made out. His agent's original plan was that they should be in New
York every week. "But I say No. By the 10th of January I shall have read
to 35,000 people in that city alone. Put the readings out of the reach
of all the people behind them, for the time. It is that one of the
popular peculiarities which I most particularly notice, that they must
not have a thing too easily. Nothing in the country lasts long; and a
thing is prized the more, the less easy it is made. Reflecting therefore
that I shall want to close, in April, with farewell readings here and in
New York, I am convinced that the crush and pressure upon these
necessary to their adequate success is only to be got by absence; and
that the best thing I can do is not to give either city as much reading
as it wants now, but to be independent of both while both are most
enthusiastic. I have therefore resolved presently to announce in New
York so many readings (I mean a certain number) as the last that can be
given there, before I travel to promised places; and that we select the
best places, with the largest halls, on our list. This will include,
East here--the two or three best New England towns; South--Baltimore and
Washington; West--Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St. Louis; and
towards Niagara--Cleveland and Buffalo. Philadelphia we are already
pledged to, for six nights; and the scheme will pretty easily bring us
here again twice before the farewells. I feel convinced that this is the
sound policy." (It was afterwards a little modified, as will be seen, by
public occurrences and his own condition of health; the West, as well
as a promise to Canada, having to be abandoned; but otherwise it was
carried out.) "I read here to-morrow and Tuesday; all tickets being sold
to the end of the series, even for subjects not announced. I have not
read a single time at a lower clear profit per night (all deductions
made) than L315. But rely upon it I shall take great care not to read
oftener than four times a week--after this next week, when I stand
committed to five. The inevitable tendency of the staff, when these
great houses excite them, is, in the words of an old friend of ours, to
'hurge the hartist hon;' and a night or two ago I had to cut away five
readings from _their_ list."

An incident at Boston should have mention before he resumes his readings
in New York. In the interval since he was first in America, the Harvard
professor of chemistry, Dr. Webster, whom