The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 2, May, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
Among the beaux who remained after the Hegira of the fashionables was a
Mr. Storey Hunter, who had arrived at Oldport only just before that
great event, for he professed to be a traveller and travelling man, and,
to keep up the character never came to a place when other people did,
but always popped up unexpectedly in the middle, or at the end, of a
season, as if he had just dropped from the moon, or arrived from the
antipodes. He had an affectation of being foreign--not English, or
French, or German, or like any particular European nation, but foreign
in a general sort of way, something not American; and always, on
whichever side of the Atlantic he was, hailed from some locality; at one
time describing himself in hotel books as from England, at another as
from Paris, at another from Baden--from anywhere, in short, except his
own native village in Connecticut. In accordance with this principle,
moreover, he carefully eschewed the indigenous habits of dress; and
while all the other men appeared at the balls in dress coats, and black
or white cravats, he usually displayed a flaming scarlet or blue tie, a
short frock coat, and yellow or brown trousers. A man six feet high, and
nearly as many round, is a tolerably conspicuous object in most places,
even without any marked peculiarities of dress; and when to this it is
added, that Mr. Hunter exhibited on his shirt-front and watch-chain
trinkets enough to stock a jeweller's shop, and that he was always
redolent of the most fashionable perfumes, it may be supposed that he
was not likely to escape notice at Oldport. His age no one knew exactly;
some of the old stagers gave him forty years and more, but he was in a
state of wonderful preservation, had a miraculous dye for his whiskers,
and a perpetually fresh color in his cheeks. Sedley used to say he
rouged, and that you might see the marks of it inside his collar; but
this may have been only an accident in shaving. He rather preferred
French to English in conversation; and with good reason, for when he
used the former language, you might suppose (with your eyes shut) that
you were talking to a very refined gentleman, whereas, so soon as he
opened his mouth in the vernacular, the provincial Yankee stood revealed
before you. As to his other qualities and merits, he appeared to have
plenty of money, and was an excellent and indefatigable dancer.
Ashburner, when he saw him spin round morning after morning, and night
after night, till he all but melted away himself, and threatened to
drown his partner, thought he must have the laudable motive of wishing
to reduce his bulk, which, however, continued undiminished.
Notwithstanding his travels and accomplishments, which, especially the
dancing, were sufficient to give him a passport to the best society,
there were some who regarded him with very unfavorable eyes, more
particularly Sumner and Benson. Supposing this to be merely another of
the frivolous feuds that existed in the place, and among "our set,"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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