THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND y 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID ) 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Thirteenth Edition, crown Svo, cloth, 2s. 6d.; cloth extra, with 
 Six Original Illustrations, 3s. Qd., 
 
 BITS FROM BLINKBONNY; 
 
 OK, 
 
 BELL O THE MANSE. 
 & ale of Scottisfj Utllage Htfe betfoent 1841 anU 1851. 
 
 Opinions of the Britisli, Indian, American, and Colonial Press. 
 
 Very picturesque these Bits are, sketched by a hand true to nature, 
 which knows manse life, and kirk life, and but-and-ben life. One of 
 the most vigorous pieces of character study and delineation that we have 
 seen since the appearance of Dr.Macleod s "Starling." A mine of Scottish 
 idiom and proverb ; we have seen nothing like it since " Mansie Wauch. " 
 Not haggis, shortbread, scones, cock-a-leekie, nor singed sheephead, 
 are more intensely Scotch than is this simple but undeniably fascinating 
 story. 
 
 Fifth Edition, crown Svo, cloth, 2s. Qd.; cloth extra, with Six 
 Original Illustrations, 3s. 6d., 
 
 MORE BITS FROM BLINKBONNY. 
 
 & ale of cottis!j Uillagc Htfe bctfown 1831 antr 1841. 
 
 Opinions of the Press. 
 
 Stories of Scottish characters and customs of fifty years back. . . . 
 Pawkily told. May be deservedly classed with such books as Dean 
 Bamsay s "Reminiscences" or George Macdonald s "Alec Forbes." 
 Every chapter enjoyable; the scenes of the "Wee Italian Laddie," 
 " Adam Rankine s dying hours," and "Jamie Murray s Wedding," may 
 be instanced as particularly fine. 
 
 Square Svo, cloth, Is.; Cheap Edition, paper, He?., 
 or 8s. 4d per 100, 
 
 LITTLE BLUEBIRD, THE GIRL 
 MISSIONARY. 
 
 Opinions of the Press. 
 
 A sweet story which humanizes and Christianizes. We cordially 
 recommend "Bluebird" as a most pleasant and agreeable story. Sure 
 to prove a fascinating book for the young. 
 
 EDINBURGH: OLIPHANT, ANDERSON, & FERRIER. 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Square Svo, cloth, Is. , 
 
 MISS GRAHAM S PROTEGS. 
 
 Opinions of the Press. 
 
 A clever piece of Scottish character-sketching. Capital bits of 
 Scotch stud its pages. A record of earnest, wise, loving Christian 
 effort. Full of tender and touching pictures. 
 
 LITTLE BLUEBIRD and PROTEGS, bound together, cloth, Is. (>d. 
 
 Small crown Svo, cloth extra, Illustrated, Is. M.; paper, Qd., 
 ELDER LOGAN S STORY ABOUT THE 
 
 KIRKS. 
 & 2300k for tlje Houng. 
 
 Opinions of the Press. 
 
 Does any loyal United Presbyterian wish his sons and daughters, 
 or young friends, to understand and appreciate the history of his 
 religious denomination? let him place in their hands " Elder Logan s 
 Story about the Kirks." Juniors have been fascinated, and seniors have 
 had their knowledge refreshed. 
 
 Second Thousand, c.ctra croiun Sco, elegantly hound; cloth, (jilt, 5s., 
 
 THE COME AND GO FAMILY 
 TEXT BOOK. 
 
 Containing a Come f antJ Cwct for SEfotrg Say in the gear; 
 also, Spaces for 23irth.s, fHarriagcs, an& Deaths. 
 
 Opinions of the Press. 
 
 A genuine novelty, a remarkably handsome small quarto, with a 
 dainty coloured border on each page. Composed of Scripture passages, 
 each day having a couple, in the iirst of which the word " Come" has a 
 leading function, while in the second the word "Go" is no less 
 prominent. A real teaching power is secured by the quaint arrange 
 ment. The compilation has been executed "with brains," and also 
 with spiritual insight. These two little words are set in the most 
 pathetic and grandest passages in Holy Writ. The book may become 
 a well -prized register of kindred and friends. No one can examine the 
 book without admiring it, and being amazed at the rich portions of 
 Scripture which have been brought together under the principle 
 employed. 
 
 EDINBURGH: OLIPHANT, ANDERSON, & FERRIER. 
 
BITS ABOUT AMERICA. 
 
STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AT PHILADELPHIA. 
 
BITS ABOUT AMERICA 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN 
 
 AUTHOR OF "BITS FROM BLINKBONNY," "ELDER LOGAN S STORY, 
 
 "THE COME AND GO TEXT BOOK," ETC. 
 
 "A chiel s amang ye takin notes, 
 An faith he ll prent them." Burns. 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 OLIPHANT, ANDERSON, 
 
 1887 
 (All Rights Resen 
 
MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, 
 PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY S STATIONERY OFFICE. 
 
76 Z- 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE VOYAGE, ... I 
 
 II. THE LATE HENRY WARD BEECHER, ... 9 
 
 III. RAILWAYS, ... . 19 
 
 IV. EASTHAMPTON, . . . . . .29 
 
 V. CITIES, .... 40 
 
 VI. PAINTINGS, ... 55 
 
 VII. CHURCHES AND SABBATH SCHOOLS, ... 68 
 
 VIII. ON THE ROAD, ..... 79 
 
 IX. THE PRAIRIES, . . 9O 
 
 x. THE PRAIRIES (continued}, . . . 103 
 
 XI. NIAGARA, .... .116 
 
 XII. CANADA, ... .130 
 
 XIII. SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES, AND NEWSPAPERS, . . 146 
 
 XIV. AGRICULTURE AND TIMBER, .... 159 
 XV. MANUFACTURES AND TRADE, . l68 
 
 XVI. SCOTS IN AMERICA, . . . . 177 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 STATUE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN AT PHILADELPHIA, (Frontispiece.} 
 
 THE CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON, . . .43 
 
 NIAGARA IN WINTER, . .125 
 
 QUEBEC (FROM THE SOUTH BANK OF THE RIVER ST. 
 
 LAWRENCE), . . . . .141 
 
 FALLS OF THE RIDEAU, OTTAWA. . .183 
 
BITS ABOUT AMERICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE VOYAGE. 
 
 URING a visit which I made to America, 
 in the early months of 1887, I wrote a 
 series of articles which appeared in the 
 Edinburgh Scotsman newspaper as "Bits 
 from the Scrap-book of a Scot visiting 
 America." I have been asked to put these 
 into book form. In doing this, the following lines 
 keep ringing in my ears ; I recognise their note of 
 warning and its need : 
 
 "Oft has it been my lot to mark, 
 A proud, conceited, talking spark, 
 With eyes, that scarcely served at most 
 To guard their owner gainst a post ; 
 Yet round the world the blade has been, 
 To see whatever s to be seen, 
 Returning from his finished tour, 
 Grown ten times perter than before ; 
 A 
 
2 Bits aboitt America. 
 
 Whatever word you chance to drop, 
 The travelled fool your mouth will stop ; 
 Sir ! if .my judgment you ll allow, 
 I ve seen, and sure I ought to know." 
 
 America is such an immense continent and 
 subject, that only a small portion of it can be 
 seen in a three months tour ; still smaller is the 
 portion which a stranger can describe or impartially 
 compare with similar matters in his own land. I 
 found that I had a good deal to unlearn as well as 
 to learn, and that pride and conceit were lessened, 
 rather than increased, by coming into contact with 
 its extent and progress. I travelled alone, and only 
 aim at giving some personal experiences or opinions 
 as a visitor, not by any means as an authority, 
 some " Bits " of odds and ends as reminiscences of 
 a very pleasant holiday. 
 
 I left Greenock on the evening of 24th February 
 1887 by the steamer Devonia of the "Anchor" Line. 
 She halted at Moville to take on board passengers 
 and goods from Ireland. The shores of Lough Foyle 
 were lighted up by a bright sun, little villages were 
 clustering on the hillside, whitewashed farm-houses 
 dotted the slopes ; here and there a church tower 
 or spire raised its graceful form above tree and 
 hamlet, and right in front stood the ivy -clad, 
 picturesque, hoary ruin of Greencastle, an old 
 stronghold of the O Dohertys. It was sad to see 
 friend parting with friend as the " tender " was 
 
The Voyage. 3 
 
 about to leave for the shore ; it was sadder to see 
 two tipsy young men helped across the gangway 
 by the sailors, and to hear them hiccoughing out in 
 muddled tones, " The County Down for ever," " The 
 County Down for ever," "God save Ireland." With 
 this exception, all were sober and sedate ; after they 
 had got their baggage attended to, much of it in 
 little flat bags, they sat down or huddled together ; 
 a good many had prayer-books, from which they 
 quietly and devoutly read as the steamer ploughed 
 its way westwards. Eagerly were many eyes strained 
 to catch " the last glimpse of Erin," and, as it faded 
 from view, one of the " tight boys " kept firing off 
 his parting salute, "The County Down for ever," 
 " God save Ireland." Pleasanter it was to hear a 
 passenger repeat 
 
 "While the waves are round me breaking, 
 
 As I pace the deck alone, 
 And the eye in vain is seeking 
 
 Some green spot to rest upon, 
 What would I not give to wander 
 
 Where my dear companions dwell ? 
 Absence makes the heart grow fonder, 
 
 Isle of Beauty ! Fare thee well." 
 
 Twelve days tossing on the Atlantic in the 
 good ship passed pleasantly. During the first 
 three or four there were high gales, and many 
 fellow-passengers were so " rocked in the cradle of 
 the deep" that they were either invisible or very 
 
4 J>its about America. 
 
 " lily-livered." If Neptune had confined his lullaby 
 attentions to the night watches, the sad state of 
 many would have been less visible ; but the angles 
 of the suspended lamps, or those compound, danger 
 ous-looking circular glass and decanter stands that 
 dangled from the roof of the saloon, as well as the 
 "hing" of the floors, were so j/^^/indicular, so 
 constantly, so suddenly, and so uncomfortably 
 varied, that it was impossible to keep the balance 
 of the body. With this the stomach sympathised, 
 and even the mind felt quite at sea ; but by spare 
 diet, principally cabin biscuits and iced water, I 
 contrived to retain this plain fare, to assume "sea 
 legs " soon, and make the best of a trying position. 
 During these days theDevontawas sailing directly 
 in the face of strong head winds and heavy adverse 
 tides ; sometimes she seemed to be gripped by 
 these, and shaken from stem to stern, like a rat 
 by a terrier when a " stack " of corn is being taken 
 in, and the "ratting" is abundant and must be 
 prompt. Bravely did she pursue her course, bound 
 ing over the waves or dashing right into them as 
 they swept up to or over her. Sound were the 
 "duckings" that many passengers got, ankle -deep 
 were occasionally those on deck, as a "header" 
 or a " roller " delivered an overflowing broadside. 
 Many a time a blow was given by one of these 
 that made the good ship shudder, and the passengers 
 
The Voyage. 5 
 
 stagger and reel ; but on she ploughed, tug-tugging 
 away, so that one felt every stroke of the immense 
 engine, and she never halted for eleven days (the 
 engines making over 920,000 revolutions in that 
 time), until we stopped to pick up a pilot from one 
 of the trim, swift crafts that cruise often 400 miles 
 out from New York. Well did Commander Young 
 and his able crew deserve the expression of thanks 
 and confidence presented to him by the unanimous 
 vote of the saloon passengers. 
 
 As the sea became more thoughtful of those on 
 its bosom, the cabin gradually filled, and the thirty- 
 eight cabin passengers, by reading, chatting, music, 
 and other socialities, became, and continued, a happy 
 family until our arrival. An iceberg was sighted on 
 the afternoon of the seventh day s sailing. Between 
 us and the sun, at a distance, its outline reminded 
 me of Stirling Castle s grey bulwarks. The thermo 
 meter, which had been standing about 50 Fahrenheit, 
 kept falling for some time, and when abreast of the 
 iceberg, it stood at 23. Need I tell that hats were 
 slouched, coat-necks uplifted, and ladies heads and 
 shoulders quickly beshawled with more regard to 
 comfort than taste ? When abreast of the ice 
 mountain it became more like an Arctic hill, having 
 a sharp peak at each end, a sloping plain in front, 
 with indented outline from the hill bases to the ice 
 cliffs, that sloped abruptly, and sheer into the sea. 
 
6 Bits about America. 
 
 The waves dashed far up against the mass, and fell 
 backwards in thick spray. When we had passed 
 this southward-bound, cold, solitary voyager, the 
 sun fell full on its untrodden snow, giving just the 
 least sensation of a yellow tinge to the dazzling 
 whiteness, broken in a few spots by ice blocks 
 sparkling like huge diamonds. The base, against 
 which the waves were beating, was, for ten to 
 twenty feet up, honeycombed and icicle-bedecked, 
 showing that the sea was sturdily tackling this huge 
 cold burden, and gradually absorbing it. Nothing 
 more beautiful could be conceived than the effect 
 produced by the combination of the ever restless 
 but not angry sea, the pure white snow, the soft 
 blue of the sky, and the fleecy cloudlets that floated 
 before it, so soft as merely to lighten, not obscure, 
 the blue. There was a field of pack ice a little to 
 the northward, and in or near it whales were seen. 
 I admit that I saw, as I have seen on dry land, 
 something " very like a whale," and quite as like 
 a high breaking wave. 
 
 Many of those on board tried to take sketches 
 of the iceberg ; but as we neared it, the outline 
 changed so much, and the cold became so pro 
 nounced, that the tingling fingers proved too 
 shivery -shakery to produce a satisfactory result. 
 In shape and size it reminded me of the Island 
 of Craigleith in North Berwick Bay, but it was 
 
The Voyage. 7 
 
 dumpier, sharper in the outline and slopes, with 
 a rather higher peak at each end and all white 
 very white. 
 
 After leaving this cold companion the weather 
 improved, and on Tuesday, under a bright March 
 sun, we entered the beautiful bay of New York. 
 Patches of snow were on the enclosing heights, but 
 the air was balmy and delicious. The Statue of 
 Liberty, 300 feet high, held aloft her massive lamp ; 
 the spires and towers of the splendid city were 
 beautifully defined against a sky of cloudless blue ; 
 the river was a busy scene, swarming with white- 
 painted steamers, ferry boats, and craft of all sorts 
 and sizes ; and the passengers, loath to part, yet glad 
 to reach the desired haven, were, 540 in all, safely 
 landed in the metropolis of the west. 
 
 I, along with many others, did not think that the 
 custom-house officers were by any means in a hurry. 
 Each passenger had to mount guard on his or her 
 luggage, and wait, patiently, I can hardly say, for 
 the expressions of a few were hardly Parliamentary, 
 until the chief of the customs was ready for them. 
 Many, seated on trunks, reminded me of the picture 
 of the " Emigrant," by somebody or another. At 
 length the official big man came and sent an 
 " examiner." The search was " pretty thorough." 
 Several had to follow the examiner into the receipt 
 of custom, and pay with evident grudge the dollars 
 
8 Bits about America. 
 
 that they expected or tried to retain. At length 
 " pass " was written on each package, and the 
 immigrants and their belongings distributed them 
 selves over the great city, or the great western 
 world, never all to meet again. 
 
 One hearty fellow-voyager was sorely exercised 
 about his watch, " A first-rate goer, an new cleaned," 
 as he termed it. He could not understand " what 
 for it was half-an-hour fast every day," although 
 he was told in explanation that as we went west 
 ward the hour of sunrise changed. He "couldna 
 see through that at a ." It was only after eight 
 days sailing that, finding his watch "at twelve 
 o clock at breakfast time," he began " to think that 
 there was something in the change o the sun s risin 
 
 o o 
 
 after a ." 
 
 He was noisily angry at having to pay duty on 
 some presents he had brought with him, and as I 
 left the quay I heard him venting the old proverb, 
 " There ne er was a five-pound note but there was a 
 ten-pound road for t." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LATE HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 S I parted from a most agreeable couple, a 
 clergyman and his delightful lady, of 
 Syracuse, New York county, who had 
 been fellow-passengers, and would have 
 honoured any nationality, Mr. C. s last 
 words were " Now, be sure and go to hear 
 Mr. Beecher." When I reached my hotel, the first 
 news I heard indeed, the talk of the entrance lobby, 
 was, " Beecher is gone." The sudden and startling 
 announcement led me back in thought to the days 
 when I used to enjoy the terse, home- thrusting 
 sayings of this great preacher and man, in his book 
 of Life Thoughts, thirty years ago or thereabouts. 
 I also recalled his early passion for phrenology ; 
 his stedfast advocacy of temperance, especially his 
 uncompromising and persistent denunciation of 
 slavery, when it was rather dangerous to be out 
 spoken on this "domestic institution." His public 
 appearances in America and in England during the 
 war between the North and the South were heroic. 
 
io Bits about America. 
 
 Often in Liverpool and other towns, where cotton 
 and commerce twisted the consciences of humanity 
 and Christianity, he was hooted and howled down ; 
 but he held on, and soon he was freely allowed to 
 hold forth. His eloquence, and his fervid advocacy 
 of the maintenance of the Union, contributed to the 
 continued homogeneity of the Northern and Southern 
 States ; and now that slavery is no more, the 
 American nation, great, glorious, and free, may well 
 place high on its roll of patriots and worthies the 
 name of Henry Ward Beecher. The journals of the 
 week have been full of him. There was an all but 
 universal chorus of honour to the self-made, self- 
 sacrificing, self-reliant minister of Plymouth Church, 
 Brooklyn, and a feeling that a mighty power, because 
 a mighty heart, " after he had served his own genera 
 tion by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid 
 unto his fathers." The newspapers of America pro 
 vide their readers with the facts and surroundings of 
 his death, the outpouring of the sympathy of all 
 classes and creeds for the widow and family ; the 
 tribute which his fellow-townsmen, America, and 
 the world have paid to his memory ; the absence, in 
 accordance with the frequently and strongly ex 
 pressed opinions of the deceased on this subject, of 
 the ordinary trappings of woe and sorrow in the 
 funeral arrangements, alike in home, church, and 
 city ; the dressing of his body for the coffin in the 
 
The late Henry Ward Beecher. 1 1 
 
 full garb he usually wore as a living man ; the loads 
 upon loads of flowers that have been laid above, 
 around, or near him ; and the high-toned resignation 
 of his nearest and dearest relatives Mrs. Beecher 
 having gone out for a drive, on the solicitation of her 
 family, between the death and the funeral. 
 
 I went by the Suspension Bridge Railway, one of 
 the most beautiful objects in the place, as well as a 
 great triumph of engineering, from New York to 
 Brooklyn on the day of his funeral, and observed 
 that the flags on the shipping and the city heights 
 were half-mast high. Being without the badge of 
 the Press, it was some time before I was permitted 
 to enter the street in which Plymouth Church stands. 
 This gave me an opportunity of seeing an American 
 crowd. Various nationalities were represented ; the 
 majority were good specimens of English, French, 
 and German mixed ; a few had the typical and sharp 
 features attributed to cute Americans. Coloured 
 folks were there, from the Negro to the Octoroon, 
 many of them elegantly dressed, some seedy, and a 
 seedy Sambo is very downy. Carriages brought or 
 waited for people, the coachmen heavily fur-tippeted, 
 the horses light, and some fine, mostly with short 
 tails like hunters. The fashionable fast- trotting 
 steed, harnessed lightly, and without collar with the 
 traces in front of the chest to a large light-wheeled 
 buggy, brought a few. The greater number came 
 
12 Bits about America. 
 
 on foot. All were quiet, orderly, and well conducted. 
 There was a little chaffing and coaxing of the police 
 men (very handsome men, all that I have seen) by 
 several persons not provided with tickets of admission 
 to allow them to pass, at least to the front of the 
 church; but in vain. I failed to convince one lieu 
 tenant of my half-right, half-desire to be admitted 
 to the chapel ; but, getting within hail of a captain, 
 I produced a Continental passport, with the pro 
 minent red seal of the City of Edinburgh, and a 
 Press recommendation, which procured me access 
 into the chapel. 
 
 It stands in a quiet side street, which has some 
 old trees on each side and several young ones, 
 forming a kind of boulevard. The chapel is plain 
 ness itself, brick-built, very red, with plain windows 
 and doors, and bears, a little under the overhanging 
 roof, the inscription, 
 
 PLYMOUTH CHAPEL, 
 1849. 
 
 " Crammed " is no exaggeration for the inside of the 
 building ; still all was quiet. I was too late for the 
 opening services, but heard the beautiful music. 
 Round and round the outer walls and the front of 
 the gallery were festoons ; against the walls, at short 
 spaces, were small trees and evergreens; the rounded 
 corners of the gallery panelling were embowered 
 
The late Henry Ward Beecher. 13 
 
 in green, picked out with white lilies, roses, lotos, 
 azaleas, etc. ; the massive organ, which stands 
 behind the platform, was covered with evergreens, 
 clustering with white flowers ; the " Beecher " pew, 
 the only one unoccupied in the church, was full of 
 wreaths, bouquets, and chaplets ; and in the centre, 
 immediately before the reading desk, lay the coffin, 
 smothered in green and white lily of the valley, 
 lotos, camellias, maiden-hair, smilax, etc. ; while the 
 late preacher s chair, lost in flowers, was surmounted 
 by the coronal wreath of the I3th Regiment N.Y. 
 and C.V., bearing the inscription " Our Chaplain." 
 Red and pink roses, pale " Marechal Neils," etc., 
 enveloped the plain reading desk, on which lay the 
 Bible. I was told that Mr. Beecher s chair and desk 
 in the lecture-room were made of wood from " The 
 Mount of Olives," and are not to be used again. 
 The clock in the centre panel of the gallery was also 
 decked, but behind the green surroundings could be 
 seen its plain old-fashioned face, plain as that in the 
 Scottish Burgher Kirks of old. The gallery runs 
 all round, and is seated up to the organ, so that 
 many must sit behind the minister ; there is a small 
 upper gallery, with projecting front, near the ceiling, 
 facing the minister ; the pews, etc., are painted white, 
 with a mahogany rail on the top. The roof is 
 concave and high. 
 
 All denominations were represented. Not the 
 
14 Bits about America. 
 
 least interesting occupants of the platform were ten 
 of the coloured clergy, honouring themselves by 
 honouring their champion and friend. Dr. C. H. 
 Hall s sermon was grand and heart-stirring. He 
 broke down, and so did many, as he told " that on 
 the last Sunday evening Henry Ward Beecher was 
 in his church, after service, the organist and some of 
 the choir were practising the hymn 
 
 I heard the voice of Jesus say, 
 "Come unto me and rest." 
 
 Beecher in retiring halted to listen. Two poor boys 
 had gone into the church, and were listening with 
 apparent awe and pleasure. Mr. Beecher laid his 
 hand on one boy s head, turned up his face, and 
 kissed him ; and with his arm about the two, left 
 this scene of his triumphs, his trials, and successes 
 for ever. It was a fitting close to a grand life : the 
 old man of genius and fame, shielding the little 
 wanderers, great in breasting traditional ways and 
 prejudices, great also in the gesture, so like him, 
 that recognised, as did His Master, that the humblest 
 and the poorest were his brethren the great preacher 
 led out into the night by the little nameless waifs." 
 
 I passed the coffin twice, once on each side, and 
 looked on that face, at rest at home. Both glances 
 very forcibly reminded me of the face of a divine 
 and a poet lately gone over to the majority. I 
 
The late Henry Ward Beecher. 1 5 
 
 withhold the name, lest friends on both sides should 
 misunderstand me, but I took the second glance to 
 confirm my first impression, and it more than did 
 so. Slowly, reverently, lovingly, did thousands pass 
 to view that face, and even at ten o clock at night, 
 when the chapel was closed, there were thousands of 
 waiting ones, disappointed. To the left of the 
 speaker was a floral device bearing, " I will praise 
 Thee, Lord, with the harp. I will be satisfied when 
 I awake with Thy likeness." In the hymn-book 
 handed to me, The Plymouth Collection of Hymns 
 and Tunes for Christian Congregations, I found, 
 including supplements, 1464 hymns and 26 dox- 
 ologies. The last hymn (1464) was by the sainted 
 M Cheyne, of Dundee, "Jehovah Tsidkenu," 
 
 "I once was a stranger to grace and to God." 
 
 I retired through the large lecture hall behind the 
 church, where "his" chair and lecture table were 
 swathed in flowers, and bound about with wide satin 
 ribbons. I passed through the crowd of waiters-on 
 about a quarter of a mile from the church, and it 
 extended in both directions as far as I could see. 
 
 The following Sabbath evening services brought 
 upon one platform " Calvinist and Catholic, Israelite 
 and Swedenborgian, Episcopalian and Universalist, 
 Baptist and Unitarian, and Methodist, all came 
 to lay a chaplet of loving words on the altar of 
 
1 6 Bits about America 
 
 the church. Would that all whose actions tend 
 to increase the already too wide breach among 
 Christian churches had been present to learn the 
 lesson of that meeting that Henry Ward Beecher, 
 although many differed from him theologically, 
 politically, and in other important respects, was 
 recognised by men of all creeds as a man of God, a 
 man of prayer, a man of power, and an apostle of 
 freedom, temperance, and love. He was a multi 
 lateral man, concrete, fearless, and genuine ; had 
 amalgamated the organic remains of Puritan, Metho 
 dist, Quaker, and citizen that influenced his youth, 
 and transformed them into a homogeneous power, 
 more than a forty-parson power, which was not only 
 tremendous, but mobile and aye ready. Nature and 
 Art, boyhood s joys and age s wisdom, fact and 
 fiction, all that was beautiful or great became a 
 collecting ground whence he drew fresh thoughts 
 and sprinkled them over the world. Peace to his 
 ashes ! Well does such a life warrant the palm of 
 victory even here, rather than the conventional sable 
 and sadness. He rests. He is crowned ; but his 
 works of faith and labour of love remain. Truth 
 and freedom, effort and humanity, will long cherish 
 the life-work of Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 I had the pleasure of visiting Mr. Beecher s sister, 
 Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, authoress of Uncle 
 Tom s Cabin, etc., in her pretty home at Hartford, 
 
The late Henry Ward Beecher. 1 7 
 
 Connecticut, and found her hale and hospitable. 
 She spoke of the early home at Litchfield, Conn., 
 where their father, the Rev. Lyman Beecher, was 
 pastor of the Congregational Church ; of their 
 sturdy New England ancestry, dating back, on both 
 sides, to the settlement of New Haven in 1638 ; of 
 her brother Henry s student days ; of his first small 
 church in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on the Ohio, 
 where he had to eke out his income by working 
 a small farm ; of his removal, after two years 
 ministry, to Indianapolis, where he remained 
 eight years, during part of which he was an editor 
 and journalist; and of his coming to Brooklyn in 
 1847. 
 
 She told that her father s mind got weak during 
 his last illness, and while waiting on him he asked 
 abruptly, " Who are you?" 
 
 " I am your daughter Harriet," answered she. 
 
 "My daughter Harriet? I have no daughter 
 Harriet ; you are imposing upon me ; go away, go 
 away." 
 
 On relating this incident to her brother Henry, he 
 was horrified and said, " I hope and pray that I may 
 be in possession of my full powers and faculties up 
 to my last illness, and that that illness will be brief. 
 I have a great horror of growing less vigorous 
 mentally, and I shrink from a long death-bed." 
 
 " And," she added, " he has had his wish ; his was 
 B 
 
18 Bits about America. 
 
 a most enviable death, and the surroundings of his 
 funeral have been what he often urged upon others, 
 that bereaved ones should give evidence that they 
 believed in their departed being with Christ and 
 far better, using the event as an occasion for the 
 expression of thankful joy, that Death had been 
 swallowed up in victory, that the dead friends had 
 really entered into the JOY of the Lord/ and were 
 more alive than ever wearing the CROWN of 
 Life." 
 
 The Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler thus expressed 
 himself at one of the numerous funeral services: 
 
 " FRIENDS AND FELLOW-TOWNSMEN, The same funeral bells 
 which sounded the knell of Grant, Hancock, and Logan, are tolling 
 their requiem over another warrior for liberty and the nation s life. 
 ... To my dying day I shall retain that vision of Henry Ward 
 Beecher, the prince of pulpit orators, the trumpet-tongued advocate 
 of the oppressed, the defender of his country abroad, the lover of 
 nature from the cedar to the hyssop on the wall, the lover of his 
 fellow-men, the victorious warrior whose tongue was a flaming sword 
 for the defence of freedom and the rights of man. Henry Ward 
 Beecher, hail and farewell ! " 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 RAILWAYS. 
 
 \g WONDER you Britishers stand these 
 pokey, stuffy little railway cars," said 
 a fellow-traveller of Scotch birth but 
 long residence in America on one of 
 my early railway journeys. "They ain t 
 the size of a two-horse bus ; then they re 
 divided into cells, with double doors, and you re 
 often locked in." 
 
 " They re not safe," said his wife, a born American. 
 " You might be murdered and pitched out without 
 anybody knowing, leastways lots have been. I 
 once was in a car in England, and, jest as it was 
 starting, in came a fellow. I hollered, and got into 
 another carriage with some women in it. English 
 cars ain t a circumstance to ours." 
 
 She looked an able-bodied " Amazon," dangerous 
 to meddle with, and was on the offside of fifty ; still 
 she did not relish her plain-spoken husband s " Well, 
 mother, you ain t got much to fear ; he d be a queer 
 sort that you couldn t double up, you bet." 
 
 19 
 
2O Bits about America. 
 
 As he finished, a darkey with a can of iced water 
 came alongside ; a draught of this had a cooling 
 effect upon her. I knew so little of the manners 
 and customs of the "road," that I was surprised 
 she did not think of paying for this luxury. 
 
 "You have no system at all in Britain," continued 
 she ; " your porters either do not call out the names 
 of the depot, or do it when nobody can hear them. 
 Then what a fussy mess about baggage. Why, in 
 this here country, we show our ticket, get a check 
 with the same number on it as the label they hang 
 on the trunks, and think no more about it till we 
 are near our destination, when an express man 
 comes round the cars ; you give him the check, tell 
 him where you wish it taken, and for a few cents it 
 is home as soon as you. When I was in England 
 I saw dozens of porters in big depots a-scurrying 
 round the baggage-waggon, and all the passengers 
 a-shoutin an pickin out their belongin s. At 
 Glasgow depot, a big box squoze my toes awful. 
 It s downright stoopid, it is. You have three porters 
 in Britain for one in America, and most of them s 
 duffers. I once got the wrong baggage." 
 
