Society as I Have Found It

“This book is intended to be miscellaneous, with a noble disdain of regularity.”— Obiter Dicta. “How then does a man, be he good or bad, big or little, make his Memoirs interesting? To say that the one thing needful is individuality, is not quite enough. To have an individuality is no sort of distinction, but to be able to make it felt in writing is not only distinction, but under favorable circumstances, immortality.”— The Same. AUTHOR’S NOTE. One who reads this book through will have as rough a mental journey as his physical nature would undergo in riding over a corduroy road in an old stage-coach. It makes no pretension to either scholarship or elegant diction. W. McA. CONTENTS. PAGE My Family—My Mother an Angel of Beauty and Charity—My Father’s Nobleness of Character—Building Bonfires on Paradise Rocks and flying Kites from Purgatory with Uncle Sam Ward—My Brother the Lawyer, 3 My New York Life—A Penurious Aunt who fed me on Turkey—My First Fancy Ball—Spending One Thousand Dollars for a Costume—The Schermerhorns give a ball in Great Jones Street—Sticking a Man’s Calf and Drawing Blood—A Craze for Dancing—I Study Law—Blackstone has a Rival in lovely Southern Maidens—I go to San Francisco in ’50—Fees Paid in Gold Dust—Eggs at $2—My First Housekeeping—A faux pas at a Reception, 13 Introduction to London Sports—A Dog Fight in the Suburbs—Sporting Ladies—The Drawing of the Badger—My Host gets Gloriously Drunk—Visit to Her Majesty’s Kitchen—Dinner with the Chef of Windsor Castle—I taste Montilla Sherry for the First Time—“A Shilling to pay for the Times,” 31 A Winter in Florence and Rome—Cheap Living and Good Cooking—Walnut-fed Turkeys—The Grand Duke of Tuscany’s Ball—An American Girl who Elbowed the King—What a Ball Supper should be—Ball to the Archduke of Tuscany—“The Duke of Pennsylvania”—Following the Hounds on the Campagna—The American Minister Snubs American Gentlemen, 41 Summer in Baden-Baden—The Late Emperor William no Judge of Wine—My Irish Doctor—His Horror of Water—How an American Girl tried to Captivate Him—The Louisiana Judge—I win the Toss and get the Mule—The Judge “fixes” his Pony—The “Pike Ballet,” 55 Winter in Pau—I hire a perfect Villa for $800 a year—Luxury at Small Cost—I Learn how to give Dinners—Fraternizing