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
But he must declare that he is
overwhelmed with the honors thus showered upon him by an assemblage
so respectable. Of course he will not forget to mention, that his
emotions have quite deprived him of the power, even if he had the
capacity, of expressing his gratitude for this very unexpected
manifestation of their approbation. And this peroration he must end,
with complimenting the virtue and discretion, the self sacrificing
devotion, and the high purposes of the motley assemblage, who are
meanwhile getting up numerous fights for their more immediate
amusement.
The drummers and fifer having refreshed themselves, the hero must be
got carefully into the carriage by his generals and adjutant
generals in waiting, when the four lean horses, who were comforted
with oats during the delivery of the speeches, will draw him up
Broadway to the tune of "The dead I left behind me!" It being after
nightfall, when the balconies of heaven are filled with black,
warlike clouds, it will be necessary that the train proceed with
torchlights, which are an essential part of the ovation to all great
heroes. These generally consist of thirteen lighted tallow candles
and two transparencies, in the manufacture of which six shillings
were expended for as many yards of Lowell cotton, sufficient to
supply shirts to the unwashed Hibernians who bear them. The
torchlights, as is customary, must be carried by hatless and
shoeless urchins, who will feel great pride in the service, and have
no scruple at scrambling for the pennies thrown them by the
mischievous who line the sidewalk. The transparencies must also bear
the significant motto, "Welcome to the brave." All this and much
more being done, the hero will have arrived at one of our most
fashionable hotels, where splendid apartments have been prepared for
him; and for which the cunning landlord was careful to get his pay
in advance. As those who follow such trains and such heroes have an
habitual aversion to water, its diminution or increase on arriving
at the hotel will depend very much on the state of the weather. But
no true hero will for a moment think of entering his hotel unless
all the ambitious chambermaids in it are grouped upon its balconies,
and its entrances so lined with pickpockets, that it becomes
absolutely necessary that his generals force a passage. The crowd
outside will then greet his advance up stairs with much shouting,
interspersed with demands for a speech, which, on partaking of a
well compounded punch, in which his generals will not forget to join
him, seeing that he is their only worldly stock in trade left, he
may manifest his willingness to receive friends of distinction. This
being regarded as an oversight by his most famous general, and the
corpulent alderman, he will be reminded that the safety of the
building is really in danger from the enthusiasm of the citizens
outside, who refuse to go peaceably to their homes until he appears
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter — John Shaqi
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