Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/180

182 indignant at the privileges the gentleman and his bride took, thinking all was hers; but her husband said, never mind, she might make a short visit to her aunt till they would leave. When she got there she found her aunt was also engaged, and she got married during her stay. The aunt's husband got tired of the niece's long visit—so she left and returned home; when she got there she found that the plantation was sold, and her husband was overseer of a neighboring plantation, when she, in a rage, kicked up a row, and went back to her aunt's. So this young lady lost her husband, and all his supposed riches, by her duplicity.

There is no true knowledge to be had of the wealth of the South; for, on some of the plantations on the coast they live very sparing—indeed, some of the slaves have no hats on, and others are scarcely half clad, and that of the coarse stuff that goods are packed in. Such families as these make the greatest show at the opera-house, in winter, in New Orleans, while, during the spring and summer, they barely have enough to sustain nature in themselves and slaves. Their slaves have nothing provided for them to either eat, drink or wear; they work hard all the day, and at night they plunder what they can from some of the rich plantations. If they are not caught, they are smart; and if they are, they are punished. On every New Year they have to sell a servant to support the balance the rest of the year.

While combing one of my ladies, she said, "Oh, Iangy, papa is going to buy a housekeeper to-day—there is one to be sold down stairs in the rotunda, and he is going to buy her.

I burred through my work to get my usual stand