| | 1 | Author: | Fay
Theodore S.
(Theodore Sedgwick)
1807-1898 | Add | | | Title: | Sydney Clifton, or, Vicissitudes in both hemispheres  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It was near the close of a gloomy and cheerless
day in November, anno domini 18—, that two ill-clad
men were seen to enter one of those minor
houses of entertainment which abound in certain
localities in the city of New-York. “The insult offered me this morning can only be
atoned by affording me the satisfaction due to a
gentleman. My friend Piercie Matthison, Esq. the
bearer of this, will arrange the necessary details on
my part. “Why, oh why am I not permitted an interview
on which the whole happiness of my future life depends?
Can it be that the lovely and just being
whose partiality and goodness hesitated to chide my
presumption in tendering vows of love and fidelity,
has joined the censorious and heartless world in imputing
to me crimes at which my soul recoils? No,
no; it cannot be; and yet thrice have I called at
your residence without succeeding in obtaining an
audience; and when I made the last abortive effort
this afternoon, although your matchless form was
seen gliding from my sight, yet your servant stated
that you were not at home. How then am I to
account for this prostration of my dearest hopes?
Surely none of Mr. Elwell's family can bear me ill-will,
for with none have I the pleasure of an acquaintance,
unless that might be termed such which was
caused by my introduction to Miss Helen through
yourself at Mrs. Rainsford's soirée. Alas, a sudden
light bursts on my vision, by whose glare I perceive
the unwelcome truth. The rival whose malice has
wrought the meshes of the fatal web in which my
character is ensnared, has, by some cunningly-devised
fable, forced an unwilling conviction of my
baseness on your mind; or, what is more probable,
has so prejudiced your relatives that they have directed
the servant to deny me the happiness of personally
exculpating myself from the charges preferred
against me. “the riter of these lines happins to bee an unfortunit
yuth whu wuld hav bin onnist and industrus
if hee hadn't hav bin siddused bi bad cumpennee
and got intu scrapes in that are way. now the reesun
that i rite this is to tel yu as hou mister sidnee
Cliftin has bin usin yur name pruttee cunsidderablee,
up to the blak hoal, as wee cal it, whear wee pla
lew and wist, and rolet, not to say nothin about a
tuch of farrow, and so on. in this hear way, yu
sea, mister Sidnee clifton got us al inter trubble last
nite; for, ses hee, arter hee had drinked plentee of
shampane, slappin his phist on the tabel, ses hee,
dam the man as ses Julee borodel ain't the bootifoolest,
and the hansimest, and the charminist gal in al
york; hear, ses hees, hur helth, and ile cramm the
glas doun annee rascils throte what won't go the
hoal bumpur. So, yu sea, one uf our larks ses, ses
hee, Mistir cliftin, yu can't stuf yur gals doun mi
throte, no hou yu can ficks it. ime a sutthern chap,
ses hee; so, stranngir, yur barkin up the rong tree.
yu think yuv got a grean horn; but mi iis, ses hee,
ime a rale missisipee roarer, tru grit to the bak boan.
i doan't car a curs for all yur Julees nor Julise. So,
yu sea, the fite wus in, and sum won called wach,
and the wach cum, and wee was al captivated like
innersint lams. nou i thot that yu shuld no hou
yur name was insultid, bein as hou ime told yu are
a nise yung ladee: so notthin moar at prissint, but
rimmains yurs til deth. “How can I convey the sad intelligence of an
event which has shipwrecked every hope connected
with you and happiness? Briefly, then:—in a
fatal hour I consented to a hostile meeting with Mr.
Julius Ellingbourne this morning, and the result is,
that my antagonist at this moment lies mortally
wounded at his lodgings, in the Astor House. That
I am in the toils of a most foul and deep-laid conspiracy
against my character; that this rash meeting
has, in its consequences, severed every hope I
might otherwise have entertained of exculpating
myself in the opinion of the world; that I have
been goaded on by some fiend or fiends in human
shape, who have too successfully accomplished my
ruin: and that life will, hereafter, be a curse rather
than a blessing, are truths which admit not of denial,
but will never, I fear, be susceptible of satisfactory
explanation. Farewell, then, my life, my love;
a long, a last farewell. “Fatal Encounter.—Our readers will recollect
the article published in our yesterday's edition, headed
`Police Court—Capture extraordinary,' in
which the arrest and examination of a knot of gamblers
were stated, together with the fact that two
citizens, hitherto considered respectable, one a clerk
in an extensive mercantile establishment, and the
other a gentleman of fashion, were implicated. Although,
on that occasion, we were induced to suppress
the names of the parties, from respect to the
feelings of their friends, yet so public has the exposure
become, in consequence of the events which
have this morning transpired, that further concealment
is neither possible nor expedient. It is therefore
our duty, as public journalists, to state that the
person first alluded to is Mr. Sydney Clifton, a confidential
clerk in the counting-room of Messrs. De
Lyle, Howard & Co., and that Julius Ellingbourne,
Esquire, a gentleman so well and favourably known
in the fashionable world, is the latter. It now appears
that circumstances connected with the arrest
of the parties led to a hostile meeting at Hoboken,
early this morning, when Mr. Ellingbourne received
the ball of Clifton in his side, near the region of the
heart. From the extremely dangerous character of
the wound, it is not expected that the life of Mr.
Ellingbourne will be protracted many hours. Thus
the vice of gaming, in which this young man indulged,
has at length been followed by the commission
of murder! What a warning does this fact
convey to the youth of our city to abstain from the
incipient stages of dissipation, in whose fatal vortex
honour, integrity, and even life, are frequently ingulfed.” | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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