not to mention Africa, which would be an unmanly insult to the fair. True it is that the marrying days of your Representative are over; likewise it is also true, moreover, that they never even began, some difficulty having invariably supervened, often of a character not absolutely unconnected with the precarious nature of my pursuits, the uncertainty of my earnings, and what one Fair Nymph was good enough for to describe as my dreadfully dissipated habits. Sir, I will admit all this, for it could easily be proved against me; but does it follow that because I am getting elderly, I am likewise becoming unsusceptible? In spirit, Sir, I am as youthful as any of the other contributors, than whom I am sure a more affable body of young gentlemen, though of course not so experienced, nor perhaps so much accustomed to literary composition as what I am myself so-in heart. Sir, Nicholas is yet a boy; chorus, when we were boys, merry, merry boys, when we were boys together; methinks it seems but yesterday since we were boys together, such not meaning that you and me went to the same school, for it would be like my impudence for to say so, but only putting it in a poetical and lyric form. I have been as subject to the Tender Passion, in my time, as any one; and still in my ashes live my very much wanted fires; so we'll let the bumper pass, and we'll fill another glass-another all round, please, Miss-another glass, to the Maids of merry, merry England; chorus, the maids of merry, merry England. I lingered, my dear young Friend, around my country's Bar. It was with difficulty as they could get me for to go away. Without wishing for to be vanity-glorious, I may say, in confidence, that I can still, for an old one, hit pretty straight from the shoulder. Sir, the Frenchman who lays his hand upon a Briton, except in the way of kindness, is apt to be rather a fool for his pains. I let him have it, Sir; and still I lingered round my country's Bar. My blood was up. It would have taken regiments for to subdue me; but there are two influences under which I am as gentle as a lamb. The first of these is Loyalty; the second-Love. Our own H.R.H. was then staying in Paris. rest of the French nation as roughly as I did my first assailant, friendly relations between the two countries must necessarily have been interrupted. I thought of this; I listened to the voice of Julia, as she said, "Do, pray, go away, Mr. Nicholas: you've had quite enough!" Fond and silly trifler! I could have gone on for hours; I was getting more and more cheerful every moment;-for we'll let the bumper Had I treated the My own countrymen turned against me; and actuated, therefore, by Loyalty and Love, not unmingled with a calculation of the heavy odds against me, Nicholas consented to form one in a procession-a sort of a march, you know-from the Exposition to another public building in the neighbourhood, where he passed the night, attended by several of our lively neighbours, if such they can be called, in uniform. The intervention of the British Ambassador was successful in obtaining the release of your spirited Representative, who, after singing the National Anthem, determined to return to the study of the Exposition. Subdivision 2. The Transatlantic Bar. Remarks. "I care not," said a gentleman which they are fond of quoting him in the daily and other presses, "I care not who makes a country's laws, if I may make its ballads." "I care not," says Nicholas, "I care not who makes a country's ballads, if I may mix its liquors !" Of the two remarks, Sir, my own is by far the most truthful; in fact, if you were to look upon it as a sort of race, the result would be as follows: Mr. Nicholas' Epigram Mr. Fletcher, of Saltoun's, Remark 1 Remembering, then, the truly Intronational character, both of your own respectable periodical, and of my personal Mission, it was not long after the termination of my dispute with the French Government-though than whom I am sure no one can forgive them more heartily-before I found my way to the American Refreshment Department. As the Old Man, Sir, bent his steps towards that pleasing spot, the sense of duty was strong within his breast. He felt, Sir, that an opportunity afforded itself of removing Intronational jealousies-of awakening fresh sympathies, founded on the noblest bases, between the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxonian race. Depend upon it as an axiom, my dear young Friend: Two nations which really appreciate each other's drinks, must always be on friendly terms. Never having been personally in America myself, so far as I alone am concerned individually, I had derived my impressions chiefly from a perusal of Mr. Cooper's novels, which