ds,' 'were made to relieve the
sufferings of the poor,' and the 'ceaseless abuse of aristocracy is
_therefore_ absurd.' Without the great truths, based on these relations
of rich and poor, J. T. W., the apostle of 'Gentility,' thinks that
'society is a murderous anarchy; without these, revolution follows
revolution, and barbarism closes the hideous drama of national
existence. On these alone hang all the law and prophets.'

The remaining articles of '_De Bow's Review, Industrial Resources_,
etc.,' are devoted to Free Trade, the Progress of the War, and the
Coal-Fields of Arkansas, none of them, with the exception of the latter,
presenting aught like an approach to a useful truth. The magazine is,
however, as a whole both curious and characteristic. It shows, as in a
mirror, the enormous ambition, the uneasy vanity, the varnished
vulgarity of the Southerner, his claims to scrupulous honor, outflanked
and contradicted at every turn by an innate tendency to exaggerate and
misrepresent, and his imperfect knowledge employed as a basis for the
most weighty conclusions. And it is such writers and thinkers who
accurately set forth the ideas and principles on which the great
experiment of the Southern aristocratic confederacy is to be based--in
case of its success. A tremendous Ism, fringed with bayonets! There is
strength in bayonets, but what stability is there in the Ism which
supports them?

EAST AND WEST.

In the far East the imperial rule
Is aided by the British rod;
While in the West the rebel school
Receives full many a friendly nod.
Can no new Mithra ever be
To slay this Bull of tyranny?

WAS HE SUCCESSFUL?

'Do but grasp into the thick of human life! Everyone _lives_ it--to
not many is it _known_; and seize it where you will, it is
interesting.'--_Goethe._

'SUCCESSFUL.--Terminating in accomplishing what is wished or
intended.'--_Webster's Dictionary._

CHAPTER VIII.

HOW HIRAM MEEKER FLOURISHED AT BURNSVILLE.

Hiram entered on his new duties--I was about to say with zeal and
activity; such are not the words I would employ to describe his conduct
or character, but rather earnestness and fidelity. Neither do these
terms precisely convey my meaning, but none better occur to me. He was
quiet and unobtrusive, at the same time alert and ready. Absolutely
negative in his manner, he did not leave a salient point for Mr. Burns
to lay hold of. His first