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AMERICAN NOTES. 3s. GJ. 2s. Gd. 5s. ea. # il*. ^ ilii li^^^^^^^ ■^i? ^ > #' I -Iff- #?^ AMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. By CHAKLES DICKENS. WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY C. STANFIELD, U.A. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, 186, STRAND. MPCCCL. ii »yt i - i i.i» 4^ i .i i if i«n w ipi >)m i, ,n i i a^ i . lom>un: BBAonuay and bv&rb, fbintbhs, wuitkfuiau!<. 6271^ !m I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO THOSE FRIENDS OF MINE IN AMERICA, WHO, GIVING ME A WELCOME I MUST EVER GRATEFULLY AND PROUDLY REMEMBER, LEFT MY JUDGMENT FREE; AND WHO, LOVING THEIR COUNTRY, CAN BEAR THE TRUTH, WHEN IT IS TOLD GOOD HUMOUREDLY, AND IN A KIND Sl'IRIT. f [i PREEACE TO THE CHEAP EDITION. It is nearly eight years since this book was first published. I present it, unaltered, in the Cheap Edition ; and such of my opinions as it expresses, are quite unaltered too. My readers have opportunities of judging for themselves whether the influences and tendencies which I distrust in America, have any existence but in my imagination. They can examine for themselves whether there has been anything in the public career of that country during these past eight years, or whether there is anything in its present position, at home or abroad, which suggests that those influences and tendencies really do exist. As they find the fact, they will judge me. If they discern any evidences of wrong-going, in any direction that I have indicated, they will acknowledge that I had reason in what I wrote. If they discern no such thing, they will consider me altogether mistaken. Prejudiced, I never have been, otherwise than in favour of the United States. No visitor can ever have set foot on those shores, X TREPACE. with a stronger faith in the Republic than I had, when I landed in America. I purposely abstain from extending these observations to any length. I have nothing to defend, or to explain away. The truth is the truth ; and neither childish absurdities, nor unscru- pulous contradictions, can make it otherwise. The earth would still move round the sun, though the whole Catholic Church said No. I have many friends in America, and feel a grateful interest in the country. To represent me as viewing it with ill-nature, animosity, or partisanship, is merely to do a very foolish thing, which is always a very easy one ; and which I have disregarded for eight years, and could disregard for eighty more. London, 22nd June, 1860. (i, GOING AWA> CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAOK 1 THE PASSAGK OUT CHAPTER II. BOSTON CHAPTER III. 17 CHAPTER IV. AN AMERICAN UAILROAD.-LOWELL AND ITS FACTORY SYSTEM 43 CHAPTER V. WORCESTER.~THE CONNECTICUT RIVER.-HARTFORD.-NEW HAVEN- TO NEW YORK 49 CHAPTER VI. NEW YORK 55 CHAPTER VH, VlULADhLi-niA, AND ITS SOLITARY I'RISON . di" Xll -r,J. CONTENTS. .CHAPTER VIII. WASHINGTON. — THE LEOISLATUHe. — AND THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE I'AOR 78 CHAPTER IX. A NIGHT STEAMER ON THE POTOMAC RIVER. — VIRGINIA ROAD, AND A BLACK DRIVER.— RICHMOND. — BALTIMORE. — THE HARRISBURG MAIL, AND A GLIMPSE OF THE CITV. — A CANAL BOAT .... 89 CHAPTER X. SOME FURTHER ACCOUNT OF THE CANAL BOAT, ITS DOMESTIC ECONOMY, AND ITS PASSENGERS. — JOURNEY TO PITTSBURG ACROSS THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS. — PITTSBURG 101 CHAPTER XI. FROM PITTSBURG TO CINCINNATI IN A WESTERN STEAM-BOAT. — CINCINNATI 108 CHAPTER XII. FROM CINCINNATI TO LOUISVILLE IN ANOTHER WESTERN STEAM-BOAT ; AND FROM LOUISVILLE TO ST. LOUIS IN ANOTHER. — ST. LOUIS 114 •^M CHAPTER XIII. A JAUNT TO THE LOOKING-GLASS PRAIRIE AND BACil . 122 CHAPTER XIV. RETURN TO CINCINNATI. — A STAGE-COACH RIDE FROM THAT CITY TO COLUMBUS, AND THENCE TO SANDUSKY. — SO, BY LAKE ERIE, TO THE FALLS OF NIAGARA 128 108 114 122 COMLMS. Xtll PA(»B 7fi CHAPTER XV. . IN CANADA ; TORONTO; KINGSTON ; MONTREAL J^ljUEBEC ; ST. JOHN'S - IN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN ; LEBANON J THE SHAKER VILLAGE ! AND WEST POINT . PAOI . 14 CHAPTER XVI. 89 THE PASSAGE HOME 153 CHAPTER XVII. SLAVERY . 159 101 CHAPTER XVIir. CONCLUDING REMARKS 170 128 V 1 f i 1 i f l\ ; 1 1 GOING AWAY AND THE PASSAGE OUT. [1 M AMERICAN NOTES. CHAPTER I. CiOINti AWAY. I I suALL never forget the onc-fuurth pcrious and three-fourths comical jistonislimcnt, with which, on the morniuGr of the third of January eii^htoen-hundrcd-and-forty- two, 1 opened the door of, and put my head into, a " state-room" on board the Britannia steam-packot, twelve hun- dred tons burthen per register, bound for Halifax and Boston, and carrying Her ^lajesty's mails. That this state-room had been spe- cially engaged for "Charles Dickens, Esquire, and Lady," was rendered sufficiently clear even to my scared intellect by a very small manuscript, announcing the fact, which was pinned on a very flat quilt, covering a very thin mattress, spread like a sur- gical plaster on a most inaccessible shelf. But that this was the state- room concerning which Charles Dickens, Esquire, and Lady, had held daily and nightly conferences for at least four months preceding : that this could by any possibility be that small snug chamber of the imagina- tion, which Charles Dickens, Esquire, with the spirit of prophecy strong upon him, had always foretold would contain at least one little sofa, and which his lady, with a modest yet most magnificent sense of its limited No. 16L dimensions, had from the first opined would not hold more than two enor- mous portmanteaus in some odd corner out of sight (portmanteaus which could now no more be got in at the door, not to say stowed away, thaii a giraffe could be persuaded or forced into a flower-pot) : that this utterly impracticable, thoroughly hopeless, and profoundly preposterous box, had the remotest reference to, or connec- tion with, those chaste and pretty, not to say gorgeous little bowers, sketched by a masterly hand, in the highly varnished lithographic plan hanging up in the agents counting-house in the city of London : that this room of state, in short, could be anything but a pleasant fiction and cheerful jest of the captain's, invented and put in practice for the better relish and enjoyment of the real state-room pre- sently to be disclosed : — these were truths which I really could not, for the moment, bring my mind at all to bear upon or comprehend. And I sat down upon a kind of horsehair slab, or perch, of which there were two within ; and looked, without any ex- pression of countenance whatever, at some friends who had come on board with U8, and who were crushing their faces into all manner of shapes by B 1 \1 '' AMERICAN NOTKS entand, at homo, that to form a just conception of it, it wouhl be necessary to m\dtiply the size ami furniture of an ordinary drawing room by seven, and then fall short of the reality. When the man in reply avowed the truth ; the blunt, remorseless, naked truth; "This is the saloon, sir" — he aetuully reeled beneath the blow. In jiersons who were so soon to part, and interpose between their else daily communication the formidable barrier of many thousand miles of stormy si)acc, and who were for that reason anxious to cast no other cloud, not even the passing shadow of a moment's disappointment or discom- fiture, upon the short interval of happy companionship that yet re- mained to them — in persons so situ- ated, the natural transition from these stewards were warming their hands ; I first surprises Avas obviously into peals while on either side, extending down ] of hearty laughter ; and I can report its whole dreary length, was a long, | that I, for one, being still seated upon long, table, over each of which a rack, i the slab or perch before-mentioned, fixed to the low roof, and stuck full of roared outright until the vessel rang drinking-glassea and cruet-stands, 1 again. Thus, in less than two hinted dismally at rolling seas and i minutes after coming upon it for the heavy weather. I had not at that first time, wc all by common consent time seen the ideal presentment of | agreed that this state-room was the this chamber which lias since gratified \ pleasantest and most facetious and me so much, but I observed that one of our friends who had made the arrange- ments for our voyage, turned pale on entering, retreated on the friend behind him, smote his forehead involuntarily, and said below his breath, " Impossible ! it cannot be ! " or words to that effect. He recovered himself how^ever by a great effort, and after a preparatory cough or two, cried, with a ghastly smile which is still before me, looking at the same time round the walls, " Ha ! the breakfast- room, steward — eh V We all foresaw what the answer must be : we knew the agony he suffered. He had often spoken of the saloon; had taken capital contrivance possible ; and that to have had it one inch larger, would have been quite a disagreeable and deplorable state of things. And with this; and with showing how, — by very nearly closing the door, and twining in and out like serpents, and by counting the little washing slab as standing-room, — wc could manage to insinuate four people into it, all at one time; and entreating each other to observe how very airy it was (in dock), and how there was a beautiful port-hole which could be kept open all day (weather permitting), and how there was quite a large bull's eye just over the looking-cr' :ss which would render FOtt GENKUAI. CIRCULATION. 8 oriiil idea ; IcThtanil, at lucciition of to iinilt,ii»ly 11 (.riliniiry ,(l then tall u the mail ; the l)lunt, ; "Thirt irt iially reeled HO soon to cu their else roriiiichil'lo ud miles of ere for that other cloud, shadow of a L ov discom- interval of that yet re- ;ons HO situ- )n from these sly into peals I can report seated upon -mentioned, vessel rang than two )n it for the mon consent 3oni was the icetious and c ; and that argcr, would irceablc and And with ig how, — by door, and erpcnts, and shing slab as d manage to it, all at one ich other to ras (in dock), ,iful port-hole pen all day d how there eye just over kould render nhaving a porfopfly easy ami deli^^litfiil proccrtrt ^when the ship ilidn't roll too much); we arrived, at last, at the unanimous conclusion that it was ruthir spacious than otherwise : thouj^h f «lo verily believe that, deduitiug the fwo berths, one above the of her than which nothini,' smaller for sleeping in was ever uuule excei)t e.>#)ns, it was no bitft/or than one of tho.>e h ' knoy cabriolets wlii'b have the door liohind, and shoot tlicir fares out, like sacks of coals, upon the pavement. Having settled this point, to the perfect satisfaction of all parties, con- cerned and unconcerned, we sat down round the fire in the ladies' caliin — just to try the eftect. It was rather dark, certainly ; but somebody said, " of course it would be light, at sea," a proposition to which we all assented ; echoing" of course, of course;" though it would be exceedingly difficult to say why we thought so. I remember, too, when we had discovered and ex- hausted another topic of consolation in the circumstance of this ladies' cabin adjoining our state-room, and the consequently immense feasibility of sitting there at all times ami seasons, and had fallen intoamomen- tarj' silence, leaning our faces on our hands and looking at the fire, one of our party said, with the solemn air of a man who had made a discovery, " What a relish mulled claret will have down here !" which appeared to strike us all most forcibly ; as though there were something spicy and high- flavoured in cabins, which essentially improved that composition, and ren- dered it quite incapable of perfection anywhere else. There was a stewardess, too, actively engaged in producing clean sheets and tablecloths from the very entrails of the sofas, and from unexpected lockers, of such artful mechanism, that it made one's head ache to see them oitened one after anotlicr, and rendered it «|uite u di«.tiaiting cir- cumstance to follow her procec^lings, and to find ' that every nook and corner and individual piece of furni- ture was something else lic^idcs what it pretended to be, and was a mere trap and deception and place of secret stowage, whose ostensible purpose was its least useful one. tiod bless that stewardess for her piously fraudulent aecnimt of January voyages ! tJod bless iicr for her clear recollection of the companion |)assage of last year, when nolxxly was ill, and everybody danced from morning to night, and it was "a run" of twelve days, and a piece of the purest frolic, and delight, and jollity! All happi- ness bo wit)i her for her bright face and her pleasant Scotch toiii,nM', which had sounds of old Home in ii inr my fellow traveller; and for her predic- tions of fair winds and fine wcither (all wrong, or I shouhln't be hall ^y the sudden and unexpected stoppage of the engine which had been clanking and blasting in our ears incessjintly for so many days, to watch the look of blank astonishment expressed in every face : beginning with the officers, tracing it through all the passengers, and descending to the very stokers and furnace-men, who emerged from below, one by one, and clustered to- gether in a smoky group about the hatchway of the engine-room, com- paring notes in whispers. After throwing up a few rockets and firing signal-guns in the hope of being hailed from the land, or at least of seeing a light — but without any other sight or sound presenting itself — it was deter- mined to send a boat on shore. It was amusing to observe how very kind some of the passengers were, in volun- teering to go ashore in this same boat : for the general good, of course : not by any means because they thought the ship in an unsafe position, or con- templated the possibility ^f her heel- ing over in case the tide w«^re running out. Nor was it less amusing to remark how desperately unpopular the poor pilot became in one short minute. He had had his passage out from Liverpool, and during the whole voyage had been quite a notorious character, as a teller of anecdotes and cracker of jokes. Yet here were the very men who had laughed the loudest at his jests, now flourishing their fists in his face, loading him with impre- cations, and defying him to his teeth as a villain ! The boat soon shoved off, with a lantern and sundry blue lights on board; and in less than an hour returned ; the officer in command Iwinging with him a tolerably tall yoimg tree, which he ha I FOR GKNERAL flUCULATION. 16 had plucked ti.sfy certain fhotic minds ,• were to 1)0 wrecked, and ■crnis l)elicvc , or had done ly row a little illy to deceive deaths. Our 'om the first ICC called the so we were, place in the any business ddcn fog, and part, were the ded by banks, of all kinds, d, it seemed, )eck that was out.s. Eased the assurance L the ebb, we 'clock in the half-past nine noise above When I had Is dark, foggy, irc bleak hills were gliding stream, at the ,n hour : our r crew rigged clothes ; our lain; the sun ,nt April day stretched out id with light ooden houses; telegraphs wharfs ap- Icrowded with shouts; men steep places ire bright and unused eyes em. We came iplifted faces ; got alongside, and were made last, I after some nhouting and h*lraining of , cables ; darted, a (*core of u« along the gangway, almost as soon as it was thrust out to meet us, and be- ^ fore it had reached the ship — and i leaped upon the firm glad earth again ! j 1 suppose this Halifax would have appeared an Elysium, though it had been a curiosity of ugly dulness. Hut j I carried away with me a most plea- sant impression of the town anil its inhabiUints, and have preserved it to j this hour. Nor was it without regret , tliat I came home, without having \ found an o[)portunity of returning thither, and once more shaking hands , with the friends I made that day. , It happened to be the opening of i the Legislative Council and General i Assembly, at which ceremonial the ; forms observed on the commencement ; of a new Session of rarliamout in j England were so closely copied, and | so gravely presented on a small t-cale, j that it was like looking at West- minster through the wrong end of a ; telescope. The governor, as )ier , Majesty's representative, delivered , what may be called the Speech from the Throne. He said what he had to say manfully and well. The military band outside the building struck up " God save the Queen" with great vigour before his Excellency had quite finished ; the people shouted ; the in's rubbed their hands ; the out's shook their heads; the Government party said there never was such a good speech ; the opposition declared there never was such a bad one ; the Speaker and members of the House of Assembly withdrew from the bar to say a great deal among themselves and do a little : and, in short, every- thing went on, and promised to go on, just as it does at home upon the like occasions. The town is built on the side of a hill, the highest point l)eing com- manded by a strong fortress, not yet (juite finished. Several streets of good breadth and appearance extend from its summit to the water-side, and are intersected by cross streeta running parallel with the river. The houses are chiefly of wood. The market is abundantly supplied : and jtrovisions are exceedingly cheap. The weather being unusually mild at that time for the season of the year, their was no sleighing : but there wore plenty of those vehicles in yards and bye-places, and some of tlicm, from the gorgeous quality of their decorations, might have " gone on" without alteration as triumphal cars in a melo-drama at Astley's. The day was uncommonly fine ; the air bracing and healthful ; the Avholc asjjcct of the town cheerful, thriving, and industrious. We lay there seven hours, to deliver and exchange the mails. At length, having collected all our bags and all our passengers (including two or three choice spirits, who, having indulged too freely in oysters and champagne, were found lying insensible on their backs in unfrequented streets,) the engines were again put in motion, and we stood off for Boston. Encountering squally weather again in the 13ay of Fundy, we tumbled and rolled about as usual all that night and all next day. On the next after- noon, that is to say, on Saturday, the twenty-second of January, an American pilot-boat came alongside, and soon afterwards the Britannia steam-packet, from Liverpool, eighteen days out, was telegraphed at Boston. The indescribable interest with which I strained my eyes, as the first patches of American soil peeped like molehills from the green sea, and fol- lowed them, as they swelled, by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, into a continuous line of coast, can IG AMERICAN NOTES 'u' hardly be exaggerated. A sharp keen Avind blew dead against us; a hard frost prevailed on shore ; and the cold was most severe. Yet the air was so intensely clear, and dry, and ])right, that the temperature was not only endurable, but delicious. How I remained on deck, staring about me. until wo came alongside the dock, and how, though I had had as many eyes as Argus, I should have had them all wide open, and all employed on new objects— are topics which I will not prolong this chapter to discuss. Neither will I more than hint at my foreigner-like mistake, in supposing that a party of most active persons, who scrambled on board at the peril of their lives as we approached the wharf, were newsmen, answering to that industrious class at home ; whereas, despite the leathern wallets of news slung about the necks of some, and the broad sheets in the hands of all, they were Editors, who boarded ships in person (as one gentleman in a worsted comforter informed me), "because they liked the excitement of it." Suffice it in this place to say, that one of these invaders, with a ready courtesy for ■which I thank him here most grate- fully, went on before to order rooms at the hotel ; and that when I fol- lowed, as I soon did, I found myself rolling through the long passages with an involuntary imitation of the gait of Mr. T. 1'. Cooke, in a new nautical melo-drama. " Dinner, if you please," said I to the waiter. " When ? " said the waiter. " As quick as possible," said I. " Right away ] " said the waiter. After a moment's hesitation, I answered, "No," at hazard. " Not right away]" cried the waiter, with an amount of surprise that made me start. I looked at him doubtfully, and re- turned, " No ; I would rather have it in this private room. I like it very much." At this, I really thought the waiter must have gone out of his mind : as I believe he would have done, but for the interposition of another man, who whispered in his ear, "Directly." " Well ! and that's a fact ! " said the waiter, looking helplessly at me : " liight away." I saw now that " Right away" and " Directly" were one and the same thing. So I reversed my pre^ious answer, and sat down to dinner in ten minutes afterwards; and a capital dinner it was. The hotel (a very excellent one), is called the Tremont House. It has more galleries, colonnades, piazzas, and passages than I can remember, or the reader would believe. i-* FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 17 tation of the 10, in a now )," said I to iter. " said I. ic waiter. hesitation, I rd. cd the waiter, Lsc that made fully, and re- ather liavc it hko it very :ht the waiter Iu3 mind : as v^o done, but another man, r, "Directly." ict ! " said tho jsly at me : it away" and nd the same my prcNious inner in ten id a capital lent one), is use. It has ides, piazzas, emember, or e. CHAPTER III. BOSTON. In all the public establishments of -America, the utmost courtesy prevailrt. Alost of our Departments arc suscep- tible of considcral)le improvement in this respect, but the Custom-house above all others would do well to take example from the United States and render itself somewhat less odious and offensive to foreigners. The servile rapacity of the French officials is suf- ficiently contemptible ; but there is a surly boorish incivility about our men, alike disgusting to all persons who fall into their hands, and discre- ditable to the nation that keeps such ill-conditioned curs snarling about its gates. When I landed in America, I could not help being strongly impressed with the contrast their Custom-house presented, and the attention, polite- ness and good humour with which its officers discharged their duty. As we did not land at Boston, in consequence of some detention at the wharf, until after dark, I received my first impressions of the city in walk- ing down to the Custom-house on the morning after our arrival, which was Sunday. I am afraid to say, by the way, how many offers of pews and seats in church for that morning were made to us, by formal note of invita- tion, before we had half finished our first dinner in America, but if I may be allowed to make a moderate guess, without going into nicer calculation, I should say that at least as many sittings were proflcred us, as would have accommodated a score or two of grown-up families. The number of creeds and forms of religion to which No. 1G2. c tho pleasure of our company was ro- qucstcd, was in very fair proportion. Not being able, in the absence of any change of clothes, to go to churcli that day, we were compelled to decline these kindnesses, one and all ; and 1 was reluctantly obliged to forego tlio delight of hearing Dr. Channing, who happened to preach that morning for the first time in a very long interval. I -Aontion the name of this distin- gi'isiiod and accomplished man (with whom I soon afterwards had the pleasure of becoming personally ac- quainted), that I may have the grati- fication of recording my humble tribute of admiration and respect for his high abilities and character ; and for the bold philanthropy with which he has ever opposed himself to that most hideous blot and foul disgrace — Slavery. To return to Boston. When I got into the streets upon this Sunday morning, the air was so clear, the houses were so bright and gay ; tho signboards were painted in such gaudy colours ; the gilded letters were so very golden ; the bricks were so very red, the stone was so very white, the blinds and area railings were so very green, the knobs and plates upon the street doors so mar- vellously bright and twinkling; and all so slight and unsubstantial in appearance — that every thoroughfare in the city looked exactly like a scene in a pantomime. It rarely happens in the business streets that a trades- man, if I may venture to call anybody a tradesman, where everybody is a merchant, resides above his store ; so 18 AMERICAN NOTES '•f m. I ' . -W.! li *' ii that many occupations arc ofttn car- ried on in one liouse, and the whole front is covered with boards and in- sc'i'iptions. Art 1 walked along, 1 kept glancing up at these boards, confidently expecting to see a few of them change into something ; and I never turned a corner suddenly with- out looking out for the clown and pantaloon, who, I had no doubt, were hiding in a doorway or behind some pillar close at hand. As to Harlequin and Columbine, I discovered immedi- ately that they lodged (they are always looking after lodgings in a pantomime) at a very small clock- maker's, one story high, near the hotel ; which, in addition to various symbols and devices, almost covering the whole front, had a great dial hanging out — to be jumped through, of course. The suburbs are, if possible, even more unsubstantial-looking than the city. The white wooden houses (so white that it makes one wink to look at them), with their greeu jalousie blinds, are so sprinkled and dropped about in all directions, without seem- ing to have any root at all in the ground ; and the small churches and chapels are so prim, and bright, and highly varnished ; that I almost be- lieved the whole afiair could be taken up piecemeal like a child's toy, and crammed into a little box. The city is a beautiful one, and cannot fail, I should imagine, to im- press all strangers very favourably. The private dwelling-houses are, for the most part, large and elegant ; the shops extremely good ; and the public buildings handsome. The State House is built upon the summit of a hill, which rises gradually at first, and afterwards by a steep ascent, almost from the water's edge. In front is a green inclosure, called the Common. The site is beautiful : and from the top there is a charming panoramic view of the whole town and neigh- bourhood. In addition to a variety of commodious oUiccs, it contains two handsome chambers: in one the House of Itoprcscntatives of the State hold their meetings : in tlie other, the Senate. Such proceedings as I saw here, were conducted with perfect gravity and decorum : and were cer- tainly calculated to inspire attention and respect. There is no doubt that much of the intellectual refinement and superiority of Boston, is referable to the quiet influence of the University of Cam- bridge, which is within three or four miles of the city. The resident pro- fessors at tiiat university are gentle- men of learning and varied attain- ments ; and are, without one exception that I can call to mind, men who would shed a grace upon, and do honour to, any society in the civilised world. Many of the resident gentry in Boston and its neighbcurhood, and I think I am not mistaken in adding, a large majority of those who are at- tached to the liberi.'. ^^^-ofessions there, have been educated at this same school. Whatever the defects of American universities may be, they disseminate no prejudices ; rear no bigots ; dig up the buried ashes of no old superstitions ; never interpose between the people and their impro\ 3- ment; exclude no man because of his religious opinions ; above all, in their whole course of study and in- struction, recognise a world, and a broad one too, lying beyond the college walls. It was a source of inexpressible pleasure to me to observe the almost imperceptil>le, but not less certain ettect, Avrought l)y this institution among the small community of Boston ; and to note at every turn the humanising tastes and desires it has engendered ; the afl'ectionate friendships to which it has given rise ; ;^ FOR GENEKAL CIRCULATION. 19 and ncigh- a viu'icty it contains in one the Df the State the other, xlings as I with perfect d were cer- rc attention much of the [i superiority jO the quiet iity of Cam- three or four resident pro- f ai'e gentle- aried attain- )ne exception d, men who pon, and do 1 the civilised sidcnt gentry Kurhood, and en in adding, >vho are at- [cssions there, ,t this same defects of iiay be, they .-es ; rear no |d ashes of no cr interpose [heir impro\ 3- 1 because of above all, in ^udy and in- |,vorld, and a beyond the inexpressible ^e the almost less certain 5 institution Immunity of every turn id desires it afiectionate las given rise ; the amount of vanity and prejudice it lias dispelled. The golden calf they worship at IJoston is a pigmy com- pared with the giant etligies set up in other parts of that vast counting- house which lies beyond the Atlantic ; and the almighty dollar sinks into something comparatively insignifi- cant, amidst a whole Pantheon of better gods. Above all, I sincerely believe that the public institutions and charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect, as the most con- siderate wisdom, benevolence, and humanity, can make them. I never in my life was more affected by the contemplation of happiness, under circumstances of privation and be- reavement, than in my visits to these establishments. It is a great and pleasant feature of all such institutions in America, that they are cither supported by the State or assisted by the State ; or (in the event of their not needing its helping hand) that they act in con- cert with it, and are emphatically the people's. I cannot but think, with a view to the principle and its tendency to elevate or depress the character of the industrious classes, that a Public Charity is immeasurably better than a Private Foundation, no matter how munificently the latter may be en- dowed. In our own country, where it has not, until within these later days, been a very popular fashion with governments to display any extraordi- nary regard for the great mass of the people or to recognise their existence as improveable creatures, private charities, unexampled in the history of the earth, have arisen, to do an in- calculable amount of good among the destitute and afflicted. But the government of the country, having neither act nor part in them, is not in the receipt of any portion of the gratitude they inspire; and, oftering very little shelter or relief beyond that which is to be found in the work- house and the jail, has come, not un- naturally, to be looked ui>on by the poor rather as a stern master, quick to correct and punish, than a kind protector, merciful and vigilant in their hour of need. The maxim that out of evil comcth good, is strongly illustrated by these establishments at home ; as the re- cords of the Prerogative OHice in Doctors' Commons can abundantly prove. Some immen^iely rich old gentleman or lady, surrounded by needy relatives, makes, ujtou a low average, a will a-week. The old gentle- man or lady, never very remarkable in the best of times for good temper, is full of aches and pains from heail to foot ; full of fancies and caprices ; full of spleen, distrust, suspicion, and dislike. To cancel old wills, and in- vent new ones, is at last the sole business of such a testator's existence ; and relations and friends (some of whom have been bred up distinctly to inherit a large share of the property, and have been, from their cradles, specially disqualified from devoting themselves to any useful j)ursuit, on that account) are so often and so un- expectedly and summarily cut off, and re-instated, and cut off again, that the whole family, down to the remotest cousin, is kept in a perpetual fever. At length it becomes plain that the old lady or gentleman has not long to live; and the plainer this becomes, the more eleai'ly the old lady or gentle- man perceives that everybody is in a conspiracy against their poor old dying- relative ; wherefore the old lady or gentleman makes another last will — positively the last this time— conceals the same in a china tea-pot, and ex- pires next day. Then it turns out, that the whole of the real and per- sonal estate is divided between half-a- dozen charities; and that the dead Mil-. 1 1 20 AMERICAN NOTES and gone testator has in pure spite helped to do a great deal of good, at the cost of an immense amount of ^ evil passion and misery. ' The Perkins Institution and Massa- chusetts Asylum for the Blind, at Boston, is superintended by a I)ody of trustees who make an annual report to the corporation. The indigent blind of that state are admitted gratuitously. Those from the adjoining state of Connecticut, or from the states of Maine, Vermont, or New Hampshire, are admitted by a warrant from the state to which they respectively be- long ; or, failing that, must find security among their friends, for the payment of about twenty pounds English for their first year's board and instruction, and ten for the second, " After the first year," say the trustees, " an account current will be opened with each pupil ; he will be charged with the actual cost of his board, which will not exceed two dollars per week;" a trifle more than eight shil- lings English ; " and he will be credited with the amount paid for him by the state, or by his friends ; also with his earnings over and above the cost of the stock which he uses ; so that all his earnings over one dollar per week will be his own. By the third year it will be known whether his earnings will more than pay the actual cost of his board ; if they should, he will have it at his option to remain and receive his earnings, or not. Those who prove unable to earn their own livelihood will not be retained ; m it is not de- sirable to convert the establishment into an almshouse, or to retain any but working bees in the hive. Those who by physical or mental imbecility are disqualified for work, are thereby disqualified from being members of an industrious community ; and they can be better provided for in establish- ments fitted for the infirm." I went to see this place one very fine winter morning : an Italian sky above, and the air so clear and bright on every side, that even my eyes, which are none of the best, could follow the minute lines and scraps of traceryin distant buildings. Like mosfe other public institutions in America, of the same class, it stands a mile or two without the town, in a cheerful healthy spot ; and is an airy, spacious, handsome edifice. It is built upon a height, commanding the harbour. When I paused for a moment at the door, and marked how fresh and free the whole scene was — what sparkling bubbles glanced upon the waves, and welled up every moment to the sur- face, as though the world below, like that above, Avere radiant with the bright day, and gushing over in its fulness of light : when I gazed from sail to sail away upon a ship at sea, a tiny speck of shining white, the only cloud upon the still, deep, distant blue — and, turning, saw a blind boy with his sightless face addressed that way, as though he too had some sense within him of the glorious distance : I felt a kind of sorrow that the place should be so very light, and a strange wish that for his sake it were darker. It was but momentary, of course, and a mere fancy, but I felt it keenly for all that. The children were at their daily tasks in difi^erent rooms, except a few who were already dismissed, and were at play. Here, as in many institu- tions, no uniform is worn ; and I was very glad of it, for two reasons. Firstly, because I am sure that nothing but senseless custom and want of thought would reconcile us to the liveries and badges we are so fond of at home. Secondly, because the absence of these things presents each child to the visitor in his or h^.r own proper character, with its individuality unimpaired ; not lost in a dull, ugly, monotonous repetition of the same FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 21 Italian sky ir and bright u my eyes, best, could nd scraps of ;s. Like most in America, ds a mile or n a cheerful liry, spacious, built upon a ;he harbour. )ment at the resh and free iiat sparkling le waves, and t to the sur- d below, like at with the f over in its I gazed from ship at sea, a hite, the only deep, distant r a blind boy ddressed that ad some sens-a ous distance : lat the place and a strange were darker. ' course, and it keenly for their daily except a few ssed, and were nany institu- n ; and I was iwo reasons, sure that custom and ■econcile us to ve are so fond because the presents each is or hv.r own individuality I a dull, ugly, of the same unmeaning garb : which is really an important consideration. The wis- dom of encouraging a little harmless pride in personal appearance even among the blind, or the whimsical absurdity of considering charity and leather breeches inseparable com- panions, as we do, requires no comment. Good order, cleanliness, and com- fort, pervaded every corner of the building. The various classes, who were gathered round their teachers, answered the questions put to them with readiness and intelligence, and in a spirit of cheerful contest for pre- cedence which pleased me very much. Those who were at play, were glee- some and noisy as other children. ]More spiritual and affectionate friend- ships appeared to exist among them, than would be found among other young persons suffering under no deprivation ; but this I expected and was prepared to find. It is a part of the great scheme of Heaven's merciful consideration for the afflicted. In a portion of the building, set apart for that purpose, are workshops for blind persons whose education is finished, and who have acquired a trade, but who cannot pursue it in an ordinary manufactory because of their deprivation. Several people were at work here ; making brushes, mat- tresses, and so forth ; and the cheer- fulness, industry, and good order discernible in every other part of the building, extended to this department also. On the ringing of a bell, the pupils all repaired, without any guide or leader, to a spacious music-hall, where they took their seats in an orchestra erected for that purpose, and listened with manifest delight to a voluntary on the organ, played by one of them- selves. At its conclusion, the per- former, a boy of nineteen or twenty, gave place to a girl ; and to her accompaniment they all sang a hymn, and afterwards a sort of cliorus. It was very sad to look upon and hear them, happy though their condition unquestionably was ; and I saw that one blind girl, who (being for the time deprived of the use of her limbs, by illness) sat close beside me with her face towards them, wept silently the while she listened. It is strange to watch the faces of the blind, and see how free they are from all concealment of what is passing in their thoughts ; observing which, a man M'ith eyes may blush to contemplate the mask he wears. Allowing for one shade of anxious expression which ?o never absent from their countenances, and the like of which we may readily detect in our own faces if we try to feel our way in the dark, every idea, as it rises within them, is expressed with the lightning's speed, and nature's truth. If the company at a rout, or drawing-room at court, could only for one time be as unconscious of the eyes upon them as blind men and women are, what secrets would come out, and what a worker of hypocrisy this sight, the loss of which we so much pity, would appear to be ! The thought occurred to me as I sat down in another room, before a girl, blind, deaf, and dumb ; desti- tute of smell ; and nearly so, of taste : before a fair young creature with every human faculty, and hope, and power of goodness and affection, inclosed within her delicate frame, and but one outward sense — the sense of touch. There she was, before me ; built up, as it were, in a marble cell, impervious to any ray of light, or particle of sound ; with her poor white hand peeping through a chink in the wall, beckoning to some good man for help, that an Immortal soul might be awakened. Long before I looked upon her, the 22 AMERICAN NOTES ' i'l 'II- !' i!' help had come. Her face was radiant with intelligence and pleasure. Her hair, braided by her own hands, was bound about a head, whose intellectual capacity and development were beau- tifully expressed in its graceful ont- line, and its broad open brow ; her dress, arranged by herself, was a pat- tern of neatness and simplicity ; the work she had knitted, lay beside her ; her writing-book was on the desk slie leaned upon. — From the mournful ruin of such bereavement, there had slowly risen up this gentle, tender, guileless, grateful-hearted being. Like other inmates of that house, she had a green ribbon bound round her eyelids. A doll she had dressed lay near upon the ground. I took it up, and saw that she had made a green lillet such as she wore herself, and fastened it about its mimic eyes. She was seated in a little enclosure, made by school-desks and forms, writ- ing her daily journal. But soon finish- ing this pursuit, she engaged in an animated communication with a teacher who sat beside her. This was a favourite mistress with the poor pupil. If she could see the face of her fair instructress, she would not love her less, I am sui-c. I have extracted a few disjointed fragments of her history, from an ac- count, written by that one man who has made her what she is. It is a very beautiful and touching narrative; and I wish I could present it entire. Her name is Laura Bridgman. "She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, on the twenty-first of December, 1829. She is described as having been a very sprightly and pretty infant, with bright blue eyes. She was, however, so puny and feeble until she was a year and a half old, that her parents hardly hoped to rear her. She was subject to severe fits, which seemed to rack her frame almost beyond her power of endur- ance : and life was held by the feeblest tenure : ))ut when a year and a half old, she seemed to rally ; the dangerous symptoms subsided ; and at twenty months old, she was perfectly well. " Then her mental powers, hitherto stinted in their growth, rapidly deve- loped themselves ; and during the four months of health which she en- joyed, she appears (making due allow- ance for a fond motber's account) to have displayed a considerable degree of intelligence. " But suddenly she sickened again ; her disease raged with great violence during five weeks, when her eyes and ears were inflamed, suppurated, and their contents were discharged. But though sight and hearing were gone for ever, the poor child's sufferings were not ended. The fever raged during seven Aveeks ; for five months she was kept in' bed in a darkened room ; it was a year before she could walk unsupported, and two years be- fore she could sit up all day. It was now observed that her sense of smell was almost entirely destroyed ; and, consequently, that her taste was much blunted. " It was not until four years of age that the poor child's bodily health seemed restored, and she was able to enter upon her apprenticeship of life and the world. " ^ut what a situation was hers ! The darkness and the silence of the tomb were around her : no mother's smile called forth her answering smile, no father's voice taught her to imitate his sounds : — they, brothers and sisters, were but forms of matter which resisted her touch, but which ditFered not from the furniture of the house, save in warmth, and in the power of locomotion ; and not even in these respects from the dog and the cat. " But the immortal spirit which had been implanted within her could not die, nor be maimed nor muti- FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 23 and a half i dangerous at twenty 'tly 'well, re, hitherto ipidly deve- during the ich she en- 5 due allow- account) to able degree ened again ; eat violence ler eyes and urated, and jrged. But J were gone s sulFerings fever raged five months a darkened re she could vo years be- ilay. It -was ise of smell royed ; and, te was much years of age )dily health was able to eship of life 1 was hers ! ence of the no mother's answering ught her to cy, brothers of matter but which liture of the and in the id not even he dog and pirit which n her could i nor muti- lated ; and though most of its ! avenues of communication with the world were cut oft", it began to mani- fest itself through the others. As soon as she could walk, she began to | explore the room, and tiien the house; i she lieeamc familiar with the form, density, weight, and heat, of every article she eould lay her hands upon. She followed her mother, and felt her hands and arms, as she was occupied about the house ; and her disposition to imitate, led her to repeat every- thing herself. She even learned to sew a little, and to knit." The reader will scarcely need to be told, however, tliat the opportunities of communicating with her, were very, very limited ; and that the moral effects of her Avretched state 80on began to appear. Those who cannot be enlightened by reason, can onh- 1)0 controlled by force ; and this, coupled with her great privations, must soon have reduced her to a worse condition than that of the beasts that perish, but for timely and unhoped- for aid. " A t this time, I was so fortimate as to hear of the child, and immediately hastened to Hanover to see her. I found her with a well-formed figure ; a strongly-marked, nervous-sanguine temperament ; a large and l)eautifully- shaped head : and the whole system in healthy action. The parents were easily induced to consent to her coming to Boston, and on the 4th of ( )ctober, 1837, they brought her to the Institution. " For a while, she was much bewil- dered ; and after waiting about two weeks, until she became acquainted with her new locality, and somewhat familiar with the inmates, the at- tempt was made to give her know- ledge of arbitrary signs, by which she could interchange thoughts with others. " There was one of two ways to be adopted : either to go on to build up a language of signs on the basis of the natural language which she had already commenced herself, or to teach her the purely arbitrary language in common use : that is, to give her a sign for every individual thing, or to give her a knowledge of letters by combination of which she might express her idea of the exist- ence, and the mode and condition of existence, of any thing. The former would have been easy, but very inef- fectual ; the latter .seemed very difii- cult, but, if accomplished, very effectual. I determined therefore to try the latter. " The first experiments were made by taking articles in common use, such as knives, forks, spoons, keys, &c., and pasting upon them labels with their names printed in raised letters. These she felt very carefully, and soon, of course, distinguished that the crooked lines "poon, differed as much from the crooked lines keii, is the spoon differed from the key in form. " Then small detached labels, with the same words printed upon them, were put into her hands ; and she soon observed that they were similar to the ones pasted on the articles. She showed her perception of this similarity by laying the label key upon the key, and the label sp o o n upon the spoon. She was encouraged here by the natural sign of approba- tion, patting on the head. " The same process was then re- peated with all the articles which she could handle ; and she very easily learned to pliicc the proper labels upon them. It was evident, however, that the only intellectual exercise was that of imitation and memory. She recollected that the label hook was placed upon a book, and she repeated the process first from imi- tation, next from memory, with only H f i '1 1 / .: 1 1 i< I I -'. I !. I!i [ifl! li ■I 24 AMERICAN NOTES the motive of love of approbation, but apparently without the intellec- tual perception of any relation between the things. " After a while, instead of labels, the individual letters were given to her on detached bits of paper : they were arranged side by side so as to spell book, ke y, &c. ; then they were mixed up in a heap and a sign was made for her to arrange them herself, 80 as to express the words hook, key, kc. ; and she did so. "Hitherto, the process had been mechanical, and the success about as great as teaching a very knowing dog a variety of tricks. The poor child had sat in mute amazement, and patiently imitated everything her teacher did ; but now the truth began to flash upon her : her intellect began to work : she perceived that here was a way by which she could herself make up a sign of anything that was in her own mind, and show it to another mind ; and at once her countenance lighted up with a human expression : it was no longer a dog, or parrot : it was an immortal spirit, eagerly seizing upon a new link of union with other spirits ! I could almost fix upon the moment Avhen this truth dawned upon her mind, and spread its light to her countenance ; I saw that the great obstacle M'as overcome; and that henceforward nothing but patient and persevering, but plain and straight- forward, efforts were to be used. "The result thus far, is quickly related, and easily conceived ; but not so was the process ; for many weeks of apparently unprofitable labour were passed before it was effected. " When it was said above, that a sign was made, it was intended to say, that the action was performed by her teacher, she feeling his hands, and then imitating the motion. " The next step Avas to procure a set of metal types, with the different letters of the alphabet cast upon their ends; also a board, in which were square holes, into which holes she could set the types; so that the letters on their ends could alone be felt above the surface. " Then, on any article being handed to her, for instance, a pencil, or a watch, she would select the compo- nent letters, and arrange them on her board, and read them with apparent pleasure. "She was exercised for several weeks in this way, until her vocabulary be- came extensive ; and then the impor- tant step was taken of teaching her how to represent the different letters by the position of her fingers, instead of the cumbrous apparatus of the board and types. She accomplished this speedily and easily, for her intel- lect had begun to work in aid of her teacher, and her progress was rapid. " This was the period, about three months after she had commenced, that the first report of her case M-as made, in which it is stated that ' she has just learned the manual alphabet, as used by the deaf mutes, and it is a subject of delight and wonder to see how rapidly, correctlj', and eagerly, she goes on with her labours. Her teacher gives her a new object, fo instance, a pencil, first lets her exa- mine it, and get an idea of its use, then teaches her how to spell it by making the signs for the letters M'ith her own fingers : the child grasps her hand, and feels her fingers, as the different letters are formed ; she turns her head a little on one side, like a person listening closely ; her lips are apart ; she seems scarcely to breathe ; and her countenance, at first anxiou?, gradually changes to a smile, as she comprehends the lesson. She then holds up her tiny fingers, and spells the word in the manual alphabet; next, she takes her types and arranges her letters; and last, to make sure m upon their liich were holes she i that the d alone he ing handed 3cncil, or a the compo- hem on her li apparent veral weeks ibulary be- the impor- taching her rent letters :ers, instead tus of the jcomplished )r her intel- a aid of her was rapid, about three pommenced, er case was that ' she al alphabet, ,, and it is a nder to see nd eagerly, )Ours. Her object, fo its her exa- of its use, spell it by letters with I grasps her ers, as the she turns ide, like a ler lips are to breathe ; •st anxioup, lile, as she She then and spells alphabet ; id arranges make sure I I FOR GENEUAL CIRCULATION. that she is riufht, she takes the whole of the types composing the word, and places them upon or in contact with the pencil, or whatever the object may be.' " Tiie whole of the succeeding year was passed in gratifying her eager inquiries for the names of every object which she could possibly handle; in exercising her in the use of the manual alphabet ; in extending in every pos- sible way her knowledge of the phy- sical relations of things ; and in proper care of her health. " At the end of the year a report of her case was made, from which the following is an extract. " *It has been ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt, that she can- not see a ray of light, cannot hear the least sound, and never exercises her sense of smell, if she have any. Thus her mind dwells in darkness and still- ness, as profound as that of a closed tomb at midnight. Of beautiful sights, and sweet sounds, and pleasant odours, she has no conception ; nevertheless, she seems as happy and playful as a bird or a lamb; and the employment of her intellectual faculties, or the ac- quirement of a new idea, gives her a vivid pleasure, which is plainly marked in her expressive features. She never seems to repine, but has all the buoy- ancy and gaiety of childhood. She is fond of fun and frolic, and when play- ing with the rest of the children, her shrill laugh sounds loudest of the group. " ' When left alone, she seems very happy if she have her knitting or sewing, and will busy herself for hours : if she have no occupation, she evi- dently amuses herself by imaginary dialogues, or by recalling past impres- sions; she counts with her fingers, or spells out names of things which she has recently learned, in the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes. In this lonely self-communion she seems to reason, reflect, and argue : if she spell a word wrong with the fingers of her right hand, she instantly strikes it with her left, as her teacher does, in sign of disapprobation ; if right, then she pats herself upon the head, and looks pleased. She some- times purposely spell.* a word wrong with the left hand, looks roguish for a moment and laughs, and then with the right hand strikes the left, as if to correct it. " ' During the year she has attained great dexterity in the use of the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes ; and she spells out the words and sen- tences which she knows, so fast and so deftly, that only those accustomed to this language can follow with the eye the rapid motions of her lingers. " ' But wonderful as is the rapidity with which she M'rites her thoughts upon the air, still more so is the ease and accuracy with which she reads the words thus written by another; grasp- ing their hands in hers, and following every movement of their fingers, as letter after letter conveys their mean- ing to her mind. It is in this way that she converses with her blind playmates, and nothing can more forcibly show the power of mind in forcing matter to its purpose than a meeting between them. For if great talent and skill are necessary for two pantomimes to paint their thoughts and feelings by the movements of the body, and the expression of the coun- tenance, how much greater the diffi- culty when darkness shrouds them both, and the one can hear no sound ! " ' When Laura is walking through a passage-way, with her hands spread before her, she knows instantly every one she meets, and passes them with a sign of recognition : but if it be a girl of her own age, and especially if it be one of her favourites, there is instantly a bright smile of recogni- tion, and a twining of arms, a grasping 2G AMERICAN NOTKS ! I: i\ I Am of hands, and a swift teleffraphinij upon the tiny finger.^ ; whoBC rajfid evoliitionK couvev the thoiisrhts and feelings Irom the outposts of one mind to those of the other. Tlierc arc (jucstions and ansH'ors, exchanges of Joy or sorrow, there are kissings and partings, just as between little children with all their senses.' " During this year, and six months after she had left home, her mother came to visit her, and the scene of their meeting was an interesting one. " The mother .stood some time, gazing with overflowing eyes upon lier unfortunate child, who all uncon- scious of her presence, was playing about the room. Presently Laura ran against her, and at once began feeling her hands, examining her dress, and trying to find out if she knew her ; but not succeeding in this, she turned away as from a stranger, and the poor woman could not conceal the pang she felt, at finding that her beloved child did not know her. " She then gave Laura a string of beads which she used to wear at home, which were recognised by the child at once, who, with much joy, put them around her neck, and sought mc eagerly to say she understood the string was from her home. " The mother now tried to caress her, but poor Laura repelled her, pre- ferring to be with her acquaintances. "Another article from home was now given her, and she began to look much interested ; she examined the stranger much closer, and gave me to understand that she knew she came from Hanover ; she even endured her caresses, but Avould leave her with indifference at the slightest signal. The distress of the mother was now painful to behold; for, although she had feared that she should not be recognised, the painful reality of being treated with cold indifference by a darling child, was too much for woman's nature to bear. " After a while, on the mother taking hold of her again, a vague idcascemed to flit across Laura's mind, that this could not be a stranger ; she therefore felt her hands very eagerly, while her countenance assumed an expression of intense interast; .she became very pale, and then suddenly red ; hope seemed struggling with doubt and anxiety, and never were contending emotions more strongly painted upon the human face : at this moment of painful imcertainty, the mother drew her close to her side, and kissed her fondly, when at once the truth flashed upon the child, and all mistrust and anxiety disappeared from her face, as with an expression of exceeding joy she eagerly nestled to the bosom of her parent, and yielded herself to her fond embraces. " After this, the beads were all un- heeded ; the playthings which were offered to her were utterly disregarded; her playmates, for Avhom but a mo- ment before she gladly left the stranger, now vainly strove to pull her from her mother; and though she yielded her usual instantaneous obedience to my signal to follow me, it was evidently with painful reluc- tance. She clung close to me, as if bewildered and fearful ; and when, after a moment, I took her to her mother, she sprang to her arms, and clung to her with eager joy. " The subsequent parting between them, showed alike the affection, the intelligence, and the resolution of the child. " Laura accompanied her mother to the door, clinging close to her all the way, until they arrived at the threshold, where she paused, and felt aro'md to ascertain who was near her. Perceiving the matron, of whom she is vci-y fond, she grasped her with one hand, holding on convulsively 1 s| FOR (JENKFIAL CIRCULATION. 