MR. PUNCH, My dear Sir,--I skurcely need inform you that your
excellent Tower is very pop'lar with peple from the agricultooral
districks, and it was chiefly them class which I found waitin at
the gates the other mornin.
I saw at once that the Tower was established on a firm basis. In
the entire history of firm basisis I don't find a basis more
firmer than this one.
"You have no Tower in America?" said a man in the crowd, who had
somehow detected my denomination.
"Alars! no," I ansered; "we boste of our enterprise and
improvements, and yit we are devoid of a Tower. America, oh my
onhappy country! thou hast not got no Tower! It's a sweet Boon."
The gates was opened after awhile, and we all purchist tickets
and went into a waitin-room.
"My frens," said a pale-faced little man, in black close, "this
is a sad day."
"Inasmuch as to how?" I said.
"I mean it is sad to think that so many peple have been killed
within these gloomy walls. My frens, let us drop a tear!"
"No," I said, "you must excuse me. Others may drop one if they
feel like it; but as for me, I decline. The early managers of
this institootion were a bad lot, and their crimes were trooly
orful; but I can't sob for those who died four or five hundred
years ago. If they was my own relations I couldn't. It's absurd
to shed sobs over things which occurd during the rain of Henry
the Three. Let us be cheerful," I continnerd "Look at the festiv
Warders, in their red flannil jackets. They are cheerful, and
why should it not be thusly with us?"
A Warder now took us in charge, and showed us the Trater's Gate,
the armers, and things. The Trater's Gate is wide enuff to admit
about twenty trater's abrest, I should jedge; but beyond this, I
couldn't see that it was superior to gates in gen'ral.
Traters, I will here remark, are a onfortnit class of peple. If
they wasn't, they wouldn't be traters. They conspire to bust up
a country--they fail, and they're traters. They bust her, and
they become statesmen and heroes.
Take the case of Gloster, afterwards Old Dick the Three, who may
be seen at the Tower, on horseback, in a heavy tin overcoat--take
Mr. Gloster's case. Mr. G. was a conspirater of the basist dye,
and if he'd failed, he would have been hung on a sour apple tree.
But Mr. G. succeeded, and became great. He was slewd by Col.
Richmond, but he lives in histry, and his equestrian figger may
be seen daily for a sixpence, in conjunction with other em'nent
persons, and no extra charge for the Warder's able and bootiful
lectur.
There's one king in the room who is mounted onto a foamin steed,
his right hand graspin a barber's pole. I didn't learn his name.
The room where the daggers and pistils and other weppins is kept
is interestin. Among this collection of choice cutlery I notist
the bow and arrer which those hot-heded old chaps used to conduct
battles with. It is quite like the bow and arrer used at this
day by certin tribes of American Injuns, and they shoot 'em off
with such a excellent precision that I almost sigh'd to be a
Injun, when I was in the Rocky Mountain regin. They are a
pleasant lot them Injuns. Mr. Cooper and Dr. Catlin have told us
of the red man's wonerful eloquence, and I found it so. Our
party was stopt on the plains of Utah by a band of Shoshones,
whose chief said:
"Brothers! the pale-face is welcome. Brothers! the sun is
sinkin in the West, and Wa-na-bucky-she will soon cease speakin.
Brothers! the poor red man belongs to a race which is fast
becomin extink."
He then whooped in a shrill manner, stole all our blankets and
whisky, and fled to the primeval forest to conceal his emotions.
I will remark here, while on the subjeck of Injuns, that they are
in the main a very shaky set, with even less sense than the
Fenians, and when I hear philanthropists bewailin the fack that
every year "carries the noble red man nearer the settin sun," I
simply have to say I'm glad of it, tho' it is rough on the settin
sun. They call you by the sweet name of Brother one minit, and
the next they scalp you with their Thomashawks. But I wander.
Let us return to the Tower.
At one end of the room where the weppins is kept, is a wax figger
of Queen Elizabeth, mounted on a fiery stuffed hoss, whose glass
eye flashes with pride, and whose red morocker nostril dilates
hawtily, as if conscious of the royal burden he bears. I have
associated Elizabeth with the Spanish Armady. She's mixed up
with it at the Surry Theatre, where "Troo to the Core" is bein
acted, and in which a full bally core is introjooced on board the
Spanish Admiral's ship, givin the audiens the idee that he
intends openin a moosic-hall in Plymouth the moment he conkers
that town. But a very interesting drammer is "Troo to the Core,"
notwithstandin the eccentric conduck of the Spanish Admiral; and
very nice it is in Queen Elizabeth to make Martin Truegold a
baronet.
The Warder shows us some instrooments of tortur, such as
thumbscrews, throat-collars, etc., statin that these was conkerd
from the Spanish Armady, and addin what a crooil peple the
Spaniards was in them days--which elissited from a bright eyed
little girl of about twelve summers the remark that she tho't it
WAS rich to talk about the crooilty of the Spaniards usin
thumbscrews, when we was in a Tower where so many poor pepl's
heads had been cut off. This made the Warder stammer and turn
red.
I was so blessed with the little girl's brightness that I could
have kissed the dear child, and I would if she'd been six years
older.
I think my companions intended makin a day of it, for they all
had sandwiches, sassiges, etc. The sad-lookin man, who had
wanted us to drop a tear afore we started to go round, fling'd
such quantities of sassige into his mouth, that I expected to see
him choke hisself to death. He said to me, in the Beauchamp
Tower, where the poor prisoners writ their onhappy names on the
cold walls, "This is a sad sight."
"It is, indeed," I anserd. "You're black in the face. You
shouldn't eat sassige in public without some rehearsals
beforehand. You manage it orkwardly."
"No," he said, "I mean this sad room."
Indeed, he was quite right. Tho' so long ago all these drefful
things happened, I was very glad to git away from this gloomy
room, and go where the rich and sparklin Crown Jewils is kept. I
was so pleased with the Queen's Crown, that it occurd to me what
a agree'ble surprise it would be to send a sim'lar one home to my
wife; and I asked the Warder what was the vally of a good,
well-constructed Crown like that. He told me, but on cypherin up
with a pencil the amount of funs I have in the Jint Stock Bank, I
conclooded I'd send her a genteel silver watch instid.
And so I left the Tower. It is a solid and commandin edifis, but
I deny that it is cheerful. I bid it adoo without a pang.
I was droven to my hotel by the most melancholly driver of a
four-wheeler that I ever saw. He heaved a deep sigh as I gave
him two shillings.
"I'll give you six d.'s more," I said, "if it hurts you so."
"It isn't that," he said, with a hart-rendin groan, "it's only a
way I have. My mind's upset to-day. I at one time tho't I'd
drive you into the Thames. I've been readin in all the daily
papers to try and understand about Governor Ayre, and my mind is
totterin. It's really wonderful I didn't drive you into the
Thames."
I asked the onhappy man what his number was, so I could redily
find him in case I should want him agin, and bad him good-bye.
And then I tho't what a frollicksome day I'd made of it.
Respectably, &c.
Artemus Ward.