an unexpected confession
having executed the document, marston ordered one of the servants to show maxwell his room. the persons who had acted the part of justices, authenticating the instrument, withdrew without further conversation; while the person who had followed lorenzo, for such was the young man's name, remained as if requiring some further negotiation with marston. he approached the table sullenly, and with one hand resting upon it, and the other adjusted in his vest, deliberately waited the moment to interrupt the conversation. this man, reader, is marco graspum, an immense dealer in human flesh,--great in that dealing in the flesh and blood of mankind which brings with it all the wickedness of the demon. it is almost impossible to conceive the suddenness with which that species of trade changes man into a craving creature, restless for the dross of the world. there he was, the heartless dealer in human flesh, dressed in the garb of a gentleman, and by many would have been taken as such. care and anxiety sat upon his countenance; he watched the chances of the flesh market, stood ready to ensnare the careless youth, to take advantage of the frailer portions of a southerner's noble nature. "a word or two with you, mr. marston," said he.
"sit down, graspum, sit down," marston rejoined, ordering dandy to give him a chair; which being done he seats himself in front of marston, and commences dilating upon his leniency. "you may take me for an importune feller, in coming this time o'night, but the fact is i've been-you know my feelings for helpin' everybody-good-naturedly drawn into a very bad scrape with this careless young nephew of yourn: he's a dashing devil, and you don't know it, he is. but i've stood it so long that i was compelled to make myself sure. this nephew of yourn," said he, turning to lorenzo, "thinks my money is made for his gambling propensities, and if he has used your name improperly, you should have known of it before." at this lorenzo's fine open countenance assumed a glow of indignation, and turning to his uncle, with a nervous tremor, he said, "uncle, he has led me into this trouble. you know not the snares of city life; and were i to tell you him-this monster-yea, i say monster, for he has drawn me into a snare like one who was seeking to devour my life-that document, uncle, which he now holds in his hand saves me from a shame and disgrace which i never could have withstood before the world."
"ah! you are just like all gamblers: never consider yourself in the light of bringing yourself into trouble. take my advice, young man; there is a step in a gambler's life to which it is dangerous to descend, and if you have brought your father and uncle into trouble, blame neither me nor my money," returned graspum.
"you do not say that there is forgery connected with this affair, do you?" inquired marston, grasping lorenzo by the arm.
"i wish it were otherwise, uncle," replied lorenzo, leaning forward upon the table and covering his face with his hands. "it was my folly, and the flattery of this man, which have driven me to it," he continued.
"oh! cursed inconsistency: and you have now fallen back upon the last resource, to save a name that, once gone, cannot reinstate itself. tell me, marco graspum; are you not implicated in this affair? your name stands full of dark implications; are you not following up one of those avenues through which you make so many victims? what is the amount?" returned marston.
"you will know that to-morrow. he has given paper in your name to an uncertain extent. you should have known this before. your nephew has been leading a reckless gambler's life-spending whatsoever money came into his possession, and at length giving bills purporting to be drawn by you and his father. you must now honour them, or dishonour him. you see, i am straightforward in business: all my transactions are conducted with promptness; but i must have what is due to me. i have a purpose in all my transactions, and i pursue them to the end. you know the purport of this document, marston; save yourself trouble, and do not allow me to call too often." thus saying, he took his hat and left the room.
uncle," said lorenzo, as soon as graspum had left, "i have been led into difficulty. first led away by fashionable associations, into the allurements with which our city is filled, from small vices i have been hurried onward, step by step, deeper and deeper, until now i have arrived at the dark abyss. those who have watched me through each sin, been my supposed friends, and hurried me onwards to this sad climax, have proved my worst enemies. i have but just learned the great virtue of human nature,--mistrust him who would make pleasure of vice. i have ruined my father, and have involved you by the very act which you have committed for my relief to-night. in my vain struggle to relieve myself from the odium which must attach to my transactions, i have only added to your sorrows. i cannot ask you to forgive me, nor can i disclose all my errors-they are manifold."
"this is an unexpected blow-one which i was not prepared to meet. i am ready to save your honour, but there is something beyond this which the voice of rumour will soon spread. you know our society, and the strange manner in which it countenances certain things, yet shuts out those who fall by them. but what is to be done? although we may discharge the obligation with graspum, it does not follow that he retains the stigma in his own breast. tell me, lorenzo, what is the amount?" inquired marston, anxiously.
