John Lewis

“ Marker looked sharply at Lewis, and George for a moment saw and contrasted the two faces. Lewis’s keen, kindly, humorous, cultured, with strong lines ending weakly, a face over-bred, brave and finical; the other’s sharp, eager, with the hungry wolf-like air of ambition, every line graven in steel, and the whole transfused, as it were, by the fire of the eyes into the living presentment of human vigour. ”

“ When the world grew bright Lewis awoke, for that strange young man had a trick of rising early, and as he rubbed sleep from his eyes at the window he saw the exceeding goodliness of the morning. He roused his companions with awful threats, and then wandered along a corridor till he came to a low verandah, whence a little pier ran into a sheltered bay of the loch. This was his morning bathing-place, and as he ran down the surface of rough moorland stone he heard steps behind him, and George plunged into the cold blue waters scarcely a second after his host. ”

“ The health was drunk solemnly yet with gusto, and under cover of it Lewis fled out of doors. His despondency had passed, and a fit of fierce exhilaration had seized him. Men still swore by his name; he was still loved by his own folk; small matter to him if a townsman had defeated him. He was no vain talker, but a doer, a sportsman, an adventurer. This was his true career. Let others have the applause of excited indoor folk or dull visionaries; for him a man’s path, a man’s work, and a man’s commendation. ”

“ Before the Revolution, Meriwether's father, William Lewis, had received from George III. a patent for three thousand acres of choice Ivy Creek land in Albemarle, commanding an uninterrupted view of the Blue Ridge for one hundred and fifty miles. Here Meriwether was born, and Reuben and Jane.
"If Captain John Marks courts you I advise you to marry him," said Colonel William Lewis to his wife, on his death-bed after the surrender of Cornwallis. In a few years she did marry Captain Marks, and in Georgia were born Meriwether's half brother and sister, John and Mary Marks. ”

“ Lewis said, laughing. “It’s a trick I have. I never forget a face and I honestly like to see people again.”
George pulled his long moustache. “It’s simply hideous the way one is forgotten. It’s all right for the busy people, for they shift their sets with their fortune, but for drones like me it’s the saddest thing in life. Before we came away, Lewie, I went up for a day to Oxford to see about some things, and stopped a night there. I haven’t been down long, and yet I knew nobody at the club except the treasurer, and he had nothing to say to me except to ask after you. ”

“ Captain Lewis opened his trunk and found his papers all wet. The hermetically sealed tin cases that held the precious journals alone had saved these from destruction.
The Captains had their hands full. The restless men must be paid and discharged. Nine of the adventurers within a week after the return to St. Louis sold their prospective land claims for a pittance. Seven of these claims were bought by their fellow soldiers; Sergeant John Ordway took several of the men and settled on the site of the present city of New Madrid. ”

“ Lewis was unimpressed. “I am tired of your riddles,” he said. “If you would kill me have done with it. If you would keep me prisoner, give me food and a place to sleep. But if you would be merciful, let me go and show me the way to Bardur. Life is too short for waiting.”
Fazir Khan laughed loudly, and spoke something to his people.
“You shall join in our company for the night,” he said. “I have eaten of the salt of your people and I do not murder without cause. Also I love a bold man.”
Lewis was led into the largest of the huts and given food and warm Hunza wine. ”

“ He was awakened from his reverie by Lewis himself, who, having ridden straight to the stables, was now sauntering towards the house. A trim man looks at his best in riding clothes, and Lewis was no exception. He was flushed with sun and motion, his spirits were high, for all the journey he had been dreaming of a coming meeting with Alice, and the hope which had suddenly increased a thousand-fold. George marked his mood, and with a regret at his new role caught him by the arm and checked him. ”

“ George asked.
“My Scotch blood gives me the right to speak my mind,” said the man, laughing. “Honestly I don’t find things much better in Britain. You were always famous for a dogged common sense which was never tricked with catch-words, and yet the British people seem to be growing nervous and ingenuous. The cult of abstract ideals, which has been the curse of the world since Adam, is as strong with you as elsewhere. The philosophy of ‘gush’ is good enough in its place, but it is the devil in politics.”
“That is true enough,” said Lewis solemnly. ”

