Or rather--a common custom with her--she has talked in her
sleep. Her very weakness has, however, given a point to her revelation.
"Diamonds dart their brightest lustre,
_from a palsy-shaken head_!"
In the midst of her snores she has but revealed the plot entered into
between those most respectable conspirators, Broad Cloth and Beef, against
those old offenders, those incorrigible miscreants, Rags and Want! The
confederacy is, to be sure, older than the crucified thieves; but then it
has not been so undisguisedly avowed. Broad Cloth has, on the contrary,
affected a sympathy with tatters, though with a constancy of purpose has
refused an ell from its trailing superfluity to solace the wretchedness;
the tears of Beef dropt on the lank abdomen of Starvation, are ancient as
post diluvian crocodiles.--but it has spared no morsel to the object of
its hypocritic sorrow. Now, however, even the decency of deceit is to be
dropt, and Broad Cloth is to make sport with the nakedness of the land,
and merry Beef is to roar like the bulls of Bashan at the agonies of
famine!
As the winter approaches we are promised increasing sources of amusement
from the manufacturing districts. What sunny faces will break though the
fogs of November--what giggling will drown the cutting blasts of January!
Eschewing the wise relaxation of pantomimes, we shall be taught to consult
the commercial reports in the newspapers as the highest and fullest source
of salutary laughter.
Pages:
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47