27 I much for he mother 11, a vat^'ue lura'smind, •anger ; she ory eagerly, assumed an terest ; she Ml suddenly ogling with never were ire strongly Face : at this rtainty, the to her side, hen at once le child, and disappeared 1 expression jerly nestled parent, and d embraces, were all un- which were disregarded ; 1 but a mo- ly left the •ove to pull and though istantaneous follow me, ainful reluc- to me, as if and when, her to her er arms, and ing between vffection, the ution of the her mother se to her all ivcd at the ised, and felt was near •on, of whom ped her with convulsively to her mother with the other; and thus she stood for a moment : then she dropped her mother's hand ; put her handkerchief to her eyes ; and turning round, clung sobbing to the matron ; while her mother departed, with emotions as deep as those of her child. " It has been remarked in former reports, that she can distinguish dif- ferent degrees of intellect in others, and that she soon regarded almost with contempt, a newcomer, when, after a few days, she discovered her weakness of mind. This unamiabic part of her character has been more strongly developed during the past ■ year. " She chooses for her friends and companions, those children who are intelligent, and can talk best with A her ; and she evidently dislikes to be with those who are deficient in intel- lect, unless, indeed, she can make them serve her purposes, which she is evidently inclined to do. She takes advantage of them, and makes them wait upon her, in a manner that she knows she could not exact of others ; and in various ways she shows her Saxon blood. " She is fond of having other child- ren noticed and caressed by the teachers, and those whom she respects ; but this must not be carried too far, or she becomes jealous. She wants to have her share, which, if not the lion's, is the greater part ; and if she does not get it, she says, * My mother will love me.' " Her tendency to imitation is so strong, that it leads her to actions which must be entirely incomprehen- sible to her, and which can give her no other pleasure than the grati- fication of an internal faculty. She has been known to sit for half an hour, holding a book before her sight- less eyes, and moving her lips, as she haft oltscrved seeing people do when reading. " She one day pretended thai her doll was sick ; and went through all the motions of tendinj^ it, and giving it medicine ; she then put it carefully to bed, and placed a bottle of hot water to its feet, laughing all the time most heartily. When I came home, she insisted upon my going to see it, and feel its pulse : and when I told her to put a blister on its back, she seemed to enjoy it amazingly, and almost screamed with delight. " Her social feelings, and her affec- tions, are very strong ; and when she is sitting at work, or at her studies, by the side of one of her little friends, she will break off from her task every few moments, to hug and kiss them with an earnestness and warmth that is touching lo behold. " When left alone, she occupies and apparently amuses herself, and seems quite contented ; and so strong seems to be the natural tendency of thought to put on the garb of language, that she often soliloquizes in the finger langiiarje, slow and tedious as it is. But it is only when alone, that she is quiet : for if she become sensible of the presence of any one near her, she is restless until she can sit close beside them, hold their hand, and converse with them by signs. " In her intellectual character it is pleasing to observe an insatial)l« thirst for knowledge, and a quick percep- tion of the relations of things. In her moral character, it is beautiful to be- hold her continual gladness, her keen enjoyment of existence, her expan- sive love, her unhesitating confidence, her sympathy ^dth suffering, her con- scientiousness, truthfulness, and hope- fulness." Such are a few fragments from the simple but most interesting and in- structive history of Laura Bridgman. The name of her great benefactor and i J8 AMERICAN NOTES I i i Mx friend, who writes it, is Doctor Howe. There arc not many personw, I hope and believe, who, after reading these passages, can ever hear that name witii indifference. A further account has been pub- lished by Dr. Howe, since the report from which I have just quoted. It describes her rapid mental growth and improvement during twelve months more, and brings her little history down to the end of last year. It is very remarkable, that as we dream in Avords, and carry on imagi- nary conversations, in which we speak both for ourselves and for the shadows who appear to us in those visions of the night, so she, having no words, uses her finger alphabet in her sleep. And it has been ascertained that when her slumber is broken, and is much disturbed by dreams, she expresses her thoughts in an irregular and con- fused manner on her fingers : just as we should murmur and mutter them indistinctly, in the like circumstances. I turned over the leaves of her Diary, and found it written in a fair legible square hand, and expressed in terms which were quite intelligible without any explanation. On my saying that I should like to see her Avrite again, the teacher who sat be- side her, bade her, in their language, sign her name upon a slip of paper, twice or thrice. In doing so, I ob- served that she kept her left hand always touching, and following up, her right, in which, of course, she held the pen. No line was indicated by any contrivance, but she wrote straight and freely. She had, until now, been quite un- conscious of the presence of visitors ; but, having her hand placed in that of the gentleman who accompanied me, she immediately expressed his name upon her teacher's palm. In- deed her sense of touch is now so exquisite, that having been acquainted with a person once, she can recognise him or her after almost 'any interval. This gentleman had been in her com- pany, I believe, but very seldom, and certainly had not seen her for many months. My hand she rejected at once, as she does that of any man who is a stranger to her. liut she retained my Avifc's with evident pleasure, kissed her, and examined her dresis with a girl's curiosity and interest. She was merry and cheerful, and showed much innocent playfulness in her intercourse with her teacher. Her delight on recognising a favourite playfellow and companion — herself a blind girl — who silently, and with an equal enjoyment of the coming sur- prise, took a seat beside her, was beautiful to witness. It elicited from her at first, as other slight circum- stances did twice or thrice during my visit, an uncouth noise which was rather painful to hear. But on her teacher touching her lips, she im- mediately desisted, and embraced her laughingly and affectionately. I had previously been into another chamber, where a number of blind boys Avere swinging, and climbing, and engaged in various sports. They all clamoured, as we entered, to the assistant-master, who accompanied us, " Look at me, Mr. Hart ! Please, Mr. Hart, look at me!" evincing, I thought, even in this, an anxiety pe- culiar to their condition, that their little feats of agility should be seen. Among them was a small laughing fellow, who stood aloof, entertaining himself with a gymnastic exercise for bringing the arms and chest into play; which he enjoyed mightily; especially when, in thrusting out his right arm, he brought it into contact with another boy. Like Laura Bridgman, this young child was deaf, and dumb, and blind. Dr. Howe's account of this pupil's first instruction is so very striking, !;■ '.■i'' FOR GENKUAL CIRCULATION. 39 an recognise iny interval, in her com- Heldom, and 2r for many rejected at iny man who Bue retained it pleasure, jd her dress 1 interest, heerful, and ilayfulness in ler teacher, ig a favourite in — herself a and with an coming iur- de her, was elicited from ight cirenm- ?c during my which was But on her lips, she im- imbraced her itely. into another ber of blind id climbing, ports. They ered, to the accompanied lart! Please, evincing, I n anxiety pe- that their )uld be seen. all laughing entertaining c exercise for i chest into d mightily ; iting out his , into contact Like Laura lild was deaf, I this pupil's ery striking, and so intimately connected with Laura herself, that I cannot refrain from a short extract. 1 may premise that the poor boy's name is Oliver C;i.swcll ; that he is thirteen years of ai,'e ; and that he was in full possession of all his faculties, until three years and four months old. lie was then attacked by scarlet fever : in four weeks became deaf ; in a few weeks more, blind ; in six months, dumb, lie showed bis anxious sense of this last deprivation, by often feeling the lips of other persons when they were talking,', and then putting his hand upon his own, as if to assure himself that ho had them in the right position. " His thirst for knowledge," says Dr. Howe. " proclaimed itself as soon as he entered the house, by his eager examination of every thing he could feel or smell in his new location. For instance, treading upon the register of a furnace, he instantly stooped down, and began to feel it, and soon discovered the way in which the upper plate moved upon the lower one ; but this was not enough for him, 60 lying down upon his face, he ap- plied his tongue first to one then to the other, and seemed to discover that they were of different kinds of metal. " His signs were expressive : and the strictly natural language, laughing, crying, sighing, kissing, embracing, &c., was perfect. "Some of the analogical signs which (guided by his faculty of imitation) he had contrived, were comprehensible ; such as the Avaving motion of his hand for the motion of a boat, the circular one for a wheel, &c. " The first object was to break up the use of these signs and to sub- stitute for them the use of purely arbi- trary ones. " Profiting by the experience I had gained in the other cases, I omitted several steps of the process before employed, and commenced at once with the finger lannuago, Taking therefore, several articles having short names, such as key, cup, mug, &c., and with Laura for an auxiliiiry, I sal down, and taking his hand, placed it upon one of them, and then with my own, made the letters key. He felt my hands eagerly with both of his, aut,s^ take an nd marches ,ely, to the pii nc ,* and emaii or lady en previously he company it ever dego- risis, into a rein, I must thought the ly hour they these festive lock refresh- at nine they and good- throughout. ne from the very Chester- Like other nmentsafibrd sation among ys; and the s to shine on By have been jtising their ; a more dis- iance. great feature nilcation and ong such un- t self-respect. )irit pervades uth Boston. Industry. In is devoted to herwise help- less paupers, these words are painted on the walls : " Worthy op J^otick. Self-government, Quietudr, and Pkacb, arb Blessings." It is not uissumed and taken for granted that being there they must be evil-disposed and wicked people, before whose vicious eyes it is necessary to flourish threats and harsh restraints. They are met at the very thr )shold with this mild appeal. All wituin-doors is very plain and simple, as it ought to be, but arranged with a view to peace and comfort. It costs no more than any other plan of arrangement, but it be- speaks an amount of consideration fur those who are reduced to seek a shelter there, which puts them at once upon their gratitude and good behaviour. Instead of being parcelled out in great, long, rambling wards, where a certain amount of weazen life may mope, and pine, and shiver, all day long, the building is divided into separate rooms, each with its share of light and air. In these, the better kind of paupers live. They have a motive for exertion and becoming pride, in the desire to make these little chambers comfortable and decent. I do not remember one but it was clean and neat, and had its plant or two upon the window-sill, or row of crockery upon the shelf, or small display of coloured prints upon the white- washed wall, or, perhaps, its wooden clock behind the door. The orphans and young children are in an adjoining building; sepa- rate from this, but a part of the same Institution. Some are such little creatures, that the stairs are of lillipu- tian measurement, fitted to their tiny strides. The same consideration for their years and weakness is expressed in their very seats, which are perfect curiosities, and look like articles of furniture for a pauper doU's-house. I can imagine the glee of our Poor Law Commissioners at the notion of these No. 163. seats having arms and backs; but small spines being of older date than their occupation of the Boaid-room at Somerset House, I thought even this provision ery merciful and kind. Here again, I was greatly pleased with the inscriptions on the wall, which were scraps of plain morality, easily remembered and understood : such aa " Love one another " — " God remem- bers the smallest creature in his crea- tion : " and straightforward advice of that nature. The books and tasks of these smallest of scholars, were adapted, in the same judicious man- ner, to their childish powers. When we had examined these lessons, four morsels of girls (of whom one waa blind) sang a little song, about the merry month of May, which I thought (being extremely dismal) would have suited an English November better. That done, we went to see their sleeping-rooms on the floor above, in which tlie arrangements were no less excellent and gentle than those we had seen below. And after observing that the teachers M-ere of a class and character well suited to the spirit of the place, I took leave of the infanta with a lighter heart than ever I have taken leave of pauper infants yet. Connected with the House of In- dustry, there is also an Hospital, which was in the best order, and had, I am glad to say, many beds unoccu- pied. It had one fault, however, which is common to all American interiors : the presence of the eternal, accursed, sufibcating, red-hot demon of a stove, whose breath would blight the purest air under Heaven. There are two establishments for boys in this same neighbourhood. One is called the Boylston school, and is an asylum for neglected and indigent boys who have committed no crime, but who in the ordinary course of things would very soon be purged of that distinction if they were not takeu i 11 111 tl I ! '^ li 34 AMERICAN NOTES from the hungry Btrcets and sent here. The other is a Honse of Re- formation for Juvenile Offenders. They are both under the same roof, but the two claBsos of boys never come in contact. The Boylston boys, as may be readily supposed, have very much the advan- tage of the others in point of personal appearance. They were in their school- room Trhen I came upon them, and answered correctly, without book, such questions as where was England ; how far was it ; what was its popula- tion; its capital city; its form of government ; and bo forth. They sang a song too, about a farmer eoAving his seed : with corresponding action at such parts as " 'tis thus he sows," "he turns him round," " he claps his hands ; " which gave it greater interest for them, and accustomed them to act together, in an orderly manner. They appeared exceedingly well taught, and not better taught than fed ; for a more chubby-looking fuU-waistcoated set of boys, I never saw. The juvenile offenders had not such pleasant faces by a great deal, and in this establishment there were many boys of colour. I •saw them first at their work (basfcet-malcing, and the manufacture of palm-leaf hats), after- wards in their school, where they sang a chorus in praise of Liberty : an odd, and, one would think, rather aggra- vating, theme for prisoners. These boys are divided into four classes, each denoted by a numeral, worn on a badge npon the arm. On the arrival of a newcomer, he is put into the fourth or lowest class, and left, by good behaviour, to work his way up into the first. The design and object of this Institution is to reclaim the youthful criminal by firm but kind and judicious treatment ; to make his prison a place of purification and im- provement, not of demoralisation and corruption ; to impress upon him that there is but one path, and that one sober industry, which can ever lead him to happiness ; to teach him how it may be trodden, if his foot- steps have never yet been led that way; and to lure him back to it if they have strayed : in a word, to snatch him from destruction, and restore him to society a penitent and useful mem- ber. The importance of such an establishment, in every point of view, and with reference to every considera- tion of humanity and social policy, requires no comment. One other establishment closes the catalogue. It is the House of Correc- tion for the Btate, in which silence is strictly maintained, but where the prisoners have the comfort and mental relief of seeing each other, and of working together. This is the im- proved system of Prison Discipline which we have imported into England, and which has been in successful operation among ns for some years past. America, as a new and not over- populated country, has in all her pri- sons, the one great advantage, of being enabled to find useful and profitable work for the inmates ; whereas, with us, the prejudice against prison labour is naturally very strong, and almost insurmountable, when honest men, who have not offended against the laws, are frequently doomed to seek employment in vain. Even in the United States, the principle of bring- ing convict labour and free labour into a competition which must ob- viously be to the disadvantage of ihe lattc, has already found many oppo- nents, «hose number is not likely to diminish with access of years. For this very reason though, our best prisons would seem at the first glance to be better conducted than those of America. The treadmill is ac- companied with little or no noise ; five hundred men may pick oakum in the I :' . i B FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 35 , and that can ever teach him f his foot- n ted that ck to it if ], to snatch restore him eeful mem- ■ Buch an mt of view, J considera- sial policy, ; closes the 3 of Correc- ii silenoe is where the and mental ler, and of is the im- Discipline to England, L Ruccossful some years L not over- all her pri- ge, of being 1 profitable lereas, with ieon labour md almost )neBt men, igainBt the ed to seek ven in the le of bring- ree labour must ob- tage of the nany oppo- )t likely to irs, lOugh, our it the first cted than dmillisac- noise ; five cum in the pnme room, without a sound ; and both kinds of labour admit of such keen and vigilant superintendence, as will render even a word of personal communication amonc^ the prisoners almofit impossible. On the other hand, the noise of the loom, the forge, the carpenter's hammer, or the stone- mason's saw, greatly favour those op- portunities of intercourse — hurried and brief no doubt, but opportunities still — which these several kinds of work, by rendering it necessary for men to be emploj-ed very near to each other, and often side by side, without any barrier or partition betMeen them, in their very nature present. A visi- tor, too, requires to reason and reflect a little, before tlie sight of a number of men engaged in ordinary labour, Ruch as he is accustomed to out of doors, will impress him half as strongly as the contemplation of the same persons in the same place and garb would, if they M-ere occupied in some task, marked and degraded CA'crj'- where as belonging only to felons in jails. In an American state prison or house of correction, I found it dif- ficult at first to persuade myself that I Avas really in a jail : a place of igno- minious punishment and endurance. And to this hour I very much question whether the humane boast that it is not like one, has its root in the true wisdom or philosophy of the matter. I hope I may not be misunderstood on this subject, for it is one in which 1 take a strong and deep interest. I incline as little to the sickly feeling which makes every canting lie or maudlin speech of a notorious crimi- nal a subject of newspaper report and general sympathy, as I do to those good old customs of the good old times which made England, even so recently as in the reign of the Third King George, in respect of lier cri- minal code and her prison regulations, one of the most bloody-minded and Imrbarous countries on the earth. 1 f I thought it would do any good to the rising generation, I would cheer- fully give my consent to the disinter- ment of the bones of any genteel highwayman (the more genteel, the more cheerfully), and to their expo- sure, piece-meal, on any sign-post, gate, or gibbet, that might be deemed a good elevation for the purpose. My reason is as well convinced that these gentry were utterly worthless and debauched villains, as it is that the laws and jails hardened them in their evil courses, or that their wonderful escapes were effected by the prison- turnkeys who, in those admirable days, had always been felons them- selves, and were, to the last, their bosom-friends and pot-companions. At the same time I know, as all men do or should, that the subject of Pri- son Discipline is one of the highest importance to any community ; and that in her sweeping reform and bright example to other countries on this head, America has shown great wis- dom, great benevolence and exalted policy. In contrasting her system with that which we have modelled upon it, I merely seek to show that with all its drawbacks, ours has some advantages of its own.* * Apart from profit made by the useful labour of prisoners, which we can never hope to realise to any great extent, and which it is perhaps not expedient for us to try to gain, there are two prisons in London, in all respects equal, and in some decidedly superior, to Any 1 saw or have ever heard or read of in America. One is the Tothill Fields Bridewell, conducted by Lieutenant A. F. Tvacey, R.N. ; the other the Middlesex House of Correction, super- intended by »Ir. Chesterton. This gentle- man also holds an appointment in the Public Service. Hoth are enlightened and superior men : and it would be as difficult to find persons better qualified for the functions they discharge with firmness, zeal, intelligence, and humanity, as it would be to exceed the perfect order and arriUigemtiit of the institutions they govern. D 2 J» m: AMERICAN NOTES I The House of Correction which has led to these remarks, is not walled, like other prisons, but is palisaded round about with tall rough stakes, some- thing after the manner of an enclosure for keeping elephants in, as we see it represented in Eastern prints and pictures. The prisoners wear a parti- coloured dress; and those who are sentenced to hard labour, work at nail-making or stone-cutting. When I was there, the latter class of labourers were employed upon the stone for a new custom-house in course of erection at Boston. They appeared to shape it skilfully and with expedition, though there were very few among them (if any) who had not acquired the art within the prison gates. The women, all in one large room, were employed in making light clothing, for New Orleans and the Southern States. They did their work in silence, like the men; and like them, were overlooked by the person contracting for their labour, or by some agent of his appointment. In addition to this, they are every mo- ment liable to be visited by the prison officers appointed for that purpose. The arrangements for cooking, Avashing of clothes, and so forth, are much upon the plan of those I have seen at home. Their mode of be- stowing the prisoners at night (which is of general adoption) differs from ours, and is both simple and effective. In the centre of a lofty area, lighted by windows in the four walls, are five tiers of cells, one above the other ; each tier having before it a light iron gallery, attainable by stairs of the same construction and material : ex- cepting the lower one, which is on the ground. Behind these, back to back with them and facing the op- posite wall, are five corresponding rows of cells, accessible by similar means : so that supposing the pri- soners locked up in their cells, an officer stationed on the ground, with his back to the wall, has half their number under his eye at once; the remaining half being equally under the observation of another officer on the opposite side ; and all in one great apartment. Unless this watch be corrupted or sleeping on his post, it is impossible for a man to escape ; for even in the event of his forcing the iron door of his cell without noise (which is exceedingly improbable), the moment he appears outside, and steps into that one of the five galleries on which iL Is situated, he must be plainly anq fully visible to the oflicer below. Each of these cells holds a small truckle-bed, in which one pri- soner sleeps ; never more. It is small, of course; and the door being not solid, but grated, and without blind or curtain, the prisoner within is at all times exposed to the observation and inspection of any guard who may pass along that tier at any hour or minute of the night. Every day, the prisoners receive their dinner, singly, through a trap in the kitchen wall ; and each mnn carries his to his sleep- ing cell to eat it, M'here he is locked up, alone, for that purpose, one hour. The whole of this arrangement struck me as being admirable; and I hope that the next new prison we erect in England may be built on this plan. I was given to understand that in this prison no swords or fire-arras, or even cudgels, are kept ; nor is it pro- bable that, so long as its present ex- cellent management continues, any weapon, offensive or defensive, will ever be required within its bounds. Such are the Institutions at South Boston ! In all of them, the unfor- tunate or degenerate citizens of the State are carefully instru(!ted in their duties both to God and man ; are sur- rounded by all reasonable means of comfort and happiness that their con- dition will admit of; are appealed to. « FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 87 ind, with alf their nee ; the ly under )fficer on )ne great v^atch be is post, it cape ; for rcing the 3ut noise irobable), side, and 1 galleries must be be officer holds a one pri- , is small, leing not )ut blind thin is at •serration who may T hour or day, the r, singly, len wall ; his sleep- is locked one hour, nt struck I hope erect in s plan. that in arms, or is it pro- esent ex- lues, any sive, will ounds. at South le unfor- s of the in their are sur- means of iheir con- )ealed to. I I as members of the great human family, however afflicted, indigent, or fallen ; are ruled by the strong Heart, and not by the strong (though immeasur- ably weaker) Hand. I have described them at some length : firstly, because their worth demanded it ; and secondly, because I mean to take them for a model, and to content my- self with saying of others we may come to, whose design and purpose are the same, that in this or that re- spect they practically fail, or differ. I wish by this account of them, im- perfect in its execution, but in its just intention, honest, I could hope to convey to my readers one hundredth part of the gratification, the sights I have described, afforded me. To an Englishman, accustomed to the paraphernalia of Westminster Hall, an American Court of Law is as odd a sight as, I suppose, an English Court of Law would be to an American. Except in the Supreme Court at Washington (where the judges wear a plain black robe), there is no such thing as a wig or gown connected with the administration of justice. The gentlemen of the bar being bar- risters and attorneys too (for there is no division of those functions as in England) are no more removed from their clients than attorneys in our Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors are, from theirs. The jury are quite at home, and make them- selves as comfortable as circumstances will permit. The witness is so little elevated above, or put aloof from, the crowd in the court, that a stranger entering during a pause in the pro- ceedings would find it difficult to pick him out from the rest. And if it chanced to be a criminal trial, his eyes, in nine cases out of ten, would wander to the dock in search of the prisoner, in vain ; for that gentleman would most likely be lounging among the most distinguished ornaments of the legal profession, whispering sug- gestions in his counsel's ear, or making a toothpick out of an old quill with his penknife. I could not but notice these differ- ences, when I visited the courts at Boston. I was much surprised at first, too, to observe that the counsel who interrogated the witness under examination at the time, did so 8iUind room, are the only means of excite- ment excepted ; and to the church, the chapel, and the lecture-room, the ladies resort in crowds. Wherever religion is resorted to, as a strong drink, and. as an escape from the dull monotonous round of home, those of its ministers who pepper the highest Avill he the surest to please. They who strew the Eternal Path with the greatest amount of brimstone, and who most ruthlessly tread down the flowers and leaves that grow by the way-side, will be voted the most righteous; and they who enlarge with the greatest perti- nacity on the difficulty of getting into heaven, will be considered by all true believers certain of going there : though it would be heard to say by what process of reasoning this con- clusion is arrived at. It is so at home, and it is so abroad. With regard to the other means of excitement, the Lecture, it has at least the merit of being always new. One lecture treadfi so quickly on the heels of another, that none are remembered ; and the course of this month may be safely repeated next, with its charm of novelty unbroken, and its interest unabated. The fruits of the earth have their growth in corruption. Out of the rottenness of these things, there has sprung up in Boston a sect of philoso- phers known as TranscendeutalistSk On inquiring whaii this appellation might be. supposed to signify, I was given to understand that whatever was unintelligible would be cer- tainly transcendental. Not deriv- ing much comfort from this elucida^ tiouv I pursued the inquiry still further, and found that the Transcen- dentalists ace followers of my friend Mr. Carlyle, or I should rather say, of a follower of his, Mr. Italph Waldo Emerson. This gentleman has written a volume of Essays, in which. among much that is dreamy and fan- ciful (if ho will pardon mo for saying so) there is much more that is true and manly, honest and bold. Trans- cendentalism has its occasional va- garies (what school has not !) but it has good healthful qualities in spite of them ; uot least among the num- ber a hearty disgust of Cant, and an aptitude to detect her in all the mil- lion varieties of her everlasting wardrobe. And therefore if I were a Bostoniun, I think I would be a Tran- scendentalist. The only preacher I heard in Bos- ton was Mr. Taylor, who addresses himself peculiarly to seamen, and who was once a mariner himself. I found his chapel down among the shipping, in one of the narrow, old, water-side streets, with a gay blue flag waving freely from its roof, in the gallery opposite to the pulpit were a little choir ot male a^^d female singers, a violoncello, and a violin. The preacher already sat in the pulpit, which was raised on pillars, and orna- mented behind him with painted drapery of a lively and somewhat theatrical appearance. He looked a weather-beaten hard-featured man, of about six or eight and fifty; with deep lines graven as it were into his face, dark hair, and a stern, keen eye. Yet the general character of his countenance was pleasant and agreeable. The service commenced with a hymn, to which succeeded an extem- porary prayer. It had the fault of frequent repetition, incidental to all such prayers ; but it was plain and comprehensive in its doctrines, and breathed a tone of general sympathy and charity, which is not so commonly a characteristic of this form of address to the Deity as it might be. That done he opened his discourse, taking for his text a passage from the Songs of Solomon, laid upon the 40 AMERICAN NOTES desk l)cfore the commencement of the service by some unknown member of the congregation : " Who is this commg up from the wilder- ness, leaning on the arm of her beloved!" He handled his text in all kinds of ways, and twisted it into all manner of shapes; but always ingeniously, and with a rude eloquence, well- adapted to the comprehension of his hearers. Indeed if I be not mistaken, he studied their sympathies and un- derstandings much more than the display of his own powers. His imagery was all drawn from the sea, and from the incidents of a seaman's life : and was often remarkably good. He spoke to them of " that glorious man, Lord Nelson," and of Colling- wood ; and drew nothing in, as the saying is, by the head and shoulders, but brought it to bear upon his pur- pose, naturally, and with a sharp mind to its elfect. Sometimes, when much excited with his subject, he had an odd way— compounded of John Bunyan, and Balfour of Burley — of taking his great quarto bible under his arm and pacing up and down the pulpit with it; looking steadily down, meantime, into the midst of the congregation. Thus, when he applied his text to the first assem- blage of his hearers, and pictured the wonder of the church at their pre- sumption in forming a congregation among themselves, he stopped short with his bible under his arm in the manner I have described, and pur- sued his discourse after this manner: " Who are these — who are they — who are these fellows 1 where do they come from 1 Where axe they going to ] — Come from ! What 's the answer ]" — leaning out of the pulpit, and pointing downward with his right hand: "From below!" — starting back again, and looking at the Bailors before him : "From below, my brethren. From under the hatches of sin, battened down above you by the evil one. That's where you came from ! " — a walk up and down the pulpit : " and where are you going" — stopping abruptly : "^where are you going I Aloft!" — very softly, and pointing upward : " Aloft !" — louder : " aloft ! "—louder still : " That 's where you are going — with a fair wind, — all taut and trim, steering direct for Heaven in its glory, where there are no storms or foul weather, and where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." — Another walk : " That 's where you 're going to, my friends. That 's it. That's the place. That's the port. That's the haven. It's a l)leased harbour — still water there, in all changes of the winds and tides; no driving ashore upon the rocks, or slipping your cables and running out to sea, there: Peace — Peace — Peace — all peace I " — Another walk, and patting the bible under his left arm : " What ! These fellows are coming from the wilderness, are they 1 Yes. Prom the dreary, blighted wilderness of Iniquity, whose only crop is Death. But do they lean upon anything — do they lean upon nothing, these poor seamen?" — Three raps upon the bible : " Oh yes. — Yes. — They lean upon the arm of their Beloved" — three more raps : " upon the arm of their Beloved" — three more, and a walk : " Pilot, guiding-star, and compass, all in one, to all hands — here it is" — three more : " Here it is. They can do their seaman's duty manfully, and be easy in their minds in the utmost peril and danger, with this" — two more : " They can come, even these poor fellows can come, from the wil- derness leaning on the arm of their Beloved, and go up — up— up ! "—• raising his hand higher, and higher, at every repetition of the word, so that he stood with it at last stretched f FOR GENKRAL CIRCULATION. 41 and altove his head, regarding them in a rttrange, rapt manner, and pressing the book triumphantly to his breast, until he gradually subsided into some other portion of his discourse. I have cited this, rather as an in- stance of the preacher's eccentricities than his merits, though taken in con- nection M'ith his look and manner, and the character of his audience, even tiiis was striking. It is possible, however, that my favourable impression of him may have been greatly influenced and Btrengthened, firstly, by liis impres- sing upon his hearers that the true observance of religion was not incon- sistent with a cheerful deportment and an exact discharge of the duties of their station, which, indeed, it scrupulously required of them ; and secondly, by his cautioning them not to set up any monopoly in Paradise and its mercies. I never heard these two points so wisely touched (if indeed I have ever heard them touched at all), by any preacher of that kind, before. Hjiving passed the time I spent in Boston, in making myself acquainted with these things, in settling the course I should take in my future travels, and in mixing constantly with its society, I am not aware that I have any occasion to prolong this chapter. Such of its social customs as I have not mentioned, however, may be told in a very few words. The usual dinner-hour is two o'clock. A dinner party takes place at five ; and at an evening party, they seldom sup later than eleven ; so that it goes hard but one gets home, even from a rout, by midnight. I never could find out any difference between a party at Boston and a party in Lon- don, saving that at the former place all assemblies are held at more rational hours ; that the conversation may pos- sibly be a little louder and more cheerful ; that a guest is usually ex. pected to ascend to the very top of the house to take his cloak off ; that he is certain to see, at every dinner, an unusual amount of poultry on the table ; and at every supper, at least two mighty bowls of hot stewed oysters, in any one of which a half- grown Duke of Clarence might be smothered easily. There are two theatres in Boston, of good size and construction, but sadly in want of patronage. The few ladies who resort to them, sit, as of right, in the front rows of the boxes. The bar is a large room with a stone floor, and there people stand and smoke, and lounge about, all the evening : dropping in and out as the humour takes them. There too the stranger is initiated into the mysteries of Gin-sling, Cocktail, Sangaree, Mint Julep, Sherry-cobbler, Timber Doodle, and other rare drinks. The House is fiUl of boarders, both married and single, many of whom sleep upon the premises, and contract by the week for their board and lodging: the charge for which diminishes as they go nearer the sky to roost. A public table is laid in a very handsome hall for breakfast, and for dinner, and for supper. The party sitting down together to these meals will vary in number from one to two hundred : sometimes more. The advent of each of these epochs in the day is pro- claimed by an awful gong, which shakes the very window frames as it reverberates through the house, and horribly disturbs nervous foreigners. There is an ordinary for ladies, and an ordinary for gentlemen. In our private room the cloth could not, for any earthly consideration, have been laid for dinner without a huge glass dish of cranberries in the middle of the table ; and breakfa>e. If a lady take a fancy to any male passenger's scat, the gentleman who accompanies her gives him notice of the fact, and he immediately vacates it with great politeness. Politics arc much discussed, so are banks, so is cotton. Quiet people avoid the ques- tion of the Presidency, for there will be a new election in three years and a half, and party feeling runs very liigh : the great constitutional feature of this institution being, that directly the acrimony of the last election is over, the acrimony of the next one begins; which is an unspeakable comfort to all strong politicians and U ue lovers of their country : that is to say, to ninety-nine men and boys out of every ninety-nine and a quarter. Except when a branch road joins the main one, there is seldom more than one track of rails ; so that the road is very narrow, and the view, where there is a deep cutting, by no means extensive. When there is not, the character of the scenery is always the same. Mile after mile of stunted trees: some hewn down by the axe, some blown down by the wind, some half fallen and resting on their neighbours, many mere logs half hidden in the swamp, others mouldered away to spongy chips. The very soil of the earth is made up of minute fragments such as these ; each pool of stagnant water has itH crust of vegetable rottenness ; on every side there are the boughs, and trunks, and stumps of trees, in every possible stage of decay, decomposition, and neglect. Now you emerge for a few brief minutes on an open country, glittering with some bright lake or pool, broad as many an English river, but so small hero that it scarcely ha<* a name ; now catch hasty glimpses of a distant town, with its clean white houses and their cool piazzas, its prim New England church and schoolhouse ; when whir-r-r-r ! almost before you have seen them, comes the same dark screen : the stunted trees, the stumps, the logs, the stagnant water— all so like the last that you seem to have been transported back again by magic. The train calls at stations in the woods, where the wild impossibility of anybody having the smallest reason to get out, is only to be equalled by the apparently desperate hopelessness of there being anybody to get in. It rushes across the turnpike road, whero there is no gate, no policeman, no signal : nothing but a rough wooden arch, on which is painted " Whkn tub BELL RINGS, LOOK OUT FOB THE LoCO- iioTivB." On it whirls headlong, dives through the woods again, emerges in the light, clatters over rail arches, rumbles upon the heavy ground, shoots beneath a wooden bridge which intercepts the light for a second like a wink, suddenly awakens all the slumbering echoes in the main street of a large town, and dashes on haphazard, pell-mell, neck-or-nothing, down the middle of the road. There — with mechanics working at their trades, and people leaning from their doors and windows, and boys flying kites and playing marbles, and men smoking, and women talking, and children crawling, Loco- iadlong, again, r8 over heavy wooden ight for uddenly echoes town, !ll-mell, ddle of chanicH people indow8, laying and iwling, KOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 4:> and pigs borrowing, and unaccus- tomed horHea phinging and rearing, cIoHo to the very rails — there — on, on, on — tears the mad rning but ^l relief by travelling jrks, which storm of \ CHAPTER V. WORCESTER. THE CONNECTICUT RIVER. HARTFORD. TO NEW YORK. NEW HAVEN. Leavino Boston on the afterntton of | Saturday the fifth of February, we j proceeded by another railroad to , Worcester : a pretty New England town, where we had arranged to re- main under the hospitable roof of the Governor of the State, until Monday morning. These towns and cities of New England (many of which would be villages in Old England), are as favourable specimens ofrur.il America, as their people are of rural Americans. The well-trimmed lawns and green meadows of home are not there ; and the grass, compared with our orna- mental plots and pastures, is rank, and rough, and wild: but delicate slopes of land, gently-swelling hills, wooded valleys, and slender streams, abound. Every little colony of houses has its church and school-house peep- ing from among the white roofs and shady trees ; every house is the whitest of the white; every Venetian blind the greenest of the green ; every fine day's sky the bluest of the blue. A sharp dry wind and a slight frost had so hardened the roads when we alighted at Worcester, that their furrowed tracks were like ridges of granite. There was the usual aspect of newness on every object, of course. All the buildings looked as if they had been built and painted that morning, and could be taken down on Monday with very little trouble. In the keen evening air, ' ery sharp outline looked a hun- dred times sharper than ever. The clean cardboard colonnades had no No. 164. more perspective than a Chinese bridge on a tea-cup, and appeared cquiiUy well calculated for use The razor-like edges of the detacht cot- tages seemed to cut the very wind as it whistled against them, and to send it smarting on its way with a shrilly cry than before. Those slightly-buift wooden dwellings behind which the sun was f tting with a brilliant lustre, could be so looked througli and through, that the idea of any inhabi- tjint being able to hide himself from the public gaze, or to have any secrets from the public eye, was not cnter- tainable for a moment. Even where a blazing firo shone through the un- curtained windows of some distant house, it had the air of being newly- lighted, and of lacking warmth ; and instead of awakening thoughts of a snug chamber, bright with faces that first saw the light round that same hearth, and ruddy with warm hang- ings, it came upon one suggestive of the smell of new mortar and damp walls. So I thought, at least, that evening. Next morning when the sun was shining brightly, and the clear church bells were ringing, and sedate people in their best clothes enlivened the pathway near at hand and dotted the distant thread of road, there was a pleasant Sabbath peacefulness on everything, which it was good to feel. It would have been the better for an old church ; better still for some old graves ; but as it was, a wholesome repose and tranquillity pervaded the t I fc r 50 AMERICAN NOTES !! :l t !■ scene, •which after the restless ocean and the hurried city, had a doubly grateful influence on the spirits. We went on next mornin;?, still hy railroad, to Springfield. From that place to Hartford, whither we were bound, is a distance of only five-and- twenty miles, but at that time of the year the roads were so bad that the journey would probably have occupied ten or twelve hours. Fortunately, however, the winter having been un- usually mild, the Connecticut River was " open," or, in other words, not frozen. The captain of a small steam- boat was going to make his first trip for the season that day (the second February trip, I believe, within the memory of man), and only waited for us to go on board. Accordingly, we went on board, with as little delay as might be. He was as good aa his word, and started directly. It certainly was nc^. called a small steam-boat without reason. I omitted to ask the question, but I should think it must have been of about half a pony power. Mr. Paap, the celebrated Dwarf, might have lived and died happily in the cabin, which was fitted with common sash-windows like an ordinary dwelling-hoase. These win- dows had bright-red curtains, too, hung on slack strings across the lower panes ; so that it looked like the . -^r- lour of a Lilliputian public-house, which had got afloat in a flood or some other water accident, and was drifting nobody knew where. But even in this chamber there was a rocking-chair. It would bo impossible to get on any- where, in America, without a rocking- ehair. I am afraid to tell how many feet short this vessel wai^ or how many feet narrow : to apply tlie words length and width to suoh measurement would be a contradictibn in terms. But I may state that we all kept the middle of the deck, lest the boat should un- expectedly tip over; and that tho machinery, by some surprising process of condensation, worked between it and the keel : the Mhole forming a warm sandwich, about three feet thick. It rained all day as I once thought it never did rain anywhere, but in the Highlands of Scotland. The river was full of floating blocVs of ice, which were constantly crunching and crack- ing under us ; and the depth of water, in the course we took to avoid the larger masses, carried down the middle of the river by the current, did not exceed a few inches. Nevertheless, we moved onward, dexterously ; and being well wrapped up, bade defiance to the weather, and enjoyed the journey. The Connecticut River is a fine stream ; and the banks in summer-time are, I hav : no doubt, beautiful : at all events, I was told so by a young lady in the cabin ; and she should be a judge of beauty, if the possession of a quality include the appreciation of it, for ft more beautiful creatore I never looked upon. After two hours and a half of thi» odd travelling (Including a stoppage at a small town, wh^v we were saluted by a gun considerably bigger than onr own chimney), we reached Hartford> and straightway repaired to an ex- tremely comfortable hotel : except, as usual, in the article of bed-room^ which, in almost every place we visited, were very conducive to early r'mng. We tarried here, fonr days; The town is beautifully sitaated in a basin of green hills; the soil isrich^ well- wooded, and carefully improved. It is the seat of the local legiislature of Connecticut, which sage body en- acted, in bygone times, the renowned code of "Blue Laws," in virtue whereof, among other enlightened provision^ any citizen who could be proved t an eX' jzoept, as •rooms^ lace we to early Too much cf the old Puritan spirit exists in these parts to the present hour; but its influence has not tended, that I know, to make the people less hard in their bargains, or more equal in their dealings. As I never heard of its workin.T that effect anywhere else, I infer tha*. it never will, here. Indeed, I am accustomed, with refer- ence to great professions and severe faces, to judge of the goods of the other world pretty much as I judge of the goods of this ; and whenever I see a dealer in such commodities with too great a display of them in his window, I doubt the quality of the article within. In Hartford stands the famous oak in which the charter of King Charles was hidden. It is now inclosed in a gentleman's garden. In the State- house is the charter itsjlf. I found the courts of law here, just the same as at Boston ; the public Institutions almost as good. The Insane Asylum is admirably conducted, and. so is the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. I very much questioned within my- self, as I walked through the Insane Asylum, whether I should have known the attendants from the patients, but for t^e few words which passed be- tween the former, and the Doctor, in reference to the persons under their charge. Of course I limit this re- mark merely to their looks ; for the conversation of the mad people was mad enough. There was one little prim old lady, of very smiling and good-humoured appearance, who came sidling up to me from the end of a long passage, and with a curtsey of inexpressible condescension, propounded this un- accountable inquiry : ^ " Does Pontefraot still flourish, sir, npon the soil of England ? " " He does, ma'am," I rejoined. " When you last saw him, sir, he was — " " Well, ma'am," said I, " extremely well. He begged me to present his compliments. I never saw him look- ing better." At this, the old lady was very much delighted. After glancing at me for a moment, as if to be quite sure that I was serious in my respectful air, she sidled back some paces; sidled forward again; made a sudden skip (at which I precipitately retreated a step or two) ; and said : "/ am an antediluvian, sir." I thought the best thing to say was, that I had suspected as much from the first. Therefore I said so. "It is an extremely proud and plea- ant thing, sir, to be an antediluvian," said the old lady. " I should think it was, ma'am," I rejoined. The old lady kissed her hand, gave another skip, smirked and sidled down the gallery in a most extraordinary manner, and ambled gracefully into her own bed-chamber. In another part of the building, there was a male patient in bed ; very much flushed and heated. " Well I" said he, starting up, and pulling off his night-cap : " It 's all settled, at last. I have arranged it with queen Victoria." " Arranged what 1 " asked the Doctor. " Why, that business," passing his hand wearily across his forehead, " about the si^ge of New York." '' Oh !" said I, like a man suddenly enlightened. For he looked at me for an answer. " Yes. Every house without a signal will be fired upon by the British troops. No harm will be done to the others. No harm at all. Those that want to be safe, must hoist flags. That 's all they '11 have to do. They must hoist flags." Even while he was speaking he seemed, I thought, to have some faint e2 I >1 'i' 1 > '! tl I I fi\ i 1 i. hi AMERICAN NOTES idea that his talk was incoherent. Directly he had said these words, he lay dovm again ; gave a kind of a groan ; and covered his hot head with the blankets. There was another : a young man, whose noadness was love and music. After playing on the accordion a march he had composed, he was very anxious that I should walk into his chamber, which I immediately did. By way of being very knowing, and humouring him to the top of his bent, I went to the window, which commanded a beautiful prospect, and remarked, with an address upon which I greatly plumed myself : "What a delicious country you have about these lodgings of yours." "Poh !" said he, moving his fingers carelessly over the notes of his instru- ment : " Well enough fm' such an In- stitution as this!" I don t think I was ever so taken aback in all my life. " I come here just for a whim," he said coolly. "That 'sail." " Oh ! That 'b all !" said I. "Yes. That's all. The Doctor's a smart man. He quite enters into it. It 's a joke of mine. I like it for a time. You needn't mention it, but I think I shall go out next Tuesday!" I assured him that I would consider our interview perfectly confidential ; and rejoined the Doctor. As we were passing through a gallery on our way out, a well-dressed lady, of quiet and composed manners, came up, and proflTering a slin of paper and a pen, begged that I would oblige her with an autograph. I complied, and we parted. " I think I remember having had a few interviews like that, with ladies out of doors. I hope she is not madl" " Yes." " On what subject ? Autographs 1 " "No. She hears voices in the air." "Well!" thought I, "it would be well if we could shut up a fcxr false prophets of these later times, who have professed to do the same ; and I should like to try the experiment on a Mormonist or two to begin with." In this place, there is the best Jail for untried offenders in the world. There is also a very well-ordered State prison, arranged upon the same plan as that at Boston, except that here, there is always a sentry on the wall with a loaded gun. It contained at that time about two hundred pri- soners. A spot was shown me in the sleeping ward, where a watchman was murdered some years since in the dead of night, in a desperate attempt to escape, made by a prisoner who had broken from his cell. A woman, too, was pointed out to me, who, for the murder of her husband, had been a close prisoner for sixteen years. " Do you think," I asked of my conductor, " that after so very long an imprisonment, she has any thought or hope of ever regaining her liberty?" "Oh dear yes," he answered. "To be sure she has." " She has no chance of obtaining it, I suppose 1 " "Well, I don't know:" which, by the bye, is a national answer. " Her friends mistrust her." " What have they to do with it 1" I naturally inquired. " Well, they won't petition." " But if they did, they couldn't get her out, I suppose ? " " Well, not the first time, perhaps, nor yet the second, but tiring and wearying for a few years might do it." "Does that ever do it 1" " Why yes, that '11 do it sometimes. Political friends '11 do it sometimes. It's pretty often done, one way or another." s a FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 68 "To itr I I shall always entertain a very plea- sant and grateful recollectioi of Hartford. It is a lovely place, and I bad many friends there, whom I can never remember with indifference. We left it with no little regret on the evening of Friday the 11th, and tra- velled that night by railroad to New Haven. Upon the May, the guard and I were formally introduced to each other (as we usually were on such occasions), and exchanged a variety of small-talk. We reached New Haven at about eight o'clock, after a journey of three hours, and put up for the night at the best inn. New Haven, known also as the City of Elms, is a fine town. Many of its streets (as its alias sufficiently imports) are planted with rows of grand old elm-trees; and the same natural ornaments surround Yale College, an establishment of consider- able eminence and reputation. The various departments of this Institu- tion are erected in a kind of park or common in the middle of the town, where they are dimly visible among the shadowing trees. The effect is very like that of an old cathedral yard in England; and when their branches are in full leaf, must be extremely picturesque. Even in the winter