of the river shows how
great its width is when full; and even now there is a perfect navy of
splendid steamers floating on its waters, many of which we saw as our
train drove through the suburban streets of the city. Unhappily the rain
poured down upon us as we got into the omnibus, but we were soon
consoled by finding ourselves in this most magnificent hotel, the finest
I have yet seen. The drawing room, is I should think, unsurpassed in
beauty by any hotel anywhere, and I shall endeavour to make a drawing of
it before I leave. The hotel at Columbus was tolerably large, as you may
suppose, when I tell you that our dining room there was about ninety
feet by thirty. This one, however, has two dining rooms of at least
equal dimensions, which together can dine 1000 persons, and it makes up
600 beds. We sat in the drawing room yesterday evening, for we could not
reconcile ourselves to leave it, even to write this journal. There were
various ladies and gentlemen laughing and talking together, but no
evening dresses, and nothing of any importance to remark about them. One
young lady only was rather grandly dressed in a drab silk; she
afterwards sat down to the piano, and began the usual American jingle,
for I cannot call it music; and I have since been told she was the
daughter of the master of the house. "Egalite" is certainly the order of
the day here, and this young lady was treated quite on an equality with
the other ladies in the room. The food is excellent, and we are very
thankful to have so luxurious a resting place if we are at all detained
here. We have several friends in the hotel, who are here to meet papa on
business.

This morning we have had a visit from Mr. Mitchell, the astronomer, and
author of the work on Astronomy, which I remember reading with pleasure
just before I left England. His daughter is to call on me and drive us
out, and we are to pay a visit to his observatory. We went this
afternoon to leave some letters, which Mr. Dennison had given us for Mr.
Rufus King and Mr. Lars Anderson. We found Mrs. King at home; her
husband is much devoted to educational subjects and to the fine arts.
There were some very good pictures and engravings in the drawing room,
and amongst the latter two of Sir Robert Strange's performances. We
found both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson at home; they live in a splendid house,
but as it was getting dark we could not see the details. We sent in our
cards with our letter, and the room b