From the Sunday
Mercury.
EDITOR T. T.:– Sunshine has at last resumed specie payment,
my boy, and every man that chooses can walk under golden beams once more. The sacred soil is drying up as rapidly as an
old maid after forty-two, and boot-blacks begin to quote at high figures. The General of the Mackerel brigade is so
blissful at having a polish on his boots once more, that he puts them on the
mantle-piece every time he enters a room, and treads on all the toes he can
find in the street. The latter operation,
has pronounced much profanity, especially among the chaplains.
Speaking of the chaplains, reminds me of a reverend veteran
who attended the soul of Captain Bob Shorty yesterday, and found it in a high
state of preservation. Captain Bob
Shorty rashly over estimated his power of endurance, and undertook to read
Fremont’s defence. When he got to the
twenty-first column he was seized with vertigo, and only recovered to find
himself taking the measure of a bedstead, with a chaplain standing by him.
“My friend,” says the parson, “I consider it my duty to tell
you that you’re a very sick man, and I take this opportunity to remind you of
your latter end.”
Captain Bob Shorty scratched his head and says he:
“Am I bound of the kingdom?”
“You may recover,” says the chaplain, “but now is the time
to settle your worldly affairs, if you don’t.
Think of your wife and progeny.”
“My wife!” says Captain Bob Shorty, hysterically. “Ah, there’s a woman for you!”
“Is she a worthy help-mate?” says the chaplain.
“Why,” says Captain Bob Shorty, she’s mate and Captain both
in my ship. She’s frugal” – says Captain
Bob Shorty – “she’s amiable, she’s neat, and she’s got only one fault in the
world.”
“Ah!” says the chaplain “only one fault? Then she must be an uncommon woman.”
“Yes,” says Captain Bob Shorty, dreamily, “my wife’s only got
one fault in the world – she loves another chap better than she does me.”
At this juncture, my boy, the chaplain was seized with a
severe cough; but as soon as he recovered he assumed a very grave expression,
and says he:
“My friend let me beseech you to forget worldly things for a
moment, and think of something more needful.”
“Drive on,” says Captain Bob Shorty.
The chaplain gave a grievous snuff, and says he:
“Is there not something above all created things that you
feel in need of now? Suppose my friend,
that you were out at sea in a terrible storm, with the thunder roaring and the
lightning flashing, and the rain falling in torrents all around you, what would
you do to make yourself feel peaceful?”
“You say the rain was falling in torrents?” says Captain Bob
Shorty.
“Yea verily,” says the chaplain.
“I think,” says Captain Bob Shorty, reflectively – “I think
I should call for an umbrella and something hot.”
Upon hearing this beautiful answer, my boy, the chaplain buried
his face in his hands.
“So should I,” he murmured – “so should I.”
“Depend upon it, my boy, there is a bond of sympathy between
all men, that no difference of education or circumstances can sever; and when
some nice touch of nature causes it to contract, it seldom fails to bring men
together on the common platform of whisky hot.
It would afford me great pleasure, my boy, to report a great
victory for our cause in Virginia, but no such result is yet visible to the eye
in a state of nudity.
The gunboats to break the rebel blockade have not started up
the Potomac yet, owing to a mistake by the General of the Mackerel Brigade.
Some months ago, my boy, the General gave an order to the
Eastern contractor for a couple of peculiarly made gunboats for this service;
but happening to pass the White House, shortly after, saw what he took to be
the models of two just such gunboats protruding out of one of the windows. Thinking that the President had concluded to
attend to the matter himself, he immediately telegraphed the contractor not to
go on with the job.
Quite recently, the contractor came here again, and says he
to the General:
“I’d like to see the models of those White House gunboats.”
The General conducted him toward the White House, my boy,
and the two stood admiring the models, which protruded from the window as
usual.
Pretty soon a Western Congressman came along, and says the
contractor to him: “Can you tell me sir, whether these models of gunboats up
there are on exhibition?”
“Gunboats!” says the Western chap, looking up. “Do you take those for gunboats?”
“Of course,” says the contractor.
“Why you durned fool!” says the Congressman, “Those are the
President’s boots. The President always
sits with his feet out of the window when he’s at home, and those are ends of
his boots.”
Without another word, my boy, the General and the contractor
turned gloomily from the spot, convinced they had witnessed the most terrific
feet of the campaign.
Yours, sedately,
ORPHEUS C. KERR.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, March 29, 1862, p. 1
