Not thrusts and
stabs at Freedom, striking far deeper into her House of Life than any
sultan's scimitar could reach; but rare incense on her altars, having a
grateful scent in patriotic nostrils, and curling upward to the seventh
heaven of Fame.
Once or twice, when there was a pause, Martin asked such questions as
naturally occurred to him, being a stranger, about the national poets,
the theatre, literature, and the arts. But the information which these
gentlemen were in a condition to give him on such topics, did not extend
beyond the effusions of such master-spirits of the time as Colonel
Diver, Mr Jefferson Brick, and others; renowned, as it appeared, for
excellence in the achievement of a peculiar style of broadside essay
called 'a screamer.'
'We are a busy people, sir,' said one of the captains, who was from the
West, 'and have no time for reading mere notions. We don't mind 'em
if they come to us in newspapers along with almighty strong stuff of
another sort, but darn your books.'
Here the general, who appeared to grow quite faint at the bare thought
of reading anything which was neither mercantile nor political, and was
not in a newspaper, inquired 'if any gentleman would drink some?' Most
of the company, considering this a very choice and seasonable idea,
lounged out, one by one, to the bar-room in the next block.
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