“ Harley, whose methods were somewhat coarse and who did most things with an ax, was precisely of that hopeful sort who would advertise an auction of the lion's hide while it was yet upon the beast. Senator Hanway, with instincts safer and more upon the order of the mole's, forbade such campaigns of noise.
"You must keep silent, John," said he, "and never let men know what we are about. You are inclined, apparently, to regard a Speakership as you might a swarm of bees; you think one has only to beat a tin pan long enough or blow a tin horn loud enough in order to hive it according to one's wish. ”

“ Lewis flushed deeply. “That is the worst thing I have done, and I feel horribly penitent. It was the act of a cad and a silly schoolboy. But I had some provocation, Tommy. I had spoken at length amid many interruptions, and I was getting cross. It was at Gledfoot, and the meeting was entirely against me. Then a man got up to tackle me, not a native, but some wretched London agitator. As I looked at him—a little chap with fiery eyes and receding brow—and heard his cockney patter, my temper went utterly. ”

“ One man might support the conversation on alien matters, but on sheep the humblest found a voice: Lewis watched the ring of faces with a sharp delight. The election had made him sick of his fellows—fellows who chattered and wrangled and wallowed in the sentimental. ”

“ His extravagance was so reckless that after in a drunken fit challenging a working man, according to one account a soldier, who, unwilling to hurt him, declined to fight a rich man, he thrust his pocket-book with bank notes to the extent of some hundreds of pounds into the fire, and, declaring he now owned nothing in the world, renewed the invitation to combat. After playing in Cork and Limerick he returned to Dublin. In June 1800 he accepted from Lewis, acting for Thomas Harris, an engagement for Covent Garden. What was practically his first appearance in London took place 31 Oct. ”

“ Lewis quoted.
“There are two men only who will not be ashamed to look their work in the face in the end—the brazen opportunist and the rigid Puritan. Suppose you had some desperate frontier work to get through with and a body of men to pick for it, whom would you take? Not the ordinary, colourless, respectable being, and still less academic nonentities! If I had my pick, my companions should either be the narrowest religionists or frank, unashamed blackguards. ”

“ While questioning the right of Lewis to the exclusive title of gentleman, Leigh Hunt considers that ‘vulgarity seems totally impossible to an actor of his manners.’ In characters such as Rover, full of frankness and vivacity, Lewis is conceded ‘an original excellence.’ He is said to be ‘the most complete fop on the stage,’ but is censured for extravagance of dress and for excessive indulgence in shaking of the head and respiration. ”

“ Ye can ride like a jockey and drive like a Jehu, and there’s no your equal in these parts with a gun or a fishing-rod. Forbye, I would rather walk ae mile on the hill wi’ ye than twae, for ye gang up a brae-face like a mawkin! God! There’s no a single man’s trade that ye’re no brawly fitted for. And then ye’ve a heap o’ book-lear that folk learned ye away about England, though I cannot speak muckle on that, no being a jidge.”
Lewis grinned at the portraiture. “You do me proud. But let’s talk about serious things. You were on sheep when I came in. ”

“ Lewis remained at Covent Garden to the close of his career, only quitting it on excursions to Liverpool in the summers of 1776 and 1777, to Birmingham in 1779, and to Dublin in 1806. During this period he played more characters, original and established, than almost any other English comedian on record. ”

“ Lewis stood aloof from all theatrical squabbles, and theatrical ana scarcely mention his name. The position he held for sixteen years of director of Covent Garden under Harris exposed him necessarily to attacks which he lived down. He was always original, and bestowed upon every part as much care as if his reputation depended upon it. ”

“ And when Elmer was about to slip out to the kitchen with her to make lemonade, Benham held him by demanding, "What do you think of John Wesley's doctrine of perfection?"
"Oh, it's absolutely sound and proven," admitted Elmer, wondering what the devil Mr. Wesley's doctrine of perfection might be. ”

