14
e Paris Dec. 8th 1859 Thursday.
Once more and happily for the last time I am in Paris. The
American minister gave me a very pleasant dinner party
at Brussels on Tuesday evening. I found in the Cars a
Danish family of respectability who talked English
perfectly. They had heard of my visit at Brussels
and were very curious. I reached Paris at 5, dined
in my hotel at 6 and at half past 8 went to
the Theater, “The Gunman” with an American lady
who is staying here and has wide celebrity. The execution
of the piece was admirable. I think we have no
stock companies in the United States to be
compared with the players of Paris. The piece
was a new one a drama in in four acts by
Alexi Dumas the Younger. It is for was intended
to be purely moral and I think is regarded as
such here. But it expounds a condition of society
in France that it would be better to leave the
most world portion of the world ignorant of, besides
dealing with it quite too lewdly.
At the Theater I met Mr Sartiges happy
in his appointment (just now made of minutes

15
at the Hague. Paris What a perverted lust to
prefer idleness and ennui in the marshes of Holland
to the life and activity of Washington. But the
Atlantic is a gulf which separates all who
cross it from Paris, and how can a Frenchman
live away from Paris –
And now to preparation for my
voyage – welcome although it is to be wintery.