Impressions of America During the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Volume 2 (of 2)Power, Tyrone
History
Impressions of America During the Years 1833, 1834 and 1835. Volume 2 (of 2)
Power, Tyrone
Canada -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
It appears that, whilst busied about the last offices offered by the
living to the dead, signs of life had been discovered by his attendants,
and the expiring flame gently reinvigorated by judicious friction and
brandy and water, the old man's ancient bane, and now his antidote. I
hastened to see this dead-alive, and found him perfectly conscious of
his restoration to "this breathing world;" but I imagine the respite can
only be for a very limited period. Captain Collins had the jolly-boat
fitted up for him on the main-deck, and, when placed in it on a clean
comfortable bed, his pulse was barely perceptible; his eye was glazed
and dim, and his frame emaciated to a degree that was painful to
contemplate. The daughter is a fair-haired devil of two-and-twenty, tall
and hearty, but exhibits a callous want of feeling and a disregard of
opinion, seldom met with in the most ruffianly of our sex, and truly
shocking in a woman.
The father, I learn, is from the state of New Jersey, where he possesses
a good farm, and flocks and herds, to which this Goneril will succeed on
his demise; hence it is that she looks upon his nurses with no love or
gratitude. The poor old man, in hopes of augmenting her store, had
quitted his pleasant possessions in Jersey, to seek wealth amongst the
swamps of the Mississippi. How long, I wonder, will the fluttering soul,
evidently plumed and eager for its flight, be held within the frail,
worn-out prison-house? Its flight!--but whither and to what? "Ay,
there's the rub!" the riddle, which this poor wretch will probably solve
before the wisest living philosopher could build a single conjecture
towards it.
Last night it appears the calf got loose in the stall, and joyfully
helped itself to the food supplied by nature to the mother for its
sustenance; in consequence, we, for this morning, are minus milk for
breakfast. With a decision prompt and unanimous, this act was voted a
robbery, the calf a felon, and the award death without delay. No counsel
was called for the hungry youngster, nor a voice heard in Nature's
behalf; the absence of the customary supply of milk was considered
evidence conclusive and damnatory; the hearts of judge and jurors were
superseded by their appetites, and doubtless the criminal calf must die
the death.
All day our fine wind follows us; the sun is hot; we have an awning
spread over the whole of the noble poop-deck, and within its shade we
lounge or lie about in the most perfect luxury of idleness, whilst the
Shakspeare majestically moves forward on her course, with just motion
enough to be pleasant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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