Heads of the people Author:English Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE "LION" OF A PARTY. EDITED BY HENRY BROWNRIGO, ESQ. A Subtle Italian, no less a man than the Count Pecchio, has called London " the grave of great reput... more »ations." In simple, prosaic phrase, this our glorious metropolis is—a vast cemetery for " Lions !" They are whelped every season ; and, frail and evanescent as buttercups, they every season die : that is, they do not die body and bones, but have a most fatal cutaneous and depilatory disorder—a mortality that goes skin-deep, and little more—a disease that strips them of their hide, and tail, and mane ; yea, that makes the very " Lions" that, but a few months since, shook whole coteries with the thunder of their voices, roar as " gently as any sucking-doves." The ferocious dignity of the " Lion " in fine condition—the grimness of his smile—the lashing might of his muscular tail—all the grand and terrible attributes of the leonine nature, pass away with the season—he is no longer a thing of wonder, a marvellously-gifted creature, at which " rthe boldest hold their breath, For a time," but a mere biped—simply, a human animal—a man, and nothing more ! He walks and talks unwatched amid a crowd ; and spinsters who, but a year before, would have scarcely suppressed " a short, shrill shriek " at his approach, let him pass with an easy and familiar nod—it may be, even with a nod of patronage ; or, if it happen that they remember his merits of the past season, they speak of them with the same philosophical coldness with which they would touch upon the tails and ears of a long-departed spaniel. It is a sad thing for a "Lion" to outlive his majesty ; to survive his nobler attributes,—it may be, lost to him in the very prime of life, thus leaving him bereft of all life's graces. And yet, how many men —" Lions" once, with flo...« less