Needless to say, there is a great trade of caps in the town. There are
even hatters who sell caps torn and full of holes for the use of the
clumsy. But hardly any one but Bezuquet, the chemist, buys them. It is
dishonouring!
As a cap-hunter, Tartarin of Tarascon has no equal. Every Sunday morning
he starts with a new cap; every Sunday evening he returns with a rag. At
the little house with the baobab-tree the greenhouses were full of the
glorious trophies. For this reason all the Tarasconners recognised him
as their master, and as Tartarin knew the code of a sportsman through
and through, had read all the treatises, all the manuals of every
conceivable hunt, from the pursuit of caps to the pursuit of Bengal
tigers, these gentlemen made him their great sporting justicier, and
appointed him arbitrator in all their discussions.
Every day, from three to four, at Costecalde's the gunsmith, a fat man
was to be seen, very grave, with a pipe between his teeth, sitting in a
chair covered with green leather, in the middle of a shop full of
cap-hunters, all standing and wrangling. It was Tartarin of Tarascon
administering justice, Nimrod added to Solomon.
CONCERNING CHARLES LAMB
PERSONS ONE WOULD WISH TO HAVE SEEN
[Sidenote: _William Hazlitt_]
... "There is one person," said a shrill, querulous voice, "I would
rather see than all these--Don Quixote!"
"Come, come!" said Hunt; "I thought we should have no heroes, real or
fabulous.
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