"Empyreumatical Mackerel"
Sirs:
In his remark about the empyreumatical mackerel (TIME, May 26), Mr. Fly was on the right scent, but he failed to tell us anything about his authority for the quotation. Crabbed, although highly interesting, John Randolph of Roanoke shot it at Henry ("Mill-boy of the Slashes") Clay. His exact language seems to be in dispute. Bartlett puts it: "So brilliant, yet so corrupt, which, like a rotten mackerel by moonlight, shines and stinks." Personally one better likes the version employed in the life of Randolph, in The American Statesmen series of...
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