"my father has already discharged a secret debt of fourteen thousand dollars for me, and there cannot be less than thirty thousand remaining. uncle, do not let it worry you; i will leave the country, bear the stigma with me, and you can repudiate the obligation," said he, pleading nervously, as he grasped his uncle's hand firmer and firmer.
among the many vices of the south, spreading their corrupting influence through the social body, that of gambling stands first. confined to no one grade of society, it may be found working ruin among rich and poor, old and young. labour being disreputable, one class of men affect to consider themselves born gentlemen, while the planter is ever ready to indulge his sons with some profession they seldom practise, and which too often results in idleness and its attendants. this, coupled to a want of proper society with which the young may mix for social elevation, finds gratification in drinking saloons, fashionable billiard rooms, and at the card table. in the first, gentlemen of all professions meet and revel away the night in suppers and wine. they must keep up appearances, or fall doubtful visitors of these fashionable stepping-stones to ruin. like a furnace to devour its victims, the drinking saloon first opens its gorgeous doors, and when the burning liquid has inflamed the mental and physical man, soon hurries him onward into those fascinating habitations where vice and voluptuousness mingle their degrading powers. once in these whirlpools of sin, the young man finds himself borne away by every species of vicious allurement-his feelings become unrestrained, until at length that last spark of filial advice which had hovered round his consciousness dies out. when this is gone, vice becomes the great charmer, and with its thousand snares and resplendent workers never fails to hold out a hope with each temptation; but while the victim now and then asks hope to be his guardian, he seldom thinks how surely he is sinking faster and faster to an irretrievable depth.
through this combination of snares-all having their life-springs in slavery-lorenzo brought ruin upon his father, and involved his uncle. with an excellent education, a fine person, frank and gentle demeanour, he made his way into the city, and soon attracted the attention of those who affect to grace polished society. had society laid its restraints upon character and personal worth, it would have been well for lorenzo; but the neglect to found this moral conservator only serves to increase the avenues to vice, and to bring men from high places into the lowest moral scale. this is the lamentable fault of southern society; and through the want of that moral bulwark, so protective of society in the new england states-personal worth-estates are squandered, families brought to poverty, young men degraded, and persons once happy driven from those homes they can only look back upon with pain and regret. the associations of birth, education, and polished society-so much valued by the southerner-all become as nothing when poverty sets its seal upon the victim.
and yet, among some classes in the south there exists a religious sentiment apparently grateful; but what credit for sincerity shall we accord to it when the result proves that no part of the organisation itself works for the elevation of a degraded class? how much this is to be regretted we leave to the reader's discrimination. the want of a greater effort to make religious influence predominant has been, and yet is, a source of great evil. but let us continue our narrative, and beg the reader's indulgence for having thus transgressed.
flattered and caressed among gay assemblages, lorenzo soon found himself drawn beyond their social pleasantries into deeper and more alluring excitements. his frequent visits at the saloon and gambling-tables did not detract, for a time, from the social position society had conferred upon him.
his parents, instead of restraining, fostered these associations, prided themselves on his reception, providing means of maintaining him in this style of living. vanity and passion led him captive in their gratifications; they were inseparable from the whirlpool of confused society that triumphs at the south,--that leads the proud heart writhing in the agony of its follies. he cast himself upon this, like a frail thing upon a rapid stream, and--forgetting the voyage was short--found his pleasures soon ended in the troubled waters of misery and disgrace.
there is no fundamental morality in the south, nor is education invested with the material qualities of social good; in this it differs from the north, against which it is fast building up a political and social organisation totally at variance. instead of maintaining those great principles upon which the true foundation of the republic stands, the south allows itself to run into a hyper- aristocratic vagueness, coupled with an arbitrary determination to perpetuate its follies for the guidance of the whole union. and the effect of this becomes still more dangerous, when it is attempted to carry it out under the name of democracy,--american democracy! in this manner it serves the despotic ends of european despots: they point to the freest government in the world for examples of their own absolutism, shield their autocracy beneath its democracy, and with it annihilate the rights of the commoner.
