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Файл:The Redskins; or, Indian and Injin
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
“Sen says he can’t see why he should pay rent to a Littlepage, any more than a Littlepage should pay rent to him.”
“I am sorry to hear it, since there is a very sufficient reason
for the former, and no reason at all for the latter. Your brother
uses the land of Mr. Littlepage, and that is the reason why he
should pay him rent. If the case were reversed, then, indeed,
Mr. Littlepage should pay rent to your brother.”
“But what reason is there that these Littlepages should go
on from father to son, from generation to generation, as our
landlords, when we’re just as good as they? It’s time there was
some change. Besides, only think, we’ve been at the mills, now,
hard upon eighty years, grandpa having first settled there;
and we have had them very mills, now, for three generations
among us.”
“High time, therefore, Opportunity, that there should be
some change,” put in Mary, with a demure smile.
“Oh! you’re so intimate with Marthy Littlepage, I’m not
surprised at anything you think or say. But reason is reason for
all that. I haven’t the least grudge in the world against young
Hugh Littlepage; if foreign lands haven’t spoilt him, as they
say they’re desperate apt to do, he’s an agreeable young gentleman, and I can’t say that he used to think himself any better
than other folks.”
“I should say none of the family are justly liable to the
charge of so doing,” returned Mary.
“Well, I’m amazed to hear you say that, Mary Warren. To
my taste, Marthy Littlepage is as disagreeable as she can be. If
the anti-rent cause had nobody better than she is to oppose it,
it would soon triumph.”
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“May I ask, Miss Newcome, what particular reason you
have for so thinking?” asked Mr. Warren, who had kept his eye
on the young lady the whole time she had been thus running
on, with an interest that struck me as somewhat exaggerated,
when one remembered the character of the speaker, and the
value of her remarks.
“I think so, Mr. Warren, because everybody says so,” was
the answer. “If Marthy Littlepage don’t think herself better
than other folks, why don’t she act like other folks? Nothing is
good enough for her in her own conceit.”
Poor little Patt, who was the very beau idéal of nature and
simplicity, as nature and simplicity manifest themselves under the influence of refinement and good-breeding, was here
accused of fancying herself better than this ambitious young
lady, for no other reason than the fact of the little distinctive
peculiarities of her air and deportment, which Opportunity
had found utterly unattainable, after one or two efforts to
compass them. In this very fact is the secret of a thousand of
the absurdities and vices that are going up and down the land
at this moment, like raging lions, seeking whom they may devour. Men often turn to their statute-books and constitution
to find the sources of obvious evils, that, in truth, have their
origin in some of the lowest passions of human nature. The
entrance of Seneca at that moment, however, gave a new turn
to the discourse, though it continued substantially the same.
I remarked that Seneca entered with his hat on, and that he
kept his head covered during most of the interview that succeeded, notwithstanding the presence of the two young ladies
and the divine. As for myself, I had been so free as to remove
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
my cap, though many might suppose it was giving myself airs,
while others would have imagined it was manifesting a degree
of respect to human beings that was altogether unworthy of
freemen. It is getting to be a thing so particular and aristocratic to take off the hat on entering a house, that few of the
humbler democrats of America now ever think of it!
As a matter of course, Opportunity upbraided her delinquent brother for not appearing sooner to act as her beau; after
which, she permitted him to say a word for himself. That Seneca was in high good-humor was easily enough to be seen; he
even rubbed his hands together in the excess of his delight.
“Something has happened to please Sen,” cried the sister,
her own mouth on a broad grin, in her expectation of coming
in for a share of the gratification. “I wish you would get him to
tell us what it is, Mary; he’ll tell you anything.”
I cannot describe how harshly this remark grated on my
nerves. The thought that Mary Warren could consent to exercise even the most distant influence over such a man as Seneca
Newcome was to the last degree unpleasant to me, and I could
have wished that she would openly and indignantly repel the
notion. But Mary Warren treated the whole matter very much
as a person who was accustomed to such remarks would be apt
to do. I cannot say that she manifested either pleasure or displeasure; but a cold indifference was, if anything, uppermost
in her manner. Possibly, I should have been content with this;
but I found it very difficult to be so. Seneca, however, did not
wait for Miss Warren to exert her influence to induce him to
talk, but appeared well enough disposed to do it of his own
accord.
133
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“Something has happened to please me, I must own,” he
answered; “and I would as lief Mr. Warren should know what
it is, as not. Things go ahead finely among us anti-renters, and
we shall carry all our p’ints before long!”
“I wish I were certain no points would be carried but those
that ought to be carried, Mr. Newcome,” was the answer. “But
what has happened, lately, to give a new aspect to the affair?”
