old brute of a tyrant.
All his knowledge and attainments could not have made me tolerate him,
I am sure. I could have no respect for a man who was so coarse in
speech and manners, and who eat like an animal. Fact is, I am not a
Boswellian, or a Johnsonian, either. I do not think him such an
extraordinary man. I have heard many conversations as worthy of being
recorded as nineteen-twentieths of his. In spite of his learning, he
was narrow-minded and bigoted, which I despise above all earthly
failings. Witness his tirades against Americans, calling us Rascals,
Robbers, Pirates, and saying he would like to burn us! Now I have
railed at many of these ordinary women here, for using like epithets
for the Yankees, and have felt the greatest contempt for their absurd
abuse. These poor women do not aspire to Johnsonian wisdom, and their
ignorance may serve as an excuse for their narrow-mindedness; but the
wondrous Johnson to rave and bellow like any Billingsgate nymph! Bah!
He is an old disguster!

July 14th, 3 P.M.

Another pleasant excitement. News has just arrived that Scott's cavalry
was having a hard fight with the Yankees eight miles from town.
Everybody immediately commenced to pick up stray articles, and get
ready to fly, in spite of the intense heat. I am resigned, as I hardly
expect a shelling. Another report places the fight fourteen miles from
here. A man on horseback came in for reinforcements. Heaven help poor
Howell, if it is true. I am beginning to doubt half I hear. People tell
me the most extravagant things, and if I am fool enough to believe them
and repeat them, I suddenly discover that it is not half so true as it
might be, and as they themselves frequently deny having told it, all
the odium of "manufacturing" rests on my shoulders, which have not been
accustomed to bear lies of any kind. I mean to cease believing
anything, unless it rests on the word of some responsible person. By
the way--the order I so confidently believed, concerning the
proclamation, turns out not quite so bad. I was told women were
included, and it extended to private houses as well as public ones,
though I fortunately omitted that when I recorded it. When I read it,
it said, "All discussions concerning the war are prohibited in
bar-rooms, public assemblies, and street corners." As women do not
frequent such places, and private houses are not mentioned, I cannot
imagine how my infor