Calton

“ Calton in a very bland tone, looking over the banisters.
‘Sir!’ replied he of the dirty face.
‘Will you have the kindness to step up-stairs for a moment?’
‘Certainly, sir,’ said Tibbs, delighted to be taken notice of. The bedroom-door was carefully closed, and Tibbs, having put his hat on the floor (as most timid men do) , and been accommodated with a seat, looked as astounded as if he were suddenly summoned before the familiars of the Inquisition. ”

“ Kilsip accepted these little attentions with the utmost gravity, yet they were not without their effect on him, as the keen-eyed lawyer saw. Calton was a great believer in diplomacy, and never lost an opportunity of inculcating it into young men starting in life. "Diplomacy," said Calton to one young aspirant for legal honors, "is the oil we cast on the troubled waters of social, professional and political life; and if you can, by a little tact, manage mankind, you are pretty certain to get on in this world." ”

“ We have been bidding good-by to people and places and things, and wishing the sun would not shine and thus make our task the harder. We have looked our last on the old gray town from Calton Hill, of all places the best, perhaps, for a view; since, as Stevenson says, from Calton Hill you can see the Castle, which you lose from the Castle, and Arthur's Seat, which you cannot see from Arthur's Seat. ”

“ Gad, I wouldn't mind being a detective myself."
"I'm afraid if that were the case," said Mr. Frettlby, with an amused smile, "criminals would be pretty safe."
"Oh, I don't know so much about that," answered Felix, shrewdly; "some fellows are like trifle at a party, froth on top, but something better underneath."
"What a greedy simile," said Calton, sipping his wine; "but I'm afraid the police will have a more difficult task in discovering the man who committed the crime. In my opinion he's a deuced clever fellow." ”

“ In addition to the inhabitants of the city, nearly all those of the four municipalities, or burghs of regality, which lay without the barriers—viz., the Portsburgh, lying before the West-port; the Canongate, without the Netherbow-port; the Potter-row, which lay before the Kirk-of-field-port; and the Calton, lying without St. Andrew's port, or the Craig-end-gate, were collected in the spacious area of the Grass-market, and on the steep face of the castle bank. The walls of the ravelin which crowned it on the north ”

“ That Roman-nose is a magnificent fellow—he’s got no wife, has he, Daniel?” “No, Madam, he is the youngest man of the party.” “He is an elegant fellow—but then his skin, Daniel. Their skins are not so fine as the others—they are too black, or red, or what you call it; but Cadotte! what a beautiful colour he was, ha? But I dare say a little washing and living in a city would bring them nearly white? These people love Mr. Catlin—he’s a curious man—he’s a wonderful man; these are his old acquaintance, he has boarded with them; how they love him, don’t they? ”

“ Catlin.” “Oh, I am so happy to have the honour of seeing you, Sir, and of speaking to you—you have made all these paintings?” “Yes.” “These Indians are curious fellows, and well worth seeing, but I consider you ten times more of a curiosity. Look here, ladies, here’s Mr. Catlin, the very man that I have so often told you about. Dear me, what dangers and hardships you must have been through! Oh, I do think you are one of the wonders of the world—and not a grey hair in your head yet! My dear Sir, I know your whole history— you’d scarcely believe it—I know it ’like a book,' as they say. ”

“ Living with them as one of themselves; having no trading purposes to serve; exciting no enmity by the well-meant but suspicious preaching of a new religion, Mr. Catlin went on with his rifle and his pencil, sketching and noting whatever he saw worthy of record; and wisely abandoning all search for the ancient history of a people who knew no writing, he confined his labours to the depicting exactly what he saw, and that only. ”

“ Cato’s chief preoccupations. What was the Prince’s social station in England? How much deference might be demanded of the world? Who were the people to whose company he had a natural right? One must neither prejudice his future by assuming too low a value for him, nor expose him to any rebuff by claiming too much.
The question was one beyond Mr. Cato’s own competence. His thoughts turned to his nephew Pendred. Not a country nephew this, with any implication of humbleness. ”

