I had to give a speech to these dear little ones. I wish I had been able to give them a kiss instead.
In my little speech I had occasion to remark that I had arrived in America only a week before. After I left, it appears that a little girl, aged about six, went to her mistress and said to her:
"He's only been here a week! And how beautifully he speaks English already!"
I have been "put up" at the Players' Club by Mr. Edmund Clarence Stedman, and dined with him there to-night.
[Illustration: "HOW BEAUTIFULLY HE SPEAKS ENGLISH."]
This club is the snuggest house I know in New York. Only a few months old, it possesses treasures such as few clubs a hundred years old possess. It was a present from Mr. Edwin Booth, the greatest actor America has produced. He bought the house in Twentieth Street, facing Gramercy Park, furnished it handsomely and with the greatest taste, and filled it with all the artistic treasures that he has collected during his life: portraits of celebrated actors, most valuable old engravings, photographs with the originals' autographs, china, curios of all sorts, stage properties, such as the sword used by Macready in _Macbeth_, and hundreds of such beautiful and interesting souvenirs. On the second floor is the library, mostly composed of works connected with the drama.
When in New York, Mr. Booth occupies a suite of rooms on the second floor, which he has reserved for himself; but he has handed over the property to the trustees of the club, who, after his death, will become the sole proprietors of the house and of all its priceless contents. It was a princely gift, worthy of the prince of actors. The members are all connected with literature, art, and the drama, and number about one hundred.
THE FLOURISHING OF COATS-OF-ARMS IN AMERICA--REFLECTIONS THEREON-- FOREFATHERS MADE TO ORDER--THE PHONOGRAPH AT HOME--THE WEALTH OF NEW YORK--DEPARTURE FOR BUFFALO.
There are in America, as in many other countries of the world, people who have coats-of-arms, and whose ancestors had no arms to their coats.
This remark was suggested by the reading of the following paragraph in the New York _World_ this morning:
There is growing in this country the rotten influence of rank, pride of station, contempt for labor, scorn of poverty, worship of caste, such as we verily believe is growing in no country in the world. What are the ideals that fill so large a part of the day and generation? For the boy it is riches; for the girl the marrying of a title. The ideal of this time in America is vast riches and the trappings of rank. It is good that proper scorn should be expressed of such ideals.