Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/63

Rh d'Hôte remarked, speaking of Daniel Webster, “That nobody was as wise as Webster looked.” To which Judge Berrion immediately replied, “Not even Webster himself!” on which all laughed and applauded.

Anne Lynch and I sit at one corner of the Table d'Hôte, with Henry Clay between us, and on either hand various Southerners, so that I am through my little friend, Anne, brought into the midst of the Pro-Slavery party. Yet Henry Clay cannot be reckoned as belonging to that party.

I am living at present at the National Hotel, but shall soon remove to a private family, from which I received an invitation some time since. It is a horrible life of visiting here, and intolerably hot. But one has an opportunity of seeing and hearing various interesting people.

The senator of California, a man of giant stature, a magnificent specimen of the inhabitants of the Great West, has given me a breast-pin of Californian gold, the head of which is a nugget of gold in its native state, and in which, with a little help of the imagination, one can see an eagle about to raise its wings and fly from its eyrie.

And now, my little heart, I must close this long letter. I shall still remain fourteen days in Washington, after which I shall betake myself to the sea-side for a couple of weeks, and thus endeavour, by sea-bathing, to invigorate myself before I proceed farther.

Instead of going hence westward, which would be dangerous and fatiguing in the great heats of summer, I now intend to go northward, to Maine and New Hampshire, perhaps also visit Canada, which young Mr. A. strongly advises, and then advance westward, by the great inland lakes to Chicago, and so on to the Scandinavian settlement, still farther in the west; for I must ultimately visit them. Some riotous scenes have lately occurred in the Peasant Colony, and Erik