Page:A hairdresser's experience in high life.djvu/178

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180
a hair-dresser's experience

saw the lady dressed in her morning wrapper, which she mistook for a night gown; she came over and told a lady in the hotel of the circumstance. This lady was catholic and of Irish descent, and kept the money of both males and females of the different servants, and this was the reason given for the appearance of the gentleman in the room; this raised a general stir. The lady the report was raised against was a grass widow and a very smart woman, and she plead her own case, so that nothing could be proved; then she got several lawyers and commenced a suit for her character; the lady who made the accusation was an officer's wife and the officer had to sign a libel or pay heavily. I told my associate hair-dresser that I had promised to notice for a week or so, and I noticed what had happened for two or three weeks, and I was perfectly tired out, as there was nothing but quarreling and fussing, more than I ever noticed in the hotel before.

That season passed away and I returned to the city. There had been many cases of yellow fever in the hotel, but it was thoroughly purified and was filling up with visitors, amongst them was the family of Zachary Taylor; it was during the trial of Gen. Taylor in Mexico, and great excitement prevailed all over the Union. While every one in the hotel was worried and troubled, the family did not at all look alarmed, and a gentleman one dayasked Gen. Taylor's daughter whether she did not feel worried about her father, she said, "Oh, no, Pa means and does what is right, and God will protect him." His daughters and neices reigned belles for weeks. Quiet was restored, no more quarreling or fussing, and I never in all the days of my