The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844: Volume 23, Number 6Various
General
The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844: Volume 23, Number 6
Various
Periodicals
He was an 'odd fish,' unanimously so styled, by those who knew him, nor
did his appearance belie him, as he started forth on a geological
excursion in the month of May last, making poems and tuning pianos by the
way. He strung up the old harpsicords to the satisfaction of the country
girls, who thought he 'played on music' with great skill, but his eyes
were the very wildest. Was Professor Shaw crazy? By no means. As a proof
of it, he had written several poems as voluminous as the Fredoniad; which
were unavailing for the present, but which he _did_ hope that his 'country
would not willingly let die;' added to this, some marches in double quick
time, some intricate and inwoven harmonies in the transcendental style,
stanzas set to music, thrown forth when the excitement was upon him, and
fugitives from justice. Yet all these were nothing, to judge by dark and
mysterious hints which were given out, of some GREAT WORK at which he was
now laboring, which the world, (he said it with a presentiment of triumph)
would be _compelled_ to own. But, as I remarked, his appearance did not
belie him. Whoever might doubt his metaphysics, his legs were
unquestionably the very longest, by the assistance of which he had lately
won a foot-race on the Union course for a hundred dollars, to enable him
to pursue his studies for the ministry. 'Accoutred as he was,' on one fine
day in the month of May, he had wandered to a distant part of the country
with a walking-stick, furnished at the extremity with a small hammer.
Absorbed in revery, and constructing verses by the way, he arrived at last
in a romantic valley, where he was soon busily employed in cracking rocks,
and collecting specimens for his cabinet.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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