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Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmds S des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour etre reproduit en un seul cliche, il est film6 d partir de Tangle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n6cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ml po AND HIS CONTINENT RAMBLES THROUCH AMERIO£, MAX O'RELL AUTHOR OF re, ETC., ETC. BULL AND HIS ISLAND •^RECOMMENDED BY THE HIGHEST MEDICAL AUTHORITY. •«- THE YATISI CORSET is Monrr.i.FD from a design of the most CELEBKATKD PARISIAN MAKKRS. It oivhs the wearer that EASE AND GRACE so MtCH admired in FRlilNCII LADIES. THE YATISI CORSET owing to the peculiar diagonal ELASTICITV OF the CLOTH wir.i. fit the wearer PliRFECTLV THE first time WORN, NO matter what her STYLE or FORM is — EITHER LONG 3R SHORT waistf.d. To LADIES wmo wisri to LACE TIGHT Avn NOT FEEi. ITNCOMFORTABLE at the BUST or HIPS THEY ARE IXDISPEXSABLF. THE YATISI CORSET "oes not stretch at the waist, re- QiiRFs NO BREAKING IN, FITS COMFORTABL?: the FIRS P TIME WORN. As IT GIVES to every M-OTION of the WEARER IT WILL OUT-LAST ANY of the old style rigid corsets. THE YATISI CORSET is made of the best materials, and liFiNG elastic (without rubber or springs) is IXYALUABLK >OR INVALIDS, AS it cannot COMPRESS the VITAL parts <-f THE BODY. They are RECOMMENDED ry the most CELE BRATED PHYSICIANS in at.l the LEADING CITIES. THE YATISI CORSET is the only one that the purchaser can wear ten DAYS and then return and have the MONEY REFUNDED if not found to be the most PERFECT FITTING, HEALTHFUL and COMFORTABLl^: CORSET ever worn. Every merchant who sells the YATISI CORSET will guarantee EVERY CLAIM MADE in' T'lR MANUFACTURERS, AND REFUND THE MONEY TO ANY LADY who is not PERFECTLY SAT SPIED WITH THE CORSET. THE YATISI CORSET is patented in Canada, great Bri- tain and the united STA TES. Every pair of YATISI CORSETS is so stamped and no other is GENUINE. Manufactured by : THE CROMPTON CORSET CO '^irA^(^^^ ^^ T Y t IT \ ! I 'I S I JONATHAN AND HIS CONTINENT (RAMBLES THROUGH AMERICAN SOCIETY) BY MAX O'RELL-:^ AUTHOR OF "JOHN BULL AND HIS ISLAND,' "JOHN BULL, JUNIOK," ETC. AND JACK ALLYN TRANSLATED BY MADAME PAUL BLOUET O \c\{jJl I^Cc-.^^C I TORONTO VVM. BRYCE, Publisher : 145775 COPYRIGHT EDITION. PRICE 25 CENTS. ^tm>^ if. i* h'" \ (• M M m\ in Gold ^ Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. Dr. Morses Indian Root Pills. Dr. Morsa s Indian Root Pills. Dr^ Morse's Indian Root Pills. Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills Cured of Indigestion and Headache. St. Andrew's, Que.,— March 31, 1887. W. 11, COMSTOCK. DicAit Sir,~Morse's Imdiak Root Pills have benefited me wonderfully. For months I suffered from Indii;estion and headache, was restless at nig^ht and had a bad taste in my mouth every morning, after taking one b x of the Pills, an these tro»blts disappeared, my food dijiested Well and my sleep was reireshin;;. My healtli is nuw ^uud. Danibi. Horam. What Morse's Pills are thought of at Riverbank, Ont. Riverbank, Jan. 31, 18S7. Mr. Comstock. Dear Sir,— I write to tell you in this section of the country Dk. Morse's Indian Root Pills have a good name. I will give you the names of one or two f)ersons who have used them and are oud in their praises. Mr. Robt. Smith who has been an invalid for many years has tried many medicines for regulating the bowels, but none suited him till he tried Morse's Indian Root Pills. He says that there was no unpleasant effects after t;iking them, the action beir^ mild and free from pain. Mrs. Jas. Gilmour, the mother of a large family, speaks in high terms of the benefit she and her family derived from their use. Mrs. Jas. Hamilton said to me, "I thank you very much for the box of Morse's Pills you recom- mended me to try when I was so sick. They have made a new woman of me." Yours Respectful, Mrs. Maky Hollis, Agent. tar To save Doctor's Bills use Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills. The Best Family Pill in use. PRICE 25c. PER BOX. For Sale by all Dealers. W. H. COMSTOCK, Sole Proprietor, BROCKVILLB, - - - ONTARIO. TO JONATHAN. You have often asked me to write my impressions o! America and the Americans, and your newspapers have been good enough to suggest "Jonathan and his Continc t" as a title for the book. The title is good and I accept it. As for the book, since you wish it, here it is. But I must warn you that if ever you should fancy you see in this little volume a deep study of your country and your admirable coun- trymen, your world-wide reputation for humor would be ex- ploded. However, as my collaborator is an American citizen, some, at least, of the statements here set down regarding Jonathan ought to have weight and authority. M. O'R. aiwi»^ — — ea a — iw 'qtt-'! 4 f CONTENTS. I CHAPTER I. Population of America— An Anecdote about the Sun— Where is the Center of America? — Jona- than CAN not get over IT, NOR CAN I — AMERICA, THE Land of Conjuring — A Letter from Jona- than DECIDES ME TO SET OUT FOR THE UNITED States, ....... CHAPTER II. Jonathan and his Critics — An Eminent Ameri- can Gives me Salutary Advice — Traveling Im- pressions— Why Jonathan Does Not Love John Bull, ....... CHAPTER III. Characteristic Traits — A Gentleman and a Cad — Different Ways of Discussing the Merits of a Sermon— Contradictions and Contrasts— Sacred and Profane — Players of Poker on foard Ship — "A Meek and Humble Follower of Jesus" — The Open Sesame of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia — The Childish Side of the Ameri- CAN Character — The Three Questions Jona- THA>f PUTS to Every Foreigner who Lands in America — Preconceived Notions — Request of an American Journalist — Why the English and THE French do not ask Questions on their Countries of the Foreign£;« who Visits them, . 11 Contents. CHAPTER IV. Types — Male Beauty — The Indian Type — Second Beauty in the Women of the New World — Something Wanting in the Beauty of Most American Women, . . . . .17 CHAPTER V. All that Glitters is Not Gold, especially in America — The Dollar is the Unity of the Met- rical System — Jonathan is Matter-of-Fact — How he Judges Man — The Kind of Baits that Take — Talent without Money is a Useless Tool — Boston and Kansas, . . . .20 CHAPTER VI. Diamonds. — How Diamonds are Worn and Lost in Tripping — The Sweat of Jonathan's Brows Crystallized in his Wife's Ears — Avarice is a Vice Little Known in America — Jonathan is Not the Slave of the Almighty Dollar to the Extent that he is Believed to be, I 24 CHAPTER VII. Notes on the Great American Cities — New York — Boston — A Visit to Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes — Washington — Mount Vernon — Phila- delphia — Chicago — Rivalry between these Cit- IBS — Jokes they Indulge in at Each Other's Expense, ...... CHAPTER VIII. 29 American Houses — Furniture — Luxury — The Clubs — An Evening at th^ Authors' Club — An Eye-sore — A Wonderful Shot — Bang, right in the Bull's-eye, . . .. . .48 CHAPTER IX. Society Jottings— Blue Blood in the United States — Fashionable Society — Plutocracy — Contents. "Parvenus" and "Arrives" — Literary and Artistic Society — Provincialism-All the Ameri- cans HAVE TWO Family Names — Colonels and Judges — American Hospitality — Terrapin and Canvas-back Duck, ..... CHAPTER X. Billionaires — A List of the Great American For- tunes — A Billionaire's House — A Democracy Ruled by Many Kizvgs, .... CHAPTER XI. The American Girl — Her Liberty — Her Man- ners — Respect for Woman — Youthful Reminis- cences — Flirtation Perfected — The " Boston" — Why the Young American Lady Does Not Ob- ject TO THE Society of Men — European Coats of Arms Regilt and Redeemed from Pawn — Americans of the Faubourg Saint-Germain — Lady Randolph Churchill — Mating of May and December — Stale Theme of American Plays — An Angel — The Tell-Tale Collodion — The Heroine of " L'Abbe Constantin" — What Ameri- can Girls Admire in a Man, 111 54 63 68 CHAPTER XH. The Emancipation of Woman — Extinction of Man — War against Beards — Ladies purifying the Streets of New York — The Ladies " go it " Alone, and have a " Good Time," . . 84 CHAPTER Xni. Prudery — " Shocking" Expressions — Transforma- tion OF the Vocabulary — War on Nudities — The Venus of Milo does not Escape the Wrath of THE Puritans — Mr. Anthony Comstock in Chief Command at New York — New England Prudes, 91 CHAPTER XIV. John Bull's Cousin German — A Salutary Lesson — Women's Vengeance — A Battle with Rotten IV Confeiits. Eggs — An Unsavory Omelette — Tarring and Feathering — Description of the Operation — An Awkward Quarter of an Hour — Vengeance of a Ladies' Seminary — A Town Council of Women — Woman's Standing in the States — Story of a Widow and her two Daughters, . 94 CHAPTER XV. Dress— My Light-Gray Trousers create a Sensa- tion IN A Pennsylvania Town — Women's Dress — Style and Distinction — Bonnets Fit to Frighten a Choctaw — Dress at the Theater — Ball Toilets — Draw a Veil over the Past, Ladies — The Frogs and the Oxen — L\terest and Capital. 102 CHAPTER XVI. High Class Humor— Mr. Chauncey M Depew and General Horace Porter — Corneille had . No Humor— A Woman " Sans P£re et sans Proche" — Mark Twain, . ... 108 CHAPTER XVH. Boisterous Humor and Horse-play Wit — A Din- ner AT THE Clover Club of Philadelphia — Other "Gridiron" Clubs, . . : .116 CHAPTER Western and Eastern Wit- the Way of Illustration, xvni. -Tw'o Chestnuts in 122 CHAPTER XIX. Journalism — Prodigious Enterprises — Startling Head-lines — "Jerked to Jesus" — "Mrs. Carter Finds Fault with her Husband's Kisses" — Jacob's Ladder — Sensational News — How a Journalist Became Known — Gossip — The Murderer and the Reporters — Detective Journalists — "The Devil Dodged" — Ten Minutes' Stoppage in Purgatory — French, English, and American Journalists — A Visit to the Great Newspaper Offices— Sunday Contents. V Papers — Country Papers — Wonderful Eye-tick- lers — Polemics — "Pulitzer and Dana" — Comic AND Society Papers — The "Detroit FreePres^" AND THE "Omaha World" — American Reviews, . 124 CHAPTER XX. Reporting — For the American Reporter Nothing is Sacred — Demolition of the Wall of Private Life — Does Your Husband Snore? — St. Anthony and the Reporters — I am Interviewed — My Man- ager Drops Asleep over it — The Interview in Print — The President of the United States AND the Reporters — " I am the Interviewer," . 147 CHAPTER XXI. Literature in the United States — Poets — Novel- ists — Essayists — Critics — Historians — Humorists — Journalists-^Writers for the Young — Future OF American Literature, .... 158 CHAPTER XXn. The Stage in the United States — The "Stars" — French Plays — Mr. Augustin Daly's Company — The American Public — The Theaters — De- tailed Programmes — A Regretable Omission, . 