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32X
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6
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
STUDIES FOR THE
OLD WORLD AND THE NEW.
BY
JOSEPH HATTON.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. 1.
/
LONDON :
CHAPMAN AND HALL (LIMITED),
11, HENRIETTA STREET, CO VENT GARDEN.
1881.
0'
I i
WESTMINSTER :
J. B. NICHOLS AND SONS, PEINTEE8,
25, PARLIAMENT STREET.
^
CONTENTS.
I.— THE OLD AND THE NEW.
American and English Society contrasted — A Rocky Mountain World
in its Infancy— Administration of the Law — British Justice and
American — Art and the Customs — American and English Houses
— The Drama in New York — A wonderful Theatre — American
Women at home and in London — Snohbism on both sides of the
Atlantic — Poetic Tribute to the Old Country — The Destiny of
the New pp. 1—38
IL— REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND REPRESENTATIVE
CITIES.
The Treatment of Women and Children — " Diamond Cut Diamond" —
Characteristic Phrases — Capping on Extravagance — The Story of
a Braggart — Freedom and Hope — The Great Cities— Chicago's
Child-like Jealousy of New York — Irish Agitation against
England — The Custom of Ulster — International Criticism —
Studying Repartee — The Garden City — A Wonderful Revival —
The City of the Golden Gate — Post Office Absurdities —
Oysters pp. 39 — 93
III.— MAUD S.
Trotting and Preaching — Comparisons between English and American
Racing — A new Civilisation that presses utility into its Amuse-
ments — French Views of American Trotters — On a Chicago Track
— The Great Race against Time — The Virtues of Lager Beer—
An exciting Finish— American Carriages in England — Driving
on both Sides of the Atlantic— Behind a Trotting Horse — The
Story of the Spotted Dog— Out-door Sports in the Old World and
the New pp. 94—121
CONTENTS.
IV.- THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
Two Gospels — John to the Judeans, Robert to the Am* ncaas — The
Famous Exponndcr of Materialism— A Chicago Sabbath — Going
to hear IngersoU — " What shall we do to be Saved ? " — A funny
Story well adapted— The Preacher's Logic — The Evangelical
Alliance — Laughter and Tears — Pathetic Profanity — Freedom
that tolerates Tyranny pp. 122 — 144
v.— THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
American and English Bishops— Sunday and the Churches — Religious
Freedom — IngersoU's Lecture on Ghosts— Witchcraft — Anec-
dotical Rhetoric — Tyrannical Phantoms — Visiting a famous
Spiritualist — A Private Seance in New York — The Spiritualist and
the Soldier — A Dramatic Story — Mr. Foster's Manifestations-
Messages from the Dead — Spiritism at Fault— The Church tolera-
ting Modem Jugglery — A Newspaper written by Famous Ghosts
— The latest Development of Trade Journalism . pp. 145 — 184
\ I.— ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
American Artists — An Evening with the Salmagundi Club— Studies
in Black and White — Remarkable Sketches— Art badly paid —
French Influence — America's True Mission in Art — Subjects for
Painters — Sketching Grounds — Mountain Lakes — Fall Colours —
On the Hudson — " Sleepy Hollow " — The Copyright Question —
Capital and Authorship — America's Proposals to England — " A
Sop to Cerberus " — Counsels of Moderation — A Suggestion for the
Exhibition Year of 1883 ...... pp. 185—219
VII.— CHINESE PUZZLES.
Celestials under the Stars and Stripes — John at San Francisco and in
New York — Opium Dens at Five Points— A Chinese Gambling
Saloon — Servants and Slaves — The New Treaty of Washington —
Tea in America — Medical Missions to China and Japan — The
Influence of Race upon Race — Chinese Books at San Francisco —
Revelations of a Joss-house — The Faith and Opinions of Chang
Wan Ho-The Greatest Puzzle of all . . . pp. 220— 244
;ans — The
h — Going
-A funny
vangelical
-Freedom
122—144
THE BEGINNING.
-R(>ligious
t — Anec-
a famous
kuali stand
stations —
:ch tolera-
us Ghosts
145—184
— Studies
l!y paid —
ibjects for
Colours—
)nestion —
and—" A
on for the
185—219
ico and in
Gambling
hington —
pan — The
'ancisco —
of Chang
220—244
Introductory — The Story of the Cuckoo and its application —
Traditional Yankees and the Reality — The Origin of these
Papers — A Remarkable Orator— Bonds of International
Sympathy —Hogs and Second Hand Storms— Franklin's
Mother-iv-Law and the Destiny of the United States —
End of Preface.
" Where the Cuckoo Sings " was the title of
the picture.
It was a fine Midland counties landscape^
the time early spring, the subject a striking
bit of meadow, a willow copse, and a trans-
parent pool.
On a "half-price day " a group of intelligent
working-men were standing before this idealised
transcript of Nature. There is always a leader,
self- elected or otherwise, in every company.
The chief of the toiling gang, out for a holiday
and visiting the Birmingham Exhibition of Art,
was a critic.
VI
THE BEGINNING.
^^AyCi ladSf^ he said, " ifs a stunning good
picture. Them primroses springing up through
the dead leaves at foot of tree is as natural as
life. I never see*d waiter more like waiter
than the little pond there with willows reflected
in it. And meadows in the distance, arenH
they first rate?*'*
The lads nodded, and said "Aye."
'*And what think ye of the moss on owd tree
trunk ? Why iVs as natural as my sister's
Tom cat ! "
" Aye,'* the lads said, it was, and they
laughed, whether it was at the incongruity of
the simile or in remembrance of some peculiar
trait of the familiar animal itself, I cannot
say.
"Aye, tads, there's no mistake about it,
that's a right down good picture," went on the
critic ; "do you notice them clouds in the waiter,
and buds on the willows ? "
"Aye^"' they said they did. They always
said "Aye,^^ and nothing more.
" Stop a bit ! " said the critic suddenly, first
looking at his catalogue, next at the picture.
THE DEQINNINQ.
Vll
then prying into the toillow copse, and again
diving into the catalogue, and at last turning
to the lads and exclaiming, " But where's the
dommed cuckoo ! '*
On my first visit to America I was for-
cibly reminded of this incident of uncultured
criticism. On the stage and m humorous
literature, in the provincial concert-room and
at metropolitan music halls, I had invariably
seen the native American depicted as a loud,
noisy, irrepressible person, his ** Yankee **
origin continually proclaimed in word, gesture,
and dress. A tall, gav/nt individual, with lank
hair and a " goatee beard, ^^ striped trousers,
an exaggerated dress-coat, and a waistcoat
open at the neck, he would generally be whist-
ling " Yankee Doodle " and whittling a stick.
I had a vivid remembrance of him sitting in
a rocking-chair, with his legs on a mantel-
shelf, while he expectorated on a highly-floral
wall-paper. The latest stage -Yankee which
modified this old idea was Mr. JBuckstone's
**Asa I^enchard.** Even that singular indi-
vidual, if he did not wear the stars on his coat
VIU
THE BEGINNING.
and the stripes on his trousers, was a very pro-
nounced and ouW sort of person, toith a grating
nasal twang in his speech, and in his manners a
vulgar disregard of the decent customs of social
life.
Now, remembering the French idea of the
Englishman, the German notion of John Bully
our ovm stage- Irishman^ and the Yorkshireman
of the melodramatic playwright, I did not expect
to encounter the ** TJncle Sam** of caricature, nor
the *' Jonathan " of the dramatic author. But,
after broadly inspecting the scenery of America,
after travelling on its railways, steaming up
and down its lakes and rivers, being lost in its
forests, and bewildered just as much in its
gigantic hotels ; after having " been to the east
and been to the west** if not " to old Kentucky, ^^
I could not help thinking of my Birmingham
friend and exclaiming to myself, " But whereas
the domiued Yankee ! "
I did not see even a resemblance to the tradi-
tional Transatlantic ideal of the platform, the
stage, and the cynical traveller. On many
occasions I met sallow-faced men with genial
THE BEGINNING.
IX
grey eyes that dominated mouths detiicated to
the humorous expression of quaint vieios of life ^
men who in some respects might be regarded as
typical of a benevolent kind of " TIncle Sam ** ;
but the interrogating bragging "stranger" who
** calculates this great and glorious country is
jtist going to knock you into fits of everlasting
envy, you bet^ he belongs to the region of fiction
and burlesque. In his place you find a quiet
self possessed almost retioent man, or a bright,
m
intelligent, cultured woman ; and you soon dis-
cover that Americans know a great deal more
about Great Britain than you know about the
United States.
It has been my good fortune to have visited
the United States twice within the last few
years, and it has been suggested to me that I
ought to have something of interest to say about
the country and the people. There are a few
points of contrast between England and Ame^
rica that I have thought worth recording.
I am emboldened to present them in these
volumes because The New York Times con^
sidered several of them worthy of publication
X THE BEGINNING,
in its bright and scholarly pages, I have added
to the articles which ^-ppeared in that jowrnal
others which have been published on this side of
the Atlantic in Tinsleys* Magazine, Belgravia,
The Theatre, Colburn's New Monthly, and other
publications. Supplementing the whole with
much new matter, I venture to submit the pre-
sent work to the reader as a contribution to the
international literature of the day, not as an
historical review, not as a book of travels, but
as a friendly chat about " our kin beyond the
sea,** with some sketches of national peculiarities
and contrasts that strike an observer on both
sides of the Atlantic,
It is not ea^, perhaps, to say anything par-
ticularly novel about Am£rica. But, with all
due deference to my own natural modesty, I
believe the reader will find a few new ideas
and many new facts in this work. Towns and
cities have almost grown up while I have been
writing it. These and sundry current com-
mercial and other statistics of the time cannot
be stale. But what is entirely new to the
general reader is a sketch of Col. Ingersoll, the
THE BEGINNING.
XI
remarkable representative and eloquent spokes-
man of free thought m America. Destined to
exercise a stra/nge and mighty influence on
theological opinions in the United States, Col,
Ingersoll impressed m£ as an orator of great
original power. To consider whether his work
is for good or evil does not come within the
scope or purpose of these sketches. Leaving
his views to the judgment of the reader, I merely
introduce him as an important factor of American
progress, and as a public man in whom England
cannot fail to be interested.
The story of the stranger, who, being asked
why he was unmoved at a certain pathethic
church service while the rest of the congrega-
tion were in tears, said, ** The fact is, I dovbt
belong to the parish ^^ is no longer applicable
to the English stranger in America, nor to the
American stranger in England. The bond of
sympathy between the two cotmtries is both
physical and moral. Even so humble a creature
as the American pig being "indisposed" the
London journals teem with bulletins as to its
condition. " Hog cholera " was recently as
Xll
THE BEGINNING.
exciting an international theme as " the Bern-
hardt mania.** Chicago and Cincinnati were
shaken to their very centres at certain alleged
inaccttracies in an English ConsuVs statements
about the precise characteristics of the illness
of the Western hog.
On my first arrival in the United States I
found the bond of sympathy represented in the
delight of an audience at Wallack*s with the
vagaries of a stage Cockney. Four years later
ifn>y baggage was unloaded to the time of " Se
might have been a Rooshan" whistled by an
Express porter, who treated me to several other
snatches of " "Pimafore " music while I was
signing a receipt for the trunks. When I left
New York, on the eve of the present year, men
were saying to each other^ " Your *and, guv'ner,
your * and,** just as they had been saying for
months before outside the Vaudeville theatre in
London ; and my first evening's recreation on
arriving home was to see Mr. Edioin Booth play
^^ Richelieu** at the Brvncess*s theatre.* In
* While these volumes hav been passing through the pressy
Mr. John McCuHough has made a distinct success in " Vir-
THE BEGINNING.
xm
England we watch the records of American
weather with a continual solicitude, A severe
winter in the United States means snow block-
ades and frozen rivers in England. It se^ms
hardly necessary for America to cable to us
now-a-days any more than a description of the
weather on their side of the Atlantic, f or , with
little deviation, it has the habit of travelling
over to us. We are in receipt of nearly all
Americans second-hand storms ; and we receive
them just as freely as her other products,
without taxi/ng them. Supposing one day a
perverse government should plaice at our various
ports of entramce the barrier of a Protective
Duty against all other importations, only ad-
mitting storms free, then you would see a still
ginius" at Drury Lane Theatre^ and Mr. Edwin Booth and
Mr. Henry Irving have appeared, together, at the Lyceum, in
" Othellot^ Mr. Irving adding to his repertoire the character
of lago, and extending his fame by an impersonation quite
worthy of all that Charles Lamb said of Brinsley in the same
part. In the chapter entitled •' Home Again,'^ the reader will
find some details in regard to the engagement of Mr, Booth at
the Lyceum, the interest of which is enhanced by the enthusiastic
welcome given to the American actor in the house of the most
popular of his English contemporaries.
XIV
THE BEGINNING.
stronger illmtration of the inapplicahility to
America and England of the story of the man
who did not belong to the parish.
But let Its not dwell upon the possibilities of
the future. To-day is sufficiently interesting.
Moreover t everybody , from Mr, Gladstone doton-
wards, indulges in speculative forecasts of the
destiny of America, It is said that Dr, Frank-
lin*s mother-in-law hesitated about permitting
her daughter to marry a printer, as there were
already two printing-offices in the United States,
and she was uncertain whether the country could
support a third. This careful lady, it will be
seen, very considerably under - estimated the
future prosperity of the United States. It is
not the tendency of English opinion to m^ke a
similar mistake. The old country is rather
inclined to be over sanguine in reading the
horoscope of the new. Great Britain has a
lively faith in the growing prosperity and power
of the United States, To qttote a familiar Trans-
atlantic phrase for a fixed belief i/n anything.
Great Britain " takes stock " i/n the splendid
destiny of America ; and English capital and
THE BEGINNING.
XV
English people endorse the faith in every State
of the Union.
While this sympathy towards the material
welfare of America is active on the British side
of the Atlantic, there is in every American heart
a secret corner dedicated to the old country,
and to our mutual interest in the illu>strious
d*iad of Westminster Abbey. Appealing to these
allied peoples, and discussing the characteristics
of both, without fear or favour, I venture to
command to their friendly reception the rapid
sketches and social studies which make up these
volumes of To-Day in America.
14, Titchjkld Terrace,
Regeni's Park, London^
May 1881.
ERRATA.
Vol. I. page 23, line 1, for « Paget," read " Puget."
„ 4, for " yews," read '* hews."
%%
. »>
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
I.
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
American and English Society contrasted — A Rocky Mountain World
in its Infancy— Administration of the Law — British Justice and
American — Art and the Customs — American and English Houses
— The Drama in New York — A wonderful Theatre — American
Women at home and in London — Snohbism on both sides of the
Atlantic — Poetic Tribute to the Old Country — The Destiny of
the New.
r
I.
If Great Britain is interesting to our cousins of the
United States because it is old, America is attractive
to Englishmen because it is new.
An American city compared witli an English town
has points of difference which will affect different
natures in different ways. Youth will be better pleased
with the New World than with the Old, since youth
dwells upon the future, age upon the past. America
looks forward. England looks back. The boy strains
his eyes towards coming days ; the man turns to those
VOL. I. B
2 TO-DAT IN AHEBICA.
which have fled. America is making money and
building cities. England is spending the accumulated
wealth of ages, and the active histories of her cities
date back to ancient Rome. Since 1 was in the United
States at the Presidential election of Mr. Hayes, four
years ago, to the time when I watched the great torch-
light procession of the Republican party one autumn
night in 1880, New York has marched quite a distance
towards Harlem ; Chicago has annexed many miles of
prairie for new streets and avenues ; the other cities of the
Republic have greatly advanced in material wealth and
commercial importance ; and westward new industries,
new communities, new towns, have sprung into exist-
ance, notably Leadville. In 1876 the site of this busy
mining centre was a lonely gulch, or mountainous waste,
a r^ion of bitter memories to the few rough prospectors
who had entered it with doubt and left it without hope.
To-day Leadville has a population of 30,000 men and
women, chiefly men, engaged more or less in developing
the mineral resources which had been overlooked by the
original explorers. The first building in Leadville was
erected in June, 1879. To-day it has five churches,
three schools, a Young Men's Christian Association, a
hundred gambling saloons, and four daily newspapers.
It is the centre of a hundred silver and lead mines,
which in one year yielded £2,295,409 worth of ore.
It is ten thousand feet above the sea, and stretches
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
8
out prospecting arms towards Canon City and Denver.
The discovery of the precious metals has dotted the
Rocky Mountains with villages, towns, and miniature
cities, links in the chain of a strange and new civili-
zation, where at present neither Coke nor Blackstone
is much considered in the administration of the law,
and justice is ** the rough vengeance" of primitive com-
munities. A world in its infancy may be observed
among the Rocky Mountains, a world that one day
will be strong and vigorous and full of healthy life.
Denver, the capital of the State of Colorado, has been
in existence twenty years longer than Leadville, and its
population does not largely exceed its younger rival ; but
Denver has broad streets, fine buildings, handsome
public school-houses, pleasant gardens: and it offers far
more legal security for life and property than Leadville.
I was told at Chicago by a gentleman from Colorado
that the mining attractions of Gunnison County would
probably draw 40,000 new inhabitants to that district
within twelve months. The first white men who visited
the district were surveyors for ^e Pacific Railroad in
1853. In 1861 a few Californian miners prospected
for gold in the neighbourhood of what is now Leadville,
and left it without a suspicion that they liad been walk-
ing over a region of silver and lead. The Gunnison
country now contains eleven growing villages, with
projected railway accommodation. " Gunnison City '* is
»2
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
the chief " location ** of the new mining district, and
promises to have, what a local writer calls, " a terrible
boom," which will run it up from a population of 500
to one of 10,000 within a few months. '^ At a small
place called Gothic," says the author of a pamplilot on
the advantages of emigrating to this region, *^ a young
man recently arrived here, and within a few hours he
had located a vein which assayed four hundred and
seventy-six ounces on the surface, and at a depth of
ten feet over two thousand ounces. He proposes to
marry and live at Gothic."
If the story of Colorado is wonderful, that of Kansas
is still more extraordinary. Part of Louisiana, pur-
chased by the United States Government from France
in 1803, it was erected into a territory in 1854, admitted
to the Union 1861 ; and to-day it has a population of
close upon a million, made up of emigrants from Ger-
many, Ireland, England, Wales, Scotland, British
America, and in the United States from Illinois, Mis-
souri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York,
Michigan, Kentucky. In 1855 the population was
8,601 ; in 1879 it was 849,978 ; so that in 24 years,
from 1855 to 1880, the population increased a hundred-
fold.
It is a grand thing if you are young to have a hand
in this kind of progress, this mining of gold and silver,
this buildmg up of towns. I probably interpret the senti-
THE OLD AND THE NEW. 5
ment8 of many of my English readers when I say that I
would rather be an old man in London than in New
York or Boston; and, for that matter, would rather
spend my declining years in some English village under
the shadow of an old castle, or beneath the elms that
grow on cathedral greens, than rest in any other place
in the world. Mr. Buskin overshot the mark when he
said he could not, ^' even for a couple of months, live
in a country so miserable as to possess no castles."
Men are, after all, more than castles ; living hearts are
better than dead stones ; and there is no country in the
world where, as it seems to me, you get closer to Nature
than in the great forests, on the shores of the vast
lakes, or among the lonely mountains of the United
States of America.
n.
Americans tell me there are social castes in New York,
and exclusive circles of society in Chicago. Boston is
more like an English city than any other town in
America. Yet even in Boston and Philadelphia you will
fail to discover anything like the caste of an English
cathedr{d city. Only the Brahmins can be more exclu-
sive, as touching another community, than the clergy of
a cathedral city towards the tradespeople, or the county
gentry in regard to the tenant farmer. All through
e
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
Amerioaii cities and in the best society the tendency is
towards making intellect aristocratic, to give knowledge
and culture foremost places. This is not so in English
cities. It obtains somewhat in London ; though not here
when the guests at a dinner party are placed according to
social rank : then Intellect has to give way to Blood ;
then Knowledge has to sit at the feet of Birth ; then
Culture must succumb to Hereditary' Distinction. It is
true the journalist, the author, the '^ scientist," the
Disraeli of enterprising youth, will now and then ** get
even" with society by a life-long battle ; but the fact
remains that caste in England is almost as severe a
thing as it is in India ; and, viewed from the stand-
point of this unshakable truth, life in America must have
special charms for young Englishmen who have their
way to make in the world.
III.
Though Americans themselves are inclined to dis-
count the liberty, equality, and fraternity, which is the
backbone of their constitution, it appears to English-
men very real, more particularly as regards equality.
We have as much legal liberty in England as in
America, except perhaps in the matter of *^ shooting."
If we commit wilful murder on the English side of the
Atlantic, we are hanged to a certainty. In the United
States the chances of escape are numerous. I have
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
lately seen and met several murderers in American
cities. They might perhaps be more correctly called
^' manslaughterers/* to coin a word that fits our legal
definition of killing in a quarrel. One of these men is
quite in a large way of business, not as a murderer, but
as a speculator in corn. It is the uncertainty of the law
vindicating itself in America that makes men take it
into their own hands. Americans are not more pas-
sionate, vindictive, and revengeful than we are. They
know that their magistrates and judges are elected by
the popular vote ; and they know how wide this system
makes the meshes of the legal net Besides, fancy
waiting for the law to vindicate itself in new towns such
as Leadville, where the venturesome and lawless of all
nations meet on equal terms ; where the liquor saloons
are open night and day ; where there is but one object
in life, to get rich quick and go away I The pistol is
bound to be the real moral force in such a district.
Under the law in England we have more practical and
certain justice than they ha^e in America. We are longer
in getting what we do get but it is assured. It comes
sooner or later ; often later than sooner. What a blessing
if we could combine the good in the two systems and
exclude the bad I A friend of mine has just died
after twenty years of litigation over a mere disputed
account. At first it was one suit. The defendants
were a great Railway Company. They had plenty
8
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
^
I
;l::
of money and therefore the power to break that suit
up into six different actions, which they dragged
through nearly every court in England. One day ray
friend would win in one issue, the next he would
lose in another. Next to losing he found it most ex-
pensive to win. They *' got him into Chancery,"
and there the other day he died broken-hearted,
before the House of Lords could give its final de-
cision upon his whole case. There are more iniquities
committed by the so-called High Court of Judicature
than are dreamed of even by the most inveterate
haters of these modern inquisitions. The delays of
civil cases do not apply to criminal trials. A litigious
tyrant in the Court of Queen's Bench, or a wealthy de-
fendant in Chancery, gets as much law as he likes to
pay for ; but justice falls quick and sharp and fatally on
the vulgar thief and the red-handed murderer. In
England only the " royal clemency " stands between a
convicted murdorer and the gallows. The royal clemency
is a state fiction. It can only be invoked by the Home
Secretary, who under the influence of public opinion in
the press and on the platform may, with the guid-
ance and advice of the judge, be induced to review
the evidence or take into consideration some new fact
which is disclosed between the condemnation and the
appointed execution. If in cold blood you shoot a man
or woman in England and are arrested nothing can save
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
9
you. In America there are many more verdicts of
guilty and many more condemnations for murder than
there are executions. This is not criticism. I am only
stating facts. Often in England we discuss the question
of the abolition of capital punishment. Humanitarians
believe there would be no more murders than there are
at present if we put away the gallows as we have put
away the stocks and the ducking-stool. I differ with
these kindly people. I believe I know of two more
" shootings " that might have taken place, not in cold
blood it is true, but two more " pistol fatalities,"
certainly, if the conditions of taking life had been the
same in London as in Chicago, or even in New York-
I have since shaken hands with these two gentlemen
who misunderstood me, and I them ; and between our-
selves I am -ery glad we all three lived in the English
metropolis. This paper is not a psychological study
of passion, nor a confession of private warfare and
buried hatchets. The law is, however, an interesting
theme. Let us pursue it a little further.
It is perhaps as unfair to contrast London with New
York or Chicago as it is to compare authors who are
totally dissimilai*. There are critics who are ever-
lastingly making contrasts between Dickens and Thack-
eray. New York and London, Chicago and London,
may be discussed far more justly as to their points of
contrast than Dickens and Thackeray, or Georges iSand
10
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
I P
and George Eliot. It is a point of information as well
as comparison when one states that, compared with
Chicago or New York, London is a haven of good
roads and sanitary legislation. Our hansom cab is as
much superior to the public conveyance of the United
States as an American hotel clerk is superior to the
London hotel porter. There is hardly a street in
Chicago or New York as well paved and watered as
the commonest thoroughfare in London. The reason for
this, I am told, fs on account of the "jobs " perpetrated
by civic authorities. We in England have officials
who now and then steal, but when we find them out
we imprison them for many years and confiscate
(or return to its rightful owner) their stolen pro-
perty. Most people agree about honesty being the
best policy; but it is a good thing to have pre-
miums for honesty, prisons for thieves, and the gal-
lows for murderers. The higher the position of the
thief in England the more severely he is dealt with.
We used to have a hard law for the poor and an easy
one for the rich. But now we have a sweet law for the
poor and a bitter one for the rich. The rich man is no
longer let off" where tlie poor one would be punished.
The press has altered all this, more particularly the
daily press. Journalists have made so much fuss over
the slightest indication of leniency towards the rich that
magistrates and judges have come to an exaggerative re-
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
11
cognition of the responsibilities of education and wealth
when education and wealth *^ let their angry passions
rise." ** I am sony/' says the magistrate, ^' to see a
person of your means and rank in such a position as
that you now occupy before me ; it is your duty to set
an example to your humbler fellow-citizens ; I shall
therefore make an example of you ; I shall not fine you,
but commit you to jail for six calendar months." If he
had been a poor wretch whom nobody cared about and
whooc case would not be reported in the papers the
verdict and sentence might have been, ^* You are fined
five shillings, in default of payment a week^s imprison-
ment ; call the next case.'
»»
IV.
American houses in the cities are in many cases
better built and more convenient than our own.
There is a singular uniformity in the furnishing of
them. Throughout America one notices an absence ot
individual taste. Dining-rooms and parlours are all
arranged according to one pattern, and the pattern is
far more French than English. If the government
of Washington admitted the art manufactures of
Europe into the United States free of duty, American
houses would in course of time be as well decorated as
English houses. The people would certainly be the
12
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
better for it. Art elevates a nation. There is much
real pleasure to be derived from the possession and
contemplation of good pictures and beautiful forms of
sculpture and pottery ; and if the art tastes of American
cities were cultivated hy the cheapening of paintings,
china, bronzes, bric-a-brac, house decoration would
advance and the tone of society would improve. It is a
painful blank in the generality of American houses, the
absence of pictures, the lack of decorative art This
baldness does not necessarily indicate a want of taste
but the costliness of gratifying it. In the first place
rent is more than double that of England. A house
for which you would pay £100 a year in London would
be £300 in New York. In addition to this the taxes
are high, and when you have paid your taxes you still
have to subscribe to a private fund for the cleansing of
your street and the watching of your premises. Ireland
has annexed the local government of New York, and
the rewards of politicians have to come out of the rates ;
so that the sixty million dollars a year which New York
pays to its local government has many claims to satisfy
besides the mere expenses of city administration. There-
fore, when a man takes a house in New York, unless
he has a very good income he cannot afford to fill his
rooms with works of art. The Customs duties on bric-
a-brac and pictures are rigidly enforced, re-valuations
often being made so as to bring up the duties on the
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
13
original cost in Europe to 100 and 200 per cent. Indeed,
except to the rich the duties are prohibitive. A lady
whom I met at Chicago fought the New York Customs
for nine months over a statue which she bought in Italy,
and in spite of ample evidence as to its cost had to pay
duty on twice its value. The Customs officials as a rule
pay but little attention to invoices. They are sometimes
influenced by bribes and the personal influence of rela-
tives and persons in power. Now and then they try
to vindicate their mouldy reputations by seizing upon
some petty smuggler on board an ocean steamer and
ruining his poor little enterprise of shawls and jewellery.
But as a rule their practice is uncertain, unjust, and a
scandal to a great country. The process of investiga-
tion is an insult to every decent man.
On entering the port you have to sign a declaration
as to your baggage, and to state that you are prepared
to take an oath of the truth of your statement. Then
you are handed over to a set of officers who not only
disregard your declaration entirely but treat you openly
as a liar and a thief. It is in no sense of personal com-
plaint that I place this process of collecting Customs on
record, for I never take into a country duty-paying
goods without declaring them. Smuojgling is a poor
business on a small scale. When 1 enter into that
trade I will do it in the picturesque fashion of the past
on board my own ship, with an adventurous crow, and
14
TO-DAT m AMERICA.
a piratical station of landing. One would have thought
that ^^ the bold smuggler/' as he was wont to be called
a hundred years ago, had died out. I remember being
considerably astonished only two years ago on seeing a
pretty little skiff brought into a creek in the Isle of
Wight) England, with the broad arrow upon it. The
master and his crew had been lodged in prison. They had
for a long time been doing an illicit trade with France,
and had amassed quite a large sum of money. It was
almost a sad picture, the trim little craft, moored to a Go-
vernment buoy, with the rippling waves making music on
her sharp yacht-like bow, while the iron-dad fleet went
steaming by to their anchorage in Southampton water.
The Americans themselves have many grievances
against the Customs administration. The whole spirit
of the regulations is harsh and offensive. Tlie Times
of New York has recently admitted this, and the
editorial explanation is tc» the effect that practically the
service remains as it was at the close of the war.
" Very high duties had been imposed under the stress
of an immediate need, and all evasion, or attempted
evasion, of these was pursued with the most relentless
severity. It was assumed, and not without some justice,
that everybody would escape such duties if possible, and
the energies of the law were directed to making escape
impossible. The duties being not only high but numer-
ous and complicated, the utmost honesty on the part of
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
15
the importer, combined with the utmost vigilance and
intelligence in the service, would not always suffice to
answer exactly the requirements of the law. There
may be much done for the improvement of the adminis-
tration in its details, and particularly in enforcing a
system of appointment and promotion which will render
discipline and efficiency more easily attainable. But
the Custom-house will always remain a source of infinite
annoyance, difficulty, and expense, largely unnecessary
to our merchants so long as the Customs duties them-
selves are unreformed." A special grievance arises
from the fact that you never know from one year to
another upon what principle the Customs officials will
act in regard to what may be considered art tools.
Recently a correspondent, writing to an American
editor, says that in December 1879 an art student
going home after a professional tour in Europe took
home a number of photographs of art studies. They
were admitted free as studio properties, or tools of
trade. In June 1880 other young artists, travelling
by the same line and submitting to the same Customs
officials, were charged 25 per cent, upon the value of
similar tools. This correspondent declares that there is
a movement on foot for making the duties upon works of
art heavier than they are at present. A dozen years ago a
number of American artists agitated for the purpose of
16
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
KmI
putting a duty of a dollar per square inch on oil-paint-
ings. To-day, however, there are many leading artists
and men of taste who are anxious for a total abolition of
taxes in this direction ; and it affords me a certain
amount of personal gratification to reflect that I have
had many opportunities, of which I have always availed
myself, of pointing out the enormous advantage that
would accrue to the United Spates by such a policy.
If the art taste of New York were cultivated by the
cheapening of pottery, and china, and first-class paint-
ings, there would probably grow up a higher feeling
for the stage and for what is great and true in the
drama than exists to-day in that cosmopolitan city.
You cannot cultivate one branch of art without elevating
the appreciation and understanding of another. Progress
in one direction has an extending influence in regard
to other studies. It is the stone cast into the lake that
sends a ripple to the far-off" shore. There is one great
thing to be said in favour of New York. It has never
accepted the immoral class of farcical comedy which
French art has established in London. The high respect
in which American gentlemen hold their women has
shielded society from tlie blistering influences of the
" humour " of the French stage. The censorship in
England is administered with such a politic deference to
the undoubted genius of French dramatic authors, that
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
17
the Lord Chamberlain's sanction for the production ot
a vicious play is regarded as a sort of official endorse-
ment of it, and thus the public and the press consider
themselves relieved of a responsibility which in America
is accepted and exercised far more vigorously than the
censorship of the royal official in London.
From a moral standpoint the New York stage has a
wholesome influence; but artistically it has not ad-
vanced since I made the round of its theatres four or
five years ago. The Variety Show, or as we should say
in London the Music Hall, has taken extensive posses-
sion of the stage. The innovation is akin to the inroad
which opera bouffe made upon theatrical London, to the
detriment of the stage for a generation. The theatre
is not a necessity of English life : it is a necessity in
America. The presence of the city's families, fathers,
mothers, children, is a check upon the prurient satire of
Anglo-French comedy in New York ; but London has
sanctioned so much that is vicious and degrading in this
connection that it would seem as if we are graduall}'
drifting into the unhealthy complaisance of certain
French audiences for whom " The Decameron " in action
would hardly be too outrageous. Still, as I have said
before, the drama in New York, outside this question of
morality, is in a bad state. On my previous visit
comedy, drama, and tragedy occupied the stages of the
leading theatres. The mounting and dressing of the
VOL. I.
18
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
pieces were excellent, the acting admirable, the aadi-
ences large and appreciative. To-day minstrels and
buffoons hold the temples of the drama. The Fifth
Avenue had a variety show the night I visited it ; so
had Haverleys in another locality; the Union Square
was exhibitin^^ opera bouffe, and the other houses were
advertising the lightest kind of entertainment. The
general tendency was towards broad fiin and negro
minstrelsy. Now, one does not object to minstrels,
but they should not leave their own halls. Moore and
Burgess in London and the Sanfranciscos and Haverleys
in New York are pleasant enough in their way and in
their proper places; but one has a right to object to
Haverley's coloured people at Her Majesty's just as one
feels that they have no business to monopolise the Fifth
Avenue in New York. A theatre is the pulpit of the
dramatist — the temple of the play-goer. It must be a
bad thing for New York when Mr. Edwin Booth has
to seek " fresh woods and pastures new," leaving his
beautiful theatre to ^^ Cinderella" (an English panto-
mime out of season); while Mr. Leicester Wallack finds
himself without a managerial policy. " I like your play,"
said Mr. Wallack to a certain intimate friend of mine,
who had read to him a new English drama, '^ it would
suit my company ; it would be a credit to all of us; but
it is too high toned for our market. The public just
now must be amused; you must make them laugh;
THE OLD AND THE NSW.
19
they don^t want strong illustrations of life, examples of
virtue triumphant and vice defeated : they want action,
colour, movement, laughter, and you must send them
away happy. They will not have anything that is
sombre. The condition of the drama is deplorable in
New York at this moment." I asked permission to use
his words, and he willingly accorded it to me. Agreeing
with him as to the present condition of the stage in New
York, I join issue as to his views of managerial duty.
Wallack's should lead and guide public taste, and it would
pay to do so. The public in every country goes to see
whatever is really good, whether it is sombre or merry
The drama in question is a grim story, but it is founded
upon the masterpiece of a master. In Mr. Wallack's
opinion it is a fine dramatic work, the leading part wo3 thy
of Booth, the play a credit to the authors, and one that
would do honour to any stage; yet he cannot produce it,
because just now the public only likes to laugh, because
variety showsare successful, becausedramatic taste in New
York is depraved. Mr. Wallack has done great work in
his time. The name of his theatre is more familiar on the
lips of English people than that of any other house. It is
sad when an artist of his reputation and power has to
admit that professional pride and artistic duty have to stand
in abeyance before a vitiated and degenerate taste. Mr.
Steele Mackaye is a younger and bolder man ; and as there
is no rule without an exception, he establishes the truth
c2
20
TO'DAY IN AMERICA.
of tho old saying. Ho has built a theatro that may well
be called a temple of the drama, and he finds that
the passions of pride and avarice, and the virtues ot
love and faith, are still talismans to move the human
heart and fill the theatrical treasury. Let us hope
this gleam of light in the dramatic darkness of New
York will spread until it illumines the entire art sky.
V.
It is appropriate hero that I should refer to what I
have already mentioned in another publication,* the work
which Mr. Mackaye has done for the United States.
When Londoners first heard of Madison Square Theatre
they treated the story as a well-elaborated joke, a fairy
tale, a sketch of the sort of theatre which might
be found in Utopia. A double stage that has complete
^'sets" built upon it, and when a change of scene is
required moves up into the roof or down into tho
cellar ; an orchestra stationed above the proscenium, out
of sight, which yet plays the incidental music of a
drama with perfect facility ; an auditorium that suggests
a veritable *' temple of art," with an atmosphere that
is hot or cold as the seasons may require ; a manage-
ment that is associated with a semi-clerical directorate
acknowledging tlie power of the stage as a preacher and
* Warne's International Annual.
THB OLD AND THE NEW.
u
a teacher. How could we, tlio cultured and learned of
London, dream of a lesson such as this coming from
New York?
The theatre is a model of ai'chitectural skill and
artistic decoration. It is almost ecclesiastical in its
style. Every seat in it is comfortable ; cushions are
not confined to stalls or boxes ; the lighting is from
lamps let into the walls, so that the heat of the gas
is confined to the passages. The ventilation is perfect.
