Henry More Smith: The Mysterious Stranger — John Shaqi
Henry More Smith: The Mysterious StrangerBates, Walter
History
Henry More Smith: The Mysterious Stranger
Bates, Walter
Criminals -- Canada -- Biography; Smith, Henry More, active 1812-1836
The exhibition is far beyond my power to describe.
To give you some faint idea, permit me to say, that it consists of ten
characters—men, women and children—all made and painted in the most
expressive manner, with all the limbs and joints of the human
frame—each performing different parts; their features, shape and form,
all express their different offices and character, their dress is of
different fashions, and suitable to the stations in which they are. To
view them in their stations, they appear as perfect as though alive,
with all the air and gaiety of actors on the stage. Smith sits in his
bed by the side of the gaol, his exhibition begins about a foot from
the floor, and compasses the whole space to the ceiling. The uppermost
is a man whom he calls his tamborine player, or sometimes Dr. Blunt,
standing with all the pride and appearance of a master musician; his
left hand akimbo, his right hand on his tamborine, dressed in suitable
uniform. Next him, below, is a lady genteely dressed, gracefully
sitting in a handsome swing; at her left stands a man, neatly dressed,
in the character of a servant, holding the side of the swing with his
right, his left hand on his hip, in an easy posture, waiting the
lady’s motion. On her right hand stands a man genteely dressed, in the
character of a gallant, in a graceful posture for dancing. Beneath
these three figures, sits a young man and a young woman (apparently
about fourteen,) in a posture of tilting, at each end of a board,
decently dressed. Directly under these stands one whom he calls
Bonaparte, or sometimes the father of his family; he stands erect, his
features are prominent, his cheeks red, his teeth are white and set in
order, his gums and lips red, his nose shaded black, representing the
nostrils; his dress is that of the harlequin. In one hand he holds an
infant, with the other he plays or beats music; before him stand two
children, apparently three or four years old, holding each other by
the hand, in the act of playing or dancing, which, with a man dressed
in fashion, who appears in the character of a steward, sometimes in
one situation, and sometimes in another, makes up the show, all of
which you have in one view. Then commences the performance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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