Justice in the By-Ways, a Tale of Life eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 436 pages of information about Justice in the By-Ways, a Tale of Life.

Justice in the By-Ways, a Tale of Life eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 436 pages of information about Justice in the By-Ways, a Tale of Life.

On the following day she encloses a present of fifty dollars to Tom Swiggs, enjoins the necessity of his keeping her visit to the poor-house a secret, and takes leave of Charleston.

And here our scene changes, and we must transport the reader to New York.  It is the day following the night Mr. Detective Fitzgerald discovered what remained of poor Toddleworth, in the garret of the House of the Nine Nations.  The City Hall clock strikes twelve.  The goodly are gathered into the House of the Foreign Missions, in which peace and respectability would seem to preside.  The good-natured fat man is in his seat, pondering over letters lately received from the “dark regions” of Arabia; the somewhat lean, but very respectable-looking Secretary, is got nicely into his spectacles, and sits pondering over lusty folios of reports from Hindostan, and various other fields of missionary labor, all setting forth the various large amounts of money expended, how much more could be expended, and what a blessing it is to be enabled to announce the fact that there is now a hope of something being done.  The same anxious-faced bevy of females we described in a previous chapter, are here, seated at a table, deeply interested in certain periodicals and papers; while here and there about the room, are several contemplative gentlemen in black.  Brother Spyke, having deeply interested Brothers Phills and Prim with an account of his visit to the Bottomless Pit, paces up and down the room, thinking of Antioch, and the evangelization of the heathen world.  “Truly, brother,” speaks the good-natured fat man, “his coming seemeth long.”  “Eleven was the hour; but why he tarryeth I know not,” returns Brother Spyke, with calm demeanor.  “There is something more alarming in Sister Slocum’s absence,” interposes one of the ladies.  The house seems in a waiting mood, when suddenly Mr. Detective Fitzgerald enters, and changes it to one of anxiety.  Several voices inquire if he was successful.  He shakes his head, and having recounted his adventures, the discovery of where the money went to, and the utter hopelessness of an effort to recover it; “as for the man, Toddleworth,” he says, methodically, “he was found with a broken skull.  The Coroner has had an inquest over him; but murders are so common.  The verdict was, that he died of a broken skull, by the hands of some one to the jury unknown.  Suspicions were strong against one Tom Downey, who is very like a heathen, and is mistrusted of several murders.  The affair disturbed the neighborhood a little, and the Coroner tried to get something out concerning the man’s history; but it all went to the wind, for the people were all so ignorant.  They all knew everything about him, which turned out to be just nothing, which they were ready to swear to.  One believed Father Flaherty made the Bible, another believed the Devil still chained in Columbia College-a third believed the stars were lanterns to guide priests-the only angels they know-on their way to heaven.”

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Justice in the By-Ways, a Tale of Life from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.