212520_The_Adve ... _Way_Through_The_World.pdf - OUDL Home

ON HIS WAY THROUGH THE WORLD 495
correspondent writes that he has met the D-ke of W-ll-ngt-n,
had a private interview with the Pr-m-r, and so forth, who is to
say him nay? And this is the kind of talk our gobemouches of
New York delight in. My worthy friend, Doctor Geraldine, for
example—between ourselves his name is Finnigan, but his private
history is strictly entre nous—when he first came to New York
astonished the people by the copiousness of his anecdotes regarding
the English aristocracy, of whom he knows as much as he does of
the Court of Pekin. He was smart, ready, sarcastic, amusing ; he
found readers : from one success he advanced to another, and the
Gazette of the Upper Ten Thousand is likely to make this worthy
man's fortune. You really may be serviceable to him, and may
justly earn the liberal remuneration which he offers for a weekly
letter. Anecdotes of men and women of fashion—the more gay and
lively the more welcome—the quicquid agunt homines, in a word,
—should be the farrago libelli. Who are the reigning beauties of
London 1 and Beauty, you know, has a rank and fashion of its own.
Has any one lately won or lost on the turf or at play ? What are
the clubs talking about ? Are there any duels ? What is the last
scandal ? Does the good old Duke keep his health ? Is that affair
over between the Duchess of This and Captain That ?
" Such is the information which our badauds here like to have,
and for which my friend the Doctor will pay at the rate of __________
dollars per letter. Your name need not appear at all. The remuneration
is certain. C'est a prendre ou a laisser, as our lively
neighbours say. Write in the first place in confidence to me ; and
in whom can you confide more safely than in your father ?
" You will, of course, pay your respects to your relative the new
Lord of Ringwood. For a young man whose family is so powerful
as yours, there can surely be no derogation in entertaining some
feudal respect, and who knows whether and how soon Sir John
Ringwood may be able to help his cousin 1 By the way, Sir John
is a Whig, and your paper is a Conservative. But you are, above
all, homme du monde. In such a subordinate place as you occupy
with the Pall Mall Gazette, a man's private politics do not surely
count at all. If Sir John Ringwood, your kinsman, sees any way
of helping you, so much the better, and of course your politics will
be those of your family. I have no knowledge of him. He was a
very quiet man at college, where, I regret to say, your father's
friends were not of the quiet sort at all. I trust I have repented.
I have sown my wild oats. And ah! how pleased I shall be to
hear that my Philip has bent his proud head a little, and is ready
to submit more than he used of old to the customs of the world.
Call upon Sir John, then. As a Whig gentleman of large estate,