The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 160: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE STEAM PACKET, “Jh9 a nice hot glass of rum-punch; and this little circumstatice contri- ‘buted to place them, ere the entertainments were concluded, upon the very best possible footing in the world. Indeed Mr. Pifpaf commu- ‘nicated to his new acquaintance all that was worth recording in respect to the club of Luminaries; and, by way of return for this manifesta- tion of confidence, Mr. Dakins informed Mr. Pifpaf that he was a sport- ing gentleman of considerable renown—that he had a large stud at -Newmarket—that he was over in France on a secret mission from the English Jockey Club,—and that he was engaged to sup after the Play ‘with some English acquaintances in a street close by, where Mr. Pifpaf -would be as welcome as possible. It was also hinted, as an additional inducement, that the amiable Mrs. Dakins would be of the party; and ‘Mr. Pifpaf, rendered emollient by the punch, suffered himself to be persuaded to accompany his new friends to the supper party alluded to. This entertainment was given by a Mr. Nagle, a gentleman who car- ‘ried on the ostensible business of lace-weaver, and the private one of smuggler, to very considerable advantage. Mr. Nagle was, indeed, a ‘very singular personage both in outward appearance and inward disposi- tion. The snuffers of destiny had extinguished the light of his left -eye, in an affray with Custom-House officers, near Ostend; but his right one was left—and this is no pun. To look upon his right eye was -to gaze upon the large dull cirele of dead green glass fixed in a ship’s deck. He had also been deprived of his left leg without his own consent. It was thus:—wandering one night near a garden, he casually hap- pened to climb over the wall. This occurred in England; and the shadow of a cloud interposed between the moon and ‘‘ Wan-Traps,” which was obscurely traced in white characters upon a black board, and prevented his taking advantage of the kind caution—even had he known how to read. Attracted to a house by fate, and the family plate,—the former in the shape of an iron trap, fastened its fangs like ‘the Prodigal’s, upon the “ fatted ealf,”—and the loss of his limb was ‘the consequence. The limb of a tree—as the Americans would say— then became a necessary resource—nay, even a means of support. Mr. Nagle’s house was small, but commodious; and as he was a batchelor, the guests were solicited to take things just as they might find them—a request with which they considerately agreed to comply. Several other ladies and gentlemen were assembled, when, Mr. Pifpaf and his new acquaintances entered the apartment where Mr. Nagle, ‘surrounded by his guests, seemed to be the central light of a small planetary system of constellations, evidently formed of matter homo- ‘geneous with that of which he himself was constructed. The guests were all English; and had we the skilful pen of the Court Scribe, we ~ | Gomichooks: co