THE INSULT TO ALLIE ASHTON--HER GALLANT DEFENDER.
Six months have elapsed since Mr. Gurney and Mr. Brown engaged in
the conversation as presented in the last chapter. During that
period there had been a great many hotel-keepers tried and fined
for selling liquor, though numbers had escaped through the utter
depravity of both them and their miserable dupes; and also
because, in a great many instances the magistrates who presided
were utterly incompetent to try the cases.
The hotel-keepers had pursued to the letter the diabolical policy
they had agreed upon; that is, they had defied the law, and sold
liquor with reckless impunity, having, when fined, appealed, and
then continued selling and giving it away until they had literally
accomplished their object, and flooded the country with liquor,
making a perfect carnival of drunkenness and debauchery. They
could afford to be lavish in their expenditure, as they had a
wealthy corporation to back them in their iniquity.
Among those who had been enticed to fall was the unfortunate
personage who is the chief character in this story. Ginsling had
been successful, and Richard Ashton had once more been led astray.
Ruth had scarcely become convalescent when this occurred, and was
again completely prostrated. The family were now only kept from
want by the earnings of Eddie and Allie, though Mr. Gurney and
other friends were exceedingly kind, and did everything they
could, without wounding the sensibilities of Mrs. Ashton, to help
her and her family.
Ashton was now completely demoralized. He had become so depraved
by drink as to have lost all self-respect, and seemed to be
regardless of the condition of his family. He had not only
desisted from bringing anything in to help support them, but the
miserable man had, again and again, stealthily taken some souvenir
of other and happier days, and pawned it in order to procure
liquor.
He had also become so completely transformed by drink that, in his
wild, drunken frenzy, he would be cross and even abusive to his
wife and children; and there was that shadow of a great sorrow
ever lowering over them, and that wearing unrest and fear that is
ever the patrimony of those who are the inmates of a drunkard's
home.
It was now a providential thing for them that Eddie had procured a
situation with Mr. Gurney; and that Allie, though she was so
young, was able to turn her musical accomplishments to account,
and give instruction in music to several pupils. They, by their
united earnings, as we have before intimated, managed to keep the
wolf from the door.
Ashton was now most of his time absent from home, drinking at some
of the hotels or groggeries, and he had become so utterly degraded
that even Ginsling, the man who had been the chief instrument of
his ruin, would avoid him; and Rivers and Porter, and the other
tavern-keepers, would turn him out on the street, as they did many
others, in order to demonstrate that the Dunkin Act was a failure.
At such times he would stagger home if he was able, which was not
always the case; and once or twice he nearly perished from cold
and exposure. Eddie frequently had to search through the
groggeries to find him and lead him home.
One evening, just at twilight, as Allie was returning from giving
a lesson to one of her pupils, she had to pass by Porter's hotel
on her way home, and, when opposite the bar-room door, she heard
her father in loud conversation with some one inside. Impelled by
an impulse to rescue him from impending evil, she opened the door
and walked in. She found herself in the midst of a bar-room full
of drunken, ruffianly-looking men, a long row of whom were
standing at the bar, with glasses in hand, while one of their
number was proposing a toast of the grossest character. To her
dismay her father was among them. She stood for a moment or two
hesitating what to do, and she trembled violently, and experienced
a sinking sensation as she found every eye turned upon her. The
voice of him who was proposing the toast was instantly hushed, and
every glass was lowered and placed on the counter. There was a
dead silence for a few moments, as all seemed intuitively to
understand they were in the presence of innocence and refinement;
in fact, of a being superior to themselves, and one who was not
accustomed to such surroundings.
"Do you wish to see me?" said Mr. Porter.
After a moment's hesitation, in order to gain control of herself,
Allie answered his question in true Yankee style; that is, by
asking another. She asked, with great dignity--though she had to
assert all her will-power to conceal her agitation:--
"Are you the proprietor?"
"I am," said Porter. "Will you not step into the sitting-room?" he
said, with rough kindness; for naturally brutal as he was, even he
for a moment was toned down by the presence of the fair young
girl.
"No, thank you," she answered. "I came in to ask my father to come
home. I heard his voice as I was passing by, and thought if I
stepped in and asked him he would not refuse to accompany me."
In a moment there was a marvellous change in the manner of Porter,
and he asked, in reply to Allie, in a coarse, ruffianly manner:
"Are you Ashton's daughter?"
"I am, sir," replied Allie, straightening herself up, the manner
of the question, more than the words, causing her cheeks to flush
and indignant fire to flash in her eyes.
"I wish, then," he continued, "you would take the drunken fool
home, and keep him when you get him there. I have been bothered
enough with him lately."
"Why, then, have you, and others in your business, enticed him to
drink? He would not have been in the sad state he is to-day, sir,
if he had not been tempted to do wrong. Would to God, for my poor
mother's sake" (and as she mentioned her mother's name her eyes
filled with tears), "he would never again put foot in this place.