“We’re gaining strength among the politicians. Both sides
are beginning to court us, and the ‘spirit of the institutions’
will shortly make itself respected.”
“I am delighted to hear that! It is in the intention of the institutions to repress covetousness, and uncharitableness, and
all frauds, and to do nothing but what is right,” observed Mr.
Warren.
“Ah! here comes my friend the travelling jeweller,” said
Seneca, interrupting the clergyman, in order to salute my
uncle, who at that instant showed himself in the door of the
room, cap in hand. “Walk in, Mr. Dafidson, since that is your
name. Rev. Mr. Warren – Miss Mary Warren – Miss Opportunity Newcome, my sister, who will be glad to look at your
wares. The cars will be detained on some special business, and
we have plenty of time before us.”
All this was done with a coolness and indifference of manner which went to show that Seneca had no scruples whatever
on the subject of whom he introduced to any one. As for my
uncle, accustomed to these free and easy manners, and probably not absolutely conscious of the figure he cut in his disguise, he bowed rather too much like a gentleman for one of
his present calling, though my previous explanation of our
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
own connection and fallen fortunes had luckily prepared the
way for this deportment.
“Come in, Mr. Dafidson, and open your box – my sister may
fancy some of your trinkets; I never knew a girl that didn’t.”
The imaginary pedler entered, and placed his box on a table near which I was standing, the whole party immediately
gathering around it. My presence had attracted no particular
attention from either Seneca or his sister, the room being public, and my connection with the vender of trinkets known. In
the meantime, Seneca was too full of his good news to let the
subject drop; while the watches, rings, chains, brooches, bracelets, etc., were passed under examination.
“Yes, Mr. Warren, I trust we are about to have a complete
development of the spirit of our institutions, and that in futur’
there will be no privileged classes in New York, at least.”
“The last will certainly be a great gain, sir,” the divine coldly answered. “Hitherto, those who have most suppressed the
truth, and who have most contributed to the circulation of flattering falsehoods, have had undue advantages in America.”
Seneca, obviously enough, did not like this sentiment; but I
thought, by his manner, that he was somewhat accustomed to
meeting with such rebuffs from Mr. Warren.
“I suppose you will admit there are privileged classes now
among us, Mr. Warren?”
“I am ready enough to allow that, sir; it is too plain to be
denied.”
“Wa-all, I should like to hear you p’int ‘em out; that I might
see if we agree in our sentiments.”
135
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“Demagogues are a highly privileged class. The editors of
newspapers are another highly privileged class; doing things,
daily and hourly, which set all law and justice at defiance, and
invading, with perfect impunity the most precious rights of
their fellow-citizens. The power of both is enormous; and, as
in all cases of great and irresponsible power, both enormously
abuse it.”
“Wa-all, that’s not my way of thinking at all. In my judgment, the privileged classes in this country are your patroons
and your landlords; men that’s not satisfied with a reasonable
quantity of land, but who wish to hold more than the rest of
their fellow-creatur’s.”
“I am not aware of a single privilege that any patroon – of
whom, by the way, there no longer exists one, except in name –
or any landlord, possesses over any one of his fellow-citizens.”
“Do you call it no privilege for a man to hold all the land
that may happen to be in a township? I call that a great privilege; and such as no man should have in a free country. Other
people want land as well as your Van Rensselaers and Littlepages; and other people mean to have it, too.”
“On that principle, every man who owns more of any one
thing than his neighbor is privileged. Even I, poor as I am, and
am believed to be, am privileged over you, Mr. Newcome. I own
a cassock, and have two gowns, one old and one new, and various other things of the sort, of which you have not one. What
is more, I am privileged in another sense; since I can wear my
cassock and gown, and bands, and do wear them often; whereas you cannot wear one of them at all without making yourself
laughed at.”
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
“Oh! but them are not privileges I care anything about; if I
did I would put on the things, as the law does not prohibit it.”
“I beg your pardon, Mr. Newcome; the law does prohibit
you from wearing my cassock and gown contrary to my wishes.”
“Wa-all, wa-all, Mr. Warren; we never shall quarrel about
that; I don’t desire to wear your cassock and gown.”
“I understand you, then; it is only the things that you de-
sire to use that you deem it a privilege for the law to leave
me.”
“I am afraid we shall never agree, Mr. Warren, about this
anti-rent business; and I’m very sorry for it, as I wish particularly to think as you do,” glancing his eye most profanely
toward Mary as he spoke. “I am for the movement-principle,
while you are too much for the stand-still doctrine.”
“I am certainly for remaining stationary, Mr. Newcome, if
progress mean taking away the property of old and long-established families in the country, to give it to those whose names
are not to be found in our history; or, indeed, to give it to any
but those to whom it rightfully belongs.”
