The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 89: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

64 ; THE STEAM PACKET, came in violent concussion with the chimney of the packet, The self- styled nobleman rushed to the cabin to give vent to the oe which he could now no longer.suppress. _ 9 IN The easterns talk of their snake- Bieiimdines si wll they may ; oe it is by no means a joke’ to’ use poisonous reptiles as wristbands or false collars: but the confidence of the adroitest of these gentlemen is maiden bashfulness and boarding-school-girl modesty, when compared with the brazen effrontery which Mr. Buckram maintained during the preceding dialogue. The delighted and self-complacent Mr. Smale left him with the firm conviction that he had been conversing with the distinguished frequenter of palaces, instead of public-houses—with an elegant patron of Almack’s in the West, instead of a vagabond sup- porter of all-max in the East. In a4 word, his lordship appeared in the eyes of the Custom-House clerk the very model of condescen- sion—a being in whose structure there was nothing more rigid: than butter—and that churned out of the purest milk of human kindness. At length the steam-packet came alongside the pier-head at Mar- _ gate; and although the vessel, with its hundred and fifty horse power, was rendered motionless in a minute with the greatest ease, it would require a three hundred elephant power of words to describe the haste . with which the Luminaries rushed on shore, or the anxiety which per- vaded the drivers of the numerous vehicles upon the lower pier, each of one horse or two donkey power. But none of these attractive con- veyances were put into requisition. The entire mass of passengers had one common destination in view—namely, the White Hart Hotel, the proprietor of which had already received due notice of the prepa- rations which were to be made for their reception. The greatest confusion — prevailed upon the debarkation—although no possible motive could be assigned for the haste which the Luminaries made to quit their vessel, save the well-known fact, that people always do rush out of a theatre, a chapel, and a steam-packet. One Luminary, who was so deformed that he seemed to Paes a spine as circumvolved as a cork-screw, was nearly knocked overboard by an elderly lady in a bonnet like an inverted black japanned’ coal. scuttle, because he happened to tread upon her toe; Mr. Glassnose almost had his nasal promontory smashed flat with his face by Mr. Rumtutch’s carpet-bag, which that gentleman threw somewhat negligently over -his shoulder; and a vont tallow-chandler - of Candlewick Ward, who was furnished with five of those interesting articles denominated children, all of which specimens of animated nature he had brought with him upon this occasion, was nearly dis- tracted because his wife insisted upon making him carry the babyin 4 > Fu - : * > . > > ie -? J — oA iw Se | = wat ot «1 a2 - com (9) (eo) books