Chapter 6

by Herman Melville

　　AT THE OUTSET OF WHICH CERTAIN PASSENGERS PROVE DEAF TO THE CALL OFCHARITY."You--pish! Why will the captain suffer these begging fellows onboard?";These pettish words were breathed by a well-to-do gentleman in aruby-colored velvet vest, and with a ruby-colored cheek, a ruby-headedcane in his hand, to a man in a gray coat and white tie, who, shortlyafter the interview last described, had accosted him for contributionsto a Widow and Orphan Asylum recently founded among the Seminoles. Upona cursory view, this last person might have seemed, like the man withthe weed, one of the less unrefined children of misfortune; but, on acloser observation, his countenance revealed little of sorrow, thoughmuch of sanctity.With added words of touchy disgust, the well-to-do gentleman hurriedaway. But, though repulsed, and rudely, the man in gray did notreproach, for a time patiently remaining in the chilly loneliness towhich he had been left, his countenance, however, not without token oflatent though chastened reliance.At length an old gentleman, somewhat bulky, drew nigh, and from him alsoa contribution was sought."Look, you," coming to a dead halt, and scowling upon him. "Look, you,"swelling his bulk out before him like a swaying balloon, "look, you, youon others' behalf ask for money; you, a fellow with a face as long as myarm. Hark ye, now: there is such a thing as gravity, and in condemnedfelons it may be genuine; but of long faces there are three sorts; thatof grief's drudge, that of the lantern-jawed man, and that of theimpostor. You know best which yours is.""Heaven give you more charity, sir.""And you less hypocrisy, sir."With which words, the hard-hearted old gentleman marched off.While the other still stood forlorn, the young clergyman, beforeintroduced, passing that way, catching a chance sight of him, seemedsuddenly struck by some recollection; and, after a moment's pause,hurried up with: "Your pardon, but shortly since I was all over lookingfor you.""For me?" as marveling that one of so little account should be soughtfor."Yes, for you; do you know anything about the negro, apparently acripple, aboard here? Is he, or is he not, what he seems to be?""Ah, poor Guinea! have you, too, been distrusted? you, upon whom naturehas placarded the evidence of your claims?""Then you do really know him, and he is quite worthy? It relieves me tohear it--much relieves me. Come, let us go find him, and see what can bedone.""Another instance that confidence may come too late. I am sorry to saythat at the last landing I myself--just happening to catch sight of himon the gangway-plank--assisted the cripple ashore. No time to talk, onlyto help. He may not have told you, but he has a brother in thatvicinity."Really, I regret his going without my seeing him again; regret it,more, perhaps, than you can readily think. You see, shortly afterleaving St. Louis, he was on the forecastle, and there, with manyothers, I saw him, and put trust in him; so much so, that, to convincethose who did not, I, at his entreaty, went in search of you, you beingone of several individuals he mentioned, and whose personal appearancehe more or less described, individuals who he said would willingly speakfor him. But, after diligent search, not finding you, and catching noglimpse of any of the others he had enumerated, doubts were at lastsuggested; but doubts indirectly originating, as I can but think, fromprior distrust unfeelingly proclaimed by another. Still, certain it is,I began to suspect.""Ha, ha, ha!"A sort of laugh more like a groan than a laugh; and yet, somehow, itseemed intended for a laugh.Both turned, and the young clergyman started at seeing the wooden-leggedman close behind him, morosely grave as a criminal judge with amustard-plaster on his back. In the present case the mustard-plastermight have been the memory of certain recent biting rebuffs andmortifications."Wouldn't think it was I who laughed would you?""But who was it you laughed at? or rather, tried to laugh at?" demandedthe young clergyman, flushing, "me?""Neither you nor any one within a thousand miles of you. But perhaps youdon't believe it.""If he were of a suspicious temper, he might not," interposed the man ingray calmly, "it is one of the imbecilities of the suspicious person tofancy that every stranger, however absent-minded, he sees so much assmiling or gesturing to himself in any odd sort of way, is secretlymaking him his butt. In