 " That sometimes happens," was my reply. " I 
 once found that a newly-married bride had mistaken 
 my portmanteau for hers at Gilsland Station. I 
 only found this out at Carlisle, too late to exchange 
 them that night." 
 
Railways. 2 1 
 
 " Rather awk ard that," said her husband, "rather, 
 I guess." 
 
 " Honeymooners," replied she, " han t got eyes for 
 ordinary things, they s too fixed on t other; and 
 your portmanteaus ain t like our trunks ; we have 
 our nitials printed on them, and they re always all 
 right." 
 
 " That would have suited a commercial traveller," 
 said I, "in the jewellery trade, who, when journeying 
 from Dublin to Cork, put his precious trunk under 
 the guard s care, with long and strong orders to keep 
 it all right. 
 
 " I ll do that, yer honour/ said the guard. 
 
 "At the first station out popped his head, and 
 out popped the question, Guard, is my trunk all 
 right ? 
 
 " All right, sur; never a man ll touch it till we 
 get to Cork. 
 
 " Next station the same question was asked, and 
 the guard, evidently nettled, said, ( If ye doubt my 
 word, ye can come an sit on the top of it, sur. 
 
 " At the next stoppage the restless traveller asked 
 very emphatically, Guard, are you sure that my 
 trunk is all right ? 
 
 " This was too much for Pat ; his eye brightened 
 with a roguish smile, and, touching his hat, he said, 
 < Why, sur, I ve been thinking as we were doing 
 the last run that, if yer honour had been an ELE- 
 
22 Bits about America. 
 
 PHANT instead of an ASS, you would always have 
 carried your trunk where your nose is, and could 
 have kept it "all right" by poppin it under your 
 arm. " 
 
 " That was fixin him ; Paddy had him there, 
 sure," replied my fellow - travellers, and the lady 
 went off to have a talk with Missis Stratton. The 
 gentleman drifted back in thought to Scotland, 
 talked of the fourth class of carriages in his young 
 days at Greenock, the "standing trucks" as he, 
 " the congregation of the upright " as Dr. Ritchie 
 called them. 
 
 And when, shortly after, the couple left the train, 
 he was laughing heartily, for the "cockles of his 
 old Scotch heart were tickled " with the Scotch 
 herd laddie s exclamation when he first saw a train, 
 " Faither, faither, come oot, come oot, quick ; 
 here s a smiddy rinnin awa wi a raw o houses, 
 an it ll be round the end o the toon in a minute." 
 
 A brisk retail trade is sometimes done in the cars. 
 First comes a newsboy ; after him a seller of 
 " candy," an article of considerable consumption by 
 passengers of all ages, and, where it gets into the 
 hands of children, not conducive to their cleanliness, 
 or that of the seats or passengers, for it appears in 
 the hand and disappears in the mouth several times 
 before its final dissolution. Next appeared a travel 
 ling stationer with pocket atlases, cheap novels, 
 
Railways. 23 
 
 "just outs" magazines, llustrateds, and views of 
 local scenery ; dropping tempting books on the 
 knees of passengers, but not greatly pressing sales, 
 for the commerce of America is generally one of 
 few words. At some stations the local newspapers 
 are smartly offered throughout the train during the 
 brief halt, as well as some distinctive production of 
 the district. Travelling caps and other " requisites " 
 were shown round. Fruit and bakemeats were on 
 sale, but there was little pressing or pushing a 
 trade. 
 
 There was " no lack of good tobacco ; " and, 
 while the smoking carriage was well patronized, the 
 ordinary carriages were quite free from the second 
 hand fumes of Lady Tobacco, which is more than 
 can be said for British compartments. 
 
 I found the railway system of America, on the 
 whole, easier and more pleasant than the British 
 system. Iced water was either carried through the 
 cars, or to be had in each, and there was a lavatory 
 in every car. Need I add that these little things are 
 great comforts. The carriages are very long, on 
 bogey wheels, with a passage through the centre of 
 each car, so that the conductor can go from end to 
 end of the train ; and passengers, if not pleased with 
 one carriage, can go to another easily. The seats 
 are for two on each side, comfortably stuffed. The 
 backs can be reversed, so as either to have your 
 
24 Bits about America. 
 
 face or your back to the engine. The cars are 
 heated with stoves or steam, well lighted by oil or 
 gas, with sun-blinds or solid ones, and altogether 
 sweet and nice. The conductor looks at tickets 
 en route, politely gives information, and distinctly 
 announces in each car the next stoppage. 
 
 If you have not secured your ticket in any of the 
 numerous u ticket offices " to be found in hotels and 
 streets, the conductor provides you with one, but 
 charges 10 cents (56.) extra, for which he gives you 
 a "check" bearing the amount he received. On 
 presenting this " check " at the booking office, the 
 5d. is refunded, and this insures that the conductor 
 pays what he draws. Some suspicious people doubt 
 if such "fares" are as regularly accounted for in 
 Britain. Not infrequently the conductor provides 
 a programme of the route, giving the names and 
 distances of the stations, which proves very hand}-. 
 He also looks after the ventilation and temperature, 
 there being a thermometer in each car to guide 
 him. 
 
 The sides of the railway are often unprotected, 
 and the stations on the main street are often without 
 gate or fence. The law throughout the country in 
 this and many other matters, seems to be that every 
 one is expected to be able to look after himself. The 
 locomotive bell rings on entering or leaving a town ; 
 the railway track is evidently a public thoroughfare ; 
 
Railways. 2 5 
 
 and I have rarely seen anything but " level cross 
 ings," without either gate or porter only a warning 
 " to look out for the locomotive." Where gates are 
 in large towns they are light sparred things, painted 
 white, with a small red flag on them, that are erect 
 when open and horizontal while shut, but do not 
 span or block the line as in Britain. 
 
 Upon the much-frequented routes and between 
 the large American commercial centres the railway 
 transit is rapid, but in less populous regions it is 
 leisurely, and the service warrants the name of 
 " slow " trains. It is therefore common to travel 
 by the evening trains, as they frequently go quicker, 
 and are provided with the " Pullman sleeper " cars, 
 with which many in Britain are familiar. These are 
 much more largely used in America, and constitute 
 the " first " class ; for there are not the varieties of 
 ist, 2nd, and 3rd, but one uniform rate for all, ex 
 cepting the "palace" cars. 
 
 A lady from Scotland thus described her first 
 experience of a sleeping car : " I thought we would 
 never get into our berth, for there were men and 
 women in the car. I wondered if they would take 
 ofT their clothes at all. At length I saw a lady take 
 off her boots and disappear behind the curtains. 
 Soon her husband came ; she handed him her clothes 
 to put in the upper berth, which was empty. He 
 then partially undressed, and, after being behind the 
 
26 Bits about America. 
 
 curtain for a little, appeared in a long coloured night 
 dress, and put his clothes also into the upper berth. 
 Shortly after that, a young lady mounted the steps 
 brought to her by the steward, and disappeared in 
 the upper berth opposite ours. I wondered how I 
 would get to the ladies dressing - room in the 
 morning, and thought I would watch what this lady 
 did. She called for the steps at daybreak, came 
 down in a dark-coloured night-dress, and, taking her 
 clothes in her hand, like a * wee bairn coming to 
 dress at the fireside, she walked quite coolly to the 
 ladies dressing-room. It brought me in mind of the 
 box beds of my young days. But what would 
 some canny Scotch folk think of such a mixture ? " 
 
 A refreshment car often formed part of the train, 
 and comfortable meals at moderate prices could be 
 had, but there was no " bar," so that they did not 
 quite come up to Mr. Dunlop s description of the 
 steward s cabin on board the steamer, when asked 
 how he enjoyed the voyage " Fine, man, fine ; a 
 public-house a the way." 
 
 I am old enough to remember the determined 
 opposition that many of our most useful railways 
 had to face from proprietors, on the score of " in 
 juring the amenity of their property," and of the 
 enormous prices got by lairds through whose lands 
 they passed for small strips of indifferent or useless 
 land. The American railways have been more 
 
Railways. 2 7 
 
 fortunate ; they got large grants of lands and con 
 cessions to induce them to construct their lines, 
 which have proved sources of considerable profit. 
 The increase of American railways is fabulous, and 
 daily becoming more so. I was told there were 
 nearly 170,000 miles in operation, or in course of 
 construction. 
 
 The railway is the friend of all, and the single 
 lines are the pioneers of greater things. These 
 are carried through the vast plains generally in 
 lines, as straight as the traditional one drawn by 
 the late Emperor Nicholas of Russia on the map 
 with a " ruler " between St. Petersburg and Moscow, 
 when asked concerning some engineering difficulties 
 as to the route. 
 
 A village or " town " generally commences by the 
 erection of a smithy, followed by a drug store, a 
 " saloon " or beer-shop, and other traders. The 
 railway not only erects a small station or depot, 
 often with telegraphic conveniences, but nearly 
 every one has an enormous wooden " tun " erected 
 at a height sufficient to supply the engine with water, 
 and higher than the " tun " is a " windmill " pump. 
 The moving power is shaped like an umbrella, with 
 the lower part of the ribs covered with short " Vene 
 tian " spars, while the upper part is bare. It is guided 
 into the proper direction by a flat paddle like the 
 " feather end " of an arrow, assumes nearly as many 
 
28 Bits about America. 
 
 curious positions as a real umbrella takes during 
 a March wind, and it keeps whirling and pumping 
 away. They are showily painted, look graceful, 
 and are found in great numbers everywhere. This 
 source of cheap and available power has largely 
 fallen into disuse in Scotland. I can recall the 
 large flapping arms of one that used to swing its 
 huge bulk round the old tower between Braid Burn 
 and Powburn, still called the " windmill." Can 
 Great Britain afford to ignore this and many other 
 sources of power when America uses and needs 
 them ? Can she ? 
 
 Many of the railway lines are unfenced, but the 
 Company is responsible for injury, and the train is 
 occasionally stopped by " cattle on the line." In 
 not a few districts logs are used as fuel, accounting 
 for the peculiar shape of some of the funnels, well 
 known through engravings. American railways 
 issue showy and even sensational time-tables with 
 maps, and each declares that it is the nearest, 
 cheapest, safest, most picturesque, and best. I 
 recommend travellers not to be entirely guided by 
 such puffs. " All aboard " is the guard s way of 
 announcing a start ; and in fully 4000 miles of 
 travelling to and fro I found time well kept, every 
 thing pleasant, and no mishap. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EASTHAMPTON. 
 
 Y first experience of American country 
 life was in Easthampton, Mass. On 
 the way the snow was lying thickly, 
 ponds and rivers were frozen (middle of 
 March), and the route was along a swampy, 
 foresty, fieldy country, with a fine back 
 ground of hills and cliffs, relieved and rendered 
 picturesque by the leafless trees in black against 
 the snow. The friend I went to visit was a Mid- 
 Lothian laddie, who left Scotland forty years ago, 
 and is now a naturalized American. 
 
 The ties that bound us, freshened by very occa 
 sional letters, were various, and had stood the forty 
 years strain well. We lived in the same village, 
 were in the same class at the parish school, and 
 generally near the bottom of it never " Dux" but 
 no wonder, when the Dux is now a belted knight, 
 Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjaub, with half of 
 the alphabet after his name, K.C.S.I., C.I.E., LL.D. 
 
 We got palmies together, played and " dookit " 
 
 29 
 
30 Bits about America. 
 
 together in " Hardie s Pool," and full proof of boys 
 being " thick " kent o birds nests in common, to 
 say nothing of following " Tally Ho," or Geordie 
 Denholm and the "Gardener s Walk" band. 
 
 Although neither of us has been presented at 
 Court, we had an interview with Her Most Gracious 
 Majesty on I4th September 1842, of which the Editor 
 of Leaves from the Journal of our Life in the High 
 lands takes no notice ; contenting himself with, " At 
 half-past three o clock we (the Queen and Prince 
 Albert) went out with the Duchess of Buccleuch, 
 only Colonel Bouverie riding with us. We drove 
 through Melville Park to Roslin." I supply the 
 omission by a quotation from my friend s letter, 
 dated I2th September 1886: "I was very much 
 interested in the Queen s visit to the Edinburgh 
 Exhibition. It recalled 1842. Do you remember 
 two boys, sent by the crowd at Melville Gate to 
 watch the Queen when she rounded Nancy s 
 Knowe, so as to give them warning? One boy ran 
 like a deer to tell the crowd the other, red-headed 
 and bare-legged, could not keep up, so had to fall 
 behind, but did noble service to his Queen and 
 country, by keeping pace with the royal equipage 
 till the gate was reached hurrahing as well as the 
 best of them ? " 
 
 Yes, Jamie, I remember that ; but you forgot to 
 relate that the two young rogues had been swinging 
 
Easthampton. 3 1 
 
 on an upper gate ; that when the carnage came 
 forward it closed with a spring ; that the horses were 
 restive ; that we did not know what the Queen said 
 to us at first, but answered Eh ? Then followed 
 the " interview," opening of the gate, the race, and 
 our urging the old gate-wife " to be quick an open 
 the gate, for here was the Queen," to which she 
 replied, " I maun get on a white apron an a clean 
 mutch l first, Queen or no Queen ; " and it was only 
 after she had got herself made trim that she came 
 out, made a " laigh curtsey," and opened the gate. 
 
 The grasp at meeting was a warm one. He looked 
 younger than I expected, younger than his now 
 grey-bearded schoolfellow, and " Auld Langsyne " 
 was performed to the letter during my visit. From 
 the station \ve spanked to his home in a sleigh, with 
 its tinkling bells and easy motion. That night and 
 on many others, indeed into the small hours of the 
 morning generally, we talked of schoolboy and early 
 apprenticeship days, and the ups and downs of our 
 selves and our old classmates and friends. 
 
 We had one especially delightful sleigh ride to 
 gether behind a grand thorough-bred mare, " Jenny," 
 who bowled us over the country roads and past the 
 snug farmhouses of New England, with her crested 
 mane, high head, and nimble legs ; we cleaving the 
 dry air, which, although the thermometer was low, 
 1 A white cap with a very capacious border. 
 
32 Bits aboiit America. 
 
 was rather cool than cold, and most exhilarating. 
 Occasionally in passing vehicles we had to track into 
 snow two feet deep easily done ; at other times we 
 had a two or three miles clear run grand. 
 
 Halting at a Scotsman s house in Florence, we 
 met a Scottish welcome, flanked by cream cakes 
 and other confectionery mysteries, washed down by 
 two samples of " American dew," - one called 
 " Monangehela " another " Bourbon," both most 
 palatable, and, considering the weather, seasonable. 
 Thence we sleighed to Northampton, saw Jonathan 
 Edwards church, and home, and tree, and the 
 pleasant, beautiful residences of this fashionable 
 summer resort ; then back to our quarters with 
 "Jenny," frisky and swift. I was told that my visit 
 was at a wrong season. Perhaps it was ; but had I 
 been later, I would have had no sleighing, which, 
 now that I have had it, I would like to repeat. 
 
 Easthampton is a busy, straggling town of over 
 5000 inhabitants, its industries being cotton-spinning 
 and weaving, buttons, india-rubber wares, etc. 
 In the centre is an open square with a small garden- 
 park, fine trees, and a bandstand. Around it are 
 several fine churches, an elegant Town Hall, and the 
 handsome buildings of the " Williston Seminary," 
 founded and endowed by the late Samuel Williston, 
 a worthy man, who most successfully carried on 
 the manufacture of covered buttons and woven 
 
Easlhampton. 33 
 
 elastic goods in the town. He was a liberal giver to 
 all good objects. In the founder s original deed of 
 gift these words occur, " Goodness without know 
 ledge is powerless to do good ; knowledge without 
 goodness is powerful to do evil." It was one 
 of the first institutions to teach applied science, 
 laboratory practice in chemistry, and field practice 
 in surveying. 
 
 Boulevards of trees overarch the wide streets and 
 well-made concrete pavements. The houses in the 
 centre of the town are mostly built of brick, but in 
 the side streets, largely of wood ; neat, snug, and 
 cosy-like ; standing in " lots," with plot before and 
 garden behind ; painted white, with windows green 
 or brown ; nice porches and verandahs ; and, being 
 all "self-contained" villa style, they are a fair 
 distance apart from one another; hence the town, 
 like many others, is a " town of distances." The 
 coal used in the north-west and in New England is 
 anthracite-smokeless, leaving the air pure and the 
 linen decent. The houses are heated by stoves that 
 give great heat at little expense, but want the 
 " bonnie blithe blink o ane s ain fireside." 
 
 One of my host s sons was a member of a volun 
 teer corps, called, I think, the " Hill Band Corps " 
 (after its patron, Mr. Hill). He was in full regi 
 mentals one evening, preparing to take part in a 
 
 concert to be given in the Town Hall in aid of the 
 
 C 
 
34 Bits about America. 
 
 funds of the " Grand Army of the Republic." This 
 is an association, established about ten years after 
 the close of the rebellion of 1865, to befriend old 
 soldiers or their widows and orphans, and was, I 
 believe, founded by General Gordon. There is also 
 a " Woman s Relief Auxiliary Corps," whereby 
 thousands of ladies combine to visit, discover, and 
 assist female relatives of soldiers that may need 
 help. 
 
 I went to the Town Hall, and found it a large, 
 elegant building capable of containing 1200 easily, 
 with lower halls, committee rooms, etc. The enter 
 tainment was largely dramatic, and the principal 
 actors were men that had been soldiers in the 
 Federal army residents in the town, of which there 
 were over two dozen on the stage. The roles of the 
 ladies were filled by amateurs indeed, all were 
 townsfolk s, excepting A. F. Nail, of Mansfield, Ohio, 
 who " runs " the piece, trains the amateurs, and 
 plays the leading part of " Uncle Joe," a negro slave, 
 to perfection. He is the " Bailie Nicol Jarvie " of 
 the story. The play is entitled, "The Drummer 
 Boy ; or, the Battlefield of Shiloh," arranged from 
 incidents of the late war by Comrade S. J. Muscroft, 
 and begins by a scene of a Northern farmer enter 
 taining Southern visitors. 
 
 Learning of the outbreak of the rebellion, high 
 words pass between " North and South " at their 
 
Easthampton. 35 
 
 parting. The Northern farmer s three boys wish to go 
 to fight. One of them, Johnnie, seems too young, 
 but begs to be even a drummer boy, and, in a touch 
 ing scene, gets his mother s consent. The music 
 was fine ; the tunes in this act were " Way down 
 upon the Swannee River," and " Home, sweet Home." 
 The battle scenes were taken part in by actual 
 veterans, the " Northerns " marching to the tune of 
 "John Brown s body lies mouldering in the grave," 
 and the " Southerns " to that of " Dixie s Land." 
 To hear these sung by men to whom they are 
 patriotic anthems produces a very different impres 
 sion from hearing them bawled to offensive and 
 slang words, as is too often done in Britain. 
 
 There was a very fair representation of actual 
 fighting, of the apprehension and execution of spies, 
 while " Uncle Joe/ played by Mr. Nail, admirably 
 brought out the faithful negro, his " foraging expedi 
 tion," with its promiscuous result of a hen, a potato, 
 and a cabbage his " innocence " when caught by 
 the enemy his delight at getting a letter, which he 
 cannot read, but turns up and down to guess at 
 his asking his master when reading it to read 
 ten million times the first sentence, " My darling 
 old Joe " his tricks, vagaries, hits, and acting 
 altogether made the piece brilliant, and he was 
 ably supported by the soldiers and amateurs. 
 
 The most striking scene was the Southern prison 
 
36 Bits about America. 
 
 of Andersonville, where two of the brothers were 
 confined and starved, because the South was so 
 blockaded as to have nothing to feed its army, much 
 less its prisoners. There Johnnie the " Drummer 
 Boy " is shot, and laid on the dead line. There the 
 Northern men relieve the others to the tune of 
 " Tramp, tramp, my boys, we re marching." Thence 
 they start and return home to the tune of "We ll all 
 feel gay when Johnnie comes marching home " 
 (which jarred on the ear after Johnnie s sad fate), 
 " Singing the battle cry of freedom," and American 
 words set to the tune of "God save the Queen," 
 beginning " My country, tis of thee." When the 
 sad news reached the Northern farmer s home, a 
 sweet voice, unseen, sang, 
 
 " There s a land that is fairer than day, 
 
 And by faith we can see it afar, 
 For the Father waits over the way 
 To prepare us a dwelling place there. 
 
 Chorus. In the sweet by and by, 
 
 We shall meet on that beautiful shore ; " 
 
 and in the farmer s hall " Drummer Johnnie s " dirge 
 was finely sung in 
 
 " We shall meet, but we shall miss him ; 
 There will be one vacant chair ; " 
 
 while all ended with " The Star-Spangled Banner " 
 and " Yankee Doodle." 
 
Eastlianipton. 37 
 
 The audience was enraptured, and the result, 
 I have been informed, of the four days entertain 
 ment was ^"50 to the fund. I met several of the 
 old soldiers, and had from them thrilling state 
 ments of their experience. Many of them were 
 quiet, earnest men ; much had to be drawn out of 
 them. I have found all over the part of the 
 United States I visited an intense regard for the 
 heroes of 1860-65. Monuments in every town 
 expensive and graceful ; banners in every City 
 Hall ; trophies here and there ; and annually, on 
 " Commemoration Day," a fresh small American flag 
 is planted on each of their graves. Commemora 
 tion Hall at Harvard University, one of the finest 
 in the States, was erected to their memory, and for 
 all easy Government posts an old "1865 " has the 
 " running." 
 
 Splendid panoramas or dioramas or cycloramas 
 were in each town of the battles of Gettysburg, 
 etc. The foreground has actual corn sheaves, 
 fields, cabins, cannons, trees, and muskets ; the 
 painted part is so exquisitely done as to prove 
 deceptive. It takes long looking to believe that it 
 is a painting a friend wagered upon " smoke " 
 being real, but although he lost he is still uncon 
 vinced. The painting of horses " in action " of all 
 kinds is marvellous. Need I add that such exhibi 
 tions are intensely popular? 
 
38 Bits about America. 
 
 Washington has its princely institution for old 
 soldiers, more like a ducal domain, adorned with 
 ponds, swans, and fine timber. The Pension Office 
 is large, and the " appropriation " enormous. 
 
 So much for the Northern soldiers. What of 
 the Southern ? Of course nothing "national." But 
 their friends have seen to them, as far as they 
 would allow themselves to be seen to. One fact I 
 have on good authority, that in Lexington, Ken 
 tucky, an institution was provided for disabled 
 Southern soldiers, but they could hardly catch one 
 to enter it. They did get one old fellow with a 
 wooden leg to venture in, but he would not remain, 
 and the institution seems in a fair way of being 
 sold, and the purchase - money returned to the 
 subscribers. 
 
 The " scarlet " fever was an old complaint in 
 Britain when the soldier s dress was the red coat. 
 America has also a touch of the " war-and-glory " 
 mania, but it is more in memory and theory than 
 in fact. Our cousins are too wise to cripple them 
 selves, as some European Governments are now 
 doing, by "arming to the teeth." Until there is 
 immense risk of explosion, Jonathan bides his 
 time. Long may he seek peace and pursue it, I 
 cannot recall having seen a single United States 
 regular soldier throughout my entire tour. They 
 seem few and far between ; this cannot be said 
 
Easthampton. 39 
 
 of European kingdoms, where they swarm like 
 locusts, and by their immense numbers almost 
 provoke and would enjoy war. 
 
 Longfellow was right when he wrote, 
 
 Were half the power, that fills the world with terror. 
 
 Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts, 
 Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
 
 There were no need of arsenals and forts ; 
 
 The warrior s name would be a name abhorred ! 
 
 And every nation, that should lift again 
 Its hand against a brother, on its forehead 
 
 Would wear for evermore the curse of Cain ! 
 
 Down the dark future, through long generations, 
 The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease ; 
 
 And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, 
 
 I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!" 
 
 Peace ! and no longer from the brazen portals 
 The blast of War s great organ shakes the skies ! 
 
 But beautiful as songs of the immortals, 
 The holy melodies of love arise. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CITIES. 
 
 WILL not attempt to treat at any length 
 of the prominent cities of America. My 
 visit was too hurried to admit of my 
 doing them justice, and they spring into 
 existence so suddenly, or become "great 
 centres " of special industries so quickly, 
 that I could not gauge their importance. Indeed, 
 " importance " is a relative term. Twenty years ago 
 I accompanied a college-bred Glasgowegian and his 
 London friend on a visit to Melrose and Abbotsford. 
 Knowing the district, I did my best to point out 
 the objects of interest on the route, such as the 
 battlefields of Falkirk, Pinkie, and Prestonpans ; or 
 Niddrie, Borthwick, and Crichton Castles. " London " 
 was alert and delighted "Glasgow " was bilious, and 
 showed no signs of interest until we reached Gala- 
 shiels. Its large factories aroused him. After 
 passing a few of them, he said briskly, " This is 
 an important place," and as more of the many- 
 windowed blocks came into sight, he declared 
 vicrnrnnslv "This is a most imnortant nlace. T 
 
Cities. 4 1 
 
 had no idea that Galashiels was such an important 
 place." Which nobody can deny. 
 
 The general impression I formed of the cities of 
 America was favourable, although many of them 
 are so flat that, like "Jeanie Deans," we were 
 weary o sic tracts o level ground, and " glad to 
 hear there s a hill," even if " it s a murder to post- 
 horses." In all new towns, and in many old ones, 
 the streets are wider than in Britain. The " cause 
 way " in many greatly needs improvement, as does 
 also the paving of the footways, excepting where 
 this has been done in " concrete," which is cleverly 
 and solidly laid. The numbering of the streets, 
 from i and upwards, instead of naming them 
 u Queen s," " Princes " Street, etc., if not so euphoni 
 ous, renders it easy to find any place or to guess 
 its whereabouts. Fancy getting 2849 Washington 
 Street as an address, or No. 41 26th Street, West. 
 
 There is a Republican freedom in the coolness 
 with which, even in such busy streets as Broad 
 way, New York, huge bales or boxes of goods are 
 left on the pavements, either by lorries or for 
 lorries to lift, around which the pedestrian has to 
 engineer his way. Not infrequently he has to wait 
 until the planks which are used to convey these 
 from the pavement to the store, or vice versa, have 
 served their purpose, or to step over them. In 
 other streets the waggons are " backed " as near 
 
42 Bits about America. 
 
 the stores as possible, planks stretched, and one 
 must either go round by the horses heads, or 
 jump the planks, or wait until the waggoner 
 ready to move ; this in " warehouse " streets 
 makes walking leisurely and ticklish. The rutty 
 nature of the causeway is not improved by damp 
 weather, but the "Boot-blacks" very prominent 
 features of the street corners, with their chairs 
 canopied by huge umbrellas get more work 
 thereby, and thus far, trade is encouraged a great 
 matter in the New World. 
 
 Cities vie with each other in handsome city halls 
 or capitols. Of these, very properly, the senatorial 
 Capitol of the entire United States at Washington 
 is the grandest, with its towering white dome, its 
 hundreds of marble pillars, and beautiful surround 
 ings. It occupies an elevated, commanding site, 
 and is the most effective building I have seen 
 in any part of the world solid, vast, and imposing. 
 From its pinnacle a beautiful view is had of the 
 Botanical Gardens, parks, and palatial buildings of 
 the city, such as the White House, Patent Office, 
 Post Office, Museums, and Treasury ; of the broad 
 sweeping bends of the smooth - flowing Potomac 
 river ; of the hills of Virginia and Maryland in the 
 background, dotted with mansions, colleges, the 
 " Soldiers Home," and other buildings, embosomed 
 in woods. It is a city of " magnificent distances/ 
 
Cities. 45 
 
 wide streets, with boulevards of trees on each side, 
 while small parks are very common, and graceful 
 statues too numerous to mention. It is becoming 
 the residential town of the wealthy, and is, in 
 American phrase, "quite a place." 
 
 The capitol of the State of Connecticut, at 
 Hartford, is an imposing and chaste building ; that 
 of Philadelphia is an immense, unfinished, too 
 ornate structure of solid marble, and, from the 
 time already occupied in its erection, it gives fair 
 promise to be the capitol, as Cologne is the 
 cathedral, of the millennium. In New York, 
 Chicago, and other cities the post offices and 
 court-houses are elegant ; many of the warehouses 
 are magnificent erections, in marble, granite, or 
 fine stone, so grand that one regrets they are in 
 streets where their architectural beauties cannot be 
 studied, even at very great risk to the neck. In 
 ternally they are gorgeously finished, sometimes 
 stretching upwards to fourteen flats. The system 
 of " elevators " or " hoists " is universal, with ele 
 gantly furnished "cages," and occasionally four shafts 
 are found, in full ascent or descent, in one block. 
 
 The streets of all the new cities are wide, and 
 along the sides stretch fine trees, giving at once 
 beauty and grateful shade. The public parks are 
 numerous and elegant, notably those of Chicago, 
 Boston, St. Louis, and Central Park, New York. 
 
46 Bits about America. 
 
 The latter is quite a triumph of landscape garden 
 ing ; the irregular and rocky natural features of it 
 having been cleverly made to minister to the 
 picturesque. It is a favourite place with nurses 
 and children, and has nice quiet corners for them. 
 For older boys or girls it has " merry-go-rounds," 
 where the riders tilt with little swords at rings 
 lightly held round the sides, the feat being to 
 get the "swordies" well ring-covered. There are 
 zoological gardens, free to all, evidently a great 
 attraction, with their lions, tigers, elephants, bisons, 
 prairie dogs, and, of course, monkeys ; a large 
 pond for boating, a smaller one, still of fair size, 
 where good-sized model boats gracefully skim and 
 sail, to the delight of the boy - commanders on 
 shore, besides miles of walks and flower-beds. 
 
 Driving is much more common in America than 
 in Britain. It sometimes struck me that folks 
 were ashamed to be seen walking. In the public 
 parks and fashionable thoroughfares, carriages of 
 all kinds swarm, from the four-in-hand and flashy 
 tandem down to the "billy buggy." The wheels 
 and machines are generally light Ladies handle 
 the "ribbons frequently and well. I was told 
 that " every woman in America could hitch up a 
 horse and liked driving." Many of the horses were 
 fine, but there was a mixture of " Rosinantes." On 
 the equestrian courses, the " Rotten Rows," there 
 
Cities. 47 
 
 was generally a fine turn-out of horses, and in 
 every town there were little posts planted at short 
 distances apart, with rings for "hitching the animile" 
 to, when the driver was shopping or calling, where 
 often for hours the poor horses stood quietly 
 amongst snow. There was no opening for the 
 chance penny so dear to boys for "haudin a horse." 
 
