UC-NRI 
 
 7Dfl 
 

 LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 01 KT OF* 
 
 Received 
 A c cessions 
 
 Shelf No. 
 
OUR KIN 
 ACROSS THE SEA 
 
MR. FROUDE S BOOKS ON THE COLONIES. 
 
 Popular Editions, crown 8vo. 2s. each boards ; 
 2s. 6d. each cloth. 
 
 OCEANA ; or, ENGLAND AND HER COLONIES. 
 With 9 Illustrations. 
 
 THE ENGLISH IN THE WEST INDIES; 
 
 or, THE Bow OF ULYSSES. With 9 Illustrations. 
 
 London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. 
 
OUR KIN ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 BY 
 
 J. C. FIRTH 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY J. A. FROUDE 
 
 t THE 
 
 LONDON 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK : 15 EAST 16* STREET 
 1888 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
PRINTED BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO.. NF.W-STREET SQUARE 
 LONDON 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THIS LITTLE BOOK is its own sufficient recom 
 mendation, and to those who read it will need 
 no other. The author, however, being a stranger 
 in England, has desired me to say in a few words 
 who he is, and what claims he possesses on the 
 attention of his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Mr. Firth is one of the oldest and one of the 
 most distinguished of the New Zealand colonists. 
 He settled in the North Island of New Zealand 
 between thirty and forty years ago. By steady 
 industry and by unblemished integrity of conduct 
 he rose into wealth and influence. While he dis 
 charged his duty as a citizen, he has never meddled 
 with professional politics. He has kept clear of 
 speculation, attending steadily to his own business. 
 
vi Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 He has been a merchant. He has developed 
 mines and railroads. He became a large land 
 owner, and when I was in New Zealand he was 
 trying on his estate with marked success the 
 American methods of farm management. But he 
 has opposed always the system of land monopoly 
 from which the colony has suffered so seriously. 
 He has desired to see, and to the best of his 
 ability has promoted, the dispersion of the people 
 over the country, that each family might live in 
 independence on property of their own. Like 
 every well-informed and really patriotic colonist, he 
 has watched with regret and alarm the overgrowth 
 of the towns by the crowding of the workmen into 
 them under the temptation of high wages and 
 town amusements. In private life he is known as 
 a gentleman and a man of honour. In public he 
 has thrown the weight of his high character always 
 on the side of measures best calculated to further 
 the moral improvement of the population. 
 
 How earnestly he desires to see the bonds 
 strengthened which unite the mother country and 
 
Preface vii 
 
 the colonies, will be seen in his own words. 
 Whether the means which he would wish to see 
 adopted are at present available, is a matter on 
 which there will be differences of opinion. They 
 are economic heresies, as political economy now 
 stands. But science in human affairs yields under 
 pressure to other considerations. Mr. Firth has 
 read much, and has thought and observed more, and 
 what he says deserves and will receive respectful 
 attention. He is not a man of letters. He makes 
 no attempts at style or literary ornament. His 
 object is merely to set down in the plainest possible 
 language his own observations and reflections. In 
 the work before us he describes a tour through the 
 United States ; and hackneyed and threadbare as 
 the subject has become, Mr. Firth brings to it a 
 new mind, and he has studied his American cousins 
 from an original point of view. We have had im 
 pressions of the Great Republic from Englishmen, 
 from Irishmen, from French and Germans ; but we 
 have here, I believe for the first time, the impres 
 sions of a colonist ; and from the similarity of 
 
viii Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 circumstance (the United States and our own self- 
 governed colonies being alike offshoots of Great 
 Britain which have developed governments and 
 societies of their own), a New Zealander or an 
 Australian will notice and draw conclusions from 
 symptoms common to all of them which escape the 
 eye of visitors from the Old World. 
 
 Macaulay s New Zealand traveller has not yet 
 appeared. The phenomena which he was to 
 moralise over are not yet ripe for him. Mr. 
 Firth in the interval tells us what he thinks 
 about America ; and with his eyes to help us we 
 shall learn, better than from most other books 
 which have been written about it, the form which 
 the British communities scattered over the globe 
 are now assuming, in what points they agree, and 
 in what direction differences are likely to show 
 themselves. 
 
 Some day we hope to see Mr. Firth among 
 ourselves. He will not be the New Zealander that 
 is to come. St. Paul s is not yet in ruins. The 
 arches of London Bridge are still sound, nor, so far 
 
Preface ix 
 
 as I know, is Mr. Firth an artist to sketch them 
 if they were ready for him. Should he come to 
 England, it would be to promote the confederation 
 so vague as yet in form, but so eagerly desired, 
 from which the mother country will receive, in the 
 attachment of the children who still belong to her, 
 a fresh lease of Imperial greatness, if ever states 
 men rise among us who are equal to so grand a 
 work. 
 
 Meanwhile we will be thankful for what he has 
 already given us. 
 
 J. A. FROUDE. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A PACIFIC VOYAGE. I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY . . . -15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GREAT CITIES. 
 
 Street obstructions The Dive The Saloon Belt railways 
 State fairs Asylums Chicago The river and main 
 sewer Swing bridges Chicago streets at night . . 22 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PHYSICAL FEATURES. 
 
 Area Grain and fruit Sacramento Valley Hydraulic mining 
 Gold mining Amongst the mountains Fabulous 
 
 wealth Changed fortunes Denver Mining failures 
 
 Mining capital ........ 36 
 
xii Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ACROSS THE CONTINENT. 
 
 The Great Central Basin- Silver bullets Reno Little Whit- 
 tingtons Carson City Footprints in the rocks Desert 
 plains Red Indians Amongst the mountains Mor 
 mons Salt Lake City A sunset glory . 57 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OVER THE PLAINS. 
 
 The Valley of the Mississippi Farming Climate Forests- 
 Autumnal foliage Coal Rivers What America owes 
 England ......... 75 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AMERICAN RAILROADS. 
 
 Australasian indebtedness Railroad construction Equip 
 ment Sleeper car Separate trains Accidents Traffic 
 Management ....... 05 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 
 
 Characteristics Earnestness Features Thank you 
 
 Smoking, chewing and spitting Sitting Pleasures of 
 the table Patience The sovereign people American 
 ladies Crimes against women Maternity The dark side 1 12 
 
Contents xiii 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Who are the Americans ? The United States of England and 
 
 America Not in vain Crucial questions Politics . 136 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 AMERICAN POLICY. 
 
 Isolation Protection Patriotism Laws of health and life 
 
 Overwork Canada Niagara . . . . .149 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 AMERICAN PROBLEMS. 
 
 The Negro question The Chinese question Decay of venera 
 tion Sunday desecration . . . . . .172 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AMERICAN PROBLEMS. 
 
 Decay of the maritime spirit Laxity of law Election of 
 magistrates and judges The Irish question Newspaper 
 despotism Divorce laws . . . . . .190 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LABOUR TROUBLES. 
 Universal suffrage Money, weights, and measures . .215 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONCEIT. 
 
 Friendliness Manifest destiny 234 
 
OUR KIN ACROSS THE SEA 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A PACIFIC VOYAGE. 
 
 SOME old cynic in the last century once said * that 
 going to sea in a ship was like going to prison, with 
 a chance of being drowned. Nevertheless, in these 
 days a ship is much the pleasanter prison of the 
 two, especially if the prison is a first-class steamer 
 like the Union Company s s.s. * Mararoa, on which 
 I and others have just completed the run from 
 Auckland to San Francisco (1887). The voyage 
 was without a history ; a condition as happy for 
 voyageurs as for nations. A fresh westerly breeze 
 accompanied us a thousand miles on our voyage ; 
 the wind then, veering round to the east, brought 
 us hot, muggy weather. Two days of this, and the 
 north-east trades set in. The captain expected the 
 
 B 
 
 to 
 
Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 south-east trades ; but I understand captains gene 
 rally say there is something wrong with the trades, 
 so it did not matter. Anyway we found the north 
 east trades very fresh, cool, and pleasant We had 
 no fierce heat, no tropical storms, and the * Pacific 
 Ocean in our case was worthy of its name. We 
 had no grand sunsets, no events ; nothing but the 
 ocean, the grand, the vast, illimitable, incomprehen 
 sible ocean. 
 
 Oh ! the infinity of it ! 
 
 On the bosom of this mighty world of waters, 
 what atoms we were ! If our big steamer, with all 
 our small selves, had gone to the bottom, we should 
 have made a very small hole in the water for a 
 second or two, and the waves of this vast ocean 
 would surge and toss and heave as if nothing had 
 happened. Nay, if all the navies, all the cities, all 
 the towns, with all the thousand millions of living 
 men, earth, and all their works, were to be sunk in 
 this grand ocean, the mighty waters would surge 
 and toss and heave as if nothing nothing at all 
 had happened. 
 
 The little kettles of boilers of our steamers and 
 factories, what a fuss and a screech they make 
 
A Pacific Voyage 
 
 when they blow off steam. Yes, indeed ; what 
 very small kettles they are compared to this vast 
 Pacific Ocean Boiler, vapourising I don t know how 
 many thousand million tons of water every twenty- 
 four hours, and supplying half the world with 
 vapour, clouds, and rain, and life, and health, and 
 beauty. 
 
 What very small flies we are on the great wheel 
 of Nature ! How great our pride, how small our 
 deeds ! We fume and fret, and our feeble intel 
 lects doubt and deny, and then then we drift 
 away into the silences. 
 
 On the sixth day from Auckland we touched 
 at Tuituila, an emerald isle set in an ocean of 
 ultramarine. Two or three canoes with outriggers 
 put off to us, their crews diving for the silver coins 
 pitched overboard by the passengers. 
 
 These islanders are much like the Maoris of 
 New Zealand, but of a lighter colour. I noticed 
 several Maori words in their talk. Whilst these 
 amphibious fellows were diving into the blue depths 
 of this grand ocean, my thoughts turned to those 
 hardy navigators of the long-ago, the progenitors 
 of the Maori nation, who, twenty-three generations 
 
 B 2 
 
Ottr Kin Across the Sea 
 
 ago, boldly undertook that great voyage of a 
 thousand miles or more, which terminated at New 
 Zealand. Whether their canoes were provided 
 with outriggers, or whether they were double 
 canoes, it is not easy to determine, as no trace of 
 either have I ever seen used by the present genera 
 tion of Maoris. Yet one or the other they must 
 have been, for no single canoe could possibly sur 
 vive the storms even of so peaceful an ocean as 
 the Pacific. What food they carried, and where 
 they stowed it, or how they carried sufficient fresh 
 water, is a mystery. The fact, however, remains. 
 These dauntless men and women dared the dangers 
 of the deep, and accomplished a voyage before 
 which that of Jason and the Argonauts sinks into 
 comparative insignificance. What an eloquent 
 story of peril, hardship, and victory the Greek 
 poets would have told of such a voyage as that 
 made by these ancient Maori navigators ! All 
 honour to them. No wonder that their descend 
 ants, the Maoris of our times, are accounted the 
 noblest of savage men with which civilisation has 
 come into contact has come into contact alas 1 
 but to destroy. 
 
A Pacific Voyage 
 
 Off Tuituila the s.s. Explorer awaited the 
 mails for some of the islands. The Mararoa gave 
 her usual siren scream to announce her departure. 
 The natives tried to mimic the screech, but failed 
 miserably, for no wild war-whoop made by savage 
 men, no yell or roar ever made by wild beast, can 
 equal the agonising howl made by these siren 
 screechers. There is a story told of these * siren 
 screechers which shows the serio-comic effects 
 they sometimes produce. In a pleasant little 
 suburb near one of our New Zealand ports there 
 dwelt, not long ago, a very jolly gentleman of 
 middle age. He was a bachelor. His household 
 consisted of his housekeeper a widow lady and 
 one maid. Kindly considerate for the enjoyment 
 of his dependents, he had allowed his housekeeper 
 to visit her friends in the country. He, being a 
 very regular man, had retired early, leaving the 
 maid to admit the housekeeper. He had been 
 asleep some hours, when he was suddenly awakened 
 by loud and agonising screams. Good Heavens ! 
 said he, starting up in a terrible fright, they are 
 murdering that poor woman at my very door. 
 Everything being quiet, however, and not caring 
 
Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 exactly to run downstairs, he waited to see if any 
 thing more would come of it. He was dropping 
 off to sleep when again that dreadful scream yelled 
 out its long-drawn notes of terror. He perspired at 
 every pore ; his hair the little he had stood on 
 end. The villains/ said he ; they are killing the 
 poor creature. I must save her. Rushing down 
 stairs to the outer door, he instantly unlocked it, 
 and in great fear and trembling looked into the 
 darkness, but saw nothing. Venturing outside, 
 he searched all round, but still could find no 
 evidence of a bloody deed. Not a trace of the 
 poor woman could be found. Violently slamming 
 the door and locking it, to keep the wretches out, 
 he ran upstairs to rouse the maidservant. Jane/ 
 he roared out, did you hear that dreadful scream ? 
 The villains have killed the poor housekeeper/ 
 Jane woke up at once. Killed the housekeeper, 
 sir where? In the garden, I fear/ said he. 
 ( That cannot be/ replied the girl, * for I let her in 
 hours ago. Let her in ? We ll soon see ; and 
 knocking violently at the housekeeper s door, he 
 called out, * Mrs. Jones, Mrs. Jones, are you there ? 
 * Yes, sir/ replied, after a short interval, that poor 
 
A Pacific Voyage 
 
 woman, for her long walk had tired her. After 
 this reply, our jolly bachelor scuttled off to bed 
 without another word, wondering what on earth 
 the horrid yells could mean. Next morning he 
 learnt that one of the Union Company s steamers 
 had arrived during the night, announcing her ap 
 pearance by the newly-introduced siren screecher. 
 That was all. 
 
 The neighbourhood of these South Sea Islands 
 reminds me that Professor Huxley, after his sup 
 posed victory in the Nineteenth Century over Mr. 
 Gladstone, has once more plumed his feathers for 
 an attack, again in the Nineteenth Century/ on 
 the God of the Bible. Curiously enough, the 
 Professor finds in one of the islands of the Pacific 
 Ocean materials for this attack. He selects the 
 times of the prophet Samuel, describing the God 
 of Samuel s day as a very inferior sort of personage. 
 The learned Professor tells us that he has met 
 with a book detailing the adventures and experi 
 ences in Tonga of an illiterate European youth 
 who had lived many years on the island. This 
 illiterate person recounted to the writer of the 
 book many traditions and ideas about the Tongan 
 
8 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 gods, &c. From these materials the Professor 
 demonstrates (?) to his own satisfaction at least 
 that the Tongan gods and the God of the Bible in 
 Samuel s day were very similar in character. The 
 learned Professor arrives at this conclusion by the 
 not uncommon process of looking through the 
 large end of the telescope at the object he desires 
 to reduce, and through the small end of the tele 
 scope at what he wishes to loom large. After 
 this examination he declares the God of Samuel s 
 times and the Tongan gods to be very similar 
 indeed. Not satisfied with this discovery, the 
 Professor goes on to say that the fifth command 
 ment, * Honour thy father and thy mother, is 
 practically the ancestor worship of some ancient 
 nations, and similar to the ancestor worship of 
 the Tongans. 
 
 The learned Professor during many years has 
 made many valuable contributions to scientific 
 knowledge ; but when, in his new character of 
 theological tutor, he seeks to destroy our belief in 
 the God of the Bible, and to destroy filial duty, 
 one of the chief foundations of our social life, he 
 may find that he has mistaken his vocation, and 
 
A Pacific Voyage 
 
 that Christendom will revolt against his feeble 
 attempt to destroy the foundations of religious, 
 moral, and social life. 
 
 On the eighth day from Auckland we glided 
 across the line into the old world. Though I 
 had not been there for thirty-two years or more, 
 curiously enough I could not perceive any differ 
 ence, except perhaps an odd sort of home feeling. 
 A few flying-fish appeared, and some porpoises 
 amused us by their gambols. Neptune did not 
 board us, nor did the doldrums bother us, as in the 
 old days of sailing ships. Our noble steamer sped 
 on her way ; 320 knots every twenty-four hours. 
 Nothing surprised me more than the absence of 
 sunshine. For some degrees north and south of 
 the line the ocean was usually grey and the sky 
 cloudy. 
 
 The steamer remaining a few hours at Honolulu 
 gave me an opportunity of visiting the town and 
 suburbs. The Mararoa entered the harbour by a 
 passage cut through the coral reef which surrounds 
 the island. The accommodation for large steamers 
 surprised me much, and the town surprised me 
 more. Well laid out, good roads, many good 
 
io Our Kin Across tJie Sea 
 
 buildings, legislative halls, a grand palace, large 
 hotels, handsome Young Men s Christian Associa 
 tion Rooms, large churches, 450 subscribers of five 
 pounds each to the telephone exchange, about 250 
 vehicles plying for hire, with perhaps as many more 
 run on private account. I was surprised at the 
 breeding and condition of most of the horses, 
 which, though light, were active and up to their 
 work. 
 
 There is a large market, mainly run by Chinese, 
 where beef, vegetables, fruit of many kinds, and a 
 good many other things besides, can be obtained 
 in great variety. The natives are very much like 
 Maoris, but taller, fatter, and much softer and 
 milder mannered. The town of Honolulu is im 
 bedded in foliage of living green. The royal palm, 
 the magnificent ornamental cocoanut palm, and 
 bananas, grow everywhere. One most handsome 
 tree, of deep green foliage, and covered with mag 
 nificent scarlet flowers, was a picture of floral 
 beauty. The drives through the suburbs are very 
 pleasant. This is the land of flowers. Of some of 
 these the natives have a pretty custom of making 
 garlands, which they wear round their necks in a 
 
A Pacific Voyage ii 
 
 most graceful fashion. Just behind the town is 
 a picturesque mass of volcanic mountain peaks,, 
 several thousand feet high. During my stay 
 masses of cloud gathered round the summits, and,, 
 illuminated by the setting sun, presented a cloud- 
 land picture of striking beauty. The temperature 
 was very pleasant, and, I was told, varies but a 
 few degrees all the year round. The islands are 
 evidently extremely fertile. They are famous for 
 their sugar yields, averaging five or six tons per 
 acre without manures. Irrigation from the moun 
 tain streams is being introduced with great advan 
 tage. The islands contain about 80,000 inhabitants > 
 including 18,000 Chinese, 4,000 Portuguese, 5,000 
 Americans, and perhaps 3,000 English. The islands 
 have been hitherto run mainly by the Americans 
 under the inspiration and direction of Colonel Claus 
 Spreckles, the gentleman who now runs the Sydney 
 and San Francisco mail line. This gentleman, with 
 whom I had subsequently a pleasant interview in 
 San Francisco, is not only The Sugar King of 
 this part of the world, but, at Honolulu, is the 
 power behind the throne, only far more powerful 
 than the King himself. To him, nearly all the 
 
12 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 wonderful progress the Hawaiian Islands have 
 made of late years is mainly due. The indebted 
 ness for all the public works hitherto done does not 
 amount to more than one year s revenue. 
 
 His Majesty King Kalakaua is a very handsome 
 personage, not unlike a first-class Maori chief, with 
 the manners and address of a well-bred English 
 gentleman. His income is about I2,ooo/. per 
 annum, which he spends in quite a royal fashion. 
 He had the courtesy to send down his splendid 
 band entirely of natives, except the bandmaster 
 to play the steamer off. This really magnificent 
 band, in the great American band contest at San 
 Francisco last year, carried off most of the prizes. 
 They played many well-known English pieces, 
 closing with Auld Lang Syne/ and God save the 
 Queen, which they rendered with wonderful spirit, 
 taste, and style. On behalf of the passengers, 
 I thanked His Majesty for his courtesy, to which 
 he replied in a speech, which, for pronunciation, 
 grammar, and well-turned periods, few cultured 
 English gentlemen could have surpassed. 
 
 With hearty English cheers we parted from the 
 great crowds of these kindly genial people, who 
 
?IV! * 
 L 3 
 
 had come down to bid us God-speed on our voyage. 
 The natives, it is said, are diminishing, a circum 
 stance which one cannot but regret. These grand 
 islands, with the neighbouring groups, I think 
 ought not to be allowed to fall into the hands of 
 any European power. An Island Confederation 
 under a protectorate of England, the United States, 
 Germany, and perhaps France, may possibly be the 
 rdle for the next quarter of a century, when cir 
 cumstances may give rise to developments as yet 
 unforeseen. 
 
 France and Germany, owing to the supineness 
 of England, are rapidly acquiring the various 
 island groups in the Pacific ; nevertheless, it may 
 be found in the not far-off future, that neither 
 French nor Germans will dominate the Pacific, but 
 that Australasia will be ruled by Australasians 
 
 We all parted from these interesting people, 
 and from the beautiful gem of the ocean they 
 inhabit, with very pleasant remembrances. 
 
 A few more uneventful days and nights, and 
 we swept through the Golden Gate, and anchored 
 in the noble harbour of San Francisco the Queen 
 of the Pacific 
 
14 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 So ended our voyage. Stepping from the 
 orderly deck of the Mararoa to the noisy wharf, 
 we said our * Good-bye to Captain Eadie and his 
 officers, who merit the reputation they have earned. 
 Attentive to their duties, polite to their passengers, 
 firm without being rude, courteous without being 
 familiar in a word fine specimens of the English 
 sailors who are carrying English commerce and 
 English people over every sea. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 I NTRODUCTOR Y. 
 
 A RECENT business tour made in 1887, through 
 the States of California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming 
 Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Colorado, Mis 
 souri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas, has afforded 
 me an opportunity of making a fuller acquaintance 
 with our kin across the sea in the United States, 
 by personal contact, patient inquiry, and close in 
 vestigation of their characteristics, politics, and 
 achievements, than my previous knowledge of 
 American institutions, and literature of various 
 kinds, had given me. 
 
 I may say that I entered upon this inquiry 
 with a deep interest in the social, industrial, and 
 political problems which our American kindred are 
 endeavouring to solve under different conditions, 
 and on a grander scale, than has been attempted 
 
1 6 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 by any nation of ancient or modern times. My 
 interest in the solution of these great questions was 
 none the less, inasmuch as I felt that the people of 
 the United States were doing, though as yet on 
 a greater scale, very similar work to that which 
 the Australasian Colonies, and indeed the whole 
 English colonial world are engaged in. 
 
 Though an Englishman to the core, I felt that 
 as a Colonist I had perhaps more points of contact, 
 possibly, in some respects, a deeper sympathy, with 
 men of the same race, who are engaged in what 
 has been well termed the heroic work of colonisa 
 tion, than our countrymen who stay at home at 
 ease. 
 
 Thackeray, in the * Virginians/ wrote, many 
 years ago, that the foolish exactions, petty igno 
 minies, and the habitual insolence of Englishmen 
 towards all foreigners, all colonists, all folk who 
 dare to think their rivers as good as English rivers ; 
 the natural spirit of men outraged by our injurious 
 domineering spirit, set Britain and our American 
 Colonies to quarrel ; and the astonishing blunders 
 of the system adopted in England, brought the 
 quarrel to an issue which I, for one, am not going 
 
Introductory 17 
 
 to deplore. A century of misunderstanding and 
 ill-will between England and America followed. 
 Happily, a second century opened with a more 
 friendly feeling between the two great branches 
 of the Anglo-Saxon race. The settlement of the 
 Alabama difficulty; the tragic death of President 
 Garfield, calling forth, as it did, an electric flash of 
 sympathy throughout the English world, did much 
 to make Englishmen and Americans feel that they 
 were once more kin. 
 
 Nevertheless, Americans complain that the de 
 meanour of many Englishmen passing through the 
 United States, still betrays too much of the old 
 insular insolence. Without being blind to their 
 errors or follies, our American cousins have a right 
 to expect a more generous sympathy for their 
 failures, and a more genial appreciation of their 
 successes, than is at all times accorded them by 
 Englishmen. 
 
 It is with something of this latter spirit that, 
 in the following pages, I shall endeavour to pass 
 in brief review some of the vast and varied ques 
 tions which presented themselves to me for consi 
 deration, 
 
 C 
 
1 8 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 In dealing with these greater subjects, if I 
 incidentally touch here and there upon smaller 
 matters, it will be because I think that, not infre 
 quently, trifles go far to make the sum of human 
 things. If now and then I laugh at a folly, note 
 a peculiarity, criticise a custom, or denounce an 
 abuse, it will not be, I hope, in a censorious spirit. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be asked, How can a man get 
 a fair idea of a great nation by traversing 8,000 
 miles of its railways, and spending a few days here 
 and there in some of its great cities ? I may ask, 
 in reply, How is the work I have set myself to do, 
 to be done ? It may be suggested that a carriage 
 and a pair of fleet horses would have secured a 
 more leisurely survey. That may be so. But 
 would such a method not have required a lifetime, 
 with the result of a library of books, full of figures, 
 and small dry details ? And when so accomplished, 
 would not such a record of a people living under 
 high pressure, become in this living, throbbing age, 
 antiquated and useless ? I think so. If I am to 
 contribute my small effort towards the general 
 weal, I must use the opportunity as it serves, or 
 lose my ventures. In doing so, I must necessarily 
 
Introductory 1 9 
 
 make not a few mistakes, and draw some conclu 
 sions perhaps not always just. These, if such there 
 be, will be due, not to ill-will, but to imperfect 
 information. 
 
 Still, if I have conducted my inquiries regarding 
 the politics, the enterprise, the achievements, the 
 laws of health, the conditions of life, and the moral 
 and social pulsations under which a great and 
 kindred nation is working out its destiny if I 
 have done this, not in a severe, fault-finding spirit, 
 but with a generous consideration for the failures 
 which, in my judgment, may have been made, 
 and with a frank acknowledgment of the successes 
 which have been achieved, I may not unreasonably 
 hope that my delineations of * Our Kin Across -the 
 Sea will be accepted by them and others in a 
 spirit not very different from that in which they 
 have been made. 
 
 It is due to myself to say that, in traversing 
 the various States of the Union I visited, I have 
 had numberless conversations and discussions with 
 representative men of all classes Governors, 
 senators, politicians, bankers, capitalists, physicians, 
 lawyers, manufacturers, merchants, ranchmen, 
 
 2 c 
 
2O Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 farmers, and working men of various kinds. I 
 have, in many cases, when the more important 
 questions were being discussed, intimated to the 
 gentlemen taking part in the discussions, that the 
 result of my investigations would appear in the 
 columns of a leading New Zealand journal. I 
 may also state, that many of the opinions in these 
 articles upon Our Kin Across the Sea are often 
 the opinions of the various representative men who 
 have taken part in the discussions I have con 
 ducted. The conclusions I have formed, though 
 sometimes dissented from, were quite as often 
 accepted as fair and honest. In every case I en 
 deavoured to conduct my inquiries and to express 
 my criticisms with perfect frankness, yet, I trust, 
 with the courtesy and consideration with which I 
 was met on every hand. 
 
 In concluding this chapter, it only remains for 
 me to say that I venture to hope our American 
 kinsfolk will understand that the object of these 
 papers is not to indulge in flattery or fault-finding, 
 is not to wound the sensibilities of a great, and in 
 many respects a noble, nation, but to see, after a 
 very humble fashion, whether the American, who 
 
Introductory 2 1 
 
 is none other than a second, and, in some respects, 
 an improved edition of his English kinsman, may 
 not afford an example, and, it may be, a warning, 
 to his younger brethren, who, throughout the 
 English colonial world, are treading in his footsteps 
 for weal or woe. 
 
22 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GREAT CITIES. 
 
 AMONGST the features which most attract the 
 notice of a traveller in the Great West of the 
 United States (to which my remarks will be mainly 
 directed) are its great cities. 
 
 The cities I visited are monuments of American 
 energy and enterprise. The streets of some of 
 them might have been wider, and many of them, 
 especially those of San Francisco, might be better 
 paved ; but when it is remembered that these 
 cities of the West, now numbering from 100,000 to 
 700,000 inhabitants, were, forty years ago, either 
 mere villages or did not exist at all ; that in the 
 city of Minneapolis, with its 150,000 people, the 
 oldest person born in it is not yet thirty-two years 
 old ; and that in one of the streets of Chicago, 
 with its 700,000 inhabitants, there still stands a tree, 
 
Great Cities 23 
 
 which marks the site of an Indian massacre of 
 the early settlers on the shores of the noble Lake 
 Michigan ; and that men now living picked in 
 their boyish days, from the rugged bark of this 
 memorial tree, the arrow-heads of the shafts sent 
 by Indian warriors against the tortured fathers of 
 the future city : we may well be amazed that so 
 much has been done, and, in the main, so well 
 done, in so short a time. 
 
 Generally speaking, these great cities of the 
 West are well laid out. In many of them long 
 avenues, lined with deciduous trees, stretch far 
 into the level country, affording grateful shade 
 and remarkably pleasant drives in every direction. 
 Though I regretted the general absence of open 
 squares within the city limits, the handsome parks 
 outside provided abundant breathing-places for 
 the crowded toilers of the city. The splendid parks, 
 avenues, and boulevards which surround the city 
 of Chicago, bear honourable testimony to the muni 
 ficent and far-seeing spirit of its citizens, both 
 private and public. 
 
 The introduction and general adoption of the 
 passenger elevator, by permitting the erection of 
 
24 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 lofty buildings, some of them nine and ten stones 
 high, has given American cities a massive and 
 grand appearance. San Francisco, the Queen of 
 the West, is a picturesque city. The bay windows 
 in general use, with their broken lines and deep 
 shadows, with the irregular height of the buildings 
 and the broken contour of their upper lines, give a 
 character to the street architecture of San Francisco 
 more artistic and pleasant than I noticed in any 
 other city I visited. San Francisco, I believe, was 
 the first city to adopt the cable system of street 
 tramways, a system so convenient and effective that 
 I presume nothing but the heavy expense of its 
 initial construction prevents the universal adoption 
 of the cable tramcar system. 
 
 STREET OBSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 In all these great cities, which are busy hives of 
 manufacturing industry, little attention appears to 
 be paid to the convenience, or even to the safety, 
 of the people who traverse the sidewalks. Many 
 of these sidewalks serve for the roofs of under 
 ground stores. These are entered through aper- 
 
Great Cities 2$ 
 
 tures in the pavement of all sizes, from two feet to 
 six feet square. The iron doors of these cellars, 
 when open, serve as awkward barriers to prevent 
 foot passengers from falling down headlong. On 
 the principal sidewalks it is no uncommon thing 
 for a storekeeper or merchant to place rows of 
 carriages, piles of casks, cases, and almost any 
 thing else he pleases. In the busy side streets, it 
 is a common practice to place on the sidewalks 
 pieces of bulky machinery, long lines of car wheels, 
 and all manner of angular obstructions, sometimes 
 lying, not for an hour or two, but for days and 
 weeks, doubtless greatly to the convenience of the 
 proprietor of the adjoining warehouse or manu 
 factory, though not quite as pleasant to pedestrians. 
 I have even seen a sixteen-feet steam boiler lying 
 on a sidewalk for weeks together. 
 
 THE DIVE. 
 
 In most of the cities they adopt a very direct 
 mode of entering the cellars, by a flight of steps, 
 protected on one side of the path by an iron rail, 
 but open at one end, so that the man in search of 
 
26 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 whisky or lager beer may make an easy descent to 
 the dive or saloon below, where these articles are 
 to be had. A dive is the name given to a third- 
 or fourth-class saloon. It is a place or hole where 
 men go to imbibe various drinks, in some cases 
 dispensed by faded, painted, gaudily-dressed women,, 
 some of whom amuse the drinking crowd by sing 
 ing popular or peculiar songs. In this way, women, 
 wine, and music are pressed into the service of the 
 man who runs the dive, to his own profit, and 
 often to the ruin, body and soul, of those who 
 frequent his den. 
 
 THE SALOON. 
 
 The saloon is a drinking shop, of a better class. 
 It is entered from the level of the pavement. It is 
 a place where various drinks are dispensed to more 
 respectable, but not less thirsty, people than the 
 class which drinks at the dive. In the saloon, 
 men are generally the dispensers. One of the 
 superior saloons I inspected was brilliant with 
 glass and light, its walls being mounted with 
 paintings, some of which might, with advantage to 
 good morals, have been turned to the walls. 
 
