From the Easy Chair, vol 1

From the Easy Chair, vol 1

Project Gutenberg's From the Easy Chair, vol. 1, by George William
Curtis #3 in our series by George William Curtis [See also etext #7445
for additional "Easy Chair" stories]
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the
copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing
this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: From the Easy Chair, vol. 1
Author: George William Curtis
Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7475] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 7, 2003]
Edition: 10

Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE
EASY CHAIR, VOL. 1 ***

Produced by Eric Eldred, Brendan Lane and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: Portrait of the author]
FROM THE EASY CHAIR
BY
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS

"I shall from Time to Time Report and Consider all Matters of what
Kind Soever that shall occur to Me." --THE TATLER.

CONTENTS.
EDWARD EVERETT IN 1862 AT THE OPERA IN 1864 EMERSON
LECTURING SHOPS AND SHOPPING MRS. GRUNDY AND THE
COSMOPOLITAN DICKENS READING [1867] PHILLIS
THOREAU AND MY LADY CAVALIERE HONESTUS AT THE
CAUCUS THALBERG AND OTHER PIANISTS [1871] URBS AND
RUS RIP VAN WINKLE A CHINESE CRITIC HOLIDAY
SAUNTERING WENDELL PHILLIPS AT HARVARD [1881]
EASTER BONNETS JENNY LIND THE TOWN SARAH SHAW
RUSSELL STREET MUSIC A LITTLE DINNER WITH
THACKERAY CECILIA PLAYING THE MANNERLESS SEX
ROBERT BROWNING IN FLORENCE PLAYERS UNMUSICAL
BOXES THE ACADEMY DINNER IN ARCADIA

EDWARD EVERETT IN 1862.
The house was full, and murmurous with the pleasant chat and rustling
movement of well-dressed persons of both sexes who waited patiently

the coming of the orator, looking at the expanse of stage, which was
carpeted, and covered with rows of settees that went backward from the
footlights to a landscape of charming freshness of color, that might
have been set for the "Maid of Milan" or the pastoral opera. Between
the seats and the foot-lights was a broad space, upon which stood a
small table and two or three chairs; and if the orator of the evening, like
a primo tenore, had been surveying the house through the friendly
chinks of the pastoral landscape, he would have felt a warm suffusion
of pleasure that his name should be the magic spell to summon an
audience so fair, so numerous, and so intelligent.
There were ushers who showed ladies to seats, and with their
dress-coats and bright badges looked like a milder Metropolitan police.
But no greater force was presumed to be required of them than pressing
aside a too discursive crinoline. In the soft, ample light, as the audience
sat with fluttering ribbons and bright gems and splendid silks and
shawls, so tranquilly expectant, so calmly smiling, so shyly blushing (if,
haply, in all that crowd there were a pair of lovers!), it was hard to
believe that civil war was wasting the land, and that at the very moment
some of those glad hearts were broken--but would not know it until the
sad news came. Yet it was easy, in the same glance, to feel that even
the terrible shape that we thought we had eluded forever did not seem,
after all, so terrible; that even civil war might be shaking the gates and
the guests still smile in the chambers.
But while leaning against the wall, under the balcony, the Easy Chair
looks around upon the humming throng and thinks of camps far away,
and beating drums and wild alarms and sweeping squadrons of battle,
there is a sudden hush and a simultaneous glance towards one side of
the house, and there, behind the seats at the side, and making for the
stage door, marches a procession, two and two, very solemn, very bald,
very gray, and in evening dress. They are the invited guests, the
honored citizens of Brooklyn, the reverend clergy, and others; a body
of substantial, intelligent, decorous persons. They disappear for a
moment within the door, and immediately emerge upon the stage with a
composed