TERESINA IN AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 THERESE YELVERTON 
 
 (VISCOUNTESS AVONMORE). 
 
 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON. 
 
 1875. 
 
 (All rights reserved.} 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL I. 
 
 PAGE 
 CHAPTER 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER 
 I. NEW YORK . 
 
 Q 
 
 II. HORACE GREELEY 
 III. BROWN STONE FRONTS . 
 JV. THE AMERICAN CHARACTER . i 
 
 V. CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA 
 VI. THE NEGRO QUESTION . 
 VII. HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES 
 VIII. THE BROADEST STREET IN THE WORLD 
 IX. THE SAVANNAH RIVER . 
 X. THE CITY OF CAMELIAS . 
 XI. FROM SAVANNAH TO FERNANDINA * 
 XII. THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH , 
 
 XIII. THE ANIMAL-MAN 
 
 XIV. BELOW THE SURFACE . 
 
 XV. THE ATHENS OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION 
 
 XVI. THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED 
 XVII. BENIGHTED IN THE CORN 
 
iv CONTENTS. 
 
 XVIII. ATLANTA, GEORGIA A DUEL A TROIS . .198 
 
 XIX. A CITY IN ADAMANT . . , .224 
 
 XX. FROM CHATTANOOGA TO NASHVILLE * .240 
 
 XXI. NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. HIDDEN BEHIND THE 
 
 DOOR. , k : . I . 244 
 
 XXII. AMERICAN CHILDREN . * . . .263 
 
 XXIII. AMERICAN HOTELS, AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN 276 
 
 xxiv. MAN S GALLANTRY AND WOMAN S FREEDOM . 306. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 NE great difficulty in writing about 
 America is the almost utter impos 
 sibility of clearly defining the moral 
 and physical characteristics of the inhabitants 
 of that vast territory. They are so various,, 
 they cannot be generalized, and it is not easy 
 to classify them. For instance the Northerner 
 is in no respect like the Southerner. They 
 are distinct peoples, with differences far more 
 strongly marked than any that exist between 
 the English and the Scotch. The Western man, 
 again, is, in his habits, thoughts, and appear 
 ance, unlike either Northerner or Southerner. 
 
 These three grand divisions include numerous 
 minor ones, each clear and distinct, and, to 
 a traveller, only moderately observant, very 
 striking. 
 
 The Californian presents a curious contrast 
 to the rest of his countrymen, and has a very 
 
vi INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 prominent character of his own. He is made 
 up of a score of nationalities ; is most positive, 
 too, in his assertion of that fact, and he has no 
 love for the Down-Easter or New England man. 
 Then there are the Louisianians ; French in 
 their manners, and still retaining much of their 
 ancestors national feeling of animosity towards 
 the English. The Floridans, also, who came 
 from Spain and Minorca, and yet preserve many 
 of the habits peculiar to those countries. The 
 Germans are very persistent, too, in keeping 
 up in their adopted home the old customs and 
 practices of the Fatherland. 
 
 Through the whole of this singular combina 
 tion of nationalities, is spread the leaven of 
 "Negrodom," with its folly and immorality; 
 while last, perhaps not least, the immense 
 influx of Chinese, who, though at present hold 
 ing themselves aloof from the " red-haired 
 devils," and carefully providing for their return 
 journey, when dead, to the Celestial Empire, 
 must, nevertheless, as they flock in by thou 
 sands, exercise a strange influence on the Cali- 
 fornian population. Some years hence, probably, 
 the Chinese question may become a problem as 
 difficult of solution as is the " Negro question" 
 of the present day. 
 
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. vi 
 
 With all this diversity of men and manners, 
 it is not surprising that an author, however 
 truthful and exact his descriptions may be, 
 should find himself assailed, equally by North, 
 South, East, and West, for misrepresentation. 
 For the egotism, which is at least common to 
 all of them, induces the idea of universality ; 
 so that each believes however ignorant he may 
 be of the others that nothing can be called 
 American that differs from his own individual 
 knowledge and experience of men and things. 
 
 Mr. Hepworth Dixon fulfilled his object, and 
 contented himself and his readers by a rapid 
 and graphic description of the outlying portions 
 of the United States, and of a few salient points 
 of character. But there were many Americans 
 to whom all he said was no less a revelation 
 than it was to the English; while, judging 
 from the offence Charles Dickens gave by his 
 neatly touched off delineations of Western life, 
 one must infer that, up to that time, the cha 
 racteristic traits and peculiarities of the inhabi 
 tants of that part of the country, were unknown 
 to, or had been unnoticed by, Americans gene 
 rally. 
 
 But these writers, though they deviated not 
 from the truth, described only certain phases of 
 
viii INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
 
 character that came directly under their notice. 
 Their descriptions cannot, therefore, be received 
 as applicable to all Americans, notwithstanding 
 that one of them left it to be understood that 
 they were. 
 
 The author of the following sketches has 
 travelled twenty thousand miles through the 
 most important districts of America, with the 
 one object of seeing the country and under 
 standing the people. She has visited most of 
 the largest cities, and has known, and had 
 favourable opportunities of conversing with, 
 their leading inhabitants. She, however, begs 
 that the reader will bear in mind that, because 
 when recording her impressions she speaks in 
 general terms of Americans and American 
 habits, she would not be understood as assert 
 ing that conduct she ridicules, and practices she 
 condemns in particular localities, prevail through 
 out the whole extent of the country, or that 
 every individual in it must necessarily possess 
 those identical traits of character which she has 
 attempted to depict, and which came promi 
 nently under her own observation daring her 
 two years sojourn in the land. 
 
TEEESINA IN AMERICA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 EW York has been often described, so 
 often indeed, that it seems almost 
 needless to say anything about it 
 now-a-days. But a series of sketches 
 of America cannot be considered complete that 
 does not notice, more or less fully, the " Empire 
 
 City," as the idol of America is called. 
 
 As " the eye of the maiden is to the hand of 
 her mistress," so is the heart of the American 
 to the city of New York, for is it not the Temple 
 of Mammon the Great ? Is it not the city of his 
 altars, the well-beloved seat of the " Almighty 
 Dollar ?" And is it not crowded with his eager 
 worshippers? Is it not there that marble 
 temples commemorate his bounties, and " brown 
 stone fronts," in countless avenues, propitiate 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 him and his high priests ? Talk not to me of 
 Juggernaut : men may lay their puny bodies on 
 the burning sand and have them crushed into 
 shapeless masses by his ponderous wheels, but 
 here, men lay their souls, as well as their bodies, 
 in the path of Mammon, and meet their double 
 death with smiles of joy for are not his wheels 
 of gold, of solid yellow shining gold ? His 
 mark is stamped not on the forehead only, but 
 glows in the eyes, on the lips, and on every 
 feature. The hand sympathises with it, and 
 every gesture is en rapport with the fire which 
 burns within the soul of the eager devotee. 
 
 The light of Mammon gleams on nearly every 
 face in Broadway and Wall Street, as the " light 
 of battle " illumines the faces down the long 
 line, when the batteries open on it and the 
 officers wave it on. All is earnestness in New 
 York ; there is no dilly-dallying or loitering 
 there. Every man presses on with steady eye 
 towards his goal, and at the end of the day he 
 wends his way homeward, with eyes fixed and 
 thoughts intent on how he shall force his way 
 through the crowd on the morrow, and flinging 
 himself before his advancing god, receive his 
 deadly favours. 
 
 What is the frenzy of the most enthusiastic 
 fanatics to the fever which can thus whirl thou 
 sands and thousands of men and women, day 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 after day, through years of anxious toil ; which 
 can make work seem pleasure; degradation, 
 honour ; and ruin, both of mind and body, suc 
 cess ? Which can thus fix, on a whole city of a 
 million inhabitants, a stamp so indelible and a 
 .character so distinct, that the cry, " worshippers 
 of money !" rises, instinctively, to the lips of 
 -every intelligent stranger. 
 
 Behold the buildings of magnificent front- 
 lofty and imposing in their wealth of precious 
 marble; behold the silks and velvets meant 
 only for the drawing-room or barouche, dragged 
 through mire and dust with sweeping indiffer 
 ence ; and, if you are a worshipper of gold, fall 
 down and do homage, for all these are the 
 ensigns of the God of America. But if you are 
 a worshipper of solid worth, pause ; for the 
 buildings are only veneered ; the wearers of silk 
 will be penniless in a few years, perhaps in a 
 few months, and ere long will become common 
 clay, forgotten by all the world, because they 
 will have done nothing for it to remember, and 
 have built nothing which will outlive them 
 selves. These people, when they commenced 
 their career had but one object in view, and 
 have had but one design throughout their lives, 
 viz., to win^favours from their God. If the} r 
 .have won them, shall they not display them ? or 
 if they have not, shall they not feign that they 
 
 12 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 have ? as the pretence will bring them for 
 awhile the power and reverence they have 
 striven for. 
 
 How often in passing along an English 
 thoroughfare would the word " pounds " strike- 
 the ear ? once, perhaps, but more likely, not 
 even once. But walk up Broadway and observe- 
 how many times the word "dollars" will ring 
 out, and you will then have the key to the 
 manners, customs, thoughts, and actions of the 
 inhabitants of NewJYork, 
 
 To describe the public buildings of New York, 
 its park, its Fifth Avenue, and its caravansary 
 of caravansaries, its darling Fifth Avenue Hotel, 
 would only be doing what has been done scores 
 of times before truthfully and untruthfully ; 
 in the latter case perhaps in the most interesting 
 manner. In point of public buildings it is 
 far behind Philadelphia : its streets and pave 
 ments are not to be compared with those of St. 
 Louis, New Orleans, or Philadelphia; its churches 
 are surpassed by many in the cities just named; 
 its wharves and landing stages are admitted by its 
 own citizens to be a disgrace. Of New York morals, 
 both public and private, perhaps the less said 
 the better vide the public prints and Congress 
 but in the matter of dollars it reigns supreme 
 and nothing more is needed to make it the 
 worshipped of all worshippers, the sun and centre 
 of American life. 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 But although in this respect New York sets 
 the example and furnishes the model for nearly 
 the whole of the United States, it is less Ameri 
 can, and more cosmopolitan in its feelings and 
 habits than any other city of the Union. With 
 a population half of which is foreign-born, this 
 can hardly fail to be the case ; as national 
 characteristics are slow to fade out, and many 
 of them are very infectious. New York is New 
 York and nothing else. Although in America, 
 it is not American ; although including m its 
 population more Germans than any^city in the 
 world, except Berlin and Vienna, it is not ^ Ger 
 man ; and, although controlled in its municipal 
 affairs by Irishmen, it is not Irish. Its magnates 
 -are of all nations, American, Irish, Scotch, Ger 
 man, Dutch, and French, and its customs partake 
 of the same mixed character. 
 
 Of late, a rage for everything European has 
 seized the New Yorkers, and through them, of 
 -course, the rest of America, Hotels, on the 
 European plan, and clubs, as nearly as possible 
 on the Pall Mall plan, have been inaugurated, 
 .and both have found favour, but more particu 
 larly the latter. For Hotels " on the European 
 plan" do not afford so much opportunity 
 public displays of toilet, and are therefore not 
 likely to be as popular as the hotels on the 
 plan. "Our aristocratic circles" is now a 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 favourite expression with the newspapers ; 
 liveried servants are to be seen on Fifth 
 Avenue, and some of the more advanced spirits 
 among the New Yorkers have really succeeded 
 in persuading themselves that they are aristo 
 crats. 
 
 In military matters New York inclines to the 
 French style ; her volunteer corps being as 
 Frencliy as a total absence of anything French 
 will admit of; while in civilian dress the extreme 
 English is affected. Whether New York will 
 ever strike out an independent course for her 
 self remains to be seen, but at present she is 
 ( blown about by every wind of doctrine/ and 
 pays the penalty of being cosmopolitan by being 
 unable to call anything her own. 
 
 A visitor to New York may pass a few weeks 
 there very pleasantly, provided the amount of 
 money he will have to spend is a matter of in 
 difference to him. He may see the American 
 hotel system in its glory at the Fifth Avenue, 
 and at the St. Nicholas ; he will see New York 
 theatres, New York " mansions," New York 
 men and women, and New York manners ; but 
 if he forthwith returns to Europe, he will carry 
 with him a very erroneous idea of the Ameri 
 cans, and American life generally. To acquire 
 a knowledge of the latter, he must wander 
 through the length and breadth of the United 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 States. I say "wander," advisedly, for he 
 must not hurry, and when North, South, East, 
 and West have been thoroughly explored, he 
 will be able to form for himself, if not for 
 other people, some idea of what that wonderful 
 conglomeration called America really is. 
 
 O 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 HORACE GREELEY. 
 
 HE first person who called upon me in 
 New York was Horace Greeley, and, 
 as he has left us "for the better 
 land/ as he himself would phrase it, I cannot 
 refrain from penning this slight sketch of him. 
 
 It is not usual in America to carry printed 
 visiting cards, but to write the name on a blank 
 one, with which any hotel or stationer will 
 supply you. The waiter having presented me 
 with a card, upon which were some curious 
 hieroglyphics, as though a couple of flies had 
 disported themselves thereon, I turned it in all 
 directions, thinking it might perhaps be Chinese, 
 and required to be read backwards, or that it 
 was some curious acrostic, which should be read 
 at right angles, or from corner to corner. 
 
 All these attempts, however, failing to en 
 lighten me, I said to the waiter 
 
 " What does this mean ? Have the flies been 
 crawling over the paper, or is it Sanscrit ?" 
 
HORACE GREELEY. 
 
 " It is the signature of Horace Greeley," he 
 replied, with a grin ; "he is waiting to see you." 
 The waiter evidently enjoyed the joke. No 
 doubt he had often seen persons as perplexed 
 as myself. But he went down and told the 
 clerk of my dilemma, who forthwith began talk 
 ing of it to his customers at the bar ; and the 
 next morning there was a full account of it in 
 all the opposition newspapers. 
 
 Horace Greeley was one of the old-school 
 Americans, of whom so few are now left. He 
 was of that stock which made the country s 
 greatness men who were patriotic, earnest, be 
 nevolent, simple, consistent he was in mind and 
 person the model for a patriarch. Long white 
 flowing hair surrounded a finely shaped head, 
 and a white beard fringed a frank, healthful face 
 of womanly sweetness. His eyes, which had no 
 merit of form or colour, were yet the windows 
 of his soul through which his every feeling 
 gleamed. His features were too small to be 
 handsome, but beauty radiated over them. He 
 usually wore a light-coloured coat, which, how 
 ever, he seldom succeeded in getting thoroughly 
 into ; and lace-up shoes, that rarely were laced. 
 I think it probable that he affected also long 
 white stockings, which had a general tendency 
 to come down. His bruised white hat was 
 generally placed so far back on his head, that it 
 
10 HORACE GREELEY. 
 
 was believed it stuck there by some marvellous 
 interposition of Providence. Yet, withal, he was 
 a personage one could not help loving even at 
 first sight virtue and good nature being so 
 apparent in his pleasant countenance. 
 
 Sad it is to think that such a man was " done 
 to death" by the revelations that must at 
 length have forced conviction upon him of the 
 selfishness of his country, and its utter want of 
 principle. He could not see and scarcely could 
 understand evil. When, firm in his inmost 
 desire to be the Father of his country, he was in 
 duced to stand for the Presidency, the fearfully 
 villainous machinations, deceits, egotism, pecu 
 lations, frauds, briberies, &c., which the elec 
 tions periodically bring forth, were thrust upon 
 him individually. This overpowered one of the 
 finest brains the country can boast of, and broke 
 that great, glowing heart ! Few Horace Gree- 
 leys in the United States now, I fear ! 
 
 For some years past he had practically sepa 
 rated himself from The Tribune, though he kept 
 the superintendence of it. He devoted himself 
 chiefly to writing letters, addressed to young 
 men, and reading them at the various institutes. 
 It was a moral and intellectual treat to hear 
 him, though he had but little elocutionary 
 power, and but a poor voice. But he possessed 
 the eloquence of truth and sincerity, which 
 
HORACE G REE LEY. 11 
 
 touched every heart, and a logic which appealed 
 to every brain. He was a man who excited 
 almost universal love and veneration ; so that 
 when, during the course of the presidential 
 election, he found that, from pecuniary motives, 
 he was reviled, ridiculed, spat upon despised 
 he could never be and that contumely and 
 insult were heaped upon him, the vile calumnies, 
 seemed to fall too hardly. They burnt into his 
 breast and festered there, until the noble, guile 
 less heart burst asunder with the agonizing bit 
 terness of unjust ignominy. Like King Lear, 
 he tore his silver locks, and exclaimed " Ingra 
 titude ! thou marble-hearted fiend, more hide 
 ous, when thou show st thee in a child, than 
 the sea-monster !" His colossal intellect was, 
 shattered to its base, even before the mighty 
 Reaper could gather him to his rest. The 
 disappointment of his life s work was too ap 
 palling, and madness fell upon him ! 
 
 Horace Greeley had been the patriotic father 
 of his country of the broad lands which ex 
 tend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. His 
 opponent, Ulysses Grant, was the scourge of 
 one half of it. The scourge was raised on high 
 the friend was sent into the gutter ! Let it 
 not be supposed that I would depreciate the 
 many fine qualities of the President of the 
 United States : I merely relate what occurred,, 
 and lament. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BROWN STONE FRONTS. 
 
 HE worst symptom in American life is 
 its superficiality, morally and socially. 
 In the go-ahead class of Americans 
 there is a desperate love of ostentation, of show, 
 of sharn and make-believe ; and a corresponding 
 disregard of reality, worth, solidity, and earnest 
 ness. 
 
 In New York, where this characteristic is 
 especially conspicuous, most men s ambition is 
 to live in a house with a " brown stone front" 
 It is called brown stone, but is of a reddish 
 chocolate colour, and is one of the handsomest 
 stones I know. No matter what the rest of the 
 house is built of wood, brick, or plaster and 
 daub it must have a stone front, and look like 
 a stone building. If it cannot be actually ve 
 neered with " brown stone," it must at least be 
 plastered to resemble it. Houses are advertised, 
 without any other recommendation than that 
 
BROWN STONE FRONTS. 
 
 they have a brown stone front. That is con 
 sidered the ne plus ultra of earthly habitations 
 the summit of all desires the crowning effort 
 of the love of make-believe. If his house looks 
 like a nobleman s mansion in front and you 
 could not pay him a greater compliment than to 
 tell him it does the New Yorker is satisfied. 
 
 A lady about to marry would make any sacri 
 fice of herself, if a brown stone front were only 
 thrown into the matrimonial bargain. Speak 
 ing with a gentleman of the various lots in life 
 one would like to have chosen, I said I should 
 like to have been a sea-captain and live always 
 at sea ; he said he would like to have a comfort 
 able income and live " in a brown stone front, 
 on Fifth Avenue." An American lady, a mere 
 casual acquaintance, lamenting to me over her 
 own unhappy married lot, complained that her 
 husband was twice her own age. I remarked- 
 "You must have been aware of that before 
 marriage." 
 
 " Oh, yes," she replied ; "but ten years make 
 a great difference in a man turned of fifty ; and 
 besides, when I married him he lived in a brown 
 stone front, while my lover, who was young, had 
 not then made a position, and there was no 
 knowing when he would, so I married -- 
 " The brown stone front, " I interposed. 
 She laughed and said, " If he only had it now 
 I should be content, in spite of his age." 
 
14 BRO WN STONE FRONTS. 
 
 The " brown stone front" being obtained, the 
 next object seems to be so to furnish the house 
 that it may resemble, as nearly as possible, a 
 royal residence. But every article is painted 
 and varnished to look like what it is not. What 
 is apparently massive oak carving betrays itself 
 as deal ; enormous mirrors reflect one fore 
 shortened in a most singular way. The very 
 41 Utrecht velvet" with which even a New 
 York washerwoman, so great and so general is 
 the love of display, will have her chairs seated 
 is a compound of some trash that Utrecht would 
 scorn to recognize. Most of this ostentatious 
 class go to Europe for no better purpose than to 
 say they have been, or to gather ideas for 
 making the grandest display on their return 
 home. Numbers of ladies visit Paris with no 
 desire beyond that of seeing the fashions, and 
 taking home something newer than their neigh 
 bours have got. To endeavour to dress like a 
 Frenchwoman is laudable enough, but the first 
 two essentials of her dress appropriateness and 
 unpretentiousness are always conspicuously 
 absent in the American ladies toilette. When 
 in Europe they go to state balls and concerts, 
 attend drawing-rooms and aristocratic reunions ; 
 they see and hear of princesses, duchesses, and 
 other women of fashion, who are clothed in 
 purple and fine linen, ermine, velvets and satin, 
 
BROWN STONE FRONTS. 15 
 
 with diamonds, emeralds, pearls, &c., ad libitum 
 all delicious for a woman to contemplate and 
 straightway on their returning to their country 
 come down dressed up to this mark, as nearly 
 as circumstances will allow, to the breakfast- 
 tables of a common restaurant, having partly 
 ruined their husbands to effect their display. 
 American husbands, by-the-way, are models in 
 this respect. They do not complain at extra 
 vagance if it only makes a show. On the con 
 trary, the more recklessly money is lavished the 
 more they exult over that fact. " You will find 
 my wife a smart woman," said a husband, glori 
 fying himself and his better half; " quite an 
 elegant lady. These sixteen boxes are her lug 
 gage. She spent in Europe thirty thousand 
 dollars on dress." I could have sworn that they 
 lived in a "brown stone front," and that the 
 wife would display her diamonds at the cabin 
 dinner, and so it turned out. Of course there 
 are Americans both men and women of talent 
 and genius who visit European cities for the 
 study of art and of science, and who wish to 
 contemplate the marvellous works of bygone 
 ages, while others seek general improvement or 
 the mere excitement of travel. The greater 
 part, however, visit Europe for the " say 3 of the 
 thing, and because it denotes that they have 
 wealth to squander. 
 
16 BROWN STONE FRONTS. 
 
 This disposition to ostentation throws an air 
 of flimsiness over all their undertakings. Their 
 buildings have all the same showy, meretricious 
 appearance. Many of their pretentious " white 
 marble" buildings are only veneered to the 
 depth of a few inches. If an earthquake could 
 shake America, they would all fall down like a 
 tower of cards ; or if the nation were to decay 
 like the Roman Empire, there would not remain 
 a vestige in half a century to mark the spot 
 where her cities had stood. 
 
 There are some substantial blocks of buildings, 
 in Broadway and other parts of New York for 
 warehousing purposes, such as we find in Liver 
 pool, Manchester, and Glasgow. The churches 
 are mostly pretty, tasteful structures, but there- 
 is not a cathedral to compare with those of the 
 French, German, and Italian cities. The cathe 
 dral in New Orleans the finest religious monu 
 ment in the country was built by the Spaniards. 
 There is, in fact, nothing grand or splendid in 
 point of architecture, solidity, or size. The 
 capitol at Washington has a very shabby back 
 or front (or whatever it is) of brick, the entrance 
 to which is by a small, mean door at the top of 
 an ordinary flight of steps. The Fifth Avenue, 
 where are congregated the much-coveted "brown 
 stone fronts," is, in front a very handsome- 
 looking street the rich colour of the stone 
 
BR O WN STONE FR ONTS. 1 7 
 
 being in itself a beauty unrivalled by any build 
 ing material as yet in use. If New York were 
 built of that stone entirely, as Aberdeen is of 
 granite and Bath of white stone, it would, in 
 deed, be superb. But the houses behind the 
 stone fronts are mere shells ; and it is only in 
 Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue that these 
 stone fronts even predominate. There are, how 
 ever, some few exceptions to the general want of 
 substantiality. One is a real stone and marble 
 mansion, back, front, sides, and all, which a 
 Scotch capitalist is building for himself. This 
 mansion is called a p&l&cefaute de mieux for 
 ostentation extends even to the naming of the 
 most ordinary things the " Silver Palace Sleep 
 ing Car," to wit. How mellifluous that sounds, 
 but what a horrid place of torture is the reality ! 
 The class of people I have been describing 
 would, I am aware, be termed " shoddy" by 
 <3very American. You would be told they were 
 merely parvenus, a "fungus-growth of the war," 
 and that you had not seen " our best people." 
 You might reply that you had had letters to 
 senators, judges, admirals, generals, governors, 
 &c., and the answer would be that they were 
 "the wrong ones." Where, then, are you to 
 look for the right ones ? there being no inde 
 pendent gentlemen living on their incomes as 
 in other countries. Individuals and families 
 VOL. I. 2 
 
18 BROWN STONE FRONTS. 
 
 " our best people" may, indeed, sometimes be 
 met with ; not in society, for there is none, but 
 quite promiscuously, in all sorts of company, 
 there being no exclusiveness in America. 
 
 If a woman can afford to wear a good dress 
 and sit at the same table, she will consider her 
 self the equal of whoever may be present ; and 
 there is no conventionalism to put her down or 
 to subdue her. She may eat with her knife, 
 and stretch with it afterwards into the butter 
 at arm s length, without attracting any sort of 
 notice. Indeed, I never heard of a woman 
 being silently tabooed in this country for being 
 vulgar and ill-bred, nor could such ostracism be 
 resorted to ; for the few could not control the 
 many, and refinement and good-breeding in 
 America are the exception and not the rule. 
 And so it must necessarily be when the presi 
 dential chair can be occupied by men taken from 
 field labour and tailors shops, and their wives 
 from the kitchen. Society must have a nucleus 
 somewhere, and if that be not in high places, 
 where power and wealth congregate, it is use 
 less to look for it lower down the ladder; un 
 less, perhaps, among artists and literati, and 
 their number is so small in America, that they 
 do not form a society, but merely, as in Boston, 
 a coterie. 
 
 Rarely does an American possess a " country 
 
BRO WN STONE FRONTS. 19 
 
 seat ;" for, as all the wealthy people are in busi 
 ness, they congregate in the cities. The great 
 showman, Barnum, however, has gone on the 
 European system, and built himself a handsome 
 country home, to which he retires to enjoy his 
 otium cum dignitate. And no doubt the little Bar- 
 nums, if there are any, are destined to form the 
 American aristocracy of the future, and might 
 appropriately assume the title of " Princes of 
 Humbug." There are houses of the " villa" 
 description in the suburbs of most towns ; gene 
 rally they are of wood, and in a semi-Swiss or 
 Italian style. 
 
 Although aspiring to be, in the future, the 
 greatest nation on the earth, the Americans are 
 too impetuous, too hasty, to do much for pos 
 terity. Their efforts are too diffused, and their 
 results too ephemeral. They think more about 
 themselves than about their children. They 
 change the old adage, " Sufficient unto the day 
 is the evil thereof," into " Sufficient unto the 
 day is the good thereof ;" let those that follow 
 pick up the scraps or make for themselves. 
 They build their railroads to carry them, per 
 haps, as long as they live, if they do not live too 
 long. Thus, throughout the country, wherever 
 wooden sheds can be run up to serve for the 
 time, not a decent station is ever made. The 
 railroads barely suffice to carry the train along ; 
 
 22 
 
20 BROWN STONE FRONTS. 
 
 and it has not unfrequently happened that the 
 passengers have had to turn out in a body to 
 repair the line ere they could proceed. Ameri 
 cans being ever in a state of eager hurry, 
 admire nothing so much as what they call, 
 "smartness." Keenness, quickness, sharpness, 
 activity, seem to them the most desirable of all 
 qualities, and they are doubtless the chief cha 
 racteristics of the American. Fulton launched 
 the first steam-ship on the Hudson, but Papin, 
 a German, first patiently and toilsomely worked 
 out all its intricacies. Professor Moss is said 
 to have been the first who made electricity 
 speak intelligibly ; but much study and " mid 
 night oil " had been devoted to it by others, ere 
 this discovery could be brought to bear fruit. I 
 assume that Americans are more rapid than 
 profound, more ingenious to apply than studious 
 to discover. They have endeavoured, by a sud 
 den jerk, to invest their new country with all 
 the results attained by the mother countries 
 only after centuries of toil, industry, patient 
 thought, and experience ; but their haste has 
 been in a great degree fatal to their project. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 T may seem superfluous, in these days 
 of intimate relations and rapid com 
 munication with the United States, 
 to discourse upon or describe the American 
 character. But probably there are still ^ many 
 whose ideas on the subject are as limited 
 and imperfect as were those of the author 
 herself, before visiting the country. For, com 
 paratively few English men or women go to 
 America, for the mere purposes of travel and 
 observation ; and even those few remain too 
 short a time, and are too strictly enclosed by 
 the conventionalities of visiting and organized 
 sight-seeing, to be able to take a comprehensive 
 and unprejudiced view of the vast and varied 
 field of American character. Charles Dickens 
 and Lord and Lady Amberley were the only 
 compatriots, as mere travellers, the author met 
 
22 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 with, on her journeyings North, South, and 
 West. 
 
 Those who go to America, in most instances, 
 go to make it their home. With Americans it 
 is quite the reverse. Their first and strongest 
 desire is to travel ; and the next is, to travel in 
 Europe. It is with them a passion, a mania, a 
 kind of craving necessity. It is a desire without 
 a reason. " I must see Europe before I die" is 
 its audible expression, over and over again 
 repeated. The fact of having been is what 
 they wish to accomplish, and nothing else. I 
 have heard some Americans say they would so 
 like to see something "very old" which is but 
 a vague idea, at best, for a voyage to Europe. 
 But whatever the motive, it is the desire of 
 every man, woman, and child in America ; and 
 timid women, who would not have dared to 
 enter a street-car alone, and who have never 
 been a- hundred yards from their door-sills un 
 attended, have been known, upon having saved 
 enough money for their purpose, to set out on 
 the European tour with all the confidence of 
 "our special correspondent." Every girl longs 
 to go to Europe for her marriage tour ; and of 
 two pretendants, the man who proposed such a 
 trip would stand the fairest chance of winning 
 the bride. I believe there are thousands who 
 would marry for that alone ; some conscious of 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 23 
 
 the motive and some not, of course. If a man 
 is successful in his speculations and what 
 American does not speculate ? or if he "strikes 
 oil ;" has a good harvest or cotton crop ; floats 
 a bubble company, and succeeds in selling his 
 shares before it bursts ; discovers a mine, or 
 sells an invention for doing something twice as 
 fast as it has ever been done before, immediately 
 he promises himself a trip to Europe. It is the 
 reward of merit, or, in other words, of " smart 
 ness." For a man to become prominent in his 
 own country without having had the baptism of 
 Europe, would be most remarkable ; he would, 
 to say the least, have laid himself open to the 
 -charge of eccentricity. It is an epidemicthis 
 desire to see Europe. What else can it be ? 
 It is not curiosity, for scarcely one in a thousand 
 gives himself time or opportunity to examine, or 
 even to see, anything that might be novel or 
 interesting to him. How few Americans ever 
 visit Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Lille, 
 Toulon, Bordeaux. 
 
 American travellers rarely bring letters of 
 introduction. Disregarding them in their own 
 country when presented by others, they pro 
 bably do not anticipate that English people are 
 more tenacious than themselves, about whom 
 they receive. Life in England being within 
 closed doors, not in public rooms, as m 
 
24 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 America, few American travellers ever see any 
 English society, except such as may be enjoyed 
 in taverns and bar-rooms ; while American ladies 
 often return to their own country without 
 having made the acquaintance of a single Eng 
 lish lady. 
 
 English people have certainly but little real 
 knowledge of Americans ; their ideal generally 
 being a man with ill-fitting clothes, lank dis 
 hevelled hair, and a strong nasal twang ; while 
 the imaginary American woman is gaunt and 
 bony, sallow-complexioned, loud-voiced, elbow 
 ing her way through the world, and (as she her 
 self would express it) " sticking at nothing." 
 Such individuals are no doubt to be met with in 
 full form at the Grand Hotel, Paris, and at all 
 places of public resort on the continent. But 
 they are no more to be regarded as types of the 
 American nation, as a whole, than is a cockney 
 commercial traveller to be considered a repre 
 sentative of the people of Great Britain. Like 
 the American in question, he would represent a 
 class, and that would be all. Thus the Ameri 
 cans, although they are our cousins and grand 
 children, are greater strangers to us, generally, 
 than are the inhabitants of most foreign coun 
 tries. 
 
 In America, you may have fifty letters of 
 introduction, and not one of them bring you a 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 25 
 
 particle of civility, or sometimes even a return- 
 call ; while, on the other hand, a person will 
 make your acquaintance casually in the public- 
 room, or "ladies parlour," as it is called, of the 
 hotel, or be introduced to you by the landlady > 
 and show you every attention that may be use 
 ful to a stranger ; or they will come and call 
 from merely seeing your name in the paper, arid 
 perhaps proceed to introduce you all round. 
 Every one will then ask you how you like the 
 United States system and social life, with the 
 same serious and inquisitorial look as if he were 
 a doctor probing you for symptoms. Politeness 
 forbids you to say you don t like it at all ; and 
 so you find yourself repeating the fib over and 
 over again, until you become heartily ashamed 
 of the falsehood, and wish you had faced the 
 truth, and said that as yet you had seen nothing 
 to like which must, in fact, be the case with 
 Europeans on their first arrival in America. 
 
 If you have come from France, you miss all 
 that elegance, polish, and suavity which cha 
 racterize French society. If you are direct 
 from England, you seek in vain for its quiet, 
 sober, well-regulated comfort and genial hospi 
 tality, and it would puzzle even the panegyrist 
 to say where is the compensation for these short 
 comings. Wherever I have travelled, hospitality, 
 according to the custom of the country, seemed 
 
26 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 to be the first and common duty, and only in 
 those lands, the Cannibal and Fiji Islands, where 
 they eat their guests, is there such a dearth of 
 hospitality as in America. They have no cus 
 tom of visiting at a friend s house for a week or 
 a month or so. It is rare indeed to find guests 
 staying at any house ; if you do, be sure they 
 are paying for their board. Even when the 
 guest is a member of the family and makes no 
 actual payment, a good deal of barter has to be 
 practised to make things pleasant. There are 
 no Christmas gatherings nor summer junketings. 
 If a gentleman takes ladies for a day s outing, 
 he will probably ask them to defray expenses 
 some time later, without any idea that he has 
 committed a breach of etiquette and hospitality. 
 A gentleman once presented me with a magnifi 
 cent bouquet, at least I thought he had, but as 
 the bill was sent in to me on the same handsome 
 scale, I found he had only ordered it. If a 
 stranger be invited to spend the evening at any 
 house, he will be entertained with a long talk on 
 the merits and wonders of America; and though 
 there may be singing, music, and card-playing, 
 besides dancing in which few English ladies 
 would join, and no French girls be allowed, as 
 it partakes too much of the Bal Mabille style, 
 yet all festive entertainment is absent. One, 
 two, three, five hours you may remain and enjoy 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 27 
 
 yourself, if you can. But it is a fast and not 
 a feast you are bidden to. For you are offered 
 neither bite nor sup. You may, if you like, steal 
 into the corner where the inevitable pitcher of 
 ice-water stands and refresh yourself there. 
 Two or three glasses are placed by it for the 
 use of the whole company, after the fashion of 
 Miss Sinclair s fountains for cabmen and ragged 
 schools in Edinburgh. The guests may expend 
 as much time arid energy as they like in amus 
 ing themselves a- heir " hostess ;" but she 
 will expend no money nor provisions on them. 
 I remember seeing in Punch a sketch supposed 
 to have been taken at the Vegetarian Festival 
 at the Crystal Palace. One man is taking ^ his 
 departure ; another seeks to detain him, saying, 
 " Don t go yet, old fellow, don t go and- 
 ril stand another lettuce." The American says, 
 Come to my house, old fellow, and dance, and 
 sing and talk for the honour and entertainment 
 of me and my guests for four or five hours and 
 I ll stand a glass of ice-water." Why the 
 vegetarian s offer was reckless prodigality com 
 pared with it ! 
 
