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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour etre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche 6 droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 JOHN DEUNARD AS JACK MEGGOT. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA 1797-1811 By JOHN BERNARD SOMETIME SECnKTARY OF THE BEEFSTEAK CLUD, AND AUTHOR OP " RETROSPECTIONS OF THE STAGE" EDITED FROM TUE MANUSCRIPT BY MRS. BAYLE BERNARD ■WITH AN INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND INDEX BY LAURENCE UUTTOX AND BRANDER MATTHEWS ILLUSTRATED NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE 1887 y £5f^A/f^R0 -7 Copyriglit, 1880, by ITarpeu & BaoTiip:us. All rights reserved. INTRODUCTION. John Bernard, one of the brightest of English come- dians, and one of the earliest of American managers, was an important figure on tlic stage of the United States in tlic beginning of this century. He was born in Ports- mouth, England, in 1V50. Ilis father was a naval officer, and a relative of Sir Francis Uernard, a British governor of Massachusetts, who was so unpopular in that colony that when he was recalled, in 1769, Boston celebrated his departure by salvos of artillery and general demonstrations of public joy. John Bernard was educated at Chichester, where he acted Hamlet in a school i^erformance of the tragedy berore he was sixteen. lie shortly after appeared on the professional stage at the village of Farnham, near Portsmouth, in the character of George Barnwell. His father's return from sea at this time put a stop to the young actor's brief experience, and led to his being articled to a solicitor, with whom, however, he could not have re- mained long, as in 1773 he began a professional career destined to last with honor, if not with profit, for half a century. lie was a member of a strolling troupe for a short time, but soon gained admittance into the regular company which served the Norwich circuit. Here he met Mrs. Cooper, an actress of great versatility, whom he described as *'a kind of Garrick in petticoats," and whom he married in 1774. In the winter of 1777-8 Mr. and Mrs. Bernard iv IXTRODUCTIOX. joined llie company at the Batli Theatre, then the most important in England outside of the metropolis. There they made their fir.st appearance as Gratiano and Portia, to the Shylock of Henderson. There they played Sir I5en- jamin Backbite and Mrs. Candor, in the first perform- ance of the " School for Scandal " out of London, the re- hearsals of which were superintended by Sheridan him- self. From 1780 until 1784 Bernard acted in Ireland, where he was associated with such stage giants as Miss O'Neill and John Kemble. On Oct. 10, 1787, Bernard made his first appearance in London and at the Covent Garden Theatre, playing Archer in the "Beaux' Stratagem," Mrs. Bernard taking the part of Mrs. Sullen. In London Bernard made many friends; his associates were Sheridan, Selwyn, Fox, and the leading wits and men about town; and in 1789 he was elected secretary of the famous Beef- steak Club, an honor of which he "was always very proud. His first wife having died, he married, in 1795, a Miss Fisher, who had a short and unimportant career on the stage, dying ten years later in America, to which country she accompanied him in the summer of 1797. His en- gagement was with Wignell, the Philadelphia manager, at a salary of a thousand pounds a twelvemonth, at that time an unusually large amount; and he made his first American appearance on Aug. 25, 1797, at the Greenwich Street Theatre, New York, as Goldfinch in the " Road to Ruin," the elder Warren playing Old Dornton. During the six yeara liernard spent in Philadelphia he played, besides the comedy parts for which he was engaged. Shy- lock, Falconbridge, Hotspur, and others, in the absence of a leading tragedian in the company. He went to Boston in 1803, where, in 180G, he became joint manager, with Powers, of the Federal Street Theatre, and sailed for Eng- land in search of new attractions for his company. With a third wife, a Miss Wright, whom ho married in St. INTRODUCTIOX. V James's Cliurcl), Piccadilly, Lo returned to IJoston the same year, and remained there at the licad of affairs in the Federal Street house until 1810. After professional tours in Canada, he acted in the Thespian Ilall at Albany, N. Y., and opened on Jan. 18, 1813, the first regular the- atre — that on Green Street — which Albany possessed. In 181G he went upon a tour through the United States, be- ing (me of the earliest moving stars in the American the- atrical firmament. In the autumn of 1817 he returned to the stock company of the theatre in Boston, and took his farewell of the American stage in the " Soldier's Daugh- ter," April 19, 1819, delivering a farewell address — and going home to England as heartily liked and as sincerely regretted as his colonial relative of half a century before was hooted and despised. lie died in London, Nov. 29, 1828. John Bernard was much more than a comedian of re- markable brilliancy; he was a shrewd social observer, quick to sec, and acute in noting the value of what he saw. He came to America admirably equipped as a stu- dent of men and manners ; and he brought with him what is not often to be found in the personal bno-jrage of the British tourist in the United States — an ^»-- dinary openness of mind. There is in his record of his life here in America scarcely a trace of what Mr. Lowell calls that certain condescension of the foreigner. Ilis bias, in so far as he had any, was in favor of the new country and the young nation. This bias, perhaps, may have been due to his intimate association with Fox and Sheridan and the other Whigs of the Beefsteak Club. lie had unusual opportunities for the study of American habits in town and in country, and of these he availed himself to the ut- most, lie was brought into contact with many of the distinguished sons of the Republic in his day — AVashing- ton, Jefferson, Charles Carroll of Carrollton — on terms of vi INTRODUCTION. fnenclship if not of intimacy, and his record of tlio impres- sions tliey made upon him is vivid and vahiablc. He was as ready a writer as ho was a keen observer. He tohl an anecdote lightly and brightly, and with a charm peculiar to the men of his profession. lie had caught from the Eighteenth-Century comedies, in which he so often acted, a certain sparkle and an easy wit, which play pleasantly along his page. On his retirement from the stage and return to England, Bernard began the preparation of his biography; and about a year before his death he comi)leted the work, "but," as his son tells us, "in too voluminous a state for publication." His son was the late W. IJayle Bernard, who was born in Boston, Mass., in 1808, and died in Lon- don, England, in 1875. lie began life as an actor, but soon turned critic and dramatist, and was the author of the "Nervous Man," the "Dumb Belle," and "Ilis Lost Legs." For Hackett he wrote the earliest drama of " Rip Van Winkle," and for Yankee llill, Silsbee, and other American character actors, he wrote many other plays which entitle him to be considered one of the inventors of the Stage Yankee. After John Bernard's death, in 1828, Bayle Bernard selected and condensed from his father's autobiography the interesting " Retrospections of the Stage, by the Late John Bernard, Manager of the American Theatres, and formerly Secretary of the Beefsteak Club. 2 vols. Lon- don, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1830." This work met with great and instant success, and is still high- ly prized by all collectors of theatrical literature on both sides of the Atlantic. It was republished by Carter & Ilendee, in Boston, in 1832, but both editions have been long out of print. The " Retrospections of the Stage " come down only to the date of Bernard's leaving England for America. From INTRODUCTION. vii those pages of his fatlier's mamiscrii^t memoirs which WQi'c descriptive of his life and experiences in the United States, ]>ayle Bernard made at different times three difler- ent sets of extracts, all taken literally from the autobiog- raj»hy, and exact, so far as they went, hut all incomplete. The first ten chapters of the following book arc printed from a manuscript found among her liusband's papers l)y the widow of JJayle Bernard, and by her jjrepared for publication. From the original autobiography of tlie elder Bernard — now apparently lost or destroyed — the son had previous- ly condensed material for six chapters of "Early Days of the American Stage," published in Tunis' s Dramatic 3faf/- aziiie, in 1850-51. A few of the more pertinent passages of these six chanters will be found as the eleventh chapter of the present book. The concluding four chapters arc from a second manuscript, since discovered by Mrs. Bayle Bernard, three chapters of which were published, in 1884, in the Manhattan 3Tagazine^ with notes by us. AVe have made no effort to correct Bernard's occasional and trivial mistakes in American history and topography, nor have we endeavored to annotate the text generally, but we have appended notes on the early American actors and actresses whose names may not be familiar to the general reader, and of whose careers little is known even by students of the stage. Of course we are not respon- sible for the abrupt ending of the manuscript. Laurence IIutton, B BANDER Matthews. New York, 1886. f. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Progress of Society in America Pago 1 CHAPTER II. 1797. — Boston and Xcw England. — Reasons for Emignitioii. — Exercise on Board; Attaclc hy Pirates. — Reception at Boston. — llodgkinson; an Improvised Tragedy. — Boston's Resemblance to Old England. — Why New England Goes Ahead ; its Method of Progress ; not Understood by the English. — The New England Stage; its Driver. — Roads. — Mos- quitoes Promote Patriotism. — The Yankees; the Swapper; the Jobber; the Pedler. — Anecdotes of Yankee Cuteness. — New England Seamen ; a Profitable Cargo 23 CHAPTER III. 1797. — New York. — Robert Merry. — My First Appearance and Illness; Rustication and Cure. — Aspect of New York ; the Dutch ; the Break- fast-table ; Merchants' Daily Life ; Double Di.'^guises ; the Biters Bit ; Land Speculators. — Sport. — Anecdotes of the Revolutionary "War ; Sir W. IIowc and Mrs. Loring; Lord Cornwallis and his Friend. — Journey to Philadelphia ; a Narrow Escape 49 CHAPTER IV. 1797-8.— Philadelphia; Babylon its Prototype. — Quakers.— Traditions of Penn. — Philadelphian Society. — Street-washing. — Sir John Oldmixon. — Introduction of Quadrille. — Discovery of a Portrait of Quin. — Cac. scrib., the Philadelphian Epidemic. — My Partnership Play. — Merry's Prophetic Pun. — Fennell, his Eccentricities and Career. — Sanguinary Expedient in Macbeth. — Dr. Franklin, his Influence. — Opposition to "Bustles." — An Explanatory Note. — Best Souvenir of a Lady. — A Great Calf.— A Model Foot C3 A* I I CONTExNTS. CHAPTER V. 1798. — AnnfipoliH. — Society in Maryland. — Mr. Carroll. — Adventure with General Wasliinf^ton ; Establishing the Indopendonco of a Chaise; Washington's Appearance ; his Conversation ; Observations on New and Old England, on Slavery, the Abbo Haynal, the Prince of Wale.'', and the Drama ; his One Jest. — Notices of the Military Heroes of the Revolution. — The Qualifications most Needed. — Charles Lee, the Second in Command; his Character and Career; Supposed to be Junius; his Taking "Five Friends" to the Play; Reply to an Old Maid; Value of a Sword ; his Death. — Green, the " Fighting Quaker." — Colonel Tarle- ton's Joke. — Gates, the Old English Gentleman; his Repartee. — Arnold, the " Political Judas ;" his Ca.-ccr and End ; a Negro Sarcasm ; his Promised Funeral. — Lafayette Compared with Washington ; his Reply to a Royalist. — Baron von Steuben; his Poverty; New Use for a Sabre. — "Old Israel" Putnam; the Modern Cincinnatus; his Wolf Adventure; his Daring in War; his Jokes. — Lord Stirling; his For- mality ; Sayings to his Men ; a Private's Retort ; Early Rising. — Ethan Allen, the " Khodo Island Oracle ;" his Strange Character ; his Sim- plicity. — Kosciusko's Declaration Page 84 CHAPTER YI. 1798. — Trip to the Delaware. — A Serenade. — A Boat Adrift. — Five Foreign Ambassadors. — Baltimore. — Madame Jerome Bonaparte and the Mar- chioness of Wcllesley. — Political Discords and Fatal Harmonies. — Elec- tions. — Merry's Joke ; Rival Candidates. — A Petticoaterie. — Negroes as Humorists ; Happiness in Bondage ; Theory of the Origin and End of Evil: Sambotius Quamina ; the Burnt Fly; a Planter's Destiny ; Fault in the Solar System ; a Pilot's Reply ; Significant " Ilem" ; Sleeping Un- consciousncs? ; Negro Names ; Hen and Egg ; Three-fingered Jack. — Merryland and Morrylandcrs. — Lord Baltimore: Letter to the Swedes; Reply to an Indian. — Dr. Franklin on the Origin of Tobacco. — General Washington and the Dwarf. — Death of Merry ; Omens; Epitaph. 110 CHAPTER VIT. 1799. — Life in Virginia; a Word for the Plan! ;rs; the War a Moral Re- generator ; Manners, Tastes, and the Ladies. — A Planter's Life before the War; Stratagems to Obtain Companions; Ordinaries. — Public Di- versions: Racing at Williamsburgh ; Quarter-racing; Hunting in Vir- ginia; an Adventure. — Native Traditions: Captain Smith; his Disci- pline; his Replies; Pocahontas in England; an Indian Taking the CONTENTS. xi Census. — Convicts in Virginia. — Dr. Franklin's Ticscnt to Sir Robert Walpole. — A Humorous Criminal; Conviction and Conversion. — A Governor's Speech in 1070. — Lecturing Excursion. — Cooper the Tra- gedian ; liis Courage. — Virginia Travelling. — CJallinippcrs and Mosqui- toes.— Patriot Pigs. — Blacksmith's Cure for Insanity. — General Lcc and the Quakers. — A Madagascar Monster. — Tradition of " Black- beard's " Skull Page UG' CHAPTER VIII. 1800-1. — Tour to the Ohio; Passage of the Potomac; the Alleghany Hills ; Three Kinds of Settlers, Squatters, Utopians, and New England Farmers. — Backwoodsmen ; Shooting Exploits. — Pittsburgh Smoke. — Indian Wooing-hut and Honeymoon. — The Ohio. — The Aborigines of America. — Indian Antiquities. — Welsh in America. — The Island of Blcnnerhasset ; Art and Nature. — Philadelphia Balls; Travellers' Talcs. — American Beefsteak Club. — A Coincidence. — The Quaker and the Irishman. — Desdemona's Revival. — St. George's Society — Tubbs the Tragedian and his Adventure. — Poetry and Matter-of-fact; the Last Creditor. — A French Bankrupt. — American Advertisements and Literal Mistakes. — Black Nurses and the Yellow Fever; a Colored Lady. — Fennel's Immortality. — My Aversion and Adventure ; a Female Falstaff. — Peel's Museum. — Historical Anecdote 1V6 CHAPTER IX. 1800-1. — The Carolinas. — Journey to Charleston; a Carolina Ordinary. — Social Characteristics. — Deer-killing ; a Dead Shot. — A Planters' Bali ; the "Caroliny Jig." — Stories of the Swamps; the Spectre Troop, etc. — Legal Latin. — Colonel Tarleton and Major Hanger ; Pranks among the Planters. — Baron de Glaubeck's Troop and Title. — Anecdote of the Irish Brigade. — Charleston Society ; Varieties of Color. — The Ugly Club; its Rules; Ordeal of a Member. — Carolina Dews. — Fishing and Bites; Scene with a Snake; a Lively Hut. — Alligators; the River Lawyer; a Civilized Specimen. — Samples of Black Humor; the Crim- inal a Judge. — Byrne's Visit to Jamaica ; his Retreat 202 CHAPTER X. 1801-3. — Recollections of President Jefterson; his 01).servation3 in France; Ncckar and Mirabeau ; the Comte de Artois; Marie Antoinette; Jeffer- son's Compliments; his Rencontre with a Connecticut Farmer; Parallel with John Adams. — Peculiarities of Pennsylvania; Contrast to Vir- ginia. — German Settlers ; the Veteran Corps ; a Female Recruit ; Gas*- I Xii CONTENTS. tronomic Hessians. — Barbecuing and Bundling. — Marrying in Haste. — Periodical Whitewasliings. — A "rcnnsylvany Hurricane." — Recol- lections of Charles Brockden Brown; his Writings; liis Character; his Drama and its Fate Page 232 CIIArTER XI. Celebrities of the American Stage: Mrs. Whitclock ; Miss Fontcnclle; Hodgkinson ; Wigncll. — The Theatres and Yellow Fever. — American Circuits. — Position of the Actor in America. — Mrs. Merry. — Mrs. Mal- .moth. — FcnucU. — Cooper. — " A Histrionic Academy " 250 CHAPTER XII. Undertaking Management. — Supplies Needed. — Visit to England. — Irish Fishermen. — Proposals and Refusals. — Final Engagements. — Monk Lewis's Irish Friend. — Caulfield. — Transport Arrangements. — A Bath (Jrecting. — The Theatrical Fund. — Story of a Landlord's Retort. — AVhiteley and Macklin. — Bowles's Hoax. — Rolling in Riches. — A Frozen Sheep. — A Russian Tool. — Tragedy of an Actor's Life. — Mr. "Williams. — Marriage. — Departure. — A Friendly Foe. — Voyage. — Ar- rival in Boston 272 CHAPTER XIII. 1806. — Boston. — Mrs. Stanley; Compared with Mrs. Abingdon and Miss J'arren. — Admiration. — Caulfield. — General Humphrey's Authorship. — "Romeo and Juliet" in the Backwoods. — A Long Song. — Mrs. Jones's Death.— Dr. Jeffrey's Youthful Flight.— CauUicld's Singing.— An Ac- tor's Temptation. — New Version of Lord Ilasting's Speech. — Powell. — Fennell's Salt-works. — A Sermo. on Patience. — Poc and Shaw. — Col- ored People. — Rival Musicians. — Mr. Williams. — A Lecturing Tour. — Tragedy of Real Life. — Sally Weeks. — Meeting the Devil. — A Military Money-taker. — Curious "Wiscasset" Natives. — 1807. — Mr. Cromwell. — A Theatrical Impostor. — Jack Hatton the Great Blackguard. — Snow- storm at Sea. — A Visit to Philadelphia and New York. — Serious Ill- ness. — Acting Under DifTicultics. — A Cool Duellist. — Captain Dorgan. — Serious Losses 284 CHAPTER XIV. E.\cursion to Vermont. — Concord and Discord. — Monsieur Mallet. — State Characteristics. — Milestones and Finger-posts ; an Irish Finger-post. — Burlington. — A Vermont Farmer ; his Dinner and Conversation. — A Musician. — A Medical Innkeeper ; hia One Story. — Saratoga Springs. CONTENTS. xiii — Sail up the nudson. — New Engagements. — General Iliimplireys and Iliiinphreysville. — Connecticut Laws. — A Silent Town. — Protitiiig by a Fine. — Return to Boston. — 1808 Season. — Stirring in a Matter. — "The Pilgrims." — General Theatrical Depression. — The Indian and the African. — Love and Liquor. — The Three Warnings. — The Two John ■ Gilpins. — 1 809. — Boston. — Failure and Disappointment. — A New Come- dy; its Prologue. — Barrett's Last Act. — Graduated Ligenuity. — Yankee Anecdotes. — Borrowing a Horse. — Buying Brandy. — Stars. — "The Forty Thieves." — Contemplated Changes Page 31 Y CHAPTER XV. Visit to Canada. — Anticipations. — A Retired Actress. — Vermont Travel- ling. — Wit and Humor. — Mixed Society, — Whitehall Table Fray. — Democrat's Estimate of Titles. — Steamboat Pleasures and Terrors. — A Canadian Vehicle. — Swamp Stories. — Driver's Test of Danger. — View of Montreal. — The Theatre. — Actors' Rivalries. — An Indian Settlement. — Off to Quebec. — A Canadian Cottager. — General Sheaf. — Universal Music. — A Forger's School. — A Bateau Party. — A Lone House and its Mistress; Unexpected Company and Unwelcome Revelry. — Reception at Quebec. — New Theatres Proposed, — Amateurs vs. Professionals. — Last Season at Boston. — Native Dramatists. — Tom Moore's Sister-in- law. — "■Fanme Propose.^' — George Frederick Cooke. — Heroes and Vil- lians. — Mossop, — Macklln and Cooke compared. — Macklin and his Scotch Schoolmaster. — Cooke's Generosity and Eccentricity. — Kemble's Portrait. — An Intrusive Fiddler and his Punishment 315 INDEX 375 !|;i ILLUSTRATIONS. Jonx Berxat^d AS Jack Meggot . Frontispiece. James Fennell .... m r 1 o face pngc 74 Thomas Abtiiorp Cooper .. .. .„, The Hon. Mrs. Twisleton (afterwards Miis ,, '"^^'^^"'^ " "276 Mrs, Stanley . . ,, ^, " "284 Mr. Caulfield .. "2m Boston Theatre, Federal Street «. "293 Robert Treat Paine, Jr ,. "300 Mr. Darley as Performing in the Orches- tra at Vauxiiall ,. .. ggj, John Howard Payne as Young Norval . . - "340 iiii;i i i I! RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. CHAPTER I. TROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN AMERICA. The European who has visited America must admit that it gave him an impression perfectly original, however wide had been his intercourse with other countries. It was not that he saw creation on a scale of magnitude — in India he had marvelled at " heaven-propping " hills, and a sea-like rush of rivers — but that the idea of the physical sublime was merged in that of the spiritual. He perceived an en- lightened people subduing a giant continent to a giant scheme of civilization. The poising of the powers of mind and matter was the novelty; the bringing into such strik- ing juxtaposition the birth and maturity of creation. This I will not dwell upon. But the visitor must also have re- marked the various shades of character which even now mark the limits of the primitive divisions of the United States, though daily growing less distinct in the spread of intelligence. It has often struck me that an inquiry into these decaying records would involve an explanation of many anomalies in the past as well as present aspect of the country, and I therefore beg leave to preface the fol- lowing chapters of my Retrospections with a brief sketch of the settlement and progress of society in America. At her first colonization she was peopled on the one hand by exiles who fled to worship God in freedom, and on the other by adventurers who only worshipped Mammon. On 1 .III 2 KETUOSrECTlONS OF AMERICA. tlic emigration of Lord Baltimore and his friends to Mary- land, and under the succeeding period of tlie Protectorate, America presented the singuhir appearance of a refuge for the tliree parties wliich luid successively swayed the des- tinies of England, and overthrown each otlier. The Puri- tans were quietly established in Kew England; the Cath- olics were safely housed in JNIaryland; and Virginia, the depot of commerce, became the refuge of all fugitive roy- alists and Church people. jNEeanwhile the Swedes had lighted upon the Delaware, and the Dutch upon the Hud- son. The return of Charles II., the Act of Uniformity, and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, sent forth fresh supplies and settlements. A colony of Huguenots and miscellaneous English broke ground in Carolina; Swiss and Palatines poured into New York and New Jersey; while the truly Christian institutions of Pennsylvania proved a magnet yearly to the Lutherans of Germany. The colonial governments had by this time settled into three kinds: Charter, Royal, and Proprietory; the first, in New England, where the right of making laws and of ji; electing ollicers was ceded to the people; the second, in New York and Virginia, where the crown had the appoint- ment of the governor and council, and also a veto on the acts of the assembly; and the third, in all the rest, where the powers of the king were transferred to the proprietors. It was thus that in sixty years from its settlement we see spread together on the continent, Puritans, Quakers, Catholics, and Church-people, English, French, Swedes, Swiss, Dutch, and Germans, under the antagonistic influ- ences of monarchic and democratic rule. The question now is, how were these diversities affected by their institu- tions? The first population of Virginia was perhaps the most miscellaneous. Their allurement had been gold. Sir Walter Raleigh was not a solitary dreamer with regard PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 3 to the hidden riches of the northern continent, for his expe- ditions to Virginia, his writings, and his waste of wealth to prove that the soil of the country concealed a power which might raise England to a rivalry with Spain, inoculated no small number of believers; and a frenzied eagerness to realize his wonders hurried out some few honest-minded upon the same frail plank with the many reckless and de- bauched, the spendthrift and the gambler, who thought to repair their broken fortunes by one stroke of their heavy-heeled boots upon the earth, which could thus be made to disclose their yellow idol, like a burst of sunshine through a broken shutter. The dreams of these first treasure-seekers were soon dispelled, and such of them as did not die of disappointment, or the unexpected toils and evils of a swampy country, turned their attention to extract- ing gold from rice and tobacco. For such men it is obvi- ous that some strict discipline was needed to correct their greed of mammon and their laxity of morals. IIow far was this afforded them? James I. in enrolling the Establis^hed Church among the provisions of the Virginia Ciiarter, with so marked a silence on the subject of established education, was but extending the intolerance he was so liberally dealing out at home. Pedantic and shallow as ho was, it cannot be conceived he was ignorant of the necessity for education in a wild, warm, and luxurious country which offered every temptation to disorder and immorality. We must sup- pose that he held the church to be in itself a sufficient means of instruction, or the best organizer of any supple- mentary one. But a school is as important to a country as a church. Upon points of doctrine sects will differ, but there can be no dispute with regard to practical mor- als, and to expect that grown people who have never been instructed in these when young, will either obey the laws or attend places of worship, is as reasonable as to suppose U\ •' Hi. Ill ; i i I 4 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. that a human being will walk because he has attained tho age of twenty-one, if his legs have been kept manacled from childhood. Besides, tho duo maintenance of tho church itself depended upon a local circumstance — the ex- istence of towns or social communities. Now it so hap- pened that the planters, distributing themselves along the banks of the various rivers in this colony, in order that ships might load direct from their warehouses, found it their interest to scatter rather than to gather into commu- nities; so that the first settlement, Jamestown, was de- serted; and for many years Williamsburgh was a mere court-house for the legislature. The church, being thus unable to support itself, could certainly not organize de- pendent schools; and for nearly a hundred years from its settlement Virginia may bo said to have had neither moral nor religious instruction, except such as came pri- vately from tho hands of Dissenters. And here was the blessing of an establishment. Not only were the New England preachers driven out by a church which was un- able itself to discharge its functions, but when these men petitioned for leave to establish schools, it was refused on the ground of their non-conformity. Thus while the seekers of religious freedom in the North w'cre branded as a set of ignorant fanatics, the settlers of the South, wealth-seekers at best, were left wholly untaught to cor- rupt still more, till "the colonies" became, at home, an- other word for all that was contemptible. The sovereign who had coerced the one and patronized the other de- spised them both. It was enough for James that in the one quarter they disliked bishops, and in the other grew tobacco. As time went on the growth of the settlements failed to recommend them any more to the mother coun- try. A favorite image Avith Cotton Mather and the old divines was to style America "the ark of the religious rnOGRESS OF SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 5 world in the rising of the flood of persecution." Un- fortunately the comparison lield good in more respects than one. The ark contained not merely many excellent creatures, hut a specimen of every beast, clean and unclean, on the face of the earth. In like manner the colonies, by the time of Charles II., became the receptacle of all the rogues and runagates who had outraged the laws of Eu- rope, a basin into which England, when apoplectic, re- lieved herself by pouring all her black blood. Every gen- tleman who was unfortunate in business, or took peculiar views of the laws of property, forthwith crossed the At- lantic. The congenial climate drew the majority south- ward, and there, under the sanction of the English gov- ernment, these gentry began that practice which became the i»Ligue-spot of America, polluting her constitution to this hour— the importation of slaves. With this capital as their resource the Southern States became commercial, and soon rich; but the devil's system thrived only to en- tail its curse. Tiie social poison lirst relaxed the settlor's energies and then their never-too-strict morals; African oppression led to European indulgence; libertinism and laziness ushered in gaming and drinking, till this region became a mere bower of Bacchus and Cytherea, relieved in the background by a lively representation of the in- fernal regions. Nor was this all. Though people went there for a living, they died there so marvellously fast that "the New World "seemed almost synonymous with "the next world," though with more resemblance to its lower than its happier division. The planters seemed to raise equal crops of cotton and of fever, and the term applied to their territory — a swamp — was as dismal as it was in- definite. Nor was the aspect of New England much more enticing. The majority of Englishmen had a horror of solemn faces and psalm-singing, and New England ap- peared to be a mass of meeting-houses. Yet worse, the Ill e RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. conflict witli the Indians w.is slill raging, and not a .ship ' came homo witliont bringing news of some bloody work among tlie savages. These liorrors formed the staple of many a winter-night's talk at home, till the i)Oorest wretch who had a roof to shelter him, as he raked up the embers of his hearth, thanked God that he was not condemned to exile in " the colonies." Thus, for a century, America was looked on in England as a land of fevers and fanatics, of swamps and scamps, of self-called saints and savages. It is a question whether it was popular with any one except the Bristol merchants who lived by its exports, expectant bankrupts, and afflicted fathers who had good-for-nothing : ' sons to get rid of. Nor were the feelings the different sections of the coun- try entertained for each other much more congenial. The : I lordly South turned with disdain from the plodding North, I while the moral New-Englander looked with fingry dis- approval upon the idle, dissolute Virginian. New^ Eng- land, however, was slowly but surely succeeding in her struggle with the savages, and while some of the ferment of fanaticism worked off, the strength of religious principle remained. Hers was still an agricultural district and a hard- working, well-conducted community; the freedom of the iji body her strongest rivet in the fetters of the passions; the I purity of her life the best title-deeds to the charter of her fathers. Thus she became a reservoir of honest blood; the animating spirit, both as regarded intellect and principle, to the gross flesh of other parts of the country, and the effect of her nourishing this flame of freedom was her kindling the fire of the Revolution. Once lighted, however, it spread readily in the South, for the planters had at least never lost this one purifjang influence — a love of liberty. Every one is aware that the champions of the people in England were the friends of the Plymouth settlers, but it is perhaps not so well known that the managers of the PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IX AMERICA. f Virginia Company, the first governors of that colony — cstablislii'd witli monarcliic institutions and the favorite asylum of fugitive Cavaliers — were among the boldest op- ponents of prerogative in both houses of Parliament; to wit — Southampton, Oxford, and Essex, Seldcn, Sandys, Rich, Perrot, and Sir Dudley Digges. Virginia, in the out- set, was thus thrown into the same ranks with New Eng- land as a land of disaffection. The planters had always held their own prerogatives to be superior to the king's, and, in the colonial assembly, all the activity they had dis- played itself in opposition. At its first meeting, in 1G24, they published a declaration of their rights as a basis of future legislation. Soon after, they seized and sent pris- oner to England Sir John Harvey, a transcript of Charles I., who tried to play his master's game among them. With all their loyalty they were the first to oppose the Naviga- tion Act, originating as a mark of hatred in Cromwell, but confirmed as a piece of gratitude by Charles II. Their whole history, with that of Carolina, is a series of struggles with arbitrary governors, who would persist in vetoing their enactments. The planters were the feudal barons of America; and even slavery, while relaxing their morals, served only to stiffen them into more rigid u])holders of freedom. It is one of the original remarks of Burke that " slavery has always been a cherisher of freedom, since, to the planter," he observes, "liberty is not merely an enjoy- ment, but a distinction." And as, with increased wealth, a desire for instruction arose, as there were no means of gratifying it in their native land, the rising generation had to be sent to the mother country, to mix with English youth, and share with them the infiuences of liberal edu- cation. The rulers of that country forgot how the manli- ness of the colonists had been fostered by free institutions, and that the region of "criminals and slaves" had been sending its sons to learn in England's universities the d RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. spirit of her government, and the landmarks of right in her courts of justice, when the supporters of prerogative scrupled not, in 17r'4,to deny the fundamental principles of liberty. When ihc arm that should have enfolded and embraced the colonists was thus stretched out to oppress them, the blow that was meant to crush served only to animate, and America, despised as a depei.dence, became a nation. The Revolution, in the heat of an all-combining sym- pathy, fused the great mass of prejudice and repulsion, and so long as the pressure from without lasted, the Americans were consolidated in heart and mind as one man. It gave an impulse to native migration, Avhich, like native manufactures, had so long been checked by royal policy. The states as colonies were needed only on the shore; the enterprising, now safe wherever their posses- sions might be, were tempted to a wider range. It also held out fresh inducements to immigration from the most diverse sources. Commerce was no longer confined to the South, for the superior local resources of the Middle States (Now York, Pennsylvania, etc.) rendered them an attrac- tive arena for the skill and capital of Europe, so that in a short time this new circle rose as superior to the others in wealth, enterprise, and population as it was distinct in its diversities of character. To promote immigration, which had been thus beneficial, every encouragement was offered (in Delaware, for instance, a man could hold lands without becoming a citizen); consequently, for many years after the great convulsion, the IMidtlle States presented a sort of sample of the whole civilized world. Another great and good effect of the Revolutionary War was the bringing in of a taste for refinement, through the influence of the gallant French, who had lent their aid to the patriots in their struggle with England. This made indeed an era in the progress of society in PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IX A^IERICA. 9 America; and however it affortled groiiiul for temporary dcibate, proved eventua)!}' of mucli beiieiit. French man- ners, abstractly considered, arc doubtless -worthy of be- coming universal, the only question is, Can they bo allied with sound, morality? Many consider the perfect union of the two only a possibility of the millennium; that Mo- rality and Refinement arc a couple so repugnant in their natures that no form of government could pronounce their banns, and that the one can only cling to the hut of a re- public, the other haunt solely the halls of monarchies. It is curious to observe how America has been the general battle-field of princi .des, an epitome in licr progress of so much that is interesting in the history of man; how, after lier freedom was established, the question of her manners was mooted by the Southern and Northern States with all the prejudices of royal and republican communities. As the discussion throws a light upon the times and explains the nature of much provincial feeling, it may not be amiss to give an outline of it. In the South a relish for refine- ment Avas readily imparted, and was fostered by local causes. There were so many constitutional resemblances between Frenchmen and the planters, that the habits of the one fitted the other as though they had been made to meas- ure. But the impulse failed to go northward. The New- Englanders, looking back to their ancestry, who, like cocoanuts, had the roughest of rinds with the sweetest of cores, were fully persuaded that purity within vras always in proportion to simplicity of exterior, and were unwilling to come out of the security of their antique entrenchments, liowever offensive these might be to modern eves. But the Southern epicureans were so full of sociability, they re- solved to pour a little into the honest stoics of the North, willy-niliy. Their ideas of patriotism would i.ot sufTer them to approve of manners which had an English aflinity. "Why," they exclaimed, in mingled wonder and indigna- 1* ^^!M 10 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. tion, "do you displny to England such a slavish spirit of imitation ? when you have thrown off her political shackles, why wear those of her cokl, dull, burdensome formalities? What is the im})ression you convey to Europe of America? If a stranger come among you at an evening party he is not introduced to the company generally, that he may be amalgamated with it immediately, but is led by the host or hostess like a lamb to every chair in the room (their occupants eying as if they would cat him), and at last provided with one in a corner, where he is abandoned to the mercy of Providence, for nothing under a miracle can procure him the least attention. The women sit huddled together in another corner, whispering and winking, evi- dently in dissection of his personal appearance. When dinner brings them together each person seems to be an independent government that must provide for itself. The wine, he fondly imagines, will be the dawn of soci- ability, poor fellow! the ice melts to drench him with a springilood. Each person is so punctilious that his own health is ruined in drinking other people's. The cloth re- moved, he assures himself of some enjoyment in discover- ing the tastes and characters of the females, Avhen lo! up they start like a covey of pheasants and fly into the next room. He is then condemned to brandy-and-water and the society of men whom by this time he has begun heartily to hate. When he rejoins the women, if the host and hostess are not scrupulous in regard to cards or dancing, their indulgence is limited to eleven o'clock, so that, at the very hour he has carried all the outworks of his new friends' confidence, estimable propriety turns him out, on a nipping winter's night, to go homo and keep himself warm — by ut- tering imprecations." To this the stoics of the North re- plied: " True, we treat a stranger with reserve, because wo are not certain it would be safe to be free with him. Civil- ized men must be regarded as wild men till you discover .M PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IX AMERICA. H tlicy won't harm yon. Should a visitor prove worthy of becoming a friend, we make amends for our early fears by endeavoring to detain him. Yon, on the contrary, in the frenzy of your benevolence, open your arms to every one that comes with a plausible tongue, a genteel exterior, and convivial habits. You stop to make no inquiries or ob- servations; you give him welcome to your house at once, and put it in his power to make himself welcome to all that's in it. Such being French manners, we cleave to those of our forefathers, not because they were P^nglish, but because they were good, prudent men, who, knowing that evil was on its travels (the devil is a great walker), as well as good, cared only to make the acquaintance of the latter." The South tried to escape this rebuff by placing the point in another position. "You may exercise all your present caution," said they, " and still relax a little of your old-fashioned rigidity. Your error consists in keeping your females so much in the background. Women arc the great refiners of society; make your wives and daugh- ters eschew the kitchen and the nursery for the drawing- room, and you will easily rise to our level." The sturdy Xorth saw in this the gist of the argument. "Women," they replied, "may be the refiners of society, but they are also its preservers, wives and mothers being the depositaries of its morals. We arc taught by the ex- ample of all countries that, with the sex which has the least judgment, morals principally depend on manners; the fruit is guarded by a shell which we won't hazard the experiment of cracking. In this point we are proud of a resemblance to England. There a woman lives for her husband. She is the luminary that irradiates and keeps his world together; and if he secludes her, it is because he compares her in her exceeding preciousness to a vase — a thing which, trusted to other hands, might fall, and in 12 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. its ruin include his. But you prefer France, where a woman lives for the world and gets a husband as the means; where she is artificial, ornamental, anything but useful; like the watch she carries, made for show, not for service; where her life is an actress's, to play Venus and the Graces before elegant assemblies; and where a hus- band who thus generously gives up his spouse to others' admiration, thinks it no harm to admire his neighbor's. Every one to his taste; we have fought for our liberties, let us enjoy them. You like the refiners of society, we the preservers. We are willing to admit that our liking is an imitation of England, but are not you imitating Eng- land also in attempting to control our liking?" ]\Iany years have elapsed since this social sharp shot M'as exchanged, and I cannot refrain froni observing that among the many changes America has seen, that of the union of these "warring elements" is not the least re- markable. Thanks to the spread of intelligence the rigid- ity of the North has relaxed, the laxity of the South has been corrected; and now, in every respectable city, French manners may be seen in loving alliance with sound and wholesome English morality — a beautiful superficies to a solid substratum — a pint of Burgundy supported by a pound of beef ! Meanwhile how was the independent young country re- garded by the parent whose authority she had successfully defied and cast off? A panic seized the baffled coercers lest this example should prove infectious. It became necessary to show the incompatibility of American institu- tions with the maintenance of morality and order. Not only was this new equality of rights and comforts a mere hectic on the cheek of premature decay, but the profana- tion that had been offered to the great Juggernaut of legitimacy could result in nothing less than an absolute cancer. America's claim to protection from the British PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 13 constitution liad been impertinent; her resistance to an outraire on that constitution, unnatural; and tlio success of that resistance but the mode Divine vengeance had adopted to bring down upon her liead a heavier retribu- tion. She had luirled a stone into tlie air -which, by the Law of nature, must descend to crush her; she had not "honored lier father and her mother," and her days were not to be " long in the land." These prophecies from "high places" would, however, probably have had little effect upon the English people had not America touched England on her most sensitive point by exhibiting so de- cided a sympathy with France, and by challenging, in self- defence, a second war when it was a pojuilar impression that England was fighting the cause of liberty in Europe. Such a state of things suspended all generous communica- tion between the two countries. ICnlightened travellers preferred nearer and safer shores, and even men of science were not tempted to ex[)loration by the riches of America's natural productions. It is true emigration did not cease. Not a year elapsed without sending over some of those brisk fellows who carry the favors of Dame Fortune by the boldness of their addresses. They found the land re- freshed and stirring after the calm that had succeeded the revolutionary struggle. Intercourse was general, money abundant, and a spirit of enterprise animating all things. Intelligence of their success soon travelled home, which, while it failed to disclose its method, magnified its amount. Each man, it was said, owned his cave of jewels, though he did not choose to explain the nature of his wonderful lani}); and a few such cases sufficed to invest the country with a golden haze of poetic indistinctness, till America, to English cars, now became the synonym of independ- ence, pecuniary as well as political, and glittered in the day-dreams of the husbandman as the true region, after all, wlicrc the guineas grew like berries on a bush, and the 14 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. -vvild-fowl fell into the fingers of the hungry, ready cooked by a sympathizing sun. Still, it must he confessed, these illusions had their counter-charm, and it was America's un- happy fate to combine the two extremes of being as much underrated in moral as overrated in physical respects. People had read strange accounts of the state of manners in the Union. A deep gloom of savagery overhung the prospect and rendered it a stalklng-place for legions of chimeras. *It Avas a repeat of fairy-land not merely in its treasure-caves, but its hippogriffs and ogres, against which numerous patriotic visitors had put their quills in rest. The first v>'riters on the subject M'cre chiefly immigrants who, settling on a certain patch of acres, regarded its ho- rizon as the outline of the continent; flitting visitors mIio, like swallows, reviewed a region while on the wing; or a set of miscellaneous adventurers who, failing in their speculations, devised the scheme of paying their expenses liome by writing books in dispraise of the country, know- ing that England's irritation at American sympathy with France would readily welcome their perversions. Re- turned emigrants and bookmakers had the republic entire- ly to themselves; nor can it bo wondered at, when we consider their positions and their minds, that they should have taken advantage of a temporary excitement to make the ink Avhich traced her character a deeper black by the gall of party spirit. But Avhat, it may be asked, was the sum of their labors? Unable to provide their friends with a ])alatable solution of her startling political phenomena, finding that her principles of government were like a block of ice, too mas- sive to be broken and too pure to defile, they turned to the more pliant material of manners, in order to show the impossibility of a people learning how to behave them- selves without that expensive governess — an aristocra- cy. And here, when Error dropped the scourge. Injustice PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 15 picked it up. In the spirit of Ilcrod thoy made war upon childbood. Disdaininc: history, -whicli teaches that a na- tioii, like a man, has its stages of progression, they re- quired a whole country to bo in bloom in less time than an aloe. Ere she had caught the first notes of music they expected her to dance; before she had cleared away her forests they called for palaces. The New-Englanders, for instance, all stood convicted of that offence to minds polite — poverty. Yet, strange to say, the ardor of *heir endeavors to overcome this defi- ciency was regarded as anything but a virtue. Unblest with wealth, they exhibited a distaste for leisure which was perfectly barbarous. Their possessions were few, but their appetite for gain very sordid. It was true they had a variety of vulgar virtues, such as temperance, industry, and honesty, but what were these to compensate for the absence of institutions whicli encourage poetical tastes and a chivalric deportment. In Virginia the case was worse. The land of wealth and leisure, the generous, aristocratic, money-spending Virginia displayed its civil- ization in horse-racing, cock-fighting, and dram-drinking; indulgences which could only be traced to the change in the government, since these writers were not aware that they had existed a-century previous under an established church and state. Clear as were their statements upon these points, they were occasionally eccentric upon the New World's geography and social arrangements, trans- porting the backwoods to the seashore, linking New Eng- land to the slave states, and peopling this sea-bounded forest indiscriminately with Yankees, blacks, and savages. Some people were so stupid as to doubt, from their descrip- tion, whether places like New York and ]*hiladelphia were really towns or wigwams; whether "local legislatures" were not hunting-parties, which decided cases on a stump, by rule of rifle; and " civil institutions" a handsome mode •fW 16 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. of designating wliipi)ing-postH. On one point llicy could not be mistaken. There was no religion in the country, because there ^ras no establishment. But, from their am- biguous remarks upon plantations and slave labor, the fact that there were plantations in New England led many worthy persons to believe that the Puritans were, after all, mere traffickers in black flesh. Local phenomena were a maze of wonders. AVhat classification, for instance, could be given to the animal called Yankee? He was a decided Sphinx. No two persons in England, Avho had read ac- counts of him, could agree upon his conformation. Some imagined him to be a native magician who could conjure the money out of your pocket by muttering six words of a peculiar cabala; others that he was an ourang-outang, or the American satyr, with the brains of a man and the claws of a brute; while the greater portion set him down for a crocodile with a large development of jaw, prowling about the shores and wharves to pounce on the unwary stranger. However they might differ upon the point of form, all were agreed that it was his nature to rob, and moreover to strip. The experience of all travellers had gone to prove that Puritan New England had set up anew the office of the Inquisition, where strangers w^ere treated as heretics and put, without distinction, to the " question." The Yankee then was the American " Familiar," who not merely plundered but tortured you. The red men, too, were a popular bugbear. They were supposed to infest your house like rats, and their whoop- ings to be a nightly serenade. Not a bush in your garden but glittered with their dark eyes, and even your wood- cellars might be packed with them, so that, in attempting to throw on the lire what seemed a log of hickory, you would suddenly sec it animate and brandish a tomahawk. Again, there was much misconception upon the point of slavery. The Southern States were supposed to be a huge PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IX AMERICA. 17 prison or a fetter manufactory, "vvlicrc not onl}^ black but ANhitc men might be made to take the ])Iacc of cattle in the fields, if caught alone by certain Afghans of the West called planters; for kidnapping and the slave trade were their principal sources of wealth; and the devil, like the Deity, was no respecter of persons. Slavery was but an extension of the apprenticeship system, by which the land liad been first cultivated, and it was believed that where labor could be enforced the color of the laborer was but of little consequcr/"''. It was even suspected that there was a peculiarly deteriorating and barbarizing influence in the atmosphere, which speedily converted white ])eople, native or exotic, into something like savages, even though ihey had enjoyed the best of educations. This was the change which most people understood by the American term of " naturalizing a foreigner." Gouging was thoutrht to be fashionable fun among the American gentry; and some old ladies even had misgivings whether they were not cannibals, for stories had been heard of certain plant- ers smacking their lips over " black-baby broth." As to their domestic feelings, it was well known that, in winter- time, a man would not scruple to thrash his grandfather, sinTi)ly to promote his own circulation. Does it seem strange that such absurdities should ever have been credited in enlightened England ? The credulity may bo traced, not only to a special and temporary influ- ence, but partly to a general and more permanent one. IManners and customs depending, as they do, so much on difl^ercnco of climate and government, every country has felt itself entitled to set up its own standard, a sort of ])apacy in taste, a rule by which all other peoples' usages have been judged heathen or heretic. P^ach land is Ath- ens in its own judgment, and all foreign soils barbaric. The English have always been practical and active rather than ideal, and the security of their possessions has made a 18 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. High Cliurcli of tlicir hearth — it cannot tolerate a non- conformist. This deficiency in the ideal and contempt for others' social usages may be detected in England's treat- ment of travellers' tales. While her calm, clear sense has rarely failed to penetrate the fictions of those far-wander- ing wonder-seekers whom Europe yearly radiates through the circumference of the globe, she has displayed a singular credulity in listening to exaggerations which have tended to exalt her own standard of the proper and convenient. On this point she has strained at gnats and swallowed camels. While she has heard with due allowance of the enormities oi savages, with whom there could be no pos- sibility of comparison, she has not always been so just towards the reported barbarisms of a kinsman or a neigh- bor, who might claim equal authority with lierself on questions of taste. Of a mammoth at the North Polo she has required the bones in evidence, but mammoths in tlie drawing-room have been taken on assertion. Bruce she nobly laughed at, because he seemed ungenerously to belie the simple African. There have been many less truthful than Bruce in America, and few have been dis- credited. Of course, refinement can only be attained in a settled state of society where wealth is diffused, and, for this, time is required. To expect, therefore, that America, with resources so vast, population so incomplete, and their diversity so great, should, on the day she took her stand among nations, rival them in other points than bravery and virtue, was to demand no less a miracle than that of Minerva stepping fully armed from the head of Jove. But, waiving this concession, the charge of barbarism, as directed against a large portion of Americans, is shame- fully unfounded. What does it involve ? The very height of an American's domestic iniquity is that he smokes and spits. Yet who ever saw this at a decent party ; or, after PROGRESS OF SOCIETY IS AMERICA. 19 dinner, till the females had retired. Every country must have its peculiarities, and cards and dice Avould certainly be a more elegant stimulus; yet the cigar does but usurp the honors of the pipe. ]»ut then expectoration is unfor- givable. Certainly there may be much olfence to Euro- ])ean rule in salivating by tobacco instead of mercury, but, after all, why is the poor American to be stigmatized for doing what a polished Frenchman may indulge in with impunity?) But further, says the bookmaker, the American is very vain and arrogant, is ridiculously sensitive, prefers his own country to the world, talks perpetually of the two wars, and distinguishes liimself by being either meanly inquisitive or brutally blunt. Who is so? The wealthy and hospitable merchant, the man of science and public fame, or the jovial and generous planter? No ; the shop- keeper, the tavern-keeper, the driver of the coach, or the captain of the ship; these are the criteria by which the bookmaker estimates the heads and hearts of the com- munity. And why ? Because, it is most probable, from some defect in his own character these are the only per- sons he has been doomed to encounter; and thus, either from ignorance or envy, ho revenges his exclusion by bringing down his superiors to his own level. But, admit- ting that the American is vain and sensitive, and likes to talk of his country and its wars, arc these peculiarities of a nature, I would ask, to excite either wonder or ridicule? Every young country whose achievements are yet to come is like a new asjnrant in art, who thinks that the eyes of liis elders are bent on him with jealousy, and that the sneer of the meanest will find a general echo. Such is American sensitiveness. John Bull, a veteran, surrounded by glories like Saturn by his belt, disdains to reply to an antagonist, but silently pointing to a long line of triumphs smiles the snarler into silence. But is the national vanity 20 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. of the Americfin so ludicrous wlien it is a fact that lio wrested liis liberties from the grasp of the mightiest em- pire of the cartli, and beat iVoin his soil, in the last war, the heroes of the Peninsula, the conquerors of Europe's conqueror? As to the point of preferring his own coun- try to all the rest of the world, he makes but one reply — that for many years past a large part of the population of J]ngland has concurred in his prejudice. With little liberality the oflicers of the American army have been instanced as mere Goths. Now concedincr that the historical connection between a soldier and a gentle- man (in its European sense) is indissoluble, the Americans never pretended to bo soldiers — they merely called them- selves Patriots. They possessed neither colleges nor courts to mould them into old-world refinement. Their ambi- tion was to defend their soil; their glory to secure their rights; they never dreamed of rivalling the fame of pro- fessional throatcutters. Or, if some did so aspire, how was a general to collect a sufficient number of such when the blast of an enemy's trumpet was stunning him, or the blaze, perhaps, of his own beloved dwelling blinding his eyes ? Was that a time to hold Chesterfield in one hand and a mirror in the other, and to determine the strength, edge, and handincss of a weapon by the brilliance of its polish? Descending then to the underlings, the tradesmen, that class whose savage horrors, duly held up to English con- sternation, have libelled the characters of American gen- tlemen — it strikes mo that England and Europe have been the parents of the abomination — that the curiosity or bluntness of the middle classes are but the forms of the caution or contempt into which they have been driven by European imposition — by the deluge that has been poured upon them of " rascals, runagates, that their o'er- cloyed countries vomit forth, to desperate adventure and destruction." TROGRESS OF SOCIETY IN AMERICA. 21 But admitting this -were not tlic case, and taking the porcupine with all his quills cM'cct, which is the least of- fensive animal, the gruff and blunt Independent, who treats you honestly, or the fawning and obsequious Mr. Smirk, of England, who, pressed to the earth by taxation, can only raise his head by a system which renders him a robber as well as a slave ? Government, it is true, mod- els not only the morals and manners, but the tastes of a people, and the aristocrat who has been fed on the hom- age of his inferiors will pay any sum rather tlu^n dispense with it, and despises a country where he finds the staiidard of excellence not to consist in the perfection of a code of deportment. Ijut even this man (far above the rank of the mass of bookmakers), would be unusually hollow- headed did he expect to find in a young and vigorous republic one of the results of a decrei)it despotism. As the nin?teenth century progressed England renewed her intercourse with America and becjan to lauG;h at the absurdity of the tales to which she had given credence. Under the aftinities of blood, laws, and language, this in- tercourse must keep increasing, to the expulsion of all error and the establishment of mutual irood-will. True that a party fire has been kept up of various leaden vol- umes to prevent this consummation, but the efforts must be futile. I am an Englishman: after twenty-three years absence, and nearly fifty years wandering in a profession which lias made me appear the veriest citizen of the world, I have returned to die in my native land with unaltered feelings. I love my country, its people, and its institu- tions, modified so as to augment the people's happiness, and for these very reasons, as each suggests a resemblance, I love America! My experience has conducted me from the presence of my king to mingle with the humblest sub- jects of a republican government; and the sum of ray con- i t 22 l{ETR0Si'ECT10NS OF AMEUiCA. victions is tills: that in all the higher and nobler elements of the human character there are identities between the Americans and the Britons which should place the former in the relation of brothers, now they Iiave ceased to be sons. This union is pointed out by every principle of l)olicy, and ought to be sanctified by the deepest throbs of a^ection; and this my prayer that the time may be at hand when every one who attempts to foment instead of to subdue their prejudices will become an object of equal scorn to both countries. CHAPTER II. 1707. — Bo-ton and New Knglanil. — Kcasons for Emigration. — Exercise on IJoard ; Attack by Pirates. — Reception at I]oston. — llodgkinson ; an Improvised Tragedy. — Boston's Resemblance to Old England. — Why New England Goes Ahead ; its Method of Progress; not Understood by the English. — The New England Stage ; its Driver. — Roads. — Mosqui- toes Promote Patriotism. — The Yankees ; the ,S\vaj)per ; the Jobber ; the Pedler. — Anecdotes of Yankee Cnteiies.". — New England Seamen ; a Profitable Cargo. Thk causes wliich led mc to make one of the baud who were bold cuougli to face the perils of swamps, suakes, tomahawks, and Yankees in far-oif America can be told in very few words. They were the failure of two or three managerial speculations (to one of M'hich I had been ad- vised by my gracious friend the late king) and the patron- age of an extensive circle of fashionable acquaintances. In London I was indeed being "killed with kindness." Enjoying the fatal honor of being secretary to the famous Beefsteak Club, of which the prince regent was a mem- ber, and treasurer or secretary to half a dozen others, in that most convivial of eras when the cry of "Clubs" was raised in every street in London, though in a far different spirit from that wliich sounded it in the days of James I., it became a matter of official necessity that I should keep oi)en house, and for those, too, for whom only the best was ever good enough. IJetter judges than my brother members of port-wine, mock-turtle, coats, gnns, dogs, or horses did not exist. The consequences were inevitable. I had to retreat while I could do so witli honor. The habits of an active life prompted me perhaps to 24 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. sometliing like restlessness on board the vessel in which I made the voyage, drawing forth a very characteristic observation from an Irish fellow-i)assenger. lie was a sort of sociable Quietist, who would stretch himself on a bench to the leeward all day, with a cigar in his mouth, and fix his eyes on a particular spot on the mast, as though it had been a book of memoranda. " 'Pon my conscience, Mr. Bernard," he ciclaimed one day, " I wonder you don't wear out your legs." " Why," replied I, " when a man has but a space of twenty feet by four to turn in, he can scarcely take too much exercise." " But where's the need of exercise?" "The need?" "Yes; doesn't the cajitain say the ship is carrying us two hundred miles a day? Surely that's exercise enough." It would have been out of keeping with the adventur- ous tenor of my life if this voyage had passed over with- out some nnusual source of excitement; and, accord ingl}'-, all fear of monotony was dissipated one morning, after we had cleared the Azores, by the sun suddenly drawing up a veil of mist and disclosing a vessel not far oif. Her features were unmistakably those of a pirate — long, low, and roomy, with a row of teeth, to use the sea-phrase — which gave amjde assurance that she never barked M'itli- out biting. The breeze being faint, she lay and looked at us for half an hour, as a cat does at a canary, and then a shot came skipping and dipi)ing before our bows to bring us to, and a large square sail was hoisted to lay her along- side. Wc could now perceive that her deck was crowded with an ugly assortment of walking armories, with bushy black hair on their crowns and under their chins, looking indeed complete " Kydds," and by no means lambkins. To describe the confusion on board our packet would be impossible. We stared, with sinking hearts, in each other's faces, and then all glances converged upon the captain ; but ho proved to be suffering under a sudden and severe IlETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 25 attack of paralysis. Seeing liim utterly at a loss how to act, I advised him to crowd all the sail he could and make as expeditious a retreat as possible, while a Yir,i>-inian mer- chant, who had property on hoard, called upon him, if flight were impracticahlo, to attest his character as a true- horn Englishman and at once prepare to light. I>nt the crew, including the cook, numbered only twelve, and as to the others on board, setting aside the tailor, who was a IMetiiodist and disliked drawing any one's blood but his own; the comedian, who was a philanthro})ist and hated fighting for " Kipperkin's" reason, "because it's so plaguey quarrelsome," and the captain, who, being a cow- ard, was no doubt a philosopher and believed in " Neces- sity," there were only fourteen individuals to guard our deck against at least a hundred. But emergencies are the opportunities of heroes. The Irishman who had been so supine all the voyage no soon- er heard the captain's tremulous remark that he should bo compelled to surrender, than he jumped three feet from the deck, whirled his cap in the air, and shouted, " Surren- der be ; we'll sink first, and then let him take us. If the captain won't fight the ship, I will." Tlic crew, who did not waat for pluck, whatever might be the case with their commander, welcomed the proposition Avith a cheer, and forthwith proceeded to cast off the lashings of four small guns which represented our ordnance. What all our heroism could have done for us beyond irritating the enemy it is difficult to say, but happily at this deci- •sive moment the wind, suddenly freshening, gave our ves- sel a start which enabled us, before dusk, to run the wretch out of sight. On reaching Boston I met many London acquaintances nt the theatre there, who varied in the reception they gave me. One said I " had come too late by five years ;" an- other that I was "a great fool to come at all;" a third 2 26 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. that, as I " looked a florid habit, there was every cliance of my being packed in a black box before the spring." The better tempered cheered me in the way an army agent does a cadet in war time. " The yellow fever," said they, " thins the Green Room of at least twenty every summer, so that in a short time the field will be your own!" Boston possessed two theatres, one of which, under the management of Ilodgkinson, an actor from Bath, was now open. Its smaller size as compared with the London ones was a great advantage to the actors. It was not necessary to take the ear by storm, and whereas, in London, tlie players were so far from the audience that I often thought the old Greek custom of wearing masks might well have been revived, here the naked eye could tlioroughly discern the play of countenance, and the face — that living, burn- ing comment on voice and gesture, that Hash to their de- tonatiofi — had its full effect. Especially was this a gain to the ruling favorite of the States, Ilodgkinson,* whose well-defined features showed every minutest change of thought or throe of feeling; while iiis voice could be com- pared to nothing but a many-stringed instrument whicli his passion played upon at pleasure. While such were his endowments, his method was to work himself up to a certain pitch of excitement which rendered everything he said or did the direct j)rompting of impulse. I can give a curious instance of this. Though so great a favorite, Ilodgkinson wasnotovcrfonJ * John IIougkinson. Born in Manclioetcr, EnglanJ, 17G7. lie first appeared in America at tlie John Street Theatre, New York, as Vapid ia the "Dramatist," in IV'.).", The next year he became manager of thut tlieatrc, and licld tlie position until 1798. lie left New York in 180;], jdayed in Charleston, S, C, and elsewhere in the South until his death in Washington, D. C, from yellow fever in 1805. He was good in every- thing, and played a large range of characters, excelling in low comely, but ajipoariiig with success in pantomime, opera, and tragcdj'. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 27 of acting, but like Quin, Footc, and others, iiuliilgccl a gentlemanly appetite for the pleasures of the table and the field. For a day's shooting I think he would have given up six nights of Shakespeare. When he became manager (at New York) his social propensities obtained greater scope. lie played but three nights a week, and being well-studied in every character of the " Stock Drama," new pieces, which were not more than two in a season, were the only chances that dragged him to a re- hearsal. In admiration of his talents a native of the city had written him an " original character," which was a sort of backbone to a lumbering frame of live tragic acts. Per- ceiving that the studying of this affair would absorb many days, if not weeks, which might otherwise be de- voted to jovial society, Ilodgkinson made up his mind that the piece was too heavy for representation. The author, however, begged he would read it and give him his opin- ion. This he consented to, and put the manuscript into his pocket as he was jumping into a boat with his dog and gun to enjoy a day's shooting at Brooklyn. In the hurry of his departure he had forgotten to supply himself with wadding, and after two or three successful shots, feel where ho would, nothing could his hand discover but the tragedy, which offered neither lly-leaf nor cover to satisfy his wants. Kever was sportsman so villainously baffled. The day was beautiful, his gun infallible, and his dog was rousing the birds at the rate of a score a min- ute. He had now no resource but to return to the city, or sit down and read his friend's play; a more intellect- ual amusement certainly, but, like all our pure enjoyments, wanting the edge of a forbidden one. Tiic first scene was in a cavern — " Enter Antonio and a Conspirator." Turning over the leaves, he exclaimed, " Six pages in a cavern! what can they possibly have to talk about? 28 RETIiOSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. tliat must bo tedious." At this moment his dog was set- ting lip his tenth covey. His eye rolled round upon the sport, then returned to the book. A tempting demon was tugging at his heart; * [the conspiracy could surely go on just as well without all that dull talk in a cavern, and it would make so much more sensation in a gun than on the stage. Human nature — sporting human nature — could re- sist no longer, and Antonio's cavern plot was brought to light in an explosion which resulted in a heavy flutter of feathers to the ground. The work of destruction once begun it was easier to proceed. The hour was still early, the game still plentiful, and more and more wadding was required. " I'll just leave the other fellows, and take my own part; there can be nothing unfair in that," muttered Hodgkinson, and as Antonio had been plentifully sup- plied with soliloquies and long speeches, every one of which in turn became a " wad," by the evening the game- bag was very fairly filled and the tragedy considerably attenuated. But how was he to meet his friend the dramatist ? To return the manuscript in its present muti- lated condition was evidently out of the question, utterly impossible. The only alternative, therefore, was to accept it, and trust to his own powers of improvisation to supply all deficiencies when it had to be performed. "It's odd indeed," said he, " if I can't speak the part at least as well as he'd written it, and, anyhow, the audience must be gainers, for I'm sure to make it shorter." When the night of rcjiresentation arrived, although every word uttered by Antonio came fresh from his brain, the actor was so] effective as to draw upon each * It is only right to state that a page of Mr. Bernard's manuscript was here missing : perhaps some one else hail been in want of wadding. As I thought the story too good to bo lost, and the beginning and end made it so obvious what the middle must have been, I have ventured to supply the part between brackets. — E. G. B-B. m RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 29 scene a thunder of applause, and when he died, at the end, to create an uproar that threatened to entomb him with the roof. Incredible as the fact may appear, I learned from a person who leas not in the secret, that there never was more approbation elicited by a performance in the New York Theatre than on this occasion. Hands, heels, and tongues were going continually, the words " Fine !" "Great!" "Very considerable spirit!" "'nation sight of feeling!" "Genuine genius!" flew from lip to lip, and the next day the whole affair was elaborately analyzed and eulogized in the papers. Ijut what said the author? He sat and listened to the end in a state of petrifaction. The fall of the curtain re- stored his faculties and roused his indignation at a triumph in which he had had so little share. Jumping over the orchestra, he made his way to Ilodgkinson's dressing-room with the bound and glare of a tiger. He found the man- ager surrounded by his satellites, who were " larding " him on his performance. "Mr. Ilodgkinson!" he shouted; "good heavens, sir! what have you been talking?" "Well, sir! what?" asked the hero, with his usual invin- cible smile. "Nothing but nonsense, sir, d — d nonsense!" " Have I ?" he replied, " then ichat have they been clap- ftinrj .^" In the genteel society of Boston I could perceive no dis- tinctions from that of my own country. They wore the same clothes, spoke the same language, and seemed to glow with the same affable and hospitable feelings. In walk- ing along their mall I could scarcely believe I had not been whisked over to St. James's Park ; and in their houses the last modes of London were observable in ncc'^rly every article of ornament or utility. Other parts of the state wore, however, very different. America is identified with progress; whether in inven- tion or adaptation, in expansion or celerity, the Western 30 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. wc admit to 1)G the special field of movement. We Eng- lish rush along ourselves, hut our pace as compared with Jonathan's is that of a fast coach to the rail. AVe gallop, but he ilies. Nor is this unaccountable. If mind can act on matter, matter also acts on mind, and the face of a country stamps its character upon a people. If moun- tainous they arc rugged; if flat and fertile they are peace- ful. Now America is not only vast, and thus is the source of grand conceptions; has her stupendous lakes and moun- tains which expand the soul proportionately; but America is also rapid, her streams aro torrents and her winds hur- ricanes ; her lightnings sweep whole territories and her cataracts leap from heaven. It is Nature herself that goes ahead there, the very elements are at high pressure, so it can scarcely be wonderful that the people should catch her tendency. But progress must have its vehicle, a people rightly organized to carry on its changes, and among the various groups of the Western world which has most evidenced this fitness ? Why, evidently the New-Eng- landers. The settlement of New England marks an era in the history of nations. Not planted to enlarge an empire or to raise a revenue; not won by fraud or moated round with blood, she alone can boast a philoso})hic origin. She was the first state founded in the great cause of humanity. Many colonies have sprung from persecution, most have strug- gled up to intelligence through cheerless shades of selfish- ness and error; but she, like Adam, was formed in inno- cence and formed full-grown. From the beginning, too, she was in spirit, if not in name, republican; not only so constituted by the covenant of her first settlers, but unin- tentionally confirmed as such by the charters granted her by Charles, which, with tbo view of forming trading-com- panies, not states, conferred on her the power of electing all her officers, and framing her own laws. RETROSPECTIONS OP AMERICA. 31 In the brief sketcli of the progress of society attempted in the first chapter of these records, the exclusively Eng- lish origin of tliis colony, in contradistinction to the motley population of the South, has been pointed out as a fundamental difference, which to this day produces a gener- al agreement or nationality in many social particulars that is nowhere else to be observed, unless it be in the newly formed Western States, the offspring of New England, and reared under peculiar local circumstances. Now this gen- eral agreement appeared to me to be productive of one great benefit, since, as in England, it permitted no changes but by the gradual progress of opinion, while, as its pre- cision of ideas was perpetually at work sifting the mere- ly ornamental from the really excellent, it presented a school in which all the materials were collecting for the formation of a substantial public character that would be equal to the demands of the growing interests of the coun- try. Under the influence of this general agreement the fathers of the Revolution had arisen in New England, and the names of John and Samuel Adams, Hancock, Quincy, Warren, Otis, and a train of others arc no trifling guaran- tee that the palladium of American rights will be found ill the breasts of their descendants. Were I to give ex- pression to all I felt at a later period, when admitted to a closer knowledge of their excellences, my language might be thought too highly colored, but recurring to my first impressions as a stranger, I could not but perceive that New England contained the stamina of American charac- ter. Yet it is useless to disguise the fact that English feeling towards this special group has often been any- thing but cordial. Most interested of all men in the })robIem America was solving, the Englishman was yet of all men, perhaps, the least able, a few years ago, to sym- pathize with the means adopted by New England as her share of the solution. He could not dispossess himself of 32 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. those ideas of comfort dcpciKlcnt on a settled state of things, which here he found at variance with a hundred novelties struck out by the rough spirit of expediency. Nor was he prepared in all cases to make due allowance for the local causes which had modified the people's char- acter. The hard, hilly, broken soil of the country, more adapted for pasturage than for tillage, together with its plenteous woods and waters, had early turned the atten- tion of the settlers to that "agriculture of the main," the fisheries of Massachusetts Bay, and to building and navi- gating boats for the transport business of the Union. As a surplus population arose, instead of occupying them- selves with increasing domestic comforts, like the dogged and tenacious Germans on the kindred soil of Pennsyl- vania, a love of change and the alluring accounts of West- ern fertility drained off the New^-Englanders to break fresh ground and become the pioneers of civilization in the back- woods; while another portion began to apply their me- chanical talents and natural ingenuity to manufactures. Thus fishing, migrating, and fabricating the country, though with a population doubling in its ratio that of any other of the states, yet very slowly assumed that look of settled permanence which so markedly distinguishes cm English prospect. Everything was run up a hurry or struck out at a blow. My destination had been Mr. Wignell's * theatre at * Thomas Wignei.l was the son of a member of Gai rick'ti Company. ITe came to America at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, but, without appearing on the stage, went to Jamaica, and remained in the West Indian circuit for ten years. In 1785 he made his professional debut here as Lcwson and Squire Groom at "The Theatre " (.lohn Street), Now York, where he remained until 1791. A few years later he opened the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, then the finest building of its kind on the continent. In January, 1803, he married the celebrated Mrs. Merry, dying suddenly a month later, aged about fifty years. lie was considered without a rival in such characters as Faulkland, Joseph Surface, RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 33 Philadelphia, but the yellow fever having broken out in that city drove the manager to New York, where he fitted uj) a lately vacated circus, and desired I would meet him at Newport, a town about half-way. Thither I according- ly started in one of those longitudinal inventions termed a " New P^ngland stage," built without springs on the i^lan of an English covered wagon, to contain " a full company," eighteen, inclusive of the driver. This, with a ton of lug- gage at its tail, was capable of being pulled up-hill with the speed of a whirlwind by four shaggy, scrambling, equine devils that required neither whip nor rein, but seemed to enjoy the joke. The structure of this machine, placing all upon a level, exhibited a republican principle which as yet was not at variance with a state of means by which a certain class require distinct accommodation. The differences between it and the English stage-coach were not always in the latter's favor. True, it had no out- let but its mouth, at which it gorged and disgorged like some great Leviathan, and the seats being transverse and supplied with backs, the last-comers, men or women, iiad to stride over the shoulders of the earlier ones to reach a seat, for each being desirous of keeping as near as possible to the driver, the law of gravity was suspended in this vehicle, and very few of the passengers who came in first found their way to the bottom. When Mrs. Bernard and myself were at last established in the extreme seat (not unlike the back of the Covent Garden gallery), we discov- ered that the floor was lumbered with a mail-bacc and a valuable assortment of earthen and hardware jugs, kettles, fire-irons, and other articles consigned to a "store" in the interior, which had the elTect, before the vehicle had been and Darl)y. Mr. Wood describes hira as a handsomo man of fine deport- ment, whose maxim, that "good manners were more nearly allied to good morals than people generally conceived," was perfectly illustrated in his own character and conduct. 