Looked from the cupola of the State House

November 21, 2014

November 21 [Philadelphia]

Looked from the cupola of the State House, where the Declaration of Independence was declared. The best view of the city I got.

Was interested in the squirrels, gray and black, in Independence and Washington Squares. Heard that they have, or have had, deer in Logan Square. The squirrels are fed, and live in boxes in the trees in the winter. 

Fine view from Fairmount water-works. 

Church of the Madeline, Paris

The line of the hypothenuse of the gable end of Girard College was apparently deflected in the middle six inches or more, reminding me of the anecdote of the church of the Madeleine in Paris. 

***

In Philadelphia and also New York an ornamental tree with bunches of seed-vessels supplying the place of leaves now. I suppose it the ailanthus, or Tree of Heaven. What were those trees with long, black sickle-shaped pods? 

. . .  In the narrow market-houses in the middle of the streets, was struck by the neat-looking women marketers with full cheeks . . . There was a mosquito about my head at night. Lodged at the United States Hotel, opposite the Girard (formerly United States) Bank. 

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, November 21, 1854