In summer the atmosphere of the house is cooled
by air pumped into it over many tons of ice. In
winter it is heated with a careful regard to the barometer.
During the acts the attendants hand round to every
auditor who wishes it glasses of ice-water. There is
not a seat in the house from which the stage cannot be
thoroughly seen. The drop curtain is a piece of needle-
work from a design by Louis Tiffany. It is an exquisite
picture of lake, reeds, birds, butterflies, and flowers,
upon which the mind rests with a sense of calm relief.
Between the elaborate sots of the flrst and second acts
the interval is 45 seconds, two minutes between second
and third, eight minutes between third and fourth.
Tliere is a ** ladies* parlour" at the head of the first flight
of stairs. No fees are charged for any attention or ac-
commodation. The front of the stage is lighted by jets
enclosed in glass that gives them the appearance of one
long gleam of light; and a bank of flowers fills the place
^31
ii '
p
f'l
22
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
nsnally occupied by an orchestra in English theatres.
Critics often complain of versatility, yet Mackaye, the
originator of the new theatre which is to revolutionise
stage mechanism, can do everything connected with a
theatre from carpentry to play- writing. He has invented
the new house, written the play which is running there,
and has acted several of the parts in the drama.
" When I have built a second theatre in America —
and I r'i&U build a new house as superior to this as this is
to any other," he said to me, standing on his double
stage, " I would like to go to London and build a house
for Henry Irving." The name of the actor-manager of
the Lyceum Theatre, next to that of Sarah Bernhardt,
is the most frequently mentioned in conversation con-
cerning London players; and, of all English actors,
Mr. Irving is the most written about and discussed in
the American press.
It is a fact favourable rather to the condition of the
English as compared with the American stage that
" Hazel Kirke," which has made an unprecedented run
at Mr. Mackaye^s theatre, is not a high-class work in
any sense. It is inferior to other plays by the same
author, and much of its success may be credited to Mr.
Mackaye's excellent stage management, his judicious
selection of the artists engaged, the mysterious novelty
of the double stage and the prestige of the theatre.
" Hazel Kirke " is a play of " The Willow Copse '*
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
23
class. It is a melodramatic story fairly well told, and
with the old Adolphi ring of noble self-denial and
triumphant virtue. One night, when the author was
called before the curtain on a special occasion and he
was asked for "a speech, a speech," Mr. Mackaye
delivered an eloquent address on the hidden meanings
and moral purpose of his play. To him it was an
allegory as well as a play, on the same principle as
Mr. Herbert's " Judgment of Daniel." There is the
play, and there is the picture. There is enough in
both for story and for entertainment, but underneath
are the allegorical features ; and Mackaye explained
these to his audience as clearly and with as much
point as Mr, Herbert discloses in the decorative works
with which he is frescoing the Hall of Justice at
Westminster. Mackaye's speech was a moral sermon
on art as the handmaiden £ virtue, and it was listened
to with great appreciation by a crowded and intel-
ligent house. The incident suggested to me many
curious reflections. There was a certain unsophisti-
cated air about the whole business, and it carried me
back to boyish days when I could sit at the Adelphi, a
very sad and solemn spectator of the unnecessary trials
of tearful virtue and the demoniacal sufferings of un-
8uccessful vice.
24
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
VI.
iii ifl
That which will strongly impress the English traveller
who goes about with his eyes and ears open in America
is the misrepresentation, alike of English and American
manners and customs in both countries, by gossips and
by writers. I say this with all humility, and hope I
may not have my literary eyes poked out by feminine
pens for adding that it is largely owing to lady writers,
whose brightness and charm of expression give so
much piquancy to their graphic libels on each other.
How is it for example that the American women who
write in English papers exaggerate, in their style and
phrases, those peculiarities which strike the English
people as vulgar, and which put forward as American-
isms are, nevertheless, not characteristic of good society
in the United States ? Recently there have been two
or three American writers of the gentle sex contributing
to weekly papers in London and professing to treat
English subjects from an American point of view. To
make tlie articles stand out as specialities the writers ,
seem anxious to givo them the breadth, not to say the
coarseness, that is to be found in some of the original
corresponaence of Western journals. And yet in each
case the lady stands up, as she ought to do, for her
country, alike in regard to the good taste and beauty
iiii:
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
25
of its women. Let me take one of the best of tliese
American writers, not with a view to be critical but
as an example of the sort of opinions that are held by-
certain classes of American people. The author would
probably say that the vievrs expressed are intended to
be exaggerations. They answer my purpose none the
less on that account. Exaggeration after all only repre-
sents a little extra colour, for which due allowance can
be made. The American critic of English manners
and customs went to Ascot. She is supposed to be an
American lady of position, writing to a dear friend in
Fifth Avenue. Looking into her descriptive letter on
" The Human Race at Ascot " as a mirror of polite
society, the English reader finds that New York ladies
talk in this fashion : " The man who don't own a drag
is a disgrace to his sex, and the woman who don't get
invited on top of a drag is unfit for polite society." —
" When we reached Windsor I screamed with de-
light." — "Bob wished his throat were a mile long
when lunch-time arrived." — " The drags, Ella, lunch
on top of themselves." — " One or two costumes nearly
put my eyes out with their loud colours." — *' I wasn't
gotten up tremendously." — "Next year we've de-
cided to take a house near Ascot for race week, and
then, says Bob, we'll make Rome howl."
The journal in which this appears professes to be in
the highest society, even consorting with royalty, and the
26
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
anonymous American author is supposed to write exactly
as one American young lady would write to another
of her own sex and nationality. Surely this kind of
burlesque is not calculated to heal the social differ-
ences of opinion as to habits and manners which always
crop up between American and English women. It is
certainly not calculated to make London ladies take
kindly to the severe criticisms of another American lady
author who sneers at Englishwomen for growing fat at
forty, and being perpetually on the watch to marry
their daughters to " swells." The truth is both countries
are very much misrepresented by writers on both sides,
the desire to say something clever and amusing over-
coming the duty of being honest and true. It is, for
example, a clever thing to say that " I never saw such
a contrast as that between the occupants of the drags
and the carriages to the left. It was the difference
between thorough-breds and under-breds — a difference
that is nowhere so marked as in England. We have
nothing of the sort. Our second and third-rate people
are presentable. Here they arc hopeless, and this is the
reason why Americans are accused of a fondness for
the aristocracy. They want the best, and find it at the
top."
Whenever I have heard Americans charged with a
fondness for the aristocracy the criticism has generally
come from an American ; and if the critic whom I just
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
«
quoted thinks the aristocracy she meets arc the best
people in England she has not seen Great Britain and
knows nothing of the English people. She cannot have
visited the Northern counties ; she cannot know the
country folk of the West ; she can have had no experi-
ence of the town and country homes of the Midlands.
When she says the second and third-rate people of
England are " hopeless," she has her eyes on a London
snob and her heart in an inaccessible drag. Now, it is
notorious that the aristocrats whom the writer in
question admires, and places above the grand old county
families and the yeomen of England, are by no means
types of which the higher aristocracy are proud ; and
she libels the sovereign people on both sides of the
Atlantic when she flouts at everybody who is not bom
with a title. "If I were English I'd be a duke
with a drag, or die." With all her boast of equality and
freedom, she has eyes for nobody without a title, and
for no incident that is not connected with the upper ten
thousand ; and yet she uses expressions that belong to
the very "thirdest rate" society of New York, while
preaching up American liberty as against English
snobbery. Perhaps all this is done for effect, in the
mere trade interest of her essays. Nevertheless, she
should be reminded that a clever woman, with a pen in
her hand and the liberty of using it in a high-class
28
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
London paper, owes a duty to her sex, to her country,
and to international society.
It has often occurred to me that Americans in London
are apt to grow jealous of each other. I fear they think
it is the thing to be everlastingly in "high society,"
and that their English friends expect it of them.
Nothing of the kind. If English people envy America
one privilege more than another it is that of one man
being joer se as good as another man. The great charm of
America to me is the reality of the. practice of principles
of equality. Americans cannot make a greater mistake
than to fancy that, to create an impression in England,
they must begin by forming the acquaintance of dukes and
duchesses. Now, I do not know who Mrs. , of New
York, is. She went to Guildhall (when General Grant
was entertained there) in a handsome carriage and
pair. She was received by a brace of aldermen in their
scarlet cloaks, and had a seat at the head table among
the civic dignitaries and their guests. A number of
American ladies less conspicuously placed were in-
dignant at the distinguished position occupied by Mrs.
. She had no right to such marked attention.
She was nobody at home. If she had successfully passed
the gate of St. Peter and they had been left out in
the cold they could not hpve put on airs of greater
injury and disgust. This is so much like English
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
29
snobbism that I can only sit and wonder why New
York does not send over to England more really
representative people. Just as the shoddy Englishman
and his family bring England into disgrace on the
Continent of Europe, I suspect America suffers by the
rich nobodies who come here and claim to represent
the distinguishing characteristics of transatlantic life.
Happily every day brings the two countries closer
together ; and as the real people of both hemispheres
meet and begin to understand each other, striking
below the snobbish surface of second-rate London so-
ciety, so will their gradual discovery of the strength and
beauty that lies at the root of national characteristics
foster a mutual respect and esteem.
VII.
In the Anglo-American criticism of English women
already mentioned, of course the old scandals are re-
peated that at forty English women are red and fat, and
their American sisters thin and complexionless. As usual
the Hawthorne libel is quoted, that after reaching a
certain age English women are " beefy." Now, it is
well known that this expression, touched English feeling
somewhat keenly, and that Hawthorne wished he had
not used it, for he liked England, and always felt hered-
itary sympathies towards her. I am reminded of Pro-
80
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
fessor HuxIey^s remarks on this subject at Buffalo wlien
he addressed there the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. He said he had heard of the
degeneration of the original American stock, but during
this visit to the States he had failed to perceive it. He
had studied the aspect of the people in steam-boats, on
the cars, and in the streets. He met with very much
the same kind of faces as those in England, except as to
the men, who shaved more than Englishmen. As to
stature, he thought American men had the best of the
comparison. While he would not use Hawthorne's
words, he said, in respect of the size of American ladies,
he thought the average of fine portly women fully as
great on one side of the Atlantic as on the other. I
agree with the philosopher, and to this extent, that the
retaliatory criticism of " scragginess and falling off at
thirty " is a libel on American ladies. I have seen more
handsome women of forty in America and England than
in any part of the world, and the pretty girls of America
are praised in every English book of travels. As for
** the figure," which some of the American writers in
England say so much about, that is a mystery upon which
I will not venture to enter ; for London vies with New
York in the ingenious manufacture of those ** lines of
beauty" which are advertised as necessary to the
" female form divine." The other day I noticed in a
leading London journal a criticism of a '^ home-thrust
>»
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
31
from a New York paper at an American lady who returns
to her native land with English manners and some artifi-
cialities which her countrymen do not consider an addition
to her natural charms. Among other details of her foreign
education she is charged with showing off her London
pronunciation in " weally " for really, aiid " coals " for
coal. Tlie English writer is angry at this, and says we
do not say " weally" nor " coals." But my friend is
wrong ; we do. And it may be added that this kind of
modification of the language is characteristic of some of
the most pretentious ^Meaders of London society."
" Vewy " for very is considered to be as distingud as
" weally " for really, and the young parson at the
fashionable church in my neighbourhood thinks it im-
pressive to call his congregation ** dearly beloved
bwetheren,^* and to tell them that the ^^ Scwipture
moveth " them ^^ in sundwy places to acknowledge and
confess," <&c. ; not that he is afflicted with an impedi-
ment in his speech, nor with an incompetency to pro-
nounce his r's, but he changes them into w^s from a
belief that he is giving evidence of his familiarity with
society. It is the fashion among this affected class to
say yaaa for yes; and I feel sure that the editorial
writer who loyally retorted upon his brother of the
United States is not unacquainted with the crutch-and-
toothpick phrase " quite too delightfully charming, don't
you know." Not that I would for a moment intimate
82
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
that he would countenance the thin kind of descriptive
elaboration indulged in by a weak and flaccid intellec-
tuality that leans in limp affectation upon a granny's
stick. It must be owned that even outside " the golden
youth" of the period, with its round shoulders and
bloodshot eyes, there is in '* polite society " a maudlin
affectation of pronunciation, and a strange tendency to
drawl, which may well excite the wonder of Americans
and the contempt of all sensible persons. It is akin to
" the Grecian bend " that obtained among English
women for a season, and to the " Piccadilly crawl " of
the jeunesse dorS, which neither Punchy nor Mr. Toole,
nor Miss Farren, nor the burlesque writers who have
inspired the fun of the comic stage, have entirely eradi-
cated to-day.
It was a good thing for the two countries, officially
more perhaps than socially. General Grant's visit to
England. His letter, commenting upon his reception
and praising our English people, gave great satis-
faction throughout the country. It was made the text of
" editorials " in many leading journals, both in London
and the provinces. The General's modesty and the unpre-
tentious way in which he accepted the honours conferred
upon him, not as tributes to his own merits but as ex-
hibitions of friendly sympathy and regard for his
country, impressed all classes with a personal respect
for the man himself. Looking at him while he was
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
33
receiving some marked compliment, you might fairly set
him down to be one of the most unimpressionable of
men ; but he always speaks his few words of thanks
with a genuine earnestness that comes straight from a
heart evidently moved by the best impulses. The
Reform Club's reception was worthy of itself, and not
unworthy of the great nation which the General re-
presents. Lord Granville presided at the House dinner,
and the Right Hon. W. E, Forster, M.P. occupied the
vice-chair. The members present were leaders in poli-
tical life, and in proposing the toast of the evening,
*' The President and People of the United States," Mr.
Forster said that, " in praising the people of America,
he felt that he was complimenting his own countrymen."
This kind of national self-satisfaction ran all through
the public speeches of the time. Some critical Americans
on the other side of the Atlantic, who have not travelled
in England, may regard this plurality of view as ob-
jectionable ; but it was meant in the best sense to be
complimentary. Englishmen are undoubtedly a proud,
if not a conceited race ; but when they say to America,
" We are brothers ; drop the word foreigner ; we are
proud of having you as our brother, we glory in your
greatness and rejoice in your prosperity," they mean all
they say, and their intention is to be genuinely fra-
ternal. I think General Grant felt this as thoroughly as
VOL. I.
D
84
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
tlio press of England exprosacd it. Even tlie American
contemporary of the critic previously quoted uncon-
sciously confessed the genial influence of all this, for in
her latest article on English people and Americans she
touched my own sentiments nearly when she said she had
sometimes thought that the true American gentleman is,
in some respects, the finest specimen of his kind in the
world. '* He has no temptation to be a snob, because
it is part of his creed that there is no social position
anywhere which outranks his own. A certain liberality
is born in him — in so large a country intolerance would
not be at home. He is chivalrous, too ; for chivalry
belongs to the youth of nations, and America is young.
When he loves there is no conflict between his love and
.his pride. He is as proud of his self- surrender as
another man might be of his obstinacy. Generous,
fearless^ unselfish, and cultured, I should say he had
not his peer anywhere, had I not met in England men
worthy to be his brother — good enough, and gentle
enough, and chivalrous enough, to have been born in
America." That is the way to get at the hearts that
beat with responsive manliness on both sides of the
Atlantic. It is the truth, and there is no need to hold
the truth back in an international discussion of men and
manners, and women and sentiment, here or in the
States. And that everlasting wrangle about the two
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
35
methods of speaking the English language, Madame
puts the case with point and spirit :
We have been told always that the love of fair play is inherent in
the English mind; but it is not fair play, or fair judgment, to found
one's conceptions of the American character on the satires of the
'"amatists, or to judge the gentlemen and ladies of a nation by the
•rift-wood which some wave of good fortune often sends to your
shores. I have myself met, in London society, such Americans as I
should never, by any chance, encounter at home — men whose adverbs
and adjectievs had embraced each other till they were in a state of
hopeless confusion, and whose manners were as odions as their neck-ties
were flashy and vulgar. I have seen well-bred English vomen smile on
these men, condoning their vulgarities as American eccentricities,
and quite unaware that they were opening their doors to persons
who no morn belonged to good society at home than they were fitted
for it here. To see men of this sort regarded as specimen Americans,
and to hear one's country judged accordingly, is one of the gad-fly
stings which try the patience and the temper of Americans who know
^•etter.
I commend this to persons, on both sides, who
insist upon taking their representative men and women
from non-representative quarters. Both countries have
enough sins to answer for without invented grievances
and exaggerated blemishes being dragged into the general
account.
VIII.
Among all the graceful tributes to England which
have been published since Washington Irving's time,
nothing more eloquent or touching has appeared than
A Trip to England " by that delightful lyrist and
d2
<<
i''ii
i''*
^1
36
TO-DAY IN AMERICA,
good fellow Mr. William Winter. The volume is made
up from letters contributed to the I^ew York Tribune,
They are issued this year in an edition de luxe, with
illustrations by Mr. Joseph Jefferson, the actor, whose
" Rip Van Winkle " is not more delicate in artistic
finish than are his black and white sketches of London.
In a brief preface to these letters we are told that
" their writer passed ten weeks of the summer of 1877
in England and France, where he met with a great and
surprising kindness, and where ho saw many beautiful
and memorable things," the desire to commemorate which
led to the re-publication of this Tribune correspondence.
The volume needs no apology. The beauties of England
and the sympathetic language that the poet finds in her
gurgling streams, her song-birds, her whispering woods,
and in the echoes of her grey cathedrals and moss-grown
ruins of ancient hall and castle, find a deep and fervent
expression in Mr. Winter's book. As witness —
England contains many places like Windsor ; some that blend, in
even richer amplitado, the elements of quaintness, loveliness, and mag-
nificence. The meaning of them all is, as it seemed to me, the same:
that romance, and beauty, and gentleness are not effete, bat for ever
vital; that their forces aio within our ov,:? souls, and ready and eager
to find their way into all our thoughts, sctions, and circumstances, and
to brighten for every one of us the face of every day; that they ought
rather to be relegated to the distant and the past, not kept for our books
and day-dreams alone; but — in a calmer and higher mood than i»
usual in this age of universal mediocrity, critical scepticism, and mis-
cellaneous tumult — should be permitted to flow out into our architec-
ture, aJ " vnments, and customs, to hallow and preserve our antiquities,
THE OLD AND THE NEW.
37
to soften our manners, to give us tranquillity, patience, and tolerance,
to make our countrj* lovable for our own hearts, and so to enable us to
bequeath it, sure of love and reverence, to succeeding ages.
The sentiment of admiration and respect for old
English ways, for the frank simplicity of country
people, and for the cherished love of home which in-
spires them ; for their quiet restful manners, their vene-
ration for authority, their pious faith in tradition, and
their substantial manliness ; the charm of the nooks and
corners of the upper Thames, the green lanes and hedge-
rows of country places ; the glorious and historic spots,
and the general intellectual movement which the dwell-
ing-places of never-dying greatness had excited in the
American poet's nature : all this was still active in his
mind when I sat with him at the window of his cottage
on Staten Island in the autumn of last, 3'ear looking out
to sea, and fixing our gaze upon the point where all the
great ocean steamers appear coming inwards, and dis-
appear going outwards. Many a ship has been tenderly
watched from that little observatory as it sailed away
to Europe, not one more affectionately than that which
contained Winter's bosom friend Edwin Bootli :
His barque will fade in mist and night
Across the dim sea-line,
And coldly in our aching sight
Th" solemn stare will shine —
All, all in mournful silence, save
For ocean's distant roar —
Heard where the slow, regretful wa^e
Soils on the Inuelv shore.
38
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
No ship ever went out into the great waters carrying
homewards English travellers more sensitively alive to
the generous qualities of the American people than
myself and my fellow voyager, nor more deeply im-
pressed with the splendid destiny that awaits their country
in the future, when, having established their financial
prosperity, Americans begin to think, with the poet, of
the pleasurable duty of those art-adornments of town
and village which help to redeem life from " the
tyranny of common place," to raise a people's aspira-
tions above sordid ambitions, and which hand down to
posterity humanising legacies of poetry and peace.
m
39
II.
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND REPRE-
SENTATIVE CITIES.
The Treatment of Women and Children — " Diamond Cut Diamond" —
Characteristic Phrases — Capping an Extravagance — The Story of
a Braggart. — Freedom and Hope — The Great Cities— Chicago's
Child-like Jealousy of New York — Irish Agitation against
England — The Custom of Ulster — International Criticism —
Studying Repartee — The Garden City — A Wonderful Revival —
The City of the Golden Gate— Post Office Absurdities— Oysters.
I. »
The rule in America is restlessness. The opposite
obtains in England. The old country is, therefore,
peculiarly attractive to many persons who have lived
their lives in America and want r'»°t. The intensity of
life in the cities is especially apparent in Chicago.
All the town seems to be perpetually " on the rush.'
There is a drawbridge that crosses one of the chief
thoroughfares. The traffic is detained while it opens
and shuts. Scores of men leap from the cars and try
to get over while it is moving. Not that they really
facilitate their progress, for they have eventually to wait
for the cars to cross; but they must "get on." It is
as if some demon of motion was behind everybody in
40
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Chicago, there is such a general onward stampede in
the prairie city. But let it be said in their honour that
the men are never in too great a hurry to neglect any
opportunity of bei ig polite to women. And this must
be said generally for the men of the United States.
Their natural gallantry towards the sex, their considera-
tion for women of every class and station, puts to shame
the most polislied nations of Europe. A woman may
travel alone from one end of the States to another, and
every man seems pledged to her safety and comfort.
The fact that she is alone gives her immunity from
insult. In London a pretty girl or a well-dressed
woman cannot walk along any leading thoroughfare
without being insulted by word or look half-a-dozen
times.* The rudeness of men towards women in omni-
1 1
1 1
• " He is not confined to any particular class of society — the cad,
though Clytie rarely encountered but one representative of the great
lying, sneaking, selfish family. You meet the thing which pestered
her most frequently west of Temple Bar. It delights to walk in Bel-
gravia. Regent Street and Piccadilly are its special haunts. The most
despicable form of the cad is the two-legged animal that walks from
the hips, with rounded arms and insolent swagger, and seems devoted
to the amusement of annoying respectable women and girls who find
themselves alone in the West-end streets. Poor Clytie 1 This eye-
glassed, stay-laced creature, called a fashionable man ; this haw-
hawing, blue-eyed nonentity sorely beset her, filling her with fear, and
bringing the tears into her eyes. It is true she had been accustomed to
admiration in Dunelm; but the rude, vulgar, leering stare of the
London " swell " in stays was a new and terrible sensation to her. It
almost frightened her as much as the otter scared Mr. Kingsley's water-
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
41
buses and on railways, and their impertinence to them
in the streets, are a burning disgrace to a nation which
boasts of its manhood, and glories in its advanced
civilization. The women of America do not quite ap-
preciate the deference and respect which they receive
at the hands of their countrymen. They are too apt to
accept special courtesies as a right No wonder many
of them dislike England, where men often give them an
equality of position with themselves, letting them fight
their own way in a crowded railway depot or omnibus
station without the slightest acknowledgment of the
privilege of the stronger sex, which is to be kind and
gentle in the treatment of the weaker. Yet a pretty
American girl once said to me, " I admire an English
husband because he does not let his wife fool him as an
American husband does ; but I wouldn't marry an
Englishman; I should be afraid of him."
II.
Is it not a strange anomaly, this British rudeness to
women going hand in hand with traits of nobility that
have wrung tributes of admiration from foreign critics
innumerable? And is there not a theme worthy of
philosophic consideration in the fact that the New
baby. I wonder honest men with wives and sisters, honest men who
honour their mothers, have not long ago united themselves in a vow to
exterminate this creeping vermin of the streets, which is a blot upon
manhood and a curse to society." — Clytle (1874).
42
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
World, in spite of its toil and drudgery, notwith-
standing the absence of the civilising influences of
ancient hall and castle, so necessary to existence, ac-
cording to Buskin ; that this busy people, clearing
forests, making roads, building up towns and cities, in
the midst of all kinds of vulgar drawbacks, with the
scum of Europe continually pouring in upon them from
all quarters ; is it not an evidence of a capacity for the
very highest civilisation that this people has kept, pure
as gold, its respect for women, and, true as steel, its love
for little children ? Its courtesy to women, its manly
recognition of her weakness, runs into extremes, as
does its generous treatment of children. Women who
agitate for additional "rights" in America are poor
unappreciative creatures who have not studied the lot
of their sisters in other lands. The unwritten laws of
justice to women in America are stronger than all that
has been set down for their protection in the statute"
books of England. Christ's appeal for little children
would seem to have settled deep down into the heart of
every American man. There is, however, such a thing
as " killing with kindness," and there is no impartial
traveller but must see that the indulgences of childish
whims and childish tempers are excessive and injurious.
"Helen's Babies," which tickled the parental fancy in
England, is generally regarded, on this side of the
Atlantic, as a humorous exaggeration. It is not ; they
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
43
are typical American children these little ones of the
Transatlantic author. Fletcher of Saltoun, who wanted
to write the songs of a nation in preference to its laws,
would have included in these days also its anecdotes,
for American stories have a large national influence,
and are eminentlv characteristic. Great homas^e is
paid to the wit of children in American anecdote, and
*' smartness " is the quality in boys which is most
frequently illustrated and dwelt upon. Take, for ex-
ample, a story I heard, among other good things, over
a pleasant American dinner-table :
A Detroit grocer was hungrily waiting for his clerk
to return from dinner that he too might partake of his
own noon-day meal, when a boy came into the store
with a basket in his hand and said :
" I seed a boy grab up this 'ere basket from the door
and run, and I run after him and made him give it up.'*
" My lad, you are an honest boy."
" Yes, Sir."
" And you look like a good boy."
" Yes, Sir."
" And good boys should always be encouraged. In
a box in the back room there are eight dozen eggs.
You may take them home to your mother and keep the
basket."
The grocer had been saving these eggs for days and
weeks to reward some one. In rewarding a good boy
44
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
he also got eight dozen bad eggs carried out of the
neighbourhood free of cost, and he chuckled as he
walked homeward.
The afternoon waned, night came and went, and once
more the grocer went to his dinner. When he re-
turned his face wore a contented and complacent smile.
His eye caught a basket of eight dozen eggs as he
entered the store, and he queried :
*' Been buying some eggs ?"
" Yes ; got hold of those from a farmer's boy,"
replied the clerk.
*' A lame boy with a blue cap on ? "
•' Yes."
^' Two front teeth out ? "
" Yes."
The grocer sat down and examined the eggs. The
shells had been washed clean, but they were the same
eggs which the good boy had " lugged " home the day
before.
III.
Just as the anecdotes of the people are full of illus-
trations of their patience with children and their ad-
miration of the awakening intellect of boyhood, so is the
bent of their thought and occupation evidenced in the
popular phrases and metaphors of the time. Their similes
are mostly taken from the practices of trade, the slang
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
46
of the showman, and the shibboleths of religion.
" Who is bossing this business? " " Who is running
this show?" "Who is engineering this thing?" In
England the military and naval spirit of the people
would give us as equivalents for these phrases, *' Who
is in command here ? " '* Who is the captain of this
ship?" "Who is the chief in this aflFair?" The
speculative habits of the people give us in the political
oratory of the country such well-understood remarks as
" I don't take any stock in it," while the game of poker
furnishes many illustrative phrases that help to point
morals and adorn tales. " Bluffing " has no end of
hidden meaning for a crowd. Negro-minstrelsy enter-
tainers well know its value. " You don't play that on
me" is the repartee for any attempt at cosenage or
practical joking. , When a man tells a humorous story
he is said to have " got ofFa good thing " ; when he dies
he " passes in his checks." There is less respect for
human life in America than in England. Innumerable
stories testify to this ; and the humorous history of two
strangers, each having murdered the other's relative,
may be taken as an illustration in point, with this ad-
vantage, that it is an example of the common and ready
habit of " capping " an extravagant statement, which
is quite a speciality of American humour. The two
strangers in question were toasting their shins on
opposite sides of a big stove in a ferry waiting-room,
46
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
and it was noticed that they oflen looked at each other,
as if almost certain that they had met before. Finally
one of them got up and said :
'* Stranger, I've seen a face almost like yours. Did
you ever have a brother Bill ? "
" Yes."
" Was he a sailor?"
" He was."
*' Did you hear of him last about ten years ago ? "
" Yes, just about ten years ago."
" Sti'anger," continued the first, seemingly greatly
affected, " I've sailed with your brother Bill. We
were wrecked together on the Pacific, and before help
came I had to kill and eat him ! I knew you must be
related. I'm awful sorry it was your brother, and,
though I was driven to it, and the law can't touch me,
I'm willing to pay you damages. Be kinder fair with
me, for Bill was old and tough. About how much do
you think is fair ? "
The other wiped a tear from his eye, expectorated
across the stove, and replied :
" Stranger, where is your dad ? "
" Been dead these twelve years."
" Died in Nevada, didn't he ? "
" Yes, out there somewhere."
" Well, I killed him I I knew you were his son the
minute I saw you. He and I were in a mine one day,
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AJJD CITIES.
47
and as we were going up in a bucket I saw that the old
rope was going to break under the strain. When we
were up about 200 feet, I picked up your old dad and
dropped him over. It was bad on him, but it saved me.
Now you ate my brother Bill, and I murdered your
dad, and I guess we had better call it even, and shake
to see who pays for the drinks."
They shook, and drank, while ^' the old lake captains
who could not tell a lie had to sit back and realise how
sad it was that they were born with such tender
consciences."
The love of fun, written, spoken, acted, is a powerful
factor in American life, and the entire press of the
Bepublic administer to it. But there are journals
which are especially devoted to the invention and nar-
ration of amusing stories and quaint conceits. TJie
Detroit Free Press, the Burlington Hawket/e, and the
Danhury News, are foremost among these papers ; and
it is suggestive of the direction in which popular
thought and action run that their stories deal largely
with religious cant, with card-sharping, with trade
swindles, clever boys, and objectionable mothers-in-law.
They frequently hit very hard a national vice, a time-
serving politician, or a social abuse ; and their satire
is never more telling than when it strikes a sham or a
braggart. I do not know at the moment who is the
author of the following story. It is worthy of Mark
48
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
III, i
\\i\ '<
Twain. I found it in a local newspaper that was
smuggled into the cars by a smart newsboy at a little
town between Now York and Pittsburg. " I aint
no right to be here, and V\\ have to make tracks you
bet if the conductor comes along," he said, '^ but I cant
sell none outside, won't you take one ? " I did, and, as
in most other cases of local newspapers, I found the
facetiae columns the most prominent. In the earliest
English provincial newspapers you find first and fore-
most foreign news and dispatches from the seat of
European wars. In the pioneer sheets of new Ame-
rican towns the leading features are funny anecdotes,
strange romances, and sanguinary tragedies. *' The
First Man " is the title of the story which offers one of
the best satirical examples of brag which I came across
in my miscellaneous reading on the cars travelling West.
Some repairs were needed to the engine when a certain
railway train reached Reno, and, while the passengers
were taking a philosophical view of the delay and making
themselves as comfortable as possible in the waiting
room, in walked a native. He was not a native Indian,
nor a native grizzly, but a native Nevadian, and he was
"rigged" out in imperial style. He wore a bearskin
coat and cap, buckskin leggings and mocassins, and in
his belt was a big knife and two revolvers. There was
Hght*iir.g in his eye, destruction in his walk, and as he
sauntered up to the red-hot stove, and " scattered tobacco
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITB AND CITIE8.
49
juice" over it, a dozen passengers looked pale with fear.
Among the travellers was a car painter from Jersey
City, and after surveying the native for a moment he
coolly inquired :
" Aren't you afraid you'll fall down and hurt your-
self with those weapons ? "
" W — what I " gasped the native.
" I suppose they sell such outfits as youVo got
on at auction out here, don't they?" continued the
painter.
" W — what d'ye mean — who ar' ye ? " whispered
the native as he walked around the stove and put on a
terrible look.
" My name is Logwood," was the calm reply, ** and
I mean that, if I were you, I'd crawl out of those old
duds, and put on some decent clothes I "
" Don't talk that way to me, or you won't live a
minit! " exclaimed the native as he " hopped around."
" Why, you homesick coyote, I'm Grizzly Dan, the
heaviest Indian fighter in the world ! I was the first
white man in the Black Hills ! I was the first white
man among the Modocs I "
" I don't believe it ! " flatly replied the painter.
'mi ok more like the first white man down to the
able ! "
Tl native drew his knife, put it back again, glared
around, and then asked :
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Ri! !
" Stranger, will ye come over behind the ridge and
shoot and slash till this thing is settled ? "
" You bet I will I " replied the man from Jersey, as
he rose up. *• Just pace right out and I'll follow I "
Every man in the room jumped to his feet in wild
excitement. The native started for the back door, but
when he found the car painter at his heels, with a six-
barrelled Colt in his hand, he halted and said :
" Friend, come to think of it, I don't want to kill
you and have your widow come on me for damages."
" Go right ahead — I'm not a married man I " re-
plied the painter.
" But you've got relatives, and I don't want no law-
suits to bother me just as spring is coming."
" I'm an orphan, without a relative in the world I "
shouted the Jerseyite.
'• Well, the law will bury you, but it would be a
week's work to dig a grave at this season of the
year. I think I'll bi'eak a rib or two for you, smash
your nose, gouge out your left eye, and let it go at
that!"
" That suits mo to a dot ! " said the painter. " Gen-
tlemen, please stand back, and some of you shut tho
door of the ladies' room I "
" I was the first man to attack a grizzly bear with
the bowie knife," remarked the native as he looked
around. " I was the first man to discover silver in
j i
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
51
Nevada. I made the first scout up Powder river. I
was the first man to make hunting shirts out of the
skins of Pawnee Indians. I don't want to hurt this
man, as he seems kinder sad and downhearted, but he
must apologize to me."
** I won't do it I " cried the painter.
" Gentlemen, I never fight without taking off my
coat, and I don't see any nail to hang it on," said the
native.
" ril hold it — I'll hold it ! " shouted a dozen voices
in chorus.
" And another thing," softly continued the native,
" I never fight in a hot room. I used to do it years
ago, but I found it was running me into a consump-
tion. I always do my fighting out doors now."
** I'll go out with you, you old rabbit-killer ! " ex-
claimed the painter, who had his coat off.
" That's another deadly insult, to be wiped out in
blood, and I see I must finish you. I never fight
around a depot though. I go out on the prairie, where
there is a chance to throw myself."
" Where's your prairie, lead the way ! " howled the
crowd.
" It wouldn't do you any good," replied the native,
as he leaned against the wall. ** I always hold a ten-
dollar gold piece in my mouth when I fight, and I
haven't got one to-day, — in fact dead broke."
E 2
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1:
;-y2 TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
*' Here's a gold piece ! " called a tall man, holding
the metal.
" I'm a thousand times obleeged," mournfully replied
the native, shaking his head. " I never go into a fight
without putting red paint on my left ear for luck ; and
I haven't any red paint by me, and there isn't a bit in
Reno."
** Are — you — going — to — fight ? " demanded the car-
painter, reaching out for the bear-skin cap.
'* I took a solemn oath when a boy never to fight
without painting my left ear," protested the Indian
killer. ** You wouldn't want me to go back on my
solemn oath, would you ? "
" You're a cabbage, a squash, a pumpkin dressed up
in leggings ! " contemptuously remarked the car painter,
putting on his coat.
" Yes, he's a great coward," remarked several others,
as they turned away.
" I'll give ten thousand dollars for ten drops of red
paint! " shrieked the native. " Oh ! why is it that I have
no red paint for my ear when there is such a chance to
go in and kill ? "
A big blacksmith from Illinois took him by the nock
and " run him out," and he was seen ro more for an
hour. Just before the train started, and after all the
passengers had taken their seats, the " first man " re-
appeared on the platform. He had another bowie knife
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
53
In his belt, and in his right hand he flourished a toma-
hawk. There was red paint on his left ear, his eyes
rolled; and in a terrible voice he called out :
" Where is that man Logwood ? Let him come out •
here and meet his doom ! "
" Is that you ? Count me in ! '* replied the car-
painter, as he opened a window. He rushed for the
door, leaped down, and was pulling off his overcoat
again, when the native began to retreat, calling out :
" I'll get my hair cut and be back here in seventeen
seconds. I never fight with long hair. I promised
my dying mother I wouldn't do it ! "
When the train rolled away he was seen flourish-
ing his tomahawk around his head in the wildest
manner.
One night, when Mr. H. L. Bateman was entertaining
Mark Twain at his hospitable little house at Kensington,
an eminent tragedian told the company a humorous
story. It was so good that I suggested to the American
author that he should make a note of it as a specimen
of English wit. He smiled blandly, took out a pocket-
book, and did so. The next day I discovered the anec-
dote in one of Twain's own books. If the gentle and
indulgent reader should have a similar experience in
regard to the above, I hope it may not take the edge off
the excellence of the satire. It is a good wholesome
trait of Anibt^ica, as well as of England, that the ))eopIe
54
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
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know and recognise their own failings and shortcomings.
American weaknesses are nowhere more sharply criti-
cised and burlesqued than in America. Nobody is so
severe on the follies and misdeeds of Great Britain as
the English themselves.