 Tramways are in every town, even very small 
 ones, and my opinion is in favour of the "cable " as 
 compared with the "horse" system. In Chicago the 
 " cable " system has supplanted, or is fast supplant 
 ing, the "horse." The original cost of the track is 
 greater, but on a comparison of costs of working 
 during the past five years, the " cable" cost 5fd. per 
 mile per car, while those drawn by horses cost is. 
 per mile. In speed, in ease of starting and stopping, 
 the "cable" also "has it." 
 
 Despite the severe snowstorms of America, by 
 having the power of heating the air under the track 
 by steam pipes, and an effective cable-drawn snow- 
 plough, the old system of clearing the tracks by great 
 teams of horses almost a hopeless task, as well as 
 a cruel and slow process has been abandoned, with 
 the result that, to quote from a published report, 
 " the cable lines of this Company have never lost 
 a single trip from snow, frost, or ice upon the track." 
 
 Other advantages are the absence of the clatter of 
 horses hoofs, the cleanliness of the track, the pre- 
 
48 Bits about America. 
 
 vention of what often seems cruelty to animals ; and 
 these have resulted in a decided enhancement of the 
 value of property where the " cable " system has 
 superseded the " horse " plan. There is no wear of 
 the centre of the track ; indeed, its cleanly and per 
 fect condition makes it the favourite, sometimes the 
 only, " footway " in winter. The cars have wooden 
 " fenders " all round, rendering it impossible for 
 any one to get under the wheels. One insane lady 
 threw herself across the track, and was pushed aside, 
 " weel shooken," but otherwise uninjured. 
 
 The power is derived from two pairs of engines of 
 500 horse-power each. One pair amply suffices for 
 all the work, but the other can be started on short 
 notice if required. The boilers in use are the " Bab- 
 cock and Willcox," four in number, 250 horse-power 
 each, one or two being in reserve for any emergency. 
 Occasionally a train of three cars is seen gliding 
 along. At a certain point one is disconnected, and 
 by an ingenious " loop switch " it goes slowly round 
 a curve on to another line, while the others move 
 straight on. As far as I could learn and judge, the 
 results of the "cable" system were alike satisfactory 
 to the owners and to the citizens, as the following 
 quotation will show : " Within six months after the 
 conversion of this Company s lines from horse to 
 cable power, property along those lines rose in 
 value from 30 to 100 per cent." " The enhanced 
 
Cities. 49 
 
 value of property in the South Division of Chicago, 
 due wholly to the construction and operation of 
 cable lines, will not fall short of 815,000,000" (three 
 million pounds sterling). 
 
 I also travelled by an " electric " car railway, 
 recently constructed in Appleton, Wisconsin, which 
 has proved quite a success. It is worked on the 
 system of Mr. Van Depoele, the inventor. Two 
 " turbine " water wheels, coupled together, capable 
 of developing 100 horse-power, drive a 60 horse 
 power electric generator. The electric current is 
 carried by wires overhead, from which a flexible 
 cable, easy of connection or disconnection, conducts 
 the power to a Van Depoele motor in front of the 
 car. This is worked by a lever, under the control 
 of the conductor ; and on grades of 9 per cent, or 
 round curves of 40 to 45 feet radius, the cars bowled 
 along steadily. 
 
 The local newspapers speak in very high terms of 
 the safety, precision, and economy of the system, as 
 the following quotation from the Appleton Daily 
 Post will show : " The effective work of the snow- 
 plough, when pushed in front of two cars, has proved 
 that the road can be kept in running order, after any 
 storm not of extraordinary severity, as quickly as a 
 horse railroad, and at infinitely (sic) less expenditure 
 of wearisome effort. The system is absolutely safe, 
 
 as the wires are out of reach above the ground. On 
 
 D 
 
50 Bits about America. 
 
 the score of economy the advantages of employing 
 electricity are numerous it gives 53 per cent, of 
 mechanical efficiency after being transmitted over a 
 distance of some 35 miles. Wherever water is used 
 to drive the electric generators, the saving cannot be 
 disputed, and where steam is used as a prime motor 
 to run the generators, there is a large difference in 
 favour of electricity over animal power. There is 
 also avoided in this system the expenses of large 
 stables for horses, and the annoyance of having a 
 large number of labourers to care for the same ; less 
 space for cars on track is required, and there is no 
 wear of the track between the rails." 
 
 I hardly think that the " high level " system com 
 mon in New York will ever be mooted, and feel 
 convinced that it never will be adopted, in Britain. 
 Anything more Gotho-Vandalish can hardly be con 
 ceived. The line is carried on iron pillars erected in 
 the streets, so that the track is about the level of the 
 first storey ; the trains puff, and whistle, and thunder 
 along, wriggling round sharp corners, and murdering 
 quiet or sleep. It means architectural ruin to a 
 district ; the ghost of Lord Cockburn would cer 
 tainly rise and denounce the outrage, as was done 
 before the battle of Flodden by a voice " from the 
 throne of Plotcock," if Edinburgh was threatened 
 with such a catastrophe ; and Sir Walter Scott s 
 spirit would send round the "fiery cross" and kindle 
 
Cities. 5 1 
 
 the " Border beacon "to save the amenities of " mine 
 own romantic town." 
 
 Electric lighting is universal in all American 
 cities and towns with any pretensions to progress. 
 It is also used largely in the houses of all classes, 
 the users speaking of it as healthy, regular, and safe. 
 It is, indeed, in America the light of the " present " 
 more than gas is ; electric lamps span every street, 
 and well do they light up a town. Science is making 
 such marvellous discoveries and combinations of 
 powers and processes, that it is difficult to forecast 
 the light of the future. 
 
 The telegraph and telephone are great factors in 
 American business. In banks, warehouses, saloons, 
 notably in hotel lobbies, the machines are " tick, 
 ticking" away, printing automatically in various 
 corners, on a narrow paper ribbon, visible to all, 
 monetary, commercial, general, or sporting news. 
 Hence the lobbies are capacious, resembling Ex 
 changes, " where merchants much do congregate." 
 Around them or opening from them are collar, 
 glove, cigar, drug, and barbers shops. The lobbies 
 seem to fill the place of the " coffee-houses " of 
 former days in London, but are noisier, busier, and 
 more of the smoking-lounge type. 
 
 As a rule, the cemeteries of America are well 
 chosen and beautifully kept. The monumental 
 sculptures are often massive, composed of beautiful 
 
52 Bits about America. 
 
 materials, showing good taste in design and skilful 
 workmanship. No visitor to New York should fail 
 to visit Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn. From its 
 commanding site a splendid view is obtained of the 
 mouths of the Hudson, the cities on its banks, the 
 islands that dot its channel, the forest of shipping 
 that floats on its bosom, and the finely undulating, 
 well - cultivated, surrounding country ; whilst, by 
 the side of its miles of drives or walks, stands the 
 largest collection of elegant monuments in the world, 
 erected to the memory of men and women whose 
 fame the nation will not allow to die. It is, besides, 
 a model of landscape gardening, with neat ponds, 
 and a splendid variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers. 
 
 I visited with much interest the graveyards of 
 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, especially the quiet nook 
 where lies Thaddeus Stevens, the early, persistent, 
 and staunch advocate of the equality of all men, 
 white or negro. He is buried in the "coloured" 
 churchyard of Lancaster, and his monument bears 
 the following inscription : 
 
 " I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, 
 Not from any natural preference for solitude, 
 But, finding other cemeteries limited as to race, 
 I have chosen this, that I might illustrate in my death 
 The principles which I advocated through a long life, 
 Equality of man before his Creator. 
 
 THADDEUS STEVENS, 
 
 Born at Darmville, Caled. Co., Vermont, April 4, 1792; 
 Died at Washington, B.C., August II, 1838." 
 
Cities. 53 
 
 So beautifully situated and so well kept were 
 many of the cemeteries, that I was reminded of 
 the beadle of Eddlestone s parting remark to two 
 weeping ladies who had come to visit the graves of 
 their kindred : " There s no hurry, leddies, no hurry 
 whatsomever. Stay as long as you like, and enjoy 
 yourselves." 
 
 Boston reminded me, in the older part of the city, 
 of a well-to-do English town. It claims to be the 
 "Hub of the Universe," and far be it from me to 
 question its claim, because in that city and many 
 others I heard the expression used, almost as a 
 proverb, concerning anything extraordinary, " That 
 can t be beat EXCEPT in BOSTON." On the top of 
 Bunker s Hill, in its suburbs, I was accosted by a 
 "gintleman," who in a brogue that had more of 
 Kerry in it than Massachusetts, said, 
 
 " Well, you re right to come and see where the 
 toyrant Britishers were licked. I ll take ye s round 
 and show ye the spot." 
 
 He had been indulging in drink, one of the very 
 few that I saw " touched " in that way, and I declined 
 his offer with thanks, but he was not to be shaken off. 
 He enlarged " on the cheek of the English a hundred 
 years ago, troying to hould Ameriky in chains," and 
 grew demonstratively violent as he spluttered out 
 a tirade about "the bloodhounds of England traitin 
 Oireland worse than any slaves ever were traited." 
 
54 Bits about America. 
 
 " We ll need to go over," said he, " and sweep the 
 murtherers into the little ditch of a sea that s about 
 them, and," drawing his left hand over the palm of 
 his right, " we ll aisy do it with the back of our left 
 hand." 
 
 When he learned that I was a Scotchman, he 
 became most gracious, and proposed a "drink" and 
 to show me the city; both of which offers I declined. 
 It may comfort Scotchmen to know that when we 
 parted, he said, "We ll not hurt ould Scotland when 
 we come over ; the Scotch came from Oireland at 
 first, and gave us Bobbie Burns." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAINTINGS. 
 
 NE of the attractions of New York this 
 season was the Exhibition, previous to 
 their sale and dispersion, of the paint 
 ings, sculpture, ceramics, plates, and bric- 
 a-brac of the late A. T. Stewart, the American 
 ? ) millionaire, from whose estate some worthy 
 Scottish folks in the southern counties expected a 
 fair slice, but the slip between the cup and the lip 
 was a complete spill. I spent an evening in the 
 galleries, and it was interesting to observe the kind 
 of pictures with which a busy merchant and clever 
 man of means and money surrounded himself. 
 
 Most of them were bright and suggestive, and told 
 their own story without the aid of a catalogue. Of 
 old masters of the dingy type there were none 
 colour, sparkle, and bright effect were the features ; 
 what, in Europe, are considered masterpieces, and 
 deservedly so, although dingy, smoke-begrimed, and 
 cracking, were wanting. On entering the first 
 room, I was struck with a large painting of the 
 
56 Bits aboiit America. 
 
 "Falls of Niagara," by Frederick E. Church, N.A., 
 New York. It measured 94 inches by 102, and is 
 taken from the American side. It is dated in 1867, 
 and was awarded the highest honour at the Exposi 
 tion Universelle, Paris, of that year. The mighty- 
 torrent is admirably given, and warrants the use, in 
 a superlative degree, of the lines in which the poet 
 Southey describes the " Cataract of Lodore : "- 
 
 "Advancing, and prancing, and glancing, and dancing, 
 Recoiling, turmoiling, and toiling, and boiling, 
 And thumping, and flumping, and bumping, and jumping, 
 And dashing, and flashing, and splashing, and clashing. 
 And so never ending, but always descending, 
 Sounds and motions for ever and ever are blending, 
 All at once and all o er, with a mighty uproar, 
 And this way the water comes down at Lodore." 
 
 The enormous river is seen doubling over the 
 shelving rock in an exceedingly swift, gliding rush, 
 breaking into foam ; the rising mist-like spray is 
 cleverly rendered, and in one corner there is the 
 airiest and lightest, yet most distinct, segment of a 
 transparent rainbow " arching the foaming water." 
 
 I have since learned that Mr. John S. Kennedy, of 
 New York, one of its most honourable and success 
 ful business men, a native of Glasgow, who has 
 spent nearly thirty years of his life in the United 
 States (a brother of Dr. Kennedy, of Richmond 
 Street United Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh, 
 the able Clerk of the United Presbyterian Synod), 
 
Paintings. 5 7 
 
 has purchased this grand example of American 
 art and powerful delineation of the grandest of 
 America s natural wonders, and has presented the 
 picture to the National Gallery of Scotland. 
 
 Mr. Church, the artist, is a native of Hartford, 
 Conn., born in 1826, and was a pupil of the late 
 eminent Thomas Cole. There is a painting of 
 Niagara from the Canadian side, by him, in the 
 great Corcoran Gallery at Washington, but the one 
 which Scotland has just received is a more attractive 
 picture. That in the " Corcoran " is 42 inches by 89, 
 whereas, as already stated, the " Edinburgh " one is 
 94 inches by 102. The " Corcoran " is not so deep, 
 but gives a fine idea of the width, though not of 
 the height of the falls. The hurl of the waters is 
 marvellously treated in the rapids, and a rainbow 
 broken here and there, from absence of spray, greatly 
 enhances the effect. The Corcoran catalogue thus 
 describes its gem : " Of this great picture, of a great 
 American subject, by a great American artist, it may 
 be said that it represents all of the mighty scene 
 in nature save its sound and motion, though the 
 latter element of its sublimity is grandly suggested 
 in the rush of its massive green depths, and the 
 varied sweep and surging eddies of its shallow 
 waters." It bears date 1857, has been exhibited 
 throughout America and Europe, and carried off a 
 gold medal at the Paris Exposition. Good judges 
 
58 Bits about America. 
 
 say that Mr. Church never repeated his pictures, 
 and the one now possessed by Scotland is fully as 
 effective and more suggestive than the fine example 
 in the " Corcoran." 
 
 I feel convinced that the generous donor will 
 receive not only from the Trustees of the National 
 Gallery of Scotland, but from all lovers of art, most 
 sincere thanks. He has not only enriched the 
 Gallery with a great painting, but has enabled 
 many, who will never visit Niagara, to see it depicted 
 by a master hand. Mr. Church, the artist, is now 
 quite unfit for further work. He has as yet no 
 successor, and a look at his picture recalls the story 
 of the Sheffield steel manufacturer, who asked the 
 brother of Canova the sculptor, " If he intended to 
 carry on his brother s business." That, in Church s 
 case, will not be easily done. The picture was 
 originally sold for 2000. 
 
 Near it in the gallery rose for from its enormous 
 size we can hardly say hung Rosa Bonheur s 
 " Horse Fair," so well known by its having been 
 engraved in different " scales." The work measures 
 200 inches by 96, and covers the entire side of 
 a large room. Although executed in 1853-55, 
 it is still bright, sparkling, and fresh. The grand 
 pair of sturdy, dappled greys, in vigorous action, 
 with their quivering hind quarters and massive 
 shoulders ; the fiery black stallion, rearing and 
 
Paintings. 59 
 
 about to get a heavy cut with the whip ; the 
 splendid fore-shortened roan, a sure prize-winner ; 
 the side filled up by a stringhalt "screw," with 
 shambling legs and loutish rider ; the effective 
 treatment of sky and foliage indeed, the tout 
 ensemble was so perfect that I felt surprised when 
 I saw it knocked down at ; 10,600 sterling. I was 
 greatly pleased to find that the purchaser, whose 
 name I have forgotten, had presented this noble 
 picture to the " Metropolitan Museum of Art," 
 Central Park, New York. Its appropriate place is 
 in a national collection, where it is in such excel 
 lent company as the splendid work presented to 
 the Museum by Mr. Jessup, banker, New York, 
 " Columbus giving an account of the discovery of 
 America to the King and Court of Spain," and 
 other gems. 
 
 This Museum is to be congratulated on its now 
 possessing, through the liberality of Mr. Jay Gould, 
 the picture which realized the largest sum at the 
 sale of the Stewart Collection, "Friedland 1807," by 
 J. L. Meissonier, Paris, a battle piece of the palmy 
 days of Napoleon L, which brought over 1 3,000, and 
 measured 96 inches by 54. It is a little after the 
 style of Miss Thomson s "Charge of the Scots Greys 
 at Waterloo." Another work of Meissonier s, a small 
 thing, 17 by 23, "At the Barracks," brought 3200. 
 
 Prominent on the walls, for size and merit, was a 
 
60 Bits aboiLt America. 
 
 picture of the " Environs of Fontainebleau," by F. A. 
 Bonheur, a brother of Mme. Rosa s, measuring 156 
 inches by 118. This forest scene was enriched with 
 cattle, reminding me of the works of Paul Potter 
 and Kuyp the massive bull, the balmy heifer, and 
 the herd in all attitudes, while the foliage and trees 
 were finely given. It realized 3560. Near this 
 was hung Erskine Nicol s (R.S.A., Edinburgh) "The 
 Disputed Boundary," one of those exquisite scenes 
 of Irish life which a few years ago decked the 
 Academy walls, but which now, alas ! owing to the 
 failing health of the " Art member for Ireland," we 
 sadly, sorely miss. It is in his best manner. The 
 lawyer on the estate, in stately black, with white 
 neckcloth, ruffled shirt, and quill in hand, the 
 disputants, one old, defiant, immovable ; the other 
 with the shocky red hair that Nicol can render 
 so well, holds the map and " discoorses ; " while 
 the onlookers, the table, books, letters, etc., are 
 perfect. The picture is as crisp and fresh as 
 when it left the easel, and fell into the hands of 
 Mr. Thomas B. Clark at 3050. The catalogue 
 tells, " Mr. Nicol wished the above sent to the 
 Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876," stating 
 that he regarded " The Disputed Boundary " as the 
 greatest work he had ever painted. 
 
 There was a nice " bit " of Thomas Faed, R. A. s, 
 " Papa s Coming," which has been secured by Mr. 
 
Paintings. 6 1 
 
 John S. Kennedy for his home collection. The 
 works of W. A. Bougereau, Paris, three in number, 
 were most attractive. " The New-born Lamb " 
 brought ;i020, and a finely executed piece, " Return 
 from the Harvest," showing a peasant woman, 
 sheaf-and-flower cro\vned, mounted on a donkey, 
 having before her a " bonnie bairn," and surrounded 
 by well-grouped harvest rejoicers, sold for ;i6oo. 
 
 I should exhaust my readers patience were I to 
 go over in detail the pictures of Fortuny, Troy on 
 Fichel, Gerome, Bierstadt, and others. The collec 
 tion numbered 220, and the sale occupied three 
 evenings from half-past seven o clock till nearly ten. 
 Chickering Hall, in which it took place, is a large, 
 handsome concert room belonging to the musical 
 firm of that name in New York, and will contain 
 2500 people. On the third evening of the sale I 
 got into the crowded hall early, and had a favour 
 able seat. When business began, young men were 
 ranged at short distances among the passages, to 
 catch " bids," as these would have been lost in the 
 crowd without such help. The auctioneer, Mr. 
 Thomas E. Kirby, a man in his prime, stood at a 
 small desk ; behind him was a platform, half con 
 cealed by deep, large red curtains. These were 
 drawn aside, or rather from the front to the back 
 of an easel stand, revealing the picture to be sold. 
 Mr. Kirby spoke incessantly, repeating the last bid 
 
62 Bits about A met 
 
 "ic a. 
 
 or the new one as fast as he could speak, on and 
 on, giving sufficient time at the end, but still speak 
 ing, until his ivory hammer fell. Then the curtains 
 were brought to the front of the stand, and in a 
 few seconds they were withdrawn, showing another 
 picture for sale. The auctioneer, in the interim of 
 changing, described the coming lot. 
 
 Bids were bawled out by the assistants in the 
 passages, even from far back in the gallery in the 
 front of which were Jay Gould, Vanderbilt, and 
 several other noted American collectors. Occa 
 sionally the jumps were " big." Applause greeted 
 several pictures, and followed any good bid. Works 
 by native artists were well received, and a picture 
 of " George Washington," by Gilbert Stuart, a 
 famous American portrait painter, brought down 
 the house. It fell at ^"620, and was shortly followed 
 by a large, very fine portrait of Alexander Von 
 Humboldt (Kosmos), by I. Schrader, Berlin, certified 
 by the artist as painted from life, which only brought 
 ,185, drawing from many an expression of surprise 
 Patriotism versus Philosophy. Mr. Gilbert Stuart 
 has evidently painted a good many portraits of 
 George Washington, for I have seen them in several 
 collections. One picture by Jerome, Paris, " Une 
 Collaboration," brought 1620, or 3 per square 
 inch. The " Old Masters" in the collection seemed 
 to me, in art phrase, hardly dry the brightness of 
 
Paintings. 63 
 
 the colouring being suspicious, and buyers seemed 
 of the same opinion, for a large Titian (?), " Madonna 
 and Child," brought only 160; Murillos, 125, 
 226 ; a Rembrandt, So. There was considerable 
 laughter when some " weeds," that had evidently 
 hung on the walls of some great dining saloon of a 
 hotel, large and showy, of ladies of the iSth cen 
 tury in ruffles and trickery, brought about 2$ 
 each the grand frames were almost worth the 
 money. 
 
 One monster, measuring 35 feet by 22 feet, by 
 Adolphe Zoon, could not be removed from the Grand 
 Union Hotel at Saratoga. A duplicate of it, well 
 executed, measuring 60 inches by 36, was exhibited 
 and sold along with the great " White Elephant ; " 
 for the two, 65, cheap. The allegory is very 
 flattering to America, with " Republic," and Minerva, 
 and trumpets and winged messengers, and " E Pluri- 
 bus Unum," and peace, industry, a river quenching 
 the torch of war, etc. The original picture is so 
 huge that a ball-room was designed with a panel 
 big enough to hold it. I was struck with " Lady 
 Washington s" reception by D. Huntingdon. A fine 
 study of figures, and the dresses, although of a 
 century ago, more graceful than those of to-day. 
 Lady Washington is admirably drawn ; George, 
 effective in full black Court dress ; the Duke of 
 Kent, a fine soldierly-looking man. Mrs. George 
 
64 Bits abozit America. 
 
 Clinton is a perfect impersonation of a very old 
 lady sitting, and Jonathan Turnbull of an old 
 gentleman. Bierstadt s " Seal Rock, San Francisco," 
 is a grand northern sea scene, with wonderful effects 
 of light and shade on the chafing and " surfy " 
 waves as they surged round a natural rock bridge 
 the light through the arch, the sea - fowl, sea- 
 lions, and seals were numerous, true to nature, and 
 admirably rendered. The tout ensemble was a pic 
 ture of surpassing merit. Two other pictures from 
 the same easel showed how thoroughly Mr. Bierstadt 
 merits the encomium passed upon him as " the first 
 pioneer painter to reveal to us the sublime scenery 
 of the Far West." 
 
 There was a "Blind Man s Buff" by Charles 
 Bargnut, Brussels, but how different from Sir D. 
 Wilkie s ! All the players were ladies in shining 
 satins and long trains. No MAN body to catch 
 " Butter to butter s nae kitchen." In a three-panel 
 representation of the " Prodigal Son," I got some 
 information as to the manners and customs of the 
 East quite new to me such as that " dice "-playing 
 was common in his days ; the apparel, etc., seemed 
 very modern, and the father is receiving the son on 
 the staircase of a fine mansion, partly Corinthian, 
 partly Norman in style. Great is American art, 
 liberally is it patronized. The prices totalled over 
 100,000, but many pictures fell far short of what 
 
Paintings. 65 
 
 had been originally paid for them. Greater is 
 American propriety. The statue of " The Greek 
 Slave," original and exquisite, for which no offer 
 was made, was withdrawn. 
 
 The " Corcoran " Gallery of Art, Washington, 
 the free gift to the public of William W. Corcoran, 
 Esq., is very fine. In it is a sparkling gem from the 
 genial Erskine Nicol " * Paddy s Mark, where a 
 genuine son of the Emerald Isle is putting his mark 
 to a lease, while he looks up with hesitating inquiry 
 into the bland face of the attorney, whose smooth 
 manner assures Paddy that it is all right. The 
 incident is admirably told, and every part of the 
 work painted with great force and clearness." 
 There is also " Shakespeare and his Contemporaries," 
 by John Faed, R.A., R.S.A., etc., well known by the 
 numerous engravings of it. It is a little formal, 
 but fresh and powerful. The following mixture of 
 nationalities occurs in the descriptive catalogue : 
 " This picture is by one of the leading artists of 
 England. John Faed is a Scotsman, and one of 
 three brothers eminent in art. Thomas Faed is the 
 famous painter of Sir Walter Scott and his Friends 
 at Abbotsford, etc. James Faed is the engraver of 
 the excellent print of this picture, dedicated to Mr. 
 Corcoran." 
 
 There are also masterpieces by Thomas Cole, M. 
 
 Durand, E. Renouf, G. H. Boughton, James M. 
 
 E 
 
66 Bits about America. 
 
 Hart-Troyon, G. C. St. Pierre, J. F. Kensett, etc. 
 " The Magdalena River," by F. E. Church ; " The 
 Coast of New Jersey^ by W. T. Richards ; " Char 
 lotte Corday in Prison," by C. L. Miiller ; " A Beach 
 Scene, Holland," by Kaemerrer ; " A Trout Brook," 
 by Whittredge ; " A Pastoral Visit," by R. N. 
 Brooke ; and " Mount Corcoran," by Bierstadt, a 
 glorious panorama of Nature s grandest moods and 
 scenes, which will repay careful attention. 
 
 In every considerable town there are Art Galleries 
 worthy of a visit, for which, in many cases, larger 
 halls are being provided. By the courtesy of H. W. 
 Robbins, Esq., N.A., I got a season ticket for the 
 62nd Annual Exhibition of the National Academy 
 of Design in New York, and a glance round its 
 walls warrants me in hinting that British artists will 
 need to look to their colours. 
 
 The large "clubs" of New York have periodical 
 " picture " nights, where recent works are exhibited. 
 There artists and the members of the clubs meet, 
 and exchange opinions. I had the privilege of 
 spending one such evening at the " Century Club," 
 New York, where I saw a spirited portrait of W. 
 Sloane, Esq., by H. W. Robbins, and other works 
 of great merit. The mixing of artists, literary men, 
 and connoisseurs proves useful to each and all. I 
 dare not attempt to write of the sculptures, ceramics, 
 etc., of the museums I visited ; they were fine. Nor 
 
Paintings. 6 7 
 
 of the large pictures illustrative of American history 
 in the Capitol at Washington, at Boston, Philadelphia, 
 etc. Large very is a prominent characteristic, 
 but the execution is good and the result effective. 
 From guides and guide-books you learn the price 
 of each in " dollars." I have seen in various parts 
 of America paintings of human and still life, in 
 tempera and colour, that more effectively represent 
 " relievo " than I ever saw before. It takes many 
 a side glance to convince one that all is flat ; 
 but I have already exceeded the limits of a " Bit " 
 by a " bittock," and must pass on to other matters, 
 for it was Longfellow, THE poet of America, that 
 wrote 
 
 Art is long, and time is fleeting." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CHURCHES AND SABBATH SCHOOLS. 
 
 HE church architecture of America is, 
 as a rule, chaste, and, to venture a 
 commonly-heard pun, " a-spiring." Even 
 in New York, with its huge blocks of 
 high warehouses, the church spires, as seen 
 from the opposite bank of the river, overtop 
 the secular element. Organs, with good choirs and 
 fine singing, were in all which I visited ; the congre 
 gations joined in about the half of the service of 
 praise, soloists, or the choir, doing the rest. 
 
 The first in which I worshipped, the Fifth Avenue 
 Presbyterian Church, New York, of which the Rev. 
 John Hall, D.D., is the pastor, is a handsome build 
 ing, or rather series of buildings. The under flat 
 resembles a workshop, with its boilers, air-pumps, 
 and blowing fan, worked by a steam engine, which 
 exhausts the vitiated air and supplies fresh air to 
 the church as well as to the organ pipes ; ventilation 
 being most carefully attended to. The wood-work 
 of the church is elaborately carved ; the decorations 
 
 GS 
 
Churches and Sabbath Schools. 69 
 
 of roof, walls, and windows are chaste, the lobbies 
 carpeted and the seats cushioned, altogether a 
 splendid edifice. The congregation numbers 2117 
 members, has 1580 Sabbath scholars, and contributes 
 about three times as much for missionary and bene 
 volent objects as it expends on its own support ; 
 its gross annual income being over thirty thousand 
 pounds sterling. 
 
 Its membership displays the characteristic activity 
 of American churches, although the report shows 
 that that bugbear of British churches, " the half-day 
 hearer," is found even there, for it tells that " the 
 tendency in many places is to forego the second 
 service on the Lord s day." There is a softness 
 about that "forego" rather pleasing. It sounds a 
 little as if it were self-denial on the Jiearers part. 
 Certainly it is " letting them down easily," and should 
 be looked at from all sides. 
 
 From the same report (1885) can be gathered the 
 high state of organization of this church. Some of 
 their standing committees might be usefully intro 
 duced into other churches, such as " for seating 
 strangers," " for visiting Sunday schools," " for sup 
 plies," "for music." The latter is not uncommon; 
 but besides it, I find on page 1 1 a " committee on 
 music of session." This is new to me, and delight 
 fully suggestive of melody as well as harmony. I 
 can only guess that this committee keeps the session 
 
70 Bits about America. 
 
 in musical efficiency, by insisting on each member s 
 duly practising sacred music and passing a satis 
 factory examination at least yearly ; possibly there 
 may be competitions and prizes for " solo " or 
 " organ " excellence. I regret that I did not observe 
 this admirable appointment until it was too late to 
 inquire into its methods of working and results. 
 
 The Women s Employment Society is a model of 
 perfection. It has " a purchasing and pricing com 
 mittee," one for " cutting, marking, and finishing," 
 "permit," "distributing and examining," "paying," 
 "selling," "order," "reading," a " sewing school," etc. 
 It has enabled many good women to eke out a 
 livelihood, by helping them to help themselves. 
 There is also a Sunday class for female domestics, a 
 "Chinese Sabbath school," for "John Chinaman" is 
 the great laundryman of America, a free bed in 
 the Presbyterian Hospital, a Young Ladies Branch 
 of Home and Foreign Missions ; and two Mission 
 Chapels have been founded and are being fostered 
 by this influential congregation. 
 
 I visited the Sabbath Morning Classes in the fine 
 halls. There were no " forms," only neat, light 
 wooden chairs, the scholars clustering around the 
 teacher ; and all seemed active, bright, and happy. 
 As I entered the " younger " class-room, the lady 
 teacher was proceeding to give out a hymn, when a 
 bright-eyed boy got up, and said, " Please, teacher, 
 
Churches and Sabbath Schools. 7 1 
 
 I was reading a story yesterday that shows about 
 OUT lesson, and I will tell it." 
 
 " You re rather late," said the teacher, " we must 
 sing now." Then, turning to a delicate-looking boy, 
 she asked him to repeat the first verse of the hymn 
 about to be sung. 
 
