Anonymous, 1823. Mrs. Casement’s at home. Bombay Gazette Wednesday 12 March 1823: 7-9
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| Location: |
Asia - South Asia - India |
| Subject: |
History |
| Species: |
Indian Rhino |
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Bombay Gazette - Wednesday 12 March 1823
Anon. 1823. Mrs. Casement’s at home. Bombay Gazette, Wednesday 12 March 1823: 7-9.
From Supplement to Indian Gazette, Feb. 17, 1823
pp. 7-9 [8]
Mrs. Casement’s At Home
We next fell in with that most sublime speculative genius Triptolemus Yellowley. He was most appropriately garnished out in every respect, and held forth with his wanted sapience on the usual subject, Quid faciat Iaetas segetes. He had about him several engraved copies of a most felicitous invention, which he modestly contended to have existed before the flood, and to have been merely revived, and reintroduced by himself. This was a machine yolept “The Rhinoceros plough with the LlVlNG principle; or self-acting Antediluvian Coulter, respectfully submitted to the agricultural society, as adapted in a peculiar manner to the LIGHT soils of Hindostan.”
The plough in question was drawn by three rhinoceroses, the first and foremost of whom had his horn performing the duty of a supplementary coulter, for it was buried in the ground. On the agriculturist's arm leaned the most adorable and desirable of damsels, his sister Miss Baby, dressed strctly according to the Shetland fashion. She vituperated India considerably, and scolded Tolemus exceedingly for going wowling about like a gommeril as he was, and dragging her after him to the East. The last charge Tolemus stoutly denied, hinting that had his wishes been consuited, Miss Baby never had trotted from her native land.
**Nay, lie avow ed that she had speculations of her own in coming to Calcutta that hearing something said about colonisation s she land determined upon proceeding to the Eastern Ophir. Baby resenttd these insinuations and then threw a great deal of ridicule upon the agriculturist's latest inventions and plans, his patent fog absorber, his musquitoe decomposer, his plan of making diamonds out of carbon, by burning the forests on the South-western frontier of Hindoostan : His proposal of raising a breed of and domesticating the animal called the ant eater s for the purpose of destroying white ants, &e. He bad also a glorious idea of turtling the Alligators of the Ganges to the use of man, and to render them docile as oxen in his agricultural labours. Baby turned sharply ul•on him and said, " Canat thou pull up Leviathan with a hook, or bore his tongue with a cord which thou letiest down 1"--I canna say exactly that 1 can," responded Trippy, " but omnia vincit labor,' tor the whilk that rhiming feull OVID says (mar s but I, labor ; for I doubt na but with labour and perseverance and Heaven's grace I suld be able to turn th• Alligators to the purposes of husbandry." **
Bryce Snaelsloot, the Pedlar, accompanied the agriculturist, and tried hard to make a good bargain of his Rhinoceros's plough engravings, as also to drive a brisk and knavish trade of the sundries which he had in his wallet.
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Mrs. Casement’s at home
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