The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 03, No. 15, January, 1859 · Chapter 23Blue-Nose
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Many things thou askest, jackknife-bearing stranger, Much-conjecturing mortal, pork-and-treacle-waster! Pretermit thy whittling, wheel thine ear-flap toward me, Thou shalt hear them answered.
When the charge galvanic tingled through the cable, At the polar focus of the wire electric Suddenly appeared a white-faced man among us. Called himself "DE SAUTY."
As the small opossum held in pouch maternal Grasps the nutrient organ whence the term mammalia, So the unknown stranger held the wire electric, Sucking in the current.
When the current strengthened, bloomed the pale-faced stranger,— Took no drink nor victual, yet grew fat and rosy,— And from time to time, in sharp articulation, Said, "All right! DE SAUTY."
From the lonely station passed the utterance, spreading Through the pines and hemlocks to the groves of steeples, Till the land was filled with loud reverberations Of "All right! DE SAUTY."
When the current slackened, drooped the mystic stranger,— Faded, faded, faded, as the shocks grew weaker,— Wasted to a shadow, with a hartshorn odor Of disintegration.
Drops of deliquescence glistened on his forehead, Whitened round his feet the dust of efflorescence, Till one Monday morning, when the flow suspended, There was no De Sauty.
Nothing but a cloud of elements organic, C.O.H.N. Ferrum, Chor. Flu. Sil. Potassa, Calc. Sod. Phosph. Mag. Sulphur, Mang.(?) Alumin.(?) Cuprum,(?) Such as man is made of.
Born of stream galvanic, with it he had perished! There is no De Sauty now there is no current! Give us a new cable, then again we'll hear him Cry, "All right! DE SAUTY."
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