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Number One; or, The Way of the World

Chapter i. Introductory. Frank at Home

page 1

Chapter i. Introductory. Frank at Home.

"One Man in his Time Plays Many Parts."—Shakespeare.

"That's a promising son of yours," said a noble candidate for senatorial honors to a gentleman whose political opinions happened to accord with those of the speaker.

"If the hopeful promises of youth were ever sure of fulfilment, my lord,—"

"In the present case," continued the lordly flatterer, interrupting the respondent and secretly conveying a guinea to the hand of his son, "let us not cloud the prospect with a conjunction. There's no if in the subject, is there, Frank?"

Frank blushed a reply or acknowledgement, or both, but said nothing.

His lordship again turned to the parent.

"As chairman of our committee, you might possibly receive a few useful hints from my private secretary. What say you? Will you see him previous to the next meeting of your friends?"

"At any time or in any way I can aid the good cause, I shall ever be found at your lordship's service."

"And I at yours. Good morning."

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The foregoing fragment has been preserved and still vividly floats on the mind of the writer. It is a small portion, but the only portion, of a conversation I remember to have taken place at my father's house in the early part of the present century. Beyond this the event appears like a confused dream. I go back to a mass of matter, but see nothing distinctly. I have a faint recollection of having answered certain mathematical questions, or having done or said something to the satisfaction of the noble visitor, without, in the exhumation, being able to distinguish more clearly what that something was. Yet, in the foreground of the picture, one prominent object presents itself to prove the reality of things almost lost in the distance. Whatever might have been the performance in question, and however imperfect the execution and remembrance thereof, the good old guinea I received at the close still shines so brightly on the memory that the apparition seems to revive and actually to impart a taste of the heartfelt joy created by its first impression. As a guinea was the founder of that impression, the simple fact is favorable to the belief that our love of gold is strong, not only at maturity but even in the spring of life.

Of the two immediate causes—the parent's political capital, or the son's solution of certain questions—it matters little now which had the greater weight with the would-be M.P. when he called me "a promising boy." Boy, however, I was, wanting but a few weeks to complete thirteen years of health and happiness. Happy in the innocent pleasures and pastimes of youth and youthful companions, I envied not the more refined or artificial amusements of man, while I shared not his cares and responsibilities. In my native town—a small and remote English borough—my father was the proprietor of a house page 3of long standing. That he was himself a man of local reputation may be imagined from the fact of his having been chairman of a committee of gentlemen who were instrumental in placing at the head of the poll the noble lord who was at that time elected M.P. for the borough.

My worthy parent, whose thoughts were anywhere and on anything but commerce, and whose society was courted by so many of his townsmen, was the founder only of his own social and political reputation. The commercial reputation of the house of long standing, of which he was the proprietor, had been founded and bequeathed by his father. Like many a fortunate or unfortunate heir to a commercial estate that has been acquired by the daily toil of a parent's long and anxious life, he felt little sympathy with, or taste either for the character, conditions, or dignity of his inheritance. Beyond any revenue that might arise there-from, without personal application or return of labor, the owner felt no interest in his business property. His mind had been tutored above it. Although his collegiate studies were in keeping with his father's means, they in a great measure unfitted him for the mercantile life for which he was intended, and by which alone the income arising from the house could be permanently maintained. He succeeded to the establishment, but the establishment had to depend on its former reputation rather than on the efforts of the new master for its future position. "Had I been trained for commercial life, commercial life might have suited me. I engage in commerce at your desire, but against my own." As recorded by himself, that, on his return from college, was the reply to his parent, when requested to enter on the duties designed for him.

"Yes, yes, I'll attend to that to-morrow." Such was the repeated reply of the proprietor of the house of long page 4standing, when reminded of some important business that required not to be deferred till to-morrow, but attended to to-day. To a man who had no taste for commerce the business of a parish or the affairs of the nation proved of much greater importance than his own.

It is a great mistake to suppose that the only Houses of Parliament are those near Westminster Abbey. Every town in the kingdom has its little House of Commons. Every house, too, has its local staff of debators. If not real M.P.'s, they are nevertheless big men—at least in their own eyes, if not in the eyes of the world. If they cannot deal with important public measures they deal largely in words which are of the utmost importance to themselves. But let no one detract either from the dignity or power of a country House of Commons. As public opinion—through the press—is ever brought to bear on Statesmen and Legislators, so likewise is the voice of a village knot of politicians ever brought to bear, and often to bear heavily, on each wavering representative. Woe to that M.P. who by a conscientious speech or vote should give offence not to the Speaker in St. Stephen's Hall, but to the speakers in the Town Hall of St. Stump. Severe and lasting were the blows which the cutting sentences of my honored father inflicted on all who failed in their loyalty to the Crown or their duty to the country. But far more severe and lasting was the blow he at the same time inflicted on his own business.

The natural consequence of war between a gentleman's taste and his profession is soon perceptible. Profession becomes the servant of taste, even at the cost of the conqueror. It was so here. Other than commercial matters filled the mind and engaged the attention of one who was dependent on, but had no taste for commerce. The reader, page 5without the prediction of a prophet or the reason of a Greek philosopher, may anticipate the result. A few years after the decease of its founder, the house of long standing is discovered on the decline. The reputation of an establishment may do much for a new proprietor, but reputation, however high, is not altogether self-supporting. If the outward superscription of a firm require a periodical coat of paint or varnish, the internal machine that creates the fame of the house must likewise need repeated attention. This discovery was made in the establishment in question rather late in the day. An attempt to remedy the evil supplied painful evidence of the fact that it is much easier to make a new trade than to retrieve a neglected one. As active generals turn to their own advantage the inactivity of their adversaries, a few young and meritorious houses in the town of my nativity were rapidly taking the strong positions of an establishment that had previously, and for a long period, been regarded as the commercial commander-in-chief of the surrounding district.