224
                The St. Charles Rotunda.
the Delta Office, where I found Hamilton
Tracy entered.     A debate about the war and
the probable end of it.     A clammy, hot day
with a heavy shower of rain or two.   To the
hotel with Hamilton.     Met Ripley.  Up stairs.
in Howell�s room and Dr Crane�s.         With
the latter to the Richelieu restaurant in Cus-
tom-House Street, to dinner.      Returning met
Ripley.    To the hotel.    In Howell�s room,
where he, Schell and Ripley played euchre
and I read an old Christmas number of All
the Year Round.   Supped at dusk with
Howell at Wibel�s.   Anon loafing in the Ro-
tunda.     Most of the fellows off to the French
opera to see �Le Dragon de Villars.�       Talked
with one Boynton who had spoken to me yes-
terday; he had boarded at Mrs Boley�s
where I didn�t remember him very particular-
ly; is now engineer on the U. S. gun-boat
Winona, to which he gave me an invitation.
Talked with Noyes, too, often Knickerbocker
&c, whom I had met at Fortress Monroe
here, with hundreds like him, as a cotton-
and-sugar-buying speculator.       Talk with
a Capt. Smalley, once of the Owasco, who
wants to go home.   Reading awhile in rotun-
da; to room, scribbling diary, and bed.
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