Early in the Mexican war, a premium was awarded in Philadelphia for a very clever conundrum, alluding to a certain “Bold Dragoon” at Palo Alto. “In what manner did Captain May cheat the Mexicans?” “He charged them with a troop of horse which they never got?”
Our confectioners, in making up the bon bons called “secrets,” instead of enfolding with the sugar-plumb a printed slip containing a contemptible distich, would do well to have good conundrums printed, (with the answer,) and enclosed in the ornamented papers. They would certainly be more popular than the old-fashioned mottoes—such, for instance, as
“My heart, like a candle of four to the pound,
Consumes all the day, and no comfort is found.”
Yet the above is one of the least bad. Most of these mottoes are so flat as to be not even ridiculous.
At a dancing party, the ladies of the house decline joining in it, out of politeness to their guests, till towards the latter part of the evening, when the company begins to thin off, and the dancers are fatigued.
We admire a charming girl, who, in her own house, being asked to dance by an agreeable man, has the self-denial to say to him—“Being at home, and desirous that my friends shall share as much as possible in the enjoyments of the evening, I would rather refrain from dancing myself. Let me present you to Miss Lindley, or to Miss Darwood; you will find either of these young ladies a delightful partner.”
These amiable refusals we have heard from our amiable and unselfish young friends, and such, we hope, are heard often in what is truly “the best society.”
Ladies who are strangers in the place, are, by courtesy, entitled to particular attention from those who know them.
We have sometimes seen, at a private ball, the least attractive woman dancing every set, (though acquitting herself very ill,) while handsome and agreeable ladies were sitting still. The mystery was solved on finding that the lady of the house carried her ultra benevolence so very far, as to make a business of procuring partners all the time for this unlovely and unprepossessing female, lest she should feel neglected. Now a certain portion of this officiousness is highly praiseworthy, but too much of it is a great annoyance to the victimized gentlemen—especially to those who, as a backwoodsman would say, are certainly “some pumpkins.”