 " I can t, teacher," was his reply. 
 
 " I forgot that you had been away ill ; George," 
 pointing to a boy sitting next him, " will help you 
 to learn it, won t you, George ? " 
 
 "Yes, teacher," said the little tutor, as he rose to 
 repeat the hymn, which was prettily sung. 
 
 I visited in the afternoon a Mission School. There 
 were several class-rooms, separated by folding doors, 
 where lessons were going on ; at the closing address 
 and singing, the entire school met. The hymns to 
 be sung were in large print on rollers. 
 
 From this I went to a Mission Industrial School, 
 situated in " Five Points," which used to be one of 
 the poorest and most degraded parts of New York. 
 It was called the Five Points House of Industry, 
 and is a well-conducted " Home," where four hundred 
 adults or children are sheltered, trained, clothed, and 
 fed. Some are servants waiting employment, some 
 orphans or worse, some children of parents who 
 have had to break up their home, or are in hospital, 
 or sick. There is also a day nursery for little ones 
 between the ages of one and four years, open from 
 
72 Bits abo^lt America. 
 
 7 A.M. to 7 P.M., thus allowing their parents to go to 
 work. 
 
 I quote from a letter sent to my children about 
 this "Home:" 
 
 " Mr. Paton took me to a most delightful service 
 by the children of a Mission Industrial School. 
 There would be 150 girls, with pretty white pina 
 fores and a little bit of bright - coloured ribbon, 
 and 150 boys, with heads thoroughly cropped, and 
 clothing of all colours and shapes. They are 
 orphans, or their parents are too poor to pro 
 vide for them, or they have been picked up as 
 homeless by the police, or they have been sent here. 
 All were clean, orderly, and nice, sizes from a mite 
 to five feet six. They sang beautifully. One girl 
 repeated the First Commandment ; then all sang, 
 Lord, have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts 
 to keep this law. Then a wee birkie of a laddie 
 repeated the Second Commandment, and all sang 
 again, Lord, have mercy upon its} etc.; and so on 
 through all the commandments. They all engaged 
 in prayer, standing up, folding their little hands 
 together on their breasts, repeating the Lord s Prayer, 
 etc., and praying for their friends, the trustees, the 
 institution, and all poor and friendless children. It 
 was very impressive and very pretty. They sang a 
 good many hymns ; marched away slowly in beautiful 
 order, singing as they went ; the wee laddies 
 
Churches and Sabbath Schools. 73 
 
 hindmost were so wee, that A would make two 
 
 of them. There were whites, negroes, half-black, and 
 all kinds. 
 
 "After the service, one of the trustees showed us 
 the school-room, the dormitory or sleeping room, 
 with over a hundred little single crib beds, a bath 
 room, the bath six times as long and wider than 
 ours, where a dozen might have been plumped in 
 at one time to wallop. We also went into the 
 infants room, and saw forty wee, wee, wee girlies 
 (I think) toddling about. Their supper of bread 
 and milk was ready, the table was a very low one, 
 not higher than a form at home. The bits o toddle- 
 kins waddled to their wee, wee, doll - like cane- 
 bottomed chairs, found out their places after some 
 shifting, stood up with folded hands, quietly repeated 
 a short grace ; and the moment this was done they 
 plumped down, so true to child nature, and fell to 
 supper instantly, almost quicker. 
 
 " We also saw the bigger ones at supper. All are 
 taught to read and write ; all, old enough, are taught 
 trades. They are clothed from cast-off garments sent 
 by good friends, and adapted in the Home, so that 
 there is no hospital livery. There were play-rooms, 
 clean, well aired, well lighted, and so nice, that next 
 to being amongst my own dear bairns, I felt that 
 here were God s little ones gathered in and cared 
 for by Him that heareth the young ravens when 
 
74 Bits about America. 
 
 they cry/ and it made me glad to see them so cosy." 
 The Home is supported by voluntary contributions, 
 the directors are Christian men of energy and influ 
 ence, the records of the institution s success are most 
 gratifying, and its influence has been a blessed one. 
 
 In one Methodist negro congregation there was 
 keen competition as to who would sing a voluntary 
 before the service commenced ; but one broad- 
 shouldered, strong-lunged fellow got fairly ahead 
 of three or four earnest competitors, and the half- 
 gathered congregation followed him vigorously. 
 When the full congregation began, they did sing, 
 and the minister, despite his good lungs, and free 
 very free use of them (for his " Oh s " were like 
 huge cart-wheels, and often introduced), got an 
 immense amount of choral help (Scotsmen might 
 have thought it interruption or disturbance) in the 
 shape of "Amens" and other ejaculations, lustily 
 and constantly rising from the pews. 
 
 Even in the sermon he was powerfully backed by 
 exclamations. This may account for the fact that, 
 after the " ladles " had gone round for the collection, 
 and the service seemed finished, a freewill offering 
 was coaxingly urged, and a hymn given out to allow 
 time for its presentation. It was to be laid by each 
 willing (?) giver on a table in front of the pulpit, 
 open to the eyes of the preacher and the nearer 
 part of the congregation ; but having already "paid 
 
Churches and Sabbath Schools. 75 
 
 my way," I left the church before the gifts were 
 commenced. I was told that this was the surest 
 way of getting negroes to give ; but I declined to 
 accept such an apparently slanderous explanation, 
 preferring, as one must do in other countries, the 
 handy apology for many such anomalies, " It s an 
 old custom," " It s the way these things are done in 
 our parts." 
 
 One of my most pleasant reminiscences is of a 
 visit paid to a Sabbath school for children of colour 
 in Salem Chapel, New York, under the superintend 
 ence of Mr. Peter Carter. The children were of all 
 shades, from almost "jet" downwards. In the 
 infant department I heard the story of Moses 
 brought cleverly and lovingly home to a bright 
 class by the aid of the black-board and homely 
 illustrations. Their eyes twinkled as they were told 
 of the "dear little baby," his mother s love and 
 sister s watchful cleverness. One wee chap, in 
 answer to the question if they had any babies at 
 home, answered, " Yes, mother s got two at once ! " 
 The school was asked to send a message of love 
 to the Scottish Sabbath school children ; they 
 expressed their approval by crying out " Aye, aye, 
 aye," most heartily ; and it was a new sight for me 
 to see so many rolling whites of eyes, red lips, 
 tongues, and white teeth, moving briskly against the 
 swarthy " background " of their comely faces. 
 
76 Bits about America. 
 
 I observed a little girl go stealthily up to one of 
 the teachers who was leaving the district, and, as 
 if half ashamed, hand her a brown-paper parcel, 
 saying, " It s for you, I made it myself," and quickly 
 disappear. When the parcel was opened, it was an 
 easel-stand for a photograph, neatly sewed and of 
 pretty design. Some of the scholars were "aged," 
 but interesting, and had been slaves. This school 
 has sent out several preachers, and for many years 
 has been a bright light in a dark place. The singing 
 luas hearty. 
 
 Sunday schools are " institutions," attended not 
 only by the young, but some churches, at the close 
 of the forenoon service, virtually resolved themselves 
 into Sunday schools, the gallery being reserved for 
 grown-up folks. I pass for an old man in Scotland, 
 but I twice became a scholar in America. Scholars 
 put questions to the teacher which are more easily 
 asked than answered, especially older scholars. In 
 one class of which I formed a scholar, a worthy 
 deacon was treating of the life of Jacob. He had 
 the run of a front seat in the gallery we occupying 
 the two behind it. One man asked, " Do you think 
 Jacob was right in offering God ten per cent, of what 
 he had, if God would go with him and keep him 
 all right? A good bit of the Jew in that, ain t 
 there ? " 
 
 The worthy deacon did his best with a rather 
 
Churches and Sabbath Schools. 7 7 
 
 puzzling lesson, saying, " He was a queer mixture, 
 was Jacob very. He was a double-dealer. It 
 shows us that the Bible tells plain facts. He got 
 punished in the line of his own sins pretty smartly, 
 he did." 
 
 "And served him right too," added one of the 
 class. 
 
 Even young ones have a cool way of giving 
 illustrations, or opinions, or "ticklers," that would 
 startle ordinary British teachers, as much as the 
 urchin did who could not be satisfied with the 
 answer the teacher gave to his question about 
 Jacob s ladder, question being, "What use had the 
 angels for a ladder when they can a flee ? " until, 
 after vainly trying to explain the " dreamy mystery," 
 he appealed to the class, and got in reply from the 
 dunce, who knew more about birds and hens than 
 about the Bible, " They maun hae been mootin 
 (moulting), sir." Or that little wiseacre who, on 
 hearing the teacher tell about the length of the 
 devil s chain, said, " He may as well have been 
 loose." 
 
 The sermons I heard were short and pithy ; one 
 was very full of matter better suited for a theological 
 chair than a promiscuous audience ; it was also long. 
 Many of the others were home-thrusting, partly 
 politico-religious, and in some instances outspoken. 
 One clergyman, dwelling on the near approach of a 
 
7 8 Bits about America. 
 
 " township " election, launched thunderbolts at the 
 heads of electors who would not vote " prohibition 
 of liquor traffic ; " spoke of " making this town the 
 black-hole of this Christian state ; " and he certainly 
 overdrew the " saloons " of the town. Another, a 
 reverend doctor at Evanston, handled a difficult 
 subject in a most impressive, direct, and forcible 
 way. All the preachers had evidently paid attention 
 to elocution ; and the spate of" intimations " at the 
 close of each service showed the varied agencies of 
 American churches, "cottage meetings,""at homes," 
 " picnics," " sewing nights," " flower missions," " hand 
 in hand," and " helping hand," occurring along with 
 the usual home notices. In some churches, an 
 nouncements of rather a secular nature were made ; 
 these would have been rejected by the old Kilmar- 
 nock minister, who used to decline to have himself 
 or his pulpit turned into the " Kilmarnock Sunday 
 Advertiser." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON THE ROAD. 
 
 8 
 
 N leaving Washington one fine spring 
 
 evening for a long journey, I found, as 
 I travelled southwards, an increasing 
 proportion of the negro population. 
 They mixed with whites in railways, 
 " busses," etc. ; but, as a rule, they dwell 
 in " settlements " or negro quarters " apart." Many 
 such settlements were visited ; the dwellers seemed 
 gay, happy, and well-to-do. Heartily do the little 
 darkies gambol, and play, and romp, and " lark," 
 their roguish rolling eyes, scarlet lips, and gleaming 
 teeth being the very embodiment of childish glee. 
 
 Among the older folks there was a breadth and 
 flavour about their cordial greeting of one another, 
 and some pretty fair " chaffing " in the courtesies 
 which they interchanged. I overheard a long, lean, 
 lanky darky say to a fat paunchy one, " You m not 
 of much use, you ain t. You ve got too large a 
 * bow-window to do things slick, I guess." 
 
 "Bow-window?" replied Paunchy, pulling down 
 
 79 
 
80 Bits about America. 
 
 his vest and admiring his corpulent form, " bow- 
 windows is only put on tip-top genteel houses. You 
 never see d them on log-cabins like you. You ain t 
 the thickness of a good lathe. There ! " 
 
 On high days and holidays the men are great in 
 shirt-fronts and high collars, great also in gay neck 
 ties. Most of the waiters in hotels are men of colour, 
 with their hair cut as short as scissors can do it ; 
 there is a slight swagger in their uncovering or 
 carrying dishes, and the " waiting" in America is 
 slower more " republican " than in Britain, but 
 the staff is generally large, "boarding" in hotels by 
 young men or even married couples being quite 
 common. Negroes greatly delight in driving ; they 
 will spend half of their wages on hiring a horse and 
 buggy, and no mortals could look happier than they 
 when they can carry out the verse, 
 
 " Bring out your bran-new cutter, 
 
 And get your gal s consent. 
 Then hitch up Dobbin, or some other critter, 
 And let the animile went." 
 
 One thus recorded his experience : " About the 
 hardest thing a fellow can do is to spark two girls 
 at once and preserve a good average, specially in a 
 Billy buggy. They shakes so, and gals makes a 
 fellow nerviss, leastways two does." A young friend 
 treated (?) me to a ride in one of these spider-like 
 Billy buggies, with huge bicycle kind of wheels, 
 
On the Road. 8 1 
 
 which young America loves so well to spank about 
 in, behind one of the coveted twenty-miles-an-hour 
 trotters. The stride of " Beauty " was enormous ; 
 the jigglety-jolt threatened the teeth, and was other 
 wise trying. On she sped, or spended, my friend 
 delighted, myself preparing for whatever might turn 
 up, furtively glancing from the horse to the kerb 
 stone, feeling like old Betty Davidson when the 
 horse ran off, "that I could only lippen to Provi 
 dence, till the breechin broke, and then held on like 
 grim death." Luckily the " turn-out " was too excel 
 lent for either the breechin or anything else to break, 
 and, like John Gilpin, I soon got down again. 
 
 To console me, after again reaching solid ground, 
 my friend told of an " ice-boat " that was scudding 
 along Lake Michigan at such a rate as to alarm a 
 young lady. Her travelling companion, to calm her 
 fears, said, " In such delightful company, a journey 
 into eternity together would be a welcome pleasure." 
 " Oh ! but are you sure we would travel together ? " 
 was her quick reply. " Do you think you would go 
 my way ? " 
 
 The work horses were, as a rule, lighter than ours. 
 Mules are very common. I was told that they were 
 more cheaply fed, surer-footed, hardier, stood the 
 intense heat better, and that they lived longer than 
 horses. I met an Irishman who boasted of having 
 bought a mule which his grandfather had sold forty 
 
82 Bits about America. 
 
 years ago ; he seemed quite pleased with his bargain, 
 and declared " that the cratur was hardly come to 
 his best yet, and would serve him all his life anyhow." 
 
 The mule having proved refractory in his hands, 
 he described the treatment as follows : " Teddy and 
 me got a barrel stave each, and warmed his quarters 
 for half-an-hour ; he didn t know which way to kick, 
 and he got no supper ; we came in with the barrel 
 staves next mornin , and he gave in like a spalpeen. 
 He s as swate as a pippin now." 
 
 It was moonlight as I crossed the Alleghanies, and 
 this admitted of some pretty glimpses of their high 
 tops, and deep, wide valleys. Morning broke as the 
 train was careering through the valley of the Kinawha 
 river, a rapid, wide stream, with a great many bends 
 and curves, round which the track was laid. This 
 admitted of fine forward and backward glimpses of 
 the high, rocky, tree-clad cliffs and bluffs that 
 hemmed in the river, starting often abruptly from 
 its very brink. 
 
 Where there was any flat land there were log- 
 cabins and settlers, evidencing occupation for a con 
 siderable time ; but the valley was so narrow, the 
 hills so " sentinelled " in the river, and were so rocky 
 and steep, as to be evidently unfit for easy or suc 
 cessful cultivation. My first impression found 
 expression in the words " poor creatures," and the 
 romance that had wound itself around " life in the 
 
On the Road. 83 
 
 Backwoods " melted away. The houses were " wee," 
 so were the barns, the fields, and the " room for 
 extension." 
 
 As the train moved onwards, I saw that wood 
 cutting (lumbering, as it is here called) was a main 
 source of livelihood, evidenced by the large sawmills, 
 so that the settlers lived quite as much by " felling 
 as by raising." Onward still the train wriggled 
 round bends and nooks, past falls and rapids, past 
 brickworks, coke furnaces, and large mines ; through 
 mining villages more populous than picturesque, 
 about which pigs in small numbers wandered at 
 their own sweet will. Many of the miners were 
 negroes, their dresses as loose, oily, and neglige as 
 those of their British confraternity, but the swarthy 
 complexion did not give that idea of " coominess " 
 to them which so clings to the white (?) miner. 
 
 As the train emerged into the open and gradually 
 widening valley, there were evidences of improved 
 cultivation. There stood the snug and pleasant 
 dwellings of West Virginia farmers ; around them 
 were smaller shanties, plain and oldish, apparently 
 the homes of the slaves of former days, and in many 
 cases still occupied by negro farm-workers. The 
 westward progress revealed improved agriculture, 
 more populous towns and villages. Onward still, 
 past Charleston, into Kentucky, and the wide valley 
 of the placid, sweeping Ohio river, and the " blue 
 
84 Bits abo^lt America. 
 
 grass" region, famous for high cultivation, flocks, 
 herds, busy towns, large manufactories, and farm 
 stock of all kinds, quadruped and feathered, of 
 prime quality. 
 
 I was reminded at Louisville, the capital of 
 Kentucky, of a quaint common-sense notice that 
 for many a day hung on the walls of an office in 
 Edinburgh, somewhat to the following effect, 
 
 " WHEN YOU CALL ON A BUSINESS MAN, 
 
 IN BUSINESS HOURS, 
 SPEAK ONLY ABOUT BUSINESS; 
 AND WHEN YOU HAVE DONE WITH BUSINESS, 
 GO ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS, 
 THAT HE MAY ATTEND TO HIS BUSINESS, "- 
 
 by the undernoted announcement, which had been 
 considered so valuable by the compiler that it bore 
 the imprint of 
 
 "Copyright 1879 by W. T. Ross, Louisville, 
 Kentucky." 
 
 " OFFICE RULES. 
 
 " i. Gentlemen entering this office will leave the door wide open, 
 or apologize. Don t wipe your feet, it soils the mats. 
 
 "2. Those having no business should remain as long as possible. 
 (Short visits will not be tolerated.) 
 
 " 3. Walk around behind the desks, examine our books thoroughly 
 and carefully (they are written up as a public record), and if 
 such books as you desire are not in sight, demand them, they will 
 be promptly produced ; we keep a servant for the purpose. 
 
On the Road. 85 
 
 "4. Look over the book-keeper s shoulder when at work on the 
 books, tell him a few jokes, punch him in the short ribs with 
 your elbow ; talk very loud or whistle, and if this does not have the 
 desired effect, then sing ; put your feet on the most convenient desk 
 or table, it will be of great assistance to those who are writing. 
 
 "5. Gentlemen are requested to smoke, pipes and tobacco will be 
 supplied ; or, if you have an old pipe, bring it along, it may be louder 
 than those we have. 
 
 "6. Spit on the floor, the spittoons are for ornament ; besides, 
 nothing is more attractive than a frescoed floor. 
 
 "7. Profane language is expected at all times, especially when 
 ladies are present. 
 
 "8. Persons having no business with this office must call daily, or 
 send a written excuse. 
 
 "9. The employees of this establishment are daily instructed to 
 spare neither pains nor expense for your comfort and pleasure, and you 
 will confer a great favour by promptly reporting any neglect in this 
 respect." 
 
 Onward rushed the tram, until the valley of the 
 Mississippi is reached, or rather through the immense 
 flat plains which stretch along the banks of these 
 great rivers, teeming with busy life and still beauty. 
 In highly-cultivated, fine bearing fields, there still 
 stood tree-roots, the blackened stumps of the first 
 crop reaped by man ; this is a stiffish stubble, and 
 whilst it is carefully ploughed round, it is not yet 
 and will not in a hurry be ploughed down, although 
 a clever, powerful " screw jack " has been invented, 
 which quickly and easily extracts these many- 
 pronged memorials of the forest primeval. In some 
 places, where stumps and roots have been taken 
 
86 Bits about America. 
 
 out, they have been put up as a fence, effective, 
 rugged, and stockade-like. 
 
 I sighted the Mississippi, " the Father of Waters," 
 as interpreted from the Indian, at St. Louis, twenty 
 miles after it had absorbed the waters of the mighty 
 Missouri. The river is here crossed by a great 
 bridge, three spans of which are over 500 feet wide 
 each, besides lateral viaducts at either side. The 
 bridge is built in two stories, the lower one con 
 taining the double railway track, and the upper one 
 the carriage-ways, two-horse car (tramway) tracks, 
 and two footways, all high enough above the river 
 to admit of the largest vessels passing under them. 
 The river was, and I learned always is, muddy, or at 
 best milky, has a rapid current, and conveys the 
 idea alike of great bulk and power. On both banks 
 were busy quays, factories, and railways ; on its 
 bosom ships of all sorts. 
 
 On seeing this " Father of the Waters," at once the 
 centre and the ornament of an immense valley over 
 4000 miles in length, and navigable for 2000 miles 
 of its course, from Florida to Minnesota, with its 
 numerous tributaries, the Ohio, the Arkansas, the Red 
 River, the Yazoo, the St. Francis, and the Missouri, 
 of which a reliable authority states, "It is estimated 
 that the Mississippi with its affluents affords 35,000 
 miles of navigation. A steamboat may pass up 
 the Mississippi and Missouri 3900 miles from the 
 
On the Road. 87 
 
 gulf, as far as from New York to Constantinople," 
 I felt that America was a great place, and the 
 Mississippi river and valley one of its biggest things, 
 too big to be comprehended in all its possibilities, 
 but warranting the high terms in which it is spoken 
 of, and the yet higher hopes which it enkindles in 
 the American heart. 
 
 St. Louis, by its name, recalled the early French 
 occupation of this part of America. It is a 
 pleasantly situated, handsome city of about 600,000 
 inhabitants, and has several beautiful public parks. 
 Through one of these the ladies of St. Louis take a 
 business-like way of expressing their opinions upon 
 "Lady Tobacco," and back them up with such a 
 persuasive reason, that their example is worthy of 
 imitation. Over the gate of the fine grounds which 
 Mr. Henry Shaw, a rich Englishman and a bachelor, 
 kindly throws open to the public, may be read : 
 
 "Resolved by a Committee of Ladies, that, as 
 the perfume of flowers is conducive to the great 
 beautification of their complexion, Gentlemen be 
 requested to refrain from smoking and spitting in 
 the conservatories and greenhouses. 
 
 " REBECCA EDOM, Secy? 
 
 " It is hoped the above will be respected. 
 
 " HENRY SHAW." 
 
 From St. Louis to Chicago I traversed part of 
 
88 Bits about America. 
 
 the great prairie plain, passing immense fields of 
 rich loamy soil, easily ploughed and wrought, well 
 fenced and cultivated ; as far as the eye could 
 reach, it was dotted with farm-houses, villages, and 
 towns, steel works and quarries, industrious, ener 
 getic, thriving. There were some bits of primeval 
 forest, and occasionally, along the track, I saw the 
 woodman s little log-cabin, and heard the thud of 
 his axe, preparing for himself a home. 
 
 I will not deal in this " bit " with the older settlers, 
 nor even with the new Chicago, which has grown 
 in sixty years from a desert swamp to a city 
 of nearly a million souls, and seems to defy the 
 elements alike of fire and water. For the scourge 
 of fire has once and again reduced the greater 
 part of the city to ashes, but the citizens began 
 to rebuild it, grander and vaster than before, as 
 soon as the ground was cold enough to receive 
 the foundations. Lake Michigan threatened to 
 engulf it, but seeing they could not lower the 
 lake, they raised the level of the city. Through 
 its streets, the busiest stream of life in America, 
 composed of all nationalities, rushes at a furious 
 rate. To and from it an immense network of 
 canals and railways conveys the produce of the 
 north, south, east, and west. It boasts of so many 
 big things the biggest fire, the biggest stock-market, 
 the biggest failures, the biggest picnics, and some 
 
On the Road. 89 
 
 more questionable big things which I forbear to 
 chronicle, indeed, I give up as hopeless any attempt 
 to " compass " the great " Queen city of the Lakes," 
 and fall back upon Thackeray s " Crystal Palace, 
 1851 :" 
 
 " There s staym ingynes, 
 
 That stands in lines, 
 Enormous and amazing, 
 
 That squeal and snort 
 
 Like whales in sport, 
 Or elephants a-grazing. 
 
 " There s cabs on stands, 
 
 And shandthrydans, 
 There s waggons from New York here ; 
 
 There s Lapland sleighs 
 
 Have crossed the seas, 
 And jaunting cyars from Cork here. 
 
 " There s granite flints 
 
 That s quite imminse, 
 There s sacks of coals and fuels ; 
 
 There s swords and guns, 
 
 And soap in tuns, 
 And ginger-bread and jewels. 
 
 " There s lashins more 
 
 Of things in store, 
 But thim I don t remimber ; 
 
 Nor could disclose 
 
 Did I compose 
 From May-time to November." 
 
 I can more easily and pleasantly testify to the big- 
 heartedness of its denizens, among whom " I was 
 a stranger and they took me in," not in the modern 
 sense, but in the good old Scripture way of genuine 
 and thoughtful hospitality. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PRAIRIES. 
 
 HE Prairies of America! Who has not 
 been thrilled by accounts of their vast 
 extent, and the stirring adventures of 
 which they have been the theatre ? 
 
 Who has not filled up Mrs. Sigourney s 
 
 lines 
 
 "The mighty prairie met the bending skies, 
 A sea at rest, whose sleeping waves were flowers/ 
 
 with fancy s wildest imaginings ? But as my visit 
 was in early April, when the snow had newly 
 disappeared, and spring had not yet clad them in 
 her mantle of green, I forbear any poetical extra 
 vagances, and confine myself to prosaic facts ; 
 even these I give with hesitation, for I am not a 
 practical farmer, and therefore no authority. I 
 merely give my own impressions, or the results of a 
 somewhat restricted observation and inquiry. 
 
 As soon as I struck the prairies I was impressed 
 with the fine black mould, so easily turned over with 
 the plough, on land that had been under cultivation 
 
 90 
 
The Prairies. 91 
 
 for some time, and with the apparently boundless 
 horizon stretching on all sides. All is not arti 
 ficially levelled like a lawn or bowling-green. There 
 are occasional swellings and depressions, but no 
 hills, hardly even a " knowe " or brae, and every short 
 distance there is a small pond or f< meer," called by the 
 folks a " slew," into which the rain-water or melting 
 snow drains itself. Some of these are connected 
 with little burns or creeks, which become rivers. 
 
 Where a railway has been constructed, a station 
 occurs every few miles, provided with a grain store, 
 " an elevator," in country phrase, where the corn can 
 be taken in carts by an inclined plane to the upper 
 flat, and thence loaded by spouts, as required, into 
 trucks. There are also platforms for smartly and 
 safely loading cattle and pigs ; sparred bins for 
 holding Indian corn in the husk ; sidings and \vater- 
 tanks. All crossings are level and unfenced. Many 
 of the fields are also unfenced railway-wards, but the 
 railway company are responsible for damage to 
 cattle, and occasionally the engine draws up owing 
 to " cattle on the line." 
 
 The stock around the farm-houses alongside the 
 railway was more abundant and varied than I 
 expected ; the number of pigs, or " hogs," as they are 
 here called, is legion, nearly all of the Berkshire or 
 Polin China breed, and they ramble, and grunt, and 
 feed all round. There are also a large number of 
 
92 Bits aboiit America. 
 
 young horses and foals ; turkeys, geese white and 
 grey, ducks, guinea-fowls, cocks and hens, besides 
 sheep, rams, donkeys, and mules. My visit was 
 before much of the fine stock had been let out to 
 feed, yet, for miles upon miles, as far as the eye could 
 reach, there were small herds of roaming cattle, 
 dotting, at great intervals, the prairie. 
 
 There are tile-works at various stations along the 
 line, and some farmers were conducting slight drain 
 ing operations, easy work, for the soil was an open, 
 deep, soft black mould. Others were busy carting 
 out manure from their kraals, carrying out, even in 
 this land of plenty, the old Scottish proverb, more 
 true than savoury, about what is "the mother of 
 meal," and enriching or rather developing the riches 
 of otherwise rich land. I learned afterwards that 
 this had a " grand effec ." 
 
 After a railway journey of more than 400 miles 
 across the prairies, I halted in the north-west of 
 Iowa, at a town of over 2000 inhabitants, rich in two 
 railway stations, busses, banks, big hotels, stores, 
 kirks, at least one newspaper, and what was pointed 
 out to me as the crack building of the town and 
 district, a court-house and a jail, glorious evidences 
 of civilisation. 
 
 It being nightfall, my first inquiry was for a 
 vehicle to take me across the prairie to a relative s 
 house, twelve miles to the north-west. The coach- 
 
The Prairies. 93 
 
 hirer was a genuine Scotchman, and had many 
 questions to ask about the old country, some of 
 which were concerning a mutual acquaintance in the 
 kingdom of Fife. 
 
 " Can you tell me," was one of his questions, " if 
 Mr. Smith s dog s leg s better, and if it is able to rin 
 aboot noo? " 
 
 " That I cannot," was my reply. " I know that Mr. 
 Smith likes the gun, and keeps some good dogs, I 
 think some of them are prize-takers, but as to their 
 legs, I not only know nothing, but of all the queer 
 questions asked at me in America, yours is the 
 queerest." 
 
 "Ye understand, sir," said he, "I did a little in 
 the veterinary surgeon way in Dunfermline; I was 
 a kind o Vet, as they ca them there, and Mr. 
 Smith s doug had a sore leg. I attended it just 
 before I came away, an 5 I m keen to ken how it 
 cam on ; I think it would get a richt. Tell Mr. 
 Smith when ye see him, that Charlie Hardie was 
 spierin for him, and anxious to ken if his doug 
 was fit for the moors now." 
 
 Scarcely had he finished when his wife inquired 
 about some of my relatives with whom she had been 
 a fellow-boarder at Cairneyhill ; and in the streets of 
 the town, far away on the prairies though it stood, I 
 met some known faces, and several folks with well- 
 known Edinburgh names. It was getting dark 
 
94 Bits about America. 
 
 before a gentleman of the town, whose relatives had 
 settled on a lot near that of the family I wished to 
 visit, and I started with a team to cross twelve miles 
 of prairie. There was a kind of track for three or 
 four miles, along which he drove confidently, but 
 when we came to " burnt land," that is, where the 
 grass of last year had not been consumed by the 
 cattle, but had been burned (like heather at home) 
 to make room for this year s crop, he lost his 
 reckoning. 
 
 After looking about him anxiously for some time, 
 and wondering where the " school," which he con 
 sidered the only reliable landmark, was, he said, " I m 
 off the track ; we must wait till the moon rises." 
 
 My first thought was of that wonderful plant 
 known as the " Indian s compass," of which Long 
 fellow writes in Evangeline : 
 
 "Look at this delicate plant, that lifts its head from the meadow ; 
 See how its leaves all point to the north, as true as the magnet. 
 It is the compass flower, that the finger of God has suspended 
 Here on its fragile stalk, to direct the traveller s journey 
 Over the sea-like, pathless, limitless waste of the desert." 
 
 But I did not know the plant itself, and if I had 
 known it I was not sure whether the dry leaves, 
 after their being snowed up, would prove " true as 
 the needle to the pole." 
 
 The sky was so overcast that the North Pole Star 
 was not visible, and my companion looked incredulous 
 
The Prairies. 95 
 
 when I told him that, if we saw it, we could easily 
 " steer " north-west. 
 