IV.
American cities are very much alike in their ground-
plp.iis, architecture, and furniture. They have all a
similar aspect or physiognomical likeness ; though they
have specialities in the way of distinctive streets and
individual buildings. They strike an English traveller
as new. The stores and houses all seem characteristic
of the push and go of the people. There is a wonderful
accessibility about them. Nothing is fenced in. Sub-
urban villas have their gardens, where there are any,
practically open to the road. Barriers of all kinds are
regarded as an offence. You can '^ walk right in " and
" interview " anybody in America, from the President
downwards. " Not at home " and " engaged " do not
belong to the white-lying vocabulary of the United
States. " Go right in " is the invitation you receive
on the threshold of every bureau or office where you
have business, and there is nothing more agreeable to a
stranger than this fi*eedom of intercourse anc he frank-
ness of business men. There is nothing like it in
London, where honest men fret their hearts out trying
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
55
to get at the heads of departments in the pursuit of
their calling. It is an old story in England, the heart-
less obstructions placed in the path of young inventors,
authors, and others, seeking for recognition. In America
anybody, everybody, is considered entitled to a hearing.
** Why do we get a'ong so well in this great estab-
lishment, and how is it every man and boy about the
place looks so eariisst and so hopeful ?" asked the chief
of a remarkable New York institution, repeating my
question, " because every boy and man in the place
knows that he has a clear prospect of advancement. If
the lad who sweeps the office comes to me to-morrow
morning and says * Sir, I think I have discovered a plan
whereby you can save an hour or a dollar in a par-
ticular operation' I should listen to him with respect
and attention. In your country I am told he would
very likely be kicked out of the place for his imperti-
nence." He had struck the true cause of much of the
hopelessness of the prevailing toil among the English
masses.
New York is the most cosmonolitan of the American
cities. Boston claims to be the Athens of the United
States. Washington, the seat of Government, is stately
and diplomatic. Philadelphia is the Manchester and
Liverpool of America. Chicago has given itself several
romantic and flattering titles, including " the Garden
City," <' the Prairie City," and " the Phoenix City,"
56
TODAY IN AMERICA.
San Francisco is the commercial metropolis of Cali-
fornia. It is the Golden Gate of Wonderland. New
York is something like Paris with a touch of the
backwoods, the latter represented by gaunt untrimmed
telegraph poles, the former by Madison Square, Union
Square, and Fifth Avenue. Philadelphia suggests the
Quaker element of Sunderland and Darlin^n under
the pressure of a great industrial destiny. Washington
is Washington. If you want to study the curious
ways and manners of the office-seeker and the depth
of ignominy in which he is content to wallow to live,
go and spend a few months in "the city of magni-
ficent distances." At the same time you will find
Washington a lively city, especially during the sitting
of the national parliament. Unchecked by the conven-
tionalism of the capitals of the old world, you will be
delighted or disappointed, according to the nature of
your moral constitution, by the freedom of Washington
society. Chicago continually calls to mind the simile of
the phoenix rising from the ashes, but instead of that clean
smug bird of the insurance placards it is a bird that has
been mauled somewhat under the efforts of the fire-
men to keep the ashes from smouldering. The Chicago
bird finds its pinions wet and muddy as yet under the
struggle of adverse fire and water, but it will rise aloft
one day, and its perch should be the top of one of those
wonderful ladders which the stalwart firemen run out and
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
57
climb before you can fairly consult your stop-watch and
time the operation. The picturesque has not yet spread
the charm of its gentle spirit over American cities ; but
it is moving on the face of things in San Francisco, where
the despised Chinamen and miners from all the nations
of the world lend their dress and gait to the car-bustle
of the streets and the boot-blacks "on the comer" in a
miscellaneous contrast of form and colour. They are
all busy cities, each jealous of the other. There is almost
a childish simplicity in the way in which Chicago dis-
counts the pretensions of all her rivals. " New York I"
exclaimed a prominent citizen when I remarked that
Chicago might some day be as fine a city as New York.
" We don't compare ourselves with New York, we con-
sider we are ahead of them anyhow. There is only one
city we stand in competition with and that is your
London." I said the ambition to rival London was
laudable but perhaps a little wild. He did not think so ;
not that he had ever seen London. Had it as fine a
street as State Street? Did it have as many main
tracks of railway run through it ? Had it as good a fire
service ? Had it as many telephones at work ? These
and a hundred other questions he asked me, firing them
off with marvellous volubility. It pleased him greatly
to learn that I considered the fire brigade system of
Chicago was ahead of the whole world. New York
included, and that I had never seen anything like its
58 .
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
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telephonic arrangements. With regard to London there
is this to be said, that there is nothing to be said. A
Londoner never feels called upon to brag about London.
An Englishman as a rule is generally found criticising
it adversely ; but with a certain amount of unconscious
pride in its greatness and its power. New York is the
second or third largest German city in the world, and it
has a larger Irish population than Dublin.
Whatever latent ill-feeling may still exist in America
against England is fanned and kept alive by the Lnsh.
" I train up my sons," said an L*ish American to me
on a New York ferry boat, " to handle a rifle, and with
one eternal vow on their lips to use it one day in the
invasion of England."
" And do you think that day will ever come ? "
" As surely as the righteous shall find their reward
in heaven!"
" Were you bom in Ireland ? "
** No, I saw daylight first in New York."
" You have never been to England ? "
" No, nor to Ireland ; but I live in the blessed hope
of seeing both."
" On that day when you invade the Saxon land ? "
*• If I don't live to see it my boys will ; but the time
is nearer than you think."
" Do vou know that there are thousands of educated
and patriotic Irishmen who regard such men as you as
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
59
the curse of their country, and that they believe England
is anxious and willing to do all she can to content Ire-
land, and make her prosperous ? "
" Do I believe that the leopard can change its spots ?
I tell you, Sir, that England is a tyrant, and that
she has ground an iron heel on the neck of my country
from the first day she got power over us till this very
day ; and that she is a .'*
I cannot print the epithets he applied to England.
When I told him that Irishmen had no disabilities
under the law, and that they filled many of the chief
offices of government and the bench, that they held
distinguished positions in London, on the press, at the
bar, in art and in literature, he ascribed their advance-
ment to English ignorance which failed in competition
with Irish ability, and he would not allow one single
redeeming quality to the men or women of England.
He was not an exceptional person among the Irish in
America. They are actively at work against England,
individually and collectively. They subscribe funds in
support of all kinds of seditious organisations. The
lower classes in the United States believe that there are
Irish armies ready to " march on London," just as the
peasants of Sligo and Connaught imagine that America
is getting troops ready to send to their aid. It is to be
feared that much of this invasion fever is kept up by
unscrupulous agents in the interest of the various funds
60
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
that are collected for the work of " breaking the Saxon
yoke." Far be it from my intention to slight the
honest efforts of earnest Irishmen for the advancement
of their country. I am not going to defend the mis-
rule of the past nor the feeble efforts of the present,
but the idea sought to be propagated in America that
the English nation does not sympathise with distressed
Ireland, that we are not anxious to help her, that we
are not ready to do her justice, that we have no feeling
for her woes, and that we are a set of self-seeking
tyrants, is nonsense too absurd for serious consideration
were it not proclaimed every day in earnest among the
Irish in America, and printed in their journals for
general circulation.
V.
I talked to many Irishmen upon what is called the
Irish Question, and found generally that they are only
conversant with the wrongs their forefathers had suf-
fered, and that these are greatly exaggerated. The
same fault exists on both sides of the Atlantic. If
instead of posing as cheap martyrs Mr. Parnell and his
party (an insignificant minority even among the Irish
members — 35 to 105) had kept clearly before England
the grievances of the Irish tenant and the remedies
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AKD CITIES.
61
necessary for his contentment, they would have done
a great and useful work. I am not prepared to say
that their action does not possess a substratum of utility.
Their follies even have helped to induce people to study
the Irish Question, and one might, therefore, have for-
given them if in their zeal for Ireland they had not
forced the British Parliament to hamper the privileges
of debate with such checks and limitations as to destroy
that splendid margin of liberty for speech and action
which has been its boast and pride for centuries.
It is not generally understood on either side what
are the demands of those Irish tenants who ask for the
Ulster Custom; and the ingratitude of the so-called
Irish party towards Mr. Gladstone is singularly illus-
trative of the difficulties that obstruct the path of any
Minister who strives to solve what is called the Irish
Land Question. Mr. Gladstone is the only Minister
since the Union who has really approached the point at
which Ireland is to be satisfied. He disestablished the
Protestant Church. That was a great concession, but
like Catholic Emancipation it still left the Irish tenant
at the mercy of the landlord. Thereupon Mr. Gladstone
gave them a Land Act, which swept away the grievance
of having to get the consent of a " Commissioner of
Improvements " for new works on his farm in order to
recover compensation on eviction. It settled for ever
the question of " prospective" and " retrospective " im-
6S
TO-DAY IN AMElilCA.
«
rl I
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provomonts. It gave the tenant free and unfettered
property rights in his improvements. In seventy years
not so much had been done. ' It made evictions difficult
and dear ; " but," as Mr. O'Brien in his recent work
on the land question says,* ^^ the Act was curative rather
than preventive. It lefl the landlord in possession of
the old powers, which he often abused, but at the same
time provided means, not previously in existence, of
fining him when he did wrong." But the penalties
seem to have fallen as lightly upon tliem, and by raising
rents on improved property they have been enabled to
recoup themselves for the fines they have had to pay on
evictions ; while, on the other hand, the tenants have
not been properly compensated. They have been obliged
to go to law to get their money, and litigation has been
made for tliem tedious and expensive. There are many
instances of persecution by small landlords and needy
proprietors in the records of the law courts, while the
rich owners can ** worry" to any extent an evicted te-
nant suing for compeiisation. This ought not to be, and
what the tenant claims to-day, and what he has always
felt to be his due, is that ^^ the rights of possession "
shall be as sacred as " the rights of property." He
maintains that he has as much right to deal with '^ pos-
session " as the landlord has with " property," and tha^
* T/w Parliavuintary Ilutory of the Irish Land Question. By
R. Barry O'Brien. London, 1880.
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITB AKD C1T1E8.
63
paying a fuir rent settled on a fair basis he ought to be
as free and fixed in his rights as the landlord is in his,
and that when a spiteful or greedy owner disturbs him
in his tenancy he should have legal power to dispose of
the possession without interference from the landlord.
This is undoubtedly the tenant's view, and it has, at
least, the merit of being clear and distinct, though I have
failed to gather that this is the Irish " platform " from
the speeches of Irish members. It is not for me to say
whether the Irish tenant is right or wrong. John Stuart
Mill said he was right ** The Irish circumstances and
the Irish ideas as to social and agricultural economy,'*
he said, ^* are the general ideas and circumstances of tlie
human race. It is the English ideas and circumstances
that are peculiar. Ireland is in the main stream of
human existence and human feeling and human opinion.
It is England that is in one of the lateral channels."
Whether their ideas are right or wrong, Mr. O'Brien
says ^^ the Irish peasantry have held them for 300 years,
and the fact of their existence must be recognised and
dealt with. For 300 years the English Government
have stood by and championed the landlords, and what
has been the result ? The estrangement and disaffection
of a people whose 'foible,' to use the language of
Swift, * is loyalty.' "
It has been said over and over again that the general
adoption of the Custom of Ulster would give Ireland all
64
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
',! I
she asks for, and to-day it is argued by the one practical
Irishman who has written upon the subject, that every-
thing required to secure " the sacred rights of posses-
sion " can be maintained under the Ulster law. He is
very explicit on the point. " In Ulster," he says,
" * sacred rights ' of possession are acknowledged, and
* sacred rights ' of property remain inviolate." Then,
in heaven's name, one naturally asks, what objection
can there be to enacting in Leinster, Munster, and
Connaught laws which are found to work well and to
give peace and prosperit} to Ulster ? Let us, with Mr.
O'Brien, study this lesson of Ulster. Some three hun-
dred years ago there was a land question in the North
oC Ireland a? there is to-day in the South. The old one
was very much like this new one. On the acce>Sfiion
of James L regular tenure ot land in Ireland was
unknown, and the more industrious the tenant the
more likely he was to bo turned out of his holding
that it might be let through his improvements for
more money. So that, just as uncertainty of tt^nure
was the evil to be remedied in Ulster in 1603, so is that
the question to-day in those parts of Ireland where the
Ulster custom is not acknowledged. Elizabeth left
Ireland in '* barbarism and desolation." James tried
to " reclaim" the country. James sent Sir John Davis
and Sir Arthur Chichester to do the necessary work,
Sir Arthur as the Ambassador, Sir John as his secretary.
The province of Ulster they found was " the most rude
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
65
^^
ft
d
is
and unreformed." Here the " tenancies-at-will" system
existed. They thought it a bad system, chiefly because
it worked ill against England by enabling the great
landed chiefs to raise multitudes of troops, while in
Ireland great territorial lords could not do this so
easily, because their tenants had rights in their holdings
and would not hazard the loss of their sheep and corn,
and '^ the undoing of themselves, for tlie best liuidlord
in England." At the same time the two English
Ministers saw that a good honest Tenancy Act would
pacify Ulster, and Sir John's first dispatch to England
concluded with a iiope that in the next Parliament an
Act would be passed enjoining " every great lord to
make such certain durable estates to his tenants which
would be good for themselves, good for their tenants,
and good for the Commonwealth." Tyrone's fli^t, and
the wholesale confiscations of land that followed, afforded
Chichester and Davis good opportunity for commencing
their work " of plantation." Tliey were quick and
shrewd in accepting it. A royal proclamation was
issued, assuring the tenants of the fugitive earls tliat
they should not be disturbed in their peacetible pos-
session " so long as they demeaned themselves as dutiful
subjects." The Receiver appointe*i to get in the rents
of the exiled earls was instructed to make it appear
that the King would bo a more gracious landlord than
Tyrone. Then followed Chichester'is proposal to estab-
VOL. I. .#
66
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
lish colonies of Scotch and English as well as Irish
people, and its sufficient endorsement by the Privy-
Council to enable Chichester to push on with his
work. His chief instructions were to settle the
natives in large proportions on the lands, and to
diminish the power of the landlords, to cut down
large estates, and to establish an independent body of
small freeholders. Despite the comfortable way in which
he was allowed to begin his work, Chichester had many
difficulties to contend with owing to an active party who
opposed him at home, "the party of extermination,"
who favoured the Elizabethan habit of "the strong
arm." The Southern landlords applied for grants in
the North. They were rigorously opposed by Chichester,
who knew that their conduct in the South had not
tended much in the direction of pacification. Only one
great English lord succeeded in getting a grant to
"plant" and "reclaim" in the North. This was Lord
Say; but the Scottish lords received krge gifts, in-
cluding Lord Ochiltre, 3,000 acres in Tyrone; Earl
Abercorn, 3,000 ; Duke of Lennox, 3,000 ; and Lord
Minto, 1,000 in Donegal. There were many other
grants to Scotch noblemen. Their representatives soon
arrived, and the business of allotment was commenced.
Faith was not kept with the natives. Chichester com-
plained bitterly of this in his despatches to the Govern-
ment. He brought about a compromise to this extent,
that the settlement on the soil should consist of a mixture
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
67
m
In-
k
VC
of Irish, English, and Scotch, modified by the imported
conditions that the English and Scotch should have the
"fat" lands, and the Irish the "lean." The total
number of acres settled was 511,465: of these the
English and Scotch had 209,000, and 110,330 were
granted to servitors and natives. Reservations were
made for schools and for the clergy. The average
number of acres hold by each person was between 1 ,000
and 2,000. Queen Elizabeth's grants in Munster were
enormous compared to James's in Ulster. For example,
she gave Sir Christopher Hatton 10,000 acres. Sir
Walter Raleigh 13,000, Sir W. Herbert Kerry 24,000,
and several other lords 10,000 and 11,000 each. " The
economical grants of James I. in Ulster," says Mr.
O'Brien, " were productive of results as beneficial to
Ulster as the extravagant grants of Elizabeth had been
productive of results injurious to Munster." The latter
led to absenteeism, the former to a resident proprietary.
The Ulster landlords staid at home in Ireland and
attended to their affairs. Chichester knew that a con-
tented tenantry was the secret of a successful establish-
ment of a contented landocracy, and with Sir John
Davis ho took special care " to settle an<l secure the
under-tenants." He induced tlio Privy Council to insert
in every grant to the huullords a condition binding
them, under pain of forfeiture, to make " certain estates
to their tenants ai certain rents." Tcnancies-at-will
f2
J
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11
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ll-DA.Y IN AMERICA.
were prohibited, and "fixity of tenure" made law.
This was effected three centuries ago, and out of the
wise and able work of Chichester comes the existing
Custom of Ulster, which is something more than fixitj
of tenure.
It would seem that, wiiatever they may be to-day, the
early landlords of Ireland under English rule were, in
a large majority of cases, overbearing and dishonwst to
their tenants. Their bad conduct, however, in Ulster,
helped to strengthen the position of the tenant and to
give him to-day those " rights " of possession which we
are told by authorities are all the present agitating
tenants require.
When the new owners were planted in full pos-
session under James, they began to break their agree-
ments, and in 1618 Captain Pynnar, who had the
full confidence of the Crown, was dispatched to
Ulster to inquire into the state of things, and re-
port. He found that the landlords, generally, had not
kept faith with the tenants, and that as a consequence
the tenants, both English and Irish, were neglecting to
properly cultivate the soil, " neither plowing nor using
husbandr}'^ nor tillage, because they are uncertain of
their stay. The British who have built houses at their
own charge have no estates, which is such a discourage-
ment that they are minded to depart." And, in fact,
many of tlie British did depart They were more oi
REPnESENVATlVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
69
" home birds *' than the Scotch. The Irish had no-
where else to go. The farms of the British mostly fell
into the hands of the Scotch, though some were secured
by the Irish, and out of the changes thus brought about
came the sales of " good-will " from one tenant to
another, which has resulted in the " rights of possession "
feature of " the Custom of Ulster ** as it now exists.
The English were glad to go home, and evidently con-
tented to make enough money out of the Scotch or
Irish (by handing over their tenancies) to pay their ex-
penses back to their native land. Thus, no doubt, was
originated and perpetuated the pract'ee of one tenant
taking the land of another and paying a certain sum for
tho " good-will " of his holding, just as one pays a man
for the "good-will" of his business or store. After
long years tlie landlords attempted to upset this " tenant
right," but the custom was too well established to be
overthrown, and no English Government was found
willing to back up the landlord, and as a consequence
there have been no insurrection acts nor martial law
necessary to keep the p^ace in Ulster. Mr. O'Brien
describes the existing law as follows:
" The Ulster custom in its present form may be said
to consist of two main features :
" 1. Permissive fixity of tenure.
" 2. The tenant's right to sell tho good-will of his
farm.
70
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
i
I
t
I'
" With respect to the first, Judge Longfield says: * If
is expected that as long as the tenant paj's his rent the
landlord will not use his legal powers to put an end to
the tenancy.'
" With respect to the second, the same learned autho-
rity adds : * If a tenant finds it necessary or convenient
to leave his farm he may sell his tenant right, with the
approbation of the landlord. This approbation is not to
be capriciously refused, but, on the other hand, the
tenant is not at liberty to select any substitute that he
thinks proper, irrespective of his character and posses-
sion of sufficient means for the efficient cultivation of
the land.' "
Lord Dufferin once said that in many parts of the
North, under the Ulster custom, the tenant's saleable
interest in his farm frequently fetched a sum conside-
rably beyond the price of the landlord's fee simple of it.
But, of course, the tenant had put <yapital and labour
into the farm. There are rarely any difficulties arising
between landlord and tenant, and if cases come into
courts of law they are quickly disposed of. No expense
of conveyancing or '* law " attends the transfer of a
farm. The landlord erases the name of the old tenant
and accepts the new, and the transaction is complete.
The system works admirably, it cannot be denied. Tliere
are clouds of witnesses to it; but there is no better
evidence than the prosperity of Ulster and tl^e misery
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
71
and disturbances which are chronic outside the pale of
"the Custom of Ulster."*
Mr. Parnell has not committed himself or his faction
to any scheme of pacification. This is where he is
wrong. This is where he and his party lay themselves
open to suspicion. It is thought they only wish to take
what they can get under protest that whatever it is
it is not enough ; thus leaving room for continuing
their agitation. Parnell has, however, gone so far as to
say that a peasant proprietary ought to be established as
one of the changes to come, and he has suggested that
this should be achieved by tenants being allowed to
extinguish the rent and become proprietors of their
lioldings on the payment for thirty-five years of a
Government valuation rent. This is a method of ex-
propriating the landlord which Mr. Parnell thinks wise,
moral, and just. Mr. John Bright, on the other hand,
would have the State advance to the tenant two-thirds
of the purchase-money of his farm on easy conditions of
repayment where the landlord is willing to sell and the
* Since this chapter was written Mr. Gladstone lias brought in his
Land Bill. The first part of it is a complicated adaptation of the
Custom of Ulster ; the second part is an attempt to raise up a j)f asant
proprietary on a compromise of terms between the two plans sugjiested
by Mr. Parnell and Mr. Bright. Neither the Bill nor the debates
thereon detract from the interest of this description of the Ulster
Custom. I am inclined to think they enhance its value as a contri-
bation to the history of a " burning question."
'' i
I i
!i '.
I I
72
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
tenant is anxious to buy. Tlie Landed Estates Court,
it was thought, would, to some extent, carry out this
idea, but the land has been offered in lots too large for
the purse or ambition of a peasant proprietary. There
have been attempts at peasant syndicates, but with little
or no success. If the Bright clauses of this Act, how-
ever, could now be worked with a special view to the
creation of peasant proprietors, many holdings would
soon be taken up. The one defect of the Ulster system
is the power of the landlord to raise the rent so much as
to damage the tenant^s interests. This could be checked
by new leasehold clauses giving prospective rights as to
renewals. Indeed, the Ulster custom offers so broad
and excellent a basis for reform that the Pamellites and
the Land League would have captured the sympathies
of the English people if they had put it forward as their
" platform," and concentrated their efforts upon educat-
ing public opinion as to its working in the North, and
its necessity for the peace and happiness of the South and
West. The majority of the English electors know nothing
about the merits of the Irish land question, and some
of the English members of Parliament know but little
more. Unfortunately the debates have not enlightened
the public because they have been party harangues full
of exaggerations, unreliable figures, specious arguments,
and falsehoods. The Farnell party has been discredited
by its violent and seditious language ; the Land League
REPRESCNTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
73
has been discredited through the outrages committed in
its name ; and the shape and form of the real question
of the time has been hidden out of sight by the ex-
traneous personalities and demonstrations of self-seeking
agitators and the pompous exhibition of individual
vanities.
In America among Americans the feeling in regard
to Ireland is very much what it is in England among
average Englishmen. The exceptions to this rule are
found among Irishmen and extreme partisans of extreme
legislative measures of all kinds. The Socialists of
Chicago, the Bepublicans of Birmingham, and the
Bradlaughites of Old Street, would probably object that
in this moderate estimate I misinterpret them. But, on
the whole, sensible Americans view the Irish question
on the lines of impartial English thought; and they
are in close sympathy with England in regarding any
attempt to break up the union of the three kingdoms as
entitled to be severely and promptly dealt with as
treason. I did not meet a single Irishman in the
United States who could give me a clear and succinct
statement of the land grievances of his country, and I
have, I am bound to say, asked many English politicians
to give me an account of the Ulster custom and its
working without any satisfactory reply. This I trust
will be a sufficient excuse for introducing here a brief
sketch of this Custom of Ulster.
74
TO-DAY IN AMERIOA.
VI.
It seems to me that there can bo no ^eater inter-
national crime than that of fomenting ill-feeling between
America and England. It is the business of Irish
agitators to do this, but there is no excuse for English-
men or Americans who lend themselves to the miserable
work of clouding the friendly sentiments of the tw(»
great peoples. Surely The Spectator went out of its
way recently to offend the national pride of our cousins,
and wound their sensibilities. The English journal
thought it opportune while referring to the prosperity of
America to warn Americans not to forget " that much
of their prosperity is purchased at a heavy moral price."
And this moral price is her neutrality in the quarrels
of the world. " They do less," says The Spectator^
"involving self-sacrifice than any great people in it,
unless it be the Germans, who may fairly plead that
their gigantic armaments, if they produce unrest, still
save Europe from the ambition alike of Gaul and Slav.
The American Union is rich beyond compare ; first,
because it inherited the richest estate but one in the
world ; and secondly, because it spends so little of the
national fortune on either Army or Navy ; because it
refuses to maintain order in any Asiatic dependency ;
because it looks on the struggles of the Old World with
UEPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
75
the half-amused glance of an indifferent spectator. It
has the strongest, the freest, and the most prosperous
of peoples within its borders ; but no nation in bonds
looks upward to the Great Republic for aid, no struggling
people turns to her fleet with longing, no perishing race
so much as hopes that the Western rifle will drive away
the oppressor. One American shell would liberate the
Armenians, but it will not be fired. The world may die
of despair for Washington. The most generous indi-
vidually of races will collectively strike no blow for
foreign freedom, send no fleet, issue even no command.
We know of no great service she has done to mankind,
except in offering the distressed a home — and that repays
her." Now in heaven's name why should the pacific
attitude of America, three thousand miles away from the
troubles of the Old World, be thrown in her teeth as a
rebuke ? When the author of " Happy Thoughts " was
practising repartee, he wondered what a certain stalwart
railway porter would say on being told that he was a fool.
He sat in a railway carriage as this brilliant thought
occurred to him. The train started as if to leave the
station. As it glided past the platform the student of
repartee put his head out and said to that railway porter,
*' What a fool you look I " The train was only shunting.
Presently it returned to the platform, where the specu-
lator in repartee found that the answer to his rudeness
was an invitation to have his head punched. The Spec-
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TO-DAY IN AHERIOA.
tutor must have got into the Bumand vein, and has been
rude to America to test " the proper repartee " for being
twitted with not taking sides in European quarrels.
Here it is from The New York Times : " Suppose we
did undertake police duty for the whole world, what
would be our first act ? Plainly to send England to
jail as a common brawler and disturber of the peace.
We should say to her, * Hands off Candahar I ' * Hands
off the Transvaal I * And if, mindful of centuries of
misrule, cruelty, and oppression, an American fleet
should steam into St. George's Channel with the com-
mand, * Hands off Ireland I ' would not England bitterly
regret that we had ceased to mind our own business ?
She is the greatest oppressor of perishing races, and
with her we should have chiefly to deal. But this is too
absurd even for a hypothesis. The Americans liberating
the Armenians with one shell, hurrying on the erasure
of the Sultanet, insisting on order in Mexico, or forcibly
stopping wars in South America— these are ideas that
belong to opera bouffe or the madhouse. Our sympa-
thies may go out strongly in all these directions, but,
though yet young, we do not act on childish impulses.
We might for ever settle Europe's Eastern Question in
one month, but would Europe allow us to do it ? It
belongs to the European Powers to free the Armenians
and erase the Sultanet, and over this side of the Atlantic
we are getting tired of waiting to see these things done.
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
77
Yet we shall go on ^ endlessly accumulating ' strength
for a long time yet before we undertake to hurry on
such foreign works of mercy. At any rate, when we
take up the cause of the Armenians we shall at the same
time insist on autonomy for the Boers and Afghans."
There is too much of this international carping. It
doti incalculable harm, and it never does any good.
Has not England enemies enough without America
being goaded into hostility ? The International Exhi-
bition at Philadelphia buried many a hatchet in the
very soil where the first rash quarrel between England
and America began. If The Spectator would unearth
them, it is the only journal in England animated by a
similar desire. Tho promotion of goodwill and friend-
ship between Groat r.'" lin and the United States is a
national sentiment
VII.
TTie Times of New York was animated by a very
differeiit spirit from that which moved The Spectator ,
when, during the height of the Russo-Turkish difficulty,
it said " England is more anxious to keep the peace
than the other European nations, because she is the
most civilised of all her neighbours." The friendly
courtesy of this view is flattering to English pride, and
it is a truth which history will establish and dwell upon.
'is
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
For many years the arts of peace have been earnestly
cultivated in England, the blessings of peace have been
extolled, the wickedness and cruelty of war have been
denounced. Whenever other nations have fought, vast
sums of money have been subscribed and sent out to
mitigate the horrors of battle. Governments have even
made sacrifices of honour in the interest of peace.
Such a sacrifice was that made by Lord Russell when
he promised support to the King of Denmark, and
then left him to the mercy of his enemies. This is the
one great blot upon Lord Russell's fame — the ofHcial
delinquency of a British Cabinet which the English
people always regret and deplore ; it is the one sad
reflection of the national mind M'hen contemplating the
foreign policy of the Governments of England during
the last twenty years. If England had fought then, the
Franco-German war might never have occurred, and
but for that event we should not have had Ger-
many standing by Russia and encouraging the dis-
memberment of Turkey. The very sacrifices which
England made for peace are recoiling upon herself, as
they have done upon Europe. When England practi-
cally said by her actions, " We have done with war ;
our policy for evermore is to be a policy of peace," the
passions and ambitions of Europe were let loose, and
connected with every campaign the neutrality of England
has left a bitterness in the recollection of the defeated.
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
79
and augmented the arrogance of the victor. At length
England came to be regarded as no longer a fac^' r in
European affairs. She accepted the situation. She
became a second-rate power in Europe. From dictator-
ship she " took a back seat." "A nation of shopkeepers"
was once more hurled at her by foreign critics. She
took all they said quietly. Her people prospered ; she
enjoyed her liberties ; all she asked was to be allowed to
prosecute her business undisturbed. When the Alabama
troubles with America excited the two nations, Conti-
nental critics and enemies of England in the States
thought that at last Great Britain was in for a big war,
and it was gratifying to certain European critics to think
that the two great English-speaking peoples were to be
engaged. But America had an ambition higher than
war. America was too civilised in thought and s^^nti-
ment to desire hostilities; America knew that at the
bottom of the English heart there was no ill feeling
towards the United States ; that the people only desired
a fair and honourable settlement; and as long as the
world lasts the example of America and England will be
held up before the nations as a warning and a blessing.
Nothing demonstrates so much the nobler culture of the
two Anglo-Saxon nations as that peaceful arbitration of
a question which, in Europe, must have led to a long
and bloody war. It is true there is a fixed idea in
England that a war between America and Great Britain
80
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
would be impossible, as it should be impossible between
any two civilised nations ; but in Europe, unfortunately,
Governments are not conducted altogether in the interest
of men and women, but also for the pastime of Emperors
and Princes, for the glory of statesmen and generals ;
and hollow, disingenuous pretexts for war are made
with a view to aggrandisement and the satisfaction of a
royal, p military, or a ministerial ambition. If the so-
called Great Powers were really in Christianlike earnest
in the suppression of wrong and the support of right,
there would never be any difficulty; but the best of
them, when affecting to redress a wrong, have, in the
day of success, invariably ended their sanguinary work
by committing a far greater wrong than that which they
started out to reform. If any individual in the circle of
your acquaintance falsified his professions, and broke
his solemn engagements, as European nations do- in
their treaties with each other, society would refuse to
have intercourse with him. The most successful of
European diplomatists, the men who stand forth as
representatives of Courts and Governments, are liars
who think no meanness too mean, no conduct too unscru-
pulous, should the result prove to be advantageous to
the cause in which they are engaged. A common-place
Englishman looks upon this kind of thing as immoral.
Perhaps his education is at fault. His ignorance may
be so dense that he cannot understand or appreciate
REPBESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
81
the delicate finesse and adroitness of diplomatic lying
and false witness.
VI.
But this political episode is a little out of the direct
purpose of this chapter, and I propose to come back
again from a branch line to what our American cousins
call the main track. I was referring to New York when
my Irish friend interrupted me. As a town the Empire
City has many delightful features. The site upon which
it is built is unique. Surrounded by water, it has
sanitary advantages which cannot be over-estimated.
It has a splendid river that goes out to the sea in a flood
that breaks oiF into picturesque lakes, and it has the
Hudson, which as far as Albany is a second Rhine.
There is an arm of this magnificent river which they
rechristen Harlem, at the New York suburb of that name.
In the autumn the world has not a fairer show of wood
and water, of hill and dale, than is to be found on a
Hudson trip, either by boat or rail. A few years
hence both banks of the river will be studded with
the villas of city traders and residents. A new river-
side road is in course of construction which will lite-
rally bring the residences about Sunnyside and Tarry-
town to Harlem in one long connected line of pleasant
homes. When this shall come to pass, and the Brooklyn
VOL. I. G
82
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Bridge is finished, New York will indeed be a wonderful
city. I liked it better, I confess, before the advent of
the elevated railroad. That may be my bad taste. It
has greatly advanced nevertheless during the past few
years in many ways. Houses which on my first visit
were considered to be " up town " are now gradually
going •* down town," — ^not on rollers but in the estima-
tion of Society, — taking refuge nearer and nearer Central
Park, one day to go far beyond it. I see more vases and
flowers and pictures and antique furniture in shops and
stores; and I still think Broadway, when you look at
it from a point where there is a long ^asta before you,
the most picturesque long street in the world. Even
the telegraph posts and wires are not objectionable
under the condition of distance lending enchantment to
the view. As a matter of architectural work, Chicago
will one day have a superb thoroughfare in State Street,
which is crowded with imposing buildings. What must
particularly strike a stranger in Chicago is not only
what has been done there but what will be done. The
fire is an old story, though it only occurred the other
day. We know all about ine phoenix rising from its
ashes. But this Chicago bird is only half-fledged ; this
Chicago phoenix is like a moulting eagle on a perch com-
pared with what it will be in the coming day, when fully
pinioned it rises aloft to soar above rival cities at
home and to challenge comparison with the great
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
83
towns of Europe. On all sides in Chicago you meet
preparations for the future. ^* Sufficient for the day"
is not a Chicago text. The city is laid out not for the
present but for the future. Boulevards planned, boule-
vards begun, boulevards nearly finished, stretch away
from one great busy centre. They are all planted with
trees. No opportunity has been given to take advantage
of existing " monarchs of the forest" The trees have
been transplanted, brought from distant or adjacent
wor>ds, just as the marble of which many of the houses
are built has been transported to the sites selected for
them. In England we love trees. It is a national
sentiment We hate to cut down a tree. That is why
some people thought Mr. Gladstone had gone mad when
he posed before the world as a feller of timber. Chicago
seems to have caught this inspiration of affection for
trees. The history of Chicago is a marvellous page in
the records of enterprise; but a stranger can never
realize how great has been her progress tirom the first,
how wonderful her advance since the great fire, unless
he stands on the site where nine years ago destruction
held chaotic sway, to be eventually succeeded by order,
form, and beauty.
a2
84
TC-DAY IN AMERICA.
VII.
Chicago has been called not only the city of the north-
west but *^ the metropolis of the prairies.'* In less
than forty years it has grown from a handful of people
to a population of over half-a-million. A little more
than half-a-century ago the Indians roamed unchecked
over the site of Chicago. The bones of the massacred
defenders of Fort Dearborn were lying unburied on
the lake shore when the late John H. Kinzie arrived at
Chicago from Detroit in 1816. The man is living to-
day who erected the first brick building in Chicago,
packed the first beef and pork, was the first insurance
agent, and issued the first policy. To day there are
streets of marble buildings in Chicago, it packs for
export over two millions and a-half of hogs ayear, it ships
in and out about three million bushels of wheat a year,
it employs in the lumber trade ten thousand men, and
uses in it a floating capital of £20,000,000. During its
short history it may be said to have been twice nearly
destroyed by fire. As recently as 1871, it is hardly an
exaggeration to say the people were ruined by a con-
flagration such as has no parallel in modern days. Over
£1,000,000 was sent to them from all parts of the
world. Within the first twelve months after the fire
£8,000,000 had been spent in new buildings on the
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
85
blackened ground, and to day the disaster is history.
You may find a dark spot here and there which points
the moral and adorns the tale, but otherwise the result
of the fire has been creative rather than destructive.
There still stands the one pretty wooden villa where the
fire parted like a river that divides and goes round a hil-
lock and makes an island of it. The day before the
fire a strange red bird fluttered in the grounds of
this residence and was the subject of curious con-
jecture. It was not seen afterwards ; but the appear-
ance of the unknown bird coupled with the parting
of the flames is a notable coincidence. Not long since,
walking over the ruins of the last great fii*e at Quebec,
a Roman Catholic friend pointed out a religious house
which the fire passed over. This incident is quoted
there as an example of Providential interposition ; but
a Protestant resident who saw the fire informed me
that nearly all the local resources of buckets, water,
and engines were devoted to the saving of this estab-
lishment ; while the fiames were left in unchecked pos-
session of humbler buildings. The Chicago villa had
no religious claim to special pi'otection ; and it is rather
illogical, not to say profane, to credit a good and all-wise
Providence with a trifling drawback to a mighty disaster
when He is just as' much tlie cause of one as the other.
