purchase another field hand as the Cain farm grew and prospered. After the tedious business of life had been conducted, Mr. Cain would permit, albeit reluctantly, his sons to taste some of the city's entertainment and culture. They'd be allowed to go to the theater or a museum or to the lecture hall to hear someone speak on the subject of efficient slave management. But Cain much preferred to visit Hoynby's, a bookseller on Grace Street near the Capitol. There he'd spend a pleasant hour or two walking up and down the aisles, touching the musty-smelling books, reading passages of Tom Jones or a young author named Dickens, debating whether to spend his meager savings on a copy of Chapman's Homer or the collected works of Coleridge. Once when Cain visited the city, he attended a production of Macbeth with Edwin Booth playing the title role; another time he had gone to the Exchange Hotel, to hear a Mr. Edgar Allan Poe lecture on "The Poetic Principle."
As the brothers got older and traveled to the city by themselves, in addition to the culture, Cain took in the more illicit attractions the city had to offer: the horse races and gambling houses, the faro banks and cockfighting pits, the taverns and houses of ill-repute down near the James River. His brother TJ, sober and hardworking, took after their father and was disinclined to engage in such activities. Cain loved his brother, but as they grew older he had less and less in common with him. TJ, though, remained loyal, never telling their father about his brother's escapades, sometimes even lying to cover for Cain's mistakes. When Cain was sixteen he became enamored of an Irish whore named Eileen McDuffy, a lovely girl with flaming red hair and sparkling green eyes. Beneath all the debauched behavior, Cain had an uncorrupted romantic spirit; the fact that Eileen McDuffy had made a living by selling her body to men only made him love her all the more intensely. He wanted to save her, to carry her away. He'd write her letters, grand, youthfully hyperbolic missives, in which he quoted Byron and Shelley, and to which, of course, she never responded. He ached for her so much that one night, he got on his horse and rode all the way to Richmond and demanded that she see him. When he was told that she was busy with another client, he left and tried to comfort his broken heart in the tavern. Drunk and wielding a pistol, he returned to the brothel and went among the rooms, searching for Eileen McDuffy, yelling out that he loved her. A couple of men who worked there finally grabbed the young Cain and tossed him out into the muddy street on his ear.
For a time his father cast a blind eye on such practices by his son, figuring it was merely a necessary part of growing up, of his worldly education, something all young men needed to get out of their system before they settled down to the serious matter of family and farm and responsibilities. But as this sort of behavior continued, the senior Cain worried that Augustus was habitually inclined to a life of debauchery and dissipation. When he came across a draft of a love letter to this Eileen McDuffy, he realized the time had come to lay down the law. He forbade Cain to see her again and wouldn't let his son go to Richmond anymore; he tried to stanch the flow of money into his hands, feeling that without funds he couldn't enjoy such amusements as gambling and faro banks and whoring; and he tried to occupy every minute of his waking day with work. By working him to the bone he felt he'd be too dog-tired for the other business.
At the same time, he also tried to give him more responsibilities on the farm and to get him used to seeing that this was his rightful vocation and his legitimate future. In short, his fate. He would seek his counsel before purchasing a new stud bull or ask whether they should clear and put under plow ten more acres of woodland down near the river.
He also began to press for the match, which had until then been implicit,
As the brothers got older and traveled to the city by themselves, in addition to the culture, Cain took in the more illicit attractions the city had to offer: the horse races and gambling houses, the faro banks and cockfighting pits, the taverns and houses of ill-repute down near the James River. His brother TJ, sober and hardworking, took after their father and was disinclined to engage in such activities. Cain loved his brother, but as they grew older he had less and less in common with him. TJ, though, remained loyal, never telling their father about his brother's escapades, sometimes even lying to cover for Cain's mistakes. When Cain was sixteen he became enamored of an Irish whore named Eileen McDuffy, a lovely girl with flaming red hair and sparkling green eyes. Beneath all the debauched behavior, Cain had an uncorrupted romantic spirit; the fact that Eileen McDuffy had made a living by selling her body to men only made him love her all the more intensely. He wanted to save her, to carry her away. He'd write her letters, grand, youthfully hyperbolic missives, in which he quoted Byron and Shelley, and to which, of course, she never responded. He ached for her so much that one night, he got on his horse and rode all the way to Richmond and demanded that she see him. When he was told that she was busy with another client, he left and tried to comfort his broken heart in the tavern. Drunk and wielding a pistol, he returned to the brothel and went among the rooms, searching for Eileen McDuffy, yelling out that he loved her. A couple of men who worked there finally grabbed the young Cain and tossed him out into the muddy street on his ear.
For a time his father cast a blind eye on such practices by his son, figuring it was merely a necessary part of growing up, of his worldly education, something all young men needed to get out of their system before they settled down to the serious matter of family and farm and responsibilities. But as this sort of behavior continued, the senior Cain worried that Augustus was habitually inclined to a life of debauchery and dissipation. When he came across a draft of a love letter to this Eileen McDuffy, he realized the time had come to lay down the law. He forbade Cain to see her again and wouldn't let his son go to Richmond anymore; he tried to stanch the flow of money into his hands, feeling that without funds he couldn't enjoy such amusements as gambling and faro banks and whoring; and he tried to occupy every minute of his waking day with work. By working him to the bone he felt he'd be too dog-tired for the other business.
At the same time, he also tried to give him more responsibilities on the farm and to get him used to seeing that this was his rightful vocation and his legitimate future. In short, his fate. He would seek his counsel before purchasing a new stud bull or ask whether they should clear and put under plow ten more acres of woodland down near the river.
He also began to press for the match, which had until then been implicit,
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