some moods, the movements of an entire street,as the suspicious man walks down it, will seem an express pantomimicjeer at him. In short, the suspicious man kicks himself with his ownfoot.""Whoever can do that, ten to one he saves other folks' sole-leather,"said the wooden-legged man with a crusty attempt at humor. But withaugmented grin and squirm, turning directly upon the young clergyman,"you still think it was you I was laughing at, just now. To prove yourmistake, I will tell you what I was laughing at; a story I happened tocall to mind just then."Whereupon, in his porcupine way, and with sarcastic details, unpleasantto repeat, he related a story, which might, perhaps, in a good-naturedversion, be rendered as follows:A certain Frenchman of New Orleans, an old man, less slender in pursethan limb, happening to attend the theatre one evening, was so charmedwith the character of a faithful wife, as there represented to the life,that nothing would do but he must marry upon it. So, marry he did, abeautiful girl from Tennessee, who had first attracted his attention byher liberal mould, and was subsequently recommended to him through herkin, for her equally liberal education and disposition. Though large,the praise proved not too much. For, ere long, rumor more thancorroborated it, by whispering that the lady was liberal to a fault. Butthough various circumstances, which by most Benedicts would have beendeemed all but conclusive, were duly recited to the old Frenchman by hisfriends, yet such was his confidence that not a syllable would hecredit, till, chancing one night to return unexpectedly from a journey,upon entering his apartment, a stranger burst from the alcove: "Begar!"cried he, "now I begin to suspec."His story told, the wooden-legged man threw back his head, and gave ventto a long, gasping, rasping sort of taunting cry, intolerable as that ofa high-pressure engine jeering off steam; and that done, with apparentsatisfaction hobbled away."Who is that scoffer," said the man in gray, not without warmth. "Who ishe, who even were truth on his tongue, his way of speaking it would maketruth almost offensive as falsehood. Who is he?""He who I mentioned to you as having boasted his suspicion of thenegro," replied the young clergyman, recovering from disturbance, "inshort, the person to whom I ascribe the origin of my own distrust; hemaintained that Guinea was some white scoundrel, betwisted and paintedup for a decoy. Yes, these were his very words, I think.""Impossible! he could not be so wrong-headed. Pray, will you call himback, and let me ask him if he were really in earnest?"The other complied; and, at length, after no few surly objections,prevailed upon the one-legged individual to return for a moment. Uponwhich, the man in gray thus addressed him: "This reverend gentlemantells me, sir, that a certain cripple, a poor negro, is by youconsidered an ingenious impostor. Now, I am not unaware that there aresome persons in this world, who, unable to give better proof of beingwise, take a strange delight in showing what they think they havesagaciously read in mankind by uncharitable suspicions of them. I hopeyou are not one of these. In short, would you tell me now, whether youwere not merely joking in the notion you threw out about the negro.Would you be so kind?""No, I won't be so kind, I'll be so cruel.""As you please about that.""Well, he's just what I said he was.""A white masquerading as a black?""Exactly."The man in gray glanced at the young clergyman a moment, then quietlywhispered to him, "I thought you represented your friend here as a verydistrustful sort of person, but he appears endued with a singularcredulity.--Tell me, sir, do you really think that a white could lookthe negro so? For one, I should call it pretty good acting.""Not much better than any other man acts.""How? Does all the world act? Am I, for instance, an actor? Is myreverend friend here, too, a performer?""Yes, don't you both perform acts? To do, is to act; so all doers areactors.""You trifle.