IN BAD COMPANY-John Riggs 1869

RIGGS

Posted By: cheryl moonen (email)
Date: 5/8/2017 at 09:55:39

Sunday, January 3, 1869
Paper: Dubuque Daily Times (Dubuque, Iowa)
Page: 4

IN BAD COMPANY
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A Happy Start and Bitter Ending
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John Riggs, a verdant youth of twenty summers, who parts his hair in the middle, deals heavily in pomatum and is quite susceptible to love’s soft glances, resident, of near Raymond, Iowa. Wishing to see metropolitan sights, and listen to metropolitan sounds, John packed up his valise last Tuesday, gave his hair an extra curl, put on a Byronic collar and taking sixty dollars of his hard earned money came to Dubuque for the purpose as he expressed it “of having a good time” and learning the ways of the word. Feeling that his purse was to slim to sustain the demand that would be made upon it at our leading hotels, John be thought himself of a private boarding house, and finally found one to his liking in the 1st Ward. Here he engaged room and board for a week, and seeing everything settled to his satisfaction, he started out in the evening to indulge his curiosity, and by dint of slight persuasion was induced to accompany one or two boon companions to the classic shades of Menominee. He has a dim consciousness of arriving there, of drinking something warm and ardent out of a black bottle, of being waited on by a black eyed female, fair but frail, but remembers nothing more until the next morning when he awoke out of a drunken stupor near the railroad tunnel, minus hat, minus coat and minus his calfskin pocket book, containing what was left of sixty dollars. John made his way over to the city as best he could and related his pitiful story, but strange to relate found few sympathizers. He naturally feels he has been imposed upon and swindled by those who pretended to be his best friends, and with a heavy heart and eyes filled with tears, left the city with an army blanket wrapped around him and his ambrosial locks in a sad state of disorder. It is hard, John, but it can’t be helped. This is a wicked world at the best, and parties who insist upon inspecting the beauties of Menominee must take their chances.