“ Lewis shook his head dismally.
“I haven’t the knack of it. I seem to stand beside myself and jeer all the while. Besides, it would be opposing complete sincerity with a very shady substitute. That man Stocks is at least an honest fool. ”

“ He was worried lest during his late discontent he had imperiled his salvation. He was not quite sure there was a Heaven to be attained, but Dr. John Jennison Drew said there was, and Babbitt was not going to take a chance. ”

“ The hereditary Prince Lewis, the only Son of the Landgrave, who was born the 5th of April 1691, is a handsome Man, has a noble Air, dances well, mounts a Horse well, has Vivacity, Spirit, and Politeness, but is often thoughtful, melancholy, and goes for Retirement to the Woods, where he is passionately fond of Hunting; but is apt to create himself Uneasiness, and does not know how to dissemble it. Tho' he has all the Qualities necessary to shine in Company, yet he sees but very little. ”

“ He obtained a good common education from his own industry, as schools were scarce in those days. He is now living, and the oldest person in town. His age is 92.
2. Lewis, m. Betsy Coolidge; whose ch. were:—John Coolidge and Sarah Temple. His second wife was Lucy Keyes; whose ch. were:—Betsy Coolidge, Thomas Edwin, Mary Ann, d., Smyrna Sylvester and Lewis Lysander, (twins,) d., Lucy Ann and Mary Keyes. 3. Ruth, m. Jonathan Prescott; whose ch. were:—Jonathan, Bushrod Washington, Elizabeth, William, Sarah, George and Ruth Ann. Mr. Prescott was the first merchant in Gardner ”

“ If the People only make the Riches, the Father of ten Children is a greater Benefactor to his Country, than he who has added to it 10 000 Acres of Land and no People. It is certain
Lewis
has join'd vast Tracts of Land to his Dominions: But if
Philarithmus
says true, that he is not now Master of so many Subjects as before; we may then account for his not being able to bring such mighty Armies into the Field, and for their being neither so well fed, nor cloathed, nor paid as formerly. ”

“ The elephant-hunter saw by the light of the companion lamp that his face had fallen into more peaceful lines, heard that he hummed under his breath the bars of a song popular five years ago.
"Heine's a good soul," remarked Lewis. "He hogs the trade when he can, and he hogs the piers, and he swills his food, and he's a good deal of a beast in many ways—but he's a good soul."
The next morning the Gwendolin steamed away—after much miscellaneous shrieking inefficiency—leaving the Hohenzollern still gorging n'jugu nuts at the pier. ”

“ Lewis was still down town, three miles away, with his two-horse wagon, to get a load of manure. Lewis is the farmer (colored) . He is of mighty frame and muscle, stocky, stooping, ungainly, has a good manly face and a clear eye. Age about 45—and the most picturesque of men, when he sits in his fluttering work-day rags, humped forward into a bunch, with his aged slouch hat mashed down over his ears and neck. It is a spectacle to make the broken-hearted smile. Lewis has worked mighty hard and remained mighty poor. At the end of each whole year's toil he can't show a gain of fifty dollars. ”

“ One leading object of both commissioners was to associate the Maltese in the responsible government of the island. On his return to England Lewis succeeded his father as one of the principal poor-law commissioners. In 1841 appeared the Essay on the Government of Dependencies, a systematic statement and discussion of the various relations in which colonies may stand towards the mother country. In 1844 Lewis married Lady Maria Theresa Lister, sister of Lord Clarendon, and a lady of literary tastes. Much of their married life was spent in Kent House, Knightsbridge. They had no children. ”

“ He paints little pictures after the fashion he learned in Paris, and he has no force or vigor in him. His father was a dreamer, a wanderer, one who loved the world and its frivolities, and the son takes that temperament, softened by his mother. He ought to have a guardian.”
“He has one,” replied my father.
“A guardian!” repeated Lewis. “What court has appointed a guardian for young Marshall?”
“A court,” replied my father, “that does not sit under the authority of Virginia. The helpless, Lewis, in their youth and inexperience, are not wholly given over to the spoiler.” ”