will, I am sure, be of
the greatest service to him. He begins his work to-morrow night
with Hamlet, and on Tuesday I act Bianca. It is thought expedient
that we should act singly the two first nights, and then make a
"constellation." Dall is in despair because I am to be discovered
instead of coming on (a thing actors deprecate, because they do not
receive their salvo of entrance applause), and also because I am
not seen at first in what she thinks a becoming dress. For my part,
I am rather glad of this decision, for besides Bianca's being one
of my best parts, the play, as the faculty have mangled it, is such
a complete monologue that I am less at the mercy of my coadjutors
than in any other piece I play in....

Dall is very well, very hot, and very mosquito-bitten. The heat
seems to me almost intolerable, though it is here considered mild
autumn weather: the mornings and evenings are, it is true,
generally freshened with a cool delicious air, which is at this
moment blowing all my pens and paper away, and compensating us for
our midday's broiling. I do nothing but drink iced lemonade, and
eat peaches and sliced melon, in spite of the cholera.

Baths are a much cheaper and commoner luxury (necessary) in the
hotels here than with us; a great satisfaction to me, who hope in
heaven, if I ever get there, to have plenty of water to wash in,
and, of course, it will all be soft rainwater there. What a
blessing! On board ship we were not stinted in that respect, but
had as much water as we desired for external as well as internal
purposes.

There are no water-pipes or cisterns in this city such as we have,
but men go about as they do in Paris, with huge water-butts,
supplying each house daily; for although a broad river (so called)
runs on each side of this water-walled city, the one--the East
River--is merely an arm of the sea; and the Hudson receives the
salt tide-water, and is rendered brackish and unfit for washing or
cooking purposes far beyond the city. There are fine springs, and a
full fresh-water stream, at a distance of some miles; but the
municipality is not very rich, and is economical and careful of the
public money, and many improvements which might have been expected
to have been effected here long ago are halting in their advance,