162 CHAPTER XXHI. The Religion of the Americans — Religious Sects — Why Jonathan Goes to Church — Walk in, La- dies and Gentlemen, " This is the Place to be Saved and Happy" — Irresistible Invitations — The Esoterists — Why Die When Immortality is Attainable? — The Recipe — Faith Cure — A Highly Recommended Book — Seventh Day Hy- pocrisy — To Choose Goods is not to Buy them — "Great Scott!" — Religion and Republicanism Live Happily Together in America, . . 170 CHAPTER XXIV. Colonel Ideas- Robert G. His Works— Ingersoll- His Life, -The Man— His 178 I VI Contents, CHAPTER XXV. JusTicB — Comparison Favorable to America — Judi- cial Procedure — The Accused was Paid Cash — A Criminal Hunt — Juries and their Powers — Slow Dealings of American Justice — False Philanthropy — Twelve or Sixteen Minutes at the Wrong End of a Rope — A Savage Club An- ecdote, ....... 189 CHAPTER XXVI. Lynch Law — Hanged, Burned, and Shot — The Jailers do not Answer for the Safety of their Boarders — The Humors of Lynching, 197 CHAPTER XXVH. A Word on Marriage and Divorce — Scenes AN Opera-Bouffe — An Amateur Dentist, . for 202 CHAPTER XXVHI. Mr. Grover Cleveland, President of the United States — A Public Reception at the White House — A Private Audience — Why a Yankee Refrained from Accompanying me — What the President Costs the Nation — Mrs. Cleveland — Her Popularity — Life at the White House, . 207 CHAPTER XXIX. Politics — Parties — The Gentleman and the Poli- tician — "Honest John" and "Jolly Roger" — The Irish in America — Why the Americans are IN Favor of Home Rule — The Mayor of New York and the Green Flag — The German Yan- kees — The American Constitution and the President — Executive and Legislative Powers — The Elections — England is a Freer Country than America — An Anecdote of M. Jules Gr^vy, 214 CHAPTER XXX. The Ordinary American — His Voice, his Habits, HIS Conversation — He Murders his Language AND YOUR Ears— Do not Judge Him too Quickly, 2?0 ■\'t-:«mmrmx!v^'rfximmwmswMiirwr^nv%i.i''»&wmi:mm-^^ Contents. VII CHAPTER XXXI. American Activity — Expression of the Faces — Press the Button, S. V. P. — Marketing in the House — Magic Tables — The Digestive Apparatus in Danger — Gentlemen of Leisure — Labor Laws — A Six Days' Journey to a Banquet — My Mana- ger cuts out Work for Me — A Journalist on a Journey — "Don't Wait Dinner, am off to Europe," ...... 229 CHAPTER XXXn. The Nineteenth Century Club — Intellectual Activity — Literary Evenings — The Twilight Club — The Drawing-room Club — Light Every- where, ....... 244 CHAPTER XXXni. Climate Incites Jonathan to Activity — Healthy Cold — Why Drunkenness is Rare in America — Do not Lose Sight of your Nose — Advice to the Foreigner Intending to Visit Jonathan in THE Winter — A Visit to the Falls of Niagara — Turkish Baths Offered Gratis by Nature, . 249 CHAPTER XXXIV. Jonathan's Eccentricities — The Arc de Triomphe not being Hirable, an American Proposes to Buy IT — The Town Council of Paris do not Close with him — Cathedrals on Hire — Companies In- suring AGAINST Matrimonial Infidelity — Har- mony Association — Burial of a Leg — Last Will and Testament of an American who means to BE Absent on the Day of Judgment, 254 CHAPTER XXXV. Advertisements — Marvelous Puffs — Illustrated Ditto — A Yankee on the Look-out for a Liv- ing — " Her Heart and a Cottage " — A Circus Proprietor and the President of the United States — Irresistible Offers of Marriage — A Vlll Contents. Journalist of All Work — Wanted, a French- woman, Young, Pretty, and Cheerful — Nerve- Calming Syrup — Doctors on the Road-- An Advocate Recommends Himself to Light-fingered Gentlemen — Mr. Phineas Barnum, the King of Showmen — Nothing is Sacred in the Eyes of Phineas, the Modern PiioiNix — My Manager Re- grets Not being able to Engage Mr. Gladstone AND Lord Randolph Churchill for Platform Work in the United States, 259 CHAPTER XXXVI. Railways — Vestibule Train — Hotels on Wheels — Windows and Ventilators and their Uses — Piti- less Firemen — Conductors and their Functions — A Traveler's Perplexity — Rudeness of Railway Servants — The Actress and the Conductor — An Inquisitive Traveler — A Negro in a Flourish- ing Way — Commerce ON Board the Cars — "Ap- ples, Oranges, Bananas ! " — The Negro Com- partment — Change of Toilette — "Mind Your Own Business," ..... 269 CHAPTER XXXVn. Jonathan's Domestics — Reduced Duchesses — Queer Ideas of Equality — Unchivalrous Man — The Ladies of the Feather-broom — Mr. Vanderbilt's Cook — Negroes — Pompey's Wedding — Where is MY Coat ? — Kitchen Pianists — Punch's Carica- tures Outdone by Reality — A Lady seeks a Sit- uation AS Dish-Washer — Why it is Desirable not to Part with your Servants on Bad Terms, 280 Imss CHAPTER XXXVin. Jonathan's Table— Danger of Steel Knives — The Americans are Water Drinkers — I Discover a Snake in my Tumbler — The Negro Waiter Com- forts ME — Accommodation for Travelers — The Menu — Abbreviated Dinner — The Little Oval Dishes — Turkey and Cranberry Sauce — A Not very Tempting Dish — Consolation of Knowing iFxi»!immm m '' iui u m»mmm m ma aim, Consents. IX THAT THE WaI TRESSES ARE WELL CARED FOR — SOME- THING TO Eat, for Heaven's Sake — Humble Apologies to Mine Host, .... 286 CHAPTER XXXIX. How THE Americans take their Holidays — The Hotel is their Mecca — Mammoth Hotels — Jack- sonville AND St. Augustine — The Ponce de Leon Hotel — Rocking Chairs — Having a "Good Time " — The American is Never Bored — The , Food is very Salt and the Bill is Stiff — The Negroes of the South — Prodigious Memories — More " Duchesses " — The Negresses — I Insult a Woman, ...... 294 CHAPTER XL. The Value of the Dollar — A Dressmaker's Bill — What American Women Must Spend on Dress — Why so Many Americans come to Europe Every Year — Current Prices — The Beggar and the Nickel — Books and Oysters are Cheap — •' I Can Afford It," . . . . . . 305 CHAPTER XTJ. Conclusion — Reply to the American Question — Social Condition of Europe and America — Euro- pean Debt and American Surplus— The Ameri- cans ARE Not so Happy as the French — What Jonathan has Accomplished — A Wish, . . 309 f' CATARRH Mit CURED! But not by the use of the liquids, snuffs, powders, etc. , usually offered the public as catarrh cures. Some of these remedies may afford tem- porary relief but none have ever been known to effect a permanent cure. The reason for this is that these so-called cures do not reach the seat of the disease. To cure catarrh yuu must reach the root of the disease and remove the original cause of the trouble. NASAL BALM is the only remedy yet discovered that will do this. Jt never fails, and in even tht most aggravated cases a cure is certain if NASAL BALM is persistently used, ft is a well-known fact that catarrh in ninety-nine cases out dl every hundred originated from a cold in the head, which the sufferer nuKlc^teil. NASAL BALM affprds immediate relief when used for cold iu the heud. It is easy to us& requiring no douche or instrument, and is soothing., cleansing and healing. As positive evidence that Catarrh can be cured by the use of NASAL BALM, we submit the fol- lowing testimonials from among hundreds similar in our possession :— Mr. Horatio Collier, Woollen Manu- facture-, Cdineroutown, Ont., states: Nasai Balm is the only positive remedy for catarrh that I ever used. Miss Addie Howison, Brockville, Ont says : I had catarrh lor years, my head was so stopped up I could not breathe through my nostrils. My breath, was very impure and continually so. Noth- ing I could get gave me any relief until using Nasal Balm. From the very first it gave me relief and in a very short time had removed the accumulation so that I could breathe freely throutjh the nostrils. Its effect on my breath was truly wonderful, purifying and removing every vestige ot the unpleasant odor, which never returned. D. S. McDonald, Mabou, C.B. writes : Nasal Balm has helped my catarrh very much. It is the best remedy I ever used. P. H. Munro, Parry Sound, says:— Nisal BaUu has no equal as a remedy for cold in the head. It is both speedy and effective in its results. Mr. John Foster, Raymond, Ont., writes: Nasal Balm acts like a charm for mjr catarrh. I have only used it a short time and now feel better than at any period during the last seven years. In fact I am sure of a cure and at ver^ small expense. ^ D. Derbyshire, president of the Onta- rio Creamery Association, says : Nasal Balm beats the world for catarrh and co!d in the head. In my own case it effected rehef from the first application, Mr, John R. Wright, representing Messrs. Evans, Sons and Mason, whole- sate druggists, Montreal, says : — Nasal Bum cured me of a long standing case of catarrh after many other rcmtdiM failing. BEWARE of IMITATIONS.^.lKfS; NASAL BALM from its wonderful curative properties has induced certain un- scrupulous parties to place imitations on sale, closely resembling the style of our package, and with names similar in sound. Beware of all preparations styled NaF,;l C I earn, Nasal Balsam, etc., they ar« traudulent imitations. Ask for Nasal BjLa i.ad see that you get it. If you cannot obtain NASAL BALM from your dealer it will be sent poet-paid CQ receipt of price, 50 cents an(^$i, by addressing, FULFORD &. CO., BROCKVILLE, ONT, Our pamphlet " Gems ep Wisoeu " sant frM on applicAtiea. tt n PIANOS AND ORGANS l;'i: I ST In Tone In Touch In Sweetness In Durability In Workmanship I, I 'M !!'i Holds more Gold Medals and Awards than any other Piano in Canada. WARRANTED IN EVERY RESPECT. Five Years* Guarantee with Each Instru- ment. LOWEST PRICKS. EASY TERMS. Sole ▲eenoy Toronto Temple of Music J. s. powlby'a CO. 68 King St. W. - Toronto, Ont. JONATHAN AND HIS CONTINENT. CHAPTER I. Population of America — An Anecdote about the Sun — Where is the Center oi' America? — Jonathan can not get over it, nor can I — America, the Land of Conjuring — A Letter from Jonathan decides me to SET out for the United States. TBRM8. L Ont. The population of America is sixty millions — mostly colonels. If the earth is small, America is large, and the Americans are immense ! Yes, sixty millions ! — all alive and kicking ! * * An Englishman was one day boasting to a Frenchman of the immensity of the British Em- pire. " Yes, sir," he exclaimed to finish up with, " the sun never sets on the English possessions." ** I am not surprised at that," retorted the good Frenchman, *' the sun is obliged to keep an eye on the rascals."' However, the sun can now travel from New Iltl i Jonathan and his Continent. York to San Francisco, and light, on his passage, a free nation which, in 1776, begged England to mind her own affairs for the future. From east to west, America stretches over a breadth of more than three thousand miles. Here it is well to put some readers on their guard, in case an American should one day put to them one of his favorite questions : " Where is the center of America ? " I myself imagined that, starting from New York and pushing westward, one would reach the extremity of America on arriving at San Francisco. Not so, and here Jonathan has you. He knows you are going to answer wrongly, and if you want to please him, you must let yourself be