stonian.

What a strange mixture! I am trying to find where the compliment comes
in, surely not in "the _savoir faire_ of a Frenchman!"

* * * * *

Armed with a kind letter of introduction to Miss Kate Field, I called
this morning at the office of this lady, who is characterized by a
prominent journalist as "the very brainiest woman in the United States."
Unfortunately she was out of town.

I should have liked to make the personal acquaintance of this brilliant,
witty woman, who speaks, I am told, as she writes, in clear, caustic,
fearless style. My intention was to interview her a bit. A telegram was
sent to her in New York from her secretary, and her answer was wired
immediately: "Interview _him_." So, instead of interviewing Miss Kate
Field, I was interviewed, for her paper, by a young and very pretty lady
journalist.

* * * * *

_Baltimore, April 4._

I have spent the day here with some friends.

Baltimore strikes one as a quiet, solid, somewhat provincial town. It is
an eminently middle-class looking city. There is no great wealth in it,
no great activity; but, on the other hand, there is little poverty; it
is a well-to-do city _par excellence_. The famous Johns Hopkins
University is here, and I am not surprised to learn that Baltimore is a
city of culture and refinement.

A beautiful forest, a mixture of cultivated park and wilderness, about a
mile from the town, must be a source of delight to the inhabitants in
summer and during the beautiful months of September and October.

I was told several times that Baltimore was famous all over the States
for its pretty women.

They were not out to-day. And as I have not been invited to lecture in
Baltimore, I must be content with hoping to be more lucky next time.

* * * * *

_Philadelphia, April 5._

After my lecture in Association Hall to-night, I will return to New York
to spend Easter Sunday with my friends. Next Monday off again to the
West, to Cincinnati again, to Chicago again, and as far as Madison, the
State city of Wisconsin.

[Illustration: A BALTIMORE WOMAN.]

By the time this tour is finished--in about three weeks--I shall have
traveled something like thirty thousand miles.

The more I think of it, the more I feel the truth of this statement,
which I made in "Jonathan and His Continent": To form an exact idea of
what a lecture tour is