--I ask again, if a white, how could he look the negro so?""Never saw the negro-minstrels, I suppose?""Yes, but they are apt to overdo the ebony; exemplifying the old saying,not more just than charitable, that 'the devil is never so black as heis painted.' But his limbs, if not a cripple, how could he twist hislimbs so?""How do other hypocritical beggars twist theirs? Easy enough to see howthey are hoisted up.""The sham is evident, then?""To the discerning eye," with a horrible screw of his gimlet one."Well, where is Guinea?" said the man in gray; "where is he? Let us atonce find him, and refute beyond cavil this injurious hypothesis.""Do so," cried the one-eyed man, "I'm just in the humor now for havinghim found, and leaving the streaks of these fingers on his paint, as thelion leaves the streaks of his nails on a Caffre. They wouldn't let metouch him before. Yes, find him, I'll make wool fly, and him after.""You forget," here said the young clergyman to the man in gray, "thatyourself helped poor Guinea ashore.""So I did, so I did; how unfortunate. But look now," to the other, "Ithink that without personal proof I can convince you of your mistake.For I put it to you, is it reasonable to suppose that a man with brains,sufficient to act such a part as you say, would take all that trouble,and run all that hazard, for the mere sake of those few paltry coppers,which, I hear, was all he got for his pains, if pains they were?""That puts the case irrefutably," said the young clergyman, with achallenging glance towards the one-legged man."You two green-horns! Money, you think, is the sole motive to pains andhazard, deception and deviltry, in this world. How much money did thedevil make by gulling Eve?"Whereupon he hobbled off again with a repetition of his intolerablejeer.The man in gray stood silently eying his retreat a while, and then,turning to his companion, said: "A bad man, a dangerous man; a man to beput down in any Christian community.--And this was he who was the meansof begetting your distrust? Ah, we should shut our ears to distrust, andkeep them open only for its opposite.""You advance a principle, which, if I had acted upon it this morning, Ishould have spared myself what I now feel.--That but one man, and hewith one leg, should have such ill power given him; his one sour wordleavening into congenial sourness (as, to my knowledge, it did) thedispositions, before sweet enough, of a numerous company. But, as Ihinted, with me at the time his ill words went for nothing; the same asnow; only afterwards they had effect; and I confess, this puzzles me.""It should not. With humane minds, the spirit of distrust workssomething as certain potions do; it is a spirit which may enter suchminds, and yet, for a time, longer or shorter, lie in them quiescent;but only the more deplorable its ultimate activity.""An uncomfortable solution; for, since that baneful man did but just nowanew drop on me his bane, how shall I be sure that my present exemptionfrom its effects will be lasting?""You cannot be sure, but you can strive against it.""How?""By strangling the least symptom of distrust, of any sort, whichhereafter, upon whatever provocation, may arise in you.""I will do so." Then added as in soliloquy, "Indeed, indeed, I was toblame in standing passive under such influences as that one-leggedman's. My conscience upbraids me.--The poor negro: You see himoccasionally, perhaps?""No, not often; though in a few days, as it happens, my engagements willcall me to the neighborhood of his present retreat; and, no doubt,honest Guinea, who is a grateful soul, will come to see me there.""Then you have been his benefactor?""His benefactor? I did not say that. I have known him.""Take this mite. Hand it to Guinea when you see him; say it comes fromone who has full belief in his honesty, and is sincerely sorry forhaving indulged, however transiently, in a contrary thought.""I accept the trust. And, by-the-way, since you are of this trulycharitable nature, you will not turn away an appeal in behalf of theSeminole Widow and Orphan Asylum?""I have not heard of that charity.""But recently founded."After a pause, the clergyman was irresolutely putting his hand in hispocket, when, caught by something in his companion's expression, he eyedhim inquisitively, almost uneasily."Ah, well," smiled the other wanly, "if that subtle bane, we werespeaking of but just now, is so soon beginning to work, in vain myappeal to you. Good-by.""Nay," not untouched, "you do me injustice; instead of indulging presentsuspicions, I had rather make amends for previous ones. Here issomething for your asylum. Not much; but every drop helps. Of course youhave papers?""Of course," producing a memorandum book and pencil. "Let me take downname and amount. We publish these names. And now let me give you alittle history of our asylum, and the providential way in which it wasstarted."