Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1875-09-04
LETTER FROM GALE PARTING
TON.


To the Editors Of the Independent;
Have you ever been in Staun-
ton ~ man asked me one month
ago, yesterday, by the clock. / am a
person who, from my infancy, have
been so unfortunate as to be addict
ed to telling the truth, so that | was
obliged TO maintain my name for We
racity, and say s'No.n | was given
to understand that Staunton is an
odd place. My informant was right.
1t is a most odd place.
Would you believe it that the peo-
pie of Staunton call colored people
negroes and right to their faces,
too ? But the most astonishing thing
out of the Koran is, that the ladies
here allow the young men to come to
their houses, and even go so far as to
walk Oh the streets with them. Why,
they would put your Martinsburg
girls to shame by calling those young
gallants bedle. (By-the-way, Messrs.
Editors, isn't bedur a French word?
| never heard it before my coming to
Staunton. But these young ladies
are not satisfied with bedur, but they
violate all laws, written and other
wise, by getting married-another
strange word-to those young men !;
and, would you believe it, they even
leave the house wherein they first
saw the light of day, abandon their
mother and father and and-can /
write it simply to live with those
young men who were their former
hpauX Did Won ever
And the young men themselves
are not a whit better. / have actu-
ally been shocked to hear young
man of twenty-three summers, and
goodness knows how many winters,
express himself thus: II must go to
see my girl tonight ;"-and he i'm
mediately rose and left several young
men who were sitting on dry-goods
boxes, and walked right away with a
young lady whom he intends to mar
ny this Fall. I'm getting familiar
with that word "marry.)
When / read of the Eastern ma
tions, or even of the poor benighted
creatures who dwell in the islands Of
the Pacific, am moved to the keen
est pity, because they SO mutila.e
their limbs, and their very faces,
simply to embellish the projections
of the features God has given them.
| say I'm moved to pity. Imagine
my feelings when | saw a beautiful
young lady, possessing all the charms
of Venus herself, go into a Drug
Store and buy box of white powder,
known as Lilly White Thinking
that the fair creature was an artist,
who perhaps had run out of her col
ors and was about to renew her cases,
/ asked the Druggist, a very gentle
manly fellow, if that young woman
found much to do in the painting
line. / believe he's truthfulDrug-
gist, but he actually told me that the
young lady paints her cheeks with
powder.
One time when / was riding on a
Canal-boat a mule kicked me, but
the shock was nothing in comparison
with that | felt when the Drug man
told the truth of the Lilly White. =
/ said to myself that / knew of one
town, at least, that is free from such
folly.
Some of the people here are little
DblttI tUdll biit HcdJDCIt W WHO'LL We
send Bibles and suspenders. They
mot the Heather, but the people
here) wear false teeth. One of them
Ia LADY, while discussing the Poets
with me, took a ring out of her ear
and handed it to the servant to take
to a jeweler. The ring was fastened
by little hook that passed through
her ear. When | asked her if she was
born with those little orifices in her
ears, she answered: WHY, bless you
no-all women have their ears pierre
ed" | contradicted her on the spot
by declaring that / knew a town
where such a practice world be look
ed upon rs barbarous. : cferred to
Martinsburg. Wasn't light, Mes
Sis. Editors?
More news after | get better ac-
quainted.
Yours, till we meet,
GALE PARTINGToN.
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