time, these groups of well- grown trees, clustering among the busy streets and houses of a thriving city, have a very quaint appearance : seeming to bring about a kind of com- promise between town and country; as if each had met the other half-way, and shaken hands upon it ; which is at once novel and pleasant. After a night's rest, we rose early, and in good time went down to the wharf, and on board the packet New York /or New York. This was the first American steamboat of any size that I had seen ; and certainly to an English eye it was infinitely less like a steamboat than a huge floating bath. I could hardly persuade myself, indeed, but that the bathing establishment off Westminster Bridge, which I left a baby, had suddenly grown to an enormous size ; run away from home ; and set up in foreign parts as a steamer. Being in America, too, which our vagabonds do so particularly favour, it seemed the more probable. The great difference in appearance between these packets and ours, is, that there is so much of them out of the water : the main-deck being en- closed on all sides, and filled with casks and goods, like any second or third floor in a stack of warehouses ; and the promenade or hurricane-deck being a-top of that again. A part of the machinery is always above this deck ; where the connecting-rod, in a strong and lofty frame, is seen working away like an iron top-sawyer. There is seldom any mast or tackle : nothing aloft but two tall black chimneys. The man at the helm is shut up in a little house in the fore part of the boat (the wheel being con- nected with the rudder by iron chains, working the whole length of the deck) ; and the passengers, unless the weather be very fine indeed, usually congregate below. Directly you have left the wharf, all the life, and stir, and bustle of a packet cease. You wonder for a long time how she goes on, for there seems to be nobody in charge of her ; and when another of these dull machines comes splash- ing by, you feel quite indignant with it, as a sullen, cumbrous, ungracefal, unshiplike leviathan : quite forgetting that the vessel you are on board of, is its very counterpart. There is always a clerk's office on the lower deck, where you pay your fare; a ladies' cabin; baggage and stowage rooms ; engineer's room ; and in short a great variety of per- plexities which render the discovery of the gentlemen's cabin, a matter of '^■fl 54 AMERICAN NOTES I' ! I some difficulty. It often occupie« the whole length of the boat (as it did in this case), and has three or four tiers of berths on each side. When I first descended into the cabin of the New York, it looked, in my unaccus- tomed eyes, about as long as the Burlington Arcade. The Sound which has to be crossed on this passage, is not always a very safe or pleasant navigation, and has been the scene of some unfortunate accidents. It was a wet morning, and very misty, and we soon lost sight of land. The day was calm, however, and brightened towards noon. After exhausting (with good help from a friend) the larder, and the stock of bottled beer, I lay down to sleep : being very much tired with the fatigues of yesterday. But I awoke from my nap in time to hurry up, and see Hell Gate, the Hog's Back, the Frying Pan, and other notorious loca- lities, attractive to all readers of famous Diedrich Knickerbocker's History, We were now in a narrow channel, with sloping banks on either side, besprinkled with pleasant villas, and made refreshing to the sight by turf and trees. Soon we shot in quick succession, past a lighthouse ; a mad- house (how the lunatics flung up their caps and roared in sympathy with the headlong engine and the driving tide!) ; a jail; and other buildings: and BO emerged into a noble bay, whose waters sparkled in the now cloudless sunshine like Nature's eyes turned up to Heaven. Then there lay stretched out before us, to the right, confused heaps of buildings, with here and there a spire or steeple, looking down upon the herd belowj and here and there, again, a cloud of lazy smoke; and in the foreground a forest of ships' masts, cheery with flapping sails and waving flags. Crossing from among them to the opposite shore, were steam ferry- boats laden with people, coaches, horses, waggons, baskets, boxes : crossed and recrossed by other ferry- boats : all travelling to and fro : and never idle. Stately among these restless In&ects, were two or three large ships, moving with slow majestic pace, as creatures of a prouder kind, disdainful of their puny journeys, and making for the broad sea. Beyond, were shining heights, and islands in the glancing river, and a distance scarcely less blue and bright than the sky it seemed to meet. The city's hum and buzz, the clinking of cap- stans, the ringing of bells, the barking of dogs, the clattering of wheels, tingled in the listening ear. All of which life and stir, coming across the stirring water, caught new life and animation from its free companion- ship; and, sympathising with its buoyant spirits, glistened as it seemed in sport upon its surface, and hemmed the vessel round, and plashed the water high about her sides, and, floating her gallantly into the dock, flew off again to welcome other comers, and speed before them to the busy port. i \ FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. ti it boforo leaps of 3 a spire pon tho e, again, . in the }' masts, I waving them to m ferry- coaches, boxes : ler ferry- fro : and ig these or three r majestic ler kind, aeys, and Beyond, slands in distance , than the rhe city's of cap- barking wheels, All of ,ero63 the life and [mpanion- with its It seemed hemmed shed the les, and, |he dock, le other im to the CHAPTER VI. NEW YORK. The beautiful metropolis of America is by no means so clean a city as Boston, but many of its streets have the same characteristics ; except that the houses are not quite so fresh- coloured, the sign-boards arc not quite BO gaudy, the gilded letters not quite 80 golden, the bricks not quite so red, the stone not quite so white, the blinds and area railings not quite so green, the knobs and plates upon the street doors, not quite eo bright and twink- ling. There are many bye-streets, almost as neutral in clean colours, and positive in dirty ones, as bye- streets in London ; and there is one quarter, commonly called the Five Points, which, in respect of filth and wretchedness, may be safely backed against Seven Dials, or any other part of famed St. Giles's. The great promenade and thorough- fare, as most people know, is Broad- way; a wide and bustling street, which, from the Battery Gardens to its opposite termination in a country road, may be four miles long. Shall we ait down in an upper floor of the Carlton House Hotel (situated in the best part of this main artery of New York), and when we are tired of look- ing down upon the life below, sally forth arm-in-arm, jmd mingle with the stream 1 Warm weather ! The sun strikes upon our heads at this open window, as though its rays were concentrated through a burning-glass ; but the day is in its zenith, and the season an un- usual one. Was there ever such a sunny street as this Broadway ! The pavement stones are poUshed with the tread of feet until they shine again ; the red bricks of the houses might bo yet in the dry, hot kilns ; and the roofs of those omnibuses look as though, if water were poured on them, they would hiss and smoke, and smell like half-quenched fires. No stint of omnibuses here ! Half a dozen have gone by within as many minutes. Plenty of hackney cabs and coaches too; gigs, phaetons, large-wheeled tilburies, and private carriages — rather of a clumsy make, and not very different from the public vehicles, but built for the heavy roads beyond the city pavement. Negro coachmen and white; in straw hats, black hats, white hats, glazed caps, fur caps ; in coats of drab, black, brown, green, blue, nankeen, striped jean and linen ; and there, in that one instance (look while it passes, or it will be too late), in suits of livery. Some southern republican that, who puts his blacks in uniform, and swells with Sultan pomp and power. Yonder, where that phaeton with the well-clipped pair of grays has stopped — standing at their heads now — is a Yorkshire groom, who has not been very long in. these parts, and looks sorrowfully round for a companion pair of top- boots, Avhich he may traverse the city half a year without meeting. Heaven save the ladies, how they dress ! We have seen more colours in these ten minutes, than we should have seen elsewhere, in as many days. What various parasols ! what rainbow silks and satins ! what pinking of thin stockings, and pinching of thin shoes, and fluttering of ribbons and silk ' ,11 \h i %-? II 56 AMERICAN NOTES ]' :4j i 1 H L tasRcIs, and display of rich cloaks with gaudy hoods and linings ! The young gentlemen arc fond, you see, of turn- ing down their ahirt-collars and cul- tivating their whiskers, especially under the chin ; but they cannot ap- proach the ladies in their dress or bearing, being to say the truth, humanity of quite another sort. Byrons of the desk and counter, pass on, and let us sec what kind of men those are behind yo : those two labourers in holiday clothes, of whom one carries in his hand a crumpled scrap of paper from which ho tries to spell out a hard name, while the other looks about for it on all the doors and windows. Irishmen both ! Tou might know them, if they were masked, by their long-tailed blue coats and bright buttons, and their drab trowsers, which they wear like men well used to working dresses, who are easy in no others. It would be hard to keep your model republics going, without the countrymen and countrywomen of those two labourers. For who else would dig, and delye, and drudge, and do domestic work, and make canals and roads, and execute great lines of Internal Improvement ! Irislimen both, and sorely puzzled too, to find out what they seek. Let us go down, and help them, for the love of home, and that spirit of liberty which admits of honest service to honest men, and honest work for honest bread, no matter what it be. That's well! We have got at the right address at last, though it is writ- ten in strange characters truly, and might have been scrawled with the blunt handle of the spade the writer bet- ter knows the use of, than a pen. Their way lies yonder, but what business takes them there? They carry sav- ings : to hoard up ] No. They are brothers, those men. One crossed the sea alone, and working very hard for one half year, and living harder, saved funds enough to bring tho other out. That done, they worked together side by side, contentedly sharing hard labour and hard living for another term, and then their sisters came, and ilien another brother, and, lastly, their old mother. And what nowl Why, the poor old crone is restless in a strange land, and yearns to lay her bones, she says, among her people in the old grave- 3'ard at home : and so they go to pay her passage back : and God help her and them, and every simple heart, and all who turn to the Jerusalem of their younger days, and have an altar-fire upon the cold hearth of their fathers. This narrow thoroughfare, baking and blistering in the sun, is Wall Street : the Stock Exchanjje and Lom- bard Street of New York, ilany a rapid fortune has been made in this street, and many a no less rapid ruin. Some of these very merchants whom you see hanging about here now, have locked up money in their strong* boxes, like the man in the Arabian Nights, and opening them again, have found but withered leaves. Below, here by the water side, where the bowsprits of ships stretch across the footway, and almost thrust themselves into the windows, lie the noble Ame- rican vessels which have made their Packet Service the finest in the world. They have brought hither the foreign- ers who abound in all the streets : not perhaps, that there are more here, than in other commercial cities ; but elsewhere, they have particular haunts, and you must find them out; here, they pervade the town. We must cross Broadway again ; gaining some refreshment from the heat, in the sight of the great blocks of clean ice which are being carried into shops and bar-rooms; and the pine-apples and water-melons pro- c a a P a T tl d n tl n bi P' Pi & St FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. ft7 f again ; rom the [t blocks carried land the pro- fusely difiplayed for sale. Fine streetg of spacious houses here, you sec ! — Wall Street has furnished and dis- mantled manyof them very often — and here a deep green leafy square. Be sure that is a hospitable house with inmatea to be affectionately remem- bered always, where they have the open door and pretty show of plants within, and where the child with laughing eyes is peeping out of window at the little dog below. You wonder what may be the use of this tall flag- staff in the bye street, with something like Liberty's head-dress on its top : 60 do L But there is a passion for tall flagstaff's hereabout, and you may sec its twin brother in five minutes, if you have a mind. Again across Broadway, and so — passing from the many-coloured crowd and glittering shops — into another long main street, the Bowery. A rail-road yonder, see, where two stout horses trot along, drawing a score or two of people and a great wooden ark, with else. The stores are poorer here ; the passengers less gay. Clothes ready-made, and meat ready-cooked, are to be bought in these parts ; and the lively whirl of carriages is ex- changed for the deep rumble of carts and waggons. These signs which are so plentiful, in shape like river buoys, or small balloons, hoisted by cords to poles, and dangling there, announce, as you may see by looking up, " Oys- ters IN EYEET Style." They tempt the hungry most at night, for then dull candles glimmering inside, illu- minate these dainty words, and make the mouths of idlers water, as they read and linger. What is this dismal-fronted pile of bastard Egyptian, like an enchanter's palace in a melodrama ! — a famous prison, called The Tombs. Shall we go in] So. A long narrow lofty building, Btove-heated as usual, with four gal- leries, one above the other, going round it, and communicating by stairs. Between the two sides of each gallery, and in its centre, a bridge, for the greater convenience of cross- ing. On each of these bridges sits a man : dozing or reading, or talking to an idle companion. On each tier, are two opposite rows of small iron doors. They look like furnace doors, but arc cold and black, as though the fires within had all gone out. Some two or three are open, and women, with drooping heads bent down, are talk- ing to the inmates. The whole is lighted by a skylight, but it is fast closed;' and from the roof there dangle, limp and drooping, two use- less windsails. A man with keys appears, to show us round. A good-looking fellow, and, in his way, civil and obliging. " Are those black doors the cells]" "Yes." "Are they all full]" "Well, they're pretty nigh full, and that 's a fact, and no two ways about it." " Those at the bottom arc unwhole- some, surely ] " "Why, we do only put coloured people in 'em. That 's the truth." " When do the prisoners take exercise ] " "Well, they do without it pretty much." "Do they never walk in the yard]" " Considerable seldom." " Sometimes, I suppose ] " "Well, it's rare they do. They keep pretty bright without it." " But suppose a man were here for a twelvemonth. I know this is only a prison for criminals who are charged with grave offences, while they are awaiting their trial, or are under remand, but the law here, affords criminals many means of delay. What with motions for new trial, and in arrest of judgment, and what not, a \0 i £8 AMERICAN NOTES prisoner might bo liero for twelve months, I take it, might ho not 1 " " Well, I guess he might." " Do you mean to say that in all that time he would never come out at that little iron door, for exercise ? " " He might walk some, perhapa — not much." " Will you open one of the doors?" " All, if you like." The fastenings jar and rattle, and one of the doors turns slowly on its hinges. Let us look in. A small bare coll, into which the light enters through a high chink in the wall. There is a rude means of washing, a table, and a bedstead. Upon the latter, sits a man of sixty ; reading. Ho looks up for a moment ; gives an impatient dogged shake ; and fixes his eyes upon his book again. As wc withdrew our hcada, the door closes on him, and is listened as before. This man has murdered his wife, and m\\ probably be hanged. " How long has he been here ? " "A month." " When will he be tried ?" " Next term." " When is that ? " " Next month." " In England, if a man be under sentence of death, even he has air and exercise at certain periods of the day." "Possible?" With what stupendous and un- translatable coolness he says this, and how loungingly he leads on to the women's side : making, as he goes, a kind of iron Castanet of the key and the stair-rail ! Each cell door on this side has a square aperture in it Some of the women peep anxiously through it at the sound of footsteps ; others shrink away in shame. — For what offence can that lonely child, of ten or twelve years old, be shut up here? Oh! that boy 1 He is the son of the pri- soner we saw just now ; is a witnoM against his father; and is detained here for safe-keeping, until the trial ; that 's all. Hut it is a dreadful place for the child to pass the long days and nights in. This is rather hard treatment for a young witncsH, is it notl — What says our conductor ? " Well, it an't a very rowdy life, and <;tar* a iact 1" Again he clinks his metal ca»tanet, and leads us leisurely away. I have a question to ask him as we go. " Pray, why do they call this place The Tombs?" "Well, it's the cant name." " I know it is. Why ?" " Some suicides happened here, when it was first built. I expect it come about from that." " I saw just now, that that man's clothes were ccattered about the tloor of his cell. Don't you oblige the pri- soners to be orderly, and put such things away?" " Where should they put 'em?" " Not on the ground surely. What do you say to hanging them up ?" He stops and looks round to em- phasise his answer : " Why, I aay that's just it. When they had hooks they wovid hang themselves, so they're taken out of every cell, and there 's only the marks left where th«y used to be !" The prison-yard in Avhich he pauses now, has been the scene of terrible performances. Into this narrow, grave-like place, men are brought out to die. The wretched creature stands beneath the gibbet on the ground; the rope about his neck ; and when the sign is given, a weight at its other end comes ronning down, and swings him up into the air — a corpse. The law requires that there be pre- sent at this dismal spectacle, the judge, the jury, and citizens to the amount of twenty-five. From the f i t c 1 I g q g h ri fi 01 ti cl si FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 59 vitnoBS iUined s trml ; for the L nighta kent for -What life, and :!v»tanet, I have a lis place d here, jxpect it \t man's the floor c the pri- nat such emV What upV id to em- . When dd hang n out of e marks le pauses terrible narrow, ^ught out re stands I ground ; id when I its other Id swings bepre- icle, the to the If Mn the community it id hidden. To the dis- solute aud bad, tho thing remains a friglitful mystery. Between the criminal and them, the prison-wall Ih intcrpoited as a thick gloomy veil. It is tho curtain to his bed of death, his winding-sheet, and grave. From him it shuts out life, and all tho motives to nnrepenting hardihood in that last hour, which its mere sight and pre- sence is often all-suiliuicnt to sustain. There arc no bold eyes to make him bold ; no rufllans to uphold a rufHan's name before. All beyond the pitiless stone wall, is unknown space. Let us go forth again into the cheerful streets. Once more in Broadway I Hero are the same ladies in bright colours, walking to and fro, in pairs and singly; yonder the very same light blue parasol which passed and re- passed tho hotel-windcw twenty times while we were sitting there. We are going to cross here. Take oaro of the pigs. Two poriiy sows are trotting up behind this carriage, and a select party of half-a-dozen gentlemen hogs have just now turned the corner. Hero is a solitary swine lounging homeward by himself. He has only one ear; having parted with the other to vagrant-dogs in tho course of his city rambles. But he gets on very well without it ; and leads a. roving, gentlemanly, vagabond kind of life, somewhat answering to that of our club-men at home. He leaves his lodgings every morning at a certain hour, throws himself upon th3 town, gets through his day in some manner quite satisfactory to himself, and re- gularly appears at the door of his own house again at night, like the myste- rious master of Gil Bias. He is a free-and-easy, careless, indifferent kind of pig, having a very large laequain- tance among other pigg of the same character, whom he rather knows by sight than conversation, as he seldom troubles himself to stop and exchange civiliti.,s, but goes grunting down tho kennel, turning up the news and small-talk of the city in tho shape of cabbage-stalks and offal, and bearing no tails but his own : which is a very •hort one, for his old enemies, tho dogs, have been at that too, and liavo loft him hardly enough to swear by. He is in every respect a republican pig, going wherever ho pleases, and mingling with tho best society, on an equal, if not superior footing, for every one makes way when ho appears, and the haughtiest give him tho wall, if ho prefer it. He is a great philosopher, and seldom moveil, unless by tho dogs before mentioned. Somatimes, indeed, you may sec his small eye twinkling on a Rlaughtercd friend, whoso carcase garnishes a butcher's door-post, but he grunts out " Such is life : all flesh is pork ! " buries his nose in the mire again, and waddles down the gutter : comforting himself with the reflection that thoro is one snout the less to anticipate stray cabbage-stalks, at any rate. They are the city scavengers, these pigs. Ugly brutes they are ; having, for the most part, scanty, brown backs, like the lids of old horse-hair trunks : spotted with unwholesome black blotches. They have long, gaunt legs, too, and such peaked snouts, that if one of them could be persuaded to sit for his profile, nobody would recognise it for a pig's likeness. They are never attended upon, or fed, or driven, or caught, but are thrown upon their own resources in early life, and become pretematurally knowing in consequence. Every pig knows where he lives, much better than anybody could tell him. At this hour, just as evening is closing in, you will see them roaming towards bed by scores, eating their way to the last. Occasionally, some youth among them who has over-eaten himself, or I i \l i) I l" - t ■ CO AMERICAN NOTES hsa been much worried by doge, trots shrinkingly homeward, like a prodi- gal son : but this is a rare case : per- fect self-possession and self-reliance, and immovable composure, being their foremost attributes. The streets and shops arc lighted now ; and as the eye travels down the long thoroughfare, dotted with bright jets of gas, it is reminded of Oxford Street, or Piccadilly. Here and there a flight of broad stone cellar-steps appears, and a painted lamp directs you to the Bowling Saloon, or Ten- Pin alley : Ten-Pins being a game of mingled chance and skill, invented when the legislature passed an act forbidding Nine -Pins. At other downward flights of steps, are other lamps, marking the whereabouts of oyster-cellars— pleasant retreats, say I : not only by reason of their won- derful cookery of oysters, pretty nigh as large as cheese-plates, (or for thy dear sake, heartiest of Greek Pro- fessors !) but because of all kinds of eaters of fish, or flesh, or fowl, in these latitudes, the swallowers of oysters alone are not gregarious ; but subduing themselves, as it were, to the nature of what they work in, and copying the coyness of the thing they eat, do sit apart in curtained boxes, and consort by twos, not by two hundreds. But how quiet the streets are ! Are there no itinerant bands; no wind or stringed instruments? No, not one. By day, are there no Punches, Fantoccini, Dancing-dogs, Jugglers, Conjurors, Orchestrinas, or even Barrel-organs'? No, not one. Yes, I remember one. One barrel- organ and a dancing-monkey — spor- tive by nature, but fast fading into a dull, lumpish monkey, of the Utilita- rian school. Beyond that, nothing lively ; no, not so much as a white mouse in a twirling cage. Are there no amusements'? Yes. There is a lecture-room across the way, from which that glare of light proceeds, and there may be evening service for the ladies thrice a week, or of tenor. For the young gentlemen, there is the counting-house, the store, the bar-room : the latter, as you may see through these windows, pretty full. Hark! to the clinking sound of hammers breaking lumps of ice, and to the cool gurgling of the pounded bits, as, in the process of mixing, they are poured from glass to glass ! No amusements 1 What are these suckers of cigars and swallowers of strong drinks, whose hats and legs we see in every possible variety of twist, doing, but amusing themselves ■? What are the fifty newspapers, which those pre- cocious urchins are bawling dowTi the street, and which are kept filed within, what are they but amusements '? Not vapid waterish amusements, but good strong stuff; dealing in round abuse and blackguard names; pulling off the roofs of private houses, as the Halting Devil did in Spain ; pimping and pandering for all degrees of vicious taste, and gorging with coined lies the most voracious maw ; imput- ing to every man in public life the coarsest and the vilest motives; scaring away from the stabbed and prostrate body-politic, every Samari- tan of clear conscience and good deeds; and setting on, with yell and whistle and the clapping of foul hands, the vilest vermin and worst birds of prey. — No amusements ! Let us go on again ; and passing this wilderness of an hotel with stores about its base, like some Continental theatre, or the London Opera House shorn of its colonnade, plunge into the Five Points. But it is needful, first, that we take as our escort these two heads of the police, whom you would know for sharp and well-trained oflScers if you met them in the Great Desert. So true it is, that certain ross the of light evening week, or itlemen, he store, yon may , pretty g sound 3 of ice, pounded ing, they iss ! No e suckers f strong we see in it, doing, What are ,hose pro- down the id within, ital Not but good nd abuse ulling off 3, as the pimping igrees of th coined imput- ; life the motives ; )bed and Samari- od deeds; d whistle mds, the birds of passing tth stores itinental la House |nge into needful, jrt these lom you jl-trained |he Great certain FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. «] pursuits, wherever carried on, ■will stamp men with the same character. These two might have been begotten, born, and bred, in Bov/ Street. AVe have seen no beggars in the streets by night or day ; but of other kinds of strollers, plenty. Poverty, wretchedness, and vice, are rife enough where we are going now. This is the place : these narrow ways, diverging to the right and left, and reeking everywhere with dirt and filth. Such lives as are led here, bear the same fruits here as elsewhere. The coarse and bloated faces at the doors, have counterparts at home, and all tlie wide world over. Debauchery has made the very houses prematurely old. See how the rotten beams are tumbling down, and how the patched and broken windows seem to scowl dimly, like eyes that have been hurt in drunken frays. Many of those pigs live here. Do they ever wonder Avhy their masters walk upright in lieu of going on all-fours? and why they talk instead of grunting 1 So far, nearly every house is a low tavern ; and on the bar-room walls, are coloured prints of Washington, and Queen Victoria of England, and the American Eagle. Among the pigeon-holes that hold the bottles, are pieces of plate-glass and coloured paper, for there Ls, in some sort, a taste for decoration, even here. And as seamen frequent these haunts, there are maritime pictures by the dozen : of partings between sailors and their lady-loves, portraits of William, of the ballad, and his Black- Eyed Susan ; of Will Watch, the Bold Smuggler; of Paul Jones the Pirate, and the like : on which the painted eyes of Queen Victoria, and of Washington to boot, rest in as strange companionship, as on most of the scenes that are enacted in their won- dering presence. What place is this, to which the squalid street conducts us ? A kind of square of leprous houses, some of which are attainable only by crazy wooden stairs without. What lies beyond this tottering flight of stops, that creak beneath our tread? — a miser- able room, lighted by one dim candle, and destitute of all comfort, save that which may be hidden in a wretched bed. Beside it, sits a man : hiselbow.s on his knees : his forehead hidden in his hands. " What ails that man ? " asks the foremost officer. " Fever," he sullenly replies, without looking up. Conceive the fancies of a fevered brain, in such a place as this ! Ascend these pitch-dark stairs, heedful of a false footing on the trembling boards, and grope your way with me into this wolfish den, where neither ray of light nor breath of air, appears to come, A negro lad, startled from his sleep by the oflicer's voice — he knows it well — but com- forted by his assurance that he has not come on business, officiously bestirs himself to light a candle. The match flickers for a moment, and shows great mounds of dusky rags upon the ground ; then dies away and leaves a denser darkness than before, if there can be degrees in such extremes. He stumbles down the stairs and pre- sently comes back, shading a flaring taper with his hand. Then the mounds of rags are seen to be astir, and rise slowly up, and the floor is covered with heaps of negro women, waking from their sleep : their white teeth chatter- ing, and their bright eyes glistening and winking on all sides with surprise and fear, like the countless repetition of one astonished African face in some strange mirror. Mount up these other stairs with no less caution (there are traps and pit- falls here, for those who arc not so well escorted as ourselves) into the housetop ; where the bare beams and rafters meet over- head, and culm night \ I 11 1] ■f J" > 1 62 AMERICAN NOTES ::^i, r looks down througli the crevices in the roof. Open the door of one of these cramped hutches full of sleeping negroes. Pah ! They have a charcoal fire within; there is a smell of singeing clothes, or flesh, so close they gather round tlie brazier ; and vapours issue forth that blind and suffocate. From every corner, as you glance about you in these dark retreats, some figure crawlfl half-awakened, as if the judg- ment-hour were near at hand, and every obscene grave were giving up its dead. Where dogs would howl to lie, women, and men, and boys slink off to sleep, forcing the dislodged rats to move away in quest of better lodgings. Here too are lanes and alleys, paved with mud knee-deep, underground chambers, where they dance and game ; the walls bedecked with rough designs of ships, and forts, and flags, and American Eagles out of number : ruined houses, open to the street, whence, through wide gaps in the walls, other ruins loom upon the eye, as though the world of vice and misery had nothing else to show: hideous tenements which take their name from robbery and murder : all that is loathsome, drooping, and decayed is here. Our leader has his hand upon the latch of " Almack's," and calls to us from the bottom of the steps; for the assembly-room of the Five-Point fashionables is approached by a de* scent. Shall we go inl It is but a moment. Heyday 1 the landlady of Almack's thrives ! A buxom fat mulatto woman, with sparkling eyes, whose head is daintily ornamented with a handker- chief of many colours. Nor is the landlord much behind her in his finery, being attired in a smart blue jacket, like a ship's steward, with a thick gold ring upon his little finger, and round his neck a gleaming golden watch-guard. How glad he is to see us ! What will we please to call for ? A dance 1 It shall be done directly, sir : " a regular break-down." The corpulent black fiddler, and his friend who plays the tambourine, stamp upon the boarding of the small raised orchestra in which they sit, and play a lively measure. Five or six couple come upon the floor, marshalled by a lively young negro, who is the wit of the assembly, and the greatest dancer known. He never leaves off making queer faces, and is the delight of all the rest, who grin from ear to ear incessantly. Among the dancers are two young mulatto girls, with large, black, drooping eyes, and head-gear after the fashion of the hostess, who are as shy or feign to be, as though they never danced before, and so look down before the visitors, that their partners can see nothing but the long fringed lashes. But the dance commences. Every gentleman sets as long aa he likes to the opposite lady, and the opposite lady to him, and all are so long about it that the sport begins to languish, when suddenly the lively hero dashes in to the rescue. Instantly the fiddler grins, and goes at it tooth and nail; there is newenergy in the tambourine; new laughter in the dancers; new smiles in the landlady; new confidence in the landlord ; new brightness in the very candles. Single shuflle, double shuffle, cut and cross-cut : snapping his fingers, rolling his eyes, turning in his knees, presenting the backs of his legs in front, spinning about on his toes and heels like nothing but the man's fingers on the tambourine; dancing with two left legs, two right legs, two wooden legs, two wire legs, two spring legs — all sorts of legs and no legs — what is this to him ] And ia what walk of life, or dance of life, does man ever get such stimulating ap- plause as thunders about him, when, having danced his partner off her I OR GENERAL CIRCULATION. L for? rectly, ndhis )uriiie, \ small lit, and or six shalled theTvit rreatest kvea off delight I ear to dancers thlarge, ead-gear 388, who thougb L so look lat their the long i. Every 3 likes to opposite »ng about languish, TO dashes .e fiddler [and nail; ibourine; jre; nev fonfidonce lesB in the le, double' snapping turning backs of lout on hift- , but the ibourine ; itwo right jwire legs; legs and 1 Andiit life, does lating ap- [m, when, [r off her feet, and himself too, ho finishes by leaping gloriously on the bar-counter, and calling for something to drink, with the chuckle of a million of counterfeit Jim Crows, in one inimitable sound ! The air, even in these distempccd parts, is fresh after the stifling atmos- phere of the houses; and now, as we emerge into a broader street, it blows upon us with a purer breath, and the stars look bright again. Here are The Tombs once more. The city watch- house is a part of the building. It follows naturally on tlie sights we have just left. Let us see that, and then to bed. What! do you tLrust your common offenders against the police discipline of the town, into such holes as these? Do men and women, against whom no crime is proved, lie here all night in perfect darkness, surround«;d by the noisome vapours which encircle that flagging lamp you light us with, and breathing this filthy and offensive stench ! Why, such indecent and dis- gusting dungeons as these cells, would bring disgrace upon the most despotic empire in the world ! Look at them, man — yon, who see them every night, and keep the keys. Do you see what they arc ] Do yon know how drains are made below the streets, and wherein these human sewers differ, except in being always stagnant ? Well, he don't know. He has had five-and-twenty young women locked up in this very cell at one time, and you 'd hardly realise what handsome faces there were among 'em. In God's name ! shut the door upon the wretched creature who is in it now, and put its screen before a place, quite unsurpassL'l in all the vice, neglect, and devilry, of the worst old (own in Europe. Are people really left all night, un- tried, in those bla.;k sties]— Every night. The watch is set at seven in the evening. The magistrate opeus his court at five in the morning. That is the earliest hour at which the first prisoner can be released ; and if an officer appear against him, he is not taken out till nine o'clock or ten. — But if any one among them die in the interval, as one man did, not long ago] Then he is half-eaten by the rats in an hour's time ; ad that man was ; and there an end. What is this intolerable tolling of great bolls, and crashing of wheels, and shouting in the distance ] A tire. And what that deep red light in the opposite direction \ Another fire. And what these charred and blackened walls we stand before] A dwelling where a fire has been. It was more than hinted, in an official report, not long ago, that some of these confla- grations were not wholly accidental, and that speculation and enterprise found a field of exert.on, even in flames : but bo this as it may, there was a fire last night, there are two to-night, and you may lay an even wager there will be at least one, to- morrow. So, carrying that with us for our comfort, let us say. Good night, and climb up stairs to bed. .^. One day, during my stay in New York, I paid a visit to the different public institutions on Long Island, or Rhode Island: I forget which. One of them is a Lunatic Asylum. The building is handsome ; and is remarkable for a spacious and elegant staircase. The whole structure is not yet finished, but it is already one of considerable size and extent, and is capable of accommodating a very large number of patients. I cannot say that I derived mnch comfort from the inspection of this chi'rity. The different wards might havo been cleaner and better ordered; I 8a\ir nothing of that salutary system which had impressed me so favourably clsmvhere ; and everything had a ill It HW« /. J! 64 AMERICAN NOTES lounging, listless, madhouse air, which was very painful. The moping idiot, cowering down with long dishevelled hair ; the gibbering maniac, with his hideous laugh and pointed finger; the vacant eye, the fierce wild face, the gloomy picking of the hands and lips, and munching of the nails : there they were all, without disguise, in naked ugliness and horror. In the dining-room, a bn.rc, dull, dreary place, with nothing for the eye to rest on but the empty walls, a woman was locked up alone. She was bent, they told me, on committing suicide. If anything could have strengthened her in her resolution, it would cer- tainly have been the insupportable monotony of such an existence. The terrible crowd with which these halls and galleries were filled, so shocked me, that I abridged my stay within the shortest limits, and de- clined to see that portion of the building in which the refractory and violent were under closer restraint. I have no doubt that the gentleman who presided ove/ this establishment at the time I write of, was competent to manage it, and had done all in his power to promote its usefulness : but will it be believed that the miserable strife of Party feeling is carried even into this sad refuge of afflicted and degraded humanity ] Will it be be- lieved that the eyes which are to watch over and control the wander- ings of minds on which the most dreadful visitation to which our na- ture is exposed has fallen, must wear the glasses of some wretched side in Politics 1 Will it be believed that the governor of such a house as ^'jis, is appointed, and deposed, and changed perpetually, as Parties fluctuate and vary, and as their despicable weather- cocks are blown this way or thatl A hundred times in every week, some new most paltry exhibition of that narrow-minded and injurious Party Spirit, which is the Simoom of America, sickening and blighting everything of wholesome life within its reach, was forced upon my notice ; but I never turned my back upon it with feelings of such deep disgust and measureless contempt, as when I crossed the threshold of this mad- house. At a short distance from this build- ing is another called the Alms House, that is to say, the workhouse of New York. This is a large Institution also : lodging, I believe, when I was there, nearly a thousand poor. It was badly ventilated, and badly lighted ; was not too clean; and impressed mc, on the whole, very uncomfortably. But it must be remembered that New York, as a great emporium of com- merce, and as a place of general re- sort, not only from all parts of the States, but from most parts of the world, has always a large pauper population to provide for; and labours, therefore, under peculiar difficulties in this respect. Nor must it be for- gotten that New York is a large town, and that in all large towns a vast amount of good and evil is intermixed and jumbled up together. In the same neighbourhood is the Farm, where young orphans are nuraed and bred. I did not see it, but I believe it is well conducted ; and I can the more easily credit it, from knowing how mindful they usually are, in America, of that beautiful pas- sage in the Litany which remembers all sick persons and young children. I was taken to these Institutions by water, in a boat belonging to the Island Jail, and rowed by a crew of prisoners, who were dressed in a striped uniform of black and buff, in which they looked like faded tigers. They took me, by the same conveyance, to the Jail itself. It is an old prison, and quite a pioneer establishment, on the plan I f I a V a S t\ si Tv tu yo bli to tic m; cie sin no >m of jilting within lotice ; ipon it ist and 'hen I 8 mad- .8 huild- House, of New titution n I was It was lighted ; ssed mc, fortably. ,hat New of com- neral re- ts of the ,s of the 3 pauper d lahours, lifficulties it be for- rge town, 18 a vast termixed od is the \se nursed it, but I I ; and I it, from y usually tiful pas- imembers Ihildren. utions by ig to the a crew [ressed in and buff, ke faded Ithe same quite a le platt I FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 65 have already described. I was glad to hear this, for it is unquestionably a very indifferent one. The most is made, however, of the means it pos- sesses, and it is as well regulated as such a place can be. The women work in covered sheds, erected for that purpose. If I remem- ber right, there are no shops for the men, but be that as it may, the greater part of them labour in certain stone-quarries near at hand. The day being very wet indeed, this labour was suspended, and the pri- soners were in their cells. Imagine these cells, some two or three hundred in number, and in every one a man locked up ; this one at his door for air, with his hands thrust through the grate ; this one in bed (in the middle of the day, remember); and this one flung down in a heap upon the ground, with his head against the bars, like a wild beast. Make the rain pour down, outsilo, in torrents. Put the everlasting "tove in the midst ; hot, and suffocating, and vaporous, as a witch's cauldron. Add a collection of gentle odours, such as would arise from a thousand mildewed umbrellas, wet through, and a thousand buck-baskets, full of half- washed linen — and there is the prison, as it was that day. The prison for the State at Sing Sing, is, on the other hand, a model jail. That, and Auburn, are, I believe, the largest and best examples of the silent system. In another part of the city, is the Refuge for the Destitute : an Insti- tution whose object is to reclaim youthful offenders, male and female, black and white, without distinction ; to teach them useful trades, appren- tice them to respectable masters, and make them worthy members of so- ciety. Its design, it will be seen, is similar to that at Boston ; and it is a no less meritorious and admirable No. IGj. establishment. A suspicion crossed my mind during my inspection of this noble charity, whether the super- intendent had quite sufficient know- ledge of the world and worldly cha- racters ; and whether he did not commit a great mistake in treating some young girls, who were to all intents and purposes, by their years and their past lives, women, as though they were little children ; which cer- tainly had a ludicrous effect in my eyes, and, or I am much mistaken, in theirs also. As the Institution, how- ever, is always under the vigilant ex- amination of a body of gentlemen of great intelligence and experience, it cannot fail to be well conducted ; and whether I am right or wrong in this slight particular, is unimportant to its deserts and character, which it would be difllcult to estimate too highly. In addition to these establishments, there are in New York, excellent hospitals and schools, literary institu- tions and libraries ; an admirable iire department (as indeed it should be, having constant practice), and chari- ties of every sort and kind. In the suburbs there is a spacious cemetery ; unfinished yet, but every day improv- ing. The saddest tomb I saw there was "The Strangers' Grave. Dedi- cated to the different hotels in this city." There are three principal theatres. Two of them, the Park and the Bowery, are large, elegant, and handsome buildings, and are, I grieve to write it, generally deserted. The third, the01ympic,is atinyshow-box for vau- devilles and burlesques. It is singu- larly well conducted by Mr. Mitchell, a comic actor of great quiet humour and originality, who is well remem- bered and esteemed by London play- goers. I am happy to report of this deserving gentleman, that his benches are usually well filled, and that his 11 M 1 1'. ) k J 1 If' i I. -'J -, r 66 AMERICAN NOTES theatre rings with merriment every night. I had almost forgotten a small stumner theatre, called Niblo's, with gardens and open air amusements attached ; but I believe it is not •xempt from the general depression mnder which Theatrical Property, or what is humorously called by that name, unfortunately labours. The country round New York, is surpassingly and exquisitely pic- turesque. The climate, as I have already intimated, is somewhat of the warmest. What it would be, without the sea breezes which come from its beautiful Bay in the evening time, I will not throw myself or my readers into a fever by inquiring. The tone of the best society in this city, is like that of Bo:jton ; here and there, it may be, with a greater infti- sion of the mercantile spirit, but gene- rally polished and refined, and always most hospitable. The houses and tables are elegant; the hours later and more rakish ; and there is, perhaps, a greater spirit of contention in reference to appearances, and the display of wealth and oosUy living. The ladies are singularly beautiful. Before I left New York I made arrangements for secaring a passage home in the George Washington packet ship, which was advertised to sail in June : that being the month in which I had determined, if pre- vented by no accident in the course of my ramblings, to leave America. I never tbou^t that going back to Englaiid, returning to all who are dear to me, and to pursuits that havo insensibly grown to be a part of my nature, I could have felt so much sorrow as I endured, when I parted at last, on board this ship, with the friends who had accompanied me from this city. I never thought the name of any place, so far away and so lately known, could ever associate itself in my mind with the crowd of affectionate remembrances that now cluster about it. There are those in this city who would brighten, to me, the dsirkest winter-day that ever glimmered and went out in Lapland ; and before whose presence even Home grew dim, when they and I exchanged that painful word which mingles with our every thought and deed ; which haunts our cradle-heads in infancy, and closes up the vi&ta of our lives iu age. >i !,: FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 47 CHAPTER YII. PHtLADELPHIA, AND ITS SOLITARY PRISON. Thb journey from Ne^r York to Philadelphia, is made by railroad, and two ferries ; and usually occupies be- tween five and six hours. It was a fine evening when we were passengers in the train : and watching the bright sunset from a little window near the door by which we sat, my attention was attracted to a remarkable appear- ance issuing from the windows of the gentlemen's car immediately in front of UB, which I supposed for some time was occasioned by a number of indus- trious persons inside, ripping open feather-beds, and giving the feathers to the wind. At length it occurred to me that they were only spitting, which was indeed the case; though how any number of passengers which it was possible for that car to contain, could have maintained such a playful and incessant shower of expectoration, I am still at a loss to understand : notwithstanding the experience in all salivatory phenomena which I after- wards acquired. I made acquaintance, on this journey, with a mild and modest young quakcr, who opened the dis- course by informing me, in a grave whisper, thnt his grandfather was the inventor of cold-drawn castor oil. I mention the circumstance here, thinking it probable that this is the first occasion on which the valuable medicine in question was ever used as a conversational aperient. We reached the city, late that night. Looking out of my chamber window, before going to bed, I saw, on the opposite side of the way, a handsome building of white marble, which had a mournful ghost-like aspect, dreary to behold. I attributed this to the sombre influence of the niglit, and ob rising in the morning looked out again, expecting to see its steps and portico thronged with groups of people passing in and out. The door was still tight shut, however; the same cold cheerless air prevailed ; and the building looked as if the marble statue of Don Guzman could alone have any business to transact' within its gloomy walls. I hastened to enquire its name and purpose, and then my surprise vanished. It was the Tomb of many fortunes ; the Great Catacomb of investment ; the memorable United States Bank. The stoppage of this bank, with all its ruinous consequences, had cast (as I was told on every side) a gloom oa Philadelphia, under the depressing eftect of which, it yet laboured. It certainly did seem rather dull and out of spirits. It is a handsome city, but distract- ingly regular. After walking about it for an hour or two, I felt that I would have given the world for a crooked street. The collar of my coat appeared to stiffen, and the brim of my hat to expand, beneath its quakerly influence. My hair shrunk into a sleek short crop, my hands folded themselves upon my breast of their own calm accord, and thoughts of taking Iwlgings in Mark Lane over against the Jtarket Place, and of making a large fortune by speculations in corn, came over me involuntarily. i n F'i L' ( 68 AMERICAN NOTES /,'! ^ Hi i a- I m 'I Philadelphia is most bountifully provided with fresh water, which is showered and jerked about, and turned on, and poured off, every- where. The Waterworks, which are on a height near the city, are no less ornamental than useful, being taste- fully laid out as a public garden, and kept in the best and neatest order. The river is dammed at this point, and forced by its own power into certain high tanks or reservoirs, •whence the whole city, to the top stories of the houses, is supplied at a very trifling expense. There are various public institu- tions. Among them a most excellent Hospital — a quaker establishment, but not sectarian in the great benefits it confers ; a quiet, quaint old Library, named after Franklin ; a handsome Exchange and Post Office ; and so forth. In connection with the quaker Hospital, there is a picture by West, which is exhibited for the benefit of the funds of the institution. The subject, is, our Saviour healing the sick, and it is, perhaps, as favourable a specimen of the master as can be seen anywhere. Whether this be high or low praise, depends upon the reader's taste. In the same room, there is a very characteristic and life-like portrait by Mr. Sully, a distinguished American artist. My stay in Philadelphia was very short, but what I saw of its society, I greatly liked. Treating of its gene- ral characteristics, I .should be dis- posed to say that it is more provincial than Boston or New York, and that there is afloat in the fair city, an assumption of taste and criticism, savouring rather of those genteel dis- cussions upon the same themes, in connection with Shakspeare and the Musical Glasses, of which we read in the Vicar of Wakefield. Near the city, is a most splendid unfinished marble structure for the Girard Col- lege, founded by a deceased gentleman of that name and of enormous wealth, which, if completed according to the original design, will bo perhaps the richest edifice of modern times. But the bequest is involved in legal dis- putes, and pending them the work has stopped ; so that like many other great undertakings in America, even this is rather going to be done one of these days, than doing now. In the outskirts, stands a great prison, called the Eastern Peniten- tiary : conducted on a plan peculiar to the state of Pennsylvania. Tho system here, is rigid, strict, and hope- less solitary confinement. I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong. In its intention, I am well con> vinced that it is kind, humane, and meant for reformation ; but I am per- suaded that those who devised this sytem of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent gentlemen who carry it into execution, do not know what it is that they are doing. I believe that very few men are capable of estimat- ing the immense amount of torture and agony which this dreadful punish- ment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon the sufferers ; and in guessing at it myself, and in reasoning from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that there is a depth of terrible endurance in it which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict upon his fellow crea- ture. I hold tins slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain, to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body : and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh ; because its wounds are not upon the surface, •d Col- leman wealth, lo the ps the . But ;al (lis- 5 work y other :a, even ! cue of 1 preat 'enitcn- pcculiar a. The id hope- believe uel and rell con- ane, and am per- ised this ,nd those carry it »rhat it is eve that estimat- torture punish- inflicts easing at om what lir faces, owledge lie more epth of Ich none Ives can has a low crca- Id daily Is of the rsc than I because I are not sense of [because 1 surface, FOR GENERAL CIRCL'LATION. 69 i and it extorta few cries that human ears can hear; therefore I the more denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay. I hesitated once, debating with myself, whether, if I had the power of saying " Yes " or " No," I would allow it to be tried in certain cases, where the terms of imprisonment were short ; but now, I sol'imnly declare, that with no rewards or honours could I walk a happy man beneath the open sky ]»y day, or lie me down upon my bed at night, with the consciousness that one human creature, for any length of time, no matter what, lay suflering this un- known punishment in his silent cell, and I the cause, or I consenting to it in the least degree. I was accompanied to this prison by two gentlemen officially connected with its management, and passed the day in going from cell to cell, and talking with the inmates. Every facility was afforded me, that the utmost courtesy could suggest. No- thing was concealed or hidden from my view, and every piece of informa- tion that I sought, was openly and frankly given. The perfect order of the building cannot be praised too highly, and of the excellent motives of all v.