h and
perhaps for ever in Philadelphia! Of which city, at that time, there was
not one in the world of which so little evil could be said, or so much
good, yet of which so few ever spoke with enthusiasm. Its inhabitants
were all well-bathed, well-clad, well-behaved; all with exactly the same
ideas and the same ideals. A decided degree of refinement was everywhere
perceptible, and they were so fond of flowers that I once ascertained by
careful inquiry that in most respectable families there was annually much
more money expended for bouquets than for books. When a Philadelphian
gave a dinner or supper, his great care was to see that everything _on
the table_ was as good or perfect as possible. I had been accustomed to
first considering what should be placed _around_ it on the chairs as the
main item. The lines of demarcation in "society" were as strongly drawn
as in Europe, or more so, with the enormous difference, however, that
there was not the slightest perceptible shade of difference in the
intellects, culture, or character of the people on either side of the
line, any more than there is among the school-boys on either side of the
mark drawn for a game. Very trifling points of difference, not
perceptible to an outsider, made the whole difference between the
exclusives and the excluded; just as the witch-mark no larger than a
needle-point indicates to the judge the difference between the saved and
the damned.

I had not been long engaged in studying law when I made the acquaintance
of Richard B. Kimball, a lawyer of New York, who had written a few novels
which were very popular, and are still reprinted by Tauchnitz. He knew
everybody, and took a great interest in me, and opened the door for me to
the _Knickerbocker Magazine_. To this I had contributed articles while
at Princeton. I now sent it my translation of Professor Neumann's
"Chinese in Mexico in the Fifth Century." I forget whether this was in
1849 or 1850. In after years I expanded it to a book, of which a certain
Professor said, firstly in a paper read before the American Asiatic
Society, and secondly in a pamphlet, that there was nothing of any
importance in it which had not already appeared in Bancroft's work on the
Pacific. I wrote to him, pointing out the fact that Bancroft's work did
not appear till many years after my article in the _Knickerbocker_. To
which the Sinologist replied very suavely and apologetically indeed that
he was "very sor