Since I Began
This A Very Kind Note Has Come By Hand From Mr. Childs, Of The _Public
Ledger_, Saying
Mrs. C - - is at New York, but he will try to get her
back on Saturday; he is coming to
Call at a quarter-past two, and offers
us carriages to drive about.
_Half-past One_. - We have just come back from seeing the Roman
Catholic Cathedral - not much worth seeing excepting a beautiful picture
of our Lord as a Child among the doctors. We also saw the Academy of
Arts, but there was nothing we cared for. I have had a kind note from
Mrs. James Neilson, who hopes to see us at New Brunswick, _en
route_ for New York.
_Sunday, 12th_. - Mr. Childs came, a short, stout man, and very
kind; he sent the carriage at three, and we drove in Fairmount Park, the
largest park in the world, and really very pretty; saw conservatories
and gardens with bright, but only _foliage_, plants - wonderful
perillas, alternantheras, tresine, &c. It was a most lovely evening and
we enjoyed the three hours' airing; it was perfectly clear and still,
with sunshine and fresh balmy air. Yesterday (Saturday) directly after
breakfast we went as by appointment to Mr. Childs' office; he has a
beautifully fitted-up room, filled with all kinds of curiosities, - Tom
Moore's harp, Washington's chair, Louis Napoleon's cup and saucer,
splendid clocks of all kinds; one of them belonged to Lord Howe, which
he had to leave behind him when he was "obliged to run away from the
States in such a hurry!" Mr. Childs' seemed to think I must know all
about this, but I am afraid I had quite forgotten that humiliation. This
reminds me of a story I heard lately of an American lionizing an
Englishman about; they came within sight of Bunker's Hill, and the
American as delicately and modestly as he could announced: "_That_,
sir, is Bunker's Hill," the Englishman put up his glass and looked, and
then said: "And who was Bunker, and what did he do on his hill?" Imagine
the American's indignation at this gross ignorance! To return to Mr.
Childs' room; while there several ladies called, and among them Mrs.
Bloomfield Moore; she talked well and we made friends, and she proposed
to call for us and take us a drive, to which we agreed. After she had
gone Mr. Childs told me she was a poetess and a millionaire, and was
supposed to be engaged to Browning the poet. A man was then told off to
escort us over the building, and a wonderful place it is. All the
printing and editorial work and "job" work so beautifully arranged and
everything in such perfect order. The _Public Ledger_ prints about
80,000 a day, or rather night, and Mr. Childs is the proprietor. Almost
all the American news comes to us from his office from a Mr. Cook, who
telegraphs it to the _Times_. Mr. Cook told me that all the
speeches at the opening of the British Association meeting at
Montreal - Lord Lansdowne's, Sir William Thomson's, &c., - were
telegraphed to London before they were delivered, John's address had
been left in London before he started. Mr. Cook got the substance of
these speeches beforehand. After this we went to the Electric Exhibition
going on here, and Dick tried an organ; then we had a drive with - - ;
she talked all the time and told me all about her husband and his will,
and how astonished everyone was to find what immense confidence in her
it proved; she knows Mrs. Capel Cure and Miss Western, and she has just
bought a good house in London. She is much interested in Mr. Keally (the
inventor of Keally's motor), and has supported him through all the
incredulity and opposition he has met with; she believes he has
discovered a new force, and has just made some experiments before ten or
twelve people, in which without any apparent power of machinery he
produced astonishing results, _not_ electric and not compressed
air, or, if the latter, he has found one a way of producing wonderful
power without the usually necessary accompaniments. This is what _I
hear; he_ says it is a force in ether, which is a medium separating
atoms, but he will not tell his secret till he has taken out his
patents. Mr. Childs sent us some tickets for the opera here, and I gave
Mrs. A. B - - one, and we all went, the music was pretty and singing
good. Mr. Rosengarten, a friend of Mr. Childs, came into the box, and
between one of the acts asked me if I would like to see some typical
American political meetings? I said "Oh, yes;" so he carried me off, and
the boys followed, to a splendid opera house, which was crammed to the
galleries by a very respectable-looking, quiet audience, listening most
attentively to the "Prohibition" candidate, who was shouting and
apparently pleasing them much, but being behind him on the platform
(they wanted me to go close to him but I would not), I could not hear
the point of his jokes. Then we went to the Academy of Music, also a
very large place, where a more rowdy lot were listening very quietly,
however, to General Butler. Certainly no meetings of such size could
take place in England with such entire absence of noise or policemen, of
carriages, or cabs. We went to bed very tired having had so much to
interest us all day. Mr. Childs, by the bye, has sent me a present of
some china and a box full of lovely roses, which I shared with the sons
and Mrs. A. B - -. I see I have not mentioned before that I received
yours and Mary's letter of 28th September, which came very soon after my
birthday. This morning we went to a Presbyterian Church by mistake, but
it was very dull and we soon went out and went to another close by,
which turned out to be Ritualistic, but at any rate the music, and
better still, the sermon, was very good, - "What think ye of Christ?" It
was all of Him, so no one could object, not even you!
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