The Star Of Pascagoula

For the Stan. Our Sentiments. DEDICATED TO MISS E. M.
"Oh, talk not to me of the joys of a life
Controlled by the whims of a pretty young wife.
Who is ever ready with "my love" and my dear"
From the first day of spring to the end of the year.
My heart is merry,
Unshackled and free
And a bachelor's life
Is the one for me.

I saw a young gallant in search of a wife,
He thought he would marry and settle in life,
Have a snug cottage and everything nice,
But little he knew or dreamed of the price.
The love knot was tied, the honeymoon
When he began his sad life to deplore.
His cottage like bedlam with anarchy rung,
He'd married a HORNET and therefore got STUNG.
My heart is merry,
Unshackled and free,
And a bachelor's life
Is the one for me."

So say I: we have only to look around us and note the many hornet nests and behold the many whilom merry bachelors, now alas transformed into wrecks, humbled, bedeviled looking specimens of humanity yclept ye Benedicts, to be perfectly convinced that all this is true as holy writ.

And, I should like to ask the fair (?) "E.M." this question—When a silly bachelor does take it into his head to marry is it not more honorable to show the worst on the outside even if it were as ill-favored as a "swinged cat" than to try as very many of the other sex do to make us believe "all is gold that glitters" and under the soft velvet and smiling face hide the sharp claws and feline dispositions.

Heigho! well let the world wag as it will, as for us, we will be a law unto ourselves and will surely not jeopardize our ease or place our person at the mercy of a hornet just yet. And young ladies! you that are thinking to pierce the adamantine crust in which our heart is incased just let me say to you, you will have your labor for your pains: for you might as well "love some bright particular star and think to wed it," and your "lures and wiles your tears and smiles" are all to no purpose for you will never entrap Old Bach, No. 2.