 In New England, however, they still retain 
 the old-fashioned Northumbrian tea, all seating 
 themselves round a table covered with a white 
 cloth and an endless variety of cakes. These, with 
 the peculiar American disregard of euphony, are 
 
28 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 called by the ugliest names conceivable ; they are 
 followed by numerous other indigestible com 
 pounds ; so that you are no longer at a loss to 
 account for the sallow complexions of those who 
 are devouring them so eagerly, with bitters and 
 molasses ; the everlasting ice-water is handed 
 round with the tea, and is mixed with it by 
 some persons. On the table is placed a variety 
 of pickles, hot-peppers, preserved fruits, and 
 dry smoked uncooked beef, which is cut up into 
 very fine shreds and forms thus a very good 
 relish. 
 
 Wines or spirits are rarely offered at any en 
 tertainment, not even at weddings. A marriage 
 in America is a considerably drier piece of busi 
 ness than a funeral elsewhere ; sometimes the 
 marriage takes place early in the morning six 
 or seven o clock and bride and bridesmaids go 
 shivering to the altar, in the cold semi-twilight, 
 in what they call their "travelling suits," and 
 armed with large umbrella over-shoes, water 
 proofs, and all the disagreeable appurtenances 
 for setting out on a long journey. Their break 
 fast is a scramble of hot dough, beef-steaks or 
 some other "hunting" breakfast fare of the 
 time of Queen Elizabeth. After the ceremony 
 there is no feast, no drinking of the bride s 
 health and groom s happiness, no blushing 
 bridesmaids, no fun or festivity whatever. "All 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 29 
 
 going merry as a marriage bell," is a mere fiction ; 
 there are no bells, or if there are, they ring no 
 joyous peals. Usually marriages take place in 
 the house or before the magistrate, but it is just 
 becoming fashionable to have the ceremony 
 performed in a church, with veils, brides 
 maids, &c. 
 
 It is said that the English can do nothing 
 unless eating and drinking enter into the 
 programme; in America they do everything 
 without it. Which is the better custom? Having 
 gout in view may admit of argument, but 
 there can be no two opinions as to which is the 
 more hospitable one. A French gentleman of 
 distinction, describing American customs to me, 
 remarked as the culminating point of every 
 thing outre, "On ma offert un verre d eau ! 
 Voila tout" Had it been eau sucre, or flavoured 
 with/eur d orange, he would not have felt it as 
 a slight ; but simply un verre d eau excited his 
 disgust. Probably one of the causes of this 
 Lenten fare is the ultra-prudism about drink 
 ing wine. Few ladies are bold enough to ac 
 knowledge that they take anything of the kind, 
 and I have absolutely heard a lady declare, when 
 her sister lay dying, that unless she had posi 
 tive proof that the brandy, which the doctor 
 had ordered, was indispensably necessary to 
 save her life, she would not allow her to take 
 
30 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 it. Many ladies procure medical certificates 
 that they may be allowed to indulge a little, 
 otherwise they take it sub rosd. For a lady 
 would lose caste immediately, if she were seen 
 with a bottle of wine placed by her serviette as 
 in France. In the great cities, reckless men 
 and fast ladies, who are beyond the pale of sal 
 vation, " past praying for/ may be occasionally 
 seen indulging in champagne ; but in the pro 
 vinces of the New England State, in correct 
 society, a lady would be tabooed completely 
 if she were to take wine with her dinner ; 
 and gentlemen set the example by not order 
 ing it. 
 
 All this would be nighty commendable were 
 the result a sober nation, superior to the allure 
 ments of dissipation. But, the actual conse 
 quence of this extreme abstinence in public is 
 over-indulgence in private, and drunkenness 
 among the better classes is more prevalent than 
 in any other country. It is a mere prudish 
 affectation of a virtue which they do not 
 possess, and is of precisely the same character 
 as the mock modesty of American ladies, who 
 would appear overwhelmingly shocked (if they 
 did not faint) at the word " leg" used in their 
 presence. You must say " limb " of a fowl, 
 and the word " breast " must be avoided, if 
 possible ; yet the same women have freely 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 31 
 
 displayed their own legs, when skating in crino 
 lines and short petticoats. 
 
 The Germans have determinedly adhered to 
 their Lager Bier in defiance of the forbidding 
 looks of their would-be-thought Puritan neigh 
 bours. To a stranger who has possibly never 
 in his life sat down to his dinner without wine, 
 it appears a little shabby and inhospitable to 
 have a pint and a half of water set before him 
 instead, and it is a long time before he can 
 accustom himself to eat a dry dinner, a la 
 horse. 
 
 With the exception of Turkish hamals, Arabian 
 camels, and locomotives, I never saw anything 
 take in so much water as an American woman. 
 Three pints of iced water with breakfast, dinner, 
 tea, or supper, is a very moderate estimate, and 
 when the meal is over, she betakes herself to the 
 first water-tank or fountain at hand, or if there 
 is none, rings her bell. The boy, knowing full 
 well what it means, rushes up to her, bearing 
 three or four quarts of ice-water, which is to be 
 her supply until the next meal. A lady, one of 
 the elite of society, travelling the same route 
 with us for several days, amused us very much 
 by the race she made for every fountain we 
 approached. In the railroad-car, or the steam 
 boat, at the stations, in the vestibule of hotels, 
 in the streets ; wherever, in fact, there was 
 
32 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 water to be had, she stopped to drink, filled 
 the large goblet to overflowing, thrust her left 
 foot forward and the right arm back, waving it 
 gently in time to each gulp. Often she took a 
 second glass, remarking, when she had finished 
 it, " I drink a deal of water." The observation 
 was evidently superfluous, the fact was beyond 
 contradiction. 
 
 I used to be amused when presenting letters 
 of introduction, by noticing what evasions the 
 persons to whom they were addressed would 
 have recourse to. They would receive me with 
 that cordiality and frankness which is one of 
 the charms of American intercourse. 
 
 " Happy to make your acquaintance. My 
 friend tells me you are most accomplished. We 
 are proud to have you in our city. I guess we 
 can show you as much intellectual society as in 
 any city of the United States. We shall be 
 delighted to have you come to us to entertain 
 you, and make your stay agreeable. We must 
 show you all our lions. Our cemetery is as fine 
 as anything you ll have seen yet splendid 
 monuments. Guess you know something about 
 sculpture ? Been in Italy, my friend tells me. 
 I doubt if you ll find them much a-head of our 
 cemetery. You are stopping at the Phynix 
 House first-class hotel nothing much to beat 
 it. But you must come to us ; you English like 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 33 
 
 home comforts, and we can show you something 
 of that. We want to give you a favourable 
 impression of our city and people." 
 
 After this conversation, one hears nothing of 
 these friends for four or five days. You may 
 have other letters of introduction, which call 
 forth the same welcome, and you begin to 
 wonder how you can distribute yourself amongst 
 so many friends ; but you will get a note or a 
 visit to say how they regret, " We cannot have 
 you come to us as we had hoped, as we are to 
 have painters in the house, but we shall like to 
 make your stay agreeable, and show you the 
 beauties of the place. Guess you like buggy- 
 riding?" Then another finds it "Eight pro 
 voking that her sister-in-law with four children 
 have just arrived, and crowded them up so, 
 she could not make you as comfortable as she 
 should like to/ but she hopes you will come up 
 some evening, as the cars run within two blocks ; 
 she knows it will " be a real intellectual treat 
 to have me." 
 
 Not meeting the great intellectual lights I 
 have been promised, I am told it was unfor 
 tunate I came at this time, as the great Pro 
 fessor Jellybobs is visiting the Springs. The 
 "buggy-ride also does not come off, as something 
 happens about this time to one or all of its 
 springs. Perhaps I go to an evening party 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
54 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 where I am entertained with ice water, but find 
 that I have to entertain the whole company with 
 music and singing, and even reciting. Every 
 lady refuses to touch the piano, but flatters me 
 by saying that I played such good dance music 
 she would like to take a turn. Tables and 
 chairs are soon bundled out of the way, and off 
 they all go in a waltz. 
 
 Finally, I had to take a carriage and drive 
 out alone to see the cemetery, which was usually 
 very pretty, with flowers and evergreens and 
 monuments without any special artistic beauty, 
 and similar to scores of others I had seen in 
 America. What struck rne as most extraor 
 dinary was, that -wherever I went I arrived at 
 an unfortunate time. " If I had come last week, 
 or could have deferred my visit for another 
 month, my friends could have given me a recep 
 tion which would have astonished me." At one 
 city in particular, where I had, I remember, a 
 great number of letters of introduction, one and 
 all to whom they were addressed lamented that 
 I had not come a week sooner. They usually 
 inquired to whom I had brought letters, and 
 upon my mentioning, amongst others, Judge 
 
 N , they would exclaim, " Well, that s a 
 
 pity ; he died only a few days ago, choked by 
 trying to swallow an oyster. I tell you, madam, 
 that oyster was nigh half a foot long, and could 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 35 
 
 not be got either up or down. The doctors cut 
 his throat, but it was no use, they could not get 
 it out. Yes, madam, I tell you it was a great 
 oyster ! A pity you did not come last week, 
 you would have seen the most elegant gentleman 
 in the States. He would have been delighted 
 to make your acquaintance, and would have 
 entertained you like a prince. Every delicacy 
 of the season at Us table, and flow of intellect 
 as well; and although we should have done 
 our utmost to make your stay agreeable, we do 
 not feel up to the mark just now. It is a real 
 pity you could not have come a week or two 
 sooner." I said I regretted I did not know that 
 
 j u( lg e N had not the capacity to swallow 
 
 an oyster half a foot long, or I would have 
 hastened my journey. After hearing this absurd 
 story repeated at least twenty times, it became 
 difficult for me to control my facial nerves, and 
 to look grave for the occasion. The oyster case, 
 however, was a fact, though I failed to see the 
 connection between it and not entertaining a 
 stranger. 
 
 In another city the excuse was a broad auda 
 cious fiction. My friends there had gone a little 
 further than usual in their hospitable invitations, 
 and the day and hour had actually been fixed 
 for my visit. My boxes were being placed upon 
 a carriage, which I had to pay three dollars for, 
 
 o ^j 
 
3G THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 when a gentleman, an intimate friend of the 
 family I was about to visit, rushed up to me, 
 seemingly very much excited. He said 
 
 "My friend, Mr. B , has suddenly been 
 
 subpoenaed on a jury, and he has commissioned 
 me to wait upon you." 
 
 " Oh," I replied, " I am sorry, but it is not of 
 much consequence. I suppose he will be at 
 home to-night or to-morrow." 
 
 "Well," he said, "I reckon" (he was a 
 Western man) " that s not the worst of it 
 they ve got a corpse in the house." 
 
 ""Good heavens!" I exclaimed; "I trust no 
 member of the family is dead ?" 
 
 " Well, not just that at least, none of them 
 
 you know ; but Mr. B s brother-in-law s 
 
 father has died down away in Arkansas, and 
 they are sending the body on to be buried in 
 Tennessee. You wouldn t feel, I reckon, like 
 stopping in the house with it, would you ?" 
 
 "Certainly not," I replied, quite shocked. 
 " I could not think of inconveniencing them 
 under such circumstances. Pray express my 
 sympathy and condolence." 
 
 " Well," he said, " I reckon there s not much 
 need of that, as they never saw him in the flesh. 
 But we ll just have your boxes taken off the 
 carriage." 
 
 It came afterwards to my knowledge that the 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 37 
 
 jury and the corpse were both myths, the lady 
 having declared to a friend that she had neither 
 servants, glass, nor plate, and therefore could 
 not receive me, yet she had come to visit me in 
 a carriage and pair. 
 
 The funny excuses I received were endless, 
 varied, and general. But I am bound to say 
 that some families received me most hospitably 
 and with warm kindness, and that I met with 
 individuals both intellectual and gracious, of 
 whom I still retain an affectionate remembrance, 
 so if friends -were few, they were really sincere. 
 
 One very prominent feature in the American 
 character is the love of hazard the speculation 
 of gambling. This love of risk and chance has 
 both its good and bad side. It creates enter 
 prise, but it destroys permanency. An Ameri 
 can will not adopt a business or profession^ and 
 plod with it through life, no matter how fair an 
 income he is making by it. There seems to be 
 a necessity for him to speculate in something. 
 If by chance he is connected with shoemaking, 
 he will invent a new kind of ladies boots to 
 lace half way up the leg, and call them 
 "gaiters." There is no demand or need for 
 them at all. They are also very inconvenient ; 
 no improvement on the old ones. Nevertheless 
 he has a few thousand manufactured and dis 
 tributed to the leading bootmakers, with a very 
 
38 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 high price set upon them, higher than any other 
 boots. Then he advertises them, vaunts and 
 extols them, spends every dollar he has or can 
 borrow in this process, gets them shown off on 
 false legs, sometimes on real ones. " I reckon 
 I have put out ten thousand dollars on this 
 venture, and I am bound to make twenty. 71 
 And in a very short time the whole of the 
 female portion of America are walking about in 
 the said " gaiters." Trade and commerce is 
 carried on in this same speculative way. There 
 is no end to the inventions by which a heap of 
 money is to be made at one coup, rather than by 
 patient working for moderate profits. 
 
 A gentleman told me that he had once 
 made twenty thousand dollars upon a cargo of 
 onions which he bought for a trifling sum in one 
 of the Pacific Islands, and carried to a large 
 mining district, where they were too busy pick 
 ing gold to attend to the cultivation of onions ; 
 nor did they need or think of them. They had 
 lived for a length of time without, and had well 
 nigh forgotten them. But when it was an 
 nounced with a great flourish of trumpets that 
 a hundred thousand bags of onions had arrived, 
 every one " concluded " " they felt like having 
 some." But the excitement and speculative 
 ardour had to be fomented ; and the first appli 
 cants for the onions had to be refused, being 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 39 
 
 told that they could only be sold in certain 
 krge lots. Disappointment aroused competi 
 tion, and the onions rose in value in the market. 
 Onions seemed at once to become a necessity of 
 life, and no doubt the miners scented them afar 
 off, and determined to have them at any price. 
 You could not find a surer way of securing ^ an 
 American purchaser than to tell him the article 
 was too expensive for him. "I reckon I have 
 as much right to eat onions as any man in these 
 parts; and onions 111 have, if I pay a dollar 
 apiece for them." In fine, such was the result : 
 the onions sold for one dollar each, " though of 
 course," said my friend, " there were not nearly 
 so many as I had set forth; I only wish there 
 had been." Government places are speculated 
 for, much in the same way. For instance : a man 
 is in business as a tailor, when it occurs to him 
 that, as he has a large custom, he could get him 
 self nominated as a candidate for the post of sena 
 tor, governor, postmaster, &c. He spends a great 
 deal of money in bribery, coaxing and talking 
 his friends into the idea. He reckons, or calcu 
 lates, that if he gets the berth, he can make 
 more money out of it in four years than he 
 could out of tailoring in six. Then comes the 
 excitement the gambling delight. If he is 
 not elected perhaps he is ruined. But the fear 
 of bankruptcy never deters an American from 
 
40 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 speculating. If he loses one fortune he sets to 
 work to make another. He will turn lecturer, 
 retailing some one else s wisdom as his own ; 
 set up a newspaper, so libellous and scandalous 
 that everybody buys it ; or he physics the people 
 with some new pill, or poisons them with some 
 new candy. 
 
 There is a versatility in his genius for specu 
 lating in money, which is unappreciable in 
 Europe. Whilst the ruined Englishman would 
 be lamenting over what was to become of his 
 wife and children, the American poetically sug 
 gests she should sell her jewelry, her furniture, 
 or go to her mother whilst he goes to Chicago 
 or Cincinnati, where he thinks he is bound to 
 make money, and where, when he gets a bit 
 straight, she can "come to him/ and bring the 
 children. 
 
 This is one reason why husbands and wives live 
 so much apart in America. The wife goes to her 
 mother, and speculates on her own account in a 
 boarding-house, if she can succeed in inducing 
 any gentleman to lend her the money, for the loan 
 of which he takes out his board. He also gets 
 a number of his friends to lodge in the same 
 house. If the husband in Cincinnati does suc 
 ceed in making money, the wife will " go on to 
 him ;" but if he does not, or spends it on some 
 one else, she " concludes " to remain with the 
 
THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 41 
 
 rich friend, and notifies him to that effect- 
 namely, as he does not seem able to support her, 
 
 Mr. can ; and she is decided to break 
 
 off with the old love, and take Mr. in 
 
 marriage. 
 
 It is unnecessary to allude to the speculations 
 of Wall Street. The country is kept in a ferment 
 by the reckless spirit of risk. " I will make 
 twenty thousand dollars, or I will lose every 
 cent I have," says an American with the great 
 est sang froid. Newspapers write sensational 
 articles calculated to provoke shooting or whip 
 ping, as a mere speculation to sell the paper. 
 The writer knows that if he can produce an 
 affray hot enough, he will sell so many more 
 editions of his paper. He takes the risk of 
 being shot or flogged himself, and sits in his 
 office with a loaded revolver near his inkstand. 
 The indignant sufferer from the article walks in 
 inquires if he is the writer of the obnoxious 
 article. The editor places his pen in his ear, 
 lays his hand on the revolver, and admits he is. 
 The aggrieved is thus reduced to bullying abuse, 
 and cannot proceed to violence, as he would at 
 once lose his life; the editor coolly waiting 
 with his finger on the trigger. 
 
 The next morning the paper has two columns 
 descriptive of the affair. It surpasses all the 
 other papers in interest, and sells five times as 
 
42 THE AMERICAN CHARACTER. 
 
 many editions. The speculation has succeeded, 
 although the editor has risked his life, and in 
 some cases has even lost it ; for his foe has 
 waited for him, and taken him when unaware of 
 danger, and shot him down. 
 
 There are few editors who have not had 
 affairs of this kind, accidental or provoked, and 
 upon some of the Western papers they employ 
 what is called "The Fighting Editor," who 
 fathers all the objectionable articles. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 HE summers in New York are ex 
 tremely hot, the winters extremely 
 cold. It was because of the near 
 
 ^^ of the latter, with its sleighs and fur 
 
 robes, that we determined on commencing our 
 tour by way of the sunny South the repulsion 
 of a New York winter proving more powerful 
 than the attraction of a New York fashionable 
 
 season. 
 
 The first Southern city we entered was 
 Charleston, which, after having visited a score 
 .of others, still seems to me the most interesting 
 and the most worthy of description. The first 
 glimpse I had of Charleston filled me with that 
 sort of tender pity which is felt on entering a 
 beautiful cemetery ; that sort of feeling which 
 inspired Hamlet when he apostrophized the 
 grave of Yorick. It was just after the war of 
 Secession, and there was a sad, suffering, woe- 
 
44 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 begone look about the place, that appealed to- 
 the heart, as well as to the sense of poetic 
 melancholy a thing sufficiently rare in America. 
 The battered walls, and broken pillars of 
 churches standing in desolate dignity, for pillars, 
 even in ruins, always seem as though they dared 
 to be free ; the roofless houses, the paneless 
 windows, and the stagnation reigning over a 
 city once so beautiful, wealthy, and full of 
 vitality, could not but strike the stranger with 
 a sense of desolation, and even of awe ; though 
 he should not have read in the faces of the 
 inhabitants the history of hope departed, of 
 strife in vain, of useless sacrifice, of poverty and 
 humiliation, bitter contempt, and smothered 
 hatred. And all this was plainly legible on the 
 countenance of every Charlestonian. 
 
 l A pleasant spot twas said to be in days of yore, 
 But something ails it now the place is curst." 
 
 Most of the houses are built in purely 
 Southern style, with piazzas and verandahs all 
 round, often made of wood ; so that they easily 
 fell into ruin and decay when neglected. But 
 others were of handsome stone, especially those 
 situated on what is called " The Battery, facing 
 the harbour. These stately mansions seem to 
 have fronted the whole tide of war, and to have 
 bid defiance alike to time and tide, fire and 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 5 
 
 shell. Nearly all of them had been abandoned 
 by their owners. In some few cases, ladies, 
 who alone of their families had survived the 
 terrible havoc, were even then secluding them 
 selves in the back apartments. They had barely 
 sufficient food to sustain life, and performed for 
 themselves the most menial offices; scarcely 
 ever venturing abroad into the garish sunlight, 
 and carefully concealing their destitution from 
 
 all. 
 
 The stone gables and pilasters bore evident 
 traces of the enemy s fire ; but considering the 
 length of time that Charleston was invested and 
 shelled, it is only astonishing that any Charles 
 ton was left to tell the tale. The streets must 
 have been beautiful in summer, from the ave 
 nues of trees which lined them on either side. 
 Everywhere in the garden or other convenient 
 spots, magnolias spread their broad, glossy leaves, 
 and perfumed the air with delicious odour. The 
 wild orange and cactus, with many other tro 
 pical evergreens, abounded and lent a charm^of 
 poetry to that air of misery, which otherwise 
 would have characterized a town so battered as 
 Charleston was ; but with this rich floral setting, 
 she still wore a melancholy smile in the midst of 
 her ruin. 
 
 Along the esplanade, or "The Battery/ is a fine 
 sea-wall, which was the former fashionable prome- 
 
46 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 nade of the inhabitants of Charleston ; it was then 
 generally deserted, except by a few negroes on 
 Sunday. Charleston is situated at the mouth 
 of two rivers, the Cooper and the Ashley, on a 
 pretty bay in which lies Sullivan s Island, Forts 
 Moultrie, Pinckley, and Sumpter, so celebrated 
 in the civil wars of the United States. Fort 
 Sumpter was the bone or rather rock of con 
 tention from the beginning to the end of the 
 war. From Fort Moultrie rose the spark which 
 set the whole land in a blaze, and half buried it 
 beneath the smouldering ashes. Little did the 
 haughty Carolinian, when he heard the " boom" 
 of that first shot ring over Charleston, dream 
 that it was the knell of his pride and power 
 that his proud splendour and fierce unrelenting 
 sway should by that shot be hurled in the dust, 
 in which he was then grinding, with his iron 
 heel, his cowering slave. " How are the mighty 
 fallen !" What a story of terrible retribution 
 was written in bloody cipher, on many a ruined 
 wall and fallen stone in Charleston ! 
 
 On commencing these sketches of America, I 
 had formed the resolution of avoiding the vexed 
 subjects of war and politics ; but on becoming 
 better acquainted with the country and its in 
 habitants, I found that to have dismissed war 
 and politics entirely from consideration, would 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 4T 
 
 have been to materially interfere with that cor 
 rect view of men and things, which it has been 
 my earnest wish to give. In the South, espe 
 cially, scarcely any conversation was addressed 
 to me which did not include those subjects. 
 " How do you like our city, madam ? Ah ! you 
 ought -to have seen it before the war." That 
 was the constant refrain, and then would follow 
 the speaker s particular notions on this point. 
 If I inquired what was the commerce or popula 
 tion of a place, it was always with the same 
 result. 
 
 " Well, there is nothing much doing now ; 
 no crops to speak of since the war ;" or, " I 
 reckon the city is full of Yankees. Do you 
 mean with or without the Yankees ?" 
 
 If I inquired the value of produce on land, 
 they invariably began by telling me what it was 
 " before the war." In fact, the late war, with 
 its horrible results, had so impregnated their 
 minds, that it was impossible to ignore the hold 
 it had on them, and the influence which the 
 memories of it exercised upon their daily life 
 and course of thought. 
 
 Above all stalked that dark Frankenstein of 
 the South, the negro their own creation, and 
 now their endless bane. And, as the position of 
 the Southern man has been vitally affected by,, 
 and is still intimately involved with, the altered 
 
 1 
 
48 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 status of the negro, as that negro is, at the present 
 time, the great instrument wielded by the North 
 for the political torture and oppression of the 
 South, we must, in noticing the South, of course 
 notice the Southern man, and, to understand his 
 position, that of the negro must be considered ; 
 to comprehend which, politics must be pretty 
 fully discussed. 
 
 A stranger sailing direct from New York to 
 Charleston will be greatly struck w r ith the 
 change which forty-eight hours can produce, as 
 much in the inhabitants as in the climate. The 
 South Carolinian seemed almost of a different 
 race. Tall, thin, well-formed, sinewy men, sal 
 low complexioned, with long features, long, 
 dark, straight hair, and deep-set eyes of a most 
 peculiar grey. Actually they are of a light pale 
 colour, but at a little distance simulating a dark 
 mysterious hue, as though they had more in 
 their depth than could be read at a single 
 glance. They have a carriage differing far from 
 the hurried shuffling tread of the business and 
 money- making man of the North. It tells of 
 rule and authority. Tis the steady, stately 
 footfall of a man conscious of the ownership of 
 the land upon which he walks. This carriage 
 struck me as resembling more that of the Cir 
 cassian than that of any other race I can call to 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 49 
 
 mind, the Circassian being the highest type of 
 manly beauty ; for much as the beauty of their 
 women has been vaunted, it in no way excels 
 that of the men. Their figures are the perfec 
 tion of symmetry, averaging six feet. ^ The 
 dark, flashing, dauntless eye bespeaks the un- 
 conquered warrior soul. 
 
 To return to the Southerner. There is more 
 
 dignity more native polish about him than 
 
 the Northerner. His demeanour conforms more 
 nearly to the established idea of a gentleman. 
 The Northern man appears to have adopted a 
 semi-French manner, which sits uneasily upon 
 him ; but the Southerner has a bearing of his 
 own, which is graceful and becoming. Their 
 long frock-coats, and broad-leaved hats of straw 
 or felt, are suitable to the climate, and the 
 latter far more becoming than the hideous 
 " chimney-pot." In summer they wear no vest, 
 and with their broad white shirts and white 
 trousers they only lack a ceinture, or sash, for 
 the dress to be really picturesque. There was 
 a look of deep depression on the face of every 
 man in Charleston; and although I should 
 never wish to have seen him in all the glory of 
 a slave-owner, yet to behold him in the ruins of 
 his former power was very painful. 
 
 The siege of Charleston having lasted nearly 
 
 VOL. I. 4 
 
50 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 the whole four years of the war, few of the 
 houses escaped quite intact. Even those that 
 appeared to be uninjured, were so much shaken 
 in their foundations, that doors and windows had 
 fallen from the perpendicular, and so gave a 
 general look of wreck and disorder to the city. 
 
 A terrible fire which devastated Charleston 
 at the commencement of the war, added much 
 to the desolate appearance, for no attempt had 
 then been made to rebuild the portion destroyed. 
 This fire spread diagonally across the city from 
 one end to the other, sweeping everything be 
 fore it. Persons who heard the fire-bell ringing 
 a mile away and gave themselves little uneasi 
 ness, as the fire was not in their district, w r ere 
 afterwards obliged to flee for their lives. The 
 burning embers fell so thickly over all parts of 
 the city, that it became dangerous to walk from 
 under cover. Two of the finest churches in 
 Charleston were destroyed. And the State 
 house, in which the vote of secession was car 
 ried, was burnt also. 
 
 St. Michael s church, the oldest in the State, 
 was looked upon with great veneration by the 
 inhabitants ; not for its beauty, for it was one 
 of those ugly English churches which years ago 
 were considered the proper thing by our Puri 
 tan ancestors : the " rebuke-to- vanity " order 
 of architecture. It has a chime of bells which 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 every Sunday ring out the refrain of their own 
 vicissitude, not 
 
 but 
 
 J ( Turn again, Whittington, 
 Lord Mayor of London ;" 
 
 " Peal again, Charleston bells, 
 In spite of Yankee shots and shells." 
 
 Those bells have a remarkable history. They 
 were cast in England early in the last century, 
 and continued to be the pride and glory of 
 Charleston until they became a mark for the 
 shot from Morris Island, then in the occupation 
 of the Federals. So many shells were sent 
 whizzing around these devoted chimes, that no 
 less than thirty had hit the house next door, 
 the hotel in which I stayed. But the steeple 
 seemed to bear a charmed existence. The 
 Charlestonians however, being a people of little 
 faith, decided to take down their precious bells, 
 and convey them into the interior of the coun 
 try, where they hoped they would be out of 
 danger. But sometimes our seemingly wisest 
 precautions prove our direst snares. The bells 
 were taken to Columbia, The steeple was 
 never hit, or at most was but slightly grazed by 
 all the fire of the batteries; but Shermans 
 troops ran riot over the unfortunate Columbia, 
 
 42 
 
52 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 the flower of South Carolina, and wantonly 
 seized and broke up the wandering bells, and 
 many a house and home too. The horrors of 
 war came to an end at last, and the affectionate 
 care for the bells returned ; the fragments of 
 them were collected and despatched to England 
 to the same firm, which more than a hundred 
 years ago, had sent them out to chime in a 
 foreign land. By a reference to the books of 
 the establishment, the exact weight and calibre 
 which the bells had formerly borne, was ascer 
 tained. The metal was recast and the bells 
 again shipped for Charleston. But further 
 vicissitudes awaited them. They were seized 
 at the Yankee Custom-house, and a duty of 
 several thousand dollars was charged on them. 
 The impoverished Charlestonians were unable 
 to pay it. Thus, they lay impounded for many 
 months until the ladies, with their usual zeal, 
 contrived by means of bazaa,rs and concerts, to 
 realize a sum sufficient for the release of the 
 bells from durance vile. Restored to their belfry 
 they once more ring out, 
 
 " Peal again, Charleston bells, 
 In spite of Yankee shots and shells." 
 
 From this church tower during the still hours 
 of the night, comes the tristeful cry of the 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 53 
 
 watchman, "Past twelve, all s well: bright 
 starry night," or "stormy night." An old 
 English custom, now rarely met with, except m 
 some far away town to which the modem 
 policeman has not penetrated. It is curious to 
 note these old mother-country customs, amongst 
 a people so ready to repudiate any affinity with 
 it, and who are themselves unconscious whence 
 they derive them. 
 
 The Charleston ladies have a habit of wearing 
 loose shawls about in the house, not for warmth, 
 for they are constantly hanging off instead of 
 on their shoulders, as was the fashion with our 
 grandmothers, and is portrayed in English pic 
 tures of that date. 
 
 Charleston maintains its freedom, has its full 
 quota of churches of various denominations, and 
 as in all other Southern cities, duplicated into 
 white and black. White Catholics and black, 
 blue Presbyterians and grey ; the " blue " refer 
 ring to the shade of their opinions, the "grey" 
 to tints of race. 
 
 By the kindness of the general officer in 
 command, we were permitted to make a tour of 
 the different forts and fortifications, and particu- 
 larly of Sumpter and Moultrie, now so cele 
 brated in history. The key of the South so 
 fought over and wept over, taken and retaken, 
 and bombarded for four years, Sumpter was 
 
54 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 nothing more than a ruin ; but a ruin of dif 
 ferent kind from the ruins of the city of 
 Charleston, ruins 
 
 " That weep o er the unreturning brave." 
 
 Sumpter is almost a circular island, the centre 
 scooped out like a basin, with deep galleries 
 beneath in the thickness of the outside rampart. 
 Inside these walls were chambers sufficient to 
 shelter its three or four hundred defenders. It 
 is a good criterion of the superiority of earth 
 works over any fortifications of masonry. All 
 the brick work round Sumpter was soon 
 smashed to pieces, but the earthworks and 
 gabions could be replaced in a few minutes, 
 when destroyed or broken by the shot. Indeed, 
 in Sebastopol it would appear that they made 
 use of whatever came first to hand, and rammed 
 in the dead gunners, thus making him defend 
 his post dead or alive. " Bury me where I fall/ 
 said a gallant young officer leading a forlorn 
 hope, and so it came to pass. But I doubt if 
 ever a soldier requested that a gabion should be 
 made of his dead body. It was a ghastly sight 
 when at last a Russian fort was taken, and these 
 horrid sepulchres unearthed. A general officer 
 in command at Fredericksburg, told me that the 
 most horrible task he had ever had to perform, 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 55 
 
 in all his experience in campaigning, was the 
 
 having to cut a trench through the dead bodies 
 
 of his own fallen battalion, killed some weeks 
 
 before in an assault upon the enemy s work m 
 
 which they had been repulsed and compelled to 
 
 retreat leaving their dead. How often must 
 
 the dyino- and badly wounded share this fate 
 
 abandoned by both sides from the proximity c 
 
 the guns and continuousness of the fight. 
 
 Sampler stands a proud, defiant, though artifi 
 cially formed rock, four miles out in the bay, 
 and right in front of Charleston, 
 stern guardian of the city, which, situated on a 
 slip of land between two rivers, is almost an 
 island itself, and almost unassailable, except by 
 water ; so, until Sumpter fell Charleston was 
 able to hold her own. 
 
 Shells fell all over the city, causing dismay 
 and sometimes death. One came through the 
 roof of the college, where a number of professors 
 were holding a scientific reunion, on some sup 
 posed vestige of pre- Adamite creation, wnict 
 had been found on the Ashley River, a short 
 distance from Charleston. The shell struck the 
 table, round which they were gathered, without 
 iniurino- any of them, went down through three 
 storeys" and buried itself in the cellar, carrying 
 with it the specimen and the debris of the table. 
 But so long as it could be supplied from the 
 
56 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 town (for which there was facility enough during 
 the darkness, and even in daylight), Sumpter 
 was impregnable. One of the exciting amuse 
 ments of Charleston about this time, was the 
 carrying of provisions into Sumpter, and to 
 enhance the pleasure, ladies frequently joined 
 the excursion to spend the evening with their 
 lovers, brothers, and husbands imprisoned there. 
 Very many parties are said to have come off 
 within these dismal walls, but (like the ghosts) 
 they had to flock home before daylight, leaving 
 behind them, no doubt, a ray of light to cheer 
 their brave defenders. 
 
