The Confessions of Artemas Quibble | Page 4

in the cellar, on which occasions we invited out
young actors from the Boston Museum and Howard Athenaeum stock
companies. These in turn pressed us with invitations to similar
festivities of their own, and we thus became acquainted with the
half-world of the modern Athens, which was much worse for us, I trow,
than would have been the most desperate society of our college
contemporaries. There was a club of young actors that we used to
frequent, where light comedy sketches and scenes from famous plays
were given by the members, and in due time several of us were
admitted to membership. Of these I was one and learned to do a turn
very acceptably. On one occasion I took a small part upon the Boston
Museum stage to fill the place made vacant by the illness of a regular
member of the cast--an illness due in part to a carousal at the Cock and
Spur the night before, in which he had come out second best.
We were a clever crew, however, and never gave the faculty reason to
complain of any failure on our part to keep up in our studies. When
examination time came we hired an impecunious coach and, retiring
from the world, acquired in five days knowledge that our fellows had
taken eight months to imbibe. It is true that the college at large viewed
us with some disgust, but we chose to regard this as mere envy. That
we were really objectionable must, however, be admitted, for we
smoked cigars in the Yard, wore sky-blue pantaloons and green
waistcoats, and cultivated little side whiskers of the mutton-chop
variety; while our gigs and trotters were constantly to be seen standing
in Harvard Square, waiting for the owners to claim them and take the
road.
On Sundays, when the decorous youths of Boston had retired to Beacon

Street for their midday family feast of roast beef and baked beans, the
members of the Cock and Spur might be observed in their white beaver
hats driving countryward in chaises from the local livery stables, seated
beside various fair ladies from the Boston stage or the less
distinguished purlieus of the Cambridge chop-houses. At noon these
parties would foregather at some country tavern and spend long
afternoons singing, drinking, and playing draw poker and other games
of chance; and occasionally we would fight a main of cocks in some
convenient pig-pen.
But this sort of life took money, and I soon found myself borrowing
freely from my associates, most of whom were young fellows from
other States who had already come into their inheritances and had gone
to Harvard to get rid of them under the most approved conditions. For
these I came to stand as a sort of sponsor, and was looked up to by
them as a devil of a fellow, for I swore picturesquely and had a
belligerently unpleasant manner that was regarded as something quite
out of the ordinary and distinguished. These youthful spendthrifts I
patronized and taught the mysteries of a sporting life, and for a time it
became quite smart for a fellow to have gone on one of "Quib's" notes.
These notes, however, increased rapidly in number, and before long
amounted to such a prodigious sum that they gave me great uneasiness.
My habits had become extravagant and careless. Having no money at
all I took no heed of what I did with that of others, for I hardly believed
that I could ever repay any of it. But I continued on in my luxurious
ways, well knowing that any change in my mode of life would
precipitate a deluge. The safety of my position lay in owing everybody,
and in inducing each to believe that he would be the one person
ultimately or immediately to be paid. Moreover, I was now completely
spoiled and craved so ardently the enjoyments in which I had indulged
that I would never of myself have had the will to abjure them. I had
gained that which I sought--reputation. I was accounted the leader of
the fast set--the "All Knights" as we were known--and I was the envy
and admiration of my followers. But this bred in me an arrogance that
proved my undoing. It was necessary for me to be masterful in order to
carry off the pose of leadership, but I had not yet learned when to

conciliate.
It so happened that in the spring of my junior year my creditors became
more than usually pressing, and at the same time a Jew by the name of
Poco Abrahams began to threaten suit on a note of mine for two
thousand dollars, which I had discounted with him for seven hundred
and fifty. I made my usual demands upon my friends and offered to do