A DIGRESSION ON THE PRESS. 235 



Fort a little longer, and that at the end of the week they 

 would be prepared to start, with a leave of absence for 

 eight days. I believe they said that Friday was an un 

 lucky day more because, out of kindness and friendship, 

 they wished me to rest a little longer, rather than that they 

 really had any feeling of superstition, and the result was 

 that I agreed to accept of their hospitality till Saturday, 

 the delay suiting my brown mare Sylph as well as myself, 

 as she, too, had been unwell. I must not forget to men 

 tion that on its being known to him that I was out on the 

 plains, in case I should need refreshment and rest, Mr 

 Wilson, the author of a clever work on the " Conquest of 

 Mexico," in the kindest and most hospitable way had 

 rooms in his house near the barracks prepared for me, 

 to be put at my command for any time I pleased. This 

 fact I was not aware of when I delivered my letter of 

 introduction to Major Wassells, but having been received 

 at once so gracefully and kindly by him and his lady, of 

 course I could not desert my quarters. 



My time at the barracks passed very pleasantly, and 

 the more I saw of the society there the greater reason I 

 had to be pleased ; but though I kept a journal, and now 

 write for publication, I never chronicle the transactions 

 of private life. Without a wish any further to arouse the 

 lion press, in which, according to Dickens's " Colonel 

 Diver of the Rowdy Journal of New York," " the enlight 

 ened means and bubbling passions of his country find a 

 vent," I must here take leave to say, that " the Jefferson 

 Bricks" are already trying, " through the mighty mind 

 of the popular instructors," to "rile" the people against 

 me, although in two public lectures one of them, on a 

 rainy night, I am told, the most numerously attended that 

 the great room at St Louis had ever seen the same 



