The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
author would say, we "must not dwell," and most gladly do we leave this
unpleasant branch of a very pleasant subject, inwardly supplicating,
that, whatever disaster is yet to befall us, we may be spared the pang
of suspecting that our revered President, so stanch against the Rebels,
so unflinching for the Slave, is in danger of lowering his lofty crest
before the rampant British lion! In view of such a calamity, one can
only say in the words of that distinguished British citizen who, living
in England in the full light of the nineteenth century, must be supposed
to have reached the summit of grammatical excellence,--
"Gin I mun doy I mun doy, an' loife they says is sweet,
But gin I mun doy I mun doy, for I couldn' abear to see it."
The life of the Ferry Boy was scarcely less adventurous than that of the
Pioneer Boy, and was, indeed, in some respects its counterpart. As the
latter learned to write on the tops of stools, so the former learned to
read on bits of birch-bark. At an early period of his existence he broke
a capful of eggs. He owned a calf. He caught an eel. He put salt on a
bird's tail and learned his first lesson of the deceitfulness of the
human heart. He walked to Niagara Falls from Buffalo. He got lost in the
woods. He went to live with his uncle in Ohio, where he displayed spirit
and killed a pig. Here also occurred a "prophecy" almost as striking as
the Pioneer Boy's writing his name with a stick. "Salmon" wished to go
swimming. "The Bishop said, 'No!' adding, 'Why, Salmon, the country
might lose its future President, if you should get drowned!' This was
the first time his name had ever been mentioned in connection with that
high office; and the remark, coming from the grave Bishop's lips, must
have made a strong impression on him. Was it prophetic?" Let us assume
that it was, although it must for the present be ranked with what is
theologically called "unfulfilled prophecy." We cannot, at any rate, be
too thankful that the only occasion on which it was ever hinted to an
American boy that he might one day become President has not been
suffered to pass into oblivion, but has found in this little volume a
monument more durable than brass. To go on with our inventory. A whole
flock of thirteen pigeons shot by the Ferry Boy answered through their
misty shroud to the Pioneer Boy's turkey which called to them aloud. He
taught school two weeks, and then had leave to resign. He went to
Washington and said his prayers like a good boy: we trust he has kept up
the practice ever since.
From such a record there is but one inference: if the man is not
President, he ought to be!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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