American essays -- 19th century; Short stories, American
There are Drs. Chapin and Bethune, whose well-to-do appearance in this
world quite neutralizes their Sunday exhortations to “set one’s
affections on a better.” There’s Greeley--but why describe the town
pump? he has been handle-d enough to keep _him_ from Rust-ing. There’s
that Epicurean Rip-lie, critic of the “New York Tribune;” if I have
spelt his name wrong, it was because I was thinking of the unmitigated
fibs he has told in his book reviews! There’s Colonel Fuller, editor of
the “New York Evening Mirror,” handsome, witty, and saucy. There’s Mr.
Young, editor of “The Albion,” who looks too much like a gentlemen to
have abused, in so wholesale a manner, the lady writers of America.
There’s Blank-Blank, Esq., editor of the “New York Blank,” who always
reminds me of what the Scotch parson said to his wife, whom he noticed
asleep in church: “Jennie! Jennie! you have no beauty, as all the
congregation may see, and if you have no grace, I have made but a poor
bargain of it!” There’s Richard Storrs Willis, or, Storrs Richard
Willis, or, Willis Richard Storrs (it is a way that family have to keep
changing their names), editor of the “Musical World,” not a bad paper
either. Richard has a fine profile, a trim, tight figure, always
unexceptionably arrayed, and has a gravity of mien most edifying to one
who has eat bread and molasses out of the same plate with him.
Behind that beard coming down street in that night-gown overcoat, is
Mr. Charles A. Dana, of the “New York Tribune,” who is ready to say,
“Now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace,” when he shall have made
the “New York Tribune” like unto the “London Times;” Charles should
remember that the motto of the “London Times” is “Fair Play”--not the
_appearance_ of fair play. And here is Philander Doesticks, of the “New
York Picayune,” and “New York Tribune,” a delightful specimen of healthy
manhood, in a day whose boys at sixteen look as though they had
exhausted life; may his wit continue as keen as his eyes, his heart as
fresh as his complexion, and his fancy as luxuriant as his beard.
There’s Bayard Taylor, “the Oriental Bayard.” Now I don’t suppose Bayard
is to blame for being a _pretty_ man, or for looking so nice and
bandbox-y. But if some public benefactor _would_ tumble his hair and
shirt collar, and tie his cravat in a loose sailor knot, and if Bayard
himself _would_ open that little three-cent piece mouth of his a
l-i-t-t-l-e wider when he lectures, it would take a load off my mind! I
write this, in full view of his interest in the Almighty “Tribune,” and
also set up before him certain “Leaves” for a target, by way of
reprisal.
And there is George P. Morris--General George Morris--and Briga-_dear_
General at that, with an eye like a star; and more vitality in him than
there is in half the young men who might call him father. May Time, who
has dealt so gently with “The Woodman,” long delay to cut him down.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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