There is among some people in Chicago an idea that
England knows little and cares less about the great West
86
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
and its growing mart and port of trade. American
writers are prone to encourage it. For example, in a
description of Chicago recently printed in a leading
American magazine, the author says *^ it has been
paraded for years, as an instance of the progress of
England in the mechanical arts, that she could import
cotton from India, make it into cloth, and, sending that
cloth back to India, undersell the Hindoos themselves.
That the United States can prove terribly dangerous
competitors — in manufacturing as well as producing—
is a fact which has only lately begun to dawn on the
mind of John Bull. What a shock it must be to him to
learn that this obscure place, Chicago (for which he
must hunt in one of those cheerful collections of maps
where the United States are put after the South Sea
Islands), has had the impertinence to treat him just as
he has been boasting of being able to treat the dark-
skinned inhabitants of the land of the moguls and the
rajahs. The establishment just mentioned buys tin-
plates in England, has them sent not only across the
Atlantic but also a thousand miles inland, makes them
up into ware, sends that ware over the same route again,
and undersells the Birmingham dealers in their own
home." It is this kind of writing that does so much to
maintain an unfriendly tone of criticism on the part of
both countries. The ^* parading " of England's manu-
facturing supremacy as a "boast" would have been
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITfl AND CITIES.
87
more fairly described if it had been referred to as an
example of the enterprise of which England has just
reason to be proud. The notion that Chicago is too
small for English recognition hardly comports with the
record that the city of London sent 316,000 dollars for
the relief of the sufferers during the great fire ; and the
sneer at the position of the United States on English
m^ps is only an example of the " pride that apes
humility " on the part of the writer, for he knows too
well the high estimate in which America and her re-
sources is held by England and by Englishmen. The
principal travellers whom I met at Chicago, going east
and west, were subjects of Queen Victoria, chiefly from
Scotland and the northern parts of England, making
useful holiday tours through the agricultural and manu-
facturing districts of the United States. To say that
England does not know what Chicago, Philadelphia,
New York, Pittsburg, and even Johnstown are doing
in the way of manufactures is to strangely under-esti-
mate British intelligence ; and to omit to mention that
the " ware " in question was admitted free of duty into
England while Birmingham goods are loaded by the
United States with heavy imposts and obstructive
Customs laws, was to overlook an opportunity of paying
a gracious tribute to the magnanimity of that same
much-abused and much-misunderstood John Bull. The
very magazine in which this sneer at England appears
88
TO-DAY m AMERICA.
is admitted into London to compete with English works
free of duty — welcomed with open arms, praised by the
press, and most deservedly so, while this brief answer
to the note in question will be charged 25 per cent, if it
goes into America in its original shape; or if it is
deemed good enough to be annexed by some smart
publisher it will be taken without reference to me, my
pocket, or my feelings. There are plenty of faults on
both sides, my friend ; let us not add to them jealousies
and ill nature which do not exist. Let us be just to each
other, and be assured that of all nations, of all peoples
under the sun, England sympathises most with America
and Americans ; and that the best interests of the
United States are mixed up with the commercial well-
being of England. There is more of admiration than
jealousy in the feeling with which the British people
watch the progress of America in the present, and
the promise of her greatness in the future. " The
pen has done more than the sword to keep alive inter-
national animosities ; the pen can do more than trade
or treaties to heal them. The kinship of a common
speech, and the heritage of a common history, have been
less potent in bringing the people of England and the
people of the United States to understand each other
tlian the steady growth of a literature to which both
may enter an equal claim." I repeat these trite
sentences of my own preface to an international work
REPRESENTATIVE TRAITS AND CITIES.
89
with a full belief that the sentiment and opinion they
express are shared by the cultured and tlioughtful men
of the United Spates. With Scribner's Magazine and
Harper's on our bookstalls, and American literature
taking an honoured place by the side of our own in
English households, it behoves the modern author to be
at least fair in his strictures and just in his criticisms,
remembering that he is writing not simply for America
in England but for both, and at the same time not
forgetting the insular pride of the Britisher nor the
sensitiveness of those whom he likes to speak of as his
American cousins.
VIII.
San Francisco is a remarkable example of rapid
growth. In 1847 its population was 450. To-day it
numbers 233,066, out of which 20,549 are Chinese. Its
hotel system is in advance of any other city in the Union.
The fittings and decorations of Baldwin's hotel cost
3,500,000 dollars. An English traveller is surprised to
find his boots unblacked when he gets up in a morning.
*' I will leave my boots outside the door," 8aid a friend
of mine. "All right," said tlie attendant, " nobody will
touch tliem." At the leading American hotel at Niagara
on the other hand there is a " Notice " to the effect that
the proprietor will not be responsible for boots left out-
90
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
side bedroom doors. Ton are expected to go down into
the hall, where the boot-black of die establishment will
polish your boots on your feet Comfortable seats are
prepared for the purpose. The boot-black is an institu-
tion in the United States. You find him at the comer
of nearly every street, with his sign (an old boot) on the
edge of the sidewalk, and his armchair posted up against
the wall. Here and there he has underground salons
where he does an extensive trade. In San Francisco some
of these places are quite showy. The Golden City has
a champion blacker in every street. Neither New York,
Boston, nor Chicago has arrived at this high pitch of
civilisation. In a New York blacking-room I read a
notice, " To Trust is well, to Bust is hell ; no Trust no
Bust." The blackers are mostly darkies.
In American cities postage-stamps are sold at the
drug-stores. If you want a large supply you generally
have to visit several stores. The letter-boxes are affixed
on lamp-posts in the streets. The boxes are about the
size of a private box affixed to a private door in England.
If you have many letters to post you must mail them in
several boxes. If you are not otherwise very busy
there is a good deal of pleasant exercise to be got out
of mailing letters. Supposing you wish to post news-
papers or book-post parcels you place them on the top
of the box. If nobody mischievously removes them or
a shower of rain does not obliterate the directions, the
REPRESENTATiy£ TRAITS AND CITIES.
n
probability is your papers will reach their destination.
Should you not have put upon your letters a sufficiency
of postage-stamps, they will not be delivered and the
receiver asked for extra payment as in E^igland, but
they will go to a department similar to our dead-letter
office, where they are read. Should they be regarded as
of value they are sent to their destination with a polite
note from the post-office chief, or returned to the sender.
This is funny, sometimes it is annoying. A letter of
mine written to a friend at Hartford came back to me
opened, and stamped with the seal of the dead-letter
office, a week or two after it should have been received
at the charming little city of cultured repose to which it
was directed.
When you go to America do not accept for granted
all you read and hear about the excellence of the food
provided in hotel cars or at railway restaurants in the
American roads. The food is usually bad and dear.
Take some with you. Carry also fruit and wine if you
make long journeys. When you get outside the great
cities, as a rule, civilisation ends. The picturesque may
begin, but fresh oysters and lager beer are no more.
Some people who have not visited the United States
denounce American oysters almost as savagely as my
Irish friend on the New York ferry-boat denounced the
English people. Some people are right. The so-called
" Blue Point " sold in London is a filthy thing, the
92
TO -DAT IN AMERICA.
I
J''
lt!<
oyster bearing that name and supplied to you in the
handsome oyster restaurants of New York is equal to
the finest English native. You caimot understand the
epicurean delights of oyster-eating until you have
^nsited New York in the fall of the year. There are
many vai'ieties of oysters. They are all excellent under
proper treatment Only the Americans understand how
to eat oysters, whether they elect to take " the living
luxury,'' as Crabbe calls them, raw or to have them
cooked. The oyster trade in New York is a very im-
portant business. It is estimated that the sales this
year in New York city will reach 4,500,000 dollars.
More than 3,000 people are employed in various branches
of the trade. The custom of eating oysters from the
shell has greatly increased within these few years ; stews
and roasts are still very popular. Oyster-openers in
New York are remarkably quick at their work ; many
men can open as many as 600 oysters in an hour, some
have opened as many as 900 in that time. " Saddle-
rocks" are the favourite oysters among the ordinary
consumers. They are named from the shape of a rock
in the East river, near which they used to be found.
The oysters sold in London as Blue points are the small
mollusks which are thrown aside, I should imagine, by
the sorters for the New York market. Once an honest
trade is opened in London with American oysters a
large and steadily increasing business is sure to be
REPBESENTATIYE TRAITS AND CITIES.
93
effected. The oyster that seemed to Thackeray like
a young baby was probably a large Saddlerock.
Satum*s inf.int8 were not so nice as those of Fulton
Market, judging from the face the greedy god is making
at them in the illustrations to the classics. New York
cherishes the memory of Thackeray. At the Century
Club (the Garrick of America) they show you, with
friendly tributes to his character, the ohair in which the
great Englishman sat
94
III.
MAUD S.
Trotting and Poaching — Comparisons between English and American
Racing — A new Civilisation that presses utility into its Amnse-
ment»— French Views of American Trotters — On a Chicago Track
— The Great Race against Time — The Virtnes of Lager Beer—
An exciting Finish— American Carriages in England — Driving
on both Sides of the Atlantic— Behind a Trotting Horse — The
Story of the Spotted Dog— Out-door Sports in the Old World and
the New.
I.
On Saturday " Maud S.," the famous trotter. On
Sunday Col. Ingersoll, the eloquent materialist
It seems to me that on Saturday and Sunday I was
face to i'ajoe with the two most characteristic outcomes of
American civilisation. A philosopher might find rare
fc^d for reflection from this double stand-point, with the
i'jistest trotter in the world passing before his eyes, and
the most eloquent of "free-thinkers" thundering anti-
Scriptural declarations into his ears. The one and the
otlier are the results of an education that is peculiar to
the United States. Trotting is as national on the
American side of the Atlantic as preaching. Both are
MAUD S.
90
the development of a special training. The horse has
been put in commission, and made to develop a form of
going which is different from that of his original and
natural gifts and dispositions. Darwinism has, in the
trotting horse of America, an illustration of evolution
which is worthy of note and recognition. Not only has
the natural gallop of the horse been systematically
changed, but the animal has so thoroughly accepted the
change as to put the speed of running and galloping
into the more dignified and, for the rider, more comfort-
able movement of trotting. In England we pull a
roadster into a trot because it is easier for both rider
and driver, but it never entered into our calculations to
train horses for especial speed in this gait until America
showed us the trotting horse. Even now we do not
compete with the United States in this direction. We
have no "trotting horses" so called. We have no
trotting races. The "sulky" is imknown in English
sporting circles. Our fast horses are what Americans
call running horses, and I can conceive nothing
prettier or more exciting than a good race in which they
compete with each other at full gallop. To the American
this is tame sport compared with trotting, yet he will
confess that " the Derby" race on Epsom Downs is one
of the most impressive sights in the world. And so it is,
but its impressiveness does not belong alone to the race.
The crowd is a study. There is no more orderly or
96
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
good-natured assemblage anywhere, and yet it is full of
rough and dangerous elements. No man of observation
and travel ever forgets the strange picture of that world
of faces which turns toward the judge's stand to see the
numbers posted when the race is over.
It is the fashion of too many critics of men and
manners, of habits and customs, of peoples and nations,
to praise one particular institution by disparaging
another. A critic who likes Irving seems to think it
strengthens his praise to disparage some other actor.
Admirers of Millais will attempt to discount Leighton.
Lovers of Longfellow will make invidious comparisons
between his work and Tennyson's for the purpose of
emphasizing their admiration of " Evangeline." This
lack of cosmopolitanism is a general weakness. A
member of the Chicago Jockey Club tells me that
English horse-racing is tame and contemptible ; that it
has not a redeeming feature when compared with
trotting ; that a race with running horses is barbaric,
while trotting is a civilised sport ; that a running horse
is simply the product of nature, a trotting horse the
fruit of education. Emphatic as was this denunciation
of English racing, he had never seen the St. Leger run
for at Doncaster, the Gold Cup at Ascot, nor tlie blue
ribbon of the turf carried off at Epsom. My memory
goes back to clusters of silk-coated horses carrying silk-
" toileted " jockeys, neck to neck bursting into the " last
MAUD S.
97
stretch" for the winning-post, and I find in the splendid
oompetition much to admire. As a development of the
natural action and movement of the horse, I see much
in it capable of logical defence, and 1 cannot regard it
as tame or contemptible.
n.
At the same time I can understand, admire, and
appreciate the beautiful utility of trotting ; and if I were
a philosopher I should be inclined to deduce from the
popularity of the trotting horse an illustration of the
practical character of the American people. The citizens
of the United States have put usefulness into their
amusement. While we have cultivated the wild habit
of the horse, they have treated it from the stand-point of
domestic economy. Trotting is, for man's purpose, the
most useful gait of the horse. It is the animal's civilised
form. Above all things, Americans appear to me to be
practical. A young nation that lays in a good founda-
tion for ultimate greatness should be so. Like a young
housekeeper, America has first got together the neces-
saries of domestic life, and the days of art and ornament
and the amusement of idle leisure are of the future. It
seems to me that, designedly or unconsciously, it is in
this spirit of utility that the trotting horse has been
created. I say created advisedly, and, while I credit the
creators with a specific design, I believe that the utility
VOL. I. H
98
TO-DAY IK AMERICA.
is the accidental outcome of the universal inspiration of
usetulness. The breeding of English race-horses is
chiefly productive of the amusement of leisure in
England. It gives us fast animals ^^ across country."
Fox hunting is a peculiarly English sport, the sport of
the weU-to-do and the rich. Trotting would be of no
use for hunting. Therefore we may hold that the
running horse in England is the outcome of an old
settled civilisation that has leisure for amusement, while
the trotting horse of America is the product of a new
civilisation that presses utility into its pastime. A
trotting horse is a far more useful animal than a
running horse, and from that point of view a trotting
match is a more interesting and exciting meeting than a
race between running horses. The great national race
of Italy is the competition in the Corso at Borne ; and
here nature has fuller sway than in England, for there
the horses have no riders, though they are goaded on by
a mechanical spur.
If in these general observations the philosophic
thinker finds a text for a deeper and broader theme than
belongs to a mere sketch of the first impressions of a
trotting match against time, I shall have written in the
true spirit of American utility which instructs while it
amuses.
It is rot, however, to be overlooked that European
authorities in horse-flesh are inclined to discount the
MAUD S.
99
trotting horso of America, on the ground that too much is
sacrificed to speed. This they say is more particularly
the case in the Eastern and Western States, where the
trotter is inferior in appearance and style to the trotter of
Kentucky. Colonel Baron Favert de Kerbrech, of the
First Regiment of Chasseurs d'Afrique, and Captain
Henry de la Ch^re, of the Thirteenth Dragoons, were re-
cently sent over to America by the French Government to
investigate the capacity of the United States as a pro-
ducer of horses. After their tour of inspection a special
commissioner from The Spirit of the Times waited upon
them to learn the result of their inquiries. Baron
Favert's opinion of American horses is not altogether
flattering. As a rule our gay neighbours, the French,
rarely see anything worthy of commendation outside
their own country. There is nevertheless a good deal
of sober truth in the straightforward and matter-of-fact
way in which the French officer discussed the trotting
horse. To begin with, he talked about the horses of
Canada — Upper Canada more particularly. He saw
no horses there that seemed to be overtasked or over-
worked, and many indicated a dash of good blood.
This seems to have made a more favourable impression
upon him than anything else, as may well be under-
stood when one thinks of the overworked animals of
French cities. The Canadian horses were generally of
a good type. They had plenty of substance, and were
h2
100
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
"iVoll and regularly furnished throughout with an abun-
dance of strength, action, and blood to make thorn
very useful and desirable. In Lower Canada, around
Montreal and Quebec, he saw a great many small horses,
which he was told were of French descent. They
were compact little fellows, that ranged from 14^ to
15^ hands; clever, useful horses, full of energy and
vigour. They were not stylish nor handsome, but
strong and willing, and capable of performing much
labour and enduring a great amount of fatigue. They
have neat heads, good eyes, and smooth, good limbs,
and short strong backs. In Upper Canada he attended
several fairs where premiums were offered for different
classes of horses. Here he discovered a strong dis-
position to cross their horses on the Clydesdale, the
coldest blooded horse in existence, and he saw some
two-year-olds of enormous size, and one of these took a
premium, at a fair or horse show, alone on account of
size and weight. They were great masses of shapeless
flesh, awkward, ungainly, and utterly without action.
This seemed to him to be a mistaken idea, the cross
more likely to impair than to improve the more blood-
like, good-looking, and useful horses of the provinces.
The number of horses in Canada is large in proportion
to population, and very often, where a farmer's neces-
sities demand the labour of only three or four horses,
there are eight or ten on his place, thus keeping an un-
MAUD H.
101
usually largo surplus. What most disappointed tho
Baron was the American trotter. This horse in tho
East he considers ungainly, form and substance p.iu)
most valuable qualities being lost sight of in the one
solitary idea of speed.
The Northern trotter has a long chnrnlike uncomely head, flopped
ears, sleepy, dull eyes, long, contracted nostrils, narrow face, small
cramped throttle with the arch of the neck on the under side, and the
neck itself is long and shapeless. He is narrow, even cramped, about
the chest, is wanting in barrel, and the ribs are flat instead of being
circular, very much as if he had been brought to maturity betv^een two
boards ; his legs are beefy, he carries his head low, his action is creep-
ing, not bold and open, his back long and badly muscled, his loin
imperfect, and quarters lack muscle and consequently strength, and
altogether he is a bad horse to perpetuate. In form he is the reverse
of all descriptions we have of good and useful horses. He iu not good-
looking or stylish, but the contrary. He has not the substance neces-
sary to enable him to perform labour, or the requisite shafie to endure
fatigue, nor the good looks to commend him to a gentleman as a
roadster, and is wholly unfit for the saddle, and we know of no service
that ho would be well adapted to except to spin avi'ay at short
distances.
On this sweeping condemnation the journalist com-
missioner asked, " Were you more favourably impressed
with the trotter of Kentucky ?" " Decidedly," was the
prompt reply.
As a rule the trotter in the South is far more bloodlike, is better
furnished, more shapely, has much style, a free open vigorous gait, and
is not a one-idea horse, good to trot and nothing else. He is good
under the saddle — admirable — will do service on the farm, draw a load
or go a journey with ease. He is compact, well put together, and
when he moves he lifts himself up and stretches well out, and exhibits
his great power and a grand frame. As a trotter he Is fleet, and on the
102
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
road pleases because he not only goes fast bnt he does it handsomely
and withont tiring. Ho is prond and stylish, and withal is equably
disposed. One of the most remarkable ^cimens of this horse that we
met was Dr. Herr's Mambrino King. He is a rare specimen of a fine
horse ; handsome, with magnificent action, kind, Tery shapely, and
would conmiand a large sura in Europe. We saw many good horses of
trotting families in Kentucky. Indeed, here we saw the best of the
trotters that we met anywhere in the country, and we noticed them
pretty carefully wherever we went. In Kentucky most of them showed
a pretty strong dash of good blood, and most of those persons of whom
we inquired told ns that this class of animals were generally pretty
closely allied to thoroughblood. Their style, fine suits, splendid action,
bloodlike heads and necks, compact shapes, effervescing spirits, remark-
able beauty of conformation, all foretell good blood. They are both
fast and strong, and are admirable horses. We visited a number of
breeding establishments about Lexington and Frankfort, both of
trotters and race-horoes, and we saw a great many fine horses here, and
also many about Louisville. There is much blood in the State, and a
great number of fine horses ; more than we found in the same ares
elsewhere in the country through which we passed.
I am glad to find that my impressions of the practical
usefulness of promoting the trotting capacity of the
horse are not erroneous, even from Baron Favert's
point of view ; only that the evolutionary forcing in-
dulged in by the Eastern States is excessive. Some of
the trotters on the road to Jerome Park races, New
York, are not beautiful from an English point of view ;
but " Maud S.," the heroine of the trotting track, struck
me as a singularly graceful cr-^ature, worthy of the
compliments paid to the trotters of Kentucky. The
Baron's condemnatory picture of the North-eastern
animal appears to have been a revelation to the editor of
MAUD S.
103
The Spirit^ who, while agreeing that there are many
trotters worthy to have been the model for this iibe on
horseflesh, says it is all the more surprising that such
should be the case, "considering how thoroughly u "i-
tarian " in all their habits are " the people of the eastern
and middle States."
III.
On the surface of things I should maintain that an
English racecourse is a more lively and picturesque
scene than an American one. It may be more barbaric
from my Chicago friend's point of view. The one is a
carnival of pleasure, except to a handful of betting men ;
the other appears to me to be akin to a business meeting.
As if to carry out my theory of utilitarianism, the
drivers of the trotting horse wear no distinctive costume.
Colours are necessary to mark the various competitors.
These are indicated in the cap only, and the colours
selected are sombre. In Europe, athletic and, other
pastimes run into picturesque and at the same time
useful costumes. Our cricketers dross for the game.
Breeches, hose, and shoes give the bicycler his special
costume. Rowing has its easy shirt, football its boots
and stocking, fishing its velvet jacket full of pockets,
shooting its,appr-jpriate leggings and coat, horse-racing
its light and gay attire. The American trotting matches
are so business-like that the drivers appear in their
i I
104
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
ordinary attire, or if they depart from it they do so
in a sort of apologetic way. The entire scene is as
gloomy as the dun clouds of England are to an Ame-
rican visitor. Perhaps we get some consolation out
of our coloured silks and ribbons as against our gray
firmament. Nature herself compensates us somewhat in
our green meadows and flowering hedge-rows. Out of
what appears to the English looker-on a sombre scene,
however, there comes an excitement which is French in
its impulsiveness and Italian in its intensity, rather than
Anglo-Saxon in any sense ; and I think I fully under-
stood it on Saturday in presence of the most exquisite
and wonderful performance of Maud S. on the fine
course of the Chicago Jockey Club.
It was my first experience of trotting against time.
Often on the other side of the Atlantic I had read of
these matches, often felt that it must be a flat and tame
business to see a horse trot over a track with a multitude
looking on, stop-watch in hand, racing against some-
thing intangible, as it were, and yet competing with the
fleetest and most tremendous of powers ; Time on the
one hand. Flesh and Blood on the other ; only Flesh
and Blood appearing to the naked eye; Flesh and
Blood straining its feeble powers ; Time indicated by a
hard inflexible needle beating out the seconds. No
winged wheel of classic myths spinning over the track ;
no grim monarch of the scythe speeding on^with sweep-
MAUD S.
105
ing pinions ; nothing but the empty air and a clock
with swinging pendulum, a clock that goes neither faster
nor slower, a clock that is not urged by voice or whip,
a hard monotonous verity, a dumb, non-sentient thing,
a mechanical indicator of all-conquering Time, against a
horse with a man behind it. Yet I found myself moved
by the general interest, stirred by new feelings of admi-
ration, to be carried away at last by an excitement akin
to that which belongs to a splendid burst for the Derby
at Tattenham Comer.
IV.
Let me tell the story of the latest defeat of Time, if I
can ; the triumph of Maud S. over St. Julien, the
fastest trotting horse in the world until this performance
of Saturday, which I was privileged to witness. It was
what might be called an average London day. The sun
was hidden behind gray rolling clouds. A cool breeze
swept over the broad flat. Chicago could be faintly
seen in the distance. A few " grand stands " were
sparsely occupied. Only a handful of carriages were
tethered in the space devoted to vehicles. The point of
vantage on the Jockey Club gallery was occupied by a
few ladies and gentlemen. There had been rain in the
earlier part of the day, which had kept people at home who
would otherwise have been there. In England race-goers
would have paid no attention to the weather except to
106
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
m
dress for sun or shower. In America big crowds
demand fine weather, and, as a rule, so likewise do
trotting horses. A hot day with no breeze is most
suitable for trotting speed, which is promoted by free
perspiration. It had been announced that Maud S.
would trot the mile course on Saturday ; but Chicago,
looking at the weather, felt pretty certain that the affair
would be postponed, or, if it were not, that the gentle-
man in charge of the mare would make no eflfort to beat
St. Julien's time on such an unpropitious day. There-
fore, the knowing ones and the cautious of Chicago did
not go to the races on Saturday. There were several
spins during the afternoon, however, that had all the
excitement of prize competitions, though the crowd ac-
cepted them with a calm nonchalance that I confess
surprised me when I remembered with what enthusiasm
the humblest race is followed by the crowd on an
English course. Between the heats of the last com-
petition of the day, Maud S. was brought out to make
a sort of dress-parade. She tapped at once the pent-up
feelings of the audience. No prima donna on the lyric
stage ever had a heartier reception from a small house.
Mile. Maud S. paced quietly along with an unconscious
grace. My wife thought the lovely creature seemed
cognizant of the general enthusiasm. On the contrary,
she appeared to me utterly innocent, altogether unaware
of her beauty or the acknowledgment of it. She passed
MAUD S.
107
walking, and presently broke into a trot, was cheered
by the crowd, and in due course returned to her stable.
The wind was chill and gusty, but, as the sun looked out
from the clouds and began to sink towards the west, it
moderated and gave promise of a calm withdrawal with
the sun.
" If the wind goes down," said my friend of the
Jockey Club, "she will give us a show." On the
strength of the good prospect we " took a drink." I
mention this small detail of the day for the opportunity
of saying that wine, lager beer, and Appollinaris water,
were the liquors mostly consumed at the bar on the stand.
On an English course brandy and whiskey would have
been the chief drinks, modified a little by soda water.
I have often said that lager beer is the salvation of
America from a temperance point of view. I did not
see a drunken man at the Chicago races. Our constant
consumption of spirits and strong beer in England gives
us an overwhelming percentage of drunkenness on
holiday occasions compared with similar affairs in the
United States. I am often told the difference belongs to
climatic conditions. I do not believe it. America used
to intoxicate herself quite as much as England before
lager beer became the popular and general drink of the
country.
Presently it was publicly announced, that, as many
persons had come there to see Maud S. trot, the manager
108
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
of the horse, on the part of the owner, was not willing
that they should be disappointed. S'e would, therefore,
go over the mile course, but the weather being alto-
gether unsuitable for testing her speed her performance
would not necessarily be considered as a competition
against previous time. This was greeted with a burst
of applause. If Captain Stone had controlled the
weather at that moment he could not have done much
more than nature did for him. The wind dropped ; not
a leaf stirred. The temperature rose. It was a warm
evening.
" I should not wonder if Maud S. made her fastest
time to-day, notwithstanding the cautious declaration
just put forth."
It is hardly necessary to say that St. Julien's record
was 2 : 11 :J^.
" Vanderbilt will be a proud man if his mare can
head it. Her driver looks this moment as if he would not
change places with the President of the United States."
" Can you tell me the best six records to date ? "
"Yes, < St. Julien' 2 : 11^, ♦ Hopeful' 2 : 14|, < Smug-
gler' 2:15i, <Hattie Woodward" 2 : 15^, < Darby'
2 : 16^, * Charley Ford, 2 :16|."
By this time the mare had passed under the wire at the
cry of ** Go I" She went along with a still body and quick
legs, head erect, shoulders and trunk immovable except
for their forward motion. It was like an opera dancer in
MAUD S.
109
a difficult pas who confines her action to her feet. Maud
S.'s legs carried her body as if each cnatomy was in-
dependent of the other. But at the first bend in the
track she suddenly broke into a gallop and had to be
recalled. Her second start was her successful one.
She went round the track like a machine. Her head
and back formed a straight line all the way. The even-
ness was never once broken. It seemed to me as if the
pace was all the same, though stop-watches showed that
it varied. When she passed the three-quarter of a
mile pole the crowd sent up a great cheer.
" The fastest time ever made ! " exclaimed my Jockey
Club friend, " 1 minute 36 seconds!"
Turning into the home stretch the mare came along
evidently quickening her speed, and she was watched
in breathless silence as if the entire concourse was one
man watching the seconds on one stop-watch. It was
an anxious crowd, its heart beating with hope, as if the
fate of a nation depended upon Maud S. and her driver,
whose voice was suddenly heard breaking in upon the
general silence. The driver was urging the mare on,
not with whip, not with spur, but with an earnest eager
cry, to which she responded. On she came, with an
easy stride that did not suggest speed so much as grace
and elegance. " Hi I ya ! " shouted her driver, and the
next moment she had passed the wire, or winning post,
in a tumult of enthusiasm.
110
TO DAT IN AMERICA.
!li
i
:!"!
:;;:^l
'i;:!l
A negro groom in attendance on the mare flung up
his watch and his hat, and rushed after her. A great
cry went up all over the place. Ladies waved their
handkerchiefs, men flung up their hats and shook hands
witli each other. " Two ten and a-halfl" ** Two ten
and three-quarters!" cried one to another. In the midst
of the joyous commotion the mare and her driver came
back to be clothed and admired. She was surrounded
by a crowd. They raised her blanket to pat her with
fond hands. A darky hugged her. One man kissed
her. She received these attentions as meekly and gently
as a pet pony might submit to the caresses of children.
Then the time was officially announced, the crowd
cheered once more, and Maud S. disappeared, while her
performance was being telegraphed " to all parts of the
civilized world — and Russia," as Mr. Sutherland Ed-
wards puts it.
" You have seen the biggest thing America can show
you," said my pleasant companion of the Jockey Club,
taking me by the hand ; " I congratulate you."
V.
Walking along the Marylebone Road in London re-
cently I saw a pair of high-stepping American trotters
in an American-built four-wheel carriage, rattling over
the granite roadway as gaily as if they were en route
MAUD S.
Ill
for Jeromo Park. Occasionally I meet a conveyance,
something like the American buggy, in the neighbour-
hood of Finchley Boad; and during a recent frost
several American sleighs were to be seen in the parks.
There is an idea in England that the spider-like wheels
of American vehicles would not be suitable to English
roads. On the contrary, they would. The highways
and streets of the United States are inferior to ours,
and the strong though slight wheels of the native-built
carriages run easily over the roughest thoroughfares.
" If it was only a question of roads," said an American
who drives his fast trotters in New York, *' you should
have our light wheels in London, and we your heavy
ones on the other side." As a rule American drivers
do not equal our own ; neither do the cattle they drive.
There are, of course, exceptions, such as the ** whips "
who take the Californian stages over mountainous routes,
and the trotting-horse drivers who coax their teams with
a wonderful power of wrist, and pilot them with re-
markable skill.
I remember, shortly before he died, having a long
chat with Henry Kingsley about driving. He said, the
best drivers in the world are English artillerymen, who
will take a gun over ground which would puzzle a fox-
hunter. But that is outside ordinary driving. He con-
sidered an American stage-driver unequalled behind a
four -horse team ; though he remarked that ^' some of
112
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
iiiiii
ni I
the London drivers of hearses manage their black horses
famously through the difficult meshes of London traffic."
But he did not hesitate to say that there is far more art
and elegance in the four-horse drag-driving of England
than can be seen in the United States. He illustrated
the difference between the two in an apt simile. " Ameri-
can stage-driving," he said, " is splendid ; it is like
ploughing the Atl&ntic with a liner, ramming along
through all weathers ; while English driving is like a
yacht rounding the Isle of Wight in full sail." When
one looks at the firm natty style of an English driver,
sitting upright, his feet firmly planted and together, his
whole bearing trim and characteristic, the ribbons held
with a light but confident grip, and compares it with
the loose lolloping fashion of his American cousin, it is
surprising to be told that " the Americans are first
against the world in pair-horse driving with four
wheels." Kingsley said so. '* They have reduced it to
a science ; and it is the safest form of driving, for one
horse steers the other, and accidents are of rare oc-
currence." Then he held that a man who can drive
one horse can drive two, and that a vicious horse har-
nessed with an old stager is certain to be conquered in
time. " I have tried it," he said. " Whatever the
vicious brute did the old horse declined to do, and when
he began to kick and rear the other brought him to a
dead lock." I don't think Mr. Kingsley was generally
MAUD 8.
113
known as a great lover of sports, but he knew more
about driving and riding and shooting and boating than
any literary man I ever met
It is a unique sensation to sit behind a trotting horse
for the first time. I have ridden on a locomotive
engine ; I have sat on the box-seat of the rickety old
coach that tosses you about the rough places selected for
excursions at Aberystwith in Wales ; I have shot Cana-
dian rapids in what seemed to be a cockle-shell ; I
have been rushed down hill in an American stage to
catch the one train that stops during a long day at a
country station ; the excitement of wondering what will
happen next in a North Atlantic gale when the sails are
torn to ribbons and the sea is leaping over the deck
from stem to stern is not unfamiliar to me ; I have been
down a coal-pit, and looked out at night from ^^ the
observation car " of a train working its way upwards
through the Alleghany mountains ; I have assisted at a
big gunpowder explosion, and been swamped in the
" race " of a suddenly unmasked milldam ; in charge
of a heavy battery I have covered the retreat of a
volunteer army in a sham fight (the nearest approach to
real war I ever hope to share in) ; but I recall beyond
them all the lively sense of insecurity which filled my
imagination sitting for the first time behind a powerfu
trotter for a two or three miles '' spin" along the well-
known track, outside New York, in the direction o
VOL. I. I
114
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Jerome Park. The pace was terrific compared with
my previous experiences. My seat might have been
called a rail held together by a cushion. A long-
necked , snorting) powerful brute, the more my com-
panion pulled at her strong mouth the more the horse
seemed bent on tearing the buggy or sulky, whatever
it might be (I could lift it with one hand yet two of us
sat in it), into rags and tatters. How it held together,
why the wheels did not go gyrating into the air, was a
perpetual mystery to me. Had we touched a rough
stone or grazed any one of the vehicles wo passed (and
we passed everything on the road), we should assuredly
have broken-up as disastrously as a ship dashed by a
great sea upon a sharp rock. The country flew past us.
We devoured the road Men stood still to look at us.
We did not wait for competing trotters to give us the
way ; wo took it, whisking by them, almost " brushing
their paint off." With the excitement of the run the
driver's nostrils were distended as wide in proportion as
those of the demon horse. " Hi ! hi ! " he shouted,
and the response was as the bound of a Midland express
engine coming down the incline in the Peak country of
Derbyshire. We passed what at first appeared to bo
several wooden houses with a crowd of men and horses
and spider-wheels all mixed up together, a jumble of
men and things which seemed to utter a general cry of
horror, but which afterwards turned out to have been a
MAUD 8.
115
shout of admiration. We stopped eventually, and broke
nothing — not our necks nor a buckle of our harness ;
and when we returned to that conglomeration of shout-
ing men and things by the road it was Judge Smithes
famous hostelry, the head-quarters of the New York
gentlemen who go out to show their teams, and pull up
to wash down a light luncheon with champagne or
lager beer. It was immensely satisfactory to the crowd
of teamsters that I did not disguise the alarm which my
obliging friend had caused me ; though they were in-
clined to question the correctness of my remembrance
when I told them I had travelled on an express engine
in England at the rate of seventy miles an hour.
Ever3rthing is great or small by comparison, and there
is no mad rushing along the iron way at seventy miles
an hour in die United States.
As a trotting-horse *' sport " I should be prepared to
be put down as an impostor. However much I might
brace myself up to the situation I should feel that I
could no more bear the strain of the " big spurts " than
the Democratic party or the Dalmatian pet of my Chicago
friend could bear the •* ugly rush " of the Republican
" boom," or the tempest that settled the dog in question.
Have I not yet told you the story of the perfect carriage-
dog ? Then I must It is not altogether appropriate
to the occasion, but I hold that a good story is never
out of place nor out of season. It is not my story.
i2
116
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Mr. Storrs, the famous Republican orator of Chicago, told
it to me at a pleasant evening reception in Hamilton
Avenue. Storrs was rather rough on the Democratic
party. It was on the eve of the Presidential election,
and all his anecdotes bore upon their weaknesses, sup-
posed or real. It is fortunately not necessary for the
success of the story that you should either be a Bepub-
lican or a Democrat. Says Mr. Storrs, looking round
upon a little group of admirers and friends in the
Chicago drawing-room, " The Democratic party is like
an old bam ; you may mend it and putty it up, stick
some nice showy calico round about it and a flag on the
top, go away and look at it from a distance, and the
sight is pleasant enough ; the thing looks bright and
healthy ; but wait and see what a puff or two of wind
does and a shower of rain ! It reminds me of a rich
friend of mine, whose gi'eat desire was to have a perfect
carriage-dog, not simply docile and a good steady fol-
lower of his carriage, but perfect as regarded its colour,
perfect as regarded its symmetry and the regularity of
its black spots. He had a splendid team, and he wanted
a splendid dog to run behind. One day he came across
the very animal at a dog-store down town, and on the
first fine day for trotting on the public track he went
out with his fine team and his fine dog. The sun shone
gloriously, and so did the dog. Everybody admired it,
the spots were so black and regular. On my friend^s
MAUD S.
117
l*eturn homewards the sun disappeared, and the gather-
ing clouds sent out a downpour of rain. The dog began
to change under the influence of the wet. Tiie black
spots began to run into each other. The dog, for a
while, looked like a burlesque zebra. Presently it
became a thing of stripes and patches ; and when it
arrived home it was a dun-brown, a miserable-looking
blear-eyed cur. It w.is tlien that my friend understood
the meaning of the remark of a person who stood chewing
the end of a rank cigar on the side-walk as my friend
sallied forth from the store with his new dog. * I say,
mister,' the stranger had said, puffing a cloud in the
direction of my friend, * I say, mister, there's generally
an umbrella goes with that dawg.' "
VI.
