what the hell's a fluin?

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

The following passage appeared in the New-York American, November 1,
1822:

        "Two honourable gentlemen, late representatives in Congress from
Oneida County, [N. Y.], were unanimously appointed Poets Laureate to
the Unadilla Hunt.  The Hon. Henry Clay and Jesse Bledsoe of Kentucky
were elected honorary members -- it being understood that the former
was unrivaled as a fluin [italicized], and the latter equally
distinuished as a shot."

        The word is hard to read on the microfilm, but is unquestionably, (I
think) "fluin".   I note a word "flugen" or "flujin" in DARE and DAE,
but the meaning -- it's a form of expletive or an expression of
emphasis -- seems inappropriate to this context.  The report is
introduced as a special report to the American, and concerns the
doings of a hunt club in one of the northern counties.

GAT