 Charleston can boast of as many handsome 
 buildings as any other American city. One of 
 the finest is the gaol, which is similar to, though 
 not as handsome, as the Calton gaol in Edin 
 burgh. It has a large and handsome orphan 
 asylum, in the grounds of which an armless 
 statue of the great Chatham has found refuge. 
 This house contains three hundred orphans, as 
 well cared for as any in the country, or probably 
 out of it. The children were put through some 
 arithmetical drill for our edification ; others- 
 added, subtracted, multiplied, etc., with such 
 rapidity, that it might have been Sanscrit for 
 all I could tell. Nothing appears to me so won 
 derful, as to hear the little children of those 
 charity or normal schools racing away at figures 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 57 
 
 as hard as they can talk, never making a slip or 
 a mistake. There is also a college where medi 
 cal students can graduate, and which turned 
 out before the war some of the principal medical 
 men of the South. The arsenal, which is now 
 used as barracks, was formerly a large military 
 school, such as West Point. 
 
 The houses in the suburbs are detached, and 
 are surrounded by gardens and magnificent trees. 
 The streets are for the most part unpaved, which 
 renders the city very quiet but very dusty in 
 dry weather, and very muddy in wet. Cars 
 run through most of the thoroughfares, and are 
 the principal means of transit, carriages of any 
 kind being scarce. In fact, it requires some 
 agility in a stranger to ride in a buggy in 
 Charleston streets, the seat being not more 
 secure that that of a dog-cart, while the ruts 
 are both deep and sudden. There is, however, 
 in the buggy a little iron rail, under which you 
 can insert your feet, so that in case of losing 
 your balance, which you continually do, you 
 may still hold on with your toes. 
 
 The most wonderfully beautiful tree which 
 attracted our attention in this tour in the South, 
 was what the Americans call the "live oak" 
 (quercus vivens). It grows in most of the 
 Southern States, is of great durability, and 
 highly esteemed for ship -building. The tree 
 
58 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 has no resemblance to our English oak, except 
 in its full leafy form, the leaves themselves being 
 small and evergreen, resembling those of the 
 prickly holly. These trees grow to an enormous 
 size, and are green through the winter. They 
 are draped also with what is called " American 
 moss," which, however, has no affinity to our 
 moss, but is rather of the lichen species. It is 
 of a silver-grey colour, and instead of creeping 
 and clinging, swings itself from every bough and 
 leaf, and droops perpendicularly towards the 
 earth in most delicate feathery festoons. It 
 shapes itself into the most symmetrical forms, 
 ever keeping a fine point downwards, and draping 
 heavier as it ascends like a stalactite, or icicle. 
 We drove into the very heart of an old forest of 
 these trees, some of them hundreds, and some 
 supposed to be even a thousand years old. 
 Long avenues of them, draped with the grey 
 tillandsia, looked like the interior of an ancient 
 cathedral, the moss hanging in stalactites from 
 the bright, green, leafy, dome-like, pointed Gothic 
 architecture. 
 
 If the Pilgrim Fathers had suddenly come upon 
 one of these avenues on landing from the " May 
 flower," they would have imagined that Nature 
 had herself built them a temple "in freedom to 
 worship God." Anything more awe-inspiring 
 and impressive can scarcely be conceived than 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 , spreading their leafy arms and 
 dropping a grey fleecy veil over the earth. 
 There is something weird and ghost-like m the 
 swaying and trailing of this fragile lichen. Such 
 forests should be haunted by "goblins grey.. 
 An artist s pencil could but faintly portray 
 the thrilling effect of this scenery, and as we 
 traversed it by a long plank road, the hollow 
 echo of the horses feet was a fitting accompani 
 ment to the scene. It was just such a spot as 
 one would not care to visit alone at dusk, unless 
 on a tryst with a spirit of gloom. I believe if 
 only a squirrel had suddenly sprung from the 
 undergrowth of tangled shrubs, I could scarcely 
 have suppressed a scream. If ever spirits of the 
 air were conjured to descend to mortals, twould 
 surely be in these dark forests of pine and oak, 
 with this grey mysterious curtain overshadowing 
 them. The stone pine and cypress tend to in 
 crease the grandeur of the gloom. No sight has 
 ver touched my heart with such a mysterious 
 feeling of fear and awe, with the exception of 
 the Egyptian sphinx. 
 
 Two-thirds of the population of Charleston 
 were said to be black, or " black and tan," for 
 the shades and varieties are numerous, the mix 
 ture of races and the freaks of nature having 
 made such confusion, that there seemed to be 
 quite a population of odds and ends. Long 
 
60 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 hair with negro features ; light copper- coloured 
 skin with thick lips and frizzled hair, the latter 
 seeming to hold its own the longest. Those 
 who have known the negro in his native country, 
 or in an Asiatic costume, cannot realize his ex 
 treme ugliness until they have beheld him, or 
 rather her, in a modern fashionable bonnet, 
 trimmed according to negro taste with a red 
 ribbon, yellow rose, and purple feather, and 
 stuck in ungainly attitude on their black frizzled 
 hair, throwing into strong contrast the sooty 
 face. Certainly modern dress is not becoming 
 to the black race. They look far better with a 
 bright coloured handkerchief bound round the 
 head. 
 
 Some of the mulattos are rather pleasing in ap 
 pearance where the right shade has been hit off, but 
 that is not often the case, and where the skin be 
 comes quite white or yellow, and the eyes remain 
 dark, the effect is startling and repulsive in the 
 extreme. The negro children are funny little 
 round black things, fully realising the word 
 " piccaninnies." They have much the same sort 
 of beauty as little pups, or little pigs, lacking 
 entirely that exquisite loveliness and angelic 
 sweetness, which surrounds the rosy form of a 
 white infant. I saw a curious specimen of a 
 little darkie not over a foot high. It was 
 running and hopping about upon its tiny little 
 
CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 61 
 
 limbs, not thicker than a man s finger, dressed 
 in a single garment of gay-coloured cloth. I 
 could scarcely make out whether it was a 
 gigantic fly, or one of those little creatures we 
 sometimes see seated on a box-organ, and play 
 ing cymbals to its master s organ-grinding, it so 
 much resembled a monkey. 
 
 The cemetery is about a couple of miles from 
 the city, and was in keeping with its fallen 
 grandeur. In its palmy days it must have 
 been one of the most picturesque of its kind. 
 It had all the adjuncts of beauty and solemnity 
 which nature and art could bestow, and the effect 
 produced by the tilentia drooping over the 
 monuments was as fine as can be imagined. 
 The cemetery was nearly covered with wild 
 flowers, not having been attended to during the 
 war. I thought its beauty enhanced by this 
 floral decoration, but its lavish overgrowth 
 was considerably deprecated by the Charles- 
 
 tonians. 
 
 To turn from the sublime to the ridiculous, 
 there was one tomb which struck me as essen 
 tially comic, and as such it must attract the 
 attention of all strangers. It consisted of a 
 square of ground railed in, and dedicated to the 
 memory of " Mrs. Maria Wise, wife of Alfred 
 Wise, native of Islington, Middlesex, London, 
 
62 CHARLESTON, S. CAROLINA. 
 
 She departed this life, fifty-one years of age 
 
 She was but words 
 
 Are wanting to say, what 
 
 Say what a wife should be 
 
 And she was that." 
 
 This epitaph was written on a slab of white 
 marble, forming what looked like the front of a 
 miniature temple of Bacchus ; the rest of it 
 being built of shells, fragments of a blue pot, 
 and the bottoms of green bottles. The hands 
 of the bereaved husband had placed them there, 
 and perhaps he had consoled himself with the 
 contents of the bottles. On a shield on the 
 opposite side was the inscription, 
 
 " True love never fades in this temple : 
 
 Eaised as a tribute of love and gratitude 
 
 To the soul of Maria 
 
 0, sainted Maria !" 
 
 In another part of the .enclosure was a small 
 ship, also the handiwork of the bereaved. It 
 was erected in memory of an event which had 
 occurred to " Maria," she having nearly been 
 drowned on her voyage to America. On the 
 side of this ship was inscribed, "I had your 
 first and last kiss," but no corroborative evi 
 dence was offered. On the other side was the 
 motto which adorns the two cent coinage of the 
 United States, "In God we trust," and at the 
 bows was the French flag. At the main-mast 
 
CHARLESTON S. CAROLINA. 63 
 
 was the Union Jack, at the stern, the American 
 "stars and stripes." Besides the ship there 
 was an obelisk made of three pieces of wood, 
 nailed together and painted to imitate lapis 
 lazuli, on the three sides were written, " Sacred 
 
 silence sleep." It would be impossible to 
 
 enumerate all the odds and ends that adorned 
 the tomb of the " sainted Maria." More or less 
 they had all fallen into decay. The cruel moral 
 of the story of the " sainted Maria " being that 
 Thomas had married again ! 
 
 Euin and despair were the characteristics of 
 Charleston at the time of my visit, and it is 
 very doubtful if the city will ever rise again to 
 the same importance as before the war. The 
 trade which made it one of the proudest and 
 wealthiest cities of America, had been diverted 
 into other channels, and the men whose energy 
 . and enterprise made it what it was and at last 
 brought about its ruin, are dead, or have been 
 scattered abroad, poor and broken-hearted as 
 those who cling to its broken pillars. Vat 
 metis ! is the general cry through the Southern 
 States. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 HE Negro question, or u Coloured 
 People Interrogation," as they 
 would have it called, had plunged the 
 whole Southern community into ruin and 
 something approaching despair. The sudden 
 turning loose of five millions of savage natives 
 upon civilized society, was very much like throw 
 ing open the flood-gates of a place that shall be 
 nameless, although it seems to be a favourite 
 term in America. That such an experiment 
 did not result in the production of five million 
 demons was owing to the fact, that more than 
 four millions of them were yet too imbued with 
 the nature of the lower animals to rise to that 
 of the fallen angel, and participate in his capa 
 bilities for mischief. But all the evils which 
 could arise from the policy of freeing slaves, 
 in order to harass the white inhabitants of the 
 
THE NEGRO QUESTION. 65 
 
 South, have arisen. The first of these fell upon 
 the unlucky porcine division of the liberated 
 
 negro. 
 
 The only idea which the word freedom con 
 veyed to his dark mind was that he should 
 then and there step into the position occupied 
 by his late owner, whom he imagined was 
 henceforth to play " nigger " to him : he fore 
 saw no other interpretation and considered this 
 a feasible and proper arrangement. But his 
 late owner not quite adopting this idea, the 
 poor helpless creature being no longer attended 
 to, fed, lodged and physicked, like cattle, and 
 no better able to take care of himself, suffered, 
 and perished like sheep deserted by the shep 
 herd ; for though I have likened the negroes to 
 swine, they differ from the practical self-sustain 
 ing and philosophical race of American hogs in 
 this particular. The negroes, from the moment 
 of emancipation, have steadily decreased in num 
 bers, from various and inevitable causes, one of 
 which is, that in their affinity to the hogs, they 
 possess very little love of offspring, and take 
 no care to shield their young from infantile 
 dangers. In slavery times, it was to the in 
 terest of the owners that every little one born 
 should live, and the attending to their wants 
 was quite a business for the ladies of the house 
 hold, whilst the negro-mothers would be per- 
 VOL. i. 5 
 
66 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 fectly indifferent in the matter, having scarcely 
 any idea of the duties of mothers or wives. 
 
 Before I was initiated into the mysteries of 
 colour, I said to a black woman, very simply 
 
 " How strange that your three children should 
 be of such different complexions one quite 
 black, another light yellow, and the third copper 
 colour." 
 
 " Ah !" she exclaimed, grinning delightedly ; 
 " that s cause of their paws " (fathers). " This 
 one s was a real white man, as fair as you, miss," 
 and so on. She had not been married "yet," 
 she told me, but was going to be, when she could 
 meet with "a nice white man." I told her she 
 could not be lawfully married to a white man, 
 as there was a law prohibiting these unions. 
 She replied, " Oh, I ll get him some way," being 
 evidently very indifferent as to the mode. 
 
 Numbers not willing to undertake the cares 
 of maternity, have recourse to the most horrid 
 form of infanticide ; and where the law is so 
 loosely administered, and the injured party too 
 feeble to resist, crime can be committed with 
 the greatest impunity. The "attorney-general," 
 or "district attorney," troubles himself little how 
 many small blackamoors are put quietly out of 
 the world. Sometimes some philosophic North 
 erner will write to the newspapers to say, that 
 this crime among the negro women is reaching 
 
7 HE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 :a frightful pitch. The Southerner only shakes 
 his head, and murmurs, " I told you so." And 
 there the matter drops again. The real negro 
 infants thus become few and far between. The 
 mulattos fare better, as the white father is com 
 pelled to provide for their maintenance, for 
 some years at least ; and thus they are allowed 
 to enter on this wearisome world, though usually 
 delicate, and of much frailer organization than 
 either the pure white or pure black. 
 
 I do not recollect ever to have seen an aged 
 mulatto; but many- of the rea] negroes profess 
 to be over a hundred. Their ideas about figures 
 or truth are, to say the least, indistinct and 
 hazy; nevertheless, many of them are very aged. 
 Another reason for the decay of the negro is, 
 that he is an animal devoid of courage of that 
 kind which can only be expressed by the word 
 "pluck." When he is taken ill, he lies down 
 ,and gives himself up ; he has no idea of strug- 
 ling with pain, and overcoming disease by re 
 sistance. In this he resembles a sick monkey, 
 and, utterly bowed down and demoralized^ he 
 sinks before the slightest ailment, and dies. 
 In slavery times, the death of a slave was so 
 serious a loss, that the master threw all his 
 energy and medical skill into the balance to 
 counteract the pusillanimity of the negro nature, 
 and, Ion are mat gre, dragged him back to lite. 
 
 52 
 
G8 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 Now, left to himself, lie is not only more prone 
 to maladies, from his singular inaptitude for 
 taking care of himself, but as he cannot compre 
 hend the necessity of having a doctor, he creeps 
 into a corner and dies very much like a dog, 
 unheeded by his fellows and un cared for by his 
 white neighbours. 
 
 When an epidemic occurs, it sweeps the 
 negroes off as a murrain does cattle. A clergy 
 man assured me that in his district, when the 
 small- pox broke out, it carried off seven hun 
 dred negroes and only twenty whites. The 
 Southerner points to these facts in triumph, 
 and with a prophetic denunciation that the 
 negro is doomed to speedy extinction. Not 
 that I can see that one party s errors can justify 
 the other s shortcomings, any more than that 
 two wrongs can make a right ; but it seems a 
 satisfaction to those who have been ruined, to 
 find that the canaille for whom they suffered 
 are in no wise benefited. I agree with the 
 Southerner so far, that I have never witnessed 
 much honest prosperity among the freed negroes. 
 
 The males have been employed by government, 
 for which their invincible ignorance wholly in 
 capacitates them, and consequently have had to 
 be summarily ejected for fraud and peculation. 
 The females waddle about the streets of most of 
 the Southern towns in terrific finery the 
 
THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 transparent livery of their sin. With the ex 
 ception of the mulatto hairdressers of New 
 Orleans, I have never met with a female of the 
 negro tribe earning, by her own industry and 
 capacity, even decent clothing at the American 
 prices. The female negro is now possessed with 
 the idea (the only one which seems to haveentered 
 her angular cranium) that she is a lady, and 
 that any sort of labour is infra dig. If she has 
 a husband to earn a livelihood for her, she 
 refuses every sort of work, and will loll, half- 
 clothed, about her filthy hut all day long ; her 
 children rolling about like so many young pigs. 
 Few negresses can sew, and they scorn to scrub. 
 Even the finery which they worship (when they 
 -can obtain it) has usually been contrived by 
 white women. The unmarried ones or I should 
 rather say those who have no man to support 
 them will go out as servants, or do washing. 
 I have known instances where a score or so of 
 women, whose husbands were earning on a 
 plantation rations of meal and bacon, refuse to 
 do the washing of the family either for love or for 
 money compelling them to send it to the near 
 est town, five miles distant. If the white ladies 
 up at the house would not do washing, such 
 employment, they considered, must also be 
 derogatory to their position. 
 
 The cabins, in which the whole family live 
 
70 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 together, consist of but one room, through the 
 roof of which the water, when it rains, pours 
 in streams. This herding together is entirely par 
 gdut, for they have simply to cut down more trees 
 and construct more rooms, and. the leaking might 
 be stopped with wood lying close at their doors 
 land and wood being of such small value in this- 
 country, that they can always have as much as- 
 they need. But the negro, except in very rare 
 instances, has used his freedom to live in idle 
 ness and filth. The "Freedman s Bureau" 
 offered several acres to each negro, with rations 
 for his family for twelve months, on condition 
 that he fenced it round and forest trees grew 
 there as thickly as asparagus and planted for 
 the next year, when the land became his own. 
 But to the negro such advantages were offered 
 in vain. That to live they must labour, few 
 could comprehend, and they are still under the 
 delusion that emancipation means sloth and 
 sleeping in the sunshine. To cultivate their 
 own plot, was an effort far too much for most of 
 them ; they preferred to live on charity, odd 
 jobs, and thieving. For the negro, like a cat, 
 is a born thief, and where he does not steal, his 
 laziness recoils from the difficulty of the opera 
 tion. He is also an intuitive liar, and only 
 speaks the truth by accident. 
 
 As domestic servants, the negroes are the- 
 
THE NEGRO QUESTION. 71 
 
 most tantalizing that can be imagined having 
 neither industry, exactitude, cleanliness, pru 
 dence, nor obedience. 
 
 Some of them show an aptitude for cook 
 ing, but it is only by great exertions that 
 they can be induced to practise it. 
 show some agility as waiters; but it requires 
 the most stringent regulations to keep them m 
 order, instant dismissal being the only remedy 
 for inattention. No hotel proprietor would hire 
 them if he could obtain white servants. Indeed 
 you may find in them nearly all the instincts of 
 the lower animals, but little which characterizes 
 them as man, save the power of speech ; even 
 that is very imperfect, the tongue being too 
 laro-e to articulate distinct sounds. I am speak 
 ing" here of the pure blacks. They possess the 
 mimicry of the monkey, the sagacity of the dog, 
 the stealthiness of the cat, perversity in exact 
 ratio with that of the mule, uncleanlmess pro 
 portionate to the swine, laziness intense as that 
 of the sloth, arrogance emulating that of 
 barn-door fowl, and vanity which outvies^ the 
 peacock s. To counterbalance these qualities, 
 so glaringly prominent, you seek vainly tor 
 those attributes which distinguish man j 
 highest of animals. 
 
 You find the negro wanting in the sense 
 right for right s sake ; he has no idea of duty i 
 
THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 God, himself, or his neighbour. He is devoid 
 of truthfulness, or any appreciation of it ; is 
 incapable of understanding virtue or devotion ; 
 he has no respect for justice, no patience under 
 suffering, no fortitude . under adversity, no ad 
 miration for the good or the beautiful, no milk 
 of human-kindness for his fellows, and no true 
 veneration for the Deity. His worship is made 
 up of grotesque dancing, howling, and vicious 
 excitement presenting a more debasing and 
 grosser spectacle than that of the dervishes. It 
 was even stated in the public prints that they 
 had, in New Orleans, reached the fanatical pitch 
 of sacrificing young children and practising 
 magic rites, called Houbon, by which individuals 
 indicated at their meeting were secretly poi 
 soned, ostensibly by the arts of witchcraft, but, 
 in reality, naturally enough. This jugglery was 
 suppressed by authority, and they were re 
 stricted to more harmlessly profane orgies. Of 
 practical Christianity, the best of them cannot 
 be said to understand much. 
 
 They have a natural instinct for " lifting up 
 their voice," and in some places are called to 
 church by the bellowing of a horn ; but of the 
 silent prayer of the heart, the love of little 
 children, the charity to their neighbour, the 
 giving of " a cup of cold water for Christ s sake/ 
 they have no more conception than their own 
 
THE NEGRO QUESTION. 73 
 
 hogs. The old and decrepit are left to die, and 
 the children to starve, unless they receive care 
 from the whites. Black mothers will shut their 
 infants in a closet, whilst they go out for the 
 whole day. They have turned a dying woman 
 out into the forest to be devoured by bears or 
 panthers, on the mere excuse that they wanted 
 the miserable pallet on which she was lying. 
 Their cruelty to their offspring is sometimes 
 ferocious. A woman, rather decent of her kind, 
 in the service of a friend of mine, insisted upon 
 beating her child almost to death, the family 
 having frequently to rush to the rescue of the 
 poor infant. Her only excuse was that she 
 wished it would die , and although she was the 
 only servant of the family, they were at last 
 obliged to put her in prison to prevent the 
 accomplishment of her wish. 
 
 Of the rights of property the race has no 
 conception. Opportunity is all that is wanted 
 to make them thieves. As domestic servants, 
 they steal the provisions so ruthlessly, and with 
 such audacity, that I have known families in 
 moderate circumstances almost starved out by 
 their incessant plundering. In the country they 
 ruin the planter by stealing his corn, cotton, 
 pigs, poultry anything indeed that is portable. 
 If they are caught, imprisonment is no punish- 
 
74 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 ment to them ; they are fed and left in idle 
 nessthat is all they want. If anything like 
 civilized law were administered in the case of 
 the negroes, as of white people in other coun 
 tries, we should soon see as many of them in 
 thraldom for small and great crimes as before 
 the emancipation. Not that this is any argu 
 ment in favour of slavery, but it is a strong 
 proof that the negro cannot assume the position 
 of a free man and citizen, with the right of 
 suffrage and the right to do as he pleases, unre 
 strained by rigid laws. 
 
 In the more distant States, the Americans, so- 
 far as they are governed at all, are self-governed. 
 The so-called court of justice being at best 
 merely a locale where they settle disputes 
 among themselves. Occasionally, a planter 
 catching negro thieves inflagrante delicto, shoots 
 one or two, and the law is equally gracious to 
 the avenger as to the aggressor. The planter 
 states (if it ever comes to trial) that he warned 
 the negro to drop his hog, or he would shoot. 
 He did not drop the hog, so he shot, and the 
 negro died of it. Such is freedom in the South. 
 The negro is free to steal if he can do so with 
 out being caught, and the proprietor is free to- 
 shoot him if he can catch him. Thus, in the 
 nineteenth century, in this new republican coun 
 try, we have come back to 
 
THE NEGRO QUESTION. 75 
 
 " The good old rule, the simple plan, 
 That he should take who s able, 
 And he should keep who can." 
 
 To such creatures as I have described, the 
 right of suffrage has been given ; the right of 
 choosing leaders ; the right of making laws ; 
 the right of swaying for good or evil one-third 
 of the great continent of America ! Creatures 
 who cannot sign, and do not even know their 
 own names, who cannot speak any known lan 
 guage intelligibly, and cannot be made to com 
 prehend anything above the animal instincts 
 common to the brute. 
 
 An instance occurred, where a black jury had 
 to be sworn, of one of the negroes not knowing 
 his own name. When it was asked, he replied 
 " Dan." " Daniel what ?" said the clerk of the 
 Court. "Don t know bout Daniel. Used to- 
 be called Thompson, when Colonel Thompson 
 owned me, but somehow I. likes now to call my 
 self Smith, but spects Dan s my name. 7 No 
 thing more definite than this could be obtained 
 from him. Such men as these were to decide 
 the complicated rights of absentee ownership to 
 property. However, before the Court rose, 
 Master Dan had to be ejected, it having been 
 discovered that he was a notorious hog-stealer. 
 What if we canvassed the jails in England to- 
 obtain Members of Parliament ! 
 
76 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 When the Legislative Assembly was sitting in 
 Charleston, one of the newspapers took the 
 trouble to investigate the private history of 
 each member. When set forth daily, it was 
 little less infamous than the records of the New 
 gate Calendar, or a police court roll Such 
 were the legislators dictating laws in the once 
 proud Charleston. An honest upright negro 
 would indeed be regarded as a rara avis. 
 
 To enumerate instances of their ludicrous 
 ignorance would fill a volume. Two or three 
 illustrations shall suffice. A negro was a mem 
 ber of committee in Louisiana Legislature, where 
 a scheme for a canal was under discussion. 
 "GenTmen," said this darkie, probably not 
 understanding either the words "scheme" or 
 "canal," "hold hard a bit. Wouldn t it be 
 better to wait until de machine come on from 
 New York, den we be better able to decide 
 about it !" Evidently he had confounded 
 "scheme" and "machine," and thought them 
 one and the same thing. 
 
 One of the most practical and intelligent 
 negro servants I have met, was cook and house 
 keeper to some friends, to whom I was paying a 
 visit. She could read, write, and sew, and 
 studied her Bible every Sunday. She became 
 very much interested in my travels, wishing to 
 know the names of the various places to which 
 
THE NEGRO QUESTION. 77 
 
 I had been, all of them " Greek" to her. Find 
 ing that she read her Bible, I thought she might 
 feel interested to hear about Egypt, the Land 
 of the Pharaohs. " Missie been there ?" she ex 
 claimed, her eyes glittering with wonder and 
 delight; "I reckon now missie s been every 
 where, pretty near." Then, as if a sudden 
 thought had struck her, " I spects missie s been 
 as far as heaven now, and seen all de angels, and 
 tell all bout it." Bather nonplussed, I remained 
 silent, and she continued " Warn t de singm 
 beautiful ? and warn t de angels wings all golden?: 
 I spects Missie knows all about it." On re 
 lating this story to her mistress, she laughed,, 
 and remarked that, like the rest, she could 
 never grasp an immaterial idea; but that, as 
 far as everyday life went, she was nevertheless 
 the best negro she had ever had, and far more 
 intelligent than most of them. The profundity 
 of their ignorance is quite startling, though 
 sometimes very amusing. 
 
 Some other friends had a negress whose say 
 ings and doings used to cause us merriment by 
 the hour. She was one of the largest and most 
 hideous creatures I ever saw, and as big and 
 muscular as a man. One eye protruded on 
 account of a great cut at the side, the other was 
 blood-red; her blubber lips projected over im 
 mense fangs, arid her hair was like tangled 
 
78 2 HE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 masses of grizzled tow. She had been a field 
 hand belonging to a South Carolina family, and 
 had joined the Federal army in its march into 
 Savannah, believing firmly that she was march 
 ing on to Paradise, but the unmannerly gibes of 
 the soldiers, who pretended to take her for a 
 man, and made her carry a knapsack and gun, 
 terribly disconcerted her. Footsore, and worn 
 out, she arrived in Savannah, and, like many 
 others, she found no Paradise with golden harps, 
 but only a beleaguered city where famine reigned. 
 She was taken compassion upon by my friends, 
 who put her to rough work and cleaning. They 
 chanced to be Catholics, and some members of 
 the family were about to make their first com 
 munion. Noggie that was her appellation 
 took deep interest in the proceedings, and her 
 greatest delight was to be allowed to go to the 
 handsome cathedral, where, I fear, her excessive 
 devotion by no means conduced to gravity in 
 the congregation. The statue of the Blessed 
 Virgin draped in white lace, with a wreath of 
 white lilies as an emblematic crown, had par 
 ticular fascinations for her, and before this she 
 would sit and rock herself, clasping her bony 
 knees, grinning with delight, and showing all 
 her fangs like a laughing hyena. One of the 
 young ladies, seeing her zeal, undertook to in 
 struct her and make a devout Catholic of her. 
 
THE NEGRO QUESTION. 79 
 
 She would listen by the hour together to these 
 instructions, shaking her shaggy head, and utter 
 ing growls of wonderment. She even learnt 
 almost the whole catechism by heart from hear 
 ing it repeated; but the distinction between 
 the ceremony of baptism, and that of a first com 
 munion, never could.be drilled into her cranium. 
 She wanted to do " zactly as Miss. Maria" to 
 wear a dress with long train, and a wreath of 
 flowers on her head. When she was told that 
 she was at liberty to take another name in bap 
 tism instead of " Noggie," and was asked after 
 which of the young ladies she would like to be 
 called Miss Lucy or Miss Maria she declared 
 she would be called " Blessed Virgin Mary," 
 and short of this high distinction she manfully 
 refused to be baptised at all. After much per 
 suasion, and the sight of her long trained white 
 muslin dress and the "reaf" of flowers which 
 she essayed with delight, she yielded the prefix 
 of Blessed Virgin, and condescended to Mary. 
 " Mighty sure," she said, " everybody tink, just 
 like Blessed Virgin." Before her toilet was 
 complete and the young ladies could scarcely 
 accomplish it for laughing she contrived sur 
 reptitiously to cut off the sleeves of the dress to 
 make short sleeves, which she conceived to be 
 fashionable. The priest who performed the 
 ceremony, and the congregation who witnessed 
 
80 THE NEGRO QUESTION. 
 
 it, were almost suffocated with suppressed 
 laughter, for Noggie, resplendent in her own 
 imagination, put on all the airs of a great 
 baboon, wriggling, and nodding her head, with 
 the lilies upon it, like an old sweep-broom car 
 ried in May-day procession. Poor Noggie was 
 quite equal to the feat of imitating her young 
 mistress in wearing short sleeves and flowers in 
 her hair, but deaf, and dumb, and blind, to those 
 inward aspirations of which these outward forms 
 are but the symbols. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 
 
 IKEN, South Carolina, is situated on a 
 ridge of sand-hills, covered with pine 
 
 trees. It is considered one of the 
 
 a * ~ 
 
 most healthy places in the United States, and 
 particularly beneficial to consumptive persons, 
 owing to the turpentine exhalations from the 
 woods. The trees are tapped, and the resinous 
 gum which exudes is eaten by invalids, as it is 
 believed to be highly valuable in strengthening 
 the lungs. Turpentine and resin are also manu 
 factured in great quantities. The place consists 
 of a sprinkling of houses, the cavalry barracks, 
 and a very large hotel, generally filled with 
 invalids, on w-hose account, however, no relax 
 ation of hotel discipline is allowed. The few 
 respectable houses around are occupied by doc 
 tors, who have a fine time of it at Aiken. 
 
 The rides and drives through the forest are 
 beautiful; and being the only bit of hilly country 
 
 VOL. i. 6 
 
82 HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 
 
 within two hundred miles of Charleston, it 
 is very refreshing and pleasing to the sight 
 the sandy roads, or rather tracks, answering the 
 purpose of green sward. You may ride through 
 miles and miles of this forest ; indeed, the rail 
 road from Charleston to Aiken runs through an 
 almost unbroken line of pine trees. The species 
 is called the fat-pine-: it will light and burn 
 like a candle, and is often used as such by the 
 poorer inhabitants. It also supplies the place 
 of paper for lighting fires. 
 
 At Aiken, to my great joy and satisfaction, I 
 met once more the old log-fires of France ; 
 though not like them in all respects, as the 
 ashes are cleared away every morning as with 
 coal-fires ; the result beiog that the wood, in 
 stead of smouldering for a week, goes out four 
 or five times a day, in spite of any amount of 
 vigilance, and any amount of wood consumed. 
 However, such as it was, it was very grateful 
 after the suffocating stoves of the North, and 
 the sulphurous- smelling coal-fires, which at one 
 time throw out a furnace heat, and then give 
 no heat at all. So dreadful and unbearable 
 is the heat from this coal, that it is often neces 
 sary, even with frost and snow on the ground, 
 to throw up the window in order to breathe 
 freely. 
 
 It is more than probable that the pernicious 
 
HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 83 
 
 overheating of the houses in the] North is one 
 cause of the sallow complexions of the Northern 
 people, and of that pallid, dried-up look, which 
 is recognized in Europe as "Yankee." [At least, 
 it is a potent ally of iced water and hot cakes. 
 Every office or house of business that you visit 
 is kept so hot, that you must inevitably take 
 -cold in returning to the street ; and your own 
 room is either freezing, or like a smelting-house ; 
 so that you are constantly occupied in swinging 
 the door backwards and forwards, in order to 
 relieve yourself from the sulphur which ema 
 nates from the coal, which is principally anthra 
 cite. It is quite an American characteristic, 
 that although wood covers the land for thou 
 sands of miles, and is more agreeable to burn, 
 yet, as coal has become the fashion, coal they 
 will have, even though they have to import it 
 from England. Just as they will have ships 
 built in the Clyde, when there are hundreds of 
 square miles of oak and solid mountains of iron 
 under their very hands. 
 
 Nothing is esteemed in America for its in 
 trinsic worth, but entirely for what it costs. 
 In some countries a man is estimated by how 
 much money he is worth ; but in America it is 
 " How much does he spend ?" If he pays the 
 highest price, he is held in the highest estima 
 tion. If an American wishes, as he invariably 
 
 62 
 
84 HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 
 
 does, to ascertain your status and position in 
 society, he will not form his ideas from your 
 appearance, your conversation, or your manners; 
 but at once pounces on the heart of the matter, 
 and inquires where you stopped in New York, 
 or any other large city with which he is ac 
 quainted. He knows then what you paid a day. 
 If you tell him you staid at such and such an ho 
 tel, where your board cost you five dollars a day, 
 and you were half famished at that, and would 
 like therefore to find one where you might pay 
 seven, he at once conceives the highest respect 
 for you, and will show you some civility. Should 
 you ask him to recommend you an hotel, you 
 may be perfectly certain that it will be the most 
 expensive one he knows. But if you happen, 
 yourself, to stumble upon an out-of-fashion, 
 moderate house, which has not the eternal, 
 many-coloured carpet, and the mirrors, distort 
 ing you into all sorts of shapes, but where you 
 get comfortably served in a plain way, your 
 friends will make an onslaught upon you to get 
 you away. They would nearly as soon see you 
 lodged in jail as in a house where you are not 
 paying an extravagant price, and which is con 
 sequently not fashionable. Indeed, by most of 
 your friends, it would be considered a casus belli 
 a sufficient cause for cutting your acquaint 
 ance ; unless perchance they were gaining some- 
 
HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 85 
 
 thing by you, when they would content them 
 selves by silently despising you. 
 
 I can safely say that out of the hundreds of 
 calls made by strangers upon me in this country, 
 very few occurred at a private house, when I 
 had been fortunate enough to get into one. It 
 would almost appear as though the inhabitants 
 of a city thought it their duty to sustain the 
 proprietor of the principal hotel, by calling upon 
 any guests of distinction he may have, and 
 telling them, as they always do, of the merits of 
 the establishment. They congratulate you on 
 being "well located;" "Very fine house, the 
 Tremont House," is their exclamation. " Very 
 .elegant gentleman, the proprietor ;" You will 
 find the clerk a most accommodating gentle 
 man ;" "Table supplied with everything the 
 market affords," and they might add, "all served 
 up in greasy water." Prudence, economy, even 
 honesty, seem to be old-fashioned virtues, quite 
 out of date in the country. No one asks or 
 cares where you get your money, if you get it. 
 No one cares whose money you spend, so that 
 you spend it. It would be nearly as prudent to 
 admit yourself a pickpocket, as penniless. If a 
 man adroitly cheats his neighbour he acquires 
 reputation and respect as a "smart man." 
 " Mean," " shabby," " cheat," are obsolete words, 
 or not used as terms of disparagement ; " mean 
 .and " shabby " denoting only poverty. 
 
