Speaker 1: This is section twenty six of The Gilded Age. This
Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Gilded Age,
Speaker 1: A Tale of to Day by Mark Twain and Ceed Warner,
Speaker 1: Chapter twenty six. Rumors of Ruth's frivolity and worldliness at
Speaker 1: Fallkill traveled to Philadelphia in due time and occasioned no
Speaker 1: little under talk among the Bolton relatives. Hannah Shoecraft told
Speaker 1: another cousin that, for her part, she never believed that
Speaker 1: Ruth had so much more mine than other people, and
Speaker 1: cousin Hulda added that she always thought Ruth was fond
Speaker 1: of admiration, and that was the reason she was unwilling
Speaker 1: to wear plain clothes and attend meeting. The story that
Speaker 1: Ruth was engaged to a young gentleman of fortune in
Speaker 1: Fallkill came with the other news and helped to give
Speaker 1: point to the little satirical remarks that went round about
Speaker 1: Ruth's desire to be a doctor. Margaret Bolton was too
Speaker 1: wise to be either surprised or alarmed by these rumors.
Speaker 1: They might be true. She knew a woman's nature too
Speaker 1: well to think them improbable. But she also knew how
Speaker 1: steadfast Ruth was in her purposes, and that as a
Speaker 1: brook breaks into ripples and eddies and dances and sports
Speaker 1: by the way, and yet keeps on to the sea.
Speaker 1: It was in Ruth's nature to give back cheerful answers
Speaker 1: to the solicitations of friendliness and pleasure, to appear idly, delaying,
Speaker 1: even and sporting in the sunshine, while the current of
Speaker 1: her resolution flowed steadily on. That Ruth had this delight
Speaker 1: in the mere surface play of life, that she could,
Speaker 1: for instance, be interested in that somewhat serious by play
Speaker 1: called flirtation, or take any delight in the exercise of
Speaker 1: those little arts of pleasing and winning, which are none
Speaker 1: the less genuine and charming because they are not intellectual.
Speaker 1: Ruth herself had never suspected until she went to Falkill.
Speaker 1: She had believed it her duty to subdue her gaiety
Speaker 1: of temperament, and let nothing divert her from what are
Speaker 1: called serious pursuits. In her limited experience, she brought everything
Speaker 1: to the judgment of her own conscience and settled the
Speaker 1: affairs of all the world in her own serene judgment.
Speaker 1: Hall Perhaps her mother saw this, and saw also that
Speaker 1: there was nothing in the friends society to prevent her
Speaker 1: from growing more and more opinionated. When Ruth returned to Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: it must be confessed, though it would not have been
Speaker 1: by her, that a medical career did seem a little
Speaker 1: less necessary for her than formerly. And coming back in
Speaker 1: a glow of triumph, as it were, and in the
Speaker 1: consciousness of the freedom and life in a lively society
Speaker 1: and in new and sympathetic friendship, she anticipated pleasure in
Speaker 1: an attempt to break up the stiffness and levelness of
Speaker 1: the society at home, and infusing into it something of
Speaker 1: the emotion and sparkle which were so agreeable at Falkill.
Speaker 1: She expected visits from her new friends, she would have company,
Speaker 1: the new books and the periodicals about which all the
Speaker 1: world was talking, and in short, she would have life
Speaker 1: for a little while she lived in this atmosphere which
Speaker 1: she had brought with her. Her mother was delighted with
Speaker 1: this change in her, with the improvement in her health
Speaker 1: and the interests she exhibited in home affairs. Her father
Speaker 1: enjoyed the society of his favorite daughter as he did
Speaker 1: few things. Besides, he liked her mirthful and teasing ways,
Speaker 1: and not less a keen battle over something she had read.
Speaker 1: He had been a great reader all his life, and
Speaker 1: a remarkable memory had stored his mind with encyclopedic information.
Speaker 1: It was one of Ruth's delights to cram herself with
Speaker 1: some out of the way subject and endeavor to catch
Speaker 1: her father, and she almost always failed. Mister Bolton liked company,
Speaker 1: a house full of it, and the mirth of young people,
Speaker 1: and he would have willingly entered into any revolutionary plans
Speaker 1: Ruth might have suggested in relation to friends society. But
Speaker 1: custom and the fixed order are stronger than the most
Speaker 1: enthusiastic and rebellious young lady, as Ruth very soon found.