“ Daniel, you know you and I have always agreed very well.” “Yes, madam, I don’t know why you and I should have a falling-out.” “Ah, well, we’ll drop that, Daniel—I believe I’ll take a chair, I am so fatigued with those plaguy stairs. Well, oh, but what a wonderful collection this is—Ha? what a curiosity that man is—Mr. Catlin, I mean—what a life he has led, to be sure! Don’t you think he has been married to some of those little squaws? ”

“ Precipitancy is like the empty bubble that dances awhile in the sunbeam, but is lost by the weight of a single drop of dew. A specialty in talent or an adherence to a particular style, is too frequently disregarded, hence the mediocrity of so many that take up the brush.
Our American artist, George Catlin, who died in Jersey City, at the age of seventy-six, devoted his lifetime we may say, to the study of Indian life and character, in order to give to his country a faithful portraiture of the red men of the forest. ”

“ Rien de plus touchant que l’apologie des Indiens faite par M. Catlin, dans sa neuvième lettre; partout où il peut mettre en saillie la noblesse de leur caractère, M. Catlin le fait avec bonheur; il se souvient du bon temps passé au milieu d’eux, des marques d’affection qu’ils lui out données, et il les venge du mépris que les civilisés déversent sur ces pauvres et braves gens, contents de leur sort, sans regret du passé, sans souci de l’avenir, sans autres lois que celles de l’honneur qui est tout puissant chez eux. ”

“ My ‘boss’ (if you will have it that way) is a Mr. Catlin, who I expect here in a few hours.” Finding that Daniel and the bears were from America, of which country he had heard some vague accounts, he very innocently enquired who was the King in America at that time, apologizing, that by the treacherousness of his memory he had lost the run of them. Daniel told him that they had no king in America. He then said “he well recollected when the old fellow died, but he had equally forgotten the name of the Queen; he recollected to have read of the King of New York.” ”

“ Carlton House, July 3, 1813. “My Dear Lord,—Your glorious conduct is beyond all human praise, and far above my reward; I know no language the world affords worthy to express it. I feel I have nothing left to say, but devoutly to offer up my prayers of gratitude to Providence, that it has in its omnipotent bounty blessed my country and myself with such a general. You have sent me, among the trophies of your unrivalled fame, the staff of a French marshal; and I send you in return that of England. ”

“ Among the most devoted and persevering explorers of the Red man’s territory, is one from whose authority, and indeed from whose very lips, in many instances, we derive a great portion of the circumstances we are about to describe—we allude to the celebrated George Catlin, whose abode of seven years among the least known of their tribes, and whose earnest enthusiasm in the task of inquiry which formed the sole object of his visit, together with his entire success in the pursuit, have constituted him the very first authority of the day. ”

“ Filling the chair—as the newspapers had it the next day—was Lewis Carlton, Esquire; a great man now amidst his fellow townsmen. People are taken with show; people are taken with grandeur; and Mr. Carlton displayed both. He was successful as a medical man, he was rather liked as a social one; and his wife’s rank brought him always a certain consideration. The money he had inherited from his father, together with the proceeds of his own practice, enabled him to live in a style attempted by few in South Wennock. ”

“ Cathal bade the man eat silence, or it would go ill with him. But the words rankled. That night in his cell he woke, with on his lips his own sinful words:
White hands make better songs than hymns, white hands are young and sweet;
O, a sword for me, O Honey-Mouth, and a war-horse fleet!
On the morrow he went to Colum and told him that the Evil One would not give him peace. That night the Saint bade him make ready to go east to the Isle of Arran—the sole isle, then, where the Pictish folk would let the white robes of the Culdees go scatheless. ”

“ Carlton. “Have you got one to play the drum to the rest while they are at drill?”
He took the toy from his pocket and displayed it. Nothing could exceed the child’s delight at the sight. His eyes sparkled; his pale cheeks flushed a vivid crimson; his little thin hands shook with eagerness. Mr. Carlton saw what a sensitive nature it was, and he felt a pleasure as he resigned the toy.
“You are very kind, sir,” exclaimed the widow, her own face lighting up with pleasure. “His fondness for soldiers is something marvellous. I’m sure I don’t know any other doctor that would have done as much.” ”