Father!" she said, walking over to him, and putting her hand
affectionately on his arm, "you will come, will you not?"
"Yes, my girl, I will," answered her father, who, though very much
under the influence of liquor when she so unexpectedly made her
appearance, seemed considerably sobered by what had transpired. He
also keenly felt the degradation of having his pure, gentle young
daughter in a place with such surroundings.
"I will, my girl," he reiterated; "and what you said was true. I
was waylaid and tempted, and I believe it was all planned by him
and others of the same profession. Had it not been for this, you
would not have found me here to-day, and would also have been
spared this degradation. But if I and others had not been weak
their schemes would have failed."
"If you or any one else say I enticed you, or employed any other
person to do so, I say, in reply, it is a lie!" said Porter; and
he not only looked at Ashton as he spoke, but also at his
daughter.
Ashton was maddened by the insulting remarks which were evidently
intended for both. He turned almost savagely to Porter, and said:
"You dastardly ruffian! if you were not a coward you would not
insult a young girl." As he said this, he struggled to get away
from Allie, as if he would fly at Porter; but she threw her arms
around him, and, crying piteously, begged him to come home.
"Oh, father!" she said, "I want to leave this horrible place. Oh!
don't say anything, but come home."
"You had better leave," said Porter; "and if you were not an old
man, and your daughter was where she should be--at home--I would
knock you down. I would allow no man who was able to defend
himself to say so much to me without making him sorry for it."
"You wouldn't," said a tall, athletic young man, stepping forward
as he spoke. "Well, I will give you an opportunity to make good
your words. I say that the man who is contemptible enough to make
use of the language you have, in the presence of a young lady, is
a bully, a brute, and a miserable coward. Now, make good your
boast."
Porter, stung by the epithets applied to him, sprang with the fury
of a tiger at the young man who thus defied him; but if he
expected to surprise him by the suddenness of his attack, or to
crash him with his vast bulk, he counted without his host, for the
young man, with the agility of a cat, stepped to one side, and, as
he did so, struck Porter such a blow that he fell to the floor as
one dead. He then turned to Allie as if nothing had happened, and
said, with gentle courtesy:
"Miss Ashton, this is no place for you; if you will leave, I will
accompany Mr. Ashton and you home."
"Oh! is he dead?" she said, as she viewed with anxiety and alarm
the prostrate form of the brutal ruffian.
"You need not be in the least alarmed about that, miss," said one
who was bending over him; "Joe Porter ain't so easily killed as
that; though I tell you, that young fellow's blow is like a kick
from a boss. He did hit him a stunner, but I must say he just got
what he deserved."
Just then Porter, in whose face they had been sprinkling water,
began to show signs of life and to mutter fearful oaths against
Ashton, Allie, and the young man who had so nobly championed their
cause.
"Let us go," said Allie; "let us leave this awful place. Come, pa,
for he will soon be up. Oh, how can you frequent such a place as
this is?"
When they stepped outside, they found the twilight was deepening
into darkness. Allie thanked the young man for his gallant
conduct, but would not accept his proffered escort: she said she
did not wish to trouble him further. As they parted she shook hands
with him, as did her father, and bade him a cordial good-bye.
"I am very much obliged to you," said Mr. Ashton to him, "and
shall never forget your kindness; but I hope you may not get into
trouble for your valor in our behalf."
"There is no danger of that," he said; "I am abundantly able to
take care of myself. But, sir," he continued, "if you will allow
one who is young enough to be your son to put in a word to you in
the way of advice, I would say, do not be found again as you were
to-night. My dear sir, you are altogether too good for such
company as that; and then, you involve others in your own
degradation."
"I know it, sir; I know it too well. I take your advice as it is
intended, and hope I may yet receive strength to follow it; but I
have failed so often that I dare not make a promise. God bless you
sir! Good-bye."
The young man stood looking after Ashton as he disappeared in the
darkness. Allie had started a little before her father, and had
not therefore been a listener to their conversation. She had to
call into a store to make a few purchases, her father promising to
meet her at the shop-door and accompany her home.
"There," soliloquised the young man, "is another poor fool who,
possessing bright parts, is just about destroyed by drink. How
many thousands there are, even in this country, just like him--going
to ruin themselves at lightning speed, and dragging their
families with them! What a beautiful girl his daughter is! What a
figure! What eyes and hair, and what a beautiful complexion! How
cultured and intelligent she appeared! She cannot be more than
fourteen or fifteen, and yet she seemed to have the thoughtfulness
and self-possession of a woman. The idea of one possessing her
refinement being in the den of Old Joe Porter! I must endeavor to
be better acquainted if we establish a business here. It was
fortunate I went to make that enquiry. I guess Porter will not
forget me for some time."