-ho are immediately concerned in the administration of the system, there can be no kind of question. Between the body of th(; prison and the outer wall, there is a spacious garden. Entering it, by a wicket in the massive gate, we pursued the path before us to its other termina- tion, and passed into a large chamber, from which seven long passages radi- ate. On cither side of each, is a long, long row of low cell doors, with a certain number over every one. Above, a gallery of cells like those below, except that they have no nar- row yard attached (as those in the ground tier have), and are somewhat smaller. The possession of two of these, is supposed to compensate for the absence of so much air and exer- cise as can be had in the dull strip attached to each of the others, in an hour's time every day ; and therefore every prisoner in this upper story has two cells, adjoining and communicat- ing with, each other. Standing at the central point, and looking down these dreary passages, the dull repose and quiet that pre- vails, is awful. Occasionally, there is a drowsy Bouml from some lone weaver's shuttle, or shoemaker's last, but it is stifled by the thick walls and heavy dungeon-door, and only serves to make the general stillness more profound. Over the head and face of every prisoner who comes into this melancholy house, a black hood is drawn ; and in this dark shroud, an emblem of the curtain dropped be- tween him and the living world, he is led to the cell from which he never again comes forth, until his whole term of imprisonment has expired. He never hears of wife or children ; home or friends ; the life or death of any single creature. He sees the pri- son-officers, but with that exception he never looks upon a human coun- tenance, or hears a human voice. He is a man buried alive ; to be dug out in the slow round of years ; and in the mean time dead to everything but torturing anxieties and horrible despair. His name, and crime, and term of suffering, are unknown, even to the officer who delivers him his daily food. There is a number over his cell-door, and in a book of which the governor of the prison has one copy, and the moral instructor another: this is the index to his history. Be- yond these pages the prison has no record of his existence : and though he livo to be in the same cell ten weary years, he has no means of rr I I 70 AMERICAN NOTES knowinpf, down to the very last hour, in what part of the building; it i« situated ; what kind of men there are about hill whether in the long win- ter nights , .lere are living people near, or he is ia some lonely corner of the great jail, with walls, and passages, and iron doors between him and the nearest sharer in its solitary horrors. Every cell has double doors: the outer one of sturdy oak, the other of grated iron, wherein there is a trap through which his food is handed. He has a Bible, and a slate and pen- cil, and, under certain restrictions, has sometimes other books, provided for the purpose, and pen and ink and paper. His razor, plate, and can, and basin, hang upon the wall, or shine upon the little shelf. Fresh water is laid on in every cell, and ho can draw it at his pleasure. During the day, bis bedstead turns up against the wall, and leaves more space for him to work in. His loom, or bench, or wheel, is there ; and there he labours, sleeps and wakes, and counts the sea- sons as they change, and grows old. The first man I saw, was seated at his loom, at work. He had been there, six years, and was to remain, I think, three more. He had been con- victed as a receiver of stolen goods, but even after this long imprison- ment, denied his guilt, and said he had been hardly dealt by. It was his second offence. He stopped his work when we went in, took off his spectacles, and an- swered freely to everything that was said to him, but always with a strange kind of pause first, and in a low, thoughtful voice. He wore a paper bat of his own making, and was pleaaed to have it noticed and com- mended. He had very ingeniously manufactured a sort of Dutch clock from some disregarded odds and ends; and his vinegar-bottle served for the pendulum. Seeing me interested in this contrivance, he 1 ked up at it with a grout deal of pride, ami said that he had been thinking of improv- ing it, and that he hoped the hammer and a' little piece of broken glaas be- side it "would play music before long." He had extracted some colours from the yarn with which he worked, and painted a few poor figures on the wall. One, of a female, over the door, he called " The Lady of the Lake." He smiled as I looked at these con- trivances to wile away the time ; but when I looked from them to him, I saw that his Up trembled, and could have counted the beating of his heart. I forget how it came about, but some allusion was made to his having a wife. He shook his licad at the word, turned aside, and covered his foce with his hands. " But you are resigned now ! " said one of the gentlemen after a short pause, during which he had resumed his former manner. He answered with a sigh that seemed quite reek- less in its hopelessness, " Oh yes, oh yes ! I am resigned to it." "And are a better man, you think ] " " Well, I hope 90 : I 'm sure I hope I may be." "And time goes pretty quickly]** " Time is very long, gentlemen, withia these four walls ! " He gazed about him — Heaven only knows how wearily ! — as he said these words; and in the act of doing so, fell into a strange stare as if he had forgotten something. A momeni aifterwards he sighed heavily, put on bis spectacles, and went about his work again. In another cell, there was a Ger- man, sentenced to five years' impri- sonment for lan-ceny, two of which had just expired. With colours pro- cured in the same manner, he had painted every inch ef the walls and ceiling quite beautifully. He bad laid out the few feet of ground, be- hind, with exquisite neatness, and FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 71 pn only these ing eo, |he had komeat I put on lut his la Ger- rmpri- which krs prc- le had Ilia and [e had id, be- ts, and had made a little bed in the centre, that looked by the byo like a grave. The taitte and ingenuity lie had dis- played in everytliing were most ex- traordinary ; and yet a more dejected, heart-broken, wretched creature, it would 1)0 difficult to imagine. I never 8aw such a picture of forlorn affliction and distress of mind. My heart Med for him ; and when the tears ran down his ch(. Lh, and he took one ot the visitoru aside, to ask, with his trem- bling hands nervously clutching at his coat to detain him, whether there was no hope of his dismal sentence being commuted, the spectacle was really too painful to witness. I never saw or heard of any kind of misery that impressed me more than the wretchedness of this man. In a third cell, was a tall strong black, a burglar, working at his proper trade of making screws and the like. His time was nearly out. He was not only a very dexterous thief, but was notorious for his boldness and hardi- hood, and for the number of his pre- vious convictions. He entertained us with a long account of his achieve- ments, which he nairated with such infinite relish, that he actually seemed to lick his lips as he told us racy anec- dotes of stolen plate, and of old ladies whom he had watched as they sat at windows in silver spectacles (he had plainly had an eye to their metal oven from the other side of the street) and had afterwards robbed. This fellow, upon the slightest encouragement, would have mingled with his profes- sional recolleotions the most detestable cant ; but I am very much mistaken if he could have surpassed the unmiti- gated hypocrisy with which he de- clared that he blessed the day on which he came into that prison, and that he never would commit another robbery as long as he lived. There was one man who was allowed, as an indulgence, to keep rabbits. His room having rather a cIoho smell in consequence, they called to him at the door to come out into the passage. He complied of course, and stood shading his haggard face in the un- wonted sunlight of the great window, looking as wan and unearthly as if he had been summoned from the grave, lie had a white rahbit in his breast; and when the little creature, getting down upon the ground, stole back into the eel!, and he, being d ism isaed, crept timidly after it, I thought it would have been very hard to say in v\hut respect the man was the nobler animal of the two. There was an English thief, who had been there but a few dixys out of seven years : a villanous, low-browed, thin- lipped fellow, with a white face ; who had as yet no relish for visitors, and who, but for the additional penalty, would have gladly stabbed me with his shoemaker's knife. There was an- other German who had entered the jail but yesterday, and who started from his bed when wc looked in, and pleaded, in his broken English, very hard for work. Q^here was a poet, who after doing two days' work in every four-and-twenty hours, one for himself and one for the prison, wrote verses about ships (he was by trade a mariner), and " the maddening wine-cup," and his friends at home. There were very many of them. Borne reddened at the sight of visitors, and some turned very pale. Some two or three had prisoner nurses with them, for they were very sick ; and one, a fat old negro whose leg had been taken off within the jail, had for his attendant a classical scholar and an accomplished surgeon, himself a prisoner likewise. Sitting upon the stairs, engaged in some slight work, was a pretty coloured boy. " Is there no refuge for young criminals in Phi- ladelphia, then r said I. " Tes, but only for white children." Koble aria- tocracy in crime ! i i a "b^ ^% \^ ^^A IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 4p ///// /^ ^% A f/. ^ I? 1.0 I.I 11.25 l^|28 |2.5 ■^ 1^ 12.2 II" UUlI iiiiim U 11 1.6 7 Hiotographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 \ "^■^ ^ *%^'^, <^_*« 'WrC\ ^ ^ 1> 72 AMERICAN NOTES ^i ^^i' There was a sailor who had been there upwards of eleven years, and who in a few months' time would be free. Eleven years of solitary confinement ! " I am very glad to hear your time is nearly out." What does he say ? Nothing. Why docs he stare at his hands, and pick the flesh upon his fingers, and raise his eyes for an in- stant, every now and then, to those bare walls which have seen his head turn grey 1 It is a way he has some- times. Does he never look men in the face, and does he always pluck at those hands of his, as though he were bent on parting skin and bone 1 It is his humour : nothing more. It is his humour too, to say that he does not look forward to going out ; that he is not glad the time is drawing near ; that ho did look forward to it once, but that was very long ago ; that he has lost all care for everything. It la his humour to be a helpless, crushed, and broken man. And^ Heaven be his witness that he has hia humour tho- roughly gratified ! There were three young women in adjoining cells, all convicted at the same time of a conspiracy to rob their prosecutor. In the silence and soli- tude of their lives they had grown to be quite beautiful. Their looks were Tery sad, and might have moved the sternest visitor to tears, but not to that kind of sonow which the con- templation of the men awakens. One was a young girl; not twenty, as I recollect ; whose snow-white room was hung with the work of some former prisoner, and upon whose downcast face the sun in all its splendour shone down through the high chink in the wall, where one narrow strip of bright blue sky was visible. She was very penitent and quiet; had come to be resigned, she said (and I believe her) ; And had a mind at peace. "In a word, you are happy here V said one of my companions. She struggled— she did struggle very hard — to answer. Yes : but raising her eyes, and meet- ing that glimpse of freedom over-head, she burst into tears, and said, " She tried to be ; she uttered no complaint ; but it was natural that she should sometimes long to go out of that one cell : she could not help that," she sobbed, poor thing ! I went from cell to cell that day ; and every face I saw, or word I heard, or incident I noted, is present to my mind in all its painfulness. But let me pass them by, for one, more plea- sant, glance of a prison on the same plan which I afterwards saw at Pitts- burgh. When I had gone over that, in the same manner, I asked the governor if he had any person in his charge who was shortly going out. He had one, he said, whose time was up next day ; but ho had only been a prisoner two years. Two years ! I looked back through two years in my o'im life — out of jail, prosperous, happy, surrounded by blessings, comforts, and good fortune — and thought how wide a gap it wasi, and how long those two years passed in solitary captivity would have been. I have the face of this man, who was going to be released next day, before me now. It is almost more memorable in its happiness than the other faces in their misery. How easy and how natural it was for him to say that the system was a good one ; and that the time went "pretty quick — consider- ing ;" and that when a man once felt he had ofiended the law, and must satisfy it, "he got along, somehow :" and so forth ! " What did he call you back to say to you, in that strange flutter ? " I asked of my conductor, when he had locked the door and joined me in the passage. " Oh ! That he was afraid the soles of hia boots were not fit for walking. FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. to say 1 1 aeked locked massage. le soles Iralking, as they were a good deal worn when he came in ; and that he would thank me very much to have them mended, ready." Those boots had been taken oflF his feet, and put away with the rest of his clothes, two years before ! I took that opportunity of inquiring how the}' conducted themselves imme- diately before going out ; adding that I presumed they trembled very much. " Well, it 's not so much a trem- bling," was the answer — " though they do quiver — as a complete derange- ment of the nervous system. They can't sign their names to the book ; sometimes can't even hold the pen ; look about 'em without appearing to know why, or where they are ; and sometimes get up and sit down again, twenty times in a minute. This is when they 're in the office, where they are taken with the hood on, as they were brought in. When they get out- side the gate, they stop, and look first one way and then the other : not know- ing which to take. Sometimes they stagger as if they were drunk, and sometimes are forced to lean against the fence, they 're so bad : — but they clear oif in course of time." As I walked among these solitary cells, and looked at the faces of the men within them, I tried to picture to myself the thoughts and feelings na- tural to their condition. I imagined the hood just taken off, and the scene of their captivity disclosed to them in all its dismal monotony. At first, the man is stunned. His confinement is a hideous vision ; and his old life a reality. He throws him- self upon his bed, and lies there aban- doned to despair. By degrees the insupportable solitude and barrenness of the place rouses him from this stupor, and when the trap in his grated door is opened, he humbly begs and prays for work. " Give me some work to do, or I shall go raving mad ! " He has it; and by fits and starts j applies himself to labour ; but every now and then there comes upon him a burning sense of the years that must be wasted in that stone coffin, and an agony so piercing in the recol- lection of those who are hidden from his view and knowledge, that he starts from his seat, and striding up and down the narrow room with both hands clasped on his uplifted head, hears spirits tempting him to beat his brains out on the wall. Again he falls upon his bed, and lies there, moaning. Suddenly he starts up, wondering whether any other man is near ; whether there is another cell like that on either side of him : and listens keenly. There is no sound, but other pri- soners may be near for all that. He remembers to have heard once, when he little thought of coming here him- self, that the cells were so constructed that the prisoners could not hear each other, though the officers could hear them. Where is the nearest man — upon the right, or on the left ] or is there one in both directions] Where is he sitting now — with his face to the light 1 or is he walking to and fro ? How is he dressed 1 Ha.s he been here long 1 Is he much worn away? Is he very white and spectre- like 1 Does Jie think of hia neighbour tool Scarcely venturing to breathe, and listening while he thinks, he conjures up a figure with his back towards him, and imagines it moving about in this next cell. He has no idea of the face, but he is certain of the dark form of a stooping man. In the cell upon the other side, he puts another figure, who8o face is hidden from him also. Day after day, and often when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he thinks of these two men until he is almost distracted. He never changes them. There they arc 41 i 74 AMERICAN NOTES always as he first imagined them — an old man on the right ; a yonnj^er man npon the left — whose hidden features torture him to dcatli, and have a mystery that makes him tremble. The weary day^ pass on with so- lemn pace, like mourners at a funeral ; and slowly he begins to feci that the white walls of the cell have something dreadful in them : that their colour is horrible : that their smooth surface chills his blood : that there is one hateful comer which torments him. Every morning when he wakes, he hides his head beneath the coverlet, and shudders to see the ghastly ceil- ing looking down upon him. The blessed light of day itself peeps in, an ugly phantom face, through the un- changeable crevice which is his prison window. By slow but sure degrees, the ter- rors of that hateful comer swell until they beset him at all times ; invade his rest, make his dreams hideous, and his nights dreadful. At first, he took a strange dislike to it : feeling as though it gave birth in his brain to something of corresponding shape, which ought not to be there, and racked his head with pains. Then he began to fear it, then to dream of it, and of men whispering its name and pointing to it. Then he could not bear to look at it, nor yet to turn his back upon it. Now, it is every night the lurking-place of a ghost : a shadow : — a silent something, horrible to see, but whether bird, or beast, or muffled human shape, ho cannot tell. When he is in his cell by day, he fears the little yard without. When he is in the yard, he dreads to re-enter the cell. When night comes, there stands the phantom in the corner. If he have the courage to stand in its place, and drive it out (he had once : being desperate), it broods upon his bed. In the twilight, and always at the same hour, a voice calls to him by name ; as the darkness thickens, hia Loom begins to live ; and even that, ' is comfort, is a hideous figure, watch- in^^ him till daybreak. Again, by slow degrees, these hor- rible fancies depart from him one by one : returning sometimes, unexpect- edly, but at longer intervals, and in less alarming shapes. He has talked upon religious matters with the gen- tleman who visits him, and has read his Bible, and has written a prayer upon his slate, and hung it up as a kind of protection, and an assurance of Heavenly companionship. He dreams now, sometimes, of his chil- dren or his wife, but is sure that they are dead, or have deserted him. He is easily moved to tears ; is gentle, submissive, and broken-spirited. Oc- casionally, the old agony comes back : a very little thing will revive it; even a familiar sound, or the scent of sum- mer flowers in the air; but it does not last long, now : for the world without, has come to be the vision, and this solitary life, the sad reality. If his term of imprisonment be short — I mean comparatively, for short it cannot be — the last half year is almost worse than all ; for then he thinks the prison will take fire and he be burnt in the ruins, or that he is doomed to die within the walls, or that he will be detained on some false charge and sentenced for another term : or that something, no matter what, must happen to prevent his going at large. And this is natural, and impossible to be reasoned against, because, after his long separation from human life, and his great suflfering, any event will appear to him more pro- bable in the contemplation, than the being restored to liberty and his fellow-creatures. If his period of confinement have been very long, the prospect of release, bewilders and confuses him. His vision, reality, nent be ly, for lalf year then he ire and that he Avails, or some another matter rent his natural, against^ ion from uflfering, ore pro- than the and his FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 75 broken heart may flutter for a mo- ment, when he thinks of the world outside, and what it might have been to him in all those lonely years, but that is an. The cell-door has been closed too long on all its hopes and cares. Better to have hanged him in the beginning than bring him to this pass, and scud him forth to mingle with his kind, who are his kind no more. On the haggard face of every man among these prisoners, the same ex- pression sat. I know not what to liken it to. It had something of that strained attention which we sec upon the faces of the blind and deaf, mingled with a kind of horror, as though they had all been secretly terrified. In every little chamber that I entered, and at every grate through which I looked, I seemed to see the same appalling countenance. It lives in my memory, with the fasci- nation of a remarkable picture. Pa- rade before my eyes, a hundred men, with one among them newly released from this fiolitary suffering, and I would point him out The faces of tbe women, as I have said, it humanises and refiiMs. Whe- ther this be because of their better nature, which is elicited in solitude, or becanse of their being gentler creatures, of greater patience and longer suffering, I do not know ; but 80 it is. That the punishment is nevertheless, to my thinking, fully as cmel and as wrong in their case, as in that of the men, I need scarcely add. My firm conviction is that, inde- pendent of the mental anguish it occasions — an anguish so acute and 80 tremendous, that all imagination of it must fall far short tf the reality — it wears the mind into » morbid state, which renders it unfit for the rough contact and busy action of the world. It is my fixed opinion that those who have undergone this punish- ment, MUST pass into society agfiin morally unhealthy and diseased. There are many instances on record, of men who have chosen, or have been condemned, to lives of perfect soli- tude, but I scarcely remember one, even among sages of strong and vigorous intellect, where its effect has not become apparent, in some disordered train of thought, or some gloomy hallucination. What monstrous phan- toms, bred of despondency and doubt, and bom and reared in solitude, have stalked upon the earth, making creation ugly, and darkening the face of Heaven ! Suicides are rare among these pri- soners : are almost, indeed, unknown. But no argument in favour of the system, can reasonably be deduced from this circumstance, although it is very often urged. AH men who hatve made diseases of the mind their study, know perfectly well that such extreme depression and despair as will change the whole character, and beat down all its powers of elasticity and self-resistance, may be at work within a man, and yet stop short of self-destruction. This is a common case. That it makes the senses dull, and by degrees impairs the bodily facul- ties, I am quite sure. I remarked to those who were with me in this very establishment at Philadelphia, that the criminals who had been there long, were deaf. Th^, who were in the habit of seeing these men con- stantly, were perfectly amazed at the idea, which they regarded a* ground- less and fanciful. And yet the very first prisoner to whom they appealed — one of their own selection — con- firmed my impression (which was unknown to him) instantly, and said, with a genuine air it was impossible to doubt, that he couldn't think how it happened, but he was growing very dull of hearing. ',H ! 7C AMERICAN NOTES That it is a singularlj unequal punishment, and atfecta tho worst man least there is nu doubt. In its superior efficiency as a means of re- formation, compared with that other code of regulations which allows the prisoners to work in company without communicating together, I have not the smallest faith. All the instances of reformation that were mentioned to me, were of a kind that might have been — and I have no doubt whatever, in my own mind, would have been — equally well brought about by the Silent System. With regard to such men as the negro burglar and the English thief, even the most enthusiastic have scarcely any hope of their conversion. It seems to me that the objection that nothing wholesome or good has ever had its growth in such unnatural solitude, and that even a dog or any of the more intelligent among beasts, would pine, and mope, and rust away, beneath its influence, would be in itself a sufficient argument against this system. But when we recollect, in addition, how very cruel and severe it is, and that a solitary life is always liable to peculiar and distinct objec- tions of a most deplorable nature, which have arisen here, and call to mind, moreover, that the choice is not between this system, and a bad or ill-considered one, but between it and another which has worked well, and is, in its whole design and prac- tice, excellent ; there :.s surely more than sufficient reason for abandoning a mode of punishment attended by so little hope or promise, and fraught, be- yond dispute, with such a Lost of evils. As a relief to ita contemplation, I will close this chapter with a curious story, arising out of the same theme, which was related to me, on the occa- sion of this visit, by some of the gentlemen concerned. At one of the periodical meetings of the inspectors of this prison, a working man of Philadelphia presented himself before the Board, and earnestly re- quested to be placed in solitary confine- ment. On being asked what motive could possibly prompt him to make this strange demand, he answered that ho had an irresistible propensity to get drunk ; that he was constantly in- dulging it, to his great misery and ruin ; that he had no power of resistance; that he wished to be put beyond the reach of temptation ; and that he could think of no better way than this. It was pointed out to him, in reply, that the prison was for criminals who had been tried and sentenced by the law, and could not be made avail- able for any such fanciful purposes ; he was exhorted to abstain from in« toxicating drinks, as he surely might if he would ; and received other very good advice, with which he retired, exceedingly dissatisfied with the re- sult of his application. He came again, and again, and again, and was so very earnest and importunate, that at last they took counsel together, and said, " He will certainly qualify himself for admission, if we reject him any more. Let us shut him up. He will soon be glad to go away, and then we shall get rid of him." So they made him sign a statement which would prevent his ever sustaining an action for false imprisonment, to the effect that his incarceration was voluntary, and of his own seeking ; they requested him to take notice that the officer in attendance had orders to release him at any hour of the day or night, when he might knock upon his door for that purpose ; but desired him to understand, that once going out, he would not be admitted any more. These conditions agreed upon, and he still remaining in the same mind, he was conducted to the prison, and shut up in one of the cells. r s li icer in ige him It, when loor for Ihim to I out, he more. , and he kind, he Ind shut FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 77 I In this cell, the man, who had not the firmness to leave a glass of liquor standing untastcd on a table before him — in this cell, in solitary confine- ment, and working every day at his trade of shoemaking, this man re- mained nearly two years. His health beginning to fail at the expiration of that time, the surgeon recom- mended that he should work occa- sionally in the garden; and as he liked the notion very much, he went about this new occupation with great cheerfulness. He was digging here, one summer day, very iudustriously, when the wicket in the outer gate chanced to be left open: showing, beyond, the wcll-remembcred dusty road and sun- burnt fields. The way was as free to him as to any man living, but he no sooner raised his head and caught (light of it, all shining in the light, than, with the involuntary instinct of a prisoner, he cast away his spade, scampered off as fast as his legs would carry him, and never once looked back. 78 AMERICAN NOTES (- I ■ t i CHAPTER VIII. WASHINGTON. THE LEGISLilUBK. AND TU£ PRESIDENT S HOUSE. We left Philadelphia by steaii;boat, at six o'clock one very cold morning, and turned our faces towards Wash- ington. In the course of this day's journey, as on subsequent occasions, we en- countered some Englishmen (small farmers, perhaps, or country publicans at home) who were settled in America, and were travelling on their own affairs. Of all grades and kinds of men that jostle one in the public con- veyances of the States, tJiese arc often the most intolerable and the most insufferable companions. United t^ every disagreeable characteristic tha|i the worst kind of American travellers possess, these countrymen of ours display nn amount of insolent conceit and cool nsRuraption of superiority, quite monstrous to behold, In the coarse familiarity of their approadi, and the effrontery of their inquisi- tiveness (which they are in great haste to assert as if they panted to revenge themselves upon the decent old restraints of home) they surpass any native specimens that came within my range ol )bservation : and I often grew so patriotic when I saw and heard them, that I would cheerfully have submitted to a reasonable fine, if I could have given any other country in the whole Avorld, the honour of claiming them for its children. As Washington may be called the head -quarters of tobacco -tinctured saliva, the time is come when I must confess, without any disguise, that the prevalence of those two odious practicesof chewing and expectorating began about this time to be anything but agreeable, and soon became most offensive and sickening. In all the public places of America, this filtffy custom is recognised. In the courts of law, the judge has his spittoon, the crier his, the witness his, and the pri- soner his ; while the jurymen and spectators are provided for, as so many men who in the course of nature must desire to spit incessantly. In the hospitals, the students of medi- cine are requested, by notices upon the Avail, to eject their tobacco juico into the boxes provided for that pur- pose, and not to discolour the stairs. In public buildings, visitors are im- plored, through the same agency, to squirt the essence of their quids, or " plugs," as I have heard them called by gentlemen learned in this kind of sweetmeat, into the national spit- toons, and not about the bases of the marble columns. But in some parts, this custom is inseparably mixed up with every meal and morning call, and with all the transactions oflsocial life. The stranger, who follows in the track I took myself, will find it in its full bloom and glorj'^, luxuriant in all its alarming recklessness, at Wash- ington. And let him not persuade himself (as I once did, to my shame), that previous tourists have exagge- rated its extent. The thing itself is an exaggeration of nastiness, which cannot be outdone. On board this steamboat, there were two young gentlemen, with shirt-collars reversed as usual, and armed with very big walking-sticks ; FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. lything le moat all the 8 filtfiy c courts oon, the the pri- icu and r, as so )f nature lily. In of medi- les upon 3C0 juice :hat pur- le stairs, arc im- ;cncy, to |uids, or !m called 1 kind of nal spit- es of the na parts, aixed up ing call, ofisocial ws in the it in its ant in all ^Yash- jersuade y shame), exagge- itself is ss, which there with sual, and Qg-sticks ; at, en, who planted two scats in the middle of the deck, at a distance of some four paces apart ; took out their tobaeco- boxes ; and sat down • opposite each other, to chew. In less than a quarter of an hour's time, these hopeful youths had shed about them oa the clean boards, a copious shower of yellow rain ; clearing, by that means, a kind of magic circle, within whose limits no intruders dared to come, and which they never failed to refresh and re- rtfresh before a spot was dry. This being before breakfast, rather disposed me, I confess, to nausea ; but looking attentively at one of the expectorators, I plainly saw that he was young in chewing, and felt inwardly unea:r9ona;l appearance, with as m«ch . ;iflference as if I were a stuffed iigure. I never gained so much unoompromising information with reference to my own nose and eyes, the various impressions wrought by my mouth and chin on different minds, and how my head looks when it is viewed from behind, as on these occasions. Some gentlemen were only satisfied by exercising their sense of touch ; and the boys (who are surprisingly precocious in Ame- rica) were seldom satisfied, even by that, but would return to the charge over and over again. Many a bud- ding president has walked into my ■i 80 AMERICAN NOTES room with his cap on his head and his hands in his pockets, and stared at mo for two whole hours : occasion- ally refreshing himself with a tweak at his nose, or a draught from the water-jug ; or by walking to the windows and inviting other boys in the street below, to come up and do likewise : crying, " Here he is ! " " Come on !" " Bring all your brothers !" with other hospitable en- treaties of that nature. We reached Washington at about half-past six that evening, and had upon the way a beautiful view of the Capitol, which is a fine building of the Corinthian order, placed upon a noble and commanding eminence. Arrived at the hotel ; I saw no more of the place that night; being very tired, and glad to get to bed. Breakfast over next morning, I walk about the streets for an hour or two, and, coming home, throw up the window in the front and back, and look out. Here is Washington, fresh in my mind and under my eye. Take the worst parts of the City Road and Pentonville, or the strag- gling outskirts of Paris, where the houses are smallest, preserving all their oddities, but especially the small shops and dwellings, occupied in Penton- \'ille (but not in Washington) by furniture-brokers, keepers of poor eating-houses, and fanciers of birds. Burn the whole down; build it up again in wood and plaster ; widen it a little ; throw in part of St. John's Wood; put green blinds outside all the private houses, with a red curtain and a white one in every window; plough up all the roads ; plant a great deal of coarse turf in every place where it ought not to be; erect three handsome buildings in stone and marble, anywhere, but the more entirely out of everybody's way the better ; call one the Post Office, one the Patent Office, and one the Trea- sury; make it scorching hot in the morning, and freezing cold in the afternoon, with an occasional tornado of wind and dust ; leave a brick-field without the bricks, in all central places where a street may naturally be expected : and that's Washington. The hotel in which we live, is a long row of small houses fronting on the street, and opening at the back upon a common yard, in which hangs a great triangle. Whenever a servant is wanted, somebody beats on this triangle from one stroke up to seven, according to the number of the house in which his presence is required ; and as all the servants are always being wanted, and none of them ever come, this enlivening engine is in full performance the whole day through. Clothes are drying in this same yard ; female slaves, with cotton handker- chiefs twisted round their heads, are running to and fro on the hotel busi- ness ; black waiters cross and rccrosa with dishes in their hands ; two great dogs are playing upon a mound of loose bricks in the centre of the little square; a pig is turning up his stomach to the sun, and grunting "that's comfortable!"; and neither the men, nor the women, nor the dogs, nor the pig, nor any created creature takes the smallest notice of the triangle, which is tingling madly j,ll the time. I walk to the front window, and look across the road upon a long, straggling row of houses, one story high, terminating, nearly opposite, but a little to the left, in a melancholy piece of waste ground with frowzy grass, which looks like a email piece of country that has taken to drinking, and has quite lost itself. Standing anyhow and all wrong, upon this open space, like something meteoric that has fallen down from the moon, is an odd, lop-sided, one-eyed kind of wooden building, that looks like a low, and a long, )ne story opposite, ancholy frowzy all piece rinking, Standing this open one that moon, is kind of ■s like a FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 81 I church, with a fliii,'-Bta(r as long as itself sticking out of a steeple some- thing larger than a tea-chest. Under the window, is a small stand of coaches, whose slave-drivers are sunning themselves on the steps of 'jur door, and talking idly together. The three most obtrusive houses near at band, are the three meanest. On one— a shop, which never has any- thing in the window, and never hus the door open — is painted in large characters, " The Citt Lunch." At another, which looks like the backway to somewhere else, but is an indepen- dent building in itself, oysters are procurable in every style. At the third, which is a very, very little tailor's shop, pants arc fixed to order ; or, in other words, pantaloons are made to measure. And that is our street in Washington. It is sometimes called the City of ^lagniiiccnt Distances, but it might with greater propriety be termed the City of Magnificent Intentions ; for it is only on taking a bird's-eye view of it from the top of the Capitol, that one can at all comprehend the vast designs of its projector, an aspiring French- man. Spacious avenues, that begin in nothing, and lead nowhere; streets, niilo-long, that only want houses, roads, and inhabitants ; public buildings that need but a public to be complete ; and ornaments of great thoroughfares, which only lack great thoroughfares to ornament — are its leading features. One might fancy the season over, and most of the houses gone out of town for ever with their masters. To the admirers of cities it is a Barmecide Feast : a pleasant field for the ima- gination to rove in ; a monument raised to a deceased project, with not even a legible inscription to record its uoparted greatness. Such as it is, it is likely to remain. It was originally chosen for the seat of Government, as a means of averting No. 166. the conflicting jealousies and interests of the diflcrent States ; and very pro- bably, too, as being remote from mobs : a consideration not to be sliirhted, even in America. It has no trade or conimerceof its own: having littleorno population beyond the President and ins establishment; the members of the legislature who reside there during the session ; the Oovernmcnt clerks and officers employed in the various departments; the keepers of the hotels and boarding-houses ; and the trades- men who supply their tables. It is very unhealthy. Few people would live in Washington, I take it, who were not obliged to reside there ; and the tides of emigration and specula- tion, those rapid and regardless cur- rents, are little likely to flow at any time towards such dull and sluggish water. The principal features of the Capi- tol, are, of course, the two Houses of Assembly. But there is, besides, in the centre of the building, a fine rotunda, ninety-six feet in diameter, and ninety-six high, whose circular wall is divided into compartn.ents, ornamented by historical pictures. Four of these have for their suljecta prominent events in the revolutionary struggle. They were painted by Colonel Trumbull, himself a member of Wash- ington's staff at the time of their occurrence ; from which circumstance they derive a peculiar interest of their own. In this same hall Mr. Grecnough's large statue of Washington has been lately placed. It has great merits of co>irse, but it struck nie as being rather strained and violent for its sub- ject. I could wish, however, to have seen it in a better light than it can ever be viewed in, where it stands. There is a very pleasant and com- modious library in the Capitol ; and from a balcony in front, the bird's-eye view, of which I have just spoken, may be had, together with a beautiful pros- 1' ' i l^i 1'^ r li2 AMKRICAN NOTES pcct of the adjacent country. In one of the orniinicntcd portions of the building, there is a Hj?iirc of JuHtice; wluTcunto the Guide Book Hays, "tlie artist at first contcnii)latcd giving more of nudity, but he was warned that the public Hcntiincnt in this country would not admit of it, and in his caution he has gone, perhaps, into the opposite extreme." Poor Justice ! she has been made to wear much stranger garments in America than those she pines in, in the Capitol. Let us hoptj that sho has changed her dress-maker since they were fashioned, and that the public sentiment of the country did not cut out the clothes she hides her lovely figure in, just now. Tlie House of Representatives is a beautiful and spacious hall, of semi- circular shape, supported by handsome pillars. One part of the gallery is appropriated to the ladies, and there they sit in front rows, and come in, and go out, as at a play or concert. The chair is canopied, and raised con- siderably above the floor of the House ; and every member has an easy chair and a writing desk to himself : which is denounced by some people out of doors as a most unfortunate and inju- dicious arrangement, tending to long sittings antin!.': lioriour to tlic luiifl t!i:it piivc him Mrth, who luiH (lone good service to liis ooimtry. as hin forefathers did, and who will ho rememhered Bcoroa upon seorcH of years after the worms hred in its cor- ruption, are Imt so many grains of dust— it was lint a week, since tliis old man had stood for days upon his trial heforo this very hody, charged with having dared to assert the infamy of that traffic, which has for its ac- cursed merchandise men ana women, and their unhorn children. Yes. And pultlicly exhibited in the same city all the while ; gilded, framed and glazed ; hung up for general admira- tion ; shown to strangers not with shame, hut pride ; its face not turned towards the wall, itself not tjiken down and burned ; is the Unanimous Declaration of The Thirteen United States of America, which solemnly de- clares that All Men arc created Equal ; and are endowed by their Creator with the Inalienable Rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness ! It was not a month, since this same body had sat calmly by, and heard a man, one of themselves, with oaths which beggars in their drink reject, threaten to cut another's throat from ear to ear. There he sat, among them ; not crushed by the general feeling of the assembly, but as good a man as any. There was but a week to come, and another of that body, for doing his duty to those who sent him there; for claiming in a Republic the Liberty and Freedom of expressing their sen- timents, and making known their prayer ; would be tried, found guilty, and have strong censure passed upon him by the rest. His was a grave offence indeed ; for years before, he j had risen up and said, "A gang of male and female slaves for sale, war- ranted to breed like cattle, linked to each other by iron fetters, are passing now along the open street beneath the windows of your Tcniiilc rf Ivpui- lity ! fiOok ! " Hut tluic are many kinds of hunters cngagclators of coarse threats ; of words and blows such as coalheavcrs deal upon each other, when they forget their breed- ing ] On every side, f^very session had its anecdotes of that kind, and the actors were all there. Did I recognise in this assembly, a body of men, who applying them- selves in a new world to correct some of the falsehoods and vices of the old, purified the avenues to Public Life, paved the dirty ways to Place and Power, debated and made laws for the Common Good, and had no party but their Country 1 I saw in them, the wheels that move the meanest perversion of virtuous Political Machinery that the worst tools ever wrought. Despicable trick- erj- at elections ; under-handed tarn- pcrings with public officers ; cowardly attacks upon opponents, with scurril- ous newspapers for shields, and hired pens for daggers ; shameful trucklings to mercenary knaves, whose claim to be considered, is, that every day and week they sow new crops of ruin with their venal types, which are the dra- gon's teeth of yore, in everything but sharpness ; aidings and abeltings of every bad inclination in the popular mind, and artful suppressions of all its good influences : such things as these, and in a word, Di.shonest Fac- tion in its most depraved and most unblushing form, stared out from every comer of the crowded liall. 2 u AMERICAN NOTES Did I see among them, the intelli- gence and refinement : the true, honest, patriotic heart of Aracrioa ? Here and there, were drops of its blood and life, but they scarcely coloured the stream of desperate ad- venturers which seta that way for profit and for pay. It is ihs game of these men, and of their profligate organs, to make the strife of politics so fierce and brutal, and so destructive of all self-respect in worthy men, that sensitive and delicate-minded persons shall be kept aloof, and they, and such as they, be left to battle out their selfish views unchecked. And thus this lowest of all scrambling Sghts goes on, and they who in other countries would, from their intelli- gence and station, most aspire to make the law^, do here recoil the farthest from that degradation. That there are, among the repre- sentatives of the people in both Houses, and among all parties, some men of high character and great abilities, 1 need not say. The fore- most among those politicians who are known in Kurope, have been already described, and I see no reason to depart from the rule I have laid down for my guidance, of abstaining from all mention of individuals. It will be sufficient to add, that to the most favourable accounts that have been written of them, I mors than fully and most heartily subscribe ; and that personal intercourse and free commu- nication have bred within me, not the result predicted in the very doubtful proverb, but increased admiration and respect. They are striking men to look at, hard to deceive, prompt to act, lions in energy, Crichtons in varied accomplishment, Indians in fire of eye and gesture, Americans in strong and generous impulse ; and they as well represent the honour and wisdom of their country at home, as Oic distinguished gentleman who is now its minister at the British Court sustains its highest character abroad. I visited both houses nearly everj' day, during my stay in Washington. On my initiatory visit to ih9 House of Bepresentativea, thoy divided against a decision of the chair ; but the chair won. The so'^f^nd time I went, the member who was speak- ing, being interrupted by a laugh, mimicked it, as one child would in quarrelling with another, and added, " that he would make honourable gentlemen opposite, sing out a little more on the other side of their mouths presently." But interruptions are rare ; the speaker being usually heard in silence. There are more quarrels than with us, and more threatenings than gentlemen are accustomed to exchange in any civilised society of which we have recr 'd : but farm-yard imitations have no as yet been im- ported from the arliament of the United Kingdom. The feature in oratory which appea practised, and most constant repetition or shadow of an ide and the inquiry ov " Wnatdid he sayl did he speak?" '' but enlargements o. prevails elaewhere. The Senate is a dignified and deco- rous body, and its proceedings are conducted with much gravity and order. Both houses are handsomely carpeted ; but the state to which these carpets are reduced by the uni- versal disregard of the spittoon with which every honourable member is accommodated, and the extraordinary improvements on the pattern which are squirted and dabbled upon it in every direction, do not admit of being described. I will merely observe, that I strongly recommend all strangers not to look at the floor ; and if they to be the most •dished, is the the same idea in fresh words ; of doors is not, but, " How long ese, however, are "principle which FOR GENKllAL CIRCULATION. igs are |ty and Isomely which ihe tini- In with iber is rdinary which it in being '0, that •angers ii they happen to drop anything, though it he their purse, not to pick it up with an ungloved hand on any account. It is somewhat remarkable too, at fircit, to say the least, to see so many honourable members with swelled faces ; and it is scarcely less remark- able to discover that this appearance is caused by the quantity of tobacco they contrive to stow within the hol- low of the cheek. It is strange enough too, to see an honourable gentleman leaning back in his tilted chair with his legs on the desk before him, shaping a convenient "plug" with his penknife, and when it is quite ready for use, shooting the old one from his mouth, as from a pop-gun, and clap- ping the new one in its place. I was surprised to observe that even steady old chewers of great experience, are not always good marksmen, which has rather inclined me to doubt that general proficiency with the rifle, of which we have heard so much in Eng- land. Several gentlemen called upon me who, in the course of conversation, frequently missed the spittoon at five paces ; and one (but he was certainly short-sighted) mistook the closed sash fur the open window, at three. On another occasion, when I dined out, and was sitting with two ladies and some gentlemen round a fire before dinner, one of the company fell short of the fireplace, six distinct times. I am disposed to think, however, that this was occasioned by his not aiming at that object; as there was a white marble hearth before the fender, which was more convenient, and may have suited his purpose better. The Patent Oflice at Washington, furnishes an extraordinary example of American enterprise and ingenuity: for the immense number of models it contains, are the accumulated inven- tions of only five years : the whole of the previous collection having been destroyed by fire. The elegant struc- ture in which they are arranged, is one of design rather than execution, for there is but one side erected out of four, though the works arc stopped. The Post Office, is a very compact, and very beautiful building. In one of the departments, among a collection of rare and curious articles, are depo- sited the presents which have been made from time to time to the Ame- rican ambassadors at foreign courts by the various potentates to whom they were the accredited agents of the Republic : gifts which by the law they are not permitted to retain. I confes.s that I looked upon this as a very painful exhibition, and one by no means flattering to the national stan- dard of honesty and honour. That can scarcely be a high state of moral feehng whicli imagmea a gentleman of repute and station, likely to be corrupted, in the discharge of his duty, by the present of a snufl-box, or a richly-mounted sword, or an Eastern shawl ; and surely the Nation who reposes confidence in her appointed servants, is likely to be better served, than she who makes them the subject of such very mean and paltry sus- picions. At George Town, in the suburbs, there is a Jesuit College ; delightfully situated, and, so far as I had ?,n oppor- tunity of seeing, well managed. Many persons who are not members of the Romish Church, avail themselves, I believe, of these institutions, and of the advantageous opportunities they afford for the education of their chil- dren. The heights in this neighbour- hood, above the Potomac River, are very picturesque; and are free, I should conceive, from some of the in- salubrities of Washington. The air, at that elevation, was quite cool and refreshing, when in the city it was burning hot. The President's mansion is more like an English club-house, both within 86 AMERICAN NOTES 11 and without,, than any other kind of establishment with which I can com- pare it. The ornamental ground about it has been laid out in garden walks ; they are pretty, and agreeable to the eye ; though they have that uncom- fortable air of having been made yes- terday, which is far from favourable to the display of such beauties. My first visit to this house was on the morning after my arrival, when I was carried thither by an official gen- tleman, who was so kind as to charge himself with my presentation to the President. We entered a large hall, and having twice or thrice rung a bell which nobody answered, walked without fur- ther ceremony through the rooms on the ground floor, as divers other gen- tlemen (mostly with their hats on, tind their hands in their pockets) were doing very leisurely. Some of these had ladies with them, to whom they were showing the premises; others were lounging on the chairs and sofas; others, in a perfect state of exhaustion from listlessness, were yawning drear- ily. The greater portion of this assemblage were rather asserting their supremacy than doing anything else, as they had no particular business there, that anybody knew of. A few were closely eyeing the moveables, as if to make quite sure that the Presi- dent (who was far from popular) had not made away with any of the furni- ture, or sold the fixtures for his private benefit. After glancing at these loungers; who were scattered over a pretty drawing-room, opening upon a ter- race which commanded a beautiful prospect of the river and the adjacent country ; and who were sauntering too, about a larger state-room called the Eastern Drawing-room ; we went up stairS^nto another chamber, where were certain visitors, waiting for audiences. At sight of my conductor, a black in plain clothes and yellow slippers who was gliding noiselessly about, and whispering messages in the cars of the more impatient, made a sign of recognition, and glided off to announce him. We had previously looked into another chamber fitted all round with a great bare wooden desk or counter, whereon lay files of newspapers, to which sundry gentlemen were refer- ring. But there were no such means of beguiling the time in this apart- ment, which was as unpromising and tiresome as any waiting-room in one of our public establishments, or any physician's dining-room during his hours of consultation at home. There were some fifteen or twenty persons in the room. One, a tall, wiry, muscular old man, from the west ; sunburnt and swarthy ; with a brown-white hat on his knees, and a giant umbrella resting between his legs; who sat bolt upright in his chair, frowning steadily at the carpet, and twitching the hard lines about his mouth, as if he had made up his mind " to fix" the President on what he had to say, and wouldn't bate him a grain. Another, a Kentucky farmer, six-feet-six in height, with his hat on, and his hands under his coat-tails, who leaned against the wall and kicked the floor with his heel, as though he had Time's head under his shoe, and were literally " killing" him. A third, an oval-faced, bilious-looking man, with sleek black hair cropped close, and whiskers and beard shaved down to blue dots, who sucked the head of a thick stick, and from time to time took it out of his mouth, to see how it was getting on. A fourth did nothing but whistle. A fifth did nothing but spit. And indeed all these gentlemen were so very per- severing and energetic in this latter particular, and bestowed their favours so abundantly upon the carpet, that I FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 87 time ith, to [fourth Kli did led all per- latter ivoura I that I take it for granted the Presidential houf^cmaidd have high wagea, or, to speak more genteelly, an ample amount of " compenaation :" which la the American word for salary, in the case of all public servants. We had not waited in this room many minutes, before the black mes- senger returned, and conducted ua into another of smaller dimensions, where, at a business-like table covered with papers, sat the President him- self, lie looked somewhat worn and anxious, and well he might : being at war with ererybody-^but the ex- pression of his face was mild and pleasant, and his manner was remark- ably unaffected, gentlemanly, and agreeable. I thought that in his whole carriage and demeanour, he became his station singularly well, i Being advised that the sensible etiquette of the republican court, admitted of a traveller, like myself, declining, without any impropriety, an invitation to dinner, which did not reach me until I had concluded my arrangements for leaving Washington some days before that to which it referred, I only returned to this house once. It was on the occasion of one of those general assemblies which are held on certain nights, between the houra of nine and twelve o'clock, and are called, rather oddly. Levees. I went, with my wife, at about ten. There was a pretty dense crowd of carriages and people in the court- yard, and 60 far as I could make out, there were no very clear regulations for the taking up or setting down of company. There were certainly no policemen to soothe startled horses, either by sawing at their bridles or flourishing truncheons in their eyes ; and I am ready to make oath that no inoffensive persons were knocked violently on the head, or poked acutely in their backs or stomachs ; or brought to a stand still by any such gentle means, and then taken into custody for not moving on. But there was no confusion or disorder. Our carriage reached the porch in its turn, without any blustering, swear- ing, shouting, backing, or other dis- turbance : and we dismounted with as much ease and comfort as though wc had been escorted by the whole Metropolitan Force from A to Z inclusive. The suite of rooms on the ground- floor, were lighted up ; and a military band was playing in the hall. In the smaller drawing-room, the centre of a circle of company, were the President and his daughter-in-law, who acted as the lady of the mansion : and a very interesting, graceful, and accom- plished lady too. One gentleman who stood among this group, appeared to take upon himself the functions of a master of the cere- monies. I saw no other officers or attendants, and none were needed. The great drawing-room, which I have already mentioned, and the other chambers on the ground-floor, were crowded to excess. The com- pany was not, in our sense of the term, select, for it comprehended persona of very many grades and classes ; nor was there any great display of costly attire : indeed some of the costumes may have been, for aught I know, grotesque enough. But the decorum and propriety of behaviour which prevailed, were unbroken by any rude or disagreeable incident ; and every man, even among the miscellaneous crowd in the hall who were admitted without any orders or tickets to look on, ap- peared to feel that he was a part of the Institution, and was responsible for its preserving a becoming cha- racter, and appearing to the best ad- vantage. That these visitor?!, too, whatever i 88 AMKUICAN NOTES their Btation, were not without some refinement of taste and appreciation of intellectual gifts, and gratitude to those men who, by the peaceful