Ten Nights in a Bar Room
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T. S. Arthur >> Ten Nights in a Bar Room
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12 Produced by Robert Rowe, Charles Franks
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TEN NIGHTS IN A BAR ROOM
BY T. S. ARTHUR
NIGHT THE FIRST.
THE "SICKLE AND SHEAF."
Ten years ago, business required me to pass a day in Cedarville.
It was late in the afternoon when the stage set me down at the
"Sickle and Sheaf," a new tavern, just opened by a new landlord,
in a new house, built with the special end of providing
"accommodations for man and beast." As I stepped from the dusty
old vehicle in which I had been jolted along a rough road for some
thirty miles, feeling tired and hungry, the good-natured face of
Simon Slade, the landlord, beaming as it did with a hearty
welcome, was really a pleasant sight to see, and the grasp of his
hand was like that of a true friend.
I felt as I entered the new and neatly furnished sitting-room
adjoining the bar, that I had indeed found a comfortable resting-
place after my wearisome journey.
"All as nice as a new pin," said I, approvingly, as I glanced
around the room, up to the ceiling--white as the driven snow--and
over the handsomely carpeted floor. "Haven't seen anything so
inviting as this. How long have you been open?"
"Only a few months," answered the gratified landlord. "But we are
not yet in good going order. It takes time, you know, to bring
everything into the right shape. Have you dined yet?"
"No. Everything looked so dirty at the stage-house, where we
stopped to get dinner, that I couldn't venture upon the experiment
of eating. How long before your supper will be ready?"
"In an hour," replied the landlord.
"That will do. Let me have a nice piece of tender steak, and the
loss of dinner will soon be forgotten."
"You shall have that, cooked fit for an alderman," said the
landlord. "I call my wife the best cook in Cedarville."
As he spoke, a neatly dressed girl, about sixteen years of age,
with rather an attractive countenance, passed through the room.
"My daughter," said the landlord, as she vanished through the
door. There was a sparkle of pride in the father's eyes, and a
certain tenderness in the tones of his voice, as he said "My
daughter" that told me she was very dear to him.
"You are a happy man to have so fair a child," said I, speaking
more in compliment than with a careful choice of words.
"I am a happy man," was the landlord's smiling answer; his fair,
round face, unwrinkled by a line of care or trouble, beaming with
self-satisfaction. "I have always been a happy man, and always
expect to be. Simon Slade takes the world as it comes, and takes
it easy. My son, sir," he added, as a boy, in his twelfth year,
came in. "Speak to the gentleman."
The boy lifted to mine a pair of deep blue eyes, from which
innocence beamed, as he offered me his hand, and said,
respectfully--"How do you do, sir?" I could not but remark the
girl-like beauty of his face, in which the hardier firmness of the
boy's character was already visible.
"What is your name?" I asked.
"Frank, sir."
"Frank is his name," said the landlord--"we called him after his
uncle. Frank and Flora--the names sound pleasant to the ears. But
you know parents are apt to be a little partial and over fond."
"Better that extreme than its opposite," I remarked.
"Just what I always say. Frank, my son,"--the landlord spoke to
the boy--"there's some one in the bar. You can wait on him as well
as I can."
The lad glided from the room in ready obedience.
"A handy boy that, sir; a very handy boy. Almost as good, in the
bar as a man. He mixes a toddy or a punch just as well as I can."
"But," I suggested, "are you not a little afraid of placing one so
young in the way of temptation?"
"Temptation!" The open brows of Simon Slade contracted a little.
"No, sir!" he replied, emphatically. "The till is safer under his
care than it would be in that of one man in ten. The boy comes,
sir, of honest parents. Simon Slade never wronged anybody out of a
farthing."
"Oh," said I, quickly, "you altogether misapprehend me. I had no
reference to the till, but to the bottle."
The landlord's brows were instantly unbent, and a broad smile
circled over his good-humored face.
"Is that all? Nothing to fear, I can assure you. Frank has no
taste for liquor, and might pour it out for mouths without a drop
finding its way to his lips. Nothing to apprehend there, sir--
nothing."
I saw that further suggestions of danger would be useless, and so
remained silent. The arrival of a traveler called away the
landlord, and I was left alone for observation and reflection. The
bar adjoined the neat sitting-room, and I could see, through the
open door, the customer upon whom the lad was attending. He was a
well-dressed young man--or rather boy, for he did not appear to be
over nineteen years of age--with a fine, intelligent face, that
was already slightly marred by sensual indulgence. He raised the
glass to his lips, with a quick, almost eager motion, and drained
it at a single draught.
