it is in the spring of 1847 this history commences.
"steady a bit! here i am, boys, turned up again-a subject of this moral reform school, of moral old charleston. if my good old mother thinks it'll reform a cast-off remnant of human patchwork like me, i've nothing to say in protest. yes, here i am, comrades (poor tom swiggs, as you used to call me), with rum my victor, and modern vengeance hastening my destruction." this is the exclamation of poor tom swiggs (as his jail companions are pleased to call him), who, in charge of two officers of the law, neither of whom are inclined to regard him with sympathy, is being dragged back again to the charleston jail. the loathsome wreck of a once respectable man, he staggers into the corridor, utters a wild shriek as the iron gate closes upon him, and falls headlong upon the floor of the vestibule, muttering, incoherently, "there is no hope for one like me." and the old walls re-echo his lamentation.
"his mother, otherwise a kind sort of woman, sends him here. she believes it will work his reform. i pity her error-for it is an error to believe reform can come of punishment, or that virtue may be nurtured among vice." thus responds the brusque but kind-hearted old jailer, who view swith an air of compassion his new comer, as he lays, a forlorn mass, exposed to the gaze of the prisoners gathering eagerly about him.
the dejected man gives a struggle, raises himself to his haunches, and with his coarse, begrimed hands resting on his knees, returns the salutation of several of his old friends. "this, boys, is the seventh time," he pursues, as if his scorched brain were tossed on a sea of fire, "and yet i'm my mother's friend. i love her still-yes, i love her still!" and he shakes his head, as his bleared eyes fill with tears. "she is my mother," he interpolates, and again gives vent to his frenzy: "fellows! bring me brandy-whiskey-rum-anything to quench this flame that burns me up. bring it, and when i'm free of this place of torment, i will stand enough for you all to swim in."
"shut your whiskey-pipe. you don't appreciate the respectability of the company you've got among. i've heard of you," ejaculates a voice in the crowd of lookers-on.
"what of a citizen are you?" inquires tom, his head dropping sleepily.
"a vote-cribber-milman mingle by name; and, like yourself, in for formal reform," retorts the voice. and the burly figure of a red, sullen-faced man, comes forward, folds his arms, and looks for some minutes with an air of contempt upon the poor inebriate.
"you're no better than you ought to be," incoherently continues tom, raising his glassy eyes as if to sight his seemingly querulous companion.
"better, at all events, than you," emphatically replies the man. "i'm only in for cribbing voters; which, be it known, is commonly called a laudable enterprise just before our elections come off, and a henious offence when office-seekers have gained their ends. but what use is it discussing the affairs of state with a thing like you?" the vote-cribber, inclined to regard the new-comer as an inferior mortal, shrugs his shoulders, and walks away, contemplatively humming an air.
"if here ain't tom swiggs again!" exclaims a lean, parchment-faced prisoner, pressing eagerly his way through the circle of bystanders, and raising his hands as he beholds the wreck upon the floor.
"fate, and my mother, have ordered it so," replies tom, recognizing the voice, and again imploring the jailer to bring him some brandy to quench the fires of his brain. the thought of his mother floated uppermost, and recurred brightest to the wandering imagination of this poor outcast.
"there's no rum here, old bloat. the mother having you for a son is to be pitied-you are to be pitied, too; but the jail is bankrupt, without a shilling to relieve you in the liquor line," interposes another, as one by one the prisoners begin to leave and seek their several retreats.
"that breath of yours," interrupts the vote-cribber, who, having returned, stands regarding the outcast man with singular interest, "would make drunk the whole jail. a week in 'mount rascal' the upper story used for the confinement of felons. will be necessary to transmute you, as they call it, into something christian. on 'the mount' you will have a chance to philosophize-mollify the temperature of your nervous system-which is out of fix just now."
there is an inert aristocracy, a love of distinction, among the lowest dregs of society, as there is also a love of plush and other insignificant tawdry among our more wealthy republicans. few would have thought of one inebriate affecting superiority over another, (the vote-cribber was an inebriate, as we shall show,) but so it was, nevertheless.
"i own up," rejoins tom, "i own up; i love my mother, and am out of sorts. you may call me a mass of filth-what you please!"