Great Cities 27 
 
 The number of dives and saloons in most of 
 the cities where * prohibition laws are not in force 
 is very great. In San Francisco these are said 
 to exceed 2,000 ; and in Chicago, the Tribune, 
 a leading journal of that city, states the number 
 of these houses to be 3,400. I understand that,, 
 though laws exist for their inspection, they are, in 
 some cities, only very partially enforced. As a 
 consequence, they are, practically, open at almost 
 all hours, Sundays included. These establishments 
 provide no accommodation for travellers being 
 drinking shops pure and simple. They are said to 
 be centres of political intrigue, and to exercise a 
 very dangerous influence, in various ways, on the. 
 political questions and organisations of the day. 
 The * Chicago Tribune of October 2 says of the; 
 * dives : How do matters stand in Chicago ? 
 The dives and doggeries are running wide open- 
 They swarm with thieves, sluggers, thugs, and 
 prostitutes. They make no pretence of regarding^ 
 the law, because they know that the Mayor will 
 not enforce it against them. They know that, do 
 what they please, violate their bonds as they please,, 
 he will not revoke their licenses. Orgies are kept 
 
28 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 up in them until long after the hours when they 
 are required to be closed. Robberies are an every 
 day affair, and murders are continually increasing. 
 The character of these places is not only known 
 to the Mayor from newspaper reports, but from 
 the official reports of his own police captains. 
 These places have been reported to him over 
 and over again, with recommendations that the 
 license be revoked, and, in more than one case, 
 after their keepers have been convicted of crimes 
 even worse than keeping disorderly dens, and yet 
 he admits there has been but one license revoked 
 since last May, and in that case, it is believed, the 
 party was not a voter. The police have grown 
 discouraged ; for what use is it to report cases 
 when no attention is paid to them ? 
 
 BELT RAILWAYS. 
 
 The great cities of the West are, as I have 
 said, hives of industry. Each is the vigorous beat 
 ing heart of the surrounding country, a great 
 railway centre, by which it receives and distributes 
 the varied products which an enterprising, ener- 
 
Great Cities 29 
 
 getic, industrious, and luxurious people require. 
 Of course all great cities do the same ; but the 
 Western cities of the United States appear to me 
 to do it more effectually, and with less friction, 
 than is done in other cities I have visited. America 
 is not only far ahead of all other countries in the 
 extent of its railways, but in the effective manner 
 in which it applies them. Indianapolis, for 
 instance a city of about 110,000 inhabitants 
 has sixteen lines of railway diverging from it, 
 with one hundred and twenty passenger trains ar 
 riving at, or departing from, its central depot daily. 
 By the adoption of the admirable * belt system 
 that is, a railway, in this case, fourteen miles in 
 length, running round the city, with which all the 
 railways connect the city is relieved of much 
 bustle and heavy traffic ; very much more room 
 is afforded for manufacturing operations, much 
 expense saved and damage prevented by unneces 
 sary handling of goods of all kinds. I cannot 
 but regard the man who invented the belt system 
 of railways as a genuine genius and as a great 
 benefactor to his fellows. 
 
3O Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 STATE FAIRS. 
 
 In almost every city I visited State Fairs 
 were being held ; sometimes in large and hand 
 some buildings erected for the purpose, each city 
 vying with its neighbour in the beauty of the 
 building and in the quality and excellence of the 
 exhibits. These annual fairs are exhibitions chiefly 
 of the products of the agricultural and manufac 
 turing arts. They attract great numbers of people, 
 and by bringing inventions and machinery of all 
 kinds into close contrast and competition, they 
 undoubtedly exert a very stimulating and bene 
 ficial influence in every direction. 
 
 ASYLUMS. 
 
 1 was pleased to learn that the poor, the sick, 
 and the insane were generally, both in town and 
 country, carefully and wisely provided for. I was 
 informed that the number of insane patients was 
 large, and that in some districts they largely con 
 sisted of farmers, and more particularly of farmers 
 
Great Cities 31 
 
 wives. If that be true, possibly isolation and 
 heavy, hard work may to some extent account 
 for it. 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
 The great heart of the West is Chicago. This 
 great city, with its 700,000 inhabitants, is in various 
 ways a striking instance of the marvellous enter 
 prise and indomitable energy of the American 
 people. Ten years ago, an area of three and a 
 half square miles of the finest part of the city was 
 burnt down by the explosion of a kerosene lamp. 
 Almost before the fires were extinguished, the 
 smoke-begrimed inhabitants set to work to re 
 build their city on the old lines. They would 
 not give themselves time to rearrange and widen 
 the streets, and so lost an opportunity which, it 
 is to be hoped, will never again be given them. 
 Notwithstanding the narrow streets, the lofty 
 buildings of a plain but massive architecture invest 
 the city with an unmistakable grandeur. The 
 black fumes of the innumerable factories of every 
 kind have rendered the city as black and dingy as 
 if it were centuries old. Except in the main 
 
32 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 streets, the sidewalks are chiefly of wood, full " of 
 steps, holes, and traps. Even in some of the main 
 streets, flights of three or four steps, entirely un 
 protected by railing, descend from the well-paved 
 sidewalks to the basement floors of pretentious 
 buildings. These holes, traps, and steps render 
 walking in the streets at all times unpleasant, and, 
 at night, not a little dangerous. 
 
 THE RIVER AND MAIN SEWER, 
 
 The Chicago river, 280 feet wide, though 
 affording great shipping facilities to a limited 
 number of riparian proprietors, is a great obstruc 
 tion and a dangerous nuisance to a much larger 
 number of the inhabitants. It is a receptacle for 
 much of the sewage of the great city. It would 
 be more dangerous to health than it is at present 
 had it poured all its pestiferous contents into Lake 
 Michigan, from which Chicago obtains its water 
 for drinking and other purposes. Happily for the 
 city, the engineers, by cutting a canal, and em 
 ploying other appliances, have turned the river, 
 with much of its sewage abominations, into a 
 
Great Cities 33 
 
 distant river, so partially freeing the pure waters 
 of Lake Michigan from pollution. 
 
 SWING-BRIDGES. 
 
 At the various streets which cross this filthy 
 stream its navigation is secured by iron swing- 
 bridges. When a steamer going up or down 
 stream with a vessel in tow arrives at a bridge, a 
 signal bell is rung, and the bridge swings round 
 for the vessels to pass. When these have passed, 
 the bridge swings back, and the bell rings to show 
 that the bridge is again in position. It is curious 
 to see the alacrity which the long lines of waggons, 
 buggies, tramcars, and vehicles of all sorts, use to 
 cross before it again swings open. The signal-bell 
 again sounds its warning note, and, as the ponder 
 ous bridge swings off, many a lagging passenger 
 has to make a perilous leap ashore. Then begins 
 a new accumulation of a long line of vehicles and 
 foot passengers on each side of the bridge. Not 
 unfrequently, before the bridge again closes, a 
 hundred waggons and carriages will be massed in 
 a long right or left line on either side of the bridge. 
 
 D 
 
34 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 A regular jam ensues. The crush is often tre 
 mendous, and the language of the drivers, if not 
 choice, is equalled by the excitement of the surg 
 ing crowd. The bridge again swings round, and a 
 grand stampede across it follows in opposite direc 
 tions. And so on all day long. 
 
 How the people submit to such continual 
 obstructions in great thoroughfares is a puzzle to 
 me. I fancy it would pay the city to buy out the 
 riparian owners, and close up the dirty stream, 
 leaving only sluice gates at the lake to carry away 
 the whole of its foul abominations to the far- 
 distant Ohio valley. 
 
 CHICAGO STREETS AT NIGHT. 
 
 Those who have not seen the effect of the 
 electric light in the streets of a great city at night, 
 can form no adequate idea of the splendour of the 
 illumination, created by the starlike brilliancy of 
 the magnificent arc lights. I have said starlike ; 
 but the electric lights shine with a thousandfold 
 the brightness of stars of the first magnitude. A 
 night drive at eight P.M. through the principal 
 
Great Cities 35 
 
 streets of Chicago, with its innumerable gas-lights, 
 transformed into golden globes by the dazzling 
 splendour of the silvery arc lights scattered along 
 the streets in wild profusion, is a spectacle worth 
 seeing. When the use of electric lights becomes 
 general, the effect will far surpass the wildest dreams 
 of the imagination. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PHYSICAL FEATURES. 
 
 THE great physical features of the United States 
 may be briefly stated to be one vast plain, bounded 
 on the east by the Alleghany Mountains, and on 
 the west by the Rocky Mountains. Further west 
 the Sierra Nevada range flanks the Pacific Coast. 
 
 Between the Rocky and the Nevada ranges lies 
 a great desert plain, sometimes termed the Great 
 Central Basin. This latter term I shall employ in 
 describing this peculiar and interesting region. 
 
 AREA. 
 
 The total area of the United States is about 
 3,100,000 square miles, or about 100,000 square 
 miles larger than Australasia. About one-third of 
 this area may be taken to be mountains and desert 
 
Physical Features 37 
 
 plains, the remainder, or about 2,000,000 square 
 miles, may be described as one vast level plain of 
 fertile land, through which rolls the mighty Missis 
 sippi River, with its grand tributary the Missouri 
 River, and a host of smaller tributary rivers. 
 Between the Rocky and the Alleghany Mountains 
 lies, as I have said, the great valley of the Missis 
 sippi. Throughout this vast plain, a large portion 
 of which I traversed, I did not observe one blue 
 mountain peak or range. Indeed, I did not see 
 any elevations which might be termed anything 
 more than hills. The effect, in various ways, of 
 such a configuration of country upon its inhabitants 
 is, I think, very marked, to which I shall return in 
 a subsequent chapter, when I describe more at 
 length this grand fertile region, and the industrious 
 people who dwell there. 
 
 Meantime, let me return to the mountain re 
 gions lying west of the great Mississippi Valley. 
 First, I may shortly describe California, the most 
 western State of the Union, lying chiefly between 
 the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
38 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 GRAIN AND FRUIT. 
 
 California, or the Pacific Slope, has a climate 
 very different, and much superior, to that of the 
 rest of the United States. It has a long, dry, hot 
 summer, extremely suitable for growing wheat, 
 barley, and fruit of every description. The vine 
 thrives well and yields grapes in great profusion. 
 Some varieties the purple Damascus, for instance 
 being excellent table fruits, others well adapted 
 for wine making. The climate of the western slope 
 of the Sierras is superb, so delightful and healthy, 
 that I think a large emigration from the intense 
 summer heat and severe winter cold of the Eastern 
 States will eventually take place. The long dry 
 summer of California, though very suitable for 
 fruits of all kinds, has the effect of burning up 
 every particle of verdure, imparting a yellow hue 
 to the whole country. This long dry season has 
 some advantages, but I prefer the climate of New 
 Zealand, which, having neither intense heat nor 
 severe cold, with its rains, in the main, distributed 
 over the year, secures a perpetual verdure. Though 
 
Physical Features 39 
 
 these frequent rains must always prevent the chief 
 part of New Zealand from being a land of vine 
 yards, they, with its mild climate, enable it to 
 produce beef and mutton much more tender, and 
 of a far better flavour, than can ever be produced 
 in any part of the United States I visited ; whilst 
 the genial and equable climate of New Zealand, 
 with its fertile soils, endow it in a much higher 
 degree with all the elements needed to render life 
 more easy, more healthy, and more enjoyable, than 
 any portion of the United States which passed 
 under my review. 
 
 SACRAMENTO VALLEY. 
 
 With this brief digression, let us now traverse 
 the Sacramento Valley, rich in wheatfields, vine 
 yards, and orchards. This magnificent valley is 
 well watered by the Sacramento and American 
 rivers. The yields of wheat of a fine quality from 
 this fertile district were formerly very great ; as 
 much as fifty bushels per acre being at first common. 
 But by the exhaustive system of growing wheat 
 from the same ground for many successive years, 
 
4<D Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 without the application of fertilisers, the quantity 
 has much diminished ; and, what is even more 
 serious, the quality of the wheat has become greatly 
 deteriorated. For, though the wheat is still a 
 bright, handsome grain, the important quality of 
 strength, or gluten, has been greatly reduced, 
 causing Californian flour to be what millers term 
 weak. Many of these old wheat lands are being 
 turned into orchards and vineyards with good 
 effect. As I traversed the valley I noticed that the 
 vicious system of burning the standing straw, from 
 which the grain had been headed, prevailed to a 
 very large extent. 
 
 HYDRAULIC MINING. 
 
 As we swept up the valley I noticed with regret 
 to what a serious extent the Sacramento and 
 American rivers had been filled up and injured by 
 the vast quantities of gravel and debris carried into 
 them by hydraulic mining. To so great an extent 
 had these rivers and adjacent streams been injured 
 by the process, that, a year or two ago, the farmers 
 took action in the Courts of Law to prevent further 
 
Physical Features 41 
 
 damage. They were successful, all hydraulic 
 mining throughout California having been sum 
 marily stopped, and a very large number of miners 
 thrown out of employment However hardly this 
 peremptory stoppage of hydraulic mining may have 
 borne on many industrious miners of small or large 
 capital, there can be no question that the Courts 
 were absolutely right, both in law and equity, in 
 putting an end to a practice which, whilst it 
 enabled miners not only to rifle the hills of their 
 golden contents, leaving nothing but a desert 
 behind them, inflicted a permanent injury on 
 the husbandman, whose descendants would be 
 otherwise pursuing their beneficial occupation for 
 centuries after the last miner had sold his last ounce 
 of the golden metal. 
 
 When it is remembered that thousands of 
 industrious miners, by this decision of the Courts, 
 were compelled to abandon their locations, moving 
 in some instances hundreds of miles away to other 
 mining centres, it is a striking testimony to the 
 existence of two grand qualities in the American 
 democracy obedience to Law and independent 
 self-reliance for, so far as I could learn, the evacua- 
 
42 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 tion of the hydraulic mining locations was made 
 with many a murmur, doubtless, but practically 
 without the aid of a single policeman, or without 
 recourse to the odious begging subscription list, 
 or any demand from the unemployed for help or 
 work. 
 
 Nevertheless, the farmer must rightly measure 
 the peculiar circumstances of the country he culti 
 vates, or he, too, will as surely, if more slowly than 
 the miner, impoverish the soil. In a country with 
 long dry summers, like California, in which grasses 
 do not readily grow, one powerful agent in rotation- 
 husbandry is wanting. Until some other plant, 
 which will occupy the place of grass, in rotation 
 farming, has been discovered and utilised, it is 
 certain, to avoid permanent impoverishment of the 
 soil, that either fertilisers must be used, or some 
 crop other than cereals must be produced ; for it 
 is undeniable that, however rich originally these 
 lands may have been in phosphates and other 
 mineral constituents of wheat, continuous cultiva 
 tion of that grain can only result in a yield steadily 
 diminishing in quantity and quality, to be followed 
 by such a fatal impoverishment of the soil of this 
 
PJiy steal Features 43 
 
 fine country as may ultimately compel large areas 
 of land to be abandoned for a long period to 
 Nature s slowly recuperative forces. 
 
 In the midst of this general robbery of the land, 
 it is pleasant to see considerable areas put into 
 orchards and vineyards. The climate and soil seem 
 to me to be very suitable for the cultivation of the 
 olive a tree which, with fairly generous treat 
 ment, after a few years will yield a profitable return 
 for ages to come. 
 
 GOLD MINING. 
 
 Climbing through the pine-clad hills, we diverge 
 from the main railway line at Colfax, to the gold- 
 mining districts of Grass Valley and Nevada City. 
 These two mining centres are small towns, about 
 2,500 feet above sea level. The forests are exclu 
 sively composed of pines, chiefly of a second growth 
 the original forests having been cut down. The 
 climate on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada 
 Mountains, at the time of my visit (October), 
 was cool, bracing, and delightful. The undulating 
 character of the district, the clear running streams, 
 and the deep red volcanic soil reminded me very 
 
44 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 much of some parts of New Zealand, except that 
 the hard forms, the rigid foliage, and the dark 
 greens of the pine woods, are very inferior to the 
 soft luxuriance, the endless variety, and the living 
 greenery of New Zealand forests. 
 
 The Grass Valley mines have long been, and 
 .are now, very prolific in their yields of gold. One 
 of them, the Idaho mine, has for eighteen years 
 -continuously paid monthly dividends, the 2O4th 
 dividend being paid during my visit. The total 
 output from this mine has attained a total value of 
 i,8oo,ooo/., of which the shareholders have received 
 in dividends 8oo,ooo/. sterling. The workings are 
 now at a depth of about 1,700 feet, and the reef is 
 .showing signs of exhaustion as it descends. Most 
 of the mines in this district work seven days per 
 week, and the batteries run on Sunday. The con 
 sequences of such a system I shall note in a subse 
 quent chapter. The Idaho mine is an exception, 
 working only six days per week, except the pumps, 
 which of course run continuously. The Providence 
 mine, at Nevada City, is a well-conducted enterprise, 
 the quartz being first treated by an ordinary stamp 
 ing mill, amalgamated, and tailings concentrated, 
 
Physical Features 45" 
 
 the concentrations being roasted and treated by a. 
 very complete chlorinisation process, by which all 
 the gold and silver is extracted, with the exception 
 of a value of about twelve dollars per ton of concen 
 trates, which cannot under the present process be 
 saved. The proprietors gave me a quantity of the 
 refuse, to try if we could not extract a portion of 
 the value for them. The towns of Grass Valley 
 and Nevada City are wretched collections of narrow 
 and crooked streets, with small houses and hovels, 
 embowered for the most part in orchards laden at 
 the time of my visit with fruit of excellent quality 
 
 AMONGST THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 Returning to the main line of railway, we 
 ascended the Sierra Nevadas, rounding Cape Horn 
 on the way. From this lofty precipice we have a 
 fine view of an Alpine ravine, down which runs 
 a mountain torrent through pine-clad mountains 
 Crossing the summit, at an elevation of about 8,000 
 feet, we pass under a continuous line of thirty-five 
 miles of massive timber snow-sheds. The night 
 previous to my crossing the mountains a heavy fall 
 
46 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 of snow had covered them to the level of the rail 
 road. The dazzling snow-white carpet made a 
 striking contrast with the deep green of the scat 
 tered pines on the mountain slopes. Winding 
 round a mountain lake we strike the Truckee river 
 (rising in Lake Tahoe), a beautiful mountain tor 
 rent, which dashes and foams at our side for many 
 miles through a picturesque gorge. 
 
 The Truckee river winds its way through the 
 gorge, blocked here and there by granite masses, 
 over which it descends into deep black pools below. 
 The sparkling river dashes along at our side in a 
 constant succession of brawling cataracts, stopping 
 here and there, as it were to rest awhile in quiet 
 pools. Deep ravines run up the mountain side, the 
 brilliant sunshine lighting up every snow-covered 
 peak with a dazzling brilliance difficult to describe. 
 As we descended the gorge the scene became even 
 more beautiful. Here and there a dwarf pine 
 struggled for existence among the hoary rocks. 
 Many brilliantly-tinted mosses, lichens, and Alpine 
 shrubs imparted a rare beauty to the scene, and 
 made it a charming study for the botanist, geolo 
 gist, and artist. 
 
Physical Features 47 
 
 At length we arrived at Reno, a station on the 
 Central Pacific Railroad. 
 
 Diverging at Reno, we run through a pretty 
 valley, enriched by irrigation, to Carson City, on 
 our way to Virginia City, the location of the famous 
 Comstock silver lode. 
 
 FABULOUS WEALTH. 
 
 Never, perhaps, in the history of mining has so 
 enormous an amount of mineral wealth been ob 
 tained in so short a time, from so small an area, as 
 from the renowned Comstock silver lode at Virginia 
 City. Silver bullion to the value of over 6o,ooo,ooo/. 
 sterling was obtained in about three years, from 
 less than half a mile in length of the Comstock lode 
 or reef. Of this sum, over 2O,ooo,ooo/. sterling 
 was obtained from the famous C and C mine 
 controlled by four men, originally diggers, saloon 
 keepers, &c., who, if report speaks correctly, not 
 satisfied with the enormous wealth they obtained 
 from the mine, stimulated stock-jobbing in mining 
 shares in San Francisco to a frightful extent. So 
 great was the excitement in the Stock Exchange 
 
48 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 there, that, under the terrible influence of the silver 
 frenzy, men and women of almost every class madly 
 speculated in mining shares, utterly regardless 
 whether the wealth they so madly sought came 
 from the mines or from the pockets of their friends 
 and neighbours. While these victims of the silver 
 insanity were buying and selling shares, the four 
 arch speculators are credited or debited with having 
 moved them about like pawns in a game, regulat 
 ing the output of bullion from the mine, as they 
 themselves wished to buy for a rise or sell for a 
 fall. 
 
 Looking at the wickedness and villany de 
 veloped in those mad days, one cannot help think 
 ing that, whilst the average man will buy and sell 
 shares in coal, iron, copper, or lead mines, and 
 remain honest and reasonable, directly he touches 
 the royal metals, and speculates in gold or silver 
 mining shares, he has need to look well to his ways 
 and hold fast to right principles, or he may find, as 
 many have found before, that the glittering tempta 
 tion grips him like a fiend, and turns him into 
 little better than a beast of prey, callous to the 
 black and hopeless misery he creates, careless who 
 
Physical Features 
 
 goes under, so long as he can step to fortune and 
 infamy over the broken fortunes and ruined homes 
 of his victims. As for the archpriests of this un 
 holy fetish of ruthless gambling, their fate awaits 
 them, and they may be left to the Nemesis which 
 pursues, and generally overtakes and punishes, the 
 evil-doer. 
 
 After three years of fabulous yields the Corn- 
 stock mines rapidly fell off. During the seven fol 
 lowing years, enormous sums have been expended 
 in sinking and searching for the lost treasure. 
 After sinking to the enormous depth of 3,250 feet, 
 on October 13, the day before my visit, the low 
 levels of the C and C, and Norcross and Savage 
 mines were abandoned, and though some feeble 
 efforts were to be made at the 1,750 feet level, 
 they were said to be practically shut down. 
 
 As an instance of the uncertainty attending 
 mining adventures, I may mention that one of 
 the Comstock mining companies, after sinking a 
 shaft over 3,000 feet deep, at a cost of i,4oo,6oo/. 
 sterling, had only obtained a gross yield of bullion 
 to the value of i,4OO/. Before I leave this part of 
 my subject, I may state that one monster pump, 
 
 E 
 
5O Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 with a pump-rod 3,250 feet in length, weighing 185 
 tons, lifts 1,000,000 gallons 1,500 feet each twenty- 
 four hours ; while three hydraulic pumps in the 
 mine lift in each twenty-four hours 3,500,000 
 gallons. 
 
 CHANGED FORTUNES. 
 
 In its palmiest days Virginia City was regarded 
 as the wealthiest, fastest, wickedest little city on 
 earth. The utmost extravagance, the wildest 
 revelry, the grossest immorality prevailed on every 
 hand. It was Pandemonium gone mad. To-day, 
 the city is desolate, and sits, if not in repentance, 
 in debris and ruins. The clanking of the mighty 
 pumps, the beating of the giant batteries, no longer 
 wake the echoes of the deserted valley. The 
 revellers have gone. The mad fever has subsided, 
 leaving at least this warning plainly written on the 
 ruins of the deserted city namely, that whenever 
 Nature makes a supreme effort, and deposits the 
 precious metals in such fabulous abundance on one 
 little spot, as in the Comstock lode, as well as in 
 other places, she has exhausted her wealth-pro 
 ducing force at those points. Whilst a moderately 
 
Physical Features 51 
 
 good mine may be expected to yield bullion in 
 payable quantities for ten years or more, it may be 
 taken as an established fact, that such enormously 
 rich pockets or blows as the Comstock lode or 
 our own Caledonian mine will have but a short 
 life, and, when results are fairly weighed, very often 
 a disastrous one. 
 
 Crossing from Reno, the Great Central Desert 
 Basin lying between the Sierra Nevada and the 
 Rocky Mountains (which I shall invite my readers 
 to revisit with me in the next chapter), let us now 
 cross to the gold regions of the Rocky Mountains. 
 Those I saw are in the State of Colorado, probably 
 the richest State, in gold and silver, of any State in 
 the Union. In the Black Hawk district, batteries (of 
 which there are 750 stamps running) are the chief 
 reducers of gold in the first instance. These bat 
 teries are generally rude affairs, and not equal in 
 gold-saving appliances to the batteries in New 
 Zealand, with the one exception, that they employ 
 machines for concentrating the sulphurets from 
 refractory gold and silver ores. They have one 
 commanding advantage, however, in the great 
 smelting and refining works at Denver. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 DENVER. 
 
 Denver is rapidly becoming the inland Swansea 
 of America. Its great smelting works are full of 
 interest. All varieties of gold, silver, galena, and 
 other ores are treated, with every aid that science, 
 skill, and capital (largely English) can secure, to 
 the immense advantage of the surrounding country. 
 The city, though not large, is well laid out and 
 handsome ; is perhaps the most brilliantly illumi 
 nated by the electric light of any city in the 
 Union, besides being one of the first to apply 
 electricity as a motor for street tramcars. Though 
 the country does not produce a single tree naturally, 
 yet, by irrigation, the city and suburbs are gay 
 with avenues of leafy shade-trees. English capital 
 is largely invested in mines, irrigation, buildings, 
 and smelting works. There is nevertheless and 
 I think very foolishly great jealousy of English 
 capitalists by American citizens. 
 
 I could not but think that English capitalists 
 might quite as advantageously engage in gold 
 enterprises in New Zealand, and without the un- 
 
Physical Features 53 
 
 pleasant bickering so rife at Denver and elsewhere 
 in the United States. 
 
 In the Auckland mining districts very rich 
 returns from mining enterprises have resulted from 
 operations which have been really nothing better 
 than scratching the surface. In American min 
 ing districts, 5o,ooo/. or ioo,ooo/. are readily in 
 vested in single mining enterprises, which may not 
 at the outset have offered a tithe of the promise 
 which many Auckland mines afford. 
 
 MINING FAILURES. 
 
 The cause of Auckland mining failures, I am 
 fully convinced, has not been due to the poverty of 
 the reefs, but has arisen partly from the areas of 
 claims being much too small, and, above all, from 
 the fact that even these small enterprises have 
 been undertaken with a capital totally inadequate 
 for the work to be done. With us, it was found 
 that, when even works on a very moderate scale 
 were needed, unless gold was struck almost at 
 once, shareholders became disheartened and re 
 fused to pay the very moderate calls made, with 
 
54 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 the result that mines generally have either been 
 abandoned or carried on in such a feeble and 
 languishing fashion as could only end, and has 
 actually ended, in wasting the very small capital 
 expended in so niggardly a manner. 
 
 The points we have to consider are : (i) That 
 gold cannot be obtained without diligently, skil 
 fully, and persistently searching for it. (2) We 
 have good gold reefs and skill in abundance, but 
 we have not the necessary capital, (3) Our reefing 
 districts are, in no sense, poor men s goldfields, as 
 we have found both to our direct and, still more, 
 to our indirect loss. 
 
 MINING CAPITAL. 
 
 The remedy for all this, is large areas worked 
 by English capital. After a long experience in 
 quartz mining, and a most patient, diligent, and 
 extensive inquiry, during my recent tour in the 
 gold regions of the United States, I am convinced 
 that half a million of English capital could be most 
 profitably employed on the Auckland goldfields 
 by such capitalists, to the great advantage of the 
 
Physical Features 55 
 
 Auckland district and the colony at large. And I 
 have good grounds for believing, if a reasonable 
 and non-obstructive policy were adopted by share 
 holders in mines which, under the present narrow 
 system, can scarcely be otherwise than worthless 
 speculations that English capital can be obtained. 
 Large amounts of English capital are invested 
 in American mining enterprises with varying re 
 sults. Large sections of people in the United 
 States regard with disfavour the investment of 
 English capital either in mines or lands. Indeed, 
 Congress has recently passed a highly restrictive 
 measure with the intention of preventing such 
 investments. 
 
 In view of these restrictions, and the enormous 
 area of gold- and silver-bearing country in New 
 Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and India an 
 area, vastly larger and richer than the gold- and 
 silver-bearing lands of the United States it will 
 certainly not be long before English capitalists will 
 become alive to the various advantages which 
 investments in countries under the British flag 
 present. 
 
 Investment, as well as trade, can safely only 
 
$6 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 follow the flag. Every English million invested in 
 the Colonies, not only increases British trade, but 
 strengthens that community of interest between 
 England and her great Colonies, without which 
 Imperial Federation must continue to be little 
 more than a splendid dream. 
 
57 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ACROSS THE CONTINENT. 
 
 I TRAVELLED across the American Continent 
 eastward, in the heats of autumn, when the crops 
 were being harvested ; westward on my return, 
 when the first frosts and snows of winter had 
 changed the face of the country. To avoid repeti 
 tion, it will be advantageous to describe what I saw 
 on both journeys indiscriminately, glancing, as the 
 fancy moves me, at cornfield or orchard, laden with 
 the riches of the year, or noting the clearer atmo 
 spheric tints, or the mountains, like white-robed 
 sentinels, in their raiment of winter snows. 
 
 THE GREAT CENTRAL BASIN. 
 
 The Great Central* Desert Basin of the North 
 American Continent is a peculiar and interesting 
 region ; bounded on the west by the Sierra 
 
58 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 Nevadas, and on the east by the Rocky Mountains. 
 It is about 5,000 feet above sea level. The great 
 mountains environ the level alkali plains with wall- 
 like ramparts. From these the rivers run down into 
 lakes, from which, with one exception, they find no 
 outlet to the ocean. Some of these lakes are fresh, 
 their waters probably finding subterranean outlets. 
 Others, like the Owen s Lake, having no outlet, 
 evaporation causes them to be saturated with soda, 
 large deposits of this mineral, in nearly a pure 
 state, lining the margin of the lake. Others again, 
 like the great Salt Lake, are so supercharged with 
 saline matters (about 22 per cent.) by evaporation, 
 that swimming in them is both difficult and un 
 pleasant. 
 
 The plains themselves are covered with sage 
 bushes (about two feet high) of several varieties, 
 generally of a grey-green tint, and growing apart 
 from each other, on the sandy plains. 
 
 RENO. 
 
 At Reno we fairly enter the Great Desert 
 Diverging to Carson City we passed through a 
 
Across the Continent 59 
 
 charming valley, fertilised by irrigation. The dis 
 trict is covered with fields of emerald-green alfalfa,, 
 cornfields, and orchards. The run to Carson City 
 is very pleasant. Lake Washoe, glittering with a 
 silver sheen in the morning sun, the bright green 
 fields, the orchards laden with golden fruit, the 
 blue mountains, the fresh bracing morning air> 
 gave us an intense feeling of enjoyment, which the 
 constant dweller in a crowded city can never know,, 
 with its mingled squalor and grandeur, its impure 
 atmosphere, and its still more impure surroundings. 
 
 SILVER BULLETS. 
 
 Some years ago the Washoe silver mines made 
 a small sensation. They are said to have been dis 
 covered by a party of hunters, who, running short 
 of ammunition, used some shining leadlike metal,, 
 which they found outcropping at a stream, near 
 which they had camped. The rude bullets they 
 cast answered their purpose well enough. Shortly 
 after the close of the expedition, one of the number, 
 having some bullets left in his pouch, took them to 
 an assayer, who declared them to be nearly pure 
 
<5o Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 silver. A rush followed, and Washoe made for a 
 short time a small stir in the mining world, to be 
 soon cast into the shade by the great discoveries of 
 rich ore at Virginia City and Gold Hill. 
 
 LITTLE WHITTINGTONS. 
 
 The latter place is now like its richer neighbour 
 a deserted village. In the days of its pride, its 
 rugged streets were metalled with ore containing 
 .gold to the value of twelve dollars per ton, which 
 at that time was only considered fit for macadam 
 ising the roads. Nobody has yet attempted to put 
 the streets through the batteries, but numbers of 
 barelegged urchins (more fortunate than Whitting- 
 ton in his search in the streets of London), after 
 every shower of rain, secure small quantities of the 
 shining metal. 
 
 CARSON CITY. 
 
 Carson City is the capital of the State of 
 Nevada. It has a mint, an indication of the faded 
 glories of the district ; and a State prison. 
 
Across the Continent 6r 
 
 FOOTPRINTS IN THE ROCKS. 
 
