The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
We cannot make up our mind to look on this member of the universal
Yankee nation with quite as much distrust as is often evinced; with that
distrust which lies most where he is least known. Scarce one-sixth of
the lookers-on--as the liveried gentleman with a straight knee and stiff
upper-lip keeps up the ninety to a minute down the sunny side of
Greenwich-street--know aught of the animal, save that every day he
struts up and down at about the same hour. Mothers have nothing to say
for him, while fathers pass him with quite a look of contempt. Betty,
perhaps, is the least timid, and is foolish enough to let spurs and
cock-feathers tinge her dreams all night long, beside thinking of them a
dozen times next day. If she is from the old country, she has seen them
all her life, and has many friends "as went a soldiering." The little
boys are more of the Betty order, and always show him the greatest
admiration and respect: as may be seen, any day, in the miniature
evolutions to the public squares, which always display enthusiasm, if
not the accuracy of strategical art. If there is but one private, you
will always be sure to find a captain and a drummer, and the army is
complete.
Why the senior and more intellectual world and his wife are more wary of
the Greenwich dragoon, is a question not easy of solution. Perhaps they
have read in books that he is apt to commit sundry excesses, not
approved of in the Scriptures, after the siege is over; or that, like
Captain Dalgetty, he will sometimes fight for plunder; or that his
profession tends to "solitude and calling it peace." In a measure these
charges are certainly true; partly because poor human nature is frail,
and partly that there are tricks in all trades; not, however, we think,
to the extent that he should suffer excommunication without a hearing,
and while his own or adopted flag waves tranquilly over the land. Give
him credit when he deserves it, for it is his especial lot, when down,
to have no friends. In stirring times, however, when death is within the
walls and the enemy hard pressing at the gates, he has advocates and
admirers without number; then he has virtues worthy of notice; and while
his body receives the ball, his heart is praised for its devotion. Women
have embroidered silken banners for him, to strengthen his courage in
their defence, and put fine words thereon to serve him as a rallying
cry. In our revolutionary days, when the old continental spirit was
abroad, he was respected to a degree unknown perhaps at the present
time. The mistress entertained him with a hearty will, and the
respectable dame, who, when there was no flannel for making cartridges,
dropped something in the street that would make a dozen or more, enjoyed
the joke all her life, besides receiving a pension from Congress. That
he really receives now so much distrust, it is either because we know
nothing about him, or because the lightning age is so far advanced as to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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