well, I hain’t got time to be palavering along
here—got to nail on the lid and mosey along
with’ him; and if you’ll just give me
a lift we’ll skeet him into the hearse and meander
along. Relations bound to have it so—don’t
pay no attention to dying injunctions, minute a corpse’s
gone; but if I had my way, if I didn’t respect
his last wishes and tow him behind the hearse, I’ll
be cuss’d. I consider that whatever a
corpse wants done for his comfort is a little enough
matter, and a man hain’t got no right to deceive
him or take advantage of him—and whatever
a corpse trusts me to do I’m a-going to do,
you know, even if it’s to stuff him and paint
him yaller and keep him for a keepsake—you
hear me!”
He cracked his whip and went lumbering away with his
ancient ruin of a hearse, and I continued my walk
with a valuable lesson learned—that a healthy
and wholesome cheerfulness is not necessarily impossible
to any occupation. The lesson is likely to be
lasting, for it will take many months to obliterate
the memory of the remarks and circumstances that impressed
it.
The latest report about the Spanish
crown is, that it will now be offered to Prince
Alfonso, the second son of the King of Portugal, who
is but five years of age. The Spaniards have
hunted through all the nations of Europe for
a King. They tried to get a Portuguese in the
person of Dom-Luis, who is an old ex-monarch; they
tried to get an Italian, in the person of Victor
Emanuel’s young son, the Duke of Genoa;
they tried to get a Spaniard, in the person of Espartero,
who is an octogenarian. Some of them desired
a French Bourbon, Montpensier; some of them a
Spanish Bourbon, the Prince of Asturias; some
of them an English prince, one of the sons of Queen
Victoria. They have just tried to get the
German Prince Leopold; but they have thought
it better to give him up than take a war along with
him. It is a long time since we first suggested
to them to try an American ruler. We can
offer them a large number of able and experienced
sovereigns to pick from—men skilled in statesmanship,
versed in the science of government, and adepts
in all the arts of administration—men
who could wear the crown with dignity and rule the
kingdom at a reasonable expense.
There is not the least danger of Napoleon
threatening them if they take an American sovereign;
in fact, we have no doubt he would be pleased
to support such a candidature. We are unwilling
to mention names—though we have a
man in our eye whom we wish they had in theirs.—New
York Tribune.
It would be but an ostentation of modesty to permit
such a pointed reference to myself to pass unnoticed.
This is the second time that ’The Tribune’
(no doubt sincerely looking to the best interests of
Spain and the world at large) has done me the great
and unusual honour to propose me as a fit person to
