Irenaeus Letters. Originally Published in the New York Observer
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LETTERS. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NEW YORK OBSERVER. THE NEW YORK OBSERVER. 1881. COPYRIGHT, 1880, BY NEW YORK OBSERVER. Pretiof S. W. GREEK'S So!, 14 Beekm*n Street, New York. INTRODUCTORY NOTE, BY THE EDITORS OF THE NEW YORK OBSERVER. IN the year 1837 the signature of IREN^EUS first appeared on the pages of the New York Observer. The writer was then a pastor in the Highlands of the Hudson. In the month of April, 1840, he became one of its editors, and has been writing in it, with brief intervals, every week for more than forty years. He has established such relations with his readers that he has come to regard them as personal friends, and he has received abundant assurance that this feeling is reciprocated. Requests, many and earnest, have been made by our sub- scribers for the collection of these letters into a volume. " " " Travels in Europe and the East," Switzerland," The " Alhambraand the Kremlin," " Under the Trees and "Walk- ing with God," are the names of books originally published as "Irenaeus Letters" in this paper. But this volume con- tains a selection of more familiar, household letters, such as have been specially mentioned by our readers as giving them pleasure, and it is now published in compliance with their repeated requests to have this in this permanent form. LRELIGIOUS SECULARS FULL-OF., INTERESTING READING. IN-THE-FAM1 * ID-IN-THE-STl THE NEW YORK OBSERVER: A NATIONAL, RELIGIOUS, FAMILY NEWSPAPER. NOT SECTIONAL. NOT SECTARIAN. // has two distinct sheets in one : so Readily separated as to form two journals. One filled with Religious and the other with Secular Reading. All the nert<s of all Christian Churches of all denominations and from allforeign countries is furnished by correspondents in every part our own of country and in every quarter of the globe. So wide is the range of religious intelligence, of Literature, Science, Art, Commerce and Agriculture, that the reading of this paper is an education to the wholefamily that receives it. Its editors and sole proprietors are the REV. DRS. S. IREN^EUS PRIME, E. D. G. PRIME, CHAS. A. STODDARD, AND WENDELL PRIME. Besides it these has four editors of special departments and a large corps of special contributors. Its correspondence from Europe, Asia, and the Africa, Pacific Islands is a valuablefeature ; its editorials are fearless and fair ; its selections are made from an extensive reading with taste and discernment, and its Notices and Reviews of Books and Magazines give a correct idea of current literature. TERMS: $3.15 (postpaid} payable in advance. SPECIAL OFFER: The New York Observer will send to any OLD SUBSCRIBER who pays his own subscription in advance, one copy of "Irenaus Letters" for each NEW subscriber whose name also forwards with $3.15 CONTENTS. PAGE Adams, Dr., Intercourse with 389 Agatha and her Dish 300 Among the Icebergs 131 Amphitheatres and Theatres 230 Anna Dickinson on Theatres 340 Apostle in Rome 295 Arguing with a Poker and a Hammer 336 Babes in the Woods 1,13 Bear in Boston 52 Beggar, An Interesting 134 Beggars' Church and the Beggars of Italy 288 Bryant, William Cullen 160 Calling Bad Names 25 Castle of Unspunnen 190 Cemetery beneath a Cemetery 238 Chester Cathedral Service 178 Childhood of Christ 6 Children and the Church 79 Choosing a Minister's Wife 16 Church and a Picture 225 Church and Cloisters of St. Mark 263 Convent on the Sea 235 Country Pastor's Sermon 46 Cowper and Ray Palmer 137 Cox, The late Dr. S. H 394 Doremus, Mrs 49 Doughnation Party 98 Dream of the Year 62 Dresden Pictures . 202 6 CONTENTS. PAGE Eternal City, Why ? 276 Evil Eye 105 Fife and the Violin 311 Fine Old English Gentleman 207 Gamblers at Monaco 329 Going to a Glacier 193 Going to Rome 272 Great Exaggerator 153 Green Vaults 197 Habits, especially Bad Habits 102 Henry and Hildebrand 123 His Grandfather's Barn 22 Hold up your Head 127 It's his Way 55 Jews' Quarter in Rome 291 Lance of St. Maurice 215 Lesson from a Sick-room 150 Long-winded Speakers. ... 