236 ITS BLACKGUARDISM. 



people had applaudingly backed the very sentiments that 

 these " Divers," " Chokes,' 7 and " Bricks" are now so 

 sedulously condemning! How the " Jefferson Bricks" of 

 Boston (cum multis aliis in the United States) in their un 

 fair attacks on me, and by their vulgar personality and 

 abuse, bring to mind Lord Byron's cuckold in " Don 

 Juan," and essay to "prove themselves the things they 

 most abhor." I can't say much for the discretion of 

 these military-titled editors, while, at the same time, if 

 America really desired to repudiate the descriptions of 

 Dickens, in his "Martin Chuzzlewit" and other works, she 

 might well and truly say, " Stop these New York stabbers, 

 and the family spies, private listeners, peepers, plunderers, 

 keyhole reporters, rowdy journals, at Boston and in other 

 cities in the States, and only i save me ' from my friends 

 of the press, and ' I'll protect myself against my ene 

 mies ! ' " For the life of me, I can't help laughing at the 

 riled-up or " enlightened means " by which, according to 

 "Boz," in "Chuzzlewit," p. 194, "the bubbling passions 

 of America find a vent ; " and, again, quoting from 

 " Diver," soothly will I say, and with the utmost com 

 placency, as well as forgiveness of all harsh language, 

 "arter'' these outbreaks of fury "let's have a glass of 



wine." 



To return to my narrative ; the two officers who were 

 to accompany me, with their horses, men, mules, and wag 

 gons, were Major Martin, a gallant soldier, who had lost 

 an arm in his country's service, and who had been the 

 recipient of a complimentarily presented sword, and my 

 young friend Lieutenant Bayard ; the former to look on 

 at our sport, as the loss of an arm incapacitated him from 

 otherwise sharing in it, and the other as one of the best 

 and most successful buffalo or bison hunters in the United 



