The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 2, August 1843 — John Shaqi
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 2, August 1843Various
General
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 22, No. 2, August 1843
Various
Periodicals
Jonas Jones, who, perched in safety on a barrel
hard by, reviewed the subsiding conflict, lifted his ogling-glass,
and beating his breast violently with his right hand in the region
of his stomach, exclaimed, 'My heart! my eyes! what a demd foine
ge-irl!'
Mean time another conspicuous object hove into sight, in the
portly person of Karl Keiser, who came ambling and waddling along,
supported by a gigantic hickory stick, to ascertain the occasion of
the unusual hubbub before the door of his friend the cobbler. The
first reply to his many inquiries revealed to him the active part
his son had taken in the fray. 'What, Hans! _my_ Hans!' exclaimed
the choleric old Dutchman; 'where is the dirty dog? Let me at him!'
And brandishing his club, he made his way through the retreating
crowd, when reaching his recreant son, he belabored him lustily over
the shoulders, and pointing significantly toward home, bade him be
gone. Crouching and howling with pain, the lusty Hans obeyed; and
it may be added in parenthesis, that hearing a vague rumor during
the day that he was in request by the worshipful corporation of the
town, to answer to certain grave charges preferred against him,
by authority of the statutes against riots, routs, and unlawful
assemblies, he decamped from Idleberg, and ere long was enjoying the
long-desired luxury of going down the river on a flat-boat.
The pacific parties had at length triumphed over the belligerent.
The fair Ellen, suddenly conscious of her generous and imprudent
haste in rushing to her father's side, made a precipitate retreat
into the house, not, however, without having first ascertained that
Nicholas was unharmed by the fray; and in a few minutes the scene
of such recent commotion was nearly deserted, save by an occasional
school-boy who glanced at the sign-board, committed to memory the
cabalistic words, _Mens conscia recti_, and went on, repeating them
at every step. Last of all remained Mr. Jonas Jones, promenading
in solitary grandeur before the house; now watching his elegant
shadow in the sun, now glancing at the window where Ellen Van Dyke
had first appeared to his enraptured vision, now bringing his glass
to bear upon the sign, and winding up the dumb show by producing
a white cambric handkerchief, somewhat soiled by use, with which
he wiped his eyes; and looking upward and apostrophizing a cluster
of invisible stars, he placed his hand on his breast, struck his
ivory-headed cane to the ground, and walked off with an air that
would have made him illustrious even in Broadway, Chestnut, or
Tremont.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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