120 Made without a Maker 333 Manners in Church 116 Man who had to wait for a Seat in Church 326 Meanest Woman in New York 381 Milk and Water 370 Ministers' Pay in Old Times 87 Ministers' Sons 359 Minister who was hung 362 Miseries of being reported in the Newspapers 308 Model Minister 109 Monastery and Convent 186 Morning Adventure in Rome 280 Muhlenberg, The Good Dr 38$ Murray, Dr. : Bishop Hughes 90 Music Composer Spoiled 9 My first Sight of Niagara 3M My Vine: my poor Vine! 374 Name above Every Name M 1 New England Homes and Graves 30 O Thou of Little Faith 167 Our Friends in Heaven 344 CONTENTS. 7 PAGE Our Windows in Florence 243 Pastor and Friend 59 Pleasant Recollections 13 Sabbath among the Hills 69 Sabbath in Cambridge, England 181 San Miniato and Vallombrosa 249 Santa Croce and the Inquisition in Florence 255 Service of Song 73 Shakers of Canterbury 82 Spring's Prediction, Dr 66 Story and the Church of St. Cecilia 284 Studies in Torture Rooms 211 Summer Board and Summer Boarders 40 Sunday Evening Supper 304 Taxing a Child's Brain 36 Ten Days on the Ship 173 That Dreadful Boy i Through the Tyrol 220 Torturing the Little Ones 366 Two Hours in Court 94 Two Pictures: Ideal, but Real 170 Warriors on War i 164 Week in the White House 145 When it Rains, let it Rain 157 When not to Laugh -. 348 White and Yellow Meeting-Houses 377 White Mountain Notch 321 With a Pirate in his Cell 351 Woman's View of Crime , 355 IREN^EUS LETTERS. THAT DREADFUL BOY. HE was going from Boston to Old Orchard with his mother. I was sorry to be in the same car with them. His mother seemed to exist only to be worried by this uneasy, distressing boy. He had only one fault he was perfectly insufferable. If I say he was "an unlicked cub" I shall offend your ears. Lick is an old English word that means either to lap or to strike. Shakespeare uses unlicked as applied to the cub of a bear there a notion that the at first ; was whelp was a form- " less thing that had to be licked into shape" by the mother's tongue. So it came to pass that the vulgar expression, "an unlicked cub," was fittingly applied to a boy whose mother never gave him the culture essential to make him present- able, or even tolerable, in the society of well-behaved people. The two meanings of the word are not very diverse. This boy had never been licked into shape. He needed licking. I use the word in its two senses. And the use, if not elegant, is intelligible and expressive, perhaps graphic also. The mother besought him to be still for a moment, but. the moment of stillness never came. He wanted something to eat, got it; to drink, and he kept a steady trot through the car the anxious mother him not to to the ; prayed go plat- form, not to put his head out of the window, not to climb over the seats; all in vain. She might as well have en- treated the engine. In travelling, one is often haunted by people from whom he tries to fly. He meets them at the galleries or the dinner- 2 IREN&US LETTERS. table. The dreadful boy and his mother were in the parlor of the seaside hotel where I had engaged my lodgings. In half a day this dreadful boy was the pest and nuisance of the intellectual piazza, the parlors and the halls. His mother, coddling and coaxing him, sought to win him into the ways of decency and peace, but he rejoiced in showing he was not tied to his mother. The more she reasoned the more he rioted in his liberty. " I would drown the little plague if I could catch him in from "the the water," said a crusty savage New York City ; ill-mannered cur minds nobody and fears nobody." One evening we were seated in the parlor, in little groups, conversing. Into the room rushed the dreadful boy pursued by another whom he had hit, and both were screaming in play at the top of their voices. As he was passing me I seized him by the arm with a grip that meant business, and " said : Here, my boy, we have stood this thing long enough : it has come to an end." An awful silence filled the room ; his mother, frightened, sat pale, and not far away, while I " held the culprit and pursued the lecture If you do not know how to behave in company, let me tell you the parlor is no for such as we have suffered from place romps you ; go out of doors and stay out for such games, and when you come in here, sit down and be quiet." He wriggled to get away, but I led him to the door and left him on the outside. As I had not been introduced to his mother, I was not sup- posed to know whose boy it was, and therefore made no apologies for this summary discipline of somebody else's child. The next day I was sitting on the beach under a sun um- brella, when a party of ladies and the dreadful boy hove in sight, and sought seats near me.