caught in this little trap, because it will give him such satisfaction to put you right. At San Fran- cisco, it appears you are not quite half-way, and the center of America is really in the Pacific Ocean. Jotv-t'—n more than doubled the width of his con- tinent in 1867, when for the sum of four* million dollars he purchased Alaska of the Russians. Not satisfied with these immensities, Jonathan delights in contemplating his country through mag- nifying glasses, and one must forgive him the patriotism which makes him see everything double. To-day population, progress, civilization, every- thing advances with giant's stride. Towns seem to spring up through the earth. A town, with twenty * I have also heard "seven " million dollars. Jonathan and his Continent. to f a :ere I, in one nter fting rould t San you. r, and lurseU re him Vran- , and cean. \s con- iViUion Inatban Ih mag- |im the Idouble. l every- Iseem to twenty thousand inhabitants, churches, schools, libraries, hotels, and banks, was perhaps, but a year or two ago, a patch of marsh or forest. To-day Paris fash- ions arc followed there as closely as in New York or London. In America, everything is on an immense scale : the just pride of the citizens of the Young Re- public is fed by the grandeur of its rivers, moun- tains, deserts, cataracts, its suspension bridges, its huge cities, etc. Jonathan passes his life in admiration of all that is American. He can not get over it. I have been through part of the country, and I can not get over it either. I am out of breath, turned topsy-turvy. It is pure conjuring, it is Robert Houdin over again — occasionally perhaps Robert Macaire too — but let us not anticipate. Give me time to recover my breath, and set my ideas in order. These Americans are reeking with unheard-of -nesSy I can tell you that to begin with. My ideas are all jostling in my poor old European brain. There is no longer anything impossiole, and the fairy tales are child's play, compared to what one may see every day. Everything is pro- digious, done by steam, by electricity, it is dazzling, and I no longer wonder that the Americans only use their adjectives in the superlative. As an illustration of what I advance, here is a •i 4 Jonathan and his Continent. letter that I received from an American, in the month of May, 1887, and which finally decided me to go and see America. It is dated from Boston : " Dear Sir : ** I was on the point of taking the boat at twelve to-day, to go and have a talk with you about an idea which occurred to me yesterday ; but as I have already been across three times, and, in a month or six weeks, shall have to set out for St. Petersburg and Japan, I am desirous, if possible, of arranging the matter I have at heart by corre- spondence " " Good Heaven ! " I exclaimed, " this is a man I must make the acquaintance of ; I must go and see Jonathan at home one of these days." And as soon as circumstances allowed, I packed my trunks, took a cabin on board one of the brave *• White Star" liners, and set out to see Jonathan and his Continent. i CHAPTER II. Jonathan and his Critics. — An Eminent American Gives me Salutary Advice. — Traveling Impressions, — Why Jonathan Does Not Love John Bull. A FEv^^ days before leaving America I had a pleasant talk with Mr. Whitelaw Reid, chief editor of the New York Tribune, " Do not fall into the great error of fancying that you have seen America in six months," he said to me. " But I do not fancy anything of the kind," I replied, " I have no such pretension. When a man of average intelligence returns home after having made a voyage to a foreign land, he can not help having formed a certain number of impres- sions, and he has a right to communicate them to his friends. They are but impressions, notes taken by the wayside, and, if there is an error committed by any one, it is by the critic or the reader, when either of these looks for a perfect picture of the manners and institutions of the people the author has visited, instead of simple impressions de voyage. Certainly, if there is a country in the world that it would be impossible to judge in six months, that country is America, and the author who, in such a i'lli Jonathan and his Continent. 'I I I'i I fjii i'l r little space of time, allowed himself to fall into the error of sitting in judgment upon her would write himself down an ass. In six months you can not know America, you can not even see the country ; you can merely get a glimpse of it ; but, by the end of a week, you must have been struck with various things, and have taken note of them. A serious study and an impression are two different things, and an error is committed by the person who takes one for the other. For instance, if in criticising my little volume, you exclaim : ' The author has no deep knowledge of his subject,' it is you who commit an error and not I. I do not pre- tend to a deep knowledge of my subject. How would that be possible in so short a time ? How should you imagine it to be possible ? To form a really exact idea of America one would need to live twenty years in the country, nay, to be an American, for I may add that, in my opinion, the best books that exist upon the different countries of the world have been written by natives of those countries. Never has an author written of the English like Thackeray ; never have the Scotch been painted with such fidelity as by Ramsay ; and to describe Tartarin it needed not only a French- man but a Provencal, almost a Tarasconnais. I say all this to you to warn you that if, on my return to Europe, I should publish a little volume on America, it will be a book of impressions, and if you should persist in seeing in it anything but impres- I Jonathan and his Continent. 7 sions, it is you who will be to blame. But in this matter I trust to the intelligence of those Americans who do me the honor of reading me. I shall be in good hands." Upon this the Editor of the Tribune responded as he shook my hands : *' You are right." * * It must be allowed that Jonathan has good reason to mistrust his critics. Most books on America have been written by Englishmen. Now the English are, of all people, those who can the least easily get rid of their prejudices in speaking of America. They are obliged to admit that the Americans have made their way pretty well since they have been their own masters ; but John Bull has always a rankling remembrance, when he looks at America, of the day that the Americans sent him about his business, and his look seems to say to Jonathan : *' Yes, yes, you have not done at all badly — for you, but just think what the country would have been by this time if it had remained in my hands." He looks at everything he sees with a patronizing air, with the arrogant calm that makes him — amiable as he is at home — so unbearable when he travels abroad. He expresses cavalierly, criticises freely. He goes over with the firm intention of admiring nothing American, If he find nothing else to dis- 8 Jonathan and his Continent. parage, he will complain of the want of ruins and old cathedrals. He occasionally presents himself at Jonathan's dinner-parties in a tweed suit, fearing to do him too much honor by putting on evening- dress. His little talent of making himself dis- agreeable abroad comes out more strongly in America, and Jonathan, one of whose little weak- nesses is love of approbation, I honestly believe, has a cordial antipathy to the magnificent Briton. The Englishman, on his side, has no antipathy whatever to the Americans. For that matter the Englishman has no antipathy for any one. He despises, but he does not hate, a fact which is irritating to the last degree to the objects of his attention. When a man feels that he has some worth, he likes to be loved or hated : to be treated with indifference is galling. John Bull looks on the American as a parvenu., and smiles with incre- dulity when you say that American Society is not only brilliant and witty, but quite as polished as the best European Society. It is this haughty disdain which exasperates Americans. Jonathan has forgotten that the English were once his oppressors ; he forgives them for the war of 1812 ; without forgetting it, he forgives them for having, during the Civil War, sided with the slave-owners ; but he can not forgive an English- man for coming to his dinner-table in a tweed suit. M-S^)»»£i£9»^iiiaai wwaMPTOii^iTOWCTiaBwiraiaaitwaa^^ as tes M '41 li CHAPTER III. Characteristic Traits— A Gentleman and a Cad- Different Ways of Discussing the Merits of a Ser- mon — Contradictions and Contrasts— Sacred and Profane — Players of Poker on board Ship — "A Meek and Humble Follower of Jesus " — The Open Sesame of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia — The Child- ish Side of the American Character — The Three Questions Jonathan puts to Every Foreigner who Lands in America — Preconceived Notions — Request of an American Journalist — Why the English and the French do not ask Questions on their Countries of the Foreigner who Visits them. A NATION, scarcely more than a hundred years old, and composed of many widely different ele- ments, can not, in the nature of things, possess very marked characteristic traits. There are Americans in plenty, but /// Hi M m I !! 1' I' ,' !i ^< 1'' I' f "I iiiiii 32 Jondthan and his Continent. not the city itself, but the feverish activity which reigns there. Overhead is a network of telegraph and tele- phone wires, on the ground a network of tram-car rails. It is estimated that there are more than 1 2, GOO miles of telegraphic wires suspended over the heads of the passers-by : about enough to go ha'*" round the world. The whistles of the boats that ply between New York and Brooklyn on the East River, and be- tween New York and Jersey City on the Hudson, keep up, day and night (until one in the morning), a noise which is like the roar of wild beasts. It is the cry of Matter under the yoke of Man. You fancy you are living in a menagerie. In almost every street tram-cars pass every few minutes. It is an incessant procession. In Broad- way alone there are more than three hundred. The cars, as they are always called in America, are magical, like everything American. Built to carry twent3'-four persons inside (there are no seats on the top), they are made to hold sixty and more. In fact, no matter how full they are, there is al- ways room for one more. The ccnductor never refuses to let you go on board. You hang on the rail beside the driver or conductor, if it is not pos- sible to squeeze yourself inside and hold on to the leather straps provided for the purpo.se ; you gasp for breath, it is all you can do to get at your pocket to extract the five cents which you owe to the car 1; nil sss®SM8S8KSSS^il^Sr Jonathan and his Continent. 