Ten years ago there appeared in London a very in-
telligent and discriminating volume of essays entitled
" English Photographs by an American." The author
was Mr. Stephen Fiske, at that time the cleverest and
most enterprising of New York Herald correspondents.
He came to England on Mr. Bennett's yacht in a
famous international race. Mr. Fiske wrote his volume
chiefly for American readers, though most of the
papers appeared in Tinaleys^ Magazine under the editor-
118
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
ship of Mr. Edmund Yates. I mention the book
and its author, a very loyal American, in order to
quote the following remarks in regard to English and
American sports. " For the out-door sports of England,
I can find no basis of comparison in any other country.
In yachting, rowing, cricket, racing, hunting, shooting,
swimming, and all athletic games, the English are
absolutely unrivalled." This was true ten years ago and
it is true now ; but with a difference. Ten years in the
history of America is half a century of European progress.
Ten years ago neither New York nor Boston could pro-
duce a high-class wood engraving. To-day there is
nothing finer than the small wood-cuts that illustrate
the new books and magazines of the United States.
Ten years ago the manufactures of America were too
insignificant for consideration in the old world. To-
day England herself is successfully rivalled by
American productions in her own markets. In these
same ten years the out-door sports of America have
grown and extended in various directions. Coaching
is a popular amusement in the leading cities. New
York and B«)ston have both their days of meeting.
They are far behind the coaching clubs of London,
but it is not long since that they did not possess a coach
at all, except the old lumbering stage of common use.
Base ball in America takes the place of cricket in
England, and it is played with great enthusiasm.
MAUD S.
119
Cricket too is being introduced in many places, and the
Americans play it with Anglo-Saxon pluck. They do
not attempt to catch the ball in their caps as is in-
variably the case with French beginners. Yachting has
not stood still. Our cousins have won several tight
races against English yachts since the success of the
America. Yale and Harvard and other universities east
and west have snatched laurels from English crews.
For pedestrianism America holds a foremost place,
though there can be no more miserable sight than the
finish of a long-contested footrace against time. Foot-
ball and hunting are both being introduced into the
United States ; but hunting will, I venture to tliink,
never be seen to perfection out of England. The
bicycle is nowhere as popular as on this side of the
Atlantic. The bad roads of America may largely account
for this. But what is to be noted with interest to-day
is the growing popularity of English sports and pas-
times which cannot fail to have a healthy influence on
the rising and succeeding generations of men. Latterly
too American women begin to see the advantage of
taking exercise. They walk more than they did, and
fencing is being introduced among them as a beneficial
accomplishment. It is a very rare thing to see an
American woman on horseback, and many Transatlantic
writers are advocating Hiis and other exercises to their
countrywomen.
120
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
It is the verdict of philosophic observers that great
national changes and revolutions are accomplished to a
large extent by those who live in great cities. America is
certainly an example of this. It is in the cities that the
athletic and otherclubs have their principal beginnings.
There is no ^' country " in America in the English sense ;
no village greens and butts, no commons dedicated to
cricket, no local meadows set apart for foot-ball,
rounders, village sports, no old quoit-grounds and
rough skittle-alleys imder spreading trees by road-side
inns. All these things have to come ; and will come it
may be some day in the dim future ; for, in spite of the
great foreign element that is not English in thought or
instinct, the best and most popular forms of amusement
and recreation in America are the growth of British
seed. To-day there is an increasing British influence of
capital, thought, invention, habits, and manners. The
more Americans come to Europe the more this influence
will increase ; for the American takes home more ideas
from England than from France, Italy, or Germany.
He is more in sympathy with his English-speaking
brethren and they with him. It would be to inquire too
curiously to look ahead one hundred years; but the
famous stanza of Berkeley is full of suggestiveness for
those whose thoughts penetrate the future. Each di-
vision of the old world^s history has shown an advance
MAUD S.
121
from east to west. Who shall say that this mysterious
movement is not in progress stilly as evidenced in the
present position and future prospects of the New World ?
Westward the coarse of empire takes its way ;
The four first acts ahready past,
A fifth shall close the drama of the day ;
Time's noblest offspring are the last.
122
IV.
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
Two Gospels — John to the Jndeans, Robert to the Americans — The
Famous Expounder of Materialism — A Chicago Sabbath— Going
to hear IngersoU — " What shall we do to be Saved ?" — A funny
Story well adapted — The Preacher's Logic — The Evangelical
Alliance — Laughter and Tears — Pathetic Profanity — Freedom
that tolerates Tyranny.
I.
The smugly honest English hotel-keeper puts the Bible
in your bed-room, and the devil into your bill. The
more independent brigand of the United States can
make your reckoning as hot as that of his brother of
Great Britain, but he does not do it under the shadow
of the Scriptures. If he did I should have been able, at
the time of writing this in a certain famous American
hotel, to aid my reflections with the precise words of
the Gospel which heralded the preaching of John the
Baptist. The polite Customs officials of New York
turned over my trunks so religiously that I suspect they
must have confiscated my biblicd library of reference.
^* Then came John the Baptist preaching in the wilder-
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
123
ness." It seemed to me that the other day I realised
the sensations of thoughtful Judeans when for the first
time they heard a new apostle preaching a new faith.
Just as characteristic of his time was John's appearance
in the wilderness, as is Robert's in the Theatre ; John,
poor and ill clad ; Robert, rich and well dressed. I offer
no opinion upon the two messages, that of John the
Baptist, and that of Robert the Materialist. The one had
not a more startling story to tell to the people of his day
than the other to the people of this.
In the estimation of some of my readers it may pro-
bably be thought impious that I should mention together
two such preachers as John the Baptist and Robert
IngersoU ; but there is no ignoring the Western orator,
and John of the Wilderness stands upon a rock that
centuries have not shaken. If there had been reporters
and interviewers and newspapers in the days of the
Apostles, much controversy would have been spared us
tx)-day as to the interpolations of reverend revisers of the
Scriptures. Theology would certainly not have become
such a difficult study as it is had the chronicles of the
dawn of Christianity been set forth by rival newspapers
in morning and evening editions. Possibly we might
in that case never have heard of Ingersoll's lectures
on religion. But he would have talked. Nothing
could have kept him quiet. He was born to " orate."
He has " the sublime gift." You can see it in his
124
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
eloquent mouth, his full, bright eye, his strong jaw,
his intellectual forehead. They have all a kindred phy-
siognomy these public speakers — Gladstone, Beecher,
Spurgeon, Bright, IngersoU— the entire race of great
talkers who think upon their legs, in contradistinction to
the men of conversation such as Thackeray and Douglas
Jerrold. They are not to be confounded with gabblers,
with wind-bags, with men who sit down after an hour's
speech, leaving you without an idea or a thought to
take home for reflection. IngersoU is not like any
talker I have ever heard before. He reminds me a little
of Spurgeon, whose Saxon-English and broad homely
similes are akin to the IngersoU method. He has not
the dignity of Bright nor the polish of Gladstone ; but
he has the earnestness of both, coupled with a boldness
of metaphor and a vigour of style that are peculiarly
American. He represents to-day a great movement,
concerning which it is not my purpose to express
opinions, but to illustrate it with interesting facts, and
with examples of the manner and teaching of the facile
and influential orator whom the pen of America has
called " the Apostle of Unbelief."
U.
It is a singular fact that the most orthodox Christians
are tolerant of a certain mild anecdotal profanity. The
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
125
success of ^^ Helen's Babies" is the latest example in
point. I have seen grave and holy bishops shake tlieir
sides at stories ridiculing the heaven of the Scriptures.
Romish priests are sometimes jocular among their
friends and brethren over some of the difficulties of the
sacred records. Ridicule is a powerful weapon, and
must have done much in this unpremeditated fashion to
undermine the Church and prepare the way for Inger-
soU, for it cannot be doubted that he is the mouthpiece
of vast multitudes who have gone beyond the anecdotical
phase of scepticism, and find sympathetic interpretation
of their doubts and fears in tlie vigorous, open speech of
the American preacher. Robert Ingersoll is their John
preaching in the wilderness, and for weal or woe they
accept his gospel — the gospel of justice, the gospel of
intellect, the gospel of good cooking, the gospel of true
friendship, the gospel of cheerfulness, tlie gospel of
happy homes. No more priestly dictation, no more hell.
The liberal churches of the world would not mind this
so much if the new preacher did not take away heaven
also. " I do not wish to rob any man or woman of their
hopes in the future," he says. " When we lose a person
who is dear to us, it is a consolatory and cherished wish
that we may meet again." But, evidently, he does not
believe in a future life himself, though he does not
profess to war against the belief of others in this
direction. He is opposed to hell and the power of fear
which priestcraft has established for its own purposes.
126
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
I
I
.
In this respect the greatest thinkers of the age are
with him. Huxley and Darwin are with him; the
scientists of Germany and England are with him, and
his doctrine is as old as thought. ** Have you a devil
still in England?" said a German professor visiting
Oxford a dozen years ago, referring to some points in a
sermon one of the shining lights of a certain college had
preached. " Dear me, we have had no devil in Germany
for twenty years and more." He exaggerated the
progress of German thought, but it may be said of the
active liberal intellectuality of Europe that it has long
since deposed the devil.
" How would Ingersoll be received in England ?" I
have been asked. If he devoted himself merely to killing
the devil and putting out the flames of an everlasting
hell, I think he would find the former dead and the latter
an extinct volcano, except, of course, among the extremely
orthodox of the churches. They will not admit the
extinction of Tophet, but they show by their actions
that they do not believe in the material fires of an un>
quenchable hell prepared for the worst of his creatures
by a great, good, and living God.
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
127
III.
It was on a Sunday in Chicago, the day aflor Maud
S.*8 wonderful performance, that I heard Robert Inger-
soll for the first time. Four thousand miles away I had
read reports of his speeches in New York papers. One
often exaggerates the importance of the seemingly un-
attainable. Sarah Bernhardt in London, a shadowy
something indicated by cable dispatches, is a more
wonderful woman than Sarah Bernhardt eating oysters in
New York and sitting for her photograph at Sarony's.
Ingersoll preaching in the wilderness of the West was to
me, sitting by a London fireside, with his printed speech
in m^ hand, a more mysterious power than when 1 found
myself in the same street with him on the American side
of the Atlantic. I had read and repeated some of his
anecdotes in London to English friends. " Give him a
harp I" had become a stock phrase in a little circle of
mine, where cant is not a virtue find scepticism docs
not consign a good-heartod neighbour to the flames.
But had the American journalists given undue import-
ance to the man and his audiences ? Recognising in his
style something original when it seemed almost impos-
sible that anything new cuuld be said upon subjects
which Tom Paine and his imitators had worn thread-
bare, I was prepared to have my judgment discounted,
and to find that " Godless Bob," as the Chicago Times
138
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
irreverently calls IngersoII, was not the giant I had
imagined him to be when some thousands of miles of
salt sea rolled between us.
It was a bright Sunday afternoon. The street cars
were full of church and chapel-goers. Bells were ring-
ing here and there for afternoon service. Some of the
church and chapel goers alighted at McVicker*s Theatre.
They were pointed out to me by a friend. Chicago
orthodoxy is heterodoxy compared with the orthodoxy of
New York and London. Besides the church and chapel
goers, there stepped out of the cars people who ignore
the steeple-house and the clergyman. There was not a
vacant seat in the house — one of the finest and hand-
somest theatres on this continent of beautiful play-
houses.
Is it a good sign or a bad sign that the livelier
passages of the discourse, in which the Bible was most
" mocked " at, excited the heartiest laughter among the
youngest of the listeners, and that they seemed least
impressed with the tender and domestic lessons which
fell eloquently from the preacher's lips when he spoke of
the gospel of goodness ? The audience was well-dressed
and intelligent, young and old, men and women, each
of whom had paid four shillings for admission.
IngersoU lives his sermon of domestic tenderness.
He preaches paternal a£Pection, love of home, duty to
children, do unto others as you would they should do
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
129
unto you, and his theory of life is that man makes his
own heaven or his own hell ; that it pays best to bo a
good fellow ; that if you get worldly prosperity in a dis-
honourable way you are sure to be unhappy whether
^'ou believe in God or not ; that, in short, honesty is the
best policy. " You cannot help God in any way," he
said. ^* He is beyond anything you can possibly do for
him ; but you can plant a flower daily in the path of
your child from its earliest years, until the day comes
when you die in that child's arms." There were homely
touches of this kind from the beginning to the end of
his address, and there were tears in the eyes of many of
his hearers as ho contrasted with the uncertain bliss of
heaven tho certain happiness of kindly deeds and
domestic duties well fulfilled on earth.
IV,
" What shall we do to be Saved ?" was tho subject of
his lecture. He came on from the prompt side of the
stage, and was received with round upon round of
applause. A middle-aged man, he was attired in even-
ing dress, the " custom of an afternoon," it seems, on
tho American platform. He held some notes in his
hand. They turned out to be the Creed of St. Athana-
sius and other extracts from the English Prayer-book
and from tho New Testament. He began just as I could
VOL. I. K
130
TO-DAY IN AMEIIICA.
la;
havo fancied him sitting by my London fire. " Fear,"
he said, ^' is the dungeon of the mind, and superstition is
a dagger with which hypocrisy assassinates the soul.
Courage is liberty. I am in favour of absolute freedom
of thought. In the realm of the mind every one is a
monarch. Every one is robed, sceptered, and crowned,
and every one wears the purple of authority. I belong
to the republic of intellectual liberty, and only those are
good citizens of that republic who depend upon reason
and upon persuasion, and only those are traitors who
resort to brute force." He went on with a wonderful
facility of eloquence. He hit priestcraft blow upon
blow, and he relioved the seriousness of his tlieme by
epigram and anecdote. ^^ Let us have courage," he
said, after a tribute to intellect : " priests have invented
a crime called ^blasphemy,' and behind that crime
hypocrisy has crouched for thousands of years. There
is but one blasphemy, and that is injustice. There is
but ope worship, and that is justice! You need not
fear the anger of a God whom you cannot injure.
Bather fear to injure your fellow-men. Do not be
afraid of a orime you cannot commit. Rather be afraid
of the one that you may commit."
Then he told a certain well-worn story in illustration
of the follies and even impiety in a religious sense of
superstition. ^^ There was," he said, ^^ a Jewish gen-
tleman who went into a restaurant to get his dinner,
\/
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
131
and the devil of temptation whispered in his ear * Eat
some bacon.* He knew if there was anything in the
universe calculated to excite tlie wrath of the Infinite
Being, who made every shining star, it was to sec a
gentleman eating bacon. He knew it, and he knew the
Infinite Being was looking, and that He was the Infinite
Eavesdropper of the universe. But his appetite got the
better of his conscience, as it oflen has with us all, and
he ate that bacon. He knew it was wrong. When ho
went into that restaurant the weather was delightful, the
sky was as blue as June, and when he came out the sky
was covered with angry clouds, the lightning leaping
from one to the other, and the earth shaking beneath
the voice of the thunder. He went back into that
restaurant with a face as white as milk, and he said to
one of the keepers, * My Heavens, did you ever hear
such a fuss about a little piece of bacon ? * " When the
roars of laughter which greeted this story had ceased,
the preacher pointed the moral, " As long as we harbour
such opinions of Infinity, as long as we imagine the
heavens to be filled with tyranny, so long the sons of
men will be cringing, intellectual cowards. Let us
think, and let us honestly express our thought"
Ingersoll has a full and practical knowledge of the
artifices of oratory. He was never at a loss for a word,
though he would occasionally pause, half-hesitatiugly,
to give emphasis to a telling phrase. His action is
k2
132
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
great when compared with the repose of English speakers*
He walks about the stage as Father Gavazzi does, only
that the Italian is almost melodramatic in his action,
flinging his cloak over his shoulders like a bandit, while
Ingersoll is simply emphatic in his gestures. He laughs
at his own jokes ; laughs with his audience ; they with
him ; it is ad if he and his audience were on close and
intimate terms ; as if he slapped them on the back and
they him ; as if they were real intimate friends ; and it
is in moments when they are closest together over a
good joke — the bacon story, for example — that he sud-
denly pours out upon them the eloquent warnings of his
better nature, of the responsibility that rests upon every
man to live a pure and manly life. He is one of the
most natural of orators, natural in the sense that
Mademoiselle Bernhardt is natural in the interpretation
of characters which suit her physique. His voice is
not musical, his maimer is uncultured, but his matter is
original, his treatment unique, and he has the magnetism
of all great speakers who sway and dominate multitudes.
What Maud S. is to the American trotting-track Inger-
soll is to the American platform.
** Tlie Christian system," he said, is this : —
There is an Infinite God I I don't know how many Gods there are,
bnt I hope there is more than one, for if there is not what a lonesome
time he must have. Well, this God made the earth. He made it ont
of nothing, rather than waste material. Then he made a man and a
woman, and he put them in a garden, and said to them: "Do a., yoa
THE APOSTLE OP UNBELIEF.
133
please, but don't eat that apple." Why didn't he put his apple-tree
ontside the garden if he didn't want his apple eaten? If I didn't want
people to eat my apples I wouldn't lock them np in my orchard. Then
God made the devil, and let him tempt the man and woman, and when
they yielded he pat them ont of the garden. Things went on from
bad to worse. The first child bom was f. mnrderer, bat God did
nothing to remedy the evil he had created. Ke never built a school-
hoase, never started a Sanday-school, did not even institute a Young
Men's Christian Association. He just let them get worse and worse,
nntil he made np his mind to drown them, and then he drowned all bat
eight. These eight were depraved, and he knew it; still he kept them
to start again with. Why didn't he get a new stock altogether?
There was a rough, bludgeon-like logic in his analyses
of the Gospels, and ho showed to the evident satisfaction
of his hearers where churchmen had tampered with
them, and how they had overloaded the simple teaching
of Christ with commandments and promises which he
never gave. He carefully criticised every Gospel. " I
made up my mind," he said, "to see what I had to do
to save my soul according to the testament, and there-
upon I read it. I read the Goapels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. But I found that the Church had
been deceiving me. I found that the clergy did not
understand their own book. I found that they har? been
building upon passages that had been interpolated. I
found that they had been building upon passages that
were entirely untrue. And I will tell you why I think
so." His reasons arc too many to be printed in this
P"
134
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
sketch. They were put with great force. Thej' were
full of analyses, the kind of searching inquiry which
belongs ,o the legal examination of evidence before a
bench of English judges. Mr. IngersoU is himself a
lawyer of eminence. After an exhaustive review of the
Gospels, and the exhibition of a remarkable list of so-
called interpolations into the original text, and referring
generally to the powers which the interpolators had
made Christ profess to have given to his disciples in the
way of casting out devils, and the necessity of men who
would be saved giving away their money and leaving
father, mother, wife, and child to follow him, he said :
" Keep tbe Commandments," said Christ to one inqniring for a way
of salvation. " Which ?'' answers the inquirer. Christ didn't tell hira
to keep Snoday^nor to beliere in the Bible. He did not mention Jonah,
not a word abont snakes swallowing each other for exercise. Bnt He
told him to go and sell what he had and give to the poor. I think the
man who wrote that mnst hare been pretty bard np, although the
Church ha» always been willing to swap off treasures in heaven for
cash down; <iind I think the Church mnst hare been dead broke when
it interpolated these words: " It is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven."
Did yon ever know a Christian to onload on this accoont? Oh, no;
your Christian millionaire hangs on to his gold to the last minute, and
then lets it out at Atb per cent, to start a theological seminary, and thus
compromise with God. Bnt I dont believe Christ ever said any of
these things; The commaadment to forsake all things for Christ's sake
I for one will not follow. I will not desert my wife at the bidding of
any Christ or any God. Love yonr children more than Christ. If he is
a man, he is dead; if he is a God, he doesn't need yonr love. According
to this doctrine an applicant ibr admission into the realms of bliss is:
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
135
asked by the Recording Secretary,** What have you done to be saved?"
*' I deserted my wife and six children," answers the applicant. " Go
right inl" says the Secretary. I notice that the men with the smallest
sonls make the most noise about their salvation. When the great ship
of life goes dovm I won't desert my wife and friends, and sneak ashore
in some orthodox canoe. No, I will stand by them and go down with
the ship.
V.
Maud S. went round the track with an easy grace
that seemed to discount her rapidity. It did not seem
as if she was doing anything extraordinary. She went
ahead at a dead-level pace, like a sculler rowing safe
within his power, like a pedestrian holding himself in,
ready when called upon to increase both action and
speed. So it was with IngersoU. He spoke without
effort. From declamation to narrative; from confi-
dential chat to powerful denunciation ; from anecdote to
simile ; from simile to epigram, and thence to pathos of
the most touching character. He was easy all the time ;
lie spoke without effort, and when he delivered his pero-
ration one felt that the long address was too short, that
the speaker could not have been wearisome however
extended his discourse might have been. He chuckled
over his illustration of the fussiness of perverts and
converts. His hatred of the Presbyterians is greater
than his hatred of the Catholics. He says their sect was
started by a murderer whose idea of God was an infinite
John Calvin. '*A young Presbyterian, the other day,
I I 'I
136
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
tried to convert me," he said, rubbing his hands mirth-
fully ; " he was a new convert himself, and was very
full of his own importance. Bumblebees, you know, are
always largest when first hatched. 'You are very
happy now, then,* I said, * with so many other people
going to hell, and you going to heaven ?' Yes, he said
he was happy. * Don't it make you miserable/ I said,
'the knowledge of all those others going to everlasting
hell ?* He said he had not thought of it in that light.
' Suppose now,' I said, ' you are saved and your mother
is lost — could you be happy in heaven with your mother
in hell ?' The young man hesitated a little, but he was
faithiul to his new church. ' Well,' he said, at last, ' I
guess God knows what is best for mother.' "
Presently after, dwelling upon the inconsistencies of
the religions of the churches and the difficulties they
ofier to the existence of an earthly as well as a spiritual
love, he said :
The Evangelical alliance, made np of all orthodox denominations
of the world, met only a few years ago, and here is their creed: They
believe in the divine inspiration, authority, and snfficiency of the holy
scriptares, the right and daty of private judgment in the interpretation
of holy scriptures, but if you interpret wrong you are damned. They
believe in the unity of the Godhead and the trinity of the person
therein. They believe in the utter depravity of human nature. There
can be no more infamous doctrine than that. They look upon m little
child as a lump of depravity. I look upon it as a bud of humanity
that will, under proper circumstances, blossom into rich and glorious
life. Total depravity of human nature ! Here is a woman whoso
husband has been lost at sea ; the news comes that he has been drowned
1%
THE APOSTLE OF UNBEUEF.
137
by the ever-hnngry waves, and she waits. There is something in her
heart that tells her he is alive. And she waits. And years after-
wards as she looks down towards the little gate she sees him; he has
been given back by the sea, and she rashes to his arms and covers his
face with kisses and with tears. And if that infamons doctrine is true
every tear is a crime, and every kiss a blasphemy. It won't do. Ac-
cording to that doctrine if a man steals and repents, and takes back
the property, the repentance and the taking back of the property are
two other crimes if he is totally depraved. It is an infamy. What
else do they believe? " The justification of a sinner by faith alone,"
without works, just faith. Believing something that you don't under-
stand. Of course God cannot afford to reward a man for believing
anything that is reasonable ; God rewards only for believing some"
thing that is unreasonable, if you believe something that you know
is not so. They believe in the eternal blessedness of the righteous,
and in the eternal punishment of the wicked. Tidings of great joy 1
They are so good that they will not associate with Universalists.
They will not associate with Unitarians; they will not associate with
scientists, they will only associate with those who believe that God so
loved the world that He made up his mind to damn the most of us.
In the religious newspapers and among orthodox
Christians Ingersoll is asked, What do you propose?
You have torn this great Christian structure down, and
what do you propose to give us in the place of it ? He
replies :
I have not torn the good dow n. I have only endeavoured to trample
out the ignorant cruel fires of hell. I do not tear away the passage,
" God will be merciful to the merciful." I do not destroy the promise,
" If you will forgive others, God will forgive you." I would not for
anything blot out the faintest stars that shine in the horizon of human
despair, nor in the horizon of human hops, but I will do what I can to
get that infinite shadow out of the heart of man.
" What do I propose ? " Well, in the first place, I propose good
fellowship— good friends all around. No matter what we believe.
138
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
shake hands and let it go. That isyoar opinion ; this is mine; "let
as be friends." Science makes friends; religion, superstition, makes
enemies. They say, " Belief is important." I say: No, actions are
important. Jndge by deed, not by creed, good fellowship. We have
had too many of these solemn people. 'Whenever I see an exceedingly
solemn man, I know he is an exceedingly stupid man. No man of any
hamonr ever founded any religion, never. Hnmonr sees both sides,
while reason is the holy light; hnmonr carries the lantern, and the
man with a keen sense of hnmonr is preserved from the solemn
stupidities of superstition. I believe in the gospel of cheerfulness, the
gospel of good nature, the gospel of good health. Let us pay some
attention to our bodies. Take care of our bodies, and our souls will
take care of themselves. Good health! And I believe that the time
will come when the public thought will be so great and grand that it
will be looked upon as infamous to perpetuate disease. I believe the
time will come when man will not fill the future with consnmption and
, insanity. I believe the time will come when we shall study ourselves
i and understand the laws of health. I believe in the gospel of good
living. Yon cannot make any god happy by fasting. Let ns have
I good food, and let ns have it well cooked — and it is a thousand times
better to know how to cook it than it is to understand any theology in
the world. I believe in the gospel of good clothes ; I believe in the
gospel of good houses ; in the gospel of water and soap. I believe in
the gospel of intelligence, in the gospel of education. The school-
house is my cathedral. The universe is my bible. I believe in that
gospel of justice that we must reap what we sow.
And so he went on with his beliefs and with illustra-
tions of their good amidst thunders of applause, the vast
audience holding him silent for some seconds at his
references to the school-house, to the cathedral, and to
the gospel of justice. " I don't believe in forgiveness,"
he said, suddenly coming forward as if under the inspi-
ration of the ringing cheers of his congregation. " No,
I do not. If I rob Smith and God forgives me how is
THE APOSTLE OP UNBELIEF.
139
that |,'oing to help Smith ? If I by slander cover a
poor girl with the leprosy of some imputed crime, and
she withers away like a blighted flower, and Jifterwards
I get forgiveness, how does thVit help her ? If there is
another world we have got to settle. No bankrupt court
there. Pay down. The Christians say that, among the
ancient Jews, if you committed a crime you had to kill
a sheep ; now they say * Charge it.' * Put it upon the
slate.' It won't do ; for every crime you commit you
must answer to yourself and to the one you injure.
And if you have ever clothed another with unhappiness,
as with a garment of pain, you will never be quite as
happy as though you hadn't done that thing. No for-
giveness. Eternal, inexorable, everlasting justice. This
is what I believe in. And, if it goes hard with me, I
will stand it, and I will stick to my logic and I will be:.i'
it like a man."
Then turning back again to pick up his gospel theme,
he said his doctrine of good living, his gospel of good
fellowship, would cover the world with happy homes.
His doctrine would put carpets on their floors, pictures
upon their walls. His doctrine would put books upon
their shelves, ideas in their minds. His doctrine would
rid the world of the abnormal monsters born of the
ignorance of superstition. His doctrine would give them
health, wealth, and happiness. " That is what I want,"
he exclaimed. " That is what I believe in. Give us
140
TO- DAY IN AMERICA.
intelligence. In a little while a man may find that he
cannot steal without robbing himself. He will find that
he cannot murder without assassinating his own joy.
He will find that every crime is a mistake. He will find
that only that man carries the cross who does wrong, and
that in the case of the man who does right the cross
turns to wings upon his shoulders that will bear him
upward for ever. He will find that intelligence, self-love,
embraces within its mighty arms all the human race."
The most successful drama, theatrical managers tell
you, is that which sandwiches in its scenes laughter and
tears ; audiences like to laugh and cry almost in the
same breath. Ingersoll's addresses are modelled on this
principle. Laughter, enthusiasm, heartfelt emotion, are
the responses to his catching eloquence. I call to mind
his closing words ; the spirit of them remains with me
as orthodoxically as the sacred music of a cathedral
choir. " Oh ! but you say I take away immortality. I
do not. If we are immortal it is a fact in nature, and we
are not indebted to priests for it, nor to bibles for it, and
it cannot be destroyed by unbelief. As long as we love
we will hope to live, and when the one dies that we love
we will say, * Oh, that we could meet again ! ' And
whether we do or not it will not be the work of theology.
It will be a fact in nature. I would not for my life
destroy one star of human hope, but I want it settled that
when a poor woman rocks the cradle and sings a lullaby
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
141
to her dimplod darling sho will not bo compelled to
believe that ninety-nine chances in a hundred she is
raising kindling-wood for hell. One world at a time I
That is my doctrine. It is said in this Testament, ^ Suf-
ficient unto the day is the evil thereof;' and I say,
Sufficient unto each world is the evil thereof. And
suppose after all that death does end all, next to' eternal
joy, next to being for ever with those we love and those
who have loved us, next to that is to be wrapt in the
dreamless drapery of eternal peace."
And these words that follow were those that stirred
the hearers into a shout of enthusiastic endorsement of
the humanitarianism of his eloquent discourse :
Next to eternal life is eternal death. Uimn the shadowy shore of
death the sea of trouble casts no wave. Eyes that have been curtained
by the everlasting dark, will never know again the toach of tears.
Lips that have been touched by eternal silence will never utter another
word of grief. Hearts of dust do not break. The dead do not weep,
and I would rather think of those I have loved, and those I have lost,
as having returned, as having become a part of the elemental wealth
of the world — I would rather think of them as unconscious dust, I
would rather think of them as gurgling in the stream, floating in the
clouds, bursting in the foam of light upon the shores of worlds, I
would rather think of them as the inanimate and eternally unconscious,
than to have even a suspicion that their caked souls had been clutched
by an orthodox God.
The entire doctrine of Ingersoll may bo summed up
in the belief that the honest man and the loving woman
have nothing to fear in the future. But let it bo under-
142
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
stood that in this sketch I am simply dealing with tho
speaker, not with his doctrines; that my remarks are
narrative, not theological. Maud S. on Saturday,
Ingersoll on Sunday, seemed to mo to hit American
characteristics of the day as contrasted with specialities
of the Old World. Both are representative of tho
practicalness of American life. I have already shown
why trotting is preferred in America while running is
the favourite racing gait of England. Similar reasons,
so far as their practical data go, may bo found for tho
existence of a speaker who boldly arraigns God on His
throne and brings to the bar the churches that have
revealed Him. It was said scornfully of the unbelievers
in the days of tho Apostles that they wanted a sign.
Ingersoll makes a similar claim : ^^ Let these modern
Apostles, these living saints of Rome who have inherited
the power of casting out devils, lot |hem do it. Let
them come forward and cast out one before us — ever so
little a one — a devil for a cent !" The American mind,
particularly in the West, wants proofs. It refuses to
take anything for granted, and Ingersoll interprets its
hard business-like view. " I have made up my mind
that, if there is a God, he will bo merciful to the
merciful. Upon that rock I stand ! That he will forgive
the forgiving. Upon that rock I stand I That every
man should be true to himself, and that there is no
world, no star, in which honesty is a crime. And upon
THE APOSTLE OF UNBELIEF.
143
i
1
that rock I stand I Tho honest man, the good, kind,
Bwoct woman, tho happy child, havo nothing to fear,
neither in this world nor tho world to come. And u[yon
that rock I stand I ''
In a country where men and women are not con-
fronted with the living traditions of old churches, where
they live outside the shadows of solemn cathedrals, be-
yond the influence of a State church or a national religion
represented by cowled monks and hooded nuns, by ves-
per bells and solemn processions, it is not to be wondered
at that thought is freer, and that the keen reasoning of
an active age of work should dispute with the Fathers
of the ancient Churches of Europe. Without for a
moment pretending to indorse the doctrines of Inger-
soll, there can be no doubt that on the whole he is
doing an important work, and possibly a good work.
One of the most enlightened of Chicago clergymen,
in discussing the subject with me, took that view. A
change is coming over the spirit of the churches. Tho
Church of England must modify the damnatory clauses
of its leading creed in presence of the new movement
represented by Ingersoll, and the other churches, if they
are to hold the respect and reverence of the next gene-
ration, must rule more and more by love and less and
ss by fear. This will come with the spread of educa-
tion and with further revisions of the Scrij)ture8, which
are full of interpolations that make God a God afflicted
144
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
i I
with human passions, and neutralise some of the holiest
teachings of Jesus Christ, the sublimity and grandeur
of whoso character Ingersoll does not attack.
If the great Western orator visits London to deliver
his lectures he must tone down the strong colours of his
denunciation of the Bible. The Book is the rock upon
which it is claimed that Christian England has built her
house. Professors Huxley and Darwin and many other
Englishmen of distinction do not accept the biblical
tradition, but they are content to wait for the revelations
of science which are to modify it ; and the man who
comes before the public to decry it and scoff at its God
will find difficulties and tribulation in his path that he
does not dream of in America. At the same time it is
quite possible that a speaker of such original power and
personal weight as Robert Ingersoll would find in
London and the leading cities great audiences willing to
listen to him, ready to laugh at his profane jokes, and
prepared to cry over and applaud his illustrations of the
pathetic depths of human depravity and human love.
There are no more characteristic illustrations of the
practical bearings of the active American mind as it
seems to me than Ingersoll, his lectures, and his audi-
ences ; and in face of these examples nothing puzzles mo
more than the patience with which this great, busy,
practical freedom-loving race submits to the swindling
and tyranny of national corporations.
145
V.
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
American and English Bishops— Sunday and the Churches — Religions
Freedom — Ingersoll's Lecture on Ghosts — Witchcraft — Anec-
dotical Rhetoric — Tyrannical Phantoms — Visiting a famous
Spiritualist— A Private Seance in New York — The Spiritualist
and the Soldier — A Dramatic Story — Mr. Foster's Manifestations
— Messages from the Dead — Spiritism at Fault— The Church
tolerating Modem Jugglery— A Newspaper written by Famous
Ghosts — The latest Development of Trade Journalism.
I.
There is no more religious freedom in the United
States than there is in England. The fact that we hare
on this side of the Atlantic a State Church does not
leave us with a narrower margin for numerous sects
and creeds than that which fringes the Episcopal Church
in America.
If the ministry there has more of the aspect of
mere business than it has in England, it is be-
cause the American people are less reverential than
we are, arid more solf-asscrtivo in the matter of
VOL. I. h
m
If
m
Vi^
f ih
146
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
general equality. An American bishop does not im-
press an Englishman as an English bishop docs.
Something of the ancient sanctity of the old priest-
hood nestles in the British Episcopal garments. Then
our divine is a minister of state as well as of the
(gospel. He is a spiritual peer of the realm. He has a
seat in the House of Lords. He lives in a palace and
rides a sleek cob, when he is not sitting in a luxurious
chariot behind still sleeker carriage horses. Altogether
he is a very different person from your American bishop,
who has no curly brim to his hat, no ecclesiastical
waistcoat, no gaiters, and wears no superior expression
on his face when he condescends to address you. The
American church-goer would not put up with it if ho
had, any more than the American servant will submit to
anything like hauteur from his employer.
As a companion on board ship, or during a long rail-
way journey, being compelled to travel with a bishop I
should certainly prefer the society of an American ec-
clesiastic. Fancy an English bishop taking off his
coat and gaiters and vaulting into bed on a Pullman car !
Orthodoxy trembles at the bare idea of such an exhi-
bition. Imagine the right reverend cleric running
along the track of an American railway to snatch a
mouthful of luncheon, egged on by a coloured gentle-
man with a gong, and the intimation, ^^ This way for
luncheon I No more to eat till you get to Syracuse I '*
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
147
Imagine his lordship in a boot-black-saloon being
polished off under the fiimiliar notice posted in nume-
rous establishments concerning the demoniacal effects
of ^^ busting " under the influence of misplaced con-
fidence.
The suggestion of such a mischance gives one a
shudder. Years ago I saw a dean fall into a coal-cellar.
Somehow my respect for the Church I often fear took a
chill on that occasion. Dignity requires the support of
dress and surroundings. In America genius is dignity.
In England officialism and uniforms fill the r6le. One
would just as soon think of cracking a joke with an
English bishop as dancing a jig on one^s ancestral tomb.
A French cardinal or a German archbishop is even
more accessible than an English dean. An American
ecclesiastic of a similar rank would be no more strait-
laced than an ordinary fellow traveller if you met him
on the cars, on a steamer, or at an hotel.
It is singular tliat in a country of so much common
sense, where the utilitarian spirit is so general, there
should nevertheless be a large amount of superstition
diffused throughout all classes of society. English tra-
ditions, the romantic influence of old castles, the strange
gloom of anoieat churches, the relics of historic battle-
fields, the fairy lore of an age still closely linked with
the present, and a hundred other incentives to super-
stition, may be cited to excuse ignorant beliefs in ghostly
h2
148
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
i
influences, in spiritual communications^ in omens, in
warnings, in messages from the dead on this side of the
Atlantic. It seems to me on the other hand that living
among the particularly modern surroundings of Ameri-
can homes it requires an excessive amount of imaginative
power to conjure up ghosts. Yet the United States are
full of them, or at least full of their agents and ministers.
