Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

stockholder's wife and daughters; and I have never known a single instance in which they did not completely succeed in keeping their fellow-workmen in subjection and at a proper distance."

"This deserves a sentiment," cried the doctor; "let us call on our friend from Massachusetts to propose one."

"With all my heart, gentlemen," said the Boston lawyer.

6

"I give you The Young Ladies' Trades' Union, and their champion Mr. Cy of Philadelphia: may they never reduce the price of labour of their fellow-workmen, but rather succeed in raising their own!'" "Bravo!" shouted the company; "and

worth as much again, coming from such a source. Old C―y himself could not have proposed a nobler sentiment. Pity it won't be published; it would make him immensely popular!"

"Pray, don't pass him the bottle," cried my friend; "he is done up for to-day. I never knew a Bostonian to talk of raising the price of labour except when he was drunk."

154

YANKEE GENEROSITY.

"Nor I either," cried the doctor. "I always heard them boast that no Jew could live amongst them, because they cheated him."

"Then let us vote him drunk, and fine him an extra bottle," said the doctor.

"He will never forgive you that," observed my friend.

"Call for the wine," cried the Bostonian; "call for it instantly, we must drink it on the spot."

"We shall not have time for it," observed my friend; "for, if we do not quit this very moment, the negroes will drive us away in order to set the table for tea."

"You touched the bright side of his character," whispered the doctor to my friend as he was slowly rising from the table. "He has the most irresistible aversion to spending money; but, when caught in a trap like this, I don't know a person who can affect so much generosity."

CHAPTER IV.

Joining the Ladies.-Education of a Fashionable Young Lady in New York-her Accomplishments.-Tea without Gentlemen.-Commercial Disasters not affecting the Routine of Amusements in the City of New York.—The Theatre.-Forest come back to America.-Opinions of the Americans on Shakspeare and the Drama.-Their Estimation of Forest as an Actor.-Forest and Rice contrasted.

“ "A maiden never bold;

Of spirit so still and quiet, that her motion
Blush'd at herself. And she-in spite of nature,
Of years, of country, credit, everything,-

To fall in love with what she feared to look on!"
Othello, Act I. Scene 3.

On returning to the parlour, we found the ladies, whose number had considerably increased by the arrival of some "transient people,” alone; the gentlemen having "sneaked off" to their respective counting-rooms. They were grouped round the piano, on which one of those little

156

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF

creatures that played the exclusives of the boarding-house was "practising" the "Infernal Waltz" from "Robert the Devil;" the rest were talking, whispering, giggling, or amusing themselves with feeling the quality of each other's dresses.

"What a delightful creature that Miss *** is, I declare!" said an elderly lady, whose embonpoint sufficiently proclaimed her Dutch origin,-English women being said to grow rather thin in America; "her mother must be proud of her."

"Yes," replied another lady, who was rather thin; "but it is said she has not yet paid the teacher who taught her daughter all those pretty things."

"That is nothing to the purpose; I speak of the young lady," rejoined the good-natured

woman.

66

Surely," whispered a young creature, who was none other than the young girl I had lost sight of before entering the diningroom, "she knows nothing about music; she has been practising that piece ever so long.".

A FASHIONABLE YOUNG LADY. 157

"That is a fact," said her mother, addressing herself to me; "my daughter went to the same school with her, they had the same masters, and, with the exception of trigonometry and astronomy, for which Susan never had any particular taste, she beat her in everything. My daughter can play The Storm;' and her music-master tells me, when a young lady can once do that she can do anything."

I bowed assent.

"And as for trigonometry," she continued, "I care not how little my daughter knows of that. It's all arches, and angles, and compliments, as she tells me, which are of no use to a young lady except in society. But Susan knows a great deal more about magnetism and electricity, don't you, my child ?”

Here the girl looked very bashful.

I congratulated the mother on possessing such a treasure; and was just thinking of something pretty to say to the girl, when I was interrupted by the old lady.

"Yes," said she, "although I ought not to say it, being my own child, I was present at

« AnteriorContinua »