In conversation he is animated and brilliant, some of his lies being
quite equal to those of Coleridge or Bolingbroke; but in repose he
resembles nothing so much as a heap of old clothes. In conclusion, his
respect for letter-writing ladies is so great that he would not touch
one of them with a ten-foot pole.
.... Only one hundred and ten thousand pious pilgrims visited Mount
Ararat in a body this year. The urbane and gentlemanly proprietors of
the Ark Tavern complain that their receipts have hardly been sufficient
to pay for the late improvements in this snug retreat. These gentlemen
continue to keep on hand their usual assortment of choice wines,
liquors, and cigars.
Opposite the Noah House, Shem Street, between Ham and Japhet.
.... It is commonly supposed that President Lopez, of Paraguay, was
killed in battle; but after reading the following slander upon him and
his mother, written some time since by a friend of ours, it is
difficult to believe he did not commit suicide:—
“The telegraph informs us that President Lopez, of Paraguay, has again
murdered his mother for conspiring against his life. That sprightly,
and active old lady has now been executed three thousand times for the
same offence. She is now eighty-three years old, and erect as a
telegraph pole. Time writes no wrinkles on her awful brow, and her
teeth are as sound as on the day of her birth. She rises every morning
punctually at four o’clock and walks ten miles; then, after a light
breakfast, enters her study and proceeds to hatch out a new conspiracy
against her first born. About 2 P. M. it is discovered, and she is
publicly executed. A light toast and a cup of strong tea finish the
day’s business; she retires at seven and goes to sleep with her mouth
open. She has pursued this life with the most unfaltering regularity
for the last fifty years. It is only by this unswerving adherence to
hygienic principles that she has attained her present green old age.”
.... There is a person resident in Stockton Street whom we cannot
regard with feelings other than those of lively disapproval. It is not
that the woman—for this person is a mature female—ever did us any harm,
or is likely to; that is not our grievance. What we seriously object to
and actively contemn—yea, bitterly denounce—is the nose of her. So
mighty a nose we have never beheld—so spacious, and open, and roomy a
human snout the unaided imagination is impotent to picture. It rises
from her face like a rock from a troubled sea-grand, serene, majestic!
It turns up at an angle that fills the spectator with admiration, and
impresses him with an awe that is speechless.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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