2* 34 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. ten minutes in motion, of dyeing our sliins all the colors of the rainbow. Tlic irritation was perhaps augmented by fif- teen tongues going, at the rate of ten words a second, upon politics, commerce, and agriculture, broken by the coughing and hawking of those who were further exciting themselves by cigars and pigtail. But above all this storm, like the deep-toned notes of a powerful bassoon, rose the oracular responses of the "driver." As American roads have not yet produced any specimens of the Old Bailey chivalry called highwaymen, the luggage needed not that extor- tionate good genius the English " guard," the indefatiga- ble driver combining the offices and being the ministry in one. Like the French monarch he could cay, '''■ Uitat c'est moij^ and it was indeed his character that gave the great novelty and interest to the vehicle. Every man who has travelled in England must acknowl- edge the stage-coachman to have been a very formidable personage; mysteriously muffled in innumerable yards of cloth, his back tiled with capes, his red face struggling up from the suffocating clasp of woollens and bandannas, and but just visible under a projection which seemed to unite the uses of a hat and an umbrella, he ascended his box by a kind of divine right. lie was the autocrat of whips; the Sublime Porte imfi '"^ve copied his manner, his cat- tle being as the p^^'^ Turkey. True, as a proof of England's freed( . were permitted to sit beside him, but this tended to .. . eed awe rather than intimacy. Every one must have felt the difficulty of drawing that august being into conversation; even the profound responses of the oracle as to whether we should have rain, or if the summer would be fine, being broken by low, mystically worded objurgations to liis horses, proving bow he was absorbed in the science of government, ready at any mo- ment to resort to coercion, always maintaining a sufficient check. RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 35 I The very opposite of fill this was the New England "driver." lie was usually a thin, wiry, long-backed, leather-skinned fellow, sharing the front seat with the company, and ilying in and out of the vehicle with the crack of a harlequin. No one more abhorred a superflu- ity of clothes. A straw hat was his creed, and he would often wear nankeens and shoes in frosty weather. I can remember one — a tall Vernionter, in a village where I re- sided some time — who, when winter was whistling his sharpest airs, would stand up amid a well-clad undergrowth of travellers, lank as a leafless elm. Placed upon their level, he sympathized with all his company, yet not intru- sively, lie was a general book of reference, almanac, mar- ket-list, and farmers' journal ; a daily paj)er published every morning, a focus which, by some peculiar centripetality, drew all things towards it. I sec nothing of a joke in the assertion of a New Eng- land driver being a major in the army. Europeans forget that, in its European sense, the army in America is not a liighly respectable separate profession. Butchers there are sid generis. Men became soldiers during the war because they had something to lose. The driver was frequently the owner of a farm or inn, and of a share in his convey- ance. As ho took no fees (the brand of slavery in Eng- land) he was never regarded as a servant. As a rivet to his influence very often the driver was a wag, who had a joke for his passengers, perhaps as old as his stage, and as little likely to stop running, lie had rambled in his youth half over the Union, and could tell you strange stories of Indians and rifles, and planters and panthers, of deer-kill- ing and horse-racing, and the art and mystery of mak- ing mint-sling. The reserve of an English conveyance is proverbial, the animation of the one in which wo found ourselves offered the greatest possible contrast. The road necessarily engages the traveller's attention. J 86 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. Thougli far better tlian in any other quarter of the Union, the frequent jolts and plunges of the vehicle brought it into sad comparison with the bowling-greens of England. Very often we surprised a family of pigs taking a bath in a gully of sufficient compass to admit the coach. As often, such chasms were filled by piles of stones that, at a dis- tance, looked like Indian tumuli. The driver's skill in steerimr between these dangers vas eminent. I found there were two evils to be dreaded in New England trav- elling — a clayey soil in wet weather, which, unqualified with gravel, made the road a canal; and a sandy one in summer, w^hich might empliatically be called an enormous insect preserve. Here, as around the swamps, reigns and revels the mosquito — lord of the lance — ^that Arab of the air whose weapon is against every man, or at least every stranger, for there is a superstition that he has the ])atri- otic instinct to spare natives. At any rate, it is certain no native is before him in his attentions to foreigners. Ameri- ca has often been termed by travellers a land of magni- tudes, but I question whether it had ever occurred to them to compare the relative power of the mosquito, and that mild, torment of Europe, the flea, though thousands who liave had experience of both hemispheres would be feeling- ly alive to the proof; and if refinement curled its lip at the idea, candor Avould compel a confirmatory shrug. Of the political influence of this insect I had an illustration in a fellow-traveller, but lately arrived from England, and pro- fessing to be greatly disgusted with his country. During the former part of the journey he had been continually railing against it, but under the influence of the mosquitoes this rancor gradually softened, and at last the persistency of their stabs forced even this thoroughly disaffected wan- derer to exclaim, "England, with all thy faults, I love thee still." Tiiis is, jicrhaps, the most appropriate place for Bomc ob- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 37 servations on him wlio plays the "title-role" in this part of the States; though tlie prevalent absurdity in England of calling an American of whatever state by the general title of Yankee is not greater than the misaj)plication of the title in America to all classes of T^J^ew-Englanders. The origin of the name, indeed, as stated by Heck Welder, is the Indian pronunciation of "Englisli" — "Yengeese" — by which appellation they distinguished the New-Eng- landers from the Virginians, or Southern people, whom they called the " Long-knives." Yankee, however, is really now a, term denoting character rather than locality, and repre- sents a certain set of qualities in a particular grade of so- ciety. The Yankee is a man of the lov/er orders, some- times a farmer, more often a mechanic (the very vSpirit of mechanism embodied), and yet more usually a travelling trader. The A^ankee is the Yorkshireman of America; the same cunning, calculating, persevering personage, with an infusion of Scotch hardiness and love of wandering. Like him, he goes upon the principle that all men arc rogues, and like him he is instanced by his customers as the best illustration of the doctrine. He has the same t. nt for expedients; the same keen eye to character and to expedite a sale; the same want of nicety in regard to means, so long as they are not legally offensive (going to jail ho considers not so much a disgrace as a waste of time), so that it would be just as appropriate to call the refined gentry and enlightened manufacturers of the County of York " regular Yorkshiremen," as to cite any man wdio moves in the respectable circle of Boston as "a regular Yankee." Tliis curious class of mammalia, the " Down-Easter" as it is often called, is divisible into three species — the swa})- pcr, tlic jobber, and tlie pedler, all agreeing in one grand characteristic— love of prey— but varying in many strik- ing particulars. The swapper claims precedence in point 88 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. of antiquity, his character and name being a direct im- portation from Yorkshire. The Avord to "fiwap," mean- ing to excliange, is still current there and possesses a liigh historic interest, some local historians having proved, I believe, that it was this peculiarity in the Northern Saxons which for so many years drove the hordes of invaders to the South. The swapper is the only division of the tribe that may be called stationary, though he is not more pe- culiar in this respect than in the mode he adopts to make a fortune. lie thinks neither of buying, nor selling, nor growing, nor manufacturing; the key to his El Dorado is — exchange. With most this practice is a passion, with many a disease; some arc inoculated with the virus, but the majority have it in the natural way, and it has then all the precocity of genius, with the tenacity of faith. It shows itself in childhood, when the infant swaps its milk for marbles; and at school, when the boy swaps every- thing but floggings. As his possessions increase he puts all he owns into a state of transition; house, land, and cattle are drawn into the whirlpool; even coat, hat, and boots. lie soon loves swapping for its own sake; the means becomes the end; the mere act and business of ex- changing seems essential to his existence. If now an- alyzed the feeling would be found pure; if it is no love of lucre, it is much less envy of his fellow-creatures' pos- sessions; it is neither desire of profit nor of accumulation; it is simply the love of novelty. The swapper is, of all men, the least aiTected by relics, tlic least concerned about memorials. Turning his back upon his father's wisdom, he has full faith in the in- struction and resources of the future. With him every- thing old is useless, he keeps nothing long enough to prove its value by experience, but puts all his trust in the excel- lences of new inventions. The swa])i)er is a fine moral symbol, no man illustrating more directly the vanity of RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 39 human wishes, or the evanescence of all things. Again, lie is a moral warning, no maa displaying more of the spirit of a gambler, or more often meeting the fate of one. Yet his is a kind of madness which ought to be harmless from its singularity, for there is nothing even analogous to it, except that domestic evil in England — a buyer of bargains. Thus he spends his days as everybody's agent or anybody's market. If poor, he exchanges to become rich; if rich, to become poor; till, having swapped wealth for want, ease for anxiety, and youth for age, he at last swaps this world for the next. I made these discoveries principally during my residence at a country-box near Boston, where my nearest neighbor was a specimen of this class, ia the last stage of the dis- order. Every morning that he heard I was at home he was sure to pay me a visit in order, as he termed it, to "make a trade." Whatever object his eye rolled upon it roused "that one dear thought" — to barter; my plough for his cart, my horse for his cow, or my dog for his cat. If I proved obdurate to the advantages proposed on one point, he attacked me on another. Not an inch of my property but suggested some article of exchange on his own premises. Would I swap my peaches for plums ? my carrots for cabbages? I verily believe, had I not agreed to gratify him on some occasions, he would have proposed to swap the rats in our barns, or the snails in our orchards. At times I endeavored to soften my refusal by inviting liim to dinner, but the mania still clung to him as liis real hunger and thirst. On pouring out some In-andy he re- membered that he had a keg at home, he should like to trade away; and the sight of my mutton suggested the idea of a score of sheep which he would make over to me for two oxen. The ai)pcarance of my friend was in strict keeping with Lis ruling propensity. Ilis dress was constantly under- ! i UULi-JUJlU-M g lli l'*^ 40 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. going mutations in wliicli the variety of colors and text- ures precluded the monotonous impression of a suit. Ho was half nankeen one day, half leather the next. Every market morning furnished some novelty, particularly in his hats, which were enthroned and deposed with all the despatch of Grand Turks. A pair of homespun trousers seemed to stick to him the longest, though their historj^ I've little doubt, resembled that which the Virginians (to whom a swapper was a perpetual source of satire) were in the habit of relating. They said that a farmer who had not had a "trade" for some time, feeling rather dull one Sunday, resolved to " go to meeting." On his way there he saw a young man hoeing in a field, so he stopped and began to lecture him on the immorality of his conduct. Finding that he would not attend to him, the farmer at last bawled out, "I say, young man, you won't listen to religion, but you've got on an awful strong pair of trousers, will you swap ?" I remember a pendant to this from the same source. A Connecticut dealer who was "down" with a fever, in a very dangerous state, had had a particular medicine sent to him, to be taken four times a day. A friend, calling in, smelt the mixture and pronounced it to be excellent; it liad cured his grandmother. "It is worth a dollar a bottle," said he. At these electrifying words the dying man opened his eyes, raised himself an inch, and faltered out, "A dollar a bottle, Enoch! there are three bottles of it, and, if you've no objection, I'll swap the whole lot for your black terrier." The second species of " Down-Easter," a jobber, is a man of genius, mechanical it may be, but still a genius. lie has probably been taught a trade, shoemaking for in- stance, which, being conducive to reflection, leads him into a view of the varied wants of man from the foot upwards, from the bed he requires to rest upon, to the roof that RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 41 must cover him. All arts agree in requiring certain qual- ities, such as solidity, convenience, proportion, and dura- bility, whence it is obvious if a man thoroughly under- stands the craft of shoemaking (to say nothing of its ]ihilosophy, the giving neatness to an ugly foot, which will restore enjoyment to a sensitive mind), he has a guide and handmaid to the sister arts, a pass-key to the cells of mechanism, in whose works practice will give proficiency. Thus he superadds to his original vocation carpentry, cabinet and coffin making, bricklaying, and farriery; and as soon as his mind is sufficiently stored he collects his tools (for knowledge, with him, is action), crams them into a basket, and strides off to the Western States, where in every ncAv-formed settlement he proves a welcome visitor, supplying to each house that slight assistjince which their comfort niay require. Joking apart, there is not a doubt that this class of men are among the most useful in the Union. They unite to a rough expertness, in all they undertake, the temperance and industry demanded by the state of things about them, and virtue, in this case, meets with its reward. The man that can turn his hand to anything, generally turns everything into his hand; his leather pouch soon exhibits the appearance of a tumor, till he is at length enabled to eschew vagrancy, buy a plot of ground, and build a shop in some fast-rising settlement, which he opens in "the general line;" when, as the in- creasing wants of the community call for the introduction of regular trades, they also introduce customers to con- sume his cheese and bacon. A jobber is generally a red-faced, yellow-haired man, with light-blue eyes and a capacious mouth, dressed in a nankeen suit which was made for liim when a lad, and I ' from whose expressive restrictions his republican frame is now freeing itself at back, elbows, and waistband. But the grand division of the tribe is the New England i 42 KETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. pcdler, wlio, unlike the last described, has no inventive in- genuity, save in the art of puffing, and still less like the lirst, not the slightest taste for swapping. He considers his own goods so much superior to his customers' that nothing but hard cash can represent their value. To buy- cheap and sell high comprehends for him the whole cycle of human knowledge; the supreme excellence of north- country stuffs is his religion; and science has taught him to believe that the world itself would not go round but to the tick of a New England clock. The same spirit which carried his ancestors into the backwoods with their train of teams and children sends him every spring on a voyage of discovery to the South. This visit is regarded by the Southern trader in the light of a visitation; he may be truly said to have Yankee-phobia, and to look upon a "Connecticut chap" as a commercial Scythian, a Tartar of the North whoso sole business in life is to make inroads on his peace and profit. lie ranks him in the list of plagues next to the yellow fever, and before locusts, taxation, and a wet spring ; indeed, some go so far as to suppose that a shower of Yankees was the crowning pestilence which made Pharoah give up the Israelites. The panic they occasion is not more from a terror of their cleverness than of their singularly indomitable spirit. There is no getting rid of them. None of the usual similes of a burr, or sticking-plaster, give any idea of a i:)edler'8 tenacity; he has the gripe of a crab with the suction of a mosquito; you can't deny, you can't insult, you can't fatigue him; you can only dismiss him by a purchase. Such a character must be particularly obnoxious to an indolent and relaxed community. A tornado could not create greater havoc in the ease and enjoyment of a Caro- linian evening than the buzzing and humming of such a wasp. In some places his mere appearance is the sound- ing of a tocsin to bar doors and windows, while many even RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 43 (loul)lo lock drawers, to prevent a conjuration over the counter by which the money seems to leap out of the till into the pcdler's pocket. It may be amusing to pause for an instant on such a scene. Suppose a village in one of the rich Virginian or Caro- linian valleys, clustering round a road that climbs up a hill so almost perpendicular that it seems to realize the idea of Jacob's ladder. From the gate of the planter's lawn run, or, rather, stagger off, the sheds of the butcher, the baker, and the blacksmith, terminated by that arena for cock-fighting and politics, a tavern. About sunset labor has ceased and the inhabitants are leaning or lying out of their doors, the cows are wandering home, the chil- dren arc playing about, and the " niggers " are laughing loud in the distant sugar-houses. In this sweet hour of calm all hearts are disposed to indulge in Christian emo- tions. Look at the group and you'd take them for a colony of Moravians, with "^11 enemies pardoned and all cares for- gotten; when suddenly a pedestrian is seen wending down the hill, his legs, in the slanting sunbeams, sending their shadows half a mile before him. By his length of staff [he might be taken for a pilgrim, but the sprawl of his [walk awakens anything but sacred associations. Gradual- fly his hull looms into distinctness, they perceive he is a long-backed man, with a crouching head and loaded shoulders; suspicions are excited; and at length one who may have suffered more than the rest, perhaps, from the endemic, recognizes its symptoms and exclaims. Til bo Bhot if it aint a Yankee !" At these words if there is not a general rout, or springing up, and banging-to of doors, it must be because their faculties are prostrated by the sur- prise, and they lie spell-bound, as cattle are said to do on the approach of the anaconda. As the enemy advances at a swinging pace among them, his keen gray eye rolling round in selection of a victim, they remember the strange r r! 1 44 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. man wbo first found out their quiet hiding-place, and the "svonder and contempt this curious species of fellow-creat- ure at first excited — a fellow who would neither drink, bet, nor talk politics, hut kept prying into holes and corners to prove the extent of their needs, and who ultimately walked away with all the silver of tlic settlement. AVhat- ever may have been their former experiences, one of the number is a doomed man. If he doesn't want a clock "which ticks loud enough to scare away the rats, or a razor BO keen that if you but strop it overnight and put it un- der your pillow you'll wake up clean shaved in the morn- ing, yet — "Sure alive, missis wants a new cap," and he's got a small stock, " jest such as the squires' wives wear at the camp-meetin's ;" or," The young gals need some gowns," and he has "all kinds of cotton that arc all the better for bein' turned — for the inside gets fresh as t'other's wearin' out." The "Down-Easter's" system of attacking a stubborn antagonist displays great generalship, lie begins by rest- ing his pack upon the half-hatch of the door; its numer- ous contents presently require a field of display; nowhere so fitting as on the counter within, if it be a shop; he begs leave but to show them; " Look at them, mister, they won't sting you." The 'outworks once carried, his shot (caps and combs, " hankychers," etc.) fly about in all directions and take deadly effect on some of the family. By a singular fatality everything that is tried on seems to be made expressly for the wearer; she never looked so well in anything before. And equally strange is the discovery that, up to that moment, they had been living without a solitary convenience. Every one but the father perceives the necessity of Sally having a pair of shoes, Enoch a jack-knife, and the parlor a timepiece. From the shop Jonathan fights his way into the backroom, and there his victim, driven into a corner, is beaten into an acknowledg- ft RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 45 mcnt of his wants and deficiencies, and the capitulation that ensues is a discussion of their number and tlic ex- ])cnse of supplying them. "When the campaign is over in one house he proceeds to another, and so on to all in succession, till he arrives at the tavern, -where lie usually succeeds in trading the landlord out of bed and breakfast. Smarting under this infliction, it can be no wonder that the Virginians indulge in occasional vituperations, insist that the Yankee cheats them in every transaction, and that, however he may vary his commodities from the traditionary wooden nutmegs and red-llannel sausages, swindling is still his talent, his stimulus, and local distinc- tion. In proof of this they point to the fact that there arc no Jews in New England, the competition being too great for them to exist. I was told a story of a *' Down-Easter " mode of creat- ing a demand for a supply which, amid all the ingenuities of modern commerce, may fairly claim originality. One of the class called a " hickory dealer," or seller of wooden ware, came down to the South in summer-time with a well- laden w\agon, but was destined to encounter a sweeping op- position in the yellow fever, which had commenced business about a week previous in such a wholesale way that the only wooden ware in requisition was a coffin. The ravages of the plague were at this time so dreadful that it will bo supposed there was a general tendency to try the most desperate and absurd expedients to avert it, though many such proved but pioneers to its progress. This the pedler was aware of, so resolved, as regarded his own fortunes, to extract good from evil. Dressing himself as respect- ably as possible, he mounted his horse and rode up to a ])rinting-ofllce in Williamsburgh, whore, under an assumed name, he liad a hundred bills struck off to this effect : 46 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. " WANTED IMMEDIATELY, " Wooden ware in any qtiantity for the fever hospital at Philadelphia) Buch being found not to convey the infection. "By order of the Board of Health, Skth Adams. "N.B. — All persons arc cautioned how they use crockery, which is the cause of plague to thousands." Fifty of tlicse placards lie sent his boy to stick roiuid tlie streets of a village lying in his road, where the fever had begun to show itself. A discovery so important, so simple, and apparently in such close connection with a remedy, created an instant sensation. The doom of crock- cry was pronounced. Jugs, bowls, basins, teapots, and other utensils most esteemed or necessary were hurled out of the windows in showers. No grandmother's gift, no ancestor's relic, survived this fall of China; the streets soon exhibited a series of domestic tumuli, and looked like a pottery after an earthquake. About noon, when the work of destruction was at its height, a wagon made its way into the village, with a man vociferating with all the power of his lungs, "Wooden ware!" His arrival was hailed as a God-send; a crowd collected round him as to a magician who brought talismans; and in less than two liours his plague-averting platters were all disposed of at exorbitant prices. A more defensible piece of cleverness was that of a Passamaquoddy captain who, arriving in the port of Lon- don soon after the peace, was inveigled into a low tavern by some sharpers, with the intention of plundering him at cards. Failing, however, in every endeavor to draw him into play, they drank three bottles of wine with him and then went out. The landlord, coming in, expressed his sur- prise. "Are your friends gone?" he asked. "My friends?" replied the captain; "they brought me here, but I don't know them." " Ah," said the landlord, " I sec you are not much acquainted with our London blades." " No, I ain't." RETUOSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 47 *' Well, you'll grow -wiser in time; you must pay the reckoning." "What, for all four?" "Certainly, for all four." "Well, if that's the case," rejoined Jonathan, drawing out a handful of silver, "I may as well have an- other bottle." The landlord stepped out eagerly to get it from the cellar, when the captain, taking a piece of chalk from the mantel})iecc, wrote on the table, " I leave you a Yankee handle for your London blades," and quickly Malked oil also. Whatever may have been the delinquencies of the land traders of New England, the local character aj)pears to have been redeemed by their maritime brethren, who were among the most exemplary ])roductions of the Union. To skill, activity, and temperance they joined the strictest sense of rectitude, and as rapidly became the carriers of the states as they are now advancing to fulfil that office for the world at large. To this cause must be attributed the slow progress of New England in manufactures. The facilities oifered for ship-building by its wood and water, and the nautical taste of its inhabitants, rendered the car- rying-trade a more profitable pursuit than the experiment of creating goods for exchange or exportation, in the hitherto imperfect state of their machinery and the high price of labor. Georgia and the Carolinas, the most inveterate against New England, could not but allow the merits of her sea- men, even when they saw them in such numbers taking possession of the Southern harbors. The reason was ob- vious. In the old times a Carolinian owned a schooner worked by negroes, who finding slavery perhaps somewhat lighter or more diversified at sea, made no exertions to expedite a trip, but would sleep away whole tides that had been in their favor, and take so little care of their vessel that the first heavy gale blew it into harbor to refit. The Northern coasters, on tlie contrary, were principally I I! 48 KETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. manned by their owners, usually a company who, with a truly Northern spirit, carried the principles of a common- wealth even ihto their speculations. This trait, distin- guishing, perhaps, no other seamen in history, fully ac- counts for the vigor and success of their exertions. As an instance of the way in which they distanced competition, it was no unusual thing for a New-Englander to send to Philadelphia for flour, carry it to the West Indies, bring back molasses to New England, take the same to Phila- delphia, and then undersell those who traded directly be- tween that city and the islands. The ingenuity of these traders fully equalled their en- terprise, and the constant good-fortune of some of them, whatever the nature of their speculations, almost established the idea of fatalism. I knew a merchant of Boston who was so buoyed up with his successes that he laid a wager, at a party one evening, that no one present could propose a speculation which he would not turn to account. This being considered a piece of gasconade meriting ridicule, one of his hearers named a cargo of warming-pans to be sent to the West Indies. A laugh, of course, followed the announcement, but he seemed in no way disconcerted at the selection, and pledged himself to fulfil the engage- ment within six months. The difficulty of obtaining the warming-pans was not trifling. One half of the order he was obliged to send to the English manufacturers; the rest lie sei about collecting from bankrupt stocks in the Union; but, sure enough, in less than six months the freight was prepared, and the schooner set sail for Barbadoes and St. Thomas. There, such had been the negotiations of the consigner, the warming-pans were all disposed of at a profit, as substitutes for shovels in scooping up sugar I CIIAPTEll III. 1707. — Xew York. — Robert Merry. — My First Appearance and Illness; Rustication and Cure. — Aspect of New York ; the Dutch ; the Break- fast-table ; Merchants' Daily Life; Double Disguises; the Biters Bit; Land Speculators. — Sport. — Anecdotes of the Revolutionary War ; Sir W. Howe and Mrs. Loring; Lord Cornwallis and his Friend. — Journey to rhiladelphia ; a Narrow Escape. The first person to shako my liand in New York was my old club and Green Room associate, Robert Merry.* When I met him on landing he exclaimed, " Ah, John, have you come to make your fortune like the rest of us ? I'm afraid," shrugging his shoulders, " you'll be bit." " I plead guilty," said I; " but what in the name of Mammon tempted you — you, that I've heard so often say you could never live in America?" "Nonsense, John," he replied, "you know that I always liked to be in A-merry-key." Poor fellow! here was the ruling passion strong in exile: he had given up home, friends, fame, poetry, pleasure, politics — everything but punning. My commencement was hardly encouraging. On the 25th of August I made my first bow to an American au- * Mr. RoBEUT Merry was one of the founders of the Delia Cruscan school of poetry — a sort of anticipation in the last quarter of the last century of tlie affectations of the ^Esthetic School in the last quarter of this ccnturj'. It arose among certain English residents in Florence in 1Y85 ; it spread to England, where, by a curious anticipation, its organ was a paper called Tlie World ; it was crushed by Gifford's slashing " Baviad," published in 1794. Merry married Miss Bruntoa in 1792, and withdrew her from the stage ; but when his means failed, a tempting offer from an American manager brought them to America iu 179G, and ho died here in 1798. 3 . Il .i 'I '■ 'I ' I .1 1 60 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. dicncc, in the character of Goklfiiich, and my reception was every tiling I coukl wish; but on the second night of my performance (Lord Oglehy) I was seized witli the cholera -morbus, so that half of the apparently affected pains of the character were the spontaneous effects of my disorder. After the first treatment the doctor ordered me to go immediately into the country and to take brandy- and-water. This was no disagreeable prescription; I fixed on the little Dutch village of llacrlem for my retreat, and Robert Merry's joy at having met with me was so great that ho insisted on sharing my rustication, remarking, in his old way, "it was not the first time he had found it a pleasure to cheer me." AVhen thus together we had so much to remember, discuss, reply to, propose, and project, that wo sat up night after night, administering jilentifully the doctor's elixir, till in a few days I found myself com- pletely restored, having experienced, perhaps, the pleas- antest cure upon record. I have termed the Middle States an ej)itome of Europe. New York was an index to the Middle States. The one great market to the enterprising foreigner, it was also a sort of Mecca to the hungry backwoodsman, who was sure to make a pilgrimage once in his life to yield his liomage on its counters to the gods. Mercury and Mammon. It resembled a large fair or a cluster of inns rather than an abiding city, all its inhabitants looking like birds of passage, with the exception of the few aboriginal Dutch who had not been swept away by the European flood to their yellow brick dwellings on the banks of the Hudson. But these kept themselves distinct even from the other natives, regarding the entire body as a variety of Arabs who had been expelled from Europe for their robberies. They maintained their houses like fortifications, their doors and windows ever closed and barred, their garden i RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 61 walls armed -with glass bottles in a bed of mortar, and they sitting on their " stoops " (the porches of their door- steps), so dilated as not to leave room for a cat to pass, and rolling waves of smoke from their melancholy pipes to worn the stranger off. The Dutch have never borne the character of an inhospitable people, but certainly in this case they seemed to interpret every glance a stranger cast at their peaked roofs and comfortable orchards as the possible preliminaries of some burglarious attempt. Their cumbrous, ox-like frames, and drowsy, ruminating faces, as they crouched in the stalls of their " stoops," are be- fore me at this moment, a marked contrast to the spare, but muscular proportions of the other residents, the eter- nal restlessness of the foreigners, or the slashing, sprawl- ing progress of the Yank'^es. The world seemed to be standing still with the one; the others seemed to be car- rying all the world before them. The house I stopped at gave me a tolerable specimen of the varieties of society now converging at this great ex- change, and enabled me thereby to solve a mystery which had puzzled the heads of numerous travellers — the multi- fariousness of an American breakfast-table. Here was a French gentleman of Vancien regime looking melancholy and mysterious, in a bag ^ig and point-lace rufiles, who had two cards of address, iho one styling him " Marquis," the other "Dancing-master." Hero was an EnjxHsh acrri- culturist just arrived, a firm believer in the doctrine of ready-roasted pigs squeaking " Come, oat me." Here was a Kentucky landowner, proving London to be the liaby- llon of the Apocalypse, and predicting England's downfall, [in order to heighten the value of his disposable property, [lere were major-generals from Vermont, walking encyclo- pedias of the war, and planters from " Caroliny," who were nlternatcly explaining the free principles of their " Con- si ilution" and reading the description of runaway slaves. I 52 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Hero were Italians who had brought over Fantoccini to refine the taste of the infant countr}'; Germans who had come to hunt out some distant relatives ; lean and vora- cious Scotclmicn looking as if they could swallow the con- tinent ; and Irish " jintlemen " of slender figures and for- tunes, who having come to America to live cheaply, had spent a year's income in crossing the ocean. To meet such a variety of tastes it was necessary that the board should do something more than merely gratify the im- pulses of an American stomach. Each must be pleased, and we were accordingly provided with fish, ham, beef, boiled fowls, eggs, pigeons, pumpkin pies, lobsters, vege- tables, tea, coffee, cider, sangaree, and cherry-brandy! The habits of tlic New York merchants reminded me of my friends at Guernsey. They breakfasted at eight or half past, and by nine were in their counting-houses, lay- ing out the business of the day; at ten they were on their wharves, with aprons round their Avaists, rolling hogs- heads of rum and molasses; at twelve, at market, flying about as dirty and as diligent as porters; at two, back again to the rolling, heaving, hallooing, and scribbling. At four they went home to dress for dinner; at seven, to the play; at eleven, to supper, with a crew of lusty Bac- chanals who would smoke cigars, gulp down brandy, and sing, roar, and shout in the thickening clouds they created, like so many merry devils, till three in the morning. At eight, up again, to scri])ble, run, fwid roll hogsheads. What a day's work this would have been for a Carolinian! Thus the New-Yorker enjoyed liis span of being to the full stretch of the tether, his violent exertions during the day counteracting the effects of his nocturnal relaxations, l)esides giving him a relish to return to them. Certainly few men throughout the Union worked harder for enjoy- ment. I could 30 little credit their daily public metamorphosis. J RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 63 ;it first, that I was guilty of many unintentional insults, particularly to two or three gentlemen who had taken a p;rcat liking to me at a friend's table. Happening one (lay to penetrate the mysterious sphere of their avocations, in order to see a ship get under way, I heard a group of porters, as they appeared to mc, shout my name and beck- on to me. This familiarity I set down to the account of their nationality, and walked on, consoling myself in the manner of Edgar, that " Every one knows poor Tom." A clay or two afterwards, at a dinner-party, I observed that I thought I was likely to become a favorite, for the gal- lery people had patronized me already. "Indeed," said one of the company, " they must see more of you than wo do, then. Why, yesterday, when you were passing the wliarf, w^ called to you till wc were hoarse; you looked round, but you w' ouldn't return." " Oh, you must be mis- taken," I replied. "The only persons I can remember hailing me were a crew of blackguards — fellows rolling hogsheads." The roar this declaration elicited defies de- scription. "They were we," shouted my respondent. I was petrified. The laughter went round the table in peals, each seeming to grow louder as I attempted to stammer an apology or explain away my words. The position was not pleasant either for myself or the persons alluded to, till one of them, with prompt good-humor, filling a glass of wine, said, "Well, well; Mr. Bernard was not obhged to know us in our stage-clothes!" I was glad, however, to change the subject, by gratifying the first person who asked me for a song, and as this had the happy effect of making the merriment general, I had no doubt that, at our breaking-up, which was some hours afterwards, my infernal Malapropism was forgotten. The next morning I received a note from one of the party, requesting me to call at his counting-house on the quay, to taste some very superior port-wine. I, having 54 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. been secretary to the I3ecfstoak Club, tlic fame of whoso port had reached even to America, enjoyed a reputation, which I believe I deserved, for a critical acumen of palate. Delighted with the summons, I set off as pleasantly as if a bottle of the aforesaid were already harmonizing all things in my interior. On my way, however, I met an- other o? the party, wiio, learning ray destination, burst into a laugh and said he could not refrain from letting mo into a secret. "You have mortified our friends so much," he continuccl, " by that unlucky mistake last night, that they swear you can only tell a gentleman by his clothes, so they have resolved to prove their charge by playing you a trick. They have dressed up some carmen in their own clothes, and mean to introduce them to you as mer- chants and great proprietors, not doubting but that you will pay them every attention. Then they mean to take you home to dinner, where all their friends are invited, to hear the expose." For a minute or two the news over- came me. I had entirely forgotten the provocation, and dreamed not of such malice. Feeling, however, that this was meeting me too much on my own ground, a plan pre- sented itself which promised, by effectually turning the tables on my antagonists, to bring the affair to a speedier and different conclusion. I disclosed it to my friend, who, tendering his assistance, I ran home for a black wig and whiskers, a smock frock, hat, stockings, and other con- stituents of a working man's dress ; then, returning to his hoii^e upon the quay, I speedily assumed them, accom- plisiiing 80 complete a transformation that he w^ith diffi- culty recognized me. 1 then wrote a note to my trap-set- ting friend for myself to deliver, stating that business at the theatre would detain me half an hour or so, but that I should join him without fail the instant of my libera- tion. I found the conspirators assem1)led in high glee and ex- RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 55 Oi> pectation; the laborers, clean-sliavcd and tricked out witli profuse finery, seated at a table with the decoy-duck port; my friends standing about in the costume which had caused all thij mistake, chagrin, and stratagem. Ten- dering the note, I said, in the best brogue I could assume, that "I was told by Mr. Burr-nard to wait at the quay till he came." Viewed on all sides by the party, no sus- picion was excited, but my words suggesting an appre- hension that I might interfere with their hoax, I was in- vited to a stool in one corner, and some brandy handed to me. Now came my enjoyment. Pulling my hat over my eyes, I soon remarked all the details of the scene and its points of contrast. The carmen at the table, who cer- tainly had the best of the joke, filled and sipped their glasses in fine burlesque of gentlemanly nonchalance; the principal actors stood in a group near the door, talking in an undertone, winking, rubbing their hands, and digging each other's sides, till the fulness of their anticipations Mould ever and anon overflow in bursts of electrical laughter, which rattled the window-panes. Then one of the outposts would shout, " He's comingl" at which all was hushed and every man stood to his gun. The next instant the news was contradicted; then came another tor- nado of risibility and another pause. In this manner the half-hour elapsed, and no Bernard. Then I began to ob- serve the quicksilver go gradually down, and signs of un- easiness master their complacency. They sat down, whis- tled, jumped up, walked to the door, muttered, "D — n it ! he must be rehearsing all Shakespeare, I hope he is coming." In a few more minutes there was a dead pause; the laughs were all flown, and they stared in each other's faces with a sheepish vacuity. A man was sent in search of me, and one or two ventured to suspect that I had " smoked " them. At this moment my friend and accom- plice arrived, and with a well-fcigncd anxiety inquired 56 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. for mc. An hour bad now elapsed, and their impatience could no longer be controlled. All was uproar as, stamp- ing about, they commented on my want of punctuality (as the result of professional habits), with the aid of all those emphatic words by which the lower orders have so materially strengthened the English language, and which they could not refrain from pressing into their service. The men were then told to leave off emptying the bottles and doff their borrowed plumes; upon which I, rising up and divesting myself of wig and whiskers, begged also to resume my real character. The scene that ensued I must leave to my reader's im- agination. Suffice it that all my anticipations were real- ized; the good-humor of the biters thus bit returned, and the port, a bottle of which I had been invited to taste, was not left till at least half a dozen had set their gener- ous seal to our articles of confederation then and there immutably established. The most amusing species of scum on the surface of New York society were the land speculators, who prowled about the wharves and hurried, like so many alligators, to pounce on the unwary emigrant. Everybody arriving with a ruddy, round, moneyed-looking aspect they con- ceived must necessarily want to buy land, and they forth- with produced a list of soils, like a tailor's pattern book, which they had to sell cheap; land possessed of such won- derful properties as would turn all the poetry of the Fort- unate Islands into poor prose, all the golden coloring of Oriental fertility into mere barrenness. It was capable not merely of growing everything, from a gooseberry to a grape, from a pumpkin to a buffalo, but it emitted vari- ous kinds of effluvia which contributed to skill in all kinds of trade, the atmosphere being impregnated with an in- describable something which made a man cleverer there than in any other part of the Union. One of their roguer- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 57 ics was to plant hickory-trees, which will only grow in llie best soil, about the edges of the worst; the fact of their production being considered a sufficient guarantee. What a world of new ideas would a Hogarth have re- ceived from half an hour's lounge through the scene of their vocation, to observe the backwoodsman grasping his victim by the collar, and pouring into his ears a torrent of talismanic sounds; and the good, easy, innocent Eng- Ush farmer rumbling the money in his j^ockets, and gloat- iiic: with his half-unsocketed eves on the vision of fairy- land set before him. These worthies were in the habit of selling the same land to two and three different customers, and emicrrat- ing before the parties could make a discovery of the fraud. But it was not to be supposed they could have all this fun to themselves. Europe was perpetually pouring over pro- fessors of the dark sciences, whose talents ably supported the credit of their birthplaces, and " When Greek meets Greek," etc. I heard an amusing story of a Frenchman who had assumed the title and forged the deeds of a mar- quisate in Normandy. Meeting a Kentucky man with ground to sell, which had already passed into the hands of more than one gull, they effected an exchange. Which received a balance I don't know, but the one took a voy- age to France and the other a pilgrimage to the lakes, to discover the identity of their schemes. During our short but very pleasant and successful sea- son at New York, Merry was the constant companion of my fishing and shooting excursions, and he still proved that his spirit was a true echo to his name. And here were no game laws to tax the pocket and principles of an Englishman; you could take your rod or gun, jump over a gate, and wing or hook your victims before the door of a mansion, without tlie trouble of inquiring whom it belonged to. Here were no eternal " Trespassers be- 3* 68 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. ware!" or " Spring guns!" to warn the reader that a rab- bit's legs were of more value than a man's. Tlie benev- olent Americans iorgtive every man his trespasses, and pointed their guns only at tlic enemies of tlieir country. In our rambles we gathered many laughable anecdotes of the war. At a farmhouse where we dined we learned that the owner had formerly lived in West Chester, where, on one occasion, he had been compelled, at the point of the sword, to give assistance to the Royalists. The Pro- vincials, who were numerous in that quarter, came upon him the next day, cudgelled him soundly, and carried off his cattle and all they could lay hands on, except some winter j^rovisions in his barn, because he was " a d d Tory and had given assistance to the king." The day following down galloped a corps of cavalry with capa- cious bags, and pillaged all that was left — his beef, pork, and gammons — on the plea that he was "a d d rebel, and had supplied the king's enemies." There were some humorous peculiarities about these West Chester boys, who, from tlieir Jack-o'-lantern movements and nightly annoyances were called " General Howe's Mosquitoes." The general at one time being short of provisions, sent a party overnight to drive off some cattle from Long Island. The watchword for the guard in that quarter was "Cam- bridge," and tlie password, "Swamp." The foragers luckily stumbled on an outpost who piqued himself on his superior caution; a "fellow that would sleep with one eye shut and both ears open," especially on a foggy night. Hearing them approach, this vigilant sentinel exclaimed, in a shrill snuffle, "Cambridge!" Receiving no response he rejDeated, " Cambridge, I say! If you don't say Swamp I'll shoot!" Tlic English, subduing their laughter, shout- ed the word, and, passing on, before morning drove off a magnificent herd. On another occasion, when the levies were being raised, RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 60 and a commanding officer was bearing the pleas of exemp- tion (all men beyond a certain age, witli so many cbildren, or disabled by infirmity), a liale, well-built, active-looking fellow petitioned to be excused on tbe ground of an im- pediment in bis speecb. "I — I — I stut-ter, sir." Tbe officer stared at bim, and replied, with some empbasis, " Wbat tbe does tbat signify ? we want you to figbt, not to talk." "Y-y-yes, Captain, y-es, but — but sup-po-pose we — wo bappen to be beat, I sbould g-g-get cut in balves before I could cry out qu-qu-quarter!" At New York I met witb several veteran survivors of tbe Revolution, wbo, among tbe anecdotes witb wbicb tbcy enlivened our eventual intimacy, favored me witb one disclosure wbicb I confess amused as mucb as it startled nic. It was a proof of bow ignorant is tbe world of tbo little causes of many great events. American indepen- dence, for instance, every one supposes was owing to George Washington, witb some support from bis country- men, and a little assistance from tbe French. Nothing can be more erroneous, according to these worthies, by whom it was attributed to a female patriot, the beautiful and fascinating Mrs. Loring. Seeing the affairs of tbo Trovincialists veering, like an unruddered vessel, into the suction of a whirlpool, she conceived tbe noble enterprise of their rescue, by exerting all her arts and charms to en- trap the affections and influence the counsels of that mod- ern Antony — Sir William Howe. The crisis of affairs in 1776 is well known. England had landed an army in Canada under Burgoyne, and an- other at New York under Howe, witb one grand plan of action; tbe junction of the two on tbe banks of the Poto- mac, with the consequent pitching of Washington, Lee, Gates, Green, cum multls aliis, into tbat stream; and then, the stately march of this force to the South, to brush the rest of tbe insurgents from tbe face of the earth like so 60 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. many mosquitoes. Everything seemed to favor this proj- ect. The Independents were beaten in all quarters, and Wasliington, their last stay, was permitted to stay no- where. Dislodged from White Plains, he had retreated to Bound Brook on the Delaware. Then what was the course General Howe, with his thirty thousand regularly fed veterans, was expected to pursue ? Every corporal exclaimed, " Drive the enemy from their entrenchments on the river, to keep open the water communication with Burgoyne " (no alarming task, considering that the Amer- ican force was under ten thousand), "and then march di- rect to Philadelphia." This was the pivot on which the fortunes of the struggle turned. But what did INIark An- tony ? lie ordered liis men to get on board ship and pro- ceed to Philadelphia via the Delaware. This was trans- porting them indeed, but with fury! The consequences were foreseen. The Hudson remaining closed, Burgoyne, after kicking Arnold out of Canada, was obliged to sur- render for want of supplies; Howe was driven back to his old position; and Cornwallis was eventually surprised into the same predicament as Burgoyne. What could have led the general to the above perverse and fatal pref- erence has been a matter of much speculation to states- men and soldiers. It need be so no longer, when they learn tliat Mrs. Loring, being at this time in as critical a condition as the country, required the benefit of sea-air, and her wish was law! Cornwallis, the ablest officer of the war, was certainly much hampered by local circumstances, but he wasted his time in attempting to conciliate the planters and stimulate their negroes, the latter being as unconscious of the value of their liberty as the former were alive to it. An anec- dote was related of him which attests the true English no- bleman. He had a friend in Virginia, a Colonel Vanhorn, who, throughout the struggle, had appeared to favor the RKTROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 61 royal cause. This gentleman was yet a personal friend of General Lincoln, who had been sent to the South to keep Cornwallis at bay. Lincoln, unable to restrain early leelings, was rash enough to pay the Virginian a visit in- cognito; but the secret, by some means, reaching the camp, which was not very distant, the carl ordered out a party of dragoons and surrounded the house just as the American general was sitting down to his coffee, lie had scarce time to spring up-stairs before Cornwallis entered tlie breakfast-room, and, by the dismay on every counte- nance, perceived the truth of the report. With great mildness, taking Colonel Vanhorn's hand, which shook as if palsy-struck, "My good friend," said he, " what would you say if, after our intimate acquaintance, I should bring a bear here some morning to break your glasses and chairs, to tear your carpet, and root up your garden ? You would execrate my barbarity. Is it kind, then, of you to harbor a man who has come to thwart my designs, and bring the cause I am engaged in to confusion and ruin ? I see where he has sat, but your house is sacred, I will not interrupt his breakfast; let him make a hearty one, but I trust ho will have finished it before two o'clock, because I intend then to return and do myself the pleasure of dining with you." He then paid his respects to the family, mounted his horse, and rode off with his party. It is hardly neces- sarv to add that Lincoln's breakfast terminated his visit, and that, on the earl's return, no allusion was made to him. The yellow fever having vacated Philadelphia at the sctting-in of winter, Wignell made preparations for our ap[)roach, and Merry, Morris,* and myself, with our re- * OwKN Mouuis. Was the earliest performer of comic old mcti in America. Mr. Ireland believes him to have played at Cruger's Wharf Theatre, New York, as early as 1759. He remained upon the stage for G2 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. Kpcctivc spouses, engaged a small four-horse coach to con- vey us to tlie Western Athens. Our enjoyment of this ride was interrupted by an event which liad nearly proved a very awful coincidence. On crossing the ferry at Tren- ton, in one of those flat-bottomed, low-sided, Dutch boats called scows, Morris began to relate the circumstance of having lost his first wife in this river some twenty years before, through the fore-horses of the stage taking fright, leaping over, and dragging the coach after them; the ra- pidity of the tide and the weight of the vehicle sending it to the bottom with more than half the passengers. lie had scarcely concluded this horrifying narration when the square sail of the boat, flapping suddenly in the leaders' faces, like a shot over they instantly sj)rang, and, but for the dexterity of the blacks in cutting their traces, there is not a doubt we should have shared the fate we had just heard described. many years, and died in New York in 1809, when, according to W. B. Wood, lie was ciglitj'-four, and according to Dunlap ninety years of age. CHAPTER IV. 1797-8. — Philadelphia; Babylon its Prototype. — Qiiukors. — Traditions of Ponn. — Philadolphian Society. — Street-washing. — Sir John Oldini.xon. — Introduction of Quadrille. — Discovery of a Portrait of Quin. — Cac. serih., the Philadelphian Epidemic. — My Partnership Play. — Merry's Prophetic Pun. — Fcnnell, his Kccentricities and Career. — Sanguinary Expedient in Macbeth. — Dr. Franklin, his Influence. — Opposition to " Bustles." — An Explanatory Note. — Bost Souvenir of a Lady. — A Great Calf. — A Model Foot. Dean Prideaux, in his "Scripture Commentaries," says that Penn laid out the city of Philadelpliia upon the lines of Babylon, a fact "which speaks as much for the good sense of the worthy Quaker as for his love of order. Many would have considered that regal nest of idolatry an in- auspicious, and even profane, prototype for a city which was meant to be the shrine of a true faith; but Penn re- garded it as a goodly vessel that had been polluted, and per- ceived the harmony that would subsist between the prin- ciples of his brethren and a place of straight ways. A pleasing modification of the plan was his dispensing, in tills "temple of peace, not power," with the gates and walls of the original; and blending the city with the forest. Not only do trees?, lining the streets of a town, conduce to health by purifying the air and affording shelter from heat, but there is something peculiarly beau- tiful in thus introducing the works of the Creator amid those of man, and establishing in the abode of traffic the groves sacred to meditation. The Quakers were to Philadelphia what the Dutch were to New York, but they were a far more interesting race. 64 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. As they silently stole along .it twilight in their plain garb, under the sh.; la of their .-r-cient trees, casting sad glances at the motley niulti(;;.le p.round them, they looked like spirits of their forefathers come to sigh over the dwellings they could no longer defend from the unhallowed tread of the stranger. It is to be regretted that a people so distinguished for many virtues, should exhibit, ordinarily, such a repugnance to cultivate their mental faculties. One would think they believed that because Christianity was first promulgated in times of barbarism, such a state must be essential to its continuance. Penn, Green, and Benezet were, however, brilliant exceptions, and to the general credit of the sect we must place their early aboli- tion of slavery and their treatment of the Indians. My friend, Judge Kelly, of Annapolis, related to mo two or three traditions of Penn which prove that his prac- tical application of religion was the truest policy. Nearly all his fellow-adventurers fell into the most contradic- tory mistakes respecting the character of the Indian; they gave him credit for peculiar ingenuity in devising strat- agems and tortures, but denied him suflicient sense to test the white man'c professions by his acts. They v.'Ould never have thought of breaking up a frozen stream with spule and pickaxe, instead of waiting till spring sunshine should thaw and melt it, yet could not apply the same principle in dealing with their fellow-oreatures; or see that retaliation had been the cause of the Indian's ferocity; that blood for blood was his creed, and if the white man adopted it, he only confirmed the redskin in a more dead- ly hatred, by showing the hypocrisy of his own preten- sions. To subdue the Indian it was necessary to excite cither his love or his fear. The means of conciliation W'TO many; to show respect for his rights, faith in his honor, attention to his comfort; it was but in one way that the bravo fellow could be intimidated, viz., by a dex- RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 65 terons use of his religious impressions. In the latter re- spect Penn was as sagacious as, in the former, he was ])enevolent. On one occasion the chief of a tribe, who had come to form an alliance with the " Children of the Rising Sun," committed some theft, which being observed by another Indian, he reported it to the governor, and pointed out how ample were his means of retaliation. Penn replied, " I will take from hini only what is mine own. When the redskin robs the white, he thinks the white man is his enemy; his mind is in a cloud: the white man cannot rob the red, because Maneto has told him that all men are his brothers." The wondering listener was so impressed with l^is goodness that, determined Penn should l)e no loser by h , he pursued the culprit and himself en- forced restitution. Another time the offence was more serious; a party from a tribe, not in Penn's alliance, liad fallen suddenly on n settlement up the Susquehanna, and nearly reduced it to ashes. One of the assailants having been seized, he was confined for the night in the strong- room, and at daybreak the allies assembled to witness, as they expected, his execution. When Penn took his seat, he thus addressed the prisoner: "Red man, I have been all night inquiring of the Good Spirit how I should deal with you. Maneto said to me, ' Take your choice ! he has burned your huts and killed your sons and brothers; if he dies, his blood is but a few drops for a mighty stream; but if he goes back to his tribe Maneto himself will send down the thunder and lightning, and raise the great waters to sweep off his villages.' Red man, go back to your tribe. Maneto's hand shall do justice to the white man !" The Indian departed, but his alarmed peo])le very soon came to offer reparation. Thus INfitpion (the good man), as Penn was called, enjoyed a reputation and tran- quillity which arc the best proofs that Indians arc not wanting in either honor or gratitude. In honorable jux- 66 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. taposition with Pciin stand the patriot Green (the only instance of a fighting Quaker upon record), and the phi- lanthropist Benezet (the American Howard), a man Avhose life was one long series of benefits to the community, while his death earned an epitaph which a monarch might be proud of, that, " He never made the Avorld mourn till it lost him." Such instances only deei)en our regret that the sect should, as a rule, suffer their prejudices to hinder the fulfilment of their duties to society. What could bo more absurd than their refusing supplies, during the war, to the men who were defending their homes from spolia- tion ! Certainly Philadelphia laid no claim to the character of the Western Athens until the shackles of Quakerism were broken by the Revolution, in the ferment of which event social prejudices evaporated, and an intelligent lib- erality was established. Thus the better part of Phila- delphian society presented one of the most agreeable ad- mixtures I had ever met with, having all the ease and animation one could desire, with a sufficient tinge of thoughtfulness to give decorum and dignity. A vein of inquiry pervaded conversation, which was enlivened by a perpetual fiow of anecdote. The native was as eager to tx'st the excellence of its institutions by a comparison with those of Europe as the stranger w\as to explore the re- sources and realize the grandeur of the New World; and so general was the spirit of concession and of honhonde that one never met with an arrogant assumption, or the obtrusion of an offensive prejudice; a wider and higher philanthropy than that which induces love of country seeming to prompt every one to wish for the general good. This might be attributed to the growing taste for litera- ture, establishing on the ruins of bigotry and ignorance that republic of letters whose iniluencc constantly tends to impart to political institutions its own catholicity. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. G7 I soon noticed tliat one of the external characteristics of tbe Pliiladelpliian was a short-stepping fidgetiness in the streets, which, since his broad pavements, in direct lines, offered every inducement to a firm, easy pace, seemed rather mysterious. The cause was peculiar. It was a cus- tom here to wash tlic steps and pavement every sum- mer evening, not so much to cleanse as to cool them (for they rivalled the bottoms oi bakers' ovens); to perform Avhich, the maidens stood in a lino along the passages, handing buckets from a reservoir, while the most athletic undertook the task of discharging the mimic Niagara over C^ CD O her subjacent domain. Now had it been the fate of the President himself to have passed at this moment, he would, to a certainty, have cheated the thirsty stones of their due; and had he made any complaint, doubtless the fair Sabrina would have told him tliat she considered her of- fice to be, like his government, no respecter of persons, and, as a true patriot, she regarded his health but as dust in the balance, when weighed against that of the city. Thus the inhabitants, accustomed to this visitation, con- tracted a habit of perpetual suspicion; as they passed along their eyes glanced around, vigilantly as an Indian's in a thicket, and their limbs exhibited an elasticity as if prepared on the shortest notice to "jump the bucket." In this respect all the citizens were Quakers, thougli none wished to become icet ones. Never — until after one or two damping hints as to its necessity, I had ado})ted this fatiguing precaution — did I understand the meaning of the term Jfaff-sionQS. The Philadelphian was said to be recognizable in New York and Boston by his air of ap- prehension, and thus exposed himself to the sarcasms of his companions; wliile the residents of those cities, accus- tomed to tread their own rugged pavements with a happy fearlessness, carried their system with tliem wlien visiting Philadelphia, and received the balance at the hands of the 08 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. housemaids. I remember, in particular, one victim to this evil, a Frenchman, who, having landed from Paris with a full cargo of independence, vainly endeavored to defy the custom. Arrayed in his newest flowered-silk waistcoat and satin breeches, he was sauntering along, snuff-box in one hand, and swinging-cane in the other, to pay a visit, when, at the corner of a street, he received a lieavy shower- bath. Shocked, saturated, and ensavaged, ho sacred, kicked higher than Vestris, and shook his dripping wig like a Fury; but neither pity nor apology could he obtain from the offender. Deeming it an attack on the liberty of the subject, he brought an action against the master of the house to recover the value of his clothes, but, the court deciding against him, he only lost another suit by this experiment. He then appealed to the newspapers, and demanded if America could be called the land of freedom while servants were permitted to bespatter their superiors with impunity; which was answered by the fol- lowing jeu cVcs2wlt: "LIBERTY AXD EQUALITY. "John Tomkins, standing at his 'loor, Spit on Jcni Dyke?, who passed before. * Sir,' exclaimed Jem, in furious fit, 'When I pass by how dare you spit?' 'Sir,' replied John, with equal brass, 'When I would spit, how dare you pass?'" It was amusing to notice the different impressions the city made upon visitors, showing how mut . habit has to do with taste. " How do you like Boston ?" said an Ameri- can to an Englishman, who had just arrived. *' Extreme- ly; it resembles London. The streets arc not very wide, very straight, or very clean, but I always prefer a careless irregularity. If there arc any good views or fine build- ings you are sure to enjoy them more because you come upon them suddenly." " IIow do you like Boston ?" said RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 69 a resident to a Philatlelphian. " Its society very much, but really you sliould do something to improve your thoroughfares. Your streets are so crooked and dirty my mind is perpetually on the rack to find my way and keep my boots clean." The Londoner and the Bostonian walk- ing through^ Philadelphia alike exclaim, "The town is very clean, very well paved, and very open ; no disorder, even after midnight ; but what sameness, how fatiguing to the eye ! no variety ! no surprises ! Go up one street, and you have seen the city !" I made my debut at Philadelphia in two of my London characters, at the handsome theat e built on the model of Covent Garden, to contain about £280; and the principal scenery of which had been painted from designs by Louth- crbourg, and imported with the wardrobe. I was not more l)leased with my success than at the enjoyment opened to mc in private circles by the introductions of my London friends, facilitated by some club acquaintances wdio, luck- ily happening to be over here on business, did not fail to make known the glories of my convivial career. Among others I encountered my old Bath patron, the btagc origi- nal, Sir John Oldmixon ; but so mournfully changed that, had ho not introduced himself, I never should have rec- ognized him. I had left him the most elegant person in tlic most elegant city of England, the centre of its admi- ration, revelling in enjoyment. I found him in a distant country, skulking about the streets in a threadbare suit, his hat venerable, his hair unpowdered; he had lost his elasticity and ercctncss, his teeth were broken, his face wrinkled; ten years had made him an old man as well as a poor one. I lived to see him sunk still lower, driving a little cart into the streets of Philadelphia laden with vege- tables, which he sold at the doors of his acipiaintanco, for his subsistence. " Sic transit.'''' I made some return for the kindnesses I everywhere re- 70 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMEIUGA. ccived, for I became a public benefactor, as the trans- planter of an elegant recreation and the reviver of a taste for the fine arts. Noticing in a shop-window the materials for quadrille, on inquiring the price I discovered tliat the owner was ignorant of their use; the fish he sold by the dozen to accommodate loo players, and the boxes in pairs to any who would have them. Mentioning this to my friends, I found that there was not such a thing as a quad- rille player in the city ! Pitying from the depth of my soul this Cimmerian darkness, and giving way for the first time to the belief that these people were but savages in European clothes, I lost a night's rest in endeavoring to form Kome plan for their enlightenment. At a party next even- ing I disclosed my wishes, and was fortunate enough to find three individuals who were willing to be rescued from their ignorance, and devote the next month to my instruc- tions. Blest with proper tastes, they soon attained pro- ficiency ind before the winter was over my academy had so enlarged that I beheld, among the other lights of the closing century, quadrille radiating throughout the " Western Athens." My next achievement was yet more important. Having taken a fancy to an arm-chair at an auctioneer's I walked into his store to bid for it, when I was struck Avith an old portrait lumbered among others in a corner, which seemed to me a familiar face that only wanted washing. I always had a fondness for paintings, and having paid pretty dear- ly for the indulgence, considered I liad a right to set up for a taste. I accordingly extracted the picture, dusted it, placed it in a proper light, and fell into a reverie. The broker, delighted to see his most unsalable article make an impression, exclaimed, " Will 'ee buy that pictur', sir? I'll sell it cheap. Cover a good bit of wall; it's Joscphus, sir," " Who ?" said I. " Josephus, tlie old Jewish ginral, or lawyer, or priest, or — summut in the RETIIOSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 71 way of our Mr. Jefferson. Here's liis history in folio; you sliall have tlie lot for ten dollars." Forgetting the object of my visit, I ordered them home, and on cleaning the picture found it to be a capital likeness of Quin in Falstaff ! so good a painting that it was worth a hundred dollars in America. On disclosing: this intellicrencc, a G:en- eral rush was made by my acquaintances to the broker, who got more for the rest of his old canvas than if it had been real gobelin tapestry. I believe it has been denied that that ancient disorder, the disease of writing {cac. scrib. — "Mat. Med."), is infec- tious ; though many philosophers have classed it with yawning, bad habits, and the yellow fever; yet on no other ground can I account for my becoming a victim. I liad had one or two attacks in England, which had passed off hannlessly enough, and left not the slightest evidence by which the world could have detected it. IJnt I had come to a city where it might truly be styled the c})!- dcmic. Every one was seized with it, and the literary physicians, who tricvi to check the inflammation with cold water or wet blankets, were so inefficient that, on the smallest computation, a hundred subjects a day must have yielded to the attack. But my danger was enhanced by my associating with the most infected person in the city, Robert IVIerry, whose fits were more long and violent than ever. The amount of ink he spilled over paper is incredible; one would have thought he supplied ammunition to all the magazines in Europe. Considering all these circumstan- ces, it can be no wonder that I woke one morning with a confirmed cac. scrib. The first symptom I disjdayed was commencing a novel, after the manner of Sraollet (my reader may surmise how far off), when, having brought my hero through the sorrows of childhood, and saved him from imminent peril by sea, I put him in the fire; a mode by which many scribes have, like the Israelites of old, 72 EETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. consecrated tlioir offspring to Moloch. My next attcm})t was a history of tlie stage, but my troubles came on with King Charles's. I saw all my heroes fighting his battles instead of Shakespeare's, so stern Oliver Cromwell finished us together. After these paroxysms my efforts degener- ated into mere drivel. I essayed i)lays and farces out of number, but my first acts were my last, and my drawers became filled with skeletons that I never had temper or talent to put flesh upon. One day I was in fine spirits, but the sky was cloudy and looked favoralde for fishing, my prevailing weakness; and the next, the sky was fine but I was cloudy. One moment I was hypercritical, so that the llamc was put out by repeated trimmings of the lamp, and when I had a tide of thought running with real Mis- sissippi rapidity, AVignell was sure to send an infernal some- body with a piece just received from London, which I was to look over and say what I Avould do in it. Thus time was lost, till at last I began to impose on myself with the mock modesty that every field was already sufficiently cultivated. I'll make no comments on the loss thus in- flicted on literature; sufliice it that my labors were limited to a confederacy in a play and a magazine. Of the former, my Old i^upil and stagcmate, Mrs. IVIerry,* drew out the plot, I wrote the lighter parts, and Merry the love-scenes. It M'as founded on an anecdote in the life of the benev- olent Fenelon. Wignell was so pleased on perusing it, and expected so much from its production, that he took * Mrs. Mkuuy, known in England as Miss Brunton, was born in 11 6d, and first acted at Bath, in 1785. In 1*792 she left the stage and narricd Mr. Robert Merry. When his means failed, they accepted a tempting oltcr from America, and Mrs. Merry made her first appearance iu the United States as Juliet, at riiiladelphia, in 170G. Mr. Merry died in 1*708, and in 1803 his widow married Mr. Wignell, who lived but Fcven weeks after the wedding. In 1806 she married Mr. Warren, nna she died at Alexan- dria, in 1808. KETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 73 Fennell* out of jail to play tho principal character, but this gentleman's system of living being of a nature which threatened him hourly with a fresh arrest, Merry remarked, "It's Fennell-on to-night; it will bo Fennell-olf in the morning;" and, much to our chagrin, his pun was a jtroph- ccy. Dismissing, therefore, our darling play, which, babe-like, had just opened its eyes, smiled on the world, and died, it may be more amusing to say something of tho slaughterer, the said tragedian — a very Ilerod with dramatic bantlings. Fennell was one of the most extraordinary specimens of a class it had been my fate so frequently to meet, and my humble endeavor to immortalize — the eccentric. Eccen- tricity is a sort of orderly disorder; or, if that sound too Irish, a peculiar arrangement by which the greatest con- tradictions are placed in juxtaposition, as though kitchen utensils were ranged round a drawing-room. Most daz- zling schemes for acquiring w^ealth and fame were, in Fen- nell's case, the drawing-room furniture ; while the kitchen implements Avere those dramatic talents by which he cut his loaf and cooked his dinner. He was a projector of tho most genuine "South-Sea Bubble" species. None of the sages of the flying island, of whom Gulliver makes such honorable mention, could best him in the imaginative faculty which fills a vacuum in a man's head to create an- * James Fknnkll, one of the earliest of American tragedians, was born in England, December 11, 1706, not long after his father's return from Xew York. Fennell first appeared on the stage in 1787, in Edinburgh, where he quarrelled. lie then acted in London, at Covent Garden. In 1794 he came to America, and acted first at Philadelphia. lie appeared at the Parle Theatre in New York in 1800, and again in 1802. lie sank into de- cay before he made his last appearance in 1814. He died in June, 1810, at Philadelphia, lie was always erratic and reckless, and these disquali- fications kept him from attaining the high position to which his fine his- trionic ability entitled him. His rambling and rhapsodic " Apology for the Life of James Fennell " was published at Philadelphia in 1814. 4 U RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. other in his pocket. ]>y a strange perversity, all these ra]/K.l systems of getting riches mostly deposit the project- or in jail, and Fennell was no exception to this rnle. IJnt, like a tree, his vigor was only increased by clipping. No man could abound more in faith and resignation, or be- lieve more fully in the resources of the earth and of his own brain ; he was a modern Buckingham, a moral cha- meleon, perpetually changing — though his clothes were far from sharing this mutability. That arrant jade, Fancy, was ever luring him into debt and disgrace, while his sober s[)0use, Judgtncnt, would lead him back to the stage and a subsistence. But, it may be asked, how, with- out money, did he contrive to put his poetry into practice? Gentle reader, he had a tongue as oily and as silver-toned as Cicero's or Romeo's, Sheridan's or John Palmer's ; and, as there are herds of " believers " in all countries, more willing to speculate for money than to work for it, he be- came of some use to the community in bringing such to their senses, and dis})laying, in the strongest colors, the loveliness of vulgar industry. lie could be an effectual pump to the deepest mine, and merited Johnson's eulogy as much as Shakespeare, for he, too, " exhausted worlds [of capital] and then imagined new." Ilis career had not been deficient in variety. Educated at Oxford, and designed for the Church, he decided on the stage, rode up to town, accosted Mr. Harris in the street, obtained a debut in Othello, was successful, and secured a three years' engagement. But as anything approaching to a fixed state of Comfort and respectability would be to an eccentric as water to flame, he visited Edinburgh, in- curred debts, was thrown into prison, and set at naught his obligations to the London manager. The French Revolution was then breaking out, and every man of ardent temperament was burning to assist in the great work of sweeping away old abuses. Accordingly Fennell JAMKS FENNKM,. From the rvlijanlhm, Boston, 1800. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I IM M 36 liii 140 iiiiM II 2.2 IM 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 -^ 6" — tf V} <^ /. ^ /y % ^ o / /A Photographic Sciences Corporation s. ^^ iV , <; 6^ % 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER. NY 14580 (716) 872-4503 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 75 posted to Paris, and oponcd a school of declamation, in which principles and phrases were equally to he discussed. But this was a field where, however plenteous the harvest, the reapers were too numerous. A rival demagogue de- nounced him as a spy of William Pitt, and he was ohliged to imitate his favorite Cicero in the most unpleasing par- ticular, to decamp at night, and abandon Paris to but one Mirabeau. Returning to London, he commenced his liter- ary career. Finding that Mr. Harris would not renew his engagement, he set up a weekly Ilevlcw, in which, among other evils of the age, he exposed the moral machinery of Mr. Harris's government, with whom it seems the Sa- lic law was not in force. Having considerable talent m clothing truth with the hedgehog garb of satire, the pub- lic became interested in the discovery, and the manager w^as glad to conciliate him with a handsome outfit for America. The Western world opened to him a wider range, and its youthful freshness tempted him like the charms of a first wife. The voyage was a long fit of ru- mination, but, once landed, his Jack-o'-lantern flittings be- gan. His first project was an academy, in which the boys were to study poetry in bowers, philosophy in groves, and mathematics in Egyptian tombs. Unluckily, the urchins preferred the scenery to the performance; and FenncU was driven to employ his energies for the good of their elders, in devising a system and implements for draining rivers and raising corn in the place of forests. When the re- sult proved that he had only raised expectations and drained his associates, he was ready with an institution that was to become national, a classical Vauxhall, to elevate the tastes of the lower orders. He styled it his Elysian Fields, made the inflexible Minos and Rhadamanthus his money- takers; Ceres, queen of his refectory; the Graces his waiters; the Nino his musicians, with Apollo for their leader; and the heroes of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," in 76 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. towering shapes of pasteboarcl, dispensers of a lustre un- known to Ilomcr, from variegated lamps. Unfortunately, not having conciliated the favor of Jupiter Pluvius, a week's deluge turned this blessed spot into a Tartarus; a legion of legal Furies rushed in, and Fenncll was pitched into his own Styx (an odorous ditch at the back of his bowers) without its even rendering him invulnerable, at least, about the shoulder. Fennell's favorite speculation was salt-works, as lie be- lieved he had discovered a process by which any man possessing twenty yards of sea-beach might stop the working of the Polish mines, and he tried the experiment with all the imposing apparatus of vats, pans, and factory, wherever he could make converts. But the result was in- variably the same, and the traveller who Avas curious enough to pay his works a visit was pretty sure to find him sitting on an inverted tub, surveying the general wreck, like Marius at Carthage. Thus it was a common joke in the States, when any one remarked that Fennell was trying another salt scheme, "Yes, yes; he will al- ways be in pickle." When I state that my second literary enterprise was a magazine, in which I employed Fennell to write the prin- cipal articles, it will be readily surmised that the Thespian Mirror made but very few reflections. Thus was a man, with talents sufticiently great and various to have enabled him to shine in any profession, doomed by his evil genius — an erratic fancy — to exhibit only the fitful, occasional gleam of the glowworm. Fennell, however, had a gravity of manner partaking so truly of the humor of Cervantes, that it seldom failed to extricate him from his troubles, as was seen in his sermon on patience, addressed to his creditors. The following affords an instance of his self- possession. He was playing Macbeth in a summer com- pany, where a native property-man had be*^ ' engaged, RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 77 wlio became so enamoured of the stage tliat, forgetting bis own duties, he posted himself niglitly at the wings to en- joy the performance. Fennell, striding off the stage with due effect to murder Duncan, called for the rose-pink to give his hands and dagger the necessary token. The de- mand aroused Obadiah to exclaim inquiringly, " Mister?" " Where's the blood, sir ?" " Blood, sir ? tarnal natur, I haVt made none!" "No blood, sir! no blood! when the ])lot of the play, my very return to the stage, where the audience are expecting me, depends on it!" "Sure alive, sir, I'm mortal sorry, but — I — " here the fellow paused, speechless and motionless, gazing in Fennell's face and Fennell in his. Now I'll venture to say that nine actors out of ten would have felt tempted to knock this man down as dead as Duncan, or have sworn loud enough to have roused any king in Christendom; but Fennell had worked himself up to too sublime a sympathy with Shakespeare to descend to a ridiculous altercation. Ilis genius pointed out the only mode by which the respect due to Macbeth and to the audience could bo maintained. Doubliiig his muscular arm, he planted, with the speed of lightning, a well-directed blow on the nose of the offender. In an instant out gushed a liberal stream of crimson. Fennell, without departing one iota from the dignity of his assumption, caught it in his hands, smeared with it his daggers, then, bending on the stupefied delinquent, who had staggered against the wall, a look of satisfied vengeance, strode back to the stage to exclaim, with more than usual emphasis, "I have done the deed!" The man whose name a stranger oftenest heard in Phil- adelphia, and always with interest, was Dr. Franklin, the good genius of the city and the state, the first philoso- pher, and, with few exceptions, the most serviceable friend America has had. I was now in the daily habit of meet- ing persons who had been on terms of intimacy with the 78 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Doctor, and who related to mo traits of liim which I do not think have been published in his "Life," and which may therefore claim a place here. His great principle was that nothing is good or beautiful but in the measure that it is useful; yet that all things have a utility under par- ticular circumstances. Thus poetry, painting, and music (and the stage as their embodiment) are all the necessary and proper gratifications of a refined state of society, but objectionable at an earlier period, since their cultivation would make a taste for enjoyment precede its means. All things have their season, ho would say, and with young countries, as with young men, you must curb their fancy to strengthen their judgment. Labor must be their first lot in order to make independence their second. To America, one schoolmaster is worth a dozen poets, and the invention of a machine or the improvement of an im- plement of more importance than a masterpiece of Ra- phael. It is ])y this rule that Franklin's own merits must be judged, and when we consider the fitness of his talents and the measure of his service, w'ho will deny that Amer- ica could have better spared a dozen Lockes or Shakes- peares ? lie, indeed, deserves, as mucli as any man, the title of the Father of American Liberty. Many of the early immigrants to Philadelphia liad been people of con- siderable property, who carried ovct many domestic re- finements which raised a restless desire for imitation in the needier inhabitants. Thus envy and discontent on one side, and arrogance and laxity of principle on the other, had, in a short period, rendered this state one of the most factious, dissolute, and indolent in the group, when Franklin, in order to show the people that the true source of happiness was an honest independence, began his " Poor Richard's Almanack," a work which produced an unparalleled effect by the force both of its reasoning and of its h.imor. His labors may thus be considered one RETROSPECTIONS OP AMERICA. 