Penny Dreadfuls, 1916 · page 303 of 400
Tom Anderson, Dare-Devil: A Young Virginian in the Revolution — page 303: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# Page Content Analysis This is a page of running prose from *The Marquis of Carabas* (page 285), depicting a street encounter in what appears to be Barbados. A barefooted American musician called "The Marquis of Carabas" by locals is accosted by an acquaintance, then by the Bishop of Barbados, who has been searching for him for a week. Tom explains he and his companion Unaka have been camping on a nearby sand reef, catching turtles and recovering from their time in a slave ship's hold. The Bishop, initially perplexed by this vagabond's audacious manner, is sufficiently charmed that he offers his card and proposes a social call. The passage emphasizes class disruption through the gentleman's respectful treatment of the barefooted street singer.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
THE Marguis oF CARABAS 285 small pieces, English, French, German, and Spanish. When he slung the banjo over his back, the young noble- man dismounted and pushed through the crowd. He held out his hand. “Oh, I say, American, where have you been? Why could n’t I find you? You gave me your name, but it has escaped me.” Tom looked down at his bare, primordial toes, up at his new friend, and smiled humorously. “The Bridgetown folk call me “The Marquis of Cara- bas.’”’ “Not bad, that. But you have n’t told me where you ’ve been, Carabas?”’ The charm of him! The cloudlessness of him! “That’s what J am here to find out,” said a resonant voice; and the Bishop of Barbados and the Windward Is- lands extended his plump, patrician, and authoritative hand to the street singer. My! but the rabble had something to stare at then. “1’ve been looking for you for more than a week,” said the Bishop. “T am grateful for Your Lordship’s interest”; and Tom explained that he and Unaka had gone into camp on an insignificant island or sand-spit adjacent to the shore. “We are out about a,mile from shore;on a reef covered with sand. There are plenty of turtle-eggs, and we caught some turtles big as tea-tables. After the hold of the slave- ship, I wanted a week of sun, sea-wind, and sea-water. | feel clean now. And Unaka liked it. He likes plenty of room to think in. His thoughts have big orbits — like the stars.” The Bishop bowed. Curiosity and perplexity were con- suming him. The audacious grace of this barefooted — what? He did no dishonor to the name of American, nor to that distinguished wraith My Lord Bishop of Notting- ham either. The next minute Bishop Coleridge found himself presenting his card to the vagabond. “T will do myself the honor of calling on Your Lord- CORVICLMOO SS) (CO) im