“Doubtless,” answered Tom Hunter, angrily
poking the fire with the end of his crutch.
“Well,” replied J.T. Maston, “why
should not England in its turn belong to the Americans?”
“It would be but justice,” answered Colonel
Blomsberry.
“Go and propose that to the President of the
United States,” cried J.T. Maston, “and
see what sort of a reception you would get.”
“It would not be a bad reception,” murmured
Bilsby between the four teeth he had saved from battle.
“I’faith,” cried J.T. Maston,
“they need not count upon my vote in the next
elections.”
“Nor upon ours,” answered with common
accord these bellicose invalids.
“In the meantime,” continued J.T.
Maston, “and to conclude, if they do not furnish
me with the opportunity of trying my new mortar on
a real battle-field, I shall send in my resignation
as member of the Gun Club, and I shall go and bury
myself in the backwoods of Arkansas.”
“We will follow you there,” answered the
interlocutors of the enterprising J.T. Maston.
Things had come to that pass, and the club, getting
more excited, was menaced with approaching dissolution,
when an unexpected event came to prevent so regrettable
a catastrophe.
The very day after the foregoing conversation each
member of the club received a circular couched in
these terms:—
“Baltimore, October 3rd.
“The president of the Gun Club has the honour
to inform his colleagues that at the meeting on the
5th ultimo he will make them a communication of an
extremely interesting nature. He therefore begs
that they, to the suspension of all other business,
will attend, in accordance with the present invitation,
“Their devoted colleague,
“Impey Barbicane, P.G.C.”
President Barbicane’s communication.
On the 5th of October, at 8 p.m., a dense crowd pressed
into the saloons of the Gun Club, 21, Union-square.
All the members of the club residing at Baltimore
had gone on the invitation of their president.
The express brought corresponding members by hundreds,
and if the meeting-hall had not been so large, the
crowd of savants could not have found room in
it; they overflowed into the neighbouring rooms, down
the passages, and even into the courtyards; there
they ran against the populace who were pressing against
the doors, each trying to get into the front rank,
all eager to learn the important communication of
President Barbicane, all pressing, squeezing, crushing
with that liberty of action peculiar to the masses
brought up in the idea of self-government.
That evening any stranger who might have chanced to
be in Baltimore could not have obtained a place at
any price in the large hall; it was exclusively reserved
to residing or corresponding members; no one else
was admitted; and the city magnates, common councillors,
and select men were compelled to mingle with their
inferiors in order to catch stray news from the interior.