79 of the primary causes of tbc revolution, since, by elevat- ing the Southern States to a moral equality with New England, he enabled the tide of liberty to run upon a level when its flood-gates were pulled up. In an introduction to his "Almanack," published in 1735, he tells the story of his stopping his horse at a country auction, where there was, as usual, a crowd of idle farmers collected to purchase superfluities. The sale not having l)egun, they amused themselves with complaints of the badness of the times, and appealed to a venerable old man who was present whether their heavy taxes would not ruin the country, and ought not government to remit them ? "It's true," he replied, "that we are taxed heav- ily on everything we wear and work with, and on much that we eat and drink; but there are heavier taxes than these, and which government cannot take oif. VV^e are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly, or we should be all at our work in the fields instead of loitering here to buy finery that we can't afford." Suroly such doc- trine was as applicable in Europe as in America. One of the Doctor's greatest abhorrences was waste, not only of time, but also of labor and ingenuity, in the construction of petty refinements which he called *' gim- cracks." To impress the folly of this he drew up a curious catalogue of such wasters. One had devoted a whole life to the copying of the " Iliad " on a piece of vellum which would go into a nutshell; another (Jerome Faba) present- ed to Francis I. a coach made from a grain of wheat, yet containing a lady and gentleman; a third was patronized by Queen Elizabeth for writing the Liturgy within the compass of her thumb-nail; while a fourth, mentioned by Madame Savigny, had constructed a chariot to be drawn by fleas. When the dauphin asked the Prince of Conde who had supplied the harness for this equipage, he an- 80 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. swcrcd, with much point, " No doubt some spider in the neighborhood." But of all the evils the Doctor combated, that about which he felt most strongly was the elevation of fashion into a sort of religion. The folly and sin of a man wast- ing money and time on mint-sling and cock-fighting ho could at least understand; but how a woman, with all her weakness, could submit to foreign tastes which, in nine cases out of ten, impaired both her comfort and her beau- ty, was to him perfectly inexplicable. "With what con- sternation, then, did he view the arrival of a certain ad- junct intended to give the outlines of the ladies a more pleasing rotundity. Its effect no sooner struck him than, fearful it might be a new species of tumor, ho made in- quiries which resulted in discovering that about the year 1783 a certain German duchess had visited Paris, whose Caffrarian distinction fully equalled the magnificence of her other displays. The fair Parisians were paralyzed. They were surpassed in a novelty they had never contem- plated. French pride was, however, a sufficient stimulus to French invention, and in a few days an auxiliary was devised which enabled the merest cockboat to sail abroad with the gallery of a three-decker, a projection on which she might have perched one of her livery servants. From Paris the contagion spread to London, and the last ship had brought over, it was supposed, at least six hun- dred " Dernier ressorts " to Philadelphia. The Doctor by some means obtained possession of one, and, finding it was composed of wool, he computed the number of pairs of stockings its material would have afforded to the poor, and stating publicly the amount, along with the origin of the monstrosity, he put the question to the fair sex wheth- er they would not derive more gratification from contrib- uting to the comfort of the indigent, than from applying a muff to that part of their persons which required nei- ther warmth nor ornament. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 81 As .1 philanthropist, Franklin has had few equals, for while he wrote to prevent misery, by checldng error, ho lived to afford a practical commentary on his works. His chief pleasure was to encourage the adoption of his prin- cii)les, yet no man's ear was more open to any plaint of misfortune, though his sympathy was of that highest kind which confers no individual benefit without regarding the collective good. When riding out one day he passed a farmer sitting listlessly by the roadside, his chin on his hand and his elbow on his knee. Taking this to bo a very reprehensi- ble fit of laziness, he drew rein to expostulate, but the first glance at the rustic's face excited his pitying interest. Inquiring into his circumstances, he heard a sad history of failures in regard to land, im})Iemcnts, and live-stock. The details convinced the Doctor of the man's industry, but seemed to throw doubt on his knowledge. " Have you read any of my books, my friend ?" said he. " I am Dr. Franklin." At this name the man looked up eagerly, but the next moment relapsed into his former apathy, as if completely heartbroken. " Oh, yes, Doctor," he re- plied, "I've read your Almanacs — I've worked by 'em, and slept upon 'era — I and my wife and all my boys. But I don't see the good of it; none of your sayings have come true." "No?'* exclaimed Franklin; "now which do you mean in particular ?" " Why, don't you remem- ber. Doctor, where you say, 'A light hand makes a heavy pocket.' ' He who runs in youth may lie down in age.' * Industry must prosper,* and all that ? Now here have I been sinking deeper and deeper instead of getting on, work as I would." "Humph!" rejoined Franklin; "it strikes me, my friend, that where I say 'Industry must prosper,' there is a note at the bottom to explain." " A note ? I don't recollect any notes." " Then it is very likely your copy is an imperfect one; many of my first cdi- 4* 82 IlETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. tions were; so to-morrow I'll send you a proper one I have at homo, and, if you'll talcc the trouble to look over it you will find under the line ' Industry must prosper,' a note which throws further lij^ht on the subject." The Doctor then bade him good-dny and rode on. The next morning a packet was brouglit to the farmer's door containing the Almanac as promised, and after thumbing a few pages ho found the line. Sure enough, beneath it was an explana- tory note — being one for twenty dollars on the Philadel- phia Bank. Again, what infinite delicacy was mingled with the be- nevolence of the following : When in Paris, a nightly vis- itor at a coterie of which Grimm, d'llolbach, and d'Alem- bert, etc., Avere the ruling luminaries, Franklin, by his playful simplicity, captivated a lady of great wealth and accomplishments, so that they became, in the most English sense of the phrase, the best of friends. When he was about to leave the capital she called upon him, and, taking his hand, her eyes filled with tears, she said, "My dear friend, you are going home, and I may never see you again. I shall never forget you so long as I have memory; but I wish to have some assurance that I shall not be forgotten. Here is my picture — it is a good likeness; if you will take it, you will sometimes have mo before you." Franklin looked an instant at the portrait, richly set with diamonds, and the deeper, better feelings of his nature were stirred. "Madame," he replied, "permit me to return this picture, and to propose to you another mode of being kept in my remembrance. You are very rich. Give me a draft on your banker for the value of these diamonds, and let me apply the money, when I reach America, to found a school for the children of the poor. Such an institution is sure to prosper; and then, as I grow old, when I go abroad, I shall see your face in perhaps a hundred miniatures — the smiles of grateful children, growing up to be hon- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 83 est men." The money was given, and the school was founded. Franklin's humor had a peculiarly full flavor, it was as direct as his reasoning. One evening he was in company where the conversation turned on the respective merits of the universities at New Haven and Cambridge, each pre- ferring that at which he had been educated. A young prig of a barrister at last interrupted the discussion, by reniarking, " For my part, I can't, with fairness, oifer an opinion, for I was educated at both." " That puts me in mind," said the Doctor, eying the interlocutor signifi- cantly, " of a story, I once heard of a calf that was Buckled by two cows." " And what was the result ?" asked the pi'ig. " That he was a very f/rcat caJf^^"* was the reply. lie took a very sensible view of female perfection. Walking with a friend in Paris, they were passed by a ilegagee beauty who was celebrated for the symmetry of her nether extremities. " There, Franklin," cried his com- panion, who was an enthusiast in this particular, " there's a foot! there's perfection! That foot is allowed to be a model for all Europe." "No, it's not," replied he. "No! "Why not?" "She has got a hole in her stocking." CHAPTER V. 1798. — Annapolis. — Society in Maryland. — Mr. Carroll.— Adventure with General Washington ; Establishing the Independence of a Chaise ; Wash- ington's Appearance ; his Conversation ; Observations on New and Old England, on Slavery, the Abbo Raynal, the Prince of Wale.*?, and the Drama ; his One Jest. — Notices of the Military Heroes of the Itcvolution. — The Qualinoations most Needed. — Charles Lee, the Second in Com- mand; his Character and Career; Supposed to be Junius; his Taking "Five Friends " to the Play; Reply to an Old Maid; Value of a Sword; his Death. — Green, the "Fighting Quaker." — Colonel Tarletou's Joke. — Gates, the Old English Gentleman ; his Repartee. — Arnold, the " Politi- cal Judas;" his Career and End; a Negro Sarcasm; his I'romised Funeral. — Lafuyette Compared with Washington; his Reply to a Royalist. — Raron von Steuben ; his Poverty ; New Use for a Sabre. — "Old Israel" Putnam; the Modern Cincinnatus , his Wolf Adventure; his Daring in War ; his Jokes. — Lord Stirling ; his Formality ; Say- ings to his Men; a Private's Retort; Early Rising. — Ethan Allen, the "Rhode Island Oracle;" his Strange Chiracter; his Simplicity. — Kos- ciusko's Declaration. Our season was so prosperous that Wignell delayctl Lis visit to Baltimore till the summer was far advanced, and, as his leave extended but to the middle of June, we opened the house only to close it, and adjourn to the capital of Maryland — which might well be termed the Bath of Amer- ica — Annapolis. In this little spot all the best of Philadelphian and Vir- ginian society was concentrated, and here, I am convinced, the most stubborn anti-republican could not but have per- ceived the absurdity of the common notion that all must be on a level socially because they are so politically. America really contained a true nobility, men of talent, probity, and benevolence, who had been raised by the RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 85 j.iiblio voice to a station -which the ]»ublic feeling Lowed down to — a station not hereditary, or duo to one man's caprice or another's intrigue, but unas.saihibly based on merit, and open to every one uho cliose to emulate the conduct of its possessor. From my Philadel})hian friends I obtained introductions to several occupiers of this posi- tion — Mr. Howard, the chancellor, Judge Kelly, Governor Stone, General Davidson, and last, not least, the excellent Mr. Carroll, one of the subscribers to the Declaration of Independence. Perhaps the latter, as much as any man, Mas an illustration of my remarks. From the refinement of his manners, a stranger would have surmised that he liad passed all his days in the salons of Paris. He had all that suavity and softness, in combination with dignity, which bespeak the perfection of good taste. This attested the character of his society. Ease may be natural to a man, but elegance — the union of propriety with ease — must bo acquired; the art of respecting one's company as well as one's self necessarily implies that one's company is worth respecting. But Mr. Carroll possessed higher quali- ties than mere external polish. He had a heart that col- ored all his thoughts and deeds with the truest hues of humanity. Xo man was fonder of doing a good action, and, certainly, none could do it with a better grace. A few Aveeks after my location at Annapolis I met with a most pleasing adventure, no less than an encounter with General Washington, under circumstances which most fully confirmed the impression I had formed of him. I had been to pay a visit to an acquaintance on the banks of the Potomac, a few miles below Alexandria, and was returning on horseback, in the rear of an old-fashioned chaise, the driver of which was strenuously urging his steed to an accelerated pace. The beast showed singular indifference till a lash, directed with more skill than hu- manity, took the skin from an old wound. The sudden 86 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. pang threw the poor animal on his hind-legs, and the wheel swerving upon the bank, over went the chaise, flinging out upon the road a young woman who had been its occupant. Tlie minute before I had perceived a horse- man approaching at a gentle trot, who now broke into a gallop, and we reached the scene of the disaster together. The female was our first care. She was insensible, but had sustained no material injury. IMy companion sup- ported her, while I brought sonie water in the crown of my hat, from a spring some way off. The driver of the chaise had landed on his legs, and, having ascertained that his spouse was not dead, seemed very well satisfied with the care she was in, and set about extricating his horse. A gush of tears announced the lady's return to sensibility, and then, as her eyes opened, her tongue gradually re- sumed its oflice, and assured us that she retained at least one faculty in perfection, as she ])oured forth a volley of invectives on her mate. Tiie horse was now on his legs, but the vehicle still prostrate, heavy in its frame, and laden with at least half a ton of luggage. My fellow- helper set me an example of activity in relieving it of the external weight; and, when all was clear, Ave grasped tho wheel between us and, to the peril of our spinal columns, righted the conveyance. The horse was then put in, and we lent a hand to help uj) the luggage. All this helping, hauling, and lifting occupied at least half an hour, under a meridian sun in the middle of July, which fairly boiled the perspiration out of our foreheads. Our unfortunate friend somewhat relieved the task with his narrative. lie was a New-Englander who had emigrated to the South when young, there picked up a wife and some money, and was now on his way home, having, he told us, been "made very comfortable" by the death of his father; and when all was right, and we had assisted the lady to resume her Beat, he begged us to proceed with him to Alexandria and RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Si take a drop of "somctliing R0C'lal>le," Findiiiinr, however, that we were unsociable, ho exteiuled liis hand (no distant likeness of a seal's lin), c^ripped ours as he liad done the heavy boxes, and, wlien we had sufliciently/l/^ that ho was grateful, drove on. My companion, after an exclamation at the lieat, offered very courteously to dust my coat, a favor the return of which enabled mo to take a deliberate survey of his person. lie was a tall, erect, well-made man, evidently advanced in years, but who appeared to have retained all the vigor and elasticity resulting from a life of temperance and exercise. Ilis dress was a blue coat buttoned to his chin, and buckskin breeches. Thouirh, the instant he took off his hat, I could not avoid the recoo-- nition of familiar lineaments — which, indeed, I was in the habit of seeing on every *sign-post and over every fire- place — still I failed to identify him, and, to my sur])rise, I found that I was an object of equal speculation in his eyes. A smile at length lighted them up, and he ex- claimed, "Mr. liernard, I believe?" I bowed. "I had the pleasure of seeing you perform last winter in Phila- delphia." I bowed again, and he added, " I have heard of you since from several of my friends at Annapolis. You are acquainted with ]N[r. Carroll'?" I rejdied that that gen- tleman's society had made amends for much that I had lost in quitting England, lie then learned the cause of my j)resenco in the neighborhood, and remarked, " You must be fatigued. If you will ride up to my house, which is not a mile distant, you can prevent any ill-effects from this exertion, by a couple of hours' rest." I looked round for his dwelling, and he pointed to a building which, the day before, I liad spent an hour in contemplating. "Mount Vernon!" I exclaimed; and then, drawing back, with a stare of wonder, "have I the honor of adhreys. It may, therefore, be not unaccep- table if I offer my readers a few glinq)ses of the satellites who surrounded the great luminary, and who, remaining comparatively obscure, yet become interesting in tho measure they now appear to have contributed to his radiance. If the "modern Fabius" possessed a mind so happily constituted that fortune could as little disarm it of cau- tion as adversity of enterprise, it was owing to that sound judgment which, conscious of the military inferiority of his countrymen, saw that his only chance of success lay in cither leading his enemies into positions where local 94 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. circumstances would conquer, or in reducing them in do- tail. Tlius the decisive blow at Trenton turned the tide when it had nearly engulfed every hope; and the events of Saratoga and Yorktown proved the pillars of the Inde- pendence. Into only one openly contested fight (l)randy- wine) did he permit himself to be drawn, and that was in compliance with a general prejudice, its result confirming the soundness of his principle. But, in addition to the adoption of this policy, the success of the struggle de- pended. on certain personal qualities in the leaders rather than on professional ability. Military knowledge was, of course, a great desideratum, and, as the native ofticers possessed nothing of the kind, when Lee, Gates, Von Steuben, and INIontgomery, four experienced disciplina- rians, proffered their swords, their value was properly estimated. But to possess this knowledge was one thing ; to impart it another. The very spirit which had thrown the Americans together for the defence of their country indisposed them to submit to the regulations which would make their union efficient. They had been so nurtured in the habit of thinking and doing as they pleased that they were not prepared to yield obedience, even for a time, except where their own wills were consulted. Knowing nothing of the good of subordination, they saw only its exactions. Thus the troops of different colonies consid- ered themselves perfectly independent of each other, and would only serve under their own ofticers ; and these dis- agreements were multiplied in every possible shape when the fever-heat of the first campaign had gone off, and left them to its privation and fatigue. Their leaders were absorbed in the prospective blessings of the struggle ; they felt more acutely the immediate sacrifice. Thus he proved himself the best commander who was most pro- ficient in the art of reconciling their discordance, and keeping up a spirit of good-will. Unanimity of feeling KETROSPECTIOiVS OF AMERICA. 95 fed tlic flame of devotion, stciiled them to Rufferinj^^ and bowed them to discipline. This fact places the ])orsonal characters of the oflicers in a new and interesting light, for the question as to qualification was not here, have you the most courage? are you the best soldier? but, have you the most temper? are you the better man? A knowledge of human nature took precedence of tactics, and to be a great commander was to be no mean phi- losopher. Thus the mystery is explained how Washington contrived to keep an army about him in all his great straits and reverses; how Lee succeeded in introducing so much organization ; and how Mojitgomery and Arnold Avere enabled to invade Canada. Nevertheless this popu- larity was but one step towards success, for only those officers who conformed to their leader's policy throughout the conflict were really instrumental to its grand result. Green and Gates, it appears, were AV^ashington's favor- ites. They were men of a similarly cool, considerativo character, adherents of his " Fabian system," and by many credited with having shajjcd his most important plans. Lee and Arnold, on the contrary, were the favorites of the army, and advocates of an opposite principle. To them the delays and mananivrings of Washington were as wearying as they were to the English, and they averred that the system would weaken the spirit of the ])ursued more fatally than the resources of the pursuers. The fact was they were both good generals of division, fine fellows for the executive — a pair of fiery, headlong, pell-mell fighters, in the style of the old cavaliers, who thought a victory desirable on any terms. Arnold had more knowl- edge of localities, and greater talent in collecting resources, and was thus enabled to accomplish his extraordinary march into Canada ; but Lee was, in every sense, the bet- ter soldier and the cleverer man, and when captured by Colonel Harcourt, six officers of nearly equal rank were 96 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. offered in exchancjc for liim. Montgomery ("the rebel eulogized in I*ar]iiunent ") well deserved his reputation for bravery, skill, and goodness, though the attempt which cost him his life seems to impugn his judgment. The venerable Putnam, the Nestor of the band, had less mili- tary talent than patriotic devotion ; and Schuyler, Sullivan, Lincoln, and the rest, if they equalled him in this respect, did not exceed him in activity. To aid the exertions of these single-minded men Germany and France made, in every sense, a noble contribution — witness the Barons Von Steuben, De Glaubeck, and Von Kalb ; the IMarquis Chastelluz, Count Pulaski, Lafayette, and Kosciusko. Amid this group stands out Charles Lee, the " second in command," and the first in ability and influence. Lee was a strange compound of good and evil. ]^y nature Iiigh-spirited, generous, and jovial, he resembled, in many points, the free and hearty thinkers, livers, and fighters of the Middle Ages, but, unlike them, was free from the love of lucre, and owed all his impulse to an ambition which was patriotic, and, but for its excess, would have been honorable to himself and beneficial to others. But, in his ardor for the general good, he overlooked the ne- cessity for individual example. His temper, naturally impetuous, became soured by long submission to inferior minds, while his convivial habits vulgarized his tastes and relaxed his morals. His disappointments in Europe in- creased his yearnings for America, and there, when at length his hopes were frustrated, all the energy and dig- nity he had left fell with them. lie had set his heart upon a cast, and loss was moral death. Those who accused Lee of joining the Provincial stand- ard only out of pique at his treatment at AVhitehall knew nothing of his history. He had been a Republican even in childhood, when at school in Switzerland, contrasting the condition of ber hardy mountaineers with that of the RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 97 oppressed peasantry of France ; and Avlien in America, serving under Abercrombie, he wrote a para})hlet on the (juestion of ceding Canada to France, which proved his early sympathy with the welfare of the colonies. In Portugal he gained for liis exertions the thanks of roy- alty, but the passing of the Stamp Act, two years after- wards, drew from him a letter which excited general notice by its spirited denunciation of the folly and op- ]»rcssiveness of that measure; while he also used every eiTort to increase the spirit of resistance to it in the House of Commons. A soldier whose achievements were of this kind was not likely to bask in sunshine at White- hall, and he accordingly got leave to enter the Polish service, where he became aide-de-camp to the king, with the rank of major-general. Here he still wielded his pen in behalf of freedom and the colonies ; but, when driven homo in 1773, by the consequences of a duel, he resolved to throw aside a weapon the time for whicli seemed past, and to offer America his sword. Thus it a])pears that, with the exception of Lafayette, not one of the patriots furnished such proofs of devotion to the cause as Lee. By his writings he had sacrificed his interests at home, and, now the hour was come for action, he threw into the scale an income of nearly £1000 a year. His celebrity at this period, both as a soldier and a politician, may be gathered from the enthusiasm with which all classes hailed his advent. Adams, on introducing Paine to him, wrote, " The whole "Whig world is blessing your expedi- tion to America, and no one more so than myself ;" and, indeed, from the hour that he planted his foot upon the strand, he became a moving firebrand, traversing the States from north to south, to kindle and keep up resist- ance. It is even very probable that he was the first sug- gester of the Declaration of Independence, in his letter to Mr. Rutledge, Chairman of the Board of War, in 1775, in 5 98 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. which hu urges the necessity of the measure, .as the only means of giving Htabiiity to the government, and obtain- ing that assistance from France and Holland which would enable the army to continue in the held. (Congress eagerly secured his services, and he was aj>pointed to the chief command in the South ; but his successes up to the period of his capture by Colonel Ilarcourt raised a party against him, who averred that, coveting his own distinction rather than the public good, he now aimed at sup})lanting Wash- ington, by endeavoring to throw doubt on his military judgment. The only circumstance which lent a color to this suspicion was his conduct at the battle of ]\[onmouth, where, being in connnand, with an oj)portunity to carry out his favorite plan of attack, Washington, on coming up, found him retreating. An altercation ensued, in which Lee gave way to his usual violence, and was dc'})osed on the spot, Green being appointed in his place. Lee then sent two furious letters to the commander-in-chief, who, to maintain subordination, brought him before a court- martial, which suspended him for a twelvemonth. This ended his career. lie retired to a small property, which he had purchased, at the solicitation of his friend Gates, in Pennsylvania, and there, in a wretched hovel, with scarce a window or a door, lie passed the remainder of his days, amid a kennel of dogs, whom his philosophy led him to consider preferable companions to men. Of Lee's character, it appears to me, but one opinion can be formed. Whatever were his private failings, his patriotism was really unimpeachable. His conduct at Monmouth was ex- plained by the fact that his orders were discretionary, and that, finding the enemy his superior, both in numbers and position, he looked on a retreat as inevitable, in order to save his men. It is obvious he fell into the error of under- rating the stamina of the Provincial troops, who, during the year and a half he had been a prisoner at New York, RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 00 had greatly improvcJ in discipline, and been fired by one or two suecesses. Whatever may bo thonght of the un- happy eliniax of his career, no American -will deny that his zeal had been of the utmost service in encouraging all ranks to the struggle ; though it is equally evident he was much more fitted to commence an outbreak than to con- duct one to a prosperous conclusion. Had it been the destiny of Washington to fall, and Leo had succeeded him, his impetuosity would very likely have compromised the cause. His abilities, both as a soldier and a writer, are fully evidenced : the former by his campaign in the Carolinas (where from his successes against Clinton he was termed that general's "evil genius"), and the latter by his literary and political publications, and his corre- spondence with Burke, Franklin, Adams, etc. To his classical attainments he added a wide range of observa- tion, and his writings afford a faithful picture of his mind. With little grace, correctness, or connection, they are marked by an intensity of purpose, a power of sarcasm, and a boldness of deduction which were peculiar to the man. Perhaps the most important tribute to his literary power was the published assertion of Mr. Girdlcstono, in 18i;3, that in General Lee he had discovered that much- disputed, all-engrossing problem of his own time — Junius. With the arguments of this pamphlet I am not acquainted, but I should say they do not rest upon the internal evi- dence of style. With equal ardor in the cause of freedom, and equal scorn of place-men and abuses, Lee wants the ease and polish, the logical and verbal force, the brevity and apothegm which have rendered Junius, despite of personalities, an English classic. A happy specimen of Lee's sarcasm is a letter to Ilurae upon his " History of England," in which he thanks the au- thor for bringing him to a true knowledge of Charles I., whom, in his boyhood, he had conceived to be a tyrant. 100 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. His comment upon Lord Nortli, too, is as ludicrous as it is severe. "I do believe," he remarked, "such is 'nis lordship's hatred of the name, that if he knew there was a freeman shivering on the shores of Nova Zembla, and ho had his will, he would put his country to the expense of litting out an army and a fleet to extirpate him." Most of the anecdotes that were told of Lcc had refer- ence to his eccentric love of dogs, and some of them at- tested that his humor was as strong as his "animal pas- sion." IVly reader Avill, perhaps, scarcely credit the fol- lowing, but it is a fact, After the peace he was a good deal pestered by an actor who begged him to patronize an evening entertainment at a neighboring tavern. Lee for some time demurred, on the ground of his secluded life and changed tastes, but as the applicant went on to lay great stress on his name and connections, he observed, " Oh, then it's not merely mo you wish to come, but my friends." " Certainly, general, your friends." " Well, sir, I have but Ave friends in the world, and those I con- sent to bring with mo on condition that you secure for us the six front chairs, so that we may see and hear without interruption." This proviso was readily agreed to; Lee paid for the tickets, and away liopped the manager, rub- bing his hands at his unhoped-for success. AVhen the night came the room overflowed and there was a loud outcry for chairs, but the six in front were sacred to " Gen- eral Lcc and his friends." The candles were lit; the black fiddlers had executed an overture; the time of perform- ance had arrived, but not the general, so its commence- ment was delayed in deference to the six front chairs. At length, when expectation had reached fever-heat, an altercation with the doorkeeper was heard, and a report arose that the general's friends were refused admittance. Every one rose in consternation, and the gentlemen called out for the manager. Down rushed the affrighted Thes- ■B RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 101 pian in time to liear Lcc deliver one of tliosc verbal thun- derbolts wliieh had been said to electrify their objects on training-days. " Stand back, sir!" shouted the director to liis servant; "don't you know General Lee has a party? I'ermit me, general, to apologize." lie was advancing to do so, when the veteran strode in, and, lo! at his heels his live favorite hounds, each carrying a ticket in its mouth. The petrified spectator had only breath for an exclama- tion, as Lee proceeded leisurely to his seat and made each of the dogs mount a chair and compose himself in the manner that they usually surrounded his table. My read- er may surmise the effect upon the company, the j)ro- longcd peals of laughter that followed the first simulta- neous shout, not a little enhanced by the well-sustained gravity of the general. At length the person patronized gave vent to his astonishment in the exclamation, "Good heavens! general, this is very strange." "Strange, sir!" he echoed; "you asked me to bring my friends; I told you that I had but five in the world; these .are they. I go nowhere without them. I have paid for their tickets; you have secured our places; so go on with the perform- ance." These words were decisive; the bell rang; the singers came forward; but the instant they caught sight of five such extraordinary critics, each swinging out some inches of tongue in proof of his powers of discernment and taste, they, too, found the spectacle irresistible. This set the audience off again, and the new amusement quite superseded the announced one. At length the cachinna- tion reached its climax, for, cither by strong sympathy or Lee's contrivance, the dogs burst suddenly into a loud and Avild howl, which threw the window-panes into an ague fit, and brouLjlit the landlord and his servants rush- ing up-stairs. Leo now rose, and with infinite gravity bowing to the bewildered director, observed that his friends having so loudly expressed their gratification at 102 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. tlie pcrfornianco, made it incumbent on him to tender their collective thanks, as he most respectfully bade them good- evening, lie tiien bowed to the audience and led liis "friends" out. As may be supposed, this expedient quite answered its purpose, and Lee was never again trou- bled for liis patronage. To balance this one penchant ho had a host of antijia- thics, the strongest of Avhich, perhaps, was to that species of the fair sex who at an age when the sourest crab should lose a little of its acidity, forego their resemblance to an- gels to delight in the occupation of fleas — back-biting. A slanderous old cat seemed to him the true antipodes of a noble dog. A lady of this description of whom he had heard much, but who was ignorant of his feelings, met Iiim during a morning's walk surrounded by his usual companions, and lisped, " Good-morning, general. La! how strange; always with these animals about you; you must bo very fond of dogs." " Yes, madam," he replied, fixing his eyes most significantly on hers, "dogs, but not " the " other animal" was sufiiciently understood. One of the strongest evidences that Lee w^as a disap- pointed man was that, much as he loved the inspiration of Bacchus, it seldom had a divine effect. When it failed to lull him to forgetfulness, it roused him to all kinds of splenetic extravagance; yet it was only on these occasions that his sayings kept pace in point of cleverness with his deeds, as cider by particular nursing may be worked up into champagne. When the question was discussed one evening, after dinner, whether the King of France would not be willing to lend assistance to America if the recov- ery of Canada were held out as an inducement, Lee shook his head. " What," exclaimed a native officer, " do you think America contains no baits for the French king ?" " Oh," replied he, " I liavc no doubt if you asked him ho would sav we arc all hetesy RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 103 Let mo, however, append to all this a proof that, amid the smoke and soot, the fires of a noble nature would sometimes force their way. It is an anecdote I received from Colonel Humphreys, and which I take great pleasure in repeating. Lee met one evening, in the streets of Philadelphia, an officer who had served with him in the Peninsula, and then, by a variety of misfortunes, been compelled to emi- grate. Finding he was in great distress, he took him home, and, unable himself to relieve him, next day sent his own sword to a wealthy merchant of the city with a note to the effect that Charles Lee, who had drawn this sword for the independence of America, was now without means to take an old friend out of trouble, and therefore offered it in pledge for the loan of a certain sum. The merchant rej)lied by returning the weapon with a check for double the amount. Lee put the money into his friend's hands and observed, with a smile, " Do you re- member, Jack, when you used to write me letters abusing me for deserting the king ? Now, I hope you'll admit that my sword has done some good in America." The death of Lee had something in it very touching, as illustrative of the unbroken spirit of the soldier. A friend calling to see him at the inn where he was lying in Philadelphia, found him, attended by a faithful Italian, sitting upright in bed, hands clinched on its frame, and his eyes glaring fiercely. At that moment he imagined himself once more amid the shock and shout of battle, and as the fire of life shot up its latest spark, he uttered his last words: " Stand fast, my brave grenadiers!" The greatest oi»posite to Lee in every personal charac- teristic was Green, one of the most amiable, but also most resolute of men, considering his initiatory triumph in bursting sectarian bonds no less enthralling than those of the mother country. Incongruous as it may seem, there 104 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. was, no doubt, miicli in lils education as a Quaker which fitted him for the duties he afterwards undertook, by form- ing early habits of temperance, self-command, and endur- ance. Green was very aptly compared by Dr. Franklin to " a pool of clear water suddenly congealed," yet his manners were marked by a quiet affability so far removed from Quakerish constraint that friend and enemy found them equally engaging. If other testimony than the es- teem of Washington were needed to show this man's social excellence, it might be gathered from his instructive and conciliatory communications with his sect. Of his merits as a soldier his brilliant campaign in the South, which paved the way for Cornwallis's surrender, after the defeat at Camden had made the Whig cause almost hopeless, is a suftioient attestation. Notable alike for coolness, ener- gy, and forethought, had Washington been called away, Green was the only man upon whom his mantle could have fallen. He was reported to have met an old friend of his fa- ther's, when riding out for a survey near Guildford, a few days previous to the engagement. The disciple of Fox knew him in an instant, and with clasped hands and horrified eyes stood to survey this stray sheep in the ob- noxious habilaments of his new calling. Green drew up and saluted him. " So Nathaniel," exclaimed the man in drab, with a heavy sigh, "it is thou! I have heard of thee with sorrow. Dost thou know thou art the first man among thy brethren who hath drawn the sword ?" " Yes, friend," replied he, with meek decision, " and, till our liberties ore secured, I shall bo the last man among my brethren tc sheathe it." On his condut^t in battle, perhaps Lord Rawdon made the most amusin-^ comment. The day after the affair at Guildford his lordship was breakfasting with Colonel Tarle- ton, and, talking over the engagement, observed: ''Well, RETKOSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 105 I don't know what this Green may be in a chapel, but curse me if he's a Quaker in the field." "And if he's not a Quaker," rejoined Tarleton, as he pointed to the list of killed and wounded, " curse me if he's a friencV^ Of such a man Horatio Gates was no unworthy coad- jutor, though his success at Saratoga raised expectations which his after-fortunes failed to fulfil. It is a curious circumstance that he should have served with Lee in Portugal under Burgoyne, and, failing to obtain promo- tion, should have emigrated to Am.erica to become the capturer of his old commander. General Gates was an instance of the good old high-principled, well-informed English officer, a class which lias presented the world with some of the most favorable specimens of the national character. His manners were so attractive, his mind so well stored, that no man enjoj^ed a larger measure of per- sonal esteem. Lee, in his eccentric moments, used to say, "The army likes Washington because he's a patriot; me because I'm a soldier, and Gates because he's a gentle- man." Ho was, moreover, a pleasant companion, with a bent for repartee. Ii was supposed that when he and Leo accepted command, they still held commissions in the Eng- lish service, and consequently were liable to the penalty of traitors. A friend, hearing this, observed to him, " Good heavens. Gates, is it the fact that if you are taken you are likely to be hanged ?" " I believe so," he replied; "but what of that? I have for a long while been sus- pended." It was America's boast that the war had produced but one Arnold. Fortunately the world has not produced many. To the credit of humanity such villains are not natural to the events which beget them, and their black- ness offends tlie more from the contrasting brightness around. Arnold was a sort of social wrecker, only thriv- ing upon storms; a foul fungus which still flourished 5* 100 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. ■where fruit and flower were cruslicd. He began life as the keeper of a li(|iior shoj) on the wharves of New York; then fitted out a schooner and smuggled slaves from the West Indies; afterwards, as a general agent, brought some scores of people to ruin; and, on the breaking-out of hostilities, took to patriotism, as the only trade left him. But that the service of Liberty surrounds the mean- est head with a halo, and is supposed to purify the gross- est materials, it would be a wonder how such a man, with all his talent, ever rose to command. It is obvious that while winning the gratitude of his country he was sup- porting a laborious hypocrisy, anxiously calculating which service would pay him best, till his career at Philadelphia brought him to a decision. There, in eraulaticn of Gen- eral Howe, he kept open house, gambled, intrigued, and plunged into debt, when, finding he could obtain no more supplies, he communicated with Sir Henry Clinton with a view of raising money on his political integrity. To the disgrace of that otherwise exemplary ofticcr, and of the cause lie was engaged in, Arnold's plan to betray West .Point was entertained, and on its failure his old luck did not desert him. Nicodemus conveyed him safely on board the English sloop, while poor Andre was seized and condemned to swing alone upon a scarcely merited gib- bet. Yet how superior was Andre's fate, for he died amid the tears of even his enemies, and to this hour his mem- ory evokes sympathy; while the " political Judas," though he lived to possess a pension and to meet, when full of years, an easy death in England, could not escape the retributive execration by which the uncompromising spirit of English honor adjusted the error of public expe- diency. He lived an exile and an outcast of whom both countries were ashamed. By Sir Henry Clinton he appears to have been chiefly employed as a Pandour, and it is sickening to observe the RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. io7 activity witli which he justified the appointment. A mounted fiend could hardly in less time liave spread need- less fiame and ruin. Yet, liowever dead he might be to compunction, the general contem})t must have rendered his condition anything but enviable. Soon after he land- ed on the coast of Virginia he saw some horses in afield, and, intent on making an advantageous seizure, called to the negro in charge to inquire their respective iii.'rits. Oronoko proved very communicative, and amused Arnold with the appellations by which he distinguished his favor- ites. " So, then," said the querist, "you call that gray horse, because he carries his head so high. General Wash- ington; and the bay one, because he lias a quiet temper, General Green ; now, what the devil do you call that black, shaggy fellow, that is looking over the hedge?" " Why, massa, I call him General Arnol', 'cause he so d d bad ; he always run away." Tho reply is well known, yet is worthy of repetition, which an American made to Arnold on being asked by him what treatment he might expect from Congress, should he fall into its hands. " Your right leg, which was wounded at Quebec in the cause of freedom," said the patriot, " it would cut off and bury with military hon- ors, but the rest of your body would be consigned to a gibbet." What a singular contrast to such a character was La- ^.ayette, the most chivalric defender of human rights and freemen's dignity that history bids us honor; one who re- vived the entire devotion and self-surrender of what has been termed " the most generous era of the world," not for the winning of a woman's smile or a prince's favor, but to promote the welfare of his meanest fellow-creat- ure. Lafayette was the only man of modern times who has approached the height of Washington. Their difference 108 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. ■yvas mental and partly due to temperament, for, as regards moral qualities, their hearts beat pulse for pulse and they were animated by the same spirit. One were they as twin children in simplicity and ingenuousness; one as brothers, in energy and courage. In the profounder at- tributes of the legislator — calmness, knowledge, and the power of weighing principles — Washington stood alone; but on the same level with him of patriotic faith and self- devotion stood Lafayette. Perhaps in their notions of liberty the latter was more ideal, Washington the more philosophic; the one aimed at establishing republics upon principles only compatible with a large diffusion of intel- ligence; the other at adapting government to the present imperfections of mankind, by retaining only just that measure of restraint with which freedom must necessarily be limited. Lafayette, however, must be acknowledged as the high-priest of Cosmopolitanism, or the love of man- kind, a loftier kind of virtue surely than patriotism — the love of man in sections. It has been questioned whether the defence of one's own home and land is not, after all, as much a matter of interest as of principle. But what shall we say of a man who, born to high rank and ample fortune, placed at court as a captain of the royal guard, and wedded to the daughter of an influential nobleman, yet sacrificed every lionor and enjoyment to espouse the interests of a distant country, at a time when its affairs appeared so hopeless that its agents in Paris were unable even to provide him with a vessel. His words on that oc- casion expressed the spirit of his after-life: "Then I will fit one out myself." Landing at Charleston, in 17 'J 7, when but nineteen years of age, he found the government with- out resources and the army without food or clothing, fleeing before the Royalists. He instantly raised and equipped a body of men at his own expense, then entered the army as a volunteer. After rendering important ser- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 109 vice in several actions, he resolved, in 1779, to aid America more effectually by inducing France to lend her assist- ance. Through his exertions this end was accomplished, and he returned to America to command a regiment for -whose equipment and support he raised £2000 at Balti- more upon his own credit. Ilis rescue of Richmond, and long trial of generalship with Cornwallis, who boasted that " the boy should not escape him," are among the proofs of his devotion to the cause. Jjafayettc's first arrival in America gave such an im- pulse to the drooping si)irits of the patriots that favorable auguries were again entertained of the war, though the royal forces were then everywhere victorious. A gentle- man holding a Crown appointment tliought it his duty to call privately on the young adventurer and remonstrate with him on his desperate intentions. " Do you not see, sir," said he, "that there is but one fate for the insurgents — a speedy and complete subjugation ; and but one reward for their abettors, be they who they may — privation, dis- appointment, and, most likely, death?" Lafayette, eying him calmly, replied, " I came here to die, sir. I could have lived in my own country." A fellow-spirit to i\\\^ noble man, and an equally im- portant aid to the cause he embarked in, was the Baron Von Steuben, to whom, in conjunction with Lee, the army may be said to have owed all its discipline. The baron had been trained in a good school, for he resigned the dignities of lieutenant-general in the Prussian army, and favorite aide-de-camp of Frederiek the Great, for the moral honors of a patriotic struggle. The value of his services was instantly appreciated ; Congress appointed him inspector-general of the army ; and the result of his efforts fully justified the expectations that had been formed of him. Whatever may be thought of his sol- diership, no man surpassed the baron in one of the most 110 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. popular evidences of Republicanism — poverty; though, in strange alliance with his needs and principles, lived a touch of his baronial dignity, for he was as proud as he was poor. Wishing to give an entertainment to the Eng- lish officers after the surrender of Yorktown, as other major-generals had done before him, he was compelled to sell his horse, in order to raise the money required. On a j)rovious occasion he had parted with his silver spoons and forks, to gain funds to reciprocate the civilities of his French compatriots ; and it was said that when his ser- vant, who had been ordered to dispose of a family relic — a silver-handled carving-knife — asked him how he in- tended to cut up his beef, he replied, "If I can get noth- ing better, I'll beg the company's permission to use my sabre." Most of the native leaders were of the family of Cin- cinnatus, but no one so strikingly akin to that celebrity as the patriarchal Putnam, whose whole life was such an alternation between fighting and farming that one would suppose he could scarcely have had time to bend his sword into a sickle before he was required to thump it straight again. lie led a body of ProvincialG through the whole of the French war; in 1762 accompanied Lord Albemarle against the Ilavanna; in 17G4 marched a na- tive regiment against the Indians on the Western fron- tiers; in 1770, joined General Lyman in exploring the Mississippi; and was enjoying his usual relief to all these duties — the act of ploughing — when the news reached him of the outbreak of hostilities with England. Calling to a boy to mind his oxen, and without staying to change his clothes, or even wash his face, he sprang upon his horse, and rode off to the scene of action. '* Old Israel," as he was fondly rather than familiarly called, was the beau ideal of a martial Puritan, and, perhaps, the greatest favorite with the country, after Washington, for even RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. m Green did not command ro general and deep a regard. Many circumstances comljined to cause this result : the useful and exemplary character of his long life; the re- nown of his wolf fidvcnture; and the singularity of a man, whose days had reached the ordinary limit, rising up, as if endued with new being, to defend the dwellings of his children. But, with all his military spirit, he never had the credit of being a tactician. The fact was lie was a soldier upon principle, not upon system. He had full faith in the lawfulness and efticacy of a straightforward plan of exchanging blows, but despised the tricks and artifices which compose the science of what the world calls generalship. Of one warlike essential he had almost a superfluity, for his courage, but for the cause in which it was displayed, might have been termed a madness. lie, as an old man, laughed at dangers which blanched the cheeks of the young. With his wolf adventure all, in his day, were familiar. If the reader be not so, I may briefly state that, having pursued the ravagcr of his fold into a Connecticut cavern, the aperture to which was only large enough to permit his ingress on all fours, he lit a pine branch and crept in, holding the light before him, in order to discover the enemy's position. The bright glare of her eyeballs, shining like two lamps, and a low, signifi- cant growl, soon let him know this, and he gave the signal for his friends to drag him out by the legs. lie then loaded his gun with a dozen buckshot, and, relighting the pine branch, again entered the aperture — crept near enough to take a certain aim — and, as his victim was on the point of springing, fired. The wolf fell back with a howl, and he, resolutely grasping her by the ears, his friends seized him by the heels, and they were drawn out together. During the war he coveted all the most dangerous posts and expeditions, and his uniform success created a confi- 112 RETROSPECTIONS OP AMERICA. dencG ill him .imoiinting to superstition. What would have seemed folly in another, with him was a mere matter of course. When he was encamped with Sullivan and Stirling, at Flathush, he undertook to convey despatches to the Jerseys through Lord Howe's fleet, in an open boat, and, though overhauled by every other ship, his fearless- ness and address insured his safety. lie was soon after pursued by a troop of horse, when retreating through Rhode Island with a piece of artillery. His party man- aged to drag the gun to an eminence, which was flanked by a swamp and thicket, and here he, with a few others, loaded and fired, keeping the horsemen at bay till nearly all his men had provided for their safety; then, as the enemy rode up, he leaped his steed down a declivity which not one man out of forty dared to risk after him, and thus escaped. Old Israel was also the author of a stock of clever say- ings, in the style of Franklin, to make the soldiers love duty and despise danger ; and he often indulged a vein of quiet humor. One day, while at work in his fields, he was talking over that fruitful topic, the arbitrary conduct of Parliament, when a laborer asked him what Parliament was like. " Why, Enoch," he replied, " it's like the Beast in the Apocalypse — all horns and eyes." More felicitous, however, was a term which he bestowed on a party of officers at Weathersficld, when a Scotch regiment was quartered there, which had imparted a national source of irritation, elegantly denominated the "Caledonian Violin." This regiment numbered six noblemen, all of whom par- took in the general restlessness; and some baggage of theirs — containing sundry boxes of ointment — having fallen into the Provincials' hands, Putnam henceforth designated them " the Lord's anointed." The Honorable William Alexander, commonly called Lord Stirling, though his title was disavowed in England, RETROSPECTIONS OP AMERICA. 113 was a striking contrast to Putnam. IIo was as artificial as the other was natural; whether owing to the precise anM can't use?" or his compelling a recruit, who had walked about forty miles to join him, with a heavy gun, to go back for a ramrod, saying that it was a rule in his regiments " to supply rods only to the refractory." What much dis- turbed the equanimity of this disciple of the Great Fred- erick was the men requesting furloughs to go home and see their wives, lie could not perceive the most distant connection between military and domestic duty. That a soldier should require the stimulus of grog after a hard day's march, or work in the trenches, he clearly under- stood, but the effeminate necessity of fondling women and children was perfectly inexplicable. He received, how- ever, some information on conjugal matters from a private, who accosted him one morning, when not in the best of tempers. "You want to go home, sir; what for?" he queried. " To see my wife, general?" " D — n it, sir, aren't 114 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. you a soldier of Congress? is not duty your wife? isn't your country your wife? "Not exactly, general, for when my country gets licked" — pointing to a scar on bis forehead — " I suffer., but, sometimes, when my wife gets licked, I benefit.'''' As an instance of the extreme to wliic^ he carried sys- tem?, it was related of him that, in order to correct a lazy habit in a young officer, he appointed him to call him up every morning at five o'clock precisely. Having one night received intelligence which detained him at a council till the day-beam peeped in at the Avindow, he was just step- ping into bed, thoroughly worn out, when his pupil gave the summons at his door. Springing up at once, he made a loud clatter with his boots, and exclaimed, "Aye, aye! I was just rising," Another extraordinary man, who assisted in fanning the flame of the Revolution, was Ethan Allen, the author of a work called "The Oracles of Reason," w'hich exer- cised so much influence at liome that the Southerners termed it "The Rhode Island Bible." Allen was a com- pound of the most singular extremes ; oil and water would not be a more incongruous mixture. He was a graft of the old Cromwellian, psalm-singing, cut-and-thruster upon the free-and-easy, bibacious cavalier ; alternately swear- ing and praying ; singing hymns and aracrontics ; send- ing people upwards and downwards. You entered his presence with reverence, and left it with wonder, for he was a Bobadil and Master Stephen combined ; a Niagarr* and its lake — all thunder one moment and placidity the next, lie pretended that he alone possessed the secret of enlightening and governing a people, but when stated, this proved to be some absurdity too empty to rebut, yet dangerous to laugh at. Such a man was not likely to be quiet in times of commotion. He put himself at the head of a party of long-sided Vermontcrs, termed "Green Moun- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 115 tain Boys," and, on being joined by Arnold (who came as his colonel, but whom ho made his second), he achieved the surprise of Ticonderoga, the key to the Canadas, which contained much ammunition, but was garrisoned by only a small party. The commander was caught in his bed, and on Allen bidding him surrender, or he'd send his soul to hell like a flash of lightning, he exclaimed, " Surrender? to whom?" "To the Lord Jehovah and the Congress of America," was the reply. What figure he would have cut in the course of the conflict it is impossible to determine, as his career was unluckily ended in the Canadas by his falling into the lian'ls of Sir Guy Carlton, who sent him a prisoner to England. Notwithstanding his bombast, Allen had much shrewdness, but, unfortunately, the profanity of his clever sayings often neutralized the fun. The extreme simplicity of his tastes made liim an object of amusement to the English at New York (where he "was released on parole when brought from Halifax). Dining one day with a party at the commander-in-chief's, some olives were on the table, to which he helped himself with the rest, and, seeing they were very small, he put three or four in his mouth at once. This induced a general smile, and his wry faces induced his host to ask how he liked them. " Why, Sir William," said he, " I dare say it's a matter of taste, but I think your green gages are ra-a-ther bitter." I might refer to others, Montgomery, Wayne, Nash, Lincoln, etc., but, as I fear this string has now been touched until its tone has almost gone, will only try to make its concluding vibration harmonious by repeating the words which I was told the Polish hero, Kosciusko, pronounced on joining the standard, that was here lifted up as much for a set of principles as a race of men : " My name is Kosciusko ; I was born in Poland ; but I consider myself a citizen of every government which aims at en- larging the happiness of the people !" CHAPTER VI. 1V98.— Trip to the Delaware.— A Serenade.— A Boat Adrift.— Five Foreign Ambassadors. — Baltimore. — Madame Jerome Bonaparte and the Mar- chioness of Wellesley. — Political Discords and Fatal Harmonics. — Elec- tions. — Merry's Joke; Rival Candidates. — A Petticoaterie. — Negroes as Humorists ; Happiness in Bondage ; Theory of the Origin and End of Evil; Sambotius Quamina; the Burnt Fly; a Planter's Destiny; Fault in the Solar System; a Pilot's Reply; Significant "Hem;" Sleeping Un- consciousness ; Negro Names ; Hen and Egg ; Three-fingered Jack. — Merryland and Merrylanders. — Lord Baltimore: Letter to the Swedes; Reply to an Indian. — Dr. Franklin on the Origin of Tobacco. — Ge" eral Washington and the Dwarf. — Death of Merry; Omens; Epitaph. WiGNELL, having to go to Philadelphia on business, placed me at the helm of his affairs, and as our season had now exceeded its limit, and it was necessary we should fill up our time until the fever should have left Baltimore, I thought it best to divide the company and make lecturing excursions to the smaller towns, an experiment which had been often tried before under similar circumstances. Ac- cordingly, to my friend Warren I committed one division, including Mrs. Merry and Cooper, our tragedians ; Mrs. Oldmixon (the wife of Sir Johns, formerly Miss George, the siren of Vauxhall, and, as an actress, heiress to all the honors of Mrs. Mattocks); Blissct, the son and imago of a truly original father, and Ilarwood, a clever transcript of John Bannister. Allotting him the North of Maryland and Virginia, I took the conduct of the remainder — Fox, Francis, Marshall, Bates, and Mr. and Mrs. Gillingham, our operatic force — and resolved upon a trip to the Dela- ware. For our conveyance I engaged a sloop to Chester- ton, a town about forty miles distant, up a river by that RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 117 name which runs into the Chesapeake. I found this place to he so small and so indifferent to the fine arts that, though I had many letters of recommendation, but two individuals were inclined to give us countenance, namely, our worthy landlord, Hodgson, and a Captain McKnight, who was an actor in everything hut name. AVe delivered our entertainment of songs and recitations, in the Assem- bly Room, to about twenty j)ersons (at a dollar each), more than double that number standing: outside and contentinj> themselves witli reading the bill, catching fragments of the songs, and imagining the rest. At night, therefore, some of the company resolved on going round the town to give all the pretty girls a serenade, flattering them- selves that if the women — the most influential part of all communities — once heard their vt'ces, the next evening our room would be as packed as the " Black Hole." Tho compliment was so novel in the quiet streets of this se- cluded place that every window flew up and some score of female faces popped out, which was considered a fa- vorable omen. But the Delaware maidens were better calculators ; the next night we performed to only ten dol- lars ; and I learned that " they could not think of 2mi/i?i(/ to hear what they had already heard for nothing." This was a hint, so next day I obtained conveyances and we visited Dover, Lewiston, and some other places, varying in size, but agreeing so much in spirit that the pleasure of the trip soon began to overbalance its profit, and, like more eminent commanders, I was compelled, with cha- grin, to give the signal for retreat. On our way back to Annapolis we luckily found the packet apparently on tho eve of starting, but also a letter from my wife with the news of a child's illness, which compelled me to take a horse from a plough and ride liomeward instantly, leav- ing with the company a sum which I thought sufticient to defray their expenses. The sloop, however, taking 118 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. actually two days longer to (liscmboguo, their pockets had to undergo a similar process, and starting at length with a wind scarcely sufficient to disarrange a lady's hair, it resulted that a boat which, in form, was very like a duck, somewhat resembled that bird in its motion. Cap- tain McKniglit had been so fascinated by the party that he resolved to accompany them on their voyage. lie was a very pleasant fellow, and though rather too much given to practical joking, proved on this occasion their guardian angel. The way in which lie evinced and then atoned for his roguery, as it led to scenes of peculiar eccentricity, I cannot avoid relating. Gillingham, my singer and musician, was a worthy lit- tle fellow whose chief blessing had, from its intensity, become a curse. He possessed a wife who loved him with such ardent devotion that she was perpetually making him miserable by lier endeavors to promote his happiness. Iler life consisted of a series of endearments ; her vital principle seemed to be communicated from his lips, and neither time, place, nor business could be allowed to sus- pend its operation. Now, as our little fiddler had much more of Apollo in his art than in his person, and ]\Irs. G. was neither young nor ethereal — being a very matter-of- fact sort of person of about thirteen stone weight — all this Arcadianism was exceedingly ludicrous. Iler hus- band had the good sense to be ashamed of it, and Mc- Kniglit the impertinence to attempt its correction. Mrs. G., after a long, long quarter of an hour's absence, coming up to the deck to pursue her poor victim with her usual pretty little spousal slang of " Gilly, my dilly," ho •was nowhere to be found. Cabin, hold, and forecastle were investigated with the speed of lightning, Mrs. G.'s tones and terms varying from the playful piano of " Gill, my dill, I know where you're hiding!" to the sharp alto of " Gill, you devil, why don't you answer ?" but Gill was ■■ RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 119 not forthcoming. At once the horrible impression be- came general that he had tumbled overboard. Every- tliing was now in confusion. Mrs. G.'s i>i|)e brought all lands upon deck, and she flew about like a wild - cat, charging every one she met with inhuman apathy, yet preventing any exercise of reflection. Hold, forecastle, and cabin Avere again ransacked, Mrs. G. even pulling the ladies from their berths to see if tliey had not secreted lit'r Gill. As the sloop was doing little more than drift along, the first thought on deck was to jump into the boat and row back, when it was suddenly discovered that it had got disengaged and was floating half a mile astern in tlie middle of the river. What with Mrs. G.'s screams and the consternation of the others, the scene had now reached its climax, when Gillingham, who had all this while been enjoying a nap in the bottom of the boat, awoke and perceived his situation. But, as if the alarm Avas never to subside, he, instead of seizing the oars and jfuUing resolutely after his comrades, began to shout like a maniac, upon which Mrs. G., who had just sunk into a fit, reanimated with new vigor, and, darting to the stern, began a response in tones yet shriller and more sustained. The little fiddler at length found sense to grasp the oars, and soon came up with the vessel, wdien, after his wife had half-crushed him with her clasp and smothered him with kisses, they ventured to ask an explanation of the mystery. He said that, overpowered by his last night's punch (though the fact was, as they all knew, to escape his wife's attentions), he had lain down in the boat, but not before taking the precaution to observe that its rope was secured by a double knot, consequently it could not have got loose without human assistance. Crew and com- pany were equally eager in declaring their innocence, when all eyes, by a simultaneous impulse, settled on those of McKnight, in which a roguish sparkle, breaking forth 120 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. from their affected wonder, betrayed the criminal. They had now some difficulty in restraining Mrs. Gillingham from making the captain undergo the fate she had been led to think was her husband's, but quiet was at length restored by a consideration which, like Aaron's rod, swal- lowed up all others. Fully expecting to reach Annapolis that night, the com- pany had expended their last money in laying in a grand but solitary meal; the shades of evening were now falling around them, and they had accomplished but half the distance, so that starvation for that night stared them in the face. A general assembly was therefore held in the cabin to consider the readiest means to adopt for the relief of their wants. As they could not muster tenpence among them, the debate promised to be a long one, when suddenly some peculiar sounds broke upon their ears; they ran up to the deck, and perceived that they were passing a plantation which was th scene of revelry and feasting. The house stood at the end of a lawn that sloped down to the bank, and imbedded a luxurious array of barns, sugar-houses, hencoops, and piggeries. Lights were dancing in its upper windows, shouts were coming from its lower ones ; guests were pouring in, in every spe- cies of vehicle, and the " niggers " were capering about the green like so many officers of his Satanic majesty's household, come np-stairs on parole. This was a scene which, in their situation, it would have been pleasanter to partake in than to behold, so that on Captam McKnight volunteering to go on shore and procure them a reception, his offer restored him to the good graces even of Mrs. Gillingham. Carrying with him their most heartfelt, or rather stomach-felt, aspirations for his success, he returned in about half an hour to inform them that he had told the planter they were a party of foreign ambassadors proceed- ing to General Washington's on the Potomac, and being RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 121 badly accommodated in the sloop, requested the favor of a night's lodging. The planter had expressed himself highly honored to receive them, and proffered the best his house afforded. To hoax him, therefore, it was neces- sary they should array themselves in some stage habil- iments, as fine and as old-fashioned as possible, and ])lay certain extemporaneous characters for the evening. Tempting as was the bait — a Delaware supper, a very encyclopaedia of meals — they were at first staggered by the proposition, until a due consideration convincing them tliat its performance was not too difficult, left them no room to perceive that it was too criminal. Accordingly Bates took out of his box a kind of Lord Ogleby's dress, for the English ambassador; Marshall selected a sparkling, spangled affair for the Spaniard; Fox spruced himself in the costume of Lord Trinket, as minister of France ; while Gillingham and Francis, as Austria and Russia, put on plain brown coats and black-silk breeches; all of them agreeing in certain "properties" which were no doubt mistaken for official insignia — bag-wigs, ruffles, hangers, and snuff-boxes. None of the ladies would join in this enterprise except Mrs. Gillingham, who, unwilling to trust her treasure from her sight, arrayed herself in black vel- vet in order to survey the farmers as Queen Catherine did Wolsey. Captain McKnight, acting as their secretary, with a spirit well worthy of the genius which suggested the hoax, led the planter and his son to the sloop to re- ceive them, the guests following from the house to obtain a view, while the wondering negroes formed an avenue through which they marched with all imaginable dignity. Nothing could have been more imposinfj than their ap- pearance, or more strictly in character; the lights, shin- ing on their buckles and spangles, produced a glitter which quite dazzled the beholders, while tliey sustained the illu- sion by their broken-English chatter and grimaces. In a C 122 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. short time the g.iycty of the society was quencliecl, all was awe and observation, the hlacks even deserting their gambols on the grass to peep at them through the win- dows. This gave them confidence; but the su])per being the leading cause of this performance, was the grand stimulant to their genius. Whilst that was going down they were winding up. Punch of the very best mixture completed the charm and rendered them quite communi- cative on the foreign policy of America and the state of Europe. They discussed the resources of Great Britain, the designs of Russia, and the results of the French Revo- lution (with the frequent iteration of such words as Kam- schatka, Seringaj>atam, and Trincomalee) until every one of the hearers, completely lockjawed, sat round them in a spell-bound circle, fathers, mothers, and children fore- going all the objects of their meeting to glean the least iota of their wonderful intelligence. The captain, per- haps, Avould state some extraordinary piece of news, which Bates, in English, with a Lord Burleigh accompaniment, contradicted ; Fox and Marshall then rejdied to him in French; Francis attacked them in Low Dutch, and Gil- lingham rebutted the whole i»arty in Japanese. When they had worked their conversation up to five or six cli- maxes, and apparently edified their audience to the extent of their capacities, the latter drew off to their vehicles, and they to some exceedingly soft beds. A[eanwhile their ladies had been well attended to by the females of the house; and in the morning, after being provided with a sumptuous breakfast, the distinguished party were wait- ed upon with the utmost politeness to the sloop which, before a better wind, speedily conveyed them home. The planter's guests soon spread the news throughout Delaware of the five foreign ambassadors who had stojiped at Squire Polwheel's on their way to General Washington, and in secluded circles, where neither newspapers nor RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 123 travellers penetrated, I have no doubt they afforded for some time as much speculation as many more important personages. As soon as our dismal antagonist, the fever, had left the field open at Baltimoro, we advanced for our autumn cam- paign, and, brief as it was, were liberally compensated for our summer losses. The only event which distinguished this visit occurred at the benefit of my friend Byrne, who, havimx an extensive teaching wherever he went, obtained the singular favor from the principal families of being allowed the assistance of his young pupils in a set of cotillions. Among them he had the lionor of numbering IMiss Patterson, afterwards Madame Jerome Bonaparte, and Miss Caton, the present Marchioness of Wellesley, both ladies making their debut in public as dancers on this occasion. Baltimore was a smaller edition of New York, another market and counting-house, but with one marked distinc- tion. Here society was imbued with a spirit of contro- versy. Political discussion was as much the staple amuse- ment as literature was in Philadelphia, and whether due to meteorological or constitutional causes I could never discover; but, certes, it amounted to a frenzy. Men, women, and children were alike affected, and all equally argumentative if not equally profound. This gave rise to endless discussions. Brothers and partners, identified in commercial but differing in political speculations, would pass each other in the street witliout recognition; their wives devotedly took up the cudgels at home; and their little boys pummelled each other into the Adams or Jef- ferson view of the subject at school. This ])arty spirit was very unpleasant to a stranger, and would have been fatal to the drama (for the men who would not sujjport the same minister would not patronize the same l)lay), had it not been counterbalanced in some degree by a 124 RETIIOSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. native conviviality -which, bringing them together at night, made their discussions ilow through a potent stream of port whicli speedily melted and mingled the most op- posite opinions. To the stranger, however, this remedy was more fatal than the evil, for unless a man had gone through a course of Irish seasoning and graduated at a six-bottle college, he found a Baltimore friendly meeting was a danger to be dreaded. In i)hysics we find the source of life to one being is death to another, and the heat which breeds a worm kills a seal. So also in "socialities" — if I may invent such a word — habits are like elements, and the staid liver who daringly rivals the well-trained con- vivialist is speedily forced into the exclamation of the frogs: " It may be fun to you, but to me it's annihilation." Elections — in any part of the Union too like volcanic eruptions — here were at their worst. The philosophical traveller who ])assed through Baltimore at such times consoled himself with the conclusion that all this period- ical vomiting forth of fire and dirt was the necessary escape of so much inflammable gas, denied the European vent on a belligerent neighbor. But the temporary resi- dent, exposed to actual collision with the crowd, found the absurdity no joke. Merry vras the only man I knew for whom it had a relish. To him it was a substitute for the best Madeira or a fine day's fishing; and though the sur- prising plasticity of his views, which ever concurred with those of the last speaker, would now and then betray the burlesque, his humor always acted as oil to any irritation. I was walking with him one day in Baltimore, when we met a friend of ours, a Delaware planter, M'ho was con- spicuous for provincial patriotism. Merry resolved to attack him, so with consummate gravity remarked : " How is this, AVitlierspoon ? I hear you have changed your prin- ciples." "I!" he exclaimed, in astonishment. "Yes; I heard at Colonel Tomkins's that you are not consistent." KBS- RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 125 "IIo doesn't mean to assert that I liave given up the ne- cessity of extending the democratic influence? I defy him to say that I am not upright!" "IIow can that be," replied IJob, " if you arc all on one side 9^'' Occasionally these scuftlings produced some very good hits. Two gentlemen of my acquaintance, Messrs. A. and 13., met after a contest in which B. had been the success- ful candidate. A., surprised at the announcement, ob- served, "How was it possible you could beat 0. ? he had everything in his favor." "On the contrary," rej)lied B., " the chances were mine. In the first place, you see, I liad a fluent delivery and self-command ; there I had the advantage of him. I had a personal knowledge of most of the electors; there I had the advantage of him. I had nerve, activity, and resolution; there, again, I had the advantage of him. lie is a good, honest, straightforward, well-meaning fellow." "And there," replied A., " he had the advantage of you !" The ladies, as I have before observed, took part in the mania to purify the government, but their deliveries were not always as felicitous as their conceptions, and if literal translations seldom give the meaning of an author, literal blunders are even more to be dreaded. At a tea-table, one evening, where the rival parties w'cre being appropri- ately discussed in "hot water," two fair Andromaches were blazoning the merits of their respective Hectors. " My husband," observed one, with a deliberate emphasis and look which threw a mountain of contempt on her ad- versary, "has always stood up for the rights of the people; history will say of him that he was ever a true liberal." "And is not my husband, also?" exclaimed the other, with energetic rapidity, eager to counteract the unfavorable innuendo. " I appeal to you, ladies, I appeal to all the ladies in the room, if my husband isn't known to be the greatest libertine in Maryland." 120 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. My lingers liavc been long itching to toucli upon a bright subject — tlio blacks — the great humorists of the Union, and, notwithstanding all that lias been said of their debasement and Avretchedncss, one of the happiest races of people I have ever seen. The system by -which men are degraded to the level of brutes, or the arguments which -would justify such bondage, every unprejudiced mind must turn from with horror. It is a stigma on the age, the people, and the government which permits it, and the anomaly is more grievously apparent in a Union which, but for this blot, would present a combination of the most beneficial principles that the world has yet seen established. But when this is admitted, if it becomes a question whether the slave can be happy in his bonds — if not exposed to actual bodily suffering — the seven years I had an opportunity of witnessing his constitutional vivac- ity make mo reply in the aifirmative. Under a thick skin, the negro seems to be endued with very sensitive nerves; climate, music, and kind treatment act upon him like elec- tricity, and with all the ignorance of the child he pos- sesses its disposition for enjoyment. Toil, in ordinary cases, is but a dam tchis animal spirits, which overflow with greater violence at the hour of relaxation. A dance, a sonjx, and a laugh are then his sole desiderata. All this is, no doubt, merely sensual, and far inferior to the pleas- ures which an elevation to his just dignity would af£r him ; but still, nothing can bo more erroneous than , impression that the negro is not to the full extent as happy as any of the other unenlightened laborers with whom Europe abounds. It seems to have been caused partly by wrong information and partly by reasoning which does more credit to the heart than the head, and looks on good and evil as positive rather than relative. Nature implants equally in all men certain feelings for their guidance, a sense of honor, gratitude, and affection, a RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 127 love of life, liberty, and bodily ease ; but education and habit do much to weaken or strengthen these endow- nicnts. Thus the Englishman, who has been educated in the love and possession of liberty, cannot see how the slave can be ha})py without it. But the latter, having no idea of the enlightened man's enjoyments, regards lib- erty only as a release from labor and an enlarged means of gratifying his senses. He is like a man whose legs have been bound from infancy, and who on reachinjj manhood, though his bonds are cut, cannot walk. Such feelings as honor, gratitude, and affection will force them- selves out according to the nature of his treatment, but the love of freedom in its higher sense has been paralyzed with his intellect. There is no stronger proof of this than his conduct d'.iring the war. When Lords Duiimorc and Cornwallis so repeatedly offered the slaves freedom if they would join the royal standard, how few were the instances of compliance. So completely was their natural spirit quenched that the example of their owners fighting for the very right that was theirs also could not fire them. If the slave really felt the loss of his liberty, would he not then have regained it ; or indeed, could the Americans at any time have kept it from him ? Intelligence made all the difference. The planter, knowing the value of his rights, was willinj; to die for them: the benif:chted negro could not weigh them against a whipi)ing. Thus indifferent, were a general manumission to take place, what freedom would bo to the black without a preparatory acquaintance with its duties and obligations, let miserable Ilayti speak. But it will be said, if the slave has not mental suffer- ing, look at his bodily oppression. On this point I must confess I have heard much more than I have seen. The outrages which certainly occasionally occur may yet be due rather to individual depravity than to systematic cru- elty, for I believe it has been ascertained that the major- 128 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA! ity of such cases Lave been chargeable entirely to those fiends of overseers who, to gratify their own hellish hu- mors, persuaded their masters that rigor with the black was a necessary economy of time and trouble. However, the advance of public opinion, which every year becomes more sensitive to the dignity of human nature, must, ere long, cleanse out the foul stain altogether. With every friend to the permanent prosperity of America, I trust that that day is fast approaching ; but to every friend of humanity who may fret overmuch at its non-arrival, I think it my duty to tell what I have observed of the cheering side of the [»icture. I have termed the negroes the great humorists of the Union, and in many respects I have thought them like the lower Irish ; with the same confusion of ideas and dilHculty of clear expression, pouring words out of their mouths on the 'igh tide of a natural drollery, as broad as as it is rapid. But this characteristic varied with their locality and occupaiion. The black in Maryland, the most social state in the Union, found more favorable op- portunity for its development than in despotic Georgia. And, again, the liveried and napkined shadow who flitted behind the chairs at a city festivity, or planted himself as a background to the snow of his lady's shoulders — like night in Switzerland — differed materially from his brother in the fields. Tiic lumior of the latter, arising from a profound simplicity which lowered the most dignified sub- jects into ludicrous lights and elevated the most trivial into importance, was Nature's spontaneous product in full bloom; while he of the city added an observation of all the petty arts, tricks, and prejudices of the society he hung upon, so as to reflect his master or mistress in a kind of hand-mirror; this knowledge of the outside of life in- vesting him with a comical self-importance. Their man- ner sufficiently marked their difference. The one was RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 129 known by liis stooping slioulclcrs, projected licad, and eyes lialf-eloscd as if in momentary fear that their sparkling fim might be forcibly qiienclied; with the muscles of his mouth ever quivering to draw up its heavy curtain of llesh and display the grinders of a shark. The other exhibited all the confidence usually arising from a consciousness of talent, with the jutting breast of a tailor, and the angular hop of a Fantoccini; eyes and mouth ever wide open; legs and arms perpetually whirling; his replies had all the pop and froth of ginger-beer; ho was a smart, eternally buzz- ing, black wasp. It might be supposed that in every re- Fpect the negro would improve in the measure that ho departed from his standard hue, and in respect to morals and manners this is the case; but as regards humor I must aflirm, geologically, that I never knew a true vein of the precious metal to run through any but a decided " black loam." I once read the fanciful theory of an old " New England divine," who strove to prove a very awful sympathy be- tween matter and spirit, by connecting the negro's color with the origin of evil. lie asserted that Adam, after the Fall, lost his angel fairness as much in his skin as his soul; that an outward and visible sign of the internal darkness was the means adopted by divine anger to attest the creat- ure's delinquency ; and that the brand of Cain and the hide of Esau were the stages of shade by which human turpitude advanced to the ultimate depths of Ethiopian debasement. The worthy theorist felt himself thus pro- vided with data to calculate the end of the world, for, taking the extinction of error or sin as the term of its existence, he argued that in the measure in which black began to disappear from the human being externally, the light of truth would progressively dawn through mulatto, quadroon, and octoroon till the universal heart and com- plexion returned to their primitive purity. 