 " On the SEA, may be," said he, " but not on the 
 LAND. I remember of my father pointing out the 
 North Pole Star to me long ago in Scotland, but I 
 forget all about it now, we ll need to wait until the 
 moon rises." 
 
 " Or the North Pole appears," said I, to which he 
 replied with a " H m." 
 
 We had to wait fully an hour, for the prairie is one 
 vast plain, with very few landmarks as yet. The 
 wind was in the south, and delightfully fresh, soft, 
 and kindly. Its balmy breath felt like a sweet air- 
 bath, refreshing, delicious ; and after a night and a 
 day of railway journeying, in the generally too 
 hot, dry air of American railways, it was "caller," 
 " caller ; " no other word could express the feeling so 
 well. When the clouds cleared away, the good old 
 North Pole Star appeared, but my driver and guide 
 was not at all sure of its reliability. I got him 
 advised to drive a short distance north-west by my 
 steering. In a minute or two he brightened up, and 
 cried, "We ve struck the track," and keeping the 
 North Pole Star in sight, besides being aided by 
 several prairie fires, which blazed brightly in the 
 distance, we held on our way, and shortly afterwards 
 clearly saw the house we were in quest of, standing 
 out on the horizon against a prairie fire. 
 
96 Bits aboiit America. 
 
 As we approached it we were " halloed to " to 
 stop, because a wooden bridge, which stretched 
 across a " creek," like a great square platform, had 
 been put on in the " Fall," but had been snowed up 
 before the road had been made level with the timber 
 by nearly two feet. The " creek " was a shallow one ; 
 we easily forded it, and arrived safely at the door of 
 an old Midlothian man and friend. The wind had 
 been high, but it was so balmy, so soft, so nice, that 
 the drive had proved quite a treat. 
 
 Next morning I had my first near glimpse of 
 prairie life. My quarters had been so comfortable, 
 that I only discovered, after I got outside, that the 
 house was constructed of wood. It consisted of two 
 stories, had been designed with some taste, and 
 possessed a baronial window, lightning conductor, 
 and general snugness. Near the house were the 
 cattle courts, well stocked with sheep, oxen, cows, 
 and pigs. About us hopped hens, turkeys, and 
 fowls ; three young horses swanked about pokingly ; 
 whilst on the willowy fence any number of black 
 birds and copperheads, with plumage rather gayer 
 than home birds, held a " Dame Burden concert," 
 and went on with their prate. 
 
 Around was the immense prairie ; here and there 
 the eye rested upon the cabin and onstead of a 
 settler, but there evidently remained very much land 
 to be possessed. I visited a good many " settlers" 
 
The Prairies. 97 
 
 within a radius of sixteen miles, and will endeavour 
 to give expression to what I learned from them 
 of their past experiences and present opinions of 
 prairie life. 
 
 All most emphatically declared that the reports 
 and representations made to them, as an induce 
 ment to become settlers, were far too favourable, 
 indeed misleading ; that the amount stated as 
 necessary to commence with was absurdly small ; 
 and that those who pictured to themselves that 
 the life of a "settler" was either an easy, a 
 comfortable, or an idle life, would find them 
 selves grievously mistaken. They also strongly 
 recommended that no one should buy land, or 
 do anything until he has been working on the 
 prairie for at least a year, for there is so much 
 to learn about what not to do, as well as what 
 to do. 
 
 There are no trees ; and many affirm that large 
 belts of plantation here and there would be of 
 immense service. But who is to plant them ? 
 Settlers are rearing around their gardens and on- 
 steads some quickly-growing willows, which thrive 
 well, and give some protection from gales, as well 
 as make good fences. Excepting these, all is a 
 great grassy meadow, with a few small ponds 01 
 "slews," many of which dry quite up in summer. 
 
 There are hardly any stones in the soil, a few 
 
 G 
 
98 Bits about America. 
 
 granite boulders are occasionally found here and 
 there, but none of any size; a curling-stone would 
 be called a rock, and all found on the " lot " can 
 be advantageously used for " loupin -on " stones, or 
 as foundations for houses, or "keps" for gates. 
 
 The first thing a settler has to see to is a house 
 or shelter of some kind. If a bachelor, he can do 
 with little, and often a shanty is run up, where the 
 team of horses or bullocks and the " laird " share 
 the same roof. The breaking up of the land is his 
 first work, and should be done early, to avoid the 
 summer s growth and heat. The turf, or " divot," 
 is firm and rooty, so that the first ploughing, 
 although not deep, is laborious, and consists merely 
 in " overturning " the sod. This has to be ploughed 
 again, and sometimes again, before being sown, and 
 it takes some time before harrow, plough, etc., make 
 it smooth and workable. 
 
 I saw some old tilled ground, black, loamy, and 
 easily wrought, and after the sod has been fairly 
 broken up, the ploughing is comparatively easy. 
 The soil ranges from four to six feet deep, upon a 
 subsoil of bluish clay, and, when newly turned up, 
 it seems to glisten with chemical salts of good agri 
 cultural character. It is black, evidently the accumu 
 lation of thousands of years burnings of previous 
 crops. Indeed, the territory is old Indian hunting- 
 ground 
 
The Prairies. 99 
 
 the meaning of "Iowa" in Indian being, "This is 
 the land." Remains of large Indian settlements 
 exist, and ample evidence that the prairies formerly 
 supported large herds of buffaloes and wild cattle, 
 not found on them now, and decreasing elsewhere. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to state that no crop can 
 be reaped the first year, and possibly very little the 
 second. A bit of garden ground can be brought in, 
 some home vegetables planted, and if any cattle are 
 grazed on the prairie during the summer, a barn or 
 house must be found for them in winter. This 
 means a large wooden shed, with an upper hay-loft 
 for storage, having the entire under flat boarded all 
 round to house the cattle during the long severe 
 winter. 
 
 The snow of Iowa is small, hard, and dry, comes 
 in "blizzards," drifts greatly, and sometimes the 
 farmer has to dig his way through eight to ten feet 
 of snow. Hay for winter food can generally be cut 
 from the prairies, and stored either in barn or afield. 
 If stored afield, a large circle, of eight to ten feet 
 wide, has to be ploughed all round the stack, and to 
 be kept " red land," to prevent the prairie fires from 
 burning it up. 
 
 If a man wishes to make the best of settling, he 
 would need, in the opinion of sensible and experi 
 enced men, 1200 to 1500 to give him a fair start. 
 Some land societies have given out 250 as enough. 
 
zoo Bits about America. 
 
 Where there is no wood to be had excepting from a 
 great distance, railway-brought, and where labour 
 is dear, before a settler can get a plough and a team, 
 a house, a barn, a hay-loft, and a roomy cattle-shed, 
 fence a kraal, and get ready to face and withstand 
 the winter, he will find 250 far too small an amount, 
 even although he has, like " Ben o Hillsgill," "a 
 prime working family." 
 
 Settlers seem to think that land agents are as 
 lucky as "factors" are believed to be in Britain, 
 recalling Robie Hamilton s advice to Lord Eglinton 
 about a bit of dorty ground, " Saw t with factors, 
 my lord ; they aye thrive a place." These agents 
 are in the difficult position of trying to make a good 
 dividend for their principals, and sometimes a little 
 for themselves, so that the poor settler is neither 
 their first nor second care. Then they suggest con 
 tractors who are ready to erect buildings or fences, 
 and report says that these contractors get rich in a 
 short time. On tools or implements provided, there 
 are rumours of "pickings," and they even can 
 recommend where horses or oxen are to be had. 
 I merely give the " sough " of what I heard, viz. 
 that they look fairly well after themselves and their 
 principals ; but, as I may be doing injustice to 
 "clients in absence," it will be pleasanter and 
 possibly wiser in me to avoid such personal matters, 
 lest, if I were to tell all I learned from trustworthy 
 
The Prairies. 101 
 
 sources, I might be challenged. I try to be an 
 impartial chronicler. 
 
 America is all surveyed, and each square mile is 
 marked off on the land, as well as registered on the 
 Government Ordnance Survey maps. There are 
 640 acres in a square mile. Settlers generally 
 secure i6o-acre lots, and cultivate them. Where, as 
 is usually the case, no one has taken the rest of the 
 " mile " or miles around them, their cattle may 
 freely graze on the prairies, and splendid grazing 
 it affords. I saw lots, of 160 acres each, in various 
 stages, from last year s start to that of several years 
 ago. The result was evident, almost wonderful. 
 
 On one settlement, after five years tillage, I 
 found one hundred and fifty fine sheep, about 
 sixty cattle, fifty to sixty hogs, two teams of horses, 
 three colts, some calves and stirkies, besides many 
 fowls of all kinds ; but it had been achieved by 
 the sweat and self-denial of hard-headed, hard- 
 handed Scotch men and women, who told of 
 tornado and blast, hurricane and frost, death of 
 stock by accident, disease, or visitation a battle 
 hardly fought, perhaps now won, but only perhaps, 
 for a year of drought, or an extra- severe winter 
 or or may send a " aglee." 
 
 As I will resume this subject in the next chapter, 
 I close this one by saying, Let no one go to the 
 prairies without a determination to ignore many of 
 
IO2 Bits about America. 
 
 the comforts of civilization, and fight a tough, 
 
 constant, watchful battle with nature, to work 
 
 constantly and wisely for many years, so as to 
 
 secure success ; and nothing will more certainly 
 
 conduce to this most desirable result than a 
 sufficient capital judiciously "wared." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE PRAIRIES (continued). 
 
 N my last bit about the prairies I may 
 have been misunderstood in the sum 
 which I stated as desirable for effectively 
 and economically starting prairie farm 
 life viz. ;i2OO. I wish special emphasis 
 to be put on the words effectively and 
 ECONOMICALLY. 
 
 Many have not had the command of the tenth 
 part of that sum, but by very great self-denial 
 and plod they have got through. 
 
 I write after having had long conversations with 
 settlers, and if any one tries to figure up the price 
 of a house, a roomy cattle - shed with hay - loft 
 above, fencing, team, plough, harrows, and imple 
 ments, with a fair stock of cattle and pigs to 
 start with, he will find that the ^250 given out 
 by land societies is far more than absorbed, to 
 say nothing of two, or perhaps three, years of no 
 return. 
 
 A young man, willing and able to work steadily, 
 
 103 
 
IO4 Bits about America. 
 
 and to "rough it," may get employment; he may 
 earn 4.0 per annum, besides his board, and will 
 learn the quality of the soils, the requirements of 
 the climate, the seventy of winter, the need of 
 being thoroughly stocked with fodder and other 
 necessary stores. But it will be more interesting 
 to the reader if I chronicle what some folks have 
 actually done. I found, on pretty general inquiry, 
 that few born Americans take to prairie or back- 
 wood farming, and I have met with many of 
 various nationalities who gave it up after one or 
 two years trial, cleaned out by drought or cattle 
 disease, or the lack of anything to sell, because barter 
 is more common than cash. 
 
 To feed stock pays, whereas selling grain (nearly 
 all say) does not ; and it takes two or three years 
 on a new settlement before any live stock is ready 
 for the market in the case of cattle, three or 
 four. Flax is often sowed as a first crop, but 
 only the seed is sold. Oat or wheat is some 
 times taken off the second year s ploughing light 
 crops. 
 
 Indian corn needs special care ; at all events, it 
 is reported doubtful, and, in Scottish phrase, " dorty." 
 It is rather planted than sowed. Three grains are 
 put nearly 4 feet apart each way, and the plants 
 therefore are so far spread that the "cleaner" 
 a specially-constructed "weeding plough" can be 
 
The Prairies. 105 
 
 wrought between the plants, either up or across 
 the field. Weeds have a provokingly nasty trick 
 of growing on land freshly broken up, and the 
 "cleaner" must be used at least once each way 
 before the grain gets three feet high. 
 
 Each three grains yield three stalks, giving from 
 three to five heads three preferred. The heads 
 grow about half way up the plant, and are pro 
 tected with long leaves. When reaping, these 
 husk leaves are stripped off, the head broken off 
 and put into a waggon, which, owing to the wide 
 space between the plants, can pass through the 
 rows, and the stalks remain on the land until they 
 are ploughed down next year. Hence the stubble 
 is long and rough. In some States, where fodder 
 is scarce, these stalks are cut into small pieces 
 and used for feeding cattle. Should the winter 
 come on before the "heads" are got in, the crop 
 suffers little, as it stands frost well ; but seed corn 
 must be harvested before winter, and carefully 
 selected. 
 
 On the greater number of farms, feeding is done 
 with the whole head, which the cattle strip 
 clean, leaving the core. The shorthorn breed of 
 cattle is preferred for feeding purposes ; they stand 
 the climate well ; and the stock is gradually being 
 improved, starting as it did from the native cattle. 
 Herefords are also favourites, and their " kenspeckle " 
 
io6 Bits about America. 
 
 white heads are prominent on the prairies. I saw 
 no Ayrshires, and very few Guernseys ; these were 
 only found in more cultivated districts. The 
 polled Angus and the Galloway breeds are being 
 tried, hitherto with fairly good results. Pigs thrive 
 well on the prairies, and when from nine to twelve 
 months old, they can be sold readily, but a peculiar 
 disease has appeared amongst them which threatens 
 to be disastrous. 
 
 Where a fair capital and willing hands have 
 gone together, the result has been excellent, I 
 saw a farm of 320 acres, virgin prairie within the 
 last six years, now rejoicing in a nice house, a com 
 plete onstead, and large herds of healthy cattle of all 
 kinds. Ploughing and sowing were being heartily 
 and cheerily gone into by folks that, although well 
 doing and able tradesmen during their residence 
 in Scotland, have found their present occupation 
 healthier, and their goods and gear increasing. I 
 partook at their hospitable table of a fat turkey 
 of their own rearing, and in general, as the Irish 
 song puts it, " the ating is plentiful and fine," 
 because farmers rear poultry, etc., at little expense, 
 and, there being little market demand, the selling 
 price is low. 
 
 I saw another large farm of 1800 acres broken 
 up from the prairie within the last fifteen years, 
 very fully stocked and equipped in every respect 
 
The Prairies. 107 
 
 indeed, a systematized, model place not the 
 least interesting feature being about twenty happy 
 mothers of little black piggies, each family cosy 
 and frisky in a separate roomy pen. The orchard, 
 lawn, trees, etc., gave evidence that plantation 
 might be successfully carried out, and the entire 
 onstead and stock were first - rate, so was the 
 hospitality. 
 
 Where there are no wives or sisters on the " lot," 
 the insides of the houses are neither tidy nor 
 tempting. I asked one settler who had been 
 " batching it," as this life is called, for some years 
 how often he washed the dishes. 
 
 "About once a month in the summer season," 
 was his reply. " I take them to a slew, and 
 after rinsing them, give them a good rub with 
 prairie grass." 
 
 " How do you get on with the cooking ? " 
 
 " Well, so-so. It was too hot work in summer, 
 after a hard day s work. I got a barrel of sea- 
 biscuits ; sometimes, on Sunday, I tried to cook a 
 fowl, but it somehow didn t come right" 
 
 " What about the spring cleaning ? " 
 
 " The what ? " said he in surprise. 
 
 " The cleaning of the house ? " 
 
 "Well, I guess that the dog s tail did the most 
 of that. Sometimes I took a broom, but it made 
 more dust than before." 
 
io8 Bits about America. 
 
 "And the clothes-washing ?" 
 
 " The rain did a good deal ; I sometimes gave 
 some of them a swill in a creek, but they became 
 too little for me afterwards." 
 
 " Did you ever try starching or ironing ? " 
 
 This provoked a great laugh. 
 
 " Ironing ? shirt collars are unknown on the 
 prairies. I think I have a few somewhere, but 
 where f I have no notion. Ironing ? starching ? 
 Ha, ha, ha, ha ! " 
 
 I was, however, told that a man considered 
 himself entitled to take a wife if he had a team, 
 a dollar to pay the parson, not necessarily a 
 waggon, although that looked better for the home 
 coming. 
 
 The following lines fairly represent the status 
 quo : 
 
 " He who by farming would get ritch, 
 Must plow and sow, and dig and sitch, 
 Work hard all day, sleep hard all night, 
 Save every cent, and not get tite." 
 
 Jane Lovell was a farmer s wife, 
 
 A wife she was worth having too ; 
 For, when Jane Lovell rolled up her sleeves, 
 Things round that house began to flew." 
 
 Many have erected the circular windmills spoken 
 of in a former chapter, and, as a rule, water is found 
 at no great depth. Deer have been seen, but very 
 rarely. Prairie hens, resembling Scottish grouse, 
 
The Prairies. 1 09 
 
 are very abundant ; also quails (like partridges), 
 snipe, wild ducks, and cranes all edible. There 
 are very few crows. Nearly all the birds are 
 migratory, for winter is a hard time. I heard the 
 howling of a prairie wolf, and saw the skins of 
 some that had recently been shot. They do not 
 often appear, occasionally in twos or threes during 
 winter, and the State gives from IDS. to 2os. for the 
 tips of their ears. 
 
 There are a few raccoons, principally living in 
 stumps or marshes ; they are fond of chickens and 
 young pigs. So are the " skunks," a fierce little 
 creature that will face up if attacked, and emit 
 a most offensive odour. The musk-rats have also 
 a weakness for eggs, and there is a thing called 
 a gopher, a sort of underground squirrel, zebra- 
 striped in body, that digs up the newly-planted 
 corn for its own use. There are some birds of 
 prey, owls, hawks, etc., but neither the wild animals 
 nor birds are so numerous as to be a pest. 
 
 The less said about the mosquito the better ; 
 his pedigree is well given thus: "The muskito is 
 born of poor but industrious parents, but has in 
 his veins some of the best blood in the country." 
 And another zoological definition is : " The hornet 
 is a red-hot child of nature, and has a bizziness 
 end to him." All concur in pronouncing the air 
 delightful, and that pulmonary and other diseases 
 
1 10 Bits about America. 
 
 have disappeared from those afflicted with them 
 when they left Britain. 
 
 Although I knew before my visit that hired labour 
 was rarely found on the prairies, the implements of 
 the settlers surprised me for their number and handi- 
 ness. I found sowing-machines that would sow 
 wheat or corn over forty feet at a time, or might be 
 adapted to sow grass seeds ; also weeders, huskers, 
 planters, and mowers. Of the grass seeds, "Timothy" 
 is a great favourite, grows well, makes fine hay, and 
 lasts. All whom I visited had a bit of garden 
 ground, from which they got, in their season, vege 
 tables and fruits many of these could hardly be 
 grown outside in Britain, such as tomatoes and 
 pumpkins. Orchards had been planted, and pro 
 mised well. 
 
 The dress of the male sex on the prairies is homely 
 and confined to essentials. Patchwork is fashionable ; 
 a button or two awanting, or of different sizes, kinds, 
 or colours, is nothing thought of; cuffs and collars 
 nil, and the hue of the garments is very varied, 
 according as the sun, rain, or wind has affected them. 
 Hats are particularly picturesque, and " Day and 
 Martin " or other " boot blacking " may be found, but 
 it is very far from being in general use. The com 
 plexions of the settlers were splendidly bronzed and 
 weather-beaten, their sinews and muscles firm ; and, 
 despite the apparently never-ending and multifarious 
 
The Prairies. 1 1 1 
 
 labours, it gladdened one s heart to see everything so 
 effectively done and so purpose-like. I noticed, and 
 dare to chronicle, that they get on well with buildings 
 and accommodation of a very much simpler and 
 plainer kind than they would have taken from their 
 " lairds " in the old country. 
 
 Prairie life is patriarchal in many respects not 
 least in this, that its wealth is in cattle. Produce of 
 all kinds " consumed on the premises " by stock pays 
 best. And it is natural to inquire, How is this live 
 stock disposed of? Foals easily, either by being set 
 early to work on the place or sold to a neighbour 
 settler ; and the mothers do not get the comfortable 
 rest accorded to them in Britain ; very young foals 
 are seen following the waggons or ploughs in which 
 their nurses are working. Cattle and pigs by being 
 sent to the " stock-yards " existing in all large towns, 
 which put even " Swan s " and St. Boswells big rings 
 into the shade. 
 
 I visited the stock-yards of Chicago, to which cattle 
 by the thousand and pigs by the ten thousand are 
 sent daily from all parts. These yards cover hundreds 
 of acres, and are replenished by trains from every 
 quarter. Not only does the live stock make a stir, 
 but there are mounted dealers, farmers, settlers, and 
 agents cantering about on horses, ranging from the 
 mustang of Mexico to the thoroughbred good riders 
 most of them, and bronzed, swanking fellows. Sales 
 
1 1 2 Bits about America. 
 
 are sharply concluded, and the cattle as quickly 
 allotted, some are trucked alive. The greater portion 
 is consigned to immense mechanical butcheries. 
 
 I visited one establishment where they " prepare " 
 10,000 pigs in one day. These are weighed on a 
 steelyard in fifties or hundreds, and paid for by certi 
 fied live weight. Thereafter they are driven into the 
 large pens of the buyers, thence into smaller ones, 
 to the number of fifty or so. There a chain is put 
 round the hind-leg of Mr. Pig, he is hauled up, 
 the younger ones squealing vigorously, the older and 
 fatter ones only grunting out a protest at their sudden 
 elevation. Before they have travelled four feet they 
 are despatched quickly and deftly by one insertion 
 of the sharp knife of the gruesome, greasy execu 
 tioner. They then travel onwards, as closely as 
 they can be strung, until, after some minutes have 
 elapsed, they are dropped into a trough of boiling 
 water, holding from forty to fifty. 
 
 At the further end they are lifted up by machinery, 
 one by one, and passed into and through a machine 
 fitted with revolving scrapers, which whisks them 
 round and round, fore and aft, up and down ; they go 
 in bristly, they come out shaven. Onwards they 
 travel, undergoing various processes of anatomical 
 dissection and dismemberment ; the parts, not 
 essentially of the carcase, are put into separate boxes 
 for special treatment, and the pork, ready for market, 
 
Tke Prairies. 1 1 3 
 
 appears at the other end of the mechanical abattoir. 
 Cooling, packing, etc., then follow. Fancy 10,000 in 
 one day. Poor pigs ! it is even said " they go in 
 pigs, and come out nail-brushes." 
 
 The larger cattle are shot, hauled in, dissected, 
 apportioned, cooled in refrigerating houses, put into 
 refrigerating cars, and sent to any market seeking 
 them. All offal is used up ; all drainage also some 
 for manufacturing purposes, some for fertilizers. As 
 far as an onlooker could judge, nothing was wasted 
 or lost. The fields around Chicago testify to the 
 fact that the yards are regularly cleaned, and the 
 result agriculturally applied. Large stock-yards and 
 establishments such as I have described are to be 
 found in various parts of America. 
 
 I followed the carcases to the " cooking " estab 
 lishment of Messrs. Libby, M Neil, & Libby, well 
 known over the world for tinned meats. There I 
 found that they could prepare 1000 oxen daily, 
 employing about 1200 people; that scrupulous 
 attention was paid to cleanliness in every depart 
 ment ; that the tin and the solder used in making the 
 " cans " were of special composition, so that no 
 chemical change could take place that would affect 
 the contents in any degree ; that for each size of 
 "can " there was a carefully- weighed nugget of solder 
 used, sufficient for the work, but nothing more; that 
 
 the metal used was periodically analyzed to secure 
 
 II 
 
1 14 Bits about America. 
 
 uniformity ; and that the finest lard was used where oil 
 was needed. It almost startles one to see machinery 
 capable of packing 30,000 Ib. of corned beef daily. 
 I did not wonder at one which packed the 14 Ib. 
 cans being called "Jumbo." It was equally in 
 teresting to observe the range and variety of this 
 whole world s kitchen s specialities in catering for 
 public taste, and the care taken that each department 
 shall be carefully overlooked and the cans methodi 
 cally tested. 
 
 To return to the prairies, I have spoken of the 
 men-folk as not extra particular in the matter of 
 their personal appearance. The other sex, true to 
 the finer instincts of the feminine nature, displays 
 much better taste in this respect. I saw prairie 
 flowers as sweet as " Rosalie," plain in their neatness ; 
 and, in closing this motley medley, I gladly express 
 my delight at finding, in many " new holdings," as 
 good taste and as correct manners as in the home 
 middle classes, and my pride at finding so many 
 sturdy sons and daughters of Scotland, holding to 
 the traditional virtues of their ancestors, and morally 
 as well as physically making the wilderness and the 
 solitary place " to blossom as the rose." 
 
 I was privileged with " Queen s weather " while 
 on the prairies. But since my return the following 
 passage occurs in a letter received from Iowa: " You 
 were lucky in having fine weather when here, which 
 
The Prairies. 1 1 5 
 
 made it more pleasant. We had a dreadful storm the 
 week after you left, with wind, snow, sleet, and rain. 
 Cattle that were . out grazing on the prairie were 
 driven before the blast in all directions, and their 
 owners had much trouble searching for them, as 
 some of them were driven twelve or fifteen miles 
 from their home ; before being found, many of them 
 had perished. It is said that hundreds have died 
 around here. Luckily for me, I drove mine all into 
 the c kraal when I saw the storm approaching, and 
 lost none." 
 
 This needs no comment. I noticed that one of 
 the first and the last things which my host did daily 
 was to watch if the " prairie fire " was coming near 
 him, or if there were threatenings of a storm 
 " brewing." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 NIAGARA. 
 
 N entering Canada from the west, I found 
 the country hillier and knollier than the 
 prairies upon which I had been for several 
 days. There was more of the forest 
 primeval ; several of the cleared fields still 
 retained the sturdy stumps of the old trees, 
 in others these had been extracted and set up as a 
 fence, a barricade would have been a more appro 
 priate name, considering their height, rugged outline, 
 and fending powers. The large orchards and gardens 
 were interesting ; but my destination was Niagara, 
 reckoned ever since I can remember as one of the 
 seven wonders of the world ; and this great " coming 
 event" lessened my interest in " passing" scenes. 
 
 On the night before my arrival there had been a fall 
 of snow, accompanied by severe frost, and many of 
 the trees had every twig and branch encased in ice, 
 which made them " weeping " shrubs, on which the 
 sunlight produced lovely effects. The station at 
 which I arrived is about two miles from the Falls, 
 
 11(5 
 
Niagara. 1 1 7 
 
 and there were touting cabmen who offered to drive 
 visitors around and show " everything " for two 
 dollars (8s.). It were nearly as well not to go at 
 all as to put oneself under such guidance, for they 
 whirl you to a few favourite peeps, and either get 
 rid of you as soon as possible, or put on an extrava 
 gant extra charge for more than their idea of the 
 " round." 
 
 Niagara is a great subject perhaps the greatest 
 even in this day of travel and adventure. It cannot 
 be taken in by persons travelling like detectives, or 
 rushing in hot haste to the next train, unless they 
 follow the advice of the Edinburgh bailie, who, on 
 being asked by a party of American travellers if 
 they could " do " Edinburgh, Roslin, Hawthornden, 
 and Melrose, and get into Glasgow the same night. 
 
 " Hardly," was his quaint reply. " Edinburgh 
 cannot be half done in a day ; and if that is all 
 the time you can give, you would be wiser to spend 
 an hour or two looking over a good collection of 
 photographs of Scottish scenery." 
 
 To master Niagara, the visitor has to "turn and 
 gaze, and turn again ; " to plant himself at various 
 points of view, and let the mighty scene " creep into 
 his study of imagination " through eye, and ear, and 
 heart. 
 
 I was driven, in the bright sunshine and crisp 
 frosty air of a " snellish " bright April morning, to 
 
1 1 8 Bits about America. 
 
 the Prospect Hotel, which stands almost on the 
 brink of the ravine, within a very short distance of 
 the " Horseshoe " Fall, on the Canadian side, and 
 commands the entire scene. While from the coffee- 
 room, or platform, I looked on the scene, I felt that 
 it was truly great too great to belong to any one 
 nation ; but well fitted to form the silver line that 
 divides two great nations the one the hoary em 
 bodiment of the civilization of the old world, the 
 other the Samson of the new, whose brawny muscle 
 is developing the great material resources of his wide 
 domain, and whose keen intellect is making the circle 
 of the sciences help him effectively in completing 
 the victory of mind over matter. 
 
 Who has not felt the difficulty of describing the 
 grand and the majestic in nature ? I feel, as is told 
 of the Paisley weaver on his visit to Lochgoil, at a 
 great loss for adjectives. He ascended from "fine" 
 to "grand," to "splendid," " magnificent," etc., until 
 he had to squeeze out the highly improper climax 
 " Isna the works o Nature devilish ? " Niagara was 
 broader, vaster than I had pictured it. Above the 
 Falls the ground is comparatively low and flat, not 
 at all like a gorge, and for a mile before it takes the 
 plunge it has started on a canter of from twenty to 
 forty miles an hour, over a course nearly two miles 
 wide, surging between low, tree-clad islands of 
 various sizes, taking here and there a trial leap of 
 
Niagara. 119 
 
 from two to eight feet, foaming, rushing, occasionally 
 firing off platoons of spray, or boiling up like geyser 
 hot springs. On it came, strong, fast, and billowy, 
 bearing on its surface huge masses of ice, with which 
 it sported as with feathers. 
 
 The Horseshoe Fall has receded in the centre, 
 and, the tip of the " shoe " having fallen in, the shape 
 is like, or is becoming like, the dumpy horn of a 
 rhinoceros. On the " Dominion " side the half of the 
 horseshoe is still very perfect, and over it huge masses 
 of greenish-coloured water hurl themselves, abruptly 
 and solemnly, as if on important business, grading 
 in tint from pale sage green where the water is twenty 
 to thirty feet deep, gradually to pure white at the 
 shallower edge. 
 
 About the middle of the Horseshoe, where the 
 " tip " once was, the rocks have fallen in, and the 
 river bed is slightly lower. Towards this point the 
 lower part of the rapids wildly converge, rushing to 
 the huge vortex, and chafing furiously in their course, 
 until they plunge into the great seething, hissing, 
 boiling caldron, whence platoons of spray are shot 
 up in all directions, and tumultuous " confusion 
 worse confounded " reigns. The other half of the 
 Horseshoe Fall, terminating on Goat Island, is 
 equally grand and impressive. I was struck with 
 the completeness of the views that can be had of 
 Niagara from all sides and of all kinds. The banks, 
 
1 20 Bits about America. 
 
 or rather the top of the banks, of the river below the 
 Falls is nearly on a level with the Falls themselves, 
 and in some places rather lower, so that one can take 
 in the entire scene. 
 
