2. CHAP. II.
Containing Observations.
The gentleman who thus advised the Captain,
though a grave man, I do not think was serious. He
has been what we call a wag, and wished to amuse himself
with the extravagance of introducing Teague as a
candidate for public offices, and taking him to the Levee.
For the Irishman was certainly in no very decent apparel
to appear at the court, even of a republic. The
jacket and trowsers, or overalls, as some call them,
that he had upon him, though of rough materials,
being a coarse tow linen, that had not had but one
boiling before it was made up, were not even whole;
what is more, not clean, not that he had voluntarily
on some great occasion, for a public or private calamity,
as was the manner of the Jews, rent his garments,
and put on sackcloth, and strewed ashes on his head;
but what came to the same thing, by lying by the fire
side at night, and wrestling in the day with the hostler,
and servants at the tavern, he was reduced to the same
raggedness and ash-powdered state.
Nevertheless, though there might not have been
time to have washed his duds; yet a patch or two might
have been put upon his vestments; a considerable impression
having been made upon his flank, by a sharp
point; and his rear being uncovered, a hand's-breadth
or more; unless indeed his breeches had been taken off
altogether, and he had come forward, a real sans
culotte, without any thing on his backside at all.