33 1 which id tele- ram-car re than 2d over h to go Ml New and be- :iudson, orning), 3. It is n. You very few Broad- lundred. rica, are to carry eats on 1 more. re is al- )r never on the |not pos- to the \o\\ gasp r pocket the car company ; but the conductor cries, in his imper- turbable nasal drawl : " Move forward, make room." If you do not like it, you have the alter- native of walking. These cars are drawn by two horses. At night, when the theaters are emptying and the loads are the heaviest, is just the time when the stoppages are most frequent ; some one gets on or alights at every block ; the strain on the horses must be tremendous. Cabs are few. This is not wonderful, seeing that the lowest fare is a dollar or a dollar and a half. In Third Avenue and Sixth Avenue, you find the overhead railway called the *' Elevated." It is supported on iron pillars, and the trains run along on the level with the upper windows of the houses. This company carries every day the fabu- lous number of 500,000 passengers. All the existing means of transit are acknowl- edged to be insufficient, and an underground rail- way is talked of. Ther j will soon be travelers un- derground, on the ground, and in the air. Poor Hercules, where are you with your *' Ne plus ultra" ? You had reckoned without your Yankee. The streets, ill paved and dirty, are dangerous in winter. Coachmen do not check their horses for foot passengers, but neither do they try to run over them. They strike the middle course be- tween the London coachman who avoids them, and the Parisian one who aims at them. ^^^^I^^^^m^^' fl ;i i >' 34 Jonathan and his Continent. At the corner of each block, there is a letter-box. If you have any newspapers or extra-large letters to post, you lay them on the top of the box and trust to the honesty of passers-by. If rain comes on, so much the worse. If you want stamps you go to the chemist and buy a lotion or potion, tak- ing occasion at the same time to buy your stamps. Post-offices are few and far between. The populous quarters, such as the Chinese quarter, the Italian quarter, the Jewish quarter, with their tenement-houses, those barracks of the poor which I visited one day in company with a sanitary engineer, remind one of some of Dante's descriptions : it is a descent, or rather an ascent, into hell. I spare the reader the impressions which that day left upon me. Horrible ! A populace composed of the offscourings of all nations, the dirtiest, roughest one can imagine. Hard by this frightful squalor, Fifth Avenue, with its palaces full of the riches of the earth. It is the eternal story of large cities. As in London, hundreds of churches and tav- erns (called beer saloons): it is the same ignoble Anglo-Saxon mixture of Bible and beer, ot spiritual and spirituous. New York is probably the most cosmopolitan city in the world. To give an idea of it, 1 may tell you that there are newspapers published there in Jonathan and his Continent. 35 •-box. etters rk c and :omes ;. )s you 1, tak- ■i i .amps. •5S hinese 1 uarter, i of the with a ^ Xante's ascent, \ which 1 )pulace ins, the J venue, 9 th. It 1 id tav- 1 ignoble piritual 1 politan English, Fiench, German, Russian, Italian, Span- ish, Swedish, Dutch, Hungarian, Chinese, and Hebrew. I received one day a circular of a meeting of the " Knights of Labor." It was printed in six differ- ent languages. The streets are wide, bright, and animated, the shops handsome. In Broadway and Union Square, the jewelers and confectioners flourish, flower shops abound : it is Paris rather than Lon- don, without, however, being one or the other. As I said before, there are no grand buildings to invite one's gaze to rest ; to rejoice the eyes, one must penetrate into the houses of the rich. There is a small collection of pictures in the Mu- seum in Central Park, but most of the art treasures of America are to be found in private collections. jay tell lere in Boston (pronounce Boast'on) is quite an English city, handsomely and solidly built. It has a public garden in the center, the effect of which at night is superb. It is the most scholarly city of the United States, one of the greatest centers of learning in the world. Boston society is less showy than that of New York, the women have perhaps less c/iic, but they have more color in their faces and more repose in their manner. n if i!ii| „| /;;;i 'Hi m 36 Jonathan and his Continent. Nothing is more diverting than to hear the dwellers of each great American town criticise the dwellers in the others. All these societies, each almost in its infancy as yet, are jealous one of an- other. At Boston, for instance, you vnll be told that the Chicago people are all pig-stickers and pork-packers. In Chicago, you will hear that Bos- ton is composed of nothing but prigs and " pr^- cieuses ridicules." The English spoken in Boston is purer than any to be heard elsewhere in the North. The voices are less harsh and nasal, the language ceases to be "vurry, vurry Amurracan." If you think yourself in England as you walk along the streets, the illu- sion becomes complete when you hear the well- bred people speak. All the anecdotes told in America on the subject of Boston are satires upon the presumptuous char- acter of the Bostonian, who considers Boston the center of the Universe. Here is one out of the many hundreds I have heard. A Boston man has lost his wife. As soon as telephonic communication is established between that city and Paradise, he rings and cries : " Hello ! " " Hello ! " from the other end. " Is that you, Artemisia ? " " Yes, dear." " Well, my love, and how do you like it up there ? '* Jonathan and his Continent. 37 <( have ere ? '* Oh, it is very nice, of course — but it isn't Boston." Boston, and the whole State of Massachusetts of which it is the chief city, are the homes of most of the literary celebrities of America. Longfellow lived there ; Whittier, Lowell, and Holmes live there still. Howells and Henry James are Boston men, I believe. Before leaving Boston, I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes at home. The doctor received me in his study, a fine room well-lined with books and having a large bay-win- dow overlooking the River Charles, and facing his beloved Harvard University. Lit by the setting sun, the picture from the window was alone worth going to see. The doctor's reception was most cordial. He is a small man, looking about seventy-five, but the expression of his face is young, and will be so to the last, I imagine. His smile is clever- looking, sweet, and full of contagious gayety. Thick, bushy gray eyebrows, which stand out, and a protruding under-lip. make his profile odd- looking. The eyes are twinkling with humor — and good-humor. Philosopher, poet, and humorist are written plainly on the face. The doctor was soon chatting away about his last trip to Europe, and how, though it was August, he went over to Paris to revisit the haunts of his youth where he had studied medicine, how he ^mi i ! i' I'*' It. u > hi :'■ '' k li li 1*. 38 Jonathan and his Continent. found it a desert void of all the old familiar faces — but his daughter shopped to her satisfaction. Then, turning to modern French literature, the doctor remarked : ** Who will ever say again that France has no humorists ? I have been delighting in Alphonse Daudet's Tartar in'' At the very thought of the Tarasconnais' adven- tures, he laughed. The Autocrat's laugh is, as I said, infectious. It is quick, merry, hearty ; he shakes over it in a way not common with any but stout people. Skipping past over light literature, he stopped to say a word of admiration for Zola's wonderful de- scriptions of Paris — in fact for the artist that is in him — but regretted, as every one does, that such a great writer should prostitute his genius. Hung upon the wall in a corner was a caricature of '* The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table," one of the Vanity Fair series. Upon my espying it, the dear old doctor said with his merry laugh: " There, you see, I am not a vain man, or I should hide that away." Vain, no. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes is the personification of simplicity and good-humor, a sunny-hearted man with a lively enjoyment still of the pleasures of society. A lady friend told me that, meeting him one day after he had an ovation somewhere, she asked him : Jonathan and his Continent. 39 " Well, Doctor, and are you not getting a little tired of all this cheering and applause ? " " Not a bit," replied he, " they never greet me loud enough, or clap long enough to please me." Washington is the sole American city which has monuments that can strike the European with ad- miration for their beauty. The Capitol, the Gov- ernment buildings, the museums, built in the midst of handsome gardens, all arrest the eye of the visitor. The Capitol, 751 feet long, built of white mar- ble, with a superb dome and majestic flights of steps, is one of the grandest, most imposing-look- ing edifices in the world. The souvenirs attached to it and the treasures which it contains render it dear to the Americans ; it is a monument which recalls to their minds the glories of the past and keeps alight the flame of patriotism. A general, who served through the great Civil War, told me he had seen strong men, soldiers brought up in remote States, sit down and weep with strong emotion at seeing the Capitol for the first time. At one end of the building there is the House of Representatives, in the other wing the Senate Chamber. As for the national treasures contained in the Capitol, I refer the readers to guide-books for them. I il ^ \l 40 Jonathan and his Continent. if'! 1 1' h \ V- '■\ 1"' ■) I "'' , 1 i ,:;„:;, The Americans, determined for once to be be- yond suspicion in employing an adjective in the superlative degree, followed by the traditional " in the world," have erected to the memory of General George Washington an obelisk 555 feet high. It is therefore the highest monument in the world — without inverted commas. The city is prettily laid out, somewhat in the form of a spider's web. The streets are wide, the houses coquettish-looking, the gardens, especially the park of the Soldiers' Home, extremely beau- tiful. Washington is wholly given over to politics. When Congress is not sitting, it is dead ; when Congress is sitting, it is delirious. Little or no commerce is done. No visitor leaves Washington without making a pilgrimage to Mount Vernon, where George Wash- ington is buried, and where everything speaks of him who was ** first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." A journey of an hour and a half, up the beauti- ful Potomac, every turn of which discloses a fresh panorama, brings you to the woods of Mount Ver- non. The house, a wooden structure with a piazza along the front, stands on a considerable eleva- tion and commands a fine view of winding river and wooded banks. One is seized with admiration at the sight of all this beauty, as one stands upon iii!i. Jonathan and his Continent. 