The Buchanan County guardian. (Independence, Buchanan County, Iowa) 1858-1864, 1860-01-05
: Billiards Q

They are my JOY. Pardon me- with a
sudden uprising of the moral sense, Il
have an engagement at the billiard room,
and should be there
Dear me should like to do billiards ,
Heaven forbid =
Why so, sir p
mo, do not mean that; but ladies
never play billiards.
i suppose there is no reason why
they should not 2
A thousand
why, what har q
MY dear Miss Tarlingford. if your
first name were not Arabella-alas, alas !!
there would be none'
Nonsense ! now you are laughing at
me. Come you shall teach me billiards.
1T cannot be, Miss Tarlingford.'
Low tragic tones.
why not p
Because your name is Arabela.'
very well, sir-if you do not like my
name, you need not repeat it,
8 | adore tit is not that. Forgive
me-
Then will get my hat And her
light footsteps tapped upon the stairs.
Here was state of things Where
were my frmness and resolution now
Where was the Pythian probity for which,
according to my expectations, Lullivan
was to have poured Damoniac gratitude
upon me Was l, or was l not, rapidly
degenerating into villany ? l felt that I
was, and blushed for my family.
Ii her name had been anything but
Arabella-anythiug the initial of which
was not A, then could have justified
myself; but now-and l was about to
teach her billiards To what depth Of
depravity had | come at last
She rejoined me, beaming with antici-
patton and radiant with the exercise Of
running down starts. Together We en-
tered the billiard-room
Now this | declare the ballroom,
with its flashing lights. intoxicating per-
fumes, starry host of cleaning eyes. re-
fulgent robes, mirrors duplicating count
less splendors and ceaseless whirl of van
ity, may add ten fold luster to the
charm of beauty, and l know it does !;
the opera box embellishments of blazing
gas, and glittering gems and flowers,
fresh from native beds of millinery, all
odorous with divinest scents of Lubin,
harmoniously dulcified. have their value,
which is great and glorious, no doubt,
and regally doth woman expand and glow
among them in numberless ways, and
aided by numberless accessories, do fem
mime graees nimbly and sweetly recon-
mend themselves unto our pleasant
senses; but this will for ever and ever
say-that nowhere, neither gorgeous
hall, nor gilded opera box, nor in any
other place. nor under any other circum-
stances, may such bewildering and insid-
uous power of maidenly enchantment be
exercised as at the billiard table es-
pecially when the enchantress is utterly
ignorant of the duties required of her,
and confdingly seeks manly encourage
ment and guidance. Controlled by the
hand of beauty, the cue becomes mag
ic wand. and the balls are no longer bits
of inanimate ivory, but poked restlessly
hither and thither, circulating messen-
gers of fascination.
know, for | have been there.
Had Miss Tarlingford turned her
thoughts towards the bowling-alley, l
might without difficulty have retained
my self-possession for her sex are not
charming at ten-pins. They stride ram
pant, aud hurl danger around them,
aiming anywhere at random or they
make small skips and screams, and per-
form ridiculous filings in the air, injuri-
Gus TO the alleys and to their game or
they drop balls with unaffected languor,
and developed at an early stage OF pro-
ceedings tendency to cutters. above
which they never rise throughout. and
all this is annoying, ard tit only for
Boomers, who can be degraded by moth
ing on earth.
But billiards what statuesque, post.
ures, what freedom of gesture, what
swaying grace and vivacious energy this
game involves And then the attendant
distractions, the pinching together of the
hand, to form the needed notch, the per-
feet art of which, like fst-clenching, is
unatlainable by woman, and substitutes
some queerness all her own---the fierce
grasping and propulsion of the cue-the
loving retension upon the table when the
long shots are coming in-the dainty
foot uprising. TO preserve the owners
balance. but, as it CLEANS suspended de-
stroying the obseryer's-all combine, as
they did this time, to scatter stern
Promptings of duty beyond recalling.
First, Arabella's little hand must be
moulded into bridge, and being slow to
cramp itself correctly, though plant as a
politicians concience, the operation of
folding it together had to be many times
repeated. Next, shots must be made for
her, she retaining her hold of the cue,
to get into the way of il. Then all went
on smoothly with her. turburleutly with
me. until. enthusiastically excited, she
must be lifted on to the tables edge,
just to try one lovely little shot, which
escaped her reach from the ground.
My game was up
We We're alone. Arabella perehed mp
on the table, jubilant at having achieved
a pocket,-I dismal and blue beside
her.
Thara tala ma Jnup vLa ra.J HE