Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-03-25
Gclcttc0 nlistcllanD.
Letter from an Agonised Man.

To tie Eaitor IF the Boston Transcript:
My name is Muf. | am married
man. have a wife, one son and two
daughters. was happy once, but
iend has usurped my quiet home of late,
and my peace has fed. The name of
this demon is Society" in the fashion
able acceptation of the word Mrs.
Muff was once as notable as she was
comfy, and managed my transformations
household affairs with a wise economy,
and yet in liberal and genteel manner
Mrs. Muff was also most excellent mo-
ther-lenient, and yet good disciple
marian. My children always minded
when spoken to, were punctual at table,
and ate with fork, thank heaven -
Look on that picture and now on this"
as they say in Macbeth | quote from
memory, Mr.. Editor, and will you also
have an eye to my punctuation ? for |
was put at private school, and don't know
much about it. BY the bye, Mrs Muf
always disdained throwing away educa-
tional advantages, just because they were
public, and used to say: Jeremiah,
dear, if anything ever happens to me,
promise me Harry shall always 90 to
public school," (sho used to call me
jeremiah Hep,) and would add face
tiously--for Matilda is witty--"at pri-
vate school it is all pay and little profit,
while parents have all the work to do
with the children at home" Forgive
nc that | loiter over the past.
Well, Harry became nineteen and
Jane seventeen, when mother, son and
daughter were bedevileG at one time,
and tie demon begat in them such a
swarm Of vani,ies that | eau compare
them only to flies in June. Harry began
to talk slang, wants fast crab to tote
over the road, " seized night key, and
never tells where he spends bis evenings,
comes and goes as he pleascs and not as
| please, dressing, as he says, in stun
ming manner, and which | fear, involves
much expense, for his mothers demands
on me are stunning" indeed. Jane
,cas rosebud, neat, intelligent, pretty,
aud sprightly; now she is none of these,
and is rather a simpering ninny, mil
dewed by the adulation of society. -
But oh Matilda, that should have to
add you to the black list The sensible
mother has all at once become mentally
near-sighted. Her children, like crowned
heads, can do no wrong. Every extrav-
agance is excused and explained by a set
of phrases such as 'nerves," "excite-
ment, " position" "clams of society,""
and much more fiddle iaddle of the same
sort. She, that had ''early to bed and
early to rise, always on her lips, now,
night after night, sits up and allows her
children to dance till A. NJ. , and can
not read in paid cheek and glazed eye,
the fearful bargain she is drawing with
the devil in the dance Of death / won't
join in it,
If Mrs Nuf is blind to any mental Or
moral defects of her children she is equal
ly in regard to their personal attributes,
and she bores me, and everybody | sup
pose, with catalogue of their perfec-
tons Harry is splendid. and consid-
cred the best dancer in society,"" Jane,
she does not hesitate to say, though she
is her mother, is, to her mind, the most
beautiful and graceful girl that has come
out This is sheer nonsense, even can
see. Jane is very well, but has turn
up nose, and not small feet. She is,
suppose, something of favorite, because
she is very easily amused, and will gig
gle at anything.
| can't toll, or would you read, al the
nonsense, dscord and arrangement $50
ciety' has brought into my house. --
Vague hints were put out this morning,
like lobster claws, that Jane before long
must have what Harry calls a "bang
up" What shall | do? ! know what
it is, for went 10 one this winter at the
house of an old friend who would not let
me Off / went just as | was ready TO
90 to bed, and came home not far from
the time should get up. The house
was metamorphosed So the owner would
not recognize it under a week at least
The young fry drank up the best wine
and usurped the supper room pretty
much they danced till three, and the
elders nodded and would gladly rebel
against society" if they dared. l saw
by my friends manner that be was bored
and he told me, sub rosa, that it was all
his wifc's doings and thought to my
self there are more "Mufs" than one in
the world.
Happily the season Of Lent has inter
vencd, aud am released for brief sea-
-. e. MnliI.l. .......ll - Ii. -. 80. I'll