"Just right," said he, tossing a sixpence to the young bar-tender.
"You are first rate at a brandy-toddy. Never drank a better in my
life."
The lad's smiling face told that he was gratified by the
compliment. To me the sight was painful, for I saw that this
youthful tippler was on dangerous ground.
"Who is that young man in the bar?" I asked, a few minutes
afterward, on being rejoined by the landlord.
Simon Slade stepped to the door and looked into the bar for a
moment.
Two or three men were there by this time; but he was at no loss in
answering my question.
"Oh, that's a son of Judge Hammond, who lives in the large brick
house as you enter the village. Willy Hammond, as everybody
familiarly calls him, is about the finest young man in our
neighborhood. There is nothing proud or put-on about him--nothing
--even if his father is a judge, and rich into the bargain. Every
one, gentle or simple, likes Willy Hammond. And then he is such
good company. Always so cheerful, and always with a pleasant story
on his tongue. And he's so high-spirited withal, and so honorable.
Willy Hammond would lose his right hand rather than be guilty of a
mean action."
"Landlord!" The voice came loud from the road in front of the
house, and Simon Slade again left me to answer the demands of some
new-comer. I went into the bar-room, in order to take a closer
observation of Willy Hammond, in whom an interest, not unmingled
with concern, had already been awakened in my mind. I found him
engaged in a pleasant conversation with a plain-looking farmer,
whose homely, terse, common sense was quite as conspicuous as his
fine play of words and lively fancy. The farmer was a substantial
conservative, and young Hammond a warm admirer of new ideas and
the quicker adaptation of means to ends. I soon saw that his
mental powers were developed beyond his years, while his personal
qualities were strongly attractive. I understood better, after
being a silent listener and observer for ten minutes, why the
landlord had spoken of him so warmly.
"Take a brandy-toddy, Mr. H--?" said Hammond, after the discussion
closed, good humoredly. "Frank, our junior bar-keeper here, beats
his father, in that line."
"I don't care if I do," returned the farmer; and the two passed up
to the bar.
"Now, Frank, my boy, don't belie my praises," said the young man;
"do your handsomest."
"Two brandy-toddies, did you say?" Frank made inquiry with quite a
professional air.
"Just what I did say; and let them be equal to Jove's nectar."
Pleased at this familiarity, the boy went briskly to his work of
mixing the tempting compound, while Hammond looked on with an
approving smile.
"There," said the latter, as Frank passed the glasses across the
counter, "if you don't call that first-rate, you're no judge." And
he handed one of them to the farmer, who tasted the agreeable
draught, and praised its flavor. As before, I noticed that Hammond
drank eagerly, like one athirst--emptying his glass without once
taking it from his lips.
Soon after the bar-room was empty; and then I walked around the
premises, in company with the landlord, and listened to his praise
of everything and his plans and purposes for the future. The
house, yard, garden, and out-buildings were in the most perfect
order; presenting, in the whole, a model of a village tavern.
"Whatever I do, sir," said the talkative Simon Slade, "I like to
do well. I wasn't just raised to tavern-keeping, you must know;
but I am one who can turn his hand to almost any thing."
"What was your business?" I inquired.
"I'm a miller, sir, by trade," he answered--"and a better miller,
though I say it myself, is not to be found in Bolton county. I've
followed milling these twenty years, and made some little money.
But I got tired of hard work, and determined to lead an easier
life. So I sold my mill, and built this house with the money. I
always thought I'd like tavern-keeping. It's an easy life; and, if
rightly seen after, one in which a man is sure to make money."
"You were still doing a fair business with your mill?"
"Oh, yes. Whatever I do, I do right. Last year, I put by a
thousand dollars above all expenses, which is not bad, I can
assure you, for a mere grist mill. If the present owner comes out
even, he'll do well!"
"How is that?"
"Oh, he's no miller. Give him the best wheat that is grown, and
he'll ruin it in grinding. He takes the life out of every grain. I
don't believe he'll keep half the custom that I transferred with
the mill."
"A thousand dollars, clear profit, in so useful a business, ought
to have satisfied you," said I.
