MRS. MIDDLETON FLAM.--Lady of our member, and mother of a large family.
MISS JANET FLAM.--Sister of Mr. Middleton.
MADEMOISELLE JONQUILLE.--French Governess to the Misses Flam.
POLLY FERRET.--Commander-in-chief of all the forces of The Hero.
SUSAN BARNDOLLAR.--Her daughter, wife of Barndollar & Hardbottle, and remarkable for having her own opinion.
MRS. YOUNGHUSBAND.--The Postmaster's lady.
MRS. SNUFFERS.--Lady of the Superintendent of the Hay Scales, a woman of great consideration in the Borough.
HESTER HARDBOTTLE.--Maiden sister to Anthony Hardbottle.
MRS. HANDY.--Lady of the Cashier, and leader of the fashion in Quodlibet.
HENRIETTA HANDY.--Her daughter--supposed to have been favorably impressed by Mr. Agamemnon Flag.
SERVANTS, ETC.--Sam, the waiter; William, the footman; Nace, the coachman; and Sarah, the maid, in Mr. Handy's service. Black Isaac, Kent bugle player; Yellow Josh, clarionet--Cicero, Neal Hopper's factotum. Billy Spike, Abel Brawn's fly-flapper, etc. etc.
ANTIQUITIES OF QUODLIBET--MICHAEL GRANT'S TANYARD DESTROYED BY THE CANAL--CONSEQUENCES OF THIS EVENT--TWO DISTINGUISHED INDIVIDUALS TAKE UP THEIR RESIDENCE IN THE BOROUGH--ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PATRIOTIC COPPERPLATE BANK--CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH LED TO AND FOLLOWED THAT MEASURE--MICHAEL GRANT'S OBJECTIONS TO IT.
It was at the close of the year 1833, or rather, I should say, at the opening of the following spring, that our Borough of Quodlibet took that sudden leap to greatness which has, of late, caused it to be so much talked about. Our folks are accustomed to set this down to the Removal of the Deposits. Indeed, until that famous event, Quodlibet was, as one might say in common parlance, a place not worth talking about--it might hardly be remarked upon the maps. But since that date, verily, like Jeshurun, it has waxed fat. It has thus come to pass that "The Removal" is a great epoch in our annals--our Hegira--the A. U. C. of all Quodlibetarians.
Michael Grant, a long time ago--that is to say, full twenty years--had a tanyard on Rumblebottom Creek, occupying the very ground which is now covered by the canal basin. Even as far back as that day he had laid up, out of the earnings of his trade, a snug sum of money, which sufficed to purchase the farm where he now lives at the foot of the Hogback. Quodlibet, or that which now is Quodlibet, was then as nothing. Michael's dwelling house and tanyard, Abel Brawn's blacksmith-shop, Christy M'Curdy's mill, and my school-house, made up the sum-total of the settlement. It is now ten years, or hard on to it, since the commissioners came this way and put the cap-sheaf on Michael's worldly fortune by ruining his tanyard and breaking up his business, whereof the damage was so taken to heart by the jury that, in their rage against internal improvements, they brought in a verdict which doubled Mr. Grant's estate in ready money, besides leaving him two acres of town lots bordering on the basin, and which, they say, are worth more to-day than the whole tanyard with its appurtenances ever was worth in its best time. This verdict wrought a strange appetite in our county, among the landholders, to be ruined in the same way; and I truly believe it was a chief cause of the unpopularity of internal improvements in this neighborhood, that the commissioners were only able to destroy the farms on the lowlands--which fact, it was said, brought down the price of the uplands on the whole line of the canal, besides creating a great deal of ill humor among all who were out of the way of being damaged.