We have many spiritualists in England, but in America
spiritualism is a profession. Its *' mediums" give
advice in family affairs, treat the sick, and carry on
regular correspondence with tlie other world.
In the United States more than in England orthodox
Christians accept spiritualism as a divine revelation
intended to check infidelity. 1 knew a grave vicar of
the Church of England who believed that spirits really
do control the actions of David Home, and that they
are evil ones whose coming and activity are fore-
cast in the New Testament In America I met several
devout persons who credited the Almighty with modern
spiritualistic manifestations in the interest of the Uni-
versal Church. " That the niaterialii^ts may not perish
in their ignorance and stiff-neckedness," said one of
these persons, " Our Father is drawing the veil aside
that the spirits of the departed may commune with tlio
poor sinners and save their souls aHve."
On American Sundays the various churches are wel
attended. The aspect of the streets in Philadelphia,
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
149
Boston, New York, is very much like that of old-fashioned
church-going cities such as Worcester or Gloucester, or
the upper portions of Liverpool. All respectable people
are at church or chapel during the hours of meeting,
and after the morning service they take a short walk
before dinner, just as they do in most English towns ;
for, while late dinners are in vogue on the working
days of the week, an early repast is the rule on the
Sabbath. Aitsr church on Sunday mornings it is the
thing to take a stroll on Fifth Avenue to see the pretty
girls and their gay toilettes. It is a pleasant custom
this mid-day saunter, the sun flashing on the gilded
leaves and clasps of bible and hymn-book, carried in
daintily-gloved hands. In Philadelphia there is quite
a suggestion of the severer habits of Quakerism in the
way of Sabbath observances, though it is not present in
an objectionable form. A few years ago it was a com-
mon practice to put chains across many of the streets
to restrict the carriage traffic during the hours of
Divine service. Both Philadelphia and Boston have a
sterner appearance on the Sabbath than New York.
Chicago has shocked the sensibilities of some other
cities by permitting theatres and concert-rooms to be
open on Sunday evenings after the manner of the
European continent. Preaching is better understood
in America than in England. Sermons are more
interesting and less conventional. In spite of the popu-
I
ft:
n
150
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
larity of Ingersoli and the general freedom of thought
and conversation in every class of society upon religious
subjects, the Rev. R. W. Dale, an English Nonconformist
minister, during his recent travels in the United States,
" met with no man professing the Christian faith who
betrayed that sense of insecurity which I sometimes
meet with in England in relation to the ultimate grounds
of religious belief.'' He heard of vehement attacks on
the orthodox creed; but these attacks troubled the
Christian people whom he met in America much lees
than similar attacks trouble Christian people in England.
The Americans seemed to feel very sure of their ground,
and they showed no alarm. My experience does not
enable me to endorse Mr. Dale's impressions. There is
a good deal of the old bitter intolerance of the Puritan
Fathers still alive in America ; and at the same time
there is also a good deal of the calm Christianlike
content which is bred of faith. I found the same kind
of indifference among cultured men and women that
obtains in England touching theological controversy,
with just sufficient leaning towards the rooting-up of
dogmas to make them very tolerant of the preaching of
Ingersoli. ^^ If he would not deny a future state of
rewards and punishments," said a Western preacher to
me, ^' Ingersoli would be perhaps the greatest and most
useful man in this country. But he is improving. One
day he will turn round and join a liberal Church. He
■
THE OnOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
151
acknowledges the sublimity at least of the character of
Christ." There is one phase of the religious question
which Mr. Dale discusses with judicial shrewdness.
It is surprising how clearly Churchmen estimate the
strength of rival establishments and organisations. I
would not insinuate against Mr. Dale the slightest
desire to persecute; but there is a sharpness in his
style and a distinctness in his words when he comes
to deal with Roman Catholicism which is not always
characteristic of his literary method, though his
Impressions of America is ftdl of instruction and
thoughtful observation on many important subjects.
Among the general conclusions which he has arrived at
in regard to the Roman Catholics in the United States
are the following: " That the Roman Catholic organisa-
tion is for more complete and powerful at the present
time than it ever was before, and that consequently the
Church is not likely to lose so large a proportion of its
members in tlie future as it has lost in the past, and that
Roman Catholicism, as a social and political force, is far
stronger than it ever has been ; and that American
4)tatcsmcn who care to maintain the institutions and tra-
ditions of their country will have to deal very firmly
with the attempts of the priostliood to secure for the
Roman Catholic Church special immunities and privi-
leges. They will have to stand fast by the common-
school system, and to discover some means of pi*eventing
152
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
the bishops from violating the spirit of American law,
which is hostile to the unlimited appropriation of pro-
perty to ecclesiastical uses."
Mr. Dale reminds America that in the Middle Ages
the struggle with the Papacy taxed the strength of the
greatest kings ; and that it remains to be seen whether
the strength of the greatest republics will be equal to
the conflict. America has put down the superstitious
tyranny of Puritanism, and will know how to protect
itself from the undue dictation of any Church. Without
the aid of a censorship it has stamped out '* The
Passion Play," and without the government of a bench
of bishops it has covered the land with schools and
churches. Tlie property belonging to the latter is
estimated at 56,191,600 dollars. The school system of
the United States is admirably organised and ad-
ministered. Mr. Dale in his objection to the dictation of
Boman Catholicism in America does not think it worth
while to refer to the barbarities which were perpetrated
by the founders of the present Church in America. There
were no ignorant, tyrannous persecutors more brutal
than the Puritans of New England. Sir Walter Scott
in his " Demonology " repeats historical facts that vie
with anything Rome did under the mask of the Inquisi-
tion. America will do well to let no Church, no sect,
no creed get the upper hand, for they have all persecuted
and shamed the God whom they worship. The Presby-
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
153
terians, Calvinists, and Independents of New England
filled the land with ^^ weeping and wailing and gnash-
ing of teeth." To-day education holds superstition in
check; and nobody can be fined or imprisoned for
entertaining religious or other opinions contrary to
those accepted of the majority. Any religion that
cannot stand investigation and inquiry is not worth
troubling about.
Mr. Beecher and Mr. Talmage, two eminent preachers
whose names are familiar in England as well as America
(Mr. Talmage having lately made a very profitable tour
of English dissenting pulpits and English platforms),
evidently no longer rely upon " the saving truths " of
Christianity as sufficient attraction to their congrega-
tions. They occasionally introduce into their churches
the hysteric sensations of so-called ** revivalism," a
public display of the nervous debility of weak intellects
under the thunder-threats of brimstone and fire, and the
strikingly contrasted promise of an everlasting Paradisian
holiday. Recently Mr. Beecher allowed a company of
" Palestine Arabs " to occupy a temporary stage erected
over his pulpit. Two thousand spectators were kept in
a continual flutter of amusement and mirth at the lively
illustrations of life in the Holy Land. The manager of
the troupe is one " Professor Rosedale," said to be a
Christianised Arab. Ho speaks English like a native
and manages his show with great skill. There were
154
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
seven men and one wuman among the company, all
converts to Christianity with one exception, and this
exception was a Mohammedan, and ^'a whirling dor*
vish" and a " tremendous prayer " to Allah. One was
a sword-dancer and tambourinist ; another was a reed-
player seven feet high ; and another was a young chief
of 18 who had, it was stated, married when he was 8,
and was a happy father at 12. These barbarians, dressed
in all kinds of strange costumes, were permitted to howl
and dance and enact all manner of supposed incidents
of Arab life, including the performance of a marriage
ceremony in Mr. Beecher*s church. The congregation
was eminently sympathetic; it encored the sword-
dance. One feature of the entertainment was the per-
formance of Eastern prayer. " The dervish," said the
manager, ^' is the only Mahommedan in the party. He
will now come out and pray with just as much earnest-
ness as if there was no audience here. I hope that none
of you will laugh at him, for it makes him very angry, and
he will stop praying." The praying dervish then came
forward, knelt down, and chaunted in a very dolorous
fashion. Afler this he bowed himself out and returned
as a " howling dervish," with several companions in
white robes. Thoy joined hands, and " out-shakered "
their American imitators of the singular but honest
and industrious community of Oneida Creek. On the
whole the entertainment was not uninteresting, and
THE GHOSrS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
155
might attract a crowd at the Westminster Aquarium,
wliere we have had Zulu troupes and Norwegian troupes,
and where we shall possibly see the Nautch girls, if they
hove really any success at Mr. Daly's theatre. Many
years ago, however, a company of this kind proved
disastrous to the management pf a London theatre. It
would be quite a new idea to introduce them into the
** little Bethel " of England just as Mr. Beecher might
show them off in illustration of Eastern manners and
the dancing of Moses before the Lord at the big Bethel
of Brooklyn.
Among the people in America who acknowledge no
Church and attend no religious services it is a good
thing that the materialist infidel, or whatever he may be
called, Mr. Ingersoll, is a teacher and a missionary, for
while he is grinding at creeds and dogmas he is preaching
a gospel of kindness, of charity, of domestic love, of
manly duty, the gospel of Christ without the ecclesiasti'
cal conditions and threats of the Churches. I am not
upholding his opinions, nor is it my business or inclina-
tion to controvert them. A good deal of what he says
is a straightforward explanation of the views of many
good men, both inside the Church and outside, in
America and in England. Unknown in England,
156
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
except by those who regularly and attentively study
the American papers, I take pleasure in acquainting
the English public with his existence, and with some of
his opinions. He is not to be confounded or mixed up
with common-place blasphemers who have of late years
made themselves heard in England in connection with
socialism, communism, malthusism, and other kindred
filthy isms. He is a man in the best and broadest sense
of the word. " I do not pretend," he says, " to tell
what all the truth is. I do not pretend to have fathomed
the abyss, nor to have floated on outstretched wings
level with the heights of thought. I simply plead for
freedom. 1 denounce the cruelties and horrors of
slavery. I ask for light and air for the souls of men. I
say, take off those chains, break those manacles, free
those limbs, release that brain. I plead for the right
to think, to reason, to investigate. I ask that the
future may bo enriched with the honest thoughts of men.
I implore every human being to be a soldier in the army
of progress. I will not invade the rights of others.
You have no right to erect your toll-gates upon the
highways of thought. You have no right to leap from
the hedges of superstition and strike down the pioneers
of the human race. You have no right to sacrifice the
liberties of man upon the altars of ghosts. Believe
what you may ; preach what you desire ; have all the
forms and ceremonies you please ; exercise your liberties
THE onOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
157
in yuur own way, and oxtond to all others the same
right."
It was in a lecture on " Ghosts *' that the eloquent
preacher said these words ; and I recall some of the
notable points of his belief and the purpose of his
lectures. He is doing according to his idea what ho
can to make this world just a little better ; to give a
little more liberty to men, a little more liberty to women.
He believes in the government of kindness ; he believes
in truth, in investigation, in free thought He does not
believe that the hand of want will be eternally extended
in this world ; he does not believe that the prison will
for ever scar the ground ; he does not believe that the
shadow of the gallows will for over curse the earth ; ho
does not believe that it will always be true that the men
who do the most work will have the least to wear and
the least to eat He believes that the time will come
when liberty and morality and justice, like the rings of
Saturn, will surround the world ; that the world will bo
better, and every true man and every free man will do
what he can to hasten the coming of the religion of
human advancement.
" Let me give you," he said, after a long disquisition
on tlio history of the past governing the present, the
rule of the ghosts, " let me give you my definition of
metaphysics, that is to say, the science of the unknown,
the science of guessing. Metaphysics is where two
/
158
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
fools get together, and each one admits what neitlior can
prove, and both say, ^ hence we infer/ This is the
BCTunce of metaphysics. For this these ghosts were
HI pposed to have the only experience and real know-
ledge ; they inspired men to write books, and the
books were sacred. If facts were found to be incon-
sistent with these books, so much the worse for the
facts, and especially for the discoverers of these facts."
Referring to witchcraft, he traced this terrible super-
stition to the Old Testament. Describing the strange
contradiction of the human mind that induced persons
charged with the crime to confess it, ho said —
In the first place, they believed in witchcraft an a fact, and when
charged ':«rith it they became insane. They had read the a«:oount of
the w^u;h of Endor calling np the tlvad body of Samnel. He it) an
old man ; be has his mantle on. They had read the accoant of 8anl
atooping to the earth and conversing with the spirit that had been
called from the region of space by a witch. They had read a com-
mand from the Almighty, " Thou ehalt not suffer a witch to live,"
and they believed the world was full of witches, or else the Ahuighiy
would not have made a law against them. They believed in wibcbcraft,
and when they were charged with it thoy probably liccame insane,
and in their insanity they confessed their guilt. They found them-
sehtis abhorred atid deserted, charged with a crime they could not
disprove. Like r. man in a quicksand, every effort only m^'": them
deeper. Caught in thta frightful web, at the mercy of the dcvot.<9es of
superstition, hope fled, and nothing remained but the iuaauily of cob-
feseion.
The whole world was insane. In the time of Jumes I. a man wii«
burned for causing a storm lit sea, with the intention of drowning one
o£ the royal family ; but I do not think it would have been much of
a crime if he had bcou really guilty. Ucw could be disprove it? How
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HKMISPHERES.
159
coaUl he show that he did not canae a storm at sea? All stonnis
were at that time sopposed to be inap'.'^ by the deril ; the people
beliered that the storms were caused by him, or by persons whom be
assisted. I implore yoa to remember that the men who believed these
things wrote oor creeds and our confessions of faith, and it is by their
dast that I am asked to kneel and pay implicit homage, instead of
investigating ; I implore yoa to recollect that they wrote our creeds.
III.
IngcrsoU has an aptitude of anecdotal illustration
which carries all before it. 1 have seen nothing like
the enthusiasm which his oratory invokes, not in multi-
tudes of thoughtless people, but in vast assemblages of
educated and responsible men and women who have
paid four shillings each for their seats. One of his
rhetorical episodes occurs to me. It was to point his
argument againtst eternal punishment.
A house is or. fire, and there is »een at a window the frightened
face of a woniiHD with a Labi; in her arms, appealing for help ;
humanity cries out, " Will some one go to the rescue? " They do not
Hsk for a Methodist, a Baptist, or a Catholic ; they ask for a man.
All at once there starts from the crowd one that nobody ever sus-
pected of being a saint ; one, ro&y bo, with a bad reputation ; but he
goes up the ladder and is lost in the smoke and flame ; and a moment
after he emerges, and the great circles of flame hiss around him ; in a
moment, more he hm reached the window, in another motncnt, with
the woman and child in his arm:s he reaches the grouud und gives hitt
fainting burden to the bystanders, and the people all Htand hushed for
a monieni'., as tht;}- always do at' tsuch timcu, uud then all the air is rent
with acclamations.
So also is tho atiuosphero of tho great hall in which
160
TO-T>AY IN AMERICA.
ho is speaking. When the surging crowd is still again,
ho exclaims, ^^ Tell me that that man is going to be sent
to hell, to eternal flames, who is willing to risk his life
rather than a woman and child should suffer from the
fire one moment! I despise that doctrine of hell ! Any
man that believes in eternal hell isi afflicted with at least
twodiseases— petrifaction of the heart and petrifaction
of the brain."
This blow at superstition having hit the mark hard,
having gone straight home, he delivers another in the
same direction. " I have seen," he says, " upon the
field of battle a boy sixteen years of age struck by a
fragment of shell. I have seen him fall. I have seen
him die with a curse upon his lips end the face of his
motlior in his heart. Tell me that his soul will be
hurled from the field of battle where he lost his life tliat
his country might live — where he lost his life for the
liberties of man —tell me that he will be hurled from that
field to eternal torment ! I pronounce it an infamous
licl And yet, according to these gentlemen, that is to
be the fate of nearly all the splendid fellows in this
world."
It is not necessary that I should repeat his arguments
or his facts ; they are indicated in his rhetorical flights.
Nor do I care to bring down upon my humble head the
thunders of orthodoxy by what may be considered an
undue exploiting of the logic of an unbeliever. Of
THE GHOSTS Of TWO HEMISPHERES.
161
course the churches can answer him and do. They are
ansvaring him all this time from one end of the States
to the other. Sermons precede and follow him wherever
he goes. He acknowledged this attention in the very
opening of the lecture to which I have been calling
your attention. He said —
In the first place, allow me to tender mj sincere thanks to the clergy
of this city. I feel that 1 am greatly indebted to them for this mag-
nificent audience. It has been said, and I believe it myself, that there
is a vast amonnt of intolerance in the Charch of to-day, but when
twenty-four clergymen, three of whom I believe are bishops, act as
my advance agents, without expecting any remuneration or reward in
this world, I must admit that perhaps I was mistaken on the question
of intolerance. And I will say, further, that against those men I
have not the slightest feeling in the world ; every man is the product
of his own surroundings ; he is the product of every circumstance that
has ever touched him ; he is the product to a certain degree of the
religion and creed of his day, and when men show the slightest in-
tolerance I blame the creed, I blame the religion, I blame the super-
stition that forced them to do so. I do not blame those men.
And the following was his peroration : —
Why should we sacrifice a real world that we have for one we know
not of? Why should we enslave ourselves? Why should we forge
fetters for our own hands ? Why should we be the slaves of phantoms
— phantoms that we create ourselves? The darkness of barbarism was
the womb of these shadows. In the light of science they cannot cloud
the sky for ever. They have redilcnod the hands of man with innocent
blood. They made the cradle a curse and the grave a place of
torment I^et the ghosts go — justice remains. Ix't them dis-
appear — men, women, and children are left. Let the monster fade
away — the world remains, with its hills, and soius, and plains, with its
seasons of smiles and frowns, its springs of leaf and bud, its summer
of shade ami dower, its autunm with the laden boughs, when
VOL. I. K
162
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
The withered banners of the com are still,
And gathered fields are growing strangely wan,
While Death, poetic Death, with hands that coloar
Wbate'er they touch, weaves in the Antomn wood
Her tapestries of gold and brown.
The world remains with its winters and homes and firesides, where
grow and bloom the virtaes of onr race. All these arc left; and
music, with its sad and thrilling voice, and all there is of art and song
and hope and love, and aspiration high. All these remain. Let the
ghosts go— we will worship them no more I Man is greater than these
phantoms. Humanity is grander than all the creeds, than all the
books. Humanity is the great sea, and these creeds and books and
religions are but the waves of a day. Humanity is the sky, and these
religions and dogmas and theories are but the mists and clouds chang-
ing continually, destined finally to melt away. Let the ghosts go I
We will worship them no more I Let them cover their eyeless sockets
with their tleshlcss hands, and fade for ever from the imagination of
men!
IV.
It iS) as I 8aid before, curious that in presence of so
much orthodoxy and so much enlightened unorthodoxy
that tlie superstition of spirituaHsni should have planted
its mystic throne right in the very heart of the great
Republic. The chief apostle of the new " black art,"
or "divine revelation" as some churchmen call it, is Mr.
Charles Foster, an amiable gentleman, who kindly inti-
mated throuo;h a friend that he would be pleased to give
me an opportuity of investigating " the new religion,"
or in other words that ho would ** give me a «(/anc«."
My first visit to his handsome brown-atone fronted
house was ill-timed. Another and a more interesting
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
163
arrival was daily expected. Mr. Foster was in a state
of morbid (excitement. He rubbad his hands and looked
at me in a vague, wandering fashion, that did not har-
monise with my idea of a calm and self-possessed
medium. When I knew the cause of his emotion, he
went up considerably in my estimation. He was greatly
concerned for the fate of his young wife. The next day
he was the happy father of a son ; and Mrs. Foster was
as well as could bo expected. The spiritualist received
me with distinguished courtesy, and on my second visit I
was accompanied by a lady who believed in him, a Mrs.
M., and by a gentleman well known in dramatic circles
as Mr. C.
Now Mr. C. was not a spiritualist. He was an
inquirer like myself. Mr. Foster was well known to
him, it is true, and before the seance commenced ho
entertained Mrs. M. and myself with the following re-
markable narrative in illustration of Mr. Foster^s strange
and mysterious powers.
" I was with Captain F.,'* said Mr. C, " when he
visited Foster soon after the war. F. w«is a fine,
powerful, handsome fellow — a Southerner, who had
done great deeds as a cavalry officer. He was bitten
with a desire to have a sSance with Foster. I intro-
duced him and stated his wish. The spiritualist stipu-
lated for a considerable fee. He did not seem to care
about us or our object. Indeed, I thought ho rather
M 2
164
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
tried to ])nt us off. * Do you believe in spiritualism ?'
Foster asked. *No,' said Captain F. ; *but I would
like to.' Foster lighted his meerschaum pipe, and the
stance was opened with knockings, and went on a little
tamely at first. By-and-by, Foster grew excited, and
looking F. full in the face said, * There is present the
spirit of one who loved you dearly and died of a broken
heart.* * Take care !' said Captain F., half rising from
his seat, and nervously clutching the back of his chair.
* She was a deeply-injured woman,* went on the
medium, without appearing to notice the startled officer
and speaking as if communing with the dead ; ^ she
was a deeply-injured woman, and when she died *
* By thunder I* exclaimed F., *stop! Be cautious,
or I may kill you.* Ho leaned over the table, his
white face close to the spiritualist's. I tried to in-
terpose, but Foster's calmness reassured me. He
simply looked straight at the soldier and said, ^ Shall I
repeat her last dying words?' F. pulled himself to-
gether, though the perspiration was streaming down his
face. ' No living soul but myself,* he said, in a trem-
bling voice, * heard those last dying words ; they were
whispered into my ear. If you are tricking me — if you
make any mistake — I will kill you where you stand.*
By this time he had grasped his revolver, and the
situation had become too critical for me even to think
of interfering. * Shall I deliver the words to you aloud.
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
165
or shall she write them ?' I had sufRcient presence of
mind, uninfluenced by curiosity, to say * Write them,'
and F. acquiesced with a nod. Foster passed a slip of
paper under the table, and in a few seconds handed it
to the captain, who, uttering a cry of surprise and
remorse, fell back into his chair, and did not speak
again until we were walking down Broadway. All that
day he was like a man possessed, and even now we
hardly ever meet without his recalling the circumstance
to my mind."
Tims was our stance inaugurated with a personal nar-
rative sufficiently dramaiio to put one in a proper state
of mind for revelations of startling power.
We were assembled in a plainly but well-furnished
room, on a fine morning in October, with the Indian
summer sunshine stealing through the window, and
making the apartment anything but ghostly. Mr. Foster,
a gentleman with somewhat of an oriental east of coun-
tenance, and by no means unprepossessing in manner or
appearance, was smoking a meersciiaum pipe, for
which habit he apologised and asked our indulgence.
He chatted about Loiulon, antl expressenl bis admiration
of the English people, and his detestation of jugglers
who profess to produce similar manifestations to his
own by trii^kery and sleight of hand.
166
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
" It is only right to tell you," I said, ** that I am not
a believer in spiritualism; but I am willing to be a
patient inquirer, and anxious to have some proof of tho
peculiar power which you are said to possess."
" How do you account for the facts which Mr. C. has
just spoken of, if the incident ho related was not the
result of spiritual influence ?" asked the famous medium.
" Firstly, that you may have known Captain F.'s
story beforehand."
" Impossible I" said Mr. C.
The medium smiled with an expression of patient pity
for my ignorance.
" Secondly," I continued, " that through the influ-
ence of mesmerism you may perhaps have been
able to take possession of his mind and to read his
thoughts."
" No, Sir," responded Foster ; " you are quite wrong.
The information came without any will or influence of
mine — came from the spirit of that poor dead womai>
who stood beside him, as I now see spirits standing by
vou."
Knockings were heard near the table — mysterious
knockings calculated to impress one by their strange
unmaterial character — sounds that appeared to be
made by aerial concussions, knocks that were odd and
unnatural.
" Write as many names as you please on the slips of
THE GHOSTS OP TWO HEMTSPHERES.
167
paper before you," said Foster — *^ names of persons
who are dead or living, and names of fictitious people.
Write them as you please, and fold up the slips
tightly."
I wrote thirty or forty names. I crushed each slip
into the semblance of a pea. Foster did not touch
them.
" Think of some person from whom you would like to
hear."
I thought of my father.
Foster took up the paper pellets one after the other,
asking, as he picked up each one, "Are you here?"
Presently there were loud and irrepressible knocks.
" Take down the letters as I spell out the name," said
the spiritualist, who with great rapidity spelt out the
Christian and surname of my father.
" Your father would like to write a message tc you,"
said the spiritualist, and almost immediately ho produced
the following: —
" It is true that I am with you — true that I am
always by your side, and that I love you as ever. — F. A.
Hatton."
" Do you see any jugglery in that?" Foster asked.
" None," T replied ; and the very simplicity of tlic
incident was impressive.
" Think of some one else," ho said.
I thought of a sister long since dead, and witli ilic
168
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
same prompt and rapid result, including the writing
down of her pet name ; and no one in America could
possibly have known it, though a shrewd guess might,
of course, have been made that Mary would bo converted
into *• Polly."
" Now let your friends throw in a number of names
to mix with yours."
This was done, and the knockings increased consider-
ably.
"There are persistent knocks close to me," said
Mrs. M.
Foster consulted the paper pellets.
" Are you here ? are you here ?"
The knocks were furious. Foster spelled out, " Mary
G ."
"Who is Mary G ?" he asked.
There was no response. I preserved a stolid counte-
nance.
The pause was ultimately interrupted by Mrs. M.,
" Mary G is my aunt," she said, tearing up the
pellets and smiling at me.
During the remainder of the stance " Mary G "
was the noisiest of all the ghosts, eliciting frequent
recognition from the medium. " Mary G is still
with you," he would say ; " your aunt is still by your
side, Mrs. M." " Mary will not leave you." I said
nothing, but I kept my mind on Mary G , as I
THE GflOSTS OF TWO HEMISPriERKS.
K59
wish my readers to do. Don't let Mrs. M.'s aunt
escape you.
A ghost was now raised for Mr. C, and the medium
declared he could see it.
''May I ask it a business question?" inquired my
friend.
" Certainly. Ask a question the answering of which
will be useful to you," said Foster.
Mr. C. put his question in writing, and was answered
aloud at his own request, and the words were also
written as follows: —
" You will return to the theatre."
Mr. C. accepted the answer without remark.
VI. >J
The stance went on with varied results of no moment.
It is one of Foster's specialities that the spirits write
their names on his arm, and he promised us the mani-
festation at a future day. 1 have seen it done reason-
ably well by an amateur. Mark on your flesh with a
blunt instrument, a pencil, or a knitting-needle ; rub the
place a few minutes aflterw ards, and you will And the
initials come out red and distinct. I don't know whether
this is Foster's method, or whether it is a burlesque upon
iL I leave the question between himself and his clients,
whom he counts by hundreds. He is consulted on all
kinds of delicate and serious matters by strong men and
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TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
by weak women, who travel long journeys to see him,
for his spiritualistic advice.
"You are thinking of two dead persons at this
moment," said Foster.
" Pope and Dr. Williams," he said, " they are in the
room?"
" I was not thinking of Pope," I said, " and the
Pope whose name I wrote is not dead."
This confused the medium, but he insisted that I was
wrong in saying I had not thought of these two persons
together.
It occurred to me afterwards that I wrote these two
names together on a slip of paper. An expert may see
an explanation in this significant fact.
" There is another dead friend, however, of whom I
am thinking," I said.
The medium consulted the paper pellets.
" Yes, he is here," he said, spelling out the name of
a once well-known English litterateur^ whose reputa-
tion in America is associated with wit and humour.
"I see the two standing beside you, one on your
right, one on your left. One is tall, and wears spec-
tacles ; the other is short and fat."
** I would like to hear from the last-named gentleman,
the litterateur" I said.
" He wishes to send you a message," replied the
spiritualist.
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
171
" I am very anxious to have it."
Foster passed under the table a slip of paper, which
came forth with the following word written upon it in a
bold hand : —
»>
** Spooks J
I looked at the word in amazement. " Spooks," I
said, and handed the paper round.
" Spooks," said Foster, carelessly, and looking at his
watch.
" What does Spooks mean ? " I asked.
" It is slang for a ghost," said Mr. C.
" Not English slang?" I said.
"American," suggested Mrs. M., "it is common
enough here."
" I never heard ii Defore," I said, " and I am sure
my dead friend had not; he was never in America.
Moreover, why should he send me such a profitless
message as Spooks I "
I was just about to ask the medium to demand an
explanation from the little fat ghost who was supposed
to be still standing at my side, when Mr. Foster said we
must now excuse him, he had several clients waiting.
We thanked him for his courteous reception, and ho
bowed us out with pleasant gentlemanly ease, which
was not ruffled when we inquired after the baby.
'
172
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
I told the reader not to forget Mrs. G , to have
his attention fixed upon Mrs. M.'s aunt, who attended
her so persistently in the stance. Listen. Mrs. M. was
anxious that I should be pleased with my visit to Foster.
Indeed, my American friends were wishful to make my
entire visit pleasant to me, and I can never repay their
kindly hospitality. Mrs. M. seemed to be a bright,
clever woman. She professed to be a disciple of the
spiritualistic faith, but it occurred to me more than
once that she only cultivated it for the sake oi amuse-
ment. So I asked her a question about her aunt, which
brought the colour to her cheeks, which may pos-
sibly annoy Mr. Foster when he reads this ; but I
am only telling the truth, and I have no doubt the
medium will explain my difficulty with readiness and
success to his patients, clients, and friends.
" What do you mean by claiming Mary G as
your aunt ? "
" Was she not my aunt?"
"Was she?" I asked. *' Had you ever an aunt
named Mary G ? "
*' Well, no," she said, with manifest confusion ; " but
I had an aunt with similar initials, and one never
knows what happens to one's friends — I thought she
had perhaps married again."
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
173
" But why were you so quick to claim her ? "
" Because nobody else did," she said, " and J did not
want a decent respectable woman going about begging
foi a relation. Who was she then ? "
" She was my grandmother,'* I said, *' an eccentric
old lady who in life or spirit would not for a moment
have been pushed off as the aunt even of so charming a
lady as yourself, in lieu of communicating with her
grandson."
" That's unlucky," said Mrs. M. "But why didn't
you stop him when he kept saying * your aunt is still
with you,* * Mary is still by your side,' * Mary G.
persists in remaining with you,' and all tliat kind of
thing?"
*' Why didn't my grandmother stop him ? " I ex-
claimed.
Mr. C. smiled significantly. Mrs. M. noticed his
amused expression. He also had something to say.
" What is it ? " she asked.
*' I asked the ghost introduced to me a question ? "
*• Yes."
" You heard the answer? "
" Yes."
"That I should return to the theatre. Now the
question I asked referred to the probable success of a
certain big gun. I have recently retired from theatrical
management, as you know; and 'you will return to
174
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
the theatre * is rather a blank shot in reply to a question
about the gun trade."
'* Spooks I" was my irreverent rejoinder, and ** How's
your aunt ? " fell gently from the lips of Mr. C.
We had a picturesque-looking luncheon at Del-
monico's, 'xnd during the repast " Why didn't his
grandmother stop him?" developed into (»ne of those
catch-phrases which often live for years without rhyme
or reason. When we were leaving the place Mr. C.
asked the cashier why his grandmother didn't stop him.
*' Because she wasn't there," was the remarkable random
repartee of the Irish official. I print the result of this
seance (as it was understood I should be permitted to do)
with all due respect to Mr. Foster, and publicly thank
him for his courteous efforts to amuse an English
traveller.
VIII.
Spiritualism as practised by the Slades, Fletchers,
and some other leading professors, affords ample proof
that neither in the Old World nor in the New are we
anything like free from the body-snatching and soul-
enslaving influence of superstition. It is not a little
singular to see men of otherwise strong common sense
and cultured judgment in the leading-strings of spiri-
tualists occasionally ignorant of the proper spelling of
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
175
the messages they are entrusted with by the spirits of
the illustrious dead. I met a gentleman of position and
influence out West who believes that he is in communi-
cation with an Indian spirit which claims to be the
attendant of a woman who acts as his medical adviser.
A friend in New York informed me that some of the
hardest-headed men in the State would enter into no
great business enterprise without consulting certain
spirits supposed to be controlled by Mr. Foster. Mr.
S. C. Hall, late editor of the London Art Journal,
declared to me on his word and honour that he saw Mr.
D. Home float out of a window at the height of about
seventy feet in Victoria Street and float in again at
another window, having in the course of his evolution
been suspended in the air right above the traffic of
Victoria Street. Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall used to spend
portions of every day conversing with spirits. In the
American papers mediums advertise their hours of con-
sultation, and Sunday services are regularly held,
similar to those over which Mr. Fletcher used to preside
at Steinway Hall, in London. These moderns are the
witches, astrologers, and " wise folk " of the nineteenth
century. They are the warlocks, charmers, fortune-
tellers of the past, with the added faculty of a new com-
mercial instinct. They levy toil in the name of the
dead ; they tax the purses and annex the jewels of their
dupes on the authority of spirit messages from generous
r
176
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
ghosts. In the wilds of Roumania, among benighted
Servians, beyond civilisation in the interior of Russia,
on lonely coasts even in England and America, one can
understand the ignorance that accepts the spirit doctor,
the witch, and the ** medicine man" of Indian tradition;
but in London, New York, Boston, Philadelphia,
Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, it is wonderful that
the spirit medium can find monetary profit in the
business of middleman between this world and the un-
known. Ho is indeed a power to-day everywhere, in
trade and commerce, " the middleman." He under-
stands the stage, the studio. He sits high on 'Change.
Financier, broker, theatrical agent, art-dealer, the
middleman, lives, thrives, and makes money. It would
seem to be fitting to the topsy-turveydom of most things
that there should be a middleman between the confiding
living and the harmless dead.
In the days of James of England and the Puritan
fathers these spirit middlemen would have been burnt or
drowned, probably hanged and quartered. Our stupid
and blood-thirsty ancestois were afraid of them. We
of to-day desire to utilise their supposed knowledge. So
instead of entertaining scaffold audiences with their red
trunks and quivering flesh, they give social receptions
in aesthetic drawing-rooms. Now and then they fall
into the hands of the English police. Occasionally they
win a cheap and profitable martyrdom by their legal
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHEUES.
177
al
detentiun and mild punishment. If any man exposes
their operations by doing tricks even more startling
than their own, they get out of the difficulty by declar-
ing the demonstrator to be a medium. When they are
caught in some act of knavery, believing dupes credit
the criminal acts to evil spirits. A friend of mine tells
me that the other day he met one of the leaders of the
Faith in England and asked him what the charmed circles
thought of the Fletchers now. '* Mr. Fletcher," ho
a'lswered, " is undoubtedly one of the strongest and
greatest mediums in the world ; but unhappily for some
time past he has been entirely under the control and
influence of bad and malicious spirits. This led him to
do and say things he would not otherwise have said or
done. He is often quite unaccountable for his actions.
The fact of his evil ' possession ' was well known to all
spiritualists, and he was frequently prayed for, but
unavailingly."
A few years ago Mr. Home was a constant visitor at
a little country-house of mine. The late Dr. Phillip
Williams and the Rev. Digby Cotes, of Worcester, met
him there, as did also Mr. ShurrifF, the late member for
Worcester, the late Mark Lemon, and others. He had
carte blanche to astonish us with manifestations of his
powers ; but he never at any time availed himself of
the opportunity to make converts of us. He was an
accomplished young man, and an agreeable and amiable
VOL. I. N
178
TO-UAY IN AMERICA.
guest ; but he could call no spirits from the vasty deep
whenever he was at my house. During the famous
suit, which he met honourably by paying into court the
money that had been settled upon him, he called one
morning to ask my advice upon a particular question
that had arisen on the previous day. " If you possess
the supernatural power you claim," I said, " give the
court an example of it. You floated in and out of the
windows in Victoria Street ; to-morrow morning sail
round the Court of Queen's Bench, tweak the nose of
the foreman of the jury, flick off the judge's wig, make
the place resound with wild knockings, send banjos and
accordions banging at the heads of barristers and
lawyers, and make yourself generally and obnoxiously
known." He appeared to be somewhat offended at my
levity, and we have not met since, I believe, though the
late Czar of All the^ Kussias received him on several
occasions with much consideration, which should fully
compensate him for any want of appreciation of his
spiritualistic powers on the part of so humble an indi-
vidual as myself. His book of "Confessions" is as
startling a coll6ction of ghost stories as can be found
in modern literature, and many of them are '^authenti-
cated " by witnesses. Dr. Gully, of Malvern, was a
great spiritualist.
A leading journalist in the Western States of
America, and a gentleman of great intelligence and
THE GH0HT8 OF TWO HEMISPHEUE8.
179
force of character, declared to me the other day that,
though he ^* takes no stock in it," spiritualism has
cured him of a malady which had defied all the doctors.