excr- ciwe of great abilities shed new charms and associations upon the homes of their countrymen, and elevate their character in other lands, was most earnestly testified by their reception of Washington Irving, my dear friend, who had recently been appointed Mi- nister at the court of Spain, and who was among them that night, in his new character, for the first and last time before going abroad. I sincerely believe that in all the madness of American politics, few public men would have been so earnestly, devo- tedly, and aflfectionately caressed, as this most charming writer : and I have seldom respected a public assembly more, than I did this eager throng, when I saw them turning with one mind from noisy orators and oflBcers of state, and flocking with a generous and honest impulse round the man of quiet pursuits : proud in his promo- tion as reflecting back upon their country : and grateful to him with their whole hearts for the store of graceful fancies he had poured out among them. Long may he dispense such treasures with unsparing hand ; and long may they remember him as worthily ! The term we had assigned for the duration of our stay in Washington, was now at an end, and we were to begin to travel ; for the railroad dis- tances we had traversed yet, in jour- neying among these older towns, are on that great continent locked upon as nothing. I had at first intended going South — to Charleston. But when I came to consider the length of time which this journey would occupy, and the prema- ture heat of the season, which even at Washington had been often very try- ing ; and weighed moreover, in my own mind, the pain of living in the constant contemplation of slavery, against the more than doubtful chances of my ever Keeing it, in the time I had to spare, stripped of the disguises in which it would certainly be dressed, and so adding any item to the host of facts already heaped toge- ther on the subject ; I began to listen to old whisperings which had often been present to me at home in Eng- land, when I little thought of ever being here ; and to dream again of cities growing up, like palaces in fairy talcs, among the wilds and forests of the west. The advice I received in most quar- ters when I began to yield to my desire of travelling towards that point of the compass was, according to cus- tom, sufficiently cheerless : my com- panion being threatened with more perils, dangers, and discomforts, than I can remember or would catalogue if I could ; but of which it will be suffi- cient to remark that blowings-up in steam-boats and breakings down in coaches were among the least. But, having a western route sketched out for me by the best and kindest autho- rity to which I could have resorted, and putting no great faith in these disconragements, I soon determined on my plan of action. This was to travel south, only to Richmond in Virginia; and then to turn, and shape our course for the Far West ; whither I beseech the reader "s company, in a new chapter. LK , FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 89 CHAPTER IX. A NIGHT STEAMER ON THE POTOMAC RIVEU. VIRGINIA ROAD, AND A HLACK DRIVER. RICHMOND. GLIMPSE OF THE CITY. BALTIMORB. THE A CANAL BOAT. UARRISBURO HAIL, AND A Wk were to proceed in the first in- stance by steamboat ; and as it is usual to sleep on board, in consequence of the starting-hour being four o'clock in the morning, we went down to where she lay, at that very uncomfortable time for such expeditions when slip- pers are most valuable, and a fiimiliar bed, in the perspective ot' an hour or two, looks uncommonly pleasant. It is ten o'clock at night : say half- past ten : moonlight, warm, and dull enough. The steamer (not unlike a child's Noah's ark in form, with the machinery on the top of the roof), is riding lazily up and down, and bump- ing clumsily against the wooden pier, as the ripple of the river trifles with its unwieldy carcase. The wharf is some distance from the city. There is nobody down here ; and one or two dull lamps upon the steamer's decks are the only signs of life remaining, when our coach has driven away. As soon as our footsteps are heard upon the planks, a fat negress, particularly favoured by nature in respect of bustle, emerges from some dark stairs, and marshals my wife towards the ladies' cabin, to which retreat she goes, fol- lowed by a mighty bale of cloaks and great-coats. I valiantly resolve not to go to bed at all, but to walk up and down the pier till morning. I begin my promenade — thinking of all kinds of distant things and persons, and of nothing near — and pace up and down for half-an-hour. Then I go on board again ; and getting into the light of one of the lamps, look at my watch and think it must have stopped ; and wonder what has become of the faithful secretary whom I brought along with me from Boston. He is supping with our late landlord (a Field Marshal, at least, no doubt) in honour of our departure, and may be two hours longer. I walk again, but it gets duller and duller : the moon goes down : next June seems farther off in the dark, and the echoes of my foot- steps mt-ke me nervous. It has turned cold too ; and walking up and down without any companion in such lonely circumstances, is but poor amusement. So I break my staunch resolution, and think it may be, perhaps, as well to go to bed. I go on board again; open the door of the gentlemen's cabin ; and walk in. Somehow or other — from its being so quiet I suppose — I have taken it into my head that there is nobody there. To my horror and amazement it is full of sleepers in every stage, shape, attitude, and variety of slumber : in the berths, on the chairs, on the floors, on the tables, and particularly round the stove, my detested enemy. I take another step forward, and slip upon the shining face of a black steward, who lies rolled in a blanket on the floor. He jumps up, grins, half in pain and half in hospitality : whispers my own name in my ear ; and groping among the sleepers, leads me to my berth. Standing beside it, I count these { 90 AMERICAN NOTES ii 4 1 Blumberiiig passcngcrR, and get past forty. There is no use in going further, so I begin to undress. As the chairs are all occupied, and there is nothing elric to put my clothes on, I deposit them upon the ground : not without soiling my hands, for it is in the same condition as the carpets in the Capitol, and from the same cause. Having but partially undressed, I clamber on my shelf, and hold the curtain open for a few minutes while I look round on all my fellow travel- lers again. That done, I let it fall on them, and on the world : turn round : and go to sleep. I wake, of course, when we get under weigh, for there is a good deal of noise. The day is then just break- ing. Everybody wakes at the same time. Some are self-possessed directly, and some are much perplexed to make out where they are until they have rubbed their eyes, and leaning on one elbow, looked about them. Some yawn, some groan, nearly all spit, and a few get up. I am among the risers : for it is easy to feel, with- out going into the fresh air, that the atmosphere of the cabin, is vile in the last degree. I huddle on my clothes, go down into the fore-cabin, get shaved by the barber, and wash myself. The washing and dressing apparatus for the passengers generally, consists of two jack-towels, three small wooden basins, a keg of water and a ladle to serve it out with, six square inches of looking-glass, two ditto ditto of yellow soap, a comb and brush for the head, and nothing for the teeth. Everybody uses the comb and brush, except myself. Everybody stares to see me using my own ; and two or three gentlemen are strongly disposed to banter me on my preju- dices, but don't. When I have made my toilet, I go upon the hurricane- deck, and set in for two hours of hard walking up und down. The sun is rising brilliantly; wc arc passing Mount Vernon, where Washington lies buried ; the river is wide and rapid ; and its banks are beautiful. All the glory and splendour of the day are coming on, and growing brighter every minute. At eight o'clock, we breakfast in the cabin where I passed the night, l.ut the windows and doors are all thrown open, and now it is fresh enough. There is no hurry or greedi- ness apparent in the despatch of the meal. It is longer than a travelling breakfast with us ; more orderly ; and more polite. Soon after nine o'clock we come to Potomac Creek, where we are to land : and then comes the oddest part of the journey. Seven stage-coaches are preparing to carry us on. Some of them are ready, some of them are not ready. Some of the drivers are blacks, some whites. There are four horses to each coach, and all the horses, harnessed or unharnessed, are there. The passengers are getting out of the steamboat, and into the coaches ; the luggage is being transferred in noisy wheelbarrows ; the horses are fright- ened, and impatient to start; the black drivers are chattering to them like so many monkeys; and the white ones whooping like so many drovers ; for the main thing to be done in all kinds of hostlering here, is to make as much noise as possible. The coaches are something like the French coaches, but not nearly so good. In lieu of springs, they are hung on bandsof the strongest leather. There is very little choice or differ- ence between them; and they may be likened to the car portion of the swings at an English fair, roofed, put upon axle-trees and wheels, and cur- tained with painted canvas. They are covered with mud from the roof to the wheel-tire, and have never been cleaned since they were first built. ■J f FOR GENERAL CIRCULATIOX. 01 ; the noisy Vight- tho them id the y may of the d, put d cur- They roof r been lit. The tickets m'c have received on board the steamboat are marked No. 1, so wc belong to coach No. 1. I throw my coat on the box, and hoist my wife and her maid into the inside. It has only one step, and that being about a yard from the ground, ia usually approached by a chair : when there is no chair, ladies trust in Providence. The coach holds nine inside, having a seat across from door to door, where we in Eng- land put our legs : so that there is only one feat more difficult in the performance than getting in, and that is, getting out again. There is only one outside passenger, and he sits upon the box. As I am that one, I climb up ; and while they are strap- ping the luggage on the roof, and heaping it into a kind of tray behind, Lave a good opportunity of looking at the driver. He is a negro — very black indeed. He is dressed in a coarse pepper-and- salt suit excessively patched and darned (particularly at the knees), grey stockings, enormous unblacked high-low shoes, and very short trou- sers. He has two odd gloves : one of parti-coloured worsted, and one of leather. He has a very short whip, broken in the middle and bandaged up with string. And yet he wears a low-crowned, broad-brimmed, black hat : faintly shadowing forth a kind of insane imitation of an English coachman ! But somebody in au- thority cries " Go ahead ! " as I am making these observations. The mail takes the lead in a four-horse wagon, and all the coaches follow in procession : headed by No. 1. By the way, whenever an English- man would cry " All right ! " an American cries " Go ahead ! " which is somewhat expressive of the national character of the two countries. The first half mile of the road is over bridges made of loose planks laid across two parallel poles, wliicli tilt up as the wheels roll over them ; and IN the river. The river has a clayey bottom and is full of holcf*, so that half a horse is constantly ilis.ip- pearing unexpectedly, and can't be found again for some time. But wc get past even this, and come to the road itself, which ia a series of alternate swamps and gravel- pits. A tremendous place is close before us, the black driver rolls his eyes, screws his mouth up very round, and looks straight between the two leaders, as if he were saying to him- self, " wc have done this often before, but noto I think we shall have a crash." He takes a rein in each hand ; jerk.s and pulls at both ; and dances on the splashboard with both feet (keeping his seat, of course) like the lato la- mented Ducrow on two of his fiery coursers. We come to the spot, sink down in the mire nearly to the coach windows, tilt on one side at an angle of forty-five degrees, and stick there. The insides scream dismally ; the coach stops ; the horses flounder ; all the other six coaches stop ; and their four-and-twenty horses flounder like- wise : but merely for company, and in sympathy with ours. Then the following circumstances occur. Black Driver (to the horses). " Hi ! " Nothing happens. Insides scream again. Black Driver (to the horses). " Ho ! " Horses plunge, and splash the black driver. Gentleman inside (looking out) " Why, what on airth— " Gentleman receives a variety of splashes and draws his head in again, without finishing his question or waiting for an answer. Black Driver (still to the horses). " Jiddy ! Jiddy ! " . Horses pull violently, drag the ■i .V2 AMERICAxN NOTES coach out of the hole, and draw it | up a bunk ; so steep, that the black ; driver's legn fly up into the air, and he goc8 back among the luggage on the roof. But he immediately recovers himself, and cries (still to the horses), " Pill ! " No eflect. On the contrarj', the coach begins to roll back upon No. 2, which rolls back upon No. 3, which rolls back upon No. 4, and so on, until No. 7 is heard to curse and swear, nearly a quarter of a mile behind. Black Driver (louder than before). " Pill ! " Horses make another struggle to get up the bank, and again the coach rolls backward. Black Dkivkr (louder than before). "Pee-e-ill!" Horses make a desperate struggle. Black Driver (recovering sjiirits). " Hi, Jiddy, Jiddy, Pill ! " Horses make another effort Black Driver (with great vigour). "Ally Loo! Hi. Jiddy, Jiddy. Pill. Ally Loo ! " Horses almost do it. Black Driver (with his eyes starting out of his head). " Lee, den. Lee, dere. Hi. Jiddy, Jiddy. Pill. Ally Loo. Lee-e-e-e-e ! " They run up the bank, and go down again on the other side at a fearful pace. It is impossible to stop them, and at the bottom there is a deep hollow, full of water. The coach rolls frightfully. The insides scream. The mud and water fly about us. The black driver dances like a mad- man. Suddenly we are all right by some extraordinary means, and stop to breathe. A black friend of the black driver is sitting on a fence. The black driver recognises him by twirling his head round and round like a harle- quin^ rolling his eyes, shrugging his shoulders, and grinning from ear to car. Ho stops short, turns to me, and says ; " We shall get you through sa, like a fiddle, and hope a please you when we get you through sa. Old 'ooman at home sir : " chuckling very much. " Outside gentleman sa, he often remember old 'ooman at home s.i,** grinning again. " Aye aye, we '11 take care of the old woman. Don't be afraid." The black driver grins again, but there is another hole, and beyond that, another bank, close before us. So he stops short : cries (to the horses again) " Easy. Easy den. Ease. Steady. Hi. Jiddy. Pill. Ally. Loo," but never " Lee ! " until we arc reduced to the very last extremity, and are in the midst of diflieultics, extrication from which appears to be all but impossible. And so we do the ten miles or thereabouts in two hours and a half ; bt caking no bones, though bruising a great many ; and in short getting through the distance, "like a fiddle." This singular kind of coaching ter- minates at Fredericksburgh, whence there is a railway to Richmond. The tract of country through which it takes its course was once productive : but the soil has been exhausted by the system of employing a great amount of slave labour in forcing crops, without strengthening the land: and it is now little better than a sandy desert overgrown with trees. Dreary and uninteresting as its aspect is, I was glad to the heart to find any- thing on which one of the curses of this horrible institution has fallen; and had greater pleasure in contem- plating the withered ground, than the richest and most thriving cultivation in the same place could possibly have afforded me. In this district, as in all others where slavery sits brooding, (I have FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 9» rinning from ear to short, turns to me, you through sa, like >c a please you when igh sa. Old 'oouian luckling very much, iinan sa, lie often aman at home sa," '11 take care of the ti't be afraid." rer grins again, but r hole, and beyond nk, close before us. : cries (to the horses Ea.'^y den. Ease, iddy. Pill. Ally. ' Lee ! " until we are v^ery last extremity, midst of difficulties, rt'hich appears to be ' the ten miles or hours and a half ; i, though bruising a 1 in short getting ice, "like a fiddle." nd of coaching ter- ioksburgh, whence .0 Richmond. The through which it [s once productive : •een exhausted by ploying a great llabour in forcing thening the land: le better than a Town with trees, isting as its aspect heart to find any- of the curses of tion has fallen; fasure in contem- iground, than the living cultivation [lid possibly have |l3 in all others rooding, (I have frequently heard this admitted, even by those who are its warmest advo- cates :) there is an air of ruin and vc had up the a corpu- wheels. J backing, |g heavily FOR GENERAL CTR( TLATION. 07 i from Hisic!il old ntre to jiu<\c at any faster pa.'" tluxn n walk, were distressed hy short nc'» of wind. "If here ai/( t the ITarrisburj? mail at last, and dreailful hrii^ht and smart to look at too," cried an elderly pen- tlcman in some excitement, "darn xny mother ! " I don't know what the sensation of being darned may he, or whether a man's mother lias a keener relish or disrelish of the process than anybody else; but if the endurance of this mysterious ceremony by the old lady in question had depended on the accuracy of her son's vision in respect to the abstract brightness and smart- ness of the Harrisburg mail, she would certainly have undergone its inflic- tion. However, they booked twelve people inside ; and the luggage (in- cluding such trifles as a large rocking- chair, and a good-sized dining-tablc) being at length made fast upon the roof, we started off in great state. At the door of another hotel, there was another passenger to be taken up. "Any room, sir?" cries the new passenger to the coachman. " "Well there 's room enough," replies the coachman, without getting down, or even looking at him. "There an't no room at all, sir," bawls a gentleman inside. Which another gentleman (also inside) con- firms, by predicting that the attempt to introduce any more passengers " won't fit nohow." The new passenger, without any expression of anxiety, looks into the coach, and then looks up at the coach- man : " Now, how do you mean to fix it 1 " says he, after a pause : " for I mufit go." The coachman employs himself in twisting the lash of his whip into a No. 1G7. knot, and takes no more notice of the question : clearly signifying that it is anybody's busincM but his, and that the passengers would do well to fix it, among themselves. In this state of ihinu's, matters seem to be approxi- mating to a fix of another kin(l, when another inside passenger in a corner, wiu) i?i niMrly sufl'ycatcd, cries faintly, " I 11 get out." Tills is no matter of relief or self- congratulation to the driver, for his immoveable philosophy is perfectly undisturbed by anything that happens in the coach. Of all things in the worltl, the coach would seem to be the very last upon his mind. The cx- ohantre is made, however, and then the passenger who has given up his seat makes a third upon the box, sealing himself in what he calls tlic middle : that is, with half his person on my legs, and the other half on the driver's. " Co a-hcad cap'en," erica the colonel, who directs. " GO-lang! " cries the cap'en to his company, the horses, and away we go. We took up at a rural bar-room, after we had gone a few miles, an intoxicated gentleman who climbed upon the roof among the luggau'c, and subsequently slipping off without hurting himself, was seen in the dis- tant perspective reeling back to the grog-shop where we had found him. We also parted with more of our freight at different times, so that when we came to change horses, I was again alone outside. The coachmen always change with the horses, and are usually as dirty as the coach. The first was dressed like a very shabby English baker ; the second like a Russian peasant : for he wore a loose purple camlet robe with a fur collar, tied round his waist with a parti-coloured worsted sash ; grey trousers; light blue gloves; and a H 7 i 98 AMERICAN NOTES cap of bearslcin. It had hy this time come ou to rain very heavily, and there was a culd damp mist besides, •".'hich penetrated to the skin. I was very glad to take advantage of a steppage and get down to stretch my legs, sliake the water off my great- coat, and swallow the usual anti-tem- perance recipe for keeping out the cold. When I mounted to my seat again, I observed a new parcel lying on the coach roof, which I took to be a rather large fiddle in a brown bag. In the course of a few miles, however, I dis- covered that it had a glazed cap at one end and a pair of muddy shoes at She other; and further observation demonstrated it to be a small boy in a snuff-coloured coat, with his arms quite pinioned to his sides, by deep forcing into his pockets. He was, I presume, a i-Jative or friend of the coachman's as he lay atop of the luggage with his fi;ce towards the rain; and except when a change of position brought his shoes in contact with my hat, he appeared to be asleep. At last, on some occasion of our stop- ping, this thing slowly upreared itself to the height of three feet six, and fixing its eyes on me, observed in piping accents, with a complaisant yawn, half quenched in an obliging air ©f friendly patronage, " Well now, stranger, I guess you find this a'most like an English arternoon, hey 1 " The scenery which had been tame enough at first, was, for the last ten or twelve miles, beautiful. Our road wound through the pleasant valley of the Susquehanna; the river, dotted with innumerable green islands, lay upon our right; and on the left, a steep ascent, craggy with broken rock, and dark with pine trees. The mist, wreathing itself into a hundred fan- tastic shapes, moved solemnly upon the water ; and the gloom of evening rave to all an air of mystery and silence wliich greatly enhanced its natural interest. We crossed this river by a wooden bridge, roofed and covered in on all sides, and nearly a mile in length. It was profoundly dark ; perplexed, with great beams, crossing and recrossing it at every possible angle; and through the broad chinks and cre- vices in the floor, the rapid river gleamed, far down below, like a legion of eyes. We had no lamps; and as the horses stumbled and floundered through this place, towards the dis- tant speck of dying light, it seemed interminable. I really could not at first persuade myself as we rumbled heavily on, filling the bridge with hollow noises, and I held down my head to save it from the rafters above, but that I was in a painful dream ; for I have often dreamed of toiling through such places, and as often argued, even at the time, " this can- not be reality." At length, however, we emerged upon the streets of Harrisburg, whose feeble lights, reflected dismally from the wet ground, did not shine out upon a very cheerful city. We were soon established in a snug hotel, which though smaller and far less splendid than many we put up at, is raised above them all in my remem- brance, by having for its landlord the most obliging, considerate, and gentlemanly person I ever had to deal with. As we were not to proceed upon our journey until the afternoon, I walked out, after breakfast the next morning, to look about me; and was duly shown a model prison on the solitary system, just erected, and as yet without an inmate ; the trunk of an old tree to which Harris, the first settler here (afterwards buried under it) was tied by hostile Indians, with his funeral pile about him, when he was saved by the timely appear- FOR GENERAL CIRCLLATION. 99 ccd ita wooden 1 on all ?th. It cd, with crossing e ; and and cre- id river a legion ; and as )undered the dis- t seemed d not at rumbled jge with lown my ;r8 above, ream ; for f toiling aa often ' this can- I emerged ,rg, whoso ly from line out We wcro hotel, far less up at, ia y rem em- landlord jrate, and ad to deal :eed upon ternoon, I the next me ; and )ri8on on ected, and the trunk arris, the •da buried e Indians, him, when ly appcar- ug ancc of a friendly party on the oppo- site sliorc of the river ; the local legislature (for there was another of those bodies here, again, in full debate) ; and the other curiosities of the town. I was very much interested in look- ing over a number of troatica made from time to time with the poor Indians, signed by the different chiefs at the period of their ratification, and preserved in the office of the Secre- tary to the Commonwealth. These signatures, traced of course by their own hands, are rough drawings of the creatures or weapons they were called after. Thus, the Great Turtle makes a crooked pen and-ink outline of a great turtle ; the Buffalo sketches a buffalo ; the War Hatchet sets a rough image of that weapon for his mark. So with the Arrow, the Fish, the Scalp, the Big Canoe, and all of them. I could not but think — aa I looked at these feeble and tremulous pro- ductions of hands which could draw the longest arrow to the head in a stout elk-horn bow, or split a bead or feather with a rifle-ball — of Crabbe's musings over the Parish Register, and the irregular scratches made with a pen, by men who would plough a lengthy furrow straight from end to end. Nor could I help bestowing many sorrowful thoughts upon the simple warriors whose hands and hearts were set there, in all truth and honesty ; and who only learned in course of time from white men how to break their faith, and quibble out of forms and bonds. I wondered, too, how many times the credulous Big Turtle, or trusting Little Hatchet, had put his mark to treaties which were falsely read to him ; and had signed away, he knew not what, until it went and cast him loose upon the new possessors of the land, a savage indeed. Our host announced, before our early dinner, that some membera of the legislative body proposed to do ua the honour of calling. lie had kindly yielded up to us his wife's own little parlour, and when T begged that he would show them in, I saw him look with painful apprehension at its pretty carpet ; though, being otherwise occu- pied at the time, the cause of his uneasiness did not occur to me. It certainly would have been more pleasant to all parties concerned, and would not, I think, have compromised their independence in any material degree, if some of these gentlemen had not only yielded to the prejudice in favour of spittoons, but had aban- doned themselves, for the moment, even to the conventional absurdity of pocket-handkerchiefs. It still continued to rain heavily, and when we went down to the Canal Boat (for that was the mode of con- veyance by which we were to proceed) after dinner, the weather was as unpromising and obstinately wet aa one would desire to see. Nor was the sight of this canal boat, in which we were to sf end three or four days, by any means a cheerful one ; as it in- volved some uneasy speculations con- cerning the disposal of the passengers at night, and opened a wide field of inquiry touching the other domestic arrangements of the establishment, which was sufficiently disconcerting. However, there it was — a bargo with a little house in it, viewed from the outside ; and a caravan at a fair, viewed from within : the gentlemen being accommodated, as the specta- tors usually are, in one of those loco- motive museums of penny wonders ; and the ladies being partitioned oil" by a red curtain, after the manner of the dwarfs and giants in the same establishments, whose private lives are passed in rather close exclusivencss. We sat here, looking silently at tho row of little tables, which extended h2 a- ■>. I 100 AMERICAN NOTES down both sides of the cabin, and listening to the rain as it dripped and pattered on the boat, and plashed with a dismal merriment in the water, until the arrival of the railway train, for whose final contribution to our stock of passengers, our departure was alone deferred. It brought a great many boxes, which were bumped and tossed upon the roof, almost as painfully as if they had been depo- eited on one's own head, without the intervention of a porter's knot ; and several damp gentlemen, whose clothes, on their drawing round the stove, began to steam again. No doubt it would have been a thought more com- fortable if the driving rain, which now poured down more soakingly than ever, had admitted of a window being opened, or if our number had been something less than thirty ; but there was scarcely time to think as much, when a train of three horses was attached to the tow-rope, the boy upon the leadersmackedhiswhip, the rudder creaked and groaned complainingly, and we had begun our journey. \\ FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 101 le stove, doubt it ore com- 1, whicli oakingly I window ibcr had rty ; but think a* orses was boy upon lie rudder lainingly, cv. I CHAPTER X. SOME FI'UTURR ArCOUNT OF THE CANAL BOAT, ITS DOMESTIC ECONOMY, AND ITS PASSENGERS. JOURNEY TO PITTSBURG ACROSS THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS. PITTSHURG. As it continued to rain most perse- veringly, avc all remained below : the damp gentlemen round the stove, gradually becoming mildewed by the action of the fire ; and the dry gen- tlemen lying at full length upon the seats, or slumbering uneasily with their faces on the tables, or walking up and dosvn the cabin, which it was barely possible for a man of the middle height to do, without making bald places on his head by scraping it against the roof. At about six o'clock, all the small tables were put together to form one long table, and everybody sat down to tea, coffee, bread, butter, salmon, shad, liver, steak, potatoes, pickles, ham, chops, black puddings, and sausages. "Will you try," said my opposite neighbour, handing me a dish of potatoes, broken up in milk and butter, " will you try some of these fixings 1 " There are few words which perform such various duties as this word "fix." It is the Caleb Quotem of the Ameri- can vocabulary. You call upon a gentleman in a country town, and his help informs you that he is " fixing himself" just now, but will be down directly : by which you are to under- stand that he is dressing. You in- quire, on board a steamboat, of a fellow passenger, whether breakfast will be ready soon, and he tells you he should think so, for when he was last below, they were "fixing the tables : " in other words, laying the cloth. You beg a porter to collect your luggage, and he entreats you not to be uneasy, for he '11 " fix it pre- sently : " and if you complain of indis- position, you are advised to have recourse to Doctor so and so, who will " fix you " in no time. One night, I ordered a bottle of mulled wine at an hotel where I was staying, and waited a long time for it; at length it was put upon the table with an apology from the landlord that he feared it wasn't " fixed pro- perly." And I recollect once, at a stage-coach dinner, overhearing a very stern gentleman demand of a waiter who presented him with a plate of underdone roast-beef, "whether he called that, fixing God A'mighty's vittlesl" There is no doubt that the meal, at which the invitation was tendered to me which has occasioned this digression, was disposed of somewhat ravenously ; and that the gentlemen thrust the broad-bladed knives and the two-pronged forks further down their throats than I ever saw the same weapons go before, except in the hands of a skilful juggler : but no man sat down until the ladies were seated; or omitted any little act of politeness which could contribute to their comfort. Nor did I ever once, on any occasion, anywhere, during my rambles in America, see a woman exposed to the slightest act of rude- ness, incivility, or even inattention. By the time the meal was over, the rain, which seemed to have worn itself out by coming down so fast, was nearly over too; and it became feasible to go on deck : which was a 102 AM ERIC AX NOTES 1 f '8' 1 i (1: great relief, notwithstanding its being a very small deck, and being rendered still smaller by the luggage, which was heaped together in the middle wndcr a tarpaulin covering ; leaving, on cither side, a path so narrow, that it became a science to walk to and fro without tumbling overboard into the canal. It was somewhat embar- rassing at first, too, to have to duck nimbly every five minutes whenever the man at the helm cried " Bridge!" and sometimes, when the cry was "Low Bridge," to lie down nearly flat. But custom familiarises one to anything, and there were so many bridges that it took a very short time to get used to this. As night came on, and we drew in sight of the first range of hills, which are the outposts of the Alleghany mountains, the scenery, which had been uninteresting hitherto, became more bold and striking. The wet ground reeked and smoked, after the heavy fall of rain ; and the croaking of the frogs (whose noise in these parts is almost incredible) sounded as though a million of fairy teams with bells, were travelling through the air, and keeping pace with us. The night was cloudy yet, but moon- light too : and when we crossed the Susquehanna river — over which there is an extraordinary wooden bridge with two galleries, one above the other, so that even there, two boat teams meeting, may pass without confusion — it was wild and grand. I have mentioned my having been ^ in some uncertainty and doubt, at first, relative to the sleeping arrange- ments on board this boat. I remained in the same vague state of mind until ten o'clock or thereabouts, when going Jjelow, I found suspended on either fiidc of the cabin, three long tiers of hanging book-shelves, designed ap- parently for volumes of the small octavo size. Looking with greater ' attention at these contrivances (won- j dering to find such literary prcpara- I tions in such a place), I descried on each shelf a sort of microscopic sheet and blanket ; then I began dimly to comprehend that the passengers were the library, and that they were to be arranged, edge-wise, on these shelves, till morning. I was assisted to this conclusion by seeing some of them gathered round the master of the boat, at one of the tables, draAving lota with all the anxie- ties and passions of gamesters de- picted in their countenances ; while others, with small pieces of cardboard in their hands, were groping among the shelves in search of numbers corresponding with those they had drawn. As soon as any gentleman found his number, he took possession of it by immediately undressing him- self and crawling into bed. The ra- pidity with which an agitated gam- bler subsided into a snoring slumberer, was one of the most singular effects I have ever witnessed. As to the ladies, they were already abed, behind the red curtain, which was carefully drawn and pinned up the centre ; though as every cough, or sneeze, or whisper, behind this curtain, was perfectly audible before it, we had still a lively consciousness of their society. The politeness of the person in authority had secured to me a shelf in a nook near this red curtain, in some degree removed from the great body of sleepers : to which place I retired, with many acknowledgments to him for his attention. I found it, on after- measurement, just the width of an ordinary sheet of Bath post letter- paper ; and I was at first in some un- certainty as to the best means of getting into it. But the shelf being a bottom one, I finally determined on lying upon the floor, rolling gently in, stopping immediately I touched the mattress, and remaining for the ill FOR GKNERAL CIRCULATION. 1 03 rson m shelf in in some at body retired, to him on after- th of an letter- night with that side uppermost, what- ever it might be. Luckily, I came upon my back at exactly the right moment, I Avas much alarmed on looking upward, to see, by the shape of his half yard of sacking (which his weight had bent into an exceed- ingly tight bag), that there was a very heavy gentleman above me, whom the slender cords seemed quite incapable of holding ; and I could not help reflecting upon the grief of my wife and family in the event of his coming down in the night. But as I could not have got up again with- out a severe bodily struggle, which might have alarmed the ladies ; and as I had nowhere to go to, even if I had ; I shut my eyes upon the danger, and remained there. One of two remarkable circum- stances is indisputably a fact, with reference to that class of society who travel in these boats. Either they carry their restlessness to such a pitch that they never sleep at all ; or they expectorate in dreams, which would be a remarkable mingling of the real and ideal. All night long, and every night, on this canal, there was a per- fect storm and tempest of spitting ; and once my coat, being in the very centre of a hurricane sustained by five gentlemen (which moved ver- tically, strictly carrying out Reid's Theory of the Law of Storms,) I was fain the next morning to lay it on the deck, and rub it down with fair water before it was in a condition to be worn again. Between five and six o'clock in the morning we got up, and some of us went on deck, to give them an oppor- tunity of taking the shelves down ; while others, the morning being very cold, crowded round the rusty stove, cherishing the newly kindled fire, and filling the grate with those voluntary contributions of which they had been BO liberal all night. The washing ac- commodations were primitive. There was a tin ladle chained to the deck, with which every gentleman who thought it necessary to cleanse him- self (many were superior to tliis weak- ness), fished the dirty water out of the canal, and poured it into a tin basin, secured in like manner. There was also a jack-towel. And, hanging up before a little looking-glass in the bar, in the immediate vicinity of the bread and cheese and biscuits, were a public comb and hair-brush. At eight o'clock, the shelves being taken down and put away and the tables joined together, everybody sat down to the tea, coffee, bread, butter, salmon, shad, liver, steak, potatoes, pickles, ham, chops, black-puddings, and sausages, all over again. Some were fond of compounding this variety, and having it all on their plates at once. As each gentleman got through his own personal amount of tea, coffee, bread, butter, salmon, shad, liver, steak, potatoes, pickles, ham, chops, black-puddings, and sausages, he rose up and walked oflF. When everybody had done with everything, the frag- ments were cleared away : and one of the waiters appearing anew in the cha- racter of a barber, shaved such of the company as desired to be shaved; while the remainder looked on, or yawned over their newspapers. Dinner was breakfast again, without the tea and coffee ; and supper and breakfast were identical. There was a man on board this boat, with a light fresh-coloured face, and a pepper-and-salt suit of clothes, who was the most inquisitive fellow, that can possibly be imagined. He never spoke otherwise than interro- gatively. He was an embodied .nquiry. Sitting down or standing up, still or I moving, walking the deck or taking j his meals, there he was, with a great ■ note of interrogation in each eye, two ' in his cocked cars, two more in his It Mi m 104 AMEUICAN NOTES u I tumcd-up nose and chin, at least hulf a dozen more about the corners of his mouth, and the largest one of all in his hair, which was brushed pertly off his forehead in a flaxen clump. Every button in his clothes said, " Eh ] What's that] Did you speak 1 Say the t again, will you ] " He was always wide awake, like the enchanted bride who drove her husband frantic; always restless ; always thirsting for answers ; perpetually seeking and never find- ing. There never was such a curious man. I wore a fur great-coat at that time, and before we were well clear of the wharf, he questioned me concerning it, and its price, and where I bought it, and when, and what fur it was, and what it weighed, and what it cost. Then he took notice of my watch, and asked what that cost, and whether it was a French watch, and where I got it, and how I got it, and whether I bought it or had it given me, and how it went, and where the keyhole was, and when I wound it, every night or every morning, and whether I ever forgot to wind it at all, and if I did, what theni Where had I been to last, and where was I going next, and where was I going after that, and had I seen the President, and what did he say, and what did I say, and what did he say when I had said that 1 £h ] Lor now ! do tell ! Finding that nothing would satisfy him, I evaded his questions after the first score or two, and in particular pleaded ignorance respecting the name of +he fur whereof the coat was made. I am unable to say whether this was the reason, but that coat fascinated him ever afterwards; he usually kept close behind me as I walked, and moved as I moved, that he might look at it the better ; and he frequently dived into narrow places after me at the risk of his life, that he might have the satisfaction of passing his hand up the back, and rubbing it the wrong way. We had another odd specimen on board, of a different kind. This was a thin-faced, spare-figured man of middle age and stature, dressed in a dusty drabbish-coloured suit, such a.s I never saw before. lie was perfectly quiet during the first part of tho journey : indeed I don't remember having so much as seen him until ho was brought out by circumstances, as great men often are. The conjunction of events which made him famous, happened, briefly, thus. The canal extends to the foot of the mountain, and there, of course, it stops ; the passengers being conveyed across it by land carriage, and taken on afterwards by another canal-boat, the counterpart of the first, which awaits them on the other side. There are two canal lines of passage-boats ; one is called The Express, and one (a cheaper one) The Pioneer. The Pio- neer gets first to the mountain, and waits for the Express people to come up; both sets of passengers being conveyed across it at the same time. We were the Express company ; but when we had crossed the mountain, and had come to the second boat, the proprietors took it into their heads to draft all the Pioneers into it likewise, so that we were five-and-forty at least, and the accession of passengers was not at all of that kind which improved the prospect of sleeping at night. Our people grumbled at this, as people do in such cases ; but suffered the boat to be towed off with the whole freight aboard nevertheless ; and away we went down the canal. At home, I should have protested lustily, but being a foreigner here, I held my peace. Not so this passenger. He cleft a path among the people on deck (we were near'- ^ii on deck), and without addrc jirkg anybody whomso- ever, soliloquised as follows : FOR CiKNKUAL ClUCL LATIUN. 105 "Tills may suit you, this may, but it dont suit vie. This may be all very well with Down Easters, and men of Boston raising, but it won't suit my figure no how; and no two ways about that; and so I tell you. Now! I 'm from the brown forests of the Mii-siasippi, / am, and when the sun shines on me, it does shine — a little. It don't glimmer where / live, the sun don't. No. I 'm a brown forester, I am. I an't a Johnny Cake. There are no smooth skins where I live. We 're rough men there. Itather. If Down Easters and men of Boston raising like this, I 'm glad of it, but I 'm none of that raising nor of that breed. No. This company wants a little fixing, it does. I 'm the wrong sort of man for 'em, / am. They won't like me, they won't. This is piling of it up, a little too moilntaln- oils, this is." At the end of every one of these short sentences he turned ! upon his heel, and walked the other way ; checking himself abruptly when he had finished another short sen- tence, and turning back again. It is impossible for me to say what terrific meaning was hidden in the words of this brown forester, but I know that the other passengers looked on in a sort of admiring horror, and ihat presently the boat was put back to the wharf, and as many of the Pioneers as could be coaxed or bullied into going away, were got rid of. When we started again, some of the boldest spirts on board, made bold to say to the obvious occasion of this improvement in our prospects, "Much obliged to you, sir :" whereunto the brown forester (waving his hand, and still walking up and down as before), replied, " No you an't. You 're none o' my raising. You may act for your- selves, you may. I have pinted out the way. Down Easters and Johnny Cakes can follow if they please. I an't a Johnny Cake, / an't. I am from the brown forests of the Alissis- sippi, / am "- and so on, as before. He was unanimously voted one of tho tables for his bed at night — there is a great contest for the tables- -in con- sideration of his public services : and he had the warmest corner by tho stove throughout the rest of the jour- ney. But I never could find out that he did anything except sit there; nor did I hear him speak again until, in tho midst of the bustle and turmoil of getting the luggage asiiore in the dark at I'ittaburg, I stumbled over him as he sat smoking a cigar on the cabin steps, and heard him muttering to himself, with a short laugh of defi- ance, " I an't a Johnny Cake, / an't. I 'm from the brown forcnts of tho Mississippi, / am, damme ! " I am inclined to argue from this, that he had never left oflf saying so ; but I could not make afiidavit of that part of the story, if required to do so by my Queen and Country. As we have not reached Pittsburg yet, however, in the order of our nar- rative, I may go on to remark that breakfast was perhaps the least desir- able meal of the day, as an addition to the many savoury odours arising from the eatables already mentioned, there were whiffs of gin, whi.^kcy, brandy, and rum, from the little bar hard by, and a decided seasoning of stale tobacco. Many of the gentle- men passengers were far from parti- cular in respect of their linen, which was in some cases as yellow as tho little rivulets that had trickled from the corners of their mouths in chew- ing, and dried there. Nor was the atmosphere quite free from zephyr whisperings, of the thirty beds which had j ust been cleared away, and of which wewerefurtherand more pressingly re- minded by the occasional appearance on the table-cloth of a kind of Game, not mentioned in the Bill of Fare. And yet despite these oddities — \ «, liincrt in tlio water and on some uf the tree tops, like lire. The men get out of the boat first ; help out the woinen ; take cut the bag, tho chest, tho chair; bid the rowers "good l>yc;" and shove tho boat ofl* for them. At the first plash of tho oars in the water, the oldest woman of the party sits down in tho uld chair, close to the water's edge, without speaking a word. None of the others sit down, though the chest is large enough for many seats. They all stand where they landed, as if stricken into stniie; and look after the boat. So they remain, quita still and silcn! ; the old woman and her old chaii', i;.i the centre ; the bag and chest upou the shore, without any- body heeding them : all eyes fixed upon the boat. It comes alongside, is made fast, the men jump on board, the engine is put in motion, and wo go hoarsely on again. There they stand yet, without tho motion of a hand. I can see them, through my glass, Avhcn, in the distance and in- creasing darkness, they arc mero specks to the eye : lingering there still : the old woman in the old chair, and all the rest about her : not stir- ring in the least degree. And thus I slowly lose them. The night is dark, and we proceed within the shadow of the wooded bank, which makes it darker. After gliding past the sombre maze of boughs for a long time, we come upon an open space where the tall trees are burning. The shape of every branch and twig is expressed in a deep red glow, and as the light win.l stirs and ruffles it, they seem to vege- tate in fire. It is such a sight as wc read of in legends of enchanted forests: saving that it is sad to see these noble works wasting away so awfully, alone; and to think how many years must come and go before 'i 112 AMERICAN NOTKS Hi f ■1 I ■I the magic that created them •^ill rear their like upon this ground ag.iin. But the time will come : and when, in their changed ashes, the growth of centuries unhorn has struck its roots, the restless men of distant ages will repair to these again unpeopled soli- tudes ; and their follows, in cities far away, that slumber now, perhaps, beneath the rolling sea, will read, in language strange to any ears in beirg now but very old to them, of primeval forests where the axe was never heard, and where the jungled ground was never trodden by a human foot. Midnight and sleep blot out these scenes and thoughts : and when the morning shines again, it gilds the house-tops of a lively city, before •whose broad paved wharf the boat is moored ; with other boats, and flags, and moving wheels, and hum of men around it; as though there were not a solitary or silent rood of ground within the compass of a thou- sand miles. Cincinnati is a beautiful city ; cheerful, thriving, and animated. I have not often seen a place that com- mends itself so favourably and plea- santly to a stranger at the first glance as this does : with its clean houses of red and white, its well-paved roads, and foot-ways of bright tile. Nor does it become less prepossessing on a closer acquaintance. The streets arc broad and airy, the shops extremely good, the private residences remark- able for their elegance and neatness. There is something of invention and fanjy in the varying styles of these latter erections, which, after the dull company of the steamboat, is per- fectly delightful, as conveying an assurance that there are such qualities still in existence. The disposition to ornament these pretty villas and render them attractive, leads to the culture of trees and flowers, and the laying out of well-kept gardens, the sight of which, to those who walk along the streets, is inexpressibly re- freshing and agreeable. I was quite charmed with the appearance of the town, and its adjoining suburb of Blount Auburn ; from which the cit}-, lying in an amphitheatre of hill?, forms a picture of remarkable beauty, and is seen to great advantage. There happened to be a great Tem- perance Convention held here on the day after our arrival ; and as the order of march brought the procesision under the windows of the hotel in which we lodged, when they started in the morning, I had a good oppor- tunity of seeing it. It comprised several thousand men ; the members of various "Washington Auxiliary Temperance Societies ;" and was mar- shalled by oflScers on horseback, who cantered briskly up and down the line, with scarves and ribbons of bright colours fluttering out behind them gaily. There were band- of music too, and banners out of number : and it was a fresh, holiday -looking concourse altogether. I was particularly pleased to see the Irishmen, who formed a distinct so- ciety among themselves, and mustered very strong with their green scarves ; carrying their national Harp and their Portrait of Father Mathew, high above the people's heads. They looked as jolly and good-humoured as ever ; and, vrorking (here) the hardest for their living and doing any kind of sturdy labour that came in their \y.iY, were the most independent fellows there, I thought. The banners were very well painted, and flaunted down the street fiimously. There was the smiting of the rock, and the gushing forth of the waters ; and there was a temperate man with "considerable of a hatchet" (as the standard-bearer would probably have said), aiming a deadly blow at a ser- FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 113 cnp, tlie 10 walk sibly re- as quite •e of the burb of the city, \h, forms y, and is sat Tern- re on the the order rocesfiion hotel in f started id oppor- omprised members Auxiliary was mar- lack, who lown the bbons of t behind band • of number: y-looking ,0 see the jtinct so- mustered scarves; arp and lew, high They lOurcd as e hardest y kind of heir w.w, fellows I painted, famously, the rock, e waters ; nan with (as the ibly have at a ser- pent which was apparently about to spring upon him from the top of a barrel of spirits. But the chief feature of this part of the show was a huge allegorical device, borne among the ship-carpenters, on one side whereof the steamboat Alcohol was represented bursting her boiler and exploding with a great crash, while upon the other, the good ship Tem- perance sailed away with a fair wind, to the heart's content of the captain, crew, and passengers. After going round the town, the procession repaired to a certain ap- pointed place, where, as the printed programme set forth, it would be received by the children of the differ- ent free schools, " singing Temper- ance Songs." I was prevented from getting there, in time to hear these Little Warblers, or to report upon tills novel kind of vocal entertain- ment: novel, at least, to me: but I found, in a large open space, each society gath'^rcd round its own ban- ners, and liste.ning in silent attention to its own orator. The speeches, judging from the little I could hear of them, were certainly adapted to the occasion, as having that degree of relationship to cold water which wet blankets may claim : but the main thing was the conduct and appear- ance of the audience throughout the day ; and that was admirable and full of promise. Cincinnati is honourably famous for its free-schools, of which it has so many that no person's child among its population can, by possibility, want the means of education, which are extended, upon an average, to four thousand pupils, annually. I was only present in one of these esta- blishments during the hours of in- struction. In the boys' department, which was full of little urchins (vaiy- ing in their ages, I should say, from six years old to ten or twelve), the No. 168. master offered to institute an extem- porary examination of the pupils in algebra ; a proposal, which, as I was by no means confident of my ability to detect mistakes in that science, I declined with some alarm. In the girls' school, reading was proposed ; and as I felt tolerably equal to that art, I expressed my willingness to hear a class. Books were distributed accordingly, and some half dozen girls relieved each other in reading paragraphs from English History. But it seemed to be a dry compilation, infi- nitely above their powers ; and when they had blundered through three or four dreary passages concerning the Treaty of Amiens, and other thrilling topics of the same nature (obviously without comprehending ten words), I expressed myself quite satisfied. It is very possible that they only mounted to this exalted stave in the Ladder of Learning for the astonish- ment of a visitor ; and that at other times they keep upon its lower rounds ; but I should have been much better pleased and satisfied if I had heard them exercised in simpler lessons, which they understood. As in every other place I visited, the Judges here were gentlemen of high character and attainments. I was in one of the courts for a few minutes, and found it like those to which I have already referred. A nuisance cause was trying; there were not many spectators ; and the witnesses, counsel, and jury, formed a sort of family circle, sufficiently jocose and snug. The society with which I mingled, was intelligent, courteous, and agree- able. The inhabitants of Cincinnati are proud of their city, as one of the most interesting in America : and with good reason : for beautiful and thriving as it is now, and containing, as it does, a population of fifty thou- sand souls, but two-and-fifty years I 8 114 AMERICAN NOTES have passed away since the ground on which it stands (bought at that time for a few dollars) was a wild wood, and its citizens were but a handful of dwellers in scattered log, huta upon the river's shore. il:i ,il t ui CHAPTER XII. FROU CINCINNATI TO LOUISVILLE IN ANOTIIRH WESTERN STEAMBOAT ; AND FROM LOUISVILLE TO ST. LOUIS IN ANOTUEK. ST. LOUIS. Lkavino Cincinnati at eleven o'clock in the forenoon, we embarked for Louisville in the Pike stcam-boat, which, carrying the mails, was a packet of a much better class than that in which we had come from Pittsburg. As this passage does not occupy more than twelve or thirteen hours, we arranged to go ashore that night : not coveting the distinction of sleeping in a state-room, when it was possible to sleep anywhere else. There chanced to be on board this boat, in addition to the usual dreary crowd of passengers, one Pitchlynn, a chief of the Choctaw tribe of Indians, who sent in his card to me, and with whom I had the pleasure of a long conversation. He spoke English perfectly well, though he had not begun to learn the language, he told me, until he was a young man grown. He had read many books ; and Scott's poetry appeared to have left a strong impres- sion on his mind : especially the opening of The Lady of the Lake, and the great battle scene in Mar- mion, in which, no doubt from the congeniality of the subjects to his own pursuits and tastes, he had great interest and delight. He appeared to understand correctly all he had read ; and whatever fiction had enlisted his sympathy in its belief, had done so keenly and earnestly. I m ight almost Bay fiercely. He was dressed in our oi^inary every-day costume, which hung about his fine figure loosely, and with indifferent grace. On my telling him that I regretted not to see him in his own attire, he threw up his right arm, for a moment, as though he were brandishing some heavy weapon, and answered, as he let it fall again, that his race were losing many things besides their dress, and would soon be seen upon the earth no more : but he wore it at home, he added proudly. He told me that he had been away from his home, west of the Mississippi, seventeen months : and was now re- turning. He had been chiefly at Washington on some negoeiations pending between his Tribe and the Government : which were not settled yet (he said in a melancholy way), and he feared never would be : for what could a few poor Indians do, against such well-skilled men of busi- ness as the whites 1 He had no love for Washington ; tired of towns and cities very soon ; and longed for the Forest and the Prairie. I asked him what he thought of Congress 1 He answered, with a smile, that it wanted dignity, in an Indian's eyes. He would very much like, he said, to see England before he died ; and • spoke with much interest about the great things to be seen there. When I told him of that chamber in the British Museum wherein are preserved household memorials of a raoe that FOli GENERAL CIRCULATION. 