41 the threshold of the old home of America's liber- ator. It was here, in this peaceful country-house, that lived, like the most modest of America's sons, the man who was the greatest hero of modern times. A feeling of reverent admiration fills you, as you enter the quaint little hall. Each room is kept up at the expense of one of the thirty-three States of the Union. Everything has been arranged, as nearly as possible, to repre- sent the state of the house at the time Washing- ton lived in it. In the hall hangs the key of the Bastille, pre- sented in 1789 by Lafayette to the " great Friend of Liberty." There is an interesting little souvenir attaching to the history of the banquet-hall. This room was built in 1784, and finished at the time of Lafay- ette's third visit to America. He and several French noblemen were visiting Mount Vernon, and a ball was to be given in their honor. A hand- some wall-paper, imported from England, had ar- rived — but the paper-hangers had not arrived, greatly to Mrs. Washington's annoyance. Seeing his hostess grow distressed over the delay of the workmen, Lafayette with characteristic enthusiasm said to her : " Do not despair, Madame; we are three or four able-bodied men who will soon make short work of it." I' nil: I ' '■ I'll'' '„ 1,1'' »f ' 1 1 lii^l Ill "II' !;. '.I'ilv:,: !^ i;ii'!::HI "i.jii'.'' Iv!!'! ^r ;|li;i'ii| i;! 'Mill 42 Jonathan and his Continent. And without more ado, the marquis and his friends set about papering the walls, and were soon joined by General Washington himself, who proved a vigorous and efficient help. The tomb of the general is of the simplest de- scription ; but it evokes far more touching memo- ries than the magnificent sarcophagus of Napo- leon in the Church of the Invalides. I never felt more sincerely impressed and touched than at Mount Vernon. * Philadelphia, formerly the capital of the United States, is a city of eight or nine hundred thousand inhabitants, and is built like New York in paral- lelograms. Its Town Hall is, next to the Capitol at Washington, the finest edifice in America. I do not know anything to compare to its splendid park, unless it be the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. The alleys of this park, if put together, would cover about sixty miles in length. Seen after New York or the busy western cities, Philadelphia strikes one as slow, even monotonous, — except on the Clover Club annual banquet evening. This Quaker city of quiet streets and sober peo- ple is, however, full of all kinds of manufactories. On the shores of Lake Michigan, there stood a town, built of wood, and peopled by some hun- Jonathan and his Continent. 43 (Ired thousand inhabitants. This was called Chicago. On the evening of the 8th of October, 187 1, a cow, that an old woman was milking in a barn, kicked over a lamp and set fire to the structure. The flames spread, and on the morrow of that ter- rible night ;ne whole city was level with the ground. The Chicago people of to-day show, as a curiosity to the visitor, the only wooden house which escaped the flames. At the present time, this city, the living and gigantic emblem of the phoenix, stands rebuilt in hewn stone, and holding 800,000 inhabitants. Such is America. In less than twenty years Omaha, Denver, Kan- sas, Minneapolis, will be so many rhi'\igos. Cin- cinnati, St. Louis, Louisville will rival her in five. Chicago is, in my eyes, the very type of the American city, the most striking example of what Jonathan calls " go-aheadism." The streets are twice as wide as the Parisian boulevards; the houses of business are eight, ten, and twelve stories high. Michigan Avenue is seven miles long ; the numbers of the houses run up to three thousand and something. The city has parks, lovely drives by the lake shore, stat- ues, including a splendid one of Abraham Lincoln, public buildings imposing in their massiveness, fine theaters and churches, luxurious clubs, hotels ill I 1 i 'i '111 I' 'J I I ':t 44 Jonathan and his Continent, inside which four good- sized Parisian ones could dance a quadrille, etc., etc. Michigan Avenue and Prairie Avenue are extremely handsome. Picture to yourself the Avenue of the Bois de Boulogne, prolonged for seven miles in a straight line, and imagine the effect, the beautiful vista, when this is lit up at night, or when the trees, with which both these grand roads are planted, are in all their fresh spring beauty. In these avenues, American eccentricity has been allowed free play. The houses are built in all im- aginable styles of architecture : some of them are Florentine, some English, others Moorish, others a mixture of all three ; others again look like Greek temples, whilst here and there you come across what looks like a little Gothic church, and close alongside mediaeval castles in miniature, or imita- tion mosques ; some have the look of villas in the Paris suburbs, some have been modeled upon Swiss chalets, others upon the residence of some pacha on the borders of the Bosphorus. There are styles for all tastes. The American may be eccentric, or what you will, but he is never monotonous. Enter one of these houses, and you will see handsome furniture, not only rich, but in good taste. I was not astonished to find Chicago society genial, polished, and wel'. read. Riches beget the . Ill i: >ii l^i^^^ Jonathan and his Continent. 45 taste for literature and arts, perhaps one day it will beget the taste for simplicity. You find here still more warmth and much less constraint than in the East. You feel that you have quit the realms of New England puritanism. No frigidity here ; people give free play to their senti- ments. If I had to name the most sympathic of my American audiences, the warmest* and promptest to seize the significance of a look or gesture, I should name the one which I had the hcnor of addressing in Chicago. * At seven in the morning every man is astir and at work, whether he be millionaire or poor clerk. As I have mentioned elsewhere, only the idle are outside the pale of respectability in Chicago. The business done in Chicago is fabulous. The money value of the total trade last year, I am told, reached the immense sum of 1135 millions of dol- lars. The aggregate bank clearings amounted to 3060 millions of dollars ; 2,382,000 cattle were slaughtered, and 6,250,000 barrels of flour re- ceived. Chicago is probably the most flourishing city in America — therefore in the world, as Jonathan would say. I give these figures also to show that Divine wrath does not seem to fall * I have had this opinion corroborated by all the public speakers and artistes with whom I have spoken on the subject. 46 Jonathan and his Continent. I 1*' upon this city which opens its places of recreation on Sundays. Twenty railway lines, besides local ones, have termini at Chicago. The total mileage of Chicago railways is 28,817. Stop and catch your breath ! I do not think it is possible for a European to imagine the activity which reigns in Chicago without seeing it. "You will soon be inventing," I said to a resident, " a machine that will take a live rabbit at one end and turn out a chimney-pot hat at the other." " We have done something very like it already," he replied. And next morning he took me to see the famous pig-killing and pork-packing premises of Philip ivrmour & Co. Picture to yourself a series of rooms connecting. In the first, 5000 pigs a day are killed ; in the second, they are scraped as they come out of a cauldron of boiling water ; in the third, the heads are cut off ; and so on, and so on. The process is somewhat sickening, and I will not enter into any more details. At the end of the establish- ment the poor pigs are presented to you under the forms of bacon, sausage, gelatine, etc. The va- rious processes take place with all the rapidity of conjuring. What will they not invent in Chicago? That which looks like a joke to-day may be a reality next rSvft!i:« >■! ■!iifMxmtMiLsJy^ Jonathan and his Continent. 47 week, and I shall not be surprised, the next time I go to Chicago, to find that the talking power of woman has been utilized as a motor for the sewing- machine by connecting the chin with the wheel. How leave Chicago without mentioning the adieux that reached me at my hotel during the hour before I left for Canada ? Ding, r-r-ring, goes the telephone bell. " Hello ! " "Hello!" " Good-bye, good luck ! " "Hello!" " Pleasant journey ! " " Hello 1 " " Good-bye ; our compliments to John Bull ! " f|!|| 1 1: CHAPTER VIII. American Houses— Furniture— Luxury — The Clubs— An Evening at the Authors' Club — An Eve-sore — A Wonderful Shot — Bang, right in the Bull's- i;ye. American houses are furnished very luxuriously, and for the most part with exquisite taste. Here you see the influence of woman in the smallest details of life ; indeed, at every step you take, you see that woman has passed that way. Decorations and furniture, in New York espe- cially, are dark, substantial, and artistic. The liberal use of portih-es adds greatly to the richness of effect. Even in the hall, doors are replaced by hangings. On all sides there is pleasure for the eye, whether it rest on furniture, walls, or ceiling. The floors are covered with rich carpets, and the ceilings are invariably decorated in harmony with the rest of the room. The reception rooms are on the ground floor, which is always ten or twelve feet above the side- walk. The suite is composed of three or four rooms (sometimes more), divided one from another by portihes. Each room is in a different style. One contains dark furniture and hangings, oil paint- ings, costly art-treasures, majestic tropical plants ; 48 H V ! Jonathan and his Continent. 