Life — February 1, 1883 — page 3: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

FEBRUARY 1, 1883. .1155 Broapway, NEw York. Conpucrep ay Joun Ames MITCHELL AND Epwarp S, MARTIN. ANDREW MILLER, Business Manager. Published every Thursday, $5 a year in advance, postage free. Single copies, 10 cents. RES ANGUSTZ DOMI. Y dear boy, don’t think of going to Mount Desert,” said I to Tom Davidson. “You say you are a mis- - ogynist, and that you are going to that summer para- dise of American girls. The result will be inevit- able.” . “Result inevitable ? What do you mean?” asked Tom, sacrilegiously tilting back in one of my chairs. “T mean just this. You are very young, and just . out of the medical school. You are as poor as Job's turkey, and you say that you are a_ misogynist. Now my experience has taught me that when a young man declares that he is a misogynist he is sure to be married within ‘a year. I was a misogynist once myself—but there are chords—" My voice faltered a little, and Tom censiderately looked aside at my law-books. “Tt’s all bosh !” he said; in his brusque, explosive way, “to say that I should not go to Mount Desert because there are women there. Why, hang it, they are everywhere. There are seventy thousand more of them than there are men in this very Commonwealth !” “Yes,” said I; “but there are no buck-boards, nor little row-boats, nor rocks, nor moonshine here. Young man! you are rushing into danger. You are such a good fellow that you will never marry a girl with money, and just think what your position will be. A married man with no income, and butchers, bakers, and candlestick-makers jumping up like sheeted ghosts in every direction.” “Humbug,” said Tom. “I’m off! I shall shoot, + row and fish, and never talk to a woman, Good-bye, old crusty. I'll write to you soon ;” and the impecu- nious dog left my office, and rolled away in a coupé which had been waiting for him. During the next six months I received the following letters from and concerning Tom, which, for conveni- ence, I annex hereto, labelling them respectively “ A,” “Be and “C.” “an Bar Harsor, Mr. Desert, August 13th, 188-. Dear Buscott,—I have just got back from a row around to Southwest Harbor and up Somes’ Sound with Will Prescott, the oar. I am as fit as a fiddle. I have managed to get a little fishing, and have climbed up all the hills. The place swarms with girls in every conceivable eccentricity of costume. Most of the men are idiots enough to devote their whole time to them. I went sketching the other day, and couldn’t find a nook unoccupied for three miles. The-coast should be partitioned off like oyster-stalls. One or two of us have sufficient strength of mind to improve our mus- cles and not to lose our heads. Hearts are not lost here, I believe. I was entrapped the other day into a picnic. The number of picnics here is extraordinary. Murray Hill says that it is a place of forty picnic power a day. I couldn’t get out of it. I didn’t have aplomb enough to evade my hostess. I was compelled to sit for three hours next to a girl. I believe that her name was Frazer. Somebody said that she was from Philadelphia. I talked to her about vivisection at first and then about Shelley. Or rather she talked about Shelley. She is called pretty. Iam going fishing to-morrow. Yours sincerely, Tuomas A’BecketT Davipson. (This is endorsed in my characteristic legal hand “ Hooked.”) “BR” Mr. Desert, Sept. roth, 188-. Dear Otp Buscott,—I know that you will laugh, and say, “I told you so,” when I tell you that I am en- gaged to be married to Miss Caroline Frazer, of Phila- delphia. I am the most fortunate man who ever lived. I suppose that you are smiling sardonically, but you are a shallow worldling. Yours, Fev: (Endorsed “ Landed.”) “cr Mr. and Mrs, CLEMENT FRAZER Request the honour of your presence at the marriage of their daughter Caro.ine to THoMAs A’BECKETT Davipson, at St. BARNABAS’ CHURCH, on Friday, No- vember sixteenth, at noon. comicbooks.com