Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-10-19
SHORT LETTERS.
NUMBER 9.


MY FINE FELLOW: You are no doubt
glad to hear from me again2
If not you are not what | take you to
be, that is, man of sense.
| have great deal of news to commu-
nicate, but news on all subjects are so
conflicting that l fear to express myself
fully about anything might be called
on to recant tomorrow.
l am alone again-that is sans Mrs.
Tea
Mrs Tea has had company for more
than a month, in the shape of a niece.
Consequently l have enjoyed but a
small portion Of Mrs. Teas excellent
company
She and niece are to-day better posted
on the localities of New York and Brook
lyn than the undersigned.
/ suppose there is not a dry goods
clerk, nor a milliners $ girl, nor dress
maker, in either of these two cities, that
is not perfectly familiar with the classic
lineaments of Mrs. Tea face and that of
her niece.
1t is a remarkable fact that nieces are
proverbial for their penchanf for shop
ping"
/ am not at present able to account
philosophically or pschicologcally for
this peculiar mania but it is a mania
which is incurable until after marriage.
My time, for the past few weeks, has
been chiefly engaged in hiring express
wagons to carry her (niece) purchases
home from the various and multifarious
bazaars of the city.
This accounts fol my long silence.
But the parties are now out of the mar
ket, and are probably, at the present
writing, in Memphis, or some other town
of the same or similar name.
Since their exodus | have procured,
through the effective agency of a few
greenbacks, new goigotha, which my
intimate friends say is becoming, and
makes me look several inches taller.
To add to this effect and promote this
desired result, | have likewise, by the
same irresistible agency, secured new
pair of high heel boots.
The grand total effect is tremendous.
Billy, at Woolman's, didn't recognize
me.
Woolman himself touched his hat to
me, as to distinguished stranger.
/ try to endure such Difference with
proper equanimity, but fear it will not
last, although my halter and boot-maker
both assure me to the contrary.
They evidently allude to their own
work.
l hope they may be right .
/ see that Jim Bennett has been giving
the people down South some good advice.
He asked me the other night, at the
Pewter Mug, what 1 thought of it
told him in kind and honest way
that | thought it good, in Pickwickian
sense, but that the South had been used
to his advice too long for it to have any
effect In that it was like the doses of
the English opium eater, one Tom De-
Quincy.
He wanted to know what meant
told him / was well acquainted per
sonally with every man, woman and child
over two years old in the whole Southern
country. That, speaking, not for self,
but others, they regarded him as politi-
cal mountebank and turncoat, and that
he (Jim) had been considered for many
years as Cup to the highest bidder"
He further requested my meaning.
] became angry (genteely sol and re-
sponded in distinct tones, that supposed
the people Ofthe South were quite as well
acquainted with their own domestic wants
and political desires as he (Jiml could
possibly be; and that he had better hus-
band his advice for somebody who would
be likely to take it.
BE smiled through his glass Of beer
and put his mug down empty. Then
stretching himself to his full hight (which