The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-28
ACROSS THE TkBLE.

Glow many O1aelete soufle sort Of people
there are in this world" said Bangs, as he helped
himself to ems derable quantity of that deusive
desert. Look at that huge brown hillock on
| the dish; doesn't ii seem enough for meal il
itself? And yet it's all froth, and came from two
or three eggs. l know Of number Of puffy
people, who, If boiled down, would not pan out
more than canarys egg of common sense, and
yet they occupy considerable space in society.
dent talk that way because I'm getting along to-
wards tifty-tiva and have become cynical, or be-
cause | didn't happen to marry, or anything OF
that sort, but 1t just happened to occur to me,
| and | was struck with the relations III entioned
| that's ALL
| Bangs was at his best that afternoon, and
seemed at peace with all the world for once. He
had invited me to dine with him, and under the
generous influences of juicy Ca vas-back and
a fragrant bottle of Chambertin, he grew more
| than ordinarily communicative. His landlady
had the dinner in his room, for she said she
knew those two old bachelors would want to be
alone, and she hit the mark. We, Bangs and |,
had known another for thirty years, and
about every mon we had these little tee-G-teteS,
| armed with knife and fork.
eyes" said he, there are lots of frothy peo-
pie, and yet 1t may be that they were put on
this omelet, for some wise purpose. Perhaps they
were made to be brought Oh the table after the
heavier dishes had been dispatched.
{" If it was all Bacon Hogg (the Ettrick Shep-
herd) and those rounds of mental beef, that have
made their names travel the world, why we
should get tired of them. If LORD Bacon was to
step in nov, don't think we should care for his
company much, after our curiosity had been graf
flied. We could take little of him, but then we
should order on oar own frothy omelet after
wards. We take our mental food very much as
we do our victuals. We start with the Julien
and end up with walnuts, or mayhaps some
poetic bon bon. The higher our intellectual Ca
pacity, the higher the bill of fare
Bangs went Vt his omelet with a determined
air, when the landlady came in with the cafe
nor and inquired whether she should light the
gas. This gave him an opportunity to change
the subject, and after toying with the sugar
tongs, he waited until she went out.
Owl" said he, II don't know whether I'm
different from other people or not, but there's
something about voices that affects me pecu-
iarlv. The articulated sounds we hear seem to
me to have an entity to themselves apart from
the person speaking. l almost be ieve, some
times there could be voice without the person.
Have you never heard one that set you all Of a
culver, its rich sweetness permeating the net
work of your nerves until they ybrated like
piano strings
Il know little widow" here Bangs moved
restlessly in his chair and looked vacantly out of
the window; 81 know little widow who posi-
lively startles me with the liquid mellifuence of
her voice when she converses, and | remember
about twenty years ago meeting voice on a
Mississippi steamboat that drove me off the boat
at Vicksburg, when intended to go to Memphis,
simply because couldn't trust myself in it's
range. It's pOssessOr was beautiful brunette.
and is now or was lately female lobbyist in
Washington She was then an heiress.
"Now, my landladys voice isn't exactly one of
that kind. It's first-rate for scolding ser.
wants, and | think gentleman Of rural tastes
nIlld fnl q hot mt
agine he had barn yard close at hand, for the |
cackle Is magnificent.
"But to return. 1 don't want you to think that
because 1 mentioned the widows voice I'm
Not bit of it. l enjoy her society, and j"
- he drew from his pocket watch case with
a pansy embroidered upon it. He looked at it |
for awhile and passed 1t over to me and sighed.
cts pity, Owl, that I'm getting on so in
years Ii L was younger, perhaps, yes there |
might be a chance. It's hard thing on a fellow |
when at night the wind is whlstling outside and |
the rain coming down in torrents, to put on his |
slippers IN his furnished room, draw his chair up
to the blazing fire ana puff away at his old college
meerschaum and feel that he belongs to the army
of the Unoved." He put the widows watch-case |
tenderiy on the mantel-piece, and producing a |
bottle OF old Scotch Gienlivat, brewed punch to |
drown the unpleasant results of his medit ttions |
| thought, as the aroma filled the room, how |
many Bangs's there are even right under our |
noses. Tomorrow he'll be talking about low |
spot cotton and ali the other shop |
slang, and yet away down below that lies that
cankerous pain hidden from the world by his
Charvet shirt front.
The stars had popped out, here and there all
over the heavens stream Of people was passing
tue door going toward the theater, and there
was nothing left of the punch but few bits of
lemon peel Bangs was detected. That watch
case had been too much for him, and so we went
to the Varieties to laugh at the funny side Of this
curious panorama called Life, and Bangs saw the
widow there and was contented.