Wednesday, February 18:
R. is not too tired after yesterday’s expedition. At breakfast we discuss the performance; when I say that, though Die Zauberflöte reveals a completely different kind of genius, the Barbiere as a whole is more impressive, R. blames the text: “The dear souls were really a bit too childish.” However, this will probably be our last visit to the opera.
R. goes out in the afternoon and as usual has several adventures, annoying encounters, including one with a sculptor; he rescues a poor boy from a difficult situation—the boy was carrying some small pictures on his head, and he dropped them, breaking the glass; utterly downcast, he hardly notices R. giving him a few francs until a man draws his attention to it, whereupon a whole swarm of beggars gathers around R., who has to fight his way out.
When I return from “leaving cards and praising God,” R. tells me about all this and, indeed, his impressions of our life here generally: “To live here admiring the beauties of Nature, knowing that down in the street below us there are beggars, ill-treated animals, and some [adjective illegibly Italian] lady riding in a carriage, neither observing nor caring—that is one world, and not only the one here. To what does Chicago owe its riches and its rise to prosperity? To the mass transport of meat. So the whole city contains nothing but slaughterhouses. To paint and carve statues” (here he makes a gesture of chiseling!) “and have aesthetic thoughts in such a world!”
“A delightful fellow, this Gleizes!” he exclaims, citing to us his opinion that even tigers became fierce only after the emergence of the desert.
In the evening we are visited by the American consul, who talks interestingly about his native country. He tells us of mass emigrations to America from Germany and Italy! Like Wotan to Alberich, the Old World can say to America, “Take my heritage!” R. displays a remarkable knowledge of conditions over there, and he once again expresses his great admiration for the war between the Northern and the Southern states.