Excised…Garrard’s Joke

Update on the book first…I am toward the end of a second edit, easier than the first except for the condensing of endnotes. (Endnotes are footnotes that go at the end of the book, instead of at the bottom of the page.)  Rather than several endnotes in each paragraph, I am asked to condense them into one note which will go at the conclusion of the paragraph. This is a time-consuming process, to be sure, and since there are a number of people who want this book out a.s.a.p. (starting with me!) I thought I’d take a shortcut and create today’s blog out of a paragraph that hit the proverbial cutting room floor during the first edit. It’s an amusing story and I was sad to see it go–so I’m happy to let you read it here.

To set this up…In early February 1886, Daisy Gordon was 25 years old and in love with the man she would marry. They were separated by an ocean. She missed him, but was trying to remain cheerful:

Daisy kept herself busy, receiving callers for New Year’s Day and attending a german at the home of Savannah’s most eligible bachelor, admiralty lawyer William Garrard. Determined that no woman would be a wallflower at his Valentine’s Day dance, Mr. Garrard decided to put all of their names into a silk bag. Each man would pull out a name, and in that way–depending literally on the luck of the draw–find a dance partner. Daisy couldn’t wait to tell her best friend about how “Mr. G said a strangely religious element seemed to pervade the gentlemen, as they all exclaimed either: ‘Oh Lord!’ in tones of disgust or: ‘Thank God’ in tones of relief, according to the name they drew.”