 From the American to the Canadian bank of the 
 river, the Falls and islands present a frontage of 
 three-quarters of a mile in width, by about 165 feet 
 high, so that the breadth is thirty times the height, 
 and the lay of the land is such that the visitor can 
 get very near to the top of the cascades on all sides, 
 close enough to see the boiling caldron of misty 
 spray into which the torrent is hurled, to get front, 
 side, or end views easily, and from the various islands 
 to see the rapids and the Falls safely and well. There 
 is no steep gorge to descend as on Clydeside, or at 
 Schaffhausen ; the land around is not generally 
 higher above the top of the Falls than an ordinary 
 mill wear or damhead. 
 
 Either the United States Government or the State 
 of New York have acquired Prospect Park and 
 corner, with all the islands and the ground bordering 
 on the Falls on the American side. They have also 
 erected substantial and elegant bridges between the 
 islands, and generally have done all that could be 
 wished to enable the visitor, either driving or on 
 foot, to see the various phases of the great rapids 
 and cascades comfortably. The Canadian Govern 
 ment, or the Legislature of the Province of Ontario, 
 
Niagara. 1 2 1 
 
 are providing the same facilities for visitors on 
 the Canadian side. These " reservations " by the 
 Governments secure to all easy access at a moderate 
 charge, and free visitors from the constant " black 
 mail " formerly levied by guides and " touters." 
 
 The Falls have been so generally reproduced in 
 paintings, engravings, and photographs, that I spare 
 my readers anything high-falutin about them. If 
 the poet Southey made so much of " How the torrent 
 comes down at Lodore," until his poem seemed like 
 a review of all the adjectives in the English language 
 that could be marshalled to represent water in 
 violent motion, it would be presumption in me to 
 attempt to describe the indescribable. Let any one 
 multiply " Lodore " by any number of thousands he 
 likes to come approximately to the grand reality. 
 I felt more inclined to be silent, as Mrs. Sigourney 
 aptly puts it, 
 
 "Mid the peal sublime of thy tremendous hymn," 
 and to recall her lines, 
 
 " Flow on for ever, in thy glorious robe 
 Of terror and of beauty. Yea, flow on 
 Unfathom d and resistless God hath set 
 His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud 
 Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give 
 Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him 
 Eternally bidding the lip of man 
 Keep silence and upon thine altar pour 
 Incense of awe-struck praise. 
 
122 Bits about America. 
 
 But as for us, it seems 
 Scarce lawful, with our erring lips to talk 
 Familiarly of thee methinks to trace 
 Thine awful features with our pencil s point, 
 Were but to press on Sinai." 
 
 Niagara is an Indian word meaning " The thunder 
 of waters ;" the roar is grand, but not deafening. The 
 spray is so dense and so high as, in my opinion, to 
 deaden the sound somewhat, and, in its ever-varying 
 form, bulk, shade, and spasmodic jerkiness, it supplies 
 one of the most beautiful features of the Falls. 
 Sometimes, and at some places, I could see nearly 
 to the bottom ; at other times the vapours rose to 
 the top ; luckily the wind was down the valley and 
 light, so that the whole verge was visible all day. 
 The rainbows were exquisite, and by a slight change 
 of position I could make them span the two principal 
 falls by a cerulean arch, or get a segment in any 
 corner I pleased. At the bottom, where the spray 
 was dense, there was a very pleasing softness in the 
 rainbow, and occasionally, from the failure of spray, 
 only the ends of the arch were seen, then a bit of the 
 middle would fill up. I confess to having had quite 
 a schoolboy pleasure in making the rainbows do 
 what I liked. 
 
 The Fall on the American side is uoo feet wide; 
 it also is receding in the centre, but the edge whence 
 it plunges abruptly into the chasm is still fairly 
 straight. In front of it, caused by the frost fixing 
 
Niagara. 123 
 
 the spray and fallen snow, lay huge blocks of 
 pure white ice, fantastic in shape ; one resembled a 
 huge polar bear, magnified a hundred times, another 
 a huge elephant, another a frog ; their sizes were 
 more like the Mastodons or Megatheria and Ichthyo 
 sauri of old. One ice-rock would measure 250 feet 
 long by 80 feet high, with a smooth sonsie back ; 
 and a fanciful spectator could easily find faces and 
 strange shapes on its various corners. All the ice 
 blocks were smoothly rounded, not angular, and in 
 some places along the banks there were icicles like 
 pine trees. 
 
 Encasing myself in hideous oilskin overalls and a 
 peaked hood, I descended by a corkscrew stair to an 
 ice-covered rock which lay on the margin of the 
 river, and scrambled as best I could along the 
 slippery surface, until I got beneath and behind the 
 Falls. The sensations produced by the immense 
 volume and rush of the overarching and descending 
 waters were awe-inspiring, but the constant flickering 
 of the eyes as they tried to rest on the ever-twisting 
 falling torrent produced giddiness, and jets of water 
 or spray, as if indignant at human intrusion, seemed 
 to delight in making a target of the face. Altogether 
 I met with a damp reception. I also walked to the 
 brink of the river a little farther down, and saw new 
 beauties revealing themselves all around. 
 
 The river settles at a short distance from the 
 
1 2 4 Bits a bout A m e rica . 
 
 Falls, and moves majestically onwards. Its breadth 
 takes away from the apparent depth of its banks, 
 and the surrounding country is flat. An elegant 
 suspension bridge unites America and Canada 
 within five minutes walk of both Falls ; from it 
 grand views worth lingering over are obtained. 
 
 About three miles farther down the river than 
 the Falls are the " Rapids," where the stream, which 
 generally is from 800 to 1000 feet wide, narrows 
 itself to about 300 feet The current here is in 
 tensely swift, and the waves from the converging 
 sides dash against one another in angrier fury 
 than ever I saw on other waters ; so much so 
 that the centre of the river is generally from 30 
 to 40 feet higher than the sides, and the waves are 
 goring each other like the "horns of an angry 
 bull." 
 
 I had my ideas of the perilous freaks of adven 
 turers rather modified here. I thought, likely from 
 having carelessly read the accounts, that several 
 daring men had actually come over the Falls of 
 Niagara, and lived. That is not so ; they have 
 passed through the Rapids I am now describing ; 
 and bad enough they certainly are, but they are 
 merely a very swift, angry, dangerous current 
 angrier than any waves on salt or fresh water I ever 
 saw. Still, they are not the Falls ; they end in a 
 dangerous, big whirlpool, with treacherous under- 
 
Niagara. 127 
 
 current, and issue thence in an even angrier stream, 
 only 220 feet wide, into a broad river navigable 
 from Lake Ontario. 
 
 It was here that Captain Matthew Webb perished. 
 The boatman that rowed him to the top of the 
 Rapids advised him to desist, and enjoy the $ooo 
 he had got for former feats in the English Channel. 
 But he dived, after saying " he would like to double 
 the stakes." It is thought that the tremendous 
 side-currents had dislocated his neck, as that was 
 all that was found wrong when his body was 
 recovered. He had nothing on excepting a bathing- 
 dress. Since then, a cooper has shot the same 
 rapids in a cask, and a man and a woman have 
 performed the perilous feat together in a barrel ; 
 while one of the police force of Boston, now called 
 Professor Kendall, got through them with the aid 
 of a cork jacket. He was insensible for hours 
 afterwards, and is said to have declared that he 
 would not try the same prank again for all the 
 money in the world. 
 
 It was reported that some one intended this year 
 to dare to go over the Falls themselves in a barrel ; 
 and since my return to Scotland, I have read that 
 this has been done. If so, I feel, in the words of 
 the proverb, " The de il s owre grit wi ye, ye re no 
 canny ; " and waft all such adventurers Mr. Punch s 
 advice to persons about to marry DON T. 
 
128 Bits about America. 
 
 There is a current joke in the district about the 
 first little steamer that ferried the river near the 
 Falls, and carried passengers almost to their base, 
 having been attached for debt ; but while the 
 Sheriff was on his way to seize it, steam was got 
 up, and it shot the terrible Rapids with only the loss 
 of the smoke-shaft, and is now doing tug-work at 
 Montreal. The guides recount the feats of Blondin 
 on the tight-rope, hurling a man across Niagara 
 on a barrow, and such-like, but it gave me a head 
 ache to look at the place where he performed them. 
 
 I saw the Falls under sunshine and shade, and 
 even partly under the one and the other ; saw the 
 evening effect of darkness creeping up the roaring 
 inn, while sunset touches of glory lightened the 
 trees and land around. I saw the morning sun rise 
 and tinge the misty vapours ; saw it dart its bright 
 light into the chafing, surging, seething billowy 
 caldron at the middle of the Horseshoe Fall, and 
 crest the Rapids with gleaming restless silver ; my 
 last glance was of a rainbow spanning the river. 
 
 I think that Solomon, in one of his moody fits, 
 says that the "eye is not satisfied with seeing." I 
 would have doubted his wisdom had he said this 
 about Niagara, unless he had referred to his never 
 being tired of seeing it its perpetual motion, its 
 vastness, the hurling cascade, here green at the top, 
 but becoming light and fleecy, like a bride s veil, as 
 
Niagara. 129 
 
 it descends; the Middle Fall making one sheer leap 
 from the top, and forming a Grey Mare s Tail that 
 would have enchanted Robert Burns, the whole 
 forming a sweep of more than the eyes can take in 
 without moving, of a mighty, irresistible, tremendous 
 torrent, ending in a glorious cascade and chafing 
 caldron, formed by a river that drains the largest 
 fresh-water lakes in the world, and is the largest 
 feeder of the river which, Americans say, puts more 
 fresh water into the sea than any other river on 
 the globe (my geography, or rather hydrography, is 
 so rusty, that I hesitate to recall something about 
 the Amazon or Mississippi or ). This scrap is 
 very scrappy, but it would tax a " skilled " man to 
 handle such a subject aright, while at the same time 
 it would ill become a scribbler altogether to flinch 
 from outlining Niagara. 
 
 Is it ungracious to remark, that the sense of 
 picturesque propriety is offended by the utilitarian 
 look of the public works which, on the American 
 side, draw "power" from the Falls, and return it, 
 through inartistic rocky tunnels formed in the banks, 
 into the river? These reminded me of a Cockney 
 friend s indignant protest against the domestic 
 surroundings of Melrose Abbey. " It is orrible," 
 said he, "to see the beggarly helements of this 
 world intruding their plain hugliness upon such a 
 
 sacred spot." 
 
 I 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CANADA. 
 
 Y stay in Canada was too short to admit 
 of more than a railway journey from 
 one city to another, and a day or two s 
 ; residence in each ; besides, it was at the 
 time of half-winter half-spring, when neither 
 the country nor the cities looked their best. 
 Yet, even in these unfavourable circumstances, I saw 
 enough to impress me with the great resources of 
 the Dominion, the energy of its inhabitants, and the 
 rapid development of social and material progress. 
 Its immense inland lakes, which may not inaptly be 
 called seas, its profusion of great navigable rivers, 
 connected where necessary with each other or with 
 the lakes by suitable canals, its 12,000 miles of 
 railways completed, and several lines in course of 
 construction, are securing a prosperous " present," 
 and pointing to a glorious future. 
 
 As a triumph of engineering skill, untiring energy, 
 and determined perseverance, the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway, which traverses the continent from the 
 
 130 
 
Canada. 1 3 1 
 
 Atlantic to the Pacific, stands unrivalled. In proof 
 of this statement, I subjoin a few quotations from 
 the Canadian Almanac, 1887: 
 
 "The longest continuous line of rails in the world, it presented 
 difficulties in its construction which are unparalleled. On the Nipissing 
 section to Lake Superior, some four hundred miles, the country to be 
 traversed was a broken tract, rocky, timbered, and interspersed 
 throughout with innumerable lakes and streams. It was entirely 
 uninhabited, and provisions, clothing, and necessaries of every 
 description, for the men engaged in building the railway, had to be 
 provided by the Company. Storehouses had to be established, 
 hospitals built, and medical staff provided ; fodder for horses ; material, 
 tools, and explosives for the work. 
 
 " Next came the Lake Superior section, where the work consisted 
 chiefly of cutting and tunnelling through rocks of the hardest 
 possible character, or hewing a bench or ledge around the face of 
 beetling cliffs, towering hundreds of feet above. Here, and to some 
 extent in the mountains, the Company found it prudent and econo 
 mical to manufacture their explosives largely on the spot, and the 
 total sum spent on explosives on the entire works amounted to over 
 21,000,000 dols. = ,4,200,000 sterling. Some particular sections cost 
 700,000 dols. =^140,000 sterling per mile. 
 
 " Difficult engineering questions bristled on all sides. Rivers had to 
 be diverted, lakes drained, mountains tunnelled, chasms bridged, and 
 the material required for all these works anticipated for months. 
 Yet, throughout the whole period, the transportation department 
 never once failed to respond promptly to the call of the construction 
 department, which was not delayed a moment for material. 
 
 "To carry on these operations on three extended sections (at one 
 time, four), to pay the wages, buy the supplies, clothing, food for 
 men, fodder for horses, was in itself a financial undertaking such as 
 only nations before had attempted ; but it was done by the indomitable 
 courage, the enterprise, the financial and administrative skill of a 
 handful of individuals, and presented to the nation in 1886, five years 
 before the stipulated time for its completion." 
 
 I need make no apology for the above " bits " 
 about the construction of the great railway, any 
 
I3 2 Bits about America. 
 
 more than I do for those that follow regarding its 
 results, which are alike gratifying, substantial, and 
 worthy of " honourable mention " : 
 
 " In the early spring of 1885, large bodies of troops, destined to 
 suppress the North-West Rebellion, were taken charge of by the 
 Company, carried, fed, housed, and landed at the seat of war, in a 
 short space of time, without accident, and in spite of intervening 
 sections of unfinished railway. India, China, and Australia, and the 
 lesser British Colonies in the Pacific, were dependent until now, in 
 case of pressing need, upon the integrity of the Suez Canal. England 
 has neighbours of an uncertain temper, and a canal can be effectually 
 blocked, as has already occurred, by a sunken dredger. Not so 
 with the Canadian route : running through British territory, it is 
 always open, always free to British troops. It has naval and military 
 depots, stores, docks, and unlimited steam coal at either end, within 
 hail, so to speak, of Bermuda, and five days sail from England. 
 
 " In point of time, China, Japan, and Australia can be reached from 
 England in less time than by the old routes, and India as soon, and 
 the deadly Red Sea avoided. Tourists from older Britain to the 
 East, who have settled in the Pacific Colonies and India, weary of 
 dusty, burned-up Aden in the Red Sea, and broiling heat of Egypt, 
 will gladly take advantage of our temperate clime, varying their 
 journey with land and sea, visiting new cities, new people, and 
 enjoying mountain scenery which no other country can offer to them. 
 We have already felt the touch of the Orient trade. We have 
 seen teas from Japan and China landed in Canada, carried overland 
 through Canada, delivered in Canada, and, furthermore, forwarded 
 to cities throughout the United States from Canada. A new field is 
 found for the products and industries of the East ; a new field is 
 opened to the enterprise of our youth. The wealth of the wheat 
 regions of the North- West, the highly-favoured cattle ranges, the 
 mineral resources in the intervening country and in the mountains, 
 must all redound to the profit of the country, and help materially 
 to make it, what it is bound to be, a land of plenty. " 
 
 " We have spoken of the Canadian Pacific Railway only so far as 
 its main line was concerned, but it must not be forgotten, that, while 
 all we have described was in active progress, a very complete system 
 
Canada. 133 
 
 was being put together, piece by piece, in Ontario and Manitoba. 
 It reaches every important city and town in Canada, and by purchase 
 of the Government line reaches Quebec and Montreal. In addition, 
 it has provided the more advanced of its newer districts with branch 
 lines, and all the advantages railway service can contribute towards 
 the welfare of the pioneer." 
 
 A perusal of the above quotations induces one to 
 add Amen to the concluding paragraph : 
 
 " How these changes have been wrought in five years, how 
 Canada has been forced into prominence, its hundreds of thousands of 
 miles of unknown country brought to light, rendered accessible, and 
 now furnishing homes to all who care to come, will be known 
 to future generations as the outcome of the Canadian Pacific 
 Railway." v 
 
 It was outside of my plan to go, as can now 
 be done, from Halifax to Vancouver, a distance of 
 3500 miles in 116 hours, and it was only a very 
 small moiety of the three and a half millions of 
 square miles of the Dominion of Canada that I visited, 
 seeing that the whole area is fully thirty times larger 
 than that of all the British Islands put together. 
 In the older settlements there were large fields well 
 cultivated and fenced, good homesteads, and fine 
 orchards. During the few hours which I spent in the 
 city of Hamilton, Ontario, I admired its wide streets, 
 elegant and substantial buildings, and comfortable 
 residences. There was a rattling energy in the 
 stream of life that thronged its cleanly thorough 
 fares, a general look of well-to-do-ness about the 
 people. The cordial Scottish welcome accorded to 
 
1 34 Bits about America. 
 
 me in the cosy home of Scottish friends, made me 
 regret that I could not see more of them and of the 
 district. The sunset " effect " on its spires and 
 picturesque surroundings was exquisite. 
 
 From Hamilton to Toronto I travelled with a 
 sturdy Scottish settler in search of agricultural 
 machinery, and a remark he made about some old 
 settlers somewhat resembled the account which a 
 worthy Forfarshire elder gave of the former ministers 
 of Dunnichen, at an ordination dinner, " that three 
 had died, and one had gone to a better placet 
 
 Where universal kindness was experienced, it looks 
 invidious to mention names ; but I was so deeply 
 indebted to Major Greig of Toronto, for showing me 
 the manifold objects of beauty and interest in the 
 city of his adoption comfortably and thoroughly, 
 that I venture thus publicly to thank that genial, 
 loyal, and excellent Scottish-Canadian, or, as he may 
 possibly prefer to be called, Canadian Scot. 
 
 Toronto in Indian means " the place of meeting," 
 and is now spoken of as the " Queen City of the 
 Lakes ; " it is fast spreading itself along the margin 
 of Lake Ontario, imitating the " lang toon o Kirk- 
 caldy," by taking more length than breadth. Its 
 public buildings include "The UNIVERSITY," a mas 
 sive pile in the pure Norman style of architecture, 
 situated in a large park, on an eminence overlooking 
 the city and the lake, and graced by a wide approach 
 
Canada. 135 
 
 lined with double rows of noble trees. Near it is the 
 " QUEEN S PARK," with its fine walks and statues, in 
 which the new Government buildings are now being 
 erected Trinity College is an attractive building ; 
 the Cathedral of St. James, a fine massive example 
 of 1 3th century Gothic ; and there are other very 
 handsome churches and public edifices. The streets 
 are wide. It is a standing joke in the city that 
 " Yonge " street is nearly forty miles long, that name 
 being given to the entire road that bore the stream 
 of emigrants from Lake Ontario to the more northern 
 lakes, before the days of the railways. Many of 
 the warehouses and offices are immense and elegant 
 structures, beehives of energy and plod ; manu 
 factures of various kinds abound ; and the bustle 
 of the streets, quays, wharves, and railway depots, 
 indicates that Toronto as a commercial centre bids 
 fair to rival, if not to outstrip, Montreal, owing to 
 the numbers of railways from the fast-growing 
 North- West districts that converge there, for lake 
 navigation or the general carrying trade. 
 
 Ottawa, the seat of the Canadian Government, 
 was selected by Queen Victoria as the capital of 
 Canada in 1858. It is conveniently situated for the 
 Eastern and older provinces, but too far from the 
 recently added Western ones. The Government 
 buildings in Ottawa are built on a commanding 
 situation, in the ornate floral Gothic style, perhaps 
 
136 Bits aboiit America. 
 
 too ornate. They are commodious, well lighted, and 
 airy. 
 
 I heard from the Speaker s Gallery part of the 
 debate in the House of Commons about the 
 Coercion Bill of the British Government. There 
 was a good deal of speaking " at lairge," and much 
 that was said reminded me of the scolding which 
 a clergyman of bygone days used to give to his 
 congregation when the audience was small ; for 
 Ireland and the Irish came in for some very plain 
 language, which, had the " malignants " been present, 
 might have been salutary, but, like the minister s 
 " flyting," it was bestowed on those who did not 
 deserve it, and not upon the real delinquents. It 
 was not made a " Cabinet " question, and the 
 general opinion of the older Parliamentary " hands " 
 was that Canada had enough to do with her own 
 affairs, and should not meddle with such a ticklish 
 point, especially as advice, like medicine, is more 
 easily given than taken. 
 
 Canadians, as a rule, are in favour of such a 
 scheme of Home Rule as they themselves have, 
 provincial government combined with central 
 control. Prominent amongst those in the House 
 were Sir John Macdonald, the Prime Minister, 
 firm, self-possessed, defiant. The Hon. Alexander 
 Mackenzie, ex-Prime Minister, was in the House, 
 but apparently in feeble health ; and the members 
 
Canada. 137 
 
 look shrewd business-like men. In the lobbies of 
 the House, and of the hotels, I conversed with many, 
 and found them hopeful, communicative, and pro 
 nouncedly loyal. The library is a handsome poly 
 gonal structure on the north front of the Parliament 
 House, and is elegantly furnished. It contains 
 about 50,000 volumes, and is amply supplied with 
 reading easels, writing desks, and a well-equiped 
 reading - room. In the centre is a white marble 
 statue of Queen Victoria, in semi-Grecian drapery 
 and sandalled feet, a light coronet on her head, 
 adorned with Maltese crosses and fleurs-de- Us ; a 
 sceptre in her right hand, and a wreath of laurel 
 in her left ; on the pedestal appears, " Marshall 
 Wood," 1871. There are busts of the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales, the Marquis of Lome, and other 
 eminent people ; and it would help strangers not a 
 little to have the names put either on the busts or 
 the pedestals, for one of the men in charge had to 
 inquire at another before he could give me the 
 names of some of the patriots in marble. 
 
 I arrived at Montreal when the lower part of 
 the city was under water, and the wide St. Lawrence 
 covered with a dense, irregular " ice - block," com 
 posed of pile upon pile of huge lumps stretching 
 across the river, and up and down as far as the 
 eye could reach. So dense was the "jam," that 
 individuals were seen far out on it, picking up fire- 
 
138 Bits about America. 
 
 wood and other debris. At the " LION " of Montreal, 
 the " Victoria Bridge," nearly two miles long, 
 which spans the river St. Lawrence, sometimes 
 called the eighth wonder of the world, the vast 
 field of ice came crunching along at the rate of about 
 ten miles an hour ; as it struck the cutwaters of the 
 massive piers, huge cakes from two to three feet in 
 thickness were smashed in pieces, and fell backwards 
 on the advancing avalanche, which kept hurrying 
 down under the bridge. Despite the enormous 
 weight and momentum with which the solid masses 
 of this floating sea were hurled against the piers, 
 not the slightest vibration was discernible on any 
 part of the bridge. 
 
 Mutterings, loud and deep, were uttered against 
 the River Commissioners for having dropped the 
 "dredgings" of the harbour into the channel, 
 narrowed by an island a little below the town, 
 instead of carrying it further seawards ; and of 
 course engineers were found who maintained that 
 that had nothing to do with the ice-block. Be 
 this as it may, those who love that city and who 
 that has seen its magnificence or shared its hospi 
 tality does not ? should try to prevent the recur 
 rence of ice-jams, as they must affect the tide of 
 prosperity, which its splendid situation and general 
 fitness for trade, commerce, and education warrant 
 and should command. 
 
Canada. 1 39 
 
 I must not linger on the quaint old markets, the 
 splendid churches, and public buildings of Montreal, 
 nor on its famous drive Around the mountain" 
 Real, from which the city takes its name. I found, 
 on going to visit a friend on the quays, that his 
 office was only to be reached by a boat. I was, 
 moreover, picked up by a genial giant of an old 
 and honoured name in Edinburgh, and was other 
 wise so thoughtfully entertained, that I feel inclined 
 to beg pardon for referring to the ice-flood, seeing 
 I was too late to see the great fete of the year, 
 " the Ice Palace " and its enchanting gaieties. 
 
 No visitor should fail to see Quebec, with its 
 stirring surroundings of the plains of Abraham, 
 where General Wolfe fell, and ancient walls and 
 gates. It is a city set on a hill, crowned, like 
 Edinburgh or Stirling, with a fine old citadel and 
 fort, and glittering with spires, towers, and fine 
 buildings. It occupies a large peninsula formed at 
 the confluence of the St. Lawrence and Charles 
 Rivers, where the water is several miles wide. 
 There are islands in the channel, with bluff head 
 lands, and covered with timber ; on the opposite 
 banks are nice towns, with massive and pretty build 
 ings, erected on ground that rises suddenly from the 
 river. I crossed the St. Lawrence several times 
 in a plucky little ferry steamer, which clove its way 
 through the immense ice - blocks that covered the 
 
140 Bits about America. 
 
 bed of the river. The view from the south bank, 
 especially at sun-down, was lovely. Altogether the 
 scenery about and around Quebec is picturesque 
 and fascinating. Appleton s Handbook to the United 
 States and Canada, which I found excellent and 
 reliable, thus describes it : 
 
 "The point to which the attention of the stranger in Quebec is 
 first directed is Durham Terrace, which lies along the edge of the 
 cliff, towering 200 feet above the river, and overlooking the lower 
 town. Dufferin Terrace has lately been added to Durham, 
 making an unequalled promenade over a quarter of a mile long. 
 The outlook from the terrace is one of the finest in the world, and 
 is of itself worth a trip to Quebec. . . . Cape Diamond, 333 feet 
 above the stream, is crowned with the vast fortifications of the 
 citadel, considered so impregnable that they have gained for Quebec 
 the appellation of the Gibraltar of America." 
 
 It sounded a little strange to hear French so 
 much spoken in Montreal and Quebec ; and in 
 the latter city to meet so many Roman Catholic 
 priests and students. They literally swarm, and the 
 greater number of the buildings are either churches, 
 colleges, nunneries, or in other ways connected with 
 the Roman Catholic faith. As evidence of the 
 watchfulness of this Church, I append a document 
 received from one of the senators, viz. a Bill which 
 has been defeated with some difficulty. It would 
 form a grand text for anti- papal supremacy orators, 
 and hardly needs comment. The provision in clause 
 3 about fining the SHERIFF is a master-touch. In 
 these days of widening " Voluntary " principles and 
 
Canada. 143 
 
 indifference to tests and forms, it is a new sensation 
 to come across anything so very High-Churchy as 
 this draft Bill. 
 
 "BILL. 
 
 " An Act respecting oaths and the administration of oaths. 
 " Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislature 
 of Quebec, enacts as follows : 
 
 " i. In all of Her Majesty s Courts of Justice in the Province, a 
 crucifix shall be placed in a conspicuous place, opposite the witness- 
 box or the place in which witnesses stand during examination, and 
 such crucifix shall be of the size determined by the Lieutenant- 
 Governor in Council. 
 
 " 2. Every court, judge, magistrate, prothonotary, clerk, and other 
 person entrusted with administrating oaths, shall, before a witness be 
 allowed to swear and give his testimony, call upon him to lift his 
 right hand in front of the crucifix, and to place his left hand on the 
 book of the Evangelists, and to cause him to swear before the crucifix 
 and upon the Holy Evangelists to tell the truth and the whole truth 
 in the cause in which he is to be heard as a witness. 
 
 " 3. Every sheriff shall place or cause to be placed a crucifix in the 
 manner above indicated in each and eveiy of the court-houses within 
 the limits of his district, under a penalty of fifty dollars for each day in 
 which he neglects so to do. 
 
 " 4. Such penalty shall be recovered from such sheriff by any person 
 suing for the same before any Circuit Court of the district in which 
 the offence has been committed, and shall belong to the prosecutor. 
 
 "5. This Act shall not affect the provisions contained in articles 
 255 and 259 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Lower Canada. 
 
 6. This Act shall come into force three months after the day of its 
 sanction." 
 
 The French population is increasing rapidly in 
 Lower Canada ; registration authorities represent it 
 
144 -Hit* about America. 
 
 as exceedingly prolific, and that families range as 
 often by the score as by the dozen. Notwithstand 
 ing the immense increase in railways and modes of 
 conveyance, the immigration is not so large as might 
 be desired. I was accosted in a hotel lobby at 
 Ottawa, by a railway contractor, a good specimen 
 of the " Macdonalds," a genial, jolly, comfortable- 
 looking middle - aged " beau," who launched out 
 about not getting some big folks in Britain and 
 others in Canada to back him in a great scheme. 
 He declared himself prepared to employ 15,000 men, 
 to feed them, etc., for two years, pay a fair wage, 
 and give 120 acres of land, with a house on the 
 lot, after the railway was finished ; and many talked 
 enthusiastically of the excellent and abundant 
 settling grounds which are awaiting the congested 
 population of Europe. The tide of emigration 
 has lately been more toward the States than to 
 Canada. 
 
 The winter in Canada, which Europeans so much 
 dread, seems to be to the Canadians a very jolly 
 time. Ice palaces and sleighing are in high repute. 
 Tobogganing is another great pastime. It is like 
 the "hurley backet" in Biggar of old, being a 
 slide on a kind of board, down a very long in 
 clined plane ; and the impetus carries the voyager 
 a good way on level ground. The pace seems 
 furious. A friend tried it once, and declared 
 
Canada. 145 
 
 that he would not have missed the " treat " for 
 100 dollars. On being urged to have another 
 slide, he replied that he would not try it again 
 for 10,000 dollars. Kind and hospitable are our 
 fellow -subjects in British North America loyal, 
 strongly, demonstratively loyal ; I met many who 
 had relatives in Manitoba and Winnipeg, thriving 
 and happy. Still there seems room for many more, 
 and, as far as I could judge, there is a fair prospect 
 of many years of increasing prosperity in the 
 Dominion. 
 
 In the Canadian Society r , New York, I heard a 
 lecture by Principal Grant, of Kingston, Ont, on 
 " Canada First," and elsewhere the future relations 
 of America and Canada were freely discussed. As, 
 twenty years ago, it was found that there could not 
 be a "North" and "South," it seems generally 
 recognised that a still further northern independent 
 " Union " would not be advisable. Absorption into 
 the United States, or closer federation with Britain, 
 are the other alternatives. The latter is the mind of 
 Canada. Perfect freedom of commercial intercourse 
 would immensely benefit both. Free trade would 
 best serve all. Canada is intensely loyal. A 
 United States boy s ambition is to see Europe ; a 
 Canadian s, to see THE QUEEN. 
 
 K 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SCHOOLS, LIBRARIES, AND NEWSPAPERS. 
 
