i 3 4 MY LIFE 



est of these arc one hundred and sixty feet wide, planted with 

 two double avenues of trees, and with wide grassy spaces be- 

 tween the houses and the pavements. Wherever these diagonal 

 avenues intersect the principal streets, there are quadrangular 

 open spaees forming gardens or small parks, planted with 

 shrubs and trees, and with numerous seats. Conspicuous 

 in these parks are the many specimens of the fine Pauloivina 

 impcrialis, one of the handsomest flowering trees of the tem- 

 perate zone, but which rarely flowers with us for want of 

 sun-heat. It has very large cordate leaves and erect panicles 

 of purple flowers, in shape like those of a foxglove. It was 

 a great regret to me that I had to leave before the flowering 

 season of these spendid trees. 



It is, however, a great pity that when the city was founded 

 it was not perceived that the whole of the land should be 

 kept by the Government, not only to obtain the very large 

 revenue that would be sure to accrue from it, but, what is 

 much more important, to prevent the growth of slums and of 

 crowded insanitary dwellings as the result of land and build- 

 ing speculation. As it is now, some of the suburbs are mis- 

 erable in the extreme. Any kind of huts and hovels are put 

 up on undrained and almost poisonous ground, while in some 

 of these remoter streets I saw rows of little villas closely 

 packed together, but each house only fifteen feet wide. 



My three months' sojourn in Washington, though a con- 

 siderable loss to me financially, was in all other respects most 

 enjoyable. I met more interesting people there than in any 

 other part of America, and became on terms of intimacy, and 

 even of friendship, with many of them. There was a very 

 good circulating library of general literature to which I sub- 

 scribed for a quarter, and was thus enabled to read many of 

 the gems of American literature which I had not before met 

 with. Among these I read a good many of the works of 

 Frank Stockton, perhaps the most thoroughly original of 

 modern story-writers. " Rudder Grange " and " The Adven- 

 tures of Mrs. Leek and Mrs. Aleshine " are among the best 

 known ; but I found here quite a small book, called " Every 

 Man his own Letter- Writer," which professes to supply a 



