompson; kind; cheerful; companionable; offered me half his own wide bed; in the house of Dr。 Baer; for my second night in Middletown。 Here I lay awake again another night。 Close to the house stood an ambulance in which was a wounded Rebel officer; attended by one of their own surgeons。 He was calling out in a loud voice; all night long; as it seemed to me; 〃Doctor! Doctor! Driver! Water!〃 in loud; complaining tones; I have no doubt of real suffering; but in strange contrast with the silent patience which was the almost universal rule。
The courteous Dr。 Thompson will let me tell here an odd coincidence; trivial; but having its interest as one of a series。 The Doctor and myself lay in the bed; and a lieutenant; a friend of his; slept on the sofa; At night; I placed my match…box; a Scotch one; of the Macpherson…plaid pattern; which I bought years ago; on the bureau; just where I could put my hand upon it。 I was the last of the three to rise in the morning; and on looking for my pretty match…box; I found it was gone。 This was rather awkward;not on account of the loss; but of the unavoidable fact that one of my fellow…lodgers must have taken it。 I must try to find out what it meant。
〃By the way; Doctor; have you seen anything of a little plaid…pattern match…box?〃
The Doctor put his hand to his pocket; and; to his own huge surprise and my great gratification; pulled out two match…boxes exactly alike; both printed with the Macpherson plaid。 One was his; the other mine; which he had seen lying round; and naturally took for his own; thrusting it into his pocket; where it found its twin…brother from the same workshop。 In memory of which event; we exchanged boxes; like two Homeric heroes。
This curious coincidence illustrates well enough some supposed cases of plagiarism of which I will mention one where my name figured。 When a little poem called 〃The Two Streams 〃 was first printed; a writer in the New York 〃Evening Post〃 virtually accused the author of it of borrowing the thought from a baccalaureate sermon of President Hopkins of Williamstown; and printed a quotation from that discourse; which; as I thought; a thief or catch…poll might well consider as establishing a fair presumption that it was so borrowed。 I was at the same time wholly unconscious of ever having met with the discourse or the sentence which the verses were most like; nor do I believe I ever had seen or heard either。 Some time after this; happening to meet my eloquent cousin; Wendell Phillips; I mentioned the fact to him; and he told me that he had once used the special image said to be borrowed; in a discourse delivered at Williamstown。 On relating this to my friend Mr。 Buchanan Read; he informed me that he too; had used the image;perhaps referring to his poem called 〃The Twins。〃 He thought Tennyson had used it also。 The parting of the streams on the Alps is poetically elaborated in a passage attributed to 〃M。 Loisne;〃 printed in the 〃Boston Evening Transcript〃 for October 23; 1859。 Captain; afterwards Sir Francis Head; speaks of the showers parting on the Cordilleras; one portion going to the Atlantic; one to the Pacific。 I found the image running loose in my mind; without a halter。 It suggested itself as an illustration of the will; and I worked the poem out by the aid of Mitchell's School Atlas。 The spores of a great many ideas are floating about in the atmosphere。 We no more know where all the growths of our mind came from; than where the lichens which eat the names off from the gravestones borrowed the germs that gave them birth。 The two match… boxes were just alike; but neither was a plagiarism。
In the morning I took to the same wagon once more; but; instead of James Grayden; I was to have for my driver a young man who spelt his name 〃Phillip Ottenheimer〃 and whose features at once showed him to be an Israelite。 I found him agreeable enough; and disposed to talk。 So I asked him many questions about his religion; and got some answers that sound strangely in Christian ears。 He was from Wittenberg; and had been educated in strict Jewish fashion。 From his childhood he had read Hebrew; but was not much of a scholar otherwise。 A young person of his race lost caste utterly by marrying a Christian。 The Founder of our religion was considered by the Israelites to have been 〃a right smart man and a great doctor。〃 But the horror with which the reading of the New Testament by any young person of their faith would be regarded was as great; I judged by his language; as that of one of our straitest sectaries would be; if he found his son or daughter perusing the 〃Age of Reason。〃
In approaching F