I think, in this case, my friend has mistaken mesmerism
and medical rubbings for spiritualistic influence. There
seems to be an inclination, both on the part of the press
and the pulpit, in America to be peculiarly tolerant of
modern spiritualism. I have not observed that Col. Inger-
soil has included it in his list of degrading superstitions.
He cannot be ignorant of its growing power, nor of the
evident intention of its believers to give it, if possible,
the status of a new religion. Referring to Appleton's
excellent Guide to New York (founded upon the plan of
Dickens's Dictionary of London) I find "spiritualism"
duly posted up as one of the institutions of the city, and
it is thus recorded: "There are several societies of
spiritualists which hold meetings more or less regularly
every Sunday, but they have no fixed quarters. A
small hall on the north side of West 33rd Street, just
east of Broadway, is frequently used, as is also another
hall in 13th Street, between 3rd and 4th Avenues.
Besides these meetings seances are given at private
houses, to which admission is generally procurable by
the payment of an entrance fee of one dollar or less.
Both meetings and stances ai'e advertised in the re-
ligious columns of the daily papers."
n2
180
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
IX.
The latest development of spiritualism in the United
States is a newspaper, the contributors to which are
eminent ghosts. These include famous Romans of the
classic days, and modem Americans as late as the dead
chiefs of the New York Herald and the New York
Tribune, Among the longest articles in a recent num-
ber is one by Claudius Appius, an eminent Roman Cen-
sor, " who formerly," says a humorous critic in the
New York Timesy " wrote his name Appius Claudius,
but who for supernatural reasons has evidently thought
proper to reverse it.'* This Roman spirit gives us an
account of Kome as it was in the days of Augustus. It
is a curious circumstance, and one which the sceptical
will probably use to cast doubt upon Appius's history,
that certain errors committed by the author of a Murray' %
Guide (which takes no note of certain recent discoveries)
are repeated in the Roman Censor's " facts." Pliny,
and Belshazzar King of Babylon, both write for this
spiritualist paper, and they are singularly inefficient in
respect to descriptive power and historical accuracy.
Mr. Horace Greely and Mr. James Bennett are among
the newest members of the spirit staff. Mr. Greely
writes that the present is ''an age that is destined to
eventuate in all the glories." The ribald unbeliever of
THE GHOSTS OF TWO nEMISPHERES.
181
Thf' Times says, " Mr. Grcely is evidently at the present
time in a world where the laws of grammar are not
binding, and this fact will fully account for the remark-
able change which lias come over his style."
There is also a living contributor to the new paper.
He is a Western judge. The town of Terre Haute seems
to have the honour and privilege of his wise supervision,
.unless his title is a complimentary one, for "Judge"
and " General " are often used as terms of endearment
or nick-names by our lively cousins. Finding myself
on one occasion titleless in a company of gentlemen
"down town," in the offipe of a famous New York
** sport '* and banker, where every man was either a
" colonel " or a " general," I elected myself to be a
judge. The title was confirmed in bumpers of cham-
pagne, and 1 maintained it, certainly with not less
credit than the judge who describes the wave of ghosts
which recently swept over Terre Haute. Everything in
America comes and goes in " waves." There are waves
of heat and cold and wind : waves of prosperity and
speculation ; waves of good trade and waves of bad ; if
it is not a wave it is a " boom," and Terre Haute has
had both a " wave " and a " boom " of spirits. The
judge describes how at various local stances and through
various local mediums he conversed with the daughter
of Pharaoh, the wife of Abraham, the witch of Endor,
Mary Queen of Scots ; likewise Moses and Saul, and
182
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Lazarus, " who licked the clog." The last mentioned
actor in the varied scene was materiaiisod and made to
bark, probably under the influence of the " licking "
which Lazarus re-administered for the entertainment of
the company. One of the female spirits in lifting her
ghostly dress showed her legs. The judge saw them,
and they were partially covered by pantelets. I wonder
if the judge is an Irishman. He says the daughtei- of
Pharaoh " raised her skirt so that we could see her bare
limbs and the pantalets which covered them."
This is not burlesque. The paper is a reality, and
its contents are put forward to be accej)ted in good
faith.
We have in London a spiritualistic journal ; but it is
far behind its contemporary of the United States. Class
journalism generally is of a bolder and more original
character on the other side of the Atlantic than in
England. Many leading trades in England have their
organs. The Ironmonger is a great property, and The
Grocer and Chemist and Druggist both floarish. The
Hairdresser I think is not so prosperous as some of its
class contemporaries, but 7 he Licensed Victualler I am
told " drives its carriage and pair and keeps its yacht."
New York, nevertheless, leads the van of progress in
trade journals, with a paper that may be fittingly men-
tioned as the Jinale to this article on ghosts. It is The
Shroud, a journal devoted to the interests of undertakers.
THE GHOSTS OF TWO HEMISPHERES.
183
>»
The title- heading is illustrated. On one side is a
funeral parading a cemetery heralded by the motto
*' The hour cometh," on the other is " Father Time "
in an excited condition, with his scythe in one hand and
iiis glass in the other. The contents of the paper are
varied with trade notes and humorous articles. One
column is devoted to a long list of very old people and
their doings. It is related of one old lady, a widow of
Savannah, that at 90 she is cutting a new set of teeth ;
of another that at 108 she is still doing her own house-
work ; of a Sioux squaw that she lived to be nearly 100,
after being successively t}\6 wife of an army officer, an
Indian chief, a border highwayman, and a Methodist*
missionary. The names and all particulars of these
and other examples of longevity are given, and the
column is headed " No Show for Undertakers." But
in the advertising pages of the paper the undertakers
have a grim " sliow " which is suggestive enough to
sadden the spirits of the most hilarious citizen of any
country, not excepting the merry inventors of all the
funny stories that flood the facetious departments of the
funniest of Transatlantic journals. Tliree pages of The
Shroud are filled with illustrated advertisements which
glorify in big letters and lavish engravings the splendid
and unequalled advantages of certain " Metallic Burial
Caskets," *' Burglar-Proof Boilor-Iron Vaults," <' Em-
balming Tables," and other undertakers' specialities.
184
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
One of the burial firms, setting fortli tlie beauties of its
" Imitation Walnut Caskets," invites the reader to
" send for a sample," and the inventor of the new
*' Embalming Table " commends it as a practical ex-
emplification of " embalming made easy." Six enor-
mous black coffins fill the back page of the paper. I
believe thaf the receipt of a copy of this journal would
in the height of the recent troubles of Ireland have
even shaken the nerves of the Secretary of State for
*' that distressful " but picturesque and historic country.
To me it brings the idea of ghostliness far closer to the
imagination than the journal that claims to carry us
much further than embalming-lables, and burglar-proof
vaults that guarantee patent " immunity from body-
snatchers."
185
VI.
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
American Artiats — An Evening with the Salmagandi Club — Studies
in Black and White — Remarkable Sketches — Art badly paid —
French Influence — America's True Mission in Art — Subjects for
Painters— Sketching Grounds — Mountain Lakes — Fall Colours —
On the Hudson — " Sleepy Hollow " — The Copyright Question-
Capital and Authorship — America's Proposals to England — " A
Sop to Cerberus " — Counsels of Moderation — A Suggestion for the
Exhibition Year of 1 883.
I.
I call to mind a delightful evening with the Salma-
gundi Club, in New York, and wonder why the clover
draughtsmen of that society, with their l)rethren of the
Tile Club, do not open negotiations for an exhibition of
their work at one of the London Black and White
Galleries. It is possible that there may bcs in the way
of this obstructive regulations as regards the qualifica-
tion of a residence in town. Otherwise, I am satisfied
the London men would be glad to receive the work
of their New York contemporaries. Harper .f and
Scrihner^s Magazines have shown us what American
artists can do on wood, and they do not fall short in the
186
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
broader spaces that belong to the Black and White
Exhibition. There were some " time sketches " made
the night they honoured me with their hospitality ; and
there was a rare delicacy of conception in each case,
coupled with firmness and vigour of execution.
The club met in Mr. N. Sarony's gallery, which is
furnished and decorated with European taste, but also
with some admirable examples of native art. Mr.
Sarony is himself a master in black and white portraiture,
which accounts for much of his remarkable success as a
photographer. On the ni/[;ht in question he stood before
an easel, in presence of the club, and " rubbed in " with
charcoal the figure of a lady walking by the sea. The
work occupied twenty-five minutes, and it had all the
chic of a first sketch by a French artist studying a
French model. Sarony is quite a remarkable draughts-
man in his way. He was one of the men who helped
to make the success of that picturesque water party of
Tilers, described and illustrated some time since in
Scribnei'^s Magazine. The decorative work of this club,
the elder of the Salmagundi, is full of quaint originality,
none the less original that it obtains its best inspirations
from classic schools. With this there is also a notable
freshness of design which is very fascinating, Mr. E.
Abbey, a young artist who is seen at his best in Harper's
Magazine^ being particularly conspicuous for poetic
fan<;v and technical finish. « The Tile Club at Work "
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
187
i
and "The Tile Club at Play" are among the best
things that have appeared in Scribner*s, Mr. Laffan's
pnd Mr. Hopkinson Smith's still life studies being not
more admirable than are Mr. Heinhart's figure subjects
and Mr. Swain GifFard's dainty bits of landscape.
kJeveral of the Salmagui'dians are also Tilers, and there
can be nothing more pleasant or instructive than their
" evenings." At one end of Sarony's gallery is an
extemporised refreshment counter, lager beer and
biscuits and cheese representing the Spartan-like fare.
There are pipes, tobacco, and cigars. In the centre of
the room there are two or three easels with sketching-
boards upon them and a handy supply of chalks. There
is a piano in the room, and the Salmagundians count
among their numbers artists who, failing at the easel,
might fairly count on success in the concert room. Mr.
Osborne, one of the designers whose cultured taste is seon
in the brass and gold work of Tiffany's, sang to us
"Twickenham Ferry," in a manner that would have
delighted the composer. The familiar song with its
thorough English inspiration made one feel at home
three thousand miles away from home among these
American pioneers of American art. Between songs
and recitations a member of the Club would stand
forward and sketch ; occasionally he would bo ac-
companied by a pianoforte solo ; and the time occupied
would be found twenty minutes to half-an-hour. Twenty
188
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
minutes was the regulation time, but on this occasion
it was permitted to interpret the rule with extra
liberality. When the artist had finished, the work
being satisfactory, he was requested, amidst the applause
of the club, io sign his sketch. Mr. Vance in fifteen
minutes produced a moonlight effect of trees and water
that was full of weird suggestiveness, and Mr. Richards
a companion study of evening, which would have tickled
the critical intellect of the Grosvenor. Another artist,
Mr. Volksraark, made a study of ducks by a pond, with
a willow on the margin, that was a marvel of suggested
and real effects^ the ducks full of life, one of them
taking a header into the water, the others pluming
themselves, the pond rich with strong shadows, the sky
laced with willow branches. One of the best works of
the evening was two men sailing a boat, the artist, Mr.
BurnM, who has been called the American Hook. H©
is a well-known illustrator of Transatlantic books and
magazines, and has that kind of sympathetic feeling for
m<irine subjects which appeals directly to the English
fancy. Burns often wanders away upon the American
coast, sketching everything that pleases him without
the remotest purpose of financial reward, though he
may surely one day count upon its coming by reason of
this devotion to his art.
At.r AND AUTHORSHIP.
180
II.
I gathered from my interviews with the Sahnagun-
dians that neither socially nor in a money sense does
the American artist occupy anything like so good a
position as his brother of London. America seems to
have no standard of judgment in regard to native art.
The local artist must leave his own country and make a
name in Paris, Rome, or London before his own country-
men believe in him. This is no doubt a proper tribute
to the Old World, but it leaves no room for the founda-
tion of an American school. How a Frenchman read-
ing this article would laugh at the bare idea of America
founding a school, since the all-sufficient Gaul does not
even credit England herself with an art status in Europe.
At present it seems to me (setting aside the new com-
pany of workers in black and white called into existence
by the commercial enterprise of the great publishers)
that America is very much in the position of the Dutch
before they broke away from the Spanish yoke. The
Hollanders under Spain studied in foreign schools. They
painted like Belgians, Germans, and Italians ; they
were imitators and followers. " With the War of Inde-
pendence," says Edmondo do Amicus, a charming
Italian critic recently translated by Caroline Tilton,
" liberty, reform, and painting also were renewed.
190
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Witli religious traditions fell artistic traditions ; the nude
nymphs, madonnas, saints, allegory, mythology, the
ideal — all the whole edifice fell to pieces. Holland,
animated by a new life, felt the need of manifesting and
expanding it in a new way. The small country became
all at once glorious and formidable ; she felt the desire
for illustration ; the faculties which had been excited
and strengthened in the grand undertaking of creating
a nation, now that the work was completed, overflowed
and ran into new channels. Holland, after many sacri-
fices and much suffering, issued victoriously from a
tremendous natural struggle, and lifted her face among
her people and smiled. And that smile is art." Similarly
one may regard America. She has had her two great
wars, one for Independence one for the Union ; she
has gone through the troubles and hardships of cam-
paigns for existence ; she has had to live ; she has had
to build herself up into a nation ; to pay off her obliga-
tions ; to create manufactures ; to get gold for her pro-
duce ; and to become commercially successful. All this
time, what little art she has had has been foreign and
imitative ; it has not been natural in any sense ; and
her gratitude to Lafayette and the French, coupled with
her old hatred of the English, now dying out, led
her to seek in France for her pictures and for her
artistic inspiration. The influence of French art, until
very lately, pervaded every nook and corner where art
ART AND AUTHOKSHIP.
191
led
her
intil
art
was to be found. It was to be seen, and is so still, in
American furniture, dross, decorations, and in tho
bald house architecture of town and country. Our
American cousins were like the Dutch, except that they
did not imitate so many varieties of foreign art ; and
they left out of consideration the one school which, of
all others, is closest to their instincts and aspirations.
I mean the English school, with its earnestness, its grand
solidity of intention, its breadth, its aspirations afler tho
heroic and the true, not alone on battle-fields but in tho
virtuous humility of domestic life.
To-day America is rich. Slie has done with fighting.
She has put her national house in order. She has
leisure for art, and inclination for it. Why not settle
down to illustrate herself as the Dutch did when they
were free? Let the American take pattern by the
Dutch and the English, and be national. He has no
sympathy at heart with the tricky French pictures
which are continually forced upon him ; his inspirations
are not classic ; he looks with a wondering irreverence
upon old masters whom modern critics go mad about,
often thereby obtaining a meretricious reputation for
wisdom ; he prefers to these ancient works the engrav-
ings from popular English pictures that are scattered
through the States. At the great American Exhibition
the English Gallery of Art was crowded from day to day,
and the paintings were liked infinitely more both by the
192
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
cultured and the uncultured than those of all the rest of
the world put together. America has no school of paint-
ing as yet ; but she is marching in a line with France
and Germany and England in book illustration. As the
Dutch artists, when their country became prosperous,
began by tracing what they saw before their eyes, so let
the American painters accept the material that is around
them and illustrate their period, its " form and pressure.'*
They have a multitude of subjects, a wealth of national
incident, a strange world of waters, multitudinous seas
and lakes crowded with the shipping of the world ; they
have curious nationalities invading every shore of their
vast territories ; and they have all the climates of the
Old World, with their special vegetation and varying
modes of life. You can travel from winter into summer
on one great railway journey in America ; they have at
their doors Germans, Irish, Dutch, English, Chinese,
seeking the protection and freedom of their Great Re-
public ; they have mountains and forests, rivers, cata-
racts, prairies of never-ending variety ; and for the pant
they have stories of colonizing adventure, of struggles
with savage tribes, of mining manias, of agricultural
progress, of exploration, of battle, flame, and tempest.
They have no need to seek for subjects in lands they do
not know, nor for effects they do not understand. Their
instincts, their life, their regrets, are not with the past,
as ours are in an old country ; let them paint the
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
103
present, and in the present shape out the glories of the
future.
III.
The sketching-grounds of America offer a splendid
field to tlie hindscape painter and to the artistic student
of nature. Some day a great European master will paint
American scenery and a great English critic will
proclaim the new work. Then the Hudson and the
Mississippi, the lake shores of Erie and Michigan, the
hills of the Sacramento, the fir-clad heights of the
Alleghany mountains, the picturesque pilot boats of
New York, the clam fishers on the flat reaches of the
Long Island coast, the tropical scenery of the Southern
States, the vast dream-like prairies of the West, and the
weird sierras of the *' sun lands," will inspire the genius
of the Old World, and give a new set of landscape studies
and sea-pieces to the galleries of Europe. The mountain
lakes of California present probably more strangely
beautiful aspects to the lover of nature and to the outdoor
artist than any water-scenes on this side of the Atlantic.
Mr. Munger, an American artist, who sojourned a year
or two among the Californian hills for the purpose of
painting them, took home a number of sketches that
might well tempt an enthusiast to pack up his impedi-
menta and start for the West by the next steamer. Yet
these subjects are so new and so unfamiliar to the
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194
TO-DAY IN AMEIUCA.
European eye that the artist finds his chief reward in
studies of better known scenery. His English works
are hung upon the line at the Koyal Academy, but
he keeps his Yosemite Valley pictures in his private
portfolio, hoping that some day he may repeat in
England an experiment which he made with success at
Boston, in the United States, namely, the exhibition of
them as a whole in a West-end gallery. Mr. Hunger
travelled for some time with the Geological Survey of
California, one of the results of which important ex-
pedition was Mr. Clarence King's delightful book on
*' Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada." I have lying
before me while I write a pen-and-ink picture, not from
this work but i'rom a reliable source, which at the
moment I regret 1 cannot recall. It was given to me
by a Western traveller only the other day. It will
convey to the artist what I mean about subjects for the
pencil. It is a sketch of one of the partially filled-up
mountain lakes of California. '^ The curving shore is
clearly traced by a ribbon of white sand upon which the
ripples play ; then comes a belt of broad-leaved sedges,
interrupted here and there by impenetrable triangles
of tall willows ; beyond this groves of trembling aspen ;
then a dark shadowy belt of two-leaved pine, with here
.and there a round convex meadow ensconced nest-like
in its midst ; and lastly a narrow outer margin of
majestic silver fir two hundred feet high. The ground
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
105
beneath the trees is covered with a luxuriant crop of
graHses, trilicum, bromus, and calamagrostis, with
purple spikes and panicles reaching to one's shoulders,
while the open meadow patches glow throughout the
summer with showy flowers — heleniums, golden-rods,
lupines, castilleias, and lilies, forming favourite hiding
and feeding grounds for bears and deer/*
Perhaps there is a deterrent suggestion in the mention
of bears ; but Mr. Hunger tells me he was never dis-
turbed by wild animals of any kind. Sometimes he
would have felt glad of such a relief from the awful
solitudes in which he pitched his tent. Often he saw no
living soul for weeks at a stretch, and his horse would
often come to him from its feeding-ground and stand
staring at him as if it too felt the solemnity of the mag-
nificent stillness in the midst of which they were abiding
together.
This sense of solitude seems to take a strange hold
upon you in American woods and among American
mountains. I have experienced it even in the railway
cars when travelling through unoccupied wastes. The
feeling has been intensified by the familiar sight at long
distances of the solitary farmer's little family, a grave-
yard with its lonely tombstones. " Let us be silent,"
says Emerson, " that we may hear the whispers of the
gods." The gods have little interruption in American
solitudes. If they speak to man where silence most
02
196
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
reigns supreme, they should be eloquent in an American
forest or on the shores of a mountain lake.
Says Mr. Hunger, in the course of a conversation I
had with him about his experiences in the Sierras, and his
wanderings with the Government expedition, " There is
nothing more extraordinary in the world than the group
of extinct volcanoes, some of which I have painted.
They begin with Mount Shasta, in the northern part of
California, which rise 1,440 feet above the sea, and con-
tain a living glacier. Then you go on to Mount Hood
in Oregon, and to Jeffreson and Adams and Reinier in
Washington territory. The latter contains a living
glacier twelve miles long and from one to four miles
wide."
" I thought there were no remarkable living glaciers
on the North American continent," I remarked, " and
you speak of the most extensive ones I have ever heard
of or read about."
*' A few years ago," he replied, " scientists, I believe,
declared that there were no living glaciers in the
country we are discussing. I do not think the detail*
in figures I am now giving you have ever been pub-
lished ; but they are geological facts. The range of
mountains with these grouj s of extinct volcanoes and
living glaciers end with Mount Baker at Puget Sound."
•* One of your lake and mountain studies," I said,
" gives remai'kable detail of strata and foliage although
ART AND AUTHO SHIP.
x97
it must have been made many miles away from the
subject. I know that the pure and rarified air of these
mountainous countries appears almost to annihilate
distance. How far can you see on favourable d.r s in
the Sierras ? "
'* I have seen a mountain by moonlight one hundred
and fifty miles away, and in the day distinctly where
the tree line stops and the snow begins."
*' Do not exaggerate even a mile or two in the exuber-
ance of your imagination," I said, " for the other day,
when I mentioned to some friends that at a Chicago
fire-station they can receive an alarm of fire, harness
their horses, learn where the fire is, and be on their way
to the spot fully equipped in less than seventeen seconds,
some friends of mine thought I was joking, whereas at
the Pioneer engine-house they did all this in my
presence in less than ten seconds, indeed while I was
in the act of setting my stop-watch to ^ time ' them."
" I will only give you simple incontrovertible facts,"
said the traveller-artist. " A group of these extinct
volcanoes can be seen with the naked eye three hundred
miles away. One of Mr. King's topographers measured
the distance in my presence. The lake and mountain
picture which you admired just now is a scene itself
6,000 feet above the sea, and the mountain chain of
which it forms part is 9,000 feet high. The mountain
rising up snow-capped is the Wahstach, one of the most
198
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
!
interesting formations in the workl. Scientists say that
it embraces nearly every prominent feature known in
the wide field of geological study."
" The Wahstach is near Salt Lake ? "
" Yes, if the town were put into my picture it would
seem almost part of the mountain, but it is seven miles
away. Salt Lake City is situate^! in one of the most
picturesque and impressive spots the world can show.
Among the mountains and plains for months together
you might sleep and take no harm in the open air,
which is filled with the aromatic perfume of the pine
forests."
IV.
It is the very beauty of an American landscape,
painted in the autumn, that makes it at present unac-
ceptable in an English art gallery. The floral and leafy
year in England dies with the undazzling blush of a
gentle decay. In America it goes out in a blaze of
splendour. In England it is a flickering candle in
which there is no sudden leap of life at the last. In
America it is the death of a ruddy light that flashes out
like a final signal-flame of glory. Travelling a year
ago westward on the Pennsylvania Railway early in
the autumn, I saw every now and then branches of the
shumach, the young oak, and the maple, that looked
like bouquets of giant flowers, positive reds and
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
199
in
yellows and rich burnt umbers. They stood still and
lonely upon shadows which repeated every leaf and
branch on the sterile soil. Anything like a faithful
representation of natural incidents of this kind is re-
garded in England as exaggeration, except, of course,
by travellers who have seen the reality. Last year
an American artist sent several plaques to the art
pottery exhibition of a famous London firm. They
were covered with studies of autumn leaves painted
from nature. Several connoisseurs and collectors with
whom I visited the gallery at the " Private View " day
regarded them with wonder when I explained that the
vivid reds and orange colours were rather under tone
than over. It needs some great artist to familiarise us
with these effects, these examples of the gorgeous colours
of the fall of the leaf, before American landscapes and
studies painted in the autumn will become popular.
There is no reason why this period of the year should
always be selected by American painters for out-door
work. Their works would have a far better chance
of appreciation and sale on this side if they accepted the
inspiration of summer time rather than autumn.*
* On " Picture Sunday" in England, one day this year, I was face
to face with this interesting subject of landscape painting in the two
countries. It was in the studio of Mr. Kmest Parton, nn American
artist who has established himself in London. He had painted two
subjects, both equally excellent in their way, each in powerful contrast
with the other. The English subject was grey and green, grey clouds,
kOO
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Later in the year, when the cessation of vitality in the
leaf was complete, and the woods only required the first
cold snap of winter to strip their branches, I stood upon
the terrace of Mr. Bierstadt's house on the Hudson,
and watched the sun drop red and sudden behind the
distant hills. Before it disappeared the picture at
my feet was bewildering in its glory of colour. The
trees spread away tier upon tier round a circular bend
of the river. The foreground was a clump of huge
greyish trunks of siWer birch trees; down in a valley of woodland banks
ran a smooth English river; over all there was a calm harmonious tone.
It was a picture on which the eye rests and the mind reposes gratefully.
You often come upon scenes in nature that seem to have a sort of
cradle-song for you, lulling you with an nnexplainable music, under the
influence of which you stand in silent worship. In a delightful little
book, " The Higher Life in Art," by Mr. Wyke Bayliss, the author, I
remember, in one of his chapters, says the poor never talk of scenery,
but that the finer spirits among them sometimes sit and watch it reve-
rently, with placid hands crossed or folded as in the act of devotion.
They have nothing to say, but somehow it speaks to them things half
understood — strange snatches of suggestion of wider life and thought,
as they gaze in grave loneliness. Millais' •' Chill October " aifects me
in this way, and so did Parton's English landscape, but not until I had
stood before his companion picture of an American autumn scene,
which he calls " The Land of Hiawatha." It depicts the early days of
autumn, with its great bright paiches of splendid colours — red and
yellow and golden bronze. Mr. Parton has dared to reproduce this,
and a chorus of P]nglish voices on the day I was there said of the blaze
of colour " Impossible!" The effect on my mind, looking at this
work, was exciting. Contrasted with the English landscape of grey
and green, while the latter might be compared to a pastoral symphony
played on stringed instruments, the other was like the crash of a grand
march on the brass of a military band.
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
201
shadowy firs. The middle distance was the river dotted
with the white wings of yachts and the broad sails of
sloops and barges. They looked like toy-craft on a silent
lake, and afar off there was a misty line of hills against
the sky. A friend of mine, a New York banker, has
a pretty residence at Tarry town. He drove me round
about this suburban retreat of New York wealth and
fashion. It was home-like to see highways with stone
wall fences, park-like gates, and at last a real old
church, the Dutch church at Sleepy Hollow. A bridge,
too, across a rippling brook took me straight away to
English lanes ; for nothing is more unpicturesque,
nothing more unlike the old country, than the country
districts of America with their slovenly wooden houses
or their slovenlier garden patches. Says Washington
Irving: " Not far from Tarry town there is a little valley,
or rather a lap of land among high hills, which is one of
the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook
glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one
to repose ; and the occasional whistle of a quail, or tap-
ping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that
ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity. If ever I
should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the
world and its distractions, and dream quietly away the
remnant of a troubled life, I know of none more pro-
mising than this little valley." The church was built in
1699, and is the oldest religious house in the State.
I
202
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Close by Irving has found his groat repose ; for in the
shadow of the church, in the vadey and within sound of
the brook, he sleeps the last long sleep of all.
There is a world of pictorial wealth on and about the
Hudson ; Fort Lee, Jeffrey's Hook, the Pallisades,
Yonkers, Sunnyside, Nyack, Croton Point, the entrance
to the Highlands, lona. West Point, Kosciusko's Garden,
Indian Falls, Cro' Nest, Newburg, the Highlands,
Katskill Mountains from Tivoli, Albany, and Troy, are
worthy of any canvas. If Turner had only been among
some of the glorious reaches of the river, or even to-day
had Vicat Cole, or Leader, given us bits of the wooded
banks or hilly distances. New York would have seen ere
this many an English artist at work on the American
Rhine. Next to the pleasures of a steamboat voyage
from New York to Albany is a ride on the Hudson
River Railway, which is the most picturesque route to
Niagara. This line may also be commended for its
excellent appointments and well-laid track. The Pennsyl-
vania Railway to Pittsburg en route for Chicago, the
Hudson River or the Erie to Niagara, are the smoothest
and best appointed roads upon which I travelled in the
United States ; and the wayside pictures to be seen
from all of them are superb.
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
203
V.
I am also reminded while I am writing of many
picturesque subjects for the sketcher that presented
themselves to my mind during a special day of pleasure
on and about the waters of the New York Sound, and
during several days of happy rest and recreation at
Sea Cliff and on Long Island. The hospitality of Mr.
John Foord, the editor of The Times, and the especial
courtesy and consideration of Mr. Congressman John
H. Starin, enabled me to see the marine and landscape
pictures that Nature and the hand of man have scattered
about the harbours of New York and New Rochelle, the
low-lying shores of Glen Island, Glen Cove, and the
once savage regions of Long Island. Mr. Starin placed
one of his many vessels at our disposal, and it was a
right merry company that made up the party on board
*' The Blackbird," under the flag of the varied fleets of the
well-known owner, bearing its familiar device, " * in."
It would be to dwell unduly upon one's mere personal
doings to say much about the purpose of the excursion,
which will always remain in my mind a subject of
gratitude and pride. The gentle presence of ladies,
the company of men distinguished in statecraft, in
letters, and in journalism, gave illustrious emphasis to
the splendid hospitality.
We coasted round the lower portion of Manhattan
204
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
Island for some hours. The infinite variety of shipping
was full of pictorial suggestions. As we sailed into the
harbour of New Hochelle, to land at Glen Island, a
Vice-Presidential salute of seven guns was fired in
honour of General Arthur. It was the eve of the
Presidential election, and I had the pleasure later on of
hearing the cheers of Republican crowds which greeted
the return of President Garfield and Vice-President
Arthur. On Glen Island Mr. Starin*s band of instru-
mentalists struck up " God Save the Queen," the Union
Jack was flung out against the sky amidst a cluster of
Union banners ; and I suspect there was an English*
man and his wife among the company who felt to the
full the patriotic sensations which men and women of
all countries experience when, as tribute to their par-
ticular nationality, they hear, in a distant clime, the
anthem of their native land and see its banner unfurled
in token of respect and honour.
It reminded me of English fields and English gardens,
and English festivities some hours afterwards, when on
the lawn newly rescued from primeval forest at Sea
Cliff that pleasant company took hands and sung " Auld
Lang Syne." In Douglas Jerrold's garden years ago,
and at Charles Dickens's too, the Punch staff of the old
days have played leap-frog, — Thackeray, Hood, Tenniel,
Lemon, Shirley Brooks. Alas I to think that only
the brilliant cartoonist remains of all that gallant
ART AND AUTHOUSHIP.
205
company. Tho men most regarded as necessarily cir-
cumspect and stiff by the outside public are often most
boyish in their gambols when laying aside restraint. I
do not know whether under similar circumstances a
distinguished English statesman would have led the
frolics of an informal party ; but General Arthur did
not lose one jot of his natural dignity by a country jig
with the bonniest of his host's daughters, an American
" Scotch lassie," who on our arrival met us in a boat
which she pulled across the bay with a graceful vigorous-
ness and chic which, seen on the Upper Thames, would
have commanded a round of applause on a Henley
Regatta day. It was a notable company, and '* Auld
Lang Syne" travelled over the still waters to be re-
echoed back by the rocky coast which in the olden days
had resounded to the war-whoop of North American
Indians.
I would fain give the details of this pleasant time, but
this is not the place, and I must bo content to mention
the shores about the Sound and many portions of Long
Island inland, as admirable and but little explored
sketching-grounds Indeed within a day's journey of
New York you may find long stretches of country just
in the condition that the Indian " goiiig down towards
the setting sun " has left it. Says the Brooklyn
Eagle.y " There are children now born who will be able
to tell, to the surprise of those who hear them, that in
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TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
their youth there were 500,000 acres of land in Long
Island, within between one and two hours* railroad ride
of New York, already one of tlie great cities of the
world, that had not up to that time contributed any-
thing to the support of man." Tliis " anomaly of a
metropolis at one end of Long Island and a wilderness
at the other " will now, however, soon cease to exist.
Capital and Labour are beginning to join forces for
settling large tracts of Long Island. In addition to the
inducement of cheap land the Long Island Railroad
Company offers the privileges of half tariffs for the
transportation of building materials, household effects,
and produce of all kinds, with free passes to heads of
families to and from New York for a whole year after
settlement. The nearest comparison to this in England
would be the Isle of Wight, a wilderness offered in
cheap lots for building purposes, with passes by rail and
boat, and half rates for garden stuff grown on the island
and brought to London for sale. As an example of
the way in which clever men in the United States
" turn their hands " to a variety of work let me
add that the General Passenger Agent of the Long
Island Railway is a journalist, and one of the most
artistic of the graphic delineators of the picturesque in
America. He is a '* Tiler," his sketches often adorn the
leading magazines, and I believe that some of his
business inspiration has entered into the creating of the
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
207
gigantic hotels of Long Branch and Long Beach. On
this side of the Atlantic the Irish name of Laffan is
honourably and widely maintained by the artist's sister,
whose novels are characterised by a certain masculine
strength that induced several critics to treat '^ 0*Hagan,
M.P." as the work of a man. Ireland should feel proud
of this son and daughter, famous both of them, one in
England the other in the United States.
V.
From the art of the draughtsman to the art of the
writer is an easy step. The question of the moment as
regards literature is a practical one — tlie question of
copyright. It is also an urgent one, urgent now in
America as well as in England. The government of
the United States have made overtures to England in
the interest of international copyright, and more par-
ticularly this time in the interest of the author. The
capitalist is left out a little in the cold, and it might do
no harm to leave him there. Mr. Bright in a speech on
the Land Bill the other day naively remarked that he
is not a landowner, and therefore he is strongly on the
side of the tenant. I am not a capitalist, and my sym-
pathies are strongly with men who live from hand to
mouth. In England capital dominates intellect some-
what unduly. It has often occurred to me that in a
208
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
country like ours, where writers have so. much real
power in moulding the destinies of the empire, it is
strange that they themselves are always at ^' the beck
and call of capital/' Journalists, who are continually
doing something for one class or another ; who are
ready to become enthusiastic over this or that national
question ; who, as the media of Public Opinion, prac-
tically govern the country ; these men are rarely, if ever,
found combining to help themselves or their order.
To-day nearly every prominent journalist is also a
writer of books ; and yet he remains the slave of capi-
talists and publishers.
There is nothing more sad in the history of intellect
than the fact that the anonymous press of England has
literally ground up, body and soul, some of the brightest
and most capable men of the century. Think of the
brain power with which the great daily newspapers have
cemented their reputations and built up their enormous
fortunes I Statesmen, philosophers, novelists, and poets,
whom the world has never heard of, have gone down to
their graves poor and unrecorded, broken on the wheel
of the daily Press. The great leader writers know this.
They know they are effacing themselves under the jug-
gernaut car of the anonymous in the interest of the
proprietor, who otherwise would have to share some of
his income with them, while their fortune would be
secured and their names honoured. In France it is the
AUT AND AUTHOUHHIP.
209
writer who keeps the pappr, not the paper who keeps
the writer. A famous pen leaves a journal there as an
actor leaves a theatre here, and takes with him his
readers and ])atrons. The Americans associalo names
with journals, so that powerful and popular writers
become known there as well as the papers they serve.
In England the great newspapers absorb the writing
power of the time like sponges. Some of the brightest
and wisest brains of the day are exhausted in the
editorial pages of the daily newspapers at the pay
of first-class mechanics, to die and be succeeded by
others, without their names over being known to
the public. Tliey have, however, contributed their
bricks and mortar to the proprietary edifice of the
capitalist, and the more giants that are effaced in the
work the firmer is the golden basis of the newspaper-
owner's property.
The capital of the book publisher has not proved
quite as powerful as the money of the newspai^er pro-
prietor ; yet it is notorious that its material rewards
have been far in advance of those of the author. Pro-
perty is a very sacred thing in England when it is
property that has been acquired by money ; but property
which is the result of an intellectual operation is harassed
by laws and limitations. Inventors have got on a little
better of late years (thanks to Joint Stock speculators)
than heretofore. When Charles Dickens first began to
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TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
write, w have invented something worthy of being
patented was to have become a sort of lost soul, an in-
tellectual Peri at the gate of Protection, but without the
chances of the Peri in the fable. If you had invented
something new in those days, you had as good as sold
yourself to the devil in the estimation of most people ;
for you had surely sacrificed your peace of mind. To-
day, even, it is ten chances to one that the new and
useful invention gets into the hands of the capitalist, who
makes a fortune, while the originator goen to the wall.
Publishers are still protected by the law in various
ways to the disadvantage of the author, though the
leading houses have as a rule fairly shared their profits
with their successful writers. The public may, never-
theless, be said to be endowed by the State out of his
hard and useful work. For example, by what right,
divine or human, is an author's property alienated
from his family ? A landowner transmits his estate
from sire to son, through generations and centuries.