49 another, in Oriental style, invites the visitor to cosy chats among its divans and screens ; another, per- haps, has books, etchings, and anticpiities of all kinds ; another, in the style of a boudoir, will be strewn with knick-knacks, light bric-a-brac, water colors, statuettes, etc., in artistic disorder ; yet an- other may serve as music- "oom : here, no car- pets ; the parquet floor is waxed, the walls are un- adorned, all has been thought out with intelligence. Flowers in every room shed sweet fragrance. When all the suite is lighted up, and the portieres looped back, the effect is enchanting, and when a .score of American women, elegant, handsome, and witty, add life to the scene, I can assure you that you are not in a hurry to consult your watch. The luxury displayed at receptions, dinners and dances surpasses European imagination. At a ball given in New York in the month of February 1888, the walls were covered with roses, which did not cost less than $10,000. When one considers that the supper, and everything else, was or. the same scale, it becomes doubtful whether such lu.x- ury is to be admired. I was present one evening at a dinner given in the large dining-hall at Delmon- ico's restaurant, in New York. We were eighty- seven guests at an immense round table. The center of the board was covered with a gigantic .star of flowers : roses, arum lilies, and heliotrope. At that season, lilies were worth a dollar each, and, all through the winter the price of roses was from pv ■I 1 h 50 Jonathan and his Continent. :f1: \t 1:1 i'M a quarter to two dollars apiece, according to kind. The Americans at this feast estimated the star of flowers at six or seven thousand dollars. At a dinner-party given recently at Delmonico's, I heard that each menu had a chain attached, con- sisting of pearls and diamonds, and valued at $1000. The principal clubs, in the large American cities, are princely habitations full of everything that can minister to man's well-being. The American clubs are as luxurious as those of London ; but this is the only resemblance which there is between them. The clubs in large English towns are sad and solemn, those in the American cities are bright and gay. In New York, Boston, Chicago, etc., the club is not merely a place where a man goes to read the papers, or to dine when his family is out of town ; it is a place where men meet for converse, and to enjoy various relaxations. All the members know one another almost intimately. The doors of American clubs are now and then open to ladies, except in Boston, I am told, where no opportunity for the display of Anglomania is neglected. I was present at a very grand ball, given by the Union League Club of New York. When I lectured in the Union League Club of Chicago, at the invitation of the members, there were a great number of ladies invited to be present. Americans amuse themselves gayly, and ladies Jonathan an J /lis Continent. 5» are of the party, as a rule. They have not the English tendency to convert their pleasures into funeral services. The hospitality of American clubs is thoughtfully and generously extended to foreigners who visit the States. 1 had not been a fortnight in America before 1 was "put up" as honorary member of nearly all the New York clubs. In the other large cities I visited, I met with the same amiability, the same eager expression of cordiality. A charming little club — but this one has no pre- tension to hixuriousness — is the Authors' Club in New York. It has only three rooms very modestly furnished, where one may meet some of America's most charming writers, playing at Bohemia and chatting over a cigar. Once a fortnight there is a reunion. A simple supper is served at ten o'clock : roast chickens, green peas, and potatoes, cheese and beer. The members are waiting to introduce champagne until Congress has passed the interna- tional copyright bill. One hardly thinks of the fare in the company of this aristocracy of American talent and intellect. To those gentlemen I owe many a delightful hour passed in their midst. A very interesting little ceremony takes place at the Authors* Club on New Year's night. On the evening of the 31st of December, the members of the club muster in force at their snug quarters in Twenty-fourth Street. At two or three minutes to twelve, all the lights are put out, and " Auld Lang 'Su^jntiiimtmim 52 Jonathan and his Continent. Syne " is sung in chorus to bid good-by to the year that is passing away. As soon as the clock* has struck the midniglit hour, tlie lights are re-lit, all the company strike up, " He's a jolly good fellow," and there is a general hand-shaking and wishing of good wishes for the new year. Then every one dives into his memory for an anecdote, a good joke, or an amusing reminiscence, and the evening is prolonged till two or three o'clock. I had the good luck to be present at the last of these merry meetings. Mark Twain presided, and I need not tell you with what spirited and inexhaustible mirth the celebrated humorist did the honors of the evening. * * * In houses, in clubs, in offices, one can not help admiring the ingenious forethought, the wonderful care with which the smallest wants and the slight- est conveniences of life have been studied : it seems as if there were nothing left to desire. It is impossible, however, in speaking of Ameri- can interiors to pass over in silence a certain eye- sore, which meets your sight at every turn. The most indispensable, it appears, the most conspicuous at any rate, piece of furniture in America, is the spittoon. All rooms are provided with this object of prime necessity : you find one beside your seat in the trains, under your table in * I think a clock is borrowed for the occasion." Jonathan and his Continent. 53 the restaurants ; impossible to escape the sight of the ugly utensil. In the hotel corridors, there is a spittoon standing sentinel outside every door. In public buildings, the floors are dotted with them, and they form the line all up the stairs. The Americans, used to these targets from the tenderest age, are marvelously adroit at the use of them ; they never miss their aim. I saw some really striking feats of workmanship ; but perhaps the best of all at the Capitol, in Washington. The Supreme Court of Judicature was sitting. As I entered, an advocate was launching thunders of eloquence. All at once he stopped, looked at a spittoon which stood two yards off, aimed at it, and Kerrron — craaahk—ptu ! right in the bull's eye; then on he went with his harangue. I looked to see the seven judges and the public applaud and cry bravo! Not a murmur, the incident passed completely unnoticed. Probably there was not a man in the hall who could not say to him- self : " There's nothing in that, I could do as much." I (\[ CHAPTER IX. Society Jottings— Blue Blood in the United States — Fashionable Society — Plutocracy — " Parvenus" and "Arrives" — Literary and Artistic Socieiy — Provin- cialism-All THE Americans have two Family Names — Colonels and Judges — American Hospitality — Ter- rapin AND Canvas-back Duck. A WORD about American aristocracy, to begin with. What, American aristocracy? Yes, certainly. I assure you that there exist, in America, social sanctuaries into which it is more difficult to pene- trate than into the most exclusive mansions of the Faubourg Saint-Germain or of Mayfair and Belgravia. There are in Philadelphia — in Beacon Street, Boston — in Washington Square (north side). New York — in Virginia — in Canal Street (right side) New Orleans, Americans who look upon common mortals with much more pity and contempt than the Montmorencys of France or the Howards of England. The Americans, not having any king to give them titles of nobility, have created an aristocracy for themselves. This aristocracy boasts as yet no 54 11 Jonathan and his Continent. 55 dukes, marquises, earls, or barons, but the blue blood is there, it appears — Dutch blood as a rule — and that is sufficient. When a European nobleman arrives in the States, the American aristocracy leave cards upon him at the hotel where he has alighted. He may perhaps be personally known to none ; but all nobilities are kindred everywhere, it is an act of international courtesy, as it were. The European nobleman, who often goes to America for a dowered wife, is much obliged to them, and returns all the visits paid him. A New York lady, who is quite an authority upon such matters, told me one day that Society in New York was composed of only four hundred persons. Outside this company of elect, all Phil- istines. Money or celebrity may allow you to enter into this charmed circle, but you will never belong to it. You will be in it, but not of it. The lady in question entered also into very minute details on the subject of what she called the difference between " Society people " and " people in Socie- ty ; " but, in spite of all her explanations, I con- fess I did not seize the delicate nuances she tried to convey. All I clearly understood was that the aristocracy of birth exists in An^erica, not only in the brains of those who form part of it, but also in the eyes of their compatriots. The desire to establish an aristocracy of some 1 II ' 1 1 '1 56 Jonathan ami his Continent. sort was bound to haunt the breast of the Ameri- cans ; it was the only thing that their dollars seemed unable to procure them. * * The second aristocracy is the aristocracy of money, plutocracy. To belong to this, it is not suffi- cient to be a millionaire, — you must, I am told, belong to a third generation of millionaires. Of such are the Astors, the Vanderbilts, and company. Three-quarters of *' nobility" are the necessary key of this little world. The first generation makes the millions, the second generation \s,parvenue, the third is arrivie. In the eyes of these people, to have from thirty or forty to fifty thousand dollars a year is to be in decent poverty. To have two or three hundred thousand dollars a year is to be in easy circumstances. The third aristocracy is the aristocracy of talent, literary and artistic society. This third aristocracy is incontestably the first, if you will excuse the Hibernianism. I do ;iot think that one could find anywhere, or even imagine, a society more refined, more afi'able, more hospitable, more witty, or more brilliant. I should like just here to indulge in a string of adjectives, after the fashion of Madame de Sevign^. One of the consequences of the position which woman takes in the United States, is that in good Jonathan and his Continent. 57 American drawing-rooms conversation is never dull " If I were queen," exclaimed Madame R^- camier one day, " I would command Madame de Stael to talk to me all day long." One would like to be able to give the same order to plenty of American women. In their company conversa- tion never flags and always remains within the domain of ^rt//jv/7> y they glide lightly from one subject to another, extracting something fresh from each, pass from the serious to the gay, even to the frivolous without becoming commonplace, soar again to lofty heights, but do not disdain to come down to gossip for a minute or two : all this without a grain of affectation, but with a charm of naturalness that is delightfully winning. French women are the only ones I know who can compare with the American lady in charm of conversation, and even then I am obliged to admit two things : that the American women of intellect- ual society are often more natural than their French rivals, and that they make less effort to charm. In a word, with them you are amiable without having to be gallant, and none of those stereotyped compliments, which so often spoil the charm of a conversation between a man and a woman, are expected of you. In this society, the reunions are not only verit- able feasts for the mind, the heart also plays its part. You are welcomed with such cordiality that 5« Jonathan and his Continent. Is < you feel at once among fiiends, friends whom you will have profounil regret at being obliged to quit so soon, and with whom you hope to keep up rehitions all your days. When the steamer left New York harbor, and I was bound for Europe, I hardly knew whether the desire to see my own country again was stronger than my regret at leaving America. After all, 1 thought, I am not saying adieu to the Americans, but an revoir ; a seven days' journey, and I can be among them again. The large towns of America, even New York, are provincial in this sense : every one is interested in what the others do. It is not Paris, still less London. Thanks to that indefatigable meddler, the American reporter, who thrusts his nose every- where, the slightest incidents of private life are made public, and commented on right and left im- mediately. You need only live a couple of months in one of the large American cities, no matter which, in order to know every one, and all their doings. The rnind of the Americans is always on the alert. They enter into everything, everything interests them, and there is always some fresh subject for conversation. If it is not a social event, a literary or a political one, it is a little scandal, a new religious sect, a new spiritualistic Jonathan and his Continent. 