Speaker 1: In spite of all her brave efforts, her frequent correspondence,
Speaker 1: and her determined animation her books and her music, she
Speaker 1: found herself settling into the clutches of the old monotony.
Speaker 1: And as she realized the hopelessness of her endeavors, the
Speaker 1: medical scheme took new hold of her and seemed to
Speaker 1: her the only method of escape. Mother. THEE does not
Speaker 1: know how different it is in Fallkill, how much more
Speaker 1: interesting the people are, one meets, how much more life
Speaker 1: there is. But THEE will find the world child pretty
Speaker 1: much all the same. When THEE knows it better, I
Speaker 1: thought once as THEE does now, and had as little
Speaker 1: thought of being a friend as THEE has. Perhaps when
Speaker 1: THEE has seen more, THEE will better appreciate a quiet life.
Speaker 1: THEE married young, I shall not marry young, and perhaps
Speaker 1: not at all, said Ruth, with a look of vast experience.
Speaker 1: Perhaps THEE doesn't know the own mind. I have known
Speaker 1: persons of thy age who did not. Did THEE see
Speaker 1: anybody whom THEE would like to live with always in
Speaker 1: fall Kill? Not always, replied Ruth with a little laugh. Mother,
Speaker 1: I think I wouldn't say always to any one until
Speaker 1: I have a profession and am as independent as he is.
Speaker 1: Then my love would be a free act, and not
Speaker 1: in any way a necessity. Margaret Bolton smiled at this
Speaker 1: new fangled philosophy. THEE will find that love, Ruth, is
Speaker 1: a thing THEE won't reason about when it comes, nor
Speaker 1: make any bargains about. THEE wrote that Philip Sterling was
Speaker 1: at fall Kill, Yes, and Henry Brierly a friend of his,
Speaker 1: a very amusing young fellow, and not so serious minded
Speaker 1: as Philip, but a bit of a fop maybe, And
Speaker 1: THEE preferred the fop to the serious minded. I didn't
Speaker 1: prefer anybody, but Henry Brierly was good company, which Philip wasn't.
Speaker 1: Always did THEE know thee father had been in correspondence
Speaker 1: with Philip? Ruth looked up, surprised and with a plain
Speaker 1: question in her eyes. Oh, it's not about THEE. What then?
Speaker 1: And if there was any shade of disappointment in her tone,
Speaker 1: probably Ruth herself did not know it. It's about some
Speaker 1: land up in the country. That man Biggler has got
Speaker 1: Father into another speculation, That odious man. Why will Father
Speaker 1: have anything to do with him? Is it that railroad? Yes,
Speaker 1: Father advanced money and took land as security, and whatever
Speaker 1: has gone with the money and the bonds. He has
Speaker 1: on his hands a large tract of wild land. And
Speaker 1: what has Philip to do with that? It has good
Speaker 1: timber if it could ever be got out, and Father
Speaker 1: says that there must be coal in it. It's in
Speaker 1: a coal region. He wants Philip to survey it and
Speaker 1: examine it for indications of coal. It's another of Father's fortunes,
Speaker 1: I suppose, said Ruth. He has put away so many
Speaker 1: fortunes for us that I'm afraid we never shall find them.
Speaker 1: Ruth was interested in it nevertheless, and perhaps mainly because
Speaker 1: Philip was to be connected with the enterprise. Mister Bigler
Speaker 1: came to dinner with her father next day and talked
Speaker 1: a great deal about mister Bolton's magnificent tract of land,
Speaker 1: extolled the sagacity that led him to secure such a property,
Speaker 1: and led the talk along to another railroad which would
Speaker 1: open a northern communication to this very land. Pennybacker says,
Speaker 1: it's full coal, he's no doubt of it, and a
Speaker 1: railroad to strike the eerie would make it a fortune.
Speaker 1: Suppose you take the land and work the thing up,
Speaker 1: mister Bigler, you may have the tract for three dollars
Speaker 1: an acre. You'd throw it away, then, replied mister Bigler.
Speaker 1: And I'm not the man to take advantage of a friend,
Speaker 1: but if you'll put a mortgage on it for the
Speaker 1: northern road, I wouldn't mind taking an interest if Pennybackers will.
Speaker 1: But Pennybacker, you know, don't go much on land. He
Speaker 1: sticks to the legislature, and mister Bigler laughed. When mister
Speaker 1: Biggiler had gone, Ruth asked her father about Philip's connection
Speaker 1: with a land scheme there's nothing definite, said mister Bolton.
