The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 24: what you’re looking at

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

THE STEAM PACKET. | fi) CHAPTER II. IN WHICH A MOST RESPECTABLE, ERUDITE, AND ENTERPRISING CLUB, WITH MR. PIFPAF, ITS CHAIRMAN, IS INTRODUCED TO THE READER. ® Mr. Pirpar presided over a club en- titled ‘‘The Luminaries;” but we know not from what source the frater- nity derived its appellation. Some maintained that the nomenclature took its origin in the fact that the light ;—others asserted that the simple circumstance of every member’s in- variably lighting his pipe the mo- ment he took his seat, conferred the distinction; — while a third party, more waggislily inclined than the other commentators, slyly hinted \ that the Latin phrase, ‘“‘lwcus a non lucendo” would, by analogy, sufficiently explain the origin of the celebrated title of ‘‘ Lumin- » aries.” Indeed, as this club had existed for a hundred and twenty years, had frequently been renewed by the admission of strangers, and had not always met at the same public-house, it is somewhat difficult to penetrate, with any degree of satisfaction, into those murky clouds which unfortunately obscure its sublime origin. Vainly have we ap- plied, in our anxiety to unravel the complicated skeins of this ‘deep mystery, and to throw the glare of the lantern of truth upon the dense obscurity of a palpable night,—vainly have we applied to Mr. Rum- tutch, the secretary, and to Mr. Tiptile, the treasurer, for information upon this head. Mr. Rumtutch, with that condescension for which this gentleman is so pre-eminently distinguished (a virtue not always found in truly great men), immediately submitted his books to our in- spection; but as the first entry was as follows :—‘“‘ Proposed by Mr. Turnchurch, seconded by Mr. Glassnose, and carried unanimously, after several eloquent harangues upon the nature of the motion, that welsh-rabbits be now introduced ;”—as this was the first entry, we say, in the books of Mr. Rumtutch, and as his successor had con- verted his books into pipe-lights for the benefit of the club, no infor-. mation was to be gleaned from that source. Our application to the treasurer was also fruitless. All we could elicit from him, (for he Gomicbooks club always assembled by candle- - (E(0)