Monday, June 12, 2017

Diary of John Hay: Sunday, June 12, 1864

[Passed] through Mingo, Cadiz, to Cincinnati, where I arrived on Sunday morning. I washed my face and went out; saw a plain, old church covered with ivy, and congratulated myself that there I would find some decent people worshipping God comme il faut; and was horribly bored for my worldliness. After dinner, where I met a rascally looking Jew, who was dining with a gorgeous lorette, and who insisted on knowing me and recognising me from a picture in Harper's Weekly, I strolled out to make visits. The Andersons were not at home, except young Larz. I plunged into the bosom of a peaceful family, and demanded to see the wife of a quiet gentleman on the ground that she was a young lady now travelling in Europe. He commiserated my wild and agitated demeanor, and asked me to dinner.

SOURCES: Abstracted from Clara B. Hay, Letters of John Hay and Extracts from Diary, Volume 1, p. 201; This diary entry was clearly written after June 9. See Michael Burlingame & John R. Turner Ettlinger, Editors, Inside Lincoln’s White House: The Complete War Diary of John Hay, p. 202-3 for the full diary entry which they date June 17.

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