dessert, to some interesting debate or
lecture. The wine is supplied by bets. You bet, for instance, that the
sun will shine on the following Friday at half-past two. If you lose,
you are one of those who will have to supply one, two, or three bottles
of champagne at the next dinner, and so on. This evening the lecture, or
rather the short address, was given by Colonel Charles H. Taylor on the
history of American journalism. I was particularly interested to hear
the history of the foundation of the New York _Herald_, by James Gordon
Bennett, and that of the New York _World_, by Mr. Pulitzer, a Hungarian
emigrant, who, some years ago, arrived in the States, unable to speak
English, became jack-of-all-trades, then a reporter on a German paper,
proprietor of a Western paper, and then bought the _World_, which is now
one of the best paying concerns in the whole of the United States. This
man, who, to maintain himself, not in health, but just alive, is obliged
to be constantly traveling, directs the paper by telegraph from
Australia, from Japan, from London, or wherever he happens to be. It is
nothing short of marvelous.

* * * * *

I finished the evening in the St. Botolph Club, and I may say that I
have to-day spent one of the most delightful days of my life, with those
charming and highly cultured Bostonians, who, a New York witty friend of
mine declares, "are educated beyond their intellects."

[Illustration]

FOOTNORE:

[1] J. B. O'Reilly died in 1890.

CHAPTER XVII.

A LIVELY SUNDAY IN BOSTON--LECTURE IN THE BOSTON THEATER--DR. OLIVER
WENDELL HOLMES--THE BOOTH-MODJESKA COMBINATION.

_Boston, January 26._

"Max Eliot" devotes a charming and most flattering article to me in this
morning's _Herald_, embodying the conversation we had together yesterday
in the Boston _Herald's_ office. Many thanks, Max.

A reception was given to me this afternoon by Citizen George Francis
Train, and I met many artists, journalists, and a galaxy of charming
women.

The Citizen is pronounced to be the greatest crank on earth. I found him
decidedly eccentric, but entertaining, witty, and a first-rate
_raconteur_. He shakes hands with you in the Chinese fashion--he shakes
his own. He has taken a solemn oath that his body shall never come in
contact with the body of any one.

A charming programme of music and recitations was gone through.

The invitation cards issued for the oc