Speaker 1: Philip is showing aptitude for his profession. I hear the
Speaker 1: best reports of him in New York, though those sharpers
Speaker 1: don't intend to do anything but use him. I've written
Speaker 1: and offered him employment in surveying and examining the land.
Speaker 1: We want to know what it is, and if there
Speaker 1: is anything in it that his enterprise can dig out,
Speaker 1: he shall have an interest. I should be glad to
Speaker 1: give the young fellow a lift. All his life, Eli
Speaker 1: Bolton had been giving young fellows a lift and shouldering
Speaker 1: the losses when things turned out unfortunately. His ledger take
Speaker 1: it altogether, would not show a balance on the right side.
Speaker 1: But perhaps the losses on his books will turn out
Speaker 1: to be credits. World where accounts are kept on a
Speaker 1: different basis, the left hand of the ledger will appear
Speaker 1: the right looked at from the other side. Philip wrote
Speaker 1: to Ruth rather a comical account of the bursting up
Speaker 1: of the city of Napoleon and the navigation improvement scheme,
Speaker 1: of Harry's flight and the Colonel's discomfiture. Harry left in
Speaker 1: such a hurry that he hadn't even time to bid
Speaker 1: miss Laura Hawkins good bye, but he had no doubt
Speaker 1: that Harry would console himself with the next pretty face.
Speaker 1: He saw a remark which was thrown in for Ruth's benefit.
Speaker 1: Colonel Sellers had, in all probability by this time some
Speaker 1: other equally brilliant speculation in his brain. As to the railroad.
Speaker 1: Philip had made up his mind that it was merely
Speaker 1: kept on foot for speculative purposes in Wall Street, and
Speaker 1: he was about to quit it. Would Ruth be glad
Speaker 1: to hear? He wondered that he was coming yeast, for
Speaker 1: he was coming in spite of a letter from Harry
Speaker 1: in New York advising him to hold on until he
Speaker 1: had made so some arrangements in regard to contracts. He
Speaker 1: to be a little careful about Sellers, who was somewhat visionary,
Speaker 1: Harry said. The summer went on without much excitement for Ruth.
Speaker 1: She kept up a correspondence with Alice, who promised a
Speaker 1: visit in the fall. She read. She earnestly tried to
Speaker 1: interest herself in home affairs and such people as came
Speaker 1: to the house, but she found herself falling more and
Speaker 1: more into reveries and growing weary of things. As they were,
Speaker 1: she felt that everybody might become in time like two
Speaker 1: relatives from a Shaker establishment in Ohio who visited the
Speaker 1: Boltons about this time, a father and son clad exactly
Speaker 1: alike and alike in manners. The son, however, who was
Speaker 1: not of age, was more unworldly and sanctimonious than his father.
Speaker 1: He always addressed his parent as brother Plum, and bore
Speaker 1: himself altogether in such a superior manner that Ruth longed
Speaker 1: to put bent pins in his chair. Both father and
Speaker 1: son wore the long, single breasted, collarless coats of their society,
Speaker 1: without buttons before or behind, but with a row of
Speaker 1: hooks and eyes on either side in front. It was
Speaker 1: Ruth's suggestion that the coats would be improved by a
Speaker 1: single hook and eye sewed on in the smaller the back,
Speaker 1: where the buttons usually are. Amusing as this Shaker caricature
Speaker 1: of the friends was, it oppressed Ruth beyond measure and
Speaker 1: increased her feeling of being stifled. It was a most
Speaker 1: unreasonable feeling. No home could be pleasanter than Ruth. The house,
Speaker 1: a little out of the city, was one of those
Speaker 1: elegant country residences which so much charm visitors to the
Speaker 1: suburbs of Philadelphia, a modern dwelling and luxurious in everything
Speaker 1: that wealth could suggest for comfort. It stood in the
Speaker 1: midst of exquisitely kept lawns, with groups of trees, parterres
Speaker 1: of flowers, massed in colors, with greenhouse drapery and gardens,
Speaker 1: and on one side the garden sloped away in undulations
Speaker 1: to a shallow brook that ran over a pebbly bottom
Speaker 1: and sang under forest trees. The country about was the
Speaker 1: perfection of cultivated landscape, dotted with cottages and stately mansions,
Speaker 1: of revolutionary date, and sweet as an English countryside, Whether
Speaker 1: seen in the soft bloom of may or in the
Speaker 1: mellow ripeness of late October, it needed only the peace
Speaker 1: of the mind within to make it a paradise. One
Speaker 1: riding by on the old Germantown Road and seeing a
Speaker 1: young girl swinging in the hammock on the piazza and
Speaker 1: intent upon some volume of old poetry or the latest novel, would,
Speaker 1: no doubt had envied a life so idyllic, he could
Speaker 1: not have imagined that the young girl was reading a
Speaker 1: volume of reports of clinics and longing to be elsewhere
Speaker 1: Ruth could not have been more discontented if all the
Speaker 1: wealth about her had been as unsubstantial as a dream.
