Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-03-02
Making n Night of 1t.
By DICKENS.

Damon and Pythias were undoubtedly
very good fellows in their way: the for
mer for his extreme readiness to put in
special bail for friend, and the latter for
a certain trump-like punctuality in turning
up Just in the very nick of time, scarcely
less remarkable. Many points in their
character have however grown obsolete.
Damons are rather hard to find in these
days of Imprisonment for debt except
the sham ones, and theycost half-a-cIown) J
and, as to the Pythiases, the few that have
existed in these degenerate times have had
an unfortunate knack Of making them
selves scaice at the very moment when
their appearance would have been strictly
classical. If the actions of these heroes,
however, can find no parallel in modern
times, their friendship can. We have
Damon and Pythias on the one hand
Potter and Smithers on the other; and
lest the two aforementioned names should
never have reached the cars of our unen-
.lightened readers, we can do no better than
make them acquainted with the owners
thereof .a...... ..
Mr.. Thomas Potter, then, was a clerk
in the city, and Mr.. Robert Smithers was
a ditto in the same; their incomes were
limited, but their friendship was un-
bounded. They lived in the same street,
walked into town every morning at the
same hour, dined at the same slap-bang
every day, and revelled in each others
company every night. They were knit
together by the closest ties of intimacy
and friendship, or, as Mr.. Thomas Potter
touchiugly observed, they were "thick-
and-thin pals, and nothing butt" There
was spice of romance in Mr.. Smither's
disposition, ray of poetry, gleam of
misery; sort of consciousness of he
didn't exactly know what, coming across
him he didn't precisely know why which
stood out in fine relief against the of-h hand,
dashing amateur pickp kpocket-sort-of-ma
ner, which distinguished Mr.. Potter in an
eminent degree. ...,... ......l ,
The popularity of their respective dis
positions, extended itself to their individ-
ual costume. Mr.. Smithers generally ap
peared in public in a surtout and shoes,
with narrow, black neckerchief and
brown hat, very much turned up at the
sides-peculiarities which Mr.. Potter
wholly esche we'd, for it was his ambition
to do something in the celebrated "kiddy"
or stage-coach way; and he had even gone
so far as to invest capital in the purchase
of rough blue-coat with wooden buttons,
made upon. the freman's principle, in
which, with the addition of low-crowned,
fiowerpot- -saucer-shaped hat, he had Gre
ated no inconsiderable sensation at the
Albion, in Little Russellstreet,a and divers
other places of public and fashionable re.
sort. rr- 81. a.a s .a.r..
Mr. Potter and Mr.. Smithers had mu-
tuaIly agreed that on the receipt of their
quarters salary, they would Jointly and
in company "spend the evening''-an ev-
lent misnomer-the spending applying,
as every body. knows, not to the evening
itself, but to all the money the individual
! may chance to be possessed of on the oc-
casion to which reference is made; and
they had further agreed that, on the even
ing aforesaid, they would "nake a night
of it"--an expressive term, implying the
borrowing Of several hours from to-mor-
row morning, adding them to the night
before, and manufacturing compound
of the whole. ' '
/ The .quarter-day arrived at last--we
say at last, because quarter-days are as ec-
centric as comets, moving wonderfully
quick when you have good deal to pay,
and maryelously slow when you have a
little to receive. Mr.. Thomas Potter and
/ mfr. Robert Smithers met by appointment
to begin the evening with dinner; and a
nice, snug, comfortable dinner, they had,