The Thrust in Tierce [pp. 66-70]

THE THRUS T IN TIER CE.
account of California. Capital, it is well
known, is cautious and conservative everywhere except here; and it is peculiarly so here, except in speculation. It is
true, manufactures can not be expected
to spring up in a day, even in this, the
finest field in the world for them; but
they should not be allowed to languish
in their infancy, with their substantial security, for want of adequate and necessary means at moderate, living rates,
while the wildest of "wild-cat" collaterals command ready discount though, of
course, at speculative rates. No matter
what the hazard, so long as there is a speculative margin in the heavy discount.
Eastern capitalists may not have the
same or so good reason for withholding their fostering care from internal
improvements, public enterprises, and
home manufactures. Their plethoric,
unemployed means, and the lower ruling
rates of interest, often force them into
worthy enterprises for which they deserve little credit on the score of humanitarian impulse or public spirit. But
one can always find there noble exceptions, of men who, having amassed a fortune greater than they can reasonably
enjoy, use it to employ, at remunerative
rates, the labor of their less fortunate but
equally worthy fellow-men, and who feel
that there is a mission above mere money-making, or bold, unscrupulous and
oppressive money-using.
We hope-nay, confidently believe, for
signs are already visible-that the immediate future will develop among us at
least a sufficient number of worthy examples to form a nucleus, around which
may centre a redeeming spirit of enterprise and brotherly aid, which is undoubtedly abundant, but extremely latent and dormant in the will and energies of those who have the power to
set the world in motion.
THE THRUST IN TIERCE.
" OUCHE."
" No."
"I appeal. Judgment, judgmlent."
"A clear hit, gentlemen. Monsieur
Paul, you improve. Monsieur Gabriel,
you are weak in carte. Let me show
you;" and Jean Petit, our fencing-master, took the foil from Gabriel's hand,
and threw himself into the correct attitude.
"So," said the master, glancing critically along his blade, from the hilt to
the button, "you err, Monsieur, in that
bend of the elbow. Now, see, my arm
covers the body, and half an inch throws
my adversary's blade out of line."
"Another bout," cried Gabriel, "and
a bottle of champagne on the result."
They cross blades, and advance and
retreat, and lunge and parry, while Jean
Petit looks on with interest.
" Tozich."
"Yes, Gabriel, a clear hit," said I.
"Granted; at it again. En garde."
We were all three of us attending a
course of lectures on Materia Medica at
College, in the south of London;
and Jean Petit, the "amiable exile," as
we dubbed him, instructed us in the
mysteries of "carto" and "tierce," at
three shillings a week per man. Cheap
enough, heaven knows; for the poor fellow labored as conscientiously in his vocation as if we were being drilled for
field marshals of France, and the honor
of the glory-loving nation depended on
our proficiency.
Paul and Gabriel were about my own
[JAN.
66