86 HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 
 
 At Aiken we visited a negro church, or rather 
 barrack, the sun streaming in through every 
 chink and crevice. The seats were unplaned 
 planks, and nailed on two rough stumps. The 
 preacher was a light mulatto, with very few 
 traces of black blood, save that undefinable 
 monkey ishness which Du Chaillu notes as going 
 far to prove their affinity with that race. When? 
 the preacher perceived he had half-a-dozen 
 strangers in his congregation, his antics became 
 most amusingly grotesque. He had evidently 
 been to hear some fashionable preacher, and had 
 copied his gesticulation as nearly as might be in 
 sepia ; but the enunciation seemed rather to 
 bother him. Unfortunately, he had hit upon a 
 difficult text ; and, as it was the style to bring 
 it in every few minutes, he constantly repeated 
 " I heerd a wice crying in the wilderness " 
 in such a variety of lugubrious and tragic tones,, 
 that we, his white audience, overcome with 
 laughter, were fain to bury our faces in our 
 hands. But when he rolled up his nigger eyes, 
 and twisted his mouth until the aperture came 
 in the middle of his cheek, we could control our 
 emotions no longer, and were obliged to retire 
 howling into the wilderness too, whence doubt 
 less be heard our " wice " plainly enough. 
 
 It is trying to witness all the shams and 
 make-believes in the grand helter-skelter race 
 
HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES. 
 
 87 
 
 after so-called style and fashion. People are 
 constantly acting parts with which they are not 
 familiar, and which sit ill upon them; but when 
 negroes commence to do the same sort of thing, 
 " I have thought some of Nature s journeymen 
 had made men, and not made them well, they 
 imitated humanity so abominably." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE BROADEST STREET IN THE WORLD. 
 
 UGUSTA TOWN, in Georgia, is built 
 on the beautiful river Savannah. The 
 climate, during the month of February, 
 reminded me very much (in the evenings espe 
 cially) of similar nights upon the Nile. Not a 
 breath of air stirring ; all hushed and still ; 
 sometimes hot, and the sky of a deep bright 
 blue. In the day, when the sun was clouded, 
 there was a sort of fog or mist, but entirely dif 
 ferent in quality and texture from that which we 
 know by the name of fog in England, and more 
 resembling the summer haze, which prophesies a 
 hot day. The climate in Augusta is considered 
 superior to that of Charleston, as it is never 
 visited by yellow fever, although there are plenty 
 of chills and fever. In winter it is charming ; 
 flowers were growing in the open air wherever 
 they were allowed, but there seemed little taste 
 for their cultivation. 
 
THE BROADEST STREET IN THE WORLD. 89 
 
 The town had evidently been laid out with 
 some very exalted idea of grandeur and magni 
 ficence as to the future of the city, for, as far as 
 my experience of Europe, Asia, Africa, and 
 America goes, I know of no such street as the 
 main street of Augusta, Georgia. Of course it 
 is called Broad Street, as, with few exceptions, 
 all American main streets are. There would 
 seem to have been a terrible difficulty in naming 
 the new places, for after having called them by 
 the names of those of the " Old Country," Ame 
 rican invention apparently came to an end, and 
 the same names in different places have been 
 repeated six or a dozen times over. Augustas 
 -are numerous, and I visited six or eight Colum- 
 buses, and as many Mariettas. But this Broad 
 Street really merits its name, for it surely is the 
 broad street not only of America, but of Europe. 
 It is fully as broad as Sackville Street, Dublin, 
 -and more than three times as long. The Cause 
 way, or, as it is called, the Side Walk, also is 
 very wide, and as it is the fashion to have the 
 shops half outside and half in, you may plea 
 santly walk four miles amid rows of hams, sides 
 of bacon, salt fish, dried peaches, pumpkins, etc. 
 The street is well shaded by a double avenue of 
 trees, which extends for several miles beyond 
 the city, outside of which the only living things 
 -we saw were pigs and mules. The latter abound, 
 
90 THE BROADEST STREET IN THE WORLD. 
 
 and go in droves like oxen, for which, judging 
 from the toughness of the steaks, it might seem 
 they are sometimes mistaken. When my face 
 tious friend gravely asked the attendant if he 
 had brought us the " buttock of a donkey ?" I 
 fully expected his grinning reply to be, " He 
 am elegant mule, marm." The pigs are a dif 
 ferent race from ours, a long-legged, sharp- 
 snouted, race-horse breed ; frisky too, and when 
 young, the merriest little woolly-haired creatures 
 that ever rejoiced in dirt and sunshine. They 
 live at free quarters in the city, and have fine 
 times of it in Broad Street, occupying them 
 selves in rooting up the offal and running races 
 with the dogs, during which pastime any two- 
 legged occupants of the thoroughfare are in con 
 siderable danger, if the race-course chances to be- 
 between their legs. 
 
 The buildings on either side of Broad Street 
 are by no means in keeping with the magnitude 
 of the street itself; they are mostly small, irre 
 gular erections of wood, the stores being chiefly 
 pork shops, groceries, and drinking bars. A 
 mile and a half apart, and occupying the central 
 portion of the street, are two market houses ; 
 others, which are the private dwellings, all de 
 tached, with gardens around them. This forms 
 the handsomest portion of Augusta. Across the 
 river there is a small city named Hamburg, in 
 
THE BROADEST STREET IN THE WORLD. 91 
 
 which is established one of the largest lager 
 beer breweries in the country. 
 
 Augusta is thought to be a thriving town, 
 and has a sort of reputation which it is difficult 
 to account for. But this sort of fabulous repute 
 is enjoyed by many persons and things in 
 America. How it springs up, or why it fades 
 so rapidly, would perplex a philosopher to dis 
 cover. I imagine that Barnumism has a great 
 deal to do with it. Barnum has dubbed himself 
 " the prince of humbugs," and, like all princes 
 or leaders, he has had his followers more or less 
 successful in his line. I cannot account for the 
 phenomenon in any other way. 
 
 A stranger arriving at any place within 
 five hundred miles of this real nonentity, this, 
 unformed city, is immediately asked, "Have 
 you been to Augusta, Georgia?" " No, you 
 have never heard of it." Then follows a flowery 
 description which excites the imagination of the 
 traveller, and induces him to visit "Augusta, 
 Georgia" as one of the wonders of the world. 
 " You are writing a work on the country, ma am ? 
 You must not omit Augusta, Georgia." " What 
 do you think of the society of our country?" 
 " Ah, you ought to see the society in Augusta, 
 Georgia." "Do you notice that very beauti 
 ful girl ? Think her handsome ? Well, she 
 comes from Augusta, Georgia." And until you 
 
I HE BROADEST STREET IN THE WORLD. 
 
 have visited this celebrated city with the biggest 
 street in the world and little else, you are 
 crammed by almost every one you speak to 
 about " Augusta, Georgia." But I am unable to 
 say that I discovered anything more interesting 
 in the city than I have notified above. 
 
 Augusta suffered . less from the war malady 
 than many other Southern cities, yet she was 
 still very ailing and complaining. I begin to be 
 strongly of opinion that it is almost as difficult 
 for a Southerner to get through a sentence 
 without saying, " before the war," as it is for a 
 New Englander to begin one without saying " I 
 .guess/ But whether I "guess" or " reckon" or 
 " calculate" or " conclude/ I certainly believe 
 that the destitution, misery, poverty, and suffer 
 ing that prevailed throughout the South at the 
 time of my visit was very great. Tales of wretch 
 edness and distress met one on every side. The 
 Southerners seemed to cleave to the English 
 much more than the Northerners, and only with a 
 smile and sigh uttered the reproach, " Ah, you 
 did not behave well to us !" which, on the whole, 
 is somewhat just. Their hopes of assistance or 
 acknowledgment were raised only to be blighted. 
 Whereas there was and is a bitter, vindictive 
 feeling towards us in the North, because sym 
 pathy was expressed for the South. They w r ould 
 say with a bitter chuckle, " Guess we ll lick you 
 
THE BROADEST STREET IN THE WORLD. 93 
 
 English through creation for trying to help those 
 cursed seceshists." The sad story of their woes 
 was generally the theme of the Southerners 
 conversation. Augusta, although laid out for 
 such a magnificent future, is not likely ever to 
 attain much greater proportions than those which 
 she possesses at present. We had expected 
 to find something infinitely more interesting 
 and imposing in Augusta than we did, and con 
 sequently departed rather disappointed. A 
 more extended sojourn in the country showed 
 us, however, that this reaction was inevitable if 
 we allowed ourselves to be at all excited or in 
 terested by the descriptions of the natives, and 
 we found that the surest way to attain our 
 object of seeing what was interesting and note 
 worthy was, to judge for ourselves as to our 
 route and destination, regardless of any mirage, 
 no matter how attractive, that might be con 
 jured up by well meaning but imaginative 
 friends, therefore, contrary to all precedent, and 
 totally without recommendation, we resolved to 
 entrust ourselves and our happiness to the 
 Savannah River, and visit the city of that name- 
 at the mouth of it. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SAVANNAH RIVER. 
 
 LL that has ever been said or sung of 
 the delights of sailing on a river, 
 floating down the stream, gliding on 
 the bosom of rippling waters, can never out- 
 feature nor over-rate the pleasures of sailing on 
 some of the American rivers, and the Savannah, 
 in Georgia, is one of these. It is navigable 
 from Savannah to Augusta, Georgia. It is not 
 a wide river, but it winds and meanders in 
 every graceful curve that fantastic Nature in 
 her wildest moments could invent, running up 
 and down and round about, rushing forward 
 rapidly for fifty yards, and then turning coyly 
 back, as if loth to leave such pleasant nooks and 
 shades. 
 
 The water is of a light yellow, the banks low 
 and swampy, thickly covered with luxuriant 
 verdure, and rich in forest trees. From the 
 larger trees hangs the sweeping grey funeral 
 
THE SA VANNAH RIVER. 95 
 
 moss or lichen, the tilentia, called by the country 
 people the "Death Moss," as much from its 
 .sombre appearance as from its growing in low 
 unhealthy districts. It waves over the bosom 
 of the stream like a pall or funeral drapery, but 
 the green cane lent a brightness and cheerful 
 ness to the landscape. On either side, the trees 
 stretch themselves across the stream, as if anxious 
 to twine their boughs overhead, and, with the 
 exception of a few patches of corn, the whole 
 length of the river is embowered in trees like a 
 water avenue, their shadows being reflected in 
 the water, as at the prettiest part of the Thames, 
 near Richmond. 
 
 Many of the trees were leafless, it being 
 winter, but the exquisite silver-grey colour of 
 their branches almost atoned for the absence of 
 foliage. Many of them were decorated with 
 tufts of mistletoe, and I am sure I saw more of 
 this much-esteemed parasite in my two days 
 journey on the Savannah, than I had seen in all 
 the rest of my life. Garlanding from bough to 
 bough, and perfuming the air with its delicious 
 sweetness, the flowers of the yellow jessamine 
 the pride of these pristine woods peered star- 
 like everywhere. Sometimes the grouping in 
 the woods, and the soft curves in the river 
 equalled in graceful picturesqueness all that art 
 and ingenuity has been able to achieve, even in 
 
96 THE SA VANNAH RIVER. 
 
 the landscape pictures of the Bois de Boulogne 
 or the far-famed Virginia Water. The sky was 
 more brilliant, and the air more soft and fragrant 
 than either of the latter on their balmiest days. 
 
 Everything is estimated by contrast, and 
 smoke-dried, miry-street-tramping people, rush 
 out to Virginia Water, and believe it a paradise, 
 while no one speaks of the beauties of the 
 Savannah Biver, because there are two hundred 
 miles of it. A gentleman of my acquaintance 
 informed me he could not "stand two days 
 of such monotonous beauty," and preferred 
 to go by cars, where he would not be com 
 pelled to look at anything more interesting 
 than their usual furniture the stove and the 
 water-tank. 
 
 Some of the landing places, where we took on 
 board wood or cotton, were exceedingly pic 
 turesque, and generally situated on some abrupt 
 eminence or " bluff" jutting into the river. A 
 few scattered log-huts were sheltered by mag 
 nificent pines as straight as an arrow, and from 
 sixty to a hundred feet in height. Wild duck 
 and wild turkey abounded everywhere, and the 
 river was full of shad and cat-fish. In many of 
 the small inlets, trout was plentiful, not to men 
 tion alligators. 
 
 Fox-hunting, I am told, is a favourite sport, 
 but I have never been fortunate enough either 
 
THE SA V ANN AH RIVER. 97 
 
 to hear of, or see any meet ; and I rather fancy- 
 that if there ever has been any foxhunting, it 
 must have been " before the war," and I could 
 almost believe that these handsome bloodhounds 
 had been kept to hunt the niggers. The little 
 creeks run far up the country, and are navigated 
 by flat-bottomed canoes, propelled by paddles, 
 which are like spades with long handles. They 
 seem to serve a double purpose, viz., rowing, 
 and baling out the water, for these " batteaux" 
 (the old French name is retained) invariably 
 leak. Our steamer carried the mail, and it was 
 curious to observe the manner in which the almost 
 solitary inhabitants of some of these lone forests 
 would receive a letter for one letter was usually 
 the extent of the delivery. He looked at it 
 attentively, handled it affectionately, passed it 
 from hand to hand caressingly, as though it were 
 a love token from his betrothed, and he wished 
 to extract some of its sweetness before devouring 
 it en masse. 
 
 As twilight fell we passed a party bivouacking 
 in the open air. The women and children were 
 seated round a large blazing fire and superin 
 tending some culinary operation, while the men 
 were endeavouring to erect a sort of tent. Wo 
 anchored for the night at a place which had 
 modestly dubbed itself " Little Hell," in contra 
 distinction, I presume, to a larger place of that 
 VOL. I. ? 
 
98 THE SA VANNAH RIVER. 
 
 name. Owing to the number of sunken rocks 
 in this part of the river, it is dangerous for 
 vessels. It was a curious and novel si^ht after 
 
 o 
 
 sundown to see the negroes light fires at short 
 intervals along the river s brink, and load and 
 unload the rude country waggons and the ves 
 sels, by the lurid glare of pine torches which they 
 carried in their hands, and which made them 
 look more like pantomimic demons than any 
 thing else. Indeed, the dark waving curtain- 
 moss overhead, the lights dancing hither and 
 thither through the forest, following the teams 
 of waggons as they wended their way through 
 the dense foliage, the music of the tree-frogs, 
 and a rustic attempt at Pandean pipes (made of 
 cane-stalks) gave the whole thing more the 
 effect of a grand pantomime at Drury Lane than 
 an ordinary incident of prosaic traffic. And as 
 we stood and watched the strange scene, we half 
 expected to see Harlequin and Columbine come 
 floating in, touching the cotton-bales with their 
 magic wands and turning them into boxes of 
 babies, and the glossy Africans into snow-white 
 lilies, or some such feat. Then again I thought 
 " earth" is a purgatory undoubtedly ! Is this, 
 after all, Little Hell ? 
 
 The curious little steamer upon which we 
 made this voyage was called " The Swan." She 
 bore no resemblance to that majestic bird in the 
 
THE SA VANNAH RIVER. 
 
 symmetry of her proportions, for she was a long 
 flat boat, or barge, with a hurricane deck hoisted 
 up on poles, and looking anything but solid or 
 safe. Upon that the cabin was perched, and 
 around it was a little balcony on which to sit 
 and enjoy the dolce far niente of life always 
 provided you had no foolish fears of being tipped 
 over into the water from the breaking of said 
 poles, of being launched into the air by the 
 bursting of the boiler, or that the engine which 
 keeps repeating in hoarse vulcanic roars, " Going, 
 going, going, gone" means that you and he 
 are going to your last home, and that his next 
 agonized puff will be the end. If you can 
 disregard all these tokens, then I say you may 
 travel very pleasantly. 
 
 To return to the " Swan ;" she resembled her 
 
 namesake in the cloud of white foam which she 
 
 threw up from her stern wheel, and we enjoyed 
 
 the sail as much as any swan ever appears to do. 
 
 Our swan stopped frequently to take in a supply 
 
 of down in the shape of cotton-bales. Then the 
 
 clerk of the boat always a very distinguished 
 
 personage in America made his appearance. 
 
 This one was a tall, well-built young man, with 
 
 dark flashing eyes, and a mass of black hair 
 
 escaping from under a broad-brimmed Italian 
 
 brigand hat ; he wore a short black velvet coat, 
 
 a scarlet necktie, and j ack-boots reaching above 
 
 72 
 
100 THE SA VANNAH RIVER. 
 
 the knees. As he sprang from a ledge of rocks 
 on to the paddle-box, he looked so exactly like 
 Fra Diavolo when he appears over the rocks to 
 the revellers, that I really expected the darkies 
 to strike up " Diavolo ! Diavolo /" and the 
 "Swan" at least to respond " Eccola QUA 
 QUA I" 
 
 As a rule, these river steamers do not hurry 
 themselves, and the " Swan" formed no excep 
 tion to it. She was therefore not patronised by 
 many travellers. But the majority of American 
 travellers seem to move about without any defi 
 nite purpose. It is not for pleasure, for they 
 studiously avoid it ; still less for information, for 
 most of them devote their whole time to grum 
 bling, or reading the newspapers, both of which 
 they might do equally well at home. They 
 occupy their time with calculations as to when 
 they shall arrive at their destination, and if they 
 do enjoy any pleasure on their travels, it must 
 be in the anticipation of the happy moment when 
 the journey will be ended, for any unforeseen delay 
 always seems to make them exceedingly misera 
 ble. They are in haste to get to the dining- 
 room to take a discontented meal, after which 
 they rush out as fast as possible, only to dis 
 cover by studying the regulations when the next 
 will be. Paying their bills, I believe, they do 
 enjoy thoroughly. I have watched a man tra- 
 
THE SA VANNAH RIVER. 101 
 
 veiling with a large family, who never appeared 
 In a pleasant frame of mind except when he stood 
 with his hands in his pockets preparing for a 
 fresh start, and paying out money on all sides. 
 
 At none of the landings where we stopped 
 
 was there a wharf. The " Swan" had to rim 
 
 alongside as close as she could, and a gangway 
 
 was run out. At one place it took fully twenty 
 
 minutes to get this gangway settled. The 
 
 negroes had scarcely got half a dozen bales of 
 
 cotton over it, when it slipped into the water 
 
 again, amidst a terrible hullabaloo from the 
 
 negroes, who yelled in despair, but did not 
 
 attempt to stop it. Although the water at the 
 
 edge was only about a yard deep, the captain 
 
 was compelled to urge them in very vociferous, 
 
 and not very euphonious language, before they 
 
 could be induced to get the end of the plank on 
 
 shore. Finally they succeeded in getting their 
 
 end so far, that a number of other negroes, who 
 
 were about starting from the deck of the steamer, 
 
 went straight into deep water. They seemed, 
 
 however, to swirn or float like porpoises, and 
 
 were none the worse for their ducking, though 
 
 the captain declared, in great disgust, that he 
 
 could get more work done from three pairs of 
 
 sailor-like hands than from a dozen negroes. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 THE CITY OF CAMELIAS. 
 
 AVANNAH, Georgia, is as remarkable 
 for the beauty, as for the badness of 
 its streets. As is usual, they cross 
 one another at right angles, are immensely wide, 
 and are planted with magnificent trees the 
 evergreen oak, magnolia, and others. Broad 
 Street, in particular, has a double avenue of 
 splendid trees, which gives it a quiet, retired 
 character, and makes it a pleasant and shady 
 promenade even on the hottest days in summer, 
 while in winter, the unfading foliage contributes 
 wonderfully to the cheerful appearance of the 
 city. Broad Street extends from one end of 
 the town to the other, and where the side 
 streets cross it the trees form a handsome square, 
 which is railed in from the thoroughfare. The 
 magnolia, cedar, and camelia, with many other 
 beautiful trees and shrubs, bloom there perfectly 
 
THE CITY OF CAM ELI AS. 103 
 
 in the open air, and surround the private houses, 
 which are nearly all detached. 
 
 Flowers, however, (as in most other places in 
 America) are but little cultivated, or Savannah, 
 with its profusely blossoming camelia japonica, 
 might be much more beautiful than it is. The 
 badness of the streets consists in the want of 
 pavement, the roadways being left in their ori 
 ginal loose, sandy state, and the footpaths 
 bricked or planked, the roadway being left to 
 itself. 
 
 Savannah is built on a plain of sand, or rather 
 of very fine dust. Not a stone is to be seen 
 there, nor indeed for miles round, and even the 
 bricks are brought from Philadelphia. Vehicles 
 passing along the streets sinking sometimes up 
 to the axletrees in sand make very little noise, 
 and the quiet which therefore reigns in the town 
 harmonizes well with its cool shady streets. Of 
 all the towns we had yet visited, the streets of 
 Savannah pleased us the most. It possesses 
 little in the way of handsome buildings or monu 
 ments, excepting a noteworthy one in the square, 
 the statue of General Palaski, who, like many 
 other of Poland s sons, died fighting bravely in 
 a foreign land. 
 
 Savannah had, when I first visited it, neither 
 street-cars nor regular hacks, but a few very 
 ancient vehicles might be persuaded, under 
 
104 THE CITY OF C AMELIAS. 
 
 pressure of a five-dollar bill, to emerge from 
 their seclusion and draw you laboriously through 
 the sand. They were, however, rarely troubled, 
 for when people had not " buggies" they waded 
 along on foot. But a change has occurred in 
 Savannah in this respect, and I found when I 
 was last there, that pleasant hacks might be 
 hired for the small charge of fifty cents per 
 hour. There is another institution which Sa 
 vannah does not recognise, and that is the post 
 man. As in Charleston, his "rat-tat" is never 
 heard there a great luxury to those who have 
 suffered from its too incessant repetition in 
 London. Most of the citizens have private 
 boxes at the post-office, and when they have 
 an inspiration, or dream, perhaps, that letters 
 are awaiting them there, they send for them. 
 
 Quiet and peaceful as Savannah looked, it yet 
 had its troubles ; the cry heard in all Southern 
 cities was rife there, viz., the injustice of the 
 North, and there were lamentations over the 
 hardships and suffering which had fallen upon 
 the too frequently innocent victims. The United 
 States government was deaf to all complaints, 
 and refused to redress any grievances inflicted 
 by Northern troops on Southern people, for no 
 other reason than that they had the misfortune 
 to be residing in that part of the country which 
 was in rebellion. When Northern generals 
 
THE CITY OF CAMELIAS. 105 
 
 entered a city, they not ^infrequently ordered 
 out the only inmates, women and children, who 
 had thus to seek protection elsewhere, to live in 
 the forest, or upon the charity of some one a 
 little less unfortunate than themselves. Almost 
 in every house in Savannah, might be seen a box 
 or barrel full of Confederate bank notes, repre 
 senting the former fortune of the possessors, but 
 then of no value except for lighting fires indeed 
 not so much, in a place where pine wood supplies 
 the kindling material, which lights as easily and 
 burns as rapidly as paper. 
 
 The first result of the entrance of a Northern 
 army into a city, was, that each family found 
 itself without any servants, and was compelled 
 to set to work and do its own cooking, wash 
 ing, scrubbing, and ironing. This may not seem 
 such a very dreadful hardship, but to people 
 who had been served by slaves all their lives it 
 was no ordinary trial at first, however salutary 
 it might have proved in the long run. But the 
 greatest evils of that period fell upon the negroes 
 themselves. Bewildered and dazzled by the 
 idea of freedom, and having no notion of it other 
 than that it guaranteed them board, lodging, 
 .and clothing, they spread themselves over the 
 face of the country in search of this " El Dorado," 
 and perished by the wayside and in the swamps 
 by hundreds and thousands I ! Some returned 
 
10G THE CITY OF CAMELIAS. 
 
 to their former homes, and, as may be easily 
 imagined, were not received with much kind 
 ness. Others, as I have said, succeeded in 
 joining the Federal army, without very much 
 bettering their condition. 
 
 The decrease in the coloured population from 
 the emancipation at the close of the war up to 
 1866, was estimated at a million statistics 
 fearfully suggestive of misery and privation. 
 The mortality among the children and aged 
 persons was especially very great. The able- 
 bodied men who joined the Federal army were 
 drilled and organised into regiments, commanded 
 by white officers. Jacksonville, on the St. 
 John s river, was the first town occupied by 
 these troops under General Higginson, but there 
 was no fighting for them, the town having sur 
 rendered. It is said that on the Mississippi 
 they fought well, but of their bravery I should 
 have considerable doubt, or of that of any other 
 troops whose officers had to stand and cut them 
 down, or run them through when they retreated 
 or refused to advance. With a battery behind 
 and a battery in front to take which was their 
 only safety one would think any soldiers would 
 advance rather than mutiny ; for the latter more 
 spirit and independence of thought was required 
 than these emancipated slaves possessed. 
 
 One of the most cruel and unnecessary inci- 
 
THE CITY OF CAME LI AS. 10T 
 
 dents of the war was related to me in Savannah, 
 After the occupation of the town by the North 
 ern troops, they commenced throwing up for 
 tifications, and for this purpose most wantonly 
 invaded the cemetery, which in this country 
 resembles and is held in the same regard as in 
 France the inhabitants making it a continual 
 resort, and decorating the graves at stated 
 periods. In digging the trenches and throwing 
 up earthworks, the dead were necessarily dis 
 lodged from their graves, and cast up, some 
 coffin] ess, in various states of decomposition. 
 The inhabitants heard with horror of this dese 
 cration of their dead, and rushed out in frantic 
 excitement either to stop so unnatural a pro 
 ceeding, or to take their dead again under their 
 own care ; and the latter they were obliged to 
 do, for the soldiers were inexorable. The afflicted 
 relatives collected the remains of those so dear 
 to them mothers, fathers, and children, who 
 had been buried for years. The coffins in the 
 vaults were more accessible and easily removed, 
 but for several days, the greater part of the 
 women of Savannah were employed in carrying 
 away the dead bodies of their relatives to some 
 safer refuge. So few male inhabitants were left 
 in the town that it was difficult to obtain a man 
 to assist in this arduous labour. Some ladies 
 told me, that with only the assistance of an aged 
 
108 THE CITY OF C AMELIAS. 
 
 negro, they had moved with their own hands, 
 iind conveyed to the cellar under their house, 
 the corpses of their father, and the husband and 
 child of one of them. More than a week passed 
 before they could find a suitable place in which 
 to lay their dead. Anything more irritating to 
 American people could scarcely have been de 
 vised, than this unprovoked and unnecessary 
 desecration of their cemetery. 
 
 Although Savannah is not the capital of the 
 State, it decidedly ought to be from its situation 
 and commercial importance. Situated on the 
 beautiful Savannah River, and only fifteen miles 
 from the sea, it was fast becoming the most im 
 portant town on the seaboard of the South, and 
 though it did not then compete with New Or 
 leans as a cotton market, yet in wealth and 
 activity it had surpassed its larger and prouder 
 neighbour, Charleston. Cotton continued to be 
 the staple commodity of trade, in spite of the 
 difficulty which the planter experienced in getting 
 negro labour, and notwithstanding the relinquish- 
 ment of his former enormous profits and the ob 
 ligatory abandonment of his Grand Seigneurism. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FROM SAVANNAH TO FERNANDINA. 
 
 E left Savannah by the " Betsy Baker," 
 a sort of cross between a river and 
 sea boat. We chose the "inner pas- 
 gage" the name given to a series of rivulets 
 and lagoons skirting the coast for twenty miles, 
 and joining the sea near the mouth of the St. 
 John s Eiver. The "Betsy Baker" stopped at 
 all the small towns and hamlets on the coast 
 until we reached Fernandina, but that being 
 one continuous marsh or bog, with here and 
 there a clump of evergreen oaks garnished with 
 pendent moss, presented little that was interest 
 ing. Once or twice we ran on a sand-bank, and 
 there remained until the tide washed us off. 
 Now and then we passed a fort in a state of 
 dilapidation, and not unfrequently there rose 
 above the brushwood " Sherman s sentinels/ 
 viz., gaunt staring chimneys standing alone, 
 
110 FROM SAVANNAH TO FERNANDINA. 
 
 attesting witnesses of the destruction of the 
 rest of the building. 
 
 We reached Fernandina in about twenty-four 
 hours, and then came to a dead stop a misty 
 rain or fog, which had followed us for some dis 
 tance, becoming so dense that it was considered 
 dangerous to cross the bar that night. So we 
 were obliged to wait for the next day s tide, the 
 captain not daring to attempt the passage owing 
 to the impossibility of seeing the buoys. A 
 large party of Northerners out on a pleasure, 
 health excursion to Florida looked upon this 
 as nothing Jess than a calamity. They had set 
 out intending to tear through the country as 
 fast as steam would carry them, and having 
 reached their destination, to face about and rush 
 back again as quickly as possible. Therefore, to 
 lose twenty- four hours by the way without 
 puffing and steaming even though it was to 
 breathe the soft sweet atmosphere of Fernan 
 dina in no way suited their taste. Some of 
 them declared that it was an unendurable vexa 
 tion which they could not and would not bear. 
 However, they had to try, for Fernandina is an 
 island, or rather, is situated on the ancient 
 Spanish settlement of Amelia. 
 
 When the next day dawned there was still a 
 heavy fog, which lasted just long enough to 
 prevent us from catching the tide, and so doomed 
 
FROM SA V ANN AH TO FERNANDINA. Ill 
 
 us all to another twenty-four hours waiting. Of 
 all trying things, to remain in a state of waiting 
 is the most exasperating, and our fellow-passen 
 gers seemed to think so. It was vain to tell 
 them they might walk on shore and amuse 
 themselves ; that there was an hotel at which 
 they might pay four dollars a day for the privi 
 lege of living upon nothing, if they preferred it 
 to living free of expense, as they were doing on 
 board. But this paying of four dollars a day 
 the principal joy of New Yorkers seemed to 
 have lost its attraction. In vain also was it to 
 speak of lovely drives among wild roses and 
 jessamine, or of one of the most beautiful beaches 
 in the world fine hard dry sand on which 
 they might drive for thirty miles. In vain to 
 point out the interesting fortifications called 
 Fort Clinch, all in a perfect state of preserva 
 tion, as the fort was taken by ruse, rather than 
 by assault, and in the following manner : 
 
 The Federal fleet was lying down the river 
 watching vainly for an opportunity of attacking 
 this formidable fortress, which was bristling with 
 cannon and filled with men. At last a ruse was 
 planned. A small cutter belonging to a gun 
 boat contrived to lie perdu for awhile, in one of 
 the wooded coves or creeks which abound here. 
 Suddenly she starts forth, is immediately dis- 
 -covered by the fleet, and every boat gives chase 
 
112 FROM SA V ANN AH TO FERNANDINA. 
 
 to her, for she carries the Confederate flag. She 
 plies every oar and strains every nerve, appa 
 rently making for the fort for refuge. The 
 Confederates seeing their own flag chased, watch 
 the race with intense interest. Thick and fast 
 around the fugitive fall the Federal shot with 
 out ever striking her, the pursuers all the time 
 keeping so close in her wake that the Confede 
 rates, though waiting eagerly, find no oppor 
 tunity of firing without risk of injuring what 
 they take for one of their own boats, but which 
 seems to bear a charmed life. The chase grows 
 closer and more exciting ; every eye is watching 
 eagerly the fate of the hard-pressed little craft, 
 when in an instant, and within reach of a safe 
 harbour, she suddenly tears down her flag, and 
 with her companions, pours volley after volley 
 into the unsuspecting fort, which, thus taken 
 by surprise, was unable to prevent a landing. 
 Before any rally could be made, the gunboats 
 had steamed up, and the surrender of the fort 
 became imperative. 
 
 To return to the " Betsy Baker," the impa 
 tience and vexation of our Northern passengers 
 rendered them proof against all the delights 
 which were offered them, as a set-off for the 
 want of those which they had been looking for 
 ward to. Even the delight of riding in an 
 ambulance drawn by six mules, and with an 
 
FROM SA HANNAH TO FERNAND1NA. 1 1 3 
 
 escort of cavalry politely offered to us by the 
 officers of the fort they were indifferent to, as 
 well as to the shooting of a pelican for us that 
 day off Cumberland Island, the burial place of 
 " Light Horse Harry Lee." 
 
 Pelicans are plentiful in these parts. They 
 -are enormous creatures, measuring eight feet 
 from wing to wing. They have a large leather 
 bag beneath the bill, and a long spade-like beak, 
 which gives them a very ugly appearance when 
 flying, but when skimming along the water, with 
 beak pressed in, the pelican looks like a minia 
 ture ."Roman galley proudly breasting the waves. 
 I wished for their quills very much, yet felt 
 remorse when I saw the great handsome crea 
 ture prostrated by a shot. Gulls of various 
 descriptions abound, also wild fowl, on the 
 .swampy banks of the river. 
 
 When the fog at last cleared off, and the sun 
 came out, it was as hot as any July day I have 
 ever felt in England, and this in the middle of 
 March. Strawberries were ripe where they had 
 received the slightest attention, peas were fully 
 grown, and the wild, vine-like raspberry made 
 the parterre gay with flowers resembling our 
 English dog-rose, but having a delicious per 
 fume. There was a general air of indolence and 
 carelessness about the place, and we only saw 
 one garden in which the rose seemed under cul- 
 
 VOL. 1. 8 
 
114 FROM SA V ANN AH TO FERNANDINA. 
 
 tivation. Fences were broken and ragged, and 
 houses out of repair. Squalor, dirt, and negroes,, 
 form apparently a natural sequence, and what 
 ever hope of amelioration there might have 
 been " before the war," all chance of improv 
 ing his condition died away when the negro 
 became his own master. There were at Fer- 
 nandina some of that class of Northerners who, 
 in contradistinction to pressing the negro below 
 the level of a domestic animal, seek to elevate 
 him above, and cause him to assume a superior 
 ity over the white man. This arises from sheer 
 perversity or fanaticism, but as a natural con 
 sequence of it, the negro has become so elated 
 and unmanageable, that he is of little use to 
 himself or to anybody else. Violent changes- 
 are invariably hazardous, and nothing can exem 
 plify it better than the state of affairs produced 
 by the late war in this country. 
 
 A negro woman coming to ask me for my 
 washing, after establishing herself in the most 
 comfortable chair in the room, and beckoning to 
 a friend who accompanied her to walk in and 
 make herself at home also, inquired first if I 
 was acquainted with a " coloured gentleman/ a 
 friend of hers, for whom she had been in the 
 habit of washing so well that he would guarantee 
 her the best laundress in the State. I felt in 
 clined to inquire, in my turn, if her friend was- 
 
FROM SAVANNAH TO FERNANDINA. II 5 
 
 " fast colour." But she proceeded to say that 
 if the linen was not very large she would do it 
 for the small price of six shillings (sterling) per 
 dozen. Only sixpence for a single pocket-hand 
 kerchief or pair of cuffs ! 
 
