is rather a curious one, and may be classified as the distinct and indistinct, the settled and unsettled.  The census report, a remarkably unreliable account, has it that they number “some” sixty thousand.  A large proportion of this settled and unsettled population is of such variety of color as to render it almost impossible to define the nice proportions of blood it is so strongly mixed with.  On this point, my son, you must not be too particular, but accept it as your father does, as a proof that the races, whom we are told can never be got to live in harmony together, have, to say the least, gone very extensively into a system which gives strength to the belief that it could be done.  The French call this the commingling system, and their philosophers argue from it, and with much force, that it is impossible to establish the question as to what kind of blood the best society is based upon.  For myself, I feel that we can with safety accept these French philosophers as good authority in such matters.  You will also find among the population of Washington natives of nearly every country on the face of the globe.  These speak no end of tongues, follow all manner of professions and occupations, and what is most valuable, preserve that delightful diversity for which what is called the “old society” has always been famous.  Picturesque hills encircle the city at a distance, and a beautiful river flows past on its way to the sea.  The city has many fathers and few friends.  These fathers, while in an ornamental mood, built a grand canal into the very bowels of the city, after the manner of Venice, that commerce might be encouraged, and such persons as had a passion for moonlight and gondolas could gratify it.  But the people were not given to sailing in gondolas, so this famous canal was diverted from the object for which it was originally intended.  It is now used as a tomb where deceased animals of a domestic nature are carefully deposited.  The old inhabitants regard this tomb with a reverence I never could understand clearly, even though I had sought for a cause in their instinctive opposition to all and every manner of reform.  Indeed, the fathers of the city regard this grand canal as performing a very humane part, inasmuch as it supplies an excellent and very convenient burial-place for their domestic animals, and increases the practice of a large number of doctors.  The city fathers, I am informed, find some consolation in the fact that other canals have performed equally humane services.

And it came to pass, my son, that there was a great war in all the land; and greater than was ever known before in any other land.  Thus Washington became the centre of our anxieties and our thoughts.  The people of the North, and the people of the West, and the people of the South, who constituted the people of one great nation, had long held different opinions as to the right of making merchandise of men, of women, and of little children.  Yes, my son, it was at