 At the rear of the State prison some interesting 
 vestiges of the long, long ago have been discovered, 
 A sloping hill has been excavated for some two 
 acres in extent to a depth of about fifteen feet 
 at the rear. In the face of the standing rock the 
 excavations have revealed a curious vertical spiral- 
 pipe some inches in diameter. This spiral cavity 
 is thought to have been an ancient hot spring. 
 This may be a very probable theory, looking at the 
 character of the rock still remaining in situ, the 
 whole of which has, I think, been deposited by the 
 extinct hot spring, when active. The platform of 
 rock uncovered has a gentle upward inclination 
 to the present limit of the excavation. I observed 
 at various points the peculiar wavy ripple, often" 
 seen in New Zealand, where a large hot spring, 
 supercharged with earthy matter, deposits it, as it- 
 spreads, in wavy lines over a rocky platform. On 
 this ancient rocky platform a great variety of dis 
 tinctly-marked footprints have been revealed by 
 the excavations. I noticed the footprints of man,. 
 
62 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 of the elephant, horse, deer, buffalo, and dog ; of 
 the duck, and probably the crane, with many other 
 impressions which I could not identify. Indians 
 who have seen the footprints identify all but those 
 of the elephant, of which they know nothing. 
 They say the man has worn Indian moccasins, 
 but larger than those now used by them. All the 
 footprints have been made when the mud has been 
 soft, as may be seen by a ridge round each foot 
 print on the side, in the direction of the course 
 taken by the man or animals. Two large indenta 
 tions in the rock were pointed out, from one of 
 which were taken the fossil remains of a horse, a 
 fossil horse s tooth being shown to me, and from 
 the other, if I mistake not, the fossil remains of an 
 -elephant had been taken. 
 
 Nearly all the fossil remains, I understood, had 
 Ibeen removed for scientific investigation. One 
 small fossil shell of the size of a New Zealand pipi, 
 or cockle, was kindly presented to me by the 
 governor of the prison. I was told that many of 
 these fossil shells had been found, all of them lying 
 in a layer of softer stone (doubtless anciently mud), 
 lying immediately upon the footprints, that is, ex- 
 
Across the Continent 63 
 
 actly in the position in which the New Zealand 
 Maori, who lives near a sea beach, finds the pipi to 
 day. I noticed the remarkable circumstance that 
 many of the footprints, more especially those of the 
 man and animals, appeared to have been made in 
 lines more or less converging towards the extinct 
 hot spring, as if the various animals had found 
 some virtue in the waters ; it being well known 
 that horses and buffaloes travel long distances to a 
 * salt lick. 
 
 It may also be noted that a hot spring of about 
 80 Fahr. still exists at the opposite side of the 
 prison precincts, marking probably the point at 
 which the extinct hot spring found vent, after 
 closing by its abundant deposit the more ancient 
 orifice. 
 
 Many theories have been advanced as to the 
 date, far back in the ages, when these footprints 
 were made. One American savant, I learnt, had 
 fixed it at a period 242,000 years ago. This theory 
 may be in accord with the very long periods which 
 geologists are so ready to allow for the formation 
 of some of Nature s works ; but to those who have 
 seen in New Zealand the very rapid rate at which 
 
64 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 hot springs frequently deposit the earths and salts 
 with which they are sometimes saturated, a very 
 much shorter period than 242,000 years would have 
 been sufficient to deposit the fifteen feet of super 
 incumbent rock. As an instance of the rapidity 
 with which rock is sometimes formed, I may state 
 that I have in my possession a piece of stone two 
 and a half inches thick, which was deposited in six 
 weeks by a warm spring struck in a deep shaft on 
 the Thames goldfield, in New Zealand. 
 
 An evidence of the rapidity and extent with 
 which volcanic deposits are sometimes made, I 
 may cite the eruption from Mount Tarawera in 
 New Zealand on June 10, 1886, which in three 
 hours discharged a quantity of volcanic mud, ashes 
 and dust, computed at 2,000,000,000 tons, covering 
 an area of 1,200 square miles of land, to depths 
 varying from ninety feet near the crater to one 
 inch thick fifty miles away. 
 
 The whole of the city surrounding Carson dis 
 trict affords abundant evidence of volcanic action. 
 The gravels coming down the mountain water 
 courses, or floating in them, are similar in charac 
 ter to those found in many New Zealand streams. 
 
Across the Continent 65 
 
 A gentleman at Carson City was kind enough to 
 present to me an Indian arrowhead, which he had 
 recently purchased from an Indian. Directly I 
 saw the weapon, I recognised its material to be 
 obsidian, exactly similar to the obsidian with which 
 we are familiar in New Zealand. 
 
 DESERT PLAINS. 
 
 Travelling for hundreds of miles over the desert 
 alkali plains is very wearisome. One day you have 
 fine dust inside the car, and dull grey sage bush 
 outside. Next day you have sage bush outside and 
 fine dust inside the railway cars. Were it not for 
 the admirable provision on the American railroads, 
 of double windows, abundance of water, and well- 
 appointed lavatories attached to each sleeper car, 
 the complexion of a traveller, after a summer day s 
 run in this dusty region, would assume a sage-bush 
 hue, softened off with yellow dust. 
 
 The Humbolt river, along which we ran several 
 hundred miles, terminates its course at the Hum- 
 bolt Sink, a broad shallow lake without an outlet. 
 What can be done with these desert and dreary 
 
 F 
 
66 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 plains by irrigation, is evident at the Humbolt rail 
 way station. A small supply of water has been 
 brought from the nearest mountains, with which a 
 few acres have been irrigated. The result is a 
 delightful oasis of living green. Large cotton- 
 wood trees (our poplar), fruit trees, vegetables in 
 great variety, grow with wonderful luxuriance. It 
 is quite evident that if these desert, sterile lands 
 could be irrigated by water obtained, say, from 
 artesian wells, they would become as fertile as any 
 land in the United States. It is, I think, probable 
 that deposits of potash, phosphates, nitrates, and 
 sulphur will yet be found in this region, which 
 when constant cropping has impoverished the 
 lands east of the Rocky Mountains will be of 
 inestimable value, as the raw materials of the 
 fertilisers, which will then be indispensable. 
 
 RED INDIANS. 
 
 At the Humbolt station I noticed a few In 
 dians, remnants of the tribe which, not many years 
 ago, dominated this part of the country. The 
 lank-haired men, dressed in a curious medley of 
 
Across the Continent 67 
 
 European clothing and Indian ornaments, had lost 
 all the romance of the Indian warrior, with which 
 Fenimore Cooper used to charm our boyish imagi 
 nations. I noticed two or three remarkably hand 
 some Indian squaws, each with her papoose 
 swaddled up like miniature mummies ; their broad, 
 shining, laughing faces showing they were live 
 mummies at least. The squaws, in accordance 
 with an ancient custom, had their faces painted ; 
 and if, in this dusty region, they wish to powder 
 their faces or their hair, they would only be follow- 
 Irrg the example of their pale-faced, painted sisters 
 in San Francisco ; a hideous practice, by which 
 old women are trying to make themselves look 
 young, and young women are succeeding in making 
 themselves look old. 
 
 These remnants of the race, which in times 
 past hunted the deer and the buffalo, lords of all 
 this wide region, now stood wistfully looking at 
 the strange white man, and at his stranger works, 
 with an impassive, far-off absent look in their jet- 
 black eyes ; as they turned to watch the departing 
 train, the ruddy beams of evening lighted up their 
 faces as they looked to the West. The shadow of 
 
 F 2 
 
68 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 civilisation has fallen upon their race, corrupting 
 before it destroys. They are silently departing 
 into the Great Unknown, to await a doom in the 
 future, more merciful, it may be, than that which 
 has befallen them in the past. Like the sun, 
 as he disappeared behind the rugged mountains, 
 their motionless figures vanished from our sight, 
 but, unlike him, soon to return no more. 
 
 AMONGST THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 All through the night the tireless locomotive 
 dragged us across the desert plain. Morning 
 dawned upon a scene of splendid beauty. The 
 mountains surrounding the Great Central Basin, 
 which, on my journey East a month before, had 
 loomed out of the hot, misty haze, sullen masses of 
 dim, dusty grey, now towered above the silent 
 desert plains, robed in purest white. The early 
 sunshine tinted the loftiest linked peaks of the 
 Sierras with rosy, radiant hues ; while those still 
 in. shadow stood like white-robed maidens, silent, 
 pure, cold, waiting for the coming King to cast 
 upon them his golden garment. 
 
Across the Continent 69 
 
 As the day wore on, the panorama of white- 
 robed mountains changed at every league we ran. 
 Bright in the noonday sunshine, the snow-clad 
 giants kept their everlasting watch in silent, solemn 
 grandeur, looking down, all unmoved, on the roar 
 ing railroad train, as it dashed at headlong speed 
 across the desert plain : looking down, as they 
 looked down ten thousand years ago, but on what 
 was then an ancient inland sea, which has left no 
 trace behind, save salt lakes and the rugged giants 
 which kept their watch of ages upon its shores, as 
 they now encircle the desert plain with their ada 
 mantine walls. 
 
 Along the faces of the mountains, the succes 
 sive lines of subsidence of the ancient sea are 
 indelibly marked in long horizontal lines ; the 
 only remains of the long- departed waters being 
 the Small and Great Salt Lakes as we now see 
 them. 
 
 MORMONS. 
 
 No description of the Great Central Desert 
 Basin would be complete without a notice of the 
 Mormons, and Salt Lake City. Led across the 
 
70 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 trackless wilderness by Brigham Young, the Mor 
 mons, or Latter Day Saints as they prefer to call 
 themselves many years ago made a settlement 
 on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. This sheet 
 of water, about one hundred miles long, is the Dead 
 Sea of this region. Near its saline shores there is 
 no vegetation, nor can any living thing exist in its 
 saturated waters. 
 
 The golden plates, and the other revelations, 
 said to have been made by the angel to Joseph 
 Smith, the founder of the Mormons, are simply 
 the distorted imaginations of a dreaming, self- 
 deluded, visionary enthusiast. That they should 
 have been adopted by so large a number of emi 
 grants from many European nations, is a curious 
 instance of the extent and force with which fan 
 tastic delusions sometimes affect large sections of 
 the human race. In the case of the Mormons, 
 these delusions have been accompanied by a re 
 markable development of energy and industry. 
 Locating themselves in a sterile desert, far away 
 from their fellows, by bringing water from the 
 mountains, and irrigating the alkali plains, they 
 have literally changed this desert into fertile fields 
 
Across the Continent 71 
 
 and richly laden orchards. Where nothing was to 
 be seen but sand and sage bush, emerald-green 
 alfalfa, wheat, vegetables, and fruits in wonderful 
 abundance now gladden the visitor. 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY. 
 
 Embosomed in luxuriant trees and greenery of 
 every kind, with its miles of broad, well laid out 
 streets, fringed with long avenues of shade-trees, 
 Salt Lake City is a remarkable creation of patient 
 industry and indomitable enterprise. 
 
 The worst feature in the Mormon policy, is 
 their adoption of the practice of c plurality of 
 wives. 1 This I understood was not one of the 
 * principles of the Church of the Latter Day 
 Saints, as laid down by Joseph Smith, but was a 
 practice introduced by Brigham Young. It is 
 this practice of the plurality of wives which the 
 United States people have fully and rightly de 
 termined to put down by force of law. Already 
 prosecutions have been instituted against pro 
 minent Mormons who have more than one wife, 
 some of whom are now serving a six months 
 
72 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 term in the penitentiary, whilst, other leading men 
 are hiding from the officers of the law. I pointed 
 out to some of their principal men, that Natural 
 Law was directly opposed to a man having more 
 than one wife, inasmuch as Nature has provided a 
 general equality of the sexes at birth throughout 
 the animal world; for instance, broadly speaking, 
 the births in herds of cattle, in flocks of sheep, or 
 in the human race, show a general equality of 
 males and females, with perhaps a slight preponder 
 ance of females. Under this state of things I 
 asked them to consider, that if one-half, or one- 
 third of the men in a community were to absorb 
 all the women for their wives, the remainder of 
 the men must of necessity be deprived of wives 
 altogether. In no case were they able to assail 
 the position that, in their practice of a plurality of 
 wives, they were infringing a great natural law, 
 and were, besides, provoking the just enmity of 
 their own fellow-citizens and of every right-think 
 ing man in every country. 
 
Across the Continent 73 
 
 A SUNSET GLORY. 
 
 Returning West, we again struck the Humbolt 
 river ; its course, as I have said, dotted with irrigated 
 golden orchards, and fields of alfalfa (lucerne), 
 green as emeralds in the grey, sombre setting of 
 the desert plain. At sunset we reached the 
 Humbolt Sink, which I have already described as 
 a. large sheet of water receiving the waters of the 
 Humbolt River. No outlet from the Sink or Lake 
 exists, the waters sinking and going down below, 
 no one knows how or where. No scene could be 
 more enchanting than that presented to us through 
 the pure, translucent atmosphere of this elevated 
 region. A cloudless day was drawing to a close. 
 As the sun approached the mountain summits in 
 the west, the lake lay placid as a mirror at their 
 feet, reflecting at various points the rich roseate 
 and purple hues, deepening, as the shadows length 
 ened, into a hundred shades of violet and blue ; as 
 the angle or the distance varied, every snowy peak 
 and sombre ravine of the scarred and rugged 
 mountains displaying more brilliant gleams or 
 
74 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 deeper shadows. A few moments before sunset, 
 the departing rays seemed to concentrate on the 
 centre of the arclike mountain chain, blazing for a 
 moment with a brilliant golden splendour of intense 
 and exquisite beauty. Sweeping from west to east > 
 the rich purple and vermilion tints lingered as they 
 swept from base to summit. For one instant, the 
 shining lake and glowing mountains presented a 
 scene of such peerless splendour as no pen can 
 describe or imagination conceive. And then,, 
 rugged mountains, placid lake, and desert plains 
 disappeared, as our fiery engine dragged us into 
 the deepening gloom of night. 
 
75 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OVER THE PLAINS. 
 
 LEAVING Ogden, we passed up the valley of the 
 Jordan, covered with irrigated alfalfa fields and 
 orchards ; up the Weber, Echo, and other canons 
 (pronounced canyons) or ravines, their rugged cliffs 
 of red sandstone rapidly disintegrating under the 
 influence of the intensely cold winters, and present 
 ing striking pictures of rocks in ruins. Slowly 
 climbing the western slopes of the Rocky Moun 
 tains to Sherman their highest point, 8,200 feet 
 above sea level we left behind us the weary sage 
 bush, and entered upon grass lands covered with a 
 thick sole of green herbage. These eastern slopes 
 of the mountains are occupied as cattle ranches, or,, 
 as we should call them, cattle stations. Great 
 herds of rather coarse cattle roam over these 
 extensive prairie lands, owned by wealthy cattle 
 
76 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 kings. The centre of this immense cattle district 
 appears to be Cheyenne, a small town of about 
 6,000 inhabitants, said to be one of the wealthiest 
 towns, for its size, in the United States. 
 
 We were now approaching the great Valley of 
 the Mississippi ; passing the North Platte River 
 little better than continuous shingle beds a 
 large portion of its waters being said to be used 
 for irrigation purposes in the State of Colorado. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 What can be said of this great valley ? How 
 shall I describe it ? So vast, so fertile, teeming 
 with agricultural wealth, so studded with great 
 cities ! But of deeper interest to every well-wisher 
 of the great nation, in whose veins flows a blood 
 kindred to our own, are the millions of industrious 
 freeholders, who mainly cultivate their own mode 
 rately-sized farms, in this magnificent valley. 
 
 These vast plains contain perhaps the largest 
 extent of fertile land in one area to be found in 
 the world, and yet, forty-five years ago, the vast 
 ^district west of the Mississippi river was marked 
 
Over the Plains 77 
 
 in the school atlases of the day as the Great 
 American Desert. 
 
 I have termed it a valley. It is rather a vast 
 plain spreading from the Rocky Mountains in the 
 West to the Alleghanies in the East ; from the 
 Canadian frontier in the north to the Gulf of 
 Mexico in the South, covering an area, probably, of 
 2,000,000 square miles of generally level, fertile 
 land, well watered everywhere. I traversed chiefly 
 the North-western and Central States of this vast 
 plain. Everywhere I made copious notes of the 
 quality of the land, of the cattle, of the cultivation 
 and of the productions of the States I traversed. 
 
 FARMING. 
 
 It is perhaps only due to myself to state, that a 
 long and extensive experience as an agriculturist 
 and cattle breeder, both in England and New 
 Zealand, has, I venture to think, enabled me to 
 form a fairly reliable opinion of what I saw in an 
 extended travel, of perhaps 5,000 miles, over this 
 grand region. 
 
 Some portions were prairie lands naturally 
 destitute of forest, others were well wooded with 
 
78 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 oak, hickory, walnut, and other trees. Some 
 districts had richer soils than others, but I think I 
 am not far wrong in classing the great proportion 
 of the lands I traversed as coming fully under the 
 description of fertile soils. 
 
 The great prairies have been enriched by the 
 decay of the grasses growing upon them for cen 
 turies ; whilst the forest areas have been in like 
 manner rendered fertile by the decomposition, for 
 a long period, of the annual fall of leaves from 
 deciduous forests. 
 
 From the numerous entries in my note-books 
 I may advantageously make a brief selection, as 
 conveying a fair general view of what I saw ; so 
 avoiding an endless, and perhaps wearisome, repeti 
 tion of similar notes and opinions : 
 
 1 We ran through another section of the great 
 valley. Like so much that I had already seen, the 
 land was level and good; farms of 150 to 500 
 acres ; principal crops, Indian corn (some of it still 
 in stocks). Wheat was also grown in considerable 
 quantity ; grass abundant everywhere, and, for the 
 time of year, looking remarkably well, and consist- 
 Ing (so far as I could see) chiefly of Poa pratensis. 
 
Over the Plains 79 
 
 timothy, and red-top, with some others with which 
 I was not familiar. 
 
 In another district I noted that more wheat 
 was cultivated, the young winter wheats looking 
 fairly well, many of the fields having been " put in " 
 in a workmanlike manner. I noticed a general 
 absence of turnip cultivation, Indian corn apparently 
 answering every purpose. The country at intervals 
 is slightly undulating, but retains the general 
 character of level land. Again I find noted : Land 
 good, but inclined to be wet, with a heavy- subsoil. 
 * The natural readiness with which the soil every 
 where grows grass offers great encouragement to a 
 wise system of rotation-farming, which I learned to 
 my regret does not prevail to any great extent. 
 Cattle abundant and in good condition, but not 
 generally too well bred. Horses light and active, 
 showing fairly good breeding. I find in my note 
 books the too frequent entry that many farms 
 show a slovenly system of cultivation, weeds and 
 dirty stubbles being far too common ; with, it is 
 only fair to say, many instances of fairly good 
 farming. I find that fertilisers are rarely or never 
 used, even the farmyard manure being in many in- 
 
8o Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 stances only partially used, or practically wasted. 
 Many farming implements remain in the fields 
 after being used, where, I am told, they frequently 
 remain through the winter, till they are again 
 required in the following season. 
 
 In another State, I find noted good land, deep 
 black soil, grows abundant Indian corn crops. 
 Farming system very exhaustive here, as in nearly 
 all the Central and Western States. I find the 
 opinion very generally held by many farmers with 
 whom I conversed, that Indian corn is not an 
 exhaustive crop. In this conclusion I do not agree, 
 unless the crop be cut green. Though not so rich 
 in phosphates as wheat, the ripened Indian corn 
 contains many mineral elements which can only 
 come from the soil, the soluble portion of which 
 continuous cropping will sooner or later extract from 
 the soil ; later, if open fallows are used, but certain 
 to seriously and permanently injure the soil unless 
 fertilisers are applied. 
 
 In a treeless district, I note that * the country is 
 undulating, soil fairly good, but has a parched 
 appearance, and evidently suffers greatly from the 
 absence of trees both in appearance, shelter, and 
 
Over the Plains 81 
 
 rainfall. The farmhouses were rarely pretentious ; 
 generally they were plain and inexpensive, with 
 inferior outbuildings. I understood that Western 
 farmers were a hard-working, industrious class, 
 living simply, with few luxuries, and little display. 
 The farmers wives, I was told, were very economical, 
 industrious, and, in too many cases, overworked. 
 The introduction of cheese and butter factories in 
 many districts has, however, greatly diminished this 
 household drudgery, besides enabling American 
 cheese and butter to be put on the market in larger 
 quantities of a more uniform quality. Being a 
 great drinker of milk, I was particularly pleased to 
 find it everywhere abundant, and of most excellent 
 quality, not only at all the hotels in city and 
 country, but at innumerable roadside railway 
 stations. Though the cattle looked generally well 
 and in good condition, I was greatly disappointed 
 with the quality of the beef. Compared with the 
 juicy tenderness and fine flavour of New Zealand 
 beef, I found it hard, dry, and of inferior quality. 
 In California the beef in all these respects was 
 better than in the Mississippi Valley, though even 
 that was much inferior to New Zealand beef. The 
 
 G 
 
82 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 quality of the Californian beef is injuriously affected 
 by the long dry summers ; in the Mississippi 
 Valley the poor quality of the beef is, I think, due 
 to the excessively severe cold of winter ; in all the 
 States I visited, the thermometer, I was informed, 
 frequently sinks from 20 to 30 below zero Fahr. 
 Under such adverse influences, with an almost 
 entire absence of housing, the long and severe 
 winters can hardly fail to harden the fibres of the 
 animals, as Nature s provision to enable them to 
 resist the intense cold, by making them hardy at 
 the expense of that tender juiciness characteristic 
 of the beef produced in the mild, equable, genial 
 climate of New Zealand, in most parts of which 
 snow is rarely seen, except on southern mountain 
 ranges, and where the frost is so slight as to cause 
 little inconvenience to man or beast 
 
 Comparisons are, I know, odious ; but they are 
 necessary, if a standard is to be fixed ; and, whilst 
 sincerely desirous of noting the special advantages 
 of this magnificent region, I should be wilfully mis 
 leading my readers if I omitted all reference to its 
 disadvantages. 
 
Over the Plains 83 
 
 CLIMATE. 
 
 The States I visited in the Mississippi Valley, 
 with their great fertility and many advantages, 
 have one great disadvantage in the wide range of 
 temperature. During my visit in the early autumn 
 I frequently noted the temperature at 90 in shade, 
 which, in the earlier months, I learnt, often stood 
 at 1 00, and occasionally even higher ; whilst in 
 winter, as already noted, the temperature frequently 
 falls from 20 to 30 sometimes in the North-west 
 even to 40 below zero. This intense cold, by 
 freezing the ground to a depth of two or three 
 feet, practically subsoils it, and so admits water 
 and air, which by rendering the mineral elements 
 more soluble, keeps up a supply of plant-food, and 
 postpones to some extent the date of the impover 
 ishment of the soil. Such an enormous variation 
 can hardly be conducive to health or long life in 
 man. As one evidence of this, I did not observe 
 anything like the proportion of old men or women 
 in America which may be seen everywhere in New 
 Zealand. Everywhere I found a general prevalence 
 
 o 2 
 
84 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 of sallow complexions, both in men and women, 
 contrasting with the clear fresh complexions so 
 general in New Zealand. The breaking up of new 
 lands, whether forest or prairie, developing miasma 
 and fevers, has a bad effect upon health in new 
 districts. This will naturally disappear as cultiva 
 tion advances. Of course, there may be, and pro 
 bably are, other reasons, such as a too general 
 disregard of the laws of health, upon which, as I 
 shall state the result of my observations in a future 
 chapter, it is unnecessary to remark upon further 
 here. 
 
 FORESTS. 
 
 All over the Mississippi States I visited, I 
 noticed a remarkable absence of large trees. 
 Neither in the pine forests of the North-west, nor 
 yet in the deciduous forests of the Central States, 
 I do not remember seeing any tree, either standing 
 or fallen, much over two feet six inches in diameter. 
 In this, as in some other respects, this portion of 
 the United States compares very disadvantageously 
 with the magnificent trees in New Zealand forests, 
 where the trees range from four feet to eight feet 
 
Over the Plains 85 
 
 in diameter, whilst some of the monarchs of the 
 forest are much larger, and where trees under 
 two feet in diameter are rarely cut for timber 
 or * lumber purposes. I can only account for 
 this great difference in the size of the trees in the 
 two countries, by offering the opinion that the 
 length and intense cold of the American winters 
 in the districts I visited exercise a very marked 
 influence in retarding and dwarfing the growth of 
 trees. 
 
 In some of the States I noticed a general 
 absence of forests. In others, they were in abun 
 dance, providing shelter for cattle, favourably in 
 fluencing the rainfall, and adding greatly to the 
 beauty of the country. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF FORESTS. 
 
 Immense areas of forest are being every year 
 destroyed for lumber and for cultivation. However 
 necessary the former object may be, it is a barbar 
 ous practice, and hardly less than a national mis 
 fortune, that so much valuable forest has been 
 recklessly burnt and destroyed, in order that more 
 
86 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 corn may be grown, and more hogs may be 
 fattened. In some districts the grand black walnut 
 tree has been practically exterminated. Consider 
 ing the great value of this fine tree for furniture 
 purposes, it is perhaps not too much to say, that 
 much of these forest lands would to-day be of 
 more value in their natural state than all the corn 
 and pigs which have been produced on their ruins. 
 Corn and pigs have a present value, and the 
 destruction of forests by cultivation is to some ex 
 tent a necessity, but their wholesale and reckless 
 destruction is a calamity, which no generation of 
 men has a right to bring upon their descendants. 
 
 AUTUMNAL FOLIAGE. 
 
 I was charmed with the woodland beauty of 
 many districts. The open character of the forests 
 having no undergrowth the brilliant autumnal 
 foliage, with its endless shades of browns, yellows > 
 reds, and crimsons, presented a delightful medley 
 of colour above, which, contrasting with the straight 
 black trunks, and the play of sunlit gleams and 
 dark shadows below, made me long for a sylvan 
 
Over the Plains 87 
 
 stroll in such leafy and lovely shades. But the 
 remorseless steam giant ahead dragged us out. of 
 the beautiful forest, and, like many another thing 
 of beauty, the sunlit, sylvan scene, with its golden 
 gleams, its half-lights and dark shadows, glided 
 away into the past, leaving only a dream of beauty 
 behind, but leaving that for ever. 
 
 COAL. 
 
 The great valley stretching in one grand plain 
 of fertile land, between the Rocky Mountains and 
 the Alleghany chain, is, undoubtedly, one of the 
 chief foundations of the wealth and prosperity of 
 the United States, but in its numerous rich and 
 equable deposits of coal it possesses another ele 
 ment of wealth, which has already made itself 
 apparent, and in the future will still more stimulate 
 the progress of the nation. 
 
 This magnificent plain seems to me to have 
 been the bottom of an ancient ocean, in which, 
 after its first upheaval, primeval forests flourished 
 for long ages, and which, in the mysterious move 
 ments of Nature s forces, were subsequently again 
 
88 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 submerged, forming the extensive coal deposits 
 which have given the United States an area of 
 coal, perhaps more extensive than all the known 
 coal areas of the rest of the world. 
 
 RIVERS. 
 
 The Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers, 
 with their innumerable affluents, provide the great 
 valley with abundant water supplies for all pur 
 poses. For transit purposes they were formerly 
 invaluable, but since the country has been covered 
 with a network of railways, their value in this 
 respect has been largely reduced. At Minneapolis 
 the great Falls of St. Anthony furnish an avail 
 able water force of 35,000 horse-power, about one- 
 half of which is utilised in driving the largest and 
 most complete flouring mills in the world, as well 
 as for supplying power to a great array of sawmills ; 
 the timber for these mills being floated down the 
 upper waters of the Mississippi from the great 
 pine forests of the North ; many hundreds of 
 thousands of logs, at the period of my visit, lying 
 in a branch of the river above the falls. 
 
Over the Plains 89 
 
 I pointed out to some of the capitalists inter 
 ested, that unless prompt measures were taken to 
 store the surplus waters, a time would come when 
 the enormous forest denudation now going on 
 would certainly greatly diminish the magnificent 
 water power which is the chief foundation of the 
 prosperity of the great city of Minneapolis. 
 
 From Minneapolis we ran a great distance 
 along the Mississippi, through a fine, well grassed, 
 rolling country. Very pleasant it was, to leave 
 the crowded city even when so handsome a city 
 as Minneapolis and glide into the fresh open 
 country, full of sweet little homes, with cornfields, 
 orchards, and cattle round them. The cities may 
 overshadow and dominate the country to-day, 
 drawing the healthy youth from their quiet peace 
 ful homes, to fill the void created by the overwork, 
 the bad habits, and the tainted atmosphere of the 
 crowded and growing city ; but, after all, it is not 
 from the luxurious houses or squalid streets, not 
 from the grimy, sallow-faced men and women of 
 great cities, but it is from the sweet, cheery, country 
 homes that the real manhood and womanhood of 
 a nation must come. 
 
9O Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 At Minneapolis the main branch of the river, 
 above the Falls of St. Anthony, is 540 feet broad. 
 Lower down, at St. Paul s and at various other 
 points, the noble stream reminded me of our own 
 beautiful Waikato River at Mercer. As we descend 
 the grand valley, the great river sweeps onwards 
 with a majestic flow between lofty bluffs, crowned, 
 possibly, in ancient times with Indian forts. Fields 
 of brilliant green, diversified with woodland 
 patches, render the journey most enjoyable. As 
 we travel onwards, the great river gathers volume 
 at every hundred miles of its course, sweeping 
 through broad plains mostly under cultivation. 
 At one point the river widens out into a fine 
 sheet of water, several miles across, called, I think,, 
 Lake Pepin. Bold bluffs flank the river here and 
 there, round which our train winds along its de 
 vious course, revealing at every curve patches of 
 shrub and forest, already showing, in their brilliant 
 and varied hues, the first touch of the icy hand of 
 advancing winter. As we rush along from hour 
 to hour, we keep company with the royal river. 
 Occasionally a small steamer makes its tiny ripple 
 on the broad expanse, but generally, as I saw it, 
 
Over the Plains 91 
 
 the Mississippi is a silent river. Lower down it 
 receives the Chippeway River, down which large 
 rafts of small logs were being floated hundreds of 
 miles to various points below. Great rafts of 
 sawn timber (lumber) were being towed down 
 by oarsmen, who, during their long and tedious 
 voyages, live in small houses built on the rafts. 
 
 The immense length of the navigation on the 
 Mississippi and Missouri Rivers is very remarkable. 
 From the Falls of St. Anthony, at Minneapolis 
 the head of the navigation to New Orleans, on 
 the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi is navigable 
 for some thousands of miles, not having a single 
 rocky obstruction in its course, so far as I could 
 learn, between these far distant points. This circum 
 stance, I think, confirms the theory, that these 
 great plains are of diluvial formation, and indi 
 cates that the successive upheavals and depres 
 sions were caused by the energy of a vast and 
 long-continued seismic force, which, though inter 
 mittent, does not appear to have been either violent 
 or partial in its action. 
 
92 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 WHAT AMERICA OWES ENGLAND. 
 
 Whilst traversing these vast and fertile plains 
 in all directions, I was forcibly struck by the pre 
 valence of French names of places, indicating the 
 strong hold which France once had on this magni 
 ficent region. Whilst the early English colonists 
 in the East were struggling against the difficulties 
 of an inclement climate, an unfertile soil, and con 
 stant inroads from hostile Indians, the French 
 always greater favourites with the Indian tribes 
 than the English from their settlements on the 
 River St. Lawrence, pushed their occupation of the 
 Mississippi Valley between the Spanish settlements 
 on the Pacific and the English settlements on the 
 Atlantic, through the continent to the Gulf of 
 Mexico. 
 
 For three-quarters of a century England and 
 France maintained a continued and bloody struggle 
 for the possession of the North American Conti 
 nent, in which English blood and English treasure 
 were freely expended, until in the middle of the 
 eighteenth century the star of France was in the 
 
Over the Plains 93 
 
 ascendant. In 1754 the fiercest, and, happily, the 
 last, great struggle for the mastery commenced. 
 For five years the sanguinary contest continued 
 with varying fortune. In 1759 General Wolfe 
 anchored in front of Quebec, with a large fleet and 
 eight thousand troops. The great fortress was 
 held by the gallant Montcalm, a French general as 
 brave and chivalrous as Wolfe himself. A bloody 
 and decisive battle on the Plains of Abraham was 
 fought and won by the lion-hearted Wolfe. Both 
 generals fell mortally wounded. Five days after 
 wards, on September 18, 1759, the city and gar 
 rison of Quebec capitulated, and, though Spain 
 maintained a footing in the South for a while, the 
 flag of England practically floated over the North 
 American Continent from the Arctic Ocean to the 
 Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 The gallant Wolfe s great victory destroyed for 
 ever French domination, and by that one decisive 
 blow changed the destinies of the North American 
 Continent. Under French rule, the Red Indian 
 had roamed at will ; his painted warriors, aided 
 by the French, continually attacking the frontier 
 English settlements, torturing and massacring their 
 
94 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 defenceless inhabitants. Wolfe s decisive victory 
 changed all this, rendered possible the settlement 
 of this vast territory by the Anglo-Saxon race 
 and laid the foundation of a dominion which has 
 become the greatest Republic of ancient or modern 
 times. 
 
