and was treated
with distinguished courtesy. When he went home he published a book
filled with deliberate misstatements and willful exaggerations of the
traits of the American people.

This paper "has reason," as the French say. My book contained one
misstatement, at all events, and that was that "all Americans have a
great sense of humor." You may say that the French are a witty people,
but that does not mean that France contains no fools. It is rather
painful to have to explain such things, but I do so for the benefit of
that editor and with apologies to the general reader.

In spite of this diverting little "par," I had an immense audience last
night in Harmanus Bleecker Hall, a new and magnificent construction in
Albany, excellent, no doubt, for music, but hardly adapted for lecturing
in, on account of its long and narrow shape.

[Illustration: RIP VAN WINKLE.]

I should have liked to stay longer in Albany, which struck me as being a
remarkably beautiful place, but having to lecture in New York this
afternoon, I took the vestibule train early this morning for New York.
This journey is exceedingly picturesque along the Hudson River,
traveling as you do between two ranges of wooded hills, dotted over with
beautiful habitations, and now and then passing a little town bathing
its feet in the water. In the distance one gets good views of the
Catskill Mountains, immortalized by Washington Irving in "Rip Van
Winkle."

On boarding the train, the first thing I did was to read the news of
yesterday. Imagine my amusement, on opening the Albany _Express_ to read
the following extract from the report of my lecture:

He has an agreeable but not a strong voice. This was the only point
that could be criticised in his lecture, which consisted of many
clever sketches of the humorous side of the character of different
Anglo-Saxon nations. His humor is keen. He evidently is a great
admirer of America and Americans, only bringing into ridicule some of
their most conspicuously objectionable traits.... His lecture was
entertaining, clever, witty and thoroughly enjoyable.

The most amusing part of all this is that the American sketches which I
introduced into my lecture last night, and which seemed to have struck
the Albany _Express_ so agreeably, were all extracts from the book
"filled with deliberate misstatements and willful exaggerations of the
traits of the American people." Well, after all, there is humor,