Visit to Philadelphia. 155 



fare, placed before every little group at the dinner 

 table of the " Marshall House.' 7 When there is a 

 company of a couple of hundred persons, a great 

 variety of dishes may be furnished at no material 

 additional expense. We never had a dinner with- 

 out fried frogs I forgot to taste them the ladies 

 say they are great delicacies. Lobsters are abun- 

 dant in this they are before us. 



The fashion of bolting down food is a striking 

 characteristic of our nation. You sometimes cast 

 a slur upon me for my propensities in this way; 

 but I can assure you, nine-tenths of these gentle- 

 men can give me a long start and beat me. 

 I had a fancy for lobster for dinner on the steam- 

 boat, to-day, so had the lady sitting beside me, 

 but my neighbor on the other side, as he took his 

 seat, quietly broke off two enormous claws of a 

 lobster near him, and laid them beside his plate, 

 others followed suit, and when I called to the waiter 

 to furnish us, his answer was: " There is none left;" 

 all this while, my philosophic neighbor had enough 

 beside him to give dyspepsia to an alligator. He 

 seemed to go on the old principle : " Every man for 

 himself" and even a lady's desires could not move 

 him. There is considerable improvement in the 

 breeding of colts and horned cattle in this country, 

 and I am sometimes under an impression that it 

 might be well to extend the advantages of this kind 

 of culture to the higher animals. 



I have not, as yet, had very favorable specimens 

 of fine weather. The Spring is cold and backward, 

 still there is a bright green and richness in vegeta- 

 tion, that is peculiarly pleasant to me. Tulips are 

 scarcely out of flower, and Hyacinths are in perfec- 

 tion. I confess, to my shame, I did not go to see a 

 single garden in Philadelphia, nor once looked at 

 the improvements in the direction of the Schuylkill ; 



