United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
Solomon Binkus in his talk with Colonel Hare had signalized the arrival
of a new type of man born of new conditions. When Lord Howe and
General Abercrombie got to Albany with regiments of fine, high-bred,
young fellows from London, Manchester and Liverpool, out for a holiday
and magnificent in their uniforms of scarlet and gold, each with his
beautiful and abundant hair done up in a queue, Mr. Binkus laughed and
said they looked "terrible pert." He told the virile and profane
Captain Lee of Howe's staff, that the first thing to do was to "make a
haystack o' their hair an' give 'em men's clothes."
"A cart-load o' hair was mowed off," to quote again from Solomon, and
all their splendor shorn away for a reason apparent to them before they
had gone far on their ill-fated expedition. Hair-dressing and fine
millinery and drawing-room clothes were not for the bush.
An inherited sense of old wrongs was the mental background of this new
type of man. Life in the bush had strengthened his arm, his will and
his courage. His words fell as forcefully as his ax under provocation.
He was deliberate as became one whose scalp was often in danger;
trained to think of the common welfare of his neighborhood and rather
careless about the look of his coat and trousers.
John Irons and Solomon Binkus were differing examples of the new man.
Of large stature, Irons had a reputation of being the strongest man in
the New Hampshire grants. No name was better known or respected in all
the western valleys. His father, a man of some means, had left him a
reasonable competence.
Certain old records of Cumberland County speak of his unusual gifts,
the best of which was, perhaps, modesty. He had once entertained Sir
William Johnson at his house and had moved west, when the French and
Indian War began, on the invitation of the governor, bringing his
horses with him. For years he had been breeding and training saddle
horses for the markets in New England. On moving he had turned his
stock into Sir William's pasture and built a log house at the fort and
served as an aid and counselor of the great man. Meanwhile his wife
and children had lived in Albany. When the back country was thought
safe to live in, at the urgent solicitation of Sir Jeffrey Amherst, he
had gone to the northern valley with his herd, and prospered there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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