 In less than seven years after Wolfe s victory, 
 the ignorant tyranny of England over her Ameri 
 can Colonies provoked the great struggle, which 
 terminated fifteen years later in the Declaration of 
 American Independence. 
 
 Unhappily this strife of kinsmen left elements 
 of bitterness which a hundred years had not 
 obliterated. During the last seven years, however, 
 more friendly feelings have prevailed between 
 England and the United States. A spirit of sweet 
 reasonableness is taking the place of long-con 
 tinued bitterness. The sentiment of kinship, the 
 racial instinct, is beginning to make its power felt, 
 giving promise of a coming brotherhood, which, if 
 wisely fostered, will inevitably bind together the 
 English-speaking race all over the world for mutual 
 help, for mutual blessing. That this good time 
 coming may be hastened I hope our American 
 
Over the Plains 95 
 
 Idndred will pardon the suggestion I think a 
 modification might be made in the tone of bitter 
 ness I observed in American school histories, not 
 unnatural in the past, but certainly not necessary 
 in the present or the future. In re-writing these 
 histories, this root of bitterness may be removed 
 without in the least detracting from the heroic story 
 of the sufferings,, the valour, and the achievements 
 of the patriots in the great struggle for Independ 
 ence. May I venture to ask the consideration of 
 our American friends to so simple, yet so powerful, 
 a mode of promoting the growing good feeling 
 between two peoples who have so much in 
 common ? 
 
 At the same time, I may remind Englishmen 
 travelling across the United States that Americans 
 justly complain of the sneering tone some travellers 
 affect towards everything American. Such a course 
 is not only silly, ignorant, and an offence against 
 good manners, but it tends to postpone that restora 
 tion of goodwill between England and America, 
 which every good citizen of either country must 
 desire. 
 
g6 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AMERICAN RAILROADS. 
 
 THE American railroad system is a vast network 
 of iron, covering a very large area, stretching from 
 ocean to ocean, and from the Canadian frontier to 
 the Gulf of Mexico, and connecting all the principal 
 cities of the Great Republic. It has pushed on 
 the United States to a point of development which 
 it could not otherwise have reached for another 
 century. 
 
 This enormous development of American Rail 
 roads will be apparent from the following Statement 
 drawn from 
 
 POOR S MANUAL OF RAILROADS, 1 886. 
 
 STATEMENT No. i. 
 In 1827, first railroad opened. 
 
 Miles 
 
 In 1830, in operation .... 23 
 
 In 1857, in operation .... 24,593 
 In 1884, in operation .... 125,379 
 
American Railroads 97 
 
 The total railroads throughout the world will 
 be seen from a statement prepared by M. Paul 
 Trasenester, of Liege, as follows : 
 
 STATEMENT No. 2. 
 
 Lengths of Railroads in operation in 1884. 
 
 Miles. 
 
 In Europe 111,764 
 
 In Asia . . . . . . . 12,217 
 
 In America ...... 141,620 
 
 In Africa 3,958 
 
 In Australasia . ..... 7,142 
 
 Total miles in operation in 1884 . 276,701 
 
 It will be seen from these two statements, that 
 the United States had in 1884 nearly as many miles 
 of railroads in operation as all the rest of the world. 
 
 The total cost of the 125,379 miles of rail 
 roads in the United States (giving even millions) 
 amounts to $8,073,000,000, or 1,614,000,0007. 
 sterling. Of this vast sum about one half is re 
 presented by stock (share) capital, the other half 
 being the amount borrowed on bonds (debentures). 
 
 AUSTRALASIAN INDEBTEDNESS. 
 
 I may here make a short digression, by way 
 of referring to a subject having some relation to 
 
 H 
 
98 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 the question of indebtedness on account of rail 
 roads. 
 
 I had not been many hours in the United 
 States, before I was interrogated about the in 
 debtedness of New Zealand and Australia. Some 
 very strong adverse comments were made regard 
 ing the indebtedness of Australasia, both on this 
 and on many subsequent occasions at the various 
 cities I visited. I had, however, taken measures 
 to make myself acquainted with : 
 
 1. The public debt of the United States. 
 
 2. The indebtedness of the various States of 
 the Union. 
 
 3. The expenditure of the United States people 
 on railroad account. 
 
 On the first occasion of my being interrogated, 
 as on all subsequent occasions, I frankly admitted 
 that New Zealand, and indeed all Australasia, had 
 borrowed far too heavily, and that, so far as New 
 Zealand was concerned, I and others, from the 
 first initiation of the borrowing policy, had publicly 
 and strongly protested against the scheme. But 
 nevertheless, though the debt of Australasia was 
 large, and had doubtless arrived at the limit of 
 
American Railroads 99 
 
 safety, I stated that Australasian resources were 
 ample, and far more than equal to the burden im 
 posed upon them by their indebtedness, and that, 
 in New Zealand, a. strong and general determina 
 tion existed to put an end practically to further 
 borrowing. To all my interrogators I submitted 
 the substance of the following comparative state 
 ment of the general liabilities of the United States 
 people, and of the Australasian Colonies : 
 
 STATEMENT No. 3. 
 
 United States debt, May 1885 .... $1,303,000,000 
 
 Ditto, bonds to Pacific Railroads . . . . 64,000,000 
 
 U.S. General indebtedness . . . 1,367,000,000 
 
 Separate State indebtedness . . . . 263,000,000 
 
 1,630,000,000 
 U.S. Railroad indebtedness (about one-half to 
 
 Stockholders and one-half to Bondholders) . 8,073,000,000 
 Total indebtedness .... $9,703,000,000 
 Or, 9,703,000,000 dollars, equivalent to ^1,940, 000,000 sterling. 
 Australasian debt, July 1885 .... ^"133,000,000 
 Equivalent to 665,000,000 dollars. 
 
 In the United States liabilities I did not in 
 clude the cost of 164,000 miles of telegraph con 
 struction, as I could not obtain the figures. 
 
 In the Australasian liabilities the cost of con 
 structing all the telegraph lines is included. 
 
 H 2 
 
ioo Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 STATEMENT No. 4. 
 Showing indebtedness per head for population. 
 
 Population of United States, July 1885, estimated at 55,000,000 
 
 The Liabilities as quoted above . . . . $9,703,000,000 
 Showing a liability per head of . . . . $176,000,000 
 Equivalent per head of population to . . ^"35 qs. 
 
 Population of Australasian Colonies, July 1885, 
 
 estimated at . . . . . 3,377,000 
 
 The Liabilities as quoted above . . . ^13 3, 000,000 
 
 Showing a liability per head of . . . . ^39 IQJ-. 
 
 Equivalent per head of population to . . 
 
 Showing a Liability for the Australasian Colonies 
 per head of population of . ^39 ioj. or 
 And for the United States of . ,35 4*. or $176 
 
 Showing a Liability of United 
 
 States Citizens, smaller than 
 
 of Australasian Colonists, per 
 
 head, of .... 4 6s. or $ 2I i 
 
 I pointed out further, that in Australasia, with 
 one or two exceptions, not one acre of public lands, 
 beyond that required for line tracks and station 
 sites, had been appropriated up to July 1885 for 
 the construction of railroads ; whilst an area of 
 public lands to be reckoned by hundreds of millions 
 of acres had been donated by the Governments of 
 the United States to the railroad companies. 
 
 It was, of course, stated to me that the United 
 States, as a nation, was not liable for railroad in- 
 
American Railroads 101 
 
 debtedness, the whole of the railroads having been 
 constructed by companies, and not by Government, 
 and that at least one-half of that indebtedness was 
 due to stockholders or shareholders, and that the 
 other half only was due to bondholders. 
 
 In reply, I readily admitted that this was so, 
 but that, practically, it came in the end to the same 
 thing, with this important difference, so far as the 
 safety of the stockholders or bondholders was con 
 cerned (a very large proportion of whom were not 
 citizens of the United States, but were residents in 
 England and elsewhere), that whilst in the case of 
 the indebtedness of the United States railroad 
 companies, the railroads and the lands held by 
 them were the only securities for repayment of 
 this indebtedness, in the Australasian Colonies the 
 security for the indebtedness not only consisted 
 of the railroads, but was further assured by the 
 fact that the customs revenues, and every acre of 
 public lands in territories nearly as large as the 
 United States, formed a portion of the security 
 upon which the money had been borrowed. 
 
 I also pointed out that one great advantage 
 of Governments constructing the railroads, as in 
 
IO2 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 Australasia, arose from the fact, that after the 
 interest on money borrowed and working expenses 
 had been paid^any profit remaining was the pro 
 perty of the general public, and not of private 
 stockholders or shareholders, but was available for 
 a reduction of transit rates, or for the reduction of 
 general taxation. 
 
 I do not think there is anything egotistical in 
 my adding here, that in no case did I find any one 
 of the numerous gentlemen with whom I discussed 
 the subject able to shake the conclusions as above 
 detailed ; and further, that in the great majority of 
 cases I met with a ready and frank admission, 
 that they had not seen the Australasian indebted 
 ness put in this way before, and that it now 
 appeared to them to be upon a much sounder, 
 safer, and more reasonable basis, both as to its 
 extent and security, than they had hitherto sup 
 posed. 
 
 RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION. 
 
 The railroads in the United States have been 
 constructed entirely by public companies, of which 
 there are about 1,000. To many of the companies 
 

 American Railroads 103 
 
 the United States Government has given very 
 large areas of land, usually in alternate sections on 
 both sides of the lines. The Government has 
 thus denuded itself of enormous areas of public 
 lands. These vast areas, owing to the great ad 
 vance in the values of lands, may, possibly, ulti 
 mately more than repay the entire cost of construc 
 tion of some of the lines. 
 
 EQUIPMENT. 
 
 The railway tracks are well laid and well kept. 
 The locomotives are very powerful, and of an 
 excellent type, which is generally adopted on the 
 whole railway system of the States. Locomotives, 
 carriages, and trucks are mostly on the Bogie 
 system ; the two latter have sets generally of six 
 wheels, occasionally of eight wheels, under each 
 end of the car, so adding greatly to the comfort of 
 passengers, and avoiding much unnecessary grind 
 ing of wheels and rails. The car wheels are of 
 larger diameter than those in New Zealand, and 
 are usually of cast iron, thus greatly reducing the 
 cost of rolling stock. A wheel very rarely breaks, 
 
IO4 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 and when that does happen, cars having generally 
 six wheels in a set, no sudden stoppage occurs. 
 The gauge is, I think, 4 feet 8J inches. On most 
 of the lines I traversed, there were no raised plat 
 forms, fixed steps providing access to the cars. 
 These low platforms prevent many accidents. 
 
 THE SLEEPER CAR. 
 
 In a country so extensive, the trains run day 
 and night, Sundays and week-days. The Pulman 
 sleeping car is a necessity. These cars are elegant 
 and costly affairs. Each car is attended by a 
 coloured porter, a courteous and active fellow, 
 who arranges the beds in the car with great celerity, 
 polishes your boots, and brushes you down each 
 morning. A little kindly consideration shown to 
 your porter is greatly valued by him. He is 
 attentive, cheerful, and full of a queer, grotesque 
 humour. One of them, comparing the disadvan 
 tage of travelling in a Lake schooner with the 
 comfort of a railroad train, said to me : 
 
 Sar, if you be drowned in a schooner on Lake 
 Michigan, or in any oder place whar dar is plenty 
 
American Railroads 105 
 
 of water, and you goes to de bottom, why, sar, whar 
 are you ? but if you gets smashed in a railroad car, 
 why, dar you are. These sleeping cars, admirable 
 as they are, might be greatly improved by a little 
 more * head-room in both upper and lower com 
 partments. 
 
 The sleeping car is a great institution on 
 American railroads. During the day they are 
 comfortable enough, plush-lined cross seats for two 
 on each side the central passage, with mirrors in 
 every direction. At night the porter, as I have 
 said a good-humoured, handy negro fixes with 
 great despatch two tiers of sleeping sections on each 
 side the passage. Thick curtains secure the neces 
 sary privacy. At each end of the carriage a small 
 dressing-room is provided one for ladies, the other 
 for gentlemen furnished with all washing requisites, 
 drinking water, conveniences, and stove or heated 
 pipes for winter use ; each sleeping car being also 
 provided with an elegant smoking-room. You 
 travel day and night in comparative comfort and 
 with little fatigue, if you are fairly well, and not 
 fidgety. Nevertheless, much night travelling in 
 * sleepers will, I think, be found injurious to health. 
 
Io6 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 The peculiar lateral and vertical motion, especially 
 in the upper compartments, can hardly fail to affect 
 adversely the nervous system. Two successive 
 days and nights in a sleeper were as long as I 
 cared for. One gentleman informed me that, of 
 the previous twenty nights, he had passed seven 
 teen in * sleepers, transacting business during the 
 day at various points. 
 
 SEPARATE TRAINS. 
 
 On nearly all the main lines I traversed, mixed 
 trains w r ere rarely run, passenger trains and freight 
 or goods trains being run separately. This sepa 
 rate system has great advantages over the mixed 
 system current in New Zealand. It enables pas 
 senger trains to be run at a much higher speed, say 
 twenty-five to thirty miles per hour, including 
 stoppages, with relatively much less wear and tear 
 on the rolling stock, besides avoiding all shunting * 
 and jars, to which passengers on mixed trains are 
 so much exposed in New Zealand. The separate 
 system enables heavy freight trains to be run at 
 about half the speed of passenger trains, or about 
 twelve miles per hour, thus greatly diminishing the 
 
American Railroads 107 
 
 heavy charges for replacing rails and rolling stock, 
 and securing much lower transit rates for goods. 
 
 ACCIDENTS. 
 
 The platforms between the carriages are con 
 tinuous, thus preventing accidents in passing from 
 car to car. The * Westinghouse Brake is a perfect 
 success, and immensely superior in every way to 
 the brake system adopted in New Zealand. I 
 understood this admirable brake would pull up a 
 train at full speed in not much more than four 
 times its length. 
 
 In the 8,000 miles I travelled on American 
 railroads we had only two slight mishaps : one, 
 arising from an imperfect coupling, causing the 
 locomotive to run off with a portion of the train ; 
 the other was a case of a heated car axle taking 
 fire. Considering the enormous distances run, and 
 the immense number of passengers carried, the 
 very small percentage of accidents bears highly 
 satisfactory testimony to the efficient equipment of 
 the roads, and to the excellent management by 
 which they are operated. 
 
JO8 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 RAILROAD TRAFFIC. 
 
 I am indebted to * Poor s Manual of Railroads, 
 1 886, for the following particulars, which are full of 
 interest to the general public of this colony, and 
 some of which, I think, may be advantageously 
 studied by those who are responsible for the su 
 preme control of our New Zealand railways. 
 
 STATEMENT No. 5. 
 
 Miles operated in 1885 123,110 
 
 Passenger train mileage ditto ..... 211,587,620 
 
 Freight train mileage ditto ..... 342,280,670 
 
 Mixed train mileage ditto ..... 6,297,575 
 
 Total train mileage ditto 560,165,865 
 
 Passengers carried in 1885 351,427,088 
 
 Tons moved ditto ....... 437,040,099 
 
 EARNINGS Passengers in 1885 . . . .$200,883,911 
 
 Freight ditto $519,690,992 
 
 Other ditto $44,735,616 
 
 Total $765, S 10 ^^ 
 
 Operating expenses $498,821,526 
 
 Net earnings $266,488,993 
 
 The gross earnings in 1885, on the entire capital, 
 amounted to 10 per cent nearly. 
 
 The net earnings to nearly 3^ per cent. 
 
 Rate of interest paid to bondholders amounted 
 to 4j per cent. 
 
American Railroads 109 
 
 Rate of dividend paid to shareholders equalled 
 2X>2 per cent. 
 
 Expenses of running compared with gross earn 
 ings in 1885 equalled 66 12 per cent. 
 
 Passenger earnings, proportion of gross, 26-9- 
 per cent. 
 
 Freight earnings, proportion of gross, 67*4 per 
 cent. 
 
 Other earnings, proportion of gross, 57 per cent. 
 
 Earnings per passenger per mile, 2-198 cents, or 
 a little over id. per mile. 
 
 Earnings per ton of goods per mile, 1x357 cents, 
 or about \d. per mile. 
 
 The charges of id. per mile per passenger, and 
 of ^d. per mile per ton of goods, have been power 
 ful factors in developing the enormous traffic on 
 American railroads, as detailed in Statement No. 5. 
 These low transit rates have exerted a most power 
 ful influence in rapidly settling agricultural lands, 
 and establishing perfect hives of industry all over 
 the United States. They have also made railroad 
 investments profitable ; for, though dividends on 
 stock (share) capital only average about 2 percent, 
 per annum it is well known that many railroad 
 
1 10 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 stocks have undergone the process known as * water 
 ing that is, have had their nominal share capital 
 greatly increased without the contribution of an 
 additional dollar by shareholders ; in some cases, 
 I understood the share capital had been more than 
 doubled by this process. Taking this into con 
 sideration, and that 2 per cent. is the average 
 annual dividend over 125,000 miles of railroad, 
 both good and bad, it is evident that low transit 
 rates pay on American railroads. 
 
 It is also equally evident that the New Zealand 
 system of excessively high transit rates does NOT 
 pay. It is clear to me that if Parliament does not 
 insist on the adoption of much lower transit rates, 
 for both passengers and merchandise of all kinds, 
 it will grievously fail in its duty to the country. 
 
 This brings me to the consideration of the vital 
 question of administration. 
 
 RAILWAY MANAGEMENT. 
 
 There may be various opinions as to whether 
 the construction of railroads by Government or by 
 private enterprise is most advantageous, but after 
 our experience in New Zealand there can be but 
 
A merican Railroads 1 1 1 
 
 one opinion that the Government management of 
 railroads is costly and inefficient. 
 
 A vital change in management is imperative, 
 and since we cannot resort to private management, 
 we may at least adopt the mode recently introduced 
 into Victoria with so much success. 
 
 That colony has abolished Government admin 
 istration of its railways, placing them under a 
 commision of three capable men, and experienced 
 in the commercial management of railways. These 
 commissioners are appointed by Parliament. They 
 are responsible only to Parliament, being entirely 
 independent of Government control. They are 
 thus enabled to dispense with political patronage 
 that great barrier to all efficient and economical 
 railway administration. They are therefore in a 
 position to employ only good, well-trained officers, 
 and to have no more of those than economical and 
 efficient management requires. Until some such 
 system is adopted, New Zealand railways will not 
 pay ; they will not properly promote industry in 
 any direction ; nor will they secure the real welfare 
 of the colony. 
 
112 Our Kin Across tJie Sea 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 
 
 HAVING in some small degree endeavoured to 
 describe the country in which Americans live, and 
 some of the work they have done there, I may 
 now attempt to make my readers acquainted with 
 some of the characteristics of the American people. 
 I do this with great diffidence. In doing it I shall 
 probably make not a few mistakes. Keenly alive 
 to the virtues of this second edition of Englishmen, 
 I have not been altogether blind to their defects. 
 Though I shall not flatter, I certainly shall not 
 willingly wound. I shall endeavour truthfully to 
 describe what I have seen, and as faithfully to 
 draw my conclusions. These observations and 
 conclusions will, of course, be general, and will 
 mainly relate to the inhabitants of the wide regions 
 I have visited and partially described. Whatever 
 
The American People 113 
 
 I feel it my duty to write, whether I please or 
 whether I offend, I hope our kin across the sea * 
 will remember that I write with the hand of a 
 friend a friend full of admiration for much that 
 they have already done ; full of hope for what they 
 have yet to do ; yet, nevertheless, not without deep 
 concern for some of the difficulties and dangers 
 which, as I think, lie in their path in the future as 
 well as in the present. 
 
 CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 In treating of American characteristics I have 
 not the least intention of dragging into prominence 
 the small peculiarities which it has been the 
 fashion of some writers to sneer at. I did not find 
 any American in the least approaching Dickens 
 caricature of a man * every hair of whose head 
 was a note of interrogation ; nor did I observe 
 Americans of any class to be unduly or even 
 strongly inquisitive ; nor did I find them with 
 very rare exceptions affecting a nasal twang in 
 their conversation ; nor did I hear them indulging 
 in vulgar colloquialisms or queer idioms. Beyond 
 
 I 
 
114 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 such phrases as an occasional Guess you saw So- 
 and-so, Is that so ? Why, certainly ; or begin 
 ning a sentence with Say, have you visited such a 
 place ? I observed little that was peculiar. Such 
 phrases as I reckon/ I calculate/ were rarely used. 
 In such cities as Milwaukee or Chicago I noticed 
 a curious pronunciation of the word Yes/ which 
 is frequently rendered * Yah/ or in the old Scan 
 dinavian form, pronounced eeah/ common thirty 
 years ago in many English villages. Beyond 
 these, I noticed little that was peculiar or provin 
 cial. One peculiarity of pronunciation I did ob 
 serve, namely, the emphasis laid generally on the 
 first syllable of a word, such as in * depot/ Tre- 
 mont/ pronounced as * deepot/ * Treemont ; or in 
 words of one syllable, the emphasis being often 
 placed on the first letter, if a vowel. 
 
 With these few exceptions, I found American- 
 born citizens speaking as pure English, both in 
 construction and pronunciation, as is spoken in the 
 Australasian Colonies, where Mr. Froude asserts 
 the English language is spoken as correctly, 
 perhaps even more correctly, than it is generally 
 spoken in England. 
 
The American People 115 
 
 EARNESTNESS. 
 
 I found Americans to be essentially a grave 
 and silent people, rarely too rarely, as I thought- 
 indulging in laughter, though often possessed of a 
 keen and quiet humour. The American, as I have 
 said, is usually a grave and silent man. He rarely 
 laughs, but thinks a good deal, though perhaps in 
 a circle, limited chiefly, as I thought, by his own 
 interest and by his own affairs. He has evidently 
 learnt, and practises, the art of minding his own 
 business. 
 
 The Americans are not a laughing nation, they 
 appear to be too busy, too hard-worked to laugh 
 In general, the features of most men you meet in 
 the streets of the great cities are full of a grave 
 seriousness, a concentrated earnestness which im 
 parts a certain dignity to American features, as if 
 the empire of work weighed heavily upon them. 
 Business and work appear upon every line of the 
 face. All day long, Business is king. I know not 
 whether Americans carry business to their homes 
 or whether they ever really sleep. They appear to 
 
n6 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 me to succeed in crowding a good deal of sun 
 shine out of their lives. 
 
 FEATURES. 
 
 When in repose, the American typical face is 
 not devoid of a certain dignity and beauty. The 
 Roundhead custom of cropping the hair very 
 close, together with the general practice of shaving 
 all hair off the face except the moustache, impart 
 to the square and somewhat massive features a 
 style which, from its resemblance to the portraits 
 on the Roman coins of the Empire, may not 
 inaptly be termed as I have ventured to term it 
 Romanesque. 
 
 THANK YOU. 
 
 * Thank you are "words rarely heard in this 
 polite and courteous country, even among equals, 
 for any little service rendered. To inferiors or to 
 servants I do not think I ever heard them applied 
 Now, to speak now and then an appreciative word 
 to a servant of either sex, whether black or white, 
 is a little gleam of sunshine in their hard-working 
 lives. Why should you not, in this free and equal 
 
The American People 117 
 
 country, raise your hat to the poor girl you meet in 
 the hotel corridor, who is brushing arid dusting all 
 day long in a ceaseless round of humdrum toil, as 
 well as to the luxurious, well-dressed lady you meet 
 in the elevators, who lives in her hotel at ease? 
 Both are women, and have a right to a little kindly, 
 graceful courtesy. Why not c thank the call 
 boy at your hotel, who runs up the weary stair 
 cases to answer your bell so readily ? Why not 
 * thank the elevator boy as he respectfully 
 renders you the usual service of conveying you so 
 promptly from floor to floor of your hotel, so con 
 venient to you, so wearisome to him in his ceaseless 
 round of ascending or descending duty ? You 
 may say, * They are paid to attend your wishes ; 
 what more is needed ? Nevertheless, a kindly 
 word, a look of sympathy, costs you so little, and 
 if it puts a little gleam of sunshine into their 
 lives is to them so much. 
 
 What may be the custom amongst Eastern 
 people, who I understood are more Conservative 
 have a higher culture and a more reposeful 
 character, are what Western Americans are fond of 
 terming high toned I know not ; I only speak of 
 
Ii8 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 what I saw amongst that portion of the people 
 who take their full share in running the country/ 
 who travel on railroads, or whom I met in offices 
 or warehouses, or saw in the great hotels. This 
 refusal to express thanks may possibly arise from 
 the circumstance that our American cousins are 
 equals, are, in fact, a sovereign people, nearly 
 every man of whom may consider himself * every 
 inch a king/ who has the natural right to accept 
 any little service, without wasting words upon such 
 a purely sentimental old-time fossil as * Thank 
 you. Nevertheless, such a development amongst 
 a people so naturally courteous as Americans, like 
 some other democratic developments, can hardly 
 be said to belong to the courtesies or amenities of 
 life. 
 
 SMOKING, CHEWING, AND SPITTING. 
 
 Dickens, in his American Notes/ denounced 
 these habits in unmeasured terms. Since his time 
 a great change for the better has taken place. 
 Chewing tobacco, though still practised, cannot, I 
 think, now be regarded as a national habit. Cigar 
 and cigarette smoking is practically universal. 
 
The American People 119 
 
 The pipe is bad enough, but the cigar for inhal 
 ing nicotine, from both ends, is far more effective 
 and far more deleterious. The American climate 
 is doubtless largely responsible for the sallow 
 complexions one sees everywhere, but inordinate 
 cigar smoking is very effective in the same 
 direction. Spitting, offensive at all times, as in 
 Dickens first visit to the States, no longer makes 
 a mark at stoves, or covers carpets or floors with 
 its detestable nastiness, perhaps because in every 
 railway car, in every office, corridor, bedroom, par 
 lour, or hall, bright nickel cuspidores or spittoons, 
 placed in abundance everywhere, offer a convenient 
 bull s eye/ which the most careless spitter can 
 not well miss. 
 
 SITTING. 
 
 Some people never know how to place their 
 hands ; Americans often seem at a loss what to do 
 with their feet. Though they can no longer be 
 delineated as always endeavouring to throw their 
 legs across the back of a chair, or as stretching 
 them from side to side of a mantel-piece or shelf 
 as high or higher than their heads, they have still 
 
I2O Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 a great affinity for putting their feet on anything 
 well off the ground. Why, I don t exactly know, 
 unless it be that they have a hazy notion that their 
 hard, overworked brain needs all the blood it can 
 get, and so, by putting their legs well up, they drive 
 a little more of the vital fluid that way. 
 
 THE PLEASURES OF THE TABLE. 
 
 i 
 
 The American hotel system gives you many a 
 curious study. The great hotel, with its thousand 
 rooms, its marble floors, its elegant parqueterie, its 
 elevators, its mirrors, its handsome dining-halls, 
 its liberal menus, or bills of fare, is the very abode 
 of luxurious life. 
 
 In these great hotels, children grow into girls, 
 girls into women, in absolute ignorance of household 
 affairs, knowing less of cookery than an Indian 
 squaw. To such people home life is an enigma 
 and a nuisance. 
 
 Hundreds of people congregate in the great 
 dining-halls at breakfast, dinner, or supper, around 
 small tables, each laid for six or eight guests. 
 
 It is dinner. A black attendant escorts you to 
 
The American People 12 1 
 
 your table. After awhile your appointed waiter, 
 with silent dignity, fills a large goblet with iced 
 water. Your black attendant having thus provided 
 for your wants, leaves you to sip the cold liquid 
 at your leisure. Whether drinking iced water in a 
 temperature of 90 Fahr. is injurious nobody cares ; 
 it is pleasant and so nice, then why bother about 
 dyspepsia or indigestion ? After ten minutes or 
 so, your waiter flits round your table, placing at 
 proper points several little dishes about the size of 
 a dollar or crown piece. This done, he leaves you 
 for a short interval. By this time your American 
 vis-a-vis has emptied his goblet, and is engaged 
 looking at nothing, but undoubtedly becoming, by 
 constant practice at table, a very patient person. 
 Once more, your sable servitor surrounds your 
 table, placing before you with silent grace a menu 
 elegantly tinted in pale pink, blue, green, or prim 
 rose, containing a list, say, of forty dishes. Having 
 submitted this important document, he leaves you 
 to ponder over its contents in peace. If you are a 
 Colonist or an Englishman of simple tastes, you 
 make your selection promptly and wait for the 
 waiter. After a proper interval, your polite atten- 
 
122 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 dant once more approaches, and circulates round 
 your table as before. Twenty minutes have passed 
 .since you took your seat in the palatial dining-hall. 
 You have emptied your goblet long ago, and have 
 been amusing yourself at intervals with grapes or 
 peaches, or their frequent substitute, water-melons. 
 Two hundred people have been doing exactly the 
 same thing. No vulgar clatter of knives and forks. 
 No chatter. No calls of Waiter ! Waiter ! 
 Everybody is silent, waiting, and possibly hungry. 
 What a school for patience ! No wonder, after 
 such training, that the Americans are a truly 
 patient people. 
 
 Whatever may be said of coloured servitors, 
 American ladies and gentlemen are undeniably 
 excellent waiters. Your sable servitor now bends 
 with dignified grace to receive your commands. 
 Being a simple liver, you say, * White fish, without 
 sauce. He looks at you with a hurt and disap 
 pointed air, but passes to your companion. 
 
 He is an American, and knowing what he 
 wants whether good for him or not does not 
 appear to trouble him he reads off his menu in 
 measured tones, and with a slight interval between 
 
The American People 123 
 
 each dish, says, deliberately and calmly, tomato 
 soup ; boiled codfish, lobster sauce ; * corned beef 
 and cabbage ; escallops of veal ; * lamb and green 
 peas ; * spring chicken ; potatoes mashed, baked 
 sweet potatoes, and Lima beans. After an interval 
 the unforgetful waiter brings on tomato soup/ 
 following up in steady succession with every dish 
 ordered. With a celerity both amusing and amaz 
 ing, your companion discusses each dish as it 
 comes. Whilst engaged with * lamb and green 
 peas, he gives a forward order from the menu at 
 his side, * farina pudding ; apricot pie ; mixed 
 cakes ; ladies fingers ; winding up with * ice 
 cream, * cheese and coffee. After all this, judge 
 of my surprise at seeing the negro waiter gracefully 
 bringing the top of his closely-shaven crown to the 
 level of the American s nose, and saying in solemn 
 tones, without the slightest trace of emotion, either 
 in his dignified person or in his statuesque features, 
 * Suthin more ? The extraordinary thing is, that 
 an American is able to cut his way through this 
 medley with the electro-plated knives he uses. 
 These knives seem to be made out of one piece of 
 what looks like hoop iron, blade and handle in one 
 
;I24 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 piece, the latter rounded up to fit the hand. Being 
 silver-plated, it saves polishing certainly, but it 
 does not cut. When you in your turn tackle your 
 roast beef with this electro-plated weapon, you try 
 both blunt black edges, back and front, with only 
 a mangling result. 
 
 You cease to wonder at American patience, and 
 begin to admire American patriotism, which, rather 
 than use Sheffield cutlery, puts up, or rather, cuts 
 up with such a tool as this hoop-iron knife. No 
 wonder the tough American beef seems tougher. 
 All over the States I visited, this execrable knife 
 was placed on the table three times every day. 
 Utterly without temper of its own, what must be 
 its effect upon the tempers of those who use it ? 
 No wonder that sheaves of toothpicks are on every 
 table, or are presented to you as you emerge from 
 the dining-hall. 
 
 PATIENCE. 
 
