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Article PENCILLINGS FBOM THE SKETCH-BOOK OF A MA... ← Page 2 of 13 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Pencillings Fbom The Sketch-Book Of A Ma...
310 choice to the young adventurer between sail and the plethoric puffings of the fire-king ; still those who had nevej ? before made the trial , had the advantage of the novelty , while youth and spirits formed a capital set-off against the tedium and monotony inseparable from the undertaking .
And now as to our party . "Why , will it be believed , contrary to our expectations and hopes , we had not a lady amongst us ? The time had already long gone by , and its remembrance almost faded from the mind of the oldest European denizen of the east , when milliner ' s apprentices were , as was affirmed , sent out by the score , season after season , in consignment to the several presidencies , for
sale to the highest bidders in the matrimonial market . Scandal would have it that elderly , yellow-visaged , hookah-smoking gentlemen , rich in rupees , and attended by their palanquin-bearers , chobdars with silver sticks , and a train of oriental satraps , were , in days of the past , in the habit of meeting the newly-arrived damsels on the beach when landing , and then and there , having made their
bargains , and paid for the ladies passages and outfits , whisked them off to a church in triumph ; after which , the hymeneal rites having been performed , they became installed as mistresses of the magnificent mansions of these nabobs , their newly-elected husbands , and regarding whom Hood , of well-known humour , and notorious for his comicalities in versification , wrote as follows , in his advice to a lady bound
for India : — where the maiden on a marriage plan goes , Consign ed for wedlock to Calcutta ' s quay , Where woman goes for mart the same as mangoes , And think of me !"
These occurrences , I say , had passed into oblivion—were shelved among things that were ; but it was singular that out of the entire party on board not one should have been a Benedict , or being so , that his wife should not accompany him . It was ungallantly whispered by some wag of the company who had been to sea before , that
after all , much as we might deplore the absence of female society , we were yet in luck , since there would be no quarrelling under such circumstances ; which reminds me of the saying of an acquaintance of mine in India , who , whenever a disturbance in a regiment first came to his ears , significantly inquired , " Who is she ? " I leave my
reader to draw his or her own inferences as to his meaning , trusting that I myself offend no lady ' s feelings by giving the anecdote ; of course it must have been a disappointed old bachelor only who could have originated such an unhandsome suggestion , —or was it Marshal SaxeR , But to be serious : it is quite true that petty disputes , often
arising from jealousies , in which the husbands , for peace * sake , take part with their wives , have been known , in cases where a second-rate education has been joined with a naturally bad temper , to create discord . The sea itself , too , is no agreeable element for any length of time to the lair sex , and is apt to cross the feelings of persons ordinarily amiable ; the ennui also , resulting from confinement .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Pencillings Fbom The Sketch-Book Of A Ma...
310 choice to the young adventurer between sail and the plethoric puffings of the fire-king ; still those who had nevej ? before made the trial , had the advantage of the novelty , while youth and spirits formed a capital set-off against the tedium and monotony inseparable from the undertaking .
And now as to our party . "Why , will it be believed , contrary to our expectations and hopes , we had not a lady amongst us ? The time had already long gone by , and its remembrance almost faded from the mind of the oldest European denizen of the east , when milliner ' s apprentices were , as was affirmed , sent out by the score , season after season , in consignment to the several presidencies , for
sale to the highest bidders in the matrimonial market . Scandal would have it that elderly , yellow-visaged , hookah-smoking gentlemen , rich in rupees , and attended by their palanquin-bearers , chobdars with silver sticks , and a train of oriental satraps , were , in days of the past , in the habit of meeting the newly-arrived damsels on the beach when landing , and then and there , having made their
bargains , and paid for the ladies passages and outfits , whisked them off to a church in triumph ; after which , the hymeneal rites having been performed , they became installed as mistresses of the magnificent mansions of these nabobs , their newly-elected husbands , and regarding whom Hood , of well-known humour , and notorious for his comicalities in versification , wrote as follows , in his advice to a lady bound
for India : — where the maiden on a marriage plan goes , Consign ed for wedlock to Calcutta ' s quay , Where woman goes for mart the same as mangoes , And think of me !"
These occurrences , I say , had passed into oblivion—were shelved among things that were ; but it was singular that out of the entire party on board not one should have been a Benedict , or being so , that his wife should not accompany him . It was ungallantly whispered by some wag of the company who had been to sea before , that
after all , much as we might deplore the absence of female society , we were yet in luck , since there would be no quarrelling under such circumstances ; which reminds me of the saying of an acquaintance of mine in India , who , whenever a disturbance in a regiment first came to his ears , significantly inquired , " Who is she ? " I leave my
reader to draw his or her own inferences as to his meaning , trusting that I myself offend no lady ' s feelings by giving the anecdote ; of course it must have been a disappointed old bachelor only who could have originated such an unhandsome suggestion , —or was it Marshal SaxeR , But to be serious : it is quite true that petty disputes , often
arising from jealousies , in which the husbands , for peace * sake , take part with their wives , have been known , in cases where a second-rate education has been joined with a naturally bad temper , to create discord . The sea itself , too , is no agreeable element for any length of time to the lair sex , and is apt to cross the feelings of persons ordinarily amiable ; the ennui also , resulting from confinement .