Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian CollectionCatlin, George
History
Adventures of the Ojibbeway and Ioway Indians in England, France, and Belgium; Vol. 1 (of 2): being Notes of Eight Years' Travels and Residence in Europe with his North American Indian Collection
Catlin, George
England -- Description and travel; France -- Description and travel; Indians of North America
I succeeded quite well in wending my way down the Haymarket, the
Strand, and Fleet-street, slipping and sliding through the mud, until I
was in front or in the rear (I could not tell which) of the noble St.
Paul's, whose black and gloomy walls, at the apparent risk of breaking
my neck, I could follow up with my eye, until they were lost in the
murky cloud of fog that floated around them. I walked quite round it,
by which I became duly impressed with its magnitude below, necessarily
leaving my conjectures as to its elevation, for future observations
through a clearer atmosphere.
I then commenced to retrace my steps, when a slight tap upon my
shoulder brought me around to look upon a droll and quizzical-looking
fellow, who very obsequiously proceeded (as he pointed to the collar
of my cloak, the lining of which, it seems, had got a little exposed),
"The lining of your cloak, sir; hit don't look very well for a
gentleman, sir; hexcuse me, hif you please, sir." "Certainly," said
I; "I am much obliged to you," as I adjusted it and passed on. In my
jogging along for some distance after this rencontre, and while my
eyes were intent upon the mud, where I was selecting the places for
my footsteps, I observed a figure that was keeping me close company
by my side, and, on taking a fairer look at him, found the same droll
character still at my elbow, when I turned around and inquired of him,
"What now?" "Ho, sir, your cloak, you know, sir; hit didn't look well,
for a gentleman like you, sir. Your pardon, sir; ha sixpence, hif you
please, sir." I stopped and gave the poor fellow a sixpence for his
ingenuity, and jogged on.
The sagacity of this stratager in rags had detected the foreigner or
stranger in me at first sight, as I learned in a few moments, in
the following amusing way. I had proceeded but a few rods from the
place where I had given him his sixpence and parted company with him,
when, crossing an intersecting street, I was met by a pitiable object
hobbling on one leg, and the other twisted around his hip, in an
unnatural way, with a broom in one hand, and the other extended towards
me in the most beseeching manner, and his face drawn into a triangular
shape, as he was bitterly weeping. I saw the poor fellow's occupation
was that of sweeping the crossing under my feet, and a sixpence that
I slipped into his hand so relaxed the muscles of his face, by this
time, that I at once recognised in him the adjuster of the lining of my
cloak; but I had no remedy, and no other emotion, at the instant, than
that of amusement, with some admiration of his adroitness, and again
passed on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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