 The patience of the American is remarkable. 
 Trifles don t seem to affect him. He will run his 
 shins against one of the numerous obstructions on 
 the sidewalks of the cities, or come near tumbling 
 
The American People 125 
 
 headforemost into a dive or other hole in the side- 
 path, without outwardly either praying or swearing, 
 doing apparently nothing more than rubbing his 
 shins and going on his way, probably mentally 
 rejoicing that if the administration of the laws 
 s all wrong, at least the laws themselves are 
 all right. Probably an American is occasionally 
 excited about political contests, stock-jobbing, or 
 trotting horses, but generally he maintains a quiet 
 demeanour, speaking little, laughing never, or 
 hardly ever. He appears to have the habit of con 
 centrating his thoughts on matters not very far out 
 side himself or his own interests. He habitually 
 submits to grievances of various sorts with a 
 severe philosophy, as different as possible from the 
 fussy impatience of his Australasian kinsman. 
 
 In more important grievances he manifests a 
 similar patient spirit. Do Irish patriots talk and 
 scheme themselves into most of the public offices 
 in his city or State, from the policemen upwards ? 
 He looks after the schemes which may increase his 
 own dollars, and leaves Irish orators to befool the 
 people to the top of their bent. Do great railroad 
 rings or kings sometimes let him feel their power, 
 
126 Our Kin Across tJie Sea 
 
 without asking his consent ? He winces a little 
 perhaps, but does nothing more. He tells you 
 political corruption is a scandal, and permeates 
 everything. Does he make himself unhappy about 
 it, or do anything to remove it ? No, usually he 
 does nothing in this, as in all other matters which 
 only concern his personal convenience, or relate to 
 public affairs, but do not much interfere with his 
 own hunt after ( dollars. He comforts himself 
 with the thought that everything will come right 
 in time/ and if it does not, why, he tells you, 
 
 * United States citizens will submit to a great 
 deal. They will let things go wrong a long way. 
 
 * But, sir, he adds, not too far wrong, for when 
 it comes to that, the nation, the United States 
 people, puts its foot down, shoots a hundred strikers, 
 or anarchists in the streets, and puts things right. 
 Why, certainly. In the matter of patience, is the 
 American not a very Job ? 
 
 THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE. 
 
 Every man in America is a king, but as a 
 matter of course he has no subjects, except those 
 he or the caucus elects to rule him. There is a 
 
The American People 127 
 
 story told of a procession of the State legislators 
 passing through the streets of the city of Boston 
 headed by the Marshal. Meeting a procession 
 of the people, the Marshal roared out, Make way 
 for the State Legislature. Make way for the 
 people/ shouted the opposite leader, The people 
 made the legislators ; make way for your masters, 
 the people. And the legislators politely allowed 
 the sovereign people to have precedence. 
 
 A man may be born with a bigger nose than 
 the baby in the next cradle ; he may have red 
 hair, or a black face ; but no matter, since the 
 abolition of slavery the American theory has been 
 a fact, after a fashion, that all men are born free 
 and equal. Nevertheless, history has no record of 
 any country, in a hundred years of peace, having 
 produced so large a number of men with such 
 enormous fortunes as this free and equal Republic 
 in the first century of its existence. 
 
 AMERICAN LADIES. 
 
 The American lady dresses well. The younger 
 lady has a slight, elegant figure, and is altogether 
 
128 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 a vivacious, delicate, charming personage. Her 
 complexion is not brilliant, sometimes not good. 
 She often either affects, or possesses naturally, a 
 certain delicate languor, which, whilst interesting, 
 does not convey the idea of robust health. She 
 loses much in not taking more outdoor exercise, 
 either on foot or horseback. She nevertheless 
 possesses a charming independence, vivacity, and 
 freedom of manner but yet so far removed from 
 forwardness or vulgarity as to make her extremely 
 pleasant, frank, and agreeable. She is said to be 
 more fond of pleasure than desirous of engaging 
 much in domestic cares. 
 
 I might, of course, remark on the foolish prac 
 tice, too common amongst certain classes of 
 American women, of painting and powdering their 
 faces to the certain ruin of their complexions ; but 
 as this practice is not at all peculiar to American 
 ladies, it calls only for the general remark, that 
 whether in England, France, America, or else 
 where, such a hideous practice betrays a woful 
 ignorance of wTiat is conducive to comeliness or 
 health. 
 
 The elder ladies have better rounded figures, are 
 
The American People 129 
 
 not perhaps more self-possessed than their younger 
 sisters, yet with an air of quiet, friendly, matronly, 
 cheerful dignity which is very attractive. American 
 women of every class are everywhere treated with 
 great courtesy and consideration by men of all 
 ranks. Whenever a lady enters an * elevator every 
 gentleman takes off his hat, and if seated, at once 
 rises, and continues standing and uncovered till 
 she steps from the ( elevator. I observed that when 
 ever husband and wife travelled together, he uni 
 formly treated her with the utmost consideration, 
 and whenever a baby was of the party, he relieved 
 her of it on all possible occasions. So safe, and so 
 independent and helpful are women in the United 
 States, that I frequently noticed a lady with her 
 baby travelling without any escort. In two cases 
 which I noted, for very long distances : in one case 
 1,500 miles, in the other over 2,000 miles. I was 
 told that women of any age, if they conduct them 
 selves with propriety, may usually traverse the 
 streets of any city after nightfall without even 
 the roughest character offering them the slightest 
 insult 
 
 K 
 
130 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that there 
 are no exceptions to this general courtesy shown 
 to women. There are, of course, villains in the 
 United States as elsewhere. Australasian Colonists 
 have been recently horrified by the scandalous 
 outrages perpetrated upon a young woman by a 
 gang of brutal villains at Mount Rennie, near 
 Sydney, four of whom, notwithstanding the outcries 
 of some fools and rogues in New South Wales, 
 have been justly hanged for their crime. Lest 
 New South Wales should be regarded as having a 
 bad pre-eminence over courteous America in this 
 atrocious class of crime, I may append a clipping 
 from an American newspaper, detailing an outrage 
 which was committed during my recent visit to the 
 States : 
 
 HANGING TOO GOOD FOR THEM. 
 
 No hart, Neb., Sept. 20. Saturday, three men 
 of this place, while hunting on the Indian reserva 
 tion, found a girl eighteen years old, handcuffed 
 
The American People 131 
 
 and chained in an old dug-out. Her clothing was 
 partly torn off, and she was about dead from hun 
 ger and exposure. Her name is Mary Lathrop, of 
 Rhinebeck, Iowa. About five weeks ago she was 
 enticed from her home by a young man to whom 
 she was engaged to be married, and when about 
 ten miles from home they were joined by three 
 other young men. They kept her there to gratify 
 their passions. A lynching party has been organ 
 ised, and, if found, these fiends will be promptly 
 hanged. 
 
 A REMEDY. 
 
 Our ancestors punished this crime with death. 
 Their ancestors sometimes punished it in another 
 but equally effective manner. When modern 
 conceit has learnt to allow that the wisdom of the 
 ancients was not altogether folly, it may have 
 the sense to protect defenceless women from the 
 savage passions of brutal men, by adopting the 
 ancient but absolutely effective remedy for the 
 atrocious crime of rape. 
 
132 Onr Kin Across the Sea 
 
 WOMEN S RIGHTS. 
 
 The employment of ladies as clerks, type 
 writers, and in various occupations in offices and 
 warehouses is common ; their presence exercising 
 a wholesome influence over the young fellows 
 employed in the same office. At the various 
 political meetings I attended, I noticed a large 
 sprinkling of women, whose presence, I think, 
 exerted a restraining influence on the crowds of 
 men frequenting the meetings. 
 
 MATERNITY. 
 
 I may, in this place, refer to a subject which 
 caused me more unpleasant and more painful 
 feelings than any other circumstance which came 
 under my observation in the United States. 
 
 The young American woman is said to be 
 fond of children, so long as she has none of her 
 own, or has at most no more than one or two.. 
 Beyond that number, I understood, she would 
 rather not go. How far this arises from the 
 
The American People 133 
 
 servant-girl difficulty, or from the love of an easy 
 luxurious life in hotels or in furnished lodgings, or 
 whether because she and her husband think her 
 physical strength unequal to rearing such large 
 families as are common in England and the 
 Colonies, or whether, as I think, partially from the 
 excessive variation of temperature from ninety 
 degrees in summer to thirty degrees below zero in 
 winter, opinions vary. 
 
 THE DARK SIDE. 
 
 From these causes, and from certain shameful 
 practices too well known, there can be no doubt 
 that the average number of children being no 
 more than one or two per family amongst native- 
 born Americans is very low dangerously low 
 for the true welfare and reasonable progress of the 
 great American nation. This the darkest feature 
 of American life, however produced is so preg 
 nant of evil, so ominous for the future, so destruc 
 tive of all healthy home life, as to demand the 
 most earnest attention of every good citizen of this 
 
134 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 great and, in so many respects, free and noble 
 nation. 
 
 Drinking saloons, dives, and drinking-shops 
 generally, in some of the States, have been abso 
 lutely prohibited. But in the drug stores though 
 the sale of poison is surrounded with safeguards 
 instruments and appliances of vice and immorality 
 are openly sold, which are affecting, with a far 
 more deadly canker than either whisky or poison, 
 the vital energy and reproductive powers of large 
 sections of the people of the United States. Nor 
 are the Australasian Colonies altogether free from 
 this black and deadly taint. Both in the United 
 States and in the Australasian Colonies we visit 
 with the severest penalties, medical men and others 
 who aid in procuring abortion ; but we permit aids 
 to certain preliminary practices, as immoral, as 
 dastardly, as cowardly, as nefarious, and as effec 
 tive, to be openly sold in drug stores, without 
 penalty, question, or comment 
 
 Can this atrocious and deadly wickedness be 
 allowed to go on without check ? 
 
 There is but one strong, decisive answer. 
 
The American People 135 
 
 If we cherish the chastity, the honour, the 
 health of woman, No. If we value whatever is 
 manly and noble in man, No. If we and our 
 American cousins are not dead to all sense of 
 honour and virtue, No. If we do not wish to 
 blight for ever the young nations we are making, 
 No. 
 
136 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 
 
 WHO are these men and women with some of whom 
 it has been my privilege to mingle for a season, too 
 short to know them fully, but long enough to feel 
 that they are a great people, with many great vir 
 tues and some great faults ? 
 
 In the preceding chapters I have told my 
 readers how they have built great cities ; how they 
 have won great stores of gold and silver from the 
 mountain and the mine ; how they have spread 
 over their boundless plains, and have covered them 
 with a vast network of iron. 
 
 It was of this people that Sydney Smith, in 
 1 820, wrote in the Edinburgh Review, as follows : 
 * The Americans are a brave, industrious, and acute 
 people ; but they have hitherto given no indications 
 of genius, and made no approaches to the heroic 
 
The American People 137 
 
 either in their morality or character. During the 
 thirty or forty years of their independence they 
 have done absolutely nothing for the sciences, the 
 arts, for literature, or even for the statesmanlike 
 studies of politics or political economy. 
 
 The witty, if not wise, Reviewer might as well 
 have said that Washington in his infancy gave 
 no indication of military or administrative genius ; 
 that Prescott in his childhood gave no promise 
 of historic ability ; that Washington Irving and 
 Longfellow in their boyhood did absolutely nothing 
 for literature or poetry ; that Franklin and Morse 
 in their youth achieved nothing for science ; and 
 that Lincoln, when splitting rails in Illinois, did 
 absolutely nothing for the political progress of his 
 country, nothing for the rights of man. 
 
 It is well to remember, if the Edinburgh 
 Reviewer had forgotten, that in the first forty 
 years of their independence Americans were 
 engaged in ceaseless struggles with their savage 
 Indian foes ; in planting isolated homes in their 
 trackless forests ; in exploring their mighty rivers 
 .and their illimitable prairies. 
 
 If the Reviewer had been more correct in 
 
138 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 measuring the circumstances, he would have been 
 more just in his criticisms. Had he realised their 
 difficulties and their position, he would have seen 
 that a people engaged in the necessary, and not 
 less necessary than heroic, work of building up a 
 young nation, incurred no opprobrium, and deserved 
 no censure, because they did not write poems when 
 they were handling the rifle ; because they did not 
 chisel statues when they were wielding the axe ; 
 because they did not erect grand temples when 
 they were building log huts. The founders and 
 pioneers of the United States saw, what the cynical 
 Reviewer did not see, that they were laying the 
 foundations of a great nation, which in the coming 
 time might at least give the promise, when it had 
 the opportunity, of developing the arts both of 
 peace and war. This promise it has, as I think, 
 so far fulfilled, as to place the United States in the 
 foremost rank of modern nations. 
 
 WHO ARE THE AMERICANS? 
 
 Who, then, are this people who, in the first 
 century of their existence as an independent nation, 
 
The American People 139 
 
 have built up this Great Republic ? And what are 
 the latent forces which have enabled them to 
 develop so great a measure of energy and enter 
 prise in so short a period ? The most potent of 
 these forces is that Americans, in literature, re 
 ligion, laws, and life, are English ; that, like English 
 men, they sprang from no one race. What strain 
 of blood flows in the veins of the Englishman of to 
 day ? Is it British, Celtic, Roman, Saxon, Danish, 
 Norman, Teutonic ? It is no one of these : it is all 
 of them, coursing in one mingled, masterful stream 
 through the arteries of our national life, producing 
 that great race which has located itself in so many 
 countries ; which holds so many points of vantage 
 throughout the world ; which bids defiance to 
 every extreme of climate ; which has planted its 
 laws, its literature, its religion, its home life, and its 
 free institutions in all lands discovered by English 
 enterprise, or conquered by English valour. What 
 the irruptions of Roman, Saxon, Norse, and Nor 
 man did for England, the great migrations of 
 English, Scotch, Irish, Scandinavian, and Teuton 
 have done for America. England for ages has 
 been the safe asylum, the restful haven, the free 
 
140 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 arena for the persecuted, the distressed, and the 
 enterprising of many nations. In like manner the 
 Great Republic has received with open arms the 
 millions upon millions of men, whom successive 
 waves of migration have swept from the poverty 
 and the despotism of Europe, to seek and to find 
 prosperity and freedom in the United States of 
 America. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES OF ENGLAND AND 
 AMERICA. 
 
 Before the great Civil War the lines of American 
 policy were broadly drawn. The North had the 
 truer idea of National Life. It maintained an un 
 wavering fidelity to the Union of Free States, 
 resulting in a grand Federated Nation, careless, for 
 the time, of the duration of slavery, but deter 
 mined at all hazards that it should extend no 
 further. 
 
 The South, more aristocratic, yet with far 
 narrower and more selfish aims, placed Slavery 
 first, The Union second, ready to sacrifice not 
 only the rights of man, but their country also, on 
 
The American People 141 
 
 the black altar of slavery. Never in the history of 
 mankind has been witnessed so great a struggle, or 
 a contest with graver issues more clearly defined 
 The modern world watched the terrible struggle 
 with an absorbing interest befitting the magnitude 
 of the contest. In truth, great as were the issues, 
 their far-reaching influences are even yet not fully 
 measured. Had Two Nations emerged from the 
 Titanic contest, the continent of North America in 
 each succeeding century would have become an 
 arena as bloody as the Continent of Europe has 
 for ages been, and the English-speaking race, 
 instead of drawing closer its bonds of sympathy 
 and racial affinity, instead of steadfastly and 
 surely if silently and slowly preparing to unite 
 in one grand Confederated Dominion with its com 
 manding positions, its continental areas, its varied 
 products, its thousand islands, its banners gleaming 
 on every ocean and on every sea would have 
 delayed through centuries of blood and turmoil its 
 glorious mission of securing the PEACE OF THE 
 WORLD, THE HAPPINESS OF HUMANITY. 
 
 For let there be but once firmly established the 
 United States of England, and her free children 
 
142 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 throughout the world, there will have been struck a 
 greater blow at tyranny, war, misery, and ruin, 
 than has ever been struck since the Founder of 
 Christianity proclaimed * peace on earth and good 
 will to man. 
 
 NOT IN VAIN. 
 
 The wide dispersion of the English-speaking 
 race over the world is a phenomenon too remark 
 able either to be accepted as a matter of course, or 
 to be regarded merely as an evidence that the im 
 perial spirit animates the English-speaking division 
 of the human family. 
 
 In a universe, in which nothing lives or dies in 
 vain ; in which no flower blooms, or insect crawls 
 its day and dies ; in which no grain of sand, no 
 mountain mass, exists in vain ; in which no dew- 
 drop sparkles, no ocean heaves, without exerting a 
 lesser or a larger influence : such a term as in 
 vain has no meaning. No word of God returns 
 unto Him void ; nor is any action of His, small 
 or great, done in the universal realm of Nature 
 over which He reigns, without accomplishing His 
 purpose. 
 
The American People 143 
 
 If this be so, it may well be asserted that no 
 man, no nation, ever existed or faded away in vain. 
 Can, therefore, such a development as the wide 
 dispersion and dominion of the English-speaking 
 race have been permitted, without being intended 
 to exert an influence upon the destiny of the human 
 family greater than that exerted by any other 
 people, ancient or modern ? 
 
 In this view it may not be without interest to 
 consider certain problems which are now being 
 presented for solution by the great division of the 
 English-speaking race dwelling in the United 
 States of America. 
 
 CRUCIAL QUESTIONS. 
 
 Let me shortly pass under review some of the 
 questions which a long course of reading, and a 
 close personal inquiry during a hundred discussions 
 with Americans of all classes, during my recent 
 visit to the States, have enabled me in a measure 
 to examine. 
 
 These questions are not all of equal importance. 
 Some of them may appear at first sight to concern 
 
144 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 only the people of the United States, but that is 
 not really so. For the progress of industry, the 
 backward or forward march of opinion, the de 
 velopment of Democracy under new conditions, 
 the effect of ceaseless toil on life and energy ; the 
 aspirations, the objects the ideals and the reals 
 of this young, vigorous, earnest, masterful nation, 
 are, I venture to think, full of interest to men of 
 English blood all over the world. 
 
 With a warm admiration for the noble institu 
 tions of this great country, with a deep sympathy 
 for the difficulties and dangers which are as I 
 think confronting its people, I should fail in my 
 duty to them, I should betray the sacred principles 
 of freedom which belong not to them only, nor yet 
 to their English brethren, but to humanity at large, 
 if I permitted a spirit of cowardice or flattery to 
 prevent my speaking what I believe to be truth. 
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 Americans are subject to a delusion so curious 
 that it would be ludicrous did it not involve con 
 sequences so serious to the legitimate working-out 
 
7BHS1T7 
 
 The American People 145 
 
 of the theory of a real Republic, which may be 
 taken to be Government by the People for the 
 People. This delusion consists in the popular 
 idea that Americans are the freest people on this 
 planet ; that they have no aristocracy, no classes ; 
 that their political institutions, and their modes of 
 working them are absolutely the wisest, the purest, 
 and the best to be found in any nation. Theoretic 
 ally with the exception of the majority of the 
 English Colonies that is true. Practically, it is 
 not so true as every well-wisher to the success of 
 the Democratic principle would desire it to be. 
 
 It is only fair to say, regarding this delusion, 
 that the scales are already falling from the eyes of 
 many beholders. Americans are beginning to find 
 that they have * classes of very distinct and pro 
 nounced types ; and that if they have no House 
 of Lords, with its hereditary splendours and mild 
 functions ; that if they have no ( Queen, who 
 reigns but does not rule ; they have aristocrats and 
 kings of various breeds : * cattle kings/ timber 
 kings, * silver kings/ and ( railway kings. 
 
 These * kings are new men, with the garish 
 splendours of parvenus, and, often, with little that 
 
 L 
 
146 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 is gentle in their rule or in themselves. The 
 variety last named the railway kings it is said 
 by Americans themselves, leave to the smaller pro 
 ducers the least value possible of the produce they 
 raise which will allow them to live, taking the 
 balance for transit charges. These * railroad kings 
 occasionally have little quarrels before the public, 
 carrying people and merchandise at little figures, 
 but not doing that little long. For having done 
 that much/ to show Americans how free they are, 
 the railroad rulers clasp hands again, and make 
 the rings and kings closer and stronger than 
 before. 
 
 To Englishmen and English Colonists American 
 politics are a puzzle. Theoretically the American 
 Constitution possesses every element of freedom. 
 It claims (theoretically) to provide for the govern 
 ment of the people by the people. It has no 
 reigning family, no aristocracy, no privileged 
 classes. 
 
 But yet, owing to various causes, this noble 
 promise and flower of freedom is steadily develop 
 ing a condition of things grievously disappointing 
 to every well-wisher to American institutions. 
 
The American People 147 
 
 Two great parties Republican and Democrat 
 apparently rule the destinies of the nation. The 
 
 * figure-head politicians at Washington are selected 
 by Republican or Democratic Conventions. The 
 convention is nominated by the * caucus/ the 
 caucus in its turn being nominated and controlled, 
 in some cases, by secret irresponsible rings/ in 
 others by political bosses. 
 
 The caucus registers the decision of the 
 
 * ring/ or boss. The convention/ after no end 
 of talk and voting, obeys the commands of the 
 caucus/ and puts out the ticket/ or list of candi 
 dates, for the election of which the people vote, or 
 such of them as care to play a part in the farce. 
 
 Meantime the newspapers, with some excep 
 tions on each side, collect and print day by day 
 every story, true or false, every calumny, however 
 black or dirty, every private or social scandal, and 
 hurl them with rancorous venom at the heads of 
 the candidates opposed to them. 
 
 To use the words of an eminent New York 
 divine, which I heard spoken from a pulpit in 
 Minneapolis, What man of sensibility, what man 
 of honour, has the moral courage to run the gaunt- 
 
 fc>* 
 
 L2 
 
148 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 let of such a tempest of foul black-mouthed abuse ? 
 What wonder if many of the best men in the 
 United States are displaying less and less inclina 
 tion to wade through these foul waters of lies and 
 slander ? What wonder, if this be so, if the 
 * politics of this noble country are steadily drifting 
 into the hands of professional politicians, mer 
 cenary charlatans, and brazen-faced rogues, who 
 are adepts in the science of what is known in 
 America as covering up the tracks ? which 
 means, in plain words, hiding the corruption they 
 practice. 
 
 What wonder if venality and corruption per 
 vade nearly every avenue to power, and obstruct 
 almost every avenue to justice ? What wonder if 
 the rings/ to use an Americanism, do their steal 
 ing with comparative impunity ? What wonder if 
 this great country, so loud in its talk about free 
 dom, should be deprived of so much of its reality ? 
 
149 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 AMERICAN POLICY. 
 
 THE American citizen is undoubtedly a .patriot, 
 though after a somewhat narrow and selfish fashion. 
 He is proud of his country, and in many respects 
 he has good reason to be so. In his inner conscious 
 ness he is devoted to the * real/ and, in a less prac 
 tical form, to the ideal. His real is the dollar ; 
 his ideal his country. The dollar he worships 
 with a pagan devotion, and he pursues the ( cult 
 with unwearied personal ardour. His country he 
 regards as so great, so free, and so firmly estab 
 lished, that he appears to think he may safely 
 abandon its interests to those whose business it is 
 .* to make politics pay. Then, when corruption 
 has made the political atmosphere too hot for 
 comfort, the silent majority opens its mouth, 
 thunders from a thousand pulpits and ten thou- 
 
150 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 sand platforms, gets up, in fact, a genuine political 
 thunderstorm, which clears the air, and the political 
 rogues, to use an Americanism, are * up a tree ; 
 or like chestnut monkeys going to sea on the 
 back of a whale get washed off, when the nation 
 breathes freely, the country goes on as before, and 
 the * silent majority settles down once more to 
 pursue the almighty dollar with its accustomed 
 ardour. 
 
 American polity may be separated into two 
 broadly-marked divisions Isolation, and Protec 
 tion to Native Industry. 
 
 ISOLATION. 
 
 American foreign policy may perhaps in some 
 respects be narrow ; may be more or less rigidly 
 confined to their own interests, and be circum 
 scribed by the views they hold of the lines on 
 which their national life should run. In this they 
 differ only from other great nations, in that they 
 have resolutely refused to have a foreign policy at 
 all, and have confined themselves to their idea of 
 America for the Americans/ leaving other countries 
 to take care of themselves. But, however narrow 
 
American Policy 151 
 
 we may think their ideas of national work and 
 duty may be, they are unquestionably carrying 
 them out with a vigorous determination and a 
 concentrated energy, before which many obstacles 
 disappear, but which are certainly developing diffi 
 culties, that will need a sounder policy and a wider 
 sympathy to conquer. 
 
 The Monroe doctrine of America for the 
 Americans may have, I think, a much wider sig 
 nificance than its author probably intended. For 
 a great nation to have no foreign policy, to feel no 
 interest in the doings of the great world outside 
 itself, however extensive its territories, is to dwarf 
 the intellect and narrow the sympathies of its 
 people. Happy the land that is without a his 
 tory sounds well, but may be nothing better than 
 the small drivel of a man without a soul. To 
 cultivate farms, to build cities, to make railroads, 
 boots, and toothpicks, may be all necessary and 
 meritorious occupations. If these be all, they may 
 be done by big people with little souls. But they 
 ought to form, and really do form, only a very 
 small part of the nobler life of a nation really 
 great. To many Americans the world practically 
 
152 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 began with the discovery of America. Columbus, 
 as a Maori would put it, fished up a New World ; 
 then why bother with the Old ? 
 
 To ignore practically the great events of Greek 
 and Roman story, to refuse to trace the migrations, 
 the struggles, the sufferings, the achievements of the 
 men of the olden time, is to despise the teaching 
 of the past, to refuse the lessons of wisdom which 
 the experience of the past offers us, and can only 
 result in our own great loss and damage. 
 
 One word expresses both the cause and effect 
 of such a condition, namely, ISOLATION. 
 
 Let me briefly indicate the consequences of 
 Isolation, individually, social, and national. What 
 is the end of an Australian shepherd, isolated by 
 long distances from his fellows ? Insanity. W T hat 
 finally the condition of a little village which will 
 have no dealings with its neighbours ? Unprogres- 
 sive stupidity. What must ultimately be the con 
 dition of a country which builds an iron wall of 
 Protection round its shores ? What must be the 
 condition of a nation which so isolates itself, yet 
 looks for a good will from other nations, which it 
 refuses to show to them ? What other word than 
 
American Policy 153 
 
 so odious a term as c intense selfishness can be 
 found to express it ? 
 
 PROTECTION. 
 
 Since the Civil War of 1865, a distinctive feature 
 of American policy has been Protection to National 
 Industry. This has been secured by imposing 
 exceedingly heavy duties on two-thirds of all 
 British products, as well as on those of other 
 nations, ranging from 25 to 120 per cent, whilst, 
 availing itself of the fatuous craze of one-sided Free 
 Trade, dominant in England, America shipped in 
 1884 to Great Britain, free from duties, products 
 mainly agricultural, to the value of 86,ooo,ooo/. 
 sterling ; importing in the same year British home 
 products to the value only of 24,ooo,ooo/. sterling ; 
 upon a very large proportion of which heavy pro 
 tective import duties were levied. Under this 
 system, manufactures in the United States have 
 been greatly stimulated, to the great profit of the 
 small class of manufacturing capitalists, and to the 
 great loss of the rest of the people by doubling the 
 cost to them of many articles of necessary and 
 common use ; with the compensation afforded to 
 
154 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 agricultural producers of the opportunity to ship 
 their products to Great Britain free. Whilst the 
 undue stimulus to over-production by the agricul 
 turists in the United States cannot be said to have 
 benefited them, it is certain that it has greatly 
 contributed to the ruin of British agriculture, and 
 to the great diminution of the British Home Trade. 
 This cannot long continue. 
 
 When England realises the folly of her one 
 sided Free Trade policy, which may be defined as 
 enabling her * to buy everywhere and to sell no 
 where ; when she treats America and other foreign 
 nations as they treat her taxing their products as 
 : they tax hers ; when she establishes a Customs 
 Union throughout her wide dominions, she will 
 have done more to establish ultimately a world 
 wide Free Trade than all the Latter Day pamphlets 
 of the Cobden Club will ever accomplish. 
 
 PATRIOTISM. 
 
 The great Civil War, though it cost the people 
 much, welded North and South into a strong nation. 
 When that great struggle ended, the Republica 
 
American Policy 155 
 
 party, which had carried it through, imposed the 
 Protective policy upon the nation. Nothing but 
 the profound patriotism which animates Americans 
 could have induced the great majority of the people 
 to submit to a system of taxation, in the belief, 
 that though it added to the wealth of the few, and 
 greatly increased the cost of living to the many, yet 
 that it would ultimately redound to the progress of 
 the nation. If great sacrifices of this nature have 
 been made in the United States, I warn our kin 
 across the sea that the two million democratic voters 
 added to British Constituencies by Mr. Gladstone s 
 recent legislation, may possibly adopt the logic 
 and follow the example of their American cousins, 
 and demand the imposition of import duties more 
 or less heavy on American products, now admitted 
 free to British ports. Should the United Kingdom, 
 with the great circle of British Colonies and depend 
 encies, be compelled to adopt the defensive policy 
 of protecting themselves from the heavy imposts 
 levied upon their products by the United States, 
 the narrow selfishness of the action of the Repub 
 lican party during the last quarter of a century, in 
 thus calling for a retaliatory policy, will be respon- 
 
156 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 sible for what may appear to be a directly back 
 ward step in the comity of nations, but what may 
 really be, in its results, a decided step in the direc 
 tion of absolute Free Trade amongst the various 
 sections of the English-speaking race, and may be 
 a great onward movement in the march towards 
 universal peace and good-will amongst mankind. 
 
 LAWS OF HEALTH AND LIFE. 
 
 The most friendly observer of the American 
 people can, I think, arrive at no other conclusion 
 than that they recklessly disregard, in various ways, 
 the laws of health and life. The extent and 
 variety of dishes at table, the general habit of 
 drinking iced water, the universal consumption of 
 sweetmeats, the excessive heating of houses, the 
 general prevalence of excessive cigar smoking : in 
 all these, Americans show a singular disregard of 
 the laws of health. Nor is the general prevalence 
 of what I may term excessive shaving, I venture 
 to think, conducive to health. 
 
 The barber in the States is no small institu 
 tion. So far as I saw, few gentlemen over forty- 
 
American Policy 157 
 
 five wore their beards. Under that age, the 
 barber takes off the beard and sometimes the 
 whiskers. Under thirty, nothing appears to be 
 worn but the moustache. There is, I think, a 
 strong tendency amongst younger men to make 
 a clean sweep of everything. Generally speaking 
 the nation may be said to be closely shaved, and I 
 could not avoid the conclusion that far too many 
 acres of shaving are done every morning in the 
 United States. There can, I think, be little ques 
 tion that, but for this barbarous custom, the men of 
 the United States would be generally a handsome 
 race. 
 
 The excessive variation of temperature from 
 90 to 1 00 Fahr. in summer, to 20 and 30 below 
 zero in winter must, I think, have a bad effect 
 upon the general health. It is a disadvantage 
 from which there is no escape, and will always be 
 a set-off amongst the many advantages which 
 settlement in the United States offers to immi 
 grants. The habit of overwork has, I think, a 
 more severe and dangerous influence upon health 
 than all other causes combined. Of this demon of 
 1 overwork I shall treat under a separate heading. 
 
158 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 I noticed a general distaste for athletic or 
 equestrian exercises apart from driving in buggies 
 or sulkies. Australasians and Englishmen gener 
 ally owe much of their robust health to their love 
 of horses and outdoor sports. It may with truth 
 be said that they are too ardent in their devotion 
 to cricket, football, horse-racing and athletics 
 generally ; but Americans certainly err in the 
 opposite direction. Beyond the national game of 
 1 baseball they have, so far as I could see, prac 
 tically no other outdoor game. 
 
 During my stay in Chicago, a city of 700,000 
 inhabitants, I witnessed in the noble Lincoln Park 
 a game of football and a game of cricket, at 
 neither of which were present more than fifty 
 spectators ; whilst, shortly before my departure 
 for America, a game of football was played 
 between two rival clubs near Auckland, a city of 
 6o,OOO inhabitants, at which 10,000 enthusiastic 
 spectators were present, many of the ladies wear 
 ing the colours of the clubs they favoured. 
 Whether this singular departure from the tradi 
 tions and practices of the parent race is due to 
 climatic influences, or to the overweening pursuit 
 
American Policy 159 
 
 of what they call the almighty dollar, I know 
 not. 
 
 In a people so earnest, generous, brave, hos 
 pitable, and of conspicuous ability, one cannot but 
 regret this general disregard for the laws of health 
 and life. 
 
 That indigestion, dyspepsia, catarrh, bronchial 
 affections, heart disease, the premature decay of 
 vital energy, a too general low tone of health, and 
 no end of ills, to which flesh need not be heir, are 
 the natural results, can excite no surprise. 
 