11.5 ceased to be, thousands of years ago, he was very attentive, and it was not hard to see that lie had a reference in his mind to the gradual fading away of his own people. This led us to speak of Mr. Catlin's gallery, which he praised highly : observing that his own portrait was among the collection, and that all the likenesses were " elegant." Mr. Cooper, he said, had painted the lied Man well ; and so would I, he knew, if I would go home with him and hunt buftaloL's, which he was quite anxious I should do. When I told him thut supposing I went, I should not be very likely to damage the buf- faloes much, he took it as a great joke and laughed heartily. He was a remarkably handsome man ; some years past forty I should judge ; with long black hair, an aqui- line nose, broad cheek bones, a sun- burnt complexion, and a very bright, keen, dark, and piercing eye. There were but twenty thousand of the Choctaws left, he said, and their number was decreasing every day. A few of his brother chiefs had been obligee' to become civilised, and to make themselves acquainted Avith what the whites knew, for it was their only chance of existence. But they were not many; and the rest were as they always had been. He dwelt on this : and said several times that unless they tried to assimilate themselves to their conquerors, they must be swept away before the strides of civilised society. When we shook hands at parting, I told him he must come to England, as he longed to see the land so much : that I should hope to see him there, one day : and that I could promise him he would be well received and kindly treated. He Avas evidently pleased by this assurance, though he rejoined with a good-humoured smile and an arch shake of his head; that the English used to be very fon«l of the Ked Men when they wanted their help, but had not cared much for them, since. He took his leave ; as stately and complete a gentleman of Nature's making, as ever I beheld ; and moved among tlie people in the boat, another kind of being. Ho sent me a litho- graphed portrait of himself soon afterwards ; very like, though scarcely han«lsome enough ; which I have care- fully preserved in memory of our brief acquaintance. There was nothing very interesting in the scenery of this day's journey, which brought us at midnight to Louisville. We slept at the Gait House ; a splendid hotel ; and were as handsomely lodged as though we had been in Paris, rather than hun- dreds of miles beyond the Alleghanies. The city presenting no objects of sufficient interest to detain us on our way, we resolved to proceed next day by another steamboat, the Vulton, and to join it, about noon, at a suburb called Portland, where it would be delayed some time in passing through a canal. The interval, after breakfast, we devoted to riding through the town, which is regular and cheerful : the streets being laid out at right angles, and planted with young trees. The buildings are smoky and blackened, from th-^ use of bituminous coal, but an Englishman is well used to that appearance, and indisposed to quarrel with it. There did not appear to be much business stirring; and some unfinished buildings and improve- ments seemed to intimate that the city had been overbuilt in the ardour of " going a-head," and was suffering under the re-action consequent upon such feverish forcing of its powers. On our way to Portland, we passed a " Magistrate's office," which amusetl me, as looking far more like a dame i2 I 116 AMERICAN NOTES .IT] school than any police establishment : for this awful Institution was nothing but a little lazy, rood-for-nothing front parlour, open to the street; wherein two or three figures (I pre- sume the magistrate and his myrmi- dons) were basking in the sunshine, the very eftigics of languor and re- pose. It was a perfect picture of Justice retired from business for want of customers ; , her sword and scales sold off; napping comfortably with her legs upon the table. Here, as elsewhere in these parts, the road was perfectly alive with pigs of all ages ; lying about in every direction, fast asleep ; or grunting along in quest of hidden dainties. I had always a sneaking kindness for these odd animals, and found a con- stant source of amusement, when all others failed, in watching their pro- ceedings. As we were riding along this morning, I observed a little inci- dent between two youthful pigs, which was 80 very human as to be inex- pressibly comical and grotesque at the time, though I daresay, in telling, it is tame enough. One young gentleman (a very deli- cate porker with several straws stick- ing about his nose, betokening recent investigations in a dunghill), was walking deliberately on, profoundly thinking, when suddenly his brother, who was lying in a miry hole unseen by him, rose up immediately before his startled eyes, ghostly with damp mud. Never was pig's whole mass of blood so turned. He started back at least three feet, gazed for a moment, and then shot off as hard as he could go : his excessively little tail vibrat- ing with speed and terror like a dis- tracted pendulum. But before he had gone very far, he began to reason with himself as to the nature of this frightful appearance ; and as he rea- soned, he relaxed his speed by gradual degrees ; until at last he stopped, and faced about. There was his brother, with the mud upon him glazing in the sun, jet staring out of the very same hole, perfectly amazed at his proceedings ! He was no sooner as- sured of this ; and he assured himself so carefully that one may almost say he shaded his eyes with his hand to see the better ; than he came back at a round trot, pounced upon him, and summarily took off a piece of his tail ; as a caution to him to be careful what he M'as about for the future, and never to play tricks with his family any more. We found the steam-boat in the canal, waiting for the slow process of getting through the lock, and Aveut on beard, where we shortly afterwards had a new kind of visitor in the person of a certain Kentucky Giant whose name is Porter, and who is of the moderate height of seven feet eight inches, in his stockings. There never was a race of people who so completely gave the lie to history as these giants, or whom all the chroniclers have so cruelly libelled. Instead of roaring and ravaging about the world, constantly catering for their cannibal larders, and perpetu- ally going to market in an unlawful manner, they are ihe meekest people in any man's acquaintance : rather in- clining to milk and vegetable diet, and bearing anything for a quiet life. So decidedly are amiability and mild- ness their characteristics, that I con- fess I look upon that youth who dist tinguished himself by the slaughter of these inoffensive persons, as a false- hearted brigand, who, pretending to philanthropic motives, was secretly influenced only by the wealth stored up within their castles, and the hope of plunder. And I lean the more to this opinion from finding that even the historian of those exploits, with all his partiality for his hero, is fain to admit that the slaughtered mon- mm FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 117 stcrs in question were of a very inno- cent and simple turn ; extremely guileless and ready of belief; lending a credulous ear to the most impro- bable tales; suffering themselves to be easily entrapped into pits ; and even (as in the case of the Welsh Giant) with an excess of the hospit- able politeness of a landlord, ripping themselves open, rather than hint at the possibility of their guests being versed in the vagabond arts of sleight- of-hand and hocus-pocus. The Kentucky Giant was but ano- ther illustration of the truth of this position. He had a weakness in the region of the knees, and a trustful- ness in his long face, which appealed even to five-feet-nine for encourage- ment and support. He was only twenty-five years old, he said, and had grown recently, for it had been found necessary to make an addition to the legs of his inexpressibles. At fifteen he was a short boy, and in those days his English father and his Irish mother had rather snubbed him, as being too small of stature to sustain the credit of the family. He added that his health had not been good, though it Avas better now ; but short people are not wanting who whisper that he drinks too hard. I understand he drives a hackney- coach, though how he does it, unless he stands on the footboard behind, and lies along the roof upon his chest, with his chin in the box, it would be difficult to comprehend. He brought Ills gun with him, as a curiosity. Christened "The Little Rifle," and displayed outside a shop-window, it would make the fortune of any retail business in Holborn. When he had shown himself and talked a little while, he withdrew with his pocket- instrument, and went bobbing down the cabin, among men of six feet high and upwards, like a lighthouse walk- ing among lamp-posts. Within a few minutes afterwards, we were out of the canal, and in the Ohio river again. The arrangements of the boat were like those of the Messenger, and the passengers were of the same order of people. We fed at the same times, on the same kind of viands, in the same dull manner, and with the same ob- servances. The company appeared to be oppressed by the same tre* mendous concealments, and had as little capacity of enjoyment or light- heartedness. I never in my life did see such listless, heavy dulness as brooded over these meals : the very recollection of it weighs me down, and makes me, for the moment, wretched. Reading and writing on my knee, in our little cabin, I really dreaded the coming of the hour that summoned us to table ; and was as glad to escape from it again, as if it had been a penance or a punishment. Healthy cheerfulness and good spirits forming a part of the banquet, I could soak my crusts in the fountain with Le Sage's strolling player, and revel in their glad enjoyment : but sitting down with so many fellow-animals to ward off thirst and hunger as a busi- ness ; to empty, each creature, his Yahoo's trough as quickly as he can, and then slink sullenly away ; to have these social sacraments stripped of everj'thing but the mere greedy satisfaction of the natural cravings ; goes so against the grain with me, that I seriously believe the recollec- tion of these funeral feasts will be a waking nightmare to me all my life. There was some relief in this boat, too, which there had not been in the other, for the captain (a blunt good- natured fellow), had his handsome wife with him, who was disposed to be lively and agreeable, as were a few other lady-passengers who had their seats about us at the same end of the table. But nothing could have made llii AMERICAN NOTES head (gainst the depressing influence of the general body. There was a magnetism of dulncss in them which would have beaten down the most facetious companion that the earth ever knew. A jest would have been a crime, and a smile would have faded into a grinning horror. Such deadly leaden people ; such systematic plod- ding weary insupportable heaviness; such a mass of animated indigestion in respect of all that was genial, jovial, frank, social, or hearty ; never, sure, was brought together elsewhere since the world began. Nor was the scenery, as we ap- proached the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, at all inspiriting in its influence. The trees were stunted in their growth ; the banks were low and flat ; the settlements and log cabins fewer in number : their inha- bitants more wan and wretched than any we had encountered yet. No songs of birds were in the air, no pleasant scents, no moving lights and shadows from swift passing clouds. Hour after hour, the changeless glare of the hot, unwinking sky, shone upon the same monotonous objects. Hour after hour, the river rolled along, as wearily and slowly as the time itself At length, upon the morning of the third day, we arrived at a spot so much more desolate than any we had yet beheld, that the forlornest places we had passed, were, in comparison with it, full of interest. At the junc- tion of the two rivers, on ground so flat and low and marshy, that at cer- tain seasons of the year it is inundated to the house-tops, lies a breeding-place of fever, ague, and death ; vaunted in England as a mine of Golden Hope, and speculated in, on the faith of monstrous representations, to many people's ruin. A dismal swamp, on which the half-built houses rot away : cleared here and there for the space of a few yarda; and teeming, then, with rank unwholesome vegetation, in whose baleful shade the wretched wan- derers who arc tempted hither, droop, and die, and lay their bones ; the hateful Mississippi circling and eddy- ing before it, and turning off upon its southern course a slimy monster hideous to behold; a hotbed of disease, an ugly sepulchre, a grave uncheered by any gleam of promise : a place with- out one single quality, in earth or air or water, to commend it : such is this dismal Cairo. But what words shall describe the Mississippi, great father of rivers, who (praise be to Heaven) has no young children like him ! An enormous ditch, sometimes two or three miles wide, running liquid mud, six miles an hour : its strong and frothy current choked and obstructed everywhere by huge logs and whole forest trees : now twining themselves together in great rafts, from the interstices of which a sedgy lazy foam works up, to float upon the water's top; now rolling past like monstrous bodies, their tangled roots showing like matted hair; now glanc-ng singly by like giant leeches ; and now writhing round and round in the vortex of some small whirlpool, like wounded snakes. The banks low, the trees dwarfish, the marshes swarm- ing with frogs, the wretched cabins few and far apart, their inmates hol- low-cheeked and pale, the weather very hot, mosquitoes penetrating into every crack and crevice of the boat, mud and slime on everything : nothing pleasant in its aspect, but the harm- less lightning which flickers every night upon the dark horizon. For two days vro toiled up this foul stream, striking constantly against the floating timber, or stopping to avoid those more dangerous obstacles, the snags, or sawj'ers, which are the hidden trunks of trees that have their roots below the tide. When the nights are very dark, the look-out stationed in FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 119 station, in ;hed wan- er, droop, nes; the lad eddy- off upon ■ monster 3f disease, incheered ilace with- irth or air ich is this scribe the ivers, who no young enormous iree miles six miles by current ywhere by trees : now jr in great )f which a 3, to float sUing past ir tangled hair; now t leeches ; round in whirlpool, )ank8 low, les swarm- ed cabins nates hol- ather very into every )oat, mud nothing the harm- 3rs every this foul gainst the f to avoid acles, the he hidden heir roots lights are itioned in the head of the boat, knows by the ripple of the water if any great impe- diment be near at hand, and rings a bell beside him, which is the signal for the engine to be stopped : but always in the night this bell has work to do, and after every ring, there comes a blow which renders it no easy matter to remain in bed. The decline of day here was very gorgeous ; tinging the firmament deeply with red and gold, up to the very keystone of the arch above us. As the sun went down behind the bank, the slightest blades of grass upon it seemed to become as distinctly visible as the arteries in the skeleton of a leaf; and when, as it slowly sank, the red and golden bars upon the water grew dimmer, and dimmer yet, as if they were sinking too ; and all the glowing colours of departing day paled, inch by inch, before the sombre night ; the scene became a thousand times more lonesome and more dreary than before, and all its influences darkened with the sky. We drank the muddy water of this river while we were upon it. It is considered wholesome by the natives, and is something more opaque than gruel. I have seen water like it at the Filter-shops, but nowhere else. On the fourth night after leaving Louisville, we reached St. Louis, and here I witnessed the conclusion of an incident, trifling enough in itself but very pleasant to see, which had inte- rested me during the whole journey, There was a little woman on board, with a little baby; and both little woman and little child were cheerful, good-looking, bright-eyed, and fair to see. The little woman had been pass- ing a long time with her sick mother in New York, and had left her homo in St. Louis, in that condition in which ladies who truly love their lords desire to be. The baby was born in her mother's house ; and she had not seen her husband (to whom ehe was now returning), for twelve months: having left him a month or two after their marriage. Well, to be sure there never was a little woman so full of hope, and ten- derne.^s, and love, and anxiety, as this little woman was: and all daylong she wondered whether " He " would be at the wharf ; and whether " He " had got her letter ; and whether, if she sent the baby ashore by somebody else, " He " would know it, meeting it in the street : which, seeing that he had never set eyes upon it in his life, was not very likely in the abstract, but was probable enough, to the young mother. She was such an artless little creature; and was in such a sunny, beaming, hopeful state; and let out all this matter clinging close about her heart, so freely ; that all the other lady passengers entered into the spirit of it as much as she ; and the captain (who heard all about it from his wife), was wondrous slj', I promise you : inquiring, every time we met at table, as in forgetfulness, whether she ex- pected anybody to meet her at St. Louis, and whether she would want to go a«hore the night we reached it (but he supposed she wouldn't), and cutting many other dry jokes of that nature. There was one little weazen, dried-apple-faced old woman, who took occasion to doubt the constancy of husbands in such circumstances of bereavement ; and there was another lady (with a lap dog) old enough to moralize on the lightness of human affections, and yet not so old that she could help nursing the baby, now and then, or laughing with the rest, when the little woman called it by its father's name, and asked it all manner of fantastic questions concerning him in the joy of her heart. It was something of a blow to the little woman, that when we were within twenty miles of our destination, ' I \m 120 AMERICAN NOTES h ' I I it became clearly necessary to put this baby to bed. But sho got over it with the same good humour ; tied a handkerchief round her head; and came out into the little gallery with the rest. Then, such an oracle aa she became in reference to the localities ! and such facetiousness as was dis- played by the married ladies! and such sympathy as was shown by the single ones ! and such peals of laughter as the little woman herself (who would just as soon have cried) greeted every jest with f At last, there were the lights of St. Louis, and here was the wharf, and those were the steps : and the little woman covering her face with her hands, and laughing (or seeming to laugh) more than ever, ran into her own cabin, and shut herself up. I have no doubt that in the charming incon- sistency of such excitement, she stopped her ears, lest she should hear " Him " asking [for her : but I did not see her do it. Then, a great crowd of people rushed on board, though the boat was not yet made fast, but was wandering about, among the other boats, to find a landing place : and everybody looked for the husband : and nobody saw him : when, in the midst of us all — Heaven knows how she ever got there — there was the little woman clinging with both arms tight round the neck of a fine, good-looking, sturdy young fellow ! and in a moment afterwards, there she was again, actually clapping her little hands for joy, as she dragged him through the small door of her small cabin, to look at the baby as he lay asleep ! We went to a large hotel, called the Planters House : built like an English hospital, with long passages and bare walls, and skylights above the room- doors for the free circulation of j.ir. There were a great many boarders in it ; and as many lights sparkled and glistened from the windows down into the street below, when we drove up, as if it had been illuminated on some occasion of rejoicing. It is an excel- lent house, and the proprietors have most bountiful notions of providing the creature comforts. Dining alone with my wife in our own room, one day, I counted fourteen dishes on the table at once. In the old French portion of the town, the thoroughfares are narrow and crooked, and some of the houses are very quaint and picturesque : being built of wood, with tumble-down galleries before the windows, ap- proachable by stairs or rather ladders from the street. Tlicre are queer little barbers' bhops and drinking- houses too, in this quarter; and abundance of crazy old tenements with blinking casements, such as may be seen in Flanders. Some of these ancient habitations, with high garret gable-windows perking into the roofs, have a kind of French shrug about them ; and being lop-sided with age, appear to hold their heads askew, besides, as if they were grimacing in astonishment at the American Im- provements. It is hardly necessary to say, that these consist of wharfs and warehouses, and new buildings in all directions; and of a great many vast plans which are still "progressing." Already, however, some very good houses, broad streets, and marble-fronted shops, have gone so far a-head as to be in a state of completion ; and the town bids fair in a few years to im- prove considerably : though it is not likely ever to vie, in point of elegance or beauty, with Cincinnati. The Roman Catholic religion, intro- duced here by the early French set- tlers, prevails extensively. Among the public institutions aio a Jesuit college ; a convent for " the Ladies of the Sacred Heart ; " and a large chapel own into rove up, on some an excel- ors have >roviding ing alone com, one cs on the •n of the 8 narrow te houses Luresque : Lble-down lows, ap- iv ladders ire queer drinking- ber ; and enementR 3h as may i of these gh garret the roofs, ug about with age, Is askew, acing in lican Im- say, that [rehouses, jrections ; Ins which Already, houses, le-fronted !ad as to and the to im- lit is not lelegance \n, intro- ich set- I Among Jesuit ladies of chapel FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 121 attached to the college, which was in course of erection at the time of my visit, and was intended to be conse- crated on the second of December in the next year. The architect of this building, is one of the reverend fathers of the school, and the works proceed under his sole direction. The organ will be sent from Belgium. In addition to these establishments, there is a Roman Catholic cathedral, dedicated to Saint Francis Xavier; and a hospital, founded by the muni- ficence of a deceased resident, who was a member of that church. It also sends missionaries from hence among the Indian tribes. The Unitarian church is represented, in this remote place, as in most other parts of America, by a gentleman of great worth and excellence. The poor have good reason to remember and bless it ; for it befriends them, and aids the cause of rational education, without any sectarian or selfish views. It is liberal in all its actions ; of kind construction; and of wide benevolence. There are three free-schools already erected, and in full operation in this city. A fourth is building, and will Boon be • pened. Ko man ever admits the unhoalthi- ness of the place he dwells in (unless he is going away from it), and I shall therefore, I have no doubt, be at issue with the inhabitants of St. Louis, in questioning the perfect salubrity of its climate, and in hinting that I think it must rather dispose to fever, in the summer and autumnal seasons. Just adding, that it is very hot, lies among great rivers, and has vast tracts of undraincd swampy land around it, I leave the reader to form his own opinion. As I had a great desire to sec a Prairie before turning back from the furthest point of my wanderings ; and as some gentlemen of the town had, in their hospitable consideration, an equal desire to gratify me ; a day was fixed, before my departure, for an expedition to the Looking-Glass Prairie, which is within thirty miles of the town. Deeming it possible that my readers may not object to know what kind of thing such a gipsy party may be at that distance from home, and among what sort of objects it moves, I will describe the jaunt in another chapter. v 122 AMERICAN NOTKft i! I CHAPTER XIII. A JAUNT TO THE LOOKINOOLASS PRAIRIE AND BACK. I MAY premiao that the word Prairie is variously pronounced paraaer, par- carer, and paroarer. The latter mode of pronunciation is perliaps the most in favour. We were fourteen in all, and all young men : indeed it is a singular though very natural feature in the society of these distant settlements, that it is mainly composed of adven- turous persons in the prime of life, and has very few grey heads among it. There were no ladies : the trip being a fatiguing one : and we were to start at five o'clock in the morning punctually. I was called at four, that I might be certain of keeping nobody waiting; and having got some bread and milk for breakfast, threw up the window and looked down into the street, ex- pecting to see the whole party busily astir, and great preparations going on below. But as everything was very quiet, and the street presented that hopeless aspect with which five o'clock in the morning is familiar elsewhere, I deemed it as well to go to bed again, and went accordingly. I awoke again at seven o'clock, and by that time the party had assembled, and were gathered round, one light carriage, with a very stout axletree ; one something on wheels like an amateur carrier's cart ; one double phaeton of great antiquity and un- earthly construction ; one gig with a great hole in its back and a broken head; and one rider on horseback who was to go on before. I got into the first coach with three companions; the rest bestowed themselTOS in the other vehicles ; two large baskets were made fast to the lightest ; two large stone jars in wicker cases, tech- nically known as demijohns, were consigned to the "least rowdy" of the party for safe keeping ; and the procession moved off to the ferry-boat, in which it was to cross the river bodily, men, horses, carriages, and all, as the manner in these parts is. We got over the river in due course, and mustered again before a little wooden box on wheels, hove down all aslant in a morass, with " msbchant TAILOR " painted in very large letters over the door. Having settled the order of proceeding, and the road to be taken, we started off once more and began to make our way through an ill-favoured Black Hollow, called, less expressively, the American Bottom. The previous day had been — not to say hot, for the term is weak and lukewarm in its power of conveying an idea of the temperature. The town had been on fire ; in a blaze. But at night it had come on to rain in tor- rents, and all night long it had rained without cessation. We had a pair of very strong horses, but travelled at the rate of little more than a couple of miles an hour, through one un- broken slough of black mud and water. It had no variety but in depth. Now it was only half over the wheels, now it hid the axletree, and now the coach sank down in it almost to the windows. The air re- sounded la all directions with the loud FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 198 es in the baskets Lest; twt) aes, tech- ins, were )wdy" of and the erry-boat, the river B, and all, i is. ue course, e a little ( down all UEBOHAirr ■ge letters ittled the e road to ace more through w, called, A.merican ' a — not to reak and onveying ^he town But at n in tor- id rained a pair of veiled at a couple one un- nud and but in alf over axletree, >wn in it le air re- the loud chirping of the frogs, who, with the pigs (a coarse, ugly breed, as unwhole- some-looking as though they were the spontaneous growth of the country), had the whole scene to themselves. Here and there we passed a log hut ; but the wretched cabins were wide apart and thinly scattered, for though the soil is very rich in this place few people can exist in such a deadly atmosphere. On either side of the track, if it deserve the name, Avas the thick "bush;" and everywhere was stagnant, slimy, rotten, filthy water. As it is the custom in these parts to give a horse a gallon or so of cold water whenever ho is in a foam with heat, we halted for that purpose, at a log inn in the wood, far removed from any other residence. It consisted of one room, bare-roofed and bare-walled of course, with a loft above. The ministering priest was a swarthy young ravage, in a shirt of cotton print like bed-furniture, and a pair of ragged trousers. There were a couple of young boys, too, nearly naked, lying idly by the well ; and they, and he, and the traveller at the inn, turned out to look at us. The traveller was an old man with a grey gristly beard two inches long, a shaggy moustache of the same hue, and enormous eyebrows; which almost obscured his lazy, semi-drunken glance, as he stood regarding us with folded arms : poising himself alter- nately upon his toes and heels. On being addressed by one of the party, he drew nearer, and said, rubbing his chin (which scraped under his horny hand like fresh gravel beneath a nailed shoe), that he was from Dela- ware, and had lately bought a farm "down there" pointing into one of the marshes where the stunted trees were thickest. He was " going," he added, to St. Louis, to fetch his family, whom he had left behind ; but he seemed in no great hurry to bring on these incumbrances, for when we moved away, he loitered back into the cabin, and was plainly bent on stopping there so long as his money lasted. He was a grout politician of course, and explained his opinions at some length to one of onr company ; but I only remember that he con- clutled with two sentiments, one of which was. Somebody for ever ; and the other, Blast everybody else ! which is by no means a bad abstract of the general creed in these matters. When the horses were swollen out to about twice their natural dimen- sions (there seems to be an idea here, that this kind of inflation improves their going), we went forward again, through mud and mire, and damp, and festering heat, and brako and bush, attended always by the music of the frogs and pigs, until nearly noon, Avlien we halted at a place called Belleville. Belleville was a small collection of wooden houses, huddled together in the very heart of the l)ush and swamp. Many of them had singularly bright doors of red and yellow ; for the place had been lately visited by a travelling painter, " who got along," as I was told, " by eating his way." The criminal court was sitting, and was at that moment trying some criminals for horse stealing : with whom it would most likely go hard : for live stock of all kinds being necessarily very much exposed in the woods, is held by the community in rather higher value than human life ; and for this reason, juries generally make a point of finding all men indicted for cattle-stealing, guilty, whether or no. The horses belonging to the bai-, the judge, and witnesses, were tied to temporary racks set up roughly in the road ; by which is to be understood, a forest path, nearly knee-deep in mud and slime. m 124 AMKUICAN NOTfS There was an hotel in thin placet which, like all hoteU in America, had ' its large dining-room for tlic public : table. It was an odd, «haml)ling, i low-roofed out-house, half-cowslied and half-kitchen, with a coarse brown canvas table-cloth, and tin sconces stuck against the walls, to hold candles at supper-time. The horse- man had gone for^vard to have coffee and some eatables prepared, and they were by this time nearly ready. He had ordered " wheat-bread and chicken fixings," in preference to " corn-bread and common doings." The latter kind of refection includes only pork and bacon. The former comprehends broiled ham, sausages, veal cutlets, steaks, and such other viands of that nature as may be sup- posed, by a tolerably wide poetical construction, "to fix" a chicken comfortably in the digestive organs of any lady or gentleman. On one of the door-posts at this inn, was a tin plate, whereon was inscribed in characters of gold "Doc- tor Crocus;" and on a sheet of paper, pasted up by the side of this plate, was a written announcement that Dr. Crocus would tlat evening deliver a lecture on Phrenology for the benefit of the Belleville public ; at a charge, for admission, of so much a head. Straying up stairs, during the pre- paration of the chicken-fixings, I happened to pass the Doctor's cham- ber ; and as the door stood wide open, and the room was empty, I made bold to peep in. It was a bare, unfurnished, com- fortless room, with an unframcd por- trait hanging up at the head of the bed ; a likeness, I take it, of the Doctor, for the forehead was fully displayed, and great stress was laid by the artist upon its phrenological developments. The bed itself was covered with an old patchwork counterpane. The room was destitute of carpet or of curtain. There was a damp fire-place without any stove, full of wood ashes ; a cliuir, and a very small table ; and on the last- named piece of furniture was dis- played, in grand array, the doctor's library, consisting of some lialf-dozcn greasy old books. Now, it certainly looked about tlic last apartment on the wliolc earth out of which any man would be likely to get anything to do him good. But the door, as I have said, stood coaxingly open, and plainly said in conjunction with the chair, the por- trait, the table, and the books, "Walk in, gentlemen, walk in ! Don't be ill, gentlemen, when you may be well in no time. Doctor Crocus is here, gentlemen, the celebrated Doctor Crocus ! Doctor Crocus has come all this way to cure you, gentlemen. If you haven't heard of Doctor Crocus, it 's your fault, gentlemen, who live a little way out of the world here : iiot Doctor Crocus's. AValk in, gen- tlemen, walk in ! " In the passage below, when I went down stairs again, was Doctor Crocus himself. A crowd had flocked in from the Court House, and a voice from among them called out to tl>o landlord, "Colonel! introduce Doctor Crocus." " Mr. Dickens," says the colonel, "Doctor Crocus." Upon which Doctor Crocus, who is a tall, fine-looking Scotchman, but rather fierce and warlike in appear- ance for a professor of tlie peaceful art of healing, bursts out of the con- course with his right arm extended, and his chest thrown out as far as it will possibly come, and says : " Your countryman, sir ! " Whereupon Doctor Crocus and 1 shake hands ; and Doctor Crocus looks as if I didn't by any means realise his expectations, which, in a linen blouse, and a great straw hat mm FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. I-:.) ere wa« a \y Htovu, r, and a the lOAtr was dis- (loc tor's lalf-dozcu ibout the f)lc earth rould be dm good, bid, Htood y said in. the por- 8, "Walk Don't be \y be well is here. Doctor ; come all ;men. If r Crocus, who live rid here : in, gen- jn I wenk ar Crocus ocked in a voice ut to tlw 36 Doctor colonel, ,s, who is nan, but appear- peaceful the con- xtended, far as it IS and I • Crocus yr means ch, in a raw hat M'Uh a green ribbon, and no glovcH, and my fucu and noHo profuaoly orna- mented with the stingii of mo8(|uitoeH and the bites* of bugs, it is very likely 1 did not. " Long in these parts, sir ] " says I. " Three or four months, sir," says the Doctor. " Do you think of soon returning to the old country, sir!" says I. Doctor Crocus makes no verbal answer, but gives mo an imploring look, which says so phvinly ' Will you ask mc that again, a little louder, if you jilcase ; ' that I repeat the question. " Tliink of soon returning to the old country, sir!" repeats the Doctor. " To the old country, sir," I rejoin. Doctor Crocus looks round upon the crowd to observe the efl'ect he produces, rubs his hands, and says, in a very loud voice : " Not yet awhile, sir, not yet. You won't catch me at that just yet, sir. I am a little too fond of freedom for that, sir. Ha, ha ! It's not so rasy for a man to tear himself from v. free country such as this is, sir. Ila, ha ! No, no ! Ha, ha ! None of that till onc'.s obliged to do it, sir. No, no ! " As Doctor Crocus says these latter words, he shakes his head, knowingly, and laughs again. Many of the by- j^tanders shako their heads in concert with the doctor, and laugh too, and look at each other as much as to say, * A pretty bright and first-rate sort of chap is Crocus!' and unless I am very much mistaken, a good many people went to the lecture that night, who never thought about phrenology, or about Doctor Crocus either, in all their lives before. From Belleville, we went on, through the same desolate kind of waste, and constantly attended, with- out the interval of a moment, by the same music ; until, at three o'clock in the afternoon, we halted once more at a village called Lebanon to inflate the horses again, and give them some corn besides : of which they stood much in need. Tending this cere- mony, I walked into the village, where 1 met a full sized dwelling- house coming «lown-hitl at a round trot, drawn by a score or more of oxen. The public house was so very clean and good a one, that the managers of the jaunt resolved to return to it and put up there for the night, if possible. This course decided on, and the horses being well refreshed, we again pushed forward, and came upon the Truirie at sunset. It would be difHcult to say w!\y, o." how — though it was possibly iV'ni having heard and read so much abou. it — but the eU'ect on me was disap- pointment. Looking towards the setting sun, there lay, stretched out before my view, a vast expanse of level ground ; unbroken, save l)y one thin line of trees, which scarcely amounted to a scratch upon the great blank ; until it met the glowing sky, wherein it seemed to dip : mingling with its rich colours, and mellowing in its distant blue. There it lay, a tranquil sea or lake without water, if such a simile be admissible, with the day going down upon it : a few birds wheeling here and there: and soli- tude and silence reigning paramount around. But the grass was not yet high ; there were bare black patches on the ground ; and the few wild flowers that the eye could see, were poor and scanty. Great as the picture was, its very flatness and extent, which left nothing to the imagination, tamed it down and cramped its inte- rest. I felt little of that sense of freedom and exhilaration which a Scottish heath inspires, or even our English downs awaken. It was lonely and wild, but oppressive in its barren \ I 12C AMERICAN NOTES ! 1 t< H monotony. I felt that in traversing the Prairies, I could never abandon iiiyself to the scene, forgetful of all else; as I should do instinctively, were the heather underneath my feet, or an iron-bound coast beyond ; but should often glance towards the dis- tant and frequently-receding line of the horizon, and wish it gained and passed. It is not a scene to be for- gotten, but it is scarcely one, I think (at all events, as I saw it), to remem- ber with much pleasure, or to covet the looking-on again, in after life. We encamped near a solitary log- house, for the sake of its water, and dined upon the plain. The baskets contained roast fowls, buflalo's tongue (an exquisite dainty, by the way), ham, bread, cheese, and butter ; bis- cuits, champagne, sherry ; lemons and sugar for punch ; and abundance of rough ice. The meal was delicious, and the entertainers were the soul of kindness and good humour. I have often recalled that cheerful party to my pleasant recollection since, and shall not easily forget, in junketings nearer home with friends of older date, my boon companions on the Prairie. Returning to Lebanon that night, we lay at the little inn at which we had halted m the afternoon. In point of cleanliness and comfort it would have suffered by no comparison with any village alehouse, of a homely kind, in England. Rising at five o'clock next morning, 1 took a walk about the village : none of the houses were strolling about to- day, but it was early for them yet, perhaps : and then amused myself by lounging in a kind of farm-yard be- hind the tavern, of which the leading features were, a strange jumble of rough sheds for stables ; a rude colon- nade, built as a cool place of summer resort ; a deep well ; a great earthen mound for keeping vegetables in, in winter time ; and a pigeon-house, whose little apertures looked, as they do in all pigeon-houses, very much too small for the admission of the plump and swelling-breasted birds who were strutting about it, though they tried to get in never so hard. That interest exhausted, I took a sur- vey of the inn's two parlours, which were decorated with coloured prints of Washington, and President Madison, and of a white faced young lady (much i:»peckled by the flies), who held up her gold neck-chain for the admira- tion of the spectator, and informed all admiring comers that she was " Just Seventeen ; " although I should have thought her older. In the best room were two oil portraits of the kit-cat size, representing the landlord and his infant son ; both looking as bold as lions, and staring out of the canvas with an intensity that would have been cheap at any price. They weie painted, I think, by the artist who had touched up the Belleville doors with red and gold ; for I seemed to recognise his style immediately. After breakfast, we started to return by a different way from that which we had taken yesterday, and coming up at ten o'clock with an en- campment of German emigrants car- rying their goods in carts, who had made a rousing fire which they were just quitting, stopped there to refresh. And very pleasant the fire was; for, hot though it had been yesterday, it was quite cold to-day, and the wind blew keenly. Looming in the dis- tance, as we rode along, was another of the ancient Indian burial-places, called The Monks' Mound ; in me- mory of a body of fanatics of the order of La Trappe, who founded a desolate convent there, many years ago, when there were no settlers within a thousand miles, and were all swept off by the pernicious climate : in which lamentable iktality, ,few FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 127 :eon-houscv sd, as they ery much on of the ted birds it, though T so hard, took a sur- lurs, which red prints it Madison, lady (much ,0 held up 10 admira- l informed ,t she was ;h I should In the best lits of the 10 landlord looking as out of the /hat would •ice. They ' the artist Belleville )r I seemed sdiately. started to from that erday, and ith an en- trants car- I, who had they were s to refresh. > was; for, isterday, it the wind n the dis- is another rial-places, ; in me- ics of the founded a lany years settlers id were all climate : ality, _ few rational people will suppose, perhaps, that society experienced any very severe deprivation. The track of to-day had the same features as the track of yesterday. There was the swamp, the bush, the perpetual chorus of frogs, the ank unseemly growth, the unwholesome steaming earth. Here and there, and frequently too, we encountered a solitaiy broken-down waggon, full of some new settler's goods. It was a pitiful sight to sec one of these vehicles deep in the mire ; the axle- tree broken ; the wheel lying idly by its side; the man gone miles away, to look for assistance ; the woman seated among their wan- dering household gods with a baby at her breast, a picture of forloni, dejected patience ; the team of oxen crouching down mournfully in the mud, and breathing forth such clouds of vapour from their mouths and nostrils, that all the damp mist and fog around seemed to have come direct from them. In due time we mustered once again before the merchant tailorV, and having done so, crossed over to the city in the ferry-boat : passing, on the way, a spot called Bloody Island, the duelling-ground of St. Louis, and so designated in honour of the last fatal combat fought there, which was with pistols, breast to breast. Both combatants fell dead upon the ground ; and possibly some rational people may think of them, as of the gloomy madmen on the Monks' Mound, that they were no great loss to the community. 128 AMERICAN NOTES CHAPTER XIV. RETURN TO CINCINNATI. A STAGE-COACH RIDE FROM THAT CITY TO COLUMBUS, AND THENCE TO SANDUSKY. SO, BY LAKE ERIE, TO THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. I » :! As I had a desire to travel through the interior of the state of Ohio, and to "strike the lakes," as the phrase is, at a small town called Sandusky, to which that route would conduct us on our way to Niagai-a, we had to return from St. Jiouis by the way we had come, and to retrace our former track as far as Cincinnati. The day on which wo were to take leave of St. Louis being very fine; and the steamboat, which was to have started I don't know how early in the morning, postponing, for the third or fourth time, her departure until the afternoon ; wc rode forward to an old French village on the river, called properly Carondelet, and nicknamed Vide Poche, and arranged that the packet should call for us there. The place consisted of a few poor cottages, and two or three public- houses ; the state of whose larders certainly seemed to justify the second designation of the village, for there was nothing to cat in any of them. At length, however, by going back some half a mile or so, we found a solitary house where ham .ind coffee were' procurable ; and there we tarried to await the advent of the boat, which would come in sight from the green before the door, a long way off. It was a neat, unpretending village tavern, and we took our repast in a quaint little room with a bed in it, decorated with some old oil paintings, which in their time had probably done duty in a Catholic chapel or monastery. The fare was very good. and served with great cleanliness. The house was kept by a character- istic old couple, with whom we had a long talk, and who were perhaps a very good sample of that kind of people in the West. The landlord was a dry, tough, hard-faced old fellow (not so very old either, for he was but just turned sixty, I should think), who had been out with the militia in the last war with England, and had seen all kinds of service, — except a battle ; and he had been very near seeing that, he added : very near. He had all his life been restless and locomotive, with an irresistible desire for change ; and was still the son of his old self : for if he had nothing to keep him at home, he 'said (slightly jerking his hat and his thumb towards the window of the room in which the old lady sat, as we stood talking in front of the house) he would clean up his musket, and be off to Texas to-morrow morning. He was one of the very many descendants of Cain proper to this continent, who seem destined from their birth to serve as pioneers in the great human army : who gladly go on from year to year extending its outposts, and leaving home after home behind them ; and die at last, utterly regard- less of their graves being left thousands of miles behind, by the wandering generation who succeed. His wife was a domesticated kind< hearted old soul, who had come with him "from the queen city of the world," which, it seemed, was Phila* FUR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 1-29 LUMBUS, GAUA.. anliness. iiaracter- VQ had a 3rhap3 a kind of ', tough, very old t turned had been last war all kinds ; and he r that, he id all his •tive, with nge; and If: for if at home, hat and ow of the sat, as we he house) et, and be ling. He lacendants nent, who birth to tat human Tom year posts, and behind y regard- eing left A, by the succeed, ited kind- come with of the w&s Phila- delphia; but had no love for this Western country, and indeed had little reason to bear it any ; having seen her children, one by one, die here of fever, in the full prime and beauty of their youth. Her heart was sore, she said, to think of them ; and to talk on this theme, even to strangers, in that blighted place, so far from her old home, eased it somewhat, and became a melancholy pleasure. The boat appearing towards even- ing, we bade adieu to the poor old lady and _ her vagrant spouse, and making for the nearest landing-place, were soon on board The Messenger again, in our old cabin, and steaming down the Mississippi. If the coming up this river, slowly making head against the stream, be an irksome journey, the shooting down it with the turbid current is almost worse ; for then the boat, pro- ceeding at the rate of twelve or fifteen miles an hour, has to force i-ts passage through a labyrinth of float- ing logs, which, in the dark, it is often impossible to see beforehand or avoid. All that night, the bell was never silent for five minirtes at a time ; and after every ring the vessel reeled again, sometimes beneath a single blow, sometimes beneath a dozen dealt in quick succession, the lightest of which seemed more than enough to beat in her frail keel, as though it had been pie-crust. Looking down upon the filthy river after dark, it seemed to be alive with monsters, as these black masses rolled upon the surface, or came starting up again, head first, when the boat, in ploughing her way among a shoal of such obstructions, drove a few among them for the moment under water. Sometimes, the engine stopped during a long interval, and then before her and behind, and gathering close about her on all sides, were so many of these ill- No. 169. favoured obstacles that she was fairly hemmed in ; the centre of a floating island ; and was constrained to pause until they parted, somewhere, as dark clouds will do before the wind, and opened by degrees a channel out. In good time next morning, how- ever, we came again in sight of the detestable morass called Cairo ; and stopping there to take in wood, lay alongside a barge, whose starting timbers scarcely held together. It was moored to the bank, and on its side was painted " Coffee House ;" that being, I suppose, the floating paradise to which the people fly for shelter when tVey lose tlieir houses for a mont' or two beneath the hideous waters of the Mississippi. But look- ing southward from this point, we had the satisfaction of seeing that intolerable river dragging its slimy length and ugly freight abruptly off towards New Orleans ; and passing a yellow line which stretched across the current, were again upon the clear Ohio, never, I trust, to see the Mis- sissippi more, saving in troubled dreams and nightmares. Leaving it for the company of its sparkling neighbour, was like the transition from pain to ease, or the awakening from a horrible vision to_ cheerful realities. We arrived at Louisville on the fourth night, and gladly availed our- selves of its excellent hotel. Next day we went on in the Ben Franklin, a beautiful mail steam-boat, and reached Cincinnati shortly after mid- night. Being by this time nearly tired of sleeping upon shelves, we had remained awake to go ashore straightway; and groping a passage across the dark decks of other boats, and among labyrinths of engine- machinery and leaking casks of molasses, we reached the streets, knocked up the porter at the hotel where .. . hud staid before, and were, t 9 130 AMERICAN NOTES i} I to onr pjreat joy, safely housed soon afterwards. We rested but one day. at Cincin- nati, and then resumed our journey to Sandusky. As it comprised two varieties of stago-coach travelling, which, with those I have already glanced at, comprehend the main characteristics of this mode of transit in America, I will take the reader as our fellow-passenger, and pledge my- self to perform the distance with all possible despatch. Our place of destination in the first instance is Columbus. It is distant about a hundred and twenty miles from Cincinnati, but there is a mac- adamised road (rare blessing I) the ■whole way, and the rate of travelling upon it is six miles an hour. We start at eight o'clock in the ' morning, in a great mail-coach, whose huge cheeks are so very ruddy and plethoric, that it appears to be troubled with a tendency of blood to the head. Dropsical it certainly is, for it will hold a dozen passengers inside. But, wonderful to add, it is very clean and bright, being nearly new ; and rattles through the streets of Cincinnati gaily. Our way lies through a beautiful country, richly cultivated, and luxu- riant in its promise of an abundant harvest. Sometimes we pass a field where the strong bristling stalks of Indian com look like a crop of walk- ing-sticks, and sometimes an enclosure where the green wheat is springing up among a labyrinth of stumps; the primitive worm-fence is universal, and an ugly thing it is ; but the farms are neatly kept, and, save for these difier- ences, one might be travelling just now in Kent. We often stop to water at a roadside inn, which is always dull and silent. The coachman dismounts and fills his bucket, and holds it to the horses' heads. There is scarcely ever any one to help him; there are seldom any loungers standing round ; and never any stable-company with jokes to crack. Sometimes, when we have changed our team, there is adiflii;uUy in starting again, arising out of the prevalent mode of breaking a young horse : which is to catch him, harness him against his will, and put him in a stage-coach without further notice : but we get on somehow or other, after a great many kicks and a violent struggle ; and jog on as before again. Occasionally, when we stop to change, some two or three half- drunken loafers will come loitering out with their hands in their pockets, or will be seen kicking their heels in rocking-chairs, or lounging on the window sill, or sitting on a rail within the colonnade : they have not often anything to say though, either to us or to each other, but sit there idly staring at the coach and horses. The landlord of the inn is usually among them, and seems, of all the party, to be the least connected with the busi- ness of the house. Indeed he is with reference to the tavern, what the driver is m relation to the coach and passen- gers : whatever happens in his sphere of action, he is quite indifferent, and perfectly easy in his mind. The frequent change of coachmen works no change or variety in the coachman's character. He is always dirty, sullen, and taciturn. If he be capable of smartness of any kind, moral or physical, he has a faculty oif concealing it which is truly marvel- lous. He never speaks to you as you sit beside him on the box, and if you speak to him, he answers (if at all) in monosyllables. He points out nothing on the road, and seldom looks at any- thing : being, to all appearance, tho- roughly weary of it, and of existence generally. As to doing the honours of his coach, his business, as I have said, is with the horses. The coach follows because it is attached to them FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 131 i never )ke9 to c ha'^e Liiliculty t of the a young , harness t him in r notice : her, after 1 violent re again, stop to ree half- loitering r pockets, ir heels in g on the rail within not often ther to us there idly jrses. The ally among e party, to h the busi- l he is with .t the driver and passen- i his sphere flferent, and f coachmen •iety in the e is always . If he be any kind, a faculty of •uly marvel- I you as you , and if you (if at all) in 1 out nothing ooks at any- earance, tho- of existence the honours 98, as I have The coach shed to them and goes on wheels : not because you are in it. Sometimes, towards the end of a long stage, he suddenly breaks out into a discordant fragment of an election song, but his face never sings along with him : it is only his voice, and not often that. He always chews and always spits, and never encumbers himself with a pocket-handkerchief. The conse- quences to the box passenger, espe- cially when the wind blows towards him, are not agreeable. Whenever the coach stops, and you can hear the voices of the inside pas- sengers; or whenever any bystander addresses them, or any one among them ; or they address each other ; you will hear one phrase repeated over and over and over again to the most extraordinary extent. It is an ordi- nary and unpromising phrase enough, being neither more nor less than " Yes, sir;" but it is adapted to every variety of circumstance, and fills up every pause in the conversation. Thus : The time is one o'clock at noon. The scene, a place where we are to stay to dine, on this journey. The coach drives up to the door of an inn. The day is warm, and there are several idlers lingering about the tavern, and waiting for the public dinner. Among them, is a stout gentleman in a brown hat, swinging himself to and fro in a rocking-chair on the pavement. As the coach stops, a gentleman in a straw hat looks out of the window : Straw Hat. (To the stout gentle- man in the rocking-chair). I ' eckon that 's Judge Jeflferson, an't it ■• Brown Hat. (Still swinging; speak- ing very slowly; and without any emo- tion whatever.) Yes, sir. Straw Hat. Warm weather. Judge. Brown Hat. Yes, sir. Straw Hat. There was a snap of cold, last week. Brown Hat. Yes, sir." Straw Hat. Yea, sir.