“We shall never agree, my dear sir, we shall never agree;”
then, turning toward my uncle with the air of superiority that
the vulgar so easily assume – “What do you say to all this,
friend Dafidson – are you up-rent or down-rent?”
“Ja, mynheer,” was the quiet answer; “I always downs mit
der rent vens I leave a house or a garten. It is goot to pay de
debts; ja, it ist herr goot.”
This answer caused the clergyman and his daughter to
smile, while Opportunity laughed outright.
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“You won’t make much of your Dutch friend, Sen,” cried
this buoyant young lady; “he says you ought to keep on paying
rent!”
“I apprehend Mr. Dafidson does not exactly understand the
case,” answered Seneca, who was a good deal disconcerted, but
was bent on maintaining his point. “I have understood you to
say that you are a man of liberal principles, Mr. Dafidson, and
that you’ve come to America to enjoy the light of intelligence
and the benefits of a free government.”
“Ja; ven I might coome to America, I say, vell, dat ‘tis a goot
coontry, vhere an honest man might haf vhat he ‘arns, ant keep
it, too. Ja, ja! dat ist vhat I say, and vhat I dinks.”
“I understand you, sir; you come from a part of the world
where the nobles eat up the fat of the land, taking the poor
man’s share as well as their own, to live in a country where
the law is, or soon will be, so equal that no citizen will dare to
talk about his estates, and hurt the feelin’s of such as haven’t
got any.”
My uncle so well affected an innocent perplexity at the
drift of this remark as to make me smile, in spite of an effort
to conceal it. Mary Warren saw that smile, and another glance
of intelligence was exchanged between us; though the young
lady immediately withdrew her look, a little consciously and
with a slight blush.
“I say that you like equal laws and equal privileges, friend
Dafidson,” continued Seneca, with emphasis; “and that you
have seen too much of the evils of nobility and of feudal oppression in the Old World, to wish to fall in with them in the
New.”
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THE REDSKINS; OR, INDIAN AND INJIN
“Der noples ant der feudal privileges ist no goot,” answered
the trinket-pedler, shaking his head with an appearance of
great distaste.
“Ay, I knew it would be so; you see, Mr. Warren, no man
who has ever lived under a feudal system can ever feel otherwise.”
“But what have we to do with feudal systems, Mr. Newcome? and what is there in common between the landlords of
New York and the nobles of Europe, and between their leases
and feudal tenures?”
“What is there? A vast deal too much, sir, take my word for
it. Do not our very governors, even while ruthlessly calling on
one citizen to murder another”
“Nay, nay, Mr. Newcome,” interrupted Mary Warren,
laughing, “the governors call on the citizens not to murder
each other.”
“I understand you, Miss Mary; but we shall make anti-renters of you both before we are done. Surely, sir, there is a great
deal too much resemblance between the nobles of Europe and
our landlords, when the honest and freeborn tenants of the
last are obliged to pay tribute for permission to live on the
very land that they till, and which they cause to bring forth its
increase.”
“But men who are not noble let their lands in Europe; nay,
the very serfs, as they become free and obtain riches, buy lands
and let them, in some parts of the old world, as I have heard
and read.”
“All feudal, sir. The whole system is pernicious and feudal,
serf or no serf.”
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JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
“But, Mr. Newcome,” said Mary Warren, quietly, though
with a sort of demure irony in her manner that said she was
not without humor and understood herself very well, “even
you let your land – land that you lease, too, and which you do
not own, except as you hire it from Mr. Littlepage.”
Seneca gave a hem, and was evidently disconcerted; but he
had too much of the game of the true progressive movement –
which merely means to lead in changes, though they may lead
to the devil – to give the matter up. Repeating the hem, more
to clear his brain than to clear his throat, he hit upon his answer, and brought it out with something very like triumph.
“That is one of the evils of the present system, Miss Mary.
Did I own the two or three fields you mean, and to attend to
which I have no leisure, I might sell them; but now it is impossible, since I can give no deed. The instant my poor uncle
dies – and he can’t survive a week, being, as you must know,
nearly gone – the whole property, mills, taverns, farms, timber-lot and all, fall in to young Hugh Littlepage, who is off
frolicking in Europe, doing no good to himself or others, I’ll
venture to say, if the truth were known. That is another of the
hardships of the feudal system; it enables one man to travel in
idleness, wasting his substance in foreign lands, while it keeps
another at home, at the plough-handles and the cart-tail.”
“And why do you suppose Mr. Hugh Littlepage wastes his
substance, and is doing himself and country no good, in foreign lands, Mr. Newcome? That is not at all the character I
hear of him, nor is it the result that I expect to see from his
travels.”
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