 Well may Americans say with Burns, 
 
 O wad some power the giftie gie us 
 To see oursels as others see us ! 
 It wad frae monie a blunder free us, 
 And foolish notion. 
 
 OVERWORK, 
 
 Overwork is one of the sins of the Age. Above 
 every other people, Americans are the greatest 
 sinners. Life under high pressure appears to be 
 their general condition. Look into the faces of the 
 men you meet in the streets of their great cities 
 
160 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 What do you see ? A resolute determination and 
 concentrated energy in the pursuit of lofty and noble 
 ideals ? No. You see men driven along by the fear of 
 to use a well-understood American term going 
 under. Hunted by the demon of a ruthless com 
 petition, you see men everywhere absorbed by this 
 ignoble pursuit of dollars ; you see abundant 
 evidences of the fierce struggle between the * millions 
 and the millionaires. In this struggle for exist 
 ence, this instance of the results of the popular 
 dogma, the survival of the fittest, you see men 
 bald at forty, worn out at fifty. Sunday and week 
 day, night and day, the race is run at top speed. 
 City men go down into untimely graves ; their 
 places filled by youths from the free, fresh air of 
 country homes, who, in their turn, become pre 
 maturely old and die before their time. 
 
 It may well be asked, Is the game worth the 
 candle ? Reason and common sense answer, * No/ 
 Can the pace continue ? I think not 
 
 Take a young, healthy, well-bred horse, full of 
 stored-up energy and spirit, which, with reasonable 
 treatment, will enable him to work throughout the 
 term of his natural life. Suppose you put him on 
 
American Policy 161 
 
 his mettle, and tax his energies beyond his strength, 
 he may be good for a spurt, but he will be dead 
 beat in a long day s run. Overtax and overwork 
 the most willing and the most superb horse, and 
 however distinguished his early career, however re 
 nowned his victories, is it not too common a fate, 
 under such treatment, for a noble animal, so full of 
 promise in his fiery youth, to sink into a feeble and 
 premature age ? 
 
 A well-bred, healthy American trotting horse 
 will trot a mile in two minutes and nine seconds. 
 Will he do the next mile in similar time, and the 
 next ? No. He cannot maintain the pace. If 
 pushed, he breaks down, and becomes a ruin. Of 
 course, none but a fool could so utterly disregard 
 the laws of life in his case. And yet, in what does 
 a man differ physically? Nature has imposed 
 certain well-defined laws of life upon him. If 
 these laws are observed well. If not the penalty 
 is inflexibly exacted, and premature decay follows. 
 
 Now, it is clear to every observant man who 
 visits the United States it is perhaps equally 
 clear to observant Americans themselves that 
 steady, persistent, unreasonable OVERWORK, con- 
 
 M 
 
1 62 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 tinuous and hard, is the present actual condition of 
 Americans of nearly all classes. Hand and brain, 
 mind and body, are everywhere being overtaxed. 
 
 No country can point to such a marvellous 
 hundred years record as the United States of 
 America. If we look at the deeds of this mag 
 nificent young giant, in arts, in inventions, in 
 industrial works, in its great cities, in its vast rail 
 way works, in its marvellous agricultural conquests 
 of the boundless wilderness whilst we admire 
 such astounding victories we may well say, in the 
 Pyrrhic spirit, Many more such victories won, and 
 the winners will be undone. 
 
 Can any mortal nature continue to bear such a 
 
 nervous tension, such a deadly strain, as all this 
 hard work involves ? If the first century of the life 
 of this great nation has made such a crowded and 
 
 brilliant record, what will the next century achieve ? 
 
 Will the work be done or will the workers be worn 
 
 out ? May not the toilers under high pressure 
 
 suffer a recoil, and die before their time, victims of 
 
 overwork ? 
 
 Will not this nation itself become feeble before 
 
 its youth is gone ? 
 
American Policy 163 
 
 When presenting this view to Americans I have 
 more than once been reminded, that * England 
 needed ten centuries to attain her present posi 
 tion, and have been asked, How then could two 
 or three hundred years mark the limit of the 
 wealth, power, and achievements of the United 
 States ? 
 
 In reply to this query, I pointed out that in 
 England life and work were slower than in the 
 United States. I reminded my friends that a 
 flower which springs up and matures in a day, 
 often withers in a night I cited the example of 
 ancient Greece, which I make no apology for re 
 peating here. 
 
 Greece lived a glorious life, but a short one. 
 The bright array of its warriors, its legislators, 
 and its philosophers, like a lightning gleam across 
 the page of history, has not ceased to illumine and 
 electrify every succeeding age. Within two or three 
 centuries were crowded its immortal tragedies, 
 its most brilliant victories, its peerless statues, 
 its wondrous temples, its undying literature 
 in a word, Greece, by its miracles In poetry, 
 prose, and marble, achieved a renown, that even in 
 
 M 2 
 
164 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 the fragmentary decay in which these monuments 
 of her glory have come down to our times, they 
 far surpass in their splendid beauty, in their 
 unequalled grandeur, the achievements of every 
 other nation. 
 
 For two or three centuries Greece astonished 
 the world like a brilliant meteor, and then her 
 great deeds were ended, and her people disappeared 
 from the arena of nations. 
 
 Her vital force, her mental vigour, her physical 
 energy even, all had been exhausted in the su 
 preme efforts of the two or three centuries during 
 which she filled the world with her renown. 
 
 Genius, unregulated, superlative genius, is never 
 very far from insanity or inanity. By some subtle 
 law, of which we know nothing, the genius of a 
 people seems to burst forth like a volcano, which, 
 for a time, may shake the earth with its vibrations, 
 or illumine both earth and sky with the splendour 
 of its fiery coruscations, and then subsiding 
 with exceptions all too few it leaves little more 
 than black lava streams and desolate wastes, to 
 mark the force and extent of its irresistible action. 
 
 The truth is, during the past century the genius 
 
American Policy 165 
 
 of man has called into active existence two forms 
 of energy steam and electricity two subtle forces 
 whose extent and energy we have not yet learned 
 to measure or control. 
 
 Before these new developments of Nature s un 
 known and measureless energy, we stand face to 
 face. We regard them as the indication and result 
 of our own intensified and developed mental power. 
 
 But are we not in danger of forgetting that 
 mental development must rest upon, and, in the 
 last resort, must spring from physical strength? 
 Whilst we have stimulated intensely stimulated 
 the flame of our mental lamp, where is the oil to 
 keep up the increased combustion ? What of our 
 bodies ? Are they stronger ; have they a greater 
 stored-up physical energy than our ancestors pos 
 sessed ? We work harder : do we sleep better 
 than they? Are we not steadily destroying the 
 healthy balance between mind and body, without 
 which the robust health of either cannot be long 
 maintained ? What of the heart diseases and ner 
 vous affections of which we are the slaves and the 
 victims, and of which our fathers knew nothing ? 
 
 Sitting, like the presumptuous son of Apollo, in 
 
1 66 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 our flying chariot drawn by the two fiery horses of 
 the Sun steam and electricity exultant at the 
 pace we are going, and proud of our triumphant 
 steeds, let us take care. Even now, before the first 
 century of the race has closed, the pace is killing. 
 How many of the charioteers are scattered on the 
 course, feeble, worn-out and old before their time, 
 mere wrecks of the bold, able men who but a little 
 while ago held the reins ; their places taken as soon 
 as, or before, they fall by others, who in their turn 
 will for awhile urge on these tireless steeds, and 
 then fall behind, wrecks like their predecessors, 
 victims of overwork and ills, of which their ancestors 
 neither dreamt nor feared. May we not as well 
 reflect that, in calling into action Nature s stupen 
 dous forces, we may have raised a devil we cannot 
 lay a Frankenstein s monster, standing with drawn 
 sword to destroy us ? 
 
 The Orientals tell a story from which our Age 
 may draw a wholesome moral. 
 
 A fisherman had toiled all night and taken 
 nothing, when, as morning dawned, he felt his net 
 drag heavily. Joyfully drawing it ashore, he found 
 to his disgust nothing more than a copper pot. 
 
American Policy 167 
 
 Turning from the shore disconsolate and weary, he 
 was sorrowfully wending his way homeward, when 
 he remembered seeing an inscription on the cover. 
 Thinking the copper vessel might, after all, contain 
 a store of gold or silver, he returned to the shore, 
 and with some difficulty removed the cover. To 
 his disappointment the vessel was empty. Soon, 
 however, from the empty pot he observed a thick 
 vapour rising, which, spreading over sea and land, 
 slowly condensed into a gigantic demon. The 
 poor fisherman trembled in mortal terror before 
 the demon. 
 
 Prepare to die, said the demon. 
 
 * What have I done ? groaned the trembling 
 fisherman. 
 
 I have sworn to kill the man that dragged me 
 from the deep, and thy time has come/ replied the 
 demon. 
 
 * Since thou art so ungrateful as to destroy me, 
 let me at least say my last prayer. 
 
 Let thy words be few, for thy time is short, 
 growled the demon. 
 
 Whilst the poor fellow prayed, an inspiration 
 came to him. Rising to his feet, he said : 
 
1 68 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 1 1 will not believe so mighty a demon ever 
 dwelt in that small pot. Kill me, if thou wilt, but 
 do not lie to me. 
 
 I will not lie to thee, replied the fiend, * I will 
 re-enter the vessel. 
 
 Slowly the terrible demon dissolved into a thin 
 haze, which covered the land and the sea as before, 
 and then gradually settled down into the copper 
 vessel, from which it had emerged a little while 
 before. Instantly the fisherman put on the cover, 
 and fastening it down, dragged the copper vessel 
 once more into the sea, and returned joyfully to his 
 wife and children. 
 
 The demons we have dragged from Nature s 
 depths stand confronting us. We call them our 
 slaves, and we have compelled them to give us 
 great stores of convenient things, and gold and 
 silver, and apparel and luxury. Have they given 
 us more sunshine in our lives, or more health, or 
 more happiness in our homes ? 
 
 Are they not becoming our masters ? Are they 
 not presenting to us a cup filled with weariness, 
 discontent, misery, anarchy ? 
 
American Policy 169 
 
 What is the remedy ? I know not. Let others 
 answer. 
 
 CANADA. 
 
 I made a short journey through a portion of 
 the Canadian Dominion. I found myself in another 
 atmosphere. Here at least men seemed to live. 
 The contrast between life and work in Canada 
 and in the United States was very marked. Every 
 thing I saw in Canada seemed slow, measured, 
 sure. It is the fashion in the States to sneer at 
 this slow progress. The American city of Detroit, 
 with its 250,000 inhabitants, is frequently con 
 trasted with Windsor and its 6,000 people on the 
 Canadian side of the frontier ; and comparisons 
 very unfavourable to Canada are constantly drawn 
 therefrom. 
 
 Those who draw such comparisons, appear to 
 me to ignore certain inexorable laws of life, certain 
 laws of the conservation and dissipation of energy, 
 which, neither in the life of individual man, nor 
 yet in the broader, deeper, vaster current of the 
 life of a nation, can be disregarded with safety. 
 
170 Our Kin Across tJie Sea 
 
 The balance must, sooner or later, be struck. 
 It appeared to me, if the present conditions of 
 ceaseless toil on the one hand, and reasonable 
 labour on the other, be continued for two or three 
 centuries, that the United States will have arrived 
 at the limit of its progress ; whilst Canada will be 
 in the strong youth of a vigorous development. 
 
 NIAGARA. 
 
 What a scene ! What a world of waters 1 
 What an overpowering roar ! What can possibly 
 be said of a spectacle so grand, so unparalleled, 
 so stupendous, so enthralling, so overwhelming ? 
 What pen or pencil can pourtray this volume of 
 mighty waters ? Crashing down into the fathom 
 less depths below, at the rate of 1,500,000,000 cubic 
 feet an hour, what mortal man can comprehend its 
 vastness ? What mortal voice be heard in its 
 resounding roar? If thou wouldst in some feeble 
 way make thy puny accents articulate ; if thou 
 wouldst measure thy boasted strength against the 
 resistless might of this Niagara watch the autumn 
 
American Policy 171 
 
 leaf, as it silently descends on the breast of the 
 mighty torrent at thy feet. It floats and flickers 
 for an instant on the glassy brink, then is seen no 
 more. So thy puny voice and feeble power are lost 
 in its infinity. 
 
172 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 AMERICAN PROBLEMS. 
 
 To people who wear green spectacles even a sandy 
 desert appears green. 
 
 So a nation that looks at every question through 
 a Democratic medium, as though in universal 
 suffrage it possessed a talisman equal to every 
 emergency, able to grapple with every difficulty, 
 strong enough to remedy every abuse, may, if its 
 Democratic institutions are not honestly worked, be 
 only looking through green spectacles. A nation 
 so neglecting its duty suffers great damage, and if, 
 through such neglect, government by the people 
 for the people is proved to be a delusion, to be 
 merely a desert seen through an illusory medium, 
 then a great calamity will have fallen upon man 
 kind. 
 
 American inventors endeavour to make their 
 
American Problems 173 
 
 machinery automatic ; that is, to do their work 
 with the least possible help from manual labour. 
 But the inventor knows well that the most perfect 
 automatic machine requires watching and atten 
 tion, or it will soon go wrong. Whilst the early 
 American settlers were building log-huts, subduing 
 the forest and the prairie, defending their homes 
 against hostile Indians, making roads and building 
 schools and churches ; whilst simple primitive lives 
 and aims were the chief objects of ambition ; 
 whilst the cities were small and the people were 
 dressed in homespun ; whilst politics were a 
 * means and not * an end : universal suffrage was 
 an automatic machine which answered its purpose 
 sufficiently well, because it was carefully watched 
 and honestly worked. But when luxury became a 
 habit, and wealth a power, then the New World 
 began to disclose many developments, supposed to 
 belong only to despotic systems and to older 
 civilisations. 
 
 The people of the United States have had the 
 great advantage of having no antique abuses, no 
 prescriptive rights, no class privileges, no State 
 Church, no aristocratic or kingly usurpations, to 
 
Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 contend against and remove. Nor have they been 
 troubled with feudal customs and usages hoary 
 with age. 
 
 The Pilgrim Fathers sought in the New World 
 for a liberty of conscience which was denied them 
 in the Old. They found a clean sheet there, 
 to write upon it what they would. Beyond the 
 1 Common Law of England itself the outcome 
 of the ancient Roman Law and a deep love for 
 home, their old home, and the home of the race, 
 they took little else with them. Feudal manacles 
 and musty precedents they left behind. And well 
 these heroic men did their duty. In the * Declara 
 tion of Independence, their descendants completed 
 the work their fathers had so well begun. How 
 far the New England States succeeded in securing 
 what of life is most worth living for, may be learnt 
 from the testimony of Horace Greeley, who says 01 
 his early New England home : 
 
 * I have never since known a community so 
 generally moral, industrious, and friendly ; never 
 one where so much good was known, and so little 
 evil said, of neighbour by neighbour. 
 
 Fifty years after the Declaration of Inde- 
 
American Problems 175 
 
 pendence, the grand march Westward commenced. 
 Fifty years of unparalleled progress followed. 
 That, and the stimulating influences of the gold 
 discoveries, have since put universal suffrage and 
 Democratic institutions on the American model 
 on their trial, with results which are not altogether 
 encouraging. 
 
 Liberty of speech, liberty of the citizen, liberty 
 of the Press, the election of all the magistrates and 
 the election of nearly all the judges, have, by the 
 culpable indolence and grievous neglect of the 
 better portion of American citizens, gone far to 
 result in the creation of more gigantic monopolies, 
 in the production of more colossal fortunes, in a 
 greater cost of living, in the existence of greater 
 political profligacy, in a greater spirit of unrest 
 than the world has hitherto seen in any country 
 claiming to be free. Nay, in the development oi 
 luxury and in the extent and variety of difficult 
 problems, incipient or actual, the United States 
 does not lag far behind some of the European 
 nations which may be said to be the natural homes 
 of the rights (?) of Kings and the wrongs of men. 
 
 The more prominent of the problems which 
 
176 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 came under my notice during my recent visit to 
 the United States were the Negro question ; the 
 * Chinese question ; * The decay of veneration ; 
 Sunday desecration ; the Labour troubles ; the 
 Laxity of the Law ; the Irish difficulty ; and 
 the ( Election of magistrates and judges. 
 
 Some of these problems are of direct and deep 
 interest to all sections of the English-speaking 
 race ; others more nearly concern our kin across 
 the sea in the United States. In treating these 
 questions, it is, I hope, unnecessary for me to say 
 that I propose to discuss them in no carping or 
 sneering manner, but, like the mouse in the fable, 
 I humbly hope to assist, in some small measure, in 
 helping the lion out of the net. 
 
 I may here observe that the conclusions I have 
 formed on all the more prominent questions I 
 have treated in these papers, are the results of 
 patient discussions as full as circumstances per 
 mitted. These conclusions represent, in the main, 
 American opinions, examined, criticised, disputed, 
 modified, or accepted by me as they were discussed. 
 Should the various opinions and conclusions ex 
 pressed in the papers upon * Our Kin Across the 
 Sea come under the notice of any of the American 
 
American Problems 177 
 
 gentlemen who, from time to time, took part in 
 these discussions, I venture to hope that they will 
 admit that the conclusions if not in all cases 
 absolutely correct are, at least, reasonably fair, 
 honest, and well intentioned. 
 
 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 For the Negro difficulty the United States 
 is not primarily responsible, having inherited it 
 from England. The vital importance of the 
 Negro question will be seen from the following 
 figures, for the basis of which I am indebted to the 
 Statesman s Year Book for 1886 : 
 
 TOTAL POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 1870. 1880. 
 
 White 33,678,000 36,822,000 
 
 Coloured ...... 4,880,000 6,580,000 
 
 Total 38,558,000 43,402,000 
 
 White population 33,678,000 36,822,000 
 
 Deduct increase by immigration . . 2,281,000 2,812,000 
 
 31,397,000 34,010,000 
 31,397,000 
 
 Increase of white population in ten years by births . 2,613,000 
 Or percentage of increase by births of ... 8-33 
 
 Total coloured population in 1880 .... 6,580,000 
 
 ,, ,, ,, 1870 .... 4,880,000 
 
 Increase of coloured population in ten years . . 1,700,000 
 Or percentage of increase by births of ... 35 4 
 
 N 
 
178 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 These figures merit nay, demand the attention 
 of American citizens. Should the objects sought 
 by the New American Party in their policy of 
 America for the Americans be ultimately secured, 
 namely : 
 
 (i) The practical stoppage of immigration, 
 
 And (2) The abolition of the Naturalisation 
 Laws ; the people of the United States will be 
 brought face to face with a ratio of increase by 
 births as shown in the decade between 1870 and 
 1880, 
 
 For the white population, of 8-33 per cent. 
 
 For the coloured population, of 35-4 per cent. 
 
 Such a ratio of increase would in no long 
 period make the blacks equal to the whites in 
 number. 
 
 The consideration of these astounding figures 
 led me to neglect no opportunity of eliciting the 
 opinions of gentlemen from both North and South 
 on the following points, namely : 
 
 Are the coloured people improving in physical 
 condition ? are they becoming more virtuous ? are 
 they capable of education, and being educated ? 
 are they acquiring property ? is their sense of re- 
 
American Problems 179 
 
 sponsibility increasing ? are they capable of ac 
 quiring a knowledge of the common mechanical 
 arts? 
 
 To all these queries, in a company of intelli 
 gent American gentlemen from North and South 
 after a long, full, and patient examination and dis 
 cussion, the answer was in each case decisively, 
 Yes. 
 
 To the questions : Are they honestly inclined ? 
 are they manifesting a decided tendency to a 
 honest, true religious sentiment and life ? neither 
 the evidence nor the conclusions were decisive. 
 
 The coloured people are of a much lower 
 mental standard than their white fellow-citizens. 
 But, considering the long period during which the 
 black race was held in subjection, without educa 
 tion, with scanty opportunities for improving their 
 position, \vith little responsibility, with no property, 
 not even owning themselves, their wives, or their 
 children, it cannot be reckoned surprising if they 
 are inferior. Take any white men, say, big- 
 headed Germans, or merry-hearted Frenchmen, or 
 hard-headed Anglo-Saxons, and treat them for 
 centuries as the Negroes have been treated, and it 
 
 N 2 
 
180 Our Kin Across t/ie Sea 
 
 would not be difficult to allow that a great mental 
 deterioration would be apparent in each race. 
 
 Let these shamefully-wronged black people 
 breathe the air of freedom, let them acquire free 
 holds, let them take part in working the free in 
 stitutions of America for a century, and I venture 
 to think that their mental standard will be far 
 higher than now. 
 
 If these conclusions are fairly correct, there is,, 
 I think, hope for the white race, and hope for the 
 black. On the contrary, if they are not correct, 
 the future may well be regarded as gloomy and 
 full of evil portent for both races. 
 
 Of course the * caste line remains with its. 
 difficulties increased as the mental differences be 
 tween the two races diminish. If a mixture of 
 blood be not possible, then, there will some day 
 have to be written the story of Two Nations in 
 one country, with the difficulties and dangers in 
 cidental to such a condition. 
 
 THE CHINESE QUESTION. 
 
 The Chinese question concerns both America 
 and England. At present it may appear to be 
 
American Problems 181 
 
 of small moment to either country ; but, if I 
 mistake not, it possesses possibilities which both 
 nations may well take measures to control before 
 it be too late. The Chinese difficulty is a direct 
 consequence of the folly or avarice of our rulers, 
 both in the British Empire and in the United 
 States. In the interests of English and American 
 commerce the Chinese Emperor was compelled, 
 by the logic of cannon law, to admit foreigners to 
 reside and trade in certain Chinese ports ; similar 
 treaty rights being granted to Chinese people to 
 reside, trade, and work in the United States and 
 in the British dominions. 
 
 When these treaties were made, the astute 
 British and American diplomatists did not suppose 
 the right of residing in foreign countries would 
 ever be availed of beyond a limited extent by so 
 conservative and exclusive a people as the Chinese. 
 They were mistaken ; for the position and condi 
 tion of California and the Australasian Colonies, 
 not many years after the ratification of the treaties, 
 attracted Chinese immigrants to both countries in 
 large numbers. 
 
 Now, though John Chinaman is industrious, 
 
1 82 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 expert, obedient, inoffensive, thrifty, and, except 
 in opium smoking and gambling, is fairly tem 
 perate, he can never become a true colonist. His 
 social habits and certain nameless vices render 
 him altogether unfit to form a portion of any 
 Anglo-Saxon community. In addition, he is very 
 obnoxious to white working-men, on the ground 
 that he works for much lower wages than they are 
 willing to accept, or can exist upon. 
 
 But though white working-men doubtless op 
 pose the introduction of Chinese mainly on the 
 wages question, there lies, I think, below that 
 another influence not so apparent, but neverthe 
 less a very real force, namely, the racial instinct of 
 self-preservation. 
 
 In California, popular discontent has frequently 
 manifested itself in outrages. One of these out 
 rages occurred a few months before my visit to 
 the States, at Rock Springs, a small coal-mining 
 town on the Union Pacific Railroad, when thirty 
 Chinese miners were killed in an affray. This 
 outrage called forth strong representations from the 
 Emperor of China. It is clear that such a condi 
 tion of things cannot long continue. I understand 
 
American Problems 183 
 
 that Chinese immigration into the United States 
 has been prohibited for ten years. Notwithstand 
 ing the necessity for such a measure, I confess I 
 cannot see its legality, if treaty rights are to be 
 respected. 
 
 In the Australasian Colonies io/. per head is 
 levied on every Chinaman landed. 
 
 The strong and growing determination of the 
 people of both countries to prevent the admission 
 of the Chinese cannot safely be disregarded. In 
 this, as in some other instances, though I by no 
 means accept the saying that The voice of the 
 people is the voice of God, still, I think the 
 demand of the great majority of the people for the 
 exclusion of the Chinese absolutely right apart 
 from treaty obligations. In one form or another 
 this demand must eventually be conceded. 
 
 We must look at the fact that behind these first 
 Chinese immigrants there lies a nation of four 
 hundred millions of Mongolians, which, if not pre 
 vented, may, and probably will, overrun large 
 portions of the United States and the Australasian 
 Colonies with vast hordes of Mongolian invaders, 
 who may so change these new countries as to 
 
184 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 replace their homelike, vigorous, Anglo-Saxon life 
 by a hideous hybrid development of a Mongolian 
 type, making these fair lands nothing better than 
 Chinese colonies ; in short, repeating in a hundred 
 cities the horrors of Chinatown in San Francisco. 
 
 If there be even a possibility of this forecast 
 becoming a reality in the future, it is abundantly 
 necessary to adopt vigorous measures to prevent 
 such a calamity before it be too late. 
 
 There is the further consideration that, whilst 
 in China, John Chinaman, controlled by ancient 
 usage and despotic power, is comparatively inoffen 
 sive, in Australasia, where as yet he forms only 
 a very small part of the population, he is also 
 inoffensive and obedient. But in the Hawaian 
 Islands, where he outnumbers the European popu 
 lation by nearly two to one, he is a very different 
 person. As an element which Australasian 
 Colonists cannot ignore, it must not be forgotten 
 that, in any struggle between the British Empire 
 and Russia, China will be our most potent and 
 effective ally. It is therefore of the utmost 
 moment that we treat her with fairnesp and con 
 sideration. 
 
American Problems 185 
 
 It appears to me that an arrangement between 
 the respective Governments to limit the annual 
 immigration of Chinese into the United States and 
 Australasia, to the number of Americans and 
 English entering China, in each year, as residents, 
 would settle the present difficulty and prevent the 
 future danger, without resorting to the abrogation 
 of the treaties. If such a remedy be found 
 impracticable, then, however important the tea 
 trade, the opium trade, or the general trade of 
 China may be to the respective nations, I think 
 the question is of such paramount importance 
 that, if the people of the United States and the 
 Australasian Colonies do their duty, they will, at 
 all costs, demand the abrogation of the treaties. 
 
 VENERATION. 
 
 In both the United States and the Australasian 
 Colonies veneration is in danger of becoming a 
 * lost emotion. Respect for authority, and the 
 virtue of obedience, are steadily ceasing to influence 
 large numbers of young men and women. This 
 dangerous development is, I think, greatly due, 
 first to the rampant democracy current both in 
 
1 86 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 the United States and in the British Colonies, and 
 second, to the atheistic philosophy so much in 
 fashion in our times. To whatever cause the 
 decay of veneration, of respect for authority, and 
 of obedience may be due, it is directly developing" 
 larrikinism and * hoodlumism, and destroying 
 religious sentiment and parental authority. 
 
 SUNDAY DESECRATION. 
 
 * Thou shalt rest on the Sabbath day is a com 
 mand which many people, in our times, ignore or 
 despise. The way in which European Continental 
 people pass their Sundays, being contrary to Anglo- 
 Saxon instincts and habits, is beyond the province 
 of this paper. I am writing for the English-speak 
 ing race, and I venture to think that the English- 
 speaking race more especially in America in 
 their devotion to what they consider the demands 
 which competition and the requirements of trade 
 make upon them, are gradually drifting into a 
 condition of unceasing toil, highly detrimental, 
 not only to emotional and spiritual life, but to all 
 healthy mental and physical life. 
 
American Problems 187 
 
 A quiet Sunday, a * day of rest/ in these days 
 of mental strain and overwork, without touching on 
 its religious aspect, is more a necessity than in any 
 previous period. It was not for nothing that every 
 seventh day was set apart as a rest day and 
 enforced as a religious duty. In the lax ideas of 
 the present day, religious duty is becoming, to 
 many, a term of no obligation, and without mean 
 ing. In the philosophic slang of the hour the 
 Almighty is spoken of as a Force, an Energy, 
 if, indeed, He is considered to exist at all. In old 
 times the fool said in his heart, There is no God. 
 In our day, the philosophist, though he says that 
 he knows nothing, yet tells us the same thing as 
 the fool of ancient time. 
 
 Those who hold these opinions may disregard 
 a religious duty, may refuse obedience to the Word 
 of the Lord. But, ignore a law of God as they 
 fancy they may, they cannot disregard with 
 impunity the natural law which imposes a 
 regularly recurring * day of rest as an absolute 
 requirement for a healthy mental and physical life. 
 
 In America, notwithstanding the existence of a 
 vast number of sober-minded, good-living, God- 
 
1 88 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 fearing people, there is manifest to any careful 
 observer a most decided tendency to ignore Sunday 
 as a day of rest. Work, work, work, on week-day 
 and Sunday, is becoming a general habit amongst 
 large numbers of people. In many of the cities, 
 drinking saloons, billiard-rooms, theatres, and many 
 shops or stores of various kinds, are open on 
 Sundays as on week-days. In many districts 
 the mines and reducing mills follow a similar 
 practice. All the railroads, I think, run on all days 
 alike. As an American said to me, Why, sir, we 
 cannot afford to waste (?) Sunday ; we must work, 
 or " go under." Another something of a pagan, I 
 think drawing out a dollar, and directing atten 
 tion to the legend In God we trust, said, * We 
 Americans worship the " almighty dollar," and are 
 of opinion that the word " this " has been omitted 
 in the legend, which ought to read, " In this God 
 we trust ? " 
 
 Without accepting such pagan ideas as being 
 very general, it is, I think, evident that the posses 
 sion of wealth, the pursuit of luxury and pleasure, 
 and the general practice of overwork, are being 
 followed with such a resolute and silent energy, 
 
American Problems 189 
 
 that a condition of society is in danger of being 
 developed more like the debauched paganism of 
 the Claudian age of Imperial Rome, than what 
 ought to be the outcome of the nineteenth century 
 of the Christian era in Republican America. 
 
 In the midst of so much drifting away from 
 laws, both Divine and natural, it was a great 
 satisfaction to me to have the privilege, in every 
 great city I visited, of hearing the Gospel preached 
 to great congregations of earnest and devout men 
 and women, by eminent divines with an earnest 
 love of their work, and eminently qualified to do it. 
 
 So long as there are men so full of marked 
 intellectual power, so animated by deep religious 
 fervour, so courageous in their proclamation of 
 man s duty to his fellow and to his God, there is 
 hope for the Nation. 
 
190 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 AMERICAN PROBLEMS. 
 
 AMONGST the problems which presented themselves 
 to me for consideration, during my recent visit to 
 the United States, was the marked decadence of 
 the maritime spirit amongst the American people. 
 
 DECAY OF THE MARITIME SPIRIT. 
 
 The early English settlers on the New England 
 coasts carried with them the old English love of 
 the sea. A variety of conditions kept maritime 
 enterprise active amongst their descendants. The 
 sterility of the soil, which partially dwarfed agricul 
 ture, naturally directed enterprise to the harvest 
 of the sea, and the cod and whale fisheries for a 
 long period kept alive the old Viking spirit. The 
 march Westward struck the first great blow at 
 
American Problems 191 
 
 maritime enterprise. The next adverse influence 
 was the Pennsylvanian oil-wells, which practically 
 destroyed the whaling enterprise, for, though the 
 depredations of the Alabama undoubtedly swept 
 great numbers of American whalers from the ocean, 
 their profitable occupation was coming to an end, 
 by the substitution of petroleum for whale oil. 
 What the * Alabama really did was to transfer 
 three millions sterling from English to American 
 pockets, as payment for fleets of whaleships whose 
 profitable employment was coming to an end, if it 
 had not already ceased. 
 
 To these causes, and to the decisive change 
 in the direction of national enterprise which the 
 boundless plains of the West accomplished, may 
 be traced the decay of American maritime enter 
 prise. 
 
 The immense bodies of German and Irish im 
 migrants who marched into the great plains, singing 
 as they went, * To the West, to the West, had no 
 love for the sea. A life on the ocean wave never 
 had any charms for men of Teutonic or Celtic 
 blood. And so it has come about that, notwith 
 standing the Navigation Laws, not more than 
 
192 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 one-seventh of American exports and imports is 
 sea-borne by American ships. 
 
 Continental countries, like America and Aus 
 tralia, in the nature of things can never become 
 great maritime nations. Probably the great 
 majority of the 55,000,000 of people in the United 
 States have never seen the sea. A similar condi 
 tion will exist in Australia, as its interior becomes 
 populated. Notwithstanding the extensive sea 
 boards of both countries, neither possesses many 
 first-class harbours. Besides Port Jackson and 
 Port Philip, there are no first-class harbours avail 
 able in Australia, whilst New York and San 
 Francisco are the sole Eastern and Western gate 
 ways of the first rank in the United States. A 
 great network of railways, concentrating on these 
 great ports, renders less necessary a larger number 
 of harbours of the first rank, but they also dwarf 
 that maritime instinct which has been the master- 
 key of power in more than one famous nation. 
 That nation whose configuration, position, and 
 nautical spirit make her mistress of the sea, must, 
 in the nature of things, cause her to play a great 
 part in the history of the world. 
 
