taller, than the Vermont gentleman. A strange feeling I used to
have at meals; when, on looking round our little society, I saw the
Giant, the Bearded Lady of Kentucky, the little Bearded Boy of three
years old, the Captain, (this I THINK; but at this distance of time
I would not like to make the statement on affidavit,) and the three
other passengers, all with their knives in their mouths making play
at the dinner--a strange feeling I say it was, and as though I was
in a castle of ogres. But, after all, why so squeamish? A few
scores of years back, the finest gentlemen and ladies of Europe did
the like. Belinda ate with her knife; and Saccharissa had only that
weapon, or a two-pronged fork, or a spoon, for her pease. Have you
ever looked at Gilray's print of the Prince of Wales, a languid
voluptuary, retiring after his meal, and noted the toothpick which
he uses? . . . You are right, madam; I own that the subject is
revolting and terrible. I will not pursue it. Only--allow that a
gentleman, in a shaky steamboat, on a dangerous river, in a far-off
country, which caught fire three times during the voyage--(of course
I mean the steamboat, not the country,)--seeing a giant, a voracious
supercargo, a bearded lady, and a little boy, not three years of
age, with a chin already quite black and curly, all plying their
victuals down their throats with their knives--allow, madam, that in
such a company a man had a right to feel a little nervous. I don't
know whether you have ever remarked the Indian jugglers swallowing
their knives, or seen, as I have, a whole table of people performing
the same trick, but if you look at their eyes when they do it, I
assure you there is a roll in them which is dreadful.
Apart from this usage, which they practise in common with many
thousand most estimable citizens, the Vermont gentleman, and the
Kentucky whiskered lady--or did I say the reverse?--whichever you
like my dear sir--were quite quiet, modest, unassuming people. She
sat working with her needle, if I remember right. He, I suppose,
slept in the great cabin, which was seventy feet long at the least,
nor, I am bound to say, did I hear in the night any snores or roars,
such as you would fancy ought to accompany the sleep of ogres. Nay,
this giant had quite a small appetite, (unless, to be sure, he went
forward and ate a sheep or two in private with his horrid knife--oh,
the dreadful thought!--but IN PUBLIC, I say, he had quite a delicate
appetite,) and was also a tea-totaler. I don't remember to have
heard the lady's voice, though I might, not unnaturally, have been
curious to hear it. Was her voice a deep, rich, magnificent bass;
or was it soft, fluty, and mild? I shall never know now. Even if
she comes to this country, I shall never go and see her. I HAVE
seen her, and for nothing.
You would have fancied that, as after all we were only some half-
dozen on board, she might have dispensed with her red handkerchief,
and talked, and eaten her dinner in comfort: but in covering her
chin there was a kind of modesty. That beard was her profession:
that beard brought the public to see her: out of her business she
wished to put that beard aside as it were: as a barrister would wish
to put off his wig. I know some who carry theirs into private life,
and who mistake you and me for jury-boxes when they address us: but
these are not your modest barristers, not your true gentlemen.
Well, I own I respected the lady for the modesty with which, her
public business over, she retired into private life. She respected
her life, and her beard. That beard having done its day's work, she