dollars' worth of work-of whole streets ourselves to sleep, shall dream, and have to be graded, and foundations to be dug, memories soothing and saving; shall and an army of barrows and shovels awake, the sanest fellows in town, and and picks, the command of which he never fash ourselves again about the requested his crazy friend to accept devils that are cast out." the man's eye brightened and, laying Steadily "the subject" worked on, his hand in Mr. Krafft's, he said in a and the field of his successes grew low but decided tone, “I'll do it." apace. But the sun had laid his heavy

Then Mr. Krafft, assuming the re- hand upon the bare head of the man, sponsibility for his safety-which, by and was down-bearing, more and more the same token, they of the ship were heavily every moment, upon his brain ; very willing to resign, seeing that on the and a fiend flew along his veins and voyage out, the man, taking umbrage at heated them, and twitched at his nerves something, had held the mate over tho till they quivered; and his fancy berail by the waistband, while the ship came filled with hostile shapes, as all was going twelve knots an hour-bade the ground around was filled with curihim come with him, and philosopher ous spectators ; so that at last, brandand madman went ashore together in a ishing his spade, he flung himself upon small boat.

the host before him, and the first man The white School-house, near the he laid low was his friend, philosopher Old Adobe, was the headquarters of the and guide. police then. It was on the west side of They bound him down, and gave him the Plaza, overlooking the heart of the shower-baths, and expostulated with young city and its busiest life. Thither him; but he never spake, nor ate, Mr. Krafft conducted his crazy friend, again, till he died. And Mr. Karl Joand showing him the ground in front of seph Krafft said, picking up his cane, the little building-indeed, in the very that no confidence was to be reposed in inidst of what is now Portsmouth Square persons of that description; all impetu

-told him his operations were to begin ous people were fools, he said. there. Then calling up a few policemen, Mr. Krafft was one of the few men whom with a word or two he inducted who had a home in San Francisco in into the secret, he put them under the Forty-nine ; at least, he had a comorders of his madman, and bade them fortable abode, a fireside, and a knot bring shovels and picks-at the same of friends to gather round it, with pipes time suggesting to the devil-possessed and punch-to tell stories and play whist digger that it would be as well to break in the good old way. He had taken a ground at once, as the rest of his work- better sort of adobe house on the corner ing force, some thousands of able-bod- of Dupont and Pacific strects, and put ied fellows, would be on band presently. it in good repair with paint and plaster.

Not a word spake the madman—not Like all the adobe buildings of old a word had he uttered, since he said Yerba Buena, it had but one story. " I'll do it”—but flinging down his coat The entranco, set fairly in the middle and hat, silently, with eyes wild, and of the front, was on Pacific street; a teeth set, he went to work. Beautiful! narrow hall, from front to back door, how evenly, how steadily, how swiftly divided the house, so as to give one yet how fusslessly, he cleared the ground large sitting-room on the right, and a before him, tossing the iying shovel- smaller apartment, which was for a bedfuls with the flirt of a nimble grave- chamber, on the left, in front, with a maker!

kitchen behind it. The sitting-room, “ Beautiful,” cried Mr. Karl Joseph hospitably furnished, was Mr. Krafft's Krafft, exulting in the success of his "spare room," and from the first he experiment, "beautiful! we are a trifle had warmly entertained in it one after crack-brained, to be sure; but for digging another of self-appointed friends, or we are worth a dozen philosophers yet new but preferred acquaintances; 80 -worth a hundred of some sorts of fel- that, indeed, it was never without an lows who never had their little gusts of occupant. His own apartment deserved madness, never knew the luxury of re- to be styled luxurious, for San Francisco turning reason. When this is through then. It had a marble floor, alternately with, we shall be hungry, and then we tiled in black and white. The cornices shall eat; after that we shall feel con- showed a rude attempt at carving. Tho genial, and then we shall talk-shall talk fire-place was a very throne of comfort.

ness.

