High Life in New York: A series of letters to Mr. Zephariah Slick, Justice of the Peace, and Deacon of the church over to Weathersfield in the state of ConnecticutStephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
General
High Life in New York: A series of letters to Mr. Zephariah Slick, Justice of the Peace, and Deacon of the church over to Weathersfield in the state of Connecticut
Stephens, Ann S. (Ann Sophia)
New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
When I got to cousin Beebe's door, I pulled the silver knob kinder
softly, for I felt a sort of palpitation of the heart at going into a
room chuck full of quality; and I jest pulled up my dickey a little, and
felt to see if my hankercher hung out of my pocket about right, afore
the nigger opened the door. At last he made out to cum, and when I asked
if all the folks was tu hum, he begun to show his chalkies jest as he
did afore, and sez he,
"Yes, but they haint come down yit."
With that I pitched in, and, sez I, "Look a here, Cuffy, none of your
grinning at me, but jest mind your own bisness. I've come to see the
swarry that Mr. Beebe's been a buying to treat his company with; so jest
shut your darned liver lips, and show it to me."
"Oh," sez he, a trying to choke in, "the swarry is going to be in the
drawing room there, walk in."
"What, haint it come yit," sez I, "and where's all the folks?--I thought
he was going to have a party, too."
"Wal, so he is," sez the nigger, "but they haint begun to come yit."
"Wal, now," sez I to myself, "If this don't beat all creation. Now, in
Connecticut it would a been eenamost time to go hum agin; these Yorkers
du beat all for laziness." With that I went into the room. By the living
hokey, I never see anything like it! It was enough to dazzle one's eyes;
the two doors were slid back into the partition, and it seemed like one
great ball-room; and, besides that, there were too great winders at the
further eend, that opened into a place that seemed kinder like a garden.
I didn't know what to make of it, for it was chuck full of posies that
looked as bright and as green as if it was the fourth of July, and yit
it was a freezing like everything out of doors. I went down the room and
stuck my head through the winder, and as true as I live it was a little
room all full of bushes and roses sot up on benches; it had a glass
ruff, and the sides were one allfired great winder, with little vines a
hanging down over it, and a great tree chuck full of something that
looked like oranges, a standing up agin it.
There were five or six cages full of little yaller birds a hanging among
the bushes, and right back of the tree stuck over with oranges, stood a
marble woman a holding up a bunch of grapes cut out of marble, with a
lot of green leaves twisted round it as nateral as could be. It was
awful harnsome, but I swan if it didn't make me feel streaked to look at
her a standing there among the bushes, for she hadn't the least rag of
kivering on, and it raly was enough to make a feller blush to see her a
holding the grapes over her head, as if she wanted to make people look
at her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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