59 imposture, faitli healing, mind cure*: conversation never dies for want of subjects. Exclaim that it is eccentricity if you like, and you will not be far wrong ; but add that it is life, and you will be right. It is, at all events, an existence more inter- esting than French life in the provinces, as the French poet has described it : " You waken, rise, and dress, go out to see the town, Come home to dine or sup, and then to sleep lie down." The Americans, and that in every station of life, have almost always three names : one christian name and two family ones : George Washington Smith, Benjamin Franklin Jones, William Tell Brown. I should not have been astonished to make the acquaintance of a Mr. Napoleon Bona- parte Robinson. The celebrities do not escape it any more than the rest : Henry Wadsworth Long- fellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, R.ichard Watson Gilder, James Russell Lowell. Ralph Waldo Emer- son, Henry Ward Beecher, etc., etc. Can one not see in these double names a title which the father * This new craze was upon every tongue at the beginning of the year. I was assured that " being ill, you have only to determine with all your soul that you will get well, and you are forthwith restored to health." Miiul is universal, you are part of the universal mind, and nothing can really ail you. So runs the jargon of the sect. ii W 60 Jonathan and his Continent. ma thinks he confers on his child at the baptismal font ? All new societies have the same weaknesses. On t'le morrow of the Revolution, did we not call our children Kpaminondas, Leonidas, Darius, Napoleon, etc.? * Every American with the least self-respect is colf)ncl or judge. Few escai)e it, as Mark Twain once remarked of the decorations of the Legion of Honor. We are quits, Mark. America has a hundred times as many colonels as we have knights of the Legion of Honor. When you are presented to a gentleman, in an American drawing-room, and you have unfortun- ately not caught his name, there is no need to try and repair the evil ; call him "Colonel," nine times out of ten it is safe; if luck should be against you, call him " Judge," and you are pretty sure to be right. If, however, pursued by the fates, you should di.scover that your interlocutor is neither colonel nor judge, you have another resource : call him *' Professor," and ycu are out of the diJificulty : an American always professes something, an art, a religion, and you arc risking nothing. I met a few American colonels who had recently been promoted " misters." They were so proud of Jonathan and his Continent. 6i their new lillc that they insisted on being ad- dressed thus. * American hospitality deserves the reputation which it enjoys in luirope. If it errs, it is perhaps on the side of prodigality. lUit how criticise hosts so amiable and so cordial ? American hospitality is princely. You are not often invited, even in hous'*s where the daily menu is of the most appetizing, to gu and share the family dinner. You are not invited to dine, a fete is got up for you. If this can not be arranged, you may not be invited at all. You generally find that you have been asked to a ban(|uet : oysters, soup, hors-d'cruvre, lish, releves, entrees, sorbets, roasts, stew of terrapin, game (raw canvas back duck, when in seas'u), salad, five or six vegetables, pastry, sweets, cheese, ices and dessert, the whole washed down with the choicest wines : chateau-ycjuem, amontillado, iced champagne, chateau -lafitte, and such precious beverages. In good American houses the cooking is excel- lent; you will not find better in London and Paris. The most n-i/ifrch/ oi American dishes is terra- pin stew : when in season, it figures at every feast. The fiavor is so pronounced that one is bound to think it either delicious or detestable. Am I obliged to tell you which I think it ? \n (i2 Jonathan and his Continent. An American one clay asked nie whether I liked terrapin. " It is nothing but polite," 1 replied, " to bow to the customs of a country one visits. Terrapin is eaten in the United States—and I eat it." Canvas-back duck is a great delicacy. It is hung in front of a fire for a few minutes only. . The fust time this purple meat is presented to you, it hor- rifies you ; but 1 advise you to try and surmount your repugnance, the dish is exquisite. In France, the English have the reputation of liking all kinds of meat very much undercooked. It is only one of the thousand absurd stories told about them. They prefer their meat, on the contrary, very much cooked. One of the many jokes on the subject of canvas- back duck which I heard was this : One of these birds having been served to an Englishman, he, after a glance at it, called the waiter and said to him : " Pass through the kitchen with it once more, please." m CHAPTER X. BiLMONAIRF.S — A LiSr OF THE (IrEAF AMERICAN FORTUNES — A Millionaire's House — A Democracy Ruled hy Many Kings. I AM afraid it will make my readers* lips water, Jjut here is a list of some American fortunes, as I have heard them stated. I have no doubt some of them are inaccurately reported : Name. J. Gould, . . J. W. Mackey, C. Vanderbilt, G. P. Jones, . J. J. Aster, . . A. T. Stewart, . J. (1. Bennett, . Capital. $275,000,000 200,500,000 125,000,000 |00,0(X),000 90,000,000 40,(XK),000 30,000,000 Reiienue at 5;f. 113.750,000 l2,5(X),<)oo 6,250,000 5,o(X),(X)o 4,5(X) cxx) 2,000,000 1,500.000 These are the princes of the Land of the Dollar. The largest English fortunes fall short of these figures. The Duke of Westminster's is reckoned at only $80,000,000, that of the Duke of Suther- land at $70,000,000 ; the Duke of Northumber- land has $25,000,000, and the Marquis of liute $20,000,000. It is in mines and railways especially that the colossal American fortunes have been made. 63 \ 1''^ 64 JonatJuin and his Continent. ' i i* In France, with their fortunes translated into francs, Messrs. J. (lould and J. \V. Mackey would l)c billionaires : it takes a larger word than million- aire to give an idea of the opulence of these men, and I beg to suggest to the editors of French dic- tionaries the addition of the word : ** Billion A IRK — A person possessing at least a thousand millions. This phenomenon is found in America." Needless to say that, with his millions on m.il- lions, Mr. Jay (lould is a power. I was told in America that this gentleman went to New York with only a few dollars in his pocket, and for some time earned a living l)y selling mouse-traps. He now holds the American Stock K.xchange in the hollow of his hand. Instead of mice, he goes for '* l)ulls " and "bears," and stocks rise or fall at iiis whim. Other speculators are glad to pick up the crumbs that fall from his fingers. As for contending with him, as well try to l)reak the bank at Monte Carlo with a ten-cent piece. I have not seen the town house or the country house of Mr. (iould ; but I know that in the grounds of the latter stand conservatories esti- mated to be worth $250,000. I trust this will give an idea of what the rest may be. In these jottings, taken by the way, I can scarcely do more than put the reader on the track of that which can be seen in America. Rusf U'f* iiiiii Jonathan and his Continent. 65 I can not guarantee that Mr. Gould is a happy man. Concerning immense fortunes, a witty American friend, rich in moderation, and a great philosopher, said to me one day : ** No man can own more than a million dollars. When his bank account outgrows that, he does not own it, it owns him, and he becomes its slave." The two kings of American plutocracy are Messrs. Vanderbilt and Astor. 'I'he name of king applies to them less on account of the size of their fortunes than the generous use they make of them. Ihcy have founded hospitals, museums, and libraries, and are known for the generosity with wliirh lliey respond to appeals for help in philanthr()|)ical causes. Shortly before my arrival in America, Mr. Vanderbilt had given $500,000 to found a hospital in New York. Mrs. Astor iiad just given $250,000 toward the funds of the Cancer 11 os- pitiil. 'I'he Vanderbilt mansion, in Fifth Avenue, New York, is a princely habitation. One might fill a volume in giving a complete dcscri[)ti()n of the treasures that are crowded into it. 'I'he lu.vury on all sides is extreme. In the bath room, I am told, the walls are all mirrors painted thickly with trails of morning glories, so that the bather seems to be in a i)ower of (lowers. In plate and pictures, many mil- lions of dollars must have been spent, The pictures hang in two spacious, well-lighted rooms. They number one hundred and seventy-four works, from i«-sa;^T7^,i3EjJP3ir^^!WmB8EraSaraS!S^ M 66 Jonathan and his Continent. 1 « ! (. I r \ \ the brushes of great modern masters, including the "Sower" and seven other masterpieces of Jean Fran(;ois Millet, three Rosa IJonheurs, seven Meis- soniers, Turners, Cleronies, the '• Battle of Rezon- ville" by Uetaiile, seven pictures by Theodore Rousseau, and beautiful examples of Alma Tad- ema, Sir Frederick Leighton, John Linnell, IJou- guereau, Corot, Dort^, Bonnat, and Munkacsy. In the entrance hall hangs a portrait of Vander- bilt I., founder of the dynasty. The Americans, having no king in our sense of the word, make the most of those they have, repub- licans though they be. To read the pedigrees, publislied in full every time a death occurs in one of these rich families, is highly entertaining. A Mrs. Astor died while I was in America, and, after the enumeration of her charms and virtues, which were many, came the li.st of John Jacobs from whom her husband had sprung. 'I'he Astors were all John Jacobs apparently, and were mentioned as John Jacob I., John Jacob II., and John Jacob III. The line does not go back very far, John Jacob I. having gone to America as a poor emi- grant early in this century, I believe, and laid the foundiition of the present grandeur of his house by trading in furs. It will not do to inquire too closely into the way in which some of America's millionaires have amassed wealth. Strange stories are told of men so grasping that they stopped at nothing, even to Jonathan and his Continent. 