"There you and I differ," answered the landlord. "Every man
desires to make as much money as possible, and with the least
labor. I hope to make two or three thousand dollars a year, over
and above all expenses, at tavern-keeping. My bar alone ought to
yield me that sum. A man with a wife and children very naturally
tries to do as well by them as possible."
"Very true; but," I ventured to suggest, "will this be doing as
well by them as if you had kept on at the mill?"
"Two or three thousand dollars a year against one thousand! Where
are your figures, man?"
"There may be something beyond money to take into the account,"
said I.
"What?" inquired Slade, with a kind of half credulity.
"Consider the different influences of the two callings in life--
that of a miller and a tavern-keeper."
"Well, say on."
"Will your children be as safe from temptation here as in their
former home?"
"Just as safe," was the unhesitating answer. "Why not?"
I was about to speak of the alluring glass in the case of Frank,
but remembering that I had already expressed a fear in that
direction, felt that to do so again would be useless, and so kept
silent.
"A tavern-keeper," said Slade, "is just as respectable as a
miller--in fact, the very people who used to call me 'Simon' or
'Neighbor Dustycoat,' now say 'Landlord,' or 'Mr. Slade,' and
treat me in every way more as if I were an equal than ever they
did before."
"The change," said I, "may be due to the fact of your giving
evidence of possessing some means. Men are very apt to be
courteous to those who have property. The building of the tavern
has, without doubt, contributed to the new estimation in which you
are held."
"That isn't all," replied the landlord. "It is because I am
keeping a good tavern, and thus materially advancing the interests
of Cedarville, that some of our best people look at me with
different eyes."
"Advancing the interests of Cedarville! In what way?" I did not
apprehend his meaning.
"A good tavern always draws people to a place, while a miserable
old tumble-down of an affair, badly kept, such as we have had for
years, as surely repels them. You can generally tell something
about the condition of a town by looking at its taverns. If they
are well kept, and doing a good business, you will hardly be wrong
in the conclusion that the place is thriving. Why, already, since
I built and opened the 'Sickle and Sheaf,' property has advanced
over twenty per cent along the whole street, and not less than
five new houses have been commenced."
"Other causes, besides the simple opening of a new tavern, may
have contributed to this result," said I.
"None of which I am aware. I was talking with Judge Hammond only
yesterday--he owns a great deal of ground on the street--and he
did not hesitate to say, that the building and opening of a good
tavern here had increased the value of his property at least five
thousand dollars. He said, moreover, that he thought the people of
Cedarville ought to present me with a silver pitcher; and that,
for one, he would contribute ten dollars for that purpose."
The ringing of the supper bell interrupted further conversation;
and with the best of appetites, I took my way to the room, where a
plentiful meal was spread. As I entered, I met the wife of Simon
Slade, just passing out, after seeing that every thing was in
order. I had not observed her before; and now could not help
remarking that she had a flushed, excited countenance, as if she
had been over a hot fire, and was both worried and fatigued. And
there was, moreover, a peculiar expression of the mouth, never
observed in one whose mind is entirely at ease--an expression that
once seen is never forgotten. The face stamped itself instantly on
my memory; and I can even now recall it with almost the original
distinctness. How strongly it contrasted with that of her smiling,
self-satisfied husband, who took his place at the head of his
table with an air of conscious importance. I was too hungry to
talk much, and so found greater enjoyment in eating than in
conversation. The landlord had a more chatty guest by his side,
and I left them to entertain each other, while I did ample justice
to the excellent food with which the table was liberally provided.
After supper I went to the sitting-room, and remained there until
the lamps were lighted. A newspaper occupied my time for perhaps
half an hour; then the buzz of voices from the adjoining bar-room,
which had been increasing for some time, attracted my attention,
and I went in there to see and hear what was passing. The first
person upon whom my eyes rested was young Hammond, who sat talking
with a man older than himself by several years. At a glance, I saw
that this man could only associate himself with Willy Hammond as a
tempter. Unscrupulous selfishness was written all over his
sinister countenance; and I wondered that it did not strike every
one, as it did me, with instant repulsion. There could not be, I
felt certain, any common ground of association, for two such
persons, but the dead level of a village bar-room. I afterward
learned, during the evening, that this man's name was Harvey
Green, and that he was an occasional visitor at Cedarville,
remaining a few days, or a few weeks at a time, as appeared to
suit his fancy, and having no ostensible business or special
acquaintance with anybody in the village.
