The name of Offenbach, king of opera bouffe, author of La Vie Parisienne and The Tales of Hoffman, is synonymous with the gaiety and wit of the French Second Empire. Visiting America in 1876, Offenbach took the country by storm — although his first concert was a failure. Wined and dined in New York and elsewhere, he was endlessly inquisitive about all he saw, from art and music to the New York Fire Department, from horse-cars to women’s dress, from Niagara Falls to advertising. Offenbach found America and the Americans a source of unfailing entertainment, and the candid impressions which he recorded in his journal are fresh, droll, and full of charm. Like Figaro, he might say, “Praised by some, and blamed by others, I hasten to laugh at everything, lest I be compelled to weep.”