ther Frenchman. A pretty looking woman, but exceedingly
deficient in _tournure_, was standing alone at a little distance
from them and close at their elbows stood a very awkward
looking gentleman. "Qui est cette dame?" said the enquirer.
"Monsieur," said my young _fat_, with an indescribable grimace,
"c'est la femelle de ce male, " indicating his neighbour by
an expressive curl of his upper lip.

The theatre was not open while we were in Washington, but we
afterwards took advantage of our vicinity to the city, to visit
it. The house is very small, and most astonishingly dirty and
void of decoration, considering that it is the only place of
public amusement that the city affords. I have before mentioned
the want of decorum at the Cincinnati theatre, but certainly that
of the capital at least rivalled it in the freedom of action and
attitude; a freedom which seems to disdain the restraints of
civilized manners. One man in the pit was seized with a violent
fit of vomiting, which appeared not in the least to annoy or
surprise his neighbours; and the happy coincidence of a physician
being at that moment personated on the stage, was hailed by many
of the audience as an excellent joke, of which the actor took
advantage, and elicited shouts of applause by saying, "I expect
my services are wanted elsewhere."

The spitting was incessant; and not one in ten of the male part
of the illustrious legislative audiences sat according to the
usual custom of human beings; the legs were thrown sometimes over
the front of the box, sometimes over the side of it; here and
there a senator stretched his entire length along a bench, and in
many instances the front rail was preferred as a seat.

I remarked one young man, whose handsome person, and most
elaborate toilet, led me to conclude he was a first-rate
personage, and so I doubt not he was; nevertheless, I saw him
take from the pocket of his silk waistcoat a lump of tobacco,
and daintily deposit it within his cheek.

I am inclined to think this most vile and universal habit of
chewing tobacco is the cause of a remarkable peculiarity in the
male physiognomy of Americans; their lips are almost uniformly
thin and compressed. At first I accounted for this upon
Lavater's theory, and attributed it to the arid temperament of
the people; but it is too universal to be explained; whereas the
habit above mentioned, which pervades all classes (excepting the
literary) well accounts for it, a