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The Anecdotage of Glasgow
Mr. Carrick and the black coat


THE late Mr. Carrick of renowned local celebrity as a literary man and a wit, author of The Life of Sir William Wallace, was exceedingly ready in giving a humorous turn to conversation, and in making his inferences tell with the happiest effect on the arguments of an adversary. Mr. Carrick happened to be present at a dining party, where a recent importation from Sam Slick’s country was holding large discourse on the advantages—political, moral, social, natural, and intellectual—of America.

"Ay," says one, "your liberty, too—how universal! no preference. Noah’s descendants, of all shades, blend so delightfully."

"Ah, what of that black population; they are only fit for ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’; or, as so many of them are, raisers of tobacco, cotton, and sugar; and, hark ye, I had rather be a marble-headed negro in the Virginian or other Southern States than one of your Paisley weavers.’

"Ye would," remarked Mr. Carrick; "aye be sure of a black coat to your back, at ony rate."

Of course the reader is aware that the blot on the American escutcheon hit at in the above anecdote was wiped out in the late Civil War, at the cost of seas of blood, and heaps of money.


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