you will find as it assisted me in carrying on the dialogue. None of the Americans, it is true, wore their national dress, which it was rather a disappointment, as I had long wished for to gaze upon these noble children of nature in their native war-paint and other garments; but I am bound to testify as what has been said concerning of their hospitality is no more than the truth. Very few minutes, in fact, had elapsed before I was asked-in the figurative language of the forest-to put myself outside of something. Wagh!" says I. "The Fire-Water of the Pale-faces is good. Nicholas will drink." For a few moments, nothing was heard but a gentle gurgling sound, soft as the murmur of the evening breeze through the secluded woodlands of the West. "Does not the buffalo come "Wagh!" I once more remarked. again and again to the familiar lick? Does not the blue-bird return to her nest? Do not all these things occur, subject only to the Constitution of the United States ? And does my pale-faced brother doubt whether Nicholas will take another of the same mixture? Go: -my brother is not a fool." It was, I think, about the fifth mixture that I really began for to come forth in my true "form," as a grand Intronational Orator and Prophet. Do you not think, my dear young to print my remarks in gold letters? to THE BROADWAY. Friend, as it would be as well for They would give a sort of a tone "Citizens of the World," said Nicholas, for representatives of many nations had now begun to congregate around the aged man. "Children of Nature from across the Transatlantic wave-British compatriots-and ye, my lively neighbours-sons of la belle Franceand ye, oh members of all the Germanic Confederations—Italians, Spaniards, Portugals, Polanders, Muscovites, Hollanders, and Ottomans; there are certain points upon which we can most of us agree. I will exemplify as many of these as my health and strength allow, and will still back myself as such against any other Sportive Prophet of my own age and weight, bar none. "Generous infants of the lovely France, I carry a toast—not as such is literally the case, it being generally a few biscuits in my pocket along of a small flask of sherry wine, but this is a parenthesis—I carry a toast to ye, in the glorious vintage of Champagne; chorus, my Intronational friends, then let our song have this refrain, the glorious vintage of Champagne! We may have had our little enmities, but who is not ready to drown them in the flowing bowl? Garsong. "Brothers of the Anglo-Saxonian race, there are many worse things in this world than the cobbler of which I will now partake; but there are not many better. In your beverages, you have proved yourselves nobly indifferent to the traditions of Europe. Your drinks, admirable in quality, are in their variety almost as numerous as the leaves of the primeval forest. I will now partake of such as you may have on hand. I feel that it may do me good. "The best of the atmosphere in the Intronational Exhibition, gentlemen, is that you can partake of almost any quantity of refreshment without its hurting you:-almost any quantity whatsoever. "Let us all drink, my dear Friends, to our respective governments; may they all pay a truly Intronational visit to the Exposition, where we can all partake of almost any quantity of refreshment without its hurting them. "Gentlemen-gentlemen from Germany-my generous German gentlemen, let us wind up with a little Hock-a capital thing is German Hock, when you can get it direct from a German gentleman -in Germany-and if you will all join me, gentlemen, from Germany and otherwise, as we can partake of almost any quantity of refreshment without its hurting us, let us now join in another friendly glass to the solidarity of peoples. "To the solidarity of peoples, gentlemen! And likewise To the liquidarity of peoples, gentlemen!" CONCLUSION. They cheered me to the echo; and I left Paris with the proud consciousness that whilst I had done a good deal to promote friendly feelings amongst the various nations of the earth, of whom we are ourselves one of them, I had likewise given you, on the whole, about as concise and complete an account of the Intronational Exposition as you could reasonably have expected when you sent me over. NICHOLAS. Imantium Iræ. AM I forgiven? You smile through your tears, love, Tell me, O quickly, and quiet my fears, love- Try to forget, when my fault I've confest. Am I forgiven? Now dry your eyes, dearest, Trifling, or trying to cause you a care? Am I forgiven? A sin one confesses, Show me already my fault is condoned : Love is a-glow in the brightest of eyes! Faith nursed by charity ever has thrivenWhat do you say, darling ?-Am I forgiven? J. ASHBY STERRY. |
