The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Does our reader know Loring's in Boston? It is a place of literary
meeting, where one sees those who Athenianize it--poets, philosophers,
ministers, but, above all, the pretty girls who read, and the _jeunesse
dorée_ who don't--but go there to look at the damsels who do. Why don't
New York start a library as alluring as LORING'S?
'How do you get books from LORING'S?' asked a stranger lately of one of
the damsels in question.
'By Hiring,' was the reply.
It _was_ a 'goak,' although the querist didn't see it.
ILLINOIS, _Aug. ----_
THE CONTINENTAL hath many correspondents--among the 'welcomest' of whom
we class the one who speaks as followeth from the far West. We have many
a good friend and hearty _bon compagnon_ in that same West:
DEAR CONTINENTAL: 'When you have found a day to be idle, be idle for a
day'--a charming saying for the indolent, which WILLIS prefixes to one
of his earlier poems, crediting it to a volume of Chinese proverbs; yet,
despite this, I am by no means sure as to its origin, for I suspect it
is a trick of the trade for authors to charge all absurdities they are
ashamed to own, and all fantastic vagaries they are too grave to
acknowledge, to the Celestials, who, we are told, go to battle a fan in
one hand and an umbrella in the other (a very sensible way too, with an
occasional mint julip this warm weather); but, however all that may be,
I adopt the saying; and, lazily resting my head, propose, pen in hand,
to scratch down for you a chapter of anecdotes. I would rather sit near
you, O MEISTER KARL, this sunny day of the waning June, in some forest
nook; and when you had grown weary of talking (not I of listening) and
had lit your old time meerschaum, I would tell you the stories, and you
might repeat such as amused you to your readers. The first was suggested
to me by your Jacksonville correspondent, in the just come July number.
'I, too, am an 'Athenian:'' and my story of a citizen of that
be-colleged town is most authentic. The Rev. Mr. S----, former principal
of the 'mill,' as certain profane students were wont to name the
Seminary, wherein (did you believe the exhibition tickets) our
'daughters' were ground into 'corner-stones' polished after the
'similitude of a palace,' was a man of unusually modest humility, and
somewhat absent-minded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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