heedlessly wending his way, the man of rank and station at one side, the courtesan with his bland smiles at the other, lorenzo had not seen the black poniard that was to cut the cord of his downfall,--it had remained gilded. he drank copious draughts at the house of licentiousness, became infatuated with the soft music that leads the way of the unwary, until at length, he, unconsciously at it were, found himself in the midst of a clan who are forming a plot to put the black seal upon his dishonour. monto graspum, his money playing through the hands of his minions in the gambling rooms, had professed to be his friend. he had watched his pliable nature, had studied the resources of his parents, knew their kindness, felt sure of his prey while abetting the downfall. causing him to perpetrate the crime, from time to time, he would incite him with prospects of retrieve, guide his hand to consummate the crime again, and watch the moment when he might reap the harvest of his own infamy. thus, when he had brought the young man to that last pitiless issue, where the proud heart quickens with a sense of its wrongs-when the mind recurs painfully to the past, imploring that forgiveness which seems beyond the power of mankind to grant, he left him a poor outcast, whose errors would be first condemned by his professed friends. that which seemed worthy of praise was forgotten, his errors were magnified; and the seducer made himself secure by crushing his victim, compromising the respectability of his parents, making the disgrace a forfeiture for life.
unexpected as the shock was to marston, he bore it with seeming coolness, as if dreading the appearance of the man who had taken advantage of the moment to bring him under obligations, more than he did the amount to be discharged. arising from the table, he took lorenzo by the hand, saying:--"veil your trouble, lorenzo! let the past be forgotten, bury the stigma in your own bosom; let it be an example to your feelings and your actions. go not upon the world to wrestle with its ingratitude; if you do, misfortune will befall you-you will stumble through it the remainder of your life. with me, i fear the very presence of the man who has found means of engrafting his avarice upon our misfortunes; he deals with those in his grasp like one who would cut the flesh and blood of mankind into fragments of gain. be firm, lorenzo; be firm! remember, it is not the province of youth to despair; be manly-manliness even in crime lends its virtue to the falling." at which he bid him good night, and retired to rest.
the young man, more pained at his uncle's kindness,--kindness stronger in its effects than reproof,--still lingered, as if to watch some change of expression on his uncle's countenance, as he left the door. his face changed into pallid gloominess, and again, as if by magic influence, filled with the impress of passion; it was despair holding conflict with a bending spirit. he felt himself a criminal, marked by the whispers of society; he might not hear the charges against him, nor be within the sound of scandal's tongue, but he would see it outlined in faces that once smiled at his seeming prosperity. he would feel it in the cold hand that had welcomed him,--that had warmly embraced him; his name would no longer be respected. the circle of refined society that had kindly received him, had made him one of its attractions, would now shun him as if he were contagion. beyond this he saw the fate that hovered over his father's and his uncle's estates;-all the filial affection they had bestowed upon him, blasted; the caresses of his beloved and beautiful sister; the shame the exposure would bring upon her; the knave who held him in his grasp, while dragging the last remnants of their property away to appease dishonest demands, haunted him to despair. and, yet, to sink under them-to leave all behind him and be an outcast, homeless and friendless upon the world, where he could only look back upon the familiar scenes of his boyhood with regret, would be to carry a greater amount of anguish to his destiny. the destroyer was upon him; his grasp was firm and painful. he might live a life of rectitude; but his principles and affections would be unfixed. it would be like an infectious robe encircling him,--a disease which he never could eradicate, so that he might feel he was not an empty vessel among honourable men. when men depicted their villains, moving in the grateful spheres of life, he would be one of their models; and though the thoughtlessness of youth had made him the type haunting himself by day and night, the world never made a distinction. right and wrong were things that to him only murmured in distrust; they would be blemishes exaggerated from simple error; but the judgment of society would never overlook them. he must now choose between a resolution to bear the consequences at home, or turn his back upon all that had been near and dear to him,--be a wanderer struggling with the eventful trials of life in a distant land! turning pale, as if frantic with the thought of what was before him, the struggle to choose between the two extremes, and the only seeming alternative, he grasped the candle that flickered before him, gave a glance round the room, as if taking a last look at each familiar object that met his eyes, and retired.