An author may live to see his property, the creation of
his brain, taken from him in his lifetime — his family
positively left to starve, while publishers are still driving
their splended teams and sailing their luxurious yachts
out of the proceeds of his works. To-day, while the
children of the late Charles Dickens are still young, the
copyrights of many of his works have lapsed, and have
become the common property of publishers who have
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
211
not had to pay a single penny for them. While saying
this it is pleasant to recall the late Charles Dickens's
letter to Messrs. Chapman and Hall on the occasion of
his first visit to America. '* Having disposed of the
business part of this letter," he says, " I should not feel
at ease in leaving England if I did not tell you once
more with my whole heart that your conduct to me on
this and all other occaf^ions has been honourable, manly,
and generous, and that 1 have felt it a solemn duty, in
tlie event of any accident happening to me, while I am
away, to place this testimony on record. It forms part
of a will I have made for the security of my children ;
for I wish them to know it when they are capable of
understanding your worth and my appreciation of it"
This appears in the " Letters of Charles Dickens "
recently given o the world by his sister-in-law and his
eldest daughter.
It must be said on behalf of the publishers that they
would favour a liberal extension of the period of copy-
right. One of the chiefs of the trade is in favour of
treating copyright in a book on the same lines as pro-
perty in a freehold. The book-trade in England is not
I am told flourishing. Probably that is to be accounted
for by over production ; and in regard to modem works
by the existence of certain publishers who will place
anything upon the market for which a person who is
ambitious to see his or her name in print is ready to
p2
212
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
pay. There are so-called essayists and novelists in these
days who pay certain minor publishers for their services
instead of being paid. The result, it is true, is not very
satisfactory to either, but it crowds the public libraries
mth. unprofitable reading, and the book-market with
useless works.
All this is wrong ; and the worst of it is that authors
are continually accepting and perpetuating the dis-
abilities under which they suffer. It is to be feared
that in spite of an effort of co-operation that is being
made they are about to commit a new mistake in regard
to the movement now on foot for an International copy-
right with America. Hitherto the leading Transhtlantic
publishers have been dead against every scheme of
International copyright. They have " lobbied " many
an honest proposal out of Congress. But latterly a
race of American publishers has sprung up who have not
respected the sort of " unwritten law " which formerly
existed in the States. The established American pub-
lishers paid handsomely for early sheets of English
books; and the courtesies of the trade protected the
purchaser. This was all very pleasant and satisfactory,
until the understanding was broken by traders outside
the ring. It came to pass by-and-by that, when Harper's
or Appleton's, or the other great houses, published a
new volume at several dollars by " George Eliot," or
some other popular author to whom they had paid a
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
213
a
large sum, the new traders stole the American edition
and issued a transcript of it for a few cents. This
is now going on every day ; and it has so crippled
the enterprises of the leading publishers that they want
an International copyright law, not so much in the
interest of the English author as to protect themselves
from the piracies of their own countrymen. Saying
this casts no reflection upon such firms as Harpers,
Appletons, Osgoods, and others, who have paid English
authors in the absence of an International copyright
law probably as much as they would have done had a
protecting enactment been in existence. It is owing to
the unanimity of the leading American firms in the
interest of copyright that a draft bill has been sent over
to the American Minister in London with a view of
eliciting the ideas of England ; and it is to be hoped the
scheme will not collapse because English authors are
too unselfish to look at the question from their own
point of view.
There is one leading stipulation which America makes
in her proposals for a copyright law between the two
countries, namely, that the English books claiming
International copyright shall be printed in America.
This will protect the industrial trades of printing and
bookbinding from being flooded by cheap English edi-
tions, and will divide the profits of a successful English
book between the American and the English publisher.
214
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
America is not a free-trader. She looks carefully to
the interests of her manufacturers, and the present writer
knows enough of the tone and temper of public opinion
to state authoritatively that no Washington Govern-
ment will give way upon this question of production.
Now, it is of no moment whatever to the English author
whether his book is printed once or twice, and it is of
great importance to him that he should be left to make
his own arrangements with America. This is exactly
what the United States draft does for him. The idea is
that of an author's copyright. It is a proposal in the
interest of the author. It may, in some cases, confine
the operation of the English publisher to his own country,
but it gives to the English author the free and unfettered
range of the United States. It is a proposal which
every author in Great Britain should endorse, the more
so as it is the only chance at present of International
legislation.
At a conference of authors held in London the other
day a resolution was passed accepting the American
draft treaty, "subject to the substitution of twelve
months for three, which in the opinion of this meeting
is the minimum period within which satisfactory arrange-
ments could be made by British authors for the repro-
duction of their works in the United States under the
proposed treaty." The English Board of Trade has not
only endorsed the draft with a similar stipulation, but
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
215
has added a suggestion which America in her wildest
flights of literary annexation would never have dreamed
of proposing. It is that all prints or reprints of books
by British authors, which are published by or with the
consent of the author in the United States, shall bo
freely admitted into the United Kingdom and into all
parts of her Majesty's dominions. This suggestion has
a strong protest from the conference. Whereas Mr.
Fraser Rae and Mr. Bentley proposed the resolution
just mentioned, Mr. James Payn and Mr. Charles Wood
did like duty for a motion declaring that this Board of
Trade suggestion is "detrimental to the interests of
British authors and publishers, and not required by the
United States Government in their draft treaty." Mr.
McCullagh Torrens, in supporting this view, considered
that the suggestions of the Board of Trade had been
conceived in a perfunctory spirit, and in his opinion
were calculated to degrade and humiliate the country in
its own esteem if they came to be put in force. This is
evidently not the view of Mr. Marston, of Sampson Low,
Marston, and Co., who has pointed out in a letter to the
Times that, as the law stands, there is nothing to prevent
an English author going over to America and having
his works published there and circulated here. It seems
to me that the Board of Trade is not entitled to the
denunciations of English authors for its suggestions.
Publishers may have great reason to be dissatisfied with
216
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
it, not authors. The Board of Trade guards its proposal
by excluding the circulation of surreptitious editions
here by stipulating for the author's consent. If the con-
ference of authors had considered this point more care-
fully, they might have seen in Mr. Chamberlain's Board
of Trade addenda to the Washington draft a sop to
Cerberus, carefully prepared, with a view to pushing on
a settlement of the copyright question. In this case the
Western Slates of America stand for Cerberus. They
are further away from the civilisation of London and
Europe than New York, Washington, Boston, Phila-
delphia, and at present are the only probable obstructors
to a reasonably fair measure of international copyright.
Let them once get up a cry against the present legis-
lative effort, and the prospect of doing anything is over
for another twenty years. It must be remembered that,
after all, the draft bill sent to the American Minister,
and by him submitted to the Board of Trade, is not a
definite step in the settled path of legislation ; it is
only a " feeler" for a treaty, and it is questionable
whether a treaty is a sufficiently complete legislative
act to establish an unquestionable international copy-
right; and I have the very best reasons for urging
English author? to let the Washington Government
understand that they are ready and willing to accept
the present proposed instalment of legislation, and also
to bring their influence to bear on the Board of Trade in
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
217
its favour. The existing proposals in the main, though
especially in favour of authors, would in the end mate-
rially advance the interest of publishers. At present, in
spite of the constant " making of books," there are few
authors who really live by the profession of authorship.
If the historian, the essayist, the poet, the novelist were
better protected, and had the " run" of that great English
market which an international copyright law would open
up to them, they would be more inclined to concentrate
their labours in the production of books. As it is, but few
of the popular authors of England can find a sufficient
pecuniary reward for their labour in the profits of mere
authorship. You may count them on your fingers. In
America authors as a rule supplement their book-work
with trade and commerce and by writing for the press.
Inherited affluence, trade, or hard daily-newspaper work,
are the forces to which the English public are indebted
for many of the most delightful books in the language*
An author must live or he cannot write. It is quite
possible the admiring world would never have heard of
Carlyle himself if he had had to earn his living while
the publishers were rejecting his books. A professor-
ship or the press would practically have absorbed his
genius had not a happy marriage raised him above the
necessity of truck-work. America was the first to
acknowledge his power. Think of the future he would
have left to his heirs if the present proposed inter-
218
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
national copyright had been in existence. Messrs.
Charles Reade, Wilkie Collins, Samuel Smiles, Anthony
Froude, Blackmore, Black, Payn ; and Mrs. Cross,
Miss Braddon, Mrs. Wood, Miss Broughton, and a host
of other English authors, would have realised large
sums. They have been paid for advanced sheets it is
true, but nothing like the amounts they would have
commanded otherwise. On the other side think what
Longfellow, Emerson, Wendell Holmes, Mark Twain,
have lost in England by the absence of an international
copyright. Artemus Ward would have died rich if he
had been paid a royalty on his English editions. But
this is an old story. Argument is almost an imperti-
nence upon a question that is voted beyond the necessity
of discussion. " I hold," said Mr. Blackwood, the
eminent publisher, in his evidence before the Copyright
Commission, " that an international copyright with
America would be the greatest boon to authors and to
literature, both in England and in America, that could
possibly be conferred, and every effort should be made
to obtain it. All other questions are small in com-
parison with that."
If only the authors and publishers of the two countries
will " give and take " in this matter, the greatest blot
in modern civilisation will be erased, and America and
England will be drawn closer together in the ties of
friendship and mutual interest and esteem than they
ART AND AUTHORSHIP.
219
have ever yet been. There is to be a new International
Exhibition in New York in 1883. That would be a
fitting time to celebrate the endowment of authors with
civilised rights.
220
VII.
CHINESE PUZZLES.
(Jeleatials under the Stars and Stripes— John at San Francisco and in
New York -Opium Dens at Five Points— A Chinese Gambling
Saloon — Servants and Slaves — The New Treaty of Washington-
Tea in America — Medical Missions to China an<l Japan — The
Influence of Race upon Race— Chinese Books at San Francisco —
Revelations of a Joss House — The Faith and Opinions cf Chang
Wan Ho — The Greatest Puzzle of all.
I.
The Five Points of New York is the Seven Dials of
London. Poverty and vice ebb and flow there night
and day. But there are elements strangely different
under the two flags. London has ancient corners that
have been dedicated to filth for centuries. New York
is newer in her muddy ways, though equally dark in her
shadows. The island city has also varieties of race in
concentrated .numbers which London does not possess.
Within the shadows of Five Points, for example, her
lower classes include the Negro and the Chinaman. If
the Celestial has his head-quarters at San Francisco, he
is characteristically represented in New York, where
CHINESE PUZZLE8.
221
we recently made his acquaintance in the huurtt of his
leisure, during his recreative exercises. Smoking and
gambling are the two indulgences in which the China-
man takes the greatest delight He has no home
comforts. The domestic joys of married life represent
a luxury which he does not permit himself. Out of the
4,000 Chinese women in San Francisco 3,900 are [)ros-
titutos, and throughout the State there are nine males
to every woman. In the early days of the coolie emi-
gration the Mongolian confined his settlements to
California, but he is now gradually spreading himself
over the whole of the United States ; and already, as
he monopolises boot-making in the city of the Golden
Gate, so is he taking unto himself the washing of New
York.
The system of Chinese emigration into the United
States is a system of complete slavery. It is con-
ducted by six companies as wealthy as they arc
powerful. Each company is protected by the Chinese
Government. Their home agencies are in Canton and
Hong Kong. They are represented all through the
interior of China by coolie traders. These agents, as
the Hon. C. E. De Long, late Minister to China, re-
ported to his Government, find, for example, a family
of old people with sons and daughters. As is common
enough, the poor creatures have had a constant trouble
to keep body and soul together. The trader offers to
222
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
buy the services of a son or a daughter, agreeing to
give to the old people a sum of money down, and stipu-
lating to feed and clothe the boy or girl, and to return
him or her, dead or alive, to the parents in China after
the term of service has expired. In consideration for
this, the young man or woman signs a contract which
is absolutely frightful in its conditions. He or she
agrees to give faithful service to his or her master for a
term of six, eight, or ten years, as the case may be, and
for a guarantee of faithful service, father, brother,
mother, sisters, are mortgaged with a thousand penal-
ties in case the service is not properly performed.
The result is that the coolie is bound body and soul,
and hence, when the inspector asks, " Are you leaving
China of your own free will? " the answer is, " I am;"
and, when called upon to testify on the spot, he answers
just as may please his master. The men toiling day
after day in a strange land are simply paying a debt
to keep their fathers and mothers from starving. Mr.
Thomas J. Vivian published a financial view of the
companies, which shows that they receive from the
Celestials in America a yearly stipend in proportion to
the money they earn, and that the result represents an
enormous profit to the emigration contractors. Of the
six companies Mr. Vivian tells us the Sam Yup is the
most powerful organization and the most enterprising.
Sam Yup men may be found not only in California but in
CUINE8E PUZZLES.
223
other States and territories from Tucson to Paget Sound,
and from San Francisco to Massachussetts and New
York. " Sam Yup lays new railroads in the Southern
countries, yews timber in the North, makes cigars in
Sacramento, and waslies in Boston. Sam Yup is ubi-
quitous and all-powerful ; paternal in the care of its
members, and lynx-like in the watchfulness of its own
interests." It is wonderful to see how completely the
system works. Then, too, the Chinaman owes no
loyalty to any one outside his company. He has to
pay taxes to the " Red-haired Devils," who imprison
thieves and murderers ; but he owes them no further
obedience, and, while all the money ho earns goes
back to China, he remains to feed on the stranger,
and cheapens labour to such an extent as to keep the
whites out of their natural quarters of colonization.
But here we are trenching upon the political aspect of
the subject, which is beyond our intention or purpose.
II.
In company with an intelligent detective of the New
York police I paid a visit to the opium houses and
gambling-dens which the Chinese have set up witliin
the shadow of Five Points. Near Donovan's Place wo
found ourselves in a labyrinth of narrow passages off
the main street, very much like a back slum of the
224
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
East End of London. Some twenty years ago this was
a famous loophole for pursued thieves, who had a
means of exit from one street to the other, which has
recently been barred up with bricks and mortar. Feel-
ing our way along dark and slippery paths, we ai.
length ascended a ricketty staircase and entered a
genuine opium saloon, far more picturesque in its
grim reality than that which Dickens found in Lon-
don and put into The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The
room was partially divided. Lighted by u dim lamp
we could see at the further end two narrow compart-
ments, with shadowy figures lying on |benches, their
square pallid faces indicated by a fitful glimmer of light
A sickly smell pervaded the apartment. We were re-
ceived by a shrivelled little Mongolian, who looked
ugly enough for the idealised conscience of a slan-
derer.
" Captain John Chinaman," said the detective, " thi^
is a friend of mine from England, who is anxious to
know you."
" Tanky — you co'jiey see smokee?" said the shrivelled
figure, shufiling towards us.
" Yes," we replied.
" Captain John is the oldest Chinaman in New York,"
said the detective.
" You come see smokee," said John again, pointing
to a powerfiilly-built Celestial, who was lying on a
CHINESE PUZZLES.
225
}
a
bench on our right, and preparing a pipe for use. He
took the preparation of opium from a tin case little
larger than a thimble, and cooked a small portion of it
by blowing the flame of the lamp upon it through a
tube. The action was like that of a plumber soldering
a gaspipe. He placed the dried paste upon a small
aperture in the bowl of his pipe — a thick primitive-
looking implement — and commenced to inhale the
smoke. Pulling vigorously at the pipe, he concentrated
all his mind upon it, now and then stopping to re-cook
and re-fill. Presently the inhalation went on to his
complete satisfaction, and there stole over his passionless
features a quiet calmness, which Captain John contem-
plated with a contented nod and grin. Leaving the
dreamer to dream his way to a transient happiness, we
entered the compartments at the further end of the
room. Four Chinamen, in various stages of insensibility,
were lying there, the principal luxury of their hard
couches being wooden pillows. One man writhed and
moaned in his sleep, and they all looked hideous ; the
ghastly light from the lamp we carried throwing a lurid
ray upon the scene, which helped to heighten the
common horrors of the den and make up a Dantesque
picture.
The Celestial does not drink, but he smokes with a
vengeance. The drug is used privately and publicly,
and a smoke in a regular opium shop costs from 18 to
VOL. I. Q
226
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
25 cents. From Captain John's establishment we went
to another next door, and there found quite a family
party just beginning to "lie off," in honour, as it
seemed to us, of a new arrival from China, a bright-
eyed young man, evidently of more than ordinary
position. He was in full Chinese costume, whereas the
others wore a mixture of European and Eastern
garments, all, however, having pigtails; but this full-
dressed Oriental was the only one whom in the complete
garb of his country we encountered during our mid-
night inquiries. It is not impossible that he was an
inspector on duty for one of the companies to which
his fellow-countrymen belonged.
III.
A short ramble through toi'tuous alleys and streets
brought us to a Hi'*' t of dark steps leading into a cellar,
the door of which opened upon a scene even more inte-
resting than that we had just left. It was a Chinese
gambling saloon. Some twenty or thirty natives were
standing round a table breast-high, upon which were
scattered dice, buttons, cents, and dollars in little pro-
prietary heaps. The banker stood at the head of the
board, and as we entered he glanced at the face of
the detective. Several of the players looked up for a
moment with their dreamy unspeaking eyes, and then
paid no further attention to us. There were nt chairs
CHINESE PUZZLES.
227
nor seats in the cellar, but the walls were covered
with " Notices " and " Regulations " written in big
sprawling characters, like extracts from half-forgotten
tea-chests in the London Docks. In one corner of the
room there was a Joss altar, lighted with a pair of brass
candlesticks of very English manufacture. There was
a show of gaudy decoration on the altar, and an inscrip-
tion in Chinese ; but, when we came to examine the
thing more closely, we found that it had been converted
into a washstand, unless cleansing the hands with soap
is part of the religious devotions at Joss altar. Seeking
in an odd amused way for some clue to this, we looked
at the hands of several of the gamblers, and found that
they carried their real estate with them, as the Ameri-
cans say of a person who neglects his finger-nails.
" Tan " is the game mostly played. A large heap of
buttons is rapidly div'd'^d into three or four lots, and
the players bet upon odd or oven numbers ; but at the
den in question, whatever the game might be, it was
played with dice and double dominoes. The numbers
of the latter were regulated in some way by the
numbers thrown in the dice. A player shuffled the
dominoes and gave one to each of his fellows. Then
the banker threw the dice and the game was decided,
the bank paying or receiving. It was worth while to
watch the flat Tartar faces. They betokened little or no
interest in the game beyond a calm attention to it.
Q2
228
TO-DAY IN AMEICICA.
Thoro was no excitement, no gesticulation, no talk.
Novvr and then a player would smile and show a set of
white teeth. They were dressed like Europeans, and
some of them had their hair cut close to their heads.
There seemed to me to be food for a world of reflection
in the fact that these descendants of a people so ancient
and so mysterious should be clustered together in this
modern city, thousands of miles away from the Flowery
Land, gambling in a cellar by the light of a Birmingham
lamp blazing under a French shade, and surrounded
with tokens of their strange home to which they or their
bones are booked to return.
" They make excellent servants," said a doctor who
was one of our midnight party, and who knows them
well ; ** as cooks they are very successful — you can
teach them anything — but they are woefully super-
stitious. They stay with you for a very long time, and
seem to be perfectly happy : suddenly they have a
dream, and they must go. I will give you a case in
point. I had a Chinaman cook, who not only prepared
the dinner but served it himself. When he had dished
it up he would slip another garment over his kitchen
clothes and wait at table with the quiet perfection of a
Frenchman. One evening I noticed that he had put on
his Sunday coat, and that while he waited at table he
looked anxiously round as if a ghost were at his side.
Dinner was hardly flnished, when he said, ^^ Me leave
CHINESE PUZZLES.
229
you.' *When?' I asked. * Now, this minute,' he
said, looking round as if death were at his elbow.
* Another China boy comee ; better China boy than
me.' Before the night was over he had introduced
his successor and vanished."
*' In regard to their imitative powers and their
docility under tuition," said an amiable colonel who had
joined us after our visit to the gambling saloon, " 1 can
give you a fair illustration. My brother-in-law had a
house at Tarrytown. He went to Saratoga in the
summer and left his place in charge of two French
maids and a Chinese butler. I called there occasionally
in my brother-in-law's absence, and found that the
butler went through his daily routine in every par-
ticular, even to ringing the bell for dinner, when there
was no dinner served, as if the family were at home."
It was now the detective's turn. " I guess I can
tell you a better affair than that. I knew a lady who
taught a Chinaman to cook, and she showed him how
to make coffee for breakfast, clarifying the coffee with an
egg. The first egg she broke was a bad one ; she
threw it away, and went on with the next. She only
learnt, three months afterwards, that her imitative cook
regularly threw away the first eggj and only used the
second."
New York is too cosmopolitan ever to have any great
difficulty with the national peculiarities of her various
230
TO-I)AY IN AMERICA.
classes of foreign citizens; but San Francisco finds
herself face to face with a Chinese puzzle, which one
day she will break in pieces and solve with judicial
calmness. There are thirty thousand of this strange
people in San Francisco, herding together like pigs,
living in open adultery, cleanly only during the daily
employment they get from the whites, but living in
indescribable filth at home. The slaves of companies in
China, they do not develope into citizenship. They
cheapen labour to such an extent that they kill com-
petition. The Asiatic settler earns money from the
white man and trades only with his own race. He does
not remain longer than he can help. If he dies he goes
home all the same. Supposing he has money enough
to pay the cost of such a luxury, he is embalmed and
sent to his friends. If he is poor, his remains are
buried until his bones can be gathered together and
forwarded as luggage. He has no sympathy for his
new home, nothing akin to the Europeans among whom
he settles ; but like a rat he is gradually burrowing his
way into street after street, encompassing the best and
most picturesque of the sites upon which San Francisco
should extend itself, and turning a garden into a
wilderness. Time solvcj all problems, wipes out all
difficulties. The only danger is that San Francisco may
grow tired of Time's slow but certain progress, and try
her hand at solving this Chinese puzzle herself
t
CHINESE PUZZLES.
231
IV.
Since this was written on my first visit to America,
the scenes which I have described remain the same as
my last tour a few months ago. In the meantime, how-
ever, the need of legislation in regard to Chinese emi-
gration has been seriously pressed upon the government
at Washington. The danger to which I referred has
been active for several years, and only recently it
threatened a social war of races. The present year
opened with a fair prospect of a solution of the Chinese
problem. The key to the puzzle it is believed has been
found in a treaty just concluded with the Celestial Em-
pire. Washington is accorded the right to regulate
the admission of Chinese subjects into the United
States. The powers thus obtained are very complete,
and will no doubt tend to an immense reduction of the
number of Chinamen in America. It will not content
California indeed if it does not almost stop Chinese
emigration altogether. Seeing how harmless he appears
to be in his exclusiveness, it is not a little singular that
the Chinaman is universally disliked out of his own
country. The Australians will not have any more of
his society than they can help. Even the negroes of
the West Indies and Spanish America reject his com-
232
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
panionship. At Labuan he proved treacherous and
cruel. Hitherto he has not been aggressive in America
as he was in the experience of Rajali Brooke. On
the other hand he has consented to be cuffed and
kicked about, reserving what viciousness there is in him
for the exclusive behalf of his brothers. General Gar-
field nearly lost his election through his supposed
sympathy with the Chinese. Just at the time when the
workmen of the Eastern and other states were be-
ginning to exhibit a strong partisanship against the
Chinese who were troubling the trades of California, a
forged letter was published in which General Gar-
field was made to favour the Chinese. Before there
was time to counteract the ill effects of the letter thou-
sands of votes were turned against the Republican can-
didate, and it is asserted that he lost two States on this
ground of supposed active sympathy with the foreigners
against whom the Californians were vowing vengeance.
The London Economist starts an important suggestion
in regard to the new treaty between Pekin and Wash-
ington. ^^ The incident shows that the Americans and
the Chinese government are on friendly terms, and
gives some foundation to the apprehension that China
may yet elect to arrange a special alliance with the
only power which she does not dread, and which is
strong enough to assist her." In some recent and
special advice which Colonel Gordon gave to the Chinese
CHINESE PUZZLES.
233
government, he impressed upon them that this was their
wisest policy, and it goes without saying that such an
alliance would make China a very important power. " A
dozen American engineers, artillerymen, and mechani-
cians, would quadruple the effectiveness of the army in
Kashgar, wliile exciting no jealousy in Pekin, which
could arrest them by a sign, and American naval officers
would at once make the Chinese fleet a formidable force.
There is no likelihood, now that the great cause of quarrel
has been settled, of any conflict between China and the
Union serious enough to compel the latter to require
her subjects to withdraw, as might happen if officers
were furnished by any European State, and the
government of Pekin would therefore be able to rely
on their fidelity. Such a course of policy i.", possible
enough to demand anxious watchfulness, more especially
if it be true that China has ordered a first- class ironclad
of 6,500 tons to be built for her in Europe. The
Ministers are certainly not going to officer such a
vessel with Chinese, and it looks very much as if they
had decided to accept Colonel Gordon's advice. In
that case, as they will not choose officers of any of the
first-class powers, because they may be recalled, or of
Holland, because she would be amenable to European
pressure, or of Spain or Portugal, because neither are
respected in China, their choice is extremely likely to
fall upon Americans, who are competent, adaptable.
234
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
beyond pressure from any Government but their own,
and exceedingly unlikely ever to find their nation at
war with the Chinese Empire. That change of policy
may, we fear, very seriously alter the place of China
among the nations of the world." TJte Economist'' s
view is as ingenious as Col. Gordon's advice is excellent
for the Chinese, and in some respects for America ; but
the contracting of foreign alliances is altogether outside
the spirit of American policy. There is no probability
that the Government of Washington will engage itself
in a treaty involving responsibilities of " offence and
defence *' with any country beyond the seas. A great
and growing interest is felt by Americans in the people
of China and Japan, and from both countries consider-
able quantities of goods are imported through San
Francisco. Though there is a curious feeling of amity
towards Russia observable among Americans generally,
many of them expressed to me their unqualified con-
demnation of the aggressive policy of the Czar's Govern-
ment towards China.
V.
The treaty which America has negociated with the
Chinese Government is singularly one-sided. It may
be taken not only as an example of American cleverness
but as a Chinese tribute to American honour. John
CHINESE PUZZLES.
235
has placed himself in the hands of Jonathan just as
completely as if Jonathan had won his conscience at the
cannon's mouth. The Chinese Government ^ive all the
American Commissioners asked almost without condi-
tions. The Government of the United States is to con-
tract and regulate the emigration of Chinese labourers
to America. It may not only limit the emigration, but
it may stop it altogether. It may not only check the
advance of the coming, but it may send back those who
have arrived. " Do as you please," is in brief China's
authorisation for Washington to act upon the one point
of difficulty between China and America; and the
wonderful liberality of the Celestials in this matter, and
the child-like trust in the Government of the United
States, is not likely to be outraged by a people whoso
pride and interest it is to open her ports to the emigra-
tion of the world. It would be a curious sequel to the
increasing amity of China and America for the United
States to wake up some fine morning and find the action
of Russia inimical to American interests. Europe has
been told over and over again that Russia has settled
the Kuldja question with China by a treaty which has
been duly signed and ratified. Nevertheless Russian
war-ships are still in unusual force in the Pacific, and
it is whispered in diplomatic circles that there are cer-
tain clauses in the new treaty which pledge China not
to interfere with Russian action in the Corea. Would
236
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
America any more than Europe relish the supremacy
of Russia in the waters of the Pacific?
VI.
The relations between America and China and Japan
are becoming closer every day. The opening of the
Pacific Railway and the establishment of the American
lines of steamers to Japan and China have built up an
important trade between the two countries. My friend
Mr. Thomas W. Knox, who writes as well as he talks
about his travels round the world, says " the New Yorker
may now sip his morning or evening tea in little more
than a month from the day the leaves were plucked
from the plants on Chinese hill-sides." The two lines
of steamers running between San Francisco and China
and Japan carry out American goods and bring back
tea, silk, and porcelain. " When a tea-laden steamer
arrives in San Francisco," says Mr. Knox, ** a railway
train is drawn up at her side, and the chests are trans-
ferred as rapidly as possible from ship to cars. In a few
hours the work is complete and the train whizzes away
to the eastward. It has the right of way over over^
thing but a passenger train, and its halts are so ^
as to lose the least possible amount of time. 1 olimbs
the sierras and winds through the snow-sheds ; rattle
over the long tangents that stretch like sunbeams across
rHlNESE PUZZLES.
237
tho alkali plains of Utah and Nevada" (and so on), and
pulls up at Now York twelve dax s after it lias left the
Golden Gate. In New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and
Chicago, I found that the citizens pride themselves upon
their tea ; though strange to say the best you get is
called ^' English Breakfast Tea " ; and asking for this
particular class of tea in any hotel or restaurant you
may count on a cup of tea far superior to anything you
can get in any English hotel at home.
American intercourse with China and Japan is more
or less promoted by the active missionary enterprises of
the United States. Some curious revelations were
made at a missionary service recently held in New
York by the Uev. William B. Stevens, Bishop of Penn-
sylvania, in an address on ^^ Medical Missions; their
origin, scope, and influence, especially in connexion
with China, Japan, and Mexico." The bishop pointed
out that it is necessary not only to teach and preach
the Gospel but to heal the sick. This is a Divine
command. Hospitals were founded in the earliest times.
In nearly every land where early hospitals were founded
they came in with Christianity, and Christian charity
supported them. China and Japan hold a thii v' of the
population of the world, and yet they have no medical
science. They have quacks and magicians. They know
nothing of anatomy or physiology. They do not know
of the circulation of the blood ; they know nothing of
238
TO-DAT IN AHERIPA.
the lungs, the eye, the ear, or the brain. All their
medical works contain doctrines long since exploded by
science. The medical profession there is a very low
one. The first missionaries to thoBe countries saw the
necessity of introducing medical service. In 1835 the
first medical attendance by missionaries was given in
China by tm American missionury, Dr. Parker. At
first there were no patients, but they soon came in
crowds. The hospitals wero overtaxed, principally by
people with diseases of the eye and tumours. Nearly
800,000 patients have since been gratuitously treated
in the missionary hospitals of China, and the Chinese
appreciate the treatment. No presents are received and
no pay is taken. The wife of one of the Viceroys was
saved from death, and the Viceroy presented a heathen
temple to the mission, to be used for a hospital. The
bishop stated that there are now two distinct medical
missions in China under the care of the Episcopal
Church of the United States. It is proposed to estab-
lish a medical department in St John's College, in
Shanghai. This step would give to China the first
medical school ever established in the Empire. In
Asiatic cities all sanitary laws are disregarded. In
Japan a young physician from Philadelphia gave the
first lesson in anatomy, in 1878, to a class of 50
students, the government letting him have the bodies
of criminals to dissect. He organised hospitals and
CHINESE PUZZLES.
239
dispensaries and treated thousands of patients. Lately
the Government promised him its aid in the establish-
ment of a refuge for lepers, where they may be kept
together and skilfully treated. There is a mission hos-
pital in Japan, and a physician who exerts himself in
teaching the native doctors as much about medicine as
he can.
Thus it will be seen that America is earnestly attacking
the mysteries of the various Chinese puzzles which in-
creased international intercourse brings before her.
That her solution of them will be an advantage to
civilisation there is no room for doubt.
VII.
It has been said, and I believe soundly demonstrated,
that ^^ man is a living power, acting and re-acting on
his fellow through a natural law ; the strong act upon
the weak, the weak re-act upon the strong." What
influence will the Chinese have upon the Califomians ?
At present San Francisco looks down with contempt
upon its Mongolian colony, but it will unconsciously
absorb some of the characteristics of Chinatown. So
say the philosophers, and Mr. Hepworth Dixon in " New
America '* hunted-up illustrative endorsements of the
theory from the earliest period of history. He did not,
210
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
however, "count in "the action of Chinatown upon San
Francisco. Ten yfiars ago the Chinese question was not
a burning topic. It was only beginning to take its place
as a subject of legislative importance. To-day I have
a copy of "Confucius and the Chinese Classics; or
Readings in Chinese Literature,'* published in English
by A. Roman and Company at San Francisco. It is
edited and compiled by the Rev. A. W. Loomis. There
has, it seems, been quite a demand in California for
books on China. The increasing commerce between
San Francisco, and the close proximity of the Western
coast to the Celestial Empire, has excited a local desire
to know all about the country and its strange people.
This miscellaneous volume, with its life of Confucius
(compiled by the way chiefly from the British Encyclo-
pedia), and its metaphysics and ethics of Mencius, is
the first of a series of Chinese classics published in
popular shape and at a cheap rate. " China," says the
compiler, " is tlie oldest kingdom in the globe ; the
wise statesman will therefore avail himself of the means
here afforded for learning what causes may have ope-
rated towards the preservation of this one nation, while
in all other parts of the earth thrones have been set up
and demolished and kingdoms have arisen and decayed
in constant succession." There is nothing more powerfiil
than books. Here is an invitation to the American to
study the tenets of John Chinaman. His faith and
CHINESE PUZZLES.
241
or
worship are not however set forth so clearly in this
volume as in an "Interview" which Mr. Eli Perkins
published in the New York Times three years ago. He
visited Chang Wan Ho at a Joss house in San Francisco,
accompanied by an interpreter in the person of a young
student from Yale College. The heathen priest talked
somewhat in the strain of Ingersoll in regard to the
Christian religion, except that he believed in God, and
declared that every denomination of worshippers in the
world were addressing the same Supreme Being, only
under another name.
Chang Wan Ho considered all the prophets impostors,
every one since Moses, all \,\\o claim a spiritual con-
nection with God. Confucius and Moses and Socrates
were not prophets. They were great writers, great
leaders. The prophets have all been ignorant men and
adventui'ers. They make all the trouble, all the wars.
Christ and Mahommed were the cause of the Russo-
Turkish conflict. The world is cosmopolite as to God —
people only differ when they come to the prophets. In
two thousand years Brigham Young will be just as
much respected as a prophet as Zoroaster, Budda, or
Mahomr.iei. Six-and-twenty different nations worship
God under six and-twenty different names. This same
God has the same attributes, omniscience, omnipresence,
potentiality. As to Christ, the Chinese think of Him
as they do of Zoroaster, Buddha, and Mohammed. He
VOL. I. B
242
TO-DAY IN AMERICA.
had the same miraculous birth as is claimed for them.
He taught indolence. He never did a day's work
in his life. He was a law-breaker and rebelled against
the government of Pontius Pilate. He made Jud&s
believe he was a God. Judas said to the policemau
who came to arrest Jesus for blasphemy, " There he
is, arrest God if you can." When he saw that he
too was deceived, and that the impostor was only a man
subject to arrest and trial like other law-breakers, Judas
broken-hearted went out and hanged himself. There
are 200,000,000 believers in Mahommed and 300,000,000
believers in Christ, the latter divided into 180,000,000
Catholics, 75,000,000 Protestants, and 50,000,000
Russian or Greek Catholics. The prophets have all
taught a similar code of morals ; but they were all
human. Confucius, Socrates, Humboldt, Huxley, no
honest philosopher would pretend to inspiration. The
Chinaman would throw out all the prophets and have
all the world unite in one God. It is absurd for
300,000,000 Christians to damn 10,000,000,000 out-
siders who believe in the Christian's God but reject
his prophets. And it is still more absurd for
350,000,000 God-loving, God-fearing, God worshipping
partisans of Confucius to (V^mn 9,500,000,000 God-
fearing and God-worshipping Christians and Buddhists
because they do not believe in the inspiration of the
great Chinese law-giver. What is wanted is a cosmo-
CHINESE PUZZLES.
243
eo.t
for
polite religion that everybody can endorse, so that,
instead of a lot of priest-ridden little towns, people
could gather together in a grand temple and listen to
words of instruction and pray straight up to God without
any prophets or mediators to make men and women
wrangle over their ritualism and antagonistic doctrines.
Eli Perkins professes to have heon greatly shocked at
some of Chang Wan Ho's profanities, the worst of which
I have omitted in the above brief sketch of the " Inter-
view "; but 1 suspect that there is a good deal of the
Oliver Goldsmith idea of " The Citizen of the World"
in the revelations of the heathen priest of the Chinese
Joss-house of San Francisco.
If the theory of race acting on race, even the weak
on the strong, is to have practical exemplification in San
Francisco, the Anglo-Saxon has as hard a nut to crack
in the way of assimilation in the case of the Chinaman
as in the absorption of the Indian. The result would
not tend to enhance the race, though the ethics of Con-
fucius are irrenroachable. But the Mongolian who
cheapens white labour, lives a dirty life (though a good
washer of other people's linen), smokes himself into
idiotcy, despises tlie domestic institution of matrimony,
eats dog, and only hopes to make money enough to go
home to China a free .man, or packed in a box like salt
pork ; this is not the sort of emigrant the United States
requires ; this is not the person whom Americans should
244
TO-DAT IN AMERICA.
on the Dixon hypothesis absorb as the Chinese did the
Mantchoo Tartars, as the Israelites contracted the
customs and ideas of the heathen Hittites and Amorites,
the Canaanites and Jebusites ; and it is therefore a good
thing for Washington to have the power to exclude him
as rigidly as yellow Jack or small pox. The English are
a mixture of many races ; but they never, to paraphrase
Cooper, ^^ wrapped a Mongol in their blanket,'* and
America can hardly afford to absorb with the industrious
German, the impulsive Irishman, and the artistic but
wa3rward Italian, the red Indian and ^4he yellow
Chinee."
Wettmiiuter ; Printed by J. B. Niohola and Sons, S5, FarUoment Street.
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