The Providence Journal, And Town And Country Advertiser

The Adelphial, No. V.

WITHOUT PREJUDICE received, before the public :

'SIR,

Notwithstanding the gravity of your countenance, and length of your beard, I hope you will permit a young girl to address you. You must know, Sir, that I am always attended, though I presume not courted, by one of those pretty fellows that looks at all times as neat and as clean as if just taken from the band box and unfolded. But what I have to complain of is his immoderate attachment to cards. Now, Sir, as I dare say you do not know what species of amusement this is. I will undertake to explain it :--

When I first heard that fatal word cards pronounced, I supposed that there was some kind of magic in it. The conversation. which before was gay, lively and instructive, was immediately banished, and a sullen silence succeeded. I enquired of my elbow friend, to know what crime the company had committed that they must suffer so severe a penance? " Lord, my dear," he replied, " all conversation spoils the game."

At length I was startled, by observing my beau springing up, slapping his hand on the table with great violence, and protesting with an oath that he held an excellent hand. At the mention of the words, I must own I felt a little irritated. though not jealous. supposing that he held the hand of the lady who sat next to him, and who made indeed a very handsome fine appearance ; but peeping over his shoulder, beheld him looking with great attention over nine or ten little spotted bits of paste-board. The faces of all round the table were thermometers, by which their different degrees of success might be distinguished. They form, Sir, really a ludicrous appearance to a stranger ; while on one side the thermometer indicates the spirits to be above fever heat on the other side they are sunk below the freezing point. A mercy it is that the climate is not so variable as the temper of our minds. It would be needless and tiresome to give you a detail of this scene of folly and perplexity to me.--

Duces, aces, trumps, spades and clubs, were rebounded over and over again, which I suppose must have some meaning, or else my affectionate gallant never would have used them. In the midst of all this bustle, my head, being too much in the neighbourhood of the candle, caught on fire: This; at any other time, would have been a signal for my spruce gallant to have expressed his regret and concern, and to say all the soft, civil and affectionate things of which he is capable. He would have rallied the broken forces of his wit, and observed: that this was not the first time that my head had been illuminated --or at least would have repeated some quotation from some play or romance, every way as applicable as the proverbs of Sancho Panza. But what, Sir, do you think was his reply P-Simply this-"It is a pity-what's trumps ?" -This I thought was so monstrously uncivil even for my gallant to be guilty of. In short, Sir, after a long and tedious evening, all parties rose from the tables in a pet, and the words "you have cheated, and you have cheated," were echoed round the room. Now, Sir, as the company plead the necessity of some employment for this kind of conduct, if you can devise any, you will confer a great obligation on yours, &c.

Clementina.'

I have taken the request of my fair correspondent into serious consideration, and find on enquiry that her complaint is but too well founded. 'If any. remedy can be devised. the public shall hear of it in season ; but I should think it very strange; if almost any kind of conversation would not be preferable to a substitute so trifling and ridiculous.

I am desired by my friend the mental physician to subjoin the following certificate, as a specimen of the success which his mental regimen has already had upon his patients :

" I certify, that I have been but once attacked violently with a very foppish complaint. . It daily grew upon me so rapidly, that I began to be alarmed for the consequences. I applied to Dr.-a, who recommended a short confinement in his hospital. This I cheerfully submitted to, and now find myself perfectly recovered.

James Volatile."

Many other certificates are procured, and will shortly be published, if occasion should require.

Communications have just been received from the critical court, containing a number of reports, which are now in a state of readiness for the press.

o.