--in
respect of petticoat government, "free love," and various similar
amiable, progressional theories that mark the advancement of our
Transatlantic sisterhood!--Yes, I have reported each and all of these as
they declaimed to their glory and satisfaction--and my disgust and
impatience, when their loquacity has extended to such a length that I
have had to sit up all night in order to write out my shorthand notes in
time for the waiting press--confound them!

Beyond this, I have "interviewed" politicians of every school and
temper--from Fernando Wood, the chief "wire puller" of swindling Tammany
Hall, up to doughty, tongue-tied General Grant, the "useless
slaughtering" commander of the northern forces during the civil war--
having had the pleasure of learning from the former how "logs" are
"rolled" in the furtherance of party ends; and, from the latter,
although the information only came out in dribbled monosyllables in
answer to gently disguised questions, for the reticent warrior can
hardly put two words of a sentence together, that he had been "bred up a
farmer," and, considered himself "more fit" for "that state of life"
than any other--in which opinion, as he has never been publicly tried in
the calling, I cordially agree with him.

I have, likewise, "interviewed" prize-fighters, before they proceeded to
take action in some "merry little mill;" Mormon prophets' wives, who had
come east to purchase Parisian finery for the after delectation of Utah
eyes, and the envy of other polygamous families not so favoured as they;
Chinese missions, under the escort of a Burlinghame; condemned
criminals, awaiting the fatal noose, and who wished to give their "last
speech and confession" to the world; Japanese jugglers, who expressed
their opinion of the States--the main object of every reporter's cross-
examination generally--in a sort of phonographic language, too, in which
the signs were feats of legerdemain and the "arbitrary characters," the
butterfly and basket tricks!

In fact, I "interviewed" everybody that was worth "interviewing," and
who could be got at to be "interviewed."

Seen life?

I should just think I had. I would not dream of fancying myself in a
position to give any trustworthy opinion on the subject of America and
its people, unless I had thus mixed amongst all classes of the community
during a lengthened stay in the country--although, mind you, your
"working-man's friend," and "trades' union delegate,"