 S 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 T. AUGUSTINE, Florida, is the oldest 
 town of the United States. Ponce 
 de Leon, one of the companions of 
 Columbus, discovered Florida in 1512. At that 
 period, when the love of the marvellous still 
 held sway, equally over the lettered and un 
 lettered mind, the story was rife, that away to 
 the north there lay an Elysian land, teeming 
 with fruits and flowers, and possessing a river 
 whose waters conferred perpetual youth and 
 beauty on all who bathed in or drank of them. 
 Inspired by this brilliant legend, and hoping to 
 make a discovery far more important than that 
 of Columbus, Ponce de Leon set sail from Porto 
 Bico, and landed at Florida near the present 
 site of the town of St. Augustine. It was early 
 in April, when nature decks Florida in all the 
 beauty of Paradise. No wonder that De Leon 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 117 
 
 believed the fable of the promised Elysium was 
 realized at last, as he gazed on this lovely land, 
 bathed in clear and balmy light, redolent with 
 the odour of fruits and flowers. 
 
 In Florida, not only do the flowers, and 
 shrubs, and undergrowth display millions of 
 blossoms of beauty, but the very forest trees fill 
 the air with the fragrance of their pyramids of 
 flowers. Palmettos spread their fan-like leaves 
 to waft the breeze; the date-palm waves its 
 majestic plumes in the translucent air, while the 
 feathery acacia and chaporell tremble to the 
 gentle kiss of wooing zephyrs. Such is Florida 
 in April. Later in the season the glossy leaves 
 of the magnolia reflect the glowing sunshine, 
 whose rays add yet a deeper tint to the radiant 
 scarlet of the pomegranate and golden hue of 
 the oranges, hanging in tempting clusters among 
 their fresh green foliage. 
 
 On the placid waters of the thousand and one 
 lakes of Florida, lilies lie in all their grace and 
 purity, cushioned on velvet leaves, or dance in the 
 air, tightly suspended on their spiral stems, or 
 humbly hide in the mossy nooks and fairy dells. 
 Sometimes the Fleur de Lis of France clothes the 
 "hummock" lands in royal purple, or the gor 
 geous scarlet trumpet lily decks them in dazzling 
 beauty; putting to shame "Solomon in all his 
 glory." Not only the lily blooms wild per- 
 
118 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 ennially in this land of Ponce de Leon, but the 
 eglantine, the rose, verbena, and jessamine 
 mingle there their fragrance and foliage ; while 
 round every projecting rugged trunk that needs 
 a shade, the vine twines its delicate tendrils. 
 
 Through the " pine barrens" sighs the " best- 
 loved west wind," with a sweet and hallowed 
 tone, like the voices of our loved and lost ones 
 whispering to us from the spirit-land. The red- 
 bird radiates prisms of light from his flaming 
 wings, and when the heavens always blue 
 are spangled with the stars of night, showers of 
 fire-flies fill the air, like brilliant messengers of 
 heaven, floating and skimming on the vast 
 expanse of the ethereal vault. If they are not 
 fairies Ponce de Leon might have taken them 
 for such, illuminating the orange-groves, lighting 
 up the dark cypress and the ancient cedars, 
 hung with sepulchral moss, while wood nymphs 
 and forest sprites were holding high carnival. 
 
 All this, and more than this of beauty, that 
 pen fails to describe, Ponce de Leon must have 
 beheld when he landed in Florida in April. 
 And he might easily have pictured, in the almost 
 lake-like waters of the St. John s river, the 
 realization of his day-dream. Sm ooth and silvery 
 it flows through a bankless expanse of luxuriant 
 foliage, draped with " lace-like moss" on ever 
 green oaks and lined with alternate pine and 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 110 
 
 orange-trees. Now it spreads out into a wide 
 and placid lake, where the lonely pelican floats 
 at stately leisure ; now it narrows to the limits 
 of a shady stream, mirroring in its clear depths 
 every leaf and spray ; while here and there the 
 pink crane, in solemn meditation, stands on the 
 brink of the soft, sweet waters. 
 
 Ponce de Leon might well have mistaken 
 them for the elixir-bearing flood. Perhaps he 
 drank of them by the quart, in true American 
 fashion; though, alas! he imbibed with them 
 neither youth nor beauty ; but only became like 
 the Americans of to-day, very considerably 
 yellower. And indeed, quarts of ice water in con 
 junction with pounds of steaming hot bread would 
 destroy the beauty of Venus herself. Awaking 
 from his dream, and finding the native Indians 
 fierce and implacable, Ponce de Leon became 
 disgusted with his paradise, and returned to 
 Spain "a sadder, and probably a wiser man/ 
 Nevertheless, similar hopes and aspirations con 
 tinued to be indulged in by more than one of 
 his contemporaries. 
 
 The first permanent settlement was effected 
 by the French, in the reign of Charles IX., 
 during the Coligny troubles and after the Saint 
 Bartholomew tragedy. The Huguenots, who 
 then obtained permission to exile themselves to 
 America, are still traceable in some of the 
 
120 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 Southern states. These southern states, by the 
 way, in their own hour of discord and disunion, 
 instead of allowing those who dissented from 
 their opinion to retire, endeavoured by pains 
 and penalties to -force them into adhesion to the 
 newly- established order of affairs ; so true is it 
 that those who have suffered from oppression 
 themselves, are none the less ready to oppress 
 others. 
 
 The French had scarcely begun to enjoy the 
 results of their freedom, when Menendez, the 
 Spanish commander, arrived from Spain, with 
 power to take possession of Florida and govern 
 it in his king s name. He surprised the Hugue 
 nots by night, during a heavy thunderstorm,, 
 and butchered them almost to a man. The few 
 who escaped into the woods were soon induced 
 by famine to surrender. They were then 
 allowed to choose between the renunciation of 
 their faith or death. Unanimously they chose 
 the latter, and were accordingly murdered in 
 cold blood ; " Dying as their fathers died, for 
 the faith their foes denied." 
 
 This took place at Saint Augustine, on the 
 east coast of Florida, and the blood spilt at its 
 baptism seems to have flowed freely within and 
 around its walls and towers for three centuries 
 of its history. Often it has suffered greatly 
 from the ravages of fire, sword, and famine ; 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 121 
 
 and its inhabitants have acknowledged more 
 foreign rulers and foreign flags than those of 
 any other city in America. Its present occu 
 pants bear traces of this, and, indeed, in corning 
 to any ethnological or moral conclusion as to 
 Americans or their character, it is essential to 
 bear in mind the various causes which have con 
 tributed to the peopling of this vast and mag 
 nificent country. 
 
 America is not a country that has been over 
 run and conquered by a stronger people ; the 
 native Indians have retired before the white 
 man, leaving hardly a trace behind them. From 
 the earliest date we find it the sanctuary of 
 brave men driven from their homes by persecu 
 tion, as the Huguenots, whose brethren had 
 sealed their belief with their hearts blood, and 
 who themselves, the first settlers at St. Augus 
 tine, were doomed to be the victims of another 
 St. Bartholomew, in which three or four hundred 
 heroic pioneers were to fall. Persecution both 
 religious and political has tended more than 
 any other cause, to establish this great nation. 
 The pilgrim fathers would never have sought 
 the wild New England shore ; the gallant 
 cavalier, South Carolina and Virginia, or the 
 Irish and Germans have found their way to the 
 prairies of the west, but for political persecution 
 at home. 
 
122 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 The penal laws against the Irish in the last 
 century and the beginning of this have been a 
 prolific cause of emigration, and have done more 
 than anything to depopulate Ireland and colo 
 nize western America. Where a man lives 
 under a ban for his religious or political opinions, 
 when hope drops her wings and lies fainting 
 under the spurning foot of persecution, then the 
 human heart casts about in search of a spot 
 where it may be free : free to expand and glory 
 in its thoughts and aspirations, and to worship 
 as it sees fit in a temple or on a mountain top. 
 Such a spot was found in the benignant con 
 tinent of America, with her fair wide bosom 
 open to take in all who mourned or were 
 afflicted, to gather them into her genial embrace, 
 and make them welcome to her spacious fold. 
 The persecuted patriot who had sought to stem 
 the tide of tyranny and usurpation ; the re 
 ligious enthusiast, w T ho had braved faggot and 
 instrument of torture for a conscientious prin 
 ciple of faith, and bid defiance to inquisitors and 
 hell s power to pain ; the woe-begone Irish 
 mother with her brood of starvelings ; the sullen 
 father with spirit nigh crushed into bitterness 
 and evil from the long borne burden of his 
 wrongs, have all come trooping with eager foot 
 step to the " Land of the Free ;" the land of 
 corn, and fruits, and flowers ; the land of every 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 123 
 
 clime, of every sky, and every temperature for 
 every race. 
 
 God s mercy goetli not out of reach and His 
 dew falls on the fevered eyelids of those who 
 weep. Beautiful, generous land ! offering to 
 man every gift that man s heart can rightly 
 desire ! Surely Ponce de Leon might have been 
 contented with his share in its discovery! Such, 
 however, is human nature : he had set his heart 
 upon a particular object, viz., youth and beauty 
 a perpetuite, and not realizing that, all the rest 
 availed not to satisfy his cravings. 
 
 The same thing happens to this day on the 
 same spot. There where the sweet and the 
 bitter orange still abound; where fig, peach, 
 lemon, and pomegranate refresh the eye and 
 cool the palate, northern travellers grumble 
 every day because they cannot procure dirty 
 tap water iced. Drinking ice-water is an 
 American mania, an anti-hydrophobia sort of 
 disease, and it is quite probable that if there is 
 not a good supply of ice-water in heaven, they 
 will all petition St. Peter to be allowed to return 
 to New York. Because Wenham lake ice cannot 
 be " raised" in Florida, they repine, and dis 
 regard all those adjuncts which go to make life 
 enjoyable, and in which Florida abounds to a 
 greater degree than any climate I have yet 
 visited. 
 
124 2 HE LAND Of ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 In 1580 St. Augustine was attacked by Sir 
 Francis Drake, but without success. About 
 this period also the Franciscan missionaries came 
 to Florida, for the purpose of Christianizing the 
 natives. They settled in St. Augustine, where 
 they built their first church. The bury ing-ground 
 still exists, and many of the old Spanish tombs 
 remain almost perfect. It is a most interesting 
 place to visit. The tombs are constructed of 
 the Cogiuna stone or shell, and bear a strong 
 resemblance to some of the Egyptian sarcophagi, 
 or stone coffins. 
 
 The Franciscans were indefatigable in their 
 endeavours to civilize the Indians ; but there 
 seems to be something in the nature of the red 
 man incompatible with either Christianity or 
 civilization. After three centuries of missionary 
 effort, the Indian tribes remain as wild and 
 primitive as the trees of their own forests. 
 Padre Corpa, the foremost of the missionary 
 band, rejoiced in the conversion of one of the 
 chiefs with all his tribe ; but venturing to 
 lecture his new convert upon the unchristian 
 number of his wives, his doom was sealed. He 
 was barbarously murdered at the foot of the 
 altar, as he was preparing to celebrate mass. 
 The devoted padre stipulated only for sufficient 
 time to perform the service, and whilst he prayed 
 for their forgiveness for the last time, his execu- 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 125 
 
 tioners lay around, gloating over their prey like 
 famished wolves and glaring upon him with 
 savage hyena eyes. No sooner was the service 
 concluded and he turned to give them his bene 
 diction, than they rushed upon him and tore 
 him limb from limb. The missionaries, however, 
 were not discouraged ; they steadily pursued 
 their sacred calling, and built over twenty 
 churches and mission-houses through Florida. 
 
 The castle or fort at St. Augustine, the most 
 picturesque building in the town, was erected in 
 1620, principally by the forced labour of the 
 Indians, who for sixty years were compelled to 
 work as servants to the Spaniards. This is 
 more than the Americans have ever been able 
 to make them do even for themselves. The 
 Indians consider it an indignity to labour, and 
 to the present day no argument, persuasive or 
 forcible, has had the effect of inducing them to 
 live otherwise than in the complete simplicity of 
 unsophisticated nature. They will neither con 
 struct dwellings nor provide for the future. 
 They will live upon the produce of the land as 
 provided by nature, and upon the animals which 
 come within their power to destroy for food. 
 But they have an utter aversion to anything 
 which we call improvement and cultivation, and 
 when pressed, they only retire farther back into 
 their fastnesses. 
 
126 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 In 1681 the famous "Friend," William Perm, 
 obtained from Charles II., of England, a grant 
 of land in Florida, which he strove to colonize ; 
 it is to be hoped, from his character and prin 
 ciples, by other means than fire and sword, like 
 most of the colonizers of the period. St. Augus 
 tine was visited by a famine in 1712, owing to 
 the non-arrival of the ships from Spain with the 
 usual supplies, upon which the inhabitants de 
 pended for their support. So that after one 
 hundred years of settlement, the Floridans were 
 still unable to obtain for themselves the neces 
 saries of life in a land abounding in fish, fowl, 
 game, fruit, and vegetables ! Stranger still, 
 even at the present time, a century and a half 
 later, almost everything is supplied from the 
 north, and northern energy and capital help 
 to furnish much that is produced on the spot. 
 
 Spaniards were never good colonizers, and 
 rarely did more than simply stagnate upon the 
 countries they had conquered. This dolce far 
 niente system still prevails at St. Augustine ; 
 for instance, the orange-groves having once been 
 destroyed by an accidental frost, the Augus- 
 tinians have considered that a sufficient reason 
 for never planting or grafting any more. 
 
 During the eighteenth century, General Ogle- 
 thorpe (Dr. Johnson s friend) twice attacked 
 them in grea.t force, and was repulsed. In 1763 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 12T 
 
 it was ceded to the British, and it is only just 
 to say that Florida prospered more in the suc 
 ceeding twenty years of British rule than she 
 had done in the two hundred years of their 
 predecessors ; the exports of indigo and tur 
 pentine rising from almost nil to forty and fifty 
 thousand pounds yearly. 
 
 1784 saw this province of Florida, in pur 
 suance of a treaty, given back to Spain. The 
 country was then harassed by the Americans, 
 who were yearning for more territory, when, in 
 1812, the King of Spain, coming to the sage 
 conclusion that the colony cost him more than 
 it was worth, sold it to the United States for 
 so many dollars. 
 
 St. Augustine is by far the most interesting 
 town in Florida ; to the moralist from its many 
 and varied vicissitudes ; to the antiquary from 
 the old customs and characteristics of Spain that 
 still linger there ; from its narrow streets, pro 
 jecting balconies, verandahs, and ancient por 
 ticoes. There is also the old Catholic Cathedral, 
 with its quaint Moorish belfry, and a chime of 
 bells which, if played as in ancient days, would 
 produce melodious sounds enough ; but now the 
 frequent call to prayer is produced by the bells 
 being rattled with a stick. 
 
 On Sunday the Episcopalians, who have a 
 pretty little semi-Gothic, semi-gingerbread church 
 
128 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 on the opposite side of the square, are at a cer 
 tain time brought to a summary standstill in 
 their devotions. The minister has usually arrived 
 at the peroration of his sermon when the rub- 
 a-dub-dub commences in the cathedral ; the con 
 gregation cannot hear another syllable to save 
 their souls, and the ringing or rattling continues 
 often for half an hour. 
 
 The fort is of course the chief object of interest 
 in St. Augustine, and there is not a more pic 
 turesque spot anywhere, especially by moonlight. 
 As of Melrose, it may be said, " Who would see 
 Fort Marion right, should view it by the fair 
 moonlight." Few places are more mysteriously 
 romantic. The fort was designed to command 
 both land and sea, and has round towers at each 
 corner of the ramparts, where cannon are 
 mounted. The fort is built entirely of the 
 Coguina stone in itself a geological marvel. 
 It is a concrete of small shells which centuries 
 have massed together so as to form a hard rock, 
 but with each shell perfectly visible and dis 
 tinct, and sometimes as complete as though they 
 had been glued together but yesterday. The 
 whole castle resembles in material one of those 
 toy shell castles which we purchase for children 
 at sea- ports. 
 
 Within the fort are shown chambers without 
 light or fresh air, which are said to have been 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH, 129 
 
 used by the Spanish Inquisition, from the fact 
 of a skeleton in chains having been very recently 
 found in one of them. It might have been that 
 of one of the unfortunate Huguenots who escaped 
 the massacre of Menendez only to meet a more- 
 agonizing death, for there is no record of any 
 other religious persecution. The chambers have 
 the usual appearance of the vaulted alcoves 
 formed inside fortifications of this period. One 
 of them has evidently been a chapel, for there is- 
 the altar-stone still in good preservation, and 
 the holy water vessel, which at the present time 
 is used for culinary purposes. Round the fort 
 is a moat, which can easily be filled from the 
 sea, and a drawbridge and portcullis. This moat 
 is enclosed by a broad wall, which forms a de 
 lightful promenade, being always swept by a 
 pleasant sea breeze. 
 
 The frowning battlements and picturesque 
 Moorish towers, whence we expect to see emerge 
 the stately dark-eyed Spaniard of Hembrandtish 
 outline ; the little chapel where the brown-cowled 
 Franciscan told his beads, regardless of the 
 shrieks of his heretical victims in the adjacent 
 vaults, gave to this castle an air of mystery and 
 romance possessed by no other place in America. 
 Visitors linger in wonderment over the narrow 
 window so high up in the stone vault, from 
 which the wild and romantic Indian chief, Coa- 
 VOL. I. 9 
 
130 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 couchee whose history is full of poetry, marvel, 
 and pathos made his daring escape. 
 
 Scarcely had St. Augustine been ceded to the 
 United States in 1821, when difficulties arose 
 with the tribe of Indians called Seminoles. The 
 Spaniards and English had lived on amiable 
 terms with the Indians of this tribe, and had 
 allowed them to retain peaceable possession of 
 the best "hummock" lands for their villages. 
 But the number of new settlers from the United 
 States interfered with the savage life of the 
 Indians, who had no idea of being driven out of 
 their forests and swamps, hunting-grounds, fish 
 ing rivers, and lakes, in order that the new 
 comers might grow corn and cotton ! Hence 
 feuds arose, which did not end in mere solitary 
 murder and massacre, but brought about the 
 Floridan war, which raged round St. Augustine 
 for five or six years. Treaties were made to 
 confine the wild man within certain limits and 
 boundaries. But the Indian having ever con 
 sidered this beautiful country as specially made 
 for his benefit by the Great Spirit could never 
 be induced to define any limits or bounds for 
 Ms rovings, and was very apt to help himself to 
 any crops or produce found ready to his hand. 
 In fact, the problem of the wild and civilized 
 man existing together had to be solved, and the 
 solution could be but one, viz., the disappearance 
 of the former. 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 131 
 
 Coacouchee, the chief of the Seminoles, had 
 come under a flag of truce to entertain what was 
 called a " talk/ or negotiation, but was seized 
 and confined as a. prisoner in the stone chamber, 
 whence he made his wonderfully daring escape 
 through a loop-hole, dropping himself some fifty 
 feet. 
 
 Nothing can justify bad faith towards any 
 people, but policy and necessity were the excuses 
 set forth for this unjust detention of an am 
 bassador, this violation of the sacred rights of 
 the flag of truce. 
 
 The United States had been at war five or 
 six years without making any permanent con 
 quest of this handful of men the tribe of the 
 .Seminoles. It was like warring against the 
 wind : scoured from the land, they sheltered in 
 the trees ; swept from the forest, they were heard 
 howling in the cypress swamp ; driven to bay, 
 they could swim the river, or paddle their bark 
 canoes across and back like a fox doubling an 
 army would have to seek a ford, or construct a 
 pontoon bridge. Their unerring shots whistled 
 through the pine branches, and their spears, like 
 the tongues of snakes, hissed through the hum 
 mocks. There seemed no probability of van 
 quishing them by fair and honest warfare ! A 
 pitched battle was a farce. There was no enemy 
 to be seen after the first round. It resembled 
 
 92 
 
132 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 a game of " Mother Bunch," who thinks to drive 
 all her chickens before her, whilst they are all 
 scattered around. Hence treachery as base as 
 their own was had recourse to, and they were 
 finally partly forced, partly trepanned, partly 
 cajoled into going far west, and settling upon 
 the hunting grounds of Arkansas. 
 
 As recently as 1836, St. Augustine was kept 
 in trepidation by the inroads of the Indians on 
 various plantations in the environs. The State- 
 negroes carried off crops and perpetrated sundry 
 atrocities, in a similar fashion to the Indians of 
 the west at this very day. But in regard to the 
 enormity of these crimes, we should never lose 
 sight of the peculiar position of the red and the 
 white man. The one is the natural inhabitant 
 of the soil, living upon it as his birthright, and, 
 as he believes, by special dispensation of the 
 Great Spirit, using all his gifts for his own benefit 
 and that of his family. The white man he re 
 gards as an intruder and encroacher, and the 
 destroyer of his only means of life. 
 
 There is far more poetry about the red man 
 than the black. Novelists have done much to 
 idealize him, to associate him intimately with 
 the idea of the dark pine forest and luxuriant 
 \ummock. Agile, daring, and graceful, decked 
 with the most brilliant trophies of bird, beast, 
 and fish, he could well become the hero of a 
 
1 HE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 133 
 
 theme for poets to sing, or for novelists who 
 write wild stories of the flood and field. So 
 well does he seem adapted to the country, and 
 the country to him, that even at the present 
 day one expects every moment, when traversing 
 the vast and lonely glades of pine, or sailing on 
 the smooth bosom of the St. John s river, to 
 -espy his heron-plumed head peering through 
 the branches, to see the brushwood and under 
 growth crushing under his agile spring, or to 
 hear his war-whoop echoing through the oak 
 thickets. 
 
 The story of Coacouchee, as detailed by 
 General Sprague, in his history of the Floridan 
 war, is full of interest and poetry. 
 
 He was the son of a great chief, called King- 
 Philip ; he was thus an hereditary chief, and 
 besides, possessed, in his own person, all the 
 requisites and qualifications of a great Indian 
 leader. Shrewd, daring, active, and enduring, 
 he was enabled to exercise a commanding sway 
 over his tribe, and he even appears to have won 
 in some degree the respect of his enemies. 
 War to him was a pastime, and he delighted in 
 the excitement of it, as a hunter in the pursuit 
 of game. Often when pursued into a deep 
 swamp, he would turn and jeer his pursuers, 
 who were floundering with their arms and 
 accoutrements in the mud and water, which 
 
134 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 his own lithe figure had skimmed easily through. 
 He was fleet as a deer, and as strong and fierce 
 as a wolf. He was about twenty-eight years of 
 age, slight in person, above the middle height, 
 and with a countenance bright, playful, intelli 
 gent, and attractive. After many hair-breadth 
 escapes and wonderful feats, he was taken in the 
 manner described, and confined in the fort,, 
 whence, as related, he effected his escape, and 
 after that succeeded in giving his captors a good 
 deal of trouble. 
 
 When he was again captured and brought 
 into camp, he was informed that he would be 
 restored to liberty only on his consenting to 
 emigrate with the whole of his tribe to Ar 
 kansas, that he must send for his family and all 
 his warriors, arid that they would be conveyed 
 on shipboard with him. Iron manacles were 
 placed on him, to impress him with the futility 
 of any attempt to escape, and to urge him to 
 influence his own and other tribes to depart. 
 .For a time these irons seemed to eat into the 
 very soul of the warrior, and deprive him of all 
 spirit. 
 
 His haggard and ghastly countenance be 
 spoke the secret suffering of the wild animal 
 caught in a trap, for to be chained is the deepest 
 degradation which can befall the free limbs of 
 an Indian. Death in the field would be regarded 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 135- 
 
 as a boon in comparison. However, by judicious 
 advice and argument, he was finally brought to 
 understand that his future in Arkansas would 
 be one of freedom, and even more brilliant than 
 in Florida, and that as his own destiny was 
 inevitable, it was his duty to encourage the 
 other chiefs and tribes to join him. 
 
 In these views he at length coincided, and mes 
 sengers were sent, bearing his authority, to 
 bring in the other chiefs, the women and chil 
 dren. He divested himself of his last garment, 
 and sent it to his brother, with an earnest 
 entreaty to yield himself up, and spare him any 
 longer the degradation of his chains. The per 
 suasiveness of this appeal could not be resisted, 
 and the greater part of his people came in. The 
 meeting between the tribe and their chief was 
 touching in the extreme. 
 
 His irons were struck off, and he was once 
 more a free man. A vessel was lying in Zainpa 
 Bay, ready to bear him to his new home in 
 Arkansas. When on board, lie stood in the 
 gangway gazing intently and with lingering 
 regret on the beloved land his foot might never 
 more press the land of his birth, the haunt 
 of his childhood, the grave of his fathers. As 
 the vessel heaved anchor, and put to sea, two 
 large tears filled his dark eyes, and rolled down 
 his bronzed cheeks. " I have taken farewell, * 
 
136 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 he exclaimed, " of the last tree of my own 
 land !" 
 
 The existence of a Great Spirit was acknow 
 ledged by Coacouchee, as by all Indians, and 
 honoured most devoutly by festivals, games, 
 dances, &c. To this Great Spirit they believed 
 themselves accountable for their acts. 
 
 Coacouchee s dream, as related to General 
 Sprague, is full of the highest sentiment of 
 poetry and spiritualized love and tenderness, 
 which proves that the Indian, with all his 
 ferocity, has yet the soul for chivalry which has 
 made him the hero of song and story. The 
 Indians are very different from the black race, 
 who are neither graceful, symmetrical, hand 
 some, nor modest, and lack all that picturesque 
 and simple dignity which distinguishes the 
 Indian chief. 
 
 Coacouchee s story ran thus : 
 
 " The day and manner of my death," he said, 
 " are given out, so that whatever I encounter 
 I fear nothing. The spirits of the Seminoles 
 protect me, and the spirit of my twin sister, 
 who died many years ago, watches over me. 
 When I am laid in the earth, I shall go to live 
 with her. She died suddenly ; 1 was out on a 
 bear-hunt, and when seated by my camp-fire 
 .alone, I heard a strange noise, a voice that told 
 me to go to her. The camp was a long way off, 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 137 
 
 but I took my rifle and started. The night was 
 dark and gloomy ; the wolves howled about me. 
 As I went from hummock to hummock, sounds 
 came often to my ear, and I thought she was 
 speaking to me. At daylight I reached the 
 camp. She was dead ! I sat down alone, and 
 in the long grey moss which hangs from the 
 trees, I heard strange sounds again. I felt my 
 self moving, and went above into a new country, 
 where all was bright and beautiful. I saw 
 clear water-ponds, rivers, and prairies, upon 
 which the sun never set. All was green ; the 
 grass grew high, and the deer stood in the midst 
 looking at me. Then I saw a small white cloud 
 approaching, and when just before me, out from 
 it came my twin sister, dressed in white, and 
 covered with bright silver ornaments, while her 
 long black hair, which I had so often braided, 
 fell down her back. She clasped me round^the 
 neck and said, Coacouchee ! Coacouchee ! I 
 shook with fear. I knew her voice, but could 
 not speak. With one hand she gave me a 
 string of white beads, in the other she held a 
 cup sparkling with pure water. As I drank, 
 she sang the peace-song of the Seminoles, and 
 danced round me. She had silver bells on her 
 feet, which made a loud, sweet noise. ^ Taking 
 something from her bosom, she laid it before 
 me, when a bright blaze streamed above us. 
 
138 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 She took me by the hand, and said, All here 
 is peace/ I wanted to ask about others, but 
 she shook her head, stepped into the cloud, and 
 was gone. All was silent ; I felt myself sink 
 ing, until I reached the earth, when I met my 
 brother, Chilka ; he had been alarmed at my 
 absence, and was seeking me." 
 
 Coacouchee firmly believed in the reality of 
 this vision. 
 
 His subsequent history was not unworthy of 
 his previous career. The same officer who had 
 struck off his chains in Zampa Bay, and seen 
 him safely landed at his new home in Arkansas, 
 chanced in the course of his duty, years after 
 wards, to be quartered upon the Mexican fron 
 tier. One morning, happening to look out from 
 his tent at daybreak, he was astonished, and 
 somewhat alarmed, to see a cloud in the dis 
 tance, which looked like a body of armed men. 
 The sun s first rays ca.ught the glitter of steeL 
 Summoning his orderly, the officer rode to the 
 crest of a hill, in order to obtain a better view 
 of the enemy, if enemy it was. Here he saw a 
 single horseman advancing with a white flag. 
 He stated that his commander wished for an 
 interview with the general. Presently who- 
 should ride up but the Indian warrior, Coa 
 couchee. He was partly, and only partly, 
 transformed into a Mexican officer. He had 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 139 
 
 donned a plumed hat and military full-dress, 
 long-tailed coat, with sword and epaulettes.. 
 Then he considered he had condescended far 
 enough to civilization, for the rest of his person 
 was still in the natural state of the red Indian. 
 Poor Coacouchee ! as Burns said of Cutty 
 Sark s garment 
 
 " Though in longitude twas sorely scanty 
 It was his best, and he was vaunty." 
 
 He met his old enemy with affectionate greet 
 ing and upon equal terms, for he was decorated 
 with the insignia of a colonel in the Mexican 
 service. He seemed delighted to prove to his 
 former captor that he was a great chief, in spite 
 of the irons they had placed upon him. And 
 he pointed with exultation and pride to the 
 band of warriors under his command. 
 
 In Florida every vegetable, fruit, and flower 
 can be cultivated with the smallest amount of 
 labour. Oranges might be as plentiful here as 
 apples in Herefordshire or peaches in Georgia, if 
 they were only cultivated with as much care. 
 Lemons and sour oranges grow wild, and the 
 bitter-sweet orange forms a most delicious tonic 
 drink, nearly equal to quinine for giving an 
 appetite. St. Augustine is quite free from 
 "chills and fever," the scourge of the south. 
 But the same want of energy and ambition is. 
 
140 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 observable here and throughout Florida as in 
 most southern states and cities. The same 
 reason invariably given " the war." " Before 
 the war" everything must, from all accounts, 
 have been in a state of perfection ; but the 
 whole South was, " after the war," in a terribly 
 dilapidated condition. 
 
 What with four years ravages of war, six 
 years ravages of neglect, and a century of 
 Southern laxity and negro laziness, the South 
 appeared to be almost as wild and uncultivated 
 as though, instead of a couple of centuries, it 
 had only been settled a couple of years. The 
 inhabitants were for the most part wretchedly 
 poor, possessing no money, but heaps of Confede 
 rate bonds. In many instances they were literally 
 penniless more especially those called "the best 
 people" of the country and in several small 
 towns in the South there was a system of borrow 
 ing and lending carried on, which would have been 
 amusing had it not been so sad. There reigned 
 a listless apathy, a morbid inertness, as of people 
 who had expended their last effort, and a hope 
 lessness very terrible to behold hung over most 
 of the Southern cities. They were crushed, 
 broken, ruined, and humiliated. 
 
 The rapid change of climate from mid-winter 
 in New York to the balmy spring weath er of 
 Florida, is not one of the least astonishing 
 
THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 141 
 
 results of steam. Persons snowed up in New 
 York, shivering through their furs, having 
 their extremities pinched blue, red, and all 
 sorts of unbecoming colours, tormented with 
 colds in the head, which bid defiance to broths, 
 caudle, Dr. Brown s lozenges, etc., etc., have 
 only to put themselves comfortably to bed in 
 one of the excellent coast steamers, take a 
 rather long nap, and awake in this flowery land, 
 inhaling the perfume of the orange-blossom and 
 beholding the golden fruit hanging in rich, 
 tempting clusters. 
 
 Wrapped to the eyes in mufflers, the half- 
 numbed travellers plod on to the steamer-wharf 
 in New York ; now over hillocks of snow, now 
 through slushy swamps of melted ditto, while a 
 bleak north-east wind whistles through blocks 
 of buildings, black and dreary as though they, 
 too, were suffering from the bitter cold. 
 
 Every one he meets is huddling himself 
 together to keep the little warmth he has in his 
 body from escaping. The steamer when reached 
 is coated, and sheathed, and draped in snow, 
 ice, and icicles. All her spars are slippery with 
 ice, her rigging and ropes stiff with it ; she is 
 united to everything around with ice, and when 
 she moves, there will be a terrible crashing and 
 bursting asunder of icy bonds. She looks as 
 dreary as ship can look, and of the captain there 
 
142 THE LAND OF ETERNAL YOUTH. 
 
 is nothing whatever to be seen or understood 
 but his eyes. A great fur cap joins with his 
 beard in concealing his nose and mouth, and a 
 coat of similar material disguises the rest of his 
 person, and you only discover that this furry, 
 hairy animal is the captain from hearing the 
 clear, distinct orders he issues. 
 
 How surprised you are when two days after 
 you are greeted by a pleasant, fair-faced, white 
 waistcoated individual, straw hat in hand, with 
 " Fine day, ma am ; making twelve knots," and 
 find that he is the captain come out of his shell, 
 or rather his furry skin. You, too, have come 
 out of your fur coat, if you had one, and are 
 watching the porpoises play and bask in the sun 
 <as you run past the famous Fort Sumpter. 
 Any one who has experienced this rapid tran 
 sition will never forget the delights of the sen 
 sation ; the sudden relief from all the wearisome 
 precautions against frost, the speedy vanishing 
 of the enemy who has so long held us in durance 
 vile, and fastened his bitter fangs on us ; the re 
 lease to the respiratory organs, which begin again 
 to exert their functions without conscious effort ; 
 the feeling of exhilaration and happiness, and 
 the sense of enjoyment which transports the 
 whole being. 
 
 In speaking of Florida as a slip of land pro 
 jecting from the American continent, it may 
 
THE LAND OS ETERNAL YOUTH, 143 
 
 interest English readers to know that Florida is 
 in fact, nearly the exact length and breadth of 
 England and Scotland together. A magnificent 
 river, the St. John s, flows through its length 
 for three hundred miles, and then meeting 
 another, the Indian River, they form, united, a 
 great boat high road through a rich and lux 
 uriant country. It is a " providential highway " 
 which needs no macadamizing or rail-laying, and 
 it supplies gratis unlimited rations of fish ; bass, 
 cat-fish, perch, and others swarming in its waters, 
 and wild-fowl crowding over them. 
 
 The inhabitants of St. Augustine are entirely 
 different from the rest of the mixture forming 
 the United States. They, too, are a compound, 
 but of other ingredients, consisting of Spaniards 
 .and Minorcans, a few original English settlers, 
 and but a small proportion of Americans. They 
 speak a sort of Spanish patois ; intermarry 
 among themselves ; and live as much apart from 
 the surrounding population as though St. Augus 
 tine were an island. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE ANIMAL-MAN. 
 
 ACKSONVILLE is delightfully situ 
 ated on the St. John s River. The 
 climate, judging from the heat at the 
 commencement of March, must be considerably 
 warmer than Nice, or the northern parts of 
 Italy. Our principal efforts in Jacksonville were 
 directed to finding the shadiest spots, and the 
 coolest impromptu toilette devices, for we had 
 arrived in moderately warm winter clothing. A 
 violent snow-storm that occurred, as we heard, 
 in New York, at this very time, seemed to us 
 almost incredible, though the details given by 
 invalids rushing southwards at the eleventh 
 hour, after losing all hope of recovery from 
 having remained too long in the cold, were quite 
 refreshing to hear, not that we rejoiced in their 
 misfortunes, but the contrast was so pleasing 
 streets three feet deep in snow, the trains re 
 quiring nine engines to carry them out of it, the 
 
THE ANIMAL-MAN. 145 
 
 passengers in the meantime being half dead with 
 cold, while we were watching the bright, smooth- 
 flowing river at this point about two miles 
 across, and fringed with dark green pines, and 
 light green water-oak inhaling the orange- 
 perfumed breeze, the fragrance of the acacia s 
 golden balls, and experiencing all the soft languor 
 of the dolcefar niente of this enervating climate. 
 It was a kind of luxury to us to think of the 
 bitter hardships of the frigid zone. 
 