0* 130 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. If this theory shouUl seem plausible to my reader, I must, in justice, inform him that it has been controverted by several African philosoplicrs, who have investigated deeply their historical metaphysics, and bj'- one especially whoso language, assuming the more insjiired. form of po- etry, has become the creed of his race. The words are these : " Adam was a fuss man, Eba was anoder." This little mistake in physiology my reader will overlook when he considers how difficult it is to prove the identity of anything at so remote a period. " Cain a was a bad man, A cause lie kill him brodc." The pure and conclusive strain of this morality forcibly disposes us for the reception of what follows — " When Garra Mighty sec urn dead, Massa Cain in such a flight, He tremble from him toe to head And den he turn all tvhifcP^ — SAMnOTlus QuAMiNA, Ilhtorj and MdaphjaicH of XegralanJ. This exposition of the phenomenon, while it unsettles our common belief, places the New England divine in a de- cided quandary; yet if we accept the premises — Cain's trembling — the conclusion seems unavoidable, for the blackest rascals have been known to turn pale with strong emotion. The same learned author — Sambo Quam. — also proves with considerable acutencss that our notions re- specting the devil are exceedingly vulgar, and unworthy of an enlightened age. According to his deductions, Sathanas protrudes no distinction of horns, hoofs, and tail, such as might scare babies, but is a tall, thin, well- made person, of a sallow complexion and with rather re- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 131 laxcd muscles and large, bushy whiskers, fond of smoking, swearing, cock-fighting, and mint-sling. I will now recount some of the grounds of my convic- tion that humor (as well as, I may add, a vein of melan- clioly) is specially the attribute of the negro. One of the heartiest specimens of fun I ever heard was the chuckle of a youth who was on duty with a fan to keep the flics from disturbing his master's rest, and who, seeing a per- severing blue-bottle light on the planter's flaming promon- tory and immediately fly off, exclaimed, "Aha, um berry grad o' dat; oo burn oo foot at last, massa fly !" A pen- dant to tliis, but in a quieter way, was the reply of a domestic who went to communicate the news of his mas- ter's sudden death to a near neighbor. The latter, on re- covering from the first shock, observed, with a sigh of res- ignation, "Well, Cicero, there's one thing to console us; your poor master had a d — d bad gout, and lie's gone to happiness." " Iss, massa, but um berry sorry he hab'n gone to heb'n." "Not gone to heaven, you black rascal! why?" "Cause, massa, he tell a me he should never be comforbable anywhere where ho wasn' berry warm !" A trait of that simplicity which is usually considered indigenous to Ireland was the remark of the exliilarated fiddler who, going home from a dance one dark night, fell over some rubbish in the road, and with ditficulty regain- ing his legs, exclaimed to his companion, " Now, Cjesar, tell a me iss— why de debil do a sun shnie all day when nobody want um, and nebber shine a night, when it's so berry dark gentium can't see his way?" I have heard also of a Charleston j)ilot who, on being asked by the captain how much water there was within the bar (meaning, of course, how deej)), extended his wondering eyes to their fullest peri})hery and rejdied, " Why, massa, what a strodnary qucshun ! do a link I ebber measure um in a pint pot?" 132 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. But this was not the usual characteristic of a Samboism. It was the presence, not the absence, of intelligence which gave it a relish, and lent a more grotf^squc effect to its mode of expression. Few things have contained more of the essence of meaning than the comment of a Western Cato, invited to take a glass of grog at a tavern by a manumitted friend, who, as first taster, did not withdraw his lips till he had subtracted two thirds of the potation, when, giving a loud "hem!" he said to the landlord, " JMassa, I tink iss berry strong; gib a little water." " To]), top, Pompey!" interrupted Cato, Mith an eloquent wink, "fuss I should like to cry 'hem!'" One of the stories that amused me most, from the mor- al justice that gave edge to the retort, I heard during a Southern visit. A Jerseyman, carried by business to Georgia, called on a friend, who accompanied him on a survey of the country. Night coming on when they were some distance froni home, they took i)ossession of an over- seer's hut which contained a couple of hammocks, leaving a negro, who attended them, to lie upon the floor. This poor fellow it seems had, during the day, offended the Jerseyman, who, nursing a pitiful spite, tooiv advantage of the moment his friend and the black were asleep to reach his hand to his whip and bestow a smart cut on the most exposed portion of the somnolent shadow beneath. Agamemnon bounded up as with a galvanic impulse, and the Jerseyman threw himself back, but not before his motion had betrayed him. The sufferer, fearful of dis- turbing his master, could only apply friction to the irri- tation, and lie down again. The next day being passed in the neighborhood, at night they repaired again to the hut, when our hero expressed a strong wish to rej)Ose out- side. This led to a disclosure, upon which the Jerseyman said, in his defence, " If I struck you, Aggy, it must have been in my sleep; a man may do many things in his sleep RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 133 wliich he can't remember next morning." Such an expla- nation satisfied tlie planter, and perforce his property, but it conveyed no conviction to the latter, nor was it the unction he required for his skin. It was the Jerseyman's fate this night to go off first and give his victim the pleasure of watching him. Rising softly on his legs, Aggy approached his hammock, and, taking down the brandy- keg suspended by his side, emptied its contents. The loss was discovered the first thing next morninix, and Aggy was collared and charged with the offence, when, eying the tyrant significantly, he replied, "Well, massa, if I did drink um, it mus hab been in my sleep; a man may do many ting in his sleep he can't remember next mornin'." Tiiis Rowland for an Oliver tickled the planter as much as it dumfounded his guest, and between tlie two Aggy came oft" victorious. Among other American mysteries Europeans have often wondered at the practice of bestowing on slaves the names of all the conquerors, military or moral, in classic history. Cfcsar, Pompey, Cato, Cicero, Ulysses, Agamemnon, all constrained to return from the Tartarean regions, but with faces so begrimed by their abode there that it was evident they had not been able to take a dip in the Styx on re- crossing it. So singular a fact has given rise to much speculation. Did the planter, intending to teach a polit- ical lesson to his child, thus cast down the idols of the old republics whose worship had been taught in academic groves, in order to impress the merits of his country's worthies ; or was it that he gratified his own sense of power by exercising mastership over such mighty names? Many commonplace minds, however, refer the cause sim- ply to the natural burles(pie importance of the black, and the waggery of his master. My readers will, perhaps, infer that the custom must have added to the name-own- er's knowledge of antiquity, which, according to Mr. Jef- 134 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. fcrson, as a mental stimulant must have proved a political evil. I once asked one of the "liigh denominations," who looked more than ordinarily inflated, why he was called Cjesar. " Cause, sar," said he, with inefTable dignity, " C»sar a berry noble name." " Oh, then, you tliink you have a right to it." "Iss, sar; unqueshonably." "Per- haps you imagine you are the descendant of a CiiGsar." "Iss, sar; tu-ba-sure!" "My good fellow," exclaimed I, with a stare, "do you know who Ciesar was?" Here I thought I must liave sunk under the reply of liis eyes, wdiile his lip, a noble scroll at all times to Ids Corintliian column, curled into more protuberant majesty as he ex- claimed, "Know who um was, sar? Ca.'sar, Massa Johnny say, was a great butcher. So am I !" But the most conclusive testimony I ever received on the point of natural negro intelligence was from a female, and for force and novelty of application I think it may challenge rivalry with anything recorded of the sages. An Othello, who had lately married, was plucked from the arms of liis devoted wife to attend his master on a journey to the North. Ilis absence extended to many months, but it was oil, not water, to the flame of his affec- tion. The Fates at length consenting to his return homc- w\ards, he rushed to enfold Ins Chloe with a genuine con- jugal spasm (by-the-bye, why are all tlie ladies named from the classic pastorals, Chloe, Phyllis, etc.? Another mystery). As nature is the same under all skins, can the joy of that moment be depicted on i)aper? Impossible ! And equally impossible would it be to describe the con- sternation with whicli, the minute after, he perceived a little lump of humanity asleep on the bed, almost white ! "Chloe!" lie exclaimed, converging, as it seemed, every faculty into that of vision, " v*'hat dat?" " Oo child, Cato." "My child?" "Iss, a fuss pledge of my 'fec- tion." "Dcbbel take a wooman, him quite white!" Cato RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 135 now stood mute and motionless, gazing at bis wife a3 if his eyes would scorch her u]); in another moment his glance, turning to a convenient oak stick, announced that lie was about to inculcate a lesson of morality in one of its soundest forms, when intuitive perceittion threw a flash on Chloe's brain which pointed out a broad passage of escape. Genius acts as it conceives, with vigor. Seizing her husband by the wool she dragged him to the door and pointed to a group of fowls. " Cato," she exclaimed, with equal fervor and decision, "tell a me dis — what dat?" "A hen." "Oo wicked nigger, what color is um hen?" "Black." "And does'n a black hen lay a white cygf'' Here she paused and scanned him with a smile of tri- umph; the blow was resistless; it had gone home; had struck him like a wave at sea, capsizing and flooding him. Clasping the clever dear one to his bosom, now wrapped in more than Roman dignity of innocence, suspicion and coolness perished together in the hug. Of the sensitiveness of the negro to sweet sounds a curious proof was afforded in an anecdote related to me by my friend Morris, who had been with liis company in Jamaica when the head and hand of the celebrated " Three-finffcred Jack " Avere brouccht into Kinijston. One of the company, who had a very sweet voice, was of highly respectable parentage, and had quitted England owing to an unfortunate attachment. His melancholy, as is usually the case, led him to take long rambles in the country, in which he was occasionally joined by another of the actors, both duly mindful to avoid certain districts known to bo haunted by the terrible outlaw. At the close of one very sultry day he and his friend were skirting the foot of a hill when they came to an umbrageous palm, under which Herbert proposed they should open their wallet and take some refreshment. On doing so they discovered that they had omitted to provide themselves with brandy. The ine RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. friend, espying a plantation at a distance, said he would go there to obtain some, while Herbert threw himself on the sward to await his return. The loneliness and stillness of the spot brought back to him the thought of home, and he gave vent to his oppressed spirit in some vocal effusion, unconscious that the savage scourge of the island, driven by hunger from his hiding-place on the hills, liad watched the display of the provisions, and, on his friend's departure, had crept softly through the brushwood to despatch him. Jack had drawn sufficiently near for his purpose, and was on the point of raising his gun, when Herbert's lips opened, and the breathings of a broken heart fell upon his ear. They arrested his arm. lie lis- tened in mute attention, and, when Herbert ceased, touched him gently with the butt of his musket and said, "Sing again, massa!" Herbert started up with a cry of terror as he beheld the fearful being of whom he had been warned standing over, and, as he thought, on the j^oint of destroying him. I3ut there was no violence in the out- law's eye. He grounded his gun, and, propping his chin on its muzzle, repeated his request, " Sing again, massa." The feelings of the singer may be surmised. There are, perhaps, few men who would not instantly have grown hoarse through agitation. But it was a matter of more moment than his ordinary encores, and he recommenced the song as desired, Jack leaning over him and looking down upon him with a gaze of interest intense enough for affection. My reader, who must have heard of this person as one of the most brutal and ferocious of his class, differing only from the forest prowler in his form, will scarcely credit that the tears trickled from his eyes as from those of a young girl, and for many minutes the whole current of his blood seemed changed. Here was another mysterious instance of the charm of music — open- ing, as it seemed to do, some deep and secret spring of RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 137 teiulerness till that moment imknown, and most likely from that moment closed forever. Before Herbert a sec- ond time concluded his friend came in sight, hurrahing and waving a spirit-flask. Jack instantly levelled his gun, but, looking upon the singer beside him, he hesitated, grasped a handful of bread and meat from the wallet, and went over the bushes with the bound of a tiger. In an instant Herbert was upon his legs, and meeting his friend half-way, dragged him back to the plantation before he could sjK'ak a word. There, when the alarm was given, a pursuit was at once commenced, and in the space of a few days Herbert again looked, but Avith very dilferent sensations, upon the head and the hand of " Three-fingered Jack." I have endeavored to give the leading characteristics of each city I visited ; this is not so easy with the States. In the country every man's family is a community in itself. Local circumstances chiefly determined the set- tler's occupations, and the habits consequent on these his social character. The utmost that can be said is that if New England was the manufacturing, the Middle States the commercial, and the Southern the producing circles, Maryland produced the most original aspect of the group — for it was the independent. It always seemed to mo a collection of country-houses where people had either been born with wealth or had retired to spend it ; a spot which, from a happy union of influences in its soil and sky, had so moulded its denizens' characters as to be- come one w4de temple of mirth and sociability. Here the grand product was good-humor; the great exchange, hos- pitality; the one avocation, enjoyment. Here the most restless spirit contentedly folded its wing, and the most inveterate wanderer was tempted to stay his step. The doors seemed to me a useless device ; they were made to stand open. And almost equally unnecessary were the roofs, 138 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. for the sky was always smiling approbation on what was doing below. People of every nation and prejudice met here to subside into brotherhood, and the genius of their hosts exerted itself but in the invention of new spells to support such an influence. To sum up all in a word — this was the Ireland of America! Surely there never was such a permissible corruption of a name as that by which peo})le pronounced this region Merryland. I had but one fault to find with it — Bob Merry should have been its governor ! I feel that my life, as seen in these pages, raust seem to have been one long gleam of sunshine. Blessed with a buoyant heart and some good-will for my fellow-creatures, it is true that where I did not find a garden I planted one; but I can truly say that I linger over this retrospect with peculiar fondness. In England I had passed the spring and summer of my days, but here came the fall with more than usual plenteousness. It was indeed a season of fruits which fed and fostered every volatile particle of my nat- ure ; and, though I passed in a few years to soberer scenes, I cannot trace this reference but that it brightens up in memory's setting ray with the full glow of its de- parted gladness. One of the country friends whom I most frequently visited was a Mr. O'Donncll ; and at his table I heard some traditionary traits of Lord ]]altimore, who brought over the first settlers of Maryland — two hundred Roman Catholic families — under a grant from Charles I. Tliero seem to have been, in this man's character, many pleasing prognostics of the ultimate felicity of his adopted circle. He had fortitude, forethought, and a deep, undefiled spring of benevolence. Thus qualified to head an enterprise which planted the tree of liberty where it was destined to shoot up and spread its grateful shelter over thousands, his spirit seems to have entered into the atmosphere of RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 139 the country and given to it its happy, harmonizing influ- ence. Mr. O'Donnell had in liis possession a letter from Lord IJaltimorc to a settlement of Swedes on the Delaware, who had sent to ascertain whether he intended to molest them. As my friend was kind enough to permit my copying it, the reader may not object to my inserting a few lines which, hr.d they been inscribed on every emigrant's ban- ner, might have kept the American woods from the stain of much crimson. "The oppressed of one country, I cannot become an oppressor in another. To me America is a city of refuge, not strife. The rights which my sovereign may have com- mitted to my keeping I am bound to guard, but these do not include the power of molesting my fellow-creatures. On the soil where I am a stranger our children may be- come brothers. With God and our consciences for our friends, pride, envy, and dissimulation will be our only enemies." As an evidence of the intelliorence of this nobleman (the emphasis falls properly on the "noble"), my friend related to me an anecdote of the mode in which he re- ceived a deputation from an Indian tribe, who sent to him with the same suspicions as the Swedes. The chief speak- er, after learning and M'ondering at the circumstances of the emigrant's origin and advent, remarked : " The pale- face has crossed the great salt lake to fight with the red- skin." Ilis lordship replied that this was not so. "How can the pale-face sit down on the land of the red man and not drive him away?" This conference was being held at night and on the sea-beach, when, through a brilliant dome of stars, the moon was rising from her summer bath. Lord Baltimore pointed to the sky, and (through the interpreter) replied, "Let my brother look at those stars — they arc many ; they are bright and glorious. Such arc the red 140 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. men. Will tlie yellow star ■which is now coming from the lake displace thorn or put out their glory? Such is the white man !" Mr. O'Donnell, whose head was as full of anecdote as his heart was of good-nature, related to me also Doctor Franklin's account of the origin of tobacco, which, it ap- pears, the worthy philosopher was in the habit of repeating whenever he listened to any very marvellous narration, and with a gravity, I understand, well worthy of the cred- ibility of his details. A Swedish minister, he said, having on one occasion convened the chiefs of the Suscpiehanna Indians to hear an exposition of the truths of his belief, as soon as he had concluded one of them rose and desired he would attend to their tradition. " In the beginning," feaid ho, " we had only the ilcsli of animals to eat, and if they failed, we starved. Two of our hunters having killed a deer, boiled a part of it, when they saw a young woman walk down from the clouds and seat herself on a hill hard by., Said one to another, ' It is a spirit; she has smelled our venison and wishes to partake of it.' They accordingly offered her the tongue, which she ate with much avidity, and then told them, 'Your kindness shall be rewarded; come here twelve moons hence and receive three presents.' After which she walked up into the clouds again. Our fathers did as she commanded, and found that where slie bad laid her right hand was a field of maize; where her left, a field of beans; and where she had deioosited the most honorable part of her person, a crop of tobacco !" One of my rambles at this time carried me over to AVest Jersey, where I was shown the grave of a dwarf who had attracted considerable notice about the time of the com- mencement of the war. He was scarcely thirty-six inches in height, yet of the most perfect proportions. But it was not his form so much as his spirit that had caused his ce- lebrity. The royal Thumb was not invested with a deeper RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 141 consciousness of his own importance. Tliis Rccms another of the curious and lovinc^ provisions of Nature, a note in the grand harmony, by which as tiic frame declines from the ordinary standard its measure of self-esteem increases, Ro as to keep tlio object's notions on tlie point of personal dignity always on a level with those of his com]»anions, even should they be veritable "sons of Anak." To the rest of the world only does this prompting of Nature ap- pear an absurd affectation, because they do not see why, as the bottle grows smaller, the si)irit should necessarily become more essential. Among the amusing things related of him was his interview with AVashington, who, about the time of the Trenton enterprise, passed a night in the house where he was domesticated. The general having discussed a variety of subjects with him, at length in- (piired his political sentiments. "What do you expect," said he, "will be the result of the Avar?" "I can hardly at present form an opinion," replied the miniature, "for I have not yet taken an active part." Our season had sped on with a prosjiority commensurate with the enjoyment of our private hours, when both were doomed to close in a shock and gloom which for many months hung over our little circle, defying all attempts to dispel it. This was caused by the death of my dearly esteemed friend, Robert Merry ; the amiable, the intel- ligent, the truly-named IMerry; ho who from his boyhood had enjoyed the eulogium of never knowing an enemy, and whose life had been one long act of sympathy with others, lighting up smiles on haggard faces, and pouring upon saddened hearts the genial influences of his vivify- ing spirit. At the meridian hour, which was gathering to him rich returns from all his friends, he descended to the chamber and complexion of his prototype — poor Yorick. There were some ominous circumstances connected with Merry's death which made a strong impression upon me. 142 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. I am not of a superstitious temperament, and in all inex- plicable matters have chosen to refer their mystery to some hidden possibility rather than trace trivial effects to divine ap^ency. But so many cases of a like kind have passed before me that they have had at least one good result — they have led me into a more tolerant spirit in regard to i)oints of faith. I have long since felt myself without authority to consider any man's belief a iceaJcness because he cannot account for it. Merry had been latterly employed in writing a play, and one morning he called on me to say that he was engaged to dine with a gentleman who was going to London and would take it to Mr. Harris. The same day he requested Mrs. Merry to look over tlie last act and see if she could Buggcst any im})rovement in its catastro])lie. lie returned in the evening in high spirits from his friend's, where his more than usual effervescence had elicited an observation, to which he had replied, "My dear fellow, what you sec mc I have been for these forty years, and shall continue for another thirty." Finding his.wife earnestly engaged at her task, he would not disturb her, but took a kiss and his candle and went up to bed. Mrs. Merry had dreamed, a few nights before, that her husband liad died suddenly and had appeared to her. AV^hen she mentioned this to him he ralUed her in his usual way; but a night or two after he dreamed himself that his brotlier had come to him in deep mourning, and when asked the reason had turned away and hid his face; upon which Mrs. M., by some un- accountable impulse, remarked, " It was for you, Robert !" Not long after Merry liad retired, Mrs. Merry heard a groan proceeding, as it appeared, from beneatli the table, which she reasoned herself into believing a delusion, until it was repeated. In all that is meant by the term "moral courage" I do not think that this truly lovable and excel- lent woman was surpassed even by Mrs. Canning, of whoso RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 143 self-possession I have given so striking an anecdote in a former volume. Had a robber woke her in the nigbt, with a pistol at her ear, she would have looked at him calmly and selected the key of her cabinet with a steady finger; but her mind was as little proof against the terrors of the inexplicable as arc those who consider them communica- tions from the Deity. She accordingly rang the bell for her host and hostess, who, imagining it was the trick of some unfeeling rogue in the street, went out and looked, but without effect ; and in a bleak autumn night, the sleet falling and freezing fast, they did not think it probable that any one would purchase amusement so dearly. When they had returned to the drawing-room, Mrs. Merry, to get rid of them, assented to their conviction that it was mere fancy ^ but she read no more that night. The next morning Merry rose early, apparently quite well, and in ignorance of the above, and, descending to the garden, where he usually walked before breakfast, met the cook, for whom he had his pun prepared as regularly as she had his coffee. IVIrs. Merry came down soon after to complete her revision of the play, and the servant go- ing out to call her husband when the breakfast was r< idy, found him stretched upon the pathway in a fit of apo- ])lexy. Here, half-buried in the snow which had fallen l>lentifully during the night, it is probable he had re- mained some time, incapable of rising or calling for assist- ance The chill thus received must have hastened the return of the attack. When the alarm was given, Mrs. IMerry was hurried up-stairs and her husband conveyed to the drawing-room, where his head was accidentally placed exactly upon the spot whence she had imagined the groan had proceeded. The reader may conceive her feelings when, on entering the room, she perceived this coincidence. Merxy's naiiio hurried all the skill of IJaltiuiore to his 144 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. assistance, but the grasp of mortality was too firm to be imloosed, though he recovered for a brief space the full use of his si)ecch and his mental faculties, and with them the inseparable flow of his vivacity. We were commenc- ing rehearsal when the news reached the theatre, and I flew to his house with Wood,* who had made his cUhut a few evenings previous in the comedy of " Secrets Worth Knowing." We found Merry propped in a chair, tapping liis snuff-box and smiling a reproof at his wife's emotion, while the physicians were holding a consultation in one corner of the room. When his eye fell upon Wood he could not restrain his ruling propensity, but, taking a pinch of snuff, exclaimed, "Aha! now the consultation will be complete ; here's Doctor Plethora come to see me." Three hours after this he breathed his last (and perhaps his only) sigh upon his wife's bosom. His intermer/t drew forth the strongest expression of private sympnrhy I have ever witnessed; it appeared to mo that half the population of Maryland walked after the * William B. Wood, Wood is only remembered in tlie present daj' by his "Personal Recollections of the American Stage," Philadelphia, 1855; a valuable contribution to dramatic history, and a good example of the autobiographic literature in which so many members of his profession in former generations were fond of indulging. Wm. 13. Wood was born in Montreal, in 1770, his father, a goldsmith of New York, having gone to the Canadas during the Revolutionary War. In 1798 he made his first appearance as an actor with the Philadelphia Company, under the man- agement of Wignell, at the Annapolis Theatre, and as George Barnwell. IIo was a member of Mr. Wignell's company in Pluladelphia, and treas- urer of the theatre for a number of years. In 1804 he married Juliana Wcstray, an actress of some repute. In 1810, in partnership with William Warren, he became magcr of the Chestnut Street Theatre, a position he held for sixteen ycai. He took formal leave of the stage at tlie Walnut Street Tiieidrc as Sergeant Austcrlitz, in the "Old Guard," Nov. 18, 184(5. IIo died in Philadelphia, in 18G1. He was a close student of his profes- sion, and won his way by hard work rather than by inherent talent for the Btngo. lie played many parts and none of them badly. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 145 dismal vehicle which now shrouded the sun of our circle. Many men have passed away who have done more service to their country, and added greater treasures to its litera- ture, and who, let the tide of time sweep at its will, have cast anchor effectually in the public memory; but none have had hearts which beat with a livelier impulse for the well-being of humanity; none have given proofs of a will- ingness to do more had the ability been greater. In compliance with Mrs. Merry's wish I wrote his epi- taph, which I now insert as a last tribute to his memory: Ilore lies Robert Merry, the generous, the kind, Whose name was the truest response to his mind ; His heart with no burden was destined to heave, Save in Ustening to sorrows lie could not relieve. CHAPTER VII. 1709. — Life ill Vii'sini ; a Word foi- the Plantci's; the War a Moral Re- generator; Manners, Tastes, and the Ladies. — A Planter's Life before the War ; Stratagems to Obtain Tompanions ; Ordinaries. — I'uljlic Diver- sions: Racing at Willianisburjrh ; Quarter-racing; Hunting in Virginia; an Adventure. — Native Traditions: Cai)tain Smith; his Discipline; his Replies ; Pocahontas in England ; an Indian Taking the Census. — Convicts ill Virginia. — Dr. Franklin's Present to Sir Robert Walpole. — A Humorous Criminal; Conviction and Conversion. — A Governor's Speech in lOtO.— Lecturing Excursion. — Cooper the Tragedian; his Courage. — Virginia Travelling. — Gallinippcrs and Moscpiitoes. — Patriot Pigs. — Rlacksmith's Cure for Insanity. — General Lee and the Quakers. — A Madagascar Monster. — Tradition of " Blackbeard's" Skull. The summer of 1709 I passed in Virginia, my profes- sional visits, alternating bet^vcen Riclimond and Norfolk, being relieved by excursions to various parts of the state, at the invitation of that truly hospitable race — the plant- ers. Among these I met men of high intelligence and even refinement, whose conviviality not making its agent its end, could be, like their own summers, as radiant as it was warm. No class of persons that I know of has been so harshly judged as the i)lanters, the sins of the fathers liaving been visited upon the tenth generation. Abroad and at home, worthy persons whc 3 hearts throw a mist round their brains have confounded the necessity of the present with the evil of the past, have let the crimes of a few discolor the many, and the iniquity of a system vouch for that of individuals. Herein has lain the error and the wrong. Unless a man has been willing to break up this system at the cost of his own utter ruin he has been pronounced a selfish barbarian, a loathsome maggot RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 147 complacently fattening on corruption. In nine cases out of ten the supporters of the system have been its greatest vietinis. I do not hesitate to say tliey have been among ils sincerest detesters. It certainly is no enviable lot when a man, liappcning to bo born on a particular spot which is cursed with an indisposable legacy, can be put in a pillory by every enthusiast who makes feeling, not fact, his rule of reasoning. I do not remember a single instance of a planter defending the origin of his i:>ossessions, or one who defended the continuance of slavery by other than this .single argument; that human agency is required in the cultivation of the Southern soil, Avhile the extreme heat is not to be supported save by Africans or natives. The negro, if manumitted and paid for his labor, can live upon so little that he would not do half that is required; and, till the country becomes so populated that work shall be- come scarce, the white will never take his place. As to the planters, look at their education. Were the many guilty of the atrocities which have been proved against a few, could they be marvelled at when we con- sider the furnace in which they have been heated and hardened, the mode in which they have been trained into indifference to fellow flesh and blood, a habit of command and unlimited indulgence ? Like the old feudal barons, tlieir whole life is a temptation, through absence of re- straint. They have had but one check upon their passions — goodness of heart. If all men's forbearance through life could be brought to this test would not the virtue of char- ity be somewhat more catholic ? Again, in the old times it was next to impossible for a man to rear a family without relieving the abrupt contrast of white and black in-doors by certain intermediate shades; while devotion to the mys- teries of mint-sling, jockeyship, and cock-fighting arose from his associating only with hla own class, or with tlio worst cxportations of Europe. Insensible to the }>k'asures 148 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. of refinement, ho was unconscious of the necessity of ex- ample, anil, levelling all below him to a footing with his slaves, felt no obligation to provide for human d'gnity and comfort by establishing education. In the North the merchants were the leading body, while the farmers and mechanics formed a middle rank. Society in the South consisted but of two classes — high and low. Here the aristocracy were the landowners, to whom the inhabitants of cities were but agents for the export of their produce. In the former, the education of the middle class had led to a general diffusion of knowledge among the poor. In the latter, the i)arcelling of i)roperty into comparative dukedoms annihilated a medium (for the farmers of the slave states were too few to be considered), and there was no public instruction to prevent the poor from falling vic- tims to the worst points of their superiors. It can be no marvel, therefore, that for many years the planters were a race of epicureans, and the lower orders a horde of vag- abonds; that the slaves were the only laborers in the state, and that freedom, cither in high or low, consisted in a mere despotism of the senses. But the war proved a great moral as well as political regenerator. At the first threat of oppression, Virginia — the effeminate, dissolute Virginia — roused into a masculine energy which fixed the eyes of the colonies. She formed the Southern nucleus of resist- ance, her proprietors becoming a band of skilful leaders, around whom gathered legions of devoted soldiers. But this was not all — she grasped her less decided neighbors and bound them indissolubly to the Union, for Virginia and New England may be truly said to have "hooped" the confederacy. The contest gave birth to no higher evidences of patriotism than were afforded by the planters, when, in the heart of the English army, they sundered the ties of English patronage, provoking the confiscation of their property, to endure every species of personal priva- RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. U9 tion — some proof that tliey have not been always the selfish anil cold-blooded beings they have so often been termed. In their manners they have ever been austere to their inferiors, and, ^vhen abroad, reserved with tlicir equals; but all frost vanished the moment you crossed their threshold. That was a minute but instantaneous division between the frigid and the torrid zone; a warmth — truly Irish — succeeded, and you were welcomed to a land of libe^-tv. In all their domestic arrangements the taste was evidently French, with some local modifications which were not displeasing. Though deficient in architectural beauty or stability, many of their dwellings were inter- nally palactis. Their furniture, pictures, and musical in- struments were all imported from Europe. But tliis did not surprise me so much as the tone of their conversation. Their favorite topics were European, and I found men leading secluded lives in the woods of Virginia perfectly au fait as to the literarj", dramatic, and personal gossip of London and Paris. But the mystery was soon ex- plained: they had all been educated in France or England (a practice wliicli ceased at the Revolution), had made a tour of the Continent, and maintained a voluminous cor- respondence ever since. At one house I met with a gen- tleman who had participated in my revels at the London clul)s. His memory was a storehouse of anecdote which ho flavored by a peculiarly happy faculty of imitation, the rapturous manner in wliich the company recognized the originals often making me look round to see if I was not once more snugly ensconced over tlie piazza at Covent Garden. Of the planters' ladies I must speak in terms of unquali- fied praise; tliey had an easy kindliness of manner, as far removed from rudeness as from reserve, which being nat- ural to them (for they mixed with no society) was the more admirable. In a woman I would always liavc the 150 llETROSPECTIONS OP AMERICA. heart to bo the chief source of lier fascination. The one thing I did not quite approve of was tlie juvenile period at wliicli tliey bloomed and decayed. A lady hero was in the habit of marrying nearly ten years earlier than a European, so that at twenty, if she had proved a fruitful olive, her husband's table was surrounded with tall shoots sufficient to supply him with shade for the remainder of his days. At thirty — the glowing summer of an English dame — she had fallen into " the sere leaf ;" and at forty — the autumn fulness of a royal taste, the hel age of St. James's — the faces of these matrons of the West are cut up into as many lines as a map of Europe. Nevertheless, to the influence of their society I chiefly attribute their husbands' refinement, and, in proof, I cannot, perhaps, more amuse the reader than by showing the contrast of a planter's life some twenty years previous, when, marriage being made a mere mode of conveying property, every woman was looked on as an animal, and every house was a harem. During summer he used to rise about nine, when he exerted himself to walk as far as his stables to look at the stud which he kept for the races ; at ten he break- fasted on coffee, eggs, and hoe-cake, concluding it with the commencement of his diurnal potations — a stiff glass of mint-sling — a taking disorder peculiar to the South. lie then sought the coolest room and stretched himself on a pallet in his shirt and trousers, with a negress at his head and another at his feet to keep off the flies and pro- mote reflection. Between twelve and one his throat would require another emulsion, and ho would sip half a pint of some mystery termed bumbo, ai)ple-toddy, or pumpkin flip, lie then mounted a pony, and, with an umbrella over his head, rode gently round his estate to converse with his overseers. At three he dined, and drank every- thing — brandy, claret, cider, Madeira, punch, and san- RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 151 garce, then resumed liis pallet, Avitli his ncgresses, and meditated until tea-time — though he was not particular about tea, unless friends with womenkind dropped in. The inflammation in his throat returned about dusk, and he prescribed for himself cooling washes until bed- time. From this detail the reader will surmise that a planter was a reptile only to be preserved in spirits; but I must guard against the error that he was by choice a solitary toper. On the contrary, he strained every nerve to pick up companions, and it was only when in utter despair of obtaining this pleasure that he gave himself up to bumbo, Dinah, a mattress, and meditation. Many humorous instances were related to me of the plans he adopted to draw guests to his convivial roof in the un- tracked woods of the interior. One of the most striking was the following : On the morning of " a clear day " — a decided scorcher — he would order a wagon to be packed with a tub con- taining bottles of every compound in his closets — sling, nog, flii?, and toddy, together with their elements, spir- its, lemons, sugar, etc.; a pair of rifles, shot, and powder; a fishing-rod and tackle; soap, towels, clean linen and nan- keens ; and a canvas awning with poles and cords to sup- port it. lie then took his seat in the vehicle, and, attended by a train of blacks, \>as driven slowly to the nearest highway, along which he proceeded till he came to a clear, clay-bottomed i)ond. Tiie wagon was then backed into the water where the depth was breast-high, the poles were firmly driven into the bottom, the awning stretched over them, and the horses being turned into the woods, the pro- prietor disarrayed himself and descended into this local bath. After amusing himself with a few minutes' splash- ing, a board was slid down from the wagon to support him in a recumbent position, and the tub, like a richly- freighted West-Indiaman, Avas committed to the deep and 152 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. moored beside liim. Arrangements were now made for the business of the day: while one ebony was j)hiced in charge of the cattle, another carried out a line from his floating fisliing-rod, standing ready to give him notice of a bite; a third placed his rifles on the tub, that he might pop at the first bird that offered; and two others were despatched in opposite directions to watch if travellers were approaching. Thus combining the four staple enjoy- ments of bathing, drinking, shooting, and fishing, this "Western Sardanapalus marked the furnace in the skies burn away, but not with a contented heart. He sighed for a victim ; his toils were spread and he hungered for his prey. In the deep solitude that reigned around, his ear was triply alive to human sounds; the creak of a cart- wheel had more music for him than the finest notes of a thrush, and the sight of any person, not a negro, more beauty than the loveliest landscape. If at length the form of a stranger api)eared, he sprang from his plank and shouted an invitation to alight and take a drop of some- thing sociable. If the traveller refused, up went the rifle to his shoulder, and compliance was demanded in the tone of a European footpad. The stranger now saw that pleas- ure was policy, however urgent might be his business; but if he were so unguarded as to yield to his next request to "strip and take a swim," he speedily found himself irretrievably in the clutches of this human alligator. The planter fixed in him all the claws of nog, flip, sling, and toddy, until the brain of the victim became so confused that the grinning negroes had no difficulty in stowing him into the wagon, whereupon the poles were struck, the horses buckled in, and the deliglited planter returned home with his prize, whom he probably cooped up in a back-room with a chevaux-de-frisG of bottles, until, by some desperate effort, the captive made his escape. Another and more civilized plan was to send the ne- RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 153 grocs round at nightfall to the nearest inns (licrc very properly termed "ordinaries"), with a note to any lady or gentleman who miglit bo putting up tlierc, stating that if they did not like their accommodation, Mr. would he happy to sec them at liis house close by, to which a black with a lantern would conduct them. This system was often successful; for, in the old times, all you could obtain at these places w^ero eggs and bacon, hoc-cake, and peach brandy; a bed stuffed with shavings, on a frame that rocked like a cradle, and in a room so well ventilated that a traveller had some difliculty in keeping his umbrella erect, if endeavoring, under this convenience, to find shel- ter from the rain while in bed. But as the planter's hos- pitality proved such an antagonist to the landlord's inter- ests, the latter always had it made up to him in presents, so that all parties were well content; and, probably, the only sufferer in the end was the cerebellum of the guest. Whether the decline of such a spirit may be deplored or not, it is not to be wondered at. As emigrants began to pour into the v.'oods a planter had seldom occasion to lift his rifle to his shoulder in demanding their society, but, on the contrary, he probably soon obtained those who re- quired some such gesticulation to be got rid of. I was much amused by a story I once heard of a propri- etor sending to an inn one evening, when ho was in un- usually good spirits, to desire the company of any stray gentleman who would so far favor him ; and his sable Mercury returning with a New-England preacher who was journeying on a crusade against slavery, and who imme- diately commenced tracing a comparison between the planter and Beelzebub, which lasted until daylight. At the time of which I am writing, racing was still the rulins: diversion. To the credit of their taste and feclinG:, that vulgar brutality, cockfighting, had long fallen into neglect. While of sling, under proper circumstances, 154 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. namely, a certain lime of life and time of night, I must declare my unqualified approbation, with their racing, also, I was highly pleased. I attended their principal course at Williamsburg, and better order and arrange- ment I nad never seen at Newmarket. Horses of all ages ran for subscription purses, two out of three four-mile heats won £100 the first day, and £50 every other, the races generally lasting a week. The riders were chiefly their owners ; and I was informed that their knowledge of the science of jockeyship was quite as profound as that of the English nobility. This is no small praise. To the eye of an ignoramus like myself everything seemed per- fectly fair, nor was my esteem for my acquaintances les- sened by the position I saw them in, since, when the ride was over, they did not bring the stable into their houses. My attention was most attracted by their horses : such a variety of heights and shapes would have made an English turf-hunter stare. Imagine, beside the sleek, proud, well- trained, elegant-limbed English racer, just imported, and pawing the ground with the conscious dignity of an aris- tocrat, a low, long-backed, shaggy plebeian, undressed and dirty, his legs pillars, and his monstrous head set upon a short, straight neck, poking the earth as if ashamed of his presumption in venturing into such noble company. Judg- ing with a common eye, I gave the republican no chance; indeed, I ventured upon a small bet that this four-legged Caliban, this outrage on all the rules of English stable lore, would imagine that he had a cart at his tail, and not achieve the winning-post before sundown. What, then, was my surprise when, on the signal for starting, away this fellow went, all fire and spirits, not galloping or springing sccwulcm artem, but scouring the earth like a demon of pestilence, his nose erect as if he snuffed a dis- tant feed of corn, and his mane and tail floating like a pirate's pennons. His rider, a tall man in red sleeves, KETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 155 whose only solicitude was to keep liis scat, gave inc an idea of iEoliis, tlic god of storms, hurrying over tlie ocean to engulf a fleet. I need scarcely say that, to the shame of all science and j)roj)riety, this animal came in first, and without whip or s}>ur. But lie crowned his triumjdi with a real trait of magnanimity. AVhen the noble Briton arched his neck with his usual air of high-breeding, the victor, heedless of the shouts about him, poked his nose again into the ground, as if only anxious to show that humility which ever -.larks the true hero. More fun, however, prevailed at another species of this diversion, peculiar to the interior, called "quarter-racing," which was a match between a pair of horses to run a qnai'- ter of a mile in a straight direction. This feat usually took place near some tavern, in a field whore a path was hedged in, about ten feet wide, for the competitors, the sides of which were generally lined by a motley multitude of negroes, Dutchmen, Yankee jiedlers, and backwoods- men, among whom, with long whips in their hands to clear the ground, moved the proprietors and betters, riding or leading their horses. The cattle for this contest were a peculiar breed, somewhat larger than ponies, shaggy as bears, but frisky as lambs. When the start was given they went off at full speed, so that the affair was over be- fore you imagined it begpn. The event was always pro- claimed by a tornado of ap])lause from the winner's jKirty, the niggers in particular hallooing, jumping, and cla])[>ing their hands in a frenzy of delight, more especially if the horses had happened to jostle and one of the riders been thrown off with a broken leg; wliereupon the defeated owner, or some friend for him, always dealt out retri- bution with his whip, for the purpose, as he termed it, of maintaining order. Sometimes twenty of these whip syl- labubs would take place in a day, and then the diversions would be wound up by trials at rifle-shooting, cock-fight- 15 G RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. ing, and boxing; so that, "'hat with tlic wrangling of t'..o- owners, the slang of the grooms, the fun of the niggers, and the diversities of other characters u})on tlie ground — the muscular backwoodsman contrasting in frame and spirit with the lanky New-Yorker, and the quiet calculation of both with the epithetical jabber cf the " Connecticut chaps" — a scene of this sort was one of the most animated and primitive I had the fortune to stumble on. The last and least frequent mode of passing time that I partook of in Virginia waii hunting. It is a curious thins: that, with few or none of the domestic tastes of the mother-country, the slave states alone were decidedly English in their public amusements. AV^hether the impor- tation of these hi a been generally beneficial to so young a country is another question. The planters had wealth and leisure, two incentives to enjoyment, besides a greater llian either — a warm climate. Chmate, in fact, makes all the difference. It is an eas^" thing to be a stoic in a cold one, the absence of temptation always leading a man to flatter himself into a belief of his superior goodness. However, hunting, unattended by the Bacchanalian cli- maxes of Lincolnshire, coald n'^t come under the ban of even the "Blue Laws." It was a healthy recreation and served to increase a man's knowledge of topogra})hy — per- haps of geology also — for how many specimens of earth does a thorougli Nimrod of any country bring homo on his garments if, with the true martyr-liku perseverance of liis tribe, he turns neither to the right nor to the left in ])ursuit of his object. But hmting r.\ V"'\ginia, liko •^"er^'' other sc ial exotic, was a far different thing from its English original. Tlie meaning of the latter is simj)le and explicit. A party of horsemen meet at an a])pointed spot and hour, to turn up or turn out a deer or a fox, and pursue him to a standstill. Here a local peculiarity — the abundance of game — upsets rwETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 157 all system. The practice seemed to be for tlio company to enter the wood, beat up tbe quarters of anytliing, from a stag to a snake, and take tbeir chance for a cliasc. If tlic game went oil well, and it was possible to follow it through the thickets and morasses, ten to one that at every hundred yards up sprung so many rivals that horses and hunters were puzzled which to select, and every buck, if he chose, could have a deer to himself — an arrangement that I was told proved generally satisfactory, since it enabled the worst rider, when all was over, to talk about as many difliculties surmounted as the best. A friend of mine near Richmond,, who had a pack of hounds, invited me to go out with him at the next meet- ing, proffering the use of a thorough-bred quadru])ed. I accepted the kindness, but more with a view of discover- ing what the sport consisted of tlian from any abstract love of it. My chase through life had been of a different species, and I take the liberty of relating this deviation after other game mcr'"- because it gave rise to an adven- ture and a train of re.. _v;> ion. One cool and cloudv morning I trotted with my friend to the scene of action, where I met a host of acquaintances, all of whom entertained the idea that I was a superior rider, which really means a man who believes his skull to be so thick that there can be no dan- ger of cracking it. Our salutations were soon over, and we prrceeded to hostilities by skulking into a dark wood, while I perceived that every eye was fixed upon mo in evident expectation of something extraordinary. In a few minutes the liounds opened, a young red-deer went off, and, from the spirit of my horse and the thick array of branches, I was in some danger of following his exanqile. liUckily, liowever, the game took to a field, and there, with tlie inspiration of the general yelling, I certainly did mas- ter two 0.' three hedges and ditches in a stylo that sur- prised myself, and riveted my friends in their delusion. 158 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. In a sliort time I got separated from the rest, and found myself again in that Tartarean Avood where, every stump threatening a case for a surgeon, a calculating trot was the utmost I could accomplish. Ijefore long I lieard a rustling in the bushes before me, and then saw an animal, which I took for our fugitive, spring away to escape; but, in defiance of all obstacles, I pressed him so close that he took it in dudgeon, and, tujning round, displayed a fine set of teeth and uttered a low growl. What this beast was, according to Linna3us, I have never been able to make out. My survey was so concentrated on the con- struction of his jaws that I neglected to note his other features, liut I think the most fervid natural philosopher would have concurred in my query — not. Is this beast a wolf or a panther? — but, lias he dined? It was evident I had mistaken the individual, and, as he seemed to con- sider an apology was due to him, I felt that the best would be to desist from further intrusion. Accordingly I turned round, and in a few springs gained once more the open. All sound of the chase had now died away, and I found myself alone in a strange country without the slightest means of obtaining a clew to the track of my com- panions. In this dilemma I threw the reins on my steed's neck (agi'eeably to the rule of those oft-bewildered gen- tlemen, the knights-errant), and, at an easy canter, he car- ried me some mihs across country without my perceiving road, house, or human being. At length, beginning to sus- pect his judgment, I reined up, when the cry of the hounds came suddenly upon us in the direction we were going. INIy ]}ucephahis needed neither voice nor spur to rciew his best pace — bogs and brakes glided past me with fear- ful rajudity — and, lo ! at a bound he brought me into an area where the deer had been run to bay on the edge of a deep stream, in which all the horses were splashing and snorting. I was actually the Jirst in at the death ! The RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 159 compliments and congratulations wliich I now received on all sides for my extraordinary riding would take pages to emimerate. I must have crossed rocks and swami)S wliich they had been compelled to skirt ; in fact, I had done more than any hunter in Virginia had ever achieved before me. As I was not in a humor to quarrel with this reputation, I affected to refer all the merit to my horse; but, as we jogged home to dinner, I could not help settling into the conviction, how much more, after all, a man's fame in this world depends upon accident than on ability I As I was always interested in local traditions, one of my friends related to me some concerning Captain Smith, the first explorer of Virginia, and his well-known enamoured wild girl — the pure, though passionate, Pocahontas. Of all the early adventurers Smith seems to have possessed the greatest amount of estimable qualities. With consid- erable skill as a navigator he combined a spirit of enter- prise which aimed at honorable ends. Wild as had been his career as a soldier of fortune in nearly all parts of Eu- rope, principles of rectitude and benevolence are seen in his subsequent life, not less in the publication of his dis- coveries than in his conduct in the government of the col- ony. One thing is very obvious — his ruling object Avas not his own aggrandizement; and this is no small praise when we consider the veil which romance has often thrown over the nakedness of robbery ; the proverbial ease with which success becomes a cosmetic for the hidcousness of crime. Some evidence of his character may be gleaned from the moral discipline which he established in Virginia, apparently so much at variance with the habits of his early life. Leading a party into the woods on one occa- sion to fell timber, a broken-down prodigal who had been exported by his family as a last resource had handled the axe but a few minutes when his fingers began to blister, whereupon lie vented his indignation in a series of cm- 160 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. phatlc oaths. Smith remonstrated with him on tlio ini- Ijropricty of liis language, hiit finding that ho persisted, ordered his exclamations to be numbered, and when they returned home compelled the delinquent to have a can of water poured down his sleeve for every offence. This mode of punishment proved a speedy purifier of the lan- guage of Ids followers. There was much magnanimity in his reply to some old son of Plutus who once proposed to set him up with a ship and stores if he would make a descent upon the South American coasts, where riches were speedily amassed by buccaneering. "I have been told," he replied, "that riches make life pass swiftly and pleasantly, and that 'tis tlic poor man only who grov/s really old; but it doth seem to me that could I consent to rob men that never wronged me, the peaceful and well-doing, perchance the widow and the orphan, my days would of a sudden grow to such intolerable length I should pray God to shorten them." He gave, too, a pleasing proof of ingenuity when Pow- hattan, the royal father of Pocahontas, inquired the cause of their difference of color, and the white-man's motives in crossing the "Great Salt Lake." "In the beginning," said lie, "Manito placed one family on earth, a father and four sons, and they were Avhitc. To one son he gave the East, to another the South, and to another the "West. He had another portion for the youngest son, but he was wil- ful, left his home, and wandered by a northern path into tlic woods of the land beyond tlie great salt lake, at which Manito was wroth, and the shade of his displeasure fell upon the red-man's face. But the children of the East continued to live in his presence and enjoy his smile, which kept their faces white, until at last Manito bid tliem go over the great lake and embrace thcu' red brother, n,nd so bring liim back to his obedience." Of Pocahontas, the Indian girl, the fair, fond, and faith- RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 161 fill, wbat can wc say but that she is one whom history and tradition alike delight to honor, as an instance of Nature ])crfecting a work beyond the power of Art to improve. Her heart was stored with so much confidence in others' goodness that it was itself kept pure, and had an oracle of conduct given it in every impulse. In addition to this, when we know that she was the child of a clime where "woman- liood follows at once on infancy, and where imagination, like an uncaged bird, was ever on the wing, we cannot wonder at the fervor of her passion for the galhnt navi- gator, whose person and pursuits appealed so powerfully to her superstition as w'ell as to her softer feelings. By her intervention the whites were secured from molestation, and their alliance cemented by lier subsequent marriage with Mr. Rolfe, a worthy person, who converted her to Christianity and brought her to England. Though she did not herself live to return to Virginia, her child did so, and became the ancestor of my informant. Among the characteristic traits related of her, none pleased me more than her re})ly to a lady of the court, shortly after her presentation, Avho asked her, " What is Jove?" The child of the woods paused an instant and replied, " It is life !" Equally happy "was her explanation of a storm at sea, which she termed "Manito walking on the water." Her visit to England dazzled much more than it delighted lier, for Nature had given her so pure a taste that it kept her senses in subjection. After she had been presented to Queen Anne, and while the full glitter c^ royalty had just passed before her eyes, she was found sitting alone and in tears. Iler liusband, imagining this could result but from one cause, said to her, ^' You are thinking of the many precious stones upon our queen's breast?" She shook her head. " Why, then, are you sad V" "Is not the earth sad?" she replied, "it is now three days that the sun has liid himself." Not all the brilliance of 1G2 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. the English court coiihl compensate her for cloudy skies. Tomolomo, her brother-in-law, who accompanied her to England, had been enjoined by Powhatan to take note how many people the country contained, for which pur- pose he took a short stick, and, on landing at Plymouth, began to cut a notch for every fresh face he met. It may be supposed that this mode of computation did not long suffice. It was night when he landed on returning to his native soil, and the king, bearing in mind the im- portant question, instantly put it to him. Tomolomo re- plied by a significant gesture. He pointed to the stars. The least pleasing retrospect in connection with this state is the moral stain which England inilicted upon it in making it a receptacle for convicts. Nothing has proved the source of so much unfounded obloquy, for, to this day, Englishmen entertain the aoburd notion that those manacled wretches, on obtaining their liberty, by some hocus-pocus purchased estates and became the fathers of the present gentry. The drunken jest of the comedian Cooke, when he asked for their " family jewels," the "Birmingham bracelets," was but the expression of a very general conviction. It would be awkward, certainly, for most countries to look too deeply into their origin, with a view to prove its perfect purity ; but England could not claim to be an exception, since her blood, which has for ages been a pool drained from all Europe, vrould i)resent to the analyzer some of the most heterogeneous elements. Dr. Eranklin entertained a due sense of the insult of- fered to his country by the above i)ractice, and expressed it with his usual power of sarcasm, when he sent to Sir Robert Wal2)olo a present of rattlesnakes, to be put in the king's gardens at Kew, "in return for the curious venomous reptiles the minister had been pleased to pre- sent to Virginia." But that the subject is repulsive to dwell upon, I might insert some singular particulars re- RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 1C3 pjiccting these honorable exiles, many of whom, like tigers at play, were amusing to contemplate though dangerous to approach. One especially, of the name of Boroughs, stood out in bold relief. This fellow possessed very su- perior mental abilities. His reasonings leading him to look on men as, in fact, but a race of plunderers under various names, he inferred his right to make war on all parties — to be, in fact, a social Arab. Such a philoso- ])hy, it will bo supposed, was accom])anicd with some humor ; indeed, it is a melancholy fact that vagabonds arc generally the greatest humorists. Shakespeare thought so, or ho would not have favored us with such an illus- trious example as Sir John Falstaff. It is related of Bor- oughs that, conversing one day with the chaplain of the fort, ho observed, " Your task, sir, is much easier than that of other ministers." " Easier !" exclaimed the clergy- man with a stare — " easier, how ?" *' Why, you tell me that, in every Christian, conviction must pi ccede repent- ance. Now we are convicted to your hands, you have only got to convert us." Another instance was wlien, for some offence, he was sentenced to mount the " wooden horse," or military stocks. The chaplain, who had entertained hopes of bringing Boroughs to a sense of his transgres- sions, saw him with mingled sorrow and indignation, and asked what ho was doing. "Doing, sir? I am taking your advice." " Mine ?" " Yes ; I am ruiming the Chris- tian race — 'steadfast and immovable.'" In perfect harmony with the presence of convicts was the mental bondage of the lower orders, which would appear to have been in the first instance the crime of the government. The radical hostility of tyrants to the cir- culation of thought was never more strongly illustrated than in the reply of Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia, to certain questions respecting the colony, pro- pounded by England in 1G70. "I tliank God there are 164 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. here no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world ; and printing has divulged them and libels against the best governments. God keep us from both !" As the autumn advanced I received a summons from AVignell to prepare for a visit to Baltimore ; but meeting Cooper at Richmond, I proposed to him to fill up a month's interim by a lecturing excursion through this state and the western part of Maryland, which he consented to, as a more agreeable mode of combining profit with pleasure than playing in small theatres with the thermometer at eighty degrees. Cooper,* whose merits as an actor I have noticed elsewhere, was one of the most eccentric and yet engaging of my professional brethren. I have already mentioned the largo measure of enjoyment which the case and freedom of society in the South, combined with the prosperous state of theatricals, presented to an actor. Talent, and the manners of a gentleman, were a general introduction. To these Cooper added the influence of native connections, the graces of a handsome person, and much agreeable information, for his education had been well attended to in England. It would be hard to say whether he were the greatest favorite in public or private, * Thomas Abtiiorpe Coopeu was tlio first great American tragedian. Born in 1770 .. .ngland, he was educated by William Godwin, Witli the aid and advice of Tliomas Ilolcroft, tlic author of the "Road to Ruin," and a close friend of Godwin's, Cooper went on the stage at the age of seventeen, beginning at Idinburgli without success. lie afterwards acted in London, and in December, 1796, he made his first appearance in America. For nearly forty years he was the foremost figure on the American stage. In 180G he became the manager of the Park Theatre in New York. lie made his last appearance in New York in 1835, and afterwards acted in the South. His daughter married a son of President Tyler, who gave Cooper a place in the New York Custom-IIouse. He died at Bristol, Pcnn., April 21, 184'J. *^':.T. .■ .1-..' .-.., r. Mt I i wm.\ THOMAS ADTIlOUl' COOPKU. From the Vohjuiilhnn, licistnii, ISOG. H:.\ :-: I RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 165 ■\vltli the men or the women. "Willi the one lie would ride, drive, shoot, or bet. For the other he had the eye of Caliph Vathek — "instant annihilation." Such an empty- ing of Cupid's quiver as on the nights of his performance I suppose had never previously been known in the Union. But all this felicity, strengthening in him a spirit of ad- venture and a blindness to consequences, was continually throwinc: him into dilemmas out of which nothinc: but ex- traordinary courage could rescue him. In this last particu- lar I have never met with a man who surpassed him. Had he entered the service of Mars instead of Melpomene, death or eminence must have been speedily the result. And his was no Dutch courage, no constitutional apathy or blind- ness to danger; he had a proud and sensitive spirit, and was always staring the fatal sisters full in the face. Tv/o instances of this occurred during the excursion in ques- tion. We were deliverin!]c our entertainment one eveninc: at Georgetown, when Cooper, not being prepared wilh a particular recitation for which he had been annouriced, apologized and substituted another. A loud hiss, how- ever, was the consequence from a member of Congress named Dawson. Cooper, maintaining his composure, iden- tified the individual, and when his duties w^ere over sent him his card, demanding an apology for the insult or sat- isfaction. Mr. Dawson, affecting not to consider him his equal, treated the matter with contempt ; when Cooper sent a friend to inform him that unless he complied with one or the other of his requisitions, he would follow him to Washington and horsewhip him before the senate- house. This threat had its effect; the member apolo- gized. But a more striking instance occurred at Fredericks- town on a somcAvhat similar occasion. We had, as usual, engaged the assembly-room of the ta-' cuj, and a short time before the performance commenced had observed IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V ^ /. / y. Qx. WJ- Q- W, ij. fA 1.0 I.I 1.25 '' ill 28 12.5 llitt m jl4 12.2 12.0 11= 1-4 1111.6 V^ <^ /a o e. w e-A ^ ^ / o ^1 / 7 /A Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY MS80 (716) 872-4503 166 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. a great crowd of the mobility collect under the windows; but, as we were accustomed to this sight in all the small towns, it did not surprise us. Cooper's best recitation was " Alexander's Feast," which he gave with a force and va- riety that I have never heard equalled. Now it so hap- pened that, in the most energetic passage, where Timo- thcus wislies to give Alexander a fillip — " Now strike the lyre again ! A louder, vet a louder strain !" etc. — a crash ensued that was no bad illustration of the desired "rattling peal of thunder:" a brickbat, largo enough to have felled an ox, came through the window. Hew over the heads of several ladies and gentlemen, and actually brushing a curl on my colleague's temple, concluded its career by scraping an acquaintance with my shins. The room was instantly thrown into confusion : the ladies shrieked; the gentlemen emphasized; I, seizing the mis- sile, limped down-stairs to call an officer, and Cooper — drank a glass of water. Unluckily the only keepers of the peace in this town seemed to be the Quakers, and as the crowd was too great to permit a discovery of the de- linquent, I had to return, with my leg and my feelings in an e(pial state of irritation. To my surprise I found order restored in the room and Cooper continuing his declamation. When he concluded, I had to step forward with some comic interlude, for which I felt little inclined, when ho, throwing on a cloak, descended to the bar and asked the landlord for the loan of a small cudgel. Se- creting this, he stepped into the crowd and inquired of the nearest person, " Who was the man that threw the brickbat?" " Why should I tell 'cc ?" was the reply. " Because," said Cooper, *' you'd get five dollars for your t»"^ible." " Five dollars ! That be the man — ho in the knot of longibh chaps there." Cooper was thus directed RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 167 to a group of about a dozen backwoodsmen in the very heart of the crowd, chuckling over the feat of their com- panion, and who presented in their tall, muscular frames no contemptible i)halanx for a civil disturbance. Towards these he made his way Avith a firm step and repeated his demand, lie was gratified by the object stepping out (in look and length a competent leader of the band), and, surmising his business, asking with a husky laugh, " Well, s([uire, what if I be he '?" " That's sufiicient," said Cooper, grasping him by the throat with the sudden strength of a tiger, and bringing down his cudgel like a stroke of light- ning on his head and shoulders. The impetuosity and vigor of the attack deprived the animal, altliough much superior in brute strength, of all i)Ower of resistance, and under a shower of blows that would have indented a wall, he sank upon his knees and begged for mercy, his para- lyzed companions offering not the slightest interposition. The fact was that, as regards feelings. Cooper was be- laboring the whole group. When his stick at length flew into splinters, he consigned the ruflian to a warm friend below, and — the crowd making ready way for him — re- turned to the inn. A few minutes after my effusion con- cluded, and he was at his post with his usual serene and dignified air. Every spark of external evidence quenched which would have given a hint of what had passed, iio proceeded to deliver Shakespeare's "Soliloquy on Death" with all the calm abstractedness required, as successfully as ho had embodied Dryden's energy after the brickbat, when, according to a gentleman who sat near him, a gulp of water seemed to have washed down all his indignation. The whole circumstances, and especially this power of subduing all appearance of emotion, implied, to my mind, the possession of the highest order of courage — the cool calculation of danger, and its proud defiance. For our excursion my friend proposed to join me in a 168 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. tandem, but I, wishing to give my "wife and child an air- ing, decided on a pliaeton. He would not, however, give up his whim, so dragged from the recesses of a coach- maker's yard a tall, rickety affair, like an old-fashioned coach-box, which a dozen miles of Virginian roads threat- ened to annihilate. It reminded mo of a palsied octoge- narian plunging again into th.e world, to essay once more the struggles that had already shattered him. Travelling jit this period was pretty much the same throughout the Union. With the exception of the roads between the principal cities, or immediately adjacent, any thorough- fare might, without a pun, have been termed thorough- foul. This was owing to so much of the communication being carried on by water. It would be difiicult to give an accurate description of a road in the Slave States after a slight rain — to portray the lakes which, under the title of "gullies," slumbering complacently in the midst, com- pelled you to perform a picturesque tour round their edge; or the shiny eminences termed hills, whose level it seemed a presumption to aspire to. The track of the wheels was certainly well-defined, in two broad paths full of water; and where a hollow occurred, some careful hand liad usu- ally filled it up with a substantial pile of stones, like an Indian tumulus. This rendered the navigation of these roads no small science, since it was evident if you escaped the breakers on one side you were pretty sure of founder- ing in a gulf on the other. One virtue they certainly had — consistency. I never found them deviate but in one particular, when the path lay through a swamp, when it was constructed with the trunks of trees laid transversely together, over which the wheels passed with a distinct jolt. A mile's ride was about the most powerful experi- ment on one's anatomy a man could desire. B had the roads been as smooth as a bowling-green, the absence of human nature and the deep, unbroken RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 1G9 gloom of the solitude threw a weight upon my spirits which often made mo wish for the highways of England. To a traveller on his first visit " the majesty of the eter- nal woods" may appeal with poetic elTect ; also to an ornithologist or a professional sketcher. But it strikes me that all socially disposed persons like myself must heartily wish Nature, in her nakedness, to be confined to romances, and to witness instead her well-clothed beauty in the robes of harvest, with comfortable cottages dim- pling her meadows, and a cheering, quick succession of vil- lages upon her roads, clustering round a smooth green, under the wing of some paternal manor-house or church. One of the local peculiarities of Virginia was an im- ju'oved breed of mosquitoes, termed gallini])pcrs, in size and sting not much inferior to wasps. The origin of their name I could never precisely discover. This class of na- tives were, in general, most sedulous in their attentions to foreigners, but the gallinippers, perhaps with a more re- fined taste, specially preferred Frenchmen ; and while the common mosquito appeared capable of adapting himself to every local variation of the country, being found on clayey or marshy soils, rocks or rivers, this species, with more of the air of an hereditary peerage, traced their extraction solely to swamps. Round the brink of these strongholds they lay in wait for their prey like the old robber knights; and, in hot weather, their thirst was not fastidious as to the color of the skin. Imagine the situa- tion of a luckless wight journeying along a road of trans- verse trees, where expedition would be annihilation, seat- ed, perhaps, on the bottom of a wagon, which bobbed him up like a parched pea — a jolt a second — while the sun streamed fire upon his caput, finding himself suddenly in the grasp of these sanguinary marauders, each of whom, however active the defence, was sure to sheathe his blade iu him at the same instant. What was an ancient martyr- 8 170 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. dom in comparison ? What would not Nero have given for such auxiliaries. I once heard an amusing story of a negro, at an inn, who being blest with an extra thick skin, set an ordinary mos- quito at defiance. A traveller who had suffered consider- able punctuation, hearing of this, laid a wager with the fellow that he would not lie half an hour on the edge of a swamp close by without moving or expressing pain. Sambo manfully accepted the challenge, and stretched himself at full length on his face, leaving the entire region of his reverse a broad sheet of darkness exposed to the enemy, a ])arty of planters and passengers standing in judgment over him. In a few minutes a thick swarm of settlers alighted on him and commenced experiments in various quarters, but ai)parently with no effect, for neither in head, body, or limb did the hero wince. Not a muscle quivered. Their number soon increased, and it amounted to a moral certainty that the challengee must speedily cry out, unless indeed he enjoyed the hide of a hedgehog. IJut the half-hour was elapsing and there he continued to lie, as still and stiff as a column of black marble. At length the traveller, who was now beginning to get the laugh against him, felt so irritated at his miscalculation that he took a cigar from his mouth, and, instead of knock- ing off its ashes on his boot, pushed its lighted end against the negro's broadest expanse. In an instant^ as by an elec- tric impulse, the latter sprang on his legs and shouted, as he rubbed himself, "Cursce, massa, dat a gallinipper." Virginia was also famous for its hams, which, next to the orthodox Westphalia, are the finest I have ever eaten. By what process the latter attain their excellence I am ignorant, but here the pigs were always turned into tlie woods, and, listen, O epicure of the East ! their chief source of subsistence was the snakes. This strange taste seems to admit of but one explanation — the destruction of RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 171 a common enemy, by which they contributed to the public good as well as served a private end, and which was in ac- cordance with the spirit of the times. The pig proved him- self a patriot ! I am unwilling to underrate his motives by supposing that there was anything particularly tempting in the flesh of his victim, for the predilection was never heard of in any other part of the world. The fact stands by itself, and ought to rescue the swinish character from its usual degradation. But besides being a philanthropist, the pig displayed considerable science as a general in his mode of extirpation. It was an established principle never to attack a snake but with combined forces, which usually consisted of a party of three, two vigorous youths in the capacity of chasseurs, and an experienced manceuvrer as the main body, who always took up his position in reserve. The action was commenced by one of the light corps being sent forward to dislodge the enemy from his trenches. The snake, instantly rising, rattled a reveille with his tail, and presented arms with his fang. Drawing himself up to spring on his foe, the latter watched his eye and grunt- ed defiance. By this time the other v/ing had made the circuit of the bush, and, falling upon the snake in the rear, began to nibble his tail. Turning indignantly to annihi- late this assailant, he left a long line exposed to another, whose sagacious mind had safely calculated the result. Down came the main body at a swift trot, and, with deter- mined jaws, seizing the reptile in the middle, crunched him in halves, upon which, according to the usage of com- manders in all ages, he retired with the best part of the plunder, leaving the obnoxious head still alive to be qui- eted by his subordinates. Cooper's tandem, as I had predicted, was speedily shat- tered by the roads, though they considerably improved on our getting into Maryland. After patching up the valetudinarian at various places, it came down with an 173 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. ominous crash on our way to Ilagerstown, and wo were obliged to stop two hours at a blacksmith's till fresh power of existence was supplied. Here, however, the delay Avas relieved by a curious discovery respecting our son of Vul- can, who, we found, possessed a reputation for curing insanity by means of iron rings which he forged and fitted to the middle finger of the left hand. How to explain the mystery I know not, unless the imagination was power- fully acted upon by this grim Mulciber, who certainly had a riveting voice and eye, and who might have practised some tricks at his forgo which appeared like alliance with powers of darkne^•s. But to this fact I can vouch, that I knew a Mr. Neith, a merchant in this state, who became incapable of conducting his business, and that I met him a twelvemonth after, perfectly restored, with an iron ring upon his finger, which he seriously acknowledged to have been the means of his recovery. Cooper, whose hatred of charlatanism sometimes led him to forget his manners, burst into a laugh when he heard the disclosure, where- upon this mender of men's heads and horses' feet remarked with a s>ignificance which let out the secret of his system, ''Aye, aye, sir, you may laugh, but it's a strange thing why men should become mad, and it must be a strange thing to make them well again." Near this mysterious farrier's stood a Quakers' chapel, and Mulciber gave us a standing, or rather circulating, story of General Lee and this peaceful tenement during the war. Leo, either from liking or laziness, distinguished himself by the barbarous peculiarity of a bushy head of hair and enormous whiskers ; his face, like that of the country, presenting the contrast of masses of shade re- lieved by deep ridges and deep hollows. Galloping in this direction one Sunday afternoon, lie was overtaken by a storm, and on reaching the chapel made no cere- mony in running his horse under its shed (always, in the RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 173 States, attached to country places of worsliip) ; ami, for Letter protection, himself entering the buikling, and tak- ing his seat upon the first bench that offered, but whicli was sufficiently conspicuous to draw on him the gaze of the whole congregation. Men and women waiting pa- tiently for the Spirit were now moved to survey the stranger, so striking was the anomaly of his face and fashion within their simple walls. Even the elder, who had the moment previous risen to exhort, found his in- sjjiration checked by the presence of the Philistine, till at length all the objects of the meeting were at a stand- still. The elder alluded to saw the necessitv of a decided step. Quitting his seat with a slow and thoughtful pace, ho strode up to the general, and eying his hair intently as he laid his hand upon his shoulder, exclaimed, "Friend Esau, thou hast no business here ; thou art a stumbling- block to the meek in heart and simple in attire. Verily thou must return to thy woods," saying which, with a giant's grasp, he conducted the soldier back to the shed, a civility for which Lee thanked him by a string of epi- thets which, if written down, would bu aole in the paper. Mentioning the " Friends," reminds me of a famous ne- gro discovery. It is generally supposed that the first Quaker was a native of England, one George Fox ; but, according to the profound researches of Sambotius Qua- mina, the honor belongs to Mordecai, the uncle of Queen Esther, for " he would not take his hat off to Ilaman !" Our excursion proved an agreeable one both as to mak- ing money and acquaintances, until my companion's jileas- ure was spoiled by the very means he liad adopted to secure it — his tandem — which had no sooner escaped tho perils of the road to be exhibited with due effect in the streets of a community than it was stopped by a con- stable, and he was fined for exceeding the pace established 174 KKTROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. by law. Such a proceeding in a quarter where he had conceived liberty would be licensed not restrained, wanted but a slight addition to decide his preference for the bet- ter state of things in cities. This was soon forthcoming. On the second night of our entertainment at Ilagerstown wo were opposed by an exhibition which drew at a draught every spectator engaged to us. This was the first impor- tation of a Bartholomew fair novelty I had met with in the States, and did not yield to the most extraordinary in my recollection. It was thus announced : "This day is introduced to the American public the far-famed monster of Madagascar called the One-horned Boukabekabus, whose age, powers, and dimensions have never been discovered, and must remain a matter of con- jecture to the end of time. He will eat, or drink any given quantity of wine, read or write like any ordinary gentleman, etc. On Thursday, after performing all these feats, he will exceed himself, etc. After astonishing the crowned heads of Europe the proprietor pants to submit this curiosity to the judges of Ilagerstown." I prevailed on Cooper to accompany mo to see a phe- nomenon which evidently had escaped the notice of Lin- naeus, when wc soon discovered that the extraordinary monster consisted of an ordinary bull's hide, surmounted by the canvas head of a unicorn, and distended by wooden ribs, containing a man in the interior, who roared through a trumpet and flickered a pair of candles in the glass eyes to give them a mysterious aspect. We also found that the ingenious and modest impostor was no other than a runaway tailor from our wardrobe, who had carried with him all the materials for his exhibition. After this appeal to the critical acumen of Ilagerstown (a proper refuge for outcasts), we felt disinclined to con- tinue in the lists, so returned to Alexandria, where, until our duties called us away, we spent our time in fishing- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 175 excursions to the Potom.ic, frequently dining at a tavern on its banks. Here a clrinking-vessel su])posecl to give a particular zest to punch was a skull tii)petl with silver, said to be a relic of the celebrated ])irate Teach, or " Blackbeard." The tradition ran as follows : One evening this scourge of the Southern coast moored his craft at the mouth of the river and went ashore with his crew in two parties, one to obtain provisions, the other to assist in secreting their treasures. lie was busy at this work when an English sloop-of-war, which had quietly fol- lowed him, suddenly dropped anchor in a position to pre- vent his escape, and sent a well-manned barge to capture his ship. Teach and his companions sprang into their boat, r» id by violent exertion reached their ship nearly at the same moment. But the opposing force was too supe- rior to give even more than their usual desperation any hope of success. The commander of the boarders was a brave Scotchman who, desiring the credit of subduing Teach in person, waved his Andrew Fcrrara and chal- lenged him to combat. The rover clinched his weapon in defiance, and hostilities were suspended fore-and-aft to witness the result. For some minutes the contest was dubious, but the coolness of the Scot enabled him to plant a severe blow upon the pirate's shoulder which let out a stream of crimson. " Ila !" exclaimed the latter, still firm upon his legs, " well struck, brother seaman 1" " Weel," replied the Scot, "gin ye like it ye sail hae more on't," and with the next stroke severed the pirate's black head from his shoulders. He then ordered it to be put in boil- ing water and thoroughly cleansed, when he took it on shore and made it a present to the progenitor of its pres- ent possessor. CHAPTER VIII. 1800-1, — Tour to the Ohio; rassagc of the rotoinac; the Alloghany Ililld ; Three Kinds of Settlers, Squatters, Utopians, and New England Farmers. — Backwoodsmen ; Shooting Exploits. — rittsburgh Smoke. — Indian Wooliig-hut and Honeymoon. — The Ohio. — The Aborigines of America — Indian Antl(iuities. — Welsh in America. — The Island of Blen- nerhasset; Art and Nature. — IMiiladel[)hia Bulls; Travellers' Tales. — American Beefsteak Club. — A Coincidence. — The Quaker and the Irish- man.