Thanks for the suggestions anyway. At least you won't have my issue as badly because those dips are easy to drop into a working project with a socket or breadboard. This is my first scratch-built SMD project, I never realized what a pain it would be to debug.
I ordered a 5 pack of soic->dip adapter boards from ebay, so I can drop one of the 7219's into my breadboard. The dip device I have is from maxim's sample program; can't get more reliable than that.
It's going to take 3 weeks to get the adapters, so now I'm debating also ordering some more 7219's from a different supplier so at least I'll have them sooner. I love what the internet has done for this hobby in terms of price and selection, but hate what it's done in terms of slowing down the process.