The Black Lion Inn

t those buttons and gold ends of braid from my uniform, which told of me as a once captain of rebels, and turned my face towards New York. I was twenty-one at the time; my majority arrived on the d

ke every other war. Ah! I won my rank f

if we did not go riding down the valley hunting Sheridan, the sun was never over-high when he rode up the valley hunting us. Those were brave days! We fought twice after the war was done. Yes, we knew of Richmond's fall and that the end was come. But what then? There was the eager foe; there were we, sullen and ripe and hot with hate. Why should we not fi

Ferry; how Governor Wise called out that company of militia of which I was a member; and how, as we stood in the lamp-lighted Richmond streets that night, waiting to take the road for Harper's Ferry, an old grotesque farmerish figure rushed excitedly into our midst. How we laughed at the belligerent agriculturist! No, he was no farm

cted on me like a stimulant. The crowd and the breezy rush of things were as wine. Then again, to transplant a man means ever a multiplication of spirit. It was so with me; the world and the hour and I were all ne

evenue law, with its tax of forty cents a pound on tobacco, had gained a construction, and the department's reading of the law at

t from the hour when the seed went into the ground, down to the perfumed moment when the perfect leaf exhaled in sm

hem. And wherever peace prevailed, the growing of tobacco went on. The harvests had been stored; there was no market-no method of getting the tobacco out. To be brief, as I read the internal revenue decision above quoted, on that Astor House morning, I knew that scatter

known to him on the day of my arrival; he had asked me, over a glass of wine, to let him hear from me as time and my destinies took

f Byron. As he greeted me, he kept the volume in his left hand with finger shut in the page. E

f twenty-one, whose only employment had been certain boot-and-saddle efforts to overthrow the nation. I say, I had scant hope of obtaining the aid I quested. I suffered disappointment. I was dealing with a gentleman who, however much he might grudge me a few moment

ely and quietly; with my profits I extended myself; and at the end of eighteen months, I had

d been already brought to New York. By the simple process of steaming and vaporizing, I removed each trace of mould and mildew, and under my skillful methods that war

of new tobacco, the latter on the outside for the sake of color and looks. Thus you may glimpse somewhat the advantage I had. Where, at forty cents a pound, the others paid on each bale of tobac

e of over thirty thousand dollars a year. I had apartments up-town; I was a member of the best clubs; I was each afternoon in the park with my carriage; incidentally I was languidly looking about among the Vere de Veres of the old Knickerbockers for that lady who, because of her superlative beauty and wit and modesty coupled with you

My tobacco works proper were over towards the East River in a brick warehouse I had leased; to these, which were under the superintendence of a trusty and expert adherent whom

twelve thousand dollars. The ninety thousand was or would be owing on my tobacco contracts south, and held those tons on tons of stored, mildewed war tobacco, solid to my command. As I read the totals and reviewed the items, I would not have paid a penny of premium to insure my future. There it was in black and white. I knew what I had done; I knew what I could do. I was master of the tobacco situation for the next three years to come. By that time, I would have worked up the entire fragrant

vate office when Mike, my personal and favorite henchman, announced a vis

im in!"

, fitted vilely; while his head, never beautiful, was made uglier with a shock of rudely exuberant hair and a stubby beard like pig's bristles. It was an hour when there

edge. When we were alone, I brought him and his business to instant bay. I was anxious to

nt?" My tones were

opened with obscure craft-vaguely, foggily. He wanted to purchase half my business. He would take an account of

ave grown no trouble. I would have gulped and swallowed the pill; we would have dealt; I'd have had a partner and been worth one and one-half million in

ed a pa

longer he stayed. I told him I desired none of his partnership. I told him this several divers times; and each time with added vigor and a risin

ed a pa

hree my pulse beat swift and hot. And it came to pass that on the he

ll I care to hear. Go; or I

the besotted creat

ave of the hand; Mike had studied me and knew my moods. At once he fel

ifted because of bear's grease that tainted the air, and

st from his knees and returned to Washington and had his treasury desk again. He was a mere go-between. The one he stood for and whose plans he sought to transact was a high official of revenue. This latter personage, of whose plotting identity back in the sha

visitor, I was met in the office door by the manager. His face was white and his eyes

ad the news?

t ne

t read of th

of tobacco then or thereafter to become extant; and that, too, whether its planting and its reaping occurred inter arma or took place beneath the pinions of wide-spreading peace. The revenue office declared that its first ruling, exempting to

s than a tithe of it before, I was helpless. I couldn't, with my inferior tobacco, engage on even terms against the new tobac

on me; my liabilities seemed to swell while my assets grew sear and shrunken. Under the shak

ather totteringly-on my feet again. I was out of business. I counted up my treasure

ave up my rich apartments, sold my horses, looked no more for a female Vere de Vere with intent her to espouse, and turned to smuggling. I had now a personal as well as

ll a story of superstition and omen; also how I turned in my infancy to cards as a road to wealth. Cards as a method to arrive by ric