"Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle; as years of matrimony rolled on; a tart temper never mellows with age, and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with use. For a long while he used to console himself, when driven from home, by frequenting a King of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personnages of the village; which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by rubicund portrait of his majesty George the Third. Here they used to sit in the shade, of a long, lazy summer's day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling endless sleepy stories about nothing. But it would have been worth any states-man's money to have heard the profound discussions that sometimes took place, when by chance an old newspaper fell into their hands from some passing traveler. How solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled out by Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper, learned little man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the dictionary, and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some months after they had taken place." From "Rip Van Winkle," Washington Irvings's "Sketch Book." [P. 7.]
Catalogue of Pictures, Statuary, and Bronzes in the Gallery of Joseph Harrison, Jr., Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. 1870.
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