There was an English brass bedstead, the inmates, and setting fire to their which Mr. Krafft, being justly proud

canvas shelter. Some five or six of of it, kept in a superfine state of bright them had a hapless Chilena girl among

A blue silk coverlid-the handi- them, and hustling her brutally about, work of his absent wife, no doubt - were quarreling noisily for possession adorned the bed, and over that, again, of her much coveted person. Mr. were laid two curious spotted skins, Krafft, with his gold-headed cane, felled which came, he said, from Patagonia. four of them, to their extreme astonishThere was an oaken chest of drawers, ment; and though, when the rest recovand a flawless old looking-glass; large ered from the shock, they fired their camphor-wood chests, of genuine Can- revolvers at him in the dark, he got off ton manufacture, brass-bound and paint- safely with the girl and led her tenderly ed blue, were disposed about the room. to his own home. There he soothed On the walls hung portraits in oil of her terror and consoled her grief, in his himself and his Maria-most lovely!- characteristic way, before returning to and an unfinished sketch in water colors seek for her friends : “ We must not of his three children, in graceful group. cry,” said he-"we must not distract A Wesson rifle stood in the corner next our little brains. So our bones or our the door; a Mexican saddle and head. hearts are not broken, we will not fash stall, with serape, lariat, and spurs, ourselves about the money, and the hung on large wooden pegs near the clothes, and the rest of the folksfoot of the bed. A cavalry sabre was between the windows, and a pair of

• Io son ricco,

Tu sei bella." German dueling-pistols hung, crossed, against the wall, within the curtains, at And afterward, when the affair got to the back-part of the bed. Near the be talked of to his honor, the skill and head of the bed, and always within dispatch with which the rescue bad been reach of the arm of its occupant, stood effected were all that Mr. Krafft asked an empty barrel, over the top of which to be applauded for. a sort of shaw) was thrown.

Here lay For a time I had much pleasure in at all times a loaded pistol, also of Ger- the society of my eccentric friend. The man make, having a curiously mounted striking quaintness of his character enand inlaid stock; and here every night, hanced the charm of bis conversation, on retiring to bed, Mr. Krafft placed his which was full of unusual experiences, watch, a valuable diamond ring and pin, versatility of accomplishment, originsome rare and curiously shaped speci- ality of opinion, delicacy of taste, mens of gold, and whatever papers of refinement of sensibility, and a goodvalue he may have had about his person natured,

natured, even comical, philosophy, that day.

which had in it a kind of universal When I knew Mr. Krafft, he was quite quien sabe for all subjects and people. happy in this home of his. On return- Not to fash ourselves, was the advice ing from his afternoon ride to the Mis- which Mr. Krafft was forever benovosion or the Presidio, which he regularly lently bestowing upon us, because he took when the day's business was over, sincerely believed he bad himself dehe was wont to amuse hinıself with pistol rived great advantage from steadily practice at his back door; or he would following it. So long as matters went take up the foils with some friend whose towardly with him, his companionship training had been German and military. was a privilege that I enjoyed with Feats of strength and skill had always even a degree of jealousy; and on Sun& peculiar charm for Mr. Krafft. I have day afternoons, as we walked to the heard him boast that he could stop a old Switzer's house at Washerwoman's run-away horse with the pressure of his Bay, or the extemporaneous grave-yard knees, and I have seen him disarm an at the foot of Telegraph Hill, and he antagonist of acknowledged expertness, amused, flattered, delighted, instructed, with a nice movement of the wrist, most impressed, sadly moved me, in quick difficult to acquire.

succession or all at once, I simply wonOne night, as he was returning late dered how such a man came to be specufrom the Plaza, where he had been rec- lating in Pacific street lots, and cudgel. reating himself with monte, a party of ing Hounds by way of a sandwich. Hounds, having attacked some Chilian But a sudden, dreadful, and completo tents on Dupont street, were driving out change came, no one knew wbence, over the for-a-time quiet, if not emi- where no thieves are. But I must clean nently beneficent life of Mr. Karl

my pistols." Joseph Krafft. He seemed to have About this time his door was besieged sustained a shame or a hurt from an from morning till night by fierce duns. unknown hand, and to be feeling He kept the bolts fast

, and while they blindly, desperately about for revenge cursed without, lay in bed, smoking and as a rage-drunk man will, hurt- cigars, tossing off goblets of chaming himself more and more at every pagne, laughing, coughing, raving, singturn.

ingHe plunged stupidly into specula

" " Io son ricco, tions, with little heed to the depth or

Tu sei bella,' current of them. With cards and dice,

Tra, la, la, la, h'm-dle, d'm. roulette wheels and rondo balls, he fooled himself to the top of his bent.

