him on the shoulder to awaken him, very sapiently inquired, if he might clean his shoes. George, with infinite presence of mind, replied, that it was not material, but "go (says he) and ask my brother Tom if you may clean his." The poor fellow did as he was bid, and probably as he would have done if he had not been bidden; and Tom's slumbers became victims also, to the same momentous investigation. The major took care to relate the circumstance at the breakfast table, and, of course, obtained a unanimous suffrage to his opinion, that the captain's recruit was not exceeding wise.

Although Etherington was extremely deficient in literature, few persons possessed more acuteness of intellect, or a happier talent for prompt replication. A warm dispute having one day taken place at the coffee house, between Mr. Bradford, who kept it, and Mr. Delancey of New-York, in which the parties appeared to be proceeding to blows, major Etherington stepped between them and separated them. The next day, on a supposition of partiality to Delancey, he was roundly taken to task by Bradford. He ob served, that he had merely interfered as a common friend to both. No, sir, said Bradford, you were the decided champion of Delancey, you laid your hands upon me, and kept your face to me, while your back was turned to him. Very well then, sir, said Etherington, with quickness, I treated you politely, and Mr. Delancey with a rudeness for which I owe him an apology. A ready, unexpected turn of this kind, has always a good effect on the bye standers, and they accordingly lent their aid in restoring good. humor. X

As I have said that the major commenced his military career in the humblest walks of his profession, the reader may expect to hear of the exploits which produced his extraordinary promotion. But it was not to martial prowess that he owed it. The world

war.

gave out, that a certain wealthy widow of the county of New-Castle, became enamoured of him, and first purchased him a commission. His saving knowledge soon enabled him to purchase a better one, and from a captaincy, the station in which I first knew him, he had risen to that of a colonel, when I last saw him in Philadelphia, just at the approach of the What then brought him there is uncertain. He was, however, taken notice of by the committee of safety; required to hasten his departure, and in the mean time, put under his parole. He endeavored to make a jest of the matter, by assuring them, that they need not be under the least apprehension of his going an inch nearer to the scene where fighting was to be looked for. He several times called to see us while in town, and observing me in the light infantry uniform, he undertook to recommend to me, between banter and earnest, that if I inclined to a military life, at once to get a commission in the British service, which, he would charge himself to procure for me: That as to our idle parade of war, it would vanish in smoke, or, if seriously persisted in, would infallibly terminate in our disgrace, if not ruin. I asked him if he had been to see us exercise. "Oh no," said he, "that would be highly improper ; we make it a point in the army never to look at aukward men; we hold it unpolite.' The colonel was no doubt correct in his opinion of our tactics; though I was nettled a little at his contemptuous manner of treating us. But I here dismiss him with the observation, that he was a singular man, who knew the world and turned that knowledge to his advantage. He had certainly much mental ability, and of a cast, which he himself conceived would have well qualified him for the bar; a profession, for which, he has told me, nature intended him. In this estimate of his talents, however, it is not improbable, that he might have attributed too much to management and chicane, which had essentially availed him in the busi ness of recruiting: For he valued himself upon

them here; and I well remember that upon my mʊther's telling him of captain Anstruther, who had recruited in his absence, sending a drum about before he left the city, to proclaim, that if any one had been aggrieved by him or his party, to call upon him and he should be redressed, he replied“And was'nt he a dd fool for his pains?" In mentioning captain Anstruther it occurs to me, that he may be the same who is stated to have fallen as a general officer in the battle of Corunna.

There were two other majors, with whose company we were a long time favored. These were majors Small and Fell; and if names had any appropriation to the persons of those who bear them, these might very well have been interchanged; for Small was a stout, athletic man, who might be supposed to possess a capacity for felling, while the other was one of the smallest men I have seen. Some one asking one day, if major Small was at home? "No," says Fell, "but the small major is." Small is a principal figure in Trumbull's print of the death of Warren. He is represented in the humane attitude of putting aside with his sword BriLish bayonet, aimed at the breast of the dying patriot.

Another officer of the British army, who was sometime our inmate, is suggested by a notice of his death in the monthly magazine of March, 1807. This was general John Reid, who is stated to have died in his 87th year, the oldest officer in the service. In this account of him, it is said, that in the meredian of his life, he was esteemed the best gentleman German-flute perforiner in England: that he was also particularly famed for his taste in the composition of military music, and that his marches are still admired. This gentleman was a colonel at the time I speak of him. His fame as a performer on the flute I recollect, as also to have heard him play: but probably I was too little of a connoiseur to

duly appreciate his talents. I cannot say that my expectations were fully answered; his tones were low and sweet, but the tunes he played were so disguised and overloaded with variations, as with me to lose much of their melody.

From these gentlemen of the army, I pass to one of the navy, rude and boisterous as the element to which he belonged. His name I think was Wallace, the commander of a ship of war on the American station, and full fraught, perhaps with the ill humor of the mother country towards her colonies, which she was already beginning to goad to independence. His character upon the coast, was that of being insolent and brutal beyond his peers; and his deportment as a lodger, was altogether of a piece with it. Being asked by my mother, who, by the desire of the gentlemen, was in the custom of tak◆ ing the head of her table, if he would be helped to a dish that was near her, "Damme, madam,” replied the ruffian, "it is, to be supposed that at a pubhic table every man has a right to help himself, anď this I mean to do." With a tear in her eye she besought him to pardon her, assuring him that in future, he should not be offended by her officiousness.

At another time, when Joseph Church of Bris ol, who has already been mentioned as a friend of he family, was in town and at our house, which, in his visits to the city, he always made his home, my mother mentioned to the gentlemen, who were about sitting down to supper, but three or four in number, of whom captain Wallace was one, that there was a friend of her's in the house, a very honest, plain man of the society of Friends, and beg ged to know if it would be agreeable to them that he should be brought in to supper. They all rea dily assented, and none with more alacrity than Wallace. Accordingly Mr. Church was introduced, and sat down. During supper, the captain directed

G

his chief discourse to him, interlarded with a deal of very course and insolent raillery on his broad brim, &c. Church bore it all very patiently until after supper, when he at length ventured to say— Captain, thou hast made very free with me, and "asked me a great many questions, which I have "endeavored to answer to thy satisfaction: Wilt ❝thou now permit me to ask-thee one in my turn ?” "Oh, by all means," exclaimed the captain, any "thing that you please, friend-what is it?" "Why "then, I wish to be informed, what makes thee drink so often; art thou really dry every time "thou carriest the liquor to thy mouth?" This was a home thrust at the seaman, whose frequent potations had already produced a degree of intoxication. At once, forgetting the liberties he had taken, and the promise he had given of equal freedom in return, he broke out into a violent rage, venting himself in the most indecent and illiberal language, and vociferating, with an unlucky logic which recoiled upon himself "What! do you think I am like a hog, only to drink when I am dry?" But matters had gone too far for a reply; and the object of his wrath very prudently left the table and the room as expeditiously as possible. It cannot be denied, that there was some provocation in the question proposed: but he knows little of the Quaker character, who does not know, that the non-resisting tenet does not prohibit the use of dry sarcasm, which here was unquestionably in its place.

It would be easy to extend these biographical details; but my materials, at best, are too deficient in interest to warrant much presumption on the patience of the reader: I shall therefore only add to the list, the names of Hancock and Washington, each of whom had at different times sojourned at our cara

vansary.

Yet another, of some eminence, though not ex