"never mind; i am your friend, tom," interrupts the brusque old jailer, stooping down and taking him gently by the arm. "good may come of the worst filth of nature-evil may come of what seemeth the best; and trees bearing sound pippins may have come of rotten cores. cheer up!"
the cool and unexpected admonition of the "vote-cribber" leaves a deep impression in tom's feelings. he attempts, heaving a sigh, to rise, but has not strength, and falls languidly back upon the floor. his countenance, for a few moments, becomes dark and desponding; but the kind words that fall from the jailer's lips inspire him with confidence; and, turning partly on his side, he thrusts his begrimed hands into a pair of greasy pockets, whistling "yankee doodle," with great composure.
the jailer glances about him for assistance, saying it will be necessary to get him up and carry him to his cell.
"to a cell-a cell-a cell!" reiterates the inebriate. "well, as the legal gentry say," he continues, "i'll enter a 'non-contender.' i only say this by way of implication, to show my love for the fellow who gathers fees by making out writs on my account."
in reply to a question from the jailer, he says they mistake tom swiggs, if they think he has no pride left.
"after all, there's something more in you than i thought, tom. give us your hand," says the vote-cribber, extending cordially his hand, as if a change for the better had come over him, and grasping firmly that of the inebriate. raising his besotted head, tom gazes distrustfully at the cribber, as if questioning his sincerity. "i am not dead to shame," he mutters, struggling at the same time to suppress his emotions.
"there are, tom," continues the cribber, playfully, "two claims on you-two patent claims! (he lets go the inebriate's hand, and begins teasing his long, red beard.) and, are you disposed to come out on the square, in the liquor line, you may redeem yourself--"
"name 'em!" interposed tom, stopping short in his tune.
"the gentleman commonly called mister jones, and a soap-chandler, are contesting a claim upon you. the one wants your body, the other your clothes. now, as i am something of a lawyer, having had large dealings in elections, i may say, as a friend, that it is only a question of time, so far as you are concerned. take my advice, then, and cheat both, by selling out, in advance. the student and the janitor pay good prices for such things as you. give the last-named worthy a respondentia bond on yourself, redeemable before death, or resign the body after, (any lawyer will make the lien valid,) and the advance will produce floods of whiskey. come out, tom, like a hero, on the square."
an outcast, hurled deep into the gulf of despair, and surrounded by victims of poverty and votaries of crime, the poor inebriate has yet left him one lingering spark of pride. as if somewhat revived, he scrambles to his feet, staggers into the room of a poor debtor, on the left of the long, sombre aisle, and drawing from his pocket a ten-cent piece, throws it upon the table, with an air of great importance.
"i am not moneyless," he exclaims--"not i!" and he staggers to the great chimney-place, rebounding to the floor, saying, "take that-bring her in-quench my burning thirst!"
tom is the only surviving, and now the outcast, member of a somewhat respectable family, that has moved in the better walks of society. his mother, being scrupulous of her position in society, and singularly proud withal, has reared and educated her son in idleness, and ultimately slights and discards him, because he, as she alleges, sought society inferior to his position and her dignity. in his better days he had been erect of person, and even handsome; but the thraldom of the destroyer has brought him to the dust, a pitiable wreck.
tom has seen thirty summers, presents a full, rounded figure, and stands some five feet ten. he wears an old brown coat, cut after the fashion of a surtout, that might have fitted him, he says, when he was a man. but it has lost the right cuff, the left flap, and a part of the collar; the nefarious moths, too, have made a sieve of its back. his trowsers are of various colors, greasy down the sides, ragged at the bottoms, and revealing two encrusted ancles, with feet stuck into old shoes, turned under at the heels for convenience sake. a remark from the cribber touches his pride, and borrowing a few pins he commences pinning together the shattered threads of his nether garment. a rope-yarn secured about his waist gives a sailor-like air to his outfit. but, notwithstanding tom affects the trim of the craft, the skilled eye can easily detect the deception; for the craftsman, even under a press of head sail, preserves a becoming rig.
indeed, tom might have attempted without effect, during his natural life, to transform himself into a sailor. the destroyer was his victor; the inner man was but a reflex of the outer. he pulled an old cloth cap over his face, which was immersed in a massive black beard, bordering two red, swollen cheeks; and with his begrimed hands he rubbed lustily his inflamed eyes--once brown, large, and earnest--now glassy and sunken.