— Desdemona's Revival.— St. George's Society. — Tubbs the Trage- dian and his Adventure. — Poetry and Matter-of-fact ; the Last Creditor. — A French Bankrupt. — American Advertisements and Literal Mis- takes.— Black Nurses and the Yellow Fever ; a Colored Lady.— Fennel's Immortality. — My Aversion and Adventure ; a Female Falstaff. — Peel's Museum. — Historical Anecdote. At llio close of aiiotlior pleasant season in Philatlelphia my good friends, Messrs. Clay and Arnott, proposed, for my summer's j^astime, a tour to the Ohio as far as the Island of Blennerhasset, whose romantic loveliness was now an all-absorbing theme both with natives and foreigners. Assured that this excursion would repay my feelings more than any I had yet taken in the Union, I had no hesitation in complying. We accordingly took the fine weather at its flood, and on the backs of three accredited roadsters essayed the path to Pittsburgh in becoming stylo, making our first important halt at the advanced guard of the Alleghany Mountains, termed the "Blue Ridge," partly, perhaps, from the effect its towering aspect produced on the faces of travellers. Mr. Jefferson, in his "Notes on Virginia," had given such a vivid description of these hills that I could not resist the temptation during the previous summer to visit the " passage of the Potomac," though RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 177 tlieii residing at a liuiulrcd miles' distance. It is unques- tionably the sublimest scene in America, after the Falls} of Niagara. Let the reader first imagine the " backbono of the States " — as these hills have been happily termed — three ridges of precipitous elevations stretching many hundred miles from north to south, rescmblini; lines of ocean-waves arrested in their swell. Standing on the brow of one of the advanced lines of these, and looking far away into the intermediate valley, he sees on his right the Shenandoah coming up, chafing and foaming like a noble steed, having ranged at the foot of the mountains a hundred miles in quest of an outlet ; and, on the left, rolling on with equal volume and vehemence, the Poto- mac. He trembles for the thunder of their meetinjr, but needlessly ; rushing ^vith united force upon their j)rison walls, they rend them asunder, and spring away exultingly towards the sea, while everything around them seems to breathe a welcome; green lands lying in a de- lightful calm partake their sunshine, and the heavens stoop to print a kiss upon their bosom. These hills, from the marine exuviae found embedded in their summits, have given rise to much geological spec- ulation, and Mr. Jefferson, with his usual vivacity, sup- poses the possibility of their having once formed a barrier to an inland ocean (not the Mosaic Deluge). To the social philosopher they are more interesting from the fact of having long proved a levee to a human tide, and thereby exercised an important influence on the national develop- ment. Abounding as America docs with the wonders of nature, still I think these possess but a secondary claim on our attention if unassociated with the being for vvdioso dwelling-place the world was formed. I have, therefore, abstained from noticing the curiosities whicli in every day's ride met my eye (even, for instance, the natural bridge of limestone over Cedar Creek in Virginia), be- 8* 178 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. cause feeling them to rank, in human interest, below the commonplace acclivities of the Alleghany hills. Rivers and mountains seem to be the two features of the earth which liave most inliuenced the character and happiness of men. The former liavc led to general inter- course and change; the latter, shutting up communities into inner worlds, have perpetuated their aboriginal rough- ness. The river-valley has been the arena for taste and refinement, but also for oppression. On the mountain-top the flame of liberty has burned brighter in a rarefied air, although the vessel that contained it was unadorned. These opposite conditions, however, both advanced the march of their great equalizer — intelligence — by the les- sons they have given to each other. The hills in question, if they have not, as yet, like those of Spain and "Wales, been fled to as a barrier to the step of regal tyrants, have performed the same service against social ones. Rearing their frowning fronts to the great mob of emigrants, they have incited the hardy and industrious to surmoimt them, but discouraged the lazy and dissolute, who, looking only to immediate ease, assumed their aspect to be a sample of the lands beyond them, and turned away to the more con- genial clime of the South. Thus they secured to the Western region a hardy population, able to cope with the hazards and privations which attended its first settlement, and to promote, by enterprise and principle, its lasting welfare ; .and at this day they form the line of separation between the two main divisions of character which the Union contains. There appears to have been three kinds of settlers who penetrated the Western woods, and severally formed eras in their civilization. The first were squatters ; men who had outlived their characters and fortunes in other parts of the Union and been goaded by the law into a taste for savage freedom. Accordingly ihey moved off to the RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 179 West, whore the rights of property were as yet defined only by tlie agreeable condition of possession. These necessary pioneers were shaped in frame and spirit to sustain the dangers and difficulties of their undertaking, to defy alike the Indian and the wolf, the tempest and the cold. With a gur. and a dog, a wagon and a wife, per- haps with a cow and a pig, they pursued their lonely path through stream and prairie to some inviting spot, there felled trees for a log hut and an outhouse for their cattle, and dug the cleared space to raise a few vegetables; but here their labor ceased. Their gun, snares, and fishing- lines supi»lied them with abundance of ])rovisions, and they were able to exchange the skins of their victims for rum and ammunition. This was the advanced guard of the whites, which the Indian had to resist or to retire from. If lead or liquor gave them the victory, neighbors collected round by right of purchase, and as the claims of society extended the squatter became again nnhappy. Defined right, or the sacrifice of })rivate to the general good, was the fiend that haunted him. His cattle had to be restrained from trespassing, and his traps and lines were discovered within the circle of his neighbor's grant. Turning, at length, indignantly from the grovellers who talked of law, while he professed the older doctrine of discovery, lie put his wagon, wife, and cattle once more in motion, and plunged farther into the wood; until, again disturbed by company, he pushed again u[)on the track of his fel- low-savage, with whom he ended his days either in amity or blood. Such was the squatter's illustration of the in- stability of all things, he being known sometimes to " break ground," as it was termed, three or four times, before the advancing flood of population. The second class were adventurers, generally with more imagination than courage, and more money than skill — virtuous enthusiasts who had schemed in cities a state of 180 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. primitive enjoyment to be realized in woods. Their funds were chiefly expended in the purchase of stock and im- plements which, on reaching the spot, they imagined would, by some intuitive energy or instinct, get to work of their own accord. Instead of a wretched log hut they planned a substantial wood dwelling with appropriate dependencies, but before it was half up, so much more pleasant was it to design than to execute, their cattle had strayed or died, and frosts had come on before their fields were cleared, or their crops under cover; until the Utopian's ideas getting confused, he resigned activity for speculation, and resorted daily to the nearest tavern to consider, over some strong toddy, the best means of recov- ering his property. This proved such a bellows to his imaginative powers that he invented a hundred schemes before he could adopt one, and the one that at length crowned his term of lucubration was that of turning over the whole affair to some better judge, who would supply bim with dollars enough to get back to his old quarters. On the heels of this class came the third and thoroughly substantial, chiefly New-Englanders, who brought a cap- ital in their heads as veil as their purses, a knowledge and decision which swept away all difficulties and light- ened all fatigues. By them a frowning wilderness was speedily converted into teeming meadows, and the well- stocked farm into the growing settlement. On our way to Pittsburgh we met with various speci- mens of the backwoodsman, and I must say that, when clad in their green hunting-shirts, with deerskin caps and leggings, their muscular altitude fully displayed in the free handling of their long rifles, they presented the most j)ioturesque appearance I had ever seen. I soon perceived in them some decided characteristics, such as a sharp insight into character, a ceaseless suspicion, and a quiet humor. They had a mode of leaning on their guns and RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 181 surveying a stranger which struck me as singularly intel- ligent. It had nothing of the common vulgar vacuity of the seashoresman ; it implied conviction, not inquiry; a look that said, not " Who are you?" but "I know you." My good friend, Mr. Clay, had one alloy which, with- out warranting Dr. Johnson's anathema, certainly depre- ciated his precious metal — a love of punning. As a proof, after we had endured the scrutiny of one of these natives at the door of an inn for several minutes, I asked, in order to abash him, " what mountains " the fellow came from. "Can't you perceive?" rejoined my friend, "the All-leg- and-eye!" With the shooting exploits of these men the world is generally familiar. Some of them have been too extraor- dinary to be credited; such, for instance, as enlarging the eye of a tin cock on a church steeple, or sending a bullet half a mile across a river to perforate a milk-pail on the head of some Lavinia who, without the slightest intima- tion of the cause, suddenly perceives the white stream flow- ing down her shoulders. Dr. Ramsey, in his "History of the War," relates, as an authenticated fact, that after the engagement at King's Mountain riflemen were found dead on both sides each with one eye shut and a bullet lodged in his brain, evidently having fired together at each other and been killed in the act of killing. I myself witnessed the feat of splitting a bullet on a razor at a hundred paces, and cutting the string of a flag at three hundred. But their crowning achievement was, perhaps, the most com- mon — " shooting the tin-cup;" wOien a man had the courage to place a cup on his bare head .and stand at a hundred paces to have it knocked off, coolly surveying the muzzle of the rifle as it was levelled at his brow, and guiding the marksman to raise or lower it until the aim was true. Had death been even occasionally the result of this amuse- ment, its prohibition by the state must have followed ; 182 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. but such a thing was unknown. Here was William Tell's great feat occurring as a daily diversion, and illustrating how skill creates courage. On approaching Pittsburgh we were stmck with a pe- culiarity nowhere else to be observed in the States: a cloud of smoke hung over it in an exceedingly clear sky, recalling to mo many choking recollections of London. Instead of wood they here use coal, mines of which arc plentiful in the neighborhood. I found the town, which was called the Western Exchange, a reflex of New York, the same earnest bustle in its business, and the same na- tional variety in its thickly thronging strangers. Here were natives of every state, besides English, Irish, and Scotch, French, German, Dutch, Jews, and Indians. Among this motley group I was destined to make an un- looked-for acquaintance, a Mr. Wools, who had been one of the early actors in America with Morris, but who had quitted the stage about the year 1110, to follow the pro- fession of land-surveying. This had led him among the Indians near the Mississippi, where he had married a king's daughter, and received for her dowry a tract of land which he soon contrived to convert into a handsome independ- ence. As he had his time upon his hands, I prevailed on him to accompany me down the Ohio, assured that his knowledge of its Indian customs and antiquities would prove a source of amusement. Among other things, I asked him to describe the marriage ceremony with his wife, and the nature of a honeymoon among the Southern tribes, which he did as follows : In every village there was erected what was called a " wooing-hut," containing two rooms, having separate en- trances, and a small aperture through which a voice but not a body could pass. When a pair wished to approxi- mate, if the chiefs made no objection, they were conducted in due form to these rooms and the doors were fastened RETROSPECTIOXS OP AMERICA. 183 upon them, when, like Pcnnsylvanian "bundlcrs," they passed the night in innocent conversation. If their wishes continued unchanged in the morning, they were appointed their respective tasks as tests of their good condition. The gentleman was ordered to fell a tree, something small- er round than a horse, lop its twigs, and drag it a mile. Other trifling experiments on his spinal column succeeded. The lady was commanded to plunge into a stream and swim against the tide, to display her fortitude; then to pursue and scalp some wild animal, to show her skill in domestic usages; and, lastly, to take a club and defend herself against the attacks of her admirer, to prove her ability to resist a surprise. The zeal with which she demonstrated her affection in this latter trial was very touching : a husband could never press his wife with full rapture to his bosom until she had broken his head. How Wools contrived to elude this ceremony I am not aware. The next day, at sundown, their hands were joined by the parents; a blessing was pronounced by a chief; and rum, love, and harmony were distributed by the bridegroom. The honeymoon, like a chief's fame, depended upon various contingencies — temper, weather, beauty, leisure, and rum — for to bear the burden of wedlock some In- dians required no small stock of spirits. In the first gust of enjoyment they would take long rambles to bring home to their brides a rare skin or plumage; but these walks daily narrowed in their circle, until — unless affection was revived by absence on some military expedition — the red- skin fell into the established indifference of European life. The savage actually seized by instinct upon the perfection of a well-educated Parisian husband's deportment — he divided the house with his spouse and took the outside ; or, if ho remained within, treated her as a part of the fur- niture. If the lady had noble blood in her veins this was not endured. She smote him in return with a two-edged 184 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. weapon, her tongue ; and perhaps a struggle ensued in "vvhicli slic proved she had sufficient energy when put to the pinch. Too often an Indian wife's happiness dejiend- ed on this seeming paradox : if her tribe was at peace when she married, war commenced very soon, but if at war, peace was perpetuated. From Pittsburgh we proceeded about fifty miles by land to Wheeling, a point of junction on the river-bank. Here we were enabled to select a craft with good accom- modations, and in a few hours saw ourselves gliding away over the glassy surface of the Ohio. It is not my intention to give a topographical account of our passage to Blennerhasset. This is not a guide- book, but a record of scenes and circumstances which gave rise to pleasurable feelings. I shall confine myself, there- fore, to two things: the general appearance of the river, and the numerous antiquities which line its banks. Well may they call the Ohio " the pride of the Western waters," for it presents the image of the pride of human nature — a young, tranquil, pure-minded female, emerging joyously into life beneath the smile of a benignant sky. Without rock to rufile, or fall to shatter her calm surface, she glides away to Louisville, where her descent typifies the trial- time of life, till at length she springs into the bosom of a lordly bridegroom, the broad and bounding, the great and glorious Mississippi. A gentle spouse is the Ohio to this master of the North, who rushes from his mountain heights to track three thousand miles in one continued thunder, subjecting the earth on all sides to his sway. So pellucid is the water of the Ohio that I speak within bounds when I say that I could see clearly to the depth of eighteen or twenty feet, while so magical was the glass- iness of its surface that it appeared to me like a broad sheet of crystal, in which the various boats were partially embedded. Nor was this beauty suffered to grow monot- RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 1^5 onoiis. Windii.;^ perpetually in its course, its banks at every bend present some new feature, from the smoothly sloping savannah to the high and abrupt bluff; a thicket one moment bounding the view on both sides and shading the flood's sweet breast with gloom, but rapidly gliding by to bo succeeded by an open range of landscape over which the eye seemed capable of travelling to the blue waves of the Pacific, slumbering on the verge of the hori- zon, in calm contiguity to heaven. The banks which riveted our eyes the most were those that bore Indian antiquities — forts or cemeteries — the relics of a nation evidently mighty in intelligence, what- ever may have been the amount of its numbers or re- sources. These relics are the most interesting objects on the surface of the American continent, for they present, perhaps, the only key to the solution of that long-unset- tled question, whence came the aboriginal population of the country? With the generally received opinion set forth by Dr. Robertson, that North America was peopled from the North of Asia, every reader must be familiar. So many resemblances are to be traced between the wandering hordes of both countries, modified solely by local circum- stances, that the fact seems undeniable. Admitting this, how is the peopling of South America to be explained, which presents, in almost every point, a decided contrast to its sister land. Whether we take the one broad dis- tinction that the Southern aborigines possessed, when first discovered, a social character, living together in cities, submitting to established laws, and devoting their lives to peaceful agriculture, while the Northern displayed the sternest features of the savage — war their trade, the woods their home, and hunting their sole employment; or whether we go into the particulars of personal formation, language, and domestic arts and usages, wo perceive that 186 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. all arc opposite, and that the chief differences are due not to local, but moral causes. Of these the principal was an established religion which, making the altar of its god the throne of its king, secured general loyalty and order by mental influence; while a mere vague belief in a good spirit prevailing in the North created no law, but left all to individual will. Now, did the political religion of the former grow out of any circumstances of the country, or was it imported ? The land had but one peculiarity — an abundance of the precious metals ; were these the likely means to build up a faith which should command their actions? Certainly not ; they valued gold and silver only for their beauty, not for intrinsic worth. The national character had adapted itself to local circumstances, not been formed by them. As it is thus evident that the Northern and Southern aborigines were descendants of a widely different stock, the question is, on what nation of Asia might the latter, with some degree of credibility, make out a case of affilia- tion? Am I too fanciful in discovering numerous afiini- ties between the characteristics, moral and personal, of this race and the Chinese, weakened to their present de- gree of faintness by time and the distance of their transit, w^hich might have taken place after some rebellion, when a leader and his party were expatriated. The nations have at least these features in common — configuration of countenance, worship of the sun, a love of congregating in cities, and an ingenuity in various arts arising from their social relations. Some of the principal Indian antiquities — with the gen- eral character of which most are acquainted — are to bo found at Marietta, where a square area of forty acres is enclosed by a firm wall of peculiarly cemented earth, ten feet high, which has three openings at equal distances on each side. Similar constructions arc to be seen on the RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERfCA. 187 banks of the Muskingum, where the ramparts are upwards of eighteen feet in height, and on a hill near the Tioga River, where the defences are surrounded by an entrench- ment and various pits, which had evidently been dug and covered over to receive assailants — all attesting ingenuity and the existence of system — besides the sculpture of hu- man and animal heads, helmets, spears, etc., on rocks in various parts of the country. The surrounding Indians do not possess a single tradition connected with these remains, being confident of but one thing, that they were not the work of their own ancestors, a fact which their ignorance of system, if not stratagem, in all military mat- ters, fully bears out. It is obvious, therefore, that they are to be attributed to an earlier people than the supposed Kamschatkans, who either abandoned them after their erection, or were killed in them by new-comers. On the t apposition that a band of expatriated Chinese passed round by the Strait of Behring, once probably an isthmus, to the Northwest coast, it follows that, in search of a mild- er climate, they would have pursued their track by the base of the Rocky Mountains (a direct and natural path, these being evidently a continuation of the Andes) until, arriving at the prairies of Louisiana, a diversion was made to the East for a more fertile country, and afterwards, either from internal dissensions or the attacks of a strange race, they erected these works. Then, perhaps, a superi- ority of numbers induced them to relinquish the struggle and continue their journey to the South, passing over the Isthmus of Darieii to a country which shut them out henceforth from communication with their successors. This conjecture is countenanced by another of Mr. Jeffer- son's — that the two continents were at one period an entire body, of which the "West India Islands formed the capes and headlands; that by frequent earthquakes they were torn asunder; and that the constant operation of the 188 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. trade currents from cast to west liollowcd out the present basin of the Gulf. Thus it is hut necessary to suppose that the transit took place before these convulsions, and the flood formed the most effectual medium to v,ash out the print of their footsteps, and to wall in their character. This is, at least, a somewhat more probable solution of the mys- tery of the Southern aborigines than the opinion that they were a remnant of the ten tribes of Israel after the first dispersion; or, as asserted by others, th.at they were visitors from the South Sea Islands who had performed the passage of the Pacific in canoes, a feat which would have required that sea to have well merited its name. The old romance of America's discovery by Prince Madoc has a much stronger claim on our belief, from the fact that Welsh colonies have been found existing in the heart of Indian tribes, and upon the banks of the Ohio we actually stum- bled on one, anterior in its date to the earliest historical emigrants, and which had continued so exclusive that it was still scarcely able to exchange ten words of English. After a slow but delightful passage of twelve days we at length reached the goal of our journey — the fairy crea- tion of Blennerhasset. To describe the effect of its ap- pearance I do not hope ; I can only endeavor, by means of a few details, to place the scene before my reader and leave the filling-up to his imagination. Blennerhasset is an island about a mile in circumference, lying in the bed of the Ohio, which had been made the retreat of a man of equal taste and affluence. The ground rose gradually on all sides to its centre, and on this favor- able spot was the house, erected in the style and splendor of a Persian pavilion. It was but sixty feet square, con- sisting of two stories, connected with wings by a semi- circular veranda, luxuriantly covered with myrtle, and commanded an extensive range of one of the loveliest re- gions in the world. The grounds were laid out with that RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 189 better modern taste wliicli supcrsedod the monotonous straif^ht lines and close-cropped Puritanic borders of old English gardening. Everywhere were contrasts and sur- j)rises, evidencing an eye that had surveyed the best effects of Europe; and, to crown the whole, walks, lawns, and shrubberies were blooming with all the flowers and fruits, and vocal with all the melody a generous clime so liberally dispenses to this Italy of the West. The effect of this contrast between the perfection of wild and culti- vated loveliness, of this discovery of a triumph of Art in the very stronghold of Nature, was perfectly entrancing. AVhat changes may have since occurred in it by storm, caprice, or a conformity to the tastes of a surrounding population I know not, but until I go to my grave I must bear with me, as of a dream, tlie remembrance of the beau- tiful Blennerhasset. All that I could learn of the owner and creator of this Paradise was that he was a European recluse who had arrived in these regions about the period of the French Revolution, and, after purchasing the island, lived on it in seclusion, devoting himself to its adornment. Mr. Clay computed that the estate could not have cost less than the building of a town, and that the mere pur- chase and transport of materials must have involved an expenditure sufficient to have procured a handsome prop- erty in any part of the Union. Philadelphia, the ensuing winter, proved a scene of un- usual gayety. Balls and quadrilles occupied the inter- vening nights of the play; not to divide its attraction, but to make parties for its support; and I attended many, not from any love of the dancing — for I have always pre- ferred taking exercise in a progressive direction — but to convince myself of the impudent calumny of a traveller (an early specimen of a large brood) who had been through the States, and who seriously assured me that he had been present at a ball of the first respectability in Philadelphia, 190 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. held in a hay-loft, up a ladder, where the musicians were a crew of hlack fiddlers, and the refreshments were served up in earthen jugs. I was also instrumental in promoting the public convivialty by founding an Ameri- can IJeefsteak Club, round the table of which I was en- abled to collect many able supporters in mind and voice. Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Carroll, and C. lirockden Brown wero among our visitors. We stocked the cellars with excel- lent wine; the working of my old regulations spoke a volume on the subject of maintaining order in a free community, and our harmony, in every sense of the word, was perfect. One evening, I remember that it was inter- rupted by a singular coincidence. Wo were just singing the glee of "A House on Fire," when a member rushed in to congratulate us on our discernment, since "Rickett's Circus " was at that moment in flames. I instantly dis- solved the meeting, and we hurried to the spot to render assistance, but in vain; the destroyer had its prey. The wings had taken fire in the Hell scene of Don Juan, which, getting known, brought a crowd of Quakers to survey what they considered a signal retribution. One of them was so unusually excited that he could not repress his transports, but kept crying out to the unfortunate horse- riders who were endeavoring to rescue all they could, "Yea, yea, struggle with the flames as thou wilt, thou must soon be in them;" at which a worthy Irishman, who was handing the buckets to the engine, replied, "Will they? Then, I tell you what, my darling, it's only right to keep you from burning;" and with these words ho sluiced the predestinator from head to foot. Mrs. White- lock,* our tragedian, witnessed this conflagration, and it * Mrs. WiiiTELOCK was one of Mrs. Siddons's younger sisters, and she is said to have liad a full share of the family good looks and acting ability. She was born in 1701 ; she acted at Drury Lane in 1783, and in 17dt she RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. IQI RO disturbed her nerves tbat a few evenings afterwards, just as she liad been effectually smothered as Desdomona, the front cloudings having dropped a few feet, a boy in the gallery cried out, "Higher! higher!" which similar sounds striking her sensitive ears she started up, thrust aside the curtains, and exclaimed, " Good heavens ! fire?" The roar of the audience and the look of Cooper (no mim- icry of passion now) threw her back to her recumbency, but the interest of the scene perished with her. I also became a member of a more important society, the " St. George's," instituted for the relief of distressed English emigrants. The number of instances where un- foreseen causes had brought ruin on the truly deserving Avas so great that a more meritorious fund could not have been established, and I am proud to say, for the honor of my countrymen, that none could have been better sup- ported. It will be supposed that we received many ap- plications which did not come within the scope of our de- sign. Every tourist, in fact, who had quitted England on some sudden emergency, and neglected to calculate his mode of subsistence, made a point of applying to us. In a few months we might have compiled a catalogue of names important to the secretary of state. Cases that showed a lack of prudence rather than principle were met by private subscriptions. One was that of a Mr. Tubbs, who had formerly been a merchant of some standing in London, but who loved a playhouse so much better than his own tbat his ruin as a trader commenced his career as an actor. Failing to bring the English people to a sense of his merits, he had embarked for Jamaica, where, made her first appearance in America at Philadelphia, in Mrs. Siddons's favorite character, Isabella, in the "Fatal Marriage." She returned to England, and died there in 1835. Mrs. Kenible, in her delightful " Records of a Girlhood," gives a most amusing account of the meetings of her uunts Siddons and Whitclock after both of them had loft the stage. 192 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. a similar result ensuing, he had expended his last shilling* in reaching riuladclphia, to bo there told by the man- ager that there was no opening for his services. Hav- ing met this person at the Anacreontic, at a period wlien he patronized acting, I could not help commiserating the change he had undergone i.i embracing his vapory Juno, so employed my rhetoric to induce him to give up the pursuit, and my interest to get him appointed sui)crcargo to a West-Indiaman, in both of which endeavors, I am glad to say, I was successful. I was afterwards told of something that had occurred to Tubbs on his Avay to Ja- maica, which struck me as amusing, lie had taken his passage with a party of wild Irish emigrants who were going to the West Indies, bent on " picking the guineas from thf gooseberry bushes." As he intended during the voyage to " get up " a range of characters, for this pur- pose he got up every night, when the Hibernians had re- tired, and traversed the clear deck, muttering " Richard," " Romeo," or others in succession, and imagining he saw around a de!iso crowd of listening eyes and throbbing bo- soms. Ilis illusion was not altogether unfounded. Night after nic:ht the watch on the forecastle had been observ- ing hiui, though hiding themselves by mast and rigging, and on his impassioned gestures and mutterings they could put but one construction. lie was blessed with a towering frame measuring about six feet one, with a ten- dency to distend from a Tubb into a hogshead, which made him seem a very likely person to head the Irishmen in the steerage in an act of piracy. The crew soon made known their suspicions to the captain, who enjoined them to have an eye on him the next night, and, if lie gave further cause for alarm, to seize and clap him under hatches. Accordingly, tucking pistols into their belts, the watch crept under the shade of the foremast and took up their usual position. Now it so happened that on this RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 193 evening Tiibbs had bethought him of an cxpc.imcnt on the language of Renault in " Venice Preserved," believ- ing that the honeyed villain had more in him than the ]>ublic had ever yet seen. Working himself up to a good acting pitch, he strode towards the sailors and broke into the speech in which Renault gives directions to the con- sjtirators to seize the city : " Diuaiul, you Must in the midst Uccp your battalia fiast, And, Theodore, be sure to plant the cannon. . . . . IJut, above all, I charge you, Shed blood enough !" etc. All of which being interpreted as directiojis to the Ili- hernians, two of whom happened to steal out at this mo- ment for a breath of clear air, the suspicions of the watch wanted no further confirmation. Tubbs was seized in a jilfy, and half a dozen pistols held to liis head, as they opened the hatches and compelled him to descend, assail- ing him with such Hebrew as, " No, you don't seize the ship, you pirate ! you big-bellied Picaroon !" etc. Nor did he regain his liberty until he had explained the fact to the captain at least half a dozen times : a salutary lesson to people of poetic animus how they forget that the world about them is stupidly and substantially mat- ter of fact. Tubbs rose after this to comfortable circumstances, but his stomach distended in a greater ratio than his purse, a keenly imaginative spirit evaporating to leave the sedi- ment of an animal craving — love for swallowing, rather than giving forth, good things. This gluttony soon un- fitted him for his duties. lie ate and ate, and swelled and swelled, till one captain of a ship objected to taking him on the score of his bulk addhig to the cargo. His end was, as it deserved to be, a painful one. lie fell ill i!i Baltimore, got into debt to support his appetite, and 194 IlETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. his creditors surrounded his bed in his last moments to try and get their dues. " Will you pay me for these din- ners, Mr. Tubbs ?" " Do you know, sir, what you owe me for oxtail soup ?" and so on. They were at length in- duced to leave him, and the moment after he heard that particular murmur from the abdominal region which pre- cedes dissolution; at which, opening his eyes and lips for the last time, ho exclaimed ; " What the devil do you grumble for? I owe you nothing." Of all the stories I heard of emigrants, political or pri- vate, during my connection with the St. George's Society, none touched me more than the account of a worthy Frenchman who had been ruined by the taking of St. Eustatius, and who had been required by a public notice, with all others in the island, to deliver to the admiral an inventory of his effects. On the day appointed for the re- ception of these documents he, not having appeared, was sent for. The officer, entering his house, found him sit- ting at a table in a poorly furnished room, his head lean- ing on his hand and his brow deeply graven with the lines of affliction. On being reminded of the inventory he took up a pen and wrote simply as follows: ^^ Point cVar- i/ent ; jwint de Mens ; ^j>oi«^ de commerce; 2)oint de credit; point de reputation ; seidement un jyctiivre coeur romjnt " — No money; no goods; no trade; no credit; no reputation ; only a poor, broken heart. It amused us occasionally to read some of the Western newspapers, whose editors being also the printers, often composed an article as they set it up. Many provincial- isms were adopted as the readiest modes of expression, which, to Europeans, were not very intelligible. For in- stance, an advertisement to the legal profession would frequently commence thus: "A gentleman of considera- ble experience in the law line, wishes a dependency." Now English people imagining that the " law line " could RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 195 only allude to the ropr -which government gratuitously presents to some of its acquaintance, would naturally con- clude that a gentleman of some experience had had suffi- cient "dependency" already. Again, tracts of land in the Union which connected large towns with small ones were called " necks," as, the Keck of Boston, for instance. It was, therefore, no unusual thing to read, "To be sold, part of Abraham Lawrence's neck." An announcement that might confirm some of the English people in their belief that the Americans were cannibals. These mistakes may be classed with those I have sometimes heard of in houses of business, resulting there, not from language, but penmanship. A merchant I knew in Norfolk once wrote to his London agent to send him thirty thousand black Tacks; the letter T not being distinctly formed, the agent read it black Jacks, and after rummaging Birming- ham, Sheffield, etc., could only obtain about a fourth of the number, which he sent on, saying the rest should fol- low as soon as possible. A more startling surprise was that of a London merchant who in a letter to his agent in Brazil requested that he would remit him one or two monkeys, but inserting figures instead of letters (1 or 2) it had the appearance of a thousand and two. The agent, after scouring the province to collect them, was compelled to engage the entire hold of a ship to convey them. TVe may imagine the feelings of the sailors with these fidgety passengers during a two months' voyage, but hardly those of the merchant they were consigned to. The negroes as well as the actors in America were sup- posed to have profited by the yellow fever. It was be- lieved that, from some physical cause, they were in a de- gree impregnable to the infection, and they were, conse- quently, generally employed as nurses. The opportunities thus afforded them of rifling the dead, when the malady had swept off every member of a family, were sometimes 196 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. too tempting for their ideas of rectitude, so that it became a common remark tliat you might know where the fever liad been raging by the Sunday dress of the black women. But, however confused might be their notions about other people's property, the world could never retaliate by robbing them of what was peculiarly their own — their humor. Various instances of this were given me, even on so grave a subject as the above. A wealthy female of Philadelphia having been seized with the fever in coming liorae from a ball, was in a few hours brought apparently to the verge of dissolution. All her relations took flight, fearful of sharing a fate they could not avert, and a black nurse was sent for. While lying in this state a valuable necklace she had been wear- ing was carefully put away by her attendant, to prevent its getting soiled. It pleased Heaven that this lady should recover, and after a few days, remembering, among other worldly things, her necklace, she asked Hannah about it. The handmaiden replied, she " belieb when missy go to die, she gib neckliss to lady to keep." Nat- urally concluding that this lady must be one of her friends, she made inquiries when her health was restored, and discovered that no such circumstance had occurred. Her nurse was by this time nowhere to be found; but the lady was fortunate enough to meet with her a short time afterwards in the South, dressed in the highest burlesque of fashion, and with the identical diamond necklace repos- ing on her bosom, like a line of stars streaking a thunder- cloud. "Hannah!" exclaimed the owner, with an amazed look; "I thought you told me I gave my necklace to a lady to keep." " Iss, missy," was the cool reply, as the black aristocrat took off the precious ornament and re- turned it, " 00 gib um to me !" Fennel was once taken ill at Baltimore, and on sending for a nurse inquired her terms, *' Mo ask oo two dollar a RfiTROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 197 day, Massa Fennel." "Two dollars!" lie exclaimed; " that's double the ordinary charge." " Iss, why, 'cause 00 get well so berry soon." " What do you mean ?" in- quired the tragedian. *'I go to gallery ob a play some- time, and I see 00, massa, always berry bad at night and quite well in a mornin', so I'm tinking I shall nebber get do fibe dollar iqr lay 00 out." Fennel was so cheered by this imjjression that he got well on the strength of it, and said lie never paid an extortion so willingly. Towards the J'air sex, in a literal sense, my devotion was never called in question, but I must confess I had al- ways an antipathy to black women. An Englishman, I believe, always associates purity with absence of color, and feels that only whiteness can be angelic. To me the connection has ever appeared so sacred I did not like to have it disturbed by even looking at — " Black scandal and foul-faced reproach." And as to my wife, if 1 could have consented to her being attended by a negress at a certain period, I should have expected that the result would have come frowning into the world and thrown a shade upon my hearth for the rest of my days. For this prejudice, which was no doubt a ridiculous one, I was now destined to be punished. On an exceedingly cold though clear night, the snow having fallen to the depth of some feet, I was returning alone from a party; and by the side of a wall in a back street, which was a short cut to my dwelling, but was backward also as regards lamps and watchmen, I had proceeded but a few paces when I heard the pattering of a pair of broad feet behind me; and as I thought it not un- likely these might belong to some necessitous foreigner who wished to make an inquiry respecting my purse, I conceived that I was not compromising my dignity by ad- mitting that " discretion is the better part of valor " — which is to say, less elegantly, that I took to my heels and 198 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. ran. At this the steps of my pursuer quickened, and a voice summoned me to stop. INIy fears were now con- firmed, and I need scarcely add that my policy was per- sisted in; but unluckily the hardened snow upon the path- way had become so glassy that it was impossible to plant a step with certainty. Speed was therefore perilous, and in my efforts to maintain mine I at length missed my footing and pitched into a bank which instantly enclosed, in a sort of self-adapting vise, every inch of my body. Feeling that resistance was now out of the question, I endeavored to find my way to my purse, to purchase re- lief from my prison; and as my pursuer drew nigh turned the one eye I had at liberty to survey him. Ilim ? — oh, horror ! it was a she^ a black woman as large as any two aldermen that were ever distended upon turtle, and whom I concluded at once to be one of those erring daughters of Cytherea, who at nightfall prowled abroad for exhilarated planters. To describe her person I can hardly find terms. She was a latitudinarian of no ordinary dimensions, but her height was equal to her periphery; her head was buried in a mound of fat, with eyes that rolled like moons in an eclipse, half black, half white, divided by a nose as flat as her forehead, and flaming over the abyss of a semi- circular mouth. All these bodily enormities were ex- ceeded by her behavior. She looked on all that had passed as so good a joke that h r huge frame was eon- vulsed with merriment; peals of echoing laughter came gurgling up her throat, and as she approached, panting, blowing, and roaring, her fat hands tucked into her sides and her pavior's-raallet-like feet shaking the earth at every step, I could think of nothing but an elephant in a tiger- chase. As a climax to the affair it was impossible she could miss me, since it was ordained I should select my bed within four feet of the only lamp in the street. When she reached me, another and another shout succeeded, and RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 199 then her voice mellifluously framed the exclamation, " Oh, 00 naughty man, to run away from pretty ooman !" Fan- cy the full horror of my situation ! Had it been a foot- pad, who would have first robbed and then murdered me, 1 could have submitted with comparative complacency; but to fall into the grasp of such a moral ogre, bound, as it wjre, hand and foot, with no friend at hand to avert or drop a icar over the catastrophe. I had but one hope — that in ittempting to drag me out she might plunge me under the snow, and so consign me to a blissful suffoca- tion. After calling me alternately " lub " and " naughty man " several times, and finding that neither made me move, she extended a hand like the wing of a bat, to ex- tricate me. Seizing me by the shoulder, her great eyes distending in triumph, she released me from my position with all the ease of lifting a feather. The moment my feet touched the ground my courage returned, for I heard footsteps approaching, and again I darted off at full speed, this time being luckily able to maintain my footing. To my mingled wonder and delight she did not pursue me, but burst again into a peal of laughter, and as I receded I could hear the ogress still enjoying my fright; nor did the derisive sounds seem to quit my cars till I had fairly passed through and closed my door. On subsequent re- flection it struck me that, after all, I was perhaps mis- taken as to this person's character. She might have been merely a mad wag in search of excitement — a female Falstaff, a black "Jack;" she was as fat, apparently as funny; and one kind office she had certainly done me, in my extrication. I believe this adventure had its good effect, for I began to look at the color so much more steadfastly after that as to diminish my alarm on all future occasions. My favorite place of resort in Philadelphia was Pcele's 200 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Museum, the first, and for many years the only, public col- lection of natural curiosities in the Union. Of their ex- tent and preservation it is needless to sjicak here. No traveller has entered this city without awarding the pro- prietor his due meed of praise. The object that attracted most attention was the skeleton of that wonderful quad- ruped, the mammoth, which has bo sufficiently disproved the assertions of Buffon about the " belittling influence " of the climate. Yet this did not interest me so much as a far less oi^trusivo feature of the collection: a bow, with wliich Avas connected so striking a history that I shall take leave to repeat it. An African prince, defeated in a native battle, gave himself up on condition that he might retain his bow and quiver. Bought from his conquerors for some bauble, and consigned to the Carolinas, he was there again sold as a slave ; but his pleasing face and manners secured for him in all situations the privilege of keej^ing his arms, the only relics of his former power, the sole objects of his affection. His strength and stateliness recommended him to Colonel INIottle, a humane master, in whose service he died, the bow and quiver being gratefully preserved in the colonel's family as memorials of his fortitude and fidelity. In the campaign of ITSI the widow of Colonel Mottle (who had died a patriot) was ejected from her house on the River Congaree, to make room for a British garrison. AVhen this garrison was besieged by a small detachment of Americans, whose approaches were within gunshot, the widow, who lived in a cottage not far from her former dwelling, was informed that an unwillingness to injure her property was the only impediment to its re- duction. "Regard not me," she replied, "at such a time as this. I will show you the best means to effect your purpose." Then producing the bow, " This," said she, " belonged to a faithful servant, who bent it in the cause RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 201 of freedom in Africa. An arrow from it will easily carry a match to the roof." The bow was instantly supplied with the missile, and a blazing roof soon brought capitu- lation, when the Americans entered the defences, and the Englishmen joined them in extinguit^hing the flames. The magnanimity of a prince and the heroism of a woman are nothing uncommon, but the novelty consisted in this primitive weapon, devoted to the cause of freedom in one continent, serving in the same cause, under such different circumstances, long after, in another; escaping all hazards, to be presented, by a struggler in the conflict, to this museum, as a memento equally interesting to trav- eller and native. 9* CHAPTER IX. 1800-1. — The CaroHnas. — Journey to Charleston ; a Carolina Ordinary. — Social Cliaracteristics. — Dcor-killing; a Dead Shot. — A Planters' Ball; the "Carollny Jig." — Stories of the Swamps; th*. Spcetre Troop, etc. — Legal Latin. — Colonel Tarleton and Major Hanger; Pranks among the Planters. — IJaron do GlaubeeU's Troop and Title. — Anecdote of the Lish Brigade. — Charleston Society ; Varieties of Color. — The Ugly Club ; its Rules; Ordeal of a Member. — Carolina Dews. — Fishing and Bites; Scene with a Snake; a Lively Hut. — Alligators; the River Lawyer; a Civilized Specimen. — Samples of Black Humor; the Criminal a Judge, —Byrne's Visit to Jamaica; his Retreat. I HAD been frequently invited by my old friend Pla- cidc* to pay a visit to Charleston during the summer months, but had always objected on account of the cli- mate, which had waged war specially with my unfortunate brethren. At length good health, curiosity, and the van- ity of superior prudence overcame my scruples, and I set out for Charleston in the summer of 1800, in my usual conveyance, a light wagon drawn by one horse, and fully accoutred with fowling-piece, fishing-rod, etc., to take ad- vantage of whatever opportunities the road might afford. I have mentioned the peculiar state of the roads in Vir- ginia; as they ran southwards they got worse,. Houses were farther apart, intercourse more confined, swamps * Alkxander Placide was a native of France, who appeared in Paris and London as a gymnast and performer on the tight-rope with great suc- cess. He came to America towards the close of the last century, and was for many years manager of the theatres at Charleston, S. C, and Rich- mond,Va. He died of yellow fever in 1812. His children, Henry, Thomas, Jane, Caroline (Mrs. Waring — Mrs. W. R. Blake), and Eliza (Mrs. Ashbury — Mrs. Mann), were important figures upon the American stage. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 203 more abundant, and taverns — their necessary consequence — more wild and provincial. These were the original milestones, for people computed by them all intermedi- ate distances; they were the arena for the chief business of the country — betting, gambling, and dram-drinking; and they were also houses of "entertainment" — that is, to survey, not to inhabit. In order that the nature of a Carolina ordinary (or, as it ought properly to have been termed, extraordinary) may be accurately apprehended, I will venture to depict one, as a sample of some dozen I was doomed to encounter during the journey in ques- tion. They were mostly log-huts, or a frame weather- boarded; the better sort consisting of one story and two rooms; the more numerous having no internal divisions, with a truly sociable character placing all upon a level, and forbidding the existence of parties. One corner of the room would be occupied by a "bunk," containing the family bed; another by a pine-wood chest, the family clothes-press and larder; a third would be railed off for a bar, containing a rum-keg and a tumbler. The rest of the furniture consisted of two chairs and a table, all in the last stage of palsy. Their external distinctions were few, but peculiar. You might always know an ordinary, on emerging from the woods, by an earthen jug suspended by the handle from a pole; the pipe of the chimney never rising above the roof; or a score of black hogs luxuria- ting in the sunshine and mud before the door. On pull- ing up at one you usually found the landlord gone to market, the landlady cutting wood in the swamp, " Joe " hoeing corn in a field, and only a squalling child upon the floor and a ferocious house-dog to receive you. On some of the family arriving, you were stared at as a God- send, destined to be made the most of. If hunger and fa- tigue compelled you to remain, a little Indian corn for your horse, and a blanket on the hearth, with your saddle 204 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. for a pillo^v, to represent a Led, were the most you woukl obtain. In suniiiicr a man would i^omctinics vary his en- joyment Ijy stretching liiniself outside near tlic pigs, un- der the said bhanket stretched over four stakes, to keep off the dews and mosquitoes. As to edil)les, whether you called for breakfast, dinner, or supper, the reply was one — eggs and bacon; but the meal brought not a gratifica- tion, but a task. Here the motto was — ultra indepen- dence; every man his own servant. Ten to one you had to cook the meal yourself, while the landlady was search- ing for a trencher; and, when it was before you, you were euro of only one thing — to pay for it. No sooner were you seated tlian the house-dog (of the large wolf breed) would arrange himself beside you, and lift his lank, hun- gry jaws expressively to your face. The young children, never less than a dozen (the women seeming to bear them in a litter in these regions), at the smell and sight of the victuals would set up a yell enough to frighten the wolves, till the hostess quieted them by saying that they should " have some when the gentleman had done," with a sig- nificance of look and emphasis which plainly told you, you were not to eat too much. By this time a party of indomitable black cats were clawing at your elbow, to bint their claim to come in for snacks; and, if you were not expeditious in bolting your faro (mastication was impossible), one or the other of these enterprisers would be on the table and unflesh your fork as it was going to your mouth, or clear the dish while you paused in con- sternation. They had, in fact, a decided system of at- tack, surrounding you on all sides, and no sooner was one cuffed down than another sprang up, so that your hand, instead of emptying your plate, was kept whirling in de- fence of it, in the style of the broad-sword exercise. All this was very little recompensed by conversation. If the landlord w^ere present, he talked only of the high price i! ' 1 1 ' RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 205 of New England rum (just at tlio time you were put- ting yours to your lips), or the market for turpentine and tobacco; so that you were probably driven out-of- doors for amusement, when the best that offered was to see your horse fed; for if you did not stand beside him with your whip, the poultry would hold a consultation round the rim of his meal-tub, and not leave liim sufii- cient to grease his teeth. At a receptacle of this kind I was compelled, on one occasion, to take shelter from a storm, and passed tlie night in a wood^^n chair, my legs upon a tub, my head vainly endeavoring to find repose upon the rail; the wind and thunder rocking the hut like a cradle; the lightning blazing in at every window and crevice, till all seemed on fire; and the whole set off, though not relieved, by a chorus of wolves in the woods, %/ho now and then, I thought, Avere running round the house, as though dislodged from their own tenements, and exceedingly mortified that I did not quit mine. The famished cry of a beast that has no dislike to humanity, and the rapid pattering of his feet round a cabin that Avas tumbling to pieces, and in the lieart of a forest which, from extent alone, deserved its title of "eternal," formed a novelty of which, I confess, I never desired a repetition. Luckily the necessity did not again occur. I was plenti- fully supplied with letters of introduction to proprietors in North and South Carolina, and at their hospitable resi- dences I made it a point to stop if nightfall was approach- ing and no town at hand. I perceived some difference, I must own, in the char- acter of my entertainers and the gentlemen of Virginia. With quite as large a measure of conviviality and frank- ness, they possessed less intelligence and suavity of man- ner. Unlike the latter, they appeared to have intention- ally narrowed tbe circle of tlieir intercourse; and liere still, as in the old times in Virginia, racing, bstting, cock- BRM 206 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. fighting, and hard drinking formed the staple rather than the auxiliary enjoyments. A planter usually passed his time between his overseers and a tavern, where he called daily to talk politics, play at all-fours, make bets, and " stand treat " for mint-sling, which, as you proceeded southward- ly, obtained the medicinal name of an " antif ogmatic." Here, if he could light on any companions, like the Vir- ginians he carried them home to dinner : if it proved a wet evening, cards, toddy, and cockfighting formed the sources of stimulus; but if fine, and there was no moon- light, their diversions were varied by an excursion for deer-killing. A party well-armed with guns and brandy sallied into the woods, preceded Dy a nigger carrying some lighted charcoal in a pan. The victims were so fascinated by the light that they always stared at it transfixed, while its reflection on their eyeballs gave the sportsman an unerring aim. This may seem to a Euro- pean a very dull amusement, but it was accompanied by so much scratching from briers, sinking in swamps, and dislodging of rattlesnakes, that a man was kept in a per- petual state of excitement. Sometimes, also, very ludi- crous mistakes occurred from the multiplying faculty of the shooter's vision, the amount of game being frequently determined by his amount of brandy; so that, after an immense deal of devastation, when the blacks were sent to collect the spoil, they would proclaim, with a convul- sion of laughter, the identity of the dead deer with cer- tain stumps and bushes. I once heard of the joke ending seriously for a host who piqued himself on his superior eye and rifle. Ho was entertaining a party one evening with a history of his feats, when they expressed a wish to witness a speci- men. Stimulated by two kinds of spirit — love of glory and rum — he ordered the necessary preparations, and led the way with his lauded weapon, his friends laying a heavy RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 207 wager that he would not kill ten deer in twice as many minutes. Now it happened, all unknown to him, that his cattle had been turned into the woods a few liours pre- viously, and he stumbled upon just the spot where they had made a rendezvous. Pitchy darkness, swimming heads, and the order to lie close prevented discoveries till exter- mination had commenced. The planter, surrounded by blacks who loaded his guns and kept the fire in a bright flame, in less than ten minutes liad doubled the required number. At the moment, however, that his triumph and his party's consternation were rising to a climax, a vener- able cow, whose back had been grazed by a bullet, felt imi^elled to get up and send forth a long moan of remon- strance. The mistake was instantaneously revealed; right and left the dead or dying tenants of his meadows were identified. The betters burst into an uproar of laughter; the negroes, fearing that his gun would next be levelled at themselves, threw down the light and scampered. Choked with vexation, but overpowered by drams, the planter raved, swore, and jumped about in the darkness like a demon. Nor did the return home tend to allay his irrita- tion, for a mile's scramble through the woods in the gloom of Erebus usually divested the wanderer of his hat, boots, or skirts, as well as some portion of his beauty. One of the ruling amusements of the Carolinaa was dancing, the French having apparently inoculated all classes with this taste in its most confirmed state. The negroes have always been provei'bial for their homage to St. Vitus, being known to walk five or six miles after a hard day's work to enjoy the pleasure of flinging about their hands, heads, and legs to the music of a banjo, in a manner that threatened each limb with dislocation. But their owners, male and female, in these quarters partook of the infatuation. I was present at a wedding-party in North Carolina, which wound up with violent exercise 208 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. under the title of a ball. The company, on their arrival, had been shown promiscuously into two rooms, well-light- ed and divided by a thin partition, both being laid out with tea, coffee, sling, and toddy. The sexes, however, soon separated, and, for the space of an hoar, the merri- ment seemed equal on each side of the Avainscot. At length the host gave the signal for clearing decks and pre- paring for action; the tables and partition-boards (sliding in a grove) w'ere instantly removed by the blacks, to form the requisite arena, and the seats were ranged round the walls. The musicians (half a dozen operators on catgut, of the same color — Orpheii, born during their father's visit to the Shades) were then introduced at one end, and the diversion commenced by a gentleman leading a lady to the middle of the room, and, after a formal salutation, bursting into an eccentric movement, which to me had a new and peculiar significance. No regular steps, but a latitude of shuffle was adopted, in a system of alternate pursuit and retreat, now the lady, now her partner gain- ing the advantage, testing at every turn the respective strength of their sinews. One moment the lady, pressed closely to a corner, appeared on the verge of a surrender, then suddenly recovered spirit, dashing the besieger back and chasing bim into the like peril. The forces drawn up on all sides were prepared, however, to rescue either party from the shame of a defeat, for at the moment I expected to see a wearied-out maiden sink into her conqueror's arms, or a gentleman make an elegant submission, a friend would start forward to the relief in the full vigor of his or her powers, and enable the exhausted one to make an lionorablo retreat. So these tactics were continued through the evening till every Damon and Delia liad partaken of them, and some liad displayed their abilities three or four times, wheo the lines were formed for a cotmtry-dance, and in this general expression of amity RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 209 and fellowship the contest concludecl. There was evi- dently much figurative meaning in this performance, as well as a military character, that attested its French ori- gin; for the French have always had the credit of being most expert at fighting and hopping, and history tells us that they have sometimes combined them. I saw plainly, too, that a few such dances must afford good evidence of a lady's tact and bodily condition, and perhaps one of the best criterions by which a man could discover his chance of holding the reins of government in case of their union. Before concluding my remarks on the mass of planters I should mention that I intend them to apply rather to those in North than in South Carolina, and in Georgia more than in either. The reason I could not discover, but I was most happy to find that the South Carolinians displayed comparative refinement, a love of books and the arts, and a share of polite as well as solid information. Perhaps the secret was that they associated less with their inferiors, and gave their wives and children better educa- tions. Certainly I recognized here a near approach to everything Virginian. The most marked feature of the Southern country was the swamps, which not only, on account of their fogs, ex- ercised a bibatory influence on the character of those liv- ing near them, but supplied endless traditions to the gos- sips. Some of these related to the war, and required nearly as great a swallow in the listener as was attributed to the swamp. One tale told of the mysterious disap- pearance of a whole regiment of king's troops, who, late at night, had lost their track over the morasses; and how their spirits were accustomed to come up to the surface on moonlight nights to go through their evolutions, the colonel riding about on a beautiful white horse, and the men marching, presenting, firing, falling into line, and forming solid bodies with the utmost regularity; all of I 210 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. which the eyes of various travellers had accidentally es- pied — though I'll take my oath I was not one of them. The negroes, again, supposed that the devil had apart- ments in these places, seeing that his powers had such full play in their neighborhood, and that he lay in wait for all who incautiously wandered near them, in order to introduce the intruders by a short cut to his dominions. A very fair satire by a foreigner upon Southern travel- ling ran as follows: A gentleman walking near the verge of a swamp saw a man's hat on the ground. As the beaver appeared to be in good condition, he stooped to pick it up, when, to his great surprise, he heard a voice proceed from beneath, desiring him not to meddle with it. lie lifted it, nevertheless, and perceived a man's head just above the surface of the earth. Alarmed at his situation, he pro- posed to call his slaves and have him dug out. " Don't trouble yourself, friend," replied he of the swamp, " I am very well mounted." "Mounted? good heavens, sir ! is it possible that you have a horse under you ?" " A cap- ital one," was the answer, " for he lias carried me some hundreds of miles." "But permit me," persisted the planter, " to send for assistance, or you will lose him." " Lose him ?" exclaimed the stranger ; " my good sir, ho has travelled fifty miles since daybreak, and this is the first firm footing he has come to." But the swamps were not merely useful in growing rice and entombing travellers; they proved a qualifier to the rigors of the law, in the manner of the sanctuaries of old; for to them most of the cockfighters and jockeys who could not pay their debts fled for refuge. The system was for the defendant to run in up to his ears, desiring his pursuer to follow and take him out, which, if the latter declined (considering his cloth suit the more impor- tant of the two), it was an understood thing that he for- feited his claim. A constable having once run an old fox RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 211 to earth in this manner, and not being able or willing to sit down before the stronghold and starve him out, was puzzled to know how to return the writ, in good legal language, to its issuer. At length he applied to a gentle- man of some humor, who dictated the following line of very passable Latin : " Johannes Dykes — non cumatibus in S wampum." On my way to Charleston I gleaned many anecdotes of my old friends. Colonel Tarleton and Major Hanger, who, before the commencement of their convivial career in London, essayed the field of glory in this quarter. Tarle- ton was formed by nature to be a captain of Cossacks. In the field or in the street the man was invariably a dasher, having all that reckless, dare-devil, neck-or-noth- ing enterprise Avhich is always ready for a blow and never counts on a repulse. In America he deservedly cut a con- spicuous figure, for all that was done for the king in the Southern States must be attributed to him and Lord Raw- don. His pell-mell mode of attack told extremely well on imdisciplincd troo])S, since he could cut up the half of a body before it could make use of its arms; while his ex- pedition, in scouring the country, confirmed his successes and retrieved his defeats. This flying about procured for him a reputation with the old women nearly akin to Lu- cifer's. Noises were never heard in the night, no wind could whistle by, but the galloping of " Tarleton's Troop " was distinctly recognized, so that at length his name be- came the popuar bugbear to scare the babies to bed. Hanger never came forward in the same manner; partly, I imagine, because he never got the opportunity, and also that he had not a true military animus. Hanger was a thoroujjh convivialist — a man who loved the whole human race so well that he would have liked to spread the earth like a table and convert the ocean into punch. He must have hated fighting, since it destroyed good-fellowship, and 212 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. have despised all manoeuvring but that of bringing bodies amicably together. Had he been ])nt in command when a battle was impending, he Avas the sort of man who •would have desired his antagonist to crack a l)ottle of ■wine with him, and so settle the matter without the non- sense of cracking sconces. Tarleton and Hanger, being a good deal together, were in the habit of relieving the fatigues of duty by adven- tures among the planters, sometimes in assumed charac- ters, though their own were more facetious. It was re- lated of them that learning there w\as to be some dancing at an adjacent estate, on the occasion of a family festival, they resolved to be present, believing that their mere names would be a sufficient introduction. They accord- ingly rode thither unattended, knocked at the door of the house, pretended they had lost their way, and desired entertainment for the night. They were respectl'ully re- ceived by the planter, who ordered a room to be prepared for them; but, as this did not meet their wishes, they ex- pressed a desire to join the merrymakers. The gentle- man remonstrated, fearing, as the assembly was quite pri- vate, that their presence might cast a shade over it. They, however, persisted, and at length their host was compelled to introduce them to the scene of festivity. His fears were verified. In an instant the music seemed to cease, and the lights to go out. The gallants, however, nothing abashed, addressed two of the prettiest girls in the room, and were on the point of leading them back to their di- version (for what Carolinian can resist a dance), when the tramp of horses was heard without, and a servant ran in to inform his master that a party of provincial skirmish- ers were in the yard, who required to speak with him. The sudden dismay in our heroes' faces, and the triumph •which displaced the scowling chagrin of the beaux about them, may be imagined. The host, a superior kind of RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 213 man, of mild deincanor, turned to the intruders, and, with- out any change in his manner, ohserved, *' Now, gentle- men, you perceive that you occupy precisely the same situation that you placed me in ten minutes ago. I have no doubt the warning I am about to give you will be thought very extraordinary." Saying this, he left the room, and Tarleton and Hanger expected nothing less than the appearance of a dozen muscular countrymen to escort them to General Greene's headquarters. In a few minutes the host returned to them and said, "I have told the ofii- cer of the party that this room is full of my friends. In that character, though you did not come, you can retire. Two of my slaves have led your horses to the back of the stable. I trust, gentlemen, that this warning will not be thrown away." Struck with the spirit of this return, they warmly acknowledged their offence and his generosity, assured him the warning should 7iot be thrown away, and, politely bowing to the company, made good their re- treat. From another incident that was told me, it appeared that they did not long keep their word, for no warning could subdue their appetite for adventure. Hanger heard of a jollification to take place among some negroes at an- other plantation, and, as an observer of life in all its vari- eties, and a lover of humor under any skin, he resolved to be present at it, and prevailed on Tarleton to accompany him. Accordingly they made their appearance at the scene of action about ten o'clock at night, briefly ex- plained their wish, and produced, as a note of introduc- tion, a gallon of superior rum. Nothing could have been more decisive. Hanger was voted with acclamation into the chair, Tarleton became his vice, and in a short time the scene reached a pitch of exhilaration as novel as it was vivid. It was like a gala day in the Shades, as the Tarta- reans laughed, jumped, danced, and sang all their favor- 214 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. ite ditties — " The Praise of Bumbo," " Virginiiy Nigger berry Good," " I Lost my Shoe in an Old Canoe," etc., etc. — till the merriment grew so uproarious that an over- seer was induced to walk towards the hut; but, hearing strangers' voices, lie paused, opened the door softly, and, to his great surprise, recognized the visitors. The master of this person was a patriot in secret communication with General Greene, and who this evening had a party of their mutual friends dininj? with him. The overseer saw at a glance at once his duty and his interest, and, closing the door unobserved, ran ofT to the house and gave the alarm. The company, though doubting his story, instant- ly armed themselves and made for the spot; but, as they approached, perceived a group before the hut as though drawn up to resist them. The fact was that Hanger had proposed to the blacks a trial of agility, wagering an- other gallon of rum that he and liis companion would beat any two present at a race. The two fleetest having been selected by the general voice, they were now posi- tioned in due order for starting when a discharge of pis- tols from the approaching party gave an unexpected sig- nal. In an instant every man became a racer; all was flight and terror; and so much game presented itself in the darkness that Hanger and Tarleton were enabled to gain their horses, in an adjoining wood, before the plan- ters had beaten up the blacks and discovered the right scent. I also heard a joke of Hanger's which struck mo as being very characteristic. At the attack on Camden by Lord Rawdon he pressed every available man into the service, not even excepting the musicians. When the prisoners were being brought in, a provincial officer com- plained of brutal usage from his capturer. " After I had tendered my sword," said he, *' this fellow threw doAvn his gun and began to pommel me." " Well, sir," said Hung- I RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 215 or, "that's nothing cxtraordhiary; the man's a drum- mer.'''' The antagonist tliat gave Tarleton the most trouble in the South was the Baron de Glaubcck, a German cavah'y officer of great skill, and scarcely his inferior in activity. On being given the command of the Carolina cavalry un- der Greene, he found, at their first review, that a body of three hundred men could not muster ten swords among them. He accordingly ordered them to arm themselves with good hickory sticks, about a yard long, mounted with iron spikes; and when he had trained them by the most effective evolutions in the use of these, he fell upon a body of Hessians, when his party so plied their cudgels that a rout ensued, leaving him master of artillery and baggage. For this exploit he was labelled with a cogno- men which has since been applied to a more modern hero, " Old Hickory." While on the subject of soldierly exploits, I cannot re- sist mentioning an anecdote of the Irish Brigade — a regi- ment whose feats and vicissitudes formed so interesting a feature in the military history of the last century. At the siege of Savannah, their commander. Count Dillon, being anxious that they should early signalize themselves, offered a reward of fifty guineas to the first man who should plant a ladder in the fosse which was exposed to the fire of the garrison. Not one of them attempting to advance, the count, in a paroxysm of fury, upbraided them Avith cowardice. The sergeant-major proudly replied, " No, sir, we are not cowards, and we are not Idrelings. If your honor had not offered us money for the service we would have gone forward in a body." The count was speechless: he was asked to wave his hand; the men sent up a shout, sprang forward as v>'ith one movement, and out of one hundred and ninety-four only ninety of those devoted hearts returned. 