The American Claimant

grandeurs of the Middle Ages. This is one of the seats of the Earl of Rossmore, K. G. G. C. B. K. C. M. G., etc., etc., etc., etc., etc., who possesses twenty-two thousand a

y self; the mother of it was not inventoried in history by name, she being mere

fellow, who looks about twenty-six but is nearer thirty. Candor, kindliness, honesty, sincerity, simplicity, modesty-it is easy to see that these are cardinal traits of his character; and so when you have clothed him in the formidable components of his name, you somehow seem to be contemplating a lamb in armor: his name and style being the Honourable Kirkcudbright Llanover Marjoribanks Sellers Viscount-Berkeley, of C

a thing which your ideas of honor and justice require you to do, argument and reason are (for the time

wilful thing, with nothing substantial behind it to justify it. I did not create the American claimant to the earldom of Rossmore; I

rs with his tiresome letters, his wordy re

l earl-in which case our course would be plain-or it would prove that he wasn't-in which case our course would be equally plain. I have read his evidences, my lo

s pauper, a tramp! Conside

ou-that fact being established-consent to keep his titl

in the wilds of Virginia, got married, and began to breed savages for the Claimant market; wrote no letters home; was supposed to be dead; his younger brother softly took possession; presently the American did die, and straightway his eldest product put in his claim-by letter-letter still in existence-and died before the uncle in-possession found time-or maybe inclination-to-answer. The infant son of that eldest product grew up-long interval, you see-and he took to writing letters and furnishing evidences. Well, successor after

the crest carved in the great oaken mantel

has been 'Suum cuique'-to every man his own. By your own intrepidly

y footfalls time themselves to the brain-racking rhythm of Simon Lathers!-Simon Lathers! -Simon Lathers! And now, to ma

rs, in America, and c

eversion of the earl

s my pu

der without even trying the

sitation and so

have you been training with that ass again-that radical, if you prefe

reply, and the o

aristocratic institutions a fraud, all inequalities in rank a legalized crime and an infamy, and no bread honest bread that a man doesn't earn by his own work-work,

cheek told that the shot had hit an

false position, and begin my life over again-begin it right-begin it on the level of mere manhood, unassisted by factitious aids, and succeed or fail by pure merit or the want of it. I will g

rs will come here to enter into his own, and I will drown him in the horsepond. The poor devil-always so humble in his letters, so pitiful, so deferential; so steeped in reverence for our great line and lofty-station; so anxious to placate us, so prayerful for recognition as a relative, a bearer

is trunk, and a glinting white frost-work of ground-glass paste as to his head, who sto

tters,

em, and the ser

envelope-with a most ostentatiously broad mourning border-for his cat, perhaps, since he was a bachelor-and fastened with red wax-a batch of it as big as a half-crown-and-and-our crest for a seal!-motto and all. And the ig

my lord,

I will. For the

IXTEENTH

GTON,

L

h being crushed by a log at a smoke-house-raising, owing to carelessness on the part of all present, referable to over-confidence and gaiety induced by overplus of sour-mash-("Extolled be sour-mash, whatever that may be, eh Berkeley?") five days ago, with no scion of our ancient race present to close his eyes and inter him with the honors due his historic name and lofty rank-in fact, he is

nors, lands, and goods of our lamented relative, and must of necessity, painful as the duty is, shortly require at

guished consideration and w

tular l

edient

ellers Ear

. Why, Berkeley, his breezy impudence i

doesn't seem t

to send me the remains. The late Claimant was a fool, but plainly this new one's a maniac. What a name! Mulberry Sellers-there's music for you, Si

your leav

g some time, after his son wa

t. My arguments and his aunt's persuasions have failed; let us see what America can do for us. Let us see what equality and ha