The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-02-21


were American bear skin, but she would
ask me; so when she asked me | told her
they were buffalo skin, and you should
have seen the curiosity with which they
examined them. The best people whom I
see here dress what we should call very
mountaineering cotton velvet and catskin
furs. l wish c. could see dress that |
have-just made by one of the best dress
makers here; it is a curiosity. 1 have no
words to describe it. Almost every one
instead of buying hats ready-made, or
ordering them from the milliner have her
come to the house and work by the day,
paying her seventy or eighty cents per day,
and she brings materials or uses what they
furnish her. The Wigands have been hav-
ing some work done in this way and such
looking hats | never saw before, but the
materials used were pretty old and some
what the worse for wear, some of them
having been brought from America twenty
years ago.
Last night there was fire in a village
four miles from here, which destroyed
hundred and fifty buildings (haif the town..
Frau John says it is very much like the
Chicago fire 1t is an ill wind that blows
no one any good, and this fire is blessing
to the bus conductor, as it gives him some
thing to talk to the passengers about. If
a child gets run over, or any such horrid
thing happens, he sits on his seat outside
and puts his head into the buss, through
the open half of the door and tells the
story to each passenger who gets in, so
that sometimes we hear the same horrible
thing told over dozen times between here
and the city.
The other evening we went to tea to
Mrs. Rich's, whose daughter is Rosa's
most intimate friend This lady has son
who is an artist, and while studying in
Italy last year, he became engaged to
young italian girl, Antoinette, who is now
on visit here, learning the German
language and the German ways. 1 liked
her very much, but she is not very well
liked by the people here. She is very
frank and when asked how she likes Ger
many, she answers: "not at all, neither
the country, language, or people," She
| looks to be about twenty and seemed to
me uncommonly smart. She can speak
French as well as her own language, Ger
man pretty well and English little
Judge of my surprise when she told me
she wouldn't be seventeen till December.
She is an orphan and has been brought up
child getting married.
The other day Miss Joku was telling me
what her dancing teacher used to say to
her, but she used german word didn't
know the meaning of, so she explained in
English. she said my teacher used to say,
"young ladies devil up your grace" I
tried to think what it could mean, said
to myself devil up your grace, devil down
upon me that she meant develop-but she
made such pause between the two last
syllables that thought it two words I
can get along with such talk pretty well,
as the following l am perplexed. A friend
of the Wigands was here the other day
who is proud of his English He asked
me how l got on with German, replied,
"pretty WELL" Then ne remarked, fish
must swim."' What the man meant
havn't the fantest idea. | looked at him
and he was smiling as if he thought he
had said something funny, So l concluded
he knew only those two sentences. and
when he had said one he had no alterna-
tive but to say the other.
The Wigands were in America twenty
years ago, and they frequently entertain
their friends with most dreadful stories
about the way we live there. One of their
stories is this-that every Saturday after
noon all the gentlemen leave their business
and take their children around to the stores,
buying them shoes, stockings, and what
ever they need in the way of clothing.
They say our cloth, leather, etc., is so
worthless; it lasts but a little time, so
that about once week we need a new
to attend to these things, for their whole
time and thoughts are given to dress, COM
pany and the like. When say we don't
do that way, they reply, ooh it may be
different out West where yon live, but
where we were when in America they did
So" They drink coffee and eat sausage
and cheese for supper, and then complain
that they hurt their digestions in America,
eating our dreadful cooking; at supper
they each take two great slices of black
bread and spread them thickly with but
ter, then one is covered with a thick layer
of sausage, the other with a thick slice of
cheese; from these slices of bread they
take alternate bites-mixing in pint or
two of coffee and milk.
They talk about our mosquitoes in Amer
| lea as If they were something terrible,
when they don't compare with them here;
yesterday l killed twenty. one in my room,
and last night was as badly bitten as ever.
1 am reminded of what somebody at one
of our watering places said, when asked
by friend how he enjoyed himself, he
spent his nights
Gone hour in sleeping,
Two in scratching,
Six in hunting,
None in Catching"
HEAVY LAND SALE.-The largest sale of