 The St. John s river is one of the most mag 
 nificent in America, differing entirely in character 
 from the Hudson or Ohio. It has a special 
 beauty of its own in its immense expanse of 
 water, which occasionally spreads into lakes of 
 five or six miles in width, and then dwindles into 
 a comparatively small stream. From the mouth 
 upwards, for two hundred miles, it is from a 
 mile to two miles wide. 
 
 Almost every river of any importance in the 
 United States takes a southern course, with the 
 exception of the Sfc. John s, which runs north. 
 The bar of the river is frequently dangerous for 
 vessels to pass, and they will sometimes remain 
 several days at Fernandina, as we had to do, 
 unable to cross the shallows. 
 
 Jacksonville had been held and evacuated by 
 both sides during the war. There being no 
 fortifications or defences of any kind, the stronger 
 
 VOL, I. 10 
 
146 THE ANIMAL-MAN. 
 
 party walked in, and the weaker ran out, as the 
 case might be. A battle was fought some fifty 
 miles beyond, at Lake City, in which the Con 
 federates repulsed the Yankees under General 
 Seymour, who fell back on Jacksonville. There 
 are a few insignificant breast-works, which were 
 commenced by one party, and finished by the 
 other, but could have been of little use to either. 
 A short distance further up is the Federal camp, 
 delightfully situated by the river, and over 
 shadowed by immense evergreen oaks, which 
 were just putting forth a most beautiful feathery 
 flower on the top of the dark drooping lichen 
 moss. 
 
 The troops were all living under canvas except 
 the General and his staff, who, as usual, had 
 their head quarters in the most picturesque 
 house of the town. In camp there was a young 
 bear, trapped in the neighbourhood, whose gam 
 bols with some of the soldiers were quite one of 
 the recognized entertainments of the place. 
 Bruin was strongly attached to the military, 
 and upon one occasion, the pay-day, the soldiers 
 having gone into Jacksonville, and the camp 
 being deserted, the poor beast, unable to en 
 dure the solitude, started for the town, and was 
 discovered wending his solitary way along the 
 road, in search of his playmates. 
 
 The climate of Jacksonville is capable of pro- 
 
THE ANIMAL-MAN. 147 
 
 ducing very early fruits and vegetables. In the 
 first week in March there were plenty of peas 
 and strawberries, but the inhabitants do not 
 seem to take the trouble to cultivate them, and 
 scarcely grow any green, vegetables not even 
 salad while the few that grow naturally are as 
 expensive as they would be in Cov.ent Garden. 
 The rugged open country was thickly strewed 
 with flowers wild roses and wild raspberry 
 blossoms ; but lettuce and asparagus, which re 
 quire a little artificial culture, though not more 
 warmth, were very rarely to be met with. The 
 explanation given was ever the same : " Before 
 the war." " We can get no work done now." 
 " We cannot afford to pay a dollar a day for the 
 production of articles with which we can dis 
 pense." And the presumption is that until 
 negro labour is brought down to negro value, 
 the South must remain in the same deplorable 
 condition, for there is no country in the world 
 where the hirer could afford to pay the rate of 
 wages demanded by these brainless and lazy 
 blacks. Hoping at the same time to make profit 
 and to extend the basis of their operations, these 
 freed men had imbibed such an extravagant 
 notion of freedom, that they consider it deroga 
 tory to be hired for labour, and often refused to 
 work on any other terms than part profits with 
 the proprietor of the soil, and so long as the 
 
 102 
 
148 THE ANIMAL-MAN. 
 
 negro is fed and pampered by the North, he will 
 not accept the wages which thousands of white 
 labourers, infinitely superior to him, are com 
 pelled to work for. This puffing up of the negro 
 out of the position which he must inevitably 
 sooner or later sink to, is one of the terrible 
 evils of the conquest of the South by the 
 North. 
 
 The attempt to force so degraded a race above 
 that of the white man, was one of the greatest 
 political blunders ever committed, and one of the 
 greatest crimes against the law of nature. The 
 negro in his present state is an animal devoid of 
 any sense of morality, religion, virtue, or truth. 
 He was born of immorality, knows nothing of 
 the commandment, " Honour thy father and 
 mother." He never knew who his father was, 
 but " Spects he was a white man." As to his 
 mother, one would hardly ask him to respect 
 her, for if she have several children, they are 
 only half-brothers and sisters, for whom he cer 
 tainly cannot have the same affection as he 
 would were they legitimately of one family. It 
 would be impossible for him to realize the 
 sanctity of marriage, even supposing his parents 
 had taken the trouble to go through that cere 
 mony, seeing that his master could dissolve the 
 union at will, and replace the wife or husband 
 at option. 
 
THE ANIMAL-MAN . U9 
 
 The result of this state of things is, that the 
 negro, male or female, is a coarse, revolting 
 animal, whom it is astonishing that any white 
 lady can bear to have familiarly about her. 
 
 Possibly some few negresses, brought up under 
 the immediate care of their mistresses, may have 
 been a little less degraded than the common 
 herd, but generally they are so utterly wanting 
 in womanly decency, as to very much favour the 
 hypothesis of their species being closely allied 
 to the monkey tribe. Southern ladies, from 
 having been brought up among them, doubtless 
 feel less the degradation of being put on an 
 equality with such creatures. It may be as 
 sumed that in slavery times they were on a very 
 familiar footing with them, though, as a conse 
 quence, they had often to punish them severely, 
 to keep them in proper subjection. The men, 
 however, feel the change in all its bitterness. 
 
 To inflict such a race of servants on any Euro 
 pean woman, would assuredly be to drive her 
 mad. No white servant in the South will even 
 eat at the same table or sleep in the same room 
 with blacks. I verified their objection very 
 forcibly on one occasion ; for having stepped 
 into a street-car filled with negroes, I was only 
 too glad, after a few minutes, to step out and 
 walk. A cattle-van would have been less offen 
 sive to the olfactory nerves. 
 
150 THE ANIMAL-MAN. 
 
 In la.rge establishments, such as hotels, where 
 numbers of servants are kept, they are under 
 the necessity of having the servants in each de 
 partment of the same colour, as the two races 
 cannot work together. Among the Southern 
 people there is a stronger antipathy towards the 
 mulatto than the black, especially on the part 
 of the ladies, who may be supposed to feel a 
 stronger aversion than the men towards this 
 amalgamation of the races. Although, as I was 
 informed, the mulattos exceed in numbers the 
 blacks pur sang, yet I never met with an in 
 stance of a white mother owning a black child. 
 There are, however, two or three cases on record 
 of white Northern ladies who, surely, must 
 have been demented having married black 
 slaves. 
 
 What effect education and freedom may pro 
 duce on the negro race remains a problem, to be 
 worked out by time ; but the Southerner is of 
 opinion that the negro intellect can be cultivated 
 only to a certain degree, and there it comes to a 
 standstill. In my own experience, I have never 
 met with a thorough black who was even ordi 
 narily intelligent, and in the various black 
 schools which I visited, I remarked that the 
 degree of intelligence and learning among the 
 scholars was in proportion to the amount of 
 white blood in their veins ; and it is a curious 
 
THE ANIMAL-MAN. 151 
 
 fact that, though, born and bred in a land where 
 the English language only is spoken, the negro 
 is yet unable to acquire the pronunciation more 
 perfectly than a parrot. It is not only that he 
 speaks it with an accent, that he transposes his 
 tenses so as to become almost unintelligible as, 
 " I been gone done it " but, owing to some 
 physical defect in the organs of speech, he can 
 not pronounce the th at all. Probably, the 
 tongue of the negro being too large, this diffi 
 culty disappears only when the white blood 
 begins to predominate. This, then, is the race 
 put upon an equality with the Anglo-Saxon, 
 and lauded even as superior to it ! 
 
 The feelings of compassion which the horrors 
 of slavery have inspired have caused this over 
 rating of the negro, and with the removal of the 
 cause these may probably die away; for it is 
 noticeable that few of the Northerners who 
 visit the South have any wish to take charge 
 of their proteges. This makes it very evident 
 that their extreme negro appreciation has be 
 come a mere political ruse. 
 
 Bad as the Irish servants are at home, ten 
 times worse as they are in America, yet they 
 are pearls of great price compared with the 
 negroes, and the Northerners prefer taking an 
 Irish servant in the crudest state, wild from the 
 bogs of Ireland, to a negress who has been from 
 
THE ANIMAL-MAN. 
 
 her infancy under the special tutelage of some 
 Southern lady. 
 
 The Southerners, for their part, are only 
 anxious to get rid of their blacks ; for, being no 
 longer useful in their natural sphere, as "hewers 
 of woods and drawers of water," they are not 
 ornamental in any other. Planters maintain 
 that cotton cultivation can never succeed where 
 it is optional for the labourer to work or not, as 
 lie pleases ; for at a particular period, if the 
 labour is not assiduous and regular, the whole 
 crop is destroyed. A white paid labourer would 
 understand the importance of this, as he under 
 stands the necessity of getting in the harvest, 
 and would require no other incitement to work 
 night and day if necessary. The Tipperary 
 harvestmen, who gather in our English crops, 
 never object for a moment to labour through a 
 moonlight night when the weather is likely to 
 change. I have seen them in the Shannon, 
 middle-deep in water for hours together, rescu 
 ing the floating hay-cocks. But the hay and 
 the corn might float till Doomsday, for ail the 
 labour a negro, unless he were compelled, would 
 put forth to save it. This want of forethought, 
 of sympathy, and of appreciation of what is 
 right, makes a wide distinction between the 
 black and the very lowest class of white man. 
 The black appears to have no idea of cause 
 
THE ANIMAL-MAN. 153 
 
 and consequence. He does not cast back for 
 experience, or forward with any aspiration ; his 
 whole world is concentrated in the present. 
 The present is all in all to him ; the past and 
 the future, blanks. It has often been a matter 
 of considerable astonishment to strangers, and 
 even to the Southerners themselves, that the 
 blacks did not rise in revolt against their masters, 
 when these had their hands full with the North. 
 The reason, I think, is very apparent. The 
 negro is not capable of seizing an opportunity, 
 unless it be the opportunity of stealing chickens 
 and eating them for his present consolation. Num 
 bers of the negroes, did, indeed, run away; but I 
 am of opinion that it was usually in search of the 
 "flesh-pots of Egypt." The greater number re 
 mained at their old homes ; for whatever their 
 sufferings may have been, they seem to have 
 had little idea of a remedy, until it was drummed 
 into them by emissaries from the North. The 
 idea of freedom being extremely vague, it was 
 necessary to put it in a very tangible shape for 
 the negro to comprehend its bearing. 
 
 Like the Asiatic Armenian converts, whose 
 principal idea of Christianity consisted in the 
 wearing of a straw bonnet, sent out for pur 
 poses of conversion the rest of their persons 
 being covered by the Turkish unmentionables 
 and jacket the negro s idea of freedom was 
 
154 THE ANIMAL-MAN. 
 
 donning a pair of buck-skin gloves, such as his 
 master had formerly worn, and having a cart 
 and mule of his own, and somebody else s hogs. 
 Without these tangible proofs, the abstract 
 idea of freedom was beyond his comprehension. 
 Hundreds of half-clad negroes sought the Fede 
 ral head-quarters, devoutly believing that mule 
 and cart were to be theirs, and invariably pro 
 viding themselves with a piece of rope or string 
 with which to lead away the animal harness not 
 entering into their dreams of bliss. 
 
 Such are the creatures who are now members 
 of convention in every State, forming laws and 
 exercising civil power, an aggravation utterly un 
 endurable, even to a spirit crushed and broken. 
 To listen to these blubber-lips attempting to 
 make laws for Anglo-Saxon and Norman races, 
 descendants of the bold barons who signed the 
 Magna-Charta, is a humiliation to which history 
 does not furnish a parallel ; it is a travesty of 
 the Scriptural phrase, that " the last shall be 
 first, and the first last ;" for it would puzzle 
 logicians to discover by what particular virtue 
 the negro has been raised to his present high 
 position. Certainly it is neither for his wisdom 
 nor his humility, they being alike undiscover- 
 able in his composition. 
 
 In the white race, true genius springs often 
 from the soil ; Burns was a ploughman ; one of 
 
THE ANIMAL-MAN. 155 
 
 the most eminent physicians of the present day 
 was a baker s boy, and innumerable instances 
 could be cited in which native genius has asserted 
 itself, and found its own level. But we have as 
 yet seen no spark of the Divine afflatus radiat 
 ing from this black foundation, and only when 
 it is tempered down to a very light brown does 
 it approach even mediocrity. 
 
 The negro s principal faculty is his power of 
 imitation, and this is sometimes carried so far as 
 to pass for natural and original talent. I once 
 heard a mulatto who could use the th preach a 
 sermon, the manner of which was so entirely that 
 of a fashionable preacher, that with closed eyes 
 I might have imagined myself in some New 
 York west-end church. The matter, however, 
 would soon have dispelled the illusion, for greater 
 nonsense I never heard uttered. This man was 
 held up to me as a gem of eloquence by my 
 Northern friends who took me to hear him. It 
 was, however, agreed that we should stand out 
 side the window in order to inhale the pine-tree 
 fragrance, rather than the Bouquet d Afrique 
 inside. 
 
 It would be a pitiable sight to the civilised 
 European world to see this self-asserting "great 
 est country in creation" legislated for, and partly 
 governed by this semi-slave, semi-brute, dark 
 sediment of generations of man s evil passions ! 
 
CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 BELOW THE SUPJFACE. 
 
 AKE City, Florida, lies in a pine forest 
 on the railway route from Jackson 
 ville to Tallahassee, and a few miles 
 distant from some sulphur springs much fre 
 quented for their curative properties. The whole 
 road from Jacksonville to Tallahassee is through 
 
 c5 
 
 a pine forest, with here and there thick " hum 
 mock" lands. 
 
 For about twenty yards on either side of the 
 railroad, the ground has been cleared of the trees, 
 probably to feed the engines. These open spaces 
 were covered with grass and wild flowers wher 
 ever the palmetto undergrowth had been burnt. 
 In the second year this land will produce a good 
 crop of Indian corn, a field of which presents a 
 totally different appearance from one of our corn 
 fields. The stalks, which grow from six to nine 
 feet high, are surmounted by a feathery white 
 flower, surrounded by handsome broad-green 
 
BELOW THE SURFACE. 157 
 
 leaves. The ear shoots out from the side, shaped 
 like the staff of an old spinning-wheel. A bunch 
 of furry silk fringe, sometimes yellow, sometimes 
 pink or purple, droops from the extremity of the 
 ear, which is closely wrapped in the same broad 
 green leaves. A field of Indian corn is in itself 
 a young forest, frequently extending from a 
 hundred to a thousand acres, and when in 
 bloom is a magnificent spectacle. 
 
 Lake City is so named from the number of 
 small lakes which surround it. The smallest of 
 these, and the closest to the town, is in form 
 like a jagged crescent. It is about three quar 
 ters of a mile across, and is draped round with 
 magnolia, flowering bay, oak and pine. It was 
 evening when we arrived at Lake City. There 
 had been heavy Florida rains, so that the foliage 
 was looking fresh and green, and very cool a 
 desideratum when the thermometer ranges from 
 85 to 90, and millions of mosquitoes are 
 swarming in the air. The sun was setting, and 
 as it burst forth from the clouds for a moment, a 
 magnificent rainbow was seen arching the cres 
 cent lake from one horn to another. A more 
 splendid effect of colour and scenery could 
 scarcely have been conceived than that which 
 then presented itself to our admiring gaze. The 
 weird " death-moss" festooning the trees caught 
 the tints of the rainbow, and became resplendent 
 
158 BELO W THE SURFA CE. 
 
 with bright scarlet, green, and purple, which 
 brilliant hues were reflected in deeper shadows 
 in the water. One pine tree the top a tower 
 ing crown of brilliant green, hung round with 
 transparent flame -coloured moss looked like 
 some high priest, or " Prophet of Korassan," 
 covered with his luminous veil. The effect 
 lasted but a few minutes, but though brief, the 
 ma<nc beauty of the scene could not be excelled. 
 
 o v 
 
 The other lakes are at various distances, from 
 two to five miles from the town. From the 
 shores of the largest one which is five or six 
 miles long rises a beautifully wooded hill, a 
 great feature in the scenery of this part of the 
 country, the peninsula of Florida being almost a 
 dead level throughout. On the hill stood the 
 ruins of a planter s dwelling, which must have 
 been a pleasant abode in its hey-day of wealth, 
 but like everything South, at that time 
 looked picturesque only from its ruin. Its 
 broken windows and hanging shutters denoted 
 a place " where owlets nightly cry." 
 
 On the bank of the lake a large alligator was 
 disporting itself in the sun, while a little farther 
 on was a turtle, with its bright eyes peering 
 above the water. The water is so transparent, 
 that as a t Green Cove Springs every twig and 
 lichen at the bottom can be distinctly seen. It 
 was delightful to remain still in the boat arid 
 
BELO W THE S URFA CE. 1 59 
 
 watch the fish as they darted around us. We 
 were in great hopes that we might discover in 
 these clear depths some water kelpies, or " jenny 
 green-teeth/ or some such mysterious creatures, 
 regaling themselves in their crystal grottoes. 
 This lake abounds with game and water-fowl of 
 every description. The whole estate of over 
 one hundred acres of corn and cotton fields, with 
 the privilege of shooting and lake-fishing was 
 to be sold for a few thousand dollars. What a 
 rare opportunity for a family of small means and 
 many sons to settle in this magnificent country ! 
 Additional land, within six miles of a central 
 trunk railroad, and in a climate perfectly deli 
 cious for nine or ten months of the year, was to 
 be had at an almost nominal price. 
 
 The lake is one of those natural phenomena of 
 Florida usually called "sinks." It once sud 
 denly disappeared in the course of a few hours, 
 leaving the fish stranded in the mud. After 
 two or three years, it reappeared in the same 
 sudden and mysterious manner. Sometimes the 
 " sink" is formed by the falling of a large track 
 of land into a subterranean lake, whose waters 
 rush up and fill the void. A few weeks before 
 our arrival, a whole plantation of several acres 
 sank in this way, and a lake appeared, in whose 
 clear water could still be seen the tops of the 
 pines which had formerly grown there. 
 
160 BELOW THE SURFACE. 
 
 All through the country are springs of sulphur, 
 magnesia, and iron. It is a pity there are not 
 quinine springs in a country where chills and 
 fever are so prevalent as in many portions of the 
 south and west, and where, indeed, they must 
 continue to prevail so long as people persist in 
 living in natural swamps, or cultivating them 
 artificially in the midst of their cities. In twelve 
 months experience of the different climates of 
 the South, reckoned unhealthy, I was never 
 able to perceive any particular unhealthiness in 
 the air ; but I have felt the effect of different 
 waters frequently. But people fit themselves 
 for the reception of disease by the mariner in 
 which they live. They rigorously exclude light 
 and fresh air, carefully avoid exercise, and 
 studiously aid dyspepsia by the quantity of hot 
 bread they consume and the rapidity with which 
 they swallow all their food a half-masticated, 
 horrible mixture of ingredients which would 
 have driven Abernethy mad. Children are also 
 allowed to live in this manner from their earliest 
 years, and they will consume pickles, ice-cream, 
 pea-nuts, preserves, turkey with sage staffing, 
 and cranberry, game, beef-steaks and onions, 
 fried oysters and cheese, batter-cakes, coffee and 
 mince-pies, steaming hot corn-bread, and several 
 tumblers of iced water for their usual meal. If 
 any man, woman, or child can feel comfortable, 
 
BELOW THE SURFACE. 161 
 
 or be healthy after such a luncheon or dinner, 
 there is no truth in gastronomy. 
 
 To live on the banks of the river is considered 
 particularly unhealthy; but it is more likely 
 that the unhealthiness lies in the swampy 
 ground and slimy pools around than in the swift 
 flowing river. The waters of the Mississippi 
 flow at the rate of from six to eight miles an 
 hour, and must create strong ventilation ; but 
 its spongy, gingerbread banks are frequently 
 overflowed, and retaining a certain portion of its 
 muddy waters, become stagnant pools and 
 swamps, which slowly exhale the pernicious 
 malaria. Many cities are built on these flats for 
 the sake of the advantages they offer for traffic. 
 
 VOL. i. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE ATHENS OF AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 
 
 E reached Tallahassee, the capital of 
 the State of Florida, on the 4th of 
 July, the great American fete day ; 
 in fact, the only commemoration day kept 
 throughout the United States. Christmas, 
 Easter, Whitsuntide, are more or less defunct ; 
 even New Year s day is only kept in New York 
 by a series of visits, as elsewhere described. 
 There are no battle days,* birth days, accession 
 days, or commemorative feasts, so far as I have 
 witnessed, except that of the Declaration of 
 American Independence. If this Tallahassean 
 display was any criterion of the kind of liberty 
 obtained, it certainly seemed more like licence. 
 
 In the Northern cities no doubt some exhibi 
 tion Hke the fetes of August in France might be 
 
 * Except the anniversary of that desperate battle and 
 glorious victory at New Orleans. Loss on the American side 
 tx men ! 
 
A THENS OF AMERICAN CI VI LIZ A TION. 1 63 
 
 witnessed ; but at Tallahassee it was a mixture 
 of the grotesque and the disgusting ; apart from 
 the military staff and a few Northern men, there 
 was an overflowing slough of negroes, given up 
 to what they no doubt considered enjoyment, 
 but which was anything but edifying to Euro 
 pean eyes, and anything but gratifying to Euro 
 pean noses. There is something distinctly 
 porcine in a multitude of negroes let loose for a 
 saturnalia, and in their females especially one 
 shrinks from applying the name of ivoman to 
 these creatures. One cannot say they were lost 
 to decency, for they have never yet arrived at 
 the point of possessing it. Disgustingly fat, 
 .grossly proportioned, dark, greasy, sensual, they 
 .appear to have no sense of shame ; but flaunt 
 and glory in their indecency, from ignorance, of 
 course, and natural brutality, for they are desti 
 tute of the instincts of a white woman. Even 
 the most respectable and decent among them 
 -do not appear to have the remotest comprehen 
 sion of the commandments ; and in this city of 
 Tallahassee the spectacle of their degradation 
 was especially pitiable and appalling. The pub 
 lic thoroughfares were crowded with them, both 
 on foot and in vehicles ; indeed, they seemed to 
 be the only people able to afford carriages. 
 There was what purported to be a torch-light 
 procession, but it would have required some- 
 
 112 
 
164 THE ATHENS OI< 
 
 thing even more brilliant than pine-wood to have 
 lit up this dark mass. For instruments they 
 had a drum that made a discord with the music 
 of the cicula and tree-frog, which in this climate 
 make night more noisy than the days. They 
 had also a few white calico lanterns, on which 
 were scrawled sundry mottoes, such as, " We are 
 marching on," which was obvious enough, " Lift 
 up your voice to God," which they seemed to 
 interpret to the hustings, where they were ex 
 pected to cheer the speakers. 
 
 But even this could only be effected by means, 
 of a fugleman who could understand what the 
 orator was talking about. Nor did they appear 
 to comprehend better when addressed by several 
 brethren of their own colour, who, having always 
 lived North, and been educated there, had caught 
 the knack of talking without saying anything, 
 and delivering words without ideas. One of 
 them, a mulatto, had also succeeded in imitating 
 the false shoulders then so much worn in Ame 
 rica, and with this addition (for negroes all slope 
 in the shoulders) he presented a really handsome 
 figure. His features also w r ere straight, and the 
 chin not too prominent, though nature in her 
 fickleness burst out full negro in his diabolical 
 rolling eye. 
 
 The Governor was entertaining a party of 
 ladies and gentlemen, who were enjoying their 
 
AMERICAN CI VI LIZ A TION. 165 
 
 champagne for when an American does offer 
 you wine, nothing less than champagne is thought 
 O f w hen suddenly an unbidden guest walked 
 into the room. He addressed some offensive 
 language to one of the party, at the same time 
 placing his hand upon his revolver, which he 
 wore as i s usual with Americans in a pocket 
 made for the purpose at the back of the trousers. 
 One of the officers immediately sprang to his 
 feet to reach his sword, which stood in a corner 
 of the room ; but a lady near to him contrived 
 to seize it first, and playfully withheld it, saying, 
 " Fie, fie, what fight in the presence of ladies ?" 
 During the few seconds of this altercation, the 
 unmannerly intruder was seized from behind, 
 dragged out of the room, disarmed, and very 
 much ill-used. But had the officer drawn his 
 sword, he would assuredly have lost his life ; the 
 stranger had entered for no other purpose than 
 to shoot one or more of the party, and the first 
 person who had interfered with him would have 
 fallen before his wrath instantaneously, before 
 he could have had time to defend himself. 
 
 In spite of this untoward incident, our feast 
 went on, the lady keeping sentry over the high- 
 tempered officer for the rest of the evening. 
 
 The 4th of July was also the occasion of the 
 transfer of power from the military to the civil 
 .authority, Florida having been at last received 
 
166 THE ATHENS OF 
 
 again into the Union, and her senators elected. 
 This event was celebrated during the day by 
 two skirmishes between the civilians and the 
 military, in which one man was badly wounded. 
 The officers also had taken part in a pell-mell 
 fight ; shots had been fired, and the town was 
 again patrolled by the military. This was rather 
 a warlike reinstatement of civil power. 
 
 On the following day, at a small place called 
 Madison, four negroes were shot in a fight, the 
 original cause being the thieving some corn, 
 though this sort of theft had become so very 
 common an occurrence, that all were surprised 
 it should have occasioned any disturbance at all. 
 Negroes are generally inveterate thieves, their 
 religion not extending so far as a respect for the 
 eighth commandment ; it does not even reach 
 the one preceding it. Hogs, calves, poultry, do 
 not enter into their category of "neighbours* 
 goods." 
 
 The House of Delegates was in session at 
 Tallahassee when we were there. It is their 
 business to form the State laws, which are sub 
 sequently submitted to Congress. The delegates 
 were a motley throng indeed ; some were dressed 
 like men from Noah s Ark, some in the Dick 
 Turpin style, and a few were Cassino-lookiug 
 lawyers, with "lean and hungry looks." With 
 the exception of the Governor, who appeared to- 
 
AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 167 
 
 be a man of honest sterling parts, and of prac 
 tical sober judgment, the legislative body of 
 Florida was a burlesque upon similar assemblies 
 in other countries. 
 
 You might have listened in vain for the subtle 
 rhetoric, the logical argument, the profound 
 statesmanship, or the fiery stream of patriotic 
 eloquence. The eloquence of this "Modem 
 Athens" (as the Tallahasseans call their town) 
 was very much like what may be sometimes 
 heard in passing the bar-room of a country 
 public-house. One orator, who occupied the 
 rostrum of the "Athenian" capital, reminded 
 me of the showman with the learned pig ; he 
 posed all his questions so that the same answer 
 would suit. " Can you forget slavery ?" " No T 
 " Can you forgive your tyrants ?" " No !" 
 "Will you vote for any but Grant, your de 
 liverer ?" " No !" Had he left out the " any 
 but," the answer would have been the same. 
 There was a great deal of yelling and screaming, 
 but not one hearty cheer, and no real enthusiasm, 
 for the simple reason that the black mob hardly 
 understood a word that was said. 
 
 Tallahassee is situated on a rising ground, 
 which is described by every inhabitant as a 
 "rolling country." So perpetually is this word 
 " rolling" used, that it finally conveys the im 
 pression that the country must be in motion, 
 
168 THE ATHENS OP 
 
 and when the traveller arrives at the top of the 
 hill and fails to discover anything resembling a 
 town, it flashes upon him that Tallahassee, being 
 in such a "rolling" country, has probably rolled 
 itself somewhere else. 
 
 We were driven up in a " sliandridan" a tumble 
 down vehicle called a " team," which threatened 
 every moment to fall to pieces, and at last were set 
 down at a long rambling wooden building, very 
 much resembling Noah s Ark having a platform 
 encircling round it like the boat on which Noah s 
 Ark is usually represented as fixed and appear 
 ing to float on the sea of sand which rolled around. 
 Opposite, in a square among fine evergreen oaks, 
 stood the capitol, with massive columned portico 
 looking most imposing in the moonlight, and re 
 minding me of some Italian marble palace ; but 
 alas ! daylight transformed it into whitewash, 
 with the measles. 
 
 If you think you would like to lodge in the 
 town, supposing yourself to be in the suburbs, 
 you walk a couple of hundred yards, pass a large 
 wooden building (the market house) and a few 
 shops, and find yourself again in the suburbs on 
 the other side. It is really difficult to define 
 where Tallahassee is proprement dit, as the 
 French geography hath it. A few respectable 
 houses are scattered about here and there, and 
 of course there is for each sect a whitewashed 
 
AMERICAN CIVILIZATION, 169 
 
 church ; but where the great fashion arid aris 
 tocracy of the South would bestow themselves, 
 was a puzzle to me. Yet by the hour together 
 a stranger must listen to descriptions of the 
 gentility, the culture, the high refinement of 
 these Southern nobility, who lived en Prince, 
 whose hospitality was unbounded, and wealth 
 uncounted, whose dwellings were adorned with 
 the statuary of Italy, the paintings of every 
 school ; whose tables rivalled those of the richest 
 nabobs in gorgeous plate and recherche china; 
 whose libraries were worth untold dollars ; whose 
 ladies adorned themselves with diamonds like 
 Eastern houris. Such were the descriptions. I 
 regretted I had no spectacles couleur de rose 
 through which I could see them realized. 
 
 Looked at with the naked eye, Tallahassee 
 appeared to me as I have described it. Yet 
 this is the capital of Florida, the seat of all the 
 refinement and intellectuality to be met with in 
 the State. Yet one of the aristocracy observed 
 to me, " We do not patronize literary entertain 
 ment here, we are out of the way of it." " You 
 like a good circus, with plenty of noise and fun ?" 
 I suggested. " Exactly so," he replied. 
 
 A copy of E. A. Poe s works was not to be 
 had in Tallahassee, where the elite of the South 
 reside. There is not a house to be seen that 
 would rent for a hundred a year in England. 
 
170 THE ATHENS OF 
 
 There is no appearance of style, of luxury, or 
 even of comfort. With a heat almost tropical, 
 there are few or no appliances for keeping one s 
 self cool. The windows are without Venetian 
 blinds, and for the most part require a prop to 
 keep them open ; the houses, too, are without 
 verandahs. You see the everlasting hot and 
 dusty American pattern carpets covering the 
 floors, instead of the polished wood or tiles of 
 other countries. No cooling drinks or tempting 
 dishes ; even ice water did not enter into the 
 hospitality of this country. The leaving at your 
 hotel of a soiled bit of card-board with the name 
 of your visitor written thereon in pencil, is the 
 climax of courtesy in Tallahassee, so far as a 
 stranger may be permitted to speak from ex 
 perience. 
 
 The country so much lauded as " rolling," has 
 no very distinctive features. It is prettily 
 wooded and undulating, and abounds with corn 
 and cotton fields. The latter the plants being 
 young looked at a distance very much like 
 potato fields, though on a closer view the leaf 
 appeared to be more delicate ; the plant also 
 grows higher, and has a pale pink, yellow, or 
 blue flower. But the country in general that 
 is around Tallahassee is just such as might be 
 seen in England, France, Germany anywhere 
 in fact a rich hilly country, with nothing sin- 
 
AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 171 
 
 gular or striking about it except its name, which 
 is odd enough. 
 
 Tallahassee has, however, one interesting and 
 historical circumstance connected with it, as hav 
 ing been the residence of the Princess Murat, 
 whom the elegant Tallahasseans designate as 
 " Mrs. Murawr." There, in the small one-storey 
 cottage, under its shingle roof, lived and died the 
 son of the great Murat, King of Naples; and there, 
 as if to bear calm witness to the vicissitudes of 
 fortune, and in silent testimony of " How are 
 the mighty fallen/ on a broken chiffonier stood 
 the lovely bust of Caroline Murat, Queen of 
 Naples, traced in exquisite beauty by the chisel 
 of Canova, a startling contrast to all around in 
 that mean Tallahassean room, which neverthe 
 less possessed a chair and girandole of the 
 Louis XTV. type, and a good oil painting of the 
 Prince, relics of the better time. 
 
 Sermons there may be in stones, but there was 
 a profound and pathetic one in the lovely face 
 which had shared the glories of the fierce Murat, 
 the man who, when told on entering Naples 
 that heaven s cloud was surely about to burst 
 upon him in vengeance, as on that day, the 
 anniversary of St. Januarius, the blood refused 
 to liquefy, replied, " If that blood is not liquid 
 before three o clock this afternoon, I will blow 
 up the city of Naples, to join the saint in 
 
172 2 HE ATHENS OF 
 
 heaven." Of course it liquefied. Murat has 
 passed away, St. Januarius is forgotten, but the 
 face of the fair Caroline remains intact in all 
 its soul-like beauty, shedding a lustre still over 
 that mean little Floridan room. It was the only 
 vestige of art statuary or painting that I saw in 
 all Florida. 
 
 From Tallahassee we drove to Quincey, also 
 celebrated for its refined society. We saw only 
 a very pretty little town, beautifully situated in 
 the "rolling" country, and here we quitted 
 with regret, in spite of the heat, the beautiful 
 state of Florida, and crossed into Georgia. 
 
 Next to river travelling, I am in favour of 
 driving in a buggie, for when once you acquire 
 the seat, as in the Irish car, the buggie is the 
 most delightful conveyance in the world for 
 seeing the country, and enjoying the fresh air. 
 
 I was preparing for a long night drive, and, 
 seated in the public room of an hotel, was en 
 gaged in cutting up some concentrated beef 
 tea. A gentleman walking up and down ob 
 served my occupation, and approaching me, 
 said, 
 
 "I guess that s a new kind of chaw youVe 
 got there ?" 
 
 I looked up at him in amazement. 
 
 " What kind of bacca do you call it ?" he 
 continued. " I should like to try it." 
 
AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. 17* 
 
 I handed him a piece. He commenced chew 
 ing it. 
 
 " I guess it tastes like soup," he said. 
 
 "Just so," I replied. "We have a ten 
 hours drive before us, and I shall no doubt feel 
 exhausted." 
 
 " Well, if you do, I ll give you some Bourbon 
 whiskey," he answered, quite amiably. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 
 
 AINBRIDGE, Georgia, consists of a 
 square, with the usual four churches 
 of different denominations, and a few 
 scattered houses, extending over a large space 
 of ground. That it is situated on the Flint 
 River is, I believe, its only recommendation or 
 claim to beauty. Land is cheap here, three 
 hundred acres having been sold by auction for 
 thirty-six dollars. 
 
