CHAPTER XVI.

"His morion, from his brow unbound,
Revealed their reverend sire."

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DURING the remarks of " Bill," his voice seemed familiar to my ear; but where I had heard it, was more than I could remember, till I recollected his allusions to his homeless wanderings, the time of his reformation, the early death of his child, and other circumstances perfectly agreeing with the history given of Mr. Belden by the stranger in the stage. Guided by the few hints afforded by the train of thought thus awakened, the truth ultimately flashed upon my mind, that " Old Bill" was none other than the elder fellow-passenger the day before; and, that he was the identical Mr. Belden whose history he had related! I had looked for him in every direction, during the evening, as he informed me he should be present; and the cause of my disappointment was most satisfactorily explained. The clothing which disguised him from

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me, but which betrayed him to residents present, was (excepting the coat which he sold for a dram in New-York,) the same in which he had left that region more than twenty years beföre; and which he had carefully preserved to serve as “signals,” as he called them, to warn him of breakers where he once was wrecked.

The meeting was over, and the multitude began to disperse. The chief patrons of temperance there, who had been most influential in that effort, gathered around "Old Bill," or rather Capt. Belden, as he will hereafter be called; and with much cordiality greeted him with a hearty shake of the hand. But there stood Judge H., with his great red nose and flaming eyes, aristocratically surveying the tattered garments of Captain Belden. Unwilling to enlist his influence in the temperance cause, he refused to be introduced; but hastened on with his bloated carcass toward home, leaning upon his wife on one side, and propped up by his daughter on the other. Then there were others more refined, disgusted with the unfashionable incapability of Capt. Belden of being swayed by the transparent reasoning, the bewildering exceptions, and the mystical sophistry of the wine-drunkard

GROG-SHOP TECHNICALITIES.

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and his apologists. Again was a group professedly of the church, such as have often acquired for it the name of "blue light!" Such individu. als are the first to censure and the last to praise. These, too, kept aloof from association with Capt. Belden. So long as he acted the part of "Old Bill," and staggered through their streets, they were the most severe to condemn. His reformation had rendered reproach inappropriate, and their interest in him had consequently ceased. As for charitable allowances or encouraging approvals, they were never indulged.

These all were more bitter, if possible, than the old drunkards at the door. Most of them, it is true, had immediately adjourned to the bar-room with the lawyer, to "wet their whistles," get a "drop of the cratur'," try the "O, be joyful!” "splice the main-brace," and apply a "hair of the hound"—all of which, be it known, dear reader, mean but the one, single, important act of drinking alcohol in some form, till it stews the toper or toperess soft enough to be "mellow," affectionate enough to hug a sign-post, charitable enough to love one enemy, humble enough to sleep in a gutter, but too drunk to be a brute. Nevertheless,

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some of these old comrades had remained, and met Captain Belden as he left the church. Although they remembered the former kindness of his disposition, they were prepared to listen to heartless reproaches, such as had ever been received from those calling themselves "the temperance people" in that place. But Captain Belden addressed them with kindness and humility, which ever win the heart, and by which alone men can be persuaded to repentance and reformation. Several of them actually shed tears at this unexpected sympathy, as he took them kindly by the hand. It was such attention as they had not met with for years, from their fellow-men. They had in fact been utterly banished from the society and almost from the recollection of the Pharisees of the village as though God beheld no sin but intemperance, and nought beside was to be condemned at the judgment!

Although the influence of even one such individual as Captain Belden would have effected more good in that society, than all which had been accomplished, yet, he had time merely to utter a word of recognition, and to add some remark to each, in favor of the cause which lay so near his