The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman PotterAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
Political fiction
procession of urchins, so abject in raiment that all peaceable
lookers on will wonder where they came from, and how it happened
that in a city so well supplied with water their unclean appearance,
and the evident satisfaction they derived from scratching, was a
sight for the eyes to behold. The hero must be careful to admonish
the two or three ex-aldermen who accompany him, that it will not do
to expose the necks of bottles in their pockets during their passage
through the streets; he must also be sure to deliver his bows with
becoming grace, and to keep his right hand upon his heart, (if he
have one,) giving the mob to understand that therein beats his love
for righting wronged humanity. Nor will he lose anything in
reputation, if he exercise great courtesy in returning those
manifestations of approbation which are become so common with
enthusiastic chambermaids, who flourish napkins from third and
fourth story windows, and are mistaken by the uninitiated for
damsels of quality with delicately perfumed cambrics. And as he let
nothing slip through his fingers while bathing in blood the homes of
the people he had made wretched, so must he now comfort himself with
the assurance, that the uproar of the rabble constituting his train
is all cheers sent up by the honest people in admiration of his
wonderful exploits. And, being free from every restraint or
obligation, he may, with advantage to himself, recur to the deeds of
Cæsar and Alexander, (not forgetting to remember Cicero,) to which
he may compare his own. He can then sneer at your people of quality,
and having sufficient cause, prepare himself for a speech of
extraordinary eloquence, in which he need have no fear of profaning,
for his hearers will stand amazed, and think how mighty a thing it
is to be a hero.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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