21G KETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. On rcacliing Charleston I found things much more com- fortable than I had cx{)cetcd, the day, though intolerably ■Nvarm, being tempered by breezes in the evening which revived one's spirits and power of enjoyment. Still the theatre, or any amusement which collected a multitude at this hot season, was unacceptable, for either the giving or receiving of " entertainment " was felt to be a labor. So- ciety here appeared to be a curious mixture of all the human complexions which had ever found a place on the earth's broad pattern-book, from the jet-black of the Afri- can, through every intermediate stage of Creole and quad- roon, Spanish olive, Indian red, Mexican brown, and every tint of cream-color, to the clear white of an Englishman. As the proportion was not in favor of the whites, the city had a foreign look, particularly at a time of year when only a dark skin — the favorite of the sun — courted its fervor; and at parties I met always a great number of yellow girls, daughters of creole mothers, who were among the prettiest and most engaging women I had ever seen. They possessed a natural taste for music and sing» ing, while the sparkle of their faces and the fulness of their forms gave great fascination to their dancing and chattering. They seemed like slips of the French en- grafted upon a South American stock. Turnbull, an act- or, who saw one for the first time at a house in Charles- ton, was so impressed by the dramatic force of everything she said and did that he could not resist getting up at the end of one of her vivacities, and saying to her, in a tone of great eatncstness, "Madam, did you never think of playing "Wowski ?" The citizens I found to be of much the same order as the New-Yorkers, entirely divided between business and pleasure. They breathed neither the literary atmosphere of Philadelphia and Boston, nor the political one of Balti- more. They seemed a world in themselves, very leisurely RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 217 and happily taking things as they went, and twining the locks of okl Time as though their hue was not gray but golden. Of course my own reception at these places can afford little criterion. Blessed Avith good spirits and am- ])le introductions, I was sure of a welcome everywhere. ]]ut, as regarded visitors in general, I should say that the chief difference between Northern and Southern hospital- ity was this — that the one displayed a craving for new faces, the other a desire never to part with any that had once pleased them. The Charleston people claimed to possess what has formed a primary element in the greatest minds — humor; and a society existed in their city marked by an original- ity in scope and detail not to be surpassed by the most brilliant records of Europe. It was called " The Ugly Club," and the chain of reasoning upon which it was founded was as follows : " All nature's works arc beauti- ful, though all beauty is not uniform. Social errors only can have created arbitrary tastes. It is man's business, as a reasonable being, to lead back his fellow-creatures to true principles, and to provide for his own comfort and instruction by associating in companies those who are similar." In accordance with this philosophy were the various particulars in the club's constitution. The first law enacted that the meeting was always to be held in the most ill-favored apartment in the ugliest house in Charleston; the windows to overlook either a dock or a dung-heap; the floor to be an inclined plane, the wains- cot a rat-bed, and the ceiling a sieve, both colored bright red or yellow; the furniture to consist merely of chairs and tables, rough-hewn out of hickory by a backwoods- man; and a Dutch looking-glass, so full of veins that look who would into it, he should appear a libel on humanity. The second rule explained the ground of admission, which was broad, liberal, and explicit. Any man pronounced by 10 218 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. socioty ugly — a physiognomical outcast — was entitled to become a member, making no distinctions as to creed or country, these being major points with inferior institu- tions. The third rule enjoined a proselytizing spirit, which has only to be explained to prove its social service. It is a well-known ])henomenon that all ngly men are vain, the probable explanation being that in tlic majority of cases they arc so, as ignorant men are knowing ones: it is a piece of mere policy to show indifference to the world's ill-nature. Nevertheless, as the dignified con- sciousness of merit is more to be desired than the petty frivolities of display, this third rule enacted that all van- ity in the members, whether enrolled or duly qualified to become so, was to be utterly rooted out; to compass which the simplest means were found to be suflicient. The cracked Dutch looking-glass already mentioned, which hung beside the chairman, was always produced whenever signs of flightincss displayed themselves, and proved a never-failing restorer of the delinquent's reason. As van- ity, therefore, was known to be the only check to an am- ple extension of the society's numbers, the social good was their authority to seek out new members and purify them of their weakness. Accordingly, whenever the ar- rival of a qual' iudidatc was buzzed about the city, the secreta'' i upon him with a polite invitation to favor tlie ..y with his company. As soon as he had taken his seat at the table, and the rules and objects of the meeting had been explained to him, the attack was commenced by one of the members observing, " You ap- pear to have a very long nose, sir." His consternation probably produced a laugh, but its sting the chairman qualified by remarking, "Positively long, yet moderate in comparison; for, if you observe, sir, the tip of mine forms an acute angle with a line drawn horizontally from my under lip, and an obtuse one with ray chin; though acute RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 219 angles, I bog to say, without incurring the charge of van- ity, have never been considered ugly, from the days of Euclid." Another member now broke in, "I should say, sir, that your mouth is not deficient in capacity, from its semicircular figure." A second stare, without response from the party, produced a denial from the secretary, who, opening his jaws to show their full extent, challenged the visitor to pack the interior of his orifice with as many square inches of bread and bacon. Another critic would, perhaps, then inform him that his hair was of that pecul- iar hue which typifies combustion, when a friend was sure to respond that, so far from considering their guest's hair fiery, he, as the owner of a powder-mill, should not enter- tain the smallest fear of an accident, were the gentleman to walk into his work-rooms. The chairman would now rise and beg to propose him as a member. If he proved a social, sensible fellow, the utmost hilarity attended his initiation; but if, on the con- trary, he took the proposition in dudgeon, the looking- glass was produced in justification. If its reflections did not eradicate his good opinion of himself, and ho retreat- ed in a huff, war was formally declared, and plans sug- gested to drive him into submission. If he walked abroad, he was sure to meet a member, who pointed out how he abused the kindness of Providence by refusing to join a meeting instituted for mutual protection and amusement, of which he might soon attain to the honor of becoming president. If he stayed at home, he received a dozen let- ters a day from women who had fallen in love with him, and who poured forth their feelings in some such style as the following : " Dear Sir, — An epoch h.is occurred in nty hitherto virgin existence. I have seen yon, and I am no longer what I was. May I believe the whis- perings of my heart that we arc destined for each other, from the numer- ous sympathies of our persons. Your stature, like mine, is ambitious and 220 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. genteelly tliin ; your logs form the most graceful curve I h;ivc ever seen ; your hands have such an amplitude as must give groat facility in grasp- ing; and your head appears largo enough for two such frames; but it is needed, I suppose, for the quantity of its furniture. I must confess I piqued myself upon the brilliance of my hair, till I saw yours. Now, alas, mine appears but as the sickly Hickcrings of a lamp; yours the ruddy glow of a furnace. On one point only j'ou have respected my com- placency — your eyes. I do not 1 itate to say that the obliquity of mine has given rno through life a singleness of perception v.hich yours could never surpass, though I admit that in other respects yours, being of the kind tei.ncd ' pig's,' arc superior to mine, which are named after a poorer character, ' ferret's.' Say, then, dear youth, with all these affinities, are wc to remain asunder ? " Vuurs till death, Dinah Paragon." Upon the perusal of this, if the victim lost liis com- posure so far as to deliver a few epithets on ugly clubs, ugly -women, and all such conspirators against a man's peace, ten to one the president of the society introduced himself the next moment and repeated his old importuni- ty, " My dear friend, will you go with me to the club ? Why do you try to resist the finger of destiny ? Do you know what enjoyments you are casting from you, what sympathy you are shutting yourself out from ? If you still doubt your qualifications, look once more in this glass." " Heaven's will be done !" at length exclaimed the persecuted being. Ids vanity thoroughly expunged ; " I believe I am an ugly devil, and it is the finger of des- tiny that I should belong to your club !" That evil ingredient in the Southern climate which proved so destructive to foreigners was, the dews — the condensed exhalations of a marshy coast which nightly descended upon the inhabitants. The term dew, as we understand it in English poetry — a pearly liquid that is in the liabit of going to bed in a rosebud — by no means describes " the curse of Carolina." This is an im- provement on the Scotch mist, a sort of half-breed be- RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 221 tween a London fog and a Dcvonsliire shower; which, like tlie evil one, introduced itself in the most mikl, im- perceptible manner, and killed before it could be grap- ])led with. Europeans would often leave lieated rooms in the summer, with coat and throat open, never deem- ing that on a clear, starlight night the pestilence was lying in wait for them. Thus exi)osed a man would walk home, and the next morning find fire and ice playing at bo-peep in all his bones. Actors, of all men, however perfect (occasionally) on the stage, have never alrected this peculiarity in their domestic economy; consequently they formed a good i)roportion of the number who paid the price of inattention. I remember it was my lot, some years after this, when recruiting in London for the IJoston Theatre, to engage a person named Ilatton, who, for the singular felicity with which he embodied charac- ters of the stamp of "Macheath's Gang," enjoyed the repu- tation of being " the best blackguard on the stage." Of liow he could act this part off the l)oards he favored me with a proof in his first performa^. '^, by embarking, at the bidding of a rival manager, for Charleston instead of Boston. Though warned here of the nature of the night atmosphere, he had the temerity, on going home from a carousal, to take off his coat and waistcoat, and stretch himself on some steps to study the solar system. An hour afterwards he was found by an inhabitant incapable of moving; in the morning the fever was busy w'ith its victim; and by the night, I believe, ho was no more. One of my favorite unsocial amusements — fishing — I felt shut out from while in the Carol inas, where yet the opportunities were ample, owing to two other Southern evils, of which I confess I could never subdue my appre- hension — snakes and alliojators. These were such insid- ious enemies, and, like mine Hostess Quickly, being "nei- ther fish, flesh, nor fowl, a man knew not where to liavo 222 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. them." I know not what man, indeed, could complacent- ly look for a bite from the water while expecting one from the land. If the chances were that you would afford sport rather than obtain it, there seemed to me an end of tlie pleasure. I was even debarred many a pleasant walk through the woods, where there was cool shade and a soft breeze, lest I should light upon some dark tail that woukl suddenly become voluminous, especially as I was informed that these reptiles had a foreign taste, i. €., preferred white flesh to black — in other words meat not so much roasted — a fact that accounts for the few accidents among the ne- groes. I may mention that the Southern reptile was not the rattling inhabitant of bushes, but a burrower in the earth. My feelings were destined to be confirmed by a scene that occurred during an excursion to the banks of the Congaree River, where the entire bank before the tavern that I dined at was a snake-bed. The ground, which was a rich, black loam, was thoroughly perforated with the avenues of these interesting insinuators, and was supposed to contain a thousand families, which it would have been impossible to extirpate but by digging away their territory. Unaware of this, and seeing some negroes fishing along the bank, I borrowed a rod from the bar, ob- tained directions as to the sport, and threw in by the side of a Ca3sar who had strewed the ground with his trophies; but while I was attaching my bait and looking round, I observed the head of a snake come up one of these aper- tures and survey the vivacity of the fishes' tails with evident interest. I instantly mentioned this to my com- panion, but he, with a grin at my alarm, merely called to a group of little black Cupids who were running about in a state of nature, to " look arter de snek," and turned again to the river. The juveniles not being extra vigilant, the snake ascended again to his trap-door, coiled out of the hole, and made a successful dart at a large bass; but RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 223 the weight of the fish was so great he was not able to re- treat with it before one of his little black-guards observed him, and with a cry of mixed fright and frolic, grasped the fish by the gills, and disputed its possession. The snake, however, contrived to screw his tail into the hole, and upon this purchase his strength proved a match for his antagonist's; indeed, for the moment this singular spectacle lasted, I tliought he had the advantage, and that ultimately he wouhl drag off both boy and fish. But the little fellow had a noble spirit, and clung on firmly while he cried out lustily; the fisherman advanced to the rescue, and the snake, taking a timely hint, retreated. AYhen the tavern-keeper, who prided himself on being a good shot, learned the circumstance, he called for his gun and re- solved to watch for the snake's return (which was a sure thing) to see with what neatness he could divest it of its head. Our eyes were now converged upon the hole, and some minutes passed in fixed attention, but with no re- ward. We were not aware of the enemy's generalship. At length a negro hooked a fish of such weight he was unable to draw it in, and called out for assistance. The tavern-keeper laid down his gun and ran to hira, when instantly the snake, who must have been eying him un- observed, made his last and grand sally, darted once more on his prey, and triumphantly carried it off, amid an up- roar of applause. The fecundity of one of these creatures is truly alarm- ing; two or three females, in the course of a summer, would stock a plantation. A friend of mine described to me a very startling scene which occurred to him during a ram- ble in Georgia, when he was compelled to pass most of his nights in the overseers' huts. On one occasion their black had gone to roost on his shelf (no one slept on the ground) without taking the precaution to fasten the door, and during the night a pair of these females, who were 224 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. seeking a comfortable nook for their accouchement, twisted in through the crevice, and made the necessary arrange- ments. In the morning my friend happened to wake first, and, looking down from his liammock, he beheld the en- tire floor of the hut a mass of black life, hundreds — as it appeared to him — of little ones were curling round each other and over their parents \\\i\\ the most fond facility. His involuntary cry of terror woke the black, who, leaning over his board, surveyed their pastime with the greatest complacency. A thundering epithet from the overseer (luckily for them at that moment they were all literally overseers), showing that he had detected Sambo's remiss- ness, threw the latter on his resources, when he instantly put his fingers in his mouth and made a noise in imitation of the rattlesnake, which wages war with this other ser- pent tribe. In an instant the alarmed mothers glided precipitately out of the hut, followed by their broods twining after them. This scene proved such a ludicrous contrast to the first that my friend indulged in a hearty laugh, and saved the black from his superior's anger. With snakes I coupled another object of aversion — the alligators. These, however, were not so obtrusive or so terrible, supporting the Buffon hypothesis that they are a degenerated edition, both in size and temper, of the Egyptian crocodile. They were only to be found on the banks of particular rivers, leading a lazy, luxurious life, in imitation, as it were, of the planters. Once and once only, through a telescope, I surveyed one who was enjoy- ing himself in a manner truly Oriental, stretched upon a couch of the downiest mud, his scales glittering like pre- cious stones, his jaw^s extended to receive all chance con- tributions of flies and insects. He was, in fact, a grand bashaw of one tail, little energy, and ferocious meanness. The amusement, for instance, of extending his jaws until his tongue was spread like a blister with Spanish flies, and RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 225 then suddenly dropping the gates upon the innocents, was .1 villainy that nothing could excuse. lie must have found hirgcr substances for his subsistence, though cases -svere, I believe, very few where the blacks kept his digestive organs in order. By happy observers of the analogies which the earth everywhere furnishes between her tribes, the alligator, from the length of his jau', was termed "the river lawyer." I once heard a narrative of the successful domestication of an alligator, the singularly civilized result of which may supply my reader with some new ideas. An infant was found in the sedges of the Wateree River, but a feu- days, it was supposed, after its birth, and conveyed by a negro to his owner, who formed the extraordinary reso- lution of bringing it up, and observing whether it would develop its destructive propensities under a systematic course of farm-yard regimen. To his great delight the meal-tub won the victory. The taste of blood being the fount of brutality in savages of all kinds, when this ani- mal arrived at maturity he displayed an affability towards his owner, and a propriety of deportment towards the ducks and hens, which amply repaid the planter's care and trouble in his education. Nothing could be more sociable than the mode in which he waddled amidst the group at feeding-time, admitting them, in fact, to the most marked familiarity, even while enjoying his siesta in the slush, constituting his back a committee-room for the feathered tribe, and opening his jaws for the little porkers to rub themselves against. Ilis appearance at these times spoke a volume in disproof of his natural fe- rocity ; his whole frame seemed instinct with a spirit of benevolent enjoyment; his eyes emitted a humid sparkle; and his open countenance was arrayed in a broad grin — the heart was liberal though the hide was scaly. But the most extraordinary circumstance of his history, inasmuch 10* 220 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. as it proved that female influence, with brutes of all kinds, is the highest agent of refinement, was his forming a Pla- tonic attachment to a sow which daily partook with him the tranquillizing pleasures of the tei)id slush. Similarity of tastes and habits are known to give rise to esteem and liking in all bosoms. In this case the fact was manifested by the most touching evidences. He regularly diapcroned her in her daily walk from the sty to the barn, varied occa- sionally by a saunter in the swamp adjacent; secured her one of the best places at the trough; and even brought her tid-bits of fried turkey and codfish from the planter's hand. When it at last })leased the planter to deprive this esti- mable female of existence, the blow to her friend's peace was instantaneous and decisive. lie felt his sweetest tie sundered, and became a solitary being in the world. The boar, like most husbands, bore his loss with patience; but the friend who had reposed with her through so many hours in a congenial element, exchanging grunts, and reciprocating rubbings, was not to be consoled. He ran into an extreme greater even than that of his own head and tail, and, becoming a recluse, he pined away, appeared to grow longer from longing, and at length was found dead in the old scene of their pleasures. On being opened, within him were found the remains of one of the porkers, which, as a last memorial of his love, lie had consigned to the seat of his most inward feelings. This well-authenti- cated memoir opens a new chapter in zoology. Evidently more analogy subsists between the various classes of crea- tion than is commonly supposed. One thing is evident, that if human beings can so often descend to become brutes, it is but fair that the feelings of brutes should now and tlien ascend to rank with those of human beinjrs. During my stay in the Carolinas I was favored with extended observations of the humor of ray radiant favor- ites, the blacks, whose spirits, ever lighting up their shade, RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 227 reminded me of the merry grave-digger in Ilamlet. I never could determine whether the happiest display of their faculty was in their power of repartee and apt dis- covery of anologies, or in a simplicity that contained its own inherent stock of the ludicrous. I must add some specimens of both. An old negro in Charleston, named Harry, made it a practice to go a-begging, on holidays, among the gentry. Meeting a Mr. Nicholas Brown, a usual patron, but who happened that morning to be out of temper, he accosted him with, " Good-mornin', massa, me wish a melly Clie- mas; please to gib poor ole nigger suspence dis mornin'." Mr. Nicholas, pretending not to know him, replied, with some sternness, " Who are you?" " Massa no know me?" he exclaimed; "my name Harry; little boy call me olc Harry." "They call the devil old Harry," growled the gentleman. " Iss, massa," was the immediate rejoinder, " sometime ole Harry, sometime ole Nick !" Another" of the tribe was once bronght before a magis- trate for thieving. The protector of the public morals, sternly eying the delinquent, inquired, "You black ras- cal, do you know how to read?" "Iss, massa, a little." "AVell, sir, do you never make use of a good book?" " Iss, massa ; I trop my razor on nm sometime !" The following was an ingenious and only too truthfully stinging defence. A free negro, being strongly suspected of having stolen goods in his possession, was taken before a magistrate and charged with the offence. The fellow was so hardened as to acknowledge the fact and add to his audacity by this speech: " Massa Justiss, me know me got dem ting from Tom derc, and me tink Tom teal um, too; but what a dat? dey be only a pickaninny corkscrew and pickaninny knife ; one cost suspence and tudder shil- lin'; and me pay Tom honestly for um." "A pretty story, truly," said the justice; "you knew they were stolen, yet 228 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. you allege as an excuse that you honestly paid for them, ril tcacli you better law than that, Cicsar. Don't you know that the receiver of stolen goods is as bad as the thief? You must be whipped, you black rascal !" "Ber- ry well, massa, if the black rascal be whip for buying stolon goods, me hope do wh.ite rascal be whip, too, for doin' same ting when massa catch hira." " To be sure he shall," rejoined the justice; "I myself will see the pun- ishment inflicted." "Well, den, here be Tom's massa; hole him fast, cons'able ! lie buy Tom as me buy picka- ninny knife and corkscrew; he know berry well dat Tom be stole from him poor fader and modder; now knife and corkscrew hab neider !" AVhether it was that his worship was a buyer of pickaninny blacks as well as Tom's mas- ter I know not, but this home-thrust unsettled the com- posure of both, and, after a few minutes' deliberation, the charge was dismissed. An equally direct hint was given, during the war, to a Jamaica planter who became noted for stinting his slaves to the least possible allowance of herrings and meal, on the pretext that all the provision-vessels were taken by the American privateers. This answer to their first com- plaint sufficed, but on its frequent repetition the slaves saw through it, and he was waited on by a deputation of them, who informed him that," Since probision taken ebery day by Amerriky pribateer, we mean to take dc sloop, mas- sa, to-morrow mornin' and go to Merryky in sarch ob it." On my return to Philadelphia the first person I met was my Terpsichorean friend Byrne, of Covent Garden, who had filled up his summer by a trip to the West Indies, but had returned with more precipitancy than he departed. As this visit seemed to epitomize a hundred others made during my time by my professional brethren to the land of doubloons, and to convey a useful lesson to adventurers generally, I shall briefly describe it. RKTROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 220 Byrne, a most worthy as well as talented little follow, Jiad been haunted, ever since his arrival in America, by visions of the new Potosi mines to be found in the pockets of the "West India planters. Whoever had been to the islands, actors or traders, had painted in brighter and brighter colors the already glowing tints of that glow- ing clime. To be sure, there were facilities for spending money as fast as you got it, and some men had been so delighted with the society that they made up their minds to die there; but all this was capable of being explained away. Fashionable habits had been in fault, or arid con- stitutions which, to become genial, required perpetual soakings. A man of prudence, thought Byrne, could con- trive to steer clear of these quicksands, and thus speedily allay that pecuniary "yellow fever" which had led him from home. Mrs. B. concurring in his sentiments, and longing as much as himself to get back to England, he had her consent to try his fortune in Jamaica. All the circumstances of his voyage tended to inspire him with confidence. The weather was delightful, the sky blue, the sea green, the breeze fair, the captain anec- dotical, the crew dramatic, the passengers Philadel])hic ; nothing disordered their minds or their stomachs; and a general theme of praise was the island he was going to. Byrne was, therefore, emboldened to believe this one of the most auspicious steps he had yet taken, and he felt himself about to dance into a sublunary Elysium, surpass- ing in splendor any that had been got up on London boards. As he sailed into the port of Kingston the calm deepened, the illusion rose ; a smile of beauty invested every object, and told of wealth, activity, and enjoyment. Byrne pirouetted upon the deck, cast off his partners gracefully, sprang on the wharf vigorously, and chasseyed up the street. The first vehicle that he met was a hearse. This did not surprise him, as he was aware that death is L_ 230 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. a peculiarity of every country; but lie had scarcely turned the corner leading to tlie hotel when he met another. That appeared strange, but he was in no humor to investigate grave affairs, so he kept on his pace, and in anotlier twenty yards, lo, a third ! lie now made a stop and pondered. Devilish odd, he thought, that the only carriages he had yet encountered were the last ones people chose to ride in! Superstitious folks would have fallen to auguring! But a solution of the mystery presented itself : this was the w.ay to the public cemetery, and it was nothing more than a curious coincidence that he had walked up the street at the very moment that, perhaps, the only three coffins in Kingston were coming down. With a laugh which ex- pressea that he had spent too much time in the air to be- come speedily solid, he skipped into the hotel and called for some refreshment. As no newspaper was lying at hand, he took his stand at the window of the public parlor, to amuse himself with the panorama of the streets. Having passed through the region of business, he was anxious to obtain a view of Kingston fashion — the ladies and gentle- men in their carriages. The first vehicle that passed was another hearse. "Odd!" exclaimed Byrne, "that's the fourth!" but before he had time to arrange his ideas for any further speculation a fifth presented itself, not moving with that decorous slowness which marks its pace in Eu- rope, but at a quick walk ; and this was succeeded by another and another on an improving trot, as though the conveniences for interment in the city were not half suffi- cient to meet the demand. " Good heavens !" ejaculated Byrne, gazing at them as Macbeth did at the spectres, "is the whole country dying? there must have been a battle or an earthquake !" and, seizing the bell, he rang it till he roused a very corpulent man sleeping in one cor- ner of the room, but whom until this moment he had not perceived. " What's the matter, sir ?" inquired the stran- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 231 gcr, "are you ill?" "No, sir," said Byrne, "but I've no doubt I soon shall be. I have just arrived in Kingston, and I have seen nothing in the street but hearses." "Oh, sir," replied the other, " if you are surprised at that you must be a stranger. When you have been here as long as I have you will find that if a man can contrive to escape death, the clunate makes this a living grave. I am an instance, sir. I was once as slim a figure as yourself, but much more powerful. I lived in London and had a very good income, but I would be so d d avaricious that I must come to the West Indies to make my fortune; and what's the consequence ? In less than two years I have lost my health and every friend I had to welcome me. Look, sir," he continued, his voice breaking into a snivel, "see what a poor, bloated maggot I have swelled to! What good is my money to me now?" Pausing from excess of emotion, he looked Byrne full in the face and exclaimed, " Good heavens ! Byrne, is it you ? Don't you remember me — Mat Williams, of Drury Lane?" Byrne returned his stare with interest. It was, indeed, his old friend, Mat Williams, the hale and handsome singer of Drury Lane, whom he now beheld transformed into a bag of bile, yellow and big enough for a picture of Plutus in the dropsy. The story and its illustration struck home. Byrne was speechless. The waiter entering next mo- ment, he could just articulate, "What have I to pay?" then, scarcely pressing his old friend's hand, or stopping to bid him farewell, he made one step down-stairs, took three along the street, cut a rai)id caper round the corner, and meeting at that point the negro who liad charge of his portmanteau, ho grasped him by the wool of his head and dragged him back to the wharf. There, seeing a brig hauling off for Baltimore, he hailed her, vaulted on board, and only recovered speech and composure when he saw the woody shore of the island growing dim in the distance. CHAPTER X. 1801 - 8. — Recollections of rrcsldont JelTerson ; his Observations in France; Neckarand Mirabcaii; the Comte deArtois; Marie Antoinette; JefTorson's Compliments; his Rencontre with a Connecticut Farmer; Parallel with John Adams. — Peculiarities of Pennsylvania; Contrast to Virginia. — German Settlers; the Veteran Corps; a Female Recruit; Gastronomic Hessians. — Barbecuing and Bundling. — Marrying in Ilaste. — Periodical Whitewashings. — A " Pcnnsylvany Hurricane." — Recol- lections of Charles Brockden Brown ; his Writings ; his Character ; his Drama and its Fate. I HAVE already mentioned that through the kindness of General AYashington I was introduced to Mr. Jefferson, who proved one of my sincerest, tliough not most fortu- nate, friends. The coupling of his acquaintance with a Bpeculation involving considerable loss and chagrin can- not, however, prevent my recurring to the period with a degree of pleasure which I trust may prove communicable to the reader. In all the chief requisites of the social character Mr. Jefferson appeared to mo to possess few equals. His heart was warmed with a love for the Avholo human race ; a honliomie which fixed your attention the ihitant he spoke. Ilis information was equally polite and profound, and his conversational powers capable of discussing moral questions of deepest seriousness, or the lightest themes of humor and fancy. Nothing could be more simple than his reasonings, nothing more picturesque and pointed than his descriptions. On all abstract sub- jects he was plainness itself — a veritable Quaker ; but when conveying his views of human nature through their most attractive medium — anecdote — he displayed the RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 233 grace and brillianco of a courtier. His talents may sug- gest some idea of liis manners. Thougli, like taste and iK-auty, manners have no general standard, so that refine- ment in France is frivolity in Holland, and frankness in Holland is boorishness in France, the citizen of the world perceives that an excess of artificiality is as oi)posed to human happiness as utter barbarity. Dut if manners be brought to the one test of general consideration for oth- ers, my good friend, the President, would certainly not have been judged deficient by any one. To a just balance of qualities his residence in France had no doubt con- tributed. He had witnessed an extraordinary contrast — the extremes of society under a polished despotism and in a young republic — and tracing their respective effects on tiie national welfare, the rooting of his convictions had led to the branching out of his sympathies. During the many pleasant evenings I spent in liis society at AVash- ington and Philadelphia, I chiefly attem])ted to draw out his observations upon the period he had passed in France, where his official situation placed him in juxtaposition with the leading characters of the court, as well as most of the agents of the Revolution. Amid this group he was equally intimate with Neckar and Mirabeau, the Due do Lauzun, and the Abbe Sieyes. Six years a spectator of the gathering of that tornado which began in tears and ended in blood, no man could have written a more ani- mated account of the organization of the Tree of Liberty. Adams, in his boyhood (1755), detected its first shoots in America in the all-engrossing interest of political conver- sations. Jefferson was destined to Avitness the effect of its transplantation to Gallic soil. The two great acces- sories of the French Revolution were the encyclopedists and the patriots, the latter of whom returned from Amer- ica to make known to their countrymen the enviable con- dition of a people wdiose rights w^ere respected. As their 234 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. verbal accounts must have taken a ■\vlclcr range than liter- ary teachings, it is not too much to assume that these pa- triots hokl the match to tlie explosion, and that Louis, in extending assistance to the Americans, provided for his own dethronement. As Franklin remarked when the out- break was announced to him, "Ah, they served their ap- prenticeship in America, and now they mean to set up for themselves." With truer instinct Frederick the Great, when solicited to afford assistance to the Americans, re- l^lied, "No, a king I was born, and a king I will remain; it is too much of you to require a man to ruin his own trade." Mr. Jefferson supported the above supposition by point- ing out a chain of sequences among the most striking in modern history. "America," said he, "the child of the Old World, appears destined to become its teacher. Like the heart in the human system, it has received and sent back jiurified the diseased opinions of England and France. Those countries have fought for its possession in the true spirit of despotism, and have been foiled because the lamb grew up, during the contest, into a lion. We see, in the first instance, English exiles in the cause of freedom set- tling America and impregnating its moral atmosphere. Then France rearing her standard on the walls of Quebec, and gradually extending her possessions along the margin of the Lakes to the Ohio, and thence onward to the mouth of the Mississippi, with the giant design of sj)anning the continent from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico; England, rising up at the cry of the colonies, fought through that arduous war which scaled the submission of France with the blood of Wolfe; but after tliat, inflated with her triumph, we see her next turning round and tax- ing these very colonists to discharge the burden belonging to other possessions ; the colonies resisting; and France, in the hope of recovering Canada, sending them assist- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 235 ance; the indepcndenco following, and the Frenchmen returning home to achieve the liberation of their own country. To conclude, England, placed between the fires of two revolutions, and not less admonished by the lurid excesses of the one than invited by the calm and benign glow of the other, to provide for the general happiness of her people, is working out English freedom on the pat- tern of American independence." Mr. Jefferson said he had perceived at an early period that Neckar and Mirabeau were two of the most impor- tant persons in France. Of both it was impossible to cal- culate whether they would save the country from a con- vulsion or throw it into one. Thoy frequently met, and on the most sociable terms, but their manners in company presented a curious contrast. The financier always began the evening with great spirit, and talked animatedly upon all subjects till about nine o'clock, when a shadow stole over his countenance and he sank into silence, absorbed in public considerations only temporarily put aside. The count always sat down under a cloud and brooded, until the wine dissipated his vapors and warmed him into life. For an hour or two he was then a most agreeable com- panion. II( )0ured out information, poetry, and anecdote, and flashed his sarcasm right and left with the edge and polish of a true Damascene. But he drank furiously, and, as the wine heated him, his ruling interest regained its sway, and his hilarity rose into a species of madness. His eye dilated, his voice choked, he shook his black hair w^ildly about his face, burst into political prophecies, and struck the table until the glasses rang by way of empha- sis, recalling the image of the Sibyl during the throes of inspiration. In a short time he had reached the pinnacle of his social glory — his antagonists had deserted the table, or ho was lying under it. The popularity of this glittering monster to whom lib- 236 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. erty meant license, and power pay, whose life was passed in a state of moral drunkenness, proves that his talents must have been very extraordinary, or that the people were indeed destitute and desperate. In America, where virtue was its own reward, there had been no IMirabeaus in princi})le, save Arnold. The test of patriotism was there too primitive. And yet the count had the complacency to hint to Mr. Jefferson that if France was destined to become another America, the world should see that there was another Washington, to which the latter replied, with polite ambiguity, "Pardon me, count, but I consider such is the striking originality of your character, you would disdain to imitate any man." Nor was it with the populace only that Mirabeau had influence; he was also the idol of the women. Why? Al- though the ugliest man in Europe, his popularity solves the mystery. Conquest with one sex led necessarily to submission from the other. At a convivial party he once remarked to his companions, " They say abroad ' Mirabeau must have a great mind, for the women love him though lie is as ugly as the devil.' " As no one answered, he con- tinued, taking a pinch of snuff, "It's very true. I and the devil have always been their favorites." Mr. Jefferson did not wonder at the shadow on Baron Neckar's countenance, destined as he was to resist single- handed the erection of the court barricades, and to see the king forwarding by every indirect means the object of his enemies. A reply attributed to the Comte d'Artois well exhibits that spirit which at length unsealed the foun- tains of the deluge. On the baron observing to him the growing necessity of relieving in some measure the bur- dens of the people. " My good friend," exclaimed he, •'the peojjlo are not the only sufferers; we at court have a burden much more difticult to get rid of." "What may that be?" "Our time," was the reply. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 237 My friend quite concurred in the general impression as to the sympathetic weakness of the king and queen, who, in quiet times, woukl have slid through the world in the fashionable absence of all sense or principle, without ex- citing praise or blame. The queen, a truly affable creat- ure, was pleased to pay him particular attention, but, as he conceived, more as a curiosity than as a friend. She was always wondering how it was possible the people of America could be happy without a court, and at length said to him, " Surely your great deliverer intends to cre- ate nobility ?" To which he replied," Please your majesty, the influence of your own is so powerful that it is the general impression we can do without them." Mr. Jefferson has put so much evidence upon record, both of his varied talents and his social excellence, that I feel loath to intrude too many recollections ; and shall avail myself, therefore, of but a few instances which came within the knowledge of myself and friends. While he Avas in Paris a young man waited upon him as a member of a family he knew in Virginia, and by means of a plausible story obtained from him a supply of money. On his return home he mentioned the circum- stance to liis friends, and discovered it was a gross im- posture. But the news did not cost him his composure. "This is the way," said his friend, "in which generosity gets soured; but I wonder, Mr. J., that you gave the money so easily without more inquiry. " Now I think of it, I wonder myself," replied the latter, "but that it is so much pleasanter to gice than to refuse.'''* When once at a party where the private delinquencies of a well-known individual formed the subject of conver- sation, every one present opened in full cry upon the un- fortunate buck, except INFr. Jefferson, whose silence was at length interpreted as a disbelief of the charges. A friend asked him the question, "Surely you must bo as 238 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. well aware as ourselves that these are the facts ?" " Un- doubtedly," he replied, " only I can't see how my calling the man a rascal will help to reclaim him." He was strikingly happy in illustrations which brought the fullest amount of argument into the smallest compass. When a once-applauding public expatriated Dr. Priestley in his old age, Mr. J. remarked, " His antagonists think they have quenched his opinions by sending him to Amer- ica, just as the pope imagined when he shut up Galileo in prison that he had compelled the world to stand still." His regard for both science and literature was founded on this just view of their respective effects. " I consider," said he to me, " scientific knowledge to be that food whicli alone can enable the mental functions to acquire vigor and activity; but elegant literature as the wine that should invariably follow, because without it the mind would never rise to the full measure of its enjoyment, the power of sympatliizing with itself, after sympathizing with Nat- ure." In poetry his taste was thoroughly orthodox ; Shake- speare and Pope, he said, gave him the perfection of imag- ination and judgment, both displaying more knowledge of the human heart — the true province of poetry — than he could elsewhere find. His prose favorites were Swift and Bolingbroke. Upon the utility of literature he made an- other remark that pleased me; "I was bred," said he, "to the law; that gave me a view of the dark side of human- ity. Then I read poetry to qualify it with a gaze upon its bright side; and between the two extremes I have con- trived through life to draw the due medium. And so," he continued, " substituting history and biography for law, I would have every man form his own estimate of human nature, because it seems to me that precisely the same directing forces should subsist in the social as in the solar system ; there should be the same attractive or conccn- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 239 trating power in our hearts to draw us together qualifying the repelling impulse which we gain from our experience and reading." With specimens of his humor I could fill pageb. Hear- ing from the profound Dr. Rush that he, in company with a well-known wit of Philadelphia, had nearly been lost while proceeding in a packet from New York to Balti- more, Mr. J. replied, " AVell, doctor, such a fate would iiave suited your genius precisely. You, you know, are always for going to the bottom of things; though it would have been inappropriate for our friend II , who prefers skimming the surface." Of a piece with this was a remark upon a captain of Virginia militia, who had once been a waiter at a tavern, and who was so heavy a sleeper that, on training days, the company were compelled to discharge a volley under his win- dow before they could wake him. "Ah," said Jefferson, " it would be a much better plan if you were to ring a hand- bell under his window; then, I'll be bound, he'd at once pop out his head and cry 'Coming! coming.'" lie was deservedly a favorite with the ladies, the ele- gance of his compliments affording the best proof of his refinement. They had the veritable odor of Versailles. A lady of his acquaintance once congratulated herself upon never feeling cold in the depth of winter. " Go where I will," said she, "I can always fancy it's summer." "And wiienever you come under my roof, madam," he replied, " I partake your impression !" On another occasion, a lady at an evening party called his attention to some flowers in her bosom, wbich were exotics but recently imported. Jefferson, admiring them greatly, inquired their name. aUe replied by giving their Linntean designation. " Dear me!" said he, " I thought they were a new species of prim- lose." " Primrose, Mr. Jefferson ?" " Yes, madam, from the snow that's so near them." 240 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Forliaps I cannot conclude these recollections more pleasantly than by relating an anecdote of himself, which he told with great humor as having occurred shortly after liis election to the presidency, lie was riding one day in the neighborhood of Washington, in his usual plain attire — a black suit verging on brown — when, from a cross-road, a Connecticut farmer trotted up to him, and immediate- ly displayed his provincial spirit of barter by surveying the president's superior steed, and asking him to " swap." Jefferson, however, asked too much money in exchange, so, after a fruitless attempt to draw him into a commer- cial transaction in respect to the saddle and bridle, the stranger began to favor the president with his history. He had lately quitted "Down East," and was coming South to " explore " a brother, hid away somewhere among the niggers in Virginny. lie Avas anxious, therefore, to ob- tain all the knowledge he could of the country and the state of politics in parts " contagious " to the scat of gov- ernment. This wish led directly to the topic of the new president, Thomas Jefferson, who had been elected to that dignity in direct opposition to the said stranger's advice. " I," said he, " support John Adams, a real old Kew-Eng- lander, after the manner of our forefathers, the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock. I have smallish faith in these chaps from the nigger states, upon principle. Doesn't it stand to reason, mister, that they must be a largish bit tyranni- cal?" Jefferson attempted some refutation of the charge, but the farmer scarcely listened to ten words before he rejoined, " Come, come, mister, I guess you don't see the moral sin of niggery; but it ain't only that. This Thomas Jefferson — did you ever see him?" The president nod- ded. " Well, that's more luck than I've had; but that doesn't matter. Now I hear that this Thomas Jefferson is a very wasteful chap with our hard-earned money" (Jefferson stared), " and you'll allow, mister, that that's HETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 241 unpatriotic upon principle. They toll me he never goes out but he's got clothes on his back that would sell for a plantation, or kiver a wagon-load of immigrants; he's a couple of watches or more, that he never thinks of swapping; rings on all his fingers; and a frill to liis shirt lig enough to turn a windmill. Now, if you've seen him, mister, you can tell me if that's about right." Jefferson laughed, and replied that, on the contrary, the president Avas seldom better dressed than himself at that moment. Tlie farmer had his prejudices, and shook his head know- ingly as he continued, " Come, come, squire; I see you are a small measure biassed. I guess now this Jefferson's a friend of your'n ?" The president confessed it. " I dare say a man you speak to when you please ?" Another nod. " Perhaps the smallest cend of a relation ?" Nod and laugh. " There, now ! I guessed it. I knew you could not speak the truth on principle." At this moment they came in view of the president's house, and the farmer in- (|uired who it belonged to. As soon as he received the intelligence he burst into one of those conventional sub- stitutes for oaths which emphasize the language of the Northern lower orders. " Well, now, may I be 'tarnally starved down for mutton broth, if that sight doesn't come over a man like a suspension of the works of natur'. Now, mister, doesn't that prove my words, awfully strong ? There's a house as big as Noah's ark? At the smallest count, there's thirty rooms in it. What can any careful chap, 'pon principle, want with more than six ? I ha'n't got more than four. I say this Jefferson's wasting the people's money, and Congress is winking at it, and I guess it's all naked truth about the frill and watches; antl I ain't afraid to affirm that it's my guess the inside of that house shows just as much wastefulness as Jefferson a-horseback.'' To this charge the president could make but one reply — an offer to introduce the farmer to the 11 242 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. mansion, and give him ocular conviction. The latter readily consented, and they rode on, Jefferson planning an elaborate lesson of reproof to his calumniator. But, as they approached the gate, some gentlemen, who were engaged to dine with him, ste})ped forward and exclaimed, "Good-morning, president; you have had a fine day." At the word "president" the farmer, who was trotting on briskly, drew up so short he was near flying over his steed's ears. He turned and stared at Jefferson with a mixture of curiosity and alarm, which drew from the lat- ter a quiet smile of enjoyment. In another instant he had struck his spurs into his horse and was flying away like a whirlwind, fully convinced that he should in some way pay for his temerity. " Hallo, friend !" shouted Jefferson, "won't you go over the house?" "No, thank ye, presi- dent," was the reply; "I'll look in when I come back." Those who consider that the chief magistracy is a dig- nity which, to obtain its due respect, should be secluded from the common gaze, must admit that here was a proof of the benefit of its exhibition. This farmer echoed the opinions of many upon the president's character, and, in the only way that could have satisfied him, his suspicions were refuted. Strikingly singular was the series of coincidences which made the destiny of Jefferson and of John Adams a par- allel. Both, bred to the law and skilled in their profession, were early advocates, by speech and pen, of the colonial rights. Both went as delegates to the first Congress; to- gether they voted for independence; were members of the committee to frame the " Declaration," and formed the sub-committee to prepare the draught. Both served their country on foreign embassies; both became vice-presidents and presidents; both lived to see the fiftieth anniver- sary of the freedom they had accomplished, and both died on that great day within an hour of each other ! RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 243 Though placed at the head of contending parties, they were firm friends in private, and spent the evening of their days in the exchange of the best sympathies arising from their common patriotism. I have mentioned that, thouffli Pcnnsvlvania was the asylum of Quakers, it was for many years one of the most factious of the states, owing to the diversity of its subse- quent population. It, however, recovered its quietude throujh the large infusion of German occupants, Avhose industry, thoughtfulness, and energy grappled successfully with the difficulties of its stubborn soil. Much of the moral difference between two adjoining states, one the most dissipated, the other the most industrious, in the Union, was to be traced solely to their great geological contrast — that whereas in Virginia you had merely to "scratch the earth and it would yield a crop," in Penn- sylvania deep digging and manuring were required to ef- fect the same end. Indeed, it was a remark in the early times that the inhabitant of the former, lazily sponging on the blessings of Heaven, resembled Adam in Paradise be- fore the Fall; while his hardworking neighbor seemed to be fulfilling Adam's penalty after it. Many of these Germans were soldiers, who had done efficient duty in the war; indeed, this state had the honor to contribute a legion whose character it would be diffi- cult to parallel in military records. They were called tbo "Veteran Corps" — eighty German soldiers, who, after serving under various monarchs of Europe, had retired to America to turn their swords into ploughshares; but, on the first outburst of hostilities, voluntarily formed them- selves into a company to defend the land which had re- ceived them. Their captain was nearly one hundred years old; he had been a soldier seventy-five years, and fought in above twenty battles. The drummer was ninety-four; and the youngest man in the corps little under seventy. 244 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Such a band might well have been called the Fathers of the Fight. It i« a pleasing fact that nearly all of them survived the contest, and, their last service having sancti- iied all former ones, sank peacefully to rest. Another singular recruit from Pennsylvania was one Miss Deborah Gannct, who, throwing ofY all maiden deli- cacy and timidity, served in the Republican ranks under the name of Robert Shurtliff, was wounded, yet escaped discovery of her sex; and at length received her discharge and arrears of pay, without having incurred a stain on her honor in public or private. The Germans mentioned above must not be confused with the Hessians who came over in the English service, to be surprised at Trenton, and to turn the current of the war. John Bull has the reputation of never being able to fight but upon a bellyful ; John Ox, as this race of gas- tronomes might be called, so far exceeded him that thev could neither light full nor empty. A corps of London aldermen would have been equally eflicient. All that their tactics proposed to give a dressing to were — dinners. True, it might be cited as an amiable feature that they had not, like most invaders, a savage thirst for human blood, seeing they preferred drink of any kind whatever, but the nature of their feats may claim a distinctive niche in the gallery of Fame. No troops were ever so signalized for the arduous routing of hen-roosts, the vigorous beleaguer- ing of pig-styes, and the successful sweeping of duck- ponds. It was evident that they considered the art of war, which most people regard as a short avenue to death, a new chapter in the art of living. Had their private despatches to Germany been intercepted, no doubt the Americans would have found them to contain, instead of political hints, valuable recipes. Thus it was but an appropriate catastrophe that they should be speedily dished. Washington had but administered a little dex- RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 245 toroiis earvi'iig, and a few forced-meat balls, avIicii a succes- fiion of removes led to a cc^neral desert. A story was told me of an Irishman in the Independent service who detected a pair of these heroes taking captive a pig near his outpost, and, contriving unobserved to pick up their guns, suddenly headed, and bade them turn about to his own camp. His pointed manner and arms had the desired effect; they released the jjig, and proceeded peace- ably to the enemy's quarters, doubtless lamenting the loss of their prize as the worst feature of the incident. AVhen the general asked their capturer how ho had managed to overpower such unequal forces, he replied, "By the pow- ers, sir, I surroimdcd them." It must have been a relation of this person, or at least a countryman, who, during an engagement, encountered a man of war among the Quakers, one of the party who, in- fected by General Greene's example, had taken up arms, and were termed " Rcsisters." The Irishman, surmising his character from his appearance, shouted as he advanced, "Come on, me darlint; here's the sword that Balaam was going to kill his ass with." The Quaker, troubled at the inaccurate quotation, forgot his own safety to correct him, and exclaimed, " Stay, friend, thou art wrong; Balaam had no sword, he only wished for one." *' AVell, then," was the rejoinder, *' here's the sword he wished for," and a hearty thwack brought the inimical "Friend" upon his knees. Pennsylvania possessed its own local diversions in ad- dition to many imported ones, the principal being barbe- cuing and bundling. The first was a feast in the woods, upon roasted pigs, a sort of rough gypsy party, in which the porkers were killed and dressed by the men, while the ladies made a circuit to obtain spirits, milk, and bread; the meal taking place on some favorable clear space of sward, and winding up with singing and dancing, for which a band of black Timotheii were always in attendance. As 24G IlETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. the fun of tlicso meetings dcpcnflctl much more on the si)irits of the party tlian tlio mode of tlio diversion, little can be said of them beyond that the material of the feast — the pork — supplied some wags with a jest against the chil- dren of Israel, who were, at one time, scattered in some number through the States. Whenever a man owed one CD of them a sum which he was not prepared to pay, the creditor who inquired for him was told, "lie was gone to a barbecue, where lie would be happy to give a scat to Mr. Moses." The other peculiar institution which, with more liberal natures, formed a feature in their hospitality — the bun- dling — I confess I regarded with as much pleasure as sur- prise. Offensive as it may appear to European delicacy that a young female should commit herself indiscriminate- ly to the same couch with strangers, merely adopting a precaution which in any refined country would be thought ridiculous — confining her petticoat to her ankles — what did it prove but the highest purity of ideas, and the ut- most faith in the honor of the weary w'anderer who sought shelter from storm and darkness bcnoath the farmer's roof, that he would not repay the obligation by attempting any insult to his child. The custom was in the first instance a matrimonial ordeal, and Avas most likely imported from Wales, where, till within a late period, two lovers previous to their marriage were consigned to the same bed (the lady in a kind of sack which fastened round the throat), and thus enabled to discover how their tempers would agree during darkness as w^ell as daylight. Doubtless some benefit resulted from this experiment, or a resem- blance to it would not have been adopted in the "Tarry- ing " of the precise Ncw-Englanders, and the " Wooing- hut " of the Indians. The expedition with which marriages were knocked up in this state was surprising, owing perhaps to an overplus RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 247 of females or to some tlomesticating influence in the climate. No sooner did a young man with any moans of support think proper to pop the question to a girl, than she, de- spising all coquetting and affectation as an iinj)ropcr waste of time and feeling, replied with a frank "Yes" or "No." In cases, however, where any want of decision Avas be- trayed by the lady, the lover always disjjlayed a propor- tionate increase of it, as the following instance may show. A young man who had engaged to marry a girl as soon as his circumstances would permit, through a sudden turn of fortune resolved one Saturday night to fulfil his word in- stanter. lie accordingly set off in a sleigh, for it was in the heart of winter, with two companions, to Weaver Tavern, near the Comestogoe, where he ordered supper, and despatched his friends to fetch the damsel, while he went to procure the minister, having the license in his pocket Jill prepared. It was now past nine o'clock, and the snow^ falling heavily. In about an hour he returned and met his friends, who said that they had seen his be- trothed, but she had entirely forgotten the engagement, and moreover asserted that she would never marry any man who wouldn't treat her to a " sleighing." The bride- groom, not a whit disconcerted, replied, " Well, she's her own woman, and I'm my own man. I've come out for a wife, and I'm not going to be such a confounded fool, ar- ter I've ordered this supper, as to go back without one. There's Miriam Bush likes me jest as well as she does, is jest as handy, and, I'll bet my harness, would make as good a helpmate. So, now, I'll tell you wdiat, Mr. Peascod" — addressing the minister — " if you'll only be so good as to wait here half an hour, you sha'n't lose your job, I tell ye. So, boys, jest set down, order something strong, and keep supper warm till I get back." All the parties being agreeable, he jumped into the sleigh, though it was now pitch dark, near midnight, and a storm 248 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. coming <1 .wu tliat shook the lionsc, laid his whip round the horses, and went off at full gallop, to the residence of a maiden whom he hoped to find more complying. He caught her just retiring to bed, told her his story, showed her the license, pointed to the sleigh in the yard, and with- out any unmanly grovelling at her feet, frankly and hon- estly asked her if she'd go back to the tavern and marry him. A girl's pride, on being applied to as a last resource, was not unlikely to have procured an instant refusal. It appeared, however, that she liked liim well enough to con- sider the match a bargain at any price; a moment's pause — and consent glittered in her eyes — a genuine, back-coun- try kiss sealed the compact; her shawl and bonnet were hastily thrown on, he lifted her into the sleigh, and tri- umphantly drove back to his companions, defying all the efforts of the elements to disappoint him. The bride was then handed to the minister; her name introduced into the license, their hands were joined, and they all sat down to the smoking supper, flavoicd no doubt with double r^'l'^^^ from the obstacles that had delayed it. One of the local peculiarities of Pennsylvania was the domestic lustration, or whitewashing, as it was termed, which the action of the atmosphere on the wooden houses, generating dirt and insects in abundance, rendered neces- sary at least once a year, but which, in some parts of the state, was multiplied to once a quarter^ and formed an es- tablished recreation of the ladies and purgatory for the men. The Dutch women had certainly the strongest pas- sion for cleanliness, but that was in a modified way, a mere scouring of floor and furniture. Here purification implied totality, requiring superior energy and judgment, and in- flicting greater disturbance and inconvenience. No well- brought up wife was kiujwn to resign a privilege which brought so much pleasure, whatever might be the sound condition of her dwelling or the infirm condition of her RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 249 Bpouse. No pica of asthma, low spirits, or even the pres- ence of friends, could avert the dread decree, when the ])eriod had arrived and the word wont forth, " We must have a whitewash." Some husbands were enabled to bal- ance the expense of these periodical cleanings by restrict- ing some other amusement, but few succeeded by the most tempting offers in inducing their partners to forego the one in question; while I have heard of some ladies who, to guard against all hazards, stipulated for the full enjoy- ment of this privilege, with all its rights and appurte- nances, as the leading article in the marriage compact. This whitewashing practice also prevailed in the Jer- seys, which were settled in the same mode as Pennsyl- vania, though presenting a great contrast to each other in their general manners; West Jersey modelled itself upon the :\aioter though quainter characteristics of Philadelphia, whiioEasc Jersey displayed the commercial spirit of New York. I have endeavored to point out the natural features of each state which had any iniUiencc on the habits of the people ; as, for instance, the swamps in the Carolinas, whose exhalations, requiring correctives, led to an excess of ingenuity in the composition of those seducers termed " antifogmatics." In Pennsylvania it struck mo that there were some appea/;inces in the country people which might, perhaps, be traced to their most powerful familiar — the hurricane. Not that there was anything boisterous or particularly rapid in their movements, but, on the con- trary, a general caution, lirnmess, and tenacity of purpose, as though they were in hourly expectation of being up- rooted from the spot by their envious visitant. Every house, barn, and pig-sty was built with a solid grasp of earth, and every man or woman, on issuing abroad, seemed to fasten coats or caps in due array for a struggle to retain them. With accounts of the gambols of these air-kings 11*^ 250 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. most English readers arc familiar, but they have been the object of as much exaggeration as Kentucky rifle-shooting. A "Ponnsylvany hurricane," like a "Caroliny swamper," was, indeed, a common term, nearer home, for a sublime Munchauscnism — vulgarly speaking, a long lie. I cer- tainly myself witnessed the feat of their screwing a tree out of the earth like a cork from a bottle; but I believe the story of their carrying a hay -rick to market, and trans- porting a team of oxen from one farm to another, to be apocryphal. These were jests invented by the editors of newspapers whenever they required matter for a corner; but which, appearing in England, were regarded as evi- dences of the national veracity. One of the pleasantest of these inventions was in allusion to the rapidity with which a settlement was run up in the back states. An Irish emigrant was described as going to sleep near a few log huts on the banks of tlie Ohio, and being seized by a whirlwind which carried him off and deposited him, while ho slumbered, in the streets of Philadelphia. On opening his eyes he looked round in amazement, and exclaimed, " Well, by my sowl ! I had heard of your building a wooden town in a day ; but if you did all this in a night, the divil himself must have been your bricklayer's la- borer!" One of the most agreeable acquaintances I formed in Philadelphia was with Charles Brockden Ijrown, the first, and for many years the only, nov(!list America had pro- duced. Few men have united talent and worth in a larger proportion, or been more marked by a characteristic which is supposed to be incompatible with the pursuit of letters — equanimity. In a powerful mind this must be a mental influence. It bespeaks an active as well as speculative life, a daily observation of the world's admixture, engen- dering contentment with its best and respect for its weak- est part. It is the fate of writers who seclude themselves, RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 251 that, carrying a high standard of character into the world, they are not prej^ared to put up with the discovery that they have deceived themselves. Brown, as a vrriter, has not yet, I apprehend, received his full share of praise. It is true lie formed his style upon that of an illustrious modern thinker — Mr. Godwin; but while the latter owed his pervading gloom to German study, with Brown the tinge of sadness took its rise in nature. Mr. Godwin's genius may be likened to a her- mit reading the records of his race by a flickering lamp in the solitary ruins of an old abbey or castle; Brown writes as though seated in one of his own primeval for- ests, with the twilight falling round him and the stars coming out to watch his meditations. Like Mr. Godwin, he is an explorer of the inner world of man, not a painter of its external habits. He is no recorder of the artificial conventionalities which mark the surface of human con- duct, but a diver into its depths and a delineator of the sources, not the results, of our ruling thoughts and feel- ings. In doing this he shows less elegance, less care, less metaphysical minuteness and logical accuracy than his great prototype. He cannot so steadily lay bare the quiv- ering flesh and trace each delicate nerve that shrinks within it, nor can he diversify his pages with the same amount of learning, but the story he writes evolves with more simplicity, flows in swifter sentences, and takes ad- vantage of a sustained interest in the reader's mind to press its moral or its argument with greater force. Both these writers belong to a class addressing but a narrow circle of admirers at present, yet they must rise in esti- mation as taste and information spread, for the material they work in is permanent, Avhile the ephemeral modes and features of society can interest only those who behold them. "Edgar Iluntly" appears to me to be one of his raost pleasing productionsj the story and character of Cli- 252 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. thero rivet the attention from "beginning to end. "Arthur Mervyn" contains the most powerful descriptions (tlie ravages of the Plague, etc.), but " Wieland," talcen on all points, must be considered liis chef cVoemtre. BrowD gave very little idea of an imaginative writer in his appearance. He was short and dumpy, with light eyes, and hair inclining to be sandy, while the expression of his countenance told rather of ill-health than of intel- lect. The lines on his brow seemed to have been corroded by consumption, not chiselled by midnight meditations, and this was partly the case. A weak constitution had been his parents' legacy to him, and the ebullitions of his Rpirit proved too powerful iov the vessel that contained it. Yet vividly in his countenance glowed the light of benevolence ; that was his nature, and he could no more have suppressed its expression than he could have kept his eyes closed. With all his ill-health and straitened circumstances, for he supported himself chiefly by his pen, Brown enjoyed life, and could be a very cheerful if not an entertaining companion. lie said but little, but he had a ready sym- pathy which drew out clever things in others, so that I was induced to remark to him up. n his difference in soci- ety from the sombreness of his writings. His reply struck me as being curiously illustrative. " I am conscious," said he, "of a double mental existen- -?. When I am sufficient- ly excited to write, all my ideas flow naturally and irre- sistibly through tiij medium of sympathies which steep them in shade, though the feelings they bring are so pleas- ing as to prevent my perceiving it. The tone of my works being thus the necessary result of the advancement of those truths or discoveries which lead mo to composition, I am made so hai)py by it for the time as to be ignorant of its real effect upon my reader. This I term, therefore, my imaginative being. My social one has more of light RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 253 than darkness upon it, because, unless I could carry into society the excitement which makes me write, I could not fall into its feelingf>. Perliaps," he concluded, "the dif- ference of the two may be thus summed up: in my literary moods I am aimincr at makinij the world somethincc better than I find it; in my social ones I am content to take it as it is." The false impressions that we form of the labor of com- position from different styles has been often remarked, Johnson's ponderous sentences, for instance, being sup- posed to be the result of protracted care, and Rousseau's gush of language the pastime of a natural facility, while the very reverse of this was the fact: Johnson was facile, Koussen 1 laborious. Tlius, swiftly as flows the language of Brown, it contains too much thought, feeling, and pur- pose to appear to have been written as easily as it may be read. Yet such was the case. lie told me that when a subject presented itself to him, he walked about fer- menting the matter in his mind till it was ready to be drawn off. lie then sat down, and all the material came as rapidly as he could write, whether it were argument or description. As a proof, he was occupied but three weeks upon "Arthur Mervyn," and little more in the composi- tion of "Edgar Iluntly." I once remarked to him that I had no doubt his spirits had been soured by the want of literary taste in his coun- trymen to appreciate his writings as they merited, and to give that stimulus to his ambition which it would liavo received had he lived in England, lie replied that such had been the case in some measure, yet, sensible as he wag that a love of fame was the grand impetus to distinction, writing, with him, had been as much a matter of neces- sity in a mental as a bodily aspect. "As soon," said he, " as I could put two ideas together I felt a craving to in- vent, which required certain trains of thought to be daily 254 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. • put ill action in order to get rid of a surplus of daily gen- erated ideas. This employment was just as necessary to my mind as sustenance to my frame. It was synonymous with a vital function. Fame I have longed for, certainly; and sympathy from my friends, much more than from the world; but, had I been exiled to Kamschatlca, I must have written as a mental necessit}', and in it have still found my highest enjoyment." It is not known to the countrvmen of Brown that he was once induced to attempt a play. Some one in the course of a conversation upon the drama had said to him, "Brown, why don't yoit write a play? you could easily get it acted." The suggestion threu' him upon a new field of reflection. He went home, considered the sub- ject, as he thought, on all points, fancied that he felt the power or knew the secret, and, a subject occurring to him, ho set himself to work. A few days after he called on me with a manuscript. "Bernard," said he, "I am going to surprise you. I have written two acts of a tragedy, and I wish to trespass on your kindness to read it and give me privately your candid ojtinion." I expressed my great pleasure in obliging liim. "]]ut mind," he added, "I re- quire, as a friend, your crt;:c?iV7 opinion, for I rely entirely on your judgment to decide whether my own views of a drama are correct. I have appended to the second act the plot of the other three, which will enable you to perceive if the subject is possessed of dramatic effect, and whether ray mode of treating the first portion warrants my com- pleting the remainder. Accordingly I devoted that even- ing, being a leisure one, to its perusal. The subject was an imaginary incident of Egyptian history, the interest turning on the intellectual sway of a magician over a young Persian, and the attachment of the latter to a Greek girl, who attempted to combat the magician's influence. Thus between the powers of love and superstition, the RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 255 disciples of Art and of N'aturo, tl)e magician and tlic girl, a contest ensued which terminated with the triumph of the sorcerer and the death of the lovers. In this work Brown had gone into all his usual dissection of thoughts and feelings, hut without any regard to displaying them by situations, or appeals to the feelings through the eye, the necessary auxiliary in supporting stage interest, which must otherwise be wholly mental, or dependent uj)on the car. He was evidently ignorant of the secret that in thea- tres the most refined minds are in a state of so much hiurhcr excitement than at homo that they require the story to be told with tenfold rapidity, and therefore to be con- densed into its most quintessential elements. At all events his design was only fit for tlie closet, and even there, I think, would have looked like a metaphysical inquiry ham- pered with the unnecessary restrictions of being divided into scenes and written in verso. When he called on mo again I gave the above as my candid opinion, but begged ho would obtain that of other friends, as I made no pre- tensions, even in stage matters, to infallibility. My rea- sons, however, sufficed to determine him. lie said it was but im experiment, and he should burn the manuscript ;is soon as he went home. I observed that I doubted his resolution to do that, knowing that the destruction of one's offspring, human or literary, was equally an outrage to the feelings. lie smiled, put away the doomed one, shook my hand, and departed. A few days afterwards I invited him to dinner, when, as ho was leaning against the mantelpiece, he extended his snuffbox to me. Opening it, I perceived that it was filled with some black dust or tinder. "What's that?" said I. "The remains of my tragedy," he replied, "which I carefully preserved after its combustion in the grate, for you to look at, since you doubted my resolution to destroy it." CHAPTER XT. Celobritics of the American Stage: 5Irs. Wliitolock; Miss rontcncllc; Ilodgkinson; Wigncll. — The Theatres and Yellow Fever. — American Circuits. — Position of the Actor in America. — Mrs. Merr)'. — Mrs. Mul- nioth. — Fennell. — Cooper. — " A Histrionic Academy." There were menibcrs of tliis comjxiny who must not pass unrecorded. Here I found jNIrs. AYliitelock, tlio sister of Mrs. Siddons, and allied to her in genius as well as in blood; the handsome Mr. Williamson, who was famous in the lovers, as well off the stage as on; and that most buo3'ant and charming of all reckless rom})s, Miss Fonte- nelle, the heroine in London of many of O'Keefe's farces, and a sort of miniature Mrs. Jordan, compressed in one act. A girl whose animal si:)irits led Merry to compare her to brandy above proof! " She takes away my breath," said ho. And last, but not least, here I also found Ilodg- kinson, an actor from Bath, who preferred trying the New World to further toil in the provinces, and, as the bright- est of all the lights that have glanced over its boards, well deserving the title he obtained, of its Roscius! When I associate this actor with Garrick and Hender- son (the first of whom I had often seen, and the latter played with) I afford some ground for thinking he pos- sessed no common claims. I do not hesitate to say, that had he enjoyed their good-fortune — the inspiration and discipline of a refined London public — he would have risen to the rank of their undoubted successor. What was his distinction? That which peculiarly stamped them — that union of a sympathetic and an imitative faculty, which, L RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 257 wlicther of humor or pathos, can draw all the forms and fjjive all the colorings of character. Nature beincc full of rule, beuig a law as it were in action, is of course a great classifier, a worker on models, fond of species and types, and thus the old man and the young, the hero and the rogue of tragedy and comedy, being distinct types or models, actors usually come into the world with their own special aptitude; whenever, therefore, nature departs from her scheme, and forms a mind in which merges the most opposite perceptions, as colors that meet, and yet shine in a rainbow, she is evidently in one of her wonder- working moods, fantastical or wearied with her uniform labors. Ilodgkinson was a wonder. In the whole range of the living drama there was no variety of character he could not perceive and embod}^ from a Richard or a Hamlet down to a Shelty or a Shar^). To the abundant mind of Shakespeare his own turned as a moon that could catch and reflect a large amount of its radiance ; and if, like his great precursors, it seemed to have less of the poetic element than of the riches of humor, this was owing to association, which, in the midst of his tragic passions, would intrude other images. An exclusive tragedian will always seem greater by virtue of his specialty, by the singleness of impressions which are simply poetic; while Ilodgkinson had one gift that enlarged his variety beyond all competition — he was also a singer, and could charm you in a burletta, after thrilling you in a play; so that through every form of drama he was qualified to pass, and it miijrht be said he "exhausted worlds" if he could not "invent new." I doubt if such a number and such greatness of requisites were ever before united in one mortal man. Nor were his physical powers inferior to his mental ; ho was tall and well-proportioned, though inclining to be corpulent, with a face of great mobility, 258 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. that showed the minutest change of feeling, while his voice, full and flexible, could only be likened to an instru- ment that his passions played upon at pleasure. Such was this great actor, who, dying in the prime of life of a prevailing epidemic, was prevented from reaching that distinction which must have worthily connected his memory with the drama of his country. It would be grati- fying, of course, if I could enlarge as much upon the man; but his early life had been unfortunate; he had never known a due restraint, and, as he rose to fame, he attract- ed friends who were more willing to share his errors than to pity or condemn them ; but it is right I should add that, though wholly self-educated, he had attained to taste and manners, and even evinced some skill in literature, by the production of a comedy. At Newport I met my manager (^yignell), and received a warm welcome. He was an excellent fellow, whoso abundance of heart was unluckily accompanied by a defi- ciency of head, that kept him always in difficulties. " No one's enemy but his own," we find very often to be every one's friend, and yet such a benevolence but rarely gains praise, and is condemned by a good many, merely because they didn't happen to become its recipients. In a profes- sional light he had but moderate claims. He had variety as an actor, but with limited jjower. He had enjoyed the good-fortune of being the first general comedian who had crossed the Atlantic; and by the side of the stiff humor of his friends, Henry and Ilallam, both of whom belonged to the old school of London, he had certainly shone as a spirited actor; but the term of his partnership proved also that of his fame. When, in 1793, he returned from Eng- land, to open the first complete theatre America had wit- nessed, he brought with him a company containing several comedians who were much his superiors, and who at once obtained a fame that put an end to his efforts. Thence- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 259 forward he wisely resigned acting for management — a difference of function tliat few men liavc been able to unite with success, the varieties of the one tending sadly to militate against the interests of the other ; and I was enabled to see him act but upon special occasions, such as his own benefits, when he reminded me of the accounts I had heard of his father, who was one of Garrick's subor- dinates. Established in New York, I was in a position to take a view of the American stage, and as it presented just then some very curious distinctions, I trust their detail will not prove unacceptable. There were three leading managements at this time in America, conducting three distinct circuits — in the North, South, and centre: that of Ilodgkinson and Dunlap, who had succeeded Henry and Ilallam, in the direction of what was called the "Old American Compan}^," and whose principal cities were New York and Boston; that of Mons. Solee, whose headquarters Avas Charleston, but who mi- grated northward to Newberne and Richmond; and that of Wignell and Reinagle, whose home was Philadelphia, but who also paid visits to Baltimore and Annapolis. Each of these circuits professed to engage actors for ten months of the year, and to employ them in the intervals; but their seasons, owing to the climate, were curiously modified. The English division, of winter and summer seasons, was almost unknown. While the summer was too hot for any acting at Charleston, the winter was too severe, both at New York and Boston, thus dividing the seasons there into autumn and spring. These extremes were the cause of the arrangement I have mentioned, be- tween Charleston and Boston, to exchange forces yearly ; and at length, of the system of going to the South in the winter, and to the North in the sprmg — the heat, at the same time, being so great, even in the North, that nearly IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V /. / J M- / . o 7 /A Photographic Sciences Corporation ^^ «■ \ \ '^^ .^. -^ IALOaUES, AV FIVE FA JITS, DEPICTING THE EVIL EFFECTS OF JEALOUSY AND OTHER BAD PASSIONS, AND PROVING THAT HAPPINESS CAN ONLY SPRING FROM THE PURSUIT OF VIRTUE. "Mr. Douglas will represent a noble and magnanimous Moor named Othello, who loves a young lady named Desdemona, and after he has mar- ried her, harbors (as in too many cases) the dreadful passion of jealousy. Of jealousy, our being's bane, Mark the small cause, and the most dreadful pain. "Mr. Allyn will depict the character of a specious villain, in the regi- ment of Othello, who is so base as to hate his commander on mere sus- picion, and to impose on his best friend. Of such characters, it is to be feared, there arc thousands in the world, and the one in question may pre- sent to us a salutary warning. The man that wrongs his master and his friend, What can he come to but a shameful end ? "Mr. IIallam will delineate a young and thoughtless officer, who is traduced by Mr. Allyn, and, getting drunk, loses his situation and his general's esteem. All young men whatsoever, take example from Cassio. The ill effects of drinking would you see ? IJe warned, and keep from evil company. RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 271 " Mr. Morris will represent nn oUl gentleman, the father of Desdcinona, who 13 not cruel or covetous, but is foolish enough to dislike the nohlc Moor, his son-in-law, because his face is not white, forgetting that wo all spring from one root. Such prejudices arc very numerous and very wrong. Fathers beware what sense and love ye lack, 'Tis crime, not color, makes the being black. " Mr. Qualch will depict a fool, who wishes to become a knave, and trusting to one, gets killed by him. Such is the friendship of rogues — take heed. When fools would knaves become, how often you'll I'erceive the knave not wiser than the fool. "Mrs. M0UR13 will represent a young and virtuous wife, who being wrongfully suspected, gets smothered (in an adjoining room) by her hus- band. Reader, attend ; and e'er thou goest hence Let fall a tear to hapless innocence. " Mrs. Docolas will be her faithful attendant, who will hold out a good example to all servants, male and female, and to all people in subjection. Obedience and gratitude Are things as rare as they are good. " Various other dialogues, too numerous to mention hero, will be deliv- ered at night, all adapted to the improvement of the mind and manners. The whole will be repeated on Wednesday and Saturday, Tickets six shillings each, to be had within. Commencement at 7, (inclusion at half- past 10, in order that every spectator may go home at a sober hour, and reflect upon what he has seen before he retires to rest God save the king, And long may he sway East, North, and South, And fair America." CHAPTER XII. Undertaking Management. — Supplies Needed. — Visit to England. — Irish Fishcnren. — Proposals and Refusals. — Final Engagements. — Monk Lewis's Irish Friend.