St. Cloud visiter [sic]. [volume] (St. Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1857-1858, 1858-06-17
Cards and Coquetry.

CARDS ana C0Quetry.
1t was our good fortune once, in the
course Of our life, to be in genteel society
for two whole weeks; and as nothing of the
kind ever happened to us before or since, or
is ever again likely to happen, it may well
be supposed the event made very indel-
lible impression upon our mind. 1T was
while VIC were exhibiting our bridal inery,
in Southern city, and had taken lodgings
in a fashionable boarding house kept BY
widow with daughters to marry.
Here for the first and last time, we were
in daily intercourse with women who were
hawking themselves and their female rel
atives in the matrimonial market, asking
for bids. Here, for the first and last time,
we were behind the scenes with women
who practiced the art Of husband catching
as trade; andcertainly We never shall for
get the scenes We witnessed; time has in no
sense weakened the impression Of loathing
and disgust which We there acquired for
the sublime arts of cards and coquet-
~.
The parlors were spacious and elegantly
furnished. Pictures and Statuettes gave
them an air of taste and refinement, while
the Upholster had made them, not only
comfortable, but luxurious. The kitchen
1eaked with nastiness. The chambers Of
the guests were finely furnished and mis-
erbly kept; and the whole family, the mo-
ther, two young lady daughters, three boys,
ranging from fourteen years Of age to eight,
and a lady relative with an infant, all occu-
pied one not large chamber, in which the
bedding consisted Of few bags Of fine
shavings and some soiled spreads.
The wardrobes groaned with costly dres-
cs and the jewelry boxes with expensive
gewgaws.
The women were all pretty and bright;
but especially tho little woman with the
baby. Her husband was absent, pursuing
some honorable calling to give-a living for
her and their child, and the means thus
acquired were spent in fnery while she
and her child spent their sleeping hours
in absolute saualor. s ..s....s...
We had been brought up in that old
Scotch Irish sense Of female honor, which
still appears to us to be the true sense;
and which adjudges that the unmarried
woman who receive attentions, from any
man, which may make him feel at liberty
to propose marriage when she does not in
tend to accept his proposal, has been guilty
of a great indelicacy; and that the mar
ried woman who willingly receives love-
like attention from any other man than
her husband has committed crime which
should exclude her from respectable soci-
ETY..
We had never, up to this time, seen a
pack Of cards; and when we saw the little
wife and older widow take seat at the
card table with two Of the gentlemen
boarders, while all four held dainty little
cigar i'll their teeth, and pulled away with
that easy nonchalance peculiar to old prac-
titioners at the weed, we thought the world
never had contained anything so disgust
ing as cards in woman's hand.
1t did not seem so much out Of place
for men to handle them We had seen
men smoke, and had heard Of their play
ing cards; but these little jeweled fingers
taking the cigar out of the lips which
should have been lying on baby's cheek,
tipping of the ashes and restoring it to the
custody Of the teeth! Oh dear! -
Night after mig ht the amusement was
kept up, sometimes with the widow at the
table, and sometimes one Of the young Ia
dies; but always the mother Of the babe,
who might wall, or wake or sleep as suited
him best, while his mothers midnight
hours were spent at the card table prac-
ticins little coquettish airs for the especial
benefit OF her private partner, young gen
tleman, who paid the forfeits in confection-
ary and ice cream. They made no attempt
to conceal from us the asides of little bick-
erings and jealousies between the ladies,
about their partners.
They had whole battalions Of pretty lit
tie arts in the way of dress and charms,
the object of which was to attract the
attention and win the favor of the
gentlemen. They appeared to have no
idea Of there being anything mean or dis
honorable about it, or that such social GUS
toms had any connection with that state of