"What impatient people! He untuned the strings of his heart, so that the most skillful touches of his

"Quale amore,

Un Senatore kindest friends could produce nothing

Me d'amore but discord. He wounded all who

Supplicar! loved him, and when they turned away

Ma Zanetto their faces in sorrow for his shameful

E un giovinetto

Che mi piace, vo sposar.'' pass, sang, maudlin, his favorite song, the beautiful duet in Lucia, the invari- One evening, about dusk, when the able music of his cups

rest had departed, tired with their fruit“ Verranno la sull' aure,

less coaxing and cursing, a young man in I miei sospiri ardenti.”

whose generous confidence Mr. Krafft

had formerly held the highest place, He entertained traitors and the cunning who had indorsed for him recklessly, foes of his prosperity to the very bot- whom, indeed, Krafft loved, but whom tom of his purse; they laid him down he had ruined—if a man could be ruined among the dead men” nightly. Indeed, in California in Forty-nine-came, and he bleared his eyes and bemuddled his in set phrases of insult, most deliberbrains with everlasting drams, till the ately, skillfully cruel, accused, condevil of delirium tremens got among demned, punished him. They had his poor wits.

been old and very intimate friends, One night, during the progress of one which gave the creditor an almost of his most desperate debauches, fear- dreadful advantage; he knew the ing some harm might befall him, from “ raws" of his man, and he tore them, himself or others—for beside his ras- till Mr. Karl Joseph Krafft could have cally boon-companions, there were de- shrieked. But he gallantly preserved ceived creditors, who were dangerously his habitual composure, and only incensed against bim-I slept on the said, floor at the foot of his bed. Awaken- “ If you will not stop saying such ed, after midnight, by his piteous moan- dangerous things, I have pistols at ing, I arose, and was feeling about in band, and we must go behind the house the dark for a match, when he sudden- together.". ly became quiet; but presently the pro- • No, sir," the other answered; “I found stillness and darkness were dis- won't fight you; you must learn to be turbed by the crack of cap and a slight honest before you can afford to be flash. He had stealthily got down one brave. There is but one just debt, Mr. of his loaded pistols, and had tried to Krafft, that you will ever pay, and fire at me ; fortunately only the cap that's the debt of nature. Make sociespapped--the weapon was foul and ty and your disgusted friends the only hung fire.

" My dear sir,” said I, very reparation in your power, by blowing quietly, knowing my “ don't your brains out with those very pistols shoot me; that would be supremely you flourish so saucily." stupid."

“Woll, I'll think about it,” said Mr. " Ab, my dear, good friend is it Krafft. you? I congratulate you. By God, The young man was going. But do you know, I had you covered, dead. suddenly, by a most strange impulse, That only shows that one should not he turned, and walking straight to Mr. fash himself nervously about thieves, Krafft, he said.“ forgive me, sir."

man

66

“ We will forgive each other,” said forced the lock, and I entered alone. Mr. Krafft—"Good-night; I will pay My God! He was sitting up in bedyou in the morning."

his mouth wide open, and quite black Next morning, at nine o'clock, Mr. within one eyo fast closed, the other Karl Joseph Krafft blew out his brains staring. He had taken & deliberate -literally, all of his brains.

position in the middle of the bed, and But a little while after his angry propped himself against the brass crossyoung creditor had taken his singular bars which formed the head board. leare, Mr. Krafft sent for the pastor of His rifle lay on his body, the stock the First Presbyterian Church, which resting on the back of a chair, the muzwas then but a tent on a neighboring zlo on his breast. He had taken down lot. On the arrival of the clergyman, one of the rods which supported his he informed him that, baving been much curtains to touch the trigger with; that in ill health of late, be thought it pos- now lay beside the rifle. He had forsible his death might be sudden, and gotten that the weapon was not charged ; ho wished, on the score of prudence, to

ho had fired it at a mark but a day or take steps, at once, to secure some two before, to display its oxtraordinary property to bis family, then living in force to some visitor. Valparaiso. He wished the clergyman He had tried his pistols also; they to be the executor of his will, and if he lay by his side with freshly snapped would call on him the next morning at caps on the nipples. They also were eight o'clock, he would have all the empty. He had discharged them at the papers prepared, and would commit same time with the rifle. them to his charge.

The pistol which lay always on the They think I have forgotten my barrol remained. With that he had angel and my darlings," said he, “but succeeded. The charge had not been let them not fash themselves; they changed for many months, and the exshall see"-smiling, and pointing most plosion had, consequently, been terrific. significantly to the Aoor as he spoke; He had fired with the muzzle at his as it were, emphasizing his words with temple. The whole of the top of his his long, thin finger- they shall see, skull was shot away, completely and sir-they shall see."

cleanly, as medical students, in disseoMr. Krafft, after that, entertained tion, saw it away to get out the brains. some friends at bis room, most agree- Fragments of the skull, with hair at

tached, wero hanging from tho walls on Next morning, an accident called off every side, and from the ceiling in the the reverend gentleman, and he missed farthest corner. The wall behind the the appointed hour. His services were head was blackened, and bespattered never required.