-»-Caulfield. — Transport Arrangements. — A Bath Greeting. — The Theatrical Fund. — Story of a Landlord's Retort. — Whiteley and Macklin. — Bowles's IIoa.x.— Rolling in Riches. — A Frozen Sheep. — A Russian Tool. — Tragedy of an Actor's Life. — Mr. Will- iams. — Marriage. — Departure. — A P'riendly Foe. — Voyage. — Arrival in Boston. After nine years' pleasant experience in America as a successful actor I had determined to try my fate as a manager, and agreed to take a third share of the Boston Theatre, in conjunction with Powell & Dickinson. But to lease a theatre was but a small part of the business; we needed actors and actresses, scenery, dresses, etc., sucli as could not be found on this side of the Atlantic, and it was, therefore, resolved that I should proceed to England to obtain all that was required; a task not with- out its difficulties, as my narrative will show. I left Boston in April, 1800, and after a three weeks' prosper- ous voyage found myself once more near the Irish coast. The first sight which impressed me with the fact that I was "home" again was a battered, patchcd-up fishing- smack, with a solitary sail, consisting of as many pieces and colors as a New England farmer's counterpane, and manned by three tatterdemalions, who might well have served as scarecrows. On hailing this precious craft, she came alongside, and, assuming the best brogue I could, I addressed myself to the helmsman : "How is it wid you, darlint?" RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 2^3 " Better than it was, and not so well as it may be," was the reply. "What luck since you left shore?" I continued. "Bad enough; we've eat all the fish we caught and a dale more — let alone the praties." "But have you any garden fruit left — any raal apri- cots, now?" "Oh, bushels, delight to you! you've only to open your mouth and they'll find their way into it." As we had exhausted our stock of potatoes some days ago, a supply of this vegetable, and from their favorite soil, proved very acceptable, and I gave the Hibernian a quart of rum in return for a bushel of his "praties," The man thought himself so liberally paid in this ex- change that he warmly expressed his gratitude, and then added : "But you are an Irishman, dare; where does your family come from?" 'Limerick," replied I. "Limerick! why, 'tis my own swate birthplace! Oh, I'll spake to you, darlint." Saying which, he prepared at once to run up the side of the vessel, when one of his companions caught him by the leg, exclaiming: "Stop, Patrick, stop! how do you know but what they will kidernapper you?" " Oh, bother," he replied, good-humoredly," and if they did kidernap me, they wouldn't kidernap the boat, you know\" Our Irish passenger being informed that a fellow-coun- tryman had come on board, came towards him with great eagerness, and a dialogue ensued as to what the fisherman would ask for landing the other on the Irish coast, which he would prefer to proceeding with the ship to Liverpool. "Will I take you to land?" said the fisherman. "Sure 12* 274 IlETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. an' I will. I wouldn't take you to the bottom under double price. There's Phelini, Teddy, and myself — three jinteel lads we're allowed to be — and as for Molly Mona- ghan, you shall say before you've gone a herrin's length on the water that she's the swatest craythur intirely you ever sailed with in your life." "And who's Molly Monaghan?" inquired the passenger. "Why, the smack, sure; we couldn't get ashore with- out her, you know. I call her Molly Monaghan after my first wife, to remimber me of her vartues." "And what terms do you want, countryman?" " Tarms! I'd rather have monev." " Well, money I mane." " Where did you come from, may I ax, when you was in Ireland? Cork, was it ? Well, then, if you had hap- pened to have come from Ballyshannon I'd have taken you all the way to land for nothing ; but if it's from Cork you came I couldn't do it for less than thra thirtaners." This offer being agreed to, the Irishman's trunks were thrown on board the smack, and he began to take leave of his fellow-passengers. One of them, an American, now asked the boatman if he never met with accidents in 80 shattered a boat. "Accidints! bless your honor," was the reply, "why, doesn't your honor see that bit of a horseshoe nailed under the bow?" "Aha; yes, I do." " Well, and did you ever hear of a fisherman's smack that met with misfortin when he had a nevc-r-worn horse- shoe nailed to his bows?" This question, involving more familiarity with the de- tails of nautical disasters than the Yankee possessed, com-- pletely puzzled him. " But," he at length resumed, " I calculate, friend, that your boat is very old." RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 075 " Old, sure enough, is she, hut that only makes her the more exi)arienced, you know. Molly and I were launched the same summer, and that's thirty-nine year ago, come next M«ay, and we both get the wiser as we grow oulder. AVhat did she or I know about fislung or sailing when we were both youngsters?" " Nay, but I think you must allow that the older a ves- sel grows, she grows the more dangerous." " Well, your honor, and if so?" "Then, I reckon, you encounter some toughish weather off this foreland sometimes?" "Ah, and you may say that, honey." "Well, friend, I should like to know why you think it worth while every day to run such a risk of death?" " Why, your honor, isn't it for a livin', to be sure." Two days after this we ran into Liverpool, and after purchasing a variety of articles for the theatre, to be sent off at once to Boston, I made my way to the metropolis. On visiting Drury Lane and the Ilaymarket, I liked Messrs. Rae and Bartley sufficiently to address them on the subject of a trip to America, which, however, both declined; and I then wrote to Dublin to Miss Walstein, Mrs. Edwin, and Montague Talbot. At Covent Garden Mr. Harris received me very kindly, congratulating me on the success I had met with in America, though he added, as he shook his head significantly, that I had marred my fortunes in quitting England. He even of- fered me such liberal terms to make my reappearance be- fore the London public that, had I been free, I could hardly have refused; but, as it was, this was out of the question. Disappointed again in my applications to Dub- lin, owing to the disinclination of one performer and the exorbitant demands of another (he actually wanted twenty pounds a week — modest in the extreme!), I now made overtures to Mr. and Mrs. IL Johnson, and everything 270 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. was settled except signing the articles, "when tlie lady was persuaded to give up the design and declare off, where- upon her husband came to me in a great passion, very honorably offering to proceed to America directly and keep his own word with me, although his wife had for- feited hers. I could not, however, tliink of separating man and wife, when, too, they had good jirospects in their own country. At last I succeeded in engaging Cipriani, the "Clown," who was recommended to me by my old friend, Macready;* and I also came to an agreement with Mrs. Stanley (otherwise the Honorable Mrs. Twisleton) to support the leading characters of comedy and tragedy. During this time I had daily invitations to go abroad, but, apart from my professional duties, only found leisure to cultivate one acquaintance, that of a young lady named Wright, to whom I had been lately introduced, and whose person and manners so charmed me that I determined to try and induce her to return with me as a governess for my motherless children. Among other invitations at this period Andrew Cherry asked me to dine with him, and brought together a host of old companions to meet me — Incledon, John Emery, Macready, Johnny Quick, and several others. When the bottle began to circulate we amused each other with in- dulging in recollections of our early life — " Every Man in his Humor" — some of which recollections may perhaps bear repetition. Quick told us that during his strolling days the company in which he was enrolled had, on one occasion, proceeded to a miserable village which, proving incapable of supporting them, they soon ran up a longer bill inside the landlord's bar than the one they had hung or his door. As they seemed to have no means of diov-iiJ,rging this, since, however there might be a slight * William Macready, the father of William Charles Macready. THE nON. MRS. TWISLETON (aFTKUWARDS MRS. STASLKT). Krom the Monthly Mirror, Luiiiloii, Aiiril, 1*i'6. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 277 vein of brass in their foreheads, tlierc was certainly neither silver nor gold in their pockets, the host came to the con- clusion that — as sometimes with man as witli the elephant, the trunk may be the most valuable part — he must look to the goods of the company as an indemnification for their evil. At length Quick and his companions gave out, with much literary pomposity," The Tragedy of Macbeth, with all the Original Music," in hopes of inducing a live- lier attendance from the inhabitants of the place. How- ever, when the night arrived, but few peoi)le dropped into the room, and they were again disappointed. Still the play proceeded, and without interruption, till they came to the music of " We Fly by Night." No sooner did the Avords reach the ear of the perturbed landlord, who was sitting at the end of the room ruminating on what must be the end of the matter, than he started up in surprise, listened an instant to the reiterated, " We Fly by Night, We Fly by Night" — then, catching the notes, responded to the same tune with a grim smile of satisfaction, "And I'll stop your trunks ! I'll stop your trunks !" On calling in at one of the theatrical houses to make an inquiry, I accidentally encountered another old acquaint- ance, Mr. llobert Bowles. Poor Bob was a most original and extraordinary eccentric. Twenty years had passed over since he and I had parted at Dublin, and Bob had somewhat declined into the vale of years, but still retained all the frolicsome and facetious character of his disposi- tion. It happened that I had just received an invitation from Cartwright (of the musical glasses) to dine with him at Richmond, with a request that I would bring a friend with me, and, as among the company I knew that I should meet Mr. Monk Lewis, Kemblo, Cherry, Harry Johnston, and some others who would be disposed to be convivial, I conceived that my comic friend. Bob Bowles, would prove an agreeable addition to their number. He was in 278 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. higli spirits, and proved, as I had expected, tlic chief source of amusement for the evening^. Among other of his recollections he related an affair in which I had been a participator. On his first visit to Plymouth Dock (about IVSO) he found a very dashing innkeeper there of the name of Rogers, who, from being fond of theatricals him- self, induced the actors to make his house their rendez- vous. Frank Rogers, as he was familiarly called, though a bustling and conversable man, was extremely weak and credulous, too much so for his own interest, considering the business in which he was engaged. Having taken a great liking to Bowles's company during the season, Frank, on some occasion, promised him a supper, which promise, liowever, on some pretence or another, he had evaded ful- filling. Bowles, however, did not forget it, and when the comedy of the " Bold Stroke for a Wife " was about to be performed, during rehearsal he took up a letter from the prompter's table which was intended to be delivered to Obadiah Prim, and the chief contents of which ran thus: "Friend, there is a design formed to rob thy house and to cut thy throat this night," etc., etc. This let- ter Bob secreted, and then sent, duly directed, to Frank Rogers. The latter, unfortunately among other youthful neglects, had paid so little attention to what he called "spelling and scrawling," that, though capable of sug- gesting a bill with any innkeeper in the county, he was quite unable to draw one out, and found it not very easy even to read handwriting. Bowles, therefore, who took care to follow immediately after the delivery of this letter, found Rogers, as he had expected, puzzling himself might- ily to decipher it, and at his request took it from him, and read it out with a distinct voice and a seemingly thunderstruck countenance. " Oh," exclaimed Rogers, " they are coming at last, are they? I've been threatened by the rascals a long time. Friend Bowles, what would RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 279 you have me do in this situation? liad I better got a guard from the garrison, or lialf a dozen constables to sit up and receive these ruffians ?" " Why," said Bowles, " in my opinion, either of those plans would make the matter public, and then the thieves would perhaps defer their visit. What firearms have you in the house ?" "Why, two fowling-pieces," replied Frank, "besides my duck-gun, which carries fifty buckshot; but then I could borrow a couple of guns from my neighbors without suspicion." "Well, then," continued Bowles, "the best thing you can do, my dear Frank, will be to invite half a dozen friends to sit up with you on this occasion, and give the rogues a warm reception when they come." In this plan Rogers coincided heartily, and Bowles un- dertook to bring the friends, while Frank employed him- self in procuring arms and ammunition, and in preparing a good supper. Bowles thus found that he had carried his first point — a supper — but he had now a second in view — the hoax, which, of the two, was to him infinitely the more agreeable. Among the companions he procured for this purpose I was one, and we were all soon put up to his roguery, and resolved upon a piece of good acting throughout the evening. The supper Frank prepared for us was excellent, and wine and punch were abundantly provided in order that our courage, by sufficient libations, should be exalted to its very highest pitch. Bowles, who had the loading of the guns, of course omitted putting in the bullets, and each man being then provided with his piece, examined and placed it beside him with military precision. An hour or two passed over very pleasantly; but when twelve o'clock struck we agreed to remain silent, and only fill our glasses at a nod from the chairman. Ev- ery footstep that went by was now felt to bo a robber's. 280 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. Frank would start up, exclaiming in a ■svhispcr: *• Stand to your guns, my boys ! Here they e-omo." Whereupon all of us would seize our weapons, and hold ourselves in readiness, Bowles catching up the long duck-gun, ham- mering the Hint with his knife, calling in sujipressed tones for the powder-ilask, till the noise had gone by, when wc all returned softly to our seats, and emptied our glasses in silence. Kow it hapj)ened that on this evening a stranger, who, when he had arrived in IMymouth, had put up at Frank's house, having been out to pay a visit, had de- layed his return so long that he did not get back before one in the morning. On reaching the inn he knocked pretty loudly at the front door; but Kogers having sent all the servants to bed with strict injunctions not to stir until morning, the summons, of course, met with no atten- tion. The noise, however, put us on our guard. At length, deserving through the crevices of the window a liijht in the parlor in which we were sitting, the stranger came and thumped there as loudly as he had done before. In a moment we were all on our legs, with our guns levelled in the direction of the sound. "What do you want?" demanded the landlord, in the gruffest and most intimidating tone he could assume. " Want? why, to come in, to be sure !" replied the voice outside. " I dare say you do," said Frank; " but you'll get a brace of bullets through your skull for your pains, and so 1 warn you." "A brace of bullets through my skull! and what for?" was the astonished rejoinder. "What for! what for?" repeated Rogers, losing all command of his temper, *'why, you throat-cutting rascal, because you want to break in and plunder my house, cer- tainly. Don't try to impose upon me! I know all about you and your designs; and now — I warn you — here's my- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 281 Rolf and a dozen friends, armed with guns and bliinder- buHses, and if you and your -whole gang don't decamp immediately, d — n me (with great emphasis), but wc will blow you all into atoms, and cut you into mincemeat." The stranger, though no doubt somewhat sui'prised, took the hint thus gently conveyed, and departed. In this manner we continued our foolery till daybreak, when Rogers announced to the family, in great triumph, that the house had been assaulted during the night by a gang of bold, bloodthirsty thieves, and that we had suc- cessfully repulsed tliem ! Bowles was a great romancer, but the most humorous in his nonsense I ever listened to. When a young man he had accompanied old Fisher, the manager, out to St. Petersburg, with some other performers, to establish an English theatre there under the especial patronage of the Empress Catherine, and under the title of " Russian Recol- lections" often gave us some extraordinary anecdotes of his stay in that country. "In St. Petersburg," said he, "for the first time in my life I rolled in riches. And how do you think that was? Why, on my benefit night I re- ceived a blanket full of roubles, which I ordered a couple of porters to carry home and lay on the lloor, when I pulled off my coat and tumbled about in them until bed- time." Speaking of the cold in Russia, he observed that it was so intense that in crossing a field one day in the course of a walk, he espied several sheep frozen to death, and one in particular sitting on its hams in the act of nibbling something from a bush. " This sheep I accidentally struck with my stick, and it flew to pieces like a glass bottle !" He then gave us a long description of Russian ships, pointing out several niceties of art in their build, but seri- ously aftirming in conclusion that they were constructed entirely with one single tool. Cartwright thereupon in- 282 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. quired what that tool might bo. Bowles replied that it was a sort of hatchet. *' Ali, then," said Cartwright, with a good-humored shako of the head, "they will never build another ship, l>ob." " Why not?" inquired Bowles. "Be- cause you have brought away the hatchet with you !" Meeting one day a Mr. AVilliams, of Philadelphia, whom I had known there as a gentleman of great talent and rc- spcc^^ability, I found he was now in partnership in London with his brother. lie told mo also that he had a seliooner just re«ady to leave ])ort, in which he meant to embark for America in pursuit of a vessel belonging to the firm, which had been run away with by the captain and crew, and as he should carry out no freight he ofTcred to transport to Boston all the company and the luggage I was returning with free of all expense. Unluckily for me my previous arrangement at Bristol precluded me from availing my- self of this generous offer. I have little more to say of the remainder of my stay in England. I made no further engagements except one with Mr. llatton, of the Ilaymarket, whom I saw perform a character in the farce of " The Finger-Post," in a broad style of low comedy^ much to my satisfaction. As he was not able to accompany me, he agreed to follow me to Bos- ton at the termination of his present engagement, and he proved to be an extraordinary personage. I now de- spatched Mrs. Stanley and Cipriani, Messrs. Caulfield, Vi- ning, and Vigors to Bristol, took leave of all my friends (save one), and, having shaken their hands, prevailed on this one — the fair ]\Iiss Wright — to bestow hers upon me, at St. James's Church, for I had soon discovered her fitness to be something more than a governess to my children. Until that morning she had never seen me by daylight, since, having no longer the advantage of youth in my endeavors to render myself agreeable, I bad never paid my visits to her until after dark and in evening dress. RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 283 As, liowcvei", exposure to sniilijjjht wrought no change in lier sentimentH, I tlius secured a good mother for my little family, and for myself an amiable and beloved companion for the rest of my days. Finding everything ready for our de|)arture on arriving at Bristol, wc embarked inmiediatelv and set forth on one of the longest and most disagreeable voyages I ever expe- rienced. When about fifty miles at sea we were boarded and inspected by a French frigate, but as wc were sailing in an American bottom, and as, too, by a lucky chance, tho commanding officer, having resided t'iO winter before at Boston, recognized with great friendliness "/e come- (?lyanthus, Boston, 1806. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 285 Caulfickl. To this singularly accomplished and ill-fated actress it is but meet that I should devote a few words as to one who, in her time, excited so much both of })leasuro and of regret in the minds of others. Of her merits only, however, shall I speak here — of her fate liereafter. In the course of my professional career it was my chance to see three elegant actresses, Mrs. Abingdon, Miss Farren, and Mrs. Stanley. The first showed most the tone of high life in lier acting, but I have been told by those well competent to judge that this was chiefly due to its ease, dash, and animation. The second was perhaps the more fascinating, her chief charm being an easy simplicity, combined Avith a bewitching playfulness; but the third was more intuitively elegant than either. She had not the vis comica of Mrs. Abingdon, nor tlie fascination of Miss Farren, but then she had the manners — of Mrs. Stan- ley. In one respect, indeed, she lell far short of her rivals, for her voice had not the flexibility or music of either; but in another point again she surpassed them — yes, even surpassed Miss Farren! — in her person. I know not that her features were as regular as that lady's, but their cx- p..ession was much more beautiful; and if a form, rather exceeding the medium height, but moulded in the most symmetrical proportions and j)crfect in every respect most insisted upon by the fvnatomical co)inoisscur — if this, I say, could merit to bo called loveliness, then might IMrs. Stan- ley claim the term. Any similarity which might be traced in IMrs. Abingdon and Miss Farren when performing the same characters was owing rather to constitution than to cultivation, nat- ure having cast them both in nearly the same mould, though art liad wrought great differences; but between Mrs. Abingdon and jNIrs. Stanley there were few if any striking points of resemblance. The first was the more natural, for she faithfully depicted life as it was, whik) 286 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. the other had the exquisite fault of attempting to show what it ought to be. Her chef-iVmuvre was tlie Widow Bchnour; her rival's, Lady Betty Modish; but a more op- posite contrast cannot be selected than the characters of Lady Townley and Lady Grace, with which, if my reader ■will identify Mrs. Abingdon and Mrs. Stanley, he will per- ceive at once the difference of their styles and the beau- tiful illustration which Gibber intended of fashionable and reiined life. Both actresses enjoyed intercourse Avith the higher orders of society in England, but Mrs. Stanley was the only one of her profession that was ever admitted to the Pump Rooms at Bath, a distinction which many of the sisterhood envied and sought after, but none other at- tained. Caulfield* was very well received in America. He was by no means an original actor, since he plagiarized from Kemble and others in the same manner that Ilarwood did from John Bannister; but as in each instance this was very cleverly done, and as the Americans had not had the pleasure of seeing either of the originals, they considered both actors to be not only very good, but very genuine. As regards little Yining, the singer, he quite answered my expectations. As soon as I became comfortably settled in my new residence I had visits and invitations from all quarters. To a friendly summons from General Humphreys — one of the most sincere and valuable friends I had met with in the States — I attended the first. This gentleman, in addi- tion to his military and diphuiiatic abilities, had also dis- tinguished himself in the region of poetry and the drama. His pooms are well known, but I have omitted to mention that on my proceeding to England I took with me a com- * Mr. CAt '.FIELD was an actor of general utility, good in everything, but in notliing ^'^at. lie appeared at the Park Theatre, New York, daring the season of 1813-14, uud died in Cindnuati iu the following year. MR. CAri.KIELD. From Parson's " Minor Tlii'iitre," London, 1794. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 287 edy of bis writings for the perusal of a London manager, •\vhicli, but for a trivial localism in the plot, bad sufficient merit to bavc been ])rougbt before the public. Many years previously be bad produced a clever tragedy en- titled " Tbe Widow of Malabar." At bis table I met with several agreeable people, and a good deal of original anec- dote circulated. The general (who was an ardent lover of the.itric Js and in tbe habit of dropping in to an entertainment wherever he met with one) gave us an amusing account of an ex- hibition at which he had been present, many years before, in the interior of Virginia. One day, seeing a ])lay-bill pasted up on a post in some village, announcing that the tragedy of "Romeo and Ju- liet " would be performed in the evening, at tbe Tavern Assembly Rooms, interspersed with a variety of music and dancing, the whole to conclude Avith "the celebrated song of 'Yankee Doodle,'" he could not resist the opportunity of attending and becoming acquainted with the state of theatricals in the back countries. The price of admission was very low, but when he entered he found only about twenty people assembled, sitting on chairs and benches before the dirty green rag which hung across the room at the other end to conceal the dramatic paraphernalia. The band consisted of a man with a drum and a little boy with a " wry-necked fife," who prefaced the entertainment by playing a not very melodious tune. The tragedy then commenced. As the curtain drew up, discovering, for scenery, a very mean chamber, Romeo came forward alone, and began repeating what from its length and character was evidently two or three dozen speeches compounded into one, pretending during the recital to address himself in turn to the different personages who ought to have been with him on the stage. This rather original idea proved not a very satisfactory one to the audience, and at 288 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. lcni:;tli finding this to be the case, he very abruptly broke oflP his speecli and broke into a hornpipe, to which the fife set up an car -piercing accompaniment. After getting liimself into a thorough pers})iration with this exercise, he shuffled off, Avitlj about as little elegance as it could be supposed that a Komeo could display. Juliet now made her appearance at the opposite side, and went through a scene sohis in exactly similar style to that of her lover. The audience were thus, at length, made fully aware of the singular fact that Komeo and Ju- liet were not only the principal actors in this tragedy, but on the ]»resent occasion were the only ones. Juliet's con- versations with invisible companions being, however, also too mysterious and imaginative for the spectators, in ad- dition to being slightly prolix, they manifested fresh signs of impatience. Tiie lady was equal to the occasion, for, taking the hint at once, and quitting blank verso for rhyme, she soared into a song, which, though very gen- teel, was, for the greater relief after previous tediousness, executed with such rapidity that the drum and fife (ras- cally attendants on such sweet sounds) followed after at some distance with what should have been the accompani- ments, thumping and squeaking with all their might in vain attempts to overtake the fair singer. On reaching the end of her own part of this performance she made her exit, like the swan, in the midst of melody, leaving the farmers an interval in which they might " calculate " the degree of merit she had displayed. Thus concluded the first act. In the second the interest might fairly be said to double, seeing that the two performers came on the stage together instead of singly, Romeo leading Juliet for- ward as though to bear witness of the truth of the story which he then pithily epitomized for the enlightenment of the audience, telling how they two had fallen in love with each other, and so into trouble also, and how that RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 289 they were very unfortunate, and had, therefore, made up their minds that as they coukln't live with each other tliey were resolved to die with each other. This appeal to the sympathies and sensibilities of the audience was not in vain, for eves bei'an to he rubbed and noses blown to some purpose. Then, at length, monologue became dia- logue, and speech rose into action at the parting of the lovers previous to their commission of the dreadful act of self-destruction, which, being found to be affecting in the extreme, was protracted for about half an hour, while they blubbered together like hungry children crying for bread and butter, and uttered with every variety of pathetic emphasis a long catalogue of ohs! ahs! and alases! duly chorused by the pitying spectators. The " last scene of all " that came to close " this strange, eventful history," was a truly horrifying one, for when the curtain drew up it discovered the unhappy lovers ly- ing dead on the stage locked in each other's arms. Kow, it being believed that the performers enacting Romeo and Juliet were bona fide man and wife, what would have seemed to them otherwise the indelicacy of such an ex- hibition did not shock the worthy rustics, but this only left them the more freely and fully under the influence of its intense lachrymoseness. The drum and fife, too, were all the while exciting and keeping up the dismalness of the scene by playing throughout some dead march or shrieking dirge, shrill enough to have buried a wind with, and which quite answered the desired end. The audience were suffered to gaze on this spectacle — or rather upon this pair of spectacles — for a period of about ten minutes, when the curtain closed down upon the unfortunate bodies, in the imaginations of most i)res- ent cutting them off henceforth from the world as com- pletely as though it had been a coffin lid. Some in the room, however, either less deeply affected or imbued with 13 290 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. truer spirits — rough-coatctl patriots with sound cores, who felt that let who will die the country survives — began to kick on the floor and call loudly in a fit of enthusiasm for the national sonir with which it had been announced the whole was to terminate. Obedient to their summons Ro- meo forthwith ran forward and bowed, to the great sur- prise and severe disappointment of the damsels, at least, who had given him credit for being really dead, but whose smiling appearance gave proof that his ten min- utes' nap on the floor had rather tended to the invigora- lion of his faculties than their dissolution. The band striking up briskly with the tune, he began his ditty, sang twenty verses through without stopping (repeating every second verse again), then drawing his breath went on for another fifteen, but with rather less spirit; halted again to take in a fresh atmospheric supply, then, but with ditti- culty, added another ten, making in all forty-five. Here he appeared perfectly exhausted, in memory as well as windpipe, and it was only after making two or three pan- tomimical gesticulations that he found sufficient air in his bellows (as Voltaire vulgarly calls it) and sufticicnt words in his cranium to acquaint the audience that that was all he knew of the song, but that if they would like to have any more, his wife (the dead Juliet behind the scenes) w^ould come on wdth pleasure and favor tlieni with seven- ty-three verses more. This information had an electrical effect upon the whole body spcctatorial. Love of country and love of song alike fled before it. If a dead lover could get through forty-five verses with so much spirit, thought they, a re- suscitated w'oman with seventy-three more was beyond what mortal patience could endure. Romeo could not have given them a better hint to " avatait,^^ for, hardly staying to say, *' No, thank you," they clapped their hats on their heads and their damsels under their arms, and departed from the room with the utmost expedition. RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 291 It was with great expectations that I had omharked my capital in the JJostoii Theatre,* for Powell had cleared during the preceding season upward of ten thousand dol- lars, and I had most potential friends in the city to sup- port me both as an actor and a manager. The season began prosperously enough, holding out great prospects of success before its close; but ere three months had rolled over our lieads it seemed as though misfortune, owing me a grudge perhaps for my previous ten years' successes, had determined to overtake me. The Embargo and Non-importation acts coming into force, Boston, as a great commercial seaport, was at once vitally affected. Trade was checked, the amount of money in circulation diminished, bankruptcies became general, living grew dear, and families of all ranks ■were obliged to retrench. That s'iperabundancc of cash ^vhich, \vhen it was plenti- ful, had been devoted to amusement, forming now but part of a mere sufficiency to pay necessary expenses, was, as it were, drawn out of our treasury. The theatre, de- pendent as it was upon a state of circumstances similar to those of preceding years, was, of course, importantly af- fected by the change. For that winter our prospects were entirely ruined; nor was the shock recovered from to any beneficial extent for the four succeeding ones dur- ing which I was connected with this theatre. Since, from the above causes, the public were less ready to support us than they had heretofore been, wc Avere obliged to put forth as much novelty as possible in our performances. "Cinderella" — the scenery and machin- ery for which, as I have mentioned, I had brought with mo at a great expense from London — was a sure card for * The Boston Theatre, on Fecleriil Street, was built in 1 794. It was de- stroyed by fire, and, being rebuilt in 1798, remained the most important theatre in Boston until the opening of the Trcmont Theatre in 1S27. It was fmallv demolished in 1852. 292 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. the close of tlie season. In addition we had some come- dies and farces in rehearsal, which, from the strength of our cor])S, we could cast very efTectivcly, especially as we received two or three accessions to our conij^an}-. Among these I must mention Mr. and Mrs. Usher, both clever ])eo|)le, though little known. The theatre, too, at this time had an excellent friend in K. T. Paine, Esq., whose dramatic criti(|ucs were looked upon as the oracles of the day, and who lent his aid very efficiently in direct- ing public attention to the well-founded claims we put forth for supi)ort. We were accustomed to say that " whenever one of uur stage pieces went oif, the audience felt the flash, and Paine made the report. I heard at this time of the death, at New York, of that clever actress, jNIrs. Jones, whom I had engaged to Mr. Harris at a salary of £10 a Avoek and upAvard for three years. She was a better comedian of the stylo of Mrs. Jordan than any I had seen in London. A letter was forwarded to me which she had written to mc when she found that her illness Avas assuming a fatal aspect, tender- ing me her thanks for my interference in her behalf, now frustrated by her untimely decease, and begging me not to forget her children, her husband having died a month or two previous in that theatrical burial-place, Charleston. In conjunction Avith my partners I accordingly gave the little orphans a benefit, the receipts from Avhich yielded |>7G0; and, as a proof of the great estimation in Avliich this fascinating actress Avas held throughout the States, benefits Averc also accorded to her children at Ncav York, Charleston, and Philadelphia. Fennell now arrived in Boston on a visit, avoAA'cdly to see some salt-works near Portsmouth, but he hinted to several friends a Avish to perform. AVhat a Avhirligig, Aveathercock fellow Avas that Fennell ! I told him that it Avas lucky for him he had such a spouse as the profession RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 293 to furnish him -with fiiiuls, when he had so many mistress- cs in liis si)ecuhitive fancies to squander tliem away upon. I met him at a party at the house of my friend and medi- cal attendant, Dr. Jeffries, the gentleman who years be- fore had crossed from Dover to Calais in a balloon, in company Avith a French emigrant. Whenever this cir- cumstance -was recalled, the doctor used to shake his head good- humoredly, and rej)ly: *'Ah, of all my youthful llightinesses, that is the only flight of which I am ashamed to be reminded." About Christmas, when the theatres in the States, even during prosperous seasons, do little more than pay their expenses, Coojx'r arrived in town from New York, where he was now manager, on purpose to engage Mrs. Staidey. lie proposed playing six nights at Boston for a benefit, and my proceeding to New York to do the like, to which I agreed, and accordingly he opened in Ilamlct at my house the same night that I did in Lord Ogleby at his theatre. The exchange, I think, answered the expecta- ti-^ns of both parties. On my return to Boston I found that Caulfield had not played during Cooj)er's nights, and on inquiry learned that this was due to two causes — his love of his profession, which would not suffer him to ac- knowledge the dramatic superiority of another, and Ids love of company, which was beginning to render him re- gardless of anything else, even of this very profession. This was very injurious both to himself and his manager, but it was hardly surprising, for Caulfield was specially qualified to render himself agreeable at table. lie was a good mimic and a humorist; his memory abounded with facetious anecdotes both of the stage and of private life, and he had a pleasant, mellow-toned voice that was heard to great advantage in a chand)er. There was, indeed, a spirit and an expression in his singing rarely to be met with, and which rendered his Anacreontic songs, in par- 294 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. ticular, very cliarming. On one occasion I remember he especially surprised and delighted me during our voyage, when we were driven by adverse winds into the Bay of Biscay and there becalmed for several days. One beauti- ful, still, moonlight evening, when we were all on deck enjoying the scene, watching the shores of France in the distance and the white sails here and there dancing in the moonbeams, Caulfield suddenly sprang forward and be- gan that favorite sea-song which took its title from the place where we lay — " The Bay of Biscay." I had heard Incledon and several other celebrities sing it before, but whether it was from the circumstance of the locality and the train of feelings aroused by the scene, or, as I am in- clined to belijve, far more from the exquisite expression Caulfield threw into the song, I was never before so af- fected by a piece of music. When he had finished, Mrs. Stanley turned to me with a smile and observed : " If Mr. Caulfield can speak on the stage as Avell as he sings here, you have indeed n, valuable acquisition." When we landed in Boston I was induced, for the above reasons, to take Caulfield Avith me on the first club night, to the "St. Cecilia," a musical society which I had been instrumental in founding, and where he became a great favorite Avith all the members. Unhap])ily, however, what was intended for his benefit had an injurious effect. In- troduced into better society than he had ever been accus- tomed to in his own country; finding money, wine, and amusement abundant, his head grew giddy with pleasure and success; and wanting judgment to impose restraint upon indulgence, he, by degrees, grew indifferent to his professional duties and forgetful of the respect he owed both to the public and to himself. I have mentioned this particularly in order that I may remark, from my own experience in America, that the fate of Caulfield is but an instance of that of half the profession besides, who RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 295 have come over and died in the very prime and vigor of their lives, owing to having given way to pernicious hab- its. It is wholly unknown and un imagined in England how vast a number of meritorious actors have, within this last twenty years, mingled their dust with the soil of the American States. I do not speak of performers who have appeared in the metropolis and thus become partially known to the British public in general; but I allude sole- ly to those who have poured over from Bristol, Liverpool, and Ireland, young and unknown in the profession, and "who, after careering for a limited hour indeed of success, have been gathered untimely into " the tomb of all the Capulets." But to return to Caulfield. As Mrs. Stanley wished to perform Jane Shore as cne of her tragic characters at Boston, I had given him the part of Lord Hastings to study during our passage. Supposing, therefore, that at this late day ho must be quite prepared, we, without hesi- tation, announced that tragedy as soon as I returned from New York. Much to our surprise we found tliat he knew little or nothing of the character, and came to a distress- ing standstill in several passages. When left to his solil- oquy at Gloster's exit, he remembered but a lino here and there of that admirable climax, and began with a deal of solemn, slow pomposity, in order most likely to give him- self time to rocollect. The scene went on somethinij as follows : Caulfield. — "I — know — the — Duke — is {to thcprompt- cr)— what ?" pEOMrTER. — \\i:!ldspcring\ : " Noble." Caulfield. — ^^ Noble? — noble {to the 2))'07U])tcr); well ?" Peompter. — " But he touched me — " Caulfield. — "But he toxched me (to the 2)rompter) \ where?" Peompter. — " On the tenderest point — " 296 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Caulfield. — "On the tendcrest part — no! point." Prompteu. — "The master string — " Caulfield. — "The master's string — the string — tbo master — that makes music — music — master — " Here the prompter grew bcAvildered, and Caulfield, in a fit of inspiration continued: "Music — music has charms to soothe — the Duke — d — n him! — here he comes again." [Exit in a lairry. Charles Powell, my old Taunton acquaintance, and the original Boston manager, came to me on a visit from Hali- fax, where he had established a theatre under the patron- age of II. R. II. the Duke of Kent, and played a few parts, in Avhicli lie was well received. When he dined with me we had a pleasant conversation upon past times when we had spouted and strolled together in the reckless but ambitious days of boyhood. As he was dwelling on his present matrimonial felicity I asked him if he remem- bered the first " bone of his bone " whom he had taken unto himself about thirty years previously, and whose former name had been Mrs. Skin. " Flesh and blood. Jack" (his favorite oath), "to be sure I do," was his ap- I)ropriate reply. For a month after Christmas a great deal of domestic amusement was going forward in Boston — parties, balls, and concerts — and the theatre suffered in consequence; but this was inevitable. I, too, had a variety of invita- tions ; among others one to the British consul's, Mr. A. Allen, wliere I was introduced to General Sheaf (who afterwards rendered me many attentions in Canada) and shook hands with Mrs. Morton, the poetess. When the conversation turned on professional topics Fennell was spoken of, and in a strain which informed mo that he was in request, though I knew at the same time that the pub- lic were less desirous of supporting him than formerly. A few days after, on receiving a letter from him propos- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 297 ing an engagement, we concliKlecl one witli Lim on safe terms for a limited number of nights. His ])resent ap})li- cation was caused by bis complete embarrassment at New London, where his salt works had again failed in toto. This was the fourth of his salt speculations that had fallen to the ground, yet ho seemed to deny by his conduct the truth of the old saying that "experience teaches." There was, I thought, a species of lunacy in this, for the folly of undertaking such schemes did not ap})ear more obvious than the madness of continuing them; and the ingenious scheme he devised to escape from the difficulties in which they had involved him would hardly perhaps be accepted as a proof of perfect sanity. When I asked him how he had contrived to pacify his creditors at New London, he related to me that on the Sabbath before he quitted the salt works — as they were getting clamorous for their money — he invited them all to assemble tliere to hear him deliver a discourse, promising that the doctrine there- in set forth would be very much to their satisfaction as well as his own. The congregation, though consisting merely of his creditors, proved to be a very large one. lie met them at the appointed time, and taking up his station at a point where he was conspicuous to all, he gave forth the text which he was about to expound : "Have patience and I will pay you all." This he divided into two heads — first, and most importantly — the virtue of patience; lastly and referentially — the act of paying. On this no doubt his auditors formed two conclusions: iirst, that to display the virtue of patience might be the best religion, but, secondly, that the act of paying was the most applicable to trade; and considering themselves primarily men of business they would regard tlie latter point (with all due deference to Fennell's opinion) as direct instead of referential, and by far the more impor- tant of the two. However, he proceeded with his cxposi- 13* 298 rtETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. tion, ])lacing patience at the head of the cardinal vir- tues, and giving it the pre-eminence over every quality which can adorn a man's character, every feeling which can animate his bosom; after eulogizing and apostrophiz- ing, commending and recommending it with all the glow- ing words and most beautiful images his florid fancy and learned brain could suggest (tliough from tlie uneasy man- ner in which his auditors all listened tlie doctrine was evi- dently doing very little for their conversion), he at length came to the second and far more attractive division of the text, " I will pay you all." Pronouncing these words with much emphasis, he looked them all in the face for a few moments in silence, then deliberately added, "but not being prepared to treat upon this point at present, I must defer the opportunity until it shall please Providence and the Boston managers to afford me another — " saying which he turned upon his heel and hurried from the spot. As I expected, his coming to the theatre was of no ma- terial benefit either to h, iself or the management. During the season we were joined by Miss Arnold,* a clever little .actress and singer who had lately married a Mr. Poe, whom we also engaged. There were a Mr. and Mrs. Shaw in the company at the time, and it was a stand- ing jest for these two couples to retort on each other by the use of their resjiectivc names — "Poh-Poh !" "Pshaw- Pshaw !" "Bachelors' Hall," the residence of some spirited, so- ciable young men of that day, in Boston, became this win- ter the scene of much mirth and conviviality. I attended two or three of their meetings in celebration of the pleas- * Mrs. Poe was a beautiful Englisli actress, who, as Elizabeth Arnold, fascinated David Poo, Jr., a law Btudent in Baltimore. Her husband abandoned his profcs.sion for hers. Mr. and Mrs. Toe acted together for several years. They died young and in poverty at Richmond, leaving three children, the second of whom was Edgar Allan Poc. RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 099 ures of celibacy, and to make merry over the miseries of matrimony, whereupon some of my "wortliy frieiuls used to remark tliat I (being a married man, and so happy a one) came tliere for my bane and went liome for my anti- dote. I really think, however, that the greatest amusement I had in Boston was derived from the colored people, as they call the free blacks, who mostly keep shops, or are waiters in gentlemen's houses. What particularly distin- guishes them is their ridiculous contempt for those of their own color who happen to be slaves, and their continual imitation in manners and sayings of the white people, with whom they affect to be upon an equality. Delayed in the street one day by some stoppage, I perceived, on turning round, a couple of colored people at my elbow. The ele- gant pomposity and affectation of breeding which they assumed towards each other i)leasantly contrasted with their version of the English language. " Ah, Massa Fred- erick," said the first speaker, " how a your honor do a-day?" "Mosh obliged, Sharley, berry well," was the reply, "got um catch-cold, dat's all." "How you lady, Massa Fred- erick ?" " Missee Frederick ? oh, she'm beautiful, so mosh you never can tink — she berry mosh so," "And how you little shild, Massa Frederick ?" " Oh, she charming; I tank you one thousand time — she'm dead!'''' On another occasion two ladies of this race met under my window and began their usual bombastic greetings with — " Miss Marie Caroline Henrietta, how your honor do dis day?" "I was, tank you. Miss Charlotte Teresa," replied her friend, "I was among de middlin'." "Yes," rejoined the other, " so Long Peter say, you very middlin' indeed." The emphasis with which this was pronounced raised the ire of the dark beauty, who forthwith declared, "Long Peter betta pay him debt afore um 'buse a lady what have been so good to him as mc have !" " You good 300 RETKOSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. to my Peter," exclaimed her rival in equal wrath — "den may devil take un bote !" ]»y this time a mob had drawn together to hear this scolding-match between the tender black virgins, which soon rose to a pitch no language but their own could describe. After the duel had contmued for some time, Miss Teresa gave a decisive blow by utter- ing a philippic of at least a minute's length, with such severity and so rapidly that it fairly took .away the breath of Miss Marie and struck her nearly speechless. At length, recovering a little, she seemed to put away her anger in a moment, and looking her adversary full in the face, made her a very low courtesy, said quite quietl}', " I dank ygu, madam, I owes you won," and walked slowly away. As the spring advanced I thought that a summer resi- dence a few miles out of Boston would prove agreeable, so drove my wife out to look at a little seat near Dor- chester, which was for sale, and which we so highly ap- proved of that I at once arranged for its purchase. The management at this time consented to give a night to the proprietors for the purpose of commencing a fund for lunatics. A good deal of pleasantry ^vas excited on this occasion. Fenncll, the greatest madman of whom I had any knowledge, spoke an ode to madness in very fine style, which some attributed to sympathy; but Caulfield was absent, on which Treat Paine* remarked that "he * RoiiKRT Tkeat Paine, Jr., born in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1773, was the second son and namesake of the signer of the Deohiration of In- dopendonce. After some expeiieiices as a merchant, and hiter as a lawyer, he became infatuated with the theatre, and determined to devote himself entirely to the drama and to dramatic literature. He was appointed "Master of Ceremonies" to the Boston Theatre, then a salaried position, and in 1795 married a Miss Boker, an English actress, and a member of the Boston Theatre Company. By this step he lost his social position, which had been a high one, and became estranged from his family. He lived latterly a reeklesa life, and died in 1811, a comparatively young man. wm. After KOUEUT TllKAT PAINK, JR. an enBraving published by Joslum Belcher, Boston, 1812. RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 301 was clcrancrcd iiulcctl, for this iiccjliGrcnec miglit exclude him from tlie benefit of tlie institution," To my musical friends and the members of the St. Ce- cilia I gave my concert at the conclusion of the season, which was numerously attended. General Sheaf even honored us by taking up the flute and performing several pieces Avitli great taste and execution. A Mr. Von Ilagen, a German of no small musical talent, presided at the })iano. lie was at this time organist at the Episcopal Church, and held in general estimation; though, soon afterwards fall- ing into irregular habits, he lost both his friends and his situation. Our leader in the orchestra was a Monsieur Mallet, an artiste, as he called himself, of not very striking ability, although, as in most such cases, inclined to think the contrary himself. Von llagen, meeting him one day in the street, held out his hand to him, and observed, with a good-humored smile: " I vas go to the theatre lasht night, Meister Mallet, to hear j'our new muzeek." ''.£7i bien,''^ said the Frenchman, "and how vas you pleased, sare?" " You was one great composer," continued Von llagen. " You zet all the beoples ashleep ! aha !" Mr. Mallet, starting from him with some indignation at such a witticism, retorted, as he thought, with this nnin- tentional compliment : " You vas much vorse, Monsieur Von llagen, aha ! much vorse. I was go to ze shursli ze oder day to hear you play von voluntary, and ven I vanted to go to sleep, aha ! — by gar — you — vould not let me !" He was a brilliant writer, and published most of his best work under his own name, Thomas Paine. But in 1801, to avoid being confounded with, and by, the autlior of the " Age of Reason," he petitioned the Legislature of Massachusetts to bo allowed to call himself Robert Treat Paine, Jr., on the ground that " Tom Paine was not a Christian name." 302 EETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. Tlic benefits now commenced, and went off with gen- eral success. Mrs. Stanley, by agreement, had two, one nominal and another in the regular course. CauHield, not- withstanding his truantism, had a very fair one; as did Fox and Dickenson; Mrs. Powell once more drew a bill on tlie public which they never failed to honor; and I my- self netted 81000, some compensation as an actor for the losses which I had sustained throughout the season as a manager. In despite of the various novelties we had brought forward and the very effective condition of the company, " Cinderella" was the only piece which repaid the expense of its production, the public, for reasons al- ready mentioned, finding themselves unable, rather than unwilling, to yield us the support we merited. As I knew circumstances would not permit me to pass the whole of the summer at "The Lodge," as I called my new residence, I thought of again visiting the north of New England on a lecturing tour, and arranged with Caul- field to accompany me, his style of singing and recitation rendering him a desirable coadjutor. The limit of our journey was to be AYiscasset, the extremest seaport of Maine, a part of the country over which I had travelled before. Our first halt was at Newburg Park, where I made out a bill containing many " provocatives " (to use a theatrical term), and where our expectations were answered. Passing on to Portsmouth, I stayed w''' Bernard at the residence of my friend, M. Casso, 1 ,ncli consul, who narrated to me some incidents Avhich add late- ly occurred in the town, and the simple pathos of which deeply impressed me. Sally AVeeks, an amiable and rather personable girl, in humble circumstances, was, a short time before, to have been united to her lover, a young sailor named William Day. This marriage, which had been settled with the concurrence of all their friends, was expected to result in RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 303 mucli ha]>pincss, as it had l)ccn prompted by but one mo- tive, that of pure, mutual all'ection. Their wedding-day was accordingly fixed, but on its morning, William, Avith some ac(piaintances, went on l>oard of liis vessel, then ly- ing in the oiling, to take leave of his old .shipmates, who expected to sail that evening. A bree/.e springing up, the ship was obliged to weigh anchor and proceed to sea, whereupon Day's companions got into their little skiff to return to shore. The captain, thinking her perha})S over- laden, as the sea was becoming very rough, would not al- low Day to accompany them, but insisted on his remain- ing on board until he could be put ashore somewhere down the coast. As had been fearfully anticipated, the skiff containing his unfortunate friends, when half-way to land, met a heavy sea and was swamped. Two of their bodies were picked up soon after on the beach, and from their fate that of William Day was surmised. With every ho])e thus ai)parently blighted when on the very eve of happiness, poor Sally was so affected at the supposed loss of her lover that she fell sick, and, on recov- ering her strength, it was found that she had lost her rea- son. Sunk in a state of despondency, she was accustomed to take daily walks on the beach, about the spot where the bodies of the sufferers had been washed ashore, and near which fancy led her to imagine that her William must himself be lying. Every one knew and pitied the amiable maniac, who thus, under general protection, roamed about unmolested. Meanwhile the ship in which Day had been carried to sea, owing to the continuance of the breeze, kept on her course. lie was, therefore, constrained to accompany her abroad, and could only return when she did. At length she arrived once more in port; the boat was manned; he was the first to enter her, the first to spring on shore. In a moment he espied a female in the distance who bore 304 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Rome resemblance to his Sally, and ran towards her call- ing her by name. It was she. She looked at him, recog- nized him, uttered a piercing shriek, and, falling in his arms, expired. To sec once more the beloved form which she had believed to be lost to her forever had been too great a shock, and the joy which in an instant restored her to reason, at the same instant robbed her of life. There was singularity enough in these circumstances for a romance, yet it was a tragedy of real and of humble life. Its simplicity rather augmented its interest, and I must confess that nothing in my reading or experience ever touched me more. The poor victim of sensibility died within a day of completing her nineteenth year; and, little fitted as so pathetic a story might seem to inspire anything like i)leasantry, this suggested to some one in the town the following epigrammatic epitaph : " Poor Sally "Weeks hero sleeps and seeks, Mould'ring, her kindred clay ; Some months she sighed — at nineteen died AVanting a single Day." After a remunerative stay at Portsmouth wc proceeded to Portland, where we procured for our entertainment the long room in which the company had formerly played. An itinerant preacher at this time in the town, who had arranijed to deliver a discourse once a week in this same room, on hearing with whom he was now to share it, de- clared that ho was glad " for once to meet the devil on his own ground !" He was somewhat mortified, however, the night after, to fintl that we had attracted a much larger assemblage than lie had, and that it also comprised many of his own congregation. On reaching Brunswick I was invited to join a fishing- ))arty up the beautiful river Androscoggin, which takes its name, I was told, from the English emigrant who first discovered it — Andrew Scroggin. There had been a great RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 305 storm lately in this district, and as we rowed up the river the curious ciTect of it became apparent in the form of quantities of oily sturgeon which had been thrown ashore, and were now strewn abundantly on both banks, putrefy- ing in the sunbeams, and forming a regale not very agree- able to either the olfactory or the optical sense. Learn- ing here that the little town of Bath had never been vis- ited by any amusement whatever of our kind, we drove there and issued an attractive bill of fare for the ensuing evening. The news soon circulated, and from the commo- tion it excited wo were led to expect wonderful support. Before long a cl-devant major in the American army, a resident in the place and a very military and methodical- looking person, who impressed me at first sight very favor- ably, waited upon me at the inn and begged to express to me in person his high sense of gratification at our visit. Becoming soon very friendly, he offered, out of pure good- nature, to stand at the door in jn'oprla 2)crsona and dis- pose of tickets for us; "for," said he, " that a]»pears to me, my dear sir, a very important oftice, and really there is no knowing the character of i)eople you might obtain and be deceived by." Considering this offer to be ex- tremely kind, both Caulfield and I were profuse in our ac- knowledgments, and gladly accepted so unimpeachable a money - taker. When the evening came the room was crowded to excess, and I distinguished at the lowest com- putation above one hundred and thirty heads, which, at a dollar apiece, promised a handsome return. At the close our self-elected treasurer presented himself to give in his account. " Really, gentlemen," he began, " I sincerely re- joice that you intrusted to mo an ofiice in which so much must depend upon the honor of the person to whom it is confided." I have no doubt he did rejoice, and we soon found what good reason he had for doing so when he con- tinued — " I am now able to pay over to you no less a sum 306 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. than cighty-nhiG dollars!" Perhaps he thought that an officer was nothing without a " commission," or, it may be, his extreme good-nature had induced him to admit all his friends and relations gratis; at any rate, the fact re- mained that we had to pay at least fifty dollars that even- ing for the honor of having a military doorkeeper. At Wiscasset we put up at an inn kept by an Irishman, and our bills for the ensuing evening being distributed directly, no sooner did the news become public than the little town, which I apprehend had never before been vis- ited in a similar manner, became generally disturbed. A crowd soon collected round the windows of the inn parlor in which we were taking supper, to discover what kind of people we were. Several of the more respectable inhabit- ants took the liberty of stepping into the room, drawing a chair by the window and listening to our conversation. Others merely walked in as if to make an inquiry, and taking a comprehensive view of us from head to foot, at once withdrew to impart the information they had ac- quired to their friends; while a still larger class, more dif- fident than the rest, only opened the door, took a hasty glance, and then again quickly closed it. AVe were most amused by a portly, farmer-looking man, who, by his care- less manner and easy speech, seemed to be a person of some consequence in the town, and who walked into the room, tilted his chair back by the window, and, throwing his boots over a bench, set himself deliberately to listen with great earnestness to our discourse. It happened that Caulfield was just relating in his humorous manner some ludicrous circumstances he had taken notice of durinc: the day, and before long the farmer was so pleased that, clap- ping his hands to his sides, he threw himself back in his chair and burst iuto a loud roar of laughter. We put down our knives and forks, and looked round at our unin- vited auditor in some surprise. On getting over his fit of RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 307 risibility, lie returned our gaze with a highly Si.tisficd ex- pression; then, getting up, i)ut his hand in his pocket, and exclaimed : "Capital, gentlemen! capital! You arc right humor- some, I calculate. "What's to pay ?" This produced a responsive roar from us, whereupon the rather puzzled worthy explained that from the humor and eccentricity Caulfield had displayed he had supposed that he was relating one of the stories from our entertain- ment, and, therefore, in the true spirit of honest trade, he wished to pay for what he had received. On being in- formed that we would accept no remuneration for what he had heard, he departed with a high opinion of both our talent and our liberality. Less agreeable was the disappointment, on another ground, of a personage who merely put his head in at the door and withdrew it the next minute, apparently with much dissatisfaction, for we heard him exclaim to a com- panion outside, "Tarnation, Squire Shaw, tlicy're not so savage after all !" These singular attentions, however, though they only excited our smiles, were to my wife as annoying as they were astonishing; and Caulfield, perceiving this, hit upon a plan of relieving us of our wondering spectators without giving them offence. Taking a hint from the offer of the lionest farmer, he called in the landlord and desired him to acquaint the people at the windows (which had neither blinds nor curtains) that our prices were a dollar aj)ieco to hear our entertainment and half a dollar to see ourselves. They were too good judges of a bargain for this not to take effect. The great success of our two nights at Wiscasset would have induced us to remain there a little longer, but that my wife's condition made me anxious to reach lloston without much further delay. We accordingly turned our 308 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. liorses' lieacls homeward, and lecturing again at Portland, Portsmouth, and Kowburyport, as "wc passed through them, arrived in Boston about five hundred dollars in pocket from our excursion. My wife soon after presented mo with a boy,* and then, removing to our new residence, we passed a delightful au- tumn in retirement and recreation, having found the first year of life as a manager in America, if not very profit- able, at least very pleasant. The season of 1807-8 commenced early in September with some slight prospect of improving upon its ])redeces- Bor, and with some new additions to the comj)any. As Caulfield, from the very irregular habits he had fallen into, could no longer be depended upon, wc were con- strained to look about for some other hero to be ready to supply his place, and just at this time a gentleman arrived from England on a dramatic visit to the States who ap- peared to be the very man we wanted. Mr. Cromwell, the person in question, was, hov/ever, in reality only one of the most ingenious and amusing impostors I ever met with. In his stvle as an actor, hovering between a bad imitation and a worse originality, he had no qualifica- tion for the stage but one — self-confidence — which yet only led to a fuller display of all his other deficiencies. lie had been formerly a small tradesman, but being smit- ten with a passion for the stage, he applied to, and ap- peared at, the Bath Theatre. Fearing, perhaps, that the editors might not have suf^cient discrimination to find out his merits, he wrote a glowing puff upon his own debut, and forwarded it to the provincial papers. Once in print, he then proceeded to London with these public recommendations, and, procuring an opening at one of the principal houses, managed to secure the insertion of ♦ W. Bftyle Bernard. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 309 a similar homemade article on his own performance in the metropolitan journals. His attempts on the stage were, of course, a failure, and his critical remarks a tissue of falsehoods, but, nevertheless, they answered his pur- pose. Putting the latter in his pocket, he went off to America, landed at Boston, waited on the manager, an- nounced his profession, and, in proof of his talents, showed all the papers containing those striking criticisms written by himself, but of the authorship of which, of course, he gave no hint. Powell, who saw him in my absence, be- lieving he would be attractive and a good substitute for Caulfield, engaged him on the spot for three years at twenty-five dollars a week. We gave him Octavian as an opening character, and from the reports that had been circulated about him public attention was very generally excited. lie performed; a worse specimen of histrionic quackery I had never seen, and the si)ectators would hard- ly permit the announcement of his name for a second night. The next day I went to consult my solicitor, who briefly told me that an agreement was an agreement, and as w^e had entered into one with this man, Mhethcr inju- rious or beneficial, we must abide by it. Tlie idea, how- ever, of being burdened with such a fellow for three years was insupportable, and at the end of the season, on pay- ment of 8100, he consented to oblige us, in a most unex- pected but gratifying manner, by taking himself off. Notwithstanding the annoyance he had caused, Mr. Cromwell's whimsicality had rendered him sometimes very amusing. Every night he made his appearance the audience distinguished him from all the rest of the per- formers by a peculiar loud hiss at his entrance and exit, neglecting him entirely while on the stage. Tims, though no "star," ho certainly exerted the malign influence once attributed to those bodies by exciting what, in the pit, amounted to a hurricane of displeasure, which, in its col- 310 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Icctivc elements of hisses, abuse, and stampings, it might have been imagined no one could have withstood. He, however, remained always unbending as the oak before the blast which assails it. lie continued his speech, ho maintained his position, he looked his adversaries in the face — aye, and with a smile. lie might have borrowed the language of Richard, " I can smile, and smile, and murder " (as regards his part) " while I smile." One even- ing, during the performance of the " Mogul Tale," in which I played Johnny Atkinson, tlie cobbler, Mr. Cromwell, who was playing the Mogul, instead of making his exit at the proper time, and leaving me to take my flight home by myself, persisted in remaining on the stage. Unable to conjecture his reason for this embarrassing conduct, I kept making signs to him to go off, but all in vain ; and even when called from behind the scenes, he imperturb- ably maintained his position until the curtain dropped. On inquiring immediately with some asperity what was the meaning of his paying such disregard to the stage directions and the plot of the piece, he replied at once, "I had an excellent reason, sir." "I should be glad if you would favor me with it, then." "Oh, certainly; you must be aware, Mr. Bernard, what would have been the consequence if I had made my exit at the proper time." "Indeed, I'm not; what would?" "Why, a long and loud hissing that would have lasted, perhaps, for fifteen minutes." " Well, sir !" " Well, that hissing at my go- ing off must, you know, have interrupted your scene ; so from no interest of my own so much as to preserve you from annoyance I continued on the stage, knowing they wouldn't hiss until I was gone, and not caring, you know, when once the curtain was down, whether they hissed or not. Don't you see my reason now ?" To such an argu- ment I was not prepared to reply. I had now a communication from Placide, the Charles- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 311 ton manager, informing me of the death of Jack Ilatton, the theatrical eccentric, whom I liad engaged when in London to come to Boston at the close of the Ilaymarket season. Instead, however, of keeping his word with me, he accepted an offer to go out to Charleston, where lie became a great favorite. He there played a great variety of characters, some of them I should imagine very hadly, yet as regards a particular class he was one of the most original actors I ever saw. But few, I am aware, have made pretensions to play the kind of character in whicli lie excelled, but as far as my own observation goes those who have done so have wanted most of the qualifications to do them justice which he possessed. But what was his excellence ? Why, something with which neither senti- mental nor refined minds would, perhaps, be much pleased, because they could not sympathize with it, but which a judicious critic must, nevertheless, admire as a dramatic singularity. He was the accurate representative of low life, equally happy in the blustering boldness or swagger- ing gayety of the bully, or in the heartless villainy or sav- age triumph of the ruflian. Though clever and original, his reputation in the pro- fession was not very high, which arose from the fact that he rarely played, by his own consent, the characters in which he so greatly excelled, for, through a strange in- fatuation, which, however, I have known to bewilder some hundreds besides him, he thought himself most happy in others, for whicli he was in reality totally unfit; and thus ho seldom came before the public but in a wrong point of view. It was this which accounted for liis breach of agreement with me. I had engaged him to play low com- edy; the Charleston manager offered him high tragedy; his inclinations got the mastery over his judgment, and accordingly the actor was condemned while the man was gratified. 6 \ 312 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Christmas was now approacliing, and liitlicrto the sea- son had proved lameiitahly bad. The novelties that had been successively produced had failed. To make amends for Mr. Cromwell, Fennell had been engaged for a num- ber of nights ; also Webster, the singer, almost as clever as his celebrated namesake of Drury Lane; and Mrs. War- ren, late Mrs. Wignell, had concluded an engagement prof- itable enough for herself ($1400 for nine nights), and had returned to PhiLadelphia. Twaites, the comedian, who succeeded her, did not attract sufficient faces to the gallery to tell whether he looked best in a brown wig or a black one. Our " stars," in fact, however they might shine upon the stage, by no means threw a golden gleam into the treasury. At this critical period the equestrians came to town, and their novelty carried away, in a great measure, such portion of the public as had hitherto supported us. As we had honorably discharged all our obligations, and the company were continued on full salaries, our loss had been very heavy, and for the first time in my life my spir- its began to sink under the depression of ill-success. The profits of my ten years' career in America as an actor had been mainly sunk in the purchase of lands, now of little or no realizable value to me; my domestic expenses were increasing, and I had reached a time of life when a man should be, not merely maintaining himself, but laying by some provision for the future. My reflections, too, were embittered by a consideration of the certain prospects of success I had quitted in making this speculation and the profitable oflTers I had refused in England, both from Mr. Wroughton and Mr. Harris on account of it. However, as it was necessary I should ex- ert myself in order to prevent matters from getting still worse, my good friend Mr. F. C. Amory addressed a let- ter for me to General Sheaf, in Canada, to inquire how far a professional trip to that quarter might be eligible in RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 313 the summer; and I mado an arrangement \vitli Warren and Cooper to visit Philadelphia and New York at once. When we went on board the packet for the latter place, on a fine day and with a fair breeze, we augured a pleas- ant trip, but the wind changing in the night brought on a severe frost and a snowstorm, and the sailors' hands be- came so frost-bitten that they could no longer handle any- thing. Our situation soon grew very dangerous — a heavy sea washed away our boat and smashed the caboose house; and another, striking the vessel on her stern quarters, broke through the windows of the cabin and filled it two feet deep with water. Luckily both Mrs. Uernard and 1 had upper berths. The storeroom door was also burst open by the shock, and, on looking down, I saw the released turkeys, geese, and loaves dancing about merrily in the little waves; and among them my portmanteau, contain- ing a packet of New York bills to the amount of $2000, which my bankers at Boston had intrusted to me to get changed for them. While contemplating this pleasant scene the captain came down-stairs and told us in a very serious tone that he had done his utmost and we must now take our chance for safety, a disclaimer of responsi- bility which might be very satisfactory to himself, but which by no means tended to. tranquillize the minds of his passengers. In the next berth to me was a young sea- captain, who, having laid up his vessel for the winter, was proceeding to New York with ti newly-wedded wife to make merry during Christmas. Springing upon his legs directly, with myself and one or two others after him, this gentleman ran up on deck to ascertain the real amount of our danger. Never before had I looked on so dreary a scene. The wind was blowing hard, but the frost had glued the sails up about tlie mast, and stuck all the cordage together so that there was scarcely a running line at liberty. Snow, 14 314 IlETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. mingled with some sleet, -was falling heavily, and froze as it fell, and the miserable blacks who composed the crew were huddled together, quaking and shivering, and unable to render any assistance, while all the time we were run- ning unconsciously on the breakers a short distance ahead. Casting a sweeping glance around, the young captain espied the Falklands light, ran at once to the helm, put it aside, and as the sloop veered round we heard her audi- bly graze upon a rock before she righted. The jib was then hoisted, and we soon after ran to shore in safety, un- feignedly thankful for our escape. Our rescuer, on re- turning to his cabin, begged his lovely spouse not to bo alarmed, and inquired if she Avould not like some spirits and water. Drawing a long sigh, she replied, with a droll quaintness, which, even under such circumstances, pro- voked a smile : " Spirits, indeed, I have none; but it seems as if I should have more water soon than I wished for;" an opinion in which we all at the time concurred. Having at length safely reached Philadelphia, among its hospitable, liberal, and refined inhabitants I found many friends to remember and welcome me. My recep- tion was a brilliant one, and I had the pleasure of seeing every night of my performance numerous faces which awoke the most agreeable recollections. Far more invita- tions flowed in on me than I could possibly accept, but they were gratifying, nevertheless, as proofs of the con- tinued kindly feelings which the Philadclphians had ever shown towards the comedian, and which were fully mani- fested at my benefit. At New York I opened in Lord Ogleby, but as Cooper, Twaits, and Ilarwood were gone to Boston, and Mrs. Dar- ley was ill, I found it a hard task to struggle through a performance with so little support as I received. An in- vitation to my old friend's. Governor Crawford, gave me RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 315 the pleasure of being introduced to Mr. Washington Ir- ving, an agreeable, conversable, and unprejudiced man; but in the middle of the evening, finding a peculiar taste in my mouth, I looked into the cigar stand at my feet and found, to my great surprise, that I had been expectorating blood for some time. Much alarmed, I informed my friends of the circumstance, and as they were of o])iniou that I must have rui)tured a blood-vessel, the governor sent me home at once in his coach. As my doctor had unluckily just gone out and could nowhere be found, I lay till morn- ing bleeding profusely from my lungs, till at last, medical assistance arriving, the hemorrhage was temporarily as- suaged. Alone with a young wife three thousand miles away from her family and friends, and AvitUmy affairs in so deranged a state, our feelings during this terrible night are beyond my powers to describe. The next day Cooper, Ilarwood, and the rest were to return from IJoston and join me in the comedy of the " School for Scandal," and I actually i)layed Sir Peter that evening, with a physician at the side scenes, in mo- mentary appl'ehension of being stopped by a return of the hemorrhage. The next night was my benefit; but as by then I was quite unable to leave my bed, Green performed Major O'Flaherty instead of me. The receipts, however, equalled my expectation. Before long I began to recover; but my doctors agreed that I ought to abstain from all professional labors for the rest of that winter, and by good nursing and retirement try to effectually heal up the ruptured vessel and re-establish my health. To this ad- vice I resolved to conform, and prepared at once to return to Boston. The evening before we started, Mr. Coleman, the editor of the Evening Post, dropped in to chat for an hour or two in his usual friendly way; but at length, pull- ing out his watch, rose in haste, saying he had an appoint- ment to which he must attend. I asked him if he would not call on us in the mornincr before we left. 310 RETllOSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. " Why," he replied, pleasantly, " I don't really know, my good friend. 1 should like to." *' Well," said I, " we shall not go very cnrly, and if you arc awake — " " Oh," he interrupted, in the same peculiar tone, " de- pend on it, if Fm awake, I'll drop in to sec you." In the morning we saw no Mr. Coleman; but a week after I was informed that he had fought a duel with some gentleman of New York on the very day in question, and that he had in fact sat in my parlor and conversed with us till within half an hour of the a])pointed time, which pleasantly enough accounted for the ambiguity of his parting expressions. CHAPTER XIV. Excursion to Vermont. — Concord and Discord. — Monsieur Mallet. — State Characteristics. — Milestones and Finger-posts; an Irish Finger-post. — Uurlington. — A Vermont Farmer; his Dinner and Conversation. — A Musician. — A Medical Dnikecper ; his One Story. — Saratoga Springs. — Sail up the Hudson. — Xew p]ngagements. — General Ilinnphreys and Iluniphreysville. — Connecticut Laws. — A Silent Town. — Profiting by a Fine. — Return to Boston. — 1808 Season. — Stirring in a Matter. — "The rilgrims." — General Theatrical Depression. — The Indian and the Afri- can. — Lovo and Liijuor. — The Three Warning?!. — The Two John (iilpiiis. — IBoy.—Uoston. — Failure and Disappointment. — A New (Joniedy ; its Prologue. — Barrett's Last Act. — Graduated Ingenuity. — Yankee Anec- dotes. — Borrowing a Horse. — Buying Brandy. — Stars. — " The Forty Thieves." — Contemplated Changes. As the spring advanced my health gradually improved, and my hopes increased of retrieving during the summer 8ome of the time I Iiad lost. I\ry partners, Powell and Dickinson,* now proposed to me an excursion through * Sxklli.no Powkll, of the firm of Powell & Dickinson, was a native of "Wales. lie made his American debut in Boston in 1794, and after a va- ried career died there in 1821. His wife, Elizabeth Harrison, ranked very high in her profession both in England, where she supported Mrs. Sid- dons, and in America, where she was very popidar. She succeeded her husband in the management of the Boston Theatre, and died in 1813, in the seventieth year of her age. Dickinson, whose real nanie was Dickson, made iiis first appearance on any stage in Boston in 1*706. He became joint lessee of the Boston Theatre with Powell and Bernard in 1806, and played an important part in theatrical management in America, introduc- ing George Frederick Cook, the Duffs, and other noted actors to the American stage. He ceased to act in 1817, but continued before the pub- lic as a manager for many years, dying greatly respected in 1853. He also married a Miss Harrison, sister of Mrs. Powell, but not her equal in genius. 