"There is one thing about him," remarked Simon Slade, in answering
some question that I put in reference to the man, "that I don't
object to; he has plenty of money, and is not at all niggardly in
spending it. He used to come here, so he told me, about once in
five or six months; but his stay at the miserably kept tavern, the
only one then in Cedarville, was so uncomfortable, that he had
pretty well made up his mind never to visit us again. Now,
however, he has engaged one of my best rooms, for which he pays me
by the year, and I am to charge him full board for the time he
occupies it. He says that there is something about Cedarville that
always attracts him; and that his health is better while here than
it is anywhere except South during the winter season. He'll never
leave less than two or three hundred dollars a year in our
village--there is one item, for you, of advantage to a place in
having a good tavern."
"What is his business?" I asked. "Is he engaged in any trading
operations?"
The landlord shrugged his shoulders, and looked slightly
mysterious, as he answered:
"I never inquire about the business of a guest. My calling is to
entertain strangers. If they are pleased with my house, and pay my
bills on presentation, I have no right to seek further. As a
miller, I never asked a customer, whether he raised, bought, or
stole his wheat. It was my business to grind it, and I took care
to do it well. Beyond that, it was all his own affair. And so it
will be in my new calling. I shall mind my own business and keep
my own place."
Besides young Hammond and this Harvey Green, there were in the
bar-room, when I entered, four others besides the landlord. Among
these was a Judge Lyman--so he was addressed--a man between forty
and fifty years of age, who had a few weeks before received the
Democratic nomination for member of Congress. He was very
talkative and very affable, and soon formed a kind of centre of
attraction to the bar-room circle. Among other topics of
conversation that came up was the new tavern, introduced by the
landlord, in whose mind it was, very naturally, the uppermost
thought.
"The only wonder to me is," said Judge Lyman, "that nobody had wit
enough to see the advantage of a good tavern in Cedarville ten
years ago, or enterprise enough to start one. I give our friend
Slade the credit of being a shrewd, far-seeing man; and, mark my
word for it, in ten years from to-day he will be the richest man
in the county."
"Nonsense--Ho! ho!" Simon Slade laughed outright. "The richest
man! You forget Judge Hammond."
"No, not even Judge Hammond, with all deference for our clever
friend Willy," and Judge Lyman smiled pleasantly on the young man.
"If he gets richer, somebody will be poorer!" The individual who
tittered these words had not spoken before, and I turned to look
at him more closely. A glance showed him to be one of a class seen
in all bar-rooms; a poor, broken-down inebriate, with the inward
power of resistance gone--conscious of having no man's respect,
and giving respect to none. There was a shrewd twinkle in his
eyes, as he fixed them on Slade, that gave added force to the
peculiar tone in which his brief but telling sentence was uttered.
I noticed a slight contraction on the landlord's ample forehead,
the first evidence I had yet seen of ruffled feelings. The remark,
thrown in so untimely (or timely, some will say), and with a kind
of prophetic malice, produced a temporary pause in the
conversation. No one answered or questioned the intruder, who, I
could perceive, silently enjoyed the effect of his words. But soon
the obstructed current ran on again.
"If our excellent friend, Mr. Slade," said Harvey Green, "is not
the richest man in Cedarville at the end of ten years, he will at
least enjoy the satisfaction of having made his town richer."
"A true word that," replied Judge Lyman--"as true a word as ever
was spoken. What a dead-and-alive place this has been until within
the last few months. All vigorous growth had stopped, and we were
actually going to seed."
"And the graveyard, too," muttered the individual who had before
disturbed the self-satisfied harmony of the company, remarking
upon the closing sentence of Harvey Green. "Come, landlord," he
added, as he strode across to the bar, speaking in a changed,
reckless sort of a way, "fix me up a good hot whisky-punch, and do
it right; and here's another sixpence toward the fortune you are
bound to make. It's the last one left--not a copper more in my
pockets," and he turned them inside-out, with a half-solemn, half-
ludicrous air. "I send it to keep company in your till with four
others that have found their way into that snug place since
morning, and which will be lonesome without their little friend."
I looked at Simon Slade; his eyes rested on mine for a moment or
two, and then sunk beneath my earnest gaze. I saw that his
countenance flushed, and that his motions were slightly confused.
The incident, it was plain, did not awaken agreeable thoughts.
