The tender Passion--Barnum's Museum--Little Eva--The Boys in a
Box--The Bracelet--Love in an Omnibus--Losses explained.
As Shakspeare, after having displayed Falstaff in his ordinary
character of rascal and rowdy in general, represented him as a "lover
sighing like furnace," so we, in the course of our researches among
juvenile delinquents, find that they are sometimes the victims of what
they consider the tender passion. And the ardor excited in their
breasts is not always innocent in its effects, but, as in the case of
"children of an older growth," sometimes leads to the commission of
heinous crime, as is exemplified in the instance we are about to
relate.
While the drama of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was running at that Museum of
Natural and _Un_natural History, commonly called Barnum's, four boys,
the eldest apparently about fourteen years of age, were observed night
after night occupying a stage-box in the theatre attached to that
establishment, and watching, with admiring eyes, the movements of the
young lady who represented "Little Eva." Boys are gregarious in their
loves and hates, and it appeared that in the present instance, the
three younger ones were not smitten with the aforesaid damsel, _per
se_, but simply as friends or satellites of their older companion,
accompanying him in that capacity, to encourage him, and witness his
hoped-for triumph over the heart of the young actress, and possibly
for the sake of sharing in the "treats" of various kinds which he
dispensed to favored ones with a lavish hand.
Not content with sighing at a distance for the object of his
affections, and on one occasion making a decided demonstration, by
throwing a gold bracelet upon the stage, intended to encircle her arm,
the enamored youth often watched for his charmer as she descended from
the world of imagination to that of real life,--from the theatrical
stage to that humble, but useful vehicle, an omnibus; and having
ascertained which one was irradiated by her presence, he madly rushed
after, and purchased, with the slight outlay of a sixpence, the
enrapturing consciousness of being included within the narrow walls
that held the mistress of his heart.
But "the course of true love never did run smooth." Sometimes
unfeeling parents obstruct; sometimes "no" is a decided obstacle; but
neither of these was the immediate cause of the rough "course" in the
present instance. It does not appear that our stricken youth had ever
approached near enough to his "bright particular star" to admit of any
confidential disclosure of the state of his feelings; much less had he
opened any negotiations with the "powers that be." The rocks on which
he split were, the manager of the Museum and a police officer!
When the reader is informed that the lad in question was not the son
of wealthy parents, and had, or ought to have had no other pecuniary
resources than those which he derived from his occupation in the
employ of a bookseller, he will readily conjecture whence came the
means for the indulgence of such extravagance and folly as have been
described. Such an unusual occurrence as the hiring of a stage box by
a boy, for several nights in succession (the expense of which was five
dollars a night), attracted the attention and the suspicions of the
manager of the Museum, who sent for the police, and on searching the
boys, an empty envelope, addressed to "S----& Co., Fulton Street," the
employers of our precocious young gentleman, was found upon his
person. It was then ascertained that S---- & Co. had recently lost
several money-letters, and the boy, being the person who took the
letters out of the post-office for the firm, had appropriated the
money to his own use. He was tried before the United States Court, and
sent to the House of Refuge, where, it is to be hoped, he was cured of
indulging his boyish whim at the expense of his employer's money and
his own character.