1847.] Mrs. and Mr. Jackson. 333 



it unharmed on the edge of his plate, to be returned unharmed to 

 the original pile of display. So, (saith not Jeremy Taylor,) have 

 I seen a dog drop a bone, when the cook has aimed a cleaver at 

 his head. 



Mrs. Jackson had furnished her parlor with considerable pre- 

 tensions to style; but it was rarely entered. The company usually 

 sat in " the other front room." On such occasions the door of the 

 parlor would always be accidentally left open, so that the visitors 

 in passing could catch a glimpse at the Turkey carpet and mantel 

 mirror. The minister and Judge King have been known to sit 

 down in the parlor, and little doubt was entertained but that the 

 President would be invited into it, if he should favor the place 

 with a visit. It is not known that Mr. Jackson ever trod upon 

 the carpet, or saw his person reflected from the mantel mirror. 



Mrs. Jackson had the idea of gentility fully developed. This 

 was owing in part to her elevated birth, and in part to the native 

 nobility of her mind. There were two young men in the village, 

 contemporary with her younger years; it is a mystery she did not 

 marry one or both of them. The one sat during the day for three 

 years in Dr. Norton's office, with his feet on the table; then he 

 was licensed to practice medicine, but ere long he came to the 

 conclusion (a priori, for he had no trial,) that sick rooms and 

 night rides must be unpleasant; accordingly he turned financier, 

 and was rewarded for his contributions to the currency by a per- 

 manent birth in one of our state institutions. The other genteel 

 young man was a clerk in Mr. Burford's store. His hands were 

 the admiration of all the ladies, who made it a point to buy all 

 their ribbons of him. He finally set up business for himself, failed 

 and paid nothing on a dollar — entered into " the grocery line," 

 became his own best customer and died, leaving his empty hogs- 

 heads to his creditors. Mrs. Jackson had lived to see the end of 

 these specimens of gentility before she married Mr. Jackson. It 

 was not known that she made any attempts to make him genteel. 



Mrs. J. had a son, who in form and feature gave clear indica- 

 tions of his paternity. She determined to make him genteel, and 

 labored assiduously to develop within him the idea of a gentleman, 

 but without any very marked success. The first difficulty was 

 the vagueness attached to the term gentleman in this country. 

 The next was that there was no gentleman in Luneville — no ex- 

 amples to whom she could point her son; so that the idea of a 

 gentleman that Frederic Fitzjames Jackson acquired, was one who 

 did not work, whose hands were white, and who wore Sunday 

 clothes every day. With all these characteristics, Frederic Fitz- 

 james was peculiarly well pleased, especially the first named; he 

 commenced a course of careful and successful practice, and was 

 never known to do a single act of useful labor. His hands were 