Once I saw his hand move toward the sixpence that lay upon the
counter; but whether to push it back or draw it toward the till, I
could not determine. The whisky-punch was in due time ready, and
with it the man retired to a table across the room, and sat down
to enjoy the tempting beverage. As he did so, the landlord quietly
swept the poor unfortunate's last sixpence into his drawer. The
influence of this strong potation was to render the man a little
more talkative. To the free conversation passing around him he
lent an attentive ear, dropping in a word, now and then, that
always told upon the company like a well-directed blow. At last,
Slade lost all patience with him, and said, a little fretfully:
"Look here, Joe Morgan, if you will be ill-natured, pray go
somewhere else, and not interrupt good feeling among gentlemen."
"Got my last sixpence," retorted Joe, turning his pockets inside-
out again. "No more use for me here to-night. That's the way of
the world. How apt a scholar is our good friend Dustycoat, in this
new school! Well, he was a good miller--no one ever disputed that
--and it's plain to see that he is going to make a good landlord. I
thought his heart was a little too soft; but the indurating
process has begun, and, in less than ten years, if it isn't as
hard as one of his old mill-stones, Joe Morgan is no prophet. Oh,
you needn't knit your brows so, friend Simon, we're old friends;
and friends are privileged to speak plain."
"I wish you'd go home. You're not yourself tonight," said the
landlord, a little coaxingly, for he saw that nothing was to be
gained by quarreling with Morgan. "Maybe my heart is growing
harder," he added, with affected good-humor; "and it is time,
perhaps. One of my weaknesses, I have heard even you say, was
being too woman-hearted."
"No danger of that now," retorted Joe Morgan. "I've known a good
many landlords in my time, but can't remember one that was
troubled with the disease that once afflicted you."
Just at this moment the outer door was pushed open with a slow,
hesitating motion; then a little pale face peered in, and a pair
of soft blue eyes went searching about the room. Conversation was
instantly hushed, and every face, excited with interest, turned
toward the child, who had now stepped through the door. She was
not over ten years of age; but it moved the heart to look upon the
saddened expression of her young countenance, and the forced
bravery therein, that scarcely overcame the native timidity so
touchingly visible.
"Father!" I have never heard this word spoken in a voice that sent
such a thrill along every nerve. It was full of sorrowful love--
full of a tender concern that had its origin too deep for the
heart of a child. As she spoke, the little one sprang across the
room, and laying her hands upon the arm of Joe Morgan, lifted her
eyes, that were ready to gush over with tears, to his face.
"Come father! won't you come home?" I hear that low, pleading
voice even now, and my heart gives a quicker throb. Poor child!
Darkly shadowed was the sky that bent gloomily over thy young
life.
Morgan arose, and suffered the child to lead him from the room. He
seemed passive in her hands. I noticed that he thrust his fingers
nervously into his pocket, and that a troubled look went over his
face as they were withdrawn. His last sixpence was in the till of
Simon Slade!
The first man who spoke was Harvey Green, and this not for a
minute after the father and his child had vanished through the
door.
"If I was in your place, landlord"--his voice was cold and
unfeeling--"I'd pitch that fellow out of the bar-room the next
time he stepped through the door. He's no business here, in the
first place; and, in the second, he doesn't know how to behave
himself. There's no telling how much a vagabond like him injures a
respectable house."
"I wish he would stay away," said Simon, with a perplexed air.
"I'd make him stay away," answered Green.
"That may be easier said than done," remarked Judge Lyman. "Our
friend keeps a public-house, and can't just say who shall or shall
not come into it."
"But such a fellow has no business here. He's a good-for-nothing
sot. If I kept a tavern, I'd refuse to sell him liquor."
"That you might do," said Judge Lyman; "and I presume your hint
will not be lost on our friend Slade."
"He will have liquor, so long as he can get a cent to buy it
with," remarked one of the company; "and I don't see why our
landlord here, who has gone to so much expense to fit up a tavern,
shouldn't have the sale of it as well as anybody else. Joe talks a
little freely sometimes; but no one can say that he is
quarrelsome. You've got to take him as he is, that's all."
"I am one," retorted Harvey Green, with a slightly ruffled manner,
"who is never disposed to take people as they are when they choose
to render themselves disagreeable. If I was Mr. Slade, as I
remarked in the beginning, I'd pitch that fellow into the road the
next time he put his foot over my door step."
"Not if I were present," remarked the other, coolly.
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