THE MAN THAT WAS USED UPA Tale Of The Late Bugaboo And Kickapoo Campaign
_Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux, et fondez vous en eau!_
_La moitié; de ma vie a mis l' autre au tombeau._
-- Corneille
I CANNOT just now remember when or where I first made the acquaintance of that truly fine-looking fellow, Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith. Some one _did_ introduce me to the gentleman, I am sure - at some public meeting, I know very well - held about something of great importance, no doubt - at some place or other, I feel convinced, - whose name I have unaccountably forgotten. The truth is - that the introduction was attended, upon my part, with a degree of anxious embarrassment which operated to prevent any definite impressions of either time or place. I am constitutionally nervous - this, with me, is a family failing, and I can't help it. In especial, the slightest appearance of mystery - of any point I cannot exactly comprehend - puts me at once into a pitiable state of agitation.
There was something, as it were, remarkable - yes, _remarkable_, although this is but a feeble term to express my full meaning - about the entire individuality of the personage in question. He was, perhaps, six feet in height, and of a presence singularly commanding. There was an _air distingué_ pervading the whole man, which spoke of high breeding, and hinted at high birth. Upon this topic - the topic of Smith's personal appearance - I have a kind of melancholy satisfaction in being minute. His head of hair would have done honor to a Brutus; - nothing could be more richly flowing, or possess a brighter gloss. It was of a jetty black; - which was also the color, or more properly the no color of his unimaginable whiskers. You perceive I cannot speak of these latter without enthusiasm; it is not too much to say that they were the handsomest pair of whiskers under the sun. At all events, they encircled, and at times partially overshadowed, a mouth utterly unequalled. Here were the most entirely even, and the most brilliantly white of all conceivable teeth. From between them, upon every proper occasion, issued a voice of surpassing clearness, melody, and strength. In the matter of eyes, also, my acquaintance was pre-eminently endowed. Either one of such a pair was worth a couple of the ordinary ocular organs. They were of a deep hazel, exceedingly large and lustrous; and there was perceptible about them, ever and anon, just that amount of interesting obliquity which gives pregnancy to expression.
The bust of the General was unquestionably the finest bust I ever saw. For your life you could not have found a fault with its wonderful proportion. This rare peculiarity set off to great advantage a pair of shoulders which would have called up a blush of conscious inferiority into the countenance of the marble Apollo. I have a passion for fine shoulders, and may say that I never beheld them in perfection before. The arms altogether were admirably modelled. Nor were the lower limbs less superb. These were, indeed, the _ne plus ultra_ of good legs. Every connoisseur in such matters admitted the legs to be good. There was neither too much flesh, nor too little, - neither rudeness nor fragility. I could not imagine a more graceful curve than that of the _os femoris_, and there was just that due gentle prominence in the rear of the _fibula_ which goes to the conformation of a properly proportioned calf. I wish to God my young and talented friend Chiponchipino, the sculptor, had but seen the legs of Brevet Brigadier General John A. B. C. Smith.