 DUCATION is said to be the birthright 
 of every child in America. What a pity 
 
 it does not come by inheritance, and 
 develop with the natural growth ! I 
 had often heard that the educational system 
 of America was excellent, and tried to see 
 a little of its working. I visited one Normal School, 
 where 1500 young ladies marched, with steady pre 
 cision of tramp, into a large hall, and at a given 
 signal sat down simultaneously. After some hymn- 
 singing and Scripture reading, several of them from 
 the body of the hall gave recitations with admirable 
 distinctness and point, the object being not only to 
 test their elocution, but to enable them to cultivate 
 self-reliance. I saw a large class being taught in the 
 gymnasium of the same institution, and the pro- 
 fessoress did not spare those who were slovenly 
 or awkward. Her eye was sharp, her voice was 
 "snell," and where anything specially obnoxious 
 required action, she strode to the spot and smartly 
 
 14) 
 
Schools, Libraries, and Newspapers. 147 
 
 straightened the raw recruit. " Shoulder-oop " was 
 the word, and her word was LAW. 
 
 I also visited several graded day schools, all 
 characterized by roomy class-rooms, good light, fresh 
 air, clean floors, active teachers, and apparently quick 
 children, each class in a separate room, whilst 
 several rooms could be made into a hall by removing 
 folding doors ; there were also spare gallery rooms, 
 into which classes were taken for lessons requiring 
 illustration. The black-board was in great request. 
 Maps, globes, object-lessons, illustrations of natural 
 history and mechanics, of plant, animal, vegetable, 
 and fish life, decked the walls. Answers were 
 smartly given, and sometimes an explanation was 
 asked by a scholar ; but I gathered nothing " outre " 
 and will not import old bon-mots. There was gene 
 rally a good playground. 
 
 The "drilling" had evidently been thorough, and 
 mechanical smartness in rising, sitting, and marching, 
 had been attained. I thought there was also more 
 teaching than in Scotland, and less mere hearing of 
 lessons ; which means more done in school, and 
 rather less to do at home, a thing many parents 
 greatly long for, and School Boards should insist 
 upon ; as the home work, owing to the dreary length 
 and variety of lessons to be learned or written there, 
 steals the night both from parents and children. In 
 some schools the lesson of the coming day was gone 
 
148 Bits about America. 
 
 over and "broken down " during the last half-hour ; 
 and in arithmetic, the teacher always did a sum or 
 two on the black-board before asking the pupils to 
 do any. Several teachers, however, told me that 
 the Scottish children who came to them were " better 
 thinkers," and really more thoroughly grounded 
 than Americans, if not so quick at gymnastic or 
 mechanical exercises. One who had visited British 
 schools said, "Your teachers do not seem to me to 
 teach, they merely correct mistakes and listen to 
 repetition of lessons. I could only have found out 
 that they were cleverer than the scholars, by hearing 
 the corrections they made. They do not read 
 before the scholars, and therefore the reading is often 
 bad and much too low. Many were either afraid of 
 the teachers or of their own voices ; and in many 
 instances the pro-nunciation was queer." 
 
 I thought the latter remark quite as applicable to 
 America, until I recalled an old Scotch friend s 
 remark about London, " Yon London folk are clever 
 folk and kind folk, but they re desp rate ill aff for a 
 language. They didna ken what an edicated man 
 said till them, though I spoke as plain as ABC, It s 
 a pity. We maun send them some Scotch schule- 
 maisters." 
 
 Singing had considerable attention, and some 
 part-singing was done with fine effect of graduation 
 from low to strong parts. As far as I could learn, 
 
Schools, Libraries, and Newspapers. 149 
 
 there was little corporal punishment, anything at all 
 severe in that direction is considered as " assaulting 
 a free-born American citizen," and is a high mis- J 
 demeanour, resented, and bringing legal trouble. 
 
 The girls and boys of America are very frank, ^ 
 even precocious. Asking questions that startle a 
 stranger, joining in conversation at table, and making 
 very free remarks ; outspoken about their likes and 
 hates ; fond of candy, fond of pie ; more self-asserting, 
 more opinionative, more independent of parental 
 control, than their British cousins. Roller skates are 
 a favourite amusement with them on all smooth 
 concreted pavements, and they manage to "jink" 
 the staid policemen with great agility. Large 
 covered skating rinks are " institutions," patronized 
 by old and young, and lovingly, hand-in-hand, do 
 couples glide around, skilfully piloting their way 
 across the crowded floor, making few " spills." 
 
 Base-ball has strong attractions for boys ; either it 
 was " in " during my visit, or it is the favourite game. 
 Morning and night, Sunday and Saturday, I saw it 
 engaged in, occasionally with very crude appliances, 
 such as an old barrel stave or a walking-stick with 
 which to strike the ball ; the boys running as only 
 boys can run and do run, all the world over, shouting, 
 laughing, and hearty. 
 
 I accompanied some young friends to " Barnum s " 
 great "immeasurable, moral, incomparable" show, 
 
150 Bits about America. 
 
 first visiting the menagerie, a wonderful collection, 
 where London s late famous elephant Jumbo, stuffed, 
 Jumbo s skeleton, Jumbo s widow and son, were to be 
 seen. The "forum " is immense, having three "rings " 
 for performances, and, outside of these, a broad 
 track all round. At the start, a cavalcade, consisting 
 of twenty elephants, several camels, dromedaries, 
 horses, and other quadrupeds, marched round the 
 outer hippodrome ; thereafter, each ring was filled 
 by equestrians, who did great feats, or elephants who 
 danced " the Lancers," or donkeys, or pigs ridden by 
 monkeys. Dogs did wonders. There were flying 
 trapezists taking miraculous leaps, and performing 
 most hazardous antics ; men in white imitating 
 gladiators, and every now and again forming them 
 selves into effective poses plastiques ; swimmers dived, 
 swam, rumbled and tumbled about in a large bath. 
 Indeed, there was more going on at one time than 
 anybody could take in. The clowns made great fun 
 with the elephants, monkeys, or pigs ; and Barnum 
 seems quite entitled to the distinction which he 
 claims, of having the " biggest show in the world." 
 Not a moment was lost between one performance 
 and another. The music was fine, possibly because 
 the conductor at least so I was informed was a 
 Scotsman. 
 
 Many will admit that there are objects of interest 
 within easy reach of their homes, which, because 
 
Schools, Libraries, and Newspapers. 1 5 1 
 
 they can visit them at any time, they have not seen 
 at all ; whereas, from the wish to learn all they can in 
 other lands, they " do " foreign sights and institutions 
 methodically and leisurely, perhaps even critically. 
 I felt this to be the case when I visited the free 
 libraries of America. In that of Boston the large 
 reading-room was crowded with persons of all con 
 ditions, ages, and sexes, perusing newspapers and 
 periodicals, of which there was an abundant supply, 
 home and foreign. In the central hall of the library 
 are large glass cases filled with literary curiosities, 
 old black-letter books, first editions of well-known 
 or rare works, in quaint lettering and spelling ; 
 palimpsests, parchments, autograph letters, old and 
 new, of kings, queens, statesmen, and men of genius; 
 documents of topical interest about the War of 
 Independence, and Boston s early history and heroes. 
 Shelves towered above shelves, laden with books ; 
 while in the consulting rooms students browsed over 
 folios, deftly brought to them by smart female 
 librarians. 
 
 I was shown over the Toronto Public Library by 
 Mr. James Bain, jun., chief librarian, and admired 
 the clever simplicity of the double-shelved bookcases, 
 stretching in rows across the floor, with right-width 
 passages between, so that every book was readily 
 reached, and the light from the roof uninterruped. 
 The easy means of shifting the shelves, and pre- 
 
152 Bits aboiit A merica. 
 
 venting the front row from pushing the back row 
 out of line, were simple and suitable. I had no idea 
 that there was such a variety of books for blind 
 readers as I saw in the three different styles of 
 " characters " here. 
 
 The reading-room was crowded, and well supplied 
 with newspapers and periodical literature, including 
 Blackwood) Athenceum, Chambers? s Journal, Cassettes, 
 Quarterly Review y Good Words, PuncJi (2 copies), 
 Fun (2 copies), Graphic (3 copies), Berlin Free Press, 
 Cornhill) Revue des deux Mondes, Staats Zeitung, 
 Gartenlaub, Illustrirte Zeitung, Times, Manchester 
 Courier, Examiner, Glasgoiv Herald, and the Scots 
 man ; besides a host of Canadian and American 
 papers, many of which were supplied gratis. For 
 the use of specialists were journals called Inventors, 
 Academy, Zoologist, Tailor and Cutter, Theatre, 
 Sparling Life, Sanitary Engineer, Practitioner, 
 Plumber and Decorator, Poidtry Review, Mechanical 
 and Milling Neivs, Iron, Live-Stock Journal^ Israel s 
 Banner, Chemical News, Dairyman, Bee Journal, 
 Electrician, The Boys Own, and the Lady s World. 
 
 Besides the Central Library, there are two branches 
 in other parts of the city, well patronized. In all, the 
 books exceed 44,000, and the periodicals and news 
 papers number 444. I have entered thus fully into 
 these details, to emphasize the fact that a thoroughly 
 furnished reading-room, well stocked with newspapers 
 
Schools, Libraries, and Newspapers. 153 
 
 and periodical literature, is a most important part of 
 a public library scheme ; and that this, as well as the 
 more solid and special function of a public library, 
 demands in a large town several branches with good 
 news-rooms. 
 
 From the " total classified circulation of books " 
 for the year 1 886, it appears that out of every hundred 
 issued, 
 
 64*4 were Fiction. 
 
 8 8 Juveniles. 
 
 7-3 History, biography, and travel. 
 
 5 "2 Reference. 
 
 4 5 Periodicals. 
 
 4-3 Arts and sciences. 
 
 3*3 General literature and collected works. 
 
 o - 9 ,, Theology. 
 
 O S Poetry and the drama. 
 
 O 5 French and German. 
 
 lOO O 
 
 The report for the same year bears that there was a 
 diminution in the circulation of" Fiction," an increase 
 in " higher class literature," and thatj" Reference " 
 had advanced nearly 25 per cent. The recently 
 added room for " patents " in the library has been 
 much appreciated. 
 
 Let no censorious reader conclude that because 
 " Theology " shows a sluggish circulation, it is at a 
 
154 Bits about America. 
 
 discount in Toronto. The good people of that city 
 have libraries in their homes. The university and 
 colleges have tomes of Divinity. Only one day in 
 seven can be given to Theology. Perhaps some of 
 the citizens may sympathize with Auntie s remark to 
 Maggie about The Pilgrim s Progress : " Are ye no 
 feared to read sic a gude book, an this no the 
 Sabbath day ? " And some may be of the opinion of 
 the old Edinburgh librarian, who, when Miss Aber- 
 crombie sent her servant to " fetch the best book he 
 had for the Sabbath day," replied, "That s easily 
 done," and handed her a BIBLE. 
 
 The press of America is powerful and outspoken, 
 great in sensational headings, for which a gentle 
 man is specially engaged on the staff of every 
 important newspaper. The following able paragraph 
 from Chambers s Journal puts this matter very 
 happily : 
 
 " Mr. George Sala once said that American journal 
 ists rarely take anything seriously; they are per 
 petually trying to be smart and amusing. Few 
 people who have even an elementary knowledge of 
 American newspapers will call into question the 
 truth of Mr. Sala s assertion. The American 
 journalist is nothing if not original ; and this ruling 
 passion is strikingly exemplified in the very head 
 lines. We have, for instance, never seen but one 
 heading in English newspapers for those simple 
 
Schools, Libraries, and Newspapers. 155 
 
 announcements which never fail to interest female 
 readers, we mean the Births, Marriages, and Deaths. 
 In America, however, they use such headlines as 
 Cradle, Altar, Tomb; Hatches, Matches, 
 Despatches, and so on ; while one original genius 
 sums up life thus Births, Flirtations, Engage 
 ments, Breakings off, Marriages, Divorces, Deaths. 
 Then, instead of the familiar heading, Poetry, we 
 find Lays of the Latest Minstrel, or the Warbler s 
 Corner. The columns of clippings, however, afford 
 scope for the most variety. One editor heads his 
 column of jokes, Render unto Scissors the Things 
 that are Scissors ; while another follows with Aut 
 Scissors aut Nullus. One Thing and Another, 
 Drops of Ink, * Various Topics, Microbes/ Nug 
 gets/ All Sorts/ Faggots/ Pressed Bricks/ 
 these are a few others taken at random. Hash is, 
 however, perhaps the most appropriate of the lot 
 These headlines appear very strange to us ; yet it 
 should not be forgotten that, nearly one hundred 
 years ago, the Times published weak jokes under the 
 extraordinary head of Cuckoo ! 
 
 The following is a cheap and cool way of getting 
 the columns filled : 
 
 "A subscriber, on renewing subscription to the 
 News, writes, I like it very much, couldn t keep 
 house without it. The interest that people take 
 in a newspaper depends largely upon their finding 
 
156 Bits about America. 
 
 in it mention of the things that particularly inte 
 rest them, and the way to have them in the paper 
 is to let the publisher know of them. Of course a 
 publisher cannot see from his desk what everybody 
 is doing ; so hand in the local items." 
 
 Here are a few graphic quotations : 
 
 " The butcher s team took a lively run away 
 Monday on Pleasant Street, home by way of Union 
 Street. Escaped with slight damage to the cart" 
 
 " Representative Owen voted against the Salary 
 grab." " Cherries are in their prime, and robins 
 appear to be happy." " The coffee market, which 
 was making a climb to get out of poor people s way, 
 has come back to about the old figure." 
 
 " There is one thing that can be said for tight 
 boots, they make a man forget his other sorrows." 
 
 American newspapers are also embellished (?) 
 with rough - and - round woodcut illustrations, and 
 given to " interviewing," of which, as I was occasion 
 ally the subject, I say no more. The Sunday issue 
 was in many instances the largest and raciest. On 
 representing myself as an "occasional contributor," 
 I was frankly received, notably by Mr. Whitelaw 
 Reid, proprietor of The Tribune, New York, who 
 gave me the entrte of the " Lotos" and " Union 
 League " Clubs of New York, and the pleasure of 
 sharing his princely hospitality (perhaps I should 
 use republican, but I hold to princely) in his palatial 
 
Schools, Libraries, and Newspapers. 157 
 
 residence on Madison Avenue. I was also favoured, 
 during my stay in the several towns, with the 
 privileges of the " Century Club," New York, the 
 "St. James s," Montreal, " The Reform," Toronto, etc. 
 I give prominence to these courtesies, as they are 
 most acceptable to strangers, and the hint to "go 
 and do likewise " might not be out of place. 
 
 The following quotation not only shows that the 
 American newspapers go into pretty minute detail, 
 but it may be interesting as a description of a 
 modern mansion, and as such I insert it, omitting 
 the personal references to Mr. Whitelaw Reid s 
 family career, talents, and business habits : 
 
 "WHITELAW REID S MANSION. 
 
 " The home of Whitelaw Reid, the editor of The Tribune, is, without 
 any doubt, one of the handsomest houses in the country. On a 
 reduced scale it is a reproduction of an old Italian palace. It is 
 situated at Madison Avenue and Fifty-First Street. The architecture 
 is a mingling of Roman and Florentine styles, the stone employed 
 being of a light-greyish colour. The frontage on the avenue is 60 
 feet, and the wing on Fifty-First Street is some 80 feet deep. The 
 main hall of the house is 42 feet long, and is of inlaid woods 
 mahogany, satin wood, and maple wood predominating. The hand 
 somely sculptured arches of the hall were designed by Louis Saint- 
 Gaudens. The mantels, which contribute a further embellishment, 
 are modelled after those found in Pompeiian palaces. The drawing- 
 room and the music-room are on the first floor. The latter is an ex 
 quisite apartment, in white and gold, the ceiling in the shape of an 
 elliptical vault. At one end is a stand for musicians. The upper 
 part of the house is reached either by elevator or a white marble stair 
 way. The dining-room is on the second floor. It is 60 by 20 feet, 
 and finished throughout in English oak, inlaid with mahogany. The 
 friezes are quaintly carved, and the beams which span the ceiling are 
 cased in English oak. The decoration of the dining-room, according 
 
158 Bits about America. 
 
 to the architects, cost 20,000 dollars, those of the hall 30,000 dollars, 
 of the music-room 20,000 dollars, and of the drawing-room 50,000 
 dollars. The decorations of the four principal rooms cost 120,000 
 dollars, a sum for which two very comfortable New York houses 
 might easily be purchased. " Brooklyn Times. 
 
 America is rich in Museums, but of these I will 
 not treat. A very interesting hour can be spent in 
 " Independence " Hall, Philadelphia, which contains 
 quaint memorials of America s early days, pictures 
 of Washington, Franklin, Penn, La Fayette ; the 
 "Bell" that rang out "Independence" 100 years 
 ago, old armour, furniture, documents, and nick- 
 nackets. The " Mint " at Philadelphia is also very 
 well worth visiting, not only on account of the per 
 fection of the machinery for making coins of various 
 metals and current values, but from its complete 
 museum of ancient and modern coins. A numis 
 matist would revel in the Egyptian and Grecian 
 examples, even the casual visitor is interested in a 
 bona-fide wee " shekel of the Sanctuary," a " Queen 
 Anne farthing," and other of the R.R.R. s (Rare- 
 Rare-Rare) of the old world s " current money with 
 the merchant," as it is put in Genesis. This, like 
 other places of public interest in America, is frankly 
 " open to visitors." Handsome monuments adorn 
 many cities, erected in honour of such public men 
 as Washington, Franklin, Penn, and PRESIDENT 
 LINCOLN, whose name is a household word in 
 America. (See Frontispiece^ 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AGRICULTURE AND TIMBER. 
 
 T was with a feeling of special interest 
 that I visited Brantford, Ontario, called 
 the telephone city, from the fact that 
 Professor Bell, whom Edinburgh claims 
 as one of its own, established the first 
 telephone in the world between a cottage, 
 in which he lived on the banks of the Grand River, 
 and this town, and worked out the most wonderful 
 means of transmitting speech yet known. Here is 
 also one of the earliest Indian homes and schools 
 on the old reserved territory of the famous Mohawks ; 
 and in the town is a very handsome monument to 
 the Indian chief Joseph Brant, who so effectually 
 befriended the British in 1812. 
 
 In my early days I was wont to visit a relative 
 whose famous shorthorn cattle, " Andrew " and 
 " Jenny Lind," took first prizes, and I can recall 
 their huge bulk and fine points. I also knew that 
 in 1875-76, three cows of that breed, " Airdrie 
 Duchesses," brought 18,000, 21,000, and 23,000 dollars 
 
 159 
 
160 Bits about America. 
 
 respectively (3600, ^"4200, and 4600 sterling), at 
 public sales in the old Crystal Palace grounds in 
 Toronto, Ontario ; and that one of the finest, if not 
 the finest, herd of pure-bred shorthorn cattle in the 
 world had been established by the late lamented 
 Hon. George Brown at Bowpark, on the banks 
 of the Grand River, about four miles from Brant- 
 ford, and is now the property of Messrs. Thomas 
 Nelson & Sons, Edinburgh. 
 
 The herd numbers between 200 and 300, and in 
 cludes several animals that have never been beaten 
 in the prize ring. It is constantly being reinforced 
 by the first prize-winners of the herds of Britain and 
 elsewhere, and a glance at the stock carries home 
 the conviction of its excellence. Fancy the late 
 fourth "Duke of Clarence" weighing 2870 Ibs. ; 
 others even exceeding that weight, animals for which 
 ^2000 would not be taken ; and heifers of two years 
 old for which ;iooo is readily obtained. Even f to 
 one little acquainted with cattle, the straight backs, 
 the grand shoulders, the breadth of the hind-quarters, 
 told their tale, while symmetry and style charac 
 terized all the herd. The stables and yards were 
 models of cleanly airiness, and the whole farm, 
 consisting of about 1000 acres, is in a state of high 
 cultivation. The future of the stock of America will 
 be largely affected by such establishments, and the 
 proprietors have been singularly fortunate in their 
 
Agriculture and Timber. 161 
 
 manager, Mr. John Hope, who knows every member 
 of the herd almost as a father does his children, and 
 can screed off their pedigrees, histories, and victories 
 with ready accuracy. 
 
 The following paragraph from the Toronto Globe 
 of June 1887 will doubtless be found interesting: 
 
 " CANADIAN-BRED SHORTHORNS. 
 
 "... The tendency of late years has been to breed with the sole 
 object of producing the highest excellence of form, and intelligent 
 breeders only employ their knowledge of fashionable strains as a 
 means to this end. Of course purity of blood is necessary to the 
 production of high-priced animals, but in these days a family or strain 
 becomes fashionable because it produces first-class individuals, while 
 a dozen years ago animals brought fancy prices almost regardless of 
 their individual qualities, because they came of fashionable families. 
 By a little shrewd management it was comparatively easy to corner 
 the produce of this or that fashionable family, and fabulous prices were 
 often the outcome of such management. Now, however, that the nearest 
 approach to perfection of form (coupled of course with pure breeding) 
 has become the desideratum of the shorthorn breeder, high prices that 
 are amply remunerative have been established, and they rest upon a 
 much broader and sounder basis than heretofore. Take, for example, 
 four sales of females recently made from the Bow Park herd, which, 
 as all shorthorn breeders know, has long been under the supervision 
 of Mr. John Hope. Of the four, two were two-year-olds, one a 
 yearling, and one a calf seven months old, and the lot aggregated 
 16,000 dols., an average of 4000 dols. each. Duchess of Brant, 
 * Duchess of Brant 3rd, and Duchess of Brant 5th were sold to 
 Colonel King, of Minneapolis, Minn., and Duchess of Oxford 26th 
 was sold to Mr. C. E. Wakeman, of Pontiac, Mich. All these heifers 
 were bred at Bow Park. Ontario breeders have good reason to feel 
 proud of having such a stock farm ; and as long as such prices are to 
 be had, shorthorn breeders have no reason to say that their business is 
 in any sense played out. " 
 
 Brantford is a thriving, busy, cleanly town, stand- 
 L 
 
1 62 Bits about America. 
 
 ing in the heart of a well-cultivated district, and 
 abounds in well-built churches of all persuasions. 
 Around the principal square cluster fine buildings ; 
 in its centre, cast from the cannon taken, I think, 
 from the French, stands the bronze monument already 
 referred to of Joseph Brant, in Indian costume and 
 feathers, and on market days Indians display and 
 dispose of their wares in the streets. I saw a few of 
 these natives, and had a glance at their settlement, 
 but they are fast disappearing or being amalgamated 
 with the dominant race. From a lady in the locality, 
 whose warm heart is drawn out towards them in 
 deeds of kindness, I heard of the difficulty of 
 approaching them, of their shyness, which she 
 cannot remove. On one occasion, when going to 
 Toronto, one attached herself to her, kept by her 
 doggedly, but was shrewd enough to tell, when a cab 
 fare was paid, " Too much, too much man cheat 
 you me go get back give to you GOOD SQUAW." 
 
 Brantford is famous, amongst other things, for the 
 manufacture of agricultural implements, in the 
 variety and " nackiness " and adaptability of which 
 tell it not in Sheffield, publish it not in the streets 
 of Birmingham our Transatlantic cousins " lick 
 creation." 
 
 Time did not admit of my going through the 
 workshops of Brantford, but I paid a visit to those 
 of the Massey Company, Toronto, whose " reaper 
 
Agriculture and Timber. 163 
 
 and light binder" did exploits upon the farms of 
 Fentonbarns and Ferrygate, East Lothian, in 1886. 
 The workshops cover nearly eight acres ; they have 
 turned out over one hundred thousand of these 
 machines, are still sending them off as smartly as 
 they can make them, and were despatching thirty to 
 Scotland on the day of my visit. I pronounce no 
 opinion on the relative merits of this and other 
 agricultural implements of the same nature ; indeed, 
 the makers saved me all trouble in this respect by 
 declaring theirs to be " out of sight the best in the 
 world," and farmers of my acquaintance find them 
 suit admirably. This I can say, that I never saw 
 better machinery for engineering purposes than this 
 company has, or more care taken that every separate 
 part shall be exactly made to a certain model, so 
 that any duplicate of any portion shall precisely fit 
 the same place. They make their own tools, keep 
 the timber in stack to season three or four years, use 
 largely malleable cast-iron, so that castings, although 
 apparently light, are really stronger than heavier 
 ones in ordinary cast-iron. 
 
 Although I knew that the timber trade of 
 America was enormous, I was hardly prepared for 
 the immense stocks that, not only in large cities, 
 but alongside all railways and rivers throughout 
 the country, covered large fields with huge logs, 
 sleepers, beams, boards, " stobs and rails," lathe, 
 
164 Bits about America. 
 
 and " shingles ; " the latter are used for roofing 
 instead of slates, and stand and " fend " well. 
 
 The application of the terms " wood " and 
 " lumber " is the reverse of that common in 
 Britain. A proprietor of one of the enormous 
 timber yards would feel insulted by being spoken 
 of as a wood merchant, for that in America means 
 a dealer in firewood and what Englishmen call 
 lumber. He would even prefer to be spoken ot 
 as in the " lumber " rather than in the timber 
 trade. Awkward mistakes have been made in such 
 matters. The wealthy proprietor of an extensive 
 calendering establishment in Glasgow, in which he 
 had a great many employes, was innocently asked 
 by a country friend " if it was a big mangle he 
 kept, or had he twa ? " for all that the decent man 
 knew about the occupation was gathered from 
 two signs in the village, one of which bore " A 
 mangle kept here," the other " Calendering done 
 here by the hour or piece," and both establishments 
 were alike inside, with squeaking wheels and 
 junking, stone-filled boxes. 
 
 I was kindly shown over one " sawmill " by its 
 energetic proprietor, where nearly 200 people were 
 employed. The logs were hauled out of a creek 
 in the river down which they had floated from 
 the upper reaches, where the backwoodsmen felled 
 them into the upper floor of the mill, the under 
 
Agriculture and Timber. 165 
 
 flat being occupied by the " gearing. 5 They were 
 smartly marked for cross-cutting, travelled on by 
 machinery ; a saw from the under flat was then 
 raised, and the ragged end cut off; the log was 
 rolled on to a travelling carriage, on which a man 
 stood controlling a " lever and ratchet motion," 
 by which he could regulate the thickness of the 
 plank to be cut ; the outer " slab-wood " was passed 
 on to make " shingles " for roofing ; if not suitable 
 for that, it was made to yield what " lathe " it 
 could ; the " waste " was cut into short lengths, 
 lifted by an elevator into a drying-loft, thence, 
 when dry, bundled by hydraulic machinery into 
 " cheeses " for firewood, tied up for sale, and 
 packed into railway waggons alongside. 
 
 There were also machines for planing, " grooving 
 and feathering," box-making, all going at great 
 speed, with automatic travelling and feeding appli 
 ances. Sawdust was the only fuel used, and the 
 resulting ash was utilized agriculturally. On com 
 plimenting the proprietor upon the admirable using 
 up of every scrap, he said, " Yes, we sell everything 
 but the noise. I wish we could sell it would make 
 a fortune soon," I quite agreed with him the 
 rasping and hissing and clanking were deafening, 
 and the " pace " of all employes smart very. I 
 was told the thousands of feet turned out per day, 
 but fear to record it. " Give me," said the pro- 
 
1 66 Bits about America. 
 
 prietor at parting, " to-day the plan of a house or 
 shed, and I ll have the timber ready to be put 
 together in the trucks to-morrow." 
 
 " Prodigious ! " thought I ; " Prodigious ! " said 
 I ; " Prodigious ! " think I still. 
 
 The question of the exhaustion of the forests is 
 being talked of, as well as the effect upon the 
 climate of clearing the timber from such large tracts 
 of land. The woods along the railway tracks bear 
 evidence of their being of recent growth. Where 
 they are "primeval," the numbers of fallen trees 
 lying in all positions, decaying or decayed, moss- 
 grown and creeper-clad, afford picturesque and 
 artistic " bits," while streams meander among them 
 " at their own sweet will." State Legislatures are 
 making forest " reservations," granting lands for 
 timber cultivation on easy terms, and some of them 
 are not above gravely discussing the "fixing" or 
 changing of " Arbor Day," on which every citizen 
 is expected to plant at least one tree, thus carrying 
 out old Dumbiedykes dying advice to his son : 
 " Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye may be 
 aye stickin in a tree ; it ll be growing, Jock, when 
 you re sleepin ." 
 
 The " Vandyked," angular, crude rail fences of 
 the older cultivated States have a homely pictur- 
 esqueness all their own ; but the modern method of 
 fencing, with its hideous posts, fiddle-string wires, 
 
Agriculture and Timber. 167 
 
 and barbed top lines, does not improve the land 
 scape. There are few hedgerows those exquisite 
 lines of quivering green that deck as well as divide 
 the fields of the Old World, and make a country 
 look compact and tidy ; there are also great gaps 
 untilled, ungainly ; forest marshes and marshy 
 forests ; an aspect of neglectedness, almost waste 
 fulness ; and a general want of that " finish," 
 which long cultivation alone produces. Truly does 
 John Burroughs write in " Fresh Fields " : 
 
 "We leave wide margins and ragged edges in this country, and 
 both man and nature sprawl about at greater length than in the Old 
 World." . . . "The first whiff we got of transatlantic nature was the 
 peaty breath of the peasant chimneys of Ireland, while we were yet 
 many miles at sea. What a home-like fireside smell it was ! It 
 seemed to make something long forgotten stir within one. One 
 recognises it as a characteristic Old World odour ; it savours so of the 
 soil, and of a ripe and mellow antiquity. I know no other fuel that 
 yields so agreeable a perfume as peat. ..." 
 
 " It takes a good many foul days in Scotland to breed one fair one ; 
 but when the fair day comes, it is worth the price paid for it. Scotch 
 sunshine is bewitching, and the scenery of the Clyde is unequalled by 
 any other approach in Europe. It is Europe abridged and assorted, 
 and passed before you in the space of a few hours ; the highlands, and 
 lochs, and castle-crowned crag?, on the one hand ; and the lowlands, 
 with their parks and farms, their manor halls and matchless verdure, 
 on the other. It is a pastoral paradise. One sees at once why this 
 fragrant Old World has so dominated the affections and the imagination 
 of our artists and poets; it is saturated with human qualities ; it is 
 unctuous with the ripeness of ages, the very marrow-fat of time. " 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MANUFACTURES AND TRADE. 
 