07 the ruining of their own sons. When I sa»v Mr. lironson Howard's clever play, ** The Henrietta," in >vhich he portrays a son so madly engrossed by the excitement of gambling on the Stock Exchange as to try and absorb his father's millions, I thought the picture was overdrawn. Americans, however, told me that the case was historical, but with the characters reversed — which made it still more odious. As for the colossal fortunes of railway kings, it is well known how thousands of small ones go to make them, how the rich man's palace is too often built with the stones of hundreds of ruined homes. There is no other name than " king " used in speaking of the few great financiers, who hold the bulk of the railway stock in America. But they are not the only ones. There are oil kings, cop- per kings, silver kings, and I know not what other majesties in America, and when you see the power possessed by these, and the numberless trusts, combinations, and pools, a power pressing often very closely on the million, you wonder how the Ameri' 'ins, who found one king one too many, shouUI submit so patiently to being governed by scores. CHAPTER XI. The American Girl — IIkr Lihkriy— Her Manners — Resi'eci" roR Woman — VouniKui, Kkminiscences — Flir- tation Perfkcteu — The " Boston " — Why the Young American Lady Does Not Ohject to the Society of Men— Euroi'ean Coaisok Arms Kk(;ii,t and Redeemed FROM Pawn— Americans ok iiie Kauiiourc. Saini-Ger- main — Lady Randoi.iii CniKCHn.i. — Matin(; of May and Dkckmher — Stale Thkmk ok American Plays — An Angel — The Tei.l-Tale Collodion — The Heroine of " L'ABHft CONSTANTIN " — WllAT AMERICAN GiRI.S AD- MIRE IN A Man. !■ TnK liberty enjoyed by American girls astonishes the English as much as the Hberty. of the Enghsh girl surprises the Erench. Erom the age of eighteen, the American girl is allowed almost every liberty. She takes the others. She can travel alone, and go to concerts and even to theaters unattended by a chaperone. She is supplied with pocket-money, which she spends at her own sweet will in bonbons, knick- knacks, and jewelry. If there is none left for the milliner and dressmaker, Papa is coaxed to pay them. She visits and receives whom she pleases — I mean those who please her. She has her own circle 68 Jonathan and his Continent. 69 of acquaintances. If, at a ball, she meet with a young man who takes her fancy, I do not say touches her heart, she says to him : '* I am at home on such a day ; come and see me." Next day he may send her a ticket for a theater and be her escort for the evening. He may bring her flowers, offer her refreshments after the play, and take her home in a carriage. In America, all this seems to be the most natural thing in the world. This leads to no intimacy, for a few days later, it may happen that he meets the young lady at a ball, and she comes up to him, and says : " I want to present you to a friend ; do tell me your name, I quite forget it." The American girl, who appears to us French so giddy and even fast, seems to me to act according to the dictates of common sense. Tired of the old formula, ** A lady can not do that, it would be im- proper," she says : " I will do it, and if I choose to do it, it becomes proper." It is for woman herself to make the law on these matters. ** Why should I not go to the theater alone ?" she says again ; ** if your streets are impure, it is for you to cleanse them. Why should I not receive my ball partners who please me ? If one of them were to profit by my seeing him alone in the drawing-room to take a liberty with me, he would be an ill-bred fellow, and I should have him properly shown out of the house, and certainly it is not for such as he that I should change my habits." tti m 70 Jonathan and his Continent. ii 1. m It is the respect that woman inspires in American men, which allows the yoiuiy; girl to go about with such freedom and to ipieen it all ttnough the States. Jonathan might give more than one les- son in this subject to the men of the Old World, even to the frenchman, who, in the matter of politeness, lives a good deal on the rei)Utution of his ancestors. Jonathan's respect for women is disinterested, purely platonic. In France, this re- spect takes the form of a politeness which verges on gallantry, and is often not disinterested. A Frenchman will always stand back to let a lady pass, but he will profit by the occasion to take a good look at her. The American, in similar cir- cumstance, will respectfully lower his eyes. In trains, where the seats are constructed to liold two persons, you will see the American seek a place from one end of the train to the other be- fore he will go and seat himself by ihe side of a young girl. He will only do so when there is no help for it. I have many times noticed men stand- ing up in the local trains, rather than run the risk of incommoding a young girl by sharing a seat with licr. And I am not speaking now of gentlemen only, but of men belonging to the middle, if not lower, class — if the word "class" may be used speaking of Americans. * it * With what pleasure I remember the young Ameri- can girls whom I occasionally met at Parisian parties Jonathan and his Continent. V in my youthful days. Their pretty, bright faces, ^heir oiegimce, their unconveiitionai charm of man- ner, and animated, natural conversation, all these enchanted me. One never felt awkward with them. Whereas with a French young girl I could generally find nothing but absurd commonplaces to say, in the presence of Jonathan's merry maidens I lost my timidity, and could chat away with as little embarrassment as I would with a young brother-officer of my regiment. The American girl is still without rivals in Parisian drawing-rooms, where she is more and more sought after. Men seek her for her gayety, wit, or beauty ; mothers look favorably upon her for her dollars ; the younger women tear her to shreds — nothing is wanting to her success. * It was to her that Paris owed the introduction of that attractive dance that goes in France by the name of boston. An inspiration this dance ! Some one, I forget whom, has remarked of the waltz, " It is charming, it is fascinating, but one cannot chat." With the l>oston it is different ; one can dance that, and chat, and flirt too. Now a flirtation with an American girl is immensely agree- able, on account of the perfection she brings to the art. To be gallant is no longer sufficient ; to say things that are pretty, but insipid and com- monplace, will not do at all ; you must surpass IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) I V <^ z 'e9. 1.0 I.I 1^ 1128 I-' IM 1 2.2 1^ 12.0 '" Wits IL25 M 1.4 Photographic Sciences Corporation 1.8 1.6 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 4^ iV :\ \ <^.s C^..^?" "-!^ ^%^ vV 72 Jonathan and his Continent. yourself in wit and amiability, while keeping well within the bounds of the strictest propriety. The boston lends itself admirably to this charming amusement. It is voluptuously slow, a go-as-you- please dance, offering the added charm of a de- lightful tete-a-tete^ when your partner is a bright and pretty girl. I also used to get a great deal of diversion in looking at the American girls clearing the buffet. How they would fall to ! How they made the ices disappear, and tossed off punch, champagne, or anything that came to their pretty little hands ! With what disdain they passed over the syrups and eau sucr^e, that the French girls timidly sipped, looking all the while to see whether Mamma was not staring round-eyed to show that she disap- proved of such dissipation. They must have something serious and satisfying : " A little more champagne, mademoiselle ? " " Yes, please." "Another of these little cakes?" '* Yes, please." Only the musicians, as they struck up the first bars of the next dance, had fascination enough to draw them away from the refreshment room. And what spirit there was in their dancing ! What animation ! What eyes lit up with pleasure ! Not a moment's flagging ; they danced with as I. I Jonathan and his Continent. 73 mu';h suppleness at five in the morning as at the beginning of the evening. And why not, indeed ? Such pleasures are harmless, and it is not because a woman has danced much in her girlhood that she should lead her husband a dance, when she has one. Good scholars are as easy to discover in the recreation ground as in the class-room. The mo- rality of a youth is in direct proportion to the delight he takes in play; that of a girl maybe measured by her gayety and high spirits. I shall never forget a young American girl, who sat at the same table as myself, on board the steamer. The dear child, who was about seven- teen, performed prodigies. I could scarcely believe my eyes, and watched her with never-flagging inter- est. What appetite ! What a little table d'hote ogress ! I trembled for our supplies, and wondered whether the Company had foreseen the danger. First of all, at seven in the morning, tea and bread and butter was taken to the hungry one in her cabin. At half-past eight, she breakfasted. At this meal, she generally went straight through the bill of fare. At eleven, she had beef-tea and biscuits brought to heron deck. Lunch time found her ready for three courses of solid food, besides pastry, fruit, etc. At six o'clock, she did valiantly again, and at ten she was regularly served with i 74 Jonathan and his Continent. \fW a Welsh rarebit, or some other tasty trifle. Not- withstanding this, I rarely met her on deck, or in the corridors, but she was munching sweets, gin- gerbread, or chocolate. After all, there are so few distractions on board ship I Men smoke, play poker, or indulge in a little betting on the run of the ship. Some people sleep, some try to think, but unsuccessfully ; others read ; some ladies knit. The American girl eats. * if: * The American girl likes men's society for sever- al reasons. First, because she is well educated and able to talk on almost all topics. She can talk knick-knacks and pretty nonsense, but if she knows how to describe the *' cunningest bonnet " lately invented in Pa'is, she can also tell you all about Octave Feuillet's latest novel, or even Herbert Spencer's latest work. She likes men's society, because it enlarges her circle of acquaintances, and also because it increase^ her chances of making a good match. No matter how much of a butterfly she may be, she never loses sight of the future. She does not say, as she sits musing on marriage : "What kind of man shall I suit?" but "What kind of man shall I choose ? " The society of men has all the less danger for her, that her virtue rests on a firm basis of calcu- lation. She will not embark in the romance until she sees her way to profit — and profits, thereby. Jon itluvi ami his Continent. 75 Fort iM ', )!• ;i title, that is her aim. She keeps it in vie>v. 0'.\M ill the most /6'//^/;///^ moments. Between two ,