6. VI.
MR. PEPPER.
My arrival at Virginia City was signalized by the
following incident:
I had no sooner achieved my room in the garret
of the International Hotel than I was called upon by
an intoxicated man, who said he was an Editor.
Knowing how rare it was for an Editor to be under
the blighting influence of either spirituous or malt
liquors, I received this statement doubtfully. But
I said:
“What name?”
“Wait!” he said, and went out.
I heard him pacing unsteadily up and down the
hall outside.
In ten minutes he returned, and said:
“Pepper!”
Pepper was indeed his name. He had been out
to see if he could remember it; and he was so flushed
with his success that he repeated it joyously several
times, and then, with a short laugh, he went
away.
I had often heard of a man being “so drunk that
he didn't know what town he lived in,” but here was
a man so hideously inebriated that he didn't know
what his name was.
I saw him no more, but I heard from him. For
he published a notice of my lecture, in which he said
I had a dissipated air!