"i'm all square, ain't i?" he inquires, looking with vacant stare into the faces of those who tease him with facetious remarks, then scans his haberdashery. there yet remains something displeasing to him. his sense of taste is at stake. this something proves to be a sooty striped shirt, open in front, and disclosing the remains of a red flannel under-garment. every few minutes will he, as if touched with a sense of shame, wriggle his shoulders, and pull forward the wreck of his collarless coat, apparently much annoyed that it fails to cover the breastwork of his distress.
again he thrusts his hands into his pockets, and with an air of apparent satisfaction, struts twice or thrice across the dingy room, as if he would show how far he has gained his equilibrium. "i shall go straight mad; yes, mad, if the whiskey be not brought in," he pursues, stopping short in one of his sallies, and with a rhetorical flourish, pointing at the piece of silver he so exultingly tossed upon the table. as if his brain were again seized by the destroyer's flame, his countenance becomes livid, his eyes glare wildly upon each object near him; then he draws himself into a tragic attitude, contorts hideously his more hideous face, throws his cap scornfully to the ground, and commences tearing from his head the matted black hair that confusedly covers it. "if my mother thinks this a fit place for me--" he pauses in the middle of his sentence, gives an imploring stare at his companions, shakes and hangs down his head; then his brain reels, and his frame trembles, and like a lifeless mass he falls to the floor.
"i'm gone now--gone--gone--gone!" he mutters, with a spasmodic effort, covering his face with his hands.
"he'll go mad; you can only save him with a hair of the same dog," one of the prisoner's measuredly suggests, folding his arms, and looking mechanically upon the wretched man.
a second agrees with the first; a third says he is past cure, though a gallon of whiskey were wasted upon him.
mr. mingle, the vote-cribber--regarded good authority in such matters--interposes. he has not the shadow of a doubt but that a speedy cure can be effected, by his friends drinking the whiskey, (he will join them, without an objection,) and just letting tom smell the glass.
a fifth says, without prejudice to the state of south carolina, if he knew tom's mother, he would honestly recommend her to send him special minister to maine. there, drinking is rather an aristocratic indulgence, enjoyed only on the sly.
suddenly the poor inebriate gives vent to his frenzy. the color of his face changes from pale livid to sickly blue; his hands seem more shrunken and wiry; his body convulses and writhes upon the floor; he is become more the picture of a wild beast, goaded and aggravated in his confinement. a narcotic, administered by the hand of the jailer, produces quiet, and with the assistance of two prisoners is he raised to his feet, and supported into the corridor, to receive the benefit of fresh air. here he remains some twenty minutes, stretched upon two benches, and eyed sharply by the vote-cribber, who paces in a circle round him, regarding him with a half suspicious leer, and twice or thrice pausing to fan his face with the drab felt hat he carries under his arm.
"a curious mother that sends you here for reform," muses the vote-cribber; "but he must be a perfect fleshhook on the feelings of the family."
send him up into rogue's hall," exclaims a deep, sonorous voice, that echoes along the aisle. the vote-cribber, having paused over tom, as if to contemplate his degradation, turns inquiringly, to see from whence comes the voice. "it is me!" again the voice resounds. two glaring eyes, staring anxiously through the small iron grating of a door leading to a close cell on the left of the corridor, betrays the speaker. "it's tom swiggs. i know him--he's got the hydrophobia; its common with him! take him in tow, old spunyarn, give him a good berth, and let him mellow at thirty cents a day," continues the voice.
the last sentence the speaker addressed to a man of comely figure and frank countenance, who has just made his appearance, dressed in the garb of a sailor. this man stoops over tom, seems to recognize in him an old acquaintance, for his face warms with kindliness, and he straightway commences wiping the sun-scorched face of the inebriate with his handkerchief, and with his hand smooths and parts, with an air of tenderness, his hair; and when he has done this, he spreads the handkerchief over the wretched man's face, touches the querulous vote-cribber on the arm, and with a significant wink beckons him away, saying, "come away, now, he has luffed into the wind. a sleep will do him good."