American Problems 193 
 
 In the United States the spirit of the old Sea 
 Kings has so far died out that, as I have said, not 
 more than one-seventh of American exports and 
 imports goes to sea in American bottoms. 
 
 The genius of the American people, natural 
 to the configuration of America, has covered the 
 North American Continent with a spider s web of 
 iron, upon which ships of the land run in every 
 direction ; but on the great ocean highways the 
 star-spangled banner is rarely seen, and with such 
 an occasional exception as Captain Morse, of the 
 steamer Alameda with whom I had the pleasure 
 to make the return voyage to New Zealand who 
 was a sea king of the true type, the race appears 
 to be dying out. It cannot well be otherwise. 
 Love for the sea springs naturally in those who 
 live on its shores. Love in this case, as in others, 
 casts out fear. 
 
 The storms of ocean, its calms, its everchanging 
 moods, its dangers even, develop a romance and 
 daring, resulting in a love for the sea, which grows 
 into a passion in which fear has little place. 
 
 Americans, therefore, may as well accept the 
 change that is coming if, indeed, it has not al- 
 
 O 
 
194 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 ready come over their destinies, and console 
 themselves with the reflection that if, in the nature 
 of things, they can never become rulers of the 
 sea, 5 they can point with just pride to their indus 
 trial conquests over the land. But not until, in 
 the near or distant future, they take a commanding 
 position in the coming Confederation of the 
 English-speaking race can they claim to wear 
 the proud motto, Per mare, per terrain? Not 
 till then will they hold their proper place * by sea 
 and land. 
 
 THE LAXITY OF LAW. 
 
 Newspapers and reviews throughout the States 
 are loud in their denunciations of the shameless 
 laxity in the administration of the law, not only 
 in the Territories, but in many States and cities. 
 Newspapers constantly report crimes and outrages 
 which, through political or monetary influence, 
 practically go unpunished ; or the punishment is 
 frequently so long deferred that, in many cases, 
 when it is finally inflicted, the public has forgotten 
 both the criminal and his crime. 
 
 Now, if the law is to be a terror to evil-doers, 
 
American Problems 195 
 
 the certain and speedy punishment of criminals 
 whether high or low is absolutely indispensable. 
 In the United States the laws appear equitable and 
 good ; it is in their lax, feeble, and corrupt admin 
 istration where the root of the evil must be sought 
 for. It is in the resolute determination of the 
 honest, law-abiding citizens to do their duty in 
 taking their proper part in public affairs where the 
 true corrective lies, instead of as is now the too 
 common practice abandoning, not only politics, 
 but the control of the administration of the laws, 
 to the few audacious rogues and plotters whose 
 nefarious action is rendering the laxity of law in 
 the United States a byword and reproach. 
 
 The following extract from an influential 
 American journal, which has come to hand as this 
 article is going to press, confirms this view : 
 
 ( With a business community, too earnestly 
 engaged in money-making to give serious atten 
 tion to the details of governmental administration, 
 there is every probability that our present state of 
 affairs will drift on to the condition where reform 
 can only be effected by a contest of force between 
 contending parties That our country is being 
 
 o 2 
 
196 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 dragged into this position is apparent. Riots, 
 strikes, misrule, and defiance of legal authority are 
 occurring all over our land, and especially in all our 
 larger cities. The arm of the law is relaxed every 
 where ; authority no longer demands respect, and 
 from every side we see approaching danger, till the 
 most conservative and intelligent are beginning to 
 question whether our form of Republican Govern 
 ment can endure the strain that is certain to be put 
 upon it. 
 
 Under such circumstances it is not surprising 
 that respect for the law, or confidence in its ability 
 to secure justice, safety, and order, are at a low ebb. 
 
 One of the results is a frequent resort to Lynch 
 law, not only in the Territories but also in the 
 States. This practice of Lynch law indicates a 
 profound disbelief in the adequacy or certainty of 
 the punishment of crime by the ordinary process 
 of law. It also indicates an acute perception of 
 natural justice, which, in default of the law doing 
 its duty, manifests itself in promptly punishing a 
 great criminal. 
 
 Such proceedings may be brutal and dangerous 
 in the highest degree. They may be indications of 
 
American Problems 197 
 
 a lawless spirit, and be a direct step backwards, 
 towards the red-handed vengeance characteristic of 
 savage communities. It is doubtless a deplorable 
 evidence that some of the developments of civilisa 
 tion may be but a veneer, which sometimes but 
 thinly overlays the savageism beneath. 
 
 For these fierce and lawless outbursts, the 
 indolence and corruption, said by Americans to 
 be so prevalent in the United States, are to a 
 great extent responsible. In addition to these 
 causes, there appears to be in all Democratic com 
 munities a singular disinclination to support a 
 prompt, vigorous, and effective administration of 
 the law in the case of outrages and murders. 
 
 I deprecate in the strongest manner the practice 
 of Lynch law, but I am not sure that this rude 
 and decisive administration of justice may not be 
 a timely warning, necessary to arouse American 
 society to the existence of a force, which it is 
 neither wise nor safe to provoke too far. In an 
 excellent article entitled, * Shall our Laws be En 
 forced ? in the * Forum, an able American Review, 
 Chancellor Howard Crosby denounces the * Laxity 
 of Law, and indicates several important remedies. 
 
198 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 But I venture to think he has failed to point out 
 the ONE evil more potent than any he has so 
 powerfully denounced, namely, The election by 
 universal suffrage of the lower magistracy and of 
 the Judges of the Superior Courts. 
 
 THE ELECTION OF MAGISTRATES AND JUDGES. 
 
 None of the developments of * universal suffrage, 
 as exercised in the United States, have been so 
 inimical to peace, order, and good government as 
 the election of magistrates and judges by uni 
 versal suffrage. To see, as I have seen, a Superior 
 Court Judge addressing a public meeting, descend 
 ing from his high post to take part in exciting 
 political contests, resorting to the contemptible arts 
 of flattery and cajolery, which are so prominently 
 and unscrupulously used to secure votes, is a spec 
 tacle so degrading, so opposed to the high nay, 
 sacred -.character which ought to surround the 
 Bench of Justice as to cause every well-wisher to 
 Democratic government to desire a radical change 
 in the appointment of American magistrates and 
 judges. 
 
American Problems 199 
 
 How their appointment ought to be made, it is 
 not easy to say. 
 
 I may, perhaps, be permitted to suggest that, 
 if the Senate of each State elected, say, four candi 
 dates for every three Superior Court Judges re 
 quired, and the House of Representatives elected 
 a similar proportion of Justices of the Peace, the 
 Governor of the State then appointing, from the 
 names submitted to him, the actual number of 
 judges and justices required, I think a much purer 
 administration of law would be secured. 
 
 In the meantime, it is right to say that it is 
 only because of the vast body of honest, well- 
 meaning, law-abiding people which forms so large 
 a proportion of American citizens that the con 
 sequences of the present lax administration of law 
 are not very much more dangerous than they 
 are. 
 
 THE IRISH QUESTION, 
 
 The United States, like England, has its { Irish 
 difficulty. Many American-born citizens manifest 
 a strong dislike to Germans and Irishmen. The 
 new American party declares that the United 
 
2OO Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 States is being largely run American for * con 
 trolled by Germans and Irish. In order to 
 limit their influence, the * American party pro 
 poses to check immigration and abolish the 
 Naturalisation Laws. It is not my object to trace 
 the results of the adoption of this policy of 
 * America for the Americans because I do not 
 think such a policy will be accepted by American 
 citizens generally further than to express the 
 opinion that its .adoption would effectually check 
 the progress of the nation. 
 
 Why there should be any desire to limit 
 German immigration, I am at a loss to discover. 
 Teutonic blood is, and always has been, a good 
 strain. Its introduction has undoubtedly greatly 
 benefited the United States. The patient industry, 
 the steady energy, the love of order, the un 
 doubted courage, the habit of economy, are 
 German characteristics and virtues, and are all 
 qualities of the highest value in building up a 
 nation. Let anyone take up a directory of the 
 great Western cities, and he will find how large a 
 part men of German names play in industrial and 
 commercial operations. One great advantage the 
 
American Problems 201 
 
 Germans possess is the readiness with which they 
 assimilate with the nation to which they migrate. 
 Generally in one generation, the English language 
 becomes their language, and, in all essential points, 
 Germans become American citizens. 
 
 With the Catholic Irish it is somewhat different. 
 For certain reasons, which I shall presently in 
 dicate, they do not so readily and intimately as 
 similate with any nation to which they migrate. 
 In almost every case they form, more or less, an 
 imperium in imperio. The French Canadians are 
 more Catholic and more French than Frenchmen 
 living in France, and are possibly more French 
 than Canadian. For a similar reason, Irish 
 Americans are often more Irish than American. 
 Like the Jews who, wherever they go, look with 
 irrepressible affection to the holy city of their 
 nation, so Irishmen, wherever they may dwell, 
 regard with undiminished affection the sacred 
 land from which they came. 
 
 But at this point the parallel ends. Though 
 their religion is more exclusive, and far more irre 
 concilable, than the Catholic faith of Irishmen, the 
 Jews become practically much more really citizens 
 
2O2 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 of any country in which they live than Irishmen 
 do. Though the Jews of our day are the repre 
 sentatives of an ancient and illustrious nation, and 
 though in the Middle Ages they were unjustly 
 treated as dogs and outcasts, happily for_tliem 
 they do not seem to have cherished this shameful 
 treatment as an undying grievance. 
 
 The Irish never were a nation in any real or 
 extended sense. Before the English occupation of 
 Ireland, they were never anything more than a 
 discordant collection of independent clans or septs, 
 constantly engaged in bloody intestine conflicts. 
 But for the English occupation, it is not improbable 
 that the hostile clans would have made the Irish 
 fable of * The Kilkenny cats something more than 
 a fable. The Irish race, like all of Celtic blood,, 
 are endowed with a lively, and, indeed, often a 
 brilliant imagination. In their case, except in the 
 North of Ireland, this brilliant quality has, never 
 been toned down or sobered by a mixture of 
 Roman, Gothic, Scandinavian, or Teutonic blood, 
 as were the Gallic and British divisions of the 
 Celtic race. 
 
 The absence of this toning down or sobering 
 
American Problems 203 
 
 element has left the Irish imagination in its native 
 vigour, and, perhaps, more than any other cause, 
 has resulted in Irish Catholics maintaining a 
 greater admiration for the splendid ceremonial of 
 Rome, and a more constant devotion to its au 
 thority than any other people, with the exception 
 of the French Canadians. 
 
 The Irish character presents the curious ano 
 maly that, though in every country the Irishman 
 is said to be ready to declare himself agin the 
 Government, he yet readily yields unquestioning 
 obedience to his priest and his Church. 
 
 What Palestine is to the Jews, Ireland is to 
 Irish Americans, with this important difference, 
 that Irish Americans cherish their grievance* 
 whilst the Jews do not. 
 
 It is, I venture to think, these two elements 
 devotion to a grievance and devotion to their 
 Church which so often makes an Irish American 
 a Catholic and an Irishman first and an American 
 afterwards. 
 
 Besides these two elements, Irishmen have 
 other dominant qualities, which intensify the Irish 
 difficulty, namely, absolute obedience to a politi- 
 
204 Our Kin Across tJie Sea 
 
 cal leader, to an accepted master, and a natural 
 faculty for organisation. It is, I think, these four 
 qualities love of a grievance, devotion to the priest 
 hood, a habit of obedience to a chosen leader, and 
 a faculty for organisation, with another influence to 
 be presently noted which have created, and are 
 continuing, the * Irish difficulty in the United 
 States. 
 
 The nature and danger of the Irish difficulty 
 will be seen from the fact, that of the nine million 
 immigrants into the United States, between 1820 
 and 1879, more than three millions were Irish. A 
 very large proportion of the drinking saloons are 
 run by Irishmen ; in many districts, a large pro 
 portion of the lower magistracy is Irish ; in many 
 cities, the political bosses and the primary 
 political organisations are largely Irish ; whilst the 
 police in most of the cities I visited are very 
 largely Irishmen. Regarding the latter, I am 
 pleased to say that, from all I could learn, the Irish 
 policeman in the United States as indeed every 
 where else with some exceptions, is a faithful 
 public servant, and does his duty with a courtesy, 
 firmness, and devotion which does him honour. 
 
American Problems 205 
 
 The indisposition to assimilate, in any intimate 
 manner, with the rest of his fellow-citizens will be 
 apparent from the circumstance slight in itself, 
 but none the less significant that, though in the 
 United States you never hear of the German 
 American, the Irish American is constantly 
 spoken of, and is a prominent figure, who must be 
 reckoned with by American politicians. 
 
 Irishmen, by their capacity for organisation, by 
 their unswerving obedience to an acknowledged 
 leader, possess great power, whether in the British 
 House of Commons or in the United States. In 
 America, not less than in the United Kingdom, by 
 their * block vote they frequently hold the balance 
 of power. Both Republican and Democratic parties 
 have been compelled to reckon with the Irish vote 
 in more than one political campaign. Doubtless 
 this too common weakness recently led Senator 
 Ingalls to make a remarkably foolish speech in 
 Congress on the Canadian fisheries dispute. This 
 circumstance has compelled the United States to 
 wink at the atrocious conspiracies of Irishmen, 
 conducted by wretches like O Donovan Rossa, and 
 to allow the dynamite clubs to hatch nefarious 
 
206 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 plots against a friendly Power, and to use the 
 United States as a base of operations, to carry into 
 force wicked schemes, which could only end in the 
 destruction of numbers of innocent men, women, 
 and children. These dynamite operations at length 
 < like chickens, came home to roost/ with the result 
 of recently killing a number of policemen and 
 wounding many more in the streets of Chicago. 
 This result, and a return to a sense of the duty 
 the United States citizens owe to themselves and 
 to the inhabitants of other countries, will probably 
 put an end to practices which have aroused the 
 strongest indignation of every right-thinking man 
 in all countries. 
 
 America, as well as England, as already 
 observed, has its Irish difficulty. It owes it 
 chiefly, I think, to the absence of good-will towards 
 England, which, for various reasons, and for a long 
 period, has been but too plainly marked in the 
 United States to be denied. For this unhappy 
 feeling Englishmen are, as I have already stated, 
 largely responsible. 
 
 In this condition of things, Irishmen have not 
 failed to cherish and cultivate their grievance 
 
American Problems 207 
 
 against England. For, though it may be said that 
 America has given no overt support to them, the 
 position has been very much like that of the man 
 in Bunyan s Pilgrim s Progress/ whose efforts to 
 put out the fire by pouring on water in front of the 
 wall entirely failed, because another man was 
 pouring on oil at the back of the wall. Let the 
 growing good feeling between America and Eng 
 land continue, and the Irish plotters will find the 
 atmosphere of free and generous America unsuit 
 able for the development of their nefarious schemes, 
 and, ere long, will find their occupation gone. Then 
 the Irish grievance in America and the American- 
 Irish difficulty will disappear altogether. 
 
 Having thus noticed the American-Irish dif 
 ficulty and attempted to indicate its apparent 
 causes and its possible remedy, it is right to say 
 that I am not ignorant of the many splendid and 
 indeed noble qualities of the Irish race, and I do 
 not at all agree with the policy of the American 
 party, to stop Irish immigration and to abolish 
 the Naturalisation Laws. One has but to look at 
 the record of England s great career during the 
 last century, to recognise the distinguished part 
 
208 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 played by soldiers and administrators of Irish 
 blood. Neither the British Empire nor the United 
 States can afford to dispense with men so distin 
 guished by the brilliant imagination, the impulsive 
 energy, the natural politeness and the undaunted 
 courage with which the Irish people are so abund 
 antly endowed. 
 
 NEWSPAPER DESPOTISM. 
 
 The United States is a Republic and professes 
 a horror of despotism. It sneers at monarchy and 
 aristocracy of every kind. It claims to be the 
 home and temple of freedom. It proclaims in its 
 great National Charter : 
 
 1 That all men are created equal ; that they are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
 rights ; that amongst these are life, liberty, and 
 the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 These are noble sentiments, and worthy of the 
 foremost place in the great charter of a great 
 nation. Little more than a century has passed 
 since they were boldly spoken, by men who had 
 cast away the scabbards and drawn their swords 
 for freedom ; and yet in this one century, the 
 
American Problems 209 
 
 successors of these grand free men, have permitted 
 the creation and existence of subtle despotisms in 
 their midst, which no European tyrant with a 
 million armed men at his back would care to 
 father. The iron despotism of railroad and other 
 monopolies, whose name is legion, by their un 
 scrupulous tactics and their alleged lavish use of 
 money amongst newspaper men, political bosses, 
 and legislators, have reduced political profligacy 
 to a bastard science, and rendered good, honest 
 government when their own interests are con 
 cerned well nigh impossible. 
 
 Another and even more dangerous despotism 
 is that of the Newspaper Press. The daily news 
 paper, not merely in the United States though 
 possibly more so there than elsewhere has usurped 
 the position of f general thinking machine. Let it 
 but boldly and authoritatively assert its opinions in 
 double-leaded leader type, then, listen all of you, 
 for when we speak, let no dog bark ; for when, 
 like the Delphic priestess on her tripod, the oracle 
 has spoken, what more can possibly be said ? 
 
 In most English and Colonial newspapers the 
 Open or Correspondence Column is a prominent 
 
 P 
 
2IO Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 feature, and affords an opportunity for people to 
 discuss their grievances, to direct attention to 
 abuses ; nay, even to question the oracular and 
 autocratic dictation, occasionally appearing in the 
 leading columns. In the United States, I noticed 
 a too general absence of this relic and weapon of 
 freedom, the Correspondence Column. By this 
 omission, American journalism deprives itself of a 
 most valuable corrective supplied by independent 
 thought. It misses one of the most useful mirrors 
 of public opinion. The general adoption of the 
 * Correspondence Column by the great majority 
 of English and Colonial newspapers is, I think, one 
 reason why English and Colonial newspapers are 
 superior in tone to so many American journals. 
 
 There are many noble examples in the American 
 newspaper press of true patriotism ; of earnest 
 truth-speaking ; of valiant battle done for the 
 right ; and of many tender appeals for the feeble 
 and the poor. Unquestionably America owes much 
 of its marvellous progress to the energy and ability 
 with which many of its newspapers are conducted. 
 Yet it cannot be denied that, in too many instances, 
 newspapers in America and elsewhere are too 
 
IVEBSITY 
 
 * 
 
 American Problems 
 
 frequently mercenary advertising machines, and, 
 in the United States, too often, traducing engines, 
 party catapults discharging grains of truth amidst 
 bushels of lies. 
 
 Under the excitement of a great crime, what 
 stupendous efforts are made by too many news 
 papers in England, America, and the Colonies to be 
 4 the first to record an outrage or to describe a 
 murder ; the more horrible, the blacker the type, 
 the more ravenous the public appetite growing by 
 what it feeds on the more persistently is every 
 hideous detail thrashed out with nauseous repeti 
 tion ; the murderer s portrait often given, and his 
 saying and doings noted with sickening effusiveness 
 till the drops falls ! Such a newspaper, returning 
 day by day, * like a dog, to its vomit, becomes a 
 school of vice, a chamber of horrors, with every 
 dark spectre drawn in deeper and darker lines, 
 until too many a daily journal would appear to 
 be playing the role of a mocking devil, grinning be 
 hind a mask at outraged humanity, because it pays. 
 
 Is there a divorce case in the courts ; every 
 dirty, immoral, and disgusting incident is given 
 and gloated over, as if to pollute innocent young 
 
212 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 lives were one of the chief objects of these scanda 
 lous and pestiferous newspapers. 
 
 DIVORCE LAWS. 
 
 Whilst noticing divorce cases I venture to 
 think that the American divorce laws greatly aid 
 in affixing a shameful blot upon the fair escut 
 cheon of American home life. And though Eng 
 lishmen, equally with Americans, resent as a vile 
 indignity to the race from which both nations 
 spring the recent scandalous aristocratic divorce 
 cases in England, yet it is not in England, but in 
 America, that we can see half-a-dozen women 
 divorced from one man, and perhaps several of 
 these divorced women living in the same city with 
 their former husband and his latest mate. 
 
 I do not wish it to be understood that America 
 stands alone in the circulation of low-class news 
 papers, for both in England and the Colonies there 
 are unhappily too many newspapers which fami 
 liarise their readers with crime, and whose direct 
 tendency is to foster a morbid sympathy for 
 criminals. 
 
 The large circulation of the low newspapers 
 
American Problems 213 
 
 which first foster, and then pander to, a vicious 
 taste, unfortunately is not without influence on 
 many high-class journals, who have often to con 
 sider whether they will lessen their circulation or 
 lose their honour. 
 
 And yet, in this hurry-scurry age, when so 
 many men have hardly time to eat or sleep, much 
 less to read or think, the newspaper is * the Think 
 ing Machine, the Book of the Age, and almost 
 the only literature of the general mass of readers. If 
 these winged messengers, these Public Educators, 
 these Lights of the Age diffuse much of this 
 kind of education and illumination, how deep and 
 gloomy must the coming darkness be ? 
 
 In times of political excitement, the slightest 
 mistake or false step in the past life of an opposing 
 candidate is exhibited to the public gaze. Not 
 even the reputation of father, mother, wife or 
 daughter is always safe from the cowardly attacks 
 of a sordid and vicious Press ; every forgotten 
 scandal is dragged, like a skeleton, from the closet, 
 until, stung by calumny and maddened by a rage 
 not always unjust, the hunted victim enters the 
 Editor s den and shoots him on the spot. 
 
214 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 Happily there are many shining examples of a 
 loftier perception of right, of a nobler sense of 
 duty, in the bright array of distinguished men who 
 conduct American journals, and who are the glory 
 of a profession as powerful as it is noble. Never 
 theless, there are too many instances of a corrupt 
 and unscrupulous Press, which howls down inde 
 pendent thought and honest action ; which terror 
 ises the good and fawns upon the bad ; which 
 exalts what it terms its Party, attacks with venom 
 ous scandals the reputation of its opponents ; but 
 drags the honour of its Country in the dust. 
 
 Such is the despotism of an unworthy Press. 
 
 How long will the silent majority in the 
 United States the honest, well-meaning, good- 
 living multitude, which happily forms so large a 
 portion of every branch of the English-speaking 
 race continue silent ? How much longer will 
 that great phalanx of good, but over-patient and 
 over-silent, American citizens stand by, and, by 
 supporting low newspapers, permit a corrupt 
 despotism to degrade their nation and destroy 
 their liberties. 
 
215 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE LABOUR TROUBLES. 
 
 AMERICA is a new country. It has no past ; no 
 time-worn temple, no ancient fortress, no ruined 
 monastery to tell the story of departed grandeur, 
 despotic power, or priestly domination. A hun 
 dred years ago the people of the United States 
 began their national life untrammelled by the 
 ancient abuses, the class rights or wrongs, or the 
 noxious developments often incidental to older 
 nations. It, therefore, presents to the attentive 
 observer the growth of a great nation under new 
 conditions. 
 
 During my visit to the States few questions 
 attracted my attention more than the relations 
 between Labour and Capital the Labour 
 troubles, as Americans term them. Almost every 
 where I noticed the wide prevalence of discontent 
 
216 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 amongst the labouring classes. Large numbers of 
 workmen in various trades were * on strike/ some 
 times to resist a reduction of wages, sometimes to 
 secure an advance, but more generally to obtain a 
 reduction in the hours of daily toil from ten hours 
 to eight. Great labour organisations were general, 
 the chief of which was one calling itself the 
 1 Knights of Labour. Wages in the States were 
 as high as in the Australasian Colonies, and very 
 much higher than in England, the cost of living 
 in the States being very much higher than in Eng 
 land or the Colonies. 
 
 The chief element of discontent, however, was 
 not wages, but the long hours of daily toil, usually 
 from 6 A.M to 6 P.M. In any climate such long 
 hours are unreasonable, but in such a climate as 
 that of the United States they are wearing out 
 the vital energy of workmen at an alarming rate, 
 and are simply unbearable. The workman, with 
 such hours, can have little sunshine in his life, little 
 respect, in many cases, for his employer. 
 
 It is a poor comment on the achievements of 
 the nineteenth century, that the vast increase 
 of machinery has not only not lessened the toil 
 
The Labour Troubles 217 
 
 of workmen, but has increased it. Heavy manual 
 muscular toil has in many instances been dimin 
 ished, it is true, but brain work, the strain on 
 nervous energy has largely and fatally increased. 
 Many workmen informed me that in this so-called 
 free country they were simply white slaves. It 
 seems strange, in a country where universal 
 suffrage is apparently supreme, that workmen have 
 not yet secured shorter hours of labour. 
 
 During my visit, determined efforts were being 
 made to secure eight hours as the term for 
 tV>e working day. Unfortunately a simultaneous 
 demand was made for a continuance of ten hours 
 pay. I warned the workmen with whom I came 
 in contact, that this latter demand was impolitic 
 I advised them to accept eight hours pay for eight 
 hours work, and that the short term once firmly 
 established, an advance in wages was simply a 
 question which the next * boom (or period of good 
 trade) would settle in their favour. 
 
 The workmen were beaten in the struggle and 
 ten hours labour is still the general rule. 
 
 I venture to think that it is these hard, long 
 hours of toil which, more than any other circum- 
 
218 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 stance, afford a ready soil for the seeds of anarchy 
 to be sown broadcast even in Democratic America. 
 I found too little sympathy between masters and 
 workmen. The great principle of a community of 
 interest did not appear to be much recognised. 
 
 I have for many years been an employer of labour 
 on the ten hours system, but of late years I have 
 been coming round to the opinion that ten hours a 
 day is too long a period for men to work in manufac 
 tories. My recent visit to the States has compelled me 
 to firmly support the eight hours system. Amongst 
 the many evils of the ten hours system which have 
 come under my notice, I may mention one. A 
 workman residing two miles from the factory where 
 he was employed, had necessarily to leave his home 
 shortly after five o clock each morning, to which 
 he did not return till nearly seven in the evening. 
 How little time he had to devote to the other duties 
 he owed his children, beyond providing their cloth 
 ing and their daily bread, how little opportunity 
 they had even to know him, will be apparent from 
 the following incident. One day a holiday his 
 little son Jack ran into the cottage, calling loudly, 
 
The Labour Troubles 219 
 
 Mother, mother, there s a man here slapping 
 our little Tommy. 
 
 4 Who is it, my son ? asked the mother. 
 
 c Why, it s the man as stops here on Sundays/ 
 replied Jack. 
 
 The mother left her household duties to see 
 what was the matter, only to find that the man 
 was her husband, her children s father, of whom 
 they knew so little. 
 
 Is it surprising that workmen are unable to 
 fulfil their duties to their children under such con 
 ditions ? 
 
 Is it surprising that parental callousness is so 
 largely taking the place which ought to be filled 
 by anxious paternal love ? Is it strange that filial 
 duty and loving reverence are fading away and 
 becoming lost virtues ? W 7 hen the home life is like 
 this, can we wonder, when the social fabric rests 
 on such flimsy foundations, that discontent and 
 anarchy are threatening society everywhere ? 
 What can we expect other than a fate like that of 
 the house in the parable, which was built on the 
 sand, and when the floods came was swept away, 
 
22O Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 and great was the fall of it, because it was built 
 upon the sand? 
 
 Let us resolutely set about establishing a com 
 munity of interest between all classes, and before 
 long we can laugh at dynamitards and anarchists. 
 
 It is not that the Labour problem, or any other 
 problems which present themselves for solution, are 
 peculiar to America, for, with the exception of the 
 * Negro question, the people of the United States 
 are but telling the old, old story of Humanity. 
 The conditions are different that is all. The 
 deep, strong undercurrent of human nature flows 
 there, as it has flowed in every country and in 
 every age. 
 
 Flowers bloom and wither, forests grow and 
 decay, granite mountains slowly disintegrate and 
 drift into the valleys, the oceans of to-day surge 
 over the continents of the past, whilst in the 
 silent depths of many an ocean are forming the 
 continents of a far-off to-morrow. 
 
 CHANGE is the law of the universe a natural 
 development of matter. HUMANITY an emana 
 tion from DIVINITY retains its original germ, its 
 primal principle of life, enfeebled, degraded, it 
 
The Labour Troubles 221 
 
 may be, but not destroyed. It begins, continues, 
 and remains amid all the myriad changes of 
 matter, a living, human soul, and passing through 
 the fiery trials and purifying ordeals of evolution, 
 will slowly but more or less completely shuffle 
 off the mortal coils of ignorance, selfishness, sin and 
 sorrow ; and ever moving onwards and upwards, 
 as step by step it slowly approaches perfection, 
 until, finally, Humanity becomes ONE with the 
 Divinity from which it sprung. 
 
 I do not, therefore, regard with fear the un 
 settling of old forms of truth, for truth is older and 
 more enduring than its garments. To my mind, 
 the agnosticism, the discontent, the labour troubles, 
 the socialism in a word, the elements of the coming 
 struggle maybe but the indications of an approach 
 ing storm ; indeed, which may and will bring dis 
 aster, like many another storm, but, like them, will 
 leave the atmosphere more clear, more bracing, 
 and more favourable for the evolution of a purer, 
 nobler, and happier atmosphere of life than that in 
 which we now gasp, and struggle, and suffer, and 
 faint, rather than live. 
 
 It ought not, therefore, to create any grave 
 
222 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 disappointment that the American nation, which 
 began its life like the youthful heir to an unencum 
 bered estate, should have been confronted in its 
 free, strong youth with the * problems which it 
 has fallen to my lot to discuss. They have natur 
 ally come to the front at an earlier period in the 
 life of the Great Republic than in older, feebler, 
 and more effete nations. But they are presenting 
 themselves for solution there, under conditions less 
 difficult than those existing in any other nation. 
 
 Lord Tennyson, I think it is, who says that 
 English progress is characterised by a broadening 
 down from precedent to precedent. Had he said 
 * by a narrowing up from precedent to precedent, 
 the definition, by even so great a master of lan 
 guage, I venture to think, would have been more 
 exact. Englishmen have accomplished so much, 
 have ruled so long, that even the Liberal Party has 
 not escaped the slough of conceit into which, 
 when a man or a nation falls, they are both in 
 danger of thinking their mode of action, to use an 
 Americanism, beats creation. Nor are Americans 
 altogether free from a similar conceit. 
 
 Middle-class Englishmen too often act as if 
 
The Labour Troubles 223 
 
 they were too wise to be taught, too good to be 
 mended. In that obstinate conservatism which 
 belongs to Englishmen, they reject a thing or an 
 idea because it is * new/ will hardly, indeed, con- 
 descend to examine it. Americans, on the contrary 
 though sadly deficient in veneration for anything 
 < old have no contempt for a thing simply be 
 cause it is new/ and, if good for anything, readily 
 adopt it. In doing so they may often tumble over 
 head and ears into the * slough of conceit ; though, 
 unlike Englishmen, they don t remain there, but, 
 like Bunyan s Pilgrim, generally come out * on the 
 other side/ and progress accordingly. 
 
 This faculty of not avoiding a thing because it 
 is new, together with a general ownership of the 
 soil of the country they live in there being, I 
 think, more than 4,000,000 freeholders in the 
 United States and the possession of universal 
 suffrage/ give them very great advantages in the 
 solution of problems however difficult over all 
 other nations not so circumstanced. 
 
 For these reasons the impending struggle be 
 tween capital and labour in America and in every 
 civilised nation, will be fought out, I think, more 
 
224 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 intelligently, and be adjusted more satisfactorily 
 and more speedily, in the United States than in 
 England or on the Continent of Europe. 
 
 In America, every man has the right of * free 
 speech, and has a vote on every question. And 
 though too many Americans indolently allow this 
 two-edged weapon to rust like a sword in its scab 
 bard for want of use, it only needs a strong public 
 danger to arise, for the rusty yet trusty weapon to 
 be applied to the grindstone of necessity, to enable 
 it to cut through any Gordian knot, more readily 
 and more safely than a nation which does not 
 possess the two-edged sword of free speech and a 
 free vote. 
 
