In this great overwhelming town,
Certain receptacles are known,
Where both the sexes shew their faces
To boast their talents and get places:
Not such as kings and courts can give,
Not such as noble folk receive,
But those which yield their useful aid
To common wants or gen'ral trade,
Or finely furbish out the show
That fashion does on life bestow.
Here those who want them may apply
For toiling powers and industry,
On whom the nervous strength's bestow'd
To urge the wheel or bear the load.
Here all who want, may pick and chuse
Each service of domestic use:
The laundry, kitchen, chamber, dairy,
May always find an Ann or Mary,
While in th' accommodating room,
He who wants coachman, footman, groom,
Or butler staid, may come and have,
With such as know to dress and shave.
—The art and skill may here be sought
In ev'ry thing that's sold and bought,
In all the well spread counter tells
Of knowledge keen in yards and ells;
Adepts in selling and in buying
And perfect in the modes of lying;
Who flatter misses in their teens,
And harangue over bombazeens,
Can, in glib words, nor fear detection,
Arrange each colour to complexion:
Can teach the beau the neckcloth's tie,
With most becoming gravity;
Or with a consequential air,
Turn up the collar to a hair.
—Besides, your nice shop-women too,
May at a call be brought to view,
Who, with swift fingers, so bewitching,
Are skill'd in ev'ry kind of stitching;
Can trim the hat, arrange the bonnet,
And place the tasty ribbon on it.
In short, here all to service bound,
May in their various shapes be found.
—From such who may display their charms,
By smirking looks and active arms,
To those in kitchen under ground
Amid black pots and kettles found:
From such as teach the early rules,
Or in the male or female schools,
To those of an inferior breed,
Who ne'er have known to write or read:
From those who do the laws perplex
In toil at an attorney's desk,
To such as pass their busy lives
In cleaning shoes or cleaning knives. |
To these, perhaps, an added score
Might swell the tiresome list or more,
But here description says, "give o'er." | } |
| |
In such enregistering shop
One morn a figure chanc'd to pop;
(But here I beg it may be guess'd,
Of these same shops it was the best, |
His hat was rather worse for wear,
His clothing, too, was somewhat bare,
His boots might say, "we've travell'd far." | } |
His left hand an umbrella bore
And something like a glove he wore:
Clean was his very sun-burnt skin
Without a long hair on his chin,
While his lank face, in ev'ry feature,
Proclaim'd a keen, discerning nature; |
And when he spoke there was an air
Of something not quite common there:
His manner good, his language fair. | } |
A double cape of curious make,
Fell from his shoulders down his back,
As if art did the folds provide
A very awkward hump to hide;
But, if 'twere so, the cunning fail'd,
For still the treach'rous bunch prevail'd. |
| |
By chatting here and talking there,
He did his curious mind prepare
With all the means by which to gain
The end his wishes would obtain;—
Then with half-humble, solemn face,
He sought the ruler of the place,
Who boasted an establish'd fame,
And Sharpsight was his well-known name.
But ere we in our way proceed
To tell of many a future deed,
It may, we doubt not, be as well,
To save all guess-work, just to tell,
Of the part now upon the stage
Quæ Genus was the personage.
Fortune's dark clouds, for some time past
That learned title had o'ercast,
And he had borrow'd names in plenty,
He might have gone by more than twenty; |
But now arriv'd in this great town
Without a fear of being known
He thought he might assume his own: | } |
And he had weighty reasons too
For what he was about to do,
Which, we believe, a future page
Will reconcile as reasons sage.
At length his statement he began,
When thus the conversation ran. |
