The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 6, December 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 6, December 1837
Various
Periodicals
OLD Dan Tantalus himself was not more sadly bothered, than is
a reviewer, tied to certain limits of space, and feeling the
impossibility of dividing with his readers the pleasure of perusing
a work of rare spirit and humor. Such emotions are ours, and such a
work is 'Rory O'More.' Mr. LOVER has no superior in depicting--with
the nicest perception of character and the keenest eye for fun--the
peculiarities of the Irish people. We can give the reader no better
idea of his ability and manner, than by saying, that he effects all
with his pen which POWER achieves in his admirable personations of
his countrymen. There is a life, a vraisemblance in his pictures,
which will win for them enduring applause. This is our verdict; and
we ask the reader to confirm it, as sure we are they will, by a
perusal of the volume whose title stands at the head of this brief
and inadequate notice.
FOOTNOTE:
[16] Since the above was in type, we have met, in the scientific
deliberations of the 'Mudfog Association,' reported by the humorous
'Boz,' in the last number of 'Bentley's Miscellany,' with the remarks
of two members greatly prone to these '_figures_ of speech.' They
are too characteristic to be omitted here. The one stated, that he
'had found that the total number of small carts and barrows engaged
in dispensing provisions to cats and dogs in the metropolis, was
one thousand seven hundred and forty-three. The average number of
skewers delivered daily with the provender, by each cart or barrow,
was thirty-six. Now multiplying the number of skewers so delivered,
by the number of barrows, a total of sixty-two thousand seven hundred
and forty-eight skewers daily, would be obtained. Allowing that, of
these sixty-two thousand seven hundred and forty-eight skewers, the
odd two thousand seven hundred and forty-eight were accidentally
devoured with the meat, by the most voracious of the animals
supplied, it followed that sixty thousand skewers per day, or the
enormous number of twenty-one millions nine hundred thousand skewers
annually, were wasted in the kennels and dust-holes of London, which,
if collected and warehoused, would in ten years' time afford a mass
of timber more than sufficient for the construction of a first-rate
vessel of war for the use of Her Majesty's Navy, to be called the
'Royal Skewer,' and to become, under that name, the terror of all
the enemies of England!' This speaker was followed by an amateur
philanthropist, of kindred parts, who had ascertained, from authentic
data, 'that the total number of legs belonging to the manufacturing
population of a town in Yorkshire, was, in round numbers, forty
thousand, while the total number of chair and stool legs in their
houses was only a fraction over thirty thousand, which, upon the
very favorable average of three legs to a seat, yielded only ten
thousand seats in all. From this calculation, it would appear--not
taking wooden or cork legs into the account, but allowing two legs to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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