“ Son abord est froidement poli, son visage sévère et pensif, comme celui d’un homme qui a vu beaucoup de choses. Toute sa personne révèle une indomptable énergie. En public, il parle l’Anglais avec une remarquable puissance; il y a dans son accentuation quelque chose du magnifique enthousiasme d’un poète.
Le grand ouvrage de M. Catlin est un beau monument élevé à la science; il faut espérer qu’on songera à en donner une traduction Française. Chemin fesant, M. Catlin a dessiné et peint une étrange collection de vues, de scènes naturelles, de portraits d’indigènes et de scènes de mœurs. ”

“ Think you I feel, O my lord? Calote answered him. Yet I am of these people. 'T is to-day the first day ever I sat on a cushion.
The boy stared.
But thou shalt hereafter, he said. Etienne will clothe thee in silk, and feed thee dainties. I will give thee a girdle with a blue stone in it.
Nay, not so! she cried. How can I take mine ease if the people suffer? Oh, sweet child, wilt thou walk in silk, and the half of thy kingdom go naked? 'T is for thee they suffer. The white bread thou dost eat, the people harvested. They gathered it into thy barns. And yet thou wilt let them go hungry. ”

“ Carlton be long?” she moaned. “Cannot some one go and hurry him?”
“Mr. Carlton can’t come, ma'am,” was Judith’s answer. “He went to London this morning.”
A moment’s lifting of the head, a sharp cry of disappointment, and the poor head fell again and the face was hidden. Judith strove to impart comfort.
“They are all strangers to you, ma'am, so what can it matter? I know you cannot fail to like the Greys as well as you would Mr. Carlton. Nay, dear young lady, don’t take on so. Everybody likes Mr. John and Mr. Stephen Grey. Why should you have set your mind on Mr. Carlton?” ”

“ At twelve o’clock on the following morning, and when I had nearly finished my descriptions of Indian modes to the ladies, my kind friend who had taken me to his house the day before, and having a little overslept himself on that morning had taken a late breakfast at eleven, entered the rooms with three or four of his friends, and quite rapidly addressed his wife in the following manner:—“Come now, my dear, you and your party have kept poor Catlin talking and answering questions quite long enough; you will kill him if you don’t let him rest once in a while. See how pale the poor man is. ”

“ No man has tasted these scenes of daring and peril with half the sympathy and understanding of Mr. Catlin; and neither in the delicate touches of Irving, nor the more vigorous drawings of Hoffman, is there anything like the intelligence and interest of these animated sketches. Whoever would know to what sounds of glee and exultation the northern forests, even at this hour, are echoing, or with what spectacles of merriment or toil the flatness of the prairie is enlivened, must view and ponder over this collection. ”

“ Catlin and Mr. Melody, with the Ioway Indians, in the Palace of the Tuileries.” There was great rejoicing amongst the good fellows when they heard this welcome letter read, and several of them embraced me in their arms, as if I had been the sole cause of it. Their doubts were now at an end: it was certain that they should see the King of France, which, they said, “would be far more satisfactory, and a greater honour, than to have seen the Queen of England.” Whatever the poor fellows thought, such was their mode of exultation. ”

“ Catlin, who has seen the red man in his native wilds, and presents the most proud and picturesque similitude of the savage warrior that can be conceived. His war-whoop, his warlike appearance and dignified movements seem to impress the assemblage more strikingly with a feeling of the character of the North American Indian than all the other evidences which crowded the walls. ”

“ Catlin, auquel un séjour de huit années parmi ces diverses peuplades a permis de s’initier d’une manière complète a leurs mœurs et à leurs habitudes. Dans un livre plein d’intérêt, de faits curieux, de révélations si extraordinaires qu’on croit rêver en les lisant, il a consigné les résultats de ses investigations et des observations qu’il a recueillies sur une race d’hommes qui va s’éteignant de jour en jour, et dont, sur l’affirmation de l’auteur, il ne restera plus vestiges d’ici à peu d’années. ”