"WESTWARD THE STAR OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY"
"WESTWARD THE STAR OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY" |
"A LADY AT THE LICK HOUSE" WRITES:
"EDRS. GOLDEN ERA - We are all delighted with the 'Letter,' describing the brilliant Ball at Mr. Barron's. I am a Washoe widow, was among the favored few, and went. Sarah Smith skipped me in the toilettes. I suppose I wasn't very stunning, although Brigham & Co. said I looked 'swell,' and that 'Robergh' couldn't get up anything better. Some months ago, when my spouse, now at Reese River, first brought me down from Virginia City to stop in San Francisco, I arrived in the nick of time to attend one of those charming re-unions which are all the rage in the Pacific Metropolis. We have had several soirees since that, but nobody gave any account of them to the papers. It's too bad. Now we are eagerly looking forward to the next soiree, expecting the GOLDEN ERA to tell all about it. One of our boarders says she knows Florence Fane, and means to invite her; but I can't for the life of me get her to tell me the real name of your charming feuilletonist. I hope she'll come. And may-be Mark Twain will stay in town, to be there too. There is some talk of getting up a special gathering in compliment to him. He's such a favorite - stops here for his health - hoping to find out how to cure a cold. I am going to wear a new dress, made precisely after the pattern of one of those sweet Paris Fashion Plates in the Califomia Magazine. That Ball Dress in the May number - I think it was - I've kept it in my boudoir ever since. Then if Mark Twain is only there to see; how happy, how happy, I shall be. (I don't mean that for poetry - Like what you put in the GOLDEN ERA.) (To take that license I am free - I write with such facility.) But I have not told you what I wanted. Mark Twain was at our party, last June, and sent the Territorial Enterprise an account of the affair. My husband enclosed me the paper in which it appeared. I cut it out and you can copy it. Please do. I've been bothered to death to let everybody see it, and it's dreadfully tattered and torn."
Here it is!
