STORY OF A MAN IN A HURRY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 937, 25 April 1868, Page 3

STORY OF A MAN IN A HURRY.

[by <j. a. saxaJ;? ' ' '. - One of the busiest, most desperately hurried beings I ever knew was my good friend Peter Tarleton, of New York. We used to call him " Higb>pressure Pete,'* and jokes connecting him with greased lightning'were frequently made. He was '. in such a hurry, that he was never able to,; give a perfectly satisfactory account of his birth, his belongings, or his avocations. The first was dubious. Some people said he was from Rhode Island; others that he hailed from New Jersey ; others that he was born off the banks of Newfoundland, in an emigrant ship bound from Falmouth to Boston. As to his belongings, he owned that when he arrived afe home one evening, Mrs. Tarleton asked him to take a chair, and wait a little while, as her husband was . from home, but would be back soon ; and he was fain to defer to Colonel Bossgigg, who corrected him when he said he had four children. The colonel insisted that he had five; and Pete shrugged his shoulders and remarked that perhaps the colonel was right. Concerning his business nor he nor anyone else seemed precisely to know what it was. It had something to do with ships ; but if he was a shipbuilder, or a shipowner, or a shipbroker, why should his counting-house always be littered with fragments of felspar and samples of buckwheat ? Perhaps he was a shipper. At all events he was very wealthy, and made a very good use of his wealth. But he was always in a hurry. He had always something to do at Chicago in connection with the corn elevators^ When you took your sleeping car-ticket from Baltimore to Washington, the chances were two to one that Pete Tarleton burst in. upon you at Annapolis junction, hot from an intorview he had just had with the President at the White House, or furious at the obstinacy of the Secretary of the Navy in refusing to purchase his new rifled cannon. He was one of the most active members of the New York Century Club, and would be backed to eat more stewed oysters and drink more rum-punches at a sitting than, the oldest Centenarian. He was the principal patron of Gus M'Gee, the celebrated trotting-match waggoner, and had a halfshare in the equally celebrated trotting mare Cornelia Candy. He defrayed the expenses of Miss Philomela Coocoo's — the great native prima-ddnna — musical education in Europe, and brought her out at the New York Academy of Music. He built Adullam Chapel, where Rev. Doctor Caveley so edifyingly holds forth. He went moosehunting in the Adirondacks, and then had that famous fight with the bear which ended in the bear having so very much the worst of it. -He was half starved on a journey acrc/s the Rocky Mountains, and uttered no very vehement disclaimer when twitted with having scalped the chief Big P, after an unsuccessful attack of the Mogonepack Indians on. the stage-coach between Washoe and Sacramento city. He played heavily, lived largely, drank— well, he was a convivial soul; ran his clipper Christabel at Cowes, and beat the pride of the English Royal Yatch squadron ; had twice served his country in the Lower House of Congress, and had once stumped his state for Governor. Indeed, I have heard him called " Governor" Tarleton, although he had never filled that high oiEce. His intimates generally addressed him as " Judge," and by his clubs he was known as " General." It was about five years ago that Mrs. Tarleton, as lazy and languid a little lady as her husband was bustling and energetic, elected to reside for a season with her four children in Europe. She fixed on the pretty Baths of St. Moritz, in the Grisons, as a summer residence, and on Nice as a winter abode. This decision on the part of his wife made Peter Tarleton in a greater hurry than ever. He escorted his family to Europe per Cunard ship Scotia, Commodore Judkins in command, in May; settled Mrs. T. and the olivebranches down, or rather up, at St. Moritz (which is the highest watering-place in Europe) ; and then took a hurried tour through Italy, bolting from Trieste into Styria, to see the grottoes at Adelsberg, which he declared were " very small potatoes" to the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky ; and then returning through the Tyrol, down to the Adriatic coast again, and paying a flying visit to the Roman amphitheatre at Pola. He was coming back from Tuscany shortly after this, when I met him at the railway terminus at Bologna. He was in one train, and I was in. another, and from the window of his carriage he shouted out an inquiry as to where he could procure any good pictures by the old masters, explaining that he had bought a "power of frames" at Florence. Then Peter Tarleton -went back in a hurry to New York, ran up to Nevada Territory to look after some copper-mines he had(£here, and turning north-east in his way home inspected