 The condition of Europe to-day is full of 
 menace. Below dynastic ambition and racial 
 yearnings, there lies a stronger and a fiercer force, 
 a social discontent which at intervals flashes a lurid 
 gleam across the darkening clouds, and may have 
 results that iron chancellors and crowned despots 
 may have to reckon with before the coming storm 
 has exhausted its destructive energy. The com 
 munity of interest between the classes which 
 make a nation really strong does not exist in a 
 
The Labour Troubles 225 
 
 form, and to an extent, which in our more en 
 lightened times must of necessity be a more 
 potent element in a strong and united nation than 
 ever before. 
 
 The nineteenth century, more than any similar 
 period in historic times, has educated the masses 
 in a knowledge of the disparity of the conditions of 
 modern life, and in a knowledge of their power to 
 remedy the evils of which they complain. The old 
 axiom, that * Knowledge is Power/ is to-day sup 
 plemented by the newer and more potent axiom, 
 that * Votes are Power. 
 
 Whether the present hollow peace will be pre 
 served, or whether a terrible war may ere long be 
 fought out on the old battle-grounds of Europe, is 
 a matter of opinion. 
 
 In any case, the social question will remain for 
 settlement. This question lies deeper and rises 
 higher than all racial or dynastic problems which 
 await solution. 
 
 It admits, I venture to think, but of one solu 
 tion, with any force or permanency, viz., the esta 
 blishment of community of interest between all 
 classes. 
 
 Q 
 
226 Our Kin Across tJie Sea 
 
 UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 
 
 The founders of the American Constitution were 
 not altogether agreed upon the adoption of uni 
 versal suffrage. Some of them desired that a man 
 should have a vote because he was a man ; others 
 wished that property should form a part of the 
 qualification. Whilst the question was under dis 
 cussion, it is said that Franklin, by way of assisting 
 in the settlement of the question, having purchased 
 a donkey for a few dollars, took the animal with 
 him to the Registration Office, claiming to be 
 registered because he was a man. The officials 
 inquired whether he had any property. * Yes/ he 
 replied, pointing to the donkey, there is my pro 
 perty. On being duly registered as a voter, 
 Franklin said, Now, gentlemen, you declined to 
 register me as a voter unless I proved I possessed 
 some property. On producing my donkey, you at 
 once registered me as a voter. Now, it appears to 
 me that the donkey is the voter, and not Benjamin 
 Franklin. It is said, I know not with what truth, 
 that this little incident materially assisted in the 
 
The Labour Troubles 227 
 
 decision to give a vote to a man * because he was 
 a man, and not because he possessed a donkey or 
 any other property. 
 
 That universal suffrage is a great safeguard 
 to liberty cannot be denied. But to be really so, 
 it must be honestly and generally used. 
 
 It is, however, clear enough that it is not so 
 used, either in America or in the Australasian 
 Colonies. Whether it be that it is the conscious 
 ness of possessing a power able to remedy any 
 abuse, if seriously applied ; or whether it be that 
 responsibility is so divided as to be, under ordinary 
 circumstances, practically inoperative, I do not 
 know. From whatever cause, it is quite evident 
 that there are two classes in the United States who 
 do not do their duty to the free and noble insti 
 tutions of the great country in which they live, 
 namely : 
 
 1. Those who won t vote ; 
 
 2. Those who don t vote. 
 
 Americans are a very patient people. For so 
 acute, enterprising, and energetic a race, the patient 
 way in which they submit to an inconvenience or 
 an injustice, is at least remarkable. They claim 
 
228 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 to be a free people, and to a great extent they 
 are free. That they are not more entirely free is 
 their own fault They have good laws, which are 
 too often badly administered, because the admin 
 istrators are elected, or are not looked after.. 
 Having secured the freest institutions, it would 
 seem as though they had forgotten the imperative 
 necessity of keeping their political weapons bright 
 by constant use. 
 
 The human body cannot long be kept healthy,, 
 and able to perform its vital functions, unless its 
 various powers be regularly and properly exercised. 
 If, instead of riding a good horse, a man mounts 
 a kicking jade, or if, when he takes walking 
 exercise, he allows himself to be led by the nose,, 
 or to be ridden by some cunning knave, he comes, 
 to grief. 
 
 So a nation, however great, however free its. 
 institutions, if, through indolence or any other 
 reason, it neglects its manifest duty, it perils, 
 the continuance of its own freedom, and bars 
 the progress of free institutions throughout the 
 world. 
 
 Looking at the deeds done under cover of 
 
The Labour Troubles 229 
 
 * universal suffrage/ its advocates, both in the 
 United States and in the Australasian Colonies, 
 have good reason to be ashamed of their indolence, 
 or to doubt whether universal suffrage is so 
 universal a panacea as many suppose. 
 
 Under its authority, New Zealand has incurred 
 a debt far too heavy for its present population ; 
 whilst the Corporation of the city of Auckland, 
 though possessed of an estate with an abundant 
 supply of perhaps the purest water in the world, 
 proceeded to erect abattoirs within a stone s throw 
 of the springs, and permit the deposit of night- 
 soil and other abominations adjacent to the 
 springs which supply the city with water. Had the 
 Governor of a Crown colony done such deeds, 
 what a tempest would have been raised ? Had 
 any autocratic ruler permitted such infringements 
 of public rights, how vigorous would have been 
 the protests, even though made between the teeth. 
 And yet a colony or city, governed by universal 
 suffrage, does such things with scarcely a murmur 
 being heard, or a protest made against them, until 
 the mischief is done. 
 
 In view of the growing demands constantly 
 
230 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 being made by a section of the working classes 
 in all the Australasian colonies upon the various 
 Governments that work at high wages must be 
 provided for them it is clear that we are drift 
 ing into the Communist principles advocated by 
 MM. Proudhon and Louis Blanc in the French 
 Revolution of 1848. Such demands, it is needless 
 to say, strike at the root of honest and careful 
 industry, and destroy all true and manly independ 
 ence. In relation to such a condition of things, 
 it may well be asked if universal suffrage is quite 
 the unmixed good we have supposed it to be. 
 Nor is it so in the Australasian Colonies, or any 
 where else, if the well-meaning, but silent and in 
 dolent, majority neglects to do its duty. 
 
 The abuses and monopolies which have already 
 taken root in the United States, owing to the 
 culpable indolence and apathy of large sections of 
 its citizens, justify a similar inquiry. Indeed, in 
 telligent Americans, who have the true welfare of 
 their country at heart, are well nigh unanimous in 
 declaring their belief that, could the Founders of 
 the American Constitution have foreseen the 
 disastrous effects arising from the culpable indif- 
 
The Labour Troubles 231 
 
 ference of so many of the possessors of the fran 
 chise, and from conferring the suffrage upon the 
 hordes of foreigners flocking to their shores, whose 
 previous training renders them incapable of rightly 
 using the privileges of freemen, they would have 
 greatly limited the suffrage and rendered natural 
 isation much more difficult The growing dis 
 belief in the efficacy of universal suffrage in the 
 United States is apparent, from the following 
 extract from a recent number of an influential 
 American newspaper : 
 
 The American statesman who will gain the 
 highest niche in this republican temple of ours, 
 and who will best deserve it, will be the one who 
 shall devise a scheme for the peaceful disfranchise- 
 ment of three millions of our present voting 
 population. Whether this can be done, and the 
 time ever come when the legislation of this 
 republic can be confined to the intelligent and 
 moral classes, is more than doubtful.. That, until 
 that time comes, discord and violence will continue 
 to prevail, no intelligent mind can doubt. 
 
 That three millions of voters will ever be dis 
 franchised in the United States is an event not 
 
232 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 likely to happen ; that, therefore, * discord and 
 violence will continue to prevail is probably true, 
 unless the * silent and inactive majority awake 
 from their culpable lethargy and indolence, and do 
 their duty. They owe this duty to themselves, to 
 the free institutions under which they live, and to 
 the progress of free institutions throughout the 
 world. 
 
 MONEY, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES. . 
 
 The obstinate adherence of Englishmen to a 
 system, because it is old, is in nothing more 
 apparent than in the English system of money, 
 weights and measures. 
 
 In England we have a sovereign, half-sovereign, 
 crown, half-crown, florin, shilling, sixpence, three 
 pence, penny, and half-penny. A bushel of wheat, 
 barley, oats, grass seed, is 6olbs., 5olbs., 4olbs., 2olbs., 
 respectively, a ton is 2,24olbs., a hundred-weight 
 H2lbs., a stone i61bs., I4lbs., or 81bs. 
 
 The waste of time in schools, shops, offices and 
 banks, involved in the continued use of this incon 
 venient system is incredible. In the Middle Ages 
 it did not matter. But in these times of railways 
 
The Labour Troubles 233 
 
 and telegraphs it can only serve to direct atten 
 tion to the unprogressive character of Englishmen 
 in this direction. 
 
 Contrast all this waste of brain, time, and toil, 
 with the direct and simple system in use in the 
 United States, of dollars and cents in money ; of 
 centals and pounds in weights and measures. 
 
 Could anything be adopted more necessary, 
 useful and economical, to signalise Her Majesty 
 Queen Victoria s Jubilee, than the decimal system 
 of money and weights on some such basis as that 
 in use in the United States ? We are not ashamed 
 to import American wheat, butter, and meat ; why 
 not weigh, and pay for them also, on the easy 
 system adopted by our American kinsfolk. 
 
 If the decimal system be adopted by England 
 now, it will be a lasting memorial of Her Majesty s 
 Jubilee, when probably every one of the ten 
 thousand and two things now being proposed are 
 forgotten. 
 
234 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CONCEIT. 
 
 CONCEIT is a word with two meanings or per 
 haps it would be better defined by saying there 
 are two kinds of conceit. 
 
 One, when a man is proud of fanciful nothings, 
 of things which he owes to fortune or favour, or of 
 qualities which are not a part of himself ; like the 
 ass in the fable, who put on a lion s skin, and there 
 fore was conceited enough to fancy he was a lion, 
 but when he essayed to roar everyone recognised 
 that he was only an ass. The other kind of con 
 ceit is a consciousness of the possession of skill or 
 power ; a knowledge of having surmounted diffi 
 culties, of having a reserve of force equal to 
 overcome obstacles, or to face dangers without 
 quailing. This latter variety of conceit is, in reality, 
 a just self-confidence, which, without any forced 
 
Conceit 235 
 
 effort, shines forth in the bearing of a strong, able, 
 valiant man. With this great quality a man or 
 nation will do much. Without it nothing. For 
 a man who dares nothing, does nothing. 
 
 We Englishmen have much of it. We are 
 justly proud of the victories it has helped us to 
 win. Our danger lies in its causing us to over 
 estimate ourselves and undervalue everybody else. 
 
 Americans have abundance of this kind of con 
 ceit self-confidence. It has undoubtedly played 
 a great part in their wonderful progress and 
 achievements. But, like Englishmen, I fancy their 
 self-confidence may be in danger of running to 
 seed. Americans are in general a sensible and 
 practical race, though occasionally they do boast 
 a little. One of them, speaking to me of their 
 superiority to all other nations, wound up by 
 saying : 
 
 * Why, sir, do you not know that Franklin 
 tamed the lightning, and Morse taught it the 
 English language ? 
 
 How very remarkable ; did they really do it ? 
 I inquired. 
 
 W T hy, certainly! was the confident reply. 
 
236 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 Americans are patient, courteous, intelligent, 
 energetic, and full of resource ; but, like other 
 people, some of them are not always wise though 
 they will generally submit to criticism of their 
 achievements and of the institutions of their 
 country, with an admirable courtesy and grace, so 
 long as the criticism, though sometimes unfavour 
 able, is animated by an evident goodwill, and does 
 not degenerate into a vulgar sneer. There are, 
 however, numbers of Americans whose conceit 
 is not altogether of this true * temper. So long as 
 you say America is a great country, its people a 
 great people, its lands unrivalled for extent and 
 fertility, its inventions unsurpassed, its achieve 
 ments in the arts wonderful ; when you add that 
 its great cities, its enormous products, its great 
 wealth, its vast railway system are, one and all, a 
 grand testimony to American skill, enterprise and 
 genius ; so long as you say this every word of 
 which is true you are declared to be the most ap 
 preciative of men and altogether an Englishman 
 of great common sense. 
 
 But should you, as the result of much patient 
 investigation, 
 
Conceit 237 
 
 Whilst to their virtues very kind, 
 Be to their faults not quite blind, 
 
 mildly express your opinion that Americans drink 
 too much iced water ; that their politicians are not 
 quite so pure as they might be ; that their railway 
 system is a huge monopoly, under whose iron rule 
 the people are helpless ; that the hoop-iron table 
 knives they use, though well adapted for cutting 
 butter, are not exactly suitable for cutting beef; 
 that their laws are not always well administered ; 
 that they often neglect their political duties, and 
 abandon the field to charlatans and rogues ; that 
 Americans work too hard, disregard the laws of 
 health and the requirements of a healthy life 
 the pleased expression leaves the face of your 
 friend, and you are immediately told that you 
 have not devoted sufficient time to make the 
 necessary inquiries on these points, and it may even 
 be hinted that you are not nearly so sensible as you 
 were considered to be half an hour before. 
 
 In all this, Americans only show how extremely 
 English they are. 
 
 I will, however, say this for our American kins 
 folk : that though I questioned them, criticised 
 
238 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 them, laughed at them and chaffed some of them, 
 sometimes perhaps a little unmercifully, yet, as I 
 never failed, when I found anything to admire and 
 I found much, both in their country, their institu 
 tions, their achievements, and in themselves, to ad 
 mire and commend I never failed to say so, 
 honestly and heartily : that they submitted to 
 criticism under these conditions with a courtesy 
 and good humour as graceful as they were genial. 
 
 FRIENDLINESS. 
 
 For Englishmen to ignore Americans is non 
 sense ; to sneer at them is a vulgarism ; to envy or 
 dislike them is a crime. 
 
 I well remember, long ago, my father saying to 
 me : My boy, if you wish for friends, show your 
 self friendly. That maxim is one which, I am 
 ashamed to say, I have not always sufficiently re 
 garded. Not to regard it is an English fault, and 
 a very stupid one. Like many other Englishmen, I 
 formerly under-estimated our American kinsfolk, 
 but a fuller acquaintance with Americans, Ameri 
 can literature, American achievements, American 
 
Conceit 239 
 
 manners, and American institutions, during late 
 years, materially modified my opinions ; whilst my 
 recent visit to the States has given me a much 
 truer knowledge of them. I learnt then how 
 much of prejudice I had to abandon, and if I saw 
 something to regret, I learnt how much there was 
 about them to esteem, respect, and admire that, 
 in short, if there were old enmities to forget, there 
 was much to learn that was noble and honourable 
 and common to both nations. 
 
 Though I found an element of bitterness 
 amongst Americans, not very unnatural, I noticed 
 a strong, and, I may say, a general feeling of latent 
 goodwill towards England. The noble sacrifice 
 made by England in the Alabama difficulty, and 
 the strong feeling of sympathy which flashed 
 through the English world at the tragic death of 
 President Garfield, were deeply felt by almost 
 every American I met. I am satisfied, if we Eng 
 lishmen will abandon our foolish assumption of 
 superiority, will appreciate our American kinsfolk as 
 their merits demand will, in fact, show ourselves 
 friendly there will be no real difficulty in making 
 them our steadfast friends. 
 
240 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 MANIFEST DESTINY. 
 
 The destiny of the English-speaking race is not 
 merely to colonise two or three continents, but to 
 control the world. 
 
 In this aspect the story of the United States 
 can never be a matter of indifference to any com 
 munity by whom the English language is spoken. 
 
 The reasons for this opinion are obvious. 
 
 The United States presents the greatest 
 instance of successful colonisation to be found in 
 the history of the world, whether we regard the 
 extent of its cultivated lands, its wealth, its tri 
 umphs of mechanical and engineering skill, and, 
 above all perhaps the chief cause of all its 
 religious libertv and its free institutions. Strange, 
 that the attempts to destroy civil and religious 
 liberty in England should have resulted in such 
 a glorious triumph of both in the New World, 
 and, by reacting on the Old World, have done 
 so much to secure both these priceless blessings 
 there. 
 
 The fullest establishment of civil and religious 
 
Conceit 241 
 
 liberty in America is therefore of the deepest 
 interest to the civilised world. 
 
 In various ways America is influencing the 
 public mind of Europe. The Great Republic not 
 only does this, by attracting numbers of the inhab 
 itants of every European country to its shores, but 
 by stimulating the colonising spirit in other direc 
 tions. What British colony does not largely owe 
 its existence even, its free institutions, its prosperity, 
 to the impulse given to the colonising spirit by the 
 Unfted States ? Apart from their own splendid 
 success, Americans may well be justly proud of the 
 influence they have exerted, are exerting, and must 
 continue to exert on the colonising spirit, that is 
 causing that great migration of mankind, which is 
 not the least amongst the many forward move 
 ments for which the nineteenth century is remark 
 able. 
 
 The eldest brother in the great family of 
 English Colonies, it is not surprising that the 
 influence of the United States is felt directly and 
 indirectly in every one of them. 
 
 When we reflect that one hundred years ago the 
 population of the United States was but 3,000,000 
 
 R 
 
242 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 and that to-day it numbers over J 5, 000,000, we are 
 amazed at such a ratio of increase. 
 
 The English-speaking people all over the world 
 in 1 80 1 were 21,000,000 ; in 1880, 92,000,000. It 
 is not that this increase is entirely of English 
 descent ; a more significant feature is, that the 
 English-speaking race possesses the potential 
 faculty of assimilating and absorbing the emigrants 
 from almost every civilised nation. 
 
 When we consider that the colonising move 
 ment may be said to be only yet in its infancy ; 
 that Europe, oppressed by poverty and by military 
 exactions, must have outlets for its teeming popu 
 lation ; that all the best fields available for colonisa 
 tion are in the hands of English-speaking people, 
 that the facilities for moving large masses of 
 emigrants are far greater, and the cost of moving 
 them far less, than ever before : with all these 
 potent factors, who can predict the future of the 
 English-speaking race ? 
 
 The history of mankind presents few subjects 
 of deeper interest than the Migrations of Men, 
 which at various periods, influenced by warlike 
 instincts, necessity, or by subtle and deep-seated 
 
Conceit 243 
 
 Impulses, have moved from one country to an 
 other. 
 
 As the confusion of tongues led to the first 
 dispersion of mankind, so will the bond of a 
 common language bind men together by the 
 strongest of all ties. 
 
 The United States of America and the 
 Colonies of the British Empire have been, are 
 now, and will be, havens of refuge, safe asylums, 
 Canaans full of hope and blessing, for the op 
 pressed people of Europe. The children of these 
 fugitives say to the mother that has given them 
 shelter, peace, freedom and prosperity like the 
 fugitive damsel of old Thy country shall be my 
 country, thy people my people, thy language my 
 language, thy God my God. 
 
 Therefore America is rapidly becoming a 
 homogeneous nation, speaking the English lan 
 guage, the heir to English traditions, English 
 literature, English laws, and English freedom. 
 Even at this early period of its history, there 
 are more Irish in America than in Ireland , more 
 people who speak English than in England and 
 
 the English world. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 If in its lusty youthhood it is so great, so rich, 
 so free, what must its riper manhood be ? Will it 
 not, at no very distant day, stand at the head of 
 all the nations of the earth in population, power, 
 and freedom ? The English language is the rich 
 treasure-house of great thoughts, great traditions, 
 and great deeds. It has been, I venture to think, 
 a most potent cause in building up and binding 
 together this great English-speaking Nation, whose 
 progress has astonished the world. 
 
 Had the Romans possessed the rapid means of 
 transmitting intelligence, and the easy modes of 
 locomotion we moderns have, who will say that 
 the Latin language would not have been the lan 
 guage of Europe to-day, and the destinies of the 
 Old World changed ? When a controlling language 
 becomes the common language, it is far more 
 powerful than * racial instinct, and, more than any 
 other force, will bind into one strong nation the 
 various races which at first may have merely dwelt 
 together. 
 
 When it is considered that the men who to 
 day speak the English tongue, hold in South 
 Africa a quarter of a million square miles ; in 
 
Conceit 245 
 
 Australasia three million square miles ; and on the 
 North American Continent seven million square 
 miles I say nothing of India, because I am speak 
 ing only of areas available for colonisation by men 
 of English blood, or by men of other nations, who 
 may elect to cast in their lot with them when it 
 is remembered that the English race possesses the 
 majority of the chief strategic positions on almost 
 every continent and on every sea ; that their navies 
 for commerce and defence outnumber all other 
 fleets combined ; that their trade and commerce 
 exceed that of all other nations ; that their wide 
 dominions have the capability of producing every 
 variety of food, clothing, convenience, or luxury 
 their inhabitants may require, who is bold enough 
 to limit or describe the great future which lies 
 before them ? 
 
 In our day, each great division of the English- 
 speaking race has its special problems to solve, 
 its special difficulties to conquer. Many small 
 jealousies exist, many narrow interests prevail. For 
 instance, Protection in America has undoubtedly 
 stimulated manufactures there ; but, owing to the 
 increased cost of production it creates, it builds up 
 
246 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 an effectual barrier to American foreign trade. 
 Indications are not wanting that the United States 
 is preparing to abandon its policy of Protection, 
 Should that be so, a step will have been gained in 
 the adoption of a real Free Trade between the 
 various branches of the English-speaking people,, 
 and the imposition by England of countervailing 
 duties on American products will have been 
 averted. 
 
 But what are all these difficulties when they are 
 confronted by the mighty force existing in com 
 mon laws, in a common literature, in a common 
 religion, in a common love of freedom, in a com 
 mon home life, and, greatest of all, in a common 
 language ? It needs but the conviction and esta 
 blishment of a community of interest to enable the 
 mighty forces I have described to work out, in 
 some coming time, the Confederation of tlie English- 
 speaking race all over the world. 
 
 That, I venture to think, is the Manifest Destiny 
 of the people who speak the English tongue. 
 
 In a word, the master-key to unlock the diffi 
 culties which surround such questions as Socialism, 
 the struggle between Capital and Labour, the possi- 
 
Conceit 247 
 
 ble, if not incipient, coolness between the Colonies 
 and England, the passive hostility between Eng 
 land and America, is to establish A COMMUNITY 
 OF INTEREST between them all. 
 
 The happiness of the people and the common 
 weal of the Race will then be secured, but not till 
 then. 
 
 Should such a Confederation ever be esta 
 blished and I venture to think the possession of a 
 * common language will ultimately secure it -one 
 of the greatest safeguards for the peace of the 
 world, for the welfare of our common humanity, 
 will have been obtained. 
 
249 
 
 The EARL OF ABERDEEN writes : 
 
 ( DEAR MR. FIRTH, I am vexed at the delay on my part in 
 returning the series of your most interesting and instructive articles 
 on " Our Kin Across the Sea." 
 
 I am very glad to hear that these papers are to be republished 
 in book form. I shall take care to secure an early copy. 
 
 With kind regards,! remain, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 ABERDEEN. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 The Sydney DAILY TELEGRAPH says: 
 
 Naturally enough, Mr. Firth was profoundly impressed with 
 the tremendous magnitude and enormous development of this most 
 wonderful of modern means of communication presented to the 
 mind of the observant critic in that progressive country. ... To 
 Mr. Firth the question of American railroads is not unintelligibly 
 connected with the question of Australasian indebtedness. ... So 
 far, then, there is no important difference in the liabilities of the two 
 countries. As to the security which they have to offer for their 
 railway debts, it is pointed out in Mr. Firth s paper that the com 
 panies in the United States have only their railroads and the lands 
 
250 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 granted to them in consideration of building the railroads, while in 
 Australasia, in addition to the railroads, there are the Customs 
 revenues, and every acre of the public land in colonies which are 
 nearly as large as the United States, upon all which broad security 
 the money has been borrowed. Besides this, there is the advantage 
 that all profit, after paying interest on capital, is available for a re 
 duction of transit rates, or of general taxation. Altogether, the 
 New Zealand traveller was able to make out a capital case. 
 
 The NORTH WESTERN MILLER, of Minneapolis, U.S.A., 
 
 says : 
 
 Mr. J. C. Firth, of Auckland, "New Zealand, who recently 
 made an extended visit to this country, has since his return contri 
 buted a series of very interesting papers to the " New Zealand 
 Herald," covering the results of his observations. A ready and 
 pleasing writer, these papers show Mr. Firth to possess a large and 
 liberal mind, and a comprehensive grasp of ideas, so that his articles 
 have the unusual merit of being quite as interesting to our people as 
 to the people for whose perusal they were written. The gentleman 
 saw more in less time, and tells more truth about us, than any 
 foreigner who ever visited this country. 
 
 The NEW ZEALAND HERALD says : 
 
 In to-day s issue will be found the thirteenth contribution from 
 the felicitous pen of our esteemed citizen, Mr. J. C. Firth, on "Our 
 Kin Across the Sea." And with ourselves our readers will, we feel 
 assured, regret to learn that it is the last. That series of interesting 
 criticisms to which they have for some time past been treated, has 
 so engaged the attention of all who wished to learn something about 
 their American cousins that they had begun to reckon on their 
 appearing in permanency. But everything has an end, and so the 
 end of these fascinating disquisitions has come, not, however, 
 because those treasures which the author s power of observation had 
 placed at his command had become exhausted, but simply because 
 he himself has said, " that is enough." Grateful, therefore, for what 
 
Opinions of the Press 2 5 1 
 
 they have received, our readers may desire to take stock of the 
 addition to their knowledge of the great Republic which these 
 sketches from life may have supplied to them. The perusal of these 
 will, we doubt not, have in some measure produced results similar 
 to those experienced by Mr. Firth himself, when, during a visit to 
 their country, he mixed daily with Americans of all grades, and 
 studied at first-hand their manner, their spirit, and their distinctive 
 national features. He freely confesses that, like many Englishmen, 
 he had long under-estimated our American kinsfolk, but that a fuller 
 acquaintance with Americans, and with American literature, achieve 
 ments, manners, and institutions during late years had materially 
 modified his opinions, whilst his recent visit to the States had given 
 him a much truer knowledge of them. What he saw and heard as 
 he went in and out among them Mr. Firth has reproduced as nearly 
 as possible as it was presented to him which, without meaning to 
 flatter, we may say is the highest excellency of narrative and it 
 may, therefore, be inferred that his appreciative readers have experi 
 enced a like mental transformation. With him they have been led 
 to correct some preconceived notions, or, as he expresses it, to 
 abandon their prejudices ; and, while noting some undesirable ex 
 crescences on their national life, had learned how much there is 
 about Americans to esteem and admire, and that all the highest 
 qualities of manhood were possessed in common by the cousins on 
 both sides of the ocean. Having made and acknowledged this dis 
 covery, the privilege may be assumed, as freely as it is allowed, of 
 speaking frankly, though generously, of not only the virtues, but 
 also of the peculiarities or the faults on the one side of the family or 
 the other, without any offence being either meant or taken. This 
 is how Mr. Firth has endeavoured to reproduce the mental photo 
 graph which he made of American habits of thought and action, 
 and, in short, of all things American, and has thus to our satisfaction 
 enabled us to see Americans as they really are. 
 
 It is thus, too, that in these lifelike sketches, Mr. Firth has 
 succeeded in gratifying the Americans themselves. This, perhaps, 
 .is the highest testimony that can be given to the efficacy of a pleasing 
 truthfulness. The mistake which many able speakers and writers 
 make in dealing with any unwelcome feature in either personal or 
 national character, is that of supposing that to be faithful they must 
 
252 Our Kin Across the Sea 
 
 be severe. It is not the faithfulness but the severity that stirs the 
 blood. Take away the severity and in lieu thereof substitute geni 
 ality, and this, instead of making the faithfulness repulsive, will 
 eventually win for it commendation. It is thus that, judging from 
 the comments of their Press, the Americans have come to regard 
 Mr. Firth s delineations of their national characteristics. One 
 writer, alluding to these, says that they succeed in exhibiting the 
 Americans to themselves, as well as others, more truthfully than 
 any disquisitions on the features of their national life that had pre 
 viously been given to the public ; that excellences were acknow 
 ledged without flattery, and that the references to their shortcomings 
 were so genuinely human that no one could reasonably take offence 
 at them. This is no common testimony to the effectiveness of de 
 lineation, for it is admittedly a rare achievement to not only interest 
 those you are writing to, but also secure the approbation of those 
 you are writing of. In this, his concluding sketch of American life, 
 Mr. Firth lays his finger correctly on the one weak point in the 
 relations between Americans and Englishmen, and that is the 
 assumption of superiority by the latter, and the latent bitterness it 
 induces in the former. It was this, as Sala told us, more than the 
 attempt to impose taxes on them that led the original States to de 
 clare their independence ; and to that same thing the colonists of 
 modern times have not been altogether strangers. But that feeling, 
 we feel assured, has of late undergone a complete revolution ; inso 
 much that no well-bred and sensible Englishman would now affect 
 any superiority towards either an American or a Colonist. That 
 feeling is being gradually supplanted by a conviction that one great 
 destiny awaits all the branches of the English-speaking race, and 
 that in working out that destiny the Americans and the Colonists 
 will take a by no means secondary part. The brotherhood which 
 will ultimately lead to the recognition of this unity of mission is now 
 undergoing a steady development, and nothing will more contribute 
 to its mature growth than the universal cherishing of that large- 
 heartedness which pervades those frank and friendly descriptions 
 which Mr. Firth has given us of " Our Kin Across the Sea." 
 
 Spottiswoode C0.&* Pointers, New-street Square, London. 
 
1888. 
 
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 Farrar s Brief Greek Syntax and Accidence. 12mo. 4s. 6d. 
 
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 Geare s Notes on Thucydides. Book I. Fcp. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 
 
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 Mahaffy s Classical Greek Literature. Crown 8vo. Poets, 7s. Gd. Prose Writers, 
 
 7*. Gd. 
 
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 Parry s Elementary Greek Grammar. 12mo. 3*. Gd. 
 
 Plato s Republic, Book I. Greek Text, English Notes by Hardy. Crown 8vo. 3s. 
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 Valpy s Greek Delectus, improved by White. 12mo. 2s. Gd. Key, 2*. 6tf. 
 White s Xenophon s Expedition of Cyrus, with English Notes. 12mo. 7s. Gd. 
 Wilkins s Manual of Greek Prose Composition. Crown 8vo. 5*. Key, 5s. 
 
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 Yonge s English-Greek Lexicon. 4to. 21*. ; Square 12mo. 8s. Gd. 
 
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 Collis s Chief Tenses of Latin Irregular Verbs. 8vo. Is. 
 
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 Hewitt s Latin Examination-Papers. 12mo. Is. Gd. 
 Isbister s Caesar, Books I.- VII. 12mo. 4s. ; or with Reading Lessons, 4*. Gd. 
 
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 First Book of Caesar s Gallic .War. 12mo. Is. Gd. 
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 Valpy s Latin Delectus, improved by White. 12mo. 2*. Gd. Key, 3s. Gd. 
 Virgil s JEneid, translated into English Verse by Conington. Crown 8vo. 9*. 
 
 Works, edited by Kennedy. Crown 8vo. 10s. Gd. 
 
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 Contanseau s Practical French and English Dictionary. Post Svo. 3*. Gd. 
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 French Conversation-Book, 8d. 
 
 French Translation-Book, 8d. 
 Easy French Delectus, 8d. 
 First French Reader, 8d. 
 
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 Contanseau s Guide to French Translation. 12mo. 3*. Qd. Key 3s. Gd. 
 
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 Precis de la Litterature Fransaise. 12mo. 3*. Gd. 
 
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 Jerram s Sentences for Translation into French. Cr. 8vo. Is. Key, 2*. Gd. 
 
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 Tarver s Eton French Grammar. 12mo. Gs. Gd. 
 
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 Buchheim s German Poetry, for Repetition. 18mo. 1*. Gd. 
 Collis s Card of German Irregular Verbs. 8vo. 2s. 
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 Prendergast s Mastery Series, German. 12mo. 2s. Gd. 
 Quick s Essentials of German. Crown Svo. 3s. Gd. 
 Selss s School Edition of Goethe s Faust. Crown Svo. 5*. 
 Outline of German Literature. Crown Svo. 4*. 6d. 
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 LIBRARY 
 
 This is.the date on which this 
 book was charged out. 
 
 LIBRARY USE 
 
 DEC 29 t952 
 
 SEP 141959 
 
 -r O 
 
 [30w-6, ll] 
 
36721