^' A pause. They look at each other very seriously. Straw Hat. I calculate you 'II have got through that case of the corpora- tion judge, by this time, now ! Bkown Hat. Yes, sir. Straw Hat. How did the verdict go, sir] Brown Hat. For the defendant, sir. Straw Hat. (Interrogatively.) Yes, sir] Brown Hat. (Affirmatively.) Yes, sir. Both. (Musingly,as eachgazesdown the street.) Yes, sir. Another pause. They look at each other again, still more seriously than before. Brown Hat. This coach is rather behind its time to-day, I guess. Straw Hat. (Doubtingly.) Yes, sir. Brown Hat. (Looking at his watch.) Yes, sir ; nigh upon two hours. Straw Hat. (Raising his eyebrows in very great surprise.) Yes, sir ! Brown Hat. (Decisively, as he puts up his watch.) Yes, sir. All the other inside Passengers (among themselves.) Yes, sir. Coachman (in a very surly tone.) No it a'nt. Straw Hat (to the coachman.) Well, I don't know, sir. We were a pretty tall time coming that last fifteen mile. That 's a fact. The coachman making no reply, and plainly declining to enter into any controversy on a subject so far removed from his sympathies and feelings, another passenger says "Y"es, sir;" and the gentleman in the straw hat in acknowledgment of his courtesy, says " Y'es, sir " to him, in return. The straw hat then inquires of the brown hat, whether that coach in which he (the straw hat) then sits, is not a new one 1 To which the brown hat again makes answer, " Yes, sir." Straw Hat. I thought so. Pretty loud smell of varnish, sir ? Brown Hat. Yes, sir. k2 ( • i ' N 132 AMERICAN NOTES All the othkr inside PjissENasES. Yes, sir. Brown Hat (to the company in general). Yea, sir. The conversational powers of the company having been by this time pretty heavily taxed, the straw hat opens the door and gets out ; and all the rest alight also. We dine soon afterwards with tlie boarders in tlie house, and have nothing to drink but tea and coffee. As they are both very bad and the water is worse, I ask for brandy ; but it is a Temperance Hotel, and spirits are not to be had for love or money. This preposterous forcing of unpleasant drinks down the reluc- tant throats of travellers is not at all uncommon in America, but I never discovered that the scruples of such wincing landlords induced them to preserve any unusually nice balance between the quality of their fare, and their scale of charges : on the con- trary, I rather suspected them of diminishing the one and exalting the other, by way of recompense for the loss of their profit on the sale of spirituous liquors. After all, perhaps, the plainest course for persons of such tender consciences, would be, a total abstinence from tavern-keeping. Dinner over, we get into another vehicle which is ready at the door (for the coach has been changed in the interval), and resume our journey; which continues through the same kind of country until evening, when we come to the town where we are to stop for tea and supper ; and having delivered the mail bags at the Post- oflSce, ride through the usual wide street, lined with the usual stores and houses (the drapers always having hung up at their door, by way of sign, a piece of bright red cloth), to the hotel where this meal is prepared. There being many boarders here, we sit down, a large party, and a very melancholy one as usual. But there is a buxom hostess at the head of the table, and opposite, a simple Welsh schoolmaster with his wife and child ; who came here, on a speculation of greater promise than performance, to teach the classics : and they are suffi- cient subjects of interest until the meal is over, and another coach is ready. In it we go on once more, lighted by a bright moon, until midnight; when we stop to change the coach again, and remain for half an hour or so in a miserable room, with a blurred litho- graph of Washington over the smoky fireplace, and a mighty jug of cold water on the table : to which refresh- ment the moody passengers do so apply themselves that they would seem to be, one and all, keen patients of Doctor Sangrado. Among them is a very little boy, who chews tobacco like a very big one ; and a droning gentleman, who talks arithmotically and statistically on all subjects, from poetry downwards; and who always speaks in the same key, with exactly the same emphasis, and with very grave deliberation. L's came outside just now, and told me how that the uncle of a certain young lady who had been spirited away and married by a certain captain, lived in these parts ; and how this uncle was so valiant and ferocious that he shouldn't wonder if he were to follow the said captain to England, " and shoot him down in the street, wherever he found him ; " in the feasibility of which strong mea- sure I, being for the moment rather prone to contradiction, from feeling half asleep and very tired, declined to acquiesce : assuring him that if the uncle did resort to it, or gratified any other little whim of the like nature, he would find himself one morning prematurely throttled at the Old Bailey ; and that he would do well to make his will before he went, as he would certainly want it before he had been in Britain very long. FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 183 ad of the )le Welsh nd child ; illation of mance, to are suffi- il the meal is ready, jhted by a jht; when ich again, ' or so in a rred litho- the smoky ig of cold ich refresh- jers do so hey would en patients )ng them is WB tobacco a droning ithmotically bjecta, from who always rith exactly with very ime outside 5W that the dy who had arried by a hese parts; valiant and t wonder if captain to down in the him ; " in itrong mea- aent rather •om feeling declined to that if the ratified any like nature, ,e morning t, the Old do well to went, as he fore he had On we go, all night, and bye and bye the day begins to break, and presently the first cheerful rays of the warm sun come slanting on us brightly. It sheds its light upon a miserable waste of sodden grass, and dull trees, and squalid huts, whose aspect is forlorn and grievous in the last degree. A very desert in the wood, whose growth of green is dank and noxious like that upon the top of standing water : where poisonous fungus grows in the rare footprint on the oozy ground, and sprouts like witches' coral, from the crevices in the cabin wall and floor ; it is a hideous thing to lie upon the very threshold of a city. But it was purchased years ago, and as the owner cannot be dis- covered, the State has been unable to reclaim it. So there it remains, in the midst of cultivation and improvement, like ground accursed, and made obscene and rank by some great crime. We reached Columbus shortly be- fore seven o'clock, and staid there, to refresh, that day and night : having excellent apartments in a very large unfinished hotel called the Neill House, which were richly fitted with the polished wood of the black walnut, and opened on a handsome portico and stone '^erandah, like rooms in some Italian mansion The town is clean and pretty, and of course is " going to be " much larger. It is the seat of the State legislature of Ohio, and lays claim, in consequence, to some consideration and importance. There being no stage-coach next day, upon the road we wished to take, I hired " an extra," at a reasonable charge, to carry us to Tiffin ; a small town from whence there is a railroad to Sandusky. This extra was an ordinary four-horse stage-coach, such as I have described, changing horses and drivers, as the stage-coach would, but was exclusively our own for the journey. To ensure our having horses at the proper stations, and being incommoded by no strangers, the proprietors sent .vas a fine day, and the temperature was delicious,and though we had left Summer behind us in the west, and were fast leaving Spring, we were moving towards Niagara and home. Wc ulighted in a pleasant wood towards the middle of the day, dined on a fallen tree, and leaving our best fragments with a cottager, and our Avoret with the pigs (who swarm in this part of the country liKe grains of sand on the sea-shore, to the great comfort of our commis- sariat in Canada), we went forward again, gaily. As night came on, the track grew narrower and narrower, until at last it so lost itself among the trees, that the driver seemed to find his way by instinct. We had the comfort of knowing, at least, that there was no danger of his falling asleep, for every now and then a wheel would strike against an unseen stump with such a jerk, that he was fain to hold on pretty tight and pretty quick, to keep himself upon the box. Nor was there any reason to dread the least danger from furious driving, inasmuch as over that broken ground the horses had enough to do to walk ; as to shying, there was no room for that ; and a herd of wild elephants could not have run away in such a wood, with such a coach at their heels. So we stumbled along, quite satisfied. These stumps of trees are a curious feature in American travelling. The varying illusions they present to the unaccustomed eye as it grows dark, are quite astonishing in their number and reality. Now, there is a Grecian urn erected in the centre of a lonely field ; now there is a woman weeping at a tomb ; now a very common-place old gentleman in a white waistcoat, with a thumb thrust into each arm- hole of his coat; now a student poring on a book ; now a crouching negro ; now, a horse, a dog, a cannon, an armed man ; a hunch-back throw- ing off his cloak and stepping forth into tl«5 light. They were often as entertaining to me as so many glasses in a magic lantern, and never took their shapes at my bidding, but seemed to force themselves upon me, whether I would or no ; and strange to say, I sometimes recognised in them counterparts of figures once familiar to me in pictures attached to childish books, forgotten long ago. It soon became too dark, however, even for this amusement, and the trees were so close together that their dry branches rattled against the coach on either side, and obliged us all to keep our heads within. It lightened too, for three whole hours; each flash being very bright, and blue, and •ong ; and as the vivid streaks came darting in among the crowded branches, and the gloomily above the could scarcely help there were better thunder rolled tree tops, one thinking that neighbourhoods at such a time than thick woods afforded. At length, between ten and eleven o'clock at night, a few feeble lights appeared in the distance, and Upper Sandusky, an Indian village, where FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 135 its could [ a wood, cela. So jsfied. a curious ng. The at to the DW8 dark, T number a Orecian ■ a lonely 1 Mreeping mon-place waistcoat, sach arm- a student crouching a cannon, ick throvr- Mng forth e often as iny glasses levcr took ding, but upon me, id strange gnised in ores once ttached to ngago. , however, d the trees their dry e coach on Ul to keep tened too, ;ach flash blue, and eaks came crowded ler rolled tops, one ig that bourhoods ick woods md eleven eble lights md Upper ige, where we were to stay till morning, lay before us. They were gone to bed at the log Inn, which was the only house of entertainment in the place, but soon answered to our knocking, and got some tea for us in a sort of kitchen or common room, tapestried with old newspapers, pasted against the wall. The bed-chamber to which my wife and I were shown, was a large, low, ghostly room ; with a quantity of withered branches on the hearth, and two doors without any fastening, opposite to each other, both opening on the black night and wild country, and so contrived, that one of them always blew the other open : a no- velty in domestic architecture, which I do not remember to have seen before, and which I was somewhat disconcerted to have forced on my attention after getting into bed, as I had a considerable sum in gold for our travelling expenses, in my dress- ing-case. Some of the luggage, how- ever, piled against the pannels, soon settled this difticulty, and my sleep would not have been very much affected that night, I believe, though it had failed to do so. My Boston friend climbed up to bed, somewhere in the roof, where another guest was already snoring hugely. But being bitten beyond his power of endurance, he turned out again, and fled for shelter to the coach, which was airing itself in front of the house. This was not a very politic step, as it turned out ; for the pigs scenting him, and looking upon the coach as a kind of pie with some manner of meat inside, grunted round it so hideously, that he was afraid to come out again, and lay there shivering, till morning. Nor was it possible to warm him, when he did come out, by means of a glass of brandy; for in Indian villages, the legislature, with a very good and wise intention, forbids the sale of spirits by tavern keepers. The precaution, however, is quite inofUcacious, for the Indians never fail to procure liquor of a worse kind, at a dearer price, from travelling pedlars. It is a settlement of the Wyandot Indians who inhabit this place. Among the company at breakfast was a mild old gentleman, who had bcea for many years employed by the United States Government in con- ducting negotiations with the Indians, and who had just concluded a treaty with these people by which they bound themselves, in consideration of a certain annual sum, to remove next year to some land provided for them, west of the Mississippi, and a little way beyond St. Louis. He gave me a moving account of their strong attachment to the familiar scenes of their infancy, and in particular to the burial-places of their kindred ; and of their great reluctance to leave them. He had witnessed many such re- movals, and always with pain, though he knew that they departed for their own good. The question whether this tribe should go or stay, had been discussed among them a day or two before, in a hut erected for the pur- pose, the logs of which still lay upon the ground before the inn. When the speaking was done, the ayes and noes were ranged on opposite sides, and every male adult voted in his turn. The moment the result was known, the minority (a large one) cheerfully yielded to the rest, and withdrew all kind of opposition. Vie met some of these poor Indians afterwards, riding on shaggy ponies. They were so like the meaner sort of gipsies, that if I could have seen any of them in England, I should have concluded, as a matter of course, that they belonged to that wandering and restless people. Leaving this town directly after ii I) I ^.' m r t' ■ t r ! » 136 AMERICAN NOTES breakfast, wc pushed forward again, over a rather worse rode than yester- day, if possible, and arrived about noon at Tiffin, where we parted with the extra. At two o'clock we took the railroad ; the travelling on which was very slow, its construction being indifferent, and the ground wet and marshy; and arrived at Sandusky in time to dine that evening. We put up at a comfortable little hotel on the brink of Lake Erie, lay there that night, and had no choice but to wait there next day, until a steamboat bound for Buffalo appeared. The town, which was sluggish and unin- teresting enough, was something like the back of an English watering-place, out of the season. Our host, who was very attentive and anxious to make us comfortable, was a handsome middle-aged man, who had come to this town from New England, in which part of the country he was "raised." When I say that he constantly walked in and out of the room with his hat on ; and stopped to converse in the same free- and-easy state ; and lay down on our sofa, and pulled his newspaper out of his pocket, and read it at his ease ; I merely mention these traits as cha- racteristic of the country : not at all as being matter of complaint, or as having been disagreeable to me. I should undoubtedly be offended by such proceedings at home, because there they are not the custom, and where they are not, they would be impertinencies ; but in America, the only desire of a good-natured fellow of this kind, is to treat his guests hospitably and well ; and I had no more right, and I can truly say no more disposition, to measure his con- duct by our English rule and standard, than I had to quarrel with him for not being of the exact stature which would qualify him for admission into the Queen's grenadier guards. As little inclination had I to find fault with a funny old lady who was an upper domestic in this establishment, and who, when she came to wait upon us at any meal, sat herself down com- fortably in the moat convenient chair, and producing a large pin to pick her teeth with, remained per- forming that ceremony, and stead- fastly regarding us meanwhile with much gravity and composure (now and then pressing us to eat a little more), until it was time to clear away. It was enough for us, that whatever we wished done was done with great civility and readiness, and a desire to oblige, not only here, but every- where else; and that all our wants were, in general, zealously anticipated. We were taking an early dinner at thlH house, on the day after our arrival, which was Sunday, when a steamboat came in sight, and pre- sently touched at the wharf. As she proved to be on her way to Buffalo, we hurried on board with all speed, and soon left Sandusky far behind us. She was a large vessel of five hundred tons, and handsomely fitted up, though with high-pressure engines ; which always conveyed that kind of feeling to me, which I should be likely to experience, I think, if I had lodgings on the first floor of 'a powder-mill. She was laden with flour, some casks of which commodity were stored upon the deck. The captain coming up to have a little conversation, and to introduce a friend, seated himself astride of one of these barrels, like a Bacchus of private life ; and pulling a great clasp- knife out of his pocket, began to " whittle" it as he talked, by paring thin slices off the edges. And he whittled with such industry and hearty good will, that but for his being called away very soon, it must have disappeared bodily, and \ 1 t t d c V t: FOR GENERAL CIRCrLATION. 137 nd fault ) was an ishment, rait upon )wn com- nvenient gc pin to ined per- id Btead- lile with ire (now t a little car away, whatever fith great a deHire ut every- lur wants iticipated. dinner at after our r, when a and pre- rharf. As r way to ■d with all dusky far I of five (icly fitted li-pressure rcyed that I I should hink, if I floor of 11 den with >mmodity ick. The e a little •oduce a e of one ,cchu8 of •eat clasp- |began to ly paring And he Istry and It for his soon, it ily, and left nothing in its place but grist and shavings. After calling 'at one or two flat places, with low dams stretching out into the lake, whereon were stumpy lighthouses, like windmills without sails, the whole looking like a Dutch vignette, we came at midnight to Cleveland, where we lay all night, and until nine o'clock next morning. I entertained quite a curiosity in reference to this place, from having seen at Sandusky a specimen of its literature in the shape of a newspaper, which was very strong indeed upon the subject of Lord Ashburton's recent arrival at Washington, to adjust the points in dispute between the United States Government and Great Britain : informing its readers that as America had "whipped" England in her infancy, and whipped her again in her youth, so it was clearly necessary that she must whip her once again in her maturity ; and pledging its credit to all True Americans, that if Mr. Webster did his duty in the approaching negotia- tions, and sent the English Lord home again in double quick time, they should, within two years, sing " Yankee Doodle in Hyde Park, and Hail Columbia in the scarlet courts of Westminster" ! I found it a pretty town, and had the satisfaction of beholding the outside of the office of the journal from which I have just quoted. I did not enjoy the delight of seeing the wit who indited the paragraphs in question, but I have no doubt he is a prodigious man in his way, and held in high repute by a select circle. There was a gentleman on board, to whom, as I unintentionally learned through the thin partition which divided our state-room from the cabin in which he and his wife con- versed together, I was unwittingly the occasion of very great uneasiness. I don't know why or wherefore, but I appeared to run in his mind perpe- tually, and to (llRsatisfy him very much. First of all I heard him sny : and the most ludicrous part of the business was, that he said it in my very ear, and could not have commu- nicated more directly with me, if he had leaned upon my shoulder, and whispered me : " Boz is on board still, my dear." After a considerable pause, he added, complainingly, " Boz keeps himself very close :" which was true enough, for I was not very well, and was lying down, with a book. I thought he had done with me after this, but I was deceived ; for a long interval having elapsed, during which I imagine him to have been turning restlessly from side to side, and trying to go to sleep ; he broke out again, with " I suppose that Boz will be writing a book bye and bye, and putting all our names in it !" at which imaginary consequence of being' on board a boat with Boz, he groaned, and became silent. We called at the town of Erie, at eight o'clock that night, and lay there an hour. Between five and six next morning, we arrived at Buffalo, where we breakfasted ; and being too near the Great Falls to wait patiently anywhere else, we set off" by the train, the same morning at nine o'clock, to Niagara. It was a miserable day ; chilly and raw ; p, damp mist falling ; and the trees in that northern region quite bare and wintry. Whenever the train halted, I Tstencd for the roar ; and was constantly straining my eyes in the direction where I knew the Falls must be, from seeing the river rolling on towards them; every moment expecting to behold the spray. Within a few minutes of our stopping, not before, I saw two great white clouds rising up slowly and majestically from the depths of the if r 138 AMERICAN NOTES i lit I ft! earth. That wan all. At length we alighted : and then for the first time, I heard the mighty rush of water, and felt the ground tremble under- neath my feet. The bank is very steep, and was Hlippery with rain, and half-mclted ice. I hardly know how I got down, but I was soon at the l)ottom, and climbing, with two English officers who were crossing and had joined me, over some broken rocks, deafened by the noise, half-blinded by the spray, and wet to the skin. We were at the foot of the American Fall. I could see an immense torrent of water tearing headlong down from some great height, bulhad no idea of shape, or situation, or anything but vague immensity. When we were seated in the little ferry-boat, and were crossing the Bwoln river immediately before both cataracts, I began to feel what it was : but I was in a manner stunned, and unable to comprehend the vastness of the scene. It was not until I came on Ta le Eock, and looked — Great Heaven, on what a fall of bright spray and mist which is never laid : which has haunted this place with the same dread solemnity sini-o Darkness brooded on the deep, antl that first flood before the Deluge— Light — came rushing on Creation at the word of Ood. i- W l V» III II 140 AMERICAN NOTES CHAPTER XV. IN CANADA ; TORONTO ; KINGSTON ; MONTREAL ; QUEBEC ; ST. JOHN's. IN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN ; LEBANON ; THE SHAKER VILLAGE ; AND WEST POINT. 1/4.1 I WISH to abstain from instituting any comparison, or drawing any par- allel whatever, between the social features of the United States and those of the British Possessions in Canada. For this reason, I shall confine myself to a very brief account of our journeyings in the latter territory. But before I leave Niagara, I must advert to one disgusting circumstance which can hardly have escaped the observation of any decent traveller who has visited the Palls. On Table Rock, there is a cottage belonging to a Guide, where little relics of the place arc sold, and whjre visitors register their names in a book kept for the purpose. On the wall of the room in which a great many of these volumes are preserved, the fol- lowing request is posted : " Visitors will please not copy nor extract the remarks and poetical efifusions from the registers and albums kept here." But for this intimation, I should have let them lie upon the tables on which they were strewn with careful negligence, like books in a drawing- room : being quite satisfied with the stupendous silliness of certain stanzas with an anti-climax at the end of each, which were framed and hung up on the wall. Curious, however, after reading this announcement, to see what kind of morsels were so care- fully preserved, I turned a few leaves, and found them scrawled all over with the vilest and the filthiest ribaldry that ever human hogs de- lighted in. It is humiliating enough to know that there are among men, brutes so obscene and worthless, that they can delight in laying their miserable pro- fanations upon the very steps of Nature's greatest altar. But that these should be hoarded up for the delight of their fallow swine, and kept in a public plnce where any eyes may see them, is a disgrace to the Knglish language in which they are written (though I hope few of these entries have been made by English- men), and a reproach to the English side, on which they are preserved. The quarters of our soldiers at Niagara, are finely and airily situated. Some of them are large detached houses on the plain above the Falls, which were originally designed for hotels ; and in the evening time, when the women and children were leaning over the balconies watching the men as they played at ball and other games upon the grass before the door, they often presented a little picture of cheerfulness and anima- tion which made it quite a pleasure to pass that way. At any garrisoned point where the line of demarcation between one country and another is so very narrow as at Niagara, desertion from the ranks can scarcely fail to be of fre- quent occurrence : and it may be reasonably supposed that when the soldiers entertain the wildest and maddest hopes of the fortune and independence that await them on the other side, the impulse to play traitor, which such a place suggests to dis- FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 141 rhere the een one ■y narrow rom the of fre- may be ?hen the est and uue and I on the traitor, to dis- honest minds, is not weakened. But it very rarely happens that the men who do desert, are happy or contented afterwards ; and many instances have been known in which they have con- fessed their grievous disappointment, and their earnest desire to return to their old service if they could but be assured of pardon, or of lenient treat- ment. Many of their comrades, not- withstanding, do the like, from time to time ; and instances of loss of life in the effort to cross the river with this object, are far from being uncommon. Several men were drowned in the attempt to swim across, not long ago ; and one, who had the madness to trust himself upon a table as a raft, was swept down to the whirl- pool, where his mangled body eddied round and round some days. I am inclined to think that the noise of the Falls is very much ex- aggerated ; and this will appear the more probable when the depth of the great basin in which the water is received, is taken into account. At no time during our stay there, was the wind at all high or boisterous, but we never heard them, three miles off, even at the very quiet time of sunset, though we often tried. Queenston, at which place the steamboats start for Toronto (or I should rather say at which place they call, for their wharf is at Lewiston on the opposite shore), is situated in a delicious valley, through which the Niagara river, in colour a very deep green, pursues its course. It is ap- proached by a road that takes its winding way among the heights by which the town is sheltered ; and seen from this point is extremely beautiful and picturesque. On the most conspicuous of these heights stood a monument erected by the Provincial legislature in memory of General Brock, who was slain in a battle with the American Forces, after having won the victory. Some vagabond, supposed to be a fellow of the name of Lett, who is now, or who lately was, in prison as a felon, blew up this monument two years ago, and it is now a melancholy ruin, with a long fragment of iron railing hanging dejectedly from its top, and waving to and fro like a wild ivy branch or broken vine stem. It is of much higher importance than it may seem, that this statue should be repaired at the public cost, as it ought to have been long ago. firstly, be- cause it is beneath the dignity of England to allow a memorial raised in honour of one of her defenders, to remain in this condition, on the very spot where he died. Secondly, be- cause the sight of it in its present state, and the recollection of the unpunished outrage which brought it to this pass, is not very likely to soothe down border feelings among English subjects here, or compose their border quarrels and dislikes. I was standing on the wharf at this place, watching the passengers em- barking in a steamboat which pre- ceded that whose coming we awaited, and participating in the anxiety with which a sergeant's wife was collecting her few goods together — keeping one distracted eye hard upon the porters, who were hurrying them on board, and the other on a hoopless washing- tub for which, as being the most utterly worthless of all her moveables, she seemed to entertain particular affection — when three or four soldiers with a recruit came up and went on board. The recruit was a likely young fellow enough, strongly built and well made, but by no means sober : indeed he had all the air of a man who had been more or less drunk for some days. He carried a small bundle over his shoulder, slung at the end of a walking-stick, and had a short pipe m il ^ 'P •\ r 142 AMERICAN NOTES % !;.■ I I'"' -.1 iM II: d! ( ■ I .'t It II H. his mouth. He was as dusty and dirty as recruits usually arc, and his shoes betokened that he liad travelled on foot some distance; but he Avas in a very jocose state, and shook hands with this soldier, and clapped that one on the back, and talked and laughed continually, like a roaring idle dog as he was. The soldiers rather laughed at this blade than with him : seeming to say, as they stood straightening their canes in their hands, and looking coolly at him over their glazed stocks, *' Go on, my boy, while you may ! you 11 know better bye and bye :" when suddenly the novice, who had been backing towards the gangway in his noisy merriment, fell overboard before their eyes, and splashed heavily down into the river between the vessel and the dock. I never saw such a good thing as the change that came over these soldiers in an instant. Almost before the man was down, their professional maimer, their stiffness and constraint, were gone, and they were filled with the most violent energy. In less time than is required to tell it, they had him out again, feet first, with the tails of his coat flapping over his eyes, everything about him hanging the wrong way, and the water streaming oflF at every thread in his .threadbare dress. But the moment they set him upright and found that he was none the worse, they were soldiers again, looking over their glazed stocks more composedly than ever. The halfsobered recruit glanced round for a moment, as if his first impulse were to express some grati- tude for his preservation, but seeing them with this air of total unconcern, and having his wet pipe presented to him with an oath by the soldier who had been by far the most anxious of the party, he stuck it in his mouth, thrust his hands into his moist pockets, and without even shaking the water off his [ clothes, walked on board whistling ; not to say as if nothing had happened, but as if he had meant to do it, and it had been a perfect success. Our steamboat came up directly this had left the wharf, and soon bore us to the mouth of the Niagara; where the stars and stripes of America flutter on one side, and the Union Jack of England on the other : and so narrow is the space between them that the sentinels in either fort can often hear the watchword of the other country given. Thence we emerged on Lake Ontario, an inland sea ; and by half past six o'clock were at Toronto. The country round this town being very flat, is bare of scenic interest ; but the town itself is full of life and motion, bustle, business, and improve- ment. The streets are well paved, and lighted with gas ; the houses are large and good; the shops excellent. Many of thefn have a display of goods in their windows, such as may be seen in thriving county towns in England ; and there are some which would do no discredit to the metropolis itself. There is a good stone prison here; and there are, besides, a handsome church, a court-house, public offices, many commodious private residences, and a government observatory for noting and recording the magnetic variations. In the College of Upper Canada, which is one of the public establishments of the city, a sound education in every department of polite learning can be had, at a very m()derate expense : the annual charge foi.' the instruction of each pupil, not exceeding nine pounds sterling. It has pretty good endowments in the way of land, and is a valuable and useful institution. The first stone of a new college had been laid but a few days before, by the FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 143 shaking walked ay as if as if he 1 been a directly )ou bore !s iagara ; America e Union ler : and jen them fort can the other emerged ,nd sea ; : were at iwn being interest ; f life and L improve- }11 paved, iouses arc I excellent, y of goods ay be seen England ; would do slis itself, son here ; handsome ic offices, esidences, atory for magnetic of Upper le public a sound tment of at a very aal charge pupil, not irling. It its in the liable and ollege had )re, by the Governor General. It will be a i handsome, spacious edifice, ap- ' proached by a long avenue, which is ' already planted and made available i as a public walk. The town is well- 1 adapted for wholesome exercise at all I seasons, for the footways in the ] thoroughfares which lie beyond the ! principal street, are planked like I floors, and kept in very good and ■ clean repair. It is a matter of deep regret that political differences should have run | high in this place, and led to most discreditable and disgraceful results. It ia not long since guns were dis- j charged from a window in this town at the [successful candidjvtes in an i election, and the coachman of one of i them was actually shot in the body, though not dangerously wounded. But one man was killed on the same occr-sion ; and from the very window whence he received his death, the very flag which shielded his murderer (not only in the commission of his crime, but from its consequences), was displayed again on the occasion of the public ceremony performed by the Governor General, to which I have just adverted. Of all the colours in the rainbow, there is but one which could be so employed : I need not say that flag was orange. The time of leaving Toronto for Kingston, is noon. By eight o'clock next morning, the traveller is at the end of his journey, which is performed by steamboat upon Lake Ontario, calling at Port Hope and Coburg, the latter a cheerful thriving little town. Vast quantities of flour form the chief item in the freight of these vessels. We haH no fewer than one thousand and eigiivy barrels on board, between Coburg and Kingston. The latter place, which is now the seat of government in Canada, is a very poor town, rendered still poorer in the appearance of its market-place by the ravages of a recent fire. Indeed, it may be said of Kingston, thai one half of it appears to be burnt down, and the other half not to be built up. The Government House is neither elegant nor commodious, yet it is almost the only house of any impor- tance in the neighbourhood. There is an admirable jail here, well and wisely governed, and ex l- leutly regulated, in every respc \ The men were employed as shoe- makers, ropemakers, blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and stonecutters ; and in building a new prison, which was pretty far advanced towards com- pletion. Th^ female prisoners were occupied in needlework. Among them was a beautiful girl of twenty, who had been there nearly three years. She acted as bearer of secret despatches' for the self-styled Patriots on Navy Island, during the Canadian Insurrection : sioietimes dressing as a girl, and carrying them in her stays ; sometimes attiring herself as a boy, and secreting them in the lining of her hat. In the latter character she always rode as a boy would, which was nothing to her, for she could govern any horse that any man could ride, and could drive four-in-hand with the best whip in those parts. Setting forth on one of her patriotic missions, she appropriated to herself the first horse she could lay her hands on ; and this offence had brought her where I saw her. She had quite a lovely face, though aa the reader may suppose from this sketch of her history, there was a lurking devil in her bright eye, which looked out pretty sharply from between her prison bars. There is a bomb-proof fort here of great strength, which occupies a bold position, and is capable, doubtless, of doing good service ; though the town is much too close upon the frontier to be long held, I ehould imagine, for i! ■J w I, I 144 AMERICAN NOTES its present purpose in troubled times. There is also a small navy-yard, where a couple of Government steamboats were building, and getting on vigo- rously. We left Kingston for Montreal on the tenth of May, at half-past nine in the morning, and proceeded in a steamboat down the St. Lawrence river. The beauty of this noble stream nt almost any point, but especially in the commencement of this journey when it winds its Avay among the thousand Islands, can hardly be ima- gined. The number and constant successions of these islands, all green and richly wooded; their fluctuating sizes, some so large that for half an hour together one among them will appear as the opposite bank of the river, and some so small that they are mere dimples on its broad bosom ; their infinite variety of shapes; and the numberless combinations of beau- tiful forms which the trees growing on them, present : all form a picture fraught with uncommon interest and pleasure. In the afternoon we shot doM'n some rapids where the river boiled and bubbled strangely, and where the foi'ce and headlong violence of the current were tremendous. At seven o'clock we reached Dickenson's Land- ing, whence travellers proceed for two or three hours by stage-coach : the navigation of the river being rendered &o dangerous and difficult in the in- terval, by rapids, that steamboats do not make the passage. The number and length of those portages, over which the roads are bad, and the travelling slow, render the way be- tween the towns of Montreal and Kingston, somewhat tedious. Our course lay over a wide, unin- closed tract of country at a little distance from the river side, whence the bright warning lights on the dangerous parts of the St. Lawrence shone vividly. The night was dark and raw, and tho way dreary enough. It was nearly ten o'clock when we reached the wharf where the next steamboat lay; and went on board, and to bed. She lay there all night, and started as soon as it was day. The morning was ushered in by a violent thunder- storm, and was very wet, but gradually improved and brightened up. Going on deck after breakfast, I was amazed tu see floating down with the stream, a most gigantic raft, with some thirty or forty wooden houses upon it, and at least as many flag masts, so that it looked like a nautical street. I saw many uf these rafts afterwards, but never one so large. All the timber, or " lumber," as it is called in America, which is brought down the St. Law- rence, is floated down in this manner. When the raft reaches its place of destination, it is broken up ; the ma- terials are sold ; and the boatmen return for more. At eight we landed again, and travelled by a stage-coach for four hours through a pleasant and well- cultivated country, perfectly French in every respect : in the appearance of the cottages ; the air, language, and dress of the peasantry; the sign-boards on the shops and taverns; and the Virgin's shrines, and crosses, by the wayside. Nearly every common la- bourer and boy, though he had no shoes to his feet, wore round his waist a sash of some bright colour: generally red : and the women, who were work- ing in the fields and gardens, and doing all kinds of husbandrj', wore, one and all, great flat straw hats with most capacious brims. There were Catholic Priests and Sisters of Charity in the village streets ; and images of the Saviour at the comers of cross- roads, and in other public places. At noon we went on board another steamboat, and reached the village of 1 V I s b HI e\ n e: (V w b{ VJ! it£ FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 145 as dark enough, vhen we he next 1 board, d started morning thunder- gradually ». Going \si amazed le stream, me thirty n it, and so that it et. I saw vards, but tie timber, a America, B St. Law- is manner. Ls place of p ; the ma- 3 boatmen again, and for four and well- [tly French appearance hguage, and sign-boards and the i'es, by the ;ommon la- he had no id his waist r: generally were work- .rdens, and idrj', wore, fw hats with 'here were •s of Charity _ images of )rs of cross- places, [ard another LC village of Lachinc, nine miles from Montreal, by three o'clock. There, we left the river, and went on by land. Montreal is pleasantly situated on the margin of the St. Lawrence, and is backed by some bold heights, about which there are charming rides and drives. The streets are generally narrow and irregular, as in most French towns of any age ; but in the more modem parts of the city, they are wide and airy. They display a great variety of very good shops ; and both in the town and suburbs there are many excellent private dwellings. The granite quays are remarkable for their beauty, solidity, and extent. There is a very large Catholic cathe- dral here, recently erected ; w ith two tall spires, of which one is yet un- finished. In the open space in front of this edifice, stands a solitary, grim- looking, square brick tower, which has a quaint and remarkable appearance, and which the wiseacres of the place have consequently determined to pull down immediately. The Government House is very superior to that at Kingston, ..nd the to^vn is full of life and bustle. In one of the suburbs is a plank road — not footpath — five or six miles long, and a fiimous road it is too. All the rides in the vicinity were made doubly interesting by the bursting out of spring, which is here so rapid, that it is but a day's leap from barren winter, to the blooming youth of summer. The steamboats to Quebec, perform the journey in the night ; that is to say, they leave Montreal at six in the evening, and arrive in Quebec at six next morning. We made this excursion during our stay in Montreal (which exceeded a fortnight), and were charmed by its interest and beauty. The impression made upon the visitor by this Gibraltar of America : its giddy heights; its citadel sus- No. 170. pended, as it were, in the air; it.s picturesque steep streets and frowning gateways; and the splendid views which burst upon the eye at every turn : is at once unique and lasting. It is a place not to be forgotten or mixed up in the mind with other places, or altered for a moment in the crowd of scenes a traveller can recall. Apart from the realities of this most picturesque city, there are associations clustering about it which would make a desert rich in interest. The dan- gerous precipice along whose rooky front, Wolfe and his brave com- panions climbed to glory ; the Plains of Abraham, Avhere he received his mortal wound ; the fortress so chival- rously defended by Montcalm ; and his soldier's grave, dug for him while yet alive, by the bursting of a shell ; are not the least among them, or among the gallant incidents of history. That is a noble Monument too, and worthy of two great nations, which perpetuates the memory of both brave generals, and on which their names are jointly written. The city is rich in public institu- tions and in Catholic churches and charities, but it is mainly in the proi:- pect from the site of the Old Govern ment House, and from the Citadel, that its surpassing beauty lies. The exquisite expanse of country, rich in field and forest, mountain-height and water, which lies stretched out before the view, with miles of Canadian vil- lages, glancing in long white streaks, like veins along the landscape ; the motley crowd of gables, roofs, and chimney tops in the old hilly town immediately at hand; the beautiful St. Lawrence sparkling and flashing in the sunlight ; and the tiny ships below the rock from which you gaze, whose distant rigging looks like spiders' webs against the light, while casks and barrels on their decks dwindle into toys, and busy mariners IG i5, '.V M "«■«■» 146 AMERICAN NOTES become so many puppets : all this, framed by a sunken window in tlie fortress and looked at from the shadowed room within, forms one of the brightest and most enchanting pictures that the eye can rest upon. In the spring of the year, vast num- bers of emigrants who have newly arrived from England or from Ireland, pass between Quebec and Montreal on their way to the back woods and new settlements of Canada. If it be an en- tertaining lounge, (as I very often found it) to take a morning stroll upon the quay at Montreal, and see them grouped in hundreds on the public wharfs about their chests and boxes, it is matter of deep interest to be their fellow -passenger on one of these steamboats, and, mingling with the concourse, see and hear them un- observed. The vessel in which we returned from Quebec to Montreal was crowded with them, and at night they spread their beds between decks (those who had beds, at least), and slept so close and thick about our cabin door, that the passage to and fro was quite blocked up. They were nearly all English; from Gloucestershire the greater part; and had had a long winter-passage out ; but it was wonderful to see how clean the children had been kept, and how untiring in their love and self- denial all the poor parents were. Cant as we may, and as we shall to the end of all things, it is very much harder for the poor to be virtuous than it is for the rich ; and the good that is in them, shines the brighter for it. In many a noble mansion lives a man, the best of husbands and of fathers, whose private worth in both capacities is justly lauded to the skies. But bring him here, upon this crowded deck. Strip from his fair young wife her silken dress and jewels, ^mbind her braided hair, stan'. en'-'y wrinkles on hor brow, piucLv her pale cheek with care and much privation, array her faded form in coarsely patched attire, let there be nothing but his love to set her forth or deck her out, and you shall put it to the proof indeed. So change his station in the world, that he shall see in those young things who climb about his knee : not records of his wealth and name : but little wrestlers with him for his daily bread ; so many poachers on bis scanty meal ; so many units to divide his every sum of comfort, and farther to reduce its small amount. In lieu of the endearments of child- hood in its sweetest aspect, heap upon him all its pains and wants, its sick- nesses and ills, its fretfulness, caprice, and querulous endurance : let its prattle be, not of engaging infant fancies, but of cold, and thirst, and hunger : and if his fatherly affection outlive all this, and he be patient, watchful, tender ; careful of his chil- dren's lives, and mindful always of their joys and sorrows ; then send him back to Parliament, and Pulpit, and to Quarter Sessions, and when he hears fine talk of the depravity of those who live from hand to mouth, and labour hard to do it, let him speak up, as one who knows, and tell those holders forth that they, by parallel with such a class, should be High Angels in their daily lives, and lay but humble siege to Heaven at last. Which of us shall say what he would be, if such realities, with small reliefer change all through his days, were his ! Looking round upon these people : far from home, houseless^ indigent, wandering, weary with travel and hard living : and seeing how patiently they nursed and tended their young children ; how they con- sulted ever their wants first, then half supplied their own ; what gentle ministere of hope and faith the women were; how the men profited by their FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 147 on, array patched but his : her out, be proof on in the in those ibout his ealth and with him r poachers y units to nfort, and I amount. 