Mr. Parton and I had been stopping at the Girard House, and just as we were about starting for the cars, I said, “ Wait till I wash my hands.” As I did so, the bowl slipped from my soapy fingers, and was broken. I said, “Report that when you pay the bill, lest the blame should come upon the poor chambermaid;” whereupon, to my intense disgust, the landlord charged for the whole toilet-set 1 Then, in my indignation, I did say to Mr. Parton, “I have a good mind to send all the rest of the set flying out of the window ” His less impetuous hand-stayed me. I assure you it was no virtue of mine. My blood is quick and warm.This frank account spoils an excellent story, and shows us how meanness and injustice again went unpunished, after the manner of this miserable, mismanaged world, which it will take many a Fanny Fern and much crockery-smashing to set right.
This text is part of:
[79]
which insists on discussing the author's or artist's most private and intimate life,--his domestic relations, his holiest affections, his most sacred human weaknesses and virtues,on unveiling every sanctuary of sorrow, and following a poor wounded soul into its last fastnesses of decent reserve.
Among the most spicy anecdotes of my subject ever set floating about the country, is one of her having smashed, with her own vengeful hand, the china-set in her room, at the Girard House in Philadelphia,--because, after honorably reporting the accidental breaking of a bowl, she found herself charged a round sum for the entire toilet-set.
This story we of a fun-loving and justice-loving household, have laughed over many times; but, as poor Beatrice Cenci says, “We shall not do it any more;” for alas, the story isn't true!-that is, as to the grand dramatic denouement.
Wishing to chronicle only the exact truth in a matter of so much importance, I addressed to Mrs. Parton a letter of inquiry, and received in reply the following succinct statement:--
S. M. Betts and Company. Hartford, Conn. 1871.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.