318 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Vermont, with a small company and a limited wardrobe, to give an entertainment of i)lay and farce. As this prom- ised to bo a successful trip I agreed to go, i)urcliased a light little travelling carriage for my wife and self, and left The Lodge, our country residence, in possession of a friend, who promised to get my hay in and send my fruit to market. Our party, consisting of Powell, Dick- inson, and their wives. Mallet, Morgan, myself, and INIrs. Graupner, set off from Boston in three travelling-carriages and in the best spirits and expectations. INIallet merely played — his instrument — and IMrs. Graupner was only a singer. The remaining six, therefore, had need to have had each the versatility of a Garrick in order to assume the variety and number of characters our little plays afforded, even cut down, cond(?nscd, and adaj)ted as they were, so far as it was possible, to the strength of our miniature corps. Dickinson, for instance, in "The Jew," played Frederick IJertram, .Tubal, and a fiddle in the orchestra; but, to his i)raise be it spoken, he played them all very well. This is a suilicient specimen of the shifts and do- vices we were put to. At Concord, which from its name I should have sus- pected to be a settlement of Quakers, wo met with but a poor recei)tion from the genteel inhabitants and a much worse one from the lower order. ]>efore our entertain- ment commenced a large throng assembled outside of the inn and began abusing and villifying us, in even worse terms than those with wliich these same worthies had as- sailed Lord North. Powell was intimidated, and would not go on with his character, but liis wife, with a courage I could not but admire, persevered like a heroine. I tried to put a comical face on the matter and laugh off our an- noyance, but it still continued, and in consequence little or notliing could be heard of the entertainment. At this critical juncture Monsieur Mallet, who was a better poli- RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. SI9 lician than a lid(llo-})layGr, came to the rescno. He had received the rudhnents of his musical education in one of tlic revohitionary bands that had stirred up the Jacobin- ical spirits of the Fren:;h soldiery in 1793, and perhaps, therefore, felt rather in his clement than otherwise when surrounded by a mob. Putting down his instrument, he ran to the window and shouted: "Gentlcmens! gentle- mens!" A silence immediately prevailed. "I va;5 speak one vord to you; vat vas you vant ?" " Tarnation," replied one of the mob, " why, we want none of your company, I guess; you arc reg'iar IJrilish spies and mountebanks." " Aha ! vhat vas dat you say, sarc ? ve no mount on de back — no spy. Vc artistes do Theatre from Boston." " Are you British, squire ?" " No; I am von Frenchman." Here a great murmur ran through the crowd. " A Frenchman ! a Frenchman !" " Yes, I vas von Frenchman, sarc, and I glory in the name of Frenchman, sarc; I vas serve vid Napoleon in do battle of Marengo; and I vas know vat it vas to put one rascal to death that makes a noise outside of do vindow." Whether the mere announcement of nat " )nality had satisfied them, or this latter piece of information, deliv- ered in a very emphatic tone and with appropriate gesticu- lation, had its effect upon the simple-witted though turbu- lent Yermonters — at any rate they shrank back as though in fear, and sank into a submissive silence before the wrathful and menacing musician. Flushed ^vith succcsm, INFallot strode back to his fiddle with the air of an Alex- ander taking his scat among his compeers, and we finished our performance in peace. In those days Concord cer- tainly contained some very quarrelsome fellows. The next town we wished to reach was \Yalpolo, but the roads offered by no means easy travelling. The in- 320 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. habitants of Vermont, noted for tlieir industry, their lionesty, and their stationary character, arc also distin- guished for a peculiar turn of humor in tlieir remarks and some oddities of manner, being in the latter respect even more primitive than the Pennsylvanians. Their neigh- bors of Massachusetts (by some termed the Scotch of North America), in passing continually through this state on their way to and from Canada and the back countries, are frequently exposed to the ridicule of the inhabitants. One of the many stories in circulation bearing on this subject was that of a Bostonian travelling through Ver- mont, and overtaken by night on a lonely road, who at length savv' a youngster some distance ahead, and appre- hensive that he had mistaken his way, called out to the lad : "Jack! Jack! I want to know which is the way to Chesterfield ?" " IIow did you know my name was Jack ?" responded the youth. " Vv'hy, I guessed it," replied the traveller. *' Oh, then you may guess your way to Chesterfield !" Fearful of being nonplussed in a similar way myself, I was very particular each morning before I quitted the tavern to learn all I could of the road we were to pursue throughout the day, as there were few opportunities after- wards of ascertaining anything on the subject. Notwith- standing this caution, I lost my track one day, and was actually retracing my steps to Boston. I learned this in a characteristic manner when I i)ulled up to inquire of a countryman who was felling a tree by the roadside — "My g< >d friend," said I, "am I on the right road to Walpole?* "Yes," rei^lied the man; "you arc on the right road; but I reckon you must turn your horse's head or you'll never get there !" RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 321 The two tilings, however, which at this time proved the greatest annoyances to travellers through Vermont were what are generally intended to produce the very contrary effect — viz., the milestones and the finger- posts. The former were mostly either misleading from their inaccu- racy or useless from their indistinctness. A peculiarity that distinguished them from the highway guides of other countries was that they invariably lay on the road with their heads pillowed softly against some knoll or bank, in- stead of standing upright on the ground, as we are wont to see them in England. One stone, nearly illegible from the obliterating pressure which the fmger of Time had laid on its inscription, I was obliged to get out of the carriage to inspect more nearly. Neither words nor figures could I distinguish, and so far my purpose was frustrated; but just below where the information should have been I found that some one had traced two lines in pencil which Avere very distinct and somewhat funny, though by no means consoling — some tourist, I imagine, whose greatest merit in the matter lay in his not signing his name to them. They ran thus: "Notice to travellers! No reli- ance to be placed on the milestones all the way to Bur- lington, for they Ue^ every one of them!" ]>ut iinger-])osts are, of course, of much more consequence on an uidhreysville, the estate of my sincere and valuable friend, General Humi)hreys, which Avas situated about twelve miles from that town, and where he was in the habit of passing most of the summer. As a soldier, a di]>lomatist, and an author, the general has ac- (piired three distinct reputations, any one of which alone would have handed his name down to posterity; but he had >\;ndered so many important services to his country that his claims as a patriot were perhaps greatest of all. He was the original importer of the Merino sheep into America, for which he received a medal from the Agricul- tural Society, aijd he had established on his estate several manufactories, paper-mills, etc.. upon imj)roved systems of machinery vnd labor, which had tlieir beneficial effect ui)on similar orks in general. Meeting with a cordial recei)tion, we passe 1 the day with him, liad the pleasure of inspecting his grounds, and returned in the evening to New Haven. As, however, the next day was Sunday, and^ according to the laws of Connecticut, it was criminal to violate Sabbath rest by putting one's self in motion, wc "were constrained to abide there until the Monday morning. Our host at the inn was a very communicative and humor- ous kind of man, not at all of a piece with the inhabitants in gvne.'.il, and, th: 'gli obliged to submit to the laws of the i)lace in whicii he lived, by no means backward in ex- pressing his opinion of them to his customers. From this oracle I gathered some further information as to the work- ing of the famous Hliie Laws. As is well known, they MR. PARLEY AS I'KRKORMINU IN THK ORCHESTRA AT VACXHALL. RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 833 entirely forl)a(le trade or travelling upon the Sabbath; so that by the letter of the law all goods bought or sold upon that day were forfeited to the state, while not, on the most urgent plea of necessity, might an animal be permitted to elink his profane hoof upon the Sabbatical stones of New Haven. From the growing spirit of commerce in the country at large, and the unlucky situation of Connecti- cut, which rendered it the thoroughfare for business, it was found, however, to be every day — or rather every seventh day — a more difficult task to carry these regu- lations into effect. Accordingly a multitude of peace- officers under the various titles of beadles, constables, and street-keepers, were posted all day in the streets and ave- nues, to enforce strict maintenance of that quietude which the statutes enjoined. It was their business to take care that no person appeared without-doors during " meeting time," and on the entry of a traveller into the town, im- mediately to stop him, lead his horse to a stable and him- self to the "meeting." Thus a sense of duty induced them to violate the law themselves in order to compel its observance by others. The deathlike dulness and absolute privation of sound which prevailed throughout the day can hardly be imag- ined. The labor of eating dinners, prepared on the pre- vious Satuidav, seemed to be looked on as a lamentable necessity, and though such noises as coughing and sneez- ing were excused if quite spontaneous, it was directly for- bidden to induce them by taking snuff, or carelessly letting your liquor go the wrong way. I know not whether the chattering of a man's teeth in an ague fit would have been considered reprehensible, but in the case of your hands becoming dirty I am persuaded that it would liave been held more correct to let them remain so than to resort to the labor of using soap, water, and towel. Under the inlluencc of this mournful contrast to the pleasurable tran- 334 RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. quillity or the liglit-lieartcfl, innocent ff.iyety of a Euro- pean Sunday I really conceived myself abstracted from the world, or, rather, like tlie personage in one of the Arabian Tales Avho wandered into a petrified city and in tlic midst of human liabitations beheld no sign of life. ])Ut while every noise was totally suppressed in-doors, what does my reader su})})0sc he would hear or observe were lie to take his seat with me at one of the inn win- dows and survey the streets? For the most part he would hear nothing, for when the inhabitants were allowed to issue from their doors they stole about the highways like so many sprites or like the mysterious heroes in Mrs. Rad- cliff's romances, so light were their movements and their steps so inaudible. The principal object in sight would be those guardians of the peace already mentioned, look- ing like a detachment of Cromwell's body-guard as they march to and fro with the utmost precision and solemnity, arrayed in the square-cut garments which betokened tlieir office. I*erhaps, at last, some luckless pig would waddle forth from an avenue upon a muddy research. Alas, his first grunt of triumph, as he lighted upon some spoil, would serve as a signal to his enemies, one of whom would secure him on the instant, drive him ignominiously home to his sty, and there execute retributive justice for his pagan dis- regard of sacred ordinances by forthwith despatcliing him. Or should some caitilf dog, or even thoughtless puppy, in profligate contempt of the law, begin frolicking and bark- ing in the road, he would be summarily shot upon the spot. Or perhaps some gentleman cat, amorously dis- })Osed, would bo so unfortunate as to commence an ill- timed feline serenade under the gutter of his adored tabby; the vigilant street-keepers, attracted by the sound, would rush to the place, and at the moment, perhaps, when a tender response was awakening in tlic bosom and the throat of Grimalkin, and the passionate duetto of the RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 335 hapless pair rising to a climax, both would be assailed -with a battery of staff and stones, to the interruption of their loves and great peril of their lives. The plea was manifest that "love's labor" could no more be permitted than any other worker's. On the inhabitants proceeding to and from meeting these careful conservators of tlie pub- lic tranquillity had to take cognizance of young and old, and prevent any stoppages or chatterings on the way, a nod on such occasions being considered indecorous, and a shake of the hand a tangible impropriety. In latter years, when beginning to find it impossible to restrain altogether the current of intercourse which flowed through their state, these puritanical worthies resolved to convert the restriction into a source of pecuniary profit, and accordingly permitted a man to pursu. his journey on payment of a fine, proportioned, I believe, cither to the number of his horses or of his family. A sharp-witted Yankee, returning home through Connecticut, was stopped, therefore, at a little village, and requested to pay the fine, which he consented to do if he were taken before the magistrate who was to receive it, and who was a man of great property and extensive mercantile connections. Tlie Yankee, tearing a leaf from his pocket-book, wrote tliereon a few words, and presenting it to the magistrate witli tlie money, recjuested him to sign a receipt for the few shil- lings, in order that he might not be called on to pay the line twice over, should ho be stopped again before the morrov.'. So reasonable a request being unhesitatingly complied with, the traveller put the paper in his pocket and departed, apparently in no worse humor for the inter- ruption he had encountered. About ten days afterwards, business calling the magistrate to IJoston, he took occa- sion to step into his banker's to look over his account, when they informed him that they had duly honored his last week's draft for one hundred dollars. He stared in 33G RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. surpriso. They produced it for liim, and be immediately recognized the handwriting of the Yankee, with his sig- nature plainly attached. I arrived in Boston, re-established, in health, and not out of pocket, by one of the pleasantest excursions I had hitherto undertaken in the States. The company being assembled, we opened the season with Mrs. Woodham as Frank Ileartall and the Widow Cheerly to a very brilliant audience, presaging, I thought, some success, though false- ly, as it proved, since this season, in villainous imitation of its predecessors, did not even pay its expenses. Our liopes had been buoyed up in one way or another till its close, when, the unmistakable deficit staring us in the face, we had no other consolation than that of reflecting that, if we were so many hundred dollars in debt, it was not owing to any Avant of exei'tion on our part. Mills and Mrs. Woodham had succcnled very well, while Caulfield had nevertheless kept his ground in public favor, owing to the numerous acquaintances he had made ; and I now wrote to Mrs. Stanley, in hopes of engaging her on rather lower terms than slic had demanded. Green had not joined us, but continued with Mrs. West; Usher, whom I had taken from among the supernumeraries at Philadel- phia and advanced to a situation in Boston, had returned from Quebec to engage some of our company, but only applied to those we could well dismiss. From his father, in Kentucky, 1 received another letter, pressing me to undertake a speculation in that quarter, and pointing out the particular towns which would form a profitable cir- cuit. I had, however, two seasons yet to sustain in Bos- ton, and the great distance to the back countries sug- gested a hundred difficulties, which I did not like to en- counter. Barrett was out of employment at New York; Cooper starring at Philadelph.ia; IVIrs. AVarren still attrac- tive; poor Bates, a restless, visionary fellow, engaged to RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 337 US for a few nights and a benefit. A Mr. Morse made his dehtlt ■with us in Osmond, and "was tolerably successful; and that sad speculator, Fennell, who liad not got over his saltworks embarrassments, wanted to perform for a few nights, in order that by pnying his deluded creditors a triile he might keep them from putting his honorable person in " durance vile." Since that speculation he had attempted another — an academy near Boston upon a very magnificent scale. Having fixed upon a suitable house and grounds, he proceeded to make designs for reading- rooms, lecture-rooms, class-rooms, etc., without having a shilling in his pocket to carry out such schemes; but no sooner was the pleasant work of planning over than he immediately wearied of the whole affair. Such Avas the state of theatricals, as connected with ourselves, at the close of the year 1808. Our musical parties were in as great vogue as ever this season, though ve had no new members, and, as usual, I had a multiplicity of invitations to dinners, etc., but, fear- ing for my health, continued to reside at "The Lodge" until winter set in, when I removed with my family into town. The road out to Dorchester, over the " Neck," as it is called, was at this time even dangv3rnusly bad, and in my daily drives into town I had to practise a difficult kind of land navigation in steering the gig clear of an immense bank of stones and mud on one side, while with hair- breadth exactness I skirted the brink of an unfathomable gully on the other. These rides acquainted me with a laughable incident connected with the state of tlic neiijli- borhood. A gentleman residing on the " Neck" had a slough be- fore his door of such depth and dimensions as to render his house all but inaccessible. A " select committee " having been appointed for the repair of this highway, ho had applied repeatedly to have the slough in question 15 038 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. filled up; but their only answer, from week to week, was: " By and by, dear sir. But we really cannot stir in the matter at present." One morning, after a heavy rainfall, the slough overflowed, and pretty well completed the im- prisonment of the gentleman in his own house. There was, however, solace in store for his captivity. It hap- pened the same day that some business called two of the *' selectmen " from town, and tijeir route lay over the " Neck." Driving by in a gig at a furious rate, and with some heedlessness, their wheel slid into the gully as they were passing it, and in an instant the gig was upset, and both of them precipitated into the liltli up to their mid- dles. The gentleman at the adjacent house, happening to be at his Avindow, was a witness of this retributive acci- dent, and throwing up his sash as they were attempting to scramble out of the pool, called out to them laughing- ly: "Thank you, gentlemen; thank you. I see you are really 'stirring in the matter' at last!" Tlic season proceeded with little spirit, and we lost an excellent friend to the theatre by the death of Governor Sullivan. Shortly after, however, I brought forward a play in three acts, entitled " The Pilgrims, or the Landing of our Forefathers," which locality alone would have ren- dered a success, as many of the descendants of the first settlers were still residing in Boston, but, supported by a strong company, the little merit it possessed was favorably recommended to the public. It proved, as I had antici- f'"i, "a good card," and, when everything else failed, drew tolerable houses to the close of the season. At Christmas I received an invitation to visit New York during our month's recess at home, but declined it from apprehensions with regard to health. Mrs. Stanley arrived in Boston from a country circuit she had been taking; but as we could not agree upon terras, she quitted us for a lucrative and agreeable situation in the Canadas, to per- RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 339 form there in private witli the military amateurs. By the letters I received I learned that theatricals were in a most lamentable state all over the continent. New York and Philadel})hia were not paying their expenses, Charleston even •worse, and Mrs. West's circuit in Virginia was done up altogether. Thus we had abundance of that negative consolation which some people pretend to derive from the reflection that there arc others as badly or worse off than themselves. At last the season came to a close, nothing particular having distinguished it except the dihiit of INIaster Payne, the "American Iloscius," in April, 1809, which created some sensation in the theatrical world.* As the spring advanced I removed my wife to "The Lodge," and, as she was unable to travel, passed the sum- mer in visiting the towns within a hundred miles of Bos- ton, returning home at the end of every two or tln*cc weeks, and thus passing my time both profitably and pleasantly. The only incident I remember now of those rambles is the following: Among other places I paid a visit to Newport, with letters of recommendation to Mr. Baring, of London, from whose family I had received attentions in my early days. I had a very brilliant at- tendance at night, and among my auditors a very infirm old gentleman, who was more or less lame, blind, and deaf. When I began my favorite recitation of " The Three Warnings," this gentleman seemed to pay particu- lar attention, but when I came to the lines ♦John IIowahd Payne, remembered as the author of "one immortal song," \Ya3 also the author of many pla3's which are now almost forgotten, and as the Boy Actor, tlie first of a long line of infant phenomena in Amer- ica, he met with marvellous success througliout the United States. lie made his first appearance as Young Nerval, in "Douglas," at the Park Theatre, New York, in 1800, and played the part in Boston in the same year, IIo appeared in London, still as Young Norval, in 1813, but as he grew in years he declined in grace as an actor, and soon retired fruni tlie stiige. 340 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. '■ The unwelcome mcsscnj^er of Death Once more before him sIoolI," lie fell back in Lis cliair, utteroJ a slight shriek, and faint- ed, lie was carried out immediately, and soon restored to his senses, but did not return to the entertainment. This circumstance nnavoidably threw a gloom over tho company, which, for some time, Tiot all my humorous efforts could remove, till at last another incident as much befriended as the other had distressed mo. Among my comic recitations was Cowper's "John Gilpin," and no sooner had I commenced this than a loud and general shout of Luighter ran round the room, which kept increas- ing as I })roceeded. At length I discovered the cause. Mr. John Gilpin, a merchant and resident in the town, occupied a front seat, and having a wife who was rather fond of him, the story suggested to the minds of the assembly sundry humorous coincidences. The object of this merriment bore it with the best humor imaginable, laughing himself at all the points, and thus quite disarm- ing any who might have been satirically disposed. The season of 1809-10 commenced with very inauspi- cious prospects, and veritied our Avorst apprehensions as it proceeded. Various novelties prepared during the recess were brought forward at much expense and with able per- formers, but comparatively failed; and the opera, upon which, from the musical disposition of the town, avc had placed great dependence, though supported by Webster, John Darlc}-, Mrs. Mills, Mrs. Claude Dickinson, and my- self, never did more than draw the expenses. This was the more grievous since New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston had all by this time recovered from their de- pression, and were now playing to 81000 nightly. From the losses I had hitherto sustained, and the gloomy pros- pects before me, I began now bitterly to reproach myself for having meddled with management, and wasted five of JOHN HOWARD PATNE AS YOUNG NORVAL. From a painting by Lealie. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 Ilia iiiM m |||||22 ■■^' 111120 1.8 1.4 II 1.6 V} <^ /}. ^ 5>. O ^;. // / /a Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY 14S80 (716) 872-4503 i RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 341 the most valuable years of my life in merely getting my livelihood, when I ought to have been realizing an inde- pendence. But this cannot interest my reader. We expected Cooper and Master Payne to join us soon, and in the interim we produced with great eclat a comedy, by Mr. White, of Boston, the author inducing us to engage Fennel!, who was then in town, to perform one of the char- acters. Robert Treat Paine wrote a prologue for it in his usual inimitable manner, which I agreed to speak; but, from Paine's negligent habit, I only received it on Satur- day, and, finding it one hundred and eighty lines in length, I sent it back to him with an assurance that I could not get perfect in it so as to do it justice by the Monday even- ing when the comedy was to be produced. Fennell hap- pening to be with him when this message arrived, prompt- ly offered to recite it himself, a proposal which Paine caught at with pleasure. Fennell took the prologue home with him to study, but when the evening came did not know a syllable of it, and, coming forward to the audience, craved their permission to read it. After some hesitation this was granted, and Fennell delivered the lines, sparkling as they were with wit and humor, with so much of the correctness of the scholar and the stateliness of the traire- dian as to throw a gloom over the audience which it took all tho first act of the comedy to efface. One day I was called out from rehearsal to speak to a gentleman in a coach, and, opening tlie door, discovered poor Barrett* in a sad, emaciated state. Stretching out his shrivelled hand to me, lie exclaimed: "Ah, Johnny, I am come to die with you!" though, but for his appearance, the tone in which ho spoke would have induced me to ♦Giles L. Bahuett, the father of the well-known "Gentleman George" Barrett, wns a popular loading actor in more than one English provincial theatre. lie arrived in America in l^OO, but wa3 past his prime, and never ochicved greatness on the American stage. 342 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. think he was jesting. I liad him removed to some lodg- ings, where his death did indeed take place a few days after, and we interred the once famous actor in a now forgotten grave. Being invited to a party this winter, at the house of General Humphreys, beneath whose social and hospitable roof some of my happiest hours were passed, the conver- sation in the course of the evening turned upon Yankee characteristics, and several gentlemen present afforded humorous illustrations of the one by which they are chiefly distinguished — viz., ingenuity — relating various anecdotes, two only of which I remember. A Yankee, performing a journey through the back coun- tries on foot, saw two horses in a field as he passed along, one of which he determined to borrow for a few miles, as he M'as feeling very weary. Accordingly, writing in pen- cil on a slip of paper that he would leave the beast at the next town on the road, he tied the note to one horse's fet- lock, and, mounting the other, with merely a halter for a bridle, rode off with him. This transaction happening to be observed, an alarm was given to the owner of the animals, who, saddling the remaining one, without paying any attention to the note attached to its leg, rode av^ay after the unknown borrower, or, as ho considered him, perhaps, thief. Unluckily for the Yankee, he was mounted on a slow traveler compared with the steed he had left be- hind, and he soon descried with some consternation a rider behind urging a powerful beast along the road at full speed, evidently in pursuit of him. Having neither whip nor spur, he found it a difticult matter to impel the horso ho rode beyond its usual pace, and his pursuer, therefore, had every chance of coming up with him directly. At this moment he perceived a cottage by the roadside at no great distance, towards which, by blow^. and kicks, ho urged his steed somewhat faster, the fu ler gaining on RETROSPECTIOXS OF AMERICA. 343 him nevertheless at every step. Reaching the door, ho dismounted, and went in. The farmer, riding up immedi- ately after in a tremendous passion, threw himself off his horse, leaving it by the side of its fellow, and ran into the cottage to seize and secure the thief. The Yankee, how- ever, was prepared for him. Having slipped up-stairs, ho opened the front window, which looked out upon the road, and as the farmer ran into the house let himself down out- side, mounted the saddled horse, seized the other by the halter, and rode off securely with both. The hero of tho second story was at least as ingenious. A new liquor ware- house opening at Boston on a ready-money and low-price system, Jonathan walked in one day with a two-gallon keg on his shoulder, and asked for a gallon of the best brandy. The liquor having been poured through a fun- nel into his keg the money was demanded. Pretending ignorance of their mode of doing business, the Yankee said that he would pay the next time he came into town. Tho shopman demurred, saying that he did not intend to give any credit. " But," asked the Yankee in mock surprise, " do you intend to take back the brandy ?" " To be sure," replied the other, " if you don't pay for it." " Then," said he, " you must bring your measure, for I had some liquor of my own in the keg." This was done, a gallon of the contents measured back, and the fellow marched off with another gallon of fino grog, having half filled his keg beforehand with water. Master Payne and other "stars" now visited us, and shed a temporary glimmer over the dulness of our theatri- cal hemisphere; but wo had little relief on tho whole, as the darkness only seemed greater after their departure. At length, after great trouble and expense in getting up, we produced tho fairy romance of "The Forty Thieves," which proved one of the most successful hits within my knowledge, and by the crowded audiences it drew to tho 344 RETROSrECTIOXS OF AMERICA. end of the season in some measure compensatetl us for preceding losses, enabling me to pay in cash, though not in gratitude, the generous friend who had helped me. At a musical party I was introduced to a Major Henry, just arrived from Canada, who urged me strongly to visit that country, and try to establish a circuit. Albany, I was aware, I could procure at any time, and on this con- sideration made a proposal to Powell to throw up my share in the Boston concern for $1200 and a benefit. As, how- ever, Dickinson intended proceeding to England for re- inforcements, and I meant to visit Canada, I resolved to form my final determination according to the success of the ensuing season. CHAPTER XV. Visit to Canada. — Anticipations. — A Retired Actress. — Vermont Travel- ling. — Wit and Humor. — Mixed Society. — Wliitehall Table Fray. — Democrat's Estimate of Titles — Steamboat Pleasures and Terrors. — A Canadian Velilclo. — Swamp Stories. — Driver's Test of Danger. — View of Montreal. — The Theatre. — Actors' Rivalries — An Indian Settlement. — Off to Quebec. — A Canadian Cottager — General Sheaf. — Universal Music. — A Forger's School. — A Bateau Party. — A Lone House and its Mistress; Unexpected Company and Unwelcome Revelry. — Reception at Quebec. — Xcw Theatres Proposed. — Amateurs vs. Professionals. — Last Season at Boston. — Native Dramatists. — Tom Moore's Sister-in- law. — "■Femme Propose.^' — George Frederick Cooke. — Heroes and Vil- lians. — Mossop. — Macklin and Cooke compared. — Macklin and his Scotch Schoolmaster. — Cooke's Generosity and Eccentricity. — Kemble's Portrait. — An Intrusive Fiddler and his Punishment. Obtaining letters from my best friend.s at Boston, I prepared for my first visit to Canada this summer in tol- erable spirits. I had let my coimtry-house for a year, heard a favorable account of my property in Portland, and had a new field open before me. I anticipated, therefore, that by a few years' exertion I should yet weather the storm of difficulties in which I was at present laboring, and escaping both the quicksands of extravagance and the rocks of despondency, the bark of the dramatic mariner might yet outlive all dangers and attain, towards the close of its voyage, a fair and tranquil haven. At Grotton we made our first halt in order to pay a visit of a few hours to Mrs. Moore (late Mrs. Woodbam*), who, ♦ Mr, and Mrs. Woodiiam were brought to Philadelphia from England, by Wni. Warren, in 1805. The hidy was very beautiful and very popular. She played such part.led the Canadians in their dress, and, like many of them, spoke a mixture of broken French and English. It was no less pleasing than curious thus to see the savage, under the influence of order and instruction, rising up tow- ards the level of the white, and improving equally in ex- ternals and in intellect. One circumstance particularly struck me. In the course of our walk round the town our guide pointed out to us a field in which all the horses be- longing to the settlement were running loose, and told us it was the practice whenever a man wanted one for him to take the first that came to hand, whether it was his own or not, to make use of it, and then return it at his con- venience to this general repository. This may be a very good practice, thought I, in Cognawagha, but I doubt 350 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. how it would be found to work in any other part of tho world. Mr. Mills had declined my services on the night of his benefit, but, being much in debt, had not found its profits to relieve him, and therefore made interest with somo friends in the town to get a second. They told him it would be of little use unless I stayed to j'lay for him, which was not more a compliment to my talents than a proof of the wretched condition of the company. JVIuch against his inclination, therefore, he was obliged to come to me with a stooping neck to ask the favor. Though I felt that I might justly have retaliated, I chose rather to appeal to the man's better feelings, so agreed to play for him, with the result that he cleared more money than had been in the house altogether on the previous evening. We set sail for Quebec in a Newcastle brig on her way back to England, and with a favorable breeze made sixty miles by midnight, when nnluckily the vessel grounded, and, notwithstanding every exertion, it was found impos- sible to get her off without relieving her of some portion of the cargo. As this would occasion both delay and in- convenience I proposed going on shore and proceeding to Quebec as best I could, leaving our luggage to be brought by the vessel. Accordingly my wife and I, with our infant, our servant, and a solitary portmanteau, were landed in tho boat (the captain accompanying us), at a little farm-house on the river bank. Here we found but one inhabitant at home, a snuffy, superannuated Frenchwoman, who could do nothing but sing out some shrill sentences and then shrug up her shoulders. As we could not make her un- '^'^rstand a syllable of English, I was in some perplexity „ y wo should procure any conveyance, when the cap- tain hit on an ingenious plan to make known to her our wishes. Leading her to a kind of wheelbarrow standing near, he sat her down on it, then, catching up the handles RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 357 suddenly, ran lior about the house at full speed ; then, point- ing to my family, cried " Cum sa ?" P]xtraordinary as this method of explanation may seem, the old lady appeared to comprehend it, for, giving a slight chuckle, she nodded lier head and beckoned me to follow her up to the roof of the cottage. Here, i)ointing to some smoke Avreathing upward from a chimney at some distance, just perceptible amid a clump of trees, she exclaimed, " VoildP'' Much in doubt whether I understood the old woman or she under- stood me, I descended to the parlor, and was telling what had passed, when a laboring man coming in, she bade him put my portmanteau on his shoulder and gave him somo directions, to which he replied by sundry words and ges- ticulations to us equally unintelligible. The captain, how- ever, was satisfied that they knew very well what wo wanted, so, shaking my hand, he jumped into his boat and pushed off. The rustic, shouldering our portmanteau, walked away, and we accordingly followed him towards the house of which I had caught a glimpse, and which was a mile and a half distant. Our guide took his way through wood ai^d meadow without saying a word, merely resting for a minute or turning round when he had a stilo or a brook to cross, and I certainly indulged some strange conjectures as to how our adventure might end, when, much to our satisfaction, we emerged into a road and ter- minated our walk at a kind of post-house. Here a little Frenchman, a perfect image of Bagatelle in the farce, promised us a conveyance that afternoon; so, dismissing our guide with a piece of silver, we begged the post-master to ask him to convey, in as polite language as he was master of, our thanks to the old cottager. From a pane of glass in this post-master's parlor I tran- scribed some lines which seemed to me to convey a happy idea: 358 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. "Life's like a journey, and it seems to ino Fortune's our vehiele, our luggage Care, Hope our conductor — but Necessity Tliat which draws most men everywhere." The Frenchman kept his word, and by dusk wc reached Three Rivers, where, calling on the commandant, Gen- eral Sheaf, to whom I had been introduced at Boston, I found he was intendint^ next day to send off a bateau to Quebec, on which he very obligingly offered us a passage. From the scarcity of inns and all but impracticability of the roads, this was far preferable to making the journey by land, and I gratefully accepted the offer. In the even- ing I joined a musical party at the general's; he and his lady played delightfully on the flute and piano, some of- ficers sang very well, and some members of the band were excellent musicians, so that the time passed very agree- ably. If music is a less rational entertainment than some others, it has certainly the advantage of being held in al- most universal estimation; for, wander wherever I would, in England, Ireland, or America, I have found everywhere a taste for music, even in the most humble village, while great differences of opinion existed upon all other kinds of amusement. Among the residents in this little town, who were prin- cipally French, I encountered a Mr. Burroughs, who had once known something of me in the States — a very in- genious man, who had forged to a greater or less amount on every bank in the Union, and, being imprisoned in con- sequence in several state prisons, had invariably effected his escape. These circumstances conjointly had procured him a reputation in the general opinion of the Americans little inferior to that of a certain sable practitioner who is supposed to confine his personal operations to regions below. Indeed, some people went so far as to believe that this infernal personage had actually established an agency RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 359 on earth, and that Mr. Burroughs acted for liim upon a liberal commission. But whatever profits might thus have accrued to him, they had evidently been evanescent, for bo ■was now living here in poor circumstances and maintaining himself by keeping a school! How far he was qualified for such an employment might be open to question, for though his proficiency in penmanship and figures Avas undoubted, he would have been quite likely, from sheer force of habit, to teach his pupils to sign any other name rather than their own. But perhaps this was only another branch of the aforesaid agency. The next morning, accompanied by a Dr. Davidson, of Three Rivers, my family and I embarked in the bateau, •which was manned by twenty soldiers under the command of an officer. Having put on board the best store of liquor and cold provisions the little town could supj)ly, we ran in to shore about midday to discuss them under some shady elms, and the day's sail proved altogether very pleasant, except when occasionally wo came in contact with the rapids, when the soldiers did not prove them- selves quite so expert as the Canadian boatmen. In the evening we landed again at a spot recommended by Dr. Davidson, who had some knowledge of the OAvner of a largo solitary house which stood in view a little way from the bank, and where he expected we could obtain accom- modation for the night. lie accordingly went there at once and soon returned with the information that his friend, a French gentleman, was from home, but that ma- darae, his wife, had expressed great willingness to receive us. This news was warmly welcomed by us all, but par- ticularly by the soldiers, who, it struck me, took the in- vitation in a more liberal sense than was intended. Leav- ing one man only in charge of the bateau, who was to be relieved in a couple of hours, we all proceeded over a field to the house in question — rather a formidable body to take 360 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. up a night's lodging anywhere. The mansion, as we ap- proaclied it, appeared to be very large, ancient, and dilap- idated, displaying windows without panes, shutters hang- ing on one hinge, and gates all lopsided, while the garden around bore an equal aj)pearance of decay and neglect, its fences broken down, and a profuse variety of ill- weeds keep- ing the proverb in countenance by *' shooting apace" in it. Our summons at the door Avas answered by madame herself, a tall, gaunt, strait-laced figure with a face so wrinkled and frightful as to be almost as petrifying to tlie beholder as the fabled Medusa's. She was dressed in the French fashion of the old refjhne — a ceiling-sweeping cap, square-toed shoes, pink-striped gown, and a feminine corse- let, designated " stays," which I think our officer must have envied, for to all appearance they would have been impenetrable to any bayonet thrust. Moreover, her petti- coats were of sufficient brevity to display a pair of ankles that must have frightened gallantry out of even a Pere- grine Pickle, and which were supported by appropriately colossal appendages. She had merely one female domestic with her in the house, a fat, squab, ugly little thing, but she was herself altogether so formidable a being that she need have had no delicate scruples as to admitting even a whole regiment of men beneath her roof. Catching a glimpse of her countenance as I entered, I felt sure, from its ex- pression of mingled surprise and disj)leasure, that my ap- prehension had been correct, and that the invitation w^as by no means intended to embrace so numerous a company. The old lady somehow brought to mind the Thane of Fife, as she stood muttering, and gazing on forms more sub- stantial than he saw, and yet more unwelcome — "a fourth — a fifth — a sixth !" — as we streamed, one after an- other, into the hall, while she held the lock of the door in an irresolute grasp, as though half inclined to close it violently and sweep some half dozen of the soldiers into RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 361 the yard. They had apparently an instinctive apprclien- sion of lier purpose, and trod after each otlier in quick time and close order, till the whole nineteen were in, and the hall pretty well filled. Then, shutting the door with a slam, the storm burst, and she gave forth a long roll of vituperative thunder, which I believe none of us under- stood; or, if any did, at least they took no notice of it. I must, however, speak well of her treatment, though it was due to no generous motive. The servant showed my wife up into a comfortable bedroom, where refreshment and a cheerful fire had been provided. The oflicer, Dr. David- son, and myself were ushered by madame into a spacious oaken parlor, and likewise taken care of, while the soldiers, finding their way in a body down into the kitchen, inves- tigated the cupboards, threw logs of })ine wood uj)on the iron dogs, and made themselves at home without any so- licitation. I learned from the doctor that this family were supposed to be rich though penurious people, who had for- merly been in business, but now lived in miserly seclusion, holding little or no communication with the world. Every- thing about the house, and the old lady herself, bore marks of attestation that this was the case, and as I have always looked on avarice and inhospitality as two most detestable vices, I did not so much regret the punishment of our visit, nor that our hostess had been betrayed into an act of generosity which she had not contemplated. As it was our intention to resume our voyage at four in the morn- ing, Mrs. Bernard retired to rest early, but we three gen- tlemen, inspirited by our brandy-and-water, a cheerful fire, and that most convivial of all times — midnight, kept up and awake, indulging in songs and stories and humor- ous recollections ; while the soldiers, imitating our ex- ample, began to carouse more deeply below, and raise up a bacchanal strain that made the wide, empty rooms and hollow wainscotings of the house ring again. The old 10 I 362 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. lady's patience here deserted her, and, finding that neither did we mean to go to bed, nor the soldiers to return to the bateau, she flew into a terrific passion. For a solitary and decayed house like this, in which the stillness of des- olation seemed to have reigned undisturbed for years, to be converted of a sudden into a scene of mirth and revelry was singular enough ; still more singular to us seemed the hollow cchoings of our laughter through the gloom; but more singular than all, though at the same time sufficient- ly laughable, was the conduct of our hostess, who kept running up and down stairs, from parlor to kitchen, like some discontented spirit haunting the mansion and scared from its repose by our merriment. But though, for a couple of hours at least, she kept alternately commanding those below, and haughtily requesting those above to com})ly with her wishes, she could neither frighten the soldiery from their pleasures nor entice us from ours un- til, punctually at four o'clock, our sentinel from the bateau came to summon us on board. When the men were called up we found not above five out of twenty able to main- tain a military uprightness on their legs, which five were consequently obliged to carry all the rest to the boat. Calling up Mrs. Bernard and our servant, I then tendered my thanks to madame for our entertainment, when I was given to understand that the best proof we could afford of our sense of gratitude was to make our exit as expe- ditiously as possible. On regaining the bateau the morn- ing air had some sobering effect upon the soldiers, but we did not get into Quebec quite so early as we had expected, though none of us were disposed to quarrel with the men as to the cause of the delay. Colonel Pye, the head of the Amateur Association in Quebec, on hearing of my arrival, politely called on me to take me to his house ; another amateur did me the favor of presenting my bill for lectures to the governor, Sir James RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 303 Craig; and I also received many kindnesses from Judge Scwell, whom I had slightly known nearly twenty-eight years before at Bristol, where he was studying the law, and on one occasion, I remember, played " The Gamester " for a charity night. My entertainment was greatly attended, and the company, perceiving this, thought it advisable to offer terms, when I agreed to perform six nights for a clear benefit, my characters to be Vapid, Sheva, Gregory Gub- bins. Sir Robert Bramble, Ollapod, and Dash wood; with Lord Ogleby and " The Liar" for my own night. These all proving attractive, both public and company were well satisfied. In a paltry little room of a very paltry public- house, that neither in shape nor capacity merited the name of theatre, my benefit receipted £95, besides ten guineas which Governor Craig sent me for his ticket. My first visit to Canada being thus encouraging, I now explained to some friends my motives in coming. It being evident that if a scheme were to be carried out with any advan- tage a new theatre was indispensable. Colonel Pye of- fered me a piece of ground behind his own house to build on, provided I would admit Mrs. Usher, the present man- ageress, to partnership; but as this lady had no other claim to such a privilege than her simple merits as an actress, I declined the proposal. As Judge Sewell recommended my waiting on Governor Craig to solicit the honor of his patronage and choice of situation, I did so, when he very politely assured me he would not only give his name, but liberally subscribe to the erection. Mrs. Usher, however, took Mills in as a partner for the remainder of her lease, and it was the opinion of my friends that for the present a new theatre would sink under the influence of the ama- teurs, who supported Mrs. Lusher in toto. As these gentle- men evidently performed more for their own amusement than the public's, and as under the present system they played most of the characters themselves, I saw how I 364 RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. should be opposed in bringing a company which would only diminish their pleasure. At Montreal the case was different ; there were no amateurs, and the public were decidedly fond of theatricals, while, furthermore, the im- portant families in that city had even been the first to speak with me upon the subject of a new theatre, towards which they proposed a handsome subscription. After this view of affairs I quitted Canada, having received a letter from Powell announcing Dickinson's return from England with some fresh engagements, and that the season would commence directly. I therefore returned to Boston with as little delay as possible. The season of 1810-11, the fifth and last of my Boston management, opened with some prospect of success, but terminated, as before, disappointingly, while Charleston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore were about as prosperous as ourselves, though New York was doing much better, owing to Cooke's* arrival with Cooper from England. Among our new importations Dickinson had brought us a Miss Poole, an actress of very versatile talent; Mr. Drake, f Mrs. Doidge, and others of more or less ability, but not calling for particular notice. Dwyer,J the comedian, also * Geougk Fuederick Cookk was the first great actor who came to Amer- ica, the legitimate successor of Garrick, the rival of Kemble, and the pro- cursor of Kcan. A man of groat possibilities but very uneven perform- ance. After a brilliant and erratic career in England, he made his first appearance in the United States November 21, 1810. lie died in Xew York, September 20, 181 2, from the effects of intemperance, and at last found rest in the yard of St. Paul's Church there. lie was born in Westminster in 1*750. t Samufx Drake was born in London in 1'7'72. He appeared with hia wife at the Federal Street Theatre, Boston, in the season of 1810-11. lie subsequently became a manager in the West ; one of the earliest actors to penetrate that then little known region. He was the progenitor of a number of actors and actresses, the most famous perhaps being his grand- daughter, Julia Dean. X Mr. DwTER was an Irishman, who made his first appearance in Dublin RETROSrECTIONS OF AMERICA. 305 paiil us a visit for a few nigbts, anil was tolerably success- ful. He had lately come out to America, rather too lato in the clay to answer his purpose, having, he told me, been driven by the embarrassment of his private affairs from his metropolitan engagements. In my opinion this was a great pity, as he was the only "genteel comedian," in my knowledge, who could have supplied the place of Lewis at all to the satisfaction of a London public. AVe had some novelties this season of native produc- tion, Mr. White, whom I mentioned before, giving us a comedy entitled " The Poor Lodger," taken from Miss Burney's novel "Evelina," to which Paine wrote an epi- logue, characterized by a wit and elegance rarely to bo met with in these dramatic appendages. The comedy it- self was written with some spirit and humor, but failed in its general effect. Mrs. Rowson,* who had formerly been an actress, but was now superintending a seminary, favored us with another — " Hearts of Oak " — a piece inferior to the other, but which nevertheless displayed merits worthy of more praise than it received. The fame of the authoress rests chiefly on her novel " Charlotte Temple," which has justly met with very general admiration. We had fresh accessions to the company in the persons of Mr. and Mrs. Duff.f The lady, who was the sister of at the age of seventeen. In 1802, at Drury Lane, he made a hit as Bel- cour hi the "West Indian." He came to America in 1810, and made his debut at the Park Tlicatrc, New York, in the same part. He was very handsome, and in hght, dashing comedy was considered almost without a rival in his day. He was rash and improvident, and died neglected and forgotten about 1810. ■^ Wm. Rowson was leader of a regimental band in England. He and his wife came to America with Wignell, in 1793. He was eclipsed by Mrs. Rowson, the author of *' Charlotte Temple, a Tale of Truth," of a comedy called " Americans in England," and other works, and an actress of aver- age ability. f Mr. and Mrs. Duff. John R. Duff and his wife made their American 3GG RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. Mrs. Thomas Moore, was possessed of great personal at- tractions, and in Romeo and Juliet — which K.ii3 and her husband played together — I thought them the liandsoniest couple I had over seen on the stage. They were young at this time, and improved very much in their acting after- w^ards. A Mr. Entwistle,* a low comedian, likewise joined us, and displayed much originality in eccentric charac- ters. But we had also some secessions from the company, a party of whom, of no great ability, under the manage- ment of Mrs. Shaw and another, engaged the cabin of a brig and went off to Demerara. At parting the manager- ess said to me, in a very decided tone, "I am resolvod, Mr. Bernard, upon getting either a coach or a coffiny But mortals may not choose their fate. After playing at one island they proceeded to St. Thomas's. On the passage she died and was lowered overboard. Thus she obtained neither. Most fortunately w( succeeded in engaging Cooke for nine nights, and this great tragedian made his dehUt in Boston on the 3d of January, 1811, to an overflowing house, in the character of Richard the Third. Upon the merits of one " whose like we shall not look upon again," I may be permitted to make a fevv^ observations, and espe- cially to put him in comparison with his great predecessor, debut in Boston in the winter of 1810. Mr. Duff was a iialivo of Ireland (ns*?), and an excellent actor in the leading tragedy roles. lie died in 1831. Mrs. Duff (Mary Dyke) was the cliief actress in America for many years. Tpo founder of The New York Tribune^ late in life, pronounced her tlie finest actress he had ever seen. She played throughout the United States with great success, and died, after years of retirement, in 1857, in the sixty-third year of her age. Iler "Life," by Mr. Joseph N. Ireland, appeared in 21ie American Actor Scries, published in 1882. * Mr. Entwistle was a great favorite in Boston for a number of years. lie appeared in New York in 181-4, went afterwards to Philadelphia, where he became one of the husbands of the celebrated Mr:?. Mason (Mrs. Crooke). His habits wore bad, and he died in New Orleans by his own hand. RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. gG7 Macklin. Cooke's best performance, in my opinion^ was bis Sir Pertinax Mac Sycopbant, wbicb in all respects I consider was one of tbe greatest masterpieces tbe Britisli stage bas produced. Next came bis Ricbard, tben lago and Stukeley, tben Sbylock and Sir Giles Overreacb; bis Zanga and Pierre were but inferior performances. In estimating bis powers I would premise tbat in tbe drama- tis personam of tragedy two contrasting cbaracters gener- ally occupy tbe foreground — ^tlie bero and tbe villain — cbaracters requiring distinct qualifications in tbe perform- er, botb as regards person and genius. "Wo may take, as instances of tbe bero, Otbello. Alexander, and Brutus; of tbe villain, Ricbard, Sbylock, and lago. For tbe per- formance of tbe first it is immediately obvious tbat a tragedian sbould bave sucb personal requisites as a com- manding figure, a fine-toned voice, and a dignified action, not less from tbe poetical sublimity of tbe cbaracters tlian tbeir general declamatory cast, so often calling all tbe qualities of tbe orator into play. For tbe second, I do not know tbat in person anytbing con be insisted upon beyond a strongly marked and flexible set of features ; for tbe peculiarity of tbis cbaracter lies greatly in solilo- quy, tbrougb tbe medium of wbicb tbe villain conveys to tbe audience, in a series of opinions, reasonings, and reso- lutions, bis own cbaracter and bis connection witb tbe fable. To perform eitber well, it is necessary for tbe tragedian to bave a peculiar genius, sucb as bas been instanced, reckoning from tbe Revolution downwards, in Betterton, Bootb, Barry, and Jobn Kemble as beroes, and in Macklin, Mossop, and George Frederick Cooke as vil- lains. Tbese were all tragedians possessing peculiar and opposite kinds of bistrionic genius. I omit Quin, wbo is said to bave played botb casts of cbaracter, and tbe tbree Englisb actors, Garrick, Henderson, and Ilodgkinson, wbom, from personal observation, I know to bave done 3G8 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. so. Their genius, being twofold, gives them an honor- able exclusion from a list of specialties. The villains of the drama may again be divided into two classes: the ma- jestic or heroic, sucli as the tyrants Barbarossa, Dionysius, Zanga or Pierre, and the specious and designing, such as Richard, lago, and Stukeley. In the majestic villain our stage has produced a solitary example of a surpassing tragedian, viz., Mossop, whose pre-eminence I must be- lieve, if I can at all rely on those who saw and told me of him, or on the envy of him felt by Garrick, which, of the two, I take to be the stronger evidence. From a similar- ity of personal requisites rather than from an adaptation to their capacity, actors of heroic tragedy have often as- sumed these characters. In the insinuating villain wo have had but two distinguished tragedians, Macklin and. Cooke, whom I will now compare. Of the two Cooke had. the larger range of character, though not the superior tragedian ; for though Macklin was great, and in some parts of his acting even sublimely powerful (as, for exam- ple, in Shylock and Bajazet) his peculiar characteristic — which was power or force, or rather I might almost say ferocity — unfitted him for the representation of villains in general, where the opposite quality of a specious softness is wanted. Neither could Macklin assume the majestic villain, for he had neither elevation nor dignity, and I know not, therefore, but that he should be classed alone for a description of acting as original as it was excellent, and thus occupy with Mossop and Cooke a distinct stand in the estimation of posterity according to this classifica- tion — which will sufticiently mark the difference in their style — Mossop for his i?iajesti/, Macklin for his fo7'ce and passion, Cooke for his specioiisness. In my boyhood, nearly forty years previous to this period, I had seen Cooke act at Chichester when his pow- ers were, perhaps, as far from maturity as was my judg- HETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. qqq ment. When wc were now thrown together: at B( ston, it might have been supposed that in proportion as I had become more capable of judging he had become less capa- ble of performing, since Cooke, at this time, must have been sixty-five years of age, a period of life wlien, in the common course of things, the mental as well as physical powers of a man arc supposed to have become somewhat en- feebled. When, besides this, wo consider the effect which a long addiction to the bottle must have had upon him in every respect, no one can believe that his acting in Amer- ica could possibly have equalled what it had been in Eng- land. On the other hand I had by this time seen Garrick, Henderson, Macklin, Reddish, Smith, Bensley, Palmer, and Kemble in one or the other of Cooke's characters, and consequently not only had a high standard whereby to test him, but Avas in some degree prejudiced against the possibility of his competing successfully with such rivals. After this, when I say that however, in particular scenes and passages, some of the above performers had exceeded him, or however his own ability was inadequate to fill up with consistent force throughout the brilliant design he had formed, yet that as regards the general conception of his characters he certainly surpassed anything I had ever witnessed, it really amounts to ranking him, in his own peculiar specialty, above the level of even the great- est I have named. And when, perceiving what his con- ception was, I considered what his ability might have been, when unimpaired by age or bad habits, I could not but come to the conclusion that he must have been one of the most original and highly endowed tragedians the world has ever produced. The great characteristic of " The Man of the World " being that quality in the representation of which Cooke particularly excelled, viz., speciousness, affords the reason why he so much surpassed Macklin in its performance, 10* 370 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. the latter confusing the light and shade of the character by an invariable rougliness, and often attempting to pro- duce effect by a grimacing and bullying altogether inap- propriate, liut Cooke also excelled Macklin in his dialect, having caught it while strolling through Scotland, while Macklin only obtained his (as he himself informed me) from his Scotch schoolmaster in Dublin. While still un- der the sway of his ferule the young " McLaughlin " used to entertain the other boys by imitating the tone and manner of this worthy pedagogue, whenever he made a short exit from the schoolroom. A little story is con- nected with this fact. The master, who was a strict dis- ciplinarian, had a favorite expression whenever the boys pressed upon him too urgently with their lessons or copies, being accustomed to restrain their impatience with, "Bide a beet, bide a beet; I'm nae prepared," a phrase which he drawled out in a tone peculiar to himself. One day, having quitted the school to seek something in his bed- room, just overhead, Macklin stole to his seat, threw the morning-gown he had left there over his own shoulders, put on his spectacles, and, opening a book, began to mimic his manner of hearing a lesson. This exhibition all the scholars enjoyed heartily, and Macklin, imagining he should be sure to hear the master leave his room up-stairs, went on in perfect security. The cunning magister, how- ever, was too sapient for him, for, suspecting something of the sort, he quitted his apartment softly, and stole down-stairs where, the pclioolroom door being ajar, he could, undiscovered, watch Macklin in the height of his performance and hear all the pupils manifesting their admiration of it. Unluckily, lie was provided with a pair of ^^ery long legs, and all at once, making two rapid strides into the room and up to his desk, he seized the budding actor by the shoulder with the grip of a vise, and, grasp- ing a ruler in his other hand, brandished it aloft, exclaim- RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 871 ing, " Ye dauraned scoondrel, shall I brak ev'ry boone in your boody ?" Without shrinking in the least, or chang- ing his position, Macklin coolly looked up into his face and replied, " Bide a beet, mon, bide a beet, I'm nae pre- pared." His extreme composure enhanced the humor of the mimicry so completely as to overpower the dominie's wrath. With a shake of the head and an ill-suppressed smile his arm dropped powerless by his side, and Macklin was suffered to disrobe himself and go back to his seat with no further punishment for his impertinence than a kick from behind as he retreated. But to return to Cooke: at our first interview his man- ner was perfectly unconstrained ; " Mr. John Bernard," he exclaimed, " or Honest Jack Bernard, as they call you on the other side of the water, how do you do? I've known you these thirty years, though we have never met before. You've heard of George Cooke, too, I dare say. I wonder who didn't know me. Black Jack [Kemble] used to say that I was as well known wherever I went as the town crier or the parish beadle." Put thus at once upon familiar terms, I took him home with me to dinner, and, during his stay, catered for his amusement as much as lay in my power. That he did not always show himself so genial, we soon had a proof. He had put up at the Exchange Coffee- house, in Boston, and here a Mr. Rennie, a Scotch ventril- oquist, was also staying for a few days. It had happened, many years before, that in some country town in England where Cooke was performing, this Rennie had been thrown into prison for debt, under very distressing circumstances. His situation was spoken of all over the town, and partic- ularly in the green-room. Cooke, whose benefit was just at hand, inquired the amount of the debt, and learned that it was £40. The benefit yielding him just the sura required, he went without hesitation to Rennie's lodgings, 372 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. threw tlio whole into the lap of his weeping wife, and told her to go and get her husband liberated; then, with a bundle on his back, and only a few shillings in his pocket, he set off on foot for the company's next town, a distance of thirty miles. One act like this might indeed atone for years of imprudences ! But there was a sequel to the story and a curious one. Rennie, of course, never forgot such generosity, and now they were once more thrown together, when his circumstances had undergone a great change; he resolved to express his sense of it in a manner which he thought would be no less ac:reeable to his bone- factor than satisfactory to his own feelings. Hearing that Cooke was to have a large party to dine with him, he learned from the waiter where the entertainment was to take place, and resolved to enter the room unceremo- niously, relate to the assembled company the whole affair, and then, in their presence, return the £40 to Cooke with his thanks for the loan of it. Unfortunately, on carrying his design into effect, the eccentricity of the actor showed itself in a manner more astonishing than had been even his benevolence. He shook his head frowningly, dis- claimed all knowledge of the circumstances, refused to touch the money, and telling the company that Rennie was an impostor, finally, in rather harsh terms, ordered him to quit the room, since he had entered it without an introduction. The eccentricity of character which throughout life distinguished him led on many occasions to very amus- ing scenes. I remember going with him to Mr. F. C. Amory's to meet a large party. The portrait of John Kemble, in Rolla, hung over the mantelpiece, and, being pointed out to him, with the inquiry whether he thought it a good likeness — "Yes," replied he, "it is a ffrcat like- ness, sir, of a very great man ; but, great as he was " (here he rose from his seat with an affectation of dignity, and RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA. 3 73 paused) — "great as be was" (then clinched his fist and shook it at the picture as, with a smile, lie broke into this comical apostrophe) — "You rascal! I made you shake in your shoes many a time !" A roar of laughter burst from every one present as Cooke, with burlesque importance, resumed his chair. Another evening, at Graupner's (the musician and music-seller), a I'ttle, talkative man, who was our musical leader at the theatre, had contrived to squeeze into the party, and annoyed George exceedingly, not only by the infinity of nothings to which he gave vent, but by their being exclusively addressed to himself. At first he was inattentive, then turned his back on the musician, then moved from his chair; but the fiddler's good-humor was as indefatigable as his tongue, and ho followed the actor up all round the room until he actually penned him into a corner, whence he could not escape. Cooke had been in the best of humors during the first part of the evening, but his complacency was beginning to ooze away more and more at the fiddler's pertinacious advances. Instead, however, of expressing his dissatis- faction at once, he let it go on fermenting in his own breast, while he meditated some mode of punishing his persecutor. The latter, having now completely secured his victim, seized what he thought this favorable oppor- tunity to gain Cooke's attention by playing his last and most effective card. " Mr. Cooke, Mr. Cooke," said he, "do you know, Mr. Cooke, that it is a fact, which I dare say you do not know, that your first wife, Mr. Cooke, was my pupil?" "Your pupil!" "My pupil, indeed. It's a fact, Mr. Cooke, upon my honor." "Oh, then," rejoined the wag (as ho eyed the elated musician with peculiar significance), "then, for the first time, you have given me the reason why that poor creature was such an infernal ninny !" This produced a loud laugh from the company, while the musician looked as much mortified 374 RETROSPECTIONS OF AMERICA, as surprised. "And now, sir," added Cooke, in a very stern tone — "and now, sir, will you let me come out?" " Come out, Mr. Cooke ?" " Yes, sir, come out. Don't you see that you have cribbed me up in this hole for the last half-hour, till I'm as flat as your own fiddle-case. The musician rose in some consternation. " Hark ye, sir," continued Cooke, with increasing severity in his tone and sternness in the expression of his eye, "I have done you a favor in listening so long to your fiddle-de-dee, and suffering a wretched strummer of catgut to converse with a tragedian of the stamp of George Frederick Cooke ; now, sir, will you do me a favor in return ?" " Any- thing in my power, Mr. Cooke," was the trembling reply. " Well, sir, you have chased me all round the room in your chair, now be kind enough to turn round and let me chase you." " Sir?" " In this way, do you see ?" said the actor, and, turning round in his chair, he threw his leg across it and galloped it towards the fiddler as though he had been on horseback. The laughter that now rang through the rooni was con- vulsive. The poor little fiddler started up in the greatest fright, ran to a side-table for his hat, and precipitately rushed from the room and down-stairs out of the house, Cooke galloping his chair after him right across the floor, and putting his head out into the passage to listen to his retreat. When he heard the street door close, he turned round with a roguish chuckle, exclaiming, " I've expelled him ! Richard's himself again !" This was altogether one of the funniest scenes I ever witnessed. INDEX. Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, 97. Abington, Mrs., 285-6. Adams, Joliii, 31, 97, 99, 123, 233, 210, 242-3. Adams, Samuel, 31. Albemarle, Lord, 110. Alexander, Hon. William (Lord Ster- ling), 112-13. Allen, A., 296. Allen, Dr., 328-9. Allen, Ethan, 114-15. Allyn, Mr. (actor), 270. Amory,F.C., 312,372. Andre, Major, 106. Anne, Queen, 161. Arnold, Benedict, 60, 95, 105-7, 236. Arnold, Elizabeth ; see Mrs. Poe. Arnott, Mr. (manager), 176. Ashbury, Mrs. (Eliza Placide, Mrs. Mann), 202 note. Baltimore, Lord, 2, 138-9. Bannister, John, 116, 268, 286. Barrett, (Jeorge H., 341 note. Barrett, Giles L., 264-5, 336 ; biograi)h- ical sketch, 341 note. Barrett, Mrs. Giles L., 264. Barry, Spranger, 268, 367 . Bartlev, George, 275. Batcs,"William, 121-2, 336-7. Benezet, Anthony, 64, 66. Bensley, William, 369. Bentley, Richard, vi. Berkeley, Sir William, 163-4. Bernard, John, iii-vii. Bernard, Mrs. John (Miss Cooper), iii, iv. Bernard, Mrs. John (Miss Fisher), iv, 117, 168. Bernard, Mrs. John (Misa Wright), iv. V, 33, 270, 282-3, 302, 307, 311, 313, 327,356,361-2. Bernard, Sir Francis, iii, v. Bernard, William Bayle,vi,vii, 308 note. Bernard, iMrs. William Bayle, vii. Bctterton, Tlioma-s, 367. Blake, Mrs. William Rufus (Caroline riacide, Mrs. Waring), 202 note. Blissct, Francis, 116, 264,268. Boker, IMiss (Mrs. Robert Treat Paine, Jr.), 300 note. Bolingbroke, St. John, 238 Bonaparte, Mmc, Patterson, 123. Booth, Barton, 367. Bowles, Robert, 277-82. Brett, INIrs., 204. Broadhurst, Miss, 264. Brown, Charles Brockdcn, 190, 350-5. Brown, Nicholas, 225. Bruce, James, IH. Brunton (Mrs. Wignell, Mrs. Warren) ; see Mrs. ]\Icrry. Buchan, Dr. William, 325. Buckingham, Duke of, 74. Buffon, George le Clerc, 224. Burgoj-ne, (iien., 59, (iO, 105. Burke, Edmund, 7, 99. Burleigh, Lord, 122. Burney, Frances (Mme. d'Arblay), 365. Burroughs, Mrs., 358-9. Butler, Mrs. P. (Frances Ann Kemble), 191 note. Byrne, Oscar, 123, 228-31. Byrne, Mrs. Oscar, 229. Ca?sar, Julius, 89. Canning, Mrs., 142-3. Carlton, Sir Guy, 115. Carroll, Charles (of CarroUton), v, 85, 86, 190. 376 INDEX. Carter & Ilomlcc, vi. Cartwri^liL, Mr. (actor), 277, 2S1-2. Catlioriiic of England. 121. Catherine of lins.sia, 281. Caton, M iss (Marohioiiesa of Wellcslov), 12.}. CaiiKifeldi^Ir. (manager and actor), 282, 285; biographical sketch, 28G note, 293-6, 300, 302, 305-7, 308, 309, 332, 330. CaiiKield, Mrs. (Mrs. Skin), 290. Cervantes, 75. Chalmers, Mr. [ -1800], 204, 208. Charles I., 7, 30, 72, 99-100, 138. CharlesII., 2, 6,7. Charlotte, (iuecn, 355. Chastelluz, Marquis, 90. Cherry, Andrew, 270, 277. Chcsterlield, Lord, 20. Cicero, 74, 75. Cipriani, Mr. (clown), 270, 282. Clay, Henry, 189. Clay, Mr. (manager), 176, 181. Clinton, Sir Henry, 99, 100-7. Colburn, Henry, vi. Coleman, William, 315. Condii, Prince of, 79-80. Cooke, George Frederick, 102, 208, 317 note ; biographical sketch, 364 note ; 300-74. Cooper, Miss (Mrs. John Bernard), iii, iv. Cooper, Priscilla (]\Irs. Tyler), 104 note. Cooper, Thomas Abthorpc, 110; bio- graphical sketch, 164 note; 164-8, 171-2, 174, 191, 204, 267-8, 293, 313, 315,336,341,364. Cornwallis, (Jen., 104, 127. Cowper, William, 340. Craig, Sir James, 362-3, Crawford, Gov., 314, 329. Cromwell, Mr. (actor), 308-10, 312. Cromwell, Oliver, 7, 72. Crooke, Mrs. (Miss Elizabeth, Mrs. Rlason) ; see Mrs. Entwistlc. Cumberland, Kichard, 262. D'Alembert, John Le R., 82. D'Arblay, ]\Imc. (Frances Burncy), 365. D'Artois. Count, 236. Darley, Felix O. C, 331 note. Darley, John (Sr.), biographical sketch, 331 note, 340. Darley, John (Jr.), 331 note. Darlev, Mrs. John. Jr. (Ellen Wcstray), 314,331 note. Darley, IMatlhew, 331 note. David.son, Dr., 359-02. Davidson, (Jen. William, 85. Dawson, Hon. Mr., 105. Dean, Julia, 364 note. De (Jlaubeck, Baron, 90. D'Holbach, Paul Theri, 82. Dickinson, Mr. (Powell & Dickinson), 204, 260, 272; biographical sketcli, 317 note; 318, 326, 343, 304. Dickinson, IMrs. (Miss Harrison), 317 note. Digges, Sir Dudley, 7. Dillon, Count, 215. Douglas, David, 270. Dowton, W., ''68. Drake, Samuel, biographical sketch, 304 note. Dryden, John, 107. Duff, John, 317 note; biographical sketch, 365-6 note. Duff, Mrs. John (Mary Ann Dyke), 317 note; biographical sketch, 365-Onotc. Dunlap, William, 02 note, 259. Dunmore, Lord, 127. Dwyer, Mr., biographical sketch, 304-5 note. Edwin, John, 205. I'^dwin, Mrs., 275. Elizabeth, (Jueen, 79, 269. Emery, John, 270. Entwistlc, Mr., biographical sketch, 306 note. Entwistlc, Mrs. (Miss Elizabeth, Mrs. Mason, Mrs. Crooke), 360 note. Essex, Earl of, 7. Faba, Jerome, 79. Fabius, 93. Fantoccini, 129. Farquhar, George, 262. Farren, Elizabeth (Countess of Dcrbv), 285-6. Fcnelon, 72. Fennell, James, 73-7 ; biographical sketch, 73 note ; 196-7, 264, 267, 292- 3, 296-8, 300, 312, 337, 341. Fisher, ]Mr. (manager), 281. Fisher, Miss (Mis. Jolui Bernard), iv. Fontenelle, Miss (Mrs. J. B. William- son), 256, 264, 205. INDEX. S11 Foote, Samuel, 27. Fox, Cliarlca Jnmcs, iv, v, 101. Fox, (it'orge, 17o. Fox, ]Mr. (actor), IIG, 121-2. Francis I., 79. Francis, William, 116, 122, 2CI, 2G8. Franklin, Benjamin, 77-83, 90, 92, 99, 112,1-10,102,234. Frederick the Great, 109, 113, 231. Gannett, Deborah ("KobertSlnirtliff"), 211. Garrick, David, 32 note, 250, 2G5, 2G8, 318, 301 note, 8G7, 3G8, 309. Gates, (Jen. Horatio, f)9 91, 95, 105. George III., 23,92. George, Miss (Mrs. Oldmixon), 1 IG. Gilford, William, 49 note. Gillingham, i\Ir., IIG, 118-22. Gillingliam, Mrs., IIG, 118-22. Gilpin, John, 340. Girtllestonc, Thomas, 99. Glaubcck, Baron de, 215. (iodwin, William, 104 note, 250, 2G7. (Joldsmith, Oliver, 202, 325. (Jraupner, Mr., 373. (Jraupner, Mrs. (Miss Ileelycr), 318. Greene, Gen. Nathaniel, 04, 0(!, 95, 98, 103-5,107,111,213,215,245. Greene, Mr. [ -1810], 315, 33G., Greene, Mrs. (Jliss Willems), 204. Grimm, Frederick Mclchoir, 82. Hackett, James II., vi. llallam, Isabella (Mrs. IMattocks), 116, 208. llallam, Lewis (oldest), 258, 259. Hallam, Lewis [1740-1808], 2G4, 2G5-6, 209-71. llallam, Mrs. Lewis, Jr. (Mrs. Douglas), 204,271. Hancock, John, 31. Hanger, Major, 21 1-15. Harcourt, Col. William, 95, 98. Hardingc, Mr., 204. Ilardinge, Mrs., 204. Harper, Mr. [ -1813], 204, 205. Harper, Mrs., 204, Harris, Mr. (manager), 74, 75, 142, 275, 312. Ilarwood, John E., 110, 204, 208, 280, 314,315. Hatton, John, 221, 282, 311. Hawlcy, Sir John, 7. Heckcweldcr, IJcv. John, 37. Henderson, John, iv, 256, 268, 307. Henry, John, 258, 259, 205. Herbert, Mr. (actor), 135-7. Hill, (J. II. ("Yankee Hill "),vi. Hodgkinson, John, 20; biographical sketch, 20 note; 27, 28, 29, 250, 257-«, 259, 203, 204, 205, 206, 267, 307. Hodgkinson, iMrs. John (IMrs. Drctt), 200. Hodgson, ]\Ir., 117. Hogarth, William, 57. Ilolcroft, Thomas, 104 note. Holland, John Joseph, 201. Homer, 70. Howard, Chancellor, 85. Howard, John, 00. Howe, Gen., 58, 59, GO, 106, 112, 113. Hume, David, 99. Ilumphrevs, Col. David, 93, 103, 286-7, 342. Iiidedon, Benjamin Charles, 276, 331 note. Ireland, Joseph N., 61, 306 note. Irving, Washington, 315. James I., 3, 4. Jefferson, Joseph [1774-1832], 71, 264, 2(;0. Jefferson, Thomas, v, 92, 93, 123, 170-7, 187, 190, 232-43, 325. Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 74, 181, 253. Johnson, IL, 275-6. Johnson, Mrs. II., 275-6. Johnson, John [ 1759-1819], 264, 266. Johnson, Mrs. John [ -1830], 264, 200. Johnston, Henry, 287. Jones, Mr. [ -1800], 204, 265. Jones, ]\Irs. (Miss Granger), 264, 292. Jordan, Mrs. Dora, 250, 208, 292. Kean, Edmund. 304 note. Kelly, Judge, 04,85,329. Kemble, Elizabeth ; see Mrs. White- lock. Kemble, Frances Ann (Mrs. P. Butler), 191 note. Kemble, John Philip, iv, 267, 208, 277, 280, 304 note, 367, 369, 371, 372. Kent, Duke of, 296. Kosciusko, 90, 115. 078 INDEX. T.arallc, Mrs. ; sec Jlrs. Alexander Pla- cidc. Lafayette, ISFarqiiis of, 0(i, 97, 107-9. Lauzun, Diiko of, '_'3.'3. Loo, (Jen. Charles, ul), 91, 05, 90-103, 105, 109, 17-2-3. Lest range, INIrs., 2G4. Lewis, MonU, *277, Lewis, William, 'Jt')5. Lincoln, (Jen. Benjamin, Gl, 9C, 115. Linnajiis, Carl, 158, 174. Locke, John, 7H. Lorinj?, ^frs., OO, Louis XVI., 102. Loullierboiirg, IMiilippc Jacques, C9. Lowell, James Kussell, v. Lyman, Gen. Phineas, 110. Mackenzie, D., 2G4. IMacklin, Cliarles, 3G7, 308, 309, 370-1. RIacreaily, William, 27(5. Jlatlog, I'rince, 118. Mallet, Mons., 301,318-19. Mann, Mrs. Sheridan (Mrs. Ashbury) ; sec Eliza Placide. IMarius, 70. Marshall, G., 116, 121-2, 204. Marshall, Mrs. G. (Miss Ilardinge, Mrs. Clarke), 204. 208. Martin, John, 204, 200. Mason, Mrs. (Miss Elizabeth, ]Mrs. Crookc) ; see Mrs. Entwistle. Mat'icr, Cotton, 4. Mattocks, Mrs. (Isabella Ilallam), 110, 208. McKnight, Capt., 117, 118-20. Melmoth, Courtney (Samuel Jackson Pratt), 206. Melmotli, Mrs. Courtney (Mrs. Pratt), 204, 200. Merry, Robert, 49-50; biographical sketch, 49 note; 57, 01, 71, 72, 72 note, 124, 138, 141-5, 2.^0. Merry, Mrs. Robert (Miss Rrunton, Mrs. Wignell, Mrs. William Warren), 32 note, 49 note \ biographical sketch, 72 note; 142-3, 145, '->G4, 208-9, 312, 336. Milbourne, Mr. (artist), 261. Mills, Mr. (actor), 331-2, 336; bio- graphical sketch, 353 note; 350,303. Mills, Mrs. Eliza, 332, 340, 353 note, 354. Mirabcau, 75, 233, 235, 230. Monfgomcrv, Gen. Richard, 94, 95, 96, 115. Moore, Mr. (actor). 318. ^loore, Mrs. ; see Mrs. Woodhani. Moore, Mrs. Thomas (Miss Dyke), 300. jMorris, Owen, 01-2; biographical sketch, 01-2 note ; 135, 219, 209-71 . Morris, Mrs. Owen, 02, 271. Morse, Mr. [1784- ],337. Morton, Mr. (actor), 204, 208. Morton, Mrs. (Sarah Wentworth Ap- thorp), 290. RIossop, Henry, 307, 308. Mottle, Col., 2*00. ^Murray, Lindley, 325. Nash, Gen. Francis, 115. Necker, Jacques, 233, 235. Neith,I\Ir., 172. North, Lord, 100. O'Donncll, :Mr., 138-40. Oldmixon, Mrs. (Miss George), 116, 204, 208. Oldmixon, Sir John, 09, 110. O'Keefe, John, 250, 262. O'Neill, Eliza, iv. Otis, James, 31. Oxford, Earl of, 7. Paine, Robert Treat, 300 note. Paine, Robert Treat, Jr., 292; bio- graphical sketch, 300-1 note, 341, 305, Paine, ISFrs. Robert Treat, Jr. (Miss Ik)- ker),300 note. Paine, Thomas, 97, 301 note. Palmer, John, 74, 309. Patterson, IMiss (Mrs. Jerome Bona- parte), 123. Pavne, John Howard, biographical sketch, 339 note, 341,343. Penn, W'illiam, 03, 04, 65, 06. Perrot, Sir John, 7. Pinkney, Hon. Mr., 329. Pitt, William, 75. Placide, Alexander, biographical sketch, 202 note; 264,310. Placide, Mrs. Alexander (Mrs. Lafalle), 264. Placide, Caroline (Mrs. Waring, Mrs. IJlake), 202 note. Placide, Eliza (Mrs. Ashbury, Mrs. Mann), 202 note. INDEX. 379 Placidc, Ilcnry, 202 note. riai'ido, Jaup, 2(»2 luitc. I'laoidc, Tlionias, 2()2 iiulc. I'ocalioiitas, 1 .')'.) -()2. I'oc, David, Jr., Uiograpliical sketch, 2'JG note. Poc, Mrs. David, Jr. (Elizabotli Ar- nold), biographical sketch, 2'JG note. Pdc, ICdgar Allen, 2i)() note. Poole, Miss (actress), 304. Pope, Alexander, 238. Powell, Charles Stuart, 204. Powell. Mrs. Cliarles Stuart, 201, 200, 272,291,200. Powell, Snellinfj, 300; hiopraphical sketch, 317 note; 317-19, 320, 304. Powell, Mrs. Snellinj^ (Elizabeth Har- rison), 204, 200, 317 note, 318. Powhatan, 102. Pratt, Samuel Jackson (Courtney Mel- moth), 200. Pratt, Airs. (Mrs. Courtney Melmoth), 204, 260. Pridcaiix, Dr. Humphrey, 03. Tricstlcy, Dr. Joseph, 238. I'rigmore, Mr. (actor), 204. Pulaski, Count, 96. Putnam, Gen. Israel, 96, 110-15. Pye, Col., 302, 303. Qualch, Mr. (actor), 271. Quick, John, 276-7. Quincy, Josiah, 31. Quinn, James, 27, 71, 265, 307. Rae, IMr. (manager), 275. Raleigh, Sir Walter, 2-3. Ramsay, David, 181. Raphael, 78. Rawdon, Lord, 104, 211, 214. Raynal, Abbe, 91. Reddijh, Samuel, 309. Reinaglc, Mr. (manager), 259. Rennie, Mr. (ventriloquist), 371-2. Rich, Richard, 7. Richards, J., 201. Robertson, Dr. William, 185. Robertson, William (actor), 332. Rogers, Francis, 278-81. Rolfc, Thomas, 101, liousseau, J. J., 253. Rowson, William, biographical sketch, 305 note. Rowson, Mrs. William, 365 note. Rush, Renjamin, 230. Rutk'dgo, Kilward, 97. Sandys, Sir Edwin, 7. Savigiiy, Mmo., 79. Schuyler, (Jen. Philip, 96. Selden,.h)hn, 7. Selwyn, (Jeorge, iv. Sewell, Judge, 3.")5, 303. Shakespeare, 27, 55, 72, 74, 77, 78, 163, 107, 238, 257, 202, 2G;J, 205, 208. Shaw, Mr. (actor), 298. Sliaw, Mrs., 29^. Sheaf, (Jen., 29(), 301 , 312, 358. Sheridan, Richard lirinslev, iv, v, 74, 202. Siddons, Sarah, 190-1, 256, 269, 317 note. Sieyos, Abbe, 233. Silsbee, Joshua S., vi. Smith, Capt. John, 159-00. Smitii, William, 309. SmoUct, ToI)ias, 71. St'lee, Mr. (manager), 204. Soutliampton, Earl of, 7. Stanley, INIrs. (Jlrs. Twisleton), 27G, 282; biographical sketch, 284 note; 284-6, 293, 294, 295, 302, 330, 338-9. Sterling, Lord (lion. William Alexan- der), 112-3. Sterne, Lawrence, 203. Stone, (jov. Jolni II., 85. Sullivan, (Jen. John, 90, 112. Sullivan, (Jov. James, 338. Swift, Dean, 238. Talbot, ]\rontagiie, 275. Tarleton, Col., 104-5, 211-15. Teach ("IJlackbeard"), 175. "Three-Fingered Jack," 135-7. Tomolomo, 102. Tompkins, Col., 124-5. Trajan, 89. Tubbs, Mr. (actor), 191-4. TurnbuU, Mr. (actor), 216. Twaits,William, 312, 314. Twisleton, Mrs. ; sec Mrs. Stanley. Tvler, Pres. John, 164 note. Tyler, Joseph, 204, 206. Tyler, I\Irs. Joseph, 204. Tyler, Robert, 164 note. Tyler, Jlrs. Robert; see Priscilla Cooper. 380 INDEX. Usher, Luke, 292, 33G; biographical sketch, 35i note. Usher, TMrs. Luke, 292, 3G3. Yanliorn, Col., GO-l. Vestris, Armaiul, ()8. Vigcrs, Mr. (actor), 282. Anmng, Mr. (vocalist), 282, 286. Voltaire, 290. Von II age n, Mr. (musician), 301. Von Kail), Huron, 96. Von Steuben, Baron, 94, 96, 109-10. Walpolo, Sir Robert, 1G2. Walstein, Miss, 275. Warinj;:, i\Irs. Leigh (iVIrs. William R. Ulake) ; see Caroline Placide. Warrell, Mr. (actor), 2G1. Warren, Dr. Joseph, 31. Warren, William [ 1767-1832], vi, 72 note, 116, Ml note, 264, 268,313, 345. Warren, Mrs. William (Miss Brunton, INIrs. Wignell); see ]\Irs. Merry. Washington, George, vi, 59, 60, 85-95, 98, 99, 105, 107, 108, 110, 120, 122, 14!, 232, 286. Washington, Mrs. George, 88. Wayne, (ien. Anthony, 115. Webster, Mr. (vocalist), 312. 340. Wcllcsley, Marchioness of (Miss Ca- ton), i23. West, Blrs., 336, 339. VVcstray, Ellon (Mrs. Darlcy), 331 note. Wcstray, Juliana (Mrs. W. B. Wood), 144 note. White, William Charles, 341, 365. Whitelock, Mr., 264. Whitelock, Mrs. (Elizabeth Kemble), 190-1 ; biographical sketch, 190-1 note; 256,264. Wignell, Thomas, iv, 32; biographical sketch, 32-3 note; 61, 72, 72 note, 84, IIG, 144 note, 164, 258-9, 261, 264, 331 note. Wignell, Mrs. Thomas (^lisa Brunton, Mrs. Warren) ; sec Jlrs. Slerry. Williams, Matthew, 231. Williamson, J. Brown, 256, 264. Williamson, Mrs. J. Brown (Miss Fon- tenellc), 256, 264, 265. Withcrspoon, Mr., 124-5. Wolfe, Gen. James, 234. Wolsey, Cardinal, 121. Wood* William B., 33 n(tte, 62 note, 144; biographical sketch, 144 note. Wood, ]Mrs. W. B. (Juliana Wcstray), 144 note. Woodham, Mr., biographical sketch, 345-6 note. Woodham, ]\Irs., 331, 336; biograph- ical sketch, 345-6 note. Wools, Stephen, 182-3. Wright, Miss (Mrs. John Bernard), iv, V, 33, 276, 282-3, 302, 307, 313, 327, 356, 361-2. Wroughton, Mr. (actor), 312. TJIE END,