with brains and blood; the brains lay, In the spare room," Mr. Krafft had every ounce of them, in a pool of warm two guests, who were seated at break- blood, on the floor. fast, when they heard the report of a No will was found, no coin, no gold pistol in their host's apartment. They dust. Remembering the significance of flew to his door; it was locked. Run- the gesture described by the clergyning into the street, they looked through man, we took up the marble floor the only window they could find open. nothing. His friends all robbed the The room was full of smoke. They dead man ; every buzzard of them carwaited and strained their eyes. Present- ried off fragment. One of his penly they said, they could see the bed sioners in the spare room accepted a and Mr. Krafft; he was sitting up in costly Spanish mantle for his sharo; tho bed, his eyes open, his mouth open; * he other deigned to be content with the was rolling bis head from side to side- brilliant breast-pin. Two days after his but there was no top to it .!"

funeral, even the portraits disappeared This was the report they made to me from the walls. a few minutes later. For I lived hard by, No soul alive knows who tho thieves and as an intimate friend of the suicide, were, or where is the unmarked grave of they had recourso at once to me. Al. Karl Joseph Krafft. Mr. Krafft, himself, though I lost no time, I found a crowd will, no doubt, clear up all for us, some had already gathered about the spot day. According to the spiritualistics, when I reached Mr. Krafft's door. We he has been heard from already.

VOL. IX.-18

ably.

OLMSTED'S TEXAS JOURNEY..

umes.

I a

association and art, to compensate the uable, timely, interesting, and able wanderer. He may be devoured by work, than this book of Mr. Olmsted's. vermin, but he sees the Coliseum. He His plan in his first volume, A Journey may be drowned in lager bier, but he in the Sea-board Slave States, is pursued sees the Alps. He may be domiciled in in this; that plan, as we understand, dirt, but he hears the great singers and being, to present, from personal observ- goes to the Louvre. He may be in peril ation and study, a panorama of society, from snakes, but, like Waterton, he sentiment, industry, and character, in rides an alligator. With such resources Our Slave Slates, which will be the gen. -or even the possibility of them-a eral title of the whole work. The man may not only preserve his princientire subject divides itself into the ples, but his temper. But when there sea-board, collon-growing, border, and is absolutely nothing, when you not hill-country, regions of the slave states, only have to eat, and drink, and sleep and will be completed in two more vol dirt, but are compelled to bathe in mud,

We shall then have the subject, then it is heroic to keep your princiwhich is, of all our public questions, ples, but to guard your temper is dithe most engrossing and imperious, vine. Yet our author does it, and does fully set forth in its industrial and, inci- it cheerfully, and does it as if he were dentally, in its other aspects. For our doing nothing. In truth, with every readers will remember, in The Sea-board charm of climate, and a soil so kind Slare Slates, that Mr. Olmsted is not that Mr. Olmsted says that, if he were a horror-monger, nor, in any usual to emigrate, he would certainly choose sense, a fanatic. No traveler, of equal to go to Texas, it is clear that Texas perceptive ability and intellectual pow. is a wholly undeveloped Paradise, as er, ever made so comprehensive a state- near the possible Texas as the ape, ment of the aspect and character of the according to some theories, is near the slave country, and so entirely free from bitterness and vituperation. The books The great importance of the book is might be safely transmitted by mail simply this : that it gives every man an through the most inflammable Carolina accurate idea of the actual condition post-office, and read, without oaths, by of that vast area upon our southwest the most irascible Alabama planter. ern frontier, upon which so many And yet, while their calm statement of mighty interests depend, a territory the results of the most extensive com- greater than the aggregate areas of parison and observation must interest Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland, Pennthe statesman and the partisan, their de- sylvania, New Jersey, New York, and lightful variety, and freshness, and all New England, and which is now humor, as records of personal travel scarcely occupied, not at all settled, and experience, would be sure to fas- and the surface of which is scratched a cinate the reader who is looking for en- little for cultivation. Of course, the tertainment, but who does not object to supreme question is: by what system of knowing something, if he can only know labor shall the opulence of this immense it easily.

country be developed and its prosperity The personality of every traveler secured? Mr. Olmsted furnishes every becomes important, the moment he be possible facility for every American gins to tell his travels, and it is most citizen to determine for himself, and fortunate for the public that there is an certainly every American, whether he invincible humorous elasticity in this lives at the North or the South, is in. accurate observer and thinker, and that terested that that question be answered he always tastes the sugar while he in accordance with the dictates of reacounts the cost. In other countries, son, religion, and a good political econin Europe and the East, there are al- omy, which last is never separated from ways the romantic charms of historical the other two.

man.

: