Page:Familiar letters of Henry David Thoreau.djvu/365

 JET. 39.] TO HARRISON BLAKE. 341

he is essentially a gentleman. I am still some what in a quandary about him, feel that he is essentially strange to me, at any rate ; but I am surprised by the sight of him. He is very broad, but, as I have said, not fine. He said that I misapprehended him. I am not quite sure that I do. He told us that he loved to ride up and down Broadway all day on an omnibus, sitting beside the driver, listening to the roar of the carts, and sometimes gesticulating and declaiming Homer at the top of his voice. He has long been an editor and writer for the news papers, was editor of the &quot; New Orleans Cres cent &quot; once ; but now has no employment but to read and write in the forenoon, and walk in the afternoon, like all the rest of the scribbling gentry.

I shall probably be in Concord next week ; so you can direct to me there.

TO HARRISON BLAKE (AT WORCESTER).

CONCORD, December G, 1856.

ME. BLAKE, I trust that you got a note from me at Eagleswood, about a fortnight ago. I passed through Worcester on the morning of the 25th of November, and spent several hours (from 3.30 to 6.20) in the travelers room at the depot, as in a dream, it now seems. As the first Harlem train unexpectedly connected with the