Wilmington daily commercial., 1872-10-22
Our Departed Guests.
of a.e Commercial. .

To he Editor Of he Commercial:
II has occurred to me, a number Of times that
the visitors who have this Autumn iocked to our
CITY, ought to be complimented by more ex-
tended notice in the press than they have as yet
received. I have wondered, Sir, at your COM
parative silence on the subject.
II is frequently said that when the Clayton
House " is flushed, we may expect distinguished
strangers to visit US. 1t seems to me we ought
to appreciate, the more highly, the visits Of those
who have spent more than month in our city,
for oar entertainment, and that, too with insult
ficient hotel accommodations. | am quite we'll
ed that by far the larger part of visitors
were compelled to hunt accommotions in private
families indeed il all of them had put up at
the hotels. it would have been quite impossible
to have retained the regular boarders.
Our visitors will long be remembered for their
minstrelsy. All the "parts of music were ably
represented by the different singers; but strange
to say the size of the artist, in most cases, de-
terminel the question whether he was tenor
or basso" The music was mostly in full
chorus, generally from forty to fve hundred
signers taking part. But we were often favored
with a soft, sweet solo, sometimes sung so I0,C
we could barely hear it. 0ftimes, it seemed
more like the murmer of a wave of music dying
away on some distant, angelic shore, than the
tones of the human voice.
AS before intimated, these entertainments
were free to all, that is, no charge was made for
| admission, but generally collections were taken
at the close of the concert, on which occasions
the delighted audiences bled freely" and the
mnstrels retired with their purses we'll filled.
1 cannot speak of all the peculiarities of our
visitors, and must content myself by brief al
fusion to only two or three. Their agility il
particularly remarkable. They are unquestion-
ably the dOdgingest fellows l have ever seen.
One of our citizens, having no taste for the mu-
SIC and being averse to 30 many collections, de-
liberatey, and with malice aforethought, fred
no less than five hundred shots in one night,
at a crowd of the minstrels who insisted on SER
enading his house. He finally went to sleep,
exhausted by his almost superhuman efforts,
and the quite superhuman music and colec-
tion congratulating himself that he had placed
at least forty of his tormenters hors du combat.
He dreamed all night OF ghastly corpses strewn
around his premises, and awoke in the early
morning to find one lone miserable carcass only.
You have spoken of them in the COMMERCIAL as
g lrOnclads." l think their iHoulnerdbleness is
rather to be attributed to their dOdJindtiUeness
than to iron shirts.
And then their hide-a-tveness is another pe-
ouliarity. They are more on hand when you
don't want them, and less on hand when you
do want them than any folks 1 ever saw. One
night, when eighty-seyen of them-orchestra
and chorus-were siu ging and playing tantal ,
izing opera, arose, struck light, and providing
myself with an appropriate instrument, offered
to ''play the mischief" with them but do you
think single one of the rascals would show
himself or give single toot from his horn to
indicate his whereabontsP Not muchly
And then again. they are decidedly sharp set
OF fellows. don't think it worth while Mr..
Editor to elaborate this point, as the experience
of every one Of the thirty-fve thousand inhabi-
tants of our city will sufficiently attest its truth
fulness.
Their presence may have some political signi6-
oane0. / verify believe they are repedteTs and
the facility with which they deposit their ballots,
again and again, in Udrious precincts, suggests
the question as to whether they may not be
Liberals who have just learned and are liber-
ally practicing that good old Democratic doctrine
Vote early-vote often.' This supposition is
strengthened by the further significant fact that
they uniformly come to their nocturnal conven-
tions black, and, after having sung and taken the
customary collection, go away rel, Republicans,
And still more significant 10 the fact that they
invariably grolo fat on the spoils Of office.
What has become of them? heard, last night,
but single solo Have the recent Western
elections occasioned demand for their services
elHewneFeS Have they tukeu tho advice Of Hor-
ace, the sage, and "gone West?"
Yours inquiringly,
M, u. q. QI1To