Impressions of America During the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Volume 1 (of 2)Power, Tyrone
History
Impressions of America During the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Volume 1 (of 2)
Power, Tyrone
Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
There were two attempts only, as far as I remember, to embody character,
as is more usual in masquerade; but these were both remarkable for their
excellence. The most striking in appearance was a young officer of the
United States' army, habited as an Osage warrior, painted and plumed
with startling truth. Surrounded by all that was presumed to be strange
and bewildering, never for a moment did the well-trained young warrior
forget what was due to himself or his tribe: he looked on with the most
imperturbable _sangfroid_, moved about with the ease and self-possession
of one to whom all he mingled with had been a matter of common usage;
heard jests, questions, or friendly explanations with the most unmoved
gravity, replying by an occasional "Ou, ou!" or a slow bend of his head:
his patience was indeed worthy the most tried of the race he
represented, for never did he lose it or forget himself for a moment. He
was a very fine young man, and the features of his face appeared to have
been moulded to his present purpose.
The other was a Yankee young man, as he described himself, "jist come
away south, to see about;" and who, "noticin' that all kinds o' queer
men was comin' in here without payin' nothin', thought he'd best jist
step in tu, and make one among the lot."
And of a certainty he did make the queerest specimen I ever met in this
or any other lot. The supporter of this character was young Mr. W----r.
The total change in his appearance was effected by a certain set of the
hat and a mode of placing it on the head quite characteristic, together
with an odd hanging on of the coat and vest, which gave them the look
of having belonged to some one else, and as likely to fit any one as the
present wearer.
I had seen the original of this picture in the north, I had also
witnessed it admirably represented by Messrs. Hill and Hacket, the rival
Yankees of the American stage; but neither of them, I think, were so
minutely perfect or so whimsical as this new actor. The abstraction was
complete; and the odd questions, guesses, complicated relations, full of
drollery and wholly applicable to the present scene and the actors
engaged in it, were replete with humour, exhibiting a compound of vulgar
assurance, simplicity, and native shrewdness, not surpassed by any
assumption I have ever witnessed.
Although quite intimate with this gentleman, I stood for a while
listening to him where he stood grinning amidst a group who were
quizzing and questioning him, and for a short time imagined it was some
veritable rustic they held immeshed. It was not until after I had
learned who it was, that I succeeded in recognising a person who had
been sitting with me that very morning.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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