Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-01-28

smoked out Of comfortable bachelor
quarters after tea, but the Chickasaw
Club soiree did the business for me the
other night l didn't want TO venture,
but young Spriggins, who clerks in q
Mair street house on Il sumptuous salary
Of 500 month, came in, and said must
20. OF course, there was no appeal
from must, and ] hauled on my fnery.
Meanwhile, Spriggins, who frizzes his
hair, carries cane, and is success as
lady.killer, expatiated largely on the
coming "eyent" He had engaged the
charming company of Adalicia, whose
new dress from New York had never yet
seen party gaslight, and intended to get
himself up regardless of cash. He had
secured splendid carriage for sl2, new
boots for $40, new gloves for 81 so, new
cravat for 81 so, and laid aside SO more
for drinks. Ny mental arithmetic
figured up 500 grand total, and l sug'
gested that it rather bulged into $50
salary. "0f course, Sprig, you're out
of debt, and have paid the 0verton in
advance for next months board -" "Of
course, / havn't done anything Of the
kind, old 6ggers," replied Sprig, pulling
on the 81 so gloves and stamping the
carpet little with the $50 boots. you
know cant keep even at $50 and go in
society How's fellow to doit2 There's
Dssher, with $4,000 year, and not half
as popular as l am. I've got to make as
big showing as he does, or the girls
might give me the cold shoulder II
Dasher pays 81 for q hack and 50 for
tickets for Booth, four nights in a week,
so must /, or the girls will think I'm
stingy. Of course | can't afford it; of
course | owe board bills, shoemaker's
bills, cigar and billiard bills, hack bills,
and whisky bills, am overdrawn at the
store, and getting worse in debt every
day, curse it; but what's fellow to doY
The women expect us to keep this sort of
thing up. They esteem us in proportion
to the escorting we do EN-, and it keeps
me down to the grindstone all the time.
I've got so l involuntarily shudder at
the sight of hackman or a collector,
and the other day actually lodged into
an alley to get out of the way OF the
tailor who made that stunning coat l
wore at old Deems ball.
While this eloquence steamed out OF
Sprig, l was recallisg to mind the little
army of whole souled fellows just then
doubtless going into fits on the same
subject somewhere else, who would like
to live within their means, and stop
lodging the corners and button
holing particular friends" for little
loans, but feared it might compromise
their standing as gay beaux among the
dear angels who so sweetly share our
joys and double our sorrows, as the poet
says with variation.
Taking pull at bottle always on
hand for friend, and borrowing my
diamond pin to splurge with, as | didn't
intend wearing it, Sprig vanished, not in
the best possible humor with himself,
singing out as he went: "Of course
you'll pay some attention to Adalish, and
relieve fellow p
/ got into the festive atmospheric after
the light and airy creatures had qua
drilled and polkad and schottished an
hour or so, and was stunned with the
prevailing gorgeousness. There we're
chandeliers bright as sunshine, from
which shot jets of pale and gold, irradiot-
ing every inch of space, and causing the
toilets of the bellies to sparkle like a
million of glow.worms. Silks, satins,
laces, furbelows, diamonds Jerusalem
Where the fellow who impaled me on
shaft of logic an hour and half the
other day about hard times2 Where's
the other long-faced chap who stated as
an incontrovertible proposition that
there's no money in Memphis, and that
people with families are now compelled
to strain every nerve to buy beef-neck
and m easily potatoes Let him be brought
to the next Soiree to have his hobby
knocked into flinders. Hard times"
beef-neck," strained nerves !"
Mere moonshine, you old, withered-
up, crusty croakerl Why, the toilets
and diamonds in that long par
lor cost way up ever so many numerals
in the thousands. My particular friend,
Miss Jiffkins, whose pater tdmittas
lodges collectors more scientifically,
having had had greater experience, than
even Spriggins, wore the finest sort of
rigging-not the same she had at Mrs.
Bankstock's party, but bran new thing
amies from waterfall to the tip of her
pretty little foot-and literally blazed
with diamonds. | schottished with her
just before supper, and couldn't divest
nv self of the idea that the head of the
Queen of Sheba reposed on my manly
buzzum. Such laces; such silks; such
exquisite ribbons and gloves; and such
iamonds Don't
A travelling. rainbow of gorgeousness
came fitting down the room, drinking in
the rich, mellow tones of my interesting
fr;nnd Dndhrnke whn hnrrnHed five dol