3 of child- heap upon Ls, its sick- j3, caprice, I : let its ing infant thirst, and ly affection be patient, of his chil- 1 always of Ithen send ind Pulpit, id when he ipravity of to mouth, it, let him ws, and tell they, by should bo daily lives, to Heaven what he with small his days, upon these houseless, Jreary with land seeing 1 and tended they con- k then half that gentle I the womeu led by their example ; and how very, very seldom even a moment's petulance or harsh complaint broke out among them : I felt a stronger love and honour of my kind come glowing on my heart, and wished to God there had been many Atheists in the better part of human nature there, to read this simple lesson in the book of Life. We left Montreal for New York again, on the thirtieth of May ; cross- ing to La Prairie, on tlic opposite shore of the St. Lawrence, in a steam- boat; we then took the railroad to St. John's, which is on the brink of Lake Cham plain. Our last greeting in Canada was from the English officers in the pleasant barracks at that place (a class of gentlemen who had made every hour of our visit me- morable by their hospitality and friendship) ; and with " Rule Bri- tannia" sounding in our cars, soon left it far behind. But Canada has held, and always will retain, a foremost place in my remembrance. Few Englishmen are prepared to find it what it is. Ad- vancing quietly ; old differences set- tling down, and being fast forgotten ; public feeling and private enterprise alike in a sound and wholesome state ; nothing of flush or fever in its system, but health and vigour throbbing in its steady pulse : it is full of hope and promise. To me — who had been accus- tomed to think of it as something left behind in the strides of advancing society, as something neglected and forgotten, slumbering and wasting in its sleep — the demand for labour and the rates of wages ; the busy quays of Montreal ; the vessels taking in their cargoes, and discharging them ; the amount of shipping in the different ports; the commerce, roads, and public works, all made to lad ; the respecta- bility and character of the public journals ; and the amount of rational comfort and happiness which honest industry may earn : were very great surprises. The steamboats on the lakes, in their conYonienocs, cleanli- ness, and safety ; in the gentlemanly character and bearing of their cap- tains ; and in the politeness and per- fect comfort of their social regulations; arc unsurpassed even by the famous Scotch vessels, deservedly so much esteemed at home. The inns are usually bad : because the custom of boarding at hotels is not so general here as in the States, and the British oflicers, M'ho form a large portion of the society of every town, live chiefly at the regimental messes : but in every other respect, the traveller in Canada 'ill find as good provision for his comfort as in any place I know. There is one American boat — the vessel which carried us on Lake Cham- plain, from St. John's to Whitehall — which I praise very highly, but no more than it deserves, when 1 say that it is superior even to that in which we went from (Juecnston to Toronto, or to that in which we travelled from the latter place to Kingston, or I have no doubt I may add, to any other in the world. This steamboat which is called the Burlington, is a perfectly exquisite achievement of neatness, elegance, and order. The decks are drawing-rooms; the cabins arc boudoirs, choicely fur- nished and adorned with prints, pic- tures, and musical instruments ; every nook and corner in the vessel is a perfect curiosity of graceful comfort and beautiful contrivance. Captain Sherman her commander, to whoso ingenuity and excellent taste these results are solely attributable, has bravely and worthily distinguished himself on more than one trying occa- sion : not least among them, in having the moral courage to carry British troops, at a time (during the Canadian rebellion) when no other conveyance ii I* :!i ri 118 AMERICAN NOTES was open to them. Ho and his vessel arc held in universal respect, both by his own countrymen and ours; and no man ever enjoyed the popular esteem, who, in his sphere of action, won and wore it better than this gentleman. By means of this floating palace we were soon in the United States again, and called that evening at Burlington ; a pretty town, where we lay an hour or so. We reached Whitehall, where we were to disembark, at six next morning; and might have done so earlier, but that these steamboats lie by for some hours in the night, in consequence of the lake becoming very narrow at that part of the journey, and difficult of navigation in the dark. Its width is so contracted at one point, indeed, that they are obliged to warp round by means of a rope. After breakfasting at Whitehall, we took the stage-coach for Albany: a large and busy town, where we arrived between five and six o'clock that after- noon ; after a very hot day's journey, for we were now in the height of Rummer again. At seven we started for New York on board a great North River steamboat, which was so crowded with passengers that the upper deck was like the box lobby of a theatre between the pieces, and the lower one like Tottenham Court Bead on a Sa- turday night. But we slept soundly, notwithstanding, and soon after five o'clock next morning, reached New York. Tarrying here, only that day and night to recruit after our late fatigues, we started off once more upon our last journey in America. We had yet five days to spare before embarking for England, and I had a great desire to see "the Shaker Village," which is peopled by a relit,ious sect from whom it takes its name. To this end, we went up the North Hiver again, as far as the town of Hudson, and there hired an extra to carry us to Lebanon, thirty miles dis- tant : and of course another and a different Lebanon from that village where I slept on the night of the Prairie trip. The country through which the road meandered, was rich and beautiful ; the weather very fine ; and for many miles the Kaatskill mountains, where Rip Van Winkle and the ghastly Dutchmen pluyed at ninepins one memorable gusty afternoon, towered in the blue distance, like stately clouds. At one point, as we ascended a steep hill, athwart whose base a railroad, yet constructing, took its course, wo came upon an Irish colony. With means at hand of building decent cabins, it was wonderful to see how clumsy, rough, and wretched, its hovels were. The best were poor pro- tection from the weather ; the worst let in the wind and rain through Avidc breaches in the roofs of sodden grass, and in the walls of mud ; some had neither door nor window ; some had nearly fallen down, and were imper- fectly propped up by stakes and poles; all were ruinous and filthy. Hideously ugly old women and very buxom young ones, pigs, dogs, men, children, babies, pots, kettles, dunghills, vile refuse, rank straw, and standing water, all wallowing together in an insepa- rable heap, composed the furniture of every dark and dirty hut. Between nine and ten o'clock at night, Ave arrived at Lebanon : which is renowned for its warm baths, and for a great hotel, well adapted, I have no doubt, to the gregarious taste of those seekers after health or pleasure who repair here, but inexpressibly comfortless to me. We were shown into an immense apartment, lighted by two dim candles, called the drawing- room : from which there was a descent by a flight of steps, to another vast desert called the dining- 1 extra to miles dis- er and a at village lit of tlie h the road beautiful ; for many ins, where ic ghastly epins one a, towered tely clouds, led a steep a railroad, course, wc my. With ing decent to see how stched, its •e poor pro- ; the worst irough wide dden grass, some had some had rere imper- 9 and poles; Hideously ;ry buxom n, children, ighills, vile iding water, an insepa- furniture of o'clock at ion : which I baths, and ted, I have tus taste of or pleasure lexpressibly shown into lighted by he drawing- ere was a steps, to the dining- FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 149 room : our bed chambers were among certain long rows of littlo wliite- washed cells, which opened from either side of a dreary passage ; and were so like rooms in a prison that I half expected to be locked up when I went to bed, and listened involun- tarily for the turning of the key on the outside. Tnere need be baths somewhere in the neighbourhood, for the other washing arrangements were on as limited a scale as I ever saw, even in America : indeed, these bed- rooms were so very bare of oven such common luxuries as chairs, that I should say they were not provided with enough of anything, but that I bethink myself of our having been most bountifully bitten all uig'it. The house is very pleasantly situ- ated, however, and we had a good breakfast. That done, we went to visit our place of destination, which was some two miles off, and the way to which was soon indicated by a finger-post, whereon was painted, " To the Shaker Village." As we rode along, we passed a party of Shakers, who were at work upon the road ; who wore the broadest of all broad-brimmed hats ; and were in all visible respects such very wooden men, that I felt about as much sym* pathy for them, and as much interest in them, as if they had been so many figure-heads of ships. Presently we came to the beginning of the village, and alighting at the door of a house where the Shaker manufactures are sold, and which is the head-quarters of the elders, requested permission to see the Shaker worship. Pending the conveyance of this request to some person in authority, we walked into a grim room, where several grim hats were hanging on grim pegs, and the time was grimly told by a grim clock, which uttered every tick with a kind of struggle, as if it broke the grim silence reluc- tantly, and under protest. Ranged against the wall were six or eight stitt' high-backed chairs, and they partook so strongly of the general grimncss, that one would much rather have sat on the floor than incurred the smallest obligation to any of them. Presently, there stalked into this apartment, a grim old Shaker, with eyes as hard, and dull, and cold, as the great round metal buttons on hi» coat and waistcoat ; a sort of calm goblin. Being informed of our desire, he produced a newspaper wherein the body of elders, whereof he was a member, had advertised but a few days before, that in consequence of certain unseemly interruptions which their worship had received from strangers, their chapel was closed to the public for the space of one year. As nothing was to be urged in op- position to this reasonable arrange- ment, we requested leave to make some trifling purchases of Shaker goods; which was grimly conceded. We accordingly repaired to a store in the same house and on the opposito side of the passage, where the stock was presided over by something alivo in a russet case, which the elder said was a woman ; and which I suppose wcis a woman, though I should nob have suspected it. On the opposite side of the roarl was their place of worship: a cool clean edifice of wood, with large win- dows and green blinds : like a spa- cious summer-house. As there was no getting into this place, and nothing was to be done but walk up and down, and look at it and the other buildings in the village (which were chiefly of wood, painted a dark red like English barns, and composed of many stories like English factories), I have nothing to communicate to the reader, beyond the scanty results I gleaned the while our purchases were making. » Hi " 4t. 150 AMERICAN NOTES ii!, These people are called Shakcra from their peculiar form of adoration, which eonHirtti) of a dance, performed by the men and women of all agcH, who arrange themaclvca for that pur- pose in opposite partieu : the men lirHt diverting theniMelvcs of their hatH and coats, wliich they gravely hang against the wall before they begin ; and tying a ribbon round their shirt- sleeves, as though they were going to be bled. They accompany themselves with a droning, humming noise, and dance until they are quite exhausted, alternately advancing and retiring in a preposterous sort of trot. The effect is said to be unspeakably absurd : and if I may judge from a print of this ceremony which I have in my possession ; and which I am informed by those who have visited the chapel, is perfectly accurate ; it must be inli- nitely grotesque. They are governed by a woman, and her rule is understood to be absolute, though she has the assistance of a coun- cil of elders. She lives, it is said, in strict seclusion, in certain rooms above the chapel, and is never shown to profane eyes. If she at all resemble the lady who presided over the store, it is a great charity to keep her as close as possible, and I cannot too strongly express my perfect con- currence in this benevolent pro- ceeding. All the possessions and revenues of the settlement are thrown into a com- mon stock, which is managed by the elders. As they have made converts among people who were well to do in the world, and are frugal and thrifty, it is understood that this fund pros- pers : the more especially as they have made large purchases of land. Nor is this at Lebanon the only Shaker settlement : there are, I think, at least, three others. They are good farmers, and all their produce is eagerly purchased and highly esteemed. "Shaker seeds," " Shaker herbs," and " Sliaker dis- tilled waters," are commonly an- nounced for sale in the shops of towns and cities. They are good breeders of cattle, and are kind and merciful to the brute creation. Con- sequently, Shaker beasts seldom fail to find a ready market. They eat and drink together, after the Spartan model, at a great public table. There is no union of the sexes: and every Shaker, male and female, is devoted to a life of celibacy. Kumour hiis been busy upon this theme, but here again I must refer to the lady of the store, and say, that if many of the sister Shakers resemble her, I treat all such slander as bearing on its face the strongest marks of wild improba- bility. But that they take as pro- selytes, persons so young that they cannot know their own minds, and cannot possess much strength of reso- lution in this or any other respect, I can assert from my own observation of the extreme juvenility of certain youthful Shakers Avhom I saw at work among the party on the road. They are said to be good drivers of bargains, but to bo honest and just in their transactions, and even in horse-dealing to resist those thievish tendencies M'hich would seem, for some undiscovered reason, to be almost inseparable from that branch of traffic. In all matters they hold their own course quietly, live in their gloomy silent commonwealth, and show little desire to interfere with other people. This is well enough, but neverthe- less I cannot, I confess, incline to- wards the Shakers ; view them with much favour, or extend towards them any very lenient construction. I so abhor, and from my soul detest that bad spirit, no matter by what class or sect it may be entertained, which would strip life of its healthful graces. FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 151 Br Heeds,** lakcr di«- only an- shops of aro good kind and )n. Con- cklom fail sthcr, after oat public the Hcxes: nd female, \'. Kumour heme, but he lady of lany of the or, I treat on itH face 1 improba- ke as pro- thai they ainds, and jth of reao- reapect, I Dbservation of certain I saw at the road, drivers of and just even ia Be thievish seem, for on, to be lat branch they hold ve in their ealth, and rfere with neverthe- incline to- them with vards them kion. I so letest that what class ned, which ful graces. rob youth of its innocent pleasures, pluck from maturity and af?o their pleasant ornaments, and make exis- tence but a narrow path towards the grave: that odious spirit which, if it could have had full scope and sway upon the earth, must have blaHted and made barren tlic imaginations of the greatest men, and left them, in their power of raisinpr up enduring images before their fellow-creatures yet unborn, no better than the beasts : that, in these very broad-brimmed hats and very sombre coats — in stiff- necked solenm-visaged piety, in short, no matter what its garb, whether it have cropped hair as in a Sliaker village, or long nails as in a Hindoo temple — I recognise the worst among the enemies of Heaven and Earth, who turn the water at the marriage feasts of this poor world, not into wine but gall. And if there must be people vowed to crush the harmless fancies and the love of innocent de- lights and gaieties, which are a part of human nature : as much a part of it as any other love or hope that is our common portion : let them, for me, stand openly revealed among the ribald and licentious ; the very idicfts know that they are not on the Im- mortjil road, and will despise them, and avoid them readily. Leaving the Shaker village with a hearty dislike of the old Shakers, and a hearty pity for the young ones: tempered by the strong probability of their running away as they grow older and wiser, which they not uncom- monly do : we returned to Lebanon, and 80 to Hudson, by the way we had come upon the previous day. There, we took steamboat down the North River towards New York, but stopped, some four hours' journey short of it, at West Point, where we remained that night, and all next day, and next night too. In this beautiful place : the fairest among the fair and lovely Highlands of the North Kiver : shut in by deep green heights and ruined forts, and looking 2 AMERICAN NOTES The beauty and freshncgi of this calm retreat, in the very dawn and greenness of summer — it was then tlio beginning of June — were exquisite indeed. Leaving it upon the sixth, and returning to New York, to em- bark for England on the succeeding day, I was glad to think that among tlio last memorable beauties which had glided past us, and softened in the bright perspective, were those whose pictures, traced by no common hand, are fresh in most men's minds ; not easily to grow old, or fade beneath the dust of Time : The Koatskill Mountains, Sleepy Hollow, and the Tappaan Zee. t 1 FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. l.'iS tftoncd in Dro thoHo ) common I'a mindfl ; le bcnoatli KoaUkill , and the CHAPTER XVI. THE PASSAGE HOME. I REVXR had so much interest before, and very likely I shall never have so much interest again, in the state of the wind, as on the long looked-for morning of Tuesday the Seventh of June. Some nautical authority had told mo a day or two previous, " any- thing with west in it, will do ; " so when I darted out of bed at daylight, and throwing up the window, was saluted by a lively breeze from the north-west which had sprung up in the night, it came upon me so freshly, rustling with so mvny happy associa- tions, that I conceived upon the spot a special regard for all airs blowing from that quarter of the compans, which I shall cherish, I dare say, until my own wind has breathed its last frail puff, and withdrawn itself for ever from the mortal calendar. The pilot had not been slow to take advantage of this favourable weather, and the ship which yesterday had been in such a crowded dock that she might have retired from trade for good and all, for any chance she seemed to have of going to sea, was now full sixteen miles away. A gallant sight she was, when wc, fast gaining on her in a steamboat, saw her in the distance riding at anchor : her tall masts pointing up in graceful lines against the sky, and every rope and spar expressed in delicate and threadlike outline : gallant, too, when we, being all aboard, the anchor came up to the sturdy chorus "Cheerily men, oh cheerily ! " and she followed proudly in the towing steamboat's wake : but bravest and most gallant of all, when the tow-rope being cast adrift, the canvass fluttered from her masts, and spreading her white wing» she soared away upon her free and solitary courHc. In the after cabin we were only fifteen passengers in all, and the greater part were from Canada, where some of us had known each other. The night was rough and sciually, ko were the next two days, but they flew by quickly, and we were soon us cheerful and as snug a party, with an honest, manly-hearted captain at our head, as ever came to the resolution of being mutually agreeable, on land or water. We breakfasted at eight, lunched at twelve, dined at three, and took our tea at half-past seven. We had abundance of amusements, and dinner was not the least among them : firstly, for its own sake ; secondly, because of its extraordinary length : its duration, inclusive of all the long pauses be- tween the courses, being seldom less than two hours and a half; which was a subject of never-failing enter- tainment. By way of beguiling the tediousness of these banquets, a select association was formed at the lower end of the table, below the mast, to whose distinguished president mo- desty forbids me to make any further allusion, which, being a very hilari- ous and jovial institution, was (preju- dice apart) in high favour with the rest of the community, and particu- larly with a black steward, who lived for three weeks in a broad grin at the marvellous humour of these incorpo- rated worthies. Then, we had chess for those who 1 1 ' I < .<1 154 AMERICAN NOTES 8,i !. played it, whist, cribbage, books, back- gammon, and Bhovelboard. In all weathers, fair or foul, calm or windy, we were every one on deck, walking up and down in pairs, lying in the boats, leaning over the side, or chatting in a lazy group together. We had no lack of music, for one played the accordion, another the violin, and another (who usually began at six o'clock A.M.) the key-bugle : the com- bined eftect of which instruments, when they all played different tunes, in different parts of the ship, at the same time, and within hearing of each other, as they sometimes did (every- body being intensely satisfied with his own performance), was sublimely hideous. When all these means of entertain- ment failed, a sail would heave in sight ; looming, perhaps, the very spirit of a ship, in the misty distance, or passing us so close that through our glasses we could see the people on her decks, and easily make out her name, and whither she was bound. For hours together we could watch the dolphins and porpoises as they rolled and leaped and dived around the vessel ; or those small creatures ever on the wing, the Mother Carey's chickens, which had borne us com- pany from New York bay, and for a whole fortnight fluttered about the vessel's stern. For some days we had a dead calva. or very light winds, during which the crew amused them- selves with fishing, and hooked an unlucky dolphin, who expired, in all his rainbow colours, on. the deck : an event of such importance in our bar- ren calendar, that afterwards we dated from the dolphin, and made the day on which he died, an era. Besides all this, when we were five or six days out, there began to be much talk of icebergs, of which wan- dering islands an unusual number had been seen by the vessels that had come into New York a day or two before we left that port, and of whose dangerous neighbourhood we were warned by the sudden coldness of the weather, and the sinking of the mer- cury in the barometer. VVliile these tokens lasted, a double look-out was kept, and many dismal talcs were whispered, after dark, of ships that had struck upon the ice and gone down in the night; but the wind obliging us to hold a southward course, we saw none of them, and the weather soon grew bright and warm again. The observation every day at noon, and the subsequent working of the vessel's course, was, as may be sup- posed, a feature in our lives of para- mount importance ; nor were there wanting (as there never are) sagacious doubters of the captain's calculations, who, so soon as his back was turned, would, in the absence of compasses, measure the chart with bits of string, and ends of pocket-handkerchiefs, and points of snuffers, and clearly prove him to be wrong by an odd thousand miles or so. It was very edifying to see these unbelievers shake their heads and frown, and hear them hold forth strongly upon navigation : not that they knew anything about it, but that they always mistrusted the captain in calm weather, or when the wind was adverse. Indeed, the mer- cury itself is not so variable as this class of passengers, whom you will see, when the ship is going nobly through the water, quite pale with admiration, swearing that the captain beats all captains ever known, and even hinting at subscriptions for a piece of plate ; and who, next morn- ing, when the breeze has lulled, and all the sails hang useless in the idle air, shake their despondent heads again, and say, with screwed-up lips, they hope that captain is a sailor — but they shrewdly doubt him. I if FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 155 y or two of whose we were ess of the the mer- hile these k-out was lies were ihips that and gone the wind ;outhward 1, and the Eind warm y at noon, ag of the ly be sup- 3 of para- 'ere there I sagacious Iculations, as turned, jom passes, ! of string, ^hiefs, and rly prove thousand idifying to ike their them hold ition : not about it, •usted the when the the mer- le as this you will ng nobly pale with le captain own, and ons for a !xt mom- illed, and 1 the idle nt heads d-up lips, lilor — but n It even b-^'^amc an occupation in the calm, to wonder when the wind wovld spring up in the favourable quarter, where, it was clearly shown by all the rules and precedents, it ought to have sprung up long ago. The first mate, who whistled for it zealously, was much respected for his perseverance, and was regarded even by the unbelievers as a first-rate sailor. Many gloomy looks would be cast upward through the cabin skylights at the flapping sails while dinner was in progress ; and some, growing bold in ruefulness, predicted that we should land about the middle of J uly. There are always on board ship, a Sanguine One, and a Despondent One. The latter character carried it hollow at this period of the voyage, and tri- umphed over the Sanguine One at every liieal, by inquiring where he supposed the Great Western (which left New York a week after us) was now: and where he supposed the * Cunard ' steam-packet was now : and what he thought of sailing ves- sels as compared with steamships now : and so beset his life with pes- tilent attacks of that kind, that he too was obliged to aflfect despondency, for very peace and quietude. These were additions to the list of entertaining incidents, but there was still another source of interest. We carried in the steerage nearly a hundred passengers : a little world of poverty : and as we came to know individuals among them by sight, from looking down upon the deck where they took the air in the day- time, and cooked their food, and very often ate it too, we became curious to know their histories, and with what expectations they had gone out to America, and on what errands they were going home, and what their cir- cumstances were. The information we got on these heads from the car- penter^ who had charge of these j people, was often of the strangest I kind. Some of them hud been in America but three days, some but three months, and some had gone out in the last voyage of that very ship in which they were now returning home. Others had sold their clothes to raise the passage-money, and had hardly rags to cover them ; others had no food, and lived upon the charity of the rest : and one man, it was discovered nearly at the end of the voyage, not before — for he kept his secret close, and did not court compassion — had had no sustenance whatever but the bones and scraps of fat he took from the plates used in the after-cabin dinner, when they were put out to be washed. The whole system of shipping and conveying these unfortunate persons, Ls one that stands in need of thorough revision. If any class deserve to be protected and assisted by the Govern- ment, it is that class who are banished from their native land in search of the bare means of subsistence. All that couid be done for these poor people by the great compassion and humanity of the captain and officers was done, but they require much more. The law is bound, at least upon the English side, to see that too many of them are not put on board one ship : and that their accommoda- tions are decent : not demoralising and profligate. It is bound, too, in common humanity, to declare that no man shall be taken on board without I his stock of provisions being pre- I viously inspected by some proper I officer, and pronounced moderately I sutticient for his support upon the voyage. It is bound to provide, or to require that there be provided, a medical attendant ; whcrea.s in these ships there are none, though siikness of adults, and deaths of children, on the passage, are matters of the very commonest occurrence. Above all it I Ml f ) i: ! » 156 AMERICAN NOTES ^ Hi is the duty of any Government, be it monarchy or republic, to interpose and put an end to that system by which a firm of traders in emigrants purchase of the owners the whole 'tweendecks of a ship, and send on board as many wretched people as they can lay hold of, on any terms they can get, without the smallest reference to the conveniences of the steerage, the number of berths, the slightest separation' of the sexes, or anything but their own immediate profit. Nor is even this the worst of the vicious system : for, cenain crimp- ing agents of these houses, who have a per centage on all the passengers they inveigle, are constantly travelling about those districts where poverty and discontent are rife, and tempting the credulous into more misery, by holding out monstrous induce- ments to emigration which can never be realised. The history of every family we had on board was pretty much the same. After hoarding up, and borrowing, and begging, and selling everything to pay the passage, they had gone out to New York, expecting to find its streets paved with gold; and had found them paved with very hard and very real stones. Enterprise was dull ; labourers were not wanted ; jobs of work were to be got, but the payment was not. They were coming back, even poorer than they went. One of them was carrying an open letter from a young English artisan, who had been in New York a fortnight, to a friend near Manchester, whom he strongly urged to follow him. One of the oflicers brought it to mc as a curiosity. " This is the country, Jem," said the writer. " I like America. There is no despotism here ; that 's the great thing. Employment of all sorts is going a-begging, and wages are capital. You have only to choose a trade, Jem, and be it. I haven't made choice of one yet, but I shall soon. At present I haven't quite made up my mind wlietlier to he a carpenter — or a tailor." There was yet another kind of pas- senger, and but one more, who, in the calm and the light winds, was a constant theme of conversation and observation among us. This was an English sailor, a smart, thorough- built, English man-of-war's-man from his hat to his shoes, who was serving in the American navy, and having got leave of absence was on his way home to see his friends. When he presented himself to take and pay for his passage, it had been suggested to him that being an able seaman he might as well work it and save the money, but this piece of advice he very indig- nantly rejected : saying, " He'd be damned but for once he'd go aboard ship, as a gentleman." Accordingly, they took his money, but he no sooner came aboard, than he stowed his kit in the forecastle, arranged to mess with the crew, and the very first time the hands were turned up, went aloft like a cat, before anybody. And all through the passage there he was, first at the braces, outermost on the yards, perpetually lending a hand everywhere, but always with a sober dignity in his manner, and a sober grin on his face, which plainly said, " I do it as a gentleman. For my own pleasure, mind you ! " At length and at last, the promised wind came up in right good earnest, and away we went before it, with every stitch of canvas set, slashing through the water nobly. There was a grandeur in the motion of the splendid ship, as overshadowed by her mass of sails, she rode at a furious pace upon the waves, which filled one with an indescribable sense of pride and exultation. As she plunged into a foaming valley, how I loved to see the green waves, bordered FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 1 oi all Boon. made vjt yenter — id of pas- , who, in ds, was a ition and lis was an thorough- man from IS serving laving got ly home to presented is passage, him that might as loney, but ;ry indig- «He'd be go aboard ;cordingly, ut he no he stowed ranged to the very urned up, 1 anybody, e there he ermost on ng a hand ,h a sober d a sober linly said, or my own promised >d earnest, it, with slashing There was of the red by her a furious lich filled sense of ,e plunged iw I loved bordered deep T.lth white, come rushing on astern, to buoy her upward at their pleasure, and curl about her as she stooped again, but always own her for their haughty mistress still ! On, on we flew, with changing lights upon the water, being now in the blessed region of fleecy skies ; a bright sun lighting us by day, and a bright moon by night; the vane pointing directly homeward, alike the truthful index to the favouring wind and to our cheerful hearts; until at sunrise, one fair Monday morning — thi twenty-seventh of June, I shall not easily forget the day, — there lay before us, old Cape Clear, God bless it, showing, in the mist of early morning, like a cloud : the brightest and most welcome oloud, to us, that ever hid the face of Heu- vcnV^ fallen sister- Home. Dim speck as it was in the wide prospect, it made the sunrise a more cheerful sight, and gave to it that sort of human interest which it seems to want at sea. There, as elsewhere, the return of day is inseparable from some sense of renewed hope and glad- ness; but the light shining on the dreary waste of water, and showing it in all its vast extent of loneliness, presents a solemn spectacle, which even night, veiling it in darkness and uncertainty, does not surpass. The rising of the moon is more in keeping with the solitary ocean; and has an air of melancholy grandeur, which in its soft and gentle influence, seems to comfort while it saddens. I recollect when I v>.^3 a very young child having a fancy that the reflection of I be moon in water was a path to Heaven, trod- den by the spirits of good people on their way to God ; and this old feeling often came over me again, when I watched it on a tranquil night at sea. The wind was very light on this same Jlonday morning, but it was still in the right quarter, and so, by slow degrees, we left Cape Clear behind, and sailed along within sight of the coast of Ireland. And how merry we all were, and how loyal to the George Washington, and how full of mutual congratulations, and how venture- some in predicting the exact hour at which we should arrive at Liverpool, may be easily imagined and readily understood. Also, how heartily we drank the captain's health that day at dinner ; and how restless we be- came about packing up : and how two or three of the most sanguine spirits rejected the idea of going to bed at all that night as something it was not worth while to do, so near the shore, but went nevertheless, and slept soundly; and how to be so near our journey's end, was like a pleasant dream, from which one feared to wake. The friendly breeze freshened again next day, and on we went once more before it gallantly : descrying now and then an English ship going homeward under shortened sail, while we with every inch of canvas crowded on, dashed gaily past, and left her far behind. Towards evening, the wea- ther turned hazy, with a drizzling rain ; and soon became so thick, that we sailed, as it were, in a cloud. Still we swept onward like a phan- tom ship, and many an eager eye glanced up to where the Look-out on the mast kept watch for Holyhead. At length his long-expected cry was heard, and at the same moment there shone out from the haze and mist ahead, a gleaming light, which presently was gone, and soon re- tu.-ned, and soon was gone again. Whenever it came back, the eyes of all on board, brightened and sparkled like itself: and there we all stood. «/il<'hing this revolving light upon the rock at Holyhead, and prais- ing it for its brightness and its friendly warning, and lauding it, in Mi i ,i' 1.58 AMERICAN NOTES (ImI iV ing down darkness, our sails alongside ; short, above all other signal lights that ever were displayed, until it once more glimmered faintly in the distance, far behind us. Then, it was time to fire a gun, for a pilot ; and almost before its smoke had cleared away, a little boat with a light at her mast-head came bear- upon us, thro'igh the swiftly. And presently, being backed, siie ran and the hoarse pilot, wrapped and muffled in pea-coats and shawls to the very bridge of his wea- ther-ploughed-up nose, stood bodily among us on the deck. And I think if that pilot had wanted to borrow fifty pounds for an indefinite period on no security, we should have engaged to lend it him, among us, before his boat had dropped astern, or (which is the same thing) before every scrap of news in the paper he brought with him had become the common property of all on board. We turned in prjtty late that ! night, and turned out pretty early next morning. By six o'clock we clustered on the deck, prepared to go ashore ; and looked upon the spires, and roofs, and smoke, of Liverpool. By eight we all sat down in one of its Hotels, to eat and drink together for the last time. And by nine we had shaken hands all round, and broken up our social company for ever. The country, by the railroad, seemed, as we rattled through it, like a luxuriant garden. The beauty of the fields (so small they looked !). the hedge-rows, and the trees ; the pretty cottages, the beds of flowers, the old churchyards, the antique houses, and every well-known object; the ex- quisite delights of that one journey, crowding in the short compass of a summer's day, the joy of many years, and ■winding up with Home and all that makes it dear ; no tongue can tell, or pen of mine describe. I A FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. IJ9 early next ! clustered ;o ashore ; ires, and pool. By one of its igether for le we had id broken ver. railroad, igh it, like beauty of ked!), the the pretty re, the old lOuses, and ; the ex- le journey, ompass of of many rith Home dear; no L of mine CHAPTER XVir. SLAVEIIY. The upholders of slavery in America — of the atrocities of which system, I , shall not write one word for which j I have not ample proof and warrant — may be divided into three great i classes. | The first, arc those more moderate and rational owners of human cattle, who have come into the possession of ; them as so many coins in their trading | capital, but who admit the frightful j nature of the Institution in the ab- 1 stract, and perceive the dangers to ; society with which it is fraught : < dangers which however distant they j may be, or howsoever tar.'.y in their | coming on, are as certain tr %1'. upon its guilty head, us is the Duj of Judg- 1 ment. ' The second, consists of all those i owners, breeders, users, buyers and i sellers of slaves, who will, until the bloody chapter has a bloody end, own, i breed, use, buy, and sell them at all I hazards ; who doggedly deny the ' horrors of the system, in the teeth cf such a mass of evidence as never was brought to bear on any other subject, and to which the experience of every Uay contributes its immense amount ; ■who would at this or any other mo- ment, gladly involve America in a war, civil or foreign, provided that it had for its sole end and object the asser- tion of their right to perpetuate slavery, and to whip and work and torture slaves, unquestioned by any human authority, and unassailed by any human power; who, when they speak of Freedom, mean the Freedom to oppress their kind, and to be savage, merciless^ and cruel ; and of whom every man on his owa ground, in republican America, is a more ex- acting, and a sterner, and a less re- sponsible despot than the Caliph Haroun Alraschid in his angry robe of scarlet. The third, and not the least nu- merous or influential, is composed of all that delicate gentility which can- not bear a superior, and cannot brook ail equal ; of that class whose Ilcpub- lioanism means, " I will not tolerate a man above me: and of those below, none must approach too near ;" whose pride, in a land where voluntary ser- vitude is shunned as a disgrace, must be ministered to by slaves ; and whose inalienable rights can only have their growth in negro wrongs. It has been sometimes urged that, in the unavailing etlbrts which have been made to advance the cause of Human Freedom in the republic of America (strange cause for history to treat of!), sufficient regard has not been had to the existence of the first class of persons ; and it has been con- tended that they are hardly used, in being confounded with the second. This is, no doubt, the case ; noble instances of pecuniary and personal sacrifice have already had their growth amon^'- them ; and it is much to be regretted that the gulf between them and the advocates of emancipation should have been widened and deep- ened by any means : the rather, as there are, l)eyond dispute, among these slave owners, many kind masters who are tender in the exercise of their unnatural power. Still it is to be feared that this injustice Ls inseparable m \\ AMERICAN NOTES "^^ from tho state of things with which humanity and truth are called upon to deal. Slavery in not a whit the more endurable because some hearts are to be found which can partially resist its hardening influences; nor can the indignant tide of honest wrath stand still, because in its onward course it overwhelms a few who are comparatively innocent, among a host of guilty. The ground most commonly taken bj' these better men among the advo- cates of slavery, is this : " It is a bad system ; and for myself I would wil- lingly get rid of it, if I could; most willingly. But it is not so bad, as you in England take it to be. You are deceived by the representations of the emancipationists. The greater part of my slaves are much attached to me. You will say that I do not allow them to be severely treated; but I will put it to you whether you believe that it can be a general prac- tice to treat them inhumanly, when it would impair their value, and would be obviously against the interests of their masters." Is it the interest of any man to 8tcal, to game, to waste his health and mental faculties by drunkenness, to lie, forswear himself, indulge hatred, seek desperate revenge, or do murder? No. All these are roads to ruin. And why, then, do men tread them? Because such inclina- tions are among the vicious qualities of mankind. Blot out, ye friends of filavery, from the catalogue of human passionb, brutal lust, cruelty, and the abuse of irresponsible power (of all earthly temptations the most difficult to be resisted), and when ye have done so, and not before, we will in- quire whether it be the interest of a mafcter to lash and inaim the slaves, over whose lives and limbs he has ai i absolute controul ! , Bit again: this class, together with that last one I have named, the miserable aristocracy spawned of a false republic, lift up their voices and exclaim " Public opinion is all suffi- cient to prevent such cruelty as you denounce." Public opinion ! Why, public opinion in the slave States is slavery, is it not 1 Public opinion, in the slave States, has delivered the slaves over, to the gentle mercies of their masters. Public opinion has made the laws, and denied the slaves legislative protection. Public opinion has knotted the lash, heated the branding-iron, loaded the rifle, and shielded the murderer. Public opinion threatens the abolitionist with death, if he venture to the South ; and drags him with a rope about his middle, in broad unblushing noon, through the first city in the East. Public opinion has, within a few years, burned a slave alive at a slow fire in the city of St. Louis ; and public opinion has to this day maintained upon the bench that estimable Judge who charged the Jury, impanelled there to try his murderers, that their most horrid deed was an act of public opinion, and being so, must not be punished by the laws the public sentiment had made. Public opinion hailed this doctrine with a howl of wild applause, and set the prisoners free, to walk the city, men of mark, and influence, and station, as they had been before. Public opinion ! what class of men have an immense preponderance over the rest of the community, in their power of representing public opinion in the legislature 1 the slave owners. They send from their twelve States one hundred members, while the fourteen free States, with a free popu- lation nearly double, return but a hundred and forty-two. Before whom do the presidential candidates bow down the most humbly, on whom do they fawn the most fondly, and for whose tastes do they cater the most amed, tlic rncd of a voices and is all suffi- jlty as you tt ! Why, e States ia spinion, in ivered the mercies of pinion has the slaves lie opinion deated tho ! rifle, and blic opinion with death, ; and drags 1 middle, in lirough the [)lie opinion , burned a I the city of nion has to L the bench ho charged •c to try his [lost horrid •pinion, and ►unished by timent had hailed this Id applause, to walk the fluence, and jefore. lass of men erance over in their )lic opinion ave owners, elve States while the a free popu- iturn but a icfore whom idates bow n whom do .ly, and for r the most FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 161 assiduously in their servile protesta- tion!*] The slave owners always. Public opinion ! hear the public opinion of the free South, as expressed by its own members in the House of Kcpresentatives at Washington. " I have a great respect for the chair," quoth North Carolina, " I have a great respect for the chair as an o.licer of the house, and a great re- spect for him personally; nothiiifj but that respect prevents me from rushing to the table and tearing that petition which has just been presented for the abolition of slavery in the district of Columbia, to pieces," — " I warn the abolitionists," says South Carolina, "ignorant, infuriated barbarians as they are, that if chance shall throw any of them into our hands, he may expect a felon's death." — " Let an abolitionist come within the borders of South Carolina," cries a third ; mild Carolina's colleague ; " and if we can catch him, we will try him, and notwithstanding the interference of all the governments on earth, in- cluding the Federal government, we will HANO him." Public opinion has made this law. — It has declared that in Washington, in that city Avhich takes its name from the father of American liberty, any justice of the i^eace may bind with fetters any negro passing down the street and thrust him into jail : no offence on the black man's part is necessary. Tlieju?tioc says, "I choose to think this r,.an a runaway:" and locks him up. Public opinion im- powers the man of law when this is done, to advertise the negro in the newspapers, Avarning his owner to come and claim him, or he will be sold to pay the jail fees. But sup- posing he is a free black, and has no owner, it may naturally be prci^mmeil that he is set at liberty. No : he is SOLD TO RECOMPENSE HIS JAILKU. This has been done again, and again, and No. 171. ai again. lie has no means of provin<:: his freedom ; has no adviser, mes- senger, or assistance of any sort or kind ; no investigation into his case is made, or inquiry instituted. ]h\ a free man, who may have served for years, and bought bis liberty, is thrown into jail on no process, fur no crime, and on no pretence of crime : and is sold to pay the jail fees. This seems incredible, even of America, but it is the law. Public opinion is deferred to, in such cases as the following; which is headed in the newspapers : — " Intevesting Law-Case. " An interesting case is now on trial in the Supreme Court, arising out of the following facts, A gentleman residing in JIaryland had allowed an aged pair of his slaves, substantial though not legal freedom for »^everal years. While thus living, a daughter was born to them, who grew u\) in the same liberty, until she married a free negro, and went with him to reside in Pennsylvania. They had several children, and lived unmolested until the original owner died, when his heir attempted to regain them ; but the magistrate before whom they were brought, decided that he had no jurisdict'on in the case, yiir oinirr seized '0f€ woman and her eldldren in the niqht, and earned them to Marij- land:' " Cash for negroes," "cash for negroes," "cash for negroes," is tho heading of advertisements in groat capitals down the long columns of the crowded journals. Woodcuts of a runaway negro with manacled hands, crouching beneath a bluff pursuer in top boots, who having caught him, grasps him by tlie throat, agreealjly diversify the pleasant text. The leading article protests against " that abominable and hellish doctrine of II 1G2 AMERICAN NOTES - 'I ^'1 abolition, which is repugnant alike to every law of God and nature." The delicate mama, who smiles her acqui- escence in this sprightly writing as she reads the paper in her cool piazza, quiets her youngest child who clings about her skirts, by promising the boy "a whip to beat the little niggers with." — But the negroes, little and big, are protected by public opinion. Let us try this public opinion by another test, which is important in three points of view : first, as showing how desperately timid of the public opinion slave owners arc, in their delicate descriptions of fugitive slaves in widely circulated newspapers ; secondly, as showing how perfectly contented the slaves arc, and how very seldom they run away; thirdly, as exhibiting their entire freedom from scar, or blemish, or any mark of cruel infliction, as their pictures are drawn, not by lying abolitionists, but by their own truthful masters. The following are a few specimens of the advertisements in the public papers. It is only four years since the oldest among them appeared ; and others of the same nature con- tinue to be published every day, in shoals. " llan away, Negress Caroline. Had on a collar with one prong turned down." " Ran away, a black woman, Betsy. Had an iron bar on her right leg." " Ran away, the negro Manuel. Much marked with irons." " Ran away, the negress Fanny. Had on an iron band about her neck." " Ran away, a negro boy about twelve years old. Had round his neck a chain dog-collar with ' Dc Lamperf engraved on it." " Ran away, the negro Hown. Has a ring of iron on his left foot. Also, Grise, his wife, having a ring and chain on the left leg." *' Ran aAvay, a negro boy named James. Said boy was ironed when ho left mc." " Committed to jail, a man who calls his name John. He has a clog of iron on his right foot which will weigh four or five pounds." " Detained at the police jail, the negro wench, !Myra. Has several marks of lashino, and has irons on her feet." " Ran away, a negro woman and two children. A few days before she went off, I burnt her with a hot iron, on the left side of her face. I tried to make the letter M." " Ran aM'ay, a negro man named Henry ; his left eye out, some scars from a dirk on and under his left arm, and much scarred with the whip." " One hundred dollars reward, for a negro fellow, Pompcy, 40 years old. He is branded on the left jaw. ' " Committed to jail, a negro man. Has no toes on the left foot." " Ran away, a negro woman named Rachel. Has lost all her toes except the large one." '•' Ran away, Sam. He was shot a short time since through the hand, and has several shots in his left arm and side." " Ran aAvay, my negro man Dennis. Said negro has been shot in the left arm between the shoulders and elbow, which has paralysed the left hand," " Ran away, my negro man named Simon. He has been shot badly, in his back and right arm." " Ran away, a negro named Arthur. Has a considerable scar across his breast and each arm, made by a knife ; loves to talk much of the goodness of God." " Twenty-five dollars reward for my man Isaac. He has a scar on his forehead, caused by a blow ; and one on his back, made by a shot from a pistol." " Ran away, a negro girl called led when man avIio las a clog ivhicU will I jail, the as several 3 irona on onian and before she a hot iron, 0. I tried lan named some scars er hid left with the reward, for years old. jaw." negro man. it. man named toes except was shot a the hand, lis left arm nan Dennis, in the left and elbow, ft hand." man named badly, in ned Arthur, across his made by a uch of the reward for scar on his and one hot from a vv FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 168 girl called Mary, Has a small near over her ' eye, a good many teeth missing, the letter A is branded on her cheek and ' forehead." " IJan away, negro Ben. Has a scar on his right hand; his thumb and forefinger being injurcack and hips." " Detained at the jail, a mulatto, named Tom. Has a scar on the right chock, and appears to have been burned with powder on the face." " llan away, a negro man named Ked. Three of his fingers are drawn into the palm of his hand by a cut. Has a scar on the back of his neck, nearly half round, done by a knife." " Was committed to j;iil, a negro man. Says his name is Josiah. His back very much scarred by the whip; and branded on the thigh and hips in three or four places, thus (.J ^1). The rim of his right car has been bit or cut oflV " Fifty dollars reward, for my fellow- Edward. Ho has a scar on the corner of his mouth, two cuts on and under his arm, and the letter E on his arm." " Ran away, negro boy EUic. Has a scar on one of his arms from the bite of a dog." " Ran away, from the plantation of James Surgette, the following negroes : Randal, has one ear cropped ; Bob, has lost one eye ; Kentucky Tom, has one jaw broken," " Ran away, Anthony. One of his ears cut off, and his Icfu hand cut with an axe." " Fifty dollars reward for the negro Jim Blake. Has a piece cut out of each ear, and the middle finger of the left hand cut off to the second joint." " Ran away, a negro woman named Maria. Has a scar on one side of her check, by a cut. Some scars on her back." " Ran away, the Mulatto wench Mary. Has a cut on the left arm, a scar on the left shoulder, and two upper teeth missing." I should say, perhaps, in explana- tion of this latter piece of description, that among the other blessings which public opinion secures to the negroes, is the common practice of violently punching out their teeth. To make them wear iron collars by day and night, and to worry them with dogs, arc practices almost too ordinary to deserve mention. " Ran away, my man Fountain. Has holes in his ears, a scar on the right side of his forehead, has been shot in the hind parts of his legs, and is marked on the back with the whip." " Two hundred and fifty dollars reward for my negro man Jim. He is much marked with shot in his right thigh. The shot entered on the outside, halfway between tlie hip and knee joints." " Brought to jail, John. Left car cropt." " Taken up, a negro man. Is very much scarred about the face and body, and has the left ear bit off." "Ran away, a black girl, named Mary. Has a scar on her cheek, and the end of one of her toes cut off." "Ran away, my Mulatto woman, Judy. She has had her right arm broke." " Ran away, my negro man, Levi. His left hand has been burnt, and I think the end of his forefinger is off." "Ran away, a negro man, nami-d Washinciton. Has lost a part of his middle finger, and the end of his little finger." " Twenty-five dollars reward for my man John. The tip of his nose is bit off." " Twenty-five dollars reward for the negro slave, Sally. Walks as though crippled in the back." M 2 .-•"•_ a*. <-!_tr-'! IGI AMEUICWN NOTES I I.il ■t Us Ffl t *•' \\t\n awiiy, .Too Dennis. Has a Bniall notch in one of his carpi," " Jlivn away, negro l)oy, Jai-k. lias a Bmall crop oi if his left car." " Kan away, a negro man, nauictl Ivory. Ilariasmall piece cut out of tlie top of each car." While upon the subject of car,-<, I may ob.'^crvc that a clistinguishc*! abo- litionist in New York once received a negro's car, which had been cut off close to the head, in a general post letter. It was forwarded by the free and indepcudcut gentleman who haY a pistol, and shot him dead. FOR GENERAL CIRCL'LATION. Ifi.i 1(1 I will ( a Ht'lof- nppcaroil y visit to to occur- :as there, aa iu the occur, it ■ aclually ire States, rcry Wuvst imlerpart3 ion of tho 3 to placc.4 slavery is semblanco ea anil the csumptiou lartics con- e districts, toms. South port learn that It, Member ounty, was he Comicil •vrd, Mem- J'he affair for Sheriff S. Baker ted by Mr. as opposed ' appoiiit- thcr. In c deceased ch Vinyard idc use of uagc, deal- i, to which After the iped up to to retract, )eating the ndt then ho stepped , and shot ft) " The issue appears to have been ' provoked on the part of Vinyard, ' who was determined at all hazards to defeat the appointment of IJakcr, and who, himself defeated, turned his ire and revenge upon the unfortunate Arndt." " The WiscoriKiu Trufjnhj. "Public u.diirnation runs liiijh in the territory of Wisconsin, in relation to the murder of C. C. P. Arndt, in the Legislative Hall of the Territory. ^Meetings have been held in diilbr- cnt counties of Wisconsin, denouncing the practice of sccretlif bearing arni.^ ia the Lcfjidative chambers of the country. Wc have seen the account of the expulsion of James K. Vinyard, the perpetrator of the bloody deed, and arc amazed to hear, that, after this expulsion by those who saw Vin- yard kill Mr. Arndt in the presence of his aged father, who was on a visit to see his son, little dreaming that he was to witnSfes his murder, Judgo Dunn has discJtnrged Vinyard on hail. The Miners' Free Press speaks in terms of merited rebuke at the out- rage upon the feelings of the people of Wisconsin. Vinyard was within arm's length of Mr. Arndt, when ho took such deadly aim at him, that he never spoke. Vinyard might at plea- sure, being so near, have only wounded him, but he chose to kill him." " Murder. " By a letter in a St. Louis paper of tho 14th, we notice a terrible outrage at Burlington, Iowa. A Mr. Bridg- man having had a difficulty with a citizen of the place, Mr. lloss ; a brother-in-law of the latter provided himself with one of Colt's revolving pistols, met Mr. B. in the street, and discharged the contents of five of the han'els at him : each shot taking effect. Mr. B., though honibly wounded; and dying, returned the fire, and killed lloss on the spot." Terribk death rf lioh, ft Potter. " From the ' Caddo fJazettc." of the 12th lu.st., we learn the frightful death of Colonel Uobcrt Potter He was beset in his house by an enemy, named Koso. 1 le sprang from his couch, sei/cd his gun, and, in his night clothes, rushed from the iiousc. For about two hundred yards liis speed seemed to defy liis pursuers; but, getting entangled in a thicket, he was capturctl. lioso told him that he inti iided to act a giiitrroiix jxirt, and give him a chance for his life. He then told Potter he might run, and he should not be interrupted till he reached a certain distance. Potter started at the word of command, and before a gun was fired he had reached the lake. His first impulse was to jump in the water and dive for it, which he did. Hose was close behind him, and formed his men on the bank ready to shoot him as he rose. In a few seconds he came up to breathe ; and scarce had his head reached the surface of the water when it wius com- pletely riddled with the shot of their guns, and he sunk, to rise no more ! " "Murder in Arkanscvi. " Wc understand that a .■severe ren- contre came off a. few days since in the Seneca Nation, between Mr, Loose, the sub-agent of the mixed band of the Senecas, Quapaw, and Shawnees, and Mr. James Gillespie, of the mer- cantile firm of Thomas 0. Allison and Co., of Maysville, Benton, County Aric, in which the latter was slain with a bowie-knife. Some difficulty had for some time existed between the parties. It is said that Major Gillespie brought on the attack with a cane. A severe conflict ensued, during which two pistols were fired %, ^>„\ai IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // 1.0 I.I I4i ■ SO lit |28 |2^ 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ■• 6" ► V] <^ /2 7] on /A Photographic Sciences Corporation e^ ^ >k\ 33 WEST MAIN STREET WrBSTER.N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 16G AMERICAN NOTES hi V l>y Gillespie and one by Loose. Loof?e then stabbed Gillespie with one of those never failing weapons, a bowie- knife. The death of Major G. is much regretted, aa he was a liberal- minded and energetic man. Since the above was in type, we have learned that Major Allison has stated to some of our citizens in town that Mr. Loose gave the first blow. We forbear to give any particulars, as the matter will he the subject of judicial investigation.'" "Foul Deed. ' " The steamer Thames, just from ^Missouri river, brought us a handbill, offering a reward of 500 dollars, for the person who assassinated Lilburn \V. Baggs, late Governor of this State, at Independence, on the night of the 6th inst. Governor Baggs, it is stated in a written memorandum, avus not dead, but mortally wounded. " Since the above was written, we received a note from the clerk of the Thames, giving the following par- ticulars. Gov. Baggs was shot by some villain on Friday, 6th inst., in the evening, while sitting in a room in his own house in Independence. His son, a boy, hearing a report, ran into the room, and found the (Jover- nor sitting in his chair, with his jaw fiillen down, and his head leaning back ; on discovering the injury done his father, he gave the alarm. Foot tracks were found in the garden below the window, and a pistol picked up supposed to have been overloaded, and thrown from the hand of the scoundrel who fired it. Three buck shots of a heavy load, took effect ; one going through his mouth, one into the brain, and another probably in or near the brain ; all going into thn back part of the neck and head. The Governorwas still aliveon the morning of the 7 th ; but no hopes for his reco- very by his friends, and but slight hopes from his physicians. " A man was suspected, and the Sheriff most probably has possession of him by this time, " The pistol was one of a pair stolen some days previous from a baker in Independence, and the legal autho- rities have the description of the other." " Rencontre. "An unfortunate affair took place on Friday evening in Chatres Street, in which one of our most respectable citizens received a dangerous wound, from a poignard in the abdomen. From the Bee (New Orleans) of yester- day, we learn the following particulars. It appears that an article was pub- lished in the French side of the paper on Monday last, containing some strictures on the Artillery Battalion for firing their guns on Sunday morn- ing, in answer to those from the Ontario and Woodbury, and thereby much alarm was caused to the families of those persons who were out all night preserving the peace of the city. Major C. Gaily, Commander of the battalion resenting this, called at the office and demanded the author's name ; that of M. P. Arpin was given to him, who was absent at the time. Some angry words then passed with one of the proprietors, and a challenge followed; the friends of both parties tried to arrange the affair, but foiled to do so. On Friday evening, about seven o'clock, JIajor Gaily met Mr. P. Arpin in Chatres Street, and accosted him. ' Are yen Mr. Arpinl' « ' Yes, Sir.' " ' Tlieu I have to tell you that you are a ' " (applying an appropri- ate epithet.) " ' I shall remind you of your words, sir.' " ' But I have said I would break my cane on your shoulders.' FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 167 but slight 1, and the possession * pair stolen a baker in cgal autho- ion of the took place trcs Street, respectable ■0U3 wound, ; abdomen. is) of yester- particularg. e was pub- jf the paper ming some y Battalion mday morn- from the ,nd thereby the families ere out all ! of the city, ider of the ailed at the author's Arpin was sent at the then passed ,ors, and a friends of range the On Friday ock, Major in Chatrcs 'Arc yen 3u that you 1 appropri- j-our words, ould break " ' I know it, but I have not yet received the blow.' '• At these words, Major Gaily, having a cane in his hands, struck Mr. Arpin across the face, and the latter drew a poignard from his pocket and stabbed Major Gaily in the abdomen. " Fears are entertained that the wound will be mortal. We under- stand that Mr. A i'pin has given -lecu- rity for his appearance at the Crimi- nal Court to answer t/ie charge" " AjfruD ill Mississippi. "On the 2rth idt., in an affray near Carthage, Leake county, Missis- sippi, between James Cottingham and John Wilburn, the latter was fdiot by the former, and so horribly wounded, that there was no hope of his recovery. On the 2nd instant, there was an affray at Carthage between A. C. Sharkey and George GofF, in which the latter was shot, and thought mortally wounded. Sharkey delivered him- self up to the authorities, hut changed his mind and escaped ! " " Personal Encounter. " An encounter took place in Sparta, a few days since, between the bar- i keeper of an hotel, and a man named | Bury. It appears that Bury had i become somewhat noisy, and that the barkeeper, debrmind to ^^reserre order, had threatened to shoot Burij, whereupon Bury drew a pistol and shot the barkeeper down. He was not dead at the last accounts, but slight hopes were entertained of his recovery." '•' Duel. "The clerk of the steamboat Tri- bune informs us that another duel was fought on Tuesday last, by Mr. Robbins, a bank officer in Vicksburg, and Mr. Fall, the editor of the Vicks- burg Sentinel. According to the arrangement, the parties had six pistols each, which, after the word * Fire ! ' they were to discharge as fast as they plea.-