Don’t abuse me on t Ⓐemendationaccount of that dinner-speech in reply to the toast to Woman, if you should see it floating around in the papers.1explanatory note It Ⓐemendationhad slang in it, but they had no business to report it so verbatimly. They ought to have left out the slang—you know that. It was all their fault. I am not going to make any more slang speeches in public. You will forgive me, now, won’t you?

I saw Dan as I came through New York, & I staid part of two days at Mr. Bee ach’s, in Brooklyn. That is a hospitable family, if there ever was one. Mr. Beach has been so liberal & so generous toward some of the cabin crew of the Quaker City, & has treated me so well, also, that I am ashamed to think I ever thought uncharitably of him.2explanatory note Mrs. Beach is a very fine woman, & certainly one seldom finds as good a girl as Emma, anywhere.

I am to do up the Excursion in a vast 5 or 600-page book, for the American p Publishing Company of Hartford. It is to be sold only by subscription. They Ⓐemendationpay most liberally.—but then my newspaper & magazine contracts were worth six or eight hundred dollars a month, & as I would have to throw away half of them if I prepared the book I was not inclined to do it unless I saw more profit in the said book. I have a very easy contract. I have from now till the middle of July in which to get the manuscript ready. I shall use nearly all my old letters (revamped,) but still many a chapter will be entirely new. What would you call the book?—the “Modern Pilgrim’s Progress”—“Cruise of the Quaker City”—or what?

I am tired of writing wishy-washy Ⓐemendationsquibs for the Tribune, & have joined the Herald staff—2 impersonal letters a week. Mr. Bennett says I may have full swing, & say as many mean things as I please.3explanatory note Now don’t say a word Madam, because I just mean to abuse people right & left., in case the humor takes me to do it. There are lots of folks in Washington who need villifying. I expect I shall will shock you sometimes, anger you occasionally, provoke your motherly uneasiness often—but woul wound Ⓐemendationyour feelings, never!

I have not sworn an oath since I wrote you last—& yet I have not a button on my clothes hardly. The fortitude I have shown under these exasperating circumstances fills me with admiration. I have a splendid opinion of myself, now—& I owe it all to you. Long may you lif live—& long may I live also, to sing your praises.

I am the guest of Mr. Hoop ker’s (Henry Ward Beecher’s brother-in-law) family here for a few days, & I tell you I have to walk mighty straight. I desire to have the respect of this sterling old Puritan community, for their respect is well worth having—& so I don’t dare to smoke after I go to bed, & in fact I don’t dare to do anything that’s comfortable & natural. It comes a little hard to lead such a sinless life, but then you know it won’t be for long—I can let myself out when I get to Washington. I have promised to be Mrs. Hooker’s special Washington correspondent, & so I shall have to be particular again. I am in a pretty close place—I can’t put my slang into your letters—I can’t put it into hers—I guess I shall have to deluge Charley Langdon with it.

But I guess I have written bosh enough for the present. Good-byeⒶemendation. I am ever so grateful to you for sending me those copies of the Herald. I see a good many ideas in your letters that I can steal.4explanatory note Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Severance & that good old husband of hers.