My manager's predictions were realized last night. I had a large audience, one of the keenest and the most responsive and appreciative I have ever had. I was introduced by Judge Elliott Anthony, of the Superior Court, in a short, witty, and graceful little speech. He spoke of Lafayette and of the debt of gratitude America owes to France for the help she received at her hands during the War of Independence. Before taking leave of me, Judge Anthony kindly invited me to pay a visit to the Superior Court next Wednesday. * * * * * _March 17._ Dined yesterday with Mr. James W. Scott, proprietor of the Chicago _Herald_, one of the most flourishing newspapers in the United States, and in the evening went to see Richard Mansfield in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." The play is a repulsive one, but the double impersonation gives the great actor a magnificent opportunity for the display of his histrionic powers. The house was crowded, though it was Sunday. The pick of Chicago society was not there, of course. Some years ago, I was told, a Sunday audience was mainly composed of men. To-day the women go as freely as the men. The "horrible" always has a great fascination for the masses, and Mansfield held his popular audience in a state of breathless suspense. There was a great deal of disappointment written on the faces when the light was turned down on the appearance of "Mr. Hyde," with his horribly distorted features. A woman, sitting in a box next to the one I occupied, exclaimed, as "Hyde" came to explain his terrible secret to the doctor, in the fourth act, "What a shame, they are turning down the light again!" * * * * * [Illustration: "DEAR SOUL!"] _March 18._ Spent yesterday in recreation intellectual--and otherwise. I like to see everything, and I have no objection to entering a dime museum. I went to one yesterday morning, and saw a bearded lady, a calf with two heads, a gorilla (stuffed), a girl with no arms, and other freaks of nature. The bearded lady had very, very masculine features, but _honi soit qui mal y pense_. I could not help thinking of one of General Horace Porter's good stories. A school-master asks a little boy what his father is. "Please, sir, papa told me not to tell." "Oh, never mind, it's all right with me." "Please, sir, he is the bearded lady at the dime museum." From the museum I went to the free library in the City Hall. Dime museums and free libraries--such is America. The attendance at the free libraries increases rapidly every day, and the till at the dime museums diminishes with proportionate rapidity. [Illustration: "THE BEARDED LADY."]