The Columbus Journal

Complaint is made by some of the Chicago people who recently visited Mississippi City by way of New Orleans that southern hospitality is a myth. The substance of the complaint is that barbers, and hackmen, and bartenders, failed to treat the visitors with any consideration of distinguished regard. On the contrary, these persons, taken by the Chicago visitors to be the exponents of southern hospitality, if any such thing exists, took advantage of the situation to charge three prices. The party of Chicagoans who went down south proceeded thither intent upon witnessing one "slugger" pound another "slugger's" nose. The party was composed largely of Chicago aldermen, policemen and gamblers.

The people of the region they visited would have quite as much right to speak slightingly of the character of the northern people, taking these travelers as representatives, as they have to complain of an absence of hospitality to which they could lay no possible claim. It is true that the bartenders, the hackmen, and the barbers might have had more consideration for men whose admiration for bruising-matches induced them to journey from the lake to the gulf, but the gentlemen of the bar may be inclined to fix their scale of prices by the quantity of liquid entertainment taken at a gulp, and it is not supposed that the Chicago alderman who gleefully journeys more than a thousand miles to delight his nature with witnessing a couple of the boys punching one another's peepers is lacking in capacity when the bottle goes around.

If the barber's charge was large, it will not be forgotten that an alderman's cheek is sometimes as expensive as it is hard. As for hackmen, it may be presumed that they regulate their charges largely upon the character of their loads and the lateness of the hour at which their services are brought into requisition. If they are compelled to carry their fare up the front steps and assist in the removal of its boots, it is but natural that they should include this service in their bill. The intelligence which indicts southern hospitality, or, rather, declares that nothing of the kind exists, is such as may be expected to delight in prize-fights.—Chicago Times.