 HE manufacturing industries of America 
 are going forward by "leaps and bounds." 
 Her immense rivers are being utilized 
 all over the vast continent for water- 
 power. This is generally done by a syndicate 
 or corporation, which erects the damheads, 
 weirs, sluices, etc., and maintains them, guarantee 
 ing to those who may lease " power " from them 
 a regular supply at a yearly rent of from eighteen 
 to nineteen shillings per horse-power. At Holyoke, 
 Massachusetts, 30,000 horse-power is thus let out to 
 cotton, paper, and other mills. I visited one cotton 
 mill there, employing 1800 persons, turning out four 
 million pounds of cotton yarn or cloth in the year, 
 and already supplanting British manufacturers in 
 Western and Southern America, and others in 
 Easthampton, Mass., and Lancaster, Penn., fitted 
 with the most improved machinery, and " birring " 
 away vigorously. 
 
 In these and other works where steam power was 
 
 168 
 
Manufactures and Trade. 169 
 
 employed, the engines consisted of few parts, had 
 " Corliss " or other modern cut-off valves, were con 
 structed on the " expansion " principle, with small 
 but effective " governors," and were purpose - like, 
 effective machines. The motive power was generated 
 in boilers, having a large number of small tubes as 
 internal flues, and it was transmitted direct from 
 the " fly-wheel " to the shafting by huge, wide belts. 
 But I will not attempt further technical details. In 
 engineering establishments I found fine machinery 
 doing fine work. 
 
 At Joliet, Illinois, I was shown over steel 
 works which turn out 800 tons of steel rails daily, 
 and saw the "burning fiery furnaces," belching 
 out flame and sparks, " canted " over, and their 
 molten contents poured into huge moulds ; saw the 
 "ingots" re-heated and rolled, and rolled, and 
 rolled again, until the perfect rail appeared ; saw 
 bits of steel as large as a man s body cut through 
 "like cheese," rails cross-cut into lengths by a 
 saw in a second. Need I add that all was done 
 by machinery, cleverly, correctly, but certainly NOT 
 quietly. 
 
 A prominent feature of American towns is the 
 huge mechanical grain "elevators," plain barn-like 
 erections, towering up to 100 feet of one width, and 
 suddenly becoming narrower at the top storey, where 
 the gearing is placed. 
 
1 70 Bits about America. 
 
 A recently-built one is thus described : 
 
 "The yard will hold 300 to 400 railway cars, and two lines of rail run 
 from the outside yard, inside the elevator building one side of this 
 being to the railway, and the other on the river canal. The building 
 is 312 ft. long, 84 ft. wide, and 130 ft. high. Machinery is driven by 
 a 400 horse-power engine. It is divided into 150 bins, 65 ft. deep, 
 each with a storage capacity of 1,250,000 bushels. Ten railway cars 
 on each line of rails, or twenty altogether, can be in the building and 
 unloading at one time, and this is done under fifteen minutes. The 
 grain is lifted direct from the car to the top of the building, poured 
 into a large hopper scale, weighed, and spouted at once into the bins 
 of same quality. Four hundred truck loads are unloaded in a day in 
 this place, and its facilities for loading into ships, or again into cars, 
 are equally great, the grain being spouted into the hold direct, or into 
 the cars." 
 
 f 
 
 A visitor from Britain soon discovers in America 
 that distinctions are less clearly drawn ; there is 
 great freedom of speech, more interchange of little 
 courtesies between employer and employed, and 
 more at-homeness in social matters than in older 
 countries. This has led to a frankness of intercourse 
 and interchange of opinion which has often resulted 
 in the discovery and application of improved methods 
 of work, and partly accounts for the handiness of 
 many mechanical appliances ; and, combined with 
 the high rates of wages, it has developed the labour- 
 saving contrivances characteristic of America. These 
 are " legion," and include getting a wooden house 
 upon a bogey and shifting it bodily to a different 
 site. 
 
 I saw one which had been three times moved ; 
 
Manufactures and Trade. 1 7 1 
 
 the proprietor had been lucky enough to get an 
 " early lot " near the business centre of a thriving 
 town, which rose so largely in value as to command 
 a tempting sum. He sold the site and moved the 
 house to another lot, which he also disposed of well. 
 
 Again he shifted his moving tent to his own great 
 advantage, and I saw the same house of two storeys 
 on its way to a new locality. The cellar part, upon 
 which the house proper rested, was of brick ; under 
 this the bogey was placed, the front wall having 
 been sufficiently taken down to admit of its being 
 got in ; the loading and " fixing " were smartly done, 
 and in the morning it stood on a new site, half a 
 mile distant from the old one, solidly and whole. 
 
 Many of the waggons or lorries had hand-cranes 
 upon them, and I saw an immense stone, at least two 
 tons weight, quietly tackled and loaded by two men 
 and the " windlass." I have seen twenty men fight 
 ing, and straining, and " peching " over a similar job 
 in Britain, with pinches, and crowbars, and " heels," 
 and " miller s lifts," taking three times the time, 
 greater risks, and making noise enough to " deave a 
 miller." Why have we not " crab-winches " on old- 
 world lorries ? Why, verily ? 
 
 The fire-engine stations of America deserve a visit. 
 The engines are all " steam-power," and have fires 
 ready to be lighted the instant the alarm is given. 
 Horses are always ready to be harnessed. The 
 
172 Bits about America. 
 
 alarm of fire is given by an electric machine, which 
 also actuates a spring that loosens the horses. They 
 trot immediately to their places in the engine, cap 
 tain s gig, horse reel, and escape car. The harness 
 is hung from the roof, dropped instantly on the 
 animals, and fastened by two applications of the 
 attendant s hand. In seven seconds all are ready to 
 start. I was in a station when a " trial " alarm was 
 given. Before the sound was out of my ears the 
 engine was ready for the run ; the firemen, in full 
 uniform, had slidden down from the upper flat by a 
 rope and were in their respective places. The horses 
 were quivering and munching their bits, eager to 
 be off, and they looked sold, and insulted, and as 
 like disgusted as well-bred horses could, when they 
 had to slink back to their stalls. When they do 
 take the road, don t they just go! The fire bell is 
 well known, the track " given " to them, and they 
 thunder quickly along, the engine fire blazing, sparks 
 flying, steam hissing, and all ready for action as soon 
 as they reach the scene of the fire. 
 
 I paid considerable attention to the manufacture 
 of paper in America, but I spare the general reader 
 the infliction which a blue-book report on that 
 subject would be. In all branches of that industry 
 I found Holyoke, Mass.; Appleton and Neenaw, 
 Wisconsin ; Lancaster, Penn. ; Wilmington, Dela 
 ware, Philadelphia, and many other places far 
 
Manufactures and Trade. 173 
 
 advanced, and in every mill I visited I was warmly 
 welcomed, had every operation and process fully 
 explained, every question fully answered, and every 
 facility afforded me for getting information on all 
 points. For these, and much hearty hospitality and 
 thoughtful kindness, I sincerely thank those members 
 of the co-fraternity I was privileged to meet in the 
 New World. 
 
 They have abundance of land to begin with, and 
 build roomy, substantial mills, handily arranged to 
 save labour. Mechanical wood pulp is largely and 
 cleverly used. They have numberless nick-nacks 
 for doing mechanically and cheaply what is done in 
 Britain by hand, and they are happily as yet free 
 from that dreadful " pollution question," about 
 which well, about which the less said the better. 
 They have also fine machinery, and the power of 
 production is so rapidly increasing that I think they 
 not only need no " protection," but within ten years 
 they will be sturdy competitors in all the markets of 
 the world. 
 
 "Meddling with the tariff" is a sore point with 
 the Eastern and New England States, which have 
 thriven so rapidly under its to them kindly 
 auspices; but to the western farmer and southern 
 planter, who have to sell their produce in the open 
 markets of the world, and buy clothing, machinery, 
 etc., at prices enhanced by protective duties, it 
 
174 Bits aboiit America. 
 
 means, and actually is, "throttling," and as the 
 population of the West and South increases, there 
 must be changes. 
 
 o 
 
 No employment of labour or capital in America 
 will tell so profitably or so directly upon its 
 every interest as the development of the enormous 
 resources of its rich soil ; and its other immense 
 natural advantages should make it fear no rival. 
 Protective duties have acted, and are acting, against 
 the self-adjusting laws of demand and supply, as 
 well as diverting capital into channels which the 
 abolition of protection will dry up. 
 
 America s ambition " to supply the wants of the 
 world" might be so nearly gratified by her adoption 
 of free trade, that it is doubtful if Britain should 
 long for this as much as she generally does. Already 
 American enterprise and capital have gone far to 
 make that country independent of foreign supplies. 
 In itself it can, from the range of its climate, raise 
 almost anything from the tropics to the poles. Its 
 mineral wealth is becoming daily more apparent 
 and amazing. Coal is being found in practically 
 inexhaustible quantities, in mountains or in mines 
 so near the surface that it can be cheaply got out. 
 Natural gases have only to be controlled in order to 
 make them sources of power and light. Iron ore, 
 containing 90 per cent, of excellent iron, with coal 
 and lime overlying it, handy for smelting purposes, 
 
Manufactures and Trade. 175 
 
 can be blasted from the sides of the mountains. 
 Every metal, excepting tin, abounds in rich lodes, 
 and rumour says that abundant tin has been struck. 
 Salt, sulphur, and soda are found by the square 
 mile. 
 
 Her vast seaboard, excellent harbours, immense 
 navigable rivers, and growing network of railways, 
 do the work of distribution cheaply ; the surplus 
 populations of the Eastern and Western Worlds are 
 pouring in ; there are two millions of square miles 
 still to be colonized, and the increase of the present 
 population from 50 millions to 1000 millions would 
 not give the average population per square mile of 
 some older and poorer countries. There are no war 
 taxes, and none likely to be needed ; there is no 
 military conscription swallowing up, as in Europe, so 
 much of the time and energies of young men ; there 
 is practically equality, freedom, and elbow-room. 
 In Emerson s phrase, " America is another name for 
 opportunity." And in Dr. Strong s work, Our 
 Country , occur these sentences : 
 
 "The United States raises one-half of the gold and silver of the 
 world s supply. Iron ore is mined in twenty-three of our States. 
 When storing away the fuel of ages, God knew the place and work to 
 which He had appointed us, and gave to us twenty times as much of 
 this concrete power as to all the peoples of Europe. Among the 
 nations ours is the youngest, the Benjamin, and, Benjamin-like, we 
 have received a five-fold portion." 
 
 "Since pre-historic times, populations have moved steadily west 
 ward. The world s sceptre passed from Persia to Greece, from Greece 
 
176 Bits about America. 
 
 to Italy, from Italy to Great Britain ; and from Great Britain the 
 sceptre is to-day departing. It is passing on to Greater Britain, to 
 our mighty West, there to remain, for there is no farther West 
 beyond is the Orient." 
 
 Such is a sample of what Americans think and 
 write about their great country. I will not enlarge 
 upon the darker side of the picture " Socialism," 
 " The Knights of Labour ; " the difficulty of getting 
 the heterogeneous elements of all nationalities to 
 amalgamate ; the grumblings, loud and deep, against 
 " millionaires," and those who, by " bears," or " bulls," 
 or " booms," enrich themselves at the expense of the 
 many ; " the liquor traffic," the mammon worship of 
 the mighty dollar, and other " incidents of fallen 
 humanity ; " but close this mixture of a chapter with 
 a few verses from TJie Biglow Papers, "Jonathan 
 to John," written twenty-five years ago : 
 
 " We own the ocean tu, John ! 
 
 You mustn t take it hard 
 Ef we can t think with you, John, 
 It s jest your own backyard. 
 
 We ain t so weak and poor, John, 
 
 With twenty million people, 
 An close to every door, John, 
 
 A schoolhouse an a steeple. 
 
 God means to make this land, John, 
 
 Clear thru from sea to sea, 
 Believe an understand, John, 
 
 The ivuth o being free." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SCOTS IN AMERICA. 
 
 M ERIC A teems with persons of Scottish 
 birth and descent. They seem popular, 
 and are credited with a happy readiness 
 in not only making themselves at home 
 there, but making it the better of them ; 
 and need I add that the "cannie" Scot 
 generally contrives to make himself a good deal the 
 better of it. I did not attempt to reach the repre 
 sentative Scotsman said to be found at the North 
 Pole, but I found his brothers plentifully scattered 
 over every corner, from Quebec to Western Iowa, 
 from Boston to St. Louis honourable and honoured. 
 In Chicago I heard the Scotsman defined as "a man 
 that keeps the Sabbath day, and everything else he 
 can lay his hands on," and in Washington, "as a 
 steady, up-hill climbing sort of a crittur, that got 
 what he tried to reach, and kept mighty tite hold of 
 it if he did not carry whusky with him." I often 
 experienced the truth of the saying, " This is a little 
 
 world after all," as I met old friends, or was recognised 
 
 M 
 
1 78 Bits aboiit America. 
 
 as a " kent face," by eyes and hearts that glowed as 
 we spoke of the thistle, the heather, and the tartan. 
 
 I met with such an amount of courteous hospitality 
 from my fellow-countrymen throughout my entire 
 tour, that it seems invidious to select individual in 
 stances ; but I venture to mention with special plea 
 sure the kindness shown by Senator James Beck, 
 of Kentucky, during my stay at Washington. He is 
 a native of Scotland, but has virtually always lived 
 in America, is one of her most honoured statesmen, 
 a strong free-trader, and a Liberal of the Liberals. 
 Alike in the city and in his home he was most 
 attentive. Nor can I in this connection omit W. R. 
 Smith, Esq., curator of the Botanic Gardens at 
 Washington, an East Lothian man, great on the 
 naturalization of the vegetable productions of other 
 countries, great in street and city ornamentation by 
 trees, and especially great on " Robert Burns." He 
 has a complete library of all the editions of Burns, 
 wherever published, of all books where Burns is a 
 prominent theme. I suspect he played a " special 
 correspondent s " joke on me in a leading American 
 journal, but I frankly forgive him for the bard s sake. 
 
 It was gratifying to observe the large number of 
 Scotsmen who occupy positions of eminence and 
 trust in America. In New York I met Mr. Robert 
 Carter, a genial octogenarian, the founder of the 
 great publishing firm of Robert Carter & Brothers, 
 
Scots in America. 1 79 
 
 and listened with pleasure to his account of the 
 struggles and victories of his early days : on the 
 " gingham " loom at Earlston ; in the Seceder 
 Divinity Hall under grand old Dr. Lawson of 
 Selkirk; as assistant "dominie "in Peebles; of his 
 success as a teacher at New York ; of his intended 
 wife s relatives entire respect for himself, but fear 
 lest his profession might not yield a sufficient main 
 tenance for a household ; of his early start with a 
 small capital as a bookseller, and publishing such 
 old favourites as Boston s Crook in the Lot ; of his 
 ready-money principles ; his bringing his father s 
 family out ; his well-earned success ; his sixty years 
 intercourse with eminent authors and men : all told 
 modestly and thankfully in words that showed great 
 literary culture, sterling integrity, and devout thank 
 fulness to God for all He had helped him to be and 
 to do. It was like " sitting at the feet of Gamaliel." 
 In leading banking and railway circles on 
 Wall Street and William Street were many Scots, 
 and in commercial and literary circles they are in the 
 front rank. Even the genius of poetry has followed 
 D. MacGregor Crerar, James Kennedy, and others 
 to the land of their adoption. I regret that space 
 does not admit of the insertion of more of the 
 " wood-notes wild " which I heard from their lips, 
 when privileged to sit in the " poets bower," than 
 the following verses written upon a lovely tree which 
 
180 Bits about America. 
 
 adorns the lawn of Grace Church, New York ; during 
 my visit it was in full bloom and formed the orna 
 ment of Broadway, that busiest of busy streets: 
 
 "O lovely tree, magnolia tree! 
 
 Of peerless splendour, fresh and fair, 
 Thy beauty fills my heart with joy, 
 
 Thy balmy fragrance fills the air. 
 Thou art like handsome bride arrayed 
 
 In robes of spotless purity ; 
 Thy blushes chaste as they are sweet, 
 
 O charming tree, magnolia tree ! 
 
 With blithesome smile thou greetest May, 
 
 Wreathed in thy glory and thy pride ; 
 Thy graceful garb of richest green 
 
 Thou wear st far down the autumn -tide. 
 Long may st thou flourish, cheering aye 
 
 The hearts of all who gaze on thee ; 
 A sunshine and delight art thou, 
 
 O charming tree, magnolia tree ! " 
 
 May loth, 1883. D. MACGREGOR CRERAR. 
 
 In the Church are Dr. Ormiston, Dr. Wm. M. 
 Taylor, and others, loved and loving ; and all 
 throughout my tour I found the " children of the 
 mist" clear-headed, open-hearted, and thriving. 
 
 On the prairies of Iowa I found Scotsmen making 
 the wilderness blossom as the rose, pre-eminently 
 the farm of Blairgowrie, where Mr. Adamson of that 
 ilk in Scotland, has 2400 acres under cultivation, 
 with a farm-steading and stock of all kinds that 
 would do credit to any county in Great Britain. In 
 Chicago I found on the stock yards, in the produce 
 exchange, and amongst her merchants, manufacturers, 
 
Scots in America. 181 
 
 stores, and millers, energetic Scotsmen, trusted and 
 true ; while in their homes, as Prince Aldfrid wrote of 
 Ireland more than a thousand years ago, 
 
 "I found in Meath s fair principality 
 
 Virtue, vigour, and hospitality ; 
 
 Candour, joyfulness, bravery, purity, 
 
 Ireland s bulwark and security." 
 
 In manufactures I found in Philadelphia, in 
 Appleton, Wis., in Boston, Holyoke, and East- 
 hampton, Mass., in Lancaster, Penn., in Joliet, 
 Illinois, and other places, proprietors of large 
 thriving works, or managing members of important 
 corporations, or superintendents of immense factories, 
 that hailed from Scotland, and were serving their 
 generation nobly by worthily holding up her old 
 blue banner. 
 
 In Canada I found Sir John A. Macdonald, Prime 
 Minister, full of vigour, full of fight, and full of bon 
 homie ; the Hon. Alex. Mackenzie, ex-Premier, who 
 had for long served the Dominion faithfully, but is, 
 alas ! far from being strong ; and the Hon. James 
 Ferrier, of Montreal, despite his eighty-seven years 
 of age, not only in the complete possession of every 
 faculty, but keeping these in such incessant, un 
 wearying exercise in the Senate, at the Council 
 Boards of University and Corporation, etc., as to 
 shame younger men active, alert, courteous, genial, 
 and truly great. 
 
1 82 Bits about America. 
 
 I cannot dwell upon the learned principals, reverend 
 doctors, or able lawyers ; nor do more than wish 
 good sport to the keen curlers, enthusiastic golfers, 
 crack oarsmen, or good shots, of Scottish descent 
 with whom I rubbed shoulders in the Dominion. 
 
 One incident of my visit to Ottawa redounds so 
 much to the credit, alike of the living and the 
 recently dead, that I venture to relate it more fully 
 than such private conversations generally warrant. 
 Finding, on reaching the river Rideau in the 
 southern part of that city, that the picturesque 
 waterfall, formed by its plunging over a ragged ledge 
 into the Ottawa river, could be best seen from an 
 engineering establishment erected upon a corner of 
 land bordering on both rivers, I asked the proprietor, 
 Mr. Paterson, to allow me to pass through his works. 
 
 His face beamed on hearing his native " Doric," 
 and, grasping my hand warmly, he replied in pure 
 West of Scotland speech and accent, " Let you see 
 the Falls ? wi a my heart. You re a countryman o 
 mine, an I m proud to meet you. I ve been thirty 
 years in this country, and I m as Scotch as ever. 
 Deed I m a kind o a far-away friend o the poet 
 Burns. My grandmother was Mirren Armour, an 
 his wife was Jean Armour, an they were cousins." 
 
 He took me to the points whence the brawling 
 cascade and rapids could be seen to best advantage, 
 and even in this land of Falls they are well worthy 
 
Scots in America. 185 
 
 of a visit. On my apologizing for trespassing on 
 his time, he warmly said, "You re no hinderin me 
 in the least ; I m heart glad to see a Scotch folk, 
 especially them that come to see our Falls. I m no 
 needin to work noo unless I like, but I canna thole 
 (bear) to be idle. Man, I would like to show you the 
 town ; it ll be a real pleasure for me to gang wi ye." 
 
 I thanked him, and explained that I had accepted 
 Principal Munro s invitation to spend part of the 
 forenoon seeing his classes and methods in Central 
 West school, and was leaving for Montreal in the 
 afternoon. In our further conversation, he spoke 
 of his early days in Scotland, and told that after 
 spending fully twenty-five years in America, he 
 re-visited his native land. On the Sabbath after 
 his arrival he went to hear his old minister, Dr. 
 George Jeffrey, of London Road United Presbyterian 
 Church, Glasgow, and thus described what took 
 place : " He wasna called Doctor when I joined 
 his kirk, but only plain Mr. George. I was forward 
 in good time, and told the gentleman that was 
 stan in at the plate in the lobby, that I had been 
 connected wi the congregation five-an -twenty years 
 ago, and I inquired about a lot o the elders an the 
 members that I knew in my young days, but they 
 were maistly a dead. 
 
 " I was put into the minister s ain pew, and when he 
 came in I saw little odds on him. He was aulder- 
 
1 86 Bits about America. 
 
 like, but there wasna a failed inch o him, and I hadna 
 heard a sermon like what he preached since I heard 
 himsel . It was fu o matter, an direc . After the 
 service was over, a message came for me to come to 
 the vestry. The Doctor gave me a good firm shake 
 o the hand, and, looking into my face, said, c I think 
 I can tell your name, you re a Paterson. 
 
 " Quite right, Doctor. 
 
 " And I think I can tell your Christian name, 
 it s Matthew. 
 
 " Quite right again, said I. After a crack about 
 old days, and how I was gettin on, an my friends 
 an his, I said, Dr. Jeffrey, how does it happen 
 that your bow, as far as I can judge, abides about 
 its full strength, when sae mony o the gude auld 
 elders and members are in the ither world ? 
 
 " Because, said he, the Lord has been my rock, 
 and my fortress, and my deliverer ; my God, my 
 strength, in whom I will trust ; my buckler, and the 
 horn of my salvation, and my high tower. Let us 
 bless His name together. We both went down on 
 our knees in the vestry, and such a prayer I never 
 heard, and never will forget. I ve often thought of 
 writing to the Doctor. If you see him, will ye tell 
 him that you saw me, and that we re a weel, and 
 that I send him my VERY BEST respec s." 
 
 I promised to do so as we parted. The first thing 
 I saw in the newspapers, on the morning of my 
 
Scots in America. 187 
 
 arrival in Scotland, was the announcement that Dr. 
 George Jeffrey was dead. 
 
 I will not even attempt to enumerate the men of 
 mettle with whom I came into contact that crossed 
 over to this " immense subject " from the " land o 
 cakes," and have left, and are still leaving, their mark 
 on every department of its life and work. And, 
 while loyal to America and its institutions, they 
 keep fresh the memories of " Auld lang syne," by 
 Caledonian, St. Andrew s, Burns, Thistle, and other 
 clubs, formed for mutual help and social intercourse, as 
 well as by gala days for Highland sports and games. 
 
 I would miserably fail were I to attempt to 
 picture the wives and daughters of my countrymen 
 in America. Even Burns would have modified his 
 expression about 
 
 "Ayr, whom ne er a town surpasses 
 For honest men and bonnie lasses," 
 
 had he come under the spell of many of these 
 " Flowers o the Forest." I therefore dismiss this 
 theme as far beyond my power. Will I venture to 
 repeat what TWO worthy ladies told me as " a queer 
 farce " ? Shortly after their settlement in America, 
 and while their mot/ier-tongue was pure, they took 
 seaside quarters at Newhaven, Connecticut, and 
 asked the landlady if they could be supplied with 
 meals, pronouncing the word, as is done in the 
 west of Scotland, " males." 
 
1 88 Bits about America. 
 
 The landlady s look of horror drew out, " Ye manna 
 be understanding us, its mate (meat) we want." 
 
 " Males ! and mate ! that s worse and worse. 
 Whatever do you mean ? " 
 
 " Ye dinna understand us yet. It s board, it s 
 victuals, it s food to eat we want," was the threefold 
 explanation, which put all right. The joke was too 
 good to be stifled, and many a laugh they and their 
 friends have had over the " males " and the " mate " 
 of Newhaven. 
 
 Well may Scotland be proud of her children in 
 the West ; well may America rejoice over such 
 good subjects and good citizens. Next to a Scottish 
 birth, a Scottish pedigree is often a matter of boast 
 ing, even back into the regions of the Covenanting 
 or Chevalier times. The personal kindness heaped 
 upon me I will not attempt to embody in words ; 
 these have been, all through my tour, constant, 
 thoughtful, and hearty. In this connection I would 
 do my American cousins great injustice, did I not 
 thankfully record that they, equally with my fellow- 
 countrymen, have commanded my admiring grati 
 tude by the uniformly hospitable courtesy with 
 which I have everywhere been met during my 
 rambles on the great continent of America. 
 
 There is a healthy absence of restrictive con 
 ventionalities and class distinctions in America, 
 pedigree and occupation are largely matters of social 
 
Scots in America. 189 
 
 indifference. What a man is, or has, or has done, 
 makes or mars him. Gentlemen carry parcels which 
 Britons would " feel " to be seen with, and seem fond 
 of pushing their children in a perambulator in the 
 evening, or on Sunday afternoons. Materfamilias 
 has to do more household work, for American 
 " domestic helps " (called servants in Britain) have 
 Republican ideas, and carry them out. No American 
 female domestic, and practically I believe no Ameri 
 can wife, will brush any " man s " boots. Why " the 
 brightening of the understandings" has been made 
 the flag of the citadel of woman s rights, I leave to 
 inquisitive sociologists ? Luckily bootblacks of the 
 rougher sex abound, and the domestic " bete noire " 
 being known, the want of polish at the extremities 
 from " Day & Martin," or other " blacking," is under 
 stood and socially condoned, while some old fellow 
 can generally be found to act as a peripatetic "Shine." 
 In my opinion, American women work hard, and 
 to good purpose, " putting to " hands where British 
 females look on. It is more of " come, and we will," 
 than " go, and do." I found a smart, good-looking 
 lassie, the daughter of the house, scrubbing a " store " 
 floor. The family was small, had 700 a year from 
 property, attfree, besides a good business. On being 
 twitted by two young lady friends, who dropped in, 
 she answered, " Why not ? I like it, and do it better 
 than anybody we ever had do it. It is good exercise, 
 and saves half a dollar. Jim works," pointing to her 
 
IQO Bits about America. 
 
 brother, who was parcelling away with his shirt 
 sleeves rolled up, " and why shouldn t I ? " She wore 
 her silks and rings at proper times, gracefully, and all 
 the happier that she earned them. Several incidents 
 of this kind showed that working, real working, was 
 very general. Every lady trained her daughters to 
 practical house-work, as well as to house-keeping. 
 
 It was perhaps natural that I should have been 
 more impressed with the appearance of the American 
 women than of the men, policemen excepted. As 
 a whole, the ladies seemed statelier, more " duchess- 
 like," more robustious, Scottice "sonsier," but less 
 rosy-cheeked and blooming, than their British sisters. 
 They had more self- possession, more affability, 
 possibly more self-assertion, and a great power of 
 expressing in few words exactly what they meant ; 
 but this is ticklish ground, therefore I leave it. Born 
 Americans spoke well, used fewer Saxon and more 
 imported words than British people ; accent was 
 observedly nasal, but there was little waste of speech ; 
 conversation may have seemed curt, but it was always 
 courteous ; and there was a frankness of intercourse 
 alike pleasing and helpful to a stranger. 
 
 The " pros " and " cons " of Republicanism versus 
 Monarchy were seldom referred to by native 
 Americans ; and those of the imported element, who 
 were most outspoken and " tallest " in their talk on 
 the subject, did not strike me as being well-informed 
 or representative men. Their hobby-horse was " the 
 
Scots in America. 191 
 
 expense of the Queen and the Royal Family," and 
 they did not know that the revenue from lands the 
 private property of the Crown nearly met all this. 
 A comparison of the cost of government, with paid 
 Presidents, governors, senators, and representatives, 
 was in favour of Britain. Besides, it is difficult to 
 estimate the cost, direct and indirect, of a presidential 
 election, indirect particularly, for canvassing and 
 " stumping " go on constantly, and are costly. 
 
 A change of President every four years has been, 
 in the past, and still to some extent now is, accom 
 panied by great changes in public officials, high and 
 low, tending to lower the class from which they are 
 drawn ; for men doing well in their own trade or 
 profession will not accept office for such a short 
 period, while the persons appointed are apt to make 
 good use, for themselves, of the short term. Happily, 
 in Britain, there has been (excuse the term) a 
 perpetual president for the past fifty years, loving 
 and loved " Our NOBLE QUEEN," and long may she 
 reign. There will be no canvassing or confusion 
 as to the succession ; and where Her Majesty by 
 conferring a " title " honours Literature in Lord 
 Tennyson, Politics in the Earl of Beaconsfield and 
 Lord Sherbrooke, Engineering in Lord Brassey, 
 Medicine in Sir Andrew Clark or Sir James Simpson, 
 Art in Sir J. Noel Paton, etc., we stake triumphant 
 Monarchy against triumphant Democracy, and repeat 
 " with heart and voice, GOD SAVE THE QUEEN." 
 
1 92 Bits about America. 
 
 I cannot linger over the beauties of May-day on 
 the margin of Lake Champlain with its chirling 
 constant whistling of bull - frogs, its mountain 
 surroundings of The Adirondacks, and the green 
 Hills of Vermont, or on the rugged passes about 
 Lake George, or the Hudson with its immense ice 
 stores (Americans are "great " for ice), and enchanting 
 surroundings of " the Catskills " and " palisades." 
 Nor did I see the beauties of the " Fall " season, but 
 keep that before me as a " Pleasure of Hope." 
 
 Since my return I have been asked if I had any 
 " swashbuckler " or " bowie - knife " or " revolver " 
 experience ? No ; ten times no ! ! ! Once or twice, 
 gentlemen (?) known to the police accosted me 
 warmly, " delighted to see you," " knew your father 
 intimately," "at your service gladly." I got quit of 
 them very quickly by asking a loan of 50 dollars. 
 In closing these " Bits," I confess to various sins of 
 omission and commission, but detailing these would 
 only further exhaust the reader s patience. May 
 Anglo-Saxondom, Eastern and Western, co-operate 
 in hastening Tennyson s dream of the future : 
 
 "Till the war -drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are 
 
 furled 
 In the Parliament of man, the federation of the world." 
 
 MORRISON AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, 
 1 RINTERS TO HER MAJESTY S STATIONERY OFFICE. 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 
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