xxx] BOSTON TO WASHINGTON 135 



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 long-felt want in giving forms of letters adapted 

 to all the varied conditions of our modern civilization. The 

 result is that these conditions are found to be so complex 

 that to merely state them from " so-and-so " to " so-and-so " 

 takes up much more space than the letter itself, and is made 

 so humorously involved that I was, and am still, quite unable 

 to read them for laughter. One day a small, active-looking 

 man was pointed out to me as this very clever writer, and 

 though I did not speak to him, it is a pleasure to recall his 

 appearance when I read any of his delightfully fantastic 

 works. For many reasons I left Washington with very great 

 regret. 