some water-privileges he possessed in the state of Michigan. He had promised to rejoin Mrs. Tarleton at Nice by the beginning of November ; and on the fifteenth of October, having been entertained by a section of his innumerable friends at a grand banquet at Delmonico's and having given them a return '' stag-party," at his house in Madisonsquare, he " locked up," and transported himself on board the Cunard steamer Persia, Capt. Lott commanding, bound for Quecnstown, Ireland. Now, " locking up " is a process well-nigh peculiar to the States. In Europe, when a family goes abroad, the plate is sent to Coutts's, the chandeliers are shrouded in brown holland, the stair-carpets are taken up, the furniture is covered, the picture-frames are yel-low-gauzed, and a couple of servants on board wages, or at least a policeman and his wife, are left to take care of the mansion. The Americans are in far too great a hurry to adopt this course. Sometimes a faithful old negro is left in possession ; but in a great number of instances the valuables are banked, the fastenings of the doors and windows are carefully looked to, and the house is " locked-up," and left to the care of the law, the neighbors, and a kind Providence, until the owner comes back. This is what Pete Tarleton did. He went over every room in his house, examined every chain, staple, and bar, and then — like the gentleman in the " Sketches by Boz " — " locked the door, and bolted himself." A happy winter in Nice, a happier winter in Naples, a charming summer season in Paris, and an agreeable autumn in England, and Pete Tarleton found that he had been a whole year absent from the States, and. that he really must go baclc in a hurry to look after at least five hundred things which required his attention. He left Mrs. Tarleton and the children this time at Pau, in the Pyrenees, and rushing across France to London and Liverpool, steamed across to Boston per Cunard steamer China, Capt. Anderson commanding. He was soon in New York and at his house in. Madison-square. No thieves had attempted to blow open his locks with gunpowder, no damage had been done by the moths to his crimson satin damask draw- . ing-room suite. Everything was in applepie order, but — - ■ < ' Ah ! there is much in a " but " — much ■ more even than in an "if." That " stagparty " the night before he left New York had been a very gay one. The guests had i remained until a very late, or rather early, s

:^Wi^ rsmkafc si? a.m. Pete Tavletoh, after '^^% ; draught of Saratoga- water, | -.fita^^st into a hackney-coach, en §?ovtite |or Jersey city, "where the steamer carefully, as, he had flocked* ivf^tup'^Ke^ha^overlobked one little, thing. •V-^ln thwack drawing-room there was a ;•- .;itiaiS^ificlßii't;eight-branehed gas chandelier, : v j^we/^ r d?#fe by Dobson, of St. James's=:^vSJbreejK'liOjtidon;' lix the back study there " wo large pillar gas candlesticks with futta'^rcha pipes. And both in the ack :^rawitig-ro6m . and the back study, ;- and. from the very main itself, Pete Tarle- ;; ton. had : forgotten to turn off the gas. ; " Whew !" whistled the man in a hurry, :■•'•.." lt's ; tbeen burning for twelve months. : There'll be a pretty bill to pay for this." , : They' don't cut off your gas in New York if they know you can pay. You can remain in Europe, as many years as you /choose, 7 arid die there if you like; and , if you" have "locked-up" your house, left "the,.; gas burning there, it . may jcontinue^ . to burn, and welcome, and the; company iwill send in the bill to your executoX^ The collector of the company .waited: on Pete Tarleton. I forget novr many hujbdreds of dollars he had to pay. ' ,S.6me people declared that he was mulct in' thousands, but I know the thing was arranged. ,I : think he took sonic sharejß . in the , company, or threatened to start a new one, and "bust-up" the old association if they declined to reduce their claim, and I am certain that there another grand banquet at Delmonico's to celebrate, the final and amicable settler ment^ of .the affair/ ; Pete, was in, too great a hurry to think itfttch'ldfrthe matter when it was once -■"- over.r It* was about this time that he wentin for the Utica, Buffalo,, and Lake Memphremagog Railway, and went up to Sfc. Catherine's Springs in Canada—duelling being prohibited, in the State of New York--to fight Judge Jabdrs. . The judge ' being satisfactorily wingedi and the erst combatants* (after Jabers's convalescence) reconciled at a grand feast at the Maisbn Doree, and another . spring having comnaencediVPete > set put for Europe once more, per Curiard steamer Arabia, Captain Cook,\tp rejoin Mrs. Tarleton and the family at Pau, in the Pyrenees. He took the precaution, this time, to turn off all the gasrburhers in his house, and, instead of "locking up," left his residence^ in the care sf his .aunt Tabitha. Arrived in due ; timeat;P.au, he removed his household goods to ..Paris, and leaving them afc a charming little villa in the Champs Elysees,, ran ; over to England to see some English capitalists who were .disposed to bite .at. the Utica, Buffalo, and Lake Memphremagog scheme. He was to return in a fortnight, and was entrusted by Mrs. Tarleton with a multiplicity of com- . missions, mostly connected with such ar- '. ticles, of, feminine gear as ladies think can be better . purchased in London than in Paris. ; , Pete, , the most devoted of husbands (as the, majority of his countrymen are) gave most of the time he could spare fronl the ! Memphremagog business to rushing about from Lewis and Allen by 's to Whitelock's, from Grant and Gask's to Farmer and RogerVs, from Harvey Niehol's to Howell and James's. He was always. in a cab; he was overwhelmed with, parcels ; he very often lost them; but he had plenty of money, and made good on the morrow the losses of the eve. It was on the ninth day of his stay that this most hurried of men drove up in a > hansom to Swan and Edgar's, jumped out at the Regent-street entrance, and immediately bought goods to the amount of thirty-seven pounds ten. Just as he was signing a check for the amount, a hand was laid on, his shoulder, and, turning rourid, he beheld his old friend and business colleague John C. HunV "Have you heard the newsP" Huff aske'dV alinbst breathless. " What'news ?" answered Pete. " The'Memphremagog's gone to smash ; the inanaging director's off to Texas ; the secretary's ' in the* Tombs for embezzlement. The Herald insists that all the directors shall be indicted for fraud. Why , didn't you go to Peabody's for your letters'this morning P There are a hundred and fifty-six waiting J for you from last mail. We're in for two millions if we don't go back at once. I've a cab at the door, We've just time to take the express frpmEustou, and catch the China at Queeristown." " I'm on," cried the man in a hurry; and he "rushed, into a fourwheeled cab which was standing at the Piccadilly entrance of Messrs. Swan and Edgar's colossal establishment. "But the parcel, sir?" exclaimed Messrs. S. and gentlemanly assistant, waving the cheriue at the retreating pair. "•D-j-n your parcel !" cried Mr. John 0. Huff; •'London and Worth- Western Terminus, cabby." And away they drove. The TJtica, Buffalo, and Lake MemShremagog had indeed gone to smash; . ut when Pete Tarleton reached New York he found the matter not quite so serious as he anticipated. Things were settled, somehow ; and just about this time he l " struck oil" in Pennsylvania, and started Eight Petroleum Companies. After twelve months' hurried speculation Pete remembered that he had left Mrs. Tarleton waiting for him in the Avenue Marigny ; so back he went to Europe per Cunard steamer Persia, Captain Lott commanding, brought his wife and family to England, and settled down for a time at the Langham. On the second morning after his arrival, one of the waiters told him that a man ; "waa waiting to see him in the hall. " What's his name P" asked Pete. ."He says his name's Two Thousand and Five," replied the waiter dubiously ; " he smells very strong of liquor." The man in a hurry went into the hall, and was confronted by a personage with a red face, a redder comforter round his neck, a battered white hat, one eye, a metal "badge on his manly breast, and a wisp of straw sticking out of his coat pocket; "This is a bad business, master," quoth the red faced man. "What do you mean !" "I mean," quoth he of the one eye, raising his voice; "I mean as W I wants my rights. Idruvyouin my cab frdhy Hold to Swan and v ; Hedgar's; : that's two shillin'. I'll give .;""'■ yer that in. You told me to vait. I've /been : ayaitin' 1 hever since. That's a %. i twelvemonth , come five o'clock to-day. J; >lVebin'te ahactewarry, and he's made ■-]?;. ou^he bill, at. sixpence for hevery quarter ■'% :«fsQ,:'put 'l*7© waited. And I'll 'ave my v %rigM>,if there's ;lbr in the land." / ; ";"■^^ He a scrap of paper, the wri- ; j-tiri^on^whicli ran'thus : ; : 'fifctTarl^ton [cabby had found out our hurried : ~;i- 'friend'a name from tfie assistant at Swan and Ed- .-,-:-. gar's]^ '■■-'; - ■- . ■'.-.■ ■.■■?••',--. . <■<; ■■■.-. ..., .•• - .to >; : .•■ l, : v ..:."■'■ John Jiggerataff, No. 2005. ; -i TO hire of cab 2005 / waiting; at Messrs Swan and - ;. 35^8^*8 frpin '24th : Ocfcober 186— to 24th October 186 ::;'r~,V:.thirty-flve. thousand and sixty three quarterg|,hQU>s; a^sixpence each quarter, £876 115. 6d. oßfP^^^nian in ajhurry was for a moment |^|-||g i g^|d,;.but he speedily recovered his Hejwas equal to any emer|i||;jgeipiW;t; -i;«i; ..-'-.-:■"< ■^■', ' .' ' '- '&:&sss[&s£# & ;ten-pound= note," he said, |gsj*^tia:goKtp theideyii." ; } ■ Iffye took' the 'ihote fei^W^l^P^.^'W^ e Siately} afterwards 1 '

•' Well," remarked Pete Tarleton as he walked up stairs to Mrs. Tarleton and the family,.'. 1 1 call that Burning the Candle at both. Ends, anyhow. ' '