 I could not discover that Bainbridge was cele 
 brated for anything in particular, except the 
 semi-savage and wholly lawless character of its 
 inhabitants. As a solitary exception to the 
 rest of America, a lady could not be sure of not 
 meeting with the grossest contumely there, 
 while hospitality was as yet so little known arid 
 practised at Bainbridge, that " the stranger 
 within their gates " might also be insulted. 
 Murder and brutal ruffianism are rather feted 
 
THE VALIAN2 WARRIORS BOWED. 175 
 
 than otherwise. Whilst we were there, a 
 gentleman, having sworn to be revenged on his 
 enemy, met him on the market-place, struck him 
 and insulted him ; but his opponent, being the 
 more powerful man, seized on his assailant, held 
 him, and called for help. Before it arrived, the 
 gentleman managed to draw out his revolver, 
 and shot his enemy through the heart. 
 
 The murderer, though arrested, was allowed 
 to go freely about on bail, paying a round of 
 visits to his friends, the men giving him drinks, 
 the ladies sympathy and flowers, for to be 
 arrested by the military and held to bail was to 
 become a martyr, the taking a man s life being 
 .a matter not worth talking about. 
 
 A friend of ours, chancing to arrive at the 
 city, was taking a drive with one of the inhabi 
 tants, who called at a house where the murderer 
 was receiving his tribute of praise. Our friend 
 was introduced to him, and was on the point of 
 shaking the blood-stained hand, when he was 
 made aware of the fact of the murder. Instantly 
 he turned his back upon the gentleman, walked 
 out of the house, and also very soon out of the 
 city, for after refusing to do homage to the pet 
 murderer the hero of the day his own life 
 would not have been safe. I need not say that 
 the gentleman was not punished, although a 
 form of trial was gone through. 
 
176 THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 
 
 Looking over the balcony one day, I saw, 
 riding down the main street, a handsome one- 
 armed man, with a slouched hat, semi-knit 
 brows, and the war-like moustache which de 
 notes the Southerner. His horse was a power 
 ful grey, and he sat him like a rock. I was just, 
 thinking what a tine picture of a highwayman 
 he would make, when I saw him stoop in his. 
 saddle, and speak a few words to a passer-by on 
 foot. Instantly the individual addressed raised 
 a heavy stick, and aimed a blow at him. The 
 gallant grey swerved, and with one bound bore 
 his master some ten or twenty yards away, while 
 he, without a move in his saddle, turned his face, 
 in which there was a hellish sneer, towards his- 
 assailant. Quick as thought the latter drew his 
 revolver, took deliberate aim, and fired four shots 
 in rapid succession ; but the grey was nearly out 
 of sight before the last was fired, and, more 
 fortunate than Tarn o Shanter s mare, she 
 carried off not only her master, but her own 
 grey tail in safety. 
 
 I thought of calling " Police !" but recollected 
 in time that there were none, also that the affair 
 was no business of mine, and that I should be 
 regarded very much as the stranger who inter 
 feres between man and wife, had I given any 
 alarm. There were others in the street, who 
 witnessed the rencontre, as well as myself, but 
 
THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 177 
 
 none of them took any steps to secure the man, 
 who doubtless went home, loaded his revolver, 
 and waited his next chance. But my acquaint 
 ance with revolvers and bowie-knives did not 
 end here. 
 
 I had been waited upon by several of the 
 principal citizens, who had in the most courteous 
 way intimated that they wished to make my 
 stay agreeable to me, and were going to initiate 
 me into the manners and customs of " Southern 
 chivalry," and I have no doubt I should have 
 been very favourably impressed by their efforts 
 on my behalf, had it not been for the unfortu 
 nate accident of meeting a previous acquaintance 
 in a United States officer, then commanding that 
 post. It appeared that a bitter war was being 
 carried on between this gentleman and the 
 " chivalry " over whom he was placed in mili 
 tary command, and my shaking hands with him 
 seemed to be the match destined to kindle the 
 smouldering embers of their wrath. 
 
 Before one could say " hocus pocus, quick, 
 presto," three duels were on the tapis; the 
 mayor and corporation were sitting in full con 
 clave ; the negroes were assembling in force ; 
 the soldiers were under arms, and slouched hats 
 and fierce moustaches loomed nearer and nearer. 
 Bound the hotel, which did not admit of being 
 
 VOL. I. -12 
 
1 78 THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 
 
 put in a state of defence for neither door nor 
 window would shut, and the legions of vermin 
 and mosquitoes that besieged one inside, made 
 it impossible to withstand another siege from 
 without I could observe the sun s rays glancing 
 back from many a bright substance that was 
 not a button. 
 
 The fierce sparkling eyes and knitted brows 
 told me plainly what it was they were handling. 
 Utterly shocked and bewildered by so warlike 
 a demonstration, I sent for the mayor, a tower 
 ing individual, some seven feet high, and broad 
 in proportion, and who filled up the whole door 
 way as he came in. There was surely enough of 
 him to afford any protection I might require. 
 I told him, the insult having been offered to me, 
 as well as to the United States officers, I 
 wished the " haughty warriors " to be made to 
 bow, and at least to apologize to me, as I could 
 not fight them, and although I think the mayor 
 would have enjoyed a general skirmish as much 
 as any one, I took such great pains to impress 
 upon him that I had visited Bainbridge with no 
 other object than to observe the " manners and 
 customs " of the place, with a view of putting 
 them in my book, to be published in America 
 arid England, that he assured me my name was 
 held in the greatest respect and veneration 
 throughout the South, and that I should have 
 
THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 179 
 
 as many "haughty warriors" on their knees 
 before rne as I chose to name. 
 
 T stipulated that the hotel should be cleared 
 of armed men for an hour, that I might pass out 
 unmolested to the house of a Northern lady, a 
 friend of the commander. She had written to 
 ;$ay she would receive me if I could come to her, 
 but that it was not possible for either her or her 
 brother to enter the city at that moment. If 
 the commandant himself had ventured to come, 
 or had sent any of his people, there would have 
 been fighting at once. 
 
 " When will you like to go ?" asked the 
 mayor. I told him one o clock. I packed up 
 everything, for the lady was to send her buggy 
 *as near to the hotel as was thought safe, and a 
 servant was to watch for me and conduct me 
 to it. 
 
 When T was ready I opened wide my door 
 and stood on the threshold. The stairs and 
 .galleries swarmed with armed men. I had 
 overrated my power with the mayor, as he had 
 not kept his promise. I ought to have insisted 
 that he should see me out, but it was too late. 
 To recede before a danger is surely to be over 
 taken by it. There was only one other white 
 woman in the house, the mother of the pro 
 prietor. I had tried her before, but she was 
 too timid to be of any use, and moreover, I had 
 
 122 
 
180 THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 
 
 no means of getting to her without going for her 
 myself, for in few Southern hotels are there any 
 bells. 
 
 I resolved, then, to face my foes, and stepped 
 on to the verandah, and stood amongst them. 
 I heard the click of a revolver, and noticed a 
 man cleaning a bowie knife. They all looked 
 at me, and I looked at each one individually ; 
 it was no time for shrinking then. It was a 
 cruel thing to try to frighten a woman, and I 
 felt my indignant spirit rising. " You are not 
 afraid ?" said a man, with a brutal sneer, han 
 dling his weapon. " Not of you, coward !" I 
 retorted, my pride getting the better of my dis 
 cretion, and I walked downstairs amidst them 
 with set teeth, eyes wide open, and so fright 
 ened, I could hardly keep my feet. I heard 
 many uncomplimentary remarks as I passed, 
 such as, " She s a right smart devil, she is !" 
 " She s had a h 11 of a charge !" But I was 
 deaf and dumb to all. Only when they would 
 not move out of my way I tapped them with 
 my fan, saying, " Kindly allow me to pass." 
 Outside the hotel the crowd was thicker than 
 inside, and I had to thread my way through 
 it. As I passed a gentleman said, " She is a 
 Northern spy, you bet." This was dangerous. 
 I turned back, and met the gaze of the speaker. 
 " Do you not see," I said, and raised my hat 
 
THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 181 
 
 from my head to show my Saxon hair, " that I 
 am an English lady ?" I stood for a full minute. 
 Not a word was said, but many raised their 
 hats. I bowed then, and passed on unmolested 
 through the dense crowd until the buggy driver 
 signalled me to where he was waiting. 
 
 The commander was not far off with half a 
 company under arms, but screened by a small 
 declivity. He did not wish to bring about any 
 bloodshed, but was ready to protect me had 
 they gone the length of violence. I arrived at 
 my destination quite safe, and was welcomed 
 by the whole of the Northern camp, who were 
 dying to have brought me off victorious. 
 
 On the following day the gigantic mayor, ac 
 companied by two six-foot corporation men, called 
 upon me. It was a misunderstanding he said, that 
 the gentlemen were only anxious to apologize, and 
 that I should have as many haughty warriors, 
 the flower of the Southern chivalry, on their 
 knees as I chose to name. I named three. It 
 was quite a ceremonial. There were the mighty 
 mayor and corporation, the Northern com 
 mander, and minor officers. I was seated in a 
 fauteuil, and my lady friend stood like a dame 
 dhonneur leaning upon it. The culprits were 
 marshalled in ; the mayor took up the parole. 
 He was sure, he said, that no southern gen 
 tleman would ever insult a lady and a stranger 
 
182 THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 
 
 wantonly, and that they were only too eager to- 
 make ample apology for anything which might 
 have seemed disrespectful. 
 
 They were three as handsome men as one 
 could see in the highwayman style. They 
 advanced in succession toward me, bent one 
 knee, raised my hand toward the moustache, 
 but did not touch it. I was appeased. And 
 then, oh, reader I make allowance for manners 
 and customs and the terrible heat, we all took 
 a "drink," mint julep and " sherry cobbler." 
 
 Shortly after, one of my pardoned rebels sin 
 gled me out a little apart from the company. 
 " I trust you believe I am sorry for what I 
 did ?" he asked. " Oh, certainly," I said. 
 " Then I am going to ask you to revoke some 
 thing you said you called me a coward! I 
 am not one ; I would have protected every hair 
 of your head, but I ventured to teaze and tor 
 ment you. Your eyes flashed such haughty 
 defiance, you could have annihilated a score of 
 men. Will you revoke that word ? It rankles 
 in my heart." " I will," I replied. " Give me 
 your hand," he said ; " we are proud to be of 
 the same race," and he crushed it until I thought 
 it would be really jelly. I spent many pleasant 
 days under the roof of my Northern friends, 
 waiting for the steamer which was to bear me 
 on my journey. 
 
THE VALIANT WARRIORS BOWED. 183 
 
 I must, however, endorse Bainbridge as the 
 poet did Halston 
 
 " For a heathenish hole is Halston, 
 
 As ever you did see, 
 And gin I go back to Halston, 
 The de il may carry me." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 
 
 EARLY a score of Columbuses may be 
 found in America. They are named 
 in their infancy, to add lustre to the 
 discovery, but, like many others of illustrious 
 name, they have failed to fulfil their destiny. 
 Columbus, Georgia, set out with the very best 
 intentions, and carried them out so far as the 
 usual main street is concerned. The main street 
 of a small town in America is longer and broader 
 than the largest street of the largest town I 
 know of in Europe ; in fact, a Boulevard, usually 
 about three miles long, and the eighth of a mile 
 wide. But somehow these infant city prodigies 
 and giant baby towns, always seem to have 
 ~been afflicted with some infantile disease that 
 has stopped their growth, and left them less ro 
 bust than other young cities. Augusta, Georgia, 
 was no doubt the twin sister of Columbus, and 
 suffered from the same epidemic. 
 
BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 185 
 
 Columbus is situated upon the Chattahoochee 
 River, and ought, from its position, to become 
 a town of considerable importance, a natural 
 weir occurring just at the bend of the river, 
 which in consequence is not navigable higher 
 up. This water power was stated by Basil Hall 
 to be the finest in America, or, rather, worth the 
 most money when fully employed. The rapids are 
 very picturesque ; the river skirting round beau 
 tiful little islands covered with magnolia and 
 jessamine, and forming a natural dam. The 
 scenery on both sides is romantic, and much 
 resembles many parts of South Wales. The 
 Eiver Chattahoochee, rushing over its rocky 
 bed, divides the States of Georgia and Alabama. 
 On its banks two cotton factories the first I 
 had seen in the South had only been recently 
 rebuilt after their destruction by General Wil 
 son s troops when he attacked and took Colum 
 bus, where the last shot of the War of Secession 
 
 was fired. 
 
 During the war, these factories had supplied 
 the greater part of the clothing for the army ; 
 Columbus was therefore conspicuous for her 
 power in thus helping to carry on the war, and 
 so drew on herself the vengeance of the enemy. 
 Her inland position, and the difficulty of navi 
 gating the river, saved Columbus through the 
 first four years of the war ; but two or three 
 
186 BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 
 
 days after the general surrender, Wilson and 
 his well-mounted infantry made a foray, burning 
 and destroying all in their path. 
 
 It was a curious thing, in English eyes, to 
 see one of Lee s bravest generals carrying on 
 these factories and devoting his attention to 
 spindles instead of bayonets ; to water-power 
 instead of gunpowder, and vigorously studying 
 the arts of peace instead of the game of war ;. 
 commanding amidst the rattle of machinery in 
 stead of the roar of artillery ; moving amidst 
 flying cotton-down instead of the smoke of 
 cannon, but still a soldier, every inch of him,, 
 though the "Lost Cause" spoke out from his 
 stedfast and firm but melancholy gaze. Another 
 Garibaldi, he had been as earnest in the battle 
 field as he was now in the cotton factory. 
 
 A cotton factory may not be the most poetical 
 of subjects to discourse upon, but where the 
 cotton is growing all around you for miles and 
 miles, and to be made of any value has to be 
 sent to New England or to Old England, this 
 first attempt at turning it to account on the 
 spot is worthy of notice, for it is the acorn 
 destined to become the oak, the seed which 
 ought to produce a harvest of power and wealth. 
 
 The South might have laughed at the North, 
 or any other nation, had she been, as she could 
 have been, self-sufficing, with her vast resources- 
 
BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 187 
 
 thoroughly developed instead of lying dormant, 
 while she depended solely on the cultivation of 
 cotton for her sustenance and revenue. She 
 never need have wanted provisions for her army, 
 or have been destitute of ammunition, for many 
 of her mountains are filled with coal and iron.. 
 " Keep your cotton," says a hostile nation ; " we 
 will clothe ourselves in silk, wool, and linen." 
 So the South, notwithstanding its thousands of 
 miles of cotton fields, became a land of paupers. 
 Over the rocks forming the boundary of the 
 river, the iron was glistening like gold, in the 
 greatest confusion. 
 
 "Ah ! if you had only had that iron in ships," 
 I remarked to General C., who had been gather 
 ing specimens for me. 
 
 "If we only had!" he replied; and the sad, 
 undaunted eyes gazed intently into the distance, 
 as though he mentally resolved that if it had to 
 come over again it should be. 
 
 Thus, the rebuilding of a cotton factory was, 
 at that time a sight to rejoice the heart of hu 
 manitarians and philanthropists. It was like 
 the first green bud appearing after the cruel 
 winter storms, or the first streak of day beaming 
 on the wrecked mariner ; the first germ of hope 
 floating up from the deep gulf of despair into 
 which the whole country had been plunged. 
 On the opposite side of the river were still to be 
 
188 BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 
 
 seen the remains of the earthworks and tempo 
 rary fortifications which were attacked by Wil 
 son s " Marauders," who came pouring over the 
 brushwood-covered slopes around. Only a very 
 short defence was made, for there were no fight 
 ing men in the town, though the Southerners 
 had then no idea that Lee had surrendered, and 
 that their cause was lost. In Columbus the last 
 shot of the Confederacy was fired, and there the 
 last shell sang its despairing wail, as, bursting, 
 it scattered for ever the hopes of a gallant people 
 fighting for a cause they deemed righteous, and 
 than which hundreds less worthy have been fought 
 for. The Southerners did no more than fight 
 for what they believed to be their own ; and, 
 apart from the nineteenth century humanitarian 
 notions, in which it must be remembered they 
 had not been reared, the negroes were as much 
 their property as are a man s sheep or oxen. 
 
 Did not the mill owners fight against the Ten 
 Hours Labour Bill ? Do not mine and pottery 
 owners object to the withdrawal of infant labour, 
 though it cripples the little limbs and stunts the 
 natural growth, destroys the happy chirp of 
 childish voices, and shortens life by over-toil 
 and unwholesome air. This, too, in " the land 
 of the free," where slavery must not even be 
 mentioned ! Little black children, reared like 
 little pigs on a plantation, were certainly not 
 
BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 
 
 189 
 
 worse off than those poor factory, mining, and 
 pottery children, or the thousands of unfortu 
 nates raised in St. Giles s and other purlieus of 
 misery and vice. 
 
 To judge the slave-owners case aright, it must 
 be looked at from their point of view as well as. 
 ours. The right of such a vast country to form 
 itself into a separate dominion will scarcely be 
 disputed in these days, when nations are choosing 
 their own rulers, discarding their own sove 
 reigns, and electing princes, presidents, and 
 rulers by the popular will, and with the ap 
 proval of other nations. It would be a singular 
 anomaly if the freest of all nations (so called) 
 could not have the same freedom of choice so 
 at least it would appear to disinterested specta 
 tors. But the policy of such an act is quite another 
 question, and the North showed its wisdom in 
 holding its ground, and in not permitting the 
 breaking up piecemeal of its fair proportions. 
 
 The climate of Georgia is very unequal in 
 temperature, it being overpoweringly hot in 
 summer, sharply cold in winter, and rather vari 
 able throughout the year. Nevertheless, grapes 
 and peaches grow there in abundance. We 
 visited a most beautiful farm belonging to a 
 Southern gentleman a lawyer by profession, a 
 farmer by trade, a colonel in the army by rank, 
 an orator and a politician par cjoiit. Anomalous, 
 
190 BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 
 
 and multifarious indeed are the occupations of 
 the American. 
 
 The farm was situated about six miles from 
 Columbus, on a continuously rising ground, three 
 or four hundred feet above the river Chattahoo- 
 chee, the Alabama hills rising to a similar 
 height on the opposite side. A more beautiful 
 panorama could scarcely be desired than that 
 which revealed itself from the top of this hill. 
 Much of the country around was under corn 
 and cotton cultivation, although the immediate 
 estate was covered with grape-vines and peach 
 orchards. Heavy rains had just fallen, cooling 
 the atmosphere, and leaving the countrv as 
 green as the Emerald Isle. Here and there 
 were dark patches of pine, evergreen oak, hick- 
 <ory and alianthus a species of acacia. The 
 Aesquiline Estate or, according to the Ameri 
 cans, Aesquiline "lot" consisted of a thousand 
 acres, laid out in peach orchards, the produce of 
 which the owner shipped to New York in the 
 height of the season, at the rate of about 40,000 
 per week. He could have found easy sale for 
 40,000 more if he had had them, but the place 
 had not yet recovered from the effects of the war. 
 
 The father and his four sons had all been in 
 the army. His beautiful place had been ran 
 sacked by the Northern troops, and had run to 
 waste for four years. In this country, where 
 
BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 191 
 
 nature is so luxuriant, a few years, or even a 
 few months, of neglect, renders the best culti 
 vated estate one mass of weeds but weeds of 
 the most beautiful kind passion-flower and 
 -sweet-pea, for instance. The peaches are of 
 various kinds, some of them very fine and deli 
 cious. But the grapes the Catawba and Scup- 
 pernong I thought sour, and inferior to 
 French grapes. The scuppernong is an indige 
 nous vine, the leaf like that of the hop. The 
 fruit grows in single berries, of a dark, speckled, 
 orange green, and resembling gooseberries or 
 potato berries more than grapes. They are 
 sweet, but have a strong flavour like gas. The 
 wine is rich and luscious. 
 
 The Chattahoochee making a considerable 
 bend at this point, you may walk round the 
 Aesquiline hill, and look on a panorama with a 
 radius of one hundred miles, the horizon defined 
 by the Alabama range of hills. The place itself 
 had very much more of an English air in its 
 culture and trimming than anything I had seen 
 in the country. All the recent improvements, 
 in the shape of mowing and raking machines, 
 Ac., were in use, and the owner had solved some 
 problems that had vexed me very much during 
 my residence in that part of the States viz., 
 the possibility of growing turnips for feeding 
 cattle ; whether it was necessary for the raising 
 
19ii BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 
 
 of a calf to let it wholly monopolize its mother s 
 milk ; and whether veal was not good before it 
 was a year old. 
 
 At the Aesquiline farm, for the first time 
 since coming South, we tasted cream ; canned 
 milk, imported from the North, being generally 
 used elsewhere, through the South. The owner 
 also demonstrated, beyond all dispute, that grass 
 will grow and that hay can be made in Georgia, 
 and lawn turf as well. This gentleman brought 
 over skilled labourers from Scotland about fifty 
 in number with five hundred of them the 
 country would soon present a far different ap 
 pearance. Land is so cheap that a man might 
 easily buy an estate for himself in a few years, 
 and change his position from a hired servant to 
 that of a master farming his own land. For 
 young, intelligent married men what an opening I 
 Many, doubtless, would jump at it could they 
 only find their way to this country. Growth is 
 so rapid that very little labour would suffice, not 
 only to support his family, but to enrich himself 
 and improve his position in society. Peaches 
 are indigenous to this State, and produce abun 
 dantly, three years after budding. My informant 
 told me that he could have sold fifty thousand 
 dollars worth of peaches per week, and that 
 with ordinary luck and peaceful times, he calcu 
 lated on making a large fortune in a few years. 
 
BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 193 
 
 The Northerners, especially New Yorkers, 
 have a sort of mania for peaches. They are 
 almost as devoted to peaches as to ice-cream 
 and ice- water. If peaches are attainable at any 
 price, no Northern belle has the smallest scruple 
 in requiring them at the hands of her devoted 
 .admirer. Every lady who professes to give any 
 entertainment must have peaches fresh if pro 
 curable ; canned if hors de saison ; but peaches 
 at any rate. If a lady takes any fruit she must 
 take peaches. Peaches and cream are considered 
 " food for the gods." 
 
 We visited a large plantation of some eighteen 
 to twenty thousand acres, lying along the banks 
 -of the Chattahoochee Biver. The cotton and 
 the corn were finer than any we had seen else 
 where. It was on that spot that Lord Ogle- 
 thorpe made the first British treaty with the 
 Indians : the Muscogee tribe. We were shown 
 a large Indian mound, supposed to have been 
 their cemetery, but now overgrown with immense 
 trees. These singular mounds are to be found 
 all over the country. In some of them bones, 
 weapons, and pottery have been found, proving 
 them to have been the burial places of chiefs 
 and warriors, if not of whole tribes. These 
 solid earthworks are as impervious to the wars 
 of the elements as to the onslaughts of man. 
 The plantation we were visiting had belonged 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
194 BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 
 
 before the war to one of the most wealthy planters 
 in the state. He and his two sons had not been, 
 anxious to join in the struggle for what was con 
 sidered the freedom of their country ; but clung 
 tenaciously to the flesh-pots of Egypt, and se 
 cluded themselves upon their magnificent estate. 
 At the very commencement of the war the father 
 was seized with a fatal illness, which consigned 
 him to his grave. The elder son, heir to the pro 
 perty, was one day overtaken by a sudden rising 
 of the river, and being overwhelmed by its 
 waters, was cast up a corpse on a little hillock 
 on his own land. The other son, after various 
 expedients to avoid joining the army, at length 
 volunteered to be one of the garrison of some 
 small post where there was not likely to be any 
 fighting. Whilst on duty there he was acci 
 dentally shot by one of his own. men, and so the 
 family estate passed into other hands. When 
 we saw it, there were six hundred acres of Indian 
 corn, growing eight or nine feet in height. That 
 may appear a small matter to English readers, 
 yet it well-nigh proved fatal to this book and its. 
 author. 
 
 The thermometer having reached 98 during 
 the day, we waited until nearly sunset before 
 starting for a five miles ride along the ridge of 
 hills skirting the river. The sunset and the 
 scenery proved so attractive tbat we lingered 
 
BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 195 
 
 rather longer than we had calculated upon. On 
 descending the low-lying grounds near the river, 
 we found that the heavy rains had washed away 
 the small bridge and filled the roads with sand- 
 heaps, over which our horses scrambled only to 
 plunge into deep gullies beyond, without ad 
 vancing much in the direction of the plantation. 
 We were thus obliged to change our course and 
 strike into a small bridle-path, which seemed to 
 lead in the right direction. In this, however, 
 we were mistaken, it merely led us into the 
 middle of the tall, standing corn and there 
 stopped short. 
 
 Now arose a terrible difficulty. To retrace that 
 broken road, to traverse which, even in broad 
 daylight, had been a sort of steeple-chase, when 
 the twilight was made gloomier by the deep 
 shadow of the corn, was neither more nor less 
 than to attempt to break our necks ; while to 
 ride through the corn, whose stems were tall 
 and strong as hop-poles, and had each a bending 
 tuft at the top as large as a moderate-sized 
 parlour-broom, seemed nearly impossible. But 
 one or the other had to be attempted, as night 
 was falling fast. 
 
 My little horse voted decidedly for the corn 
 fields ; for besides an objection to jumping, he 
 had a great liking for green corn, which he 
 grabbed at on eitl^r side of him, while lashing 
 
 132 
 
19G BENIGHTED IN THE CORN. 
 
 me with the broom-end. For it must be borne 
 in mind that the ears grow out of the side of 
 the Indian corn-stalks, and not at the top. Once 
 the darkness had fallen, to steer our way out of 
 that seven hundred acres of corn would, my 
 guide informed me, be utterly impossible, and 
 to remain in it would be almost certain death, 
 from the miasma, the terrible attacks of the 
 mosquitoes, or the venomous bites of the snakes, 
 which abound in these low, swampy lands. 
 
 Having laid this position of affairs clearly 
 before me, my cavalier awaited my decision as 
 to the choice of evils. I decided for trying the 
 corn-fields. So into the corn and swamp we 
 went with a desperate plunge, our horses every 
 now and then sinking up to their knees in the 
 ground, which, owing to the recent rains, had 
 become nothing less than a quagmire, through 
 which it required the most strenuous exertions 
 to force the horses and hold them on their feet. 
 Every moment I was thumped, and lashed, and 
 beaten by the rebound of the corn-stalks, then 
 tickled in the face by the " parlour brooms," 
 then caught by the hair behind. Darkness was 
 speeding on with sable wings. The horses were 
 continually plunging forward on their knees, 
 and the frightful certainty was ever present to 
 my mind, that if I lost my seat I could never 
 regain it. 
 
BENIGHTED JN THE CORN. 
 
 That exertions might not relax, my cavalier 
 kept repeating, that unless we could see a road 
 before the darkness closed in we should have to 
 sit on our horses through the night, surrounded 
 by alligators from the river and snakes from 
 beneath; that the horses would devour the 
 green corn until they killed themselves, and 
 that if we did chance to survive the horrors of 
 the night we should certainly not escape swamp- 
 fever or congestive chills, "so keep your horses 
 head and push on." And, indeed, it was a case 
 of pushing ; but at last, bruised, torn, arid ex 
 hausted, we, at the end of above twenty minutes, 
 espied a white road rising over the hill. We 
 made for it, and arrived just as total darkness 
 enveloped us. We rode home much elated at 
 our escape, but very fully resolved not to visit 
 another Georgia river plantation by sunset. 
 My host consoled me with, " Well, I guess you 
 are the first lady ever took that ride ; it beats 
 your English hunting all to fits." I had to 
 admit that without reservation. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ATLANTA, GEORGIA A DUEL A TROIS. 
 
 TLANTA is apparently the most busy 
 and flourishing town in the South, 
 and it is, to my thinking, the noisiest 
 place in the world for its size. It might be 
 described in the words of the poet as 
 
 " Noise and dust and hellish clangour," 
 
 for it is the focus of several railroads. The 
 trains go howling, and rumbling, and ringing 
 through the streets with something like fiendish 
 uproar, scaring unwary strangers, and killing 
 misguided boys and children, there being neither 
 fence nor barrier to divide the rail from the 
 thoroughfare, nor is there the usual notice to 
 pedestrians, " Look out for the cars." Sud 
 denly there comes upon you a blast of heat, as 
 from the infernal regions, a yell, as from a dying 
 monster in its agony, and the creature (the en- 
 
ATLANTA, GEORGIA-A DUEL A 
 
 .gine) is upon you, rushing through the middle 
 of the street, as I have said, without let or hin 
 drance, and traversing now and again the side 
 walk thronged with passengers. But if the 
 engine should chance to run off the track and 
 in America it is scarcely a chance, but a common 
 occurrence it must inevitably rush into the 
 shop-fronts, and prove a very much worse appa 
 rition there than even a bull. I do not think 
 that the entrance of an engine for lunch would 
 astonish any one at Atlanta. 
 
 These engines all carry a large bell, which is 
 kept ringing during their progress through any 
 town, and is supposed to warn the inhabitants. 
 But as bells are ringing for one purpose or 
 .another every twenty-three hours out of the 
 twenty-four, they can scarcely be considered a 
 warning. By some peculiarity of construction, 
 the junction, with all its sidings and switchings, 
 is situated in the very centre of the city, and as 
 no train could either come in or go out without 
 performing, with much hubbub, a zig-zag dance 
 up and down the switchings, I would defy 
 Somnus himself to close his eyes for the first 
 few nights after arrival in Atlanta. 
 
 It is not unusual to see passengers jumping 
 -off the train at any spot they may consider most 
 convenient, and no less than three lines of railway 
 jom not to say run against one another in At- 
 
200 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 lanta. There is the " Western Atlantic," the 
 " Georgia Railroad," and the " Macow and Wes 
 tern ;" besides which another was in course of 
 construction. The town having been burnt by 
 Sherman during the war, the inhabitants had 
 doubtless become accustomed to the idea of 
 destruction, and felt no more dread of the casual 
 ties likely to ensue from a locomotive running 
 through the streets, than we shouldof an omnibus ; 
 for it is marvellous to observe how nature will 
 adapt itself to almost anything. Engines in Ame 
 rican streets are on perfect equality with horses, 
 carts, and pigs, and people are protected by a code 
 universal in America, " And be it enacted that 
 every man do first take care of himself." 
 
 I never heard any one in America censured for 
 selfishness ; on the contrary, it is rather con 
 sidered a fine talent or quality to possess, and 
 the man who has the most of it is called a 
 "smart" man and this is the ultimatum of 
 American praise. 
 
 Atlanta is certainly a wonderful specimen of 
 American " go-aheadness." At the time of my 
 visit it had been built up with houses to shelter 
 thirty thousand inhabitants ; it had four or five 
 hotels and as many churches, and only four years 
 before that time the town lay in ashes. An 
 immense opera house, which could never bo 
 filled by a city five times the size had 
 
A DUEL A TROIS. 
 
 201 
 
 been commenced, but had not been finished for 
 want of funds ; so it was bought by the State 
 to be used, when completed, as the House of 
 Legislature. 
 
 It was almost impossible to form any correct 
 idea of what kind of city the Atlanta of the 
 future would be. It was then scattered about 
 in blocks, here and there forming part ^ of a 
 street, occasionally part of a square, and inter 
 spersed with charred heaps of ruins, or tall stacks 
 of chimneys, indicating where dwellings had 
 been. It is a pity that Atlanta, which, from its 
 geographical position, must be destined for a 
 great centre of commerce, should again be built 
 up in brick, whilst there lies within bow-shot 
 of the city such beautiful granite as that of the 
 " Stone Mountain." It rises almost perpendicu 
 larly in two hundred feet of solid stone enough 
 to build all the cities in America but as yet 
 hardly any of it has been quarried, and like 
 many other of the vast resources of this splendid 
 country it lies unutilised. This granite cuts 
 rather soft, but hardens with the action of the 
 air, and is therefore most admirably adapted for 
 building purposes. To observe all the towns or 
 cities built of wood or flimsy brick, is a strong 
 commentary on the American character. "Apres 
 nous le deluge" seems to be the motto of the- 
 modern Americans. 
 
202 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 A mighty people cannot rise in a single gene 
 ration. A man may lay out a beautiful park, 
 and plant acorns in picturesque situations, but 
 his grandchildren only will walk under the shade 
 and enjoy the "ancestral oaks." Fortunately 
 for America these oaks are already grown, but 
 the growth of cities, which, so far as my propo 
 sition is concerned follows the same law, has to 
 be originated by the father, completed by the 
 son, and gloried in by the grandson. But for 
 this end he must lay his foundations in stone, 
 and not in brick, nor even in " Brown stone 
 front." If the Americans pride themselves as 
 they have just cause to do on the position of 
 their country among nations, they owe it to 
 their British forefathers. They are not of the 
 soil, like the Red Indians, but came to their 
 task of forming a kingdom with ready-made 
 wisdom and knowledge, and the experience of 
 centuries of progressive civilisation. 
 
 When Americans boast of the rapid strides 
 their country has made and is still making, they 
 often forget that the first colonists were not 
 wild barbarians, but skilled artisans, poets, 
 philosophers, divines, soldiers, and noblemen 
 accustomed to the highest civilisation. Had 
 they and their descendants continued to do for 
 their sons what " their ancestors had done for 
 them, America would, without doubt, be at this 
 
A DUEL A TROIS. 
 
 moment the greatest nation on the face of the 
 earth. But a utilitarian spirit of " How many 
 dollars would it fetch at auction ?" a dearth of 
 family pride, and an excess of individual vanity 
 have operated terribly to stultify the greatest 
 aspirations towards national greatness. It is 
 worthy of remark, that had Atlanta been built 
 of stone instead of wood and plaster, Sherman 
 would not have found its destruction so easy a 
 matter, and must of necessity have passed on 
 and left it standing. He would not have cared 
 to attempt the burning of Aberdeen, and it took 
 an immensity of pounding to make any formida 
 ble holes in Sebastopol. Granite buildings 
 would be tough obstacles to an invading army ; 
 but Sherman s work was little more than a con 
 tinuous fifth of November bonfire. He had but 
 to strike a match to burn a whole town. 
 
 It is difficult to account for Sherman having 
 ever been allowed to approach and pass through 
 Atlanta. The complete prostration of the South 
 could alone have been the reason. The town 
 was strongly fortified with earthworks, which, I 
 am informed, could have been held for months 
 against almost any odds ; but Sherman seems 
 throughout to have met with little opposition, 
 considering the daring and hazardous march he 
 made. From the information given me on 
 various points of his route, I am inclined to 
 
204 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 think that it required much more genius and 
 bravery to plan such a march, than the actual 
 execution of it demanded. To carry a cordon 
 round the seceding States, with a blockade along 
 the coast, was to strangle them in a running 
 noose, which could be contracted until the last 
 breath of life was pressed out of them ; and 
 when Sherman took and burnt Atlanta and 
 Columbia, General Lee must have felt that the 
 days of the Confederacy were numbered. In 
 deed, it is probable that the apple of discord 
 had already been cast among the brave South 
 erners, and that its fatal seeds had corrupted 
 their once fair prospects. Some enemy had 
 been in the night and sown the tares. 
 