Speaker 1: Perhaps she so thought it. I feel, she once said
Speaker 1: to her father, as if I were living in a
Speaker 1: house of cards, and THEE would like to turn it
Speaker 1: into a hospital. No, but tell me, father, continued Ruth,
Speaker 1: not to be put off. Is THEE still going on
Speaker 1: with that Biggler and those other men who come here
Speaker 1: and entice THEE? Mister Bolton smiled, as men do when
Speaker 1: they talk with women about business. Such men have their uses, Ruth.
Speaker 1: They keep the world active. And I owe a great
Speaker 1: many of my best operations to such men. Who knows Ruth.
Speaker 1: But this new land purchase, which I confess I yielded
Speaker 1: a little too much to Biggler in may not turn
Speaker 1: out a fortune for THEE and the rest of the children. Ah, Father,
Speaker 1: THEE sees everything in a rose colored light. I do
Speaker 1: believe THEE wouldn't have so readily allowed me to begin
Speaker 1: the study of medicine if it hadn't had the novelty
Speaker 1: of an experiment to THEE. And is THEE satisfied with it?
Speaker 1: If THEE means if I have had enough of it? No,
Speaker 1: I just begin to see what I can do in it,
Speaker 1: and what a noble profession it is for a woman.
Speaker 1: Would he have me sit here like a bird on
Speaker 1: a bow and wait for somebody to come and put
Speaker 1: me in a cage. Mister Bolton was not sorry to
Speaker 1: divert the talk from his own affairs, and he did
Speaker 1: not think it worth while to tell his family of
Speaker 1: a performance that very day which was entirely characteristic of him.
Speaker 1: Ruth might well say that she felt as if she
Speaker 1: were living in a house of cards, although the Bolton
Speaker 1: household had no idea of the number of perils that
Speaker 1: hovered over them, any more than thousands of families in
Speaker 1: America have of the business risks and contingencies upon which
Speaker 1: their prosperity and luxury hang. A sudden call upon mister
Speaker 1: Bolton for a large sum of money, which must be
Speaker 1: forthcoming at once, had found him in the midst of
Speaker 1: a dozen ventures, from no one of which a dollar
Speaker 1: could be realized. It was in vain that he applied
Speaker 1: to his business acquaintances, and from ends it was a
Speaker 1: period of sudden panic and no money. A hundred thousand
Speaker 1: mister Bolton said plumbily, Good God, if you should ask
Speaker 1: me for ten, I shouldn't know where to get it.
Speaker 1: And yet that day mister Small, Pennybacker, Biggler, and Small,
Speaker 1: came to mister Bolton with a piteous story of ruining
Speaker 1: a coal operation. If he could not raise ten thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: only ten, and he was sure of a fortune without it,
Speaker 1: he was a beggar. Mister Bolton had already Small's notes
Speaker 1: for a large amount in his safe, labeled doubtful. He
Speaker 1: had helped him again and again, and always with the
Speaker 1: same result. But mister Small spoke with a faltering voice
Speaker 1: of his family, his daughter in school, his wife, ignorant
Speaker 1: of his calamity, and drew such a picture of their
Speaker 1: agony that mister Bolton put by his own more pressing necessity,
Speaker 1: and devoted the day to scraping together here and there
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars for this brazen beggar, who had never
Speaker 1: kept a promise to him nor paid a debt. Beautiful
Speaker 1: credit the foundation of modern society. Who shall say that
Speaker 1: this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of
Speaker 1: unlimited reliance upon human promises. That is a peculiar condition
Speaker 1: of society which enables a whole nation to instantly recognize
Speaker 1: point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote which puts
Speaker 1: into the mouth of a distinguished speculator in lands and
Speaker 1: Mines this remark, I wasn't worth a cent two years ago.
Speaker 1: Now I owe two millions of dollars. End of Chapter
Speaker 1: twenty six.