The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent — John Shaqi
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper CorrespondentBriggs, Emily Edson
History
The Olivia Letters: Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent
Briggs, Emily Edson
United States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1933; Washington (D.C.) -- History
Another foreign minister drew the cape of his overcoat up over his
head during certain portions of the oration. But it was not owing to
any wish of stopping his ears--merely a preventive to cold-catching,
as the doors were open and certain draft of air perambulated the
hall, taking liberties with these great men just as if they had been
nobodies. Her Majesty the Queen of England’s servant, Sir Frederick
Bruce, is one of the handsomest men of the age. I never look at such
a man without feeling that nature’s laws have been followed and
perfected in such veritable lords of creation. Compare a lion to its
mate, the songster of the forest with plain birds who prefer domestic
duties to gadding about the woods, whistling all sorts of love-sick
tunes, and who disputes where the palm of beauty is found? The most
exquisite woman that was ever made is no more to be compared to the
handsomest man than the humble pea-fowl to his majesty the peacock.
Yet the peacock thinks his mate the most exquisite of all created
things, and what woman would be so unwise as to upset his opinions?
I return to Sir Frederick Bruce, but would as soon attempt to paint
the moonbeams as to describe his personal appearance. He is a
thoroughbred, just like Bonner’s “Silver Heels” and “Fearless;” skin
as translucent as wine; hands and feet as small as a woman’s. Men are
like grapes, they need a little frost to sweeten and perfect them;
and a man is never handsome until he has been rounded and polished by
the hand of Time. And this is confirmed by the additional instances
of Chief Justice Chase and Honorable James Watson Webb, both of them
on the threshold of the winter of life, yet never before so perfect
in manly beauty.
The two men who occupied the most prominent positions before the
oratory were His Excellency the President, and the Chief Justice of
the United States. I am not going to record their lives; the pen of
the historian will do that. I desire merely to say that they were
representative Americans, who rose from the humblest position to
the topmost round of the ladder of fame. And may it prove a solemn
warning to those mothers who are accustomed to apply the slipper to
unruly urchins. I beg them to desist, lest they may be breaking the
spirit or souring the disposition of some future President or Chief
Justice of the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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