 Thus, Sherman was allowed to march on At 
 lanta without fighting. He gave the inhabitants 
 notice to quit in forty-eight hours, which they 
 did^-although there were few but women and 
 children to go out and the place was then 
 given over to fire and pillage. This Hagar and 
 Ishmael treatment of wives and children of 
 Confederate officers, was one of the most cruel 
 incidents of the war. Helpless women and 
 children were driven from their homes, without 
 money or provisions, into the great forest-wilds, 
 not knowing where to seek even a shelter, and 
 vainly attempting to reach the Confederate 
 lines. Some few succeeded in doing so, others 
 
A DUEL A TROIS. 205 
 
 took refuge in the log-huts of the woodsmen, 
 but numbers perished by the way under their 
 unwonted hardships ; and although there never 
 was what is called a famine in the South, yet 
 the sudden descent from affluence into poverty 
 and its privations, brought not a few to an 
 untimely grave. A lady holding a good position 
 in Savannah told me that for two years she had 
 never seen tea, coffee, or sugar on her table, and 
 rarely tasted any flesh meat but bacon. She 
 was ordered out of her house with five young- 
 children (as she told me) after Lee s surrender, 
 and hundreds of women and children were sent 
 over the lines, to find their relatives wherever 
 they could. I know of no parallel case in his 
 tory where a city has been cleared of its femi 
 nine inhabitants unless when about to be bom 
 barded ; whereas, nearly all the Southern towns 
 were either evacuated or surrendered, the fight 
 ing men leaving the town when they found it 
 untenable ; and the civil authorities, intimating 
 this state of things to the enemy, they marched 
 in peaceably, and took possession of everything 
 without respect of persons. The North, or the 
 seat where the government was, stigmatized the 
 South as "rebels," for the simple fact of not 
 wishing any longer to be governed by them. 
 The South made no attempt to usurp power 
 from the North or force their propositions on 
 
206 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 them ; they merely wished to retire and govern 
 themselves according to their own idea the 
 
 o 
 
 grand principle of a republic being self -govern 
 ment. Nevertheless the North, although 
 branding the others as "rebels," dared not or 
 could not treat them as such ; they fought with 
 them on an equal footing, and on the same 
 terms as with any other hostile power. They 
 also exchanged prisoners with them on equal 
 terms as two foreign powers at war ; and when 
 the hopes of the South fell, and they were no 
 longer able to maintain the struggle, Lee capitu 
 lated, and did not surrender at discretion, th& 
 soldiers were accorded the honours of war, and 
 they were received back into the Union very 
 much on their own terms, as free citizens. 
 
 To return to Atlanta. It is the seat of the 
 Legislature of the State, and there are many 
 ebony Lycurguses there, framing laws for the 
 benefit and protection of the unfortunate whites, 
 but principally occupied in earning their eight 
 dollars per day. Whilst we were there a great 
 mass-meeting was held, to advocate Grant s 
 election as President. A strange motley throng, 
 " black and tan " colour, paraded the streets, 
 some with old muskets and rusty swords, "some 
 with heavy clubs, others with hoes anything 
 arid everything, in fact, which could be used as 
 a weapon, except the Irishman s poker, which is- 
 
A DUEL A TRO1S. 207 
 
 little known in these parts. I presumed they 
 considered themselves an armed body : it was 
 such an one as I would not have cared to meet 
 in Galway, but before evening terminated, my 
 fears were considerably allayed by the stampede 
 which occurred. A great number of them car 
 ried carpet lags no doubt as the orinamrne of 
 Eepublicanism in the South. They were he 
 ralded and marshalled by a negro on horseback, 
 decked out in such fashion as would have made 
 the fortune of a circus had he been clown. He 
 was decorated with a large scarf, which, together 
 with his arms and legs, flew out in various 
 directions. The marvel was how he remained 
 in position, and did not go over either the head 
 or the tail of the horse, leading one to suppose 
 that there was some attraction of gravitation 
 between him and his beast, which pauvre diable 
 was of the Rosinante breed. 
 
 The " carpet-bagger/ it is necessary to state, 
 is the soubriquet of a Northern man, who is sup 
 posed to travel southwards with no other pro 
 perty than can be contained in a carpet bag, 
 and speculates or makes a fortune in the South 
 ern States. The procession, which was m arch- 
 in o- to vote for Grant, and had set out in the 
 morning in what might be termed a state of 
 armed neutrality, subsided towards evening into 
 a disorderly rabble, the guns, pistols, and other 
 
:208 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 weapons being brought into indiscriminate ac 
 tion. 
 
 The scene on a small scale was horrible and 
 ludicrous ; it was supposed now to be a torch 
 light procession, and crowds of negroes were 
 bearing brands of flaming pine, which burnt 
 fiercely, and gave a weird, supernatural look to 
 all around. It lit up the glaring eye-balls of 
 the semi-frantic negroes (for they had been in 
 dulging in not a little whisky), and lent a fierce 
 lustre to their hideous faces, in character with 
 the unearthly yells, which it seems is their 
 peculiar mode of expressing their feelings. 
 Gradually the waving of torches and the shrieks 
 condensed themselves in front of the hotel, 
 where rockets were let off in the most reck 
 less manner along the streets, so that it was 
 scarcely observable when the first pistol was 
 fired. 
 
 But it was followed by such terrific screams, 
 that a general onslaught seemed to take place, 
 though for what or by whom it was impossible 
 to discover. The negroes fled in all directions, 
 like imps let loose from the lower regions, but 
 only fired when they got round the corner. It 
 was said that some white man had interfered 
 with them for burning him with a rocket, and 
 that a negro had shot him. The police at 
 length came in, and did their share of the firing, 
 
A DUEL A TROJS. 209 
 
 for police are all armed with revolvers in this 
 country. A good many wounded were carried 
 off, and two men were killed on the spot. There 
 was no serious defence on the part of the negroes, 
 who rushed round the city yelling in great dis 
 may, extinguishing their torches, and letting 
 off their fire-arms. A few arrests were made, 
 but the prisoners were probably released next 
 day, as nothing more was heard of the matter. 
 
 All over the country, where the negro is begin 
 ning dimly to realize what he is told of his own 
 superiority, uproars and fights are taking place. 
 Tis a frightful exemplification of the old adage, 
 " Put a beggar on horseback, and he will ride to 
 the devil." That goal for the negro is very 
 clearly indicated by the present policy pursued 
 towards him. 
 
 If Mr. Lincoln, as head of the American 
 Government, had offered to pay the slave-holders 
 in proportion to the one hundred millions (in 
 gold), which the British Government granted, 
 under the fervid eloquence and philanthropy of 
 Wilberforce and Brougham, to free its slaves, 
 then Americans might have claimed a splendid 
 act of humanity and justice, and set it as the 
 most brilliant star on the escutcheon of their 
 young republic; but they lost this splendid 
 opportunity, and spent far more than that 
 amount of money in vindictive rage, to accom- 
 
 VOL. i. 1 1 
 
210 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 plish the greatest act of injustice that a nation 
 lias ever inflicted on its subjects, let alone " free 
 fellow citizens/ for many of these very slaves 
 which constituted the wealth of the South, had 
 been bought from the North only some thirty or 
 forty years before. 
 
 The fact is, the negroes were set free to 
 cripple and destroy the South, and the system 
 has been continued ever since. The order of 
 nature has been reversed ; the negroes have 
 been made lawgivers, to control and regulate 
 university men. The finest intellects of the 
 country have been forced to toil with their hands 
 for their daily bread, whilst brutal instinct sits 
 high on legislative benches, and if there had 
 been a State Church in the country, we should 
 have seen Archbishop Cuffee in lawn sleeves. 
 This state of things in America is an anomaly 
 such as the world has never seen, and a blunder 
 such as humanity has never before committed. 
 
 When one nation subdues another by force 
 of arms, it usually sends its grandees, not its 
 cattle, and great rnen to rule over the subju 
 gated ; for asses, however taught to bray, could 
 hardly be expected, by the majesty of their ap 
 pearance, to impose very long. Although Ameri 
 cans may boast of having the best government 
 in the world, yet to a stranger travelling through 
 the country, it looks very like no government at 
 
A DUEL A TROTS. 211 
 
 .all, for the law neither protects the victim nor 
 exacts retribution. 
 
 I say with pain that I have scarcely been in 
 .any Southern American city where the crime of 
 murder was not perpetrated during my short 
 stay, and frequently under my own observation. 
 I regret to say that on one or two occasions, I 
 have had letters of introduction to persons hold 
 ing high positions (judges and generals) who 
 were afterwards either the victims or the 
 -criminals in such a case. But the word murder 
 is rarely applied ; you hear of a man being shot 
 or stabbed, and the phraseology is " shot and 
 died of the wound," although the assassin might 
 have been seeking his opportunity for weeks. 
 Discussing this subject with a gentleman, he 
 .said, " Oh ! yes ; that s so. I watched a man 
 for some time this morning dodging about to 
 get a good, clear shot at the barber." " And 
 did you not stop him and have him arrested ?" 
 I exclaimed. " Oh ! no," he said ; " the barber, 
 you see, had plenty of customers, and he could 
 not take aim at him while he was shaving a 
 man." Nevertheless, had he found the oppor 
 tunity and shot the poor barber, there is every 
 probability that the act would not have been 
 considered murder, as he and the barber had 
 had a quarrel, and public opinion, in default^ of 
 redress by law, is decidedly in favour of exacting 
 
 142 
 
212 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 life for any offence, however trifling. It oc 
 curred to me once to have to step in between 
 the assailant and his victim, and determinedly 
 find myself in the desperate position, to prevent 
 the shedding of blood, the cause being a dis 
 agreement about a paltry sum of three dollars. 
 It was a paltry bill of three dollars to a printing 
 firm, and I sent my secretary to pay it. One of 
 the parties belonged to " one of our best 
 families," and was upon social terms with me. 
 Entering my drawing-room, I heard his voice 
 addressing my secretary and using expressions 
 anything but pleasing to me. Looking a little 
 indignant, I said, " What is this, gentlemen V 
 My secretary repeated the sentence which I had 
 overheard. " You are a liar," said the gentle 
 man of high family, "I never said such a thing !"" 
 " Repeat what you did say," I answered. 
 " Madam, if you do not believe me I must wish 
 you good day !" and he bowed himself out, 
 motioning my secretary to follow, and muttering, 
 " Til make you eat your words." I saw him 
 feel for his pistols, and stepped in between the 
 two angry men ; and we passed out into the 
 street, I without bonnet or mantle. " I have 
 wished you good day," said the gentleman of 
 the best family. " I entreat you to return to 
 the house," said my secretary ; " it is no place 
 for a woman." " There I differ from you, I 
 
A DUEL A TROTS. 213 
 
 think it is," I replied. I felt like the old 
 Scotchman in the story of " Get up and Bar the 
 Door." " What ! kiss my wife before my face, 
 and scald me o er with coffee lees !" What ! 
 shoot my secretary before my face, and cast 
 aspersion on my uprightness within my own 
 
 
 
 room 5 
 
 Three gentlemen came down the street, which 
 was a very great one; I accosted them and said, 
 " Would you succour a woman in distress T 
 "Why, certainly; what is the trouble?" 
 said, " That gentleman a-head of us wishes to 
 shoot this gentleman behind ; he is my secre 
 tary, and I cannot spare him." "Why, certainly 
 not !" " And please," I continued, " step up to 
 the governor and tell him that I am very much 
 .annoyed, and ask him to call and see me, and 
 put this gentleman of first family under arrest." 
 Why, certainly/ One of the three then came 
 home with us, and talked my secretary into 
 reason ; the second took charge of our assailant ; 
 .and the third went off for the governor, who, 
 being an intimate friend, came to me at once, 
 and made all right. The worst part of the 
 offence, they all appeared to think, was not the 
 .shooting of the man, but the aspersion of my 
 character in assuming that I did not want to 
 pay the extra three dollars! Such are the 
 -extremes of good and bad in American character. 
 
214 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 I think I would rather be shot myself than 
 appeal to three Englishmen in such a dilemma. 
 Political differences result in shooting, private 
 quarrels for robbing and defrauding, not in action 
 for restitution and damages, but in shooting 
 the delinquent round a corner or over his own 
 counter. Street brawls, instead of ending in 
 broken heads and the lock-ups, wind up with 
 so many killed and so many wounded. The 
 fearful riots in New York some years ago, were 
 only a development on a larger scale of the 
 same lynch law system, which pervades the 
 country throughout. The government is power 
 less to redress wrongs, and men adjusting their 
 own grievances, wreak at the same time unre 
 strained vengeance. Statistics show a frightful 
 average of reckless crimes. In the state of 
 Texas alone, the number of murders officially 
 recorded for the year 1868 was two thousand 
 four hundred (2400) ! (and the actual number 
 was, of course, greatly in excess even of this) in 
 a population of one million only. If another 
 unchristian nation in which they do not eat 
 each other can surpass this, I would advise the 
 sending out of missionaries to it immediately. 
 To equal Texas in "freedom" and "enlighten 
 ment," and demonstrate to the world the 
 equality, at least, of " despotic monarchical 
 tyranny" to a " free and glorious republic, " 
 
A DUEL A TR01S. 215 
 
 London, with its population of three millions, 
 would have to produce nineteen indubitable 
 murders daily all the year round, and even then 
 she would be slightly behind her " go a-head 
 cousins." Twenty per diem all the year round 
 would only leave her one hundred " a-head 
 Texas. Debts are extremely difficult to recover 
 by law ; and rents almost impossible, unless 
 voluntarily paid; and this difficulty of recover 
 ing money creates great distrust in all com 
 mercial transactions, and the bribing of judges 
 and officials is said to be a recognized proceed 
 ing. I am informed, upon the best authority, 
 that this state of things has only been in^ ex 
 istence within the last twenty years,^and arrived 
 at a climax within the last five or six. 
 
 We noticed that in Atlanta the negro was a 
 few shades more grotesque-looking than else 
 where. A large garrison of Union troops is 
 kept there, and in proportion as Northern money 
 is disseminated, the negro becomes more con 
 ceited and comical to the eyes of (to use a 
 Scottism) " decent bodies." 
 
 They persist in calling themselves ladies and 
 gentlemen, and the females wear long-trained, 
 white, transparent muslin dresses, with low 
 bodies and short sleeves, the better to show off 
 those delicate proportions which the garment 
 scarcely veils. It is quite a la inrJs among 
 
216 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 the female creatures to wear white tulle bonnets, 
 with blonde veils floating over their woolly 
 heads (so like singed astracan), and their snout- 
 like faces. Fan and parasol of course were 
 necessary to preserve their lovely complexions. 
 A large black pig, arrayed in the same costume, 
 and walking on its hind legs in the centre of a 
 large crinoline (which, by the way, they call a 
 Malakoff), could not look more grotesque than 
 some of these creatures dressed in this holiday 
 attire, frequently stolen from their mistresses. 
 At Atlanta, as elsewhere, mulattoes predomi 
 nated. 
 
 Going west from Atlanta to Chattanooga, the 
 country assumed quite a different character, 
 changing from the dusty plains on the other 
 side toward Macou, to a thickly wooded and 
 mountainous country, with lovely dells and 
 glades, and clear rippling streams traversing 
 them. There was little cultivation, save here 
 and there in patches of corn, which seemed 
 short and scanty, and not at all dangerous to be 
 lost in. We were passing through, as best a 
 railway may, the Allatoona Mountains, a low- 
 wood covered range, and the commencement of 
 the Blue Ridge chain. The air began to be 
 perceptibly cooler, and we enjoyed the fresh 
 green of the oaks keenly after the dusty view 
 from the hotel at Atlanta. 
 
A DUEL A TROIS. 217 
 
 As we advanced, the hills seemed to rise 
 above one another in rapid succession, until they 
 culminated in a grand tableaux round the pic 
 turesque Chattahoochee, over which were the 
 remnants of a stone bridge destroyed by Sher 
 man. Above, on the crest of a pretty round 
 hill, we could perceive the earthworks, from 
 which it had been shelled. A fellow-passenger 
 told me that he had been posted on the bridge, 
 with orders to allow no one to pass, the cavalry 
 of the Confederate army being on one side, the 
 infantry on the other. In the night he was 
 startled by a heavy boom from the top of the 
 hill, and a shell burst right over him. He knew 
 then that some of Sherman s army had found 
 their way up there. There were eight guns to 
 defend the bridge, but the Confederate troops 
 were speedily forced to retreat, and a general 
 rush was made for the river. Acting upon his 
 orders, the fugitives were driven back, when 
 they threw themselves into the river. Some 
 were able to swim across, but numbers were 
 carried down the stream, which is very rapid, 
 and sank to rise no more, the enemy s shot 
 pouring into them the whole time. 
 
 My friend assured me that he was never 
 better pleased than when he received orders to 
 retreat. All day long, as we traversed the 
 mountains, we found the relics of war earth- 
 
218 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 works and picket-screens and mantlets scattered 
 the whole way from Atlanta to Chattanooga, a 
 distance of one hundred and forty miles. In 
 spite of all this, numbers of sentries and pickets 
 were shot on or off duty, and this beautiful 
 land was strewed with the corpses of these lonely 
 victims. 
 
 " Tis nothing ! a private or two now and then 
 
 Will not count in the news of a battle ; 
 Not an officer shot, only one of the men 
 Moaning out all alone the death-rattle." 
 
 He was dumb to his next roll-call, and none- 
 knew his fate. Twenty thousand of the more 
 fortunate were gathered up and buried at 
 Marietta one of the Mariettas I believe there 
 are fifteen of that name in the United States. 
 This one is a pretty, shady, summer resort for 
 Savannah and Augusta. It had not, however, 
 escaped Sherman, as the bare chimneys, his so- 
 called " sentries," testified. The two great 
 armies nearly met here, and a good deal of 
 skirmishing took place. The Confederates, how 
 ever, continued to fall back, and Sherman to 
 flank them until they reached Atlanta. With 
 Atlanta fell the hopes of the South. 
 
 Everywhere Sherman, had gained the day by 
 a flank movement. He was able to meet his 
 opponents in front with equal numbers, and at 
 
A DUEL A TROIS. 
 
 219- 
 
 the same time flank them with another army as- 
 large, holding also a third in reserve. Thus 
 hemmed in, the fate of the Confederates was, 
 almost inevitable. They could not fight, back 
 and front, armies numbering double their own. 
 Numerous rivers, the Coosa, the Etowa, the 
 Chattahoochee, and Chickamanga, intersecting 
 the country, otherwise cut up in all directions by 
 ravines, and filled with mountainous ranges, 
 must have made this district a most difficult 
 one for campaigning operations ; but every river 
 and every pass had been the scene of some skir 
 mish or engagement. 
 
 One might easily have imagined one s self in the 
 mountains of Scotland, allowing for absence of 
 lakes. Among the trees, oaks preponderated, 
 interspersed with ash, maple, spruce, and pine.. 
 In the distance, a pale blue outline delicately 
 traced against the sky, indicated the Blue Eidge 
 of South Carolina. The Chickamanga wound 
 so persistently, that we crossed it no less than 
 fourteen times. Anxious to obtain all the 
 information I could, and the names of the dif 
 ferent rivers we crossed, I inquired of a pas 
 senger the name of the river we had just crossed. 
 Chickamanga, was his brief reply. A few 
 miles more, and we again shot over a river, 
 repeated my question. "Chickamanga," was 
 the answer, still more curtly. " How do you 
 
220 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 spell it?" I inquired. He told me. I had 
 scarcely concluded my description of the Chicka- 
 manga, when we ran upon a trestle-bridge over 
 a river. I was about to open my lips, but my 
 neighbour, foreseeing the inevitable question, 
 growled out " Chickamanga, and it will be ten 
 times more Chickamanga before you have done 
 with it," and so it proved. 
 
 The rail from Atlanta to Chattanooga is one 
 of the most smooth-running in America, and the 
 country, until you come in sight of Look Out 
 Mountain, is as picturesque as in any day s ride 
 I have taken in the United States. 
 
 During the day I was greatly entertained by 
 a fellow traveller, a legislator, I believe, return 
 ing home. I noticed that before the train 
 stopped at a station he sprang out, regardless of 
 breaking his limbs, and only reappeared after 
 we had started, coming up with a run, and 
 making a rush at any part of the train, and 
 finding out his former seat by degrees. He 
 always left empty handed, and returned with a 
 package of some sort. 
 
 His seat was next to mine, and having ac 
 commodated him with the vacant space under 
 mine for some of his packages, we got into con 
 versation. 
 
 " I always do a stroke of business on these 
 journeys ; there is money to be made, I tell you." 
 
A DUEL A TROIS. 221 
 
 He had just brought in a number of live fowls 
 tied by the legs. 
 
 " I ll make ten dollars on them." 
 The fowls rustled and cackled uncomfortably ; 
 they did not seem to approve of speculations. 
 Then he opened for my inspection a large brown 
 paper parcel, containing hinges for doors, of 
 various descriptions. I had been under the im 
 pression that he was a " poultry fancier/ now 
 I thought he must be an " ironmonger." Not 
 at all ; I was wrong again. 
 
 " There, put your feet on those a comfort 
 able footstool. Don t object to the smell, do 
 you?" 
 
 It was a large net of onions ! 
 " No," I replied, " not until after they are 
 eaten." 
 
 " Wall, I picked those up at the last station. 
 Italia city pretty place, is it not ? They re dirt 
 cheap ; my wife will pickle them. I m uncom 
 mon fond of pickled onions, ain t you ?" 
 I said I was. 
 " Why, that s sensible ; I see you re the right 
 
 sort." 
 
 Whereupon, having won his sympathy on the 
 score of the onions, he proceeded to unload his 
 pockets, which contained the most extraordinary 
 collection of articles sprig bits, thimbles, white 
 wax, fish-hooks, curtain-rings, hand lamps, &c., 
 
"9 
 
 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, 
 
 &c., which he had gathered at the different 
 stations where we had stopped. 
 
 "You see, madame," he explained, "you can 
 notice that there is always a dearth of an article 
 in one place, and a surplus in another, so you 
 buy in the cheapest, and sell in the dearest. 
 It is the way to make money. If you like 
 to invest ten or twenty dollars, I can make it 
 forty !" 
 
 I thanked him, but in truth I did not care to 
 have live chickens and a bag of onions, or hinges 
 to dispose of. But the next station I rather 
 regretted our acquaintance. He bounded in 
 with his pocket handkerchief filled with a 
 gelatinous, moving mass. My eyes fixed sus 
 piciously upon it. 
 
 " Don t be alarmed! the greatest catch I ever 
 had in my life ! Leeches ten cents ! I ll keep 
 them and sell them for ten dollars !" 
 
 "Oh, horrible!" I cried. "What, ninety- 
 nine per cent. T 
 
 But I was thinking of a time when I had to 
 ride for fifteen miles through very swampy 
 ground filled with leeches, and when I arrived 
 at my destination, I was streaming with blood, 
 and took off twenty-nine of the creatures from 
 my person, to say nothing of such as had gorged 
 themselves and dropped off. I was so faint, 
 that nothing but the flask of my cavalier had 
 
A DUEL A TROIS. 223 
 
 kept me in my saddle. Fortunately a doctor 
 chanced to be there, and prescribed for me. 
 The sight of leeches makes me nervous, but my 
 travelling companion declared that the loss of 
 one would be the loss of a dollar, and he was 
 not going to throw that away. He kept his 
 word, and I was not bled that time. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 A CITY IN ADAMANT. 
 
 N a wide, bare, woodless valley now 
 of some historical interest, from the 
 many battles fought there during the 
 "War of Secession " lies the town of Chat 
 tanooga, Tennessee. The houses are so scattered, 
 that they look as if sprinkled over the vast plain. 
 There are no regularly planned streets, each 
 person would seem to have made his own road, 
 or pathway, in whatever direction best pleased 
 him. 
 
 The town has a general appearance of ha vino- 
 been tossed there by accident, or of having 
 slipped from the mountains in a storm of bricks 
 and wooden huts. 
 
 The valley extends for eighteen miles, and is 
 surrounded by several ranges of mountains, 
 rising one above another, the only exit appear 
 ing to be where the Tennessee river flows 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 225 
 
 beneath the foot of Lookout Mountain. This 
 valley of Chattanooga is one of the most cele 
 brated sites in the United States, and to my 
 mind, the most beautiful of any I had then seen. 
 We procured a carriage to take us to the top 
 of the mountain, to the hotel called the " Moun 
 tain House." As we ascended the mountain 
 which rises two thousand eight hundred feet 
 above the level of the sea, and is traversed by a 
 winding road, very much like the passage over 
 the Alps the view gradually increased in 
 beauty. At first we saw only the ridges of the 
 rocky, wooded hills we had traversed during the 
 day, on our journey from Atlanta. They were 
 covered with oak, hickory, and chestnut trees, 
 fields of majestic waving Indian corn and light 
 graceful sugar-cane covering their base. 
 
 At the next turn of the road, which was over 
 hung all the way with verdure, we came in sight 
 of another range of mountains, the Blue Ridge 
 chain. Beyond those, and seemingly higher in 
 the clouds, the Alleghany formed, with the 
 Cumberland Mountains on the other side, a 
 mighty amphitheatre, some hundred miles in 
 circumference, and on which the glowing rays 
 of sunset then rested in deep crimson and 
 purple hues. 
 
 Chattanooga town lay scattered about in the 
 valley, looking like a child s toy village, the 
 
 VOL. I. 15 
 
226 A CITY IN ADAMANT. 
 
 river Tennessee almost encircling it, and nearly 
 forming an island, when it suddenly turns aside 
 and bides itself from view, until it reappears in 
 bright silvery curves about a mile further on. 
 We could trace it twisting, turning, curvetting, 
 shining, in such opposite directions, that one 
 could hardly imagine it to be only one river. 
 Finally its streams were lost sight of in the 
 gorge between two great mountains. 
 
 Winding up the steep, still higher and higher, 
 we came right beneath a projecting cliff, which 
 rose perpendicularly for several hundred feet, 
 and on the top of which were some buildings. 
 We looked up in amazement, and inquired if 
 that was " Mountain House," thinking that 
 only eagles ever could reach it. But our horses, 
 which were powerful ones, went straight on, only 
 stopping now and then to take breath. 
 
 The grand panorama now unfolded itself in 
 all its glory. From afar we had thought the 
 higher chain of mountains reached the sky, but 
 now, away, above, and beyond, a third faint out 
 line was visible, seeming to mingle with the 
 clouds ; this was the Smoky Mountain range of 
 North Carolina. As far as the eye could reach, 
 these three chains of mountains formed an im 
 mense crescent, as though they encircled half 
 the world. Surpassingly beautiful was the coup 
 d ccil, vying with anything we had seen in 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 227 
 
 America. The foliage was resplendent in gold 
 and crimson. Great eagles were sweeping- 
 through the glittering haze of the sunset, and 
 so brilliantly riante was the splendour of the 
 whole scene, that it was hard to believe, while 
 gazing in rapture upon it, that strife, misery, 
 and carnage had so lately been rife in that 
 lovely valley. 
 
 On the second day of our sojourn on the 
 mountain, it began to rain, and increased to a 
 perfect downpour. The party I had come with 
 declared they could not stand it, and should 
 return ; but / felt reluctant to leave the ravish 
 ing scenery and invigorating air so quickly, and 
 determined to remain there alone. 
 
 " It will rain for two tarnal weeks," said one 
 of my friends, trying to persuade me to go down 
 with them. 
 
 " Surely not/ I said. 
 
 " You bet, when once it begins to rain up 
 here, it don t conclude to stop for a while." 
 
 And indeed it did not ! It rained for two 
 " tarnal " weeks, as he had prophesied, yet was 
 magnificent the whole time with lightning, 
 thunder, rainbows, and scenic effect of clouds. 
 It was the grandest " wet weather " I have ever 
 seen. 
 
 Nevertheless, it was uncomfortable, for it 
 rained in everywhere. I changed my bedroom 
 
 152 
 
228 A CITY IN ADAMANT. 
 
 having the whole choice of the house nightly. 
 But it was no use ; the water found me out, 
 and came drop, drop, drop, and always on my 
 nose ! In vain I turned my head where my 
 feet should be; it found me out and dropped 
 there. If in despair I bowed my head, then it 
 dropped in the back of my neck; and there 
 were nights when all the beauty and grandeur 
 of the Look-out Mountain appeared as dross, 
 and I wished I had gone down with my com 
 panion. 
 
 The dropping of water, it is said, will wear 
 away a stone. It wore out my patience, and, 
 wrought up by a fit of desperate irritation, I 
 exclaimed, "Why on earth do I not sleep under 
 my umbrella ?" I carried out this idea, for the 
 umbrella was a large one, and, propping it up 
 the next night with pillows, I slept as dry as a 
 bone, and laughed next morning to behold the 
 drippings on the floor. Afterwards I moralized, 
 What fools we are who count ourselves wise! 
 Having turned philosopher, I was enabled to 
 spend five or six weeks at " Mountain House/ 
 enjoying the " Look-out" to the full. 
 
 The hotel on the mountain is finely situated, 
 and before the war was a very fashionable resort. 
 It is well calculated to become one of the most 
 pleasant summer retreats in the country, only 
 to be rivalled by Niagara itself. The hotel is 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 22 9 
 
 capable of lodging seven hundred people. It is 
 divided, for the benefit of families and newly- 
 married couples, into a number of distinct build 
 ings, or small cottages, romantically situated on 
 the rocks, and forming a picturesque ensemble, 
 as well as a convenient arrangement. The hotel 
 was kept by an enterprising Englishman, who, 
 contrary to the practice of American hotel- 
 keepers, spared no amount of trouble and labour 
 to make his guests comfortable; and there is no 
 doubt that in his hands, the hotel has become 
 one of the best and most frequented in the 
 country. 
 
 The position of the house is most salubrious. 
 In the summer, the thermometer ranges from 
 ten to fifteen degrees lower than in other parts 
 of the surrounding country. When the inhabit 
 ants of the cities of Georgia, Tennessee, South 
 Carolina, and Florida are stifled by the oppressive 
 heat, a cool, refreshing breeze blows on the 
 mountain. Indeed, after the hot, dusty, noisy 
 pandemonium of Atlanta, with its 90 to 100 de 
 grees of heat, and not a tree to shade one from 
 the sun, or to rest the weary eyes upon, it 
 seemed almost like ascending from purgatory to 
 paradise. Seated at our open window, in the 
 clear and balmy air, the splendid prospect of 
 the valley, the green hills, and mountains cap 
 ping mountains, spread before us, with nothing 
 
230 A CITY IN ADAMANT. 
 
 to break the silence but the song of the cicala, 
 we experienced a sense of relief, freedom, and 
 beatitude, almost indescribable. 
 
 Hitherto we had not taken account of how- 
 much we had really suffered in Atlanta and 
 JVIacon from the oppressive heat, and the want 
 of any means in the houses for lightening its 
 irksomeness. Then there was a constant noise 
 and bustle in the hotel, owing to the members 
 of the legislative body generally boarding there, 
 and keeping up a perpetual ferment and fussifi- 
 cation. One senator was always running after 
 some other senator, and with such desperate 
 strides as only an American can make, catching 
 him perhaps by the skirts of the coat or by the 
 collar, and holding him so, or pawing him affec 
 tionately, whilst he excitedly informed him of 
 the latest congress news, or urged his arguments 
 upon him. There would be groups of senators 
 on the stairs, some in their shirt-sleeves and 
 their legs over the bannisters, but mostly wear 
 ing white linen coats and no waistcoats. 
 
 Sometimes the body politic, with and without 
 coats, would sit out in the street ; one, balanced 
 on a single leg of a chair, his crossed legs high 
 up on the lamp-post; two others would tilt 
 their chairs together, vis-a-vis, and keep up a 
 see-saw motion, while they discussed "Recon 
 struction of the State" which, by the way,. 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 231 
 
 seemed itself in a rather see-saw condition. 
 Such a collection of aspiring legs and perspiring 
 forms was surely never seen. 
 
 You could not approach safely within six or 
 eight yards of these groups, for they all chewed 
 tobacco, and it was dangerous to interfere with 
 the pattern they were desirous of forming on 
 the pavement with the ejected juice. Even in 
 the senate house itself, during the pauses in the 
 speeches, the sound of expectoration was the 
 most nauseating thing conceivable. It would 
 be absurd to mention dignity, decorum, or even 
 decency in connection with this body of law 
 makers. There is no public body in England to 
 which I could compare them. Of their political 
 morality there is little to be said. Some of the 
 best members resigned, disgusted with the sys 
 tem of bribery; but a great many more doubt 
 less joined, in order to profit by it. The Kepre- 
 sentative body is formed principally of what are 
 termed ( carpet-baggers/ " scalawags," and 
 quondam slaves. The "scalawag" is the man 
 who has played fast and loose with his own 
 State and the Government at Washington, 
 siding with whichever seemed to be in the as 
 cendant. The dislike to the " carpet-bagger " is 
 not so intense as to the " scalawag," who is 
 regarded as a traitor. The negro is a man who- 
 has probably picked up a little writing and 
 
232 A CITY IN ADAMANT. 
 
 reading during his slavedom, and has, since the 
 emancipation, been crammed by "car pet- baggers" 
 with the most vague and outrageous notions 
 of his own great importance in the world, and 
 the inferiority of "poor white trash"- his 
 former master now coming under that cate 
 gory. 
 
 Such are the legislators of the South, the 
 rulers and guiders of the nation, while men of 
 such intellect as Lee, Beauregard, Clinton, 
 Hardee, Thompson, Stevens, and a hundred 
 others whom I have had the pleasure of meet 
 ing, were teaching schools, conducting factories, 
 presiding over railroads, and the like. Surely 
 it had been better policy to have kept the South 
 for a certain time under martial law, and have 
 ruled her through the intellect of general officers 
 
 O C5 
 
 and West Point graduates, than to have allowed 
 her to fall into the hands of admitted adven 
 turers and semi-savages, worthy only to belong 
 to the tribe of Nana Sahib. 
 
 To return to the mountain sublime in its 
 natural grandeur, and solemn in the melancholy 
 history of which it stands alone the everlasting 
 witness far as the eye could reach in every 
 direction, and farther still, Sherman s army of 
 one hundred and fifty thousand men had spread 
 itself through the ravines, over the mountain 
 tops, and skirted the river s bed, and everywhere 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 233 
 
 they were met by large and small bodies of fierce 
 mountaineers, who everywhere defiantly con 
 tested each inch of ground. Both sides had 
 bled for months, until the very earth was 
 drenched with human gore. At every few miles, 
 we saw the remains of earthