“I am delighted that you were able to be at the Indian treaty, which, from the description in your letter and the numerous letters published in the daily prints, convinces me that the occasion must have been one of extraordinary interest....
“I am telling marvellous stories here of our adventures to gaping audiences, and exhibiting my blind fishes with tremendous effect....
“All accounts from the children in Stockbridge bring alarming intelligence; it is said that they are getting fat, and nothing which has been tried has succeeded in stopping the spread of the complaint. I recommend a month on a Western steamboat in hot weather.”
One of the party, a lady, was not at all times a pleasant travelling companion. The stage drive, one morning in Kentucky, began at four, and by six o’clock the sun poured down against the side of the coach in which the lady was seated. As the heat increased, in the same degree her irritability was manifested. At last she asked a Southern gentlemen who was by her to let down the curtain. His answer was: “With pleasure, madam, if you won’t look so damned sight cross.” This proved to be the remedy required; from that time she was good-natured.
From a letter written to a New York paper this is copied:
“Niagara Falls, August 11, 1851.
“Among the recent arrivals at the Clifton House are Mlle. Jenny Lind and Cyrus W. Field and family....
“Jenny Lind arrived yesterday from New York by way of Oswego. She keeps strictly private, and has her meals served in her own room. Last evening she was amusing herself by singing, accompanied by Mr. Scharfenberg, in her own rooms, with closed doors. Soon a crowd of a hundred had gathered round her door, without a whisper being heard. She sang for about half an hour, when, suddenly opening her door, she stepped in the hall for a candle, and then you would have laughed outright to see the people scamper, she looking so indignant.”
When Mr. Field built the house on Gramercy Park, which was at first numbered 84 East Twenty-first Street, that and the one next to it were the only ones between Lexington and Third avenues, and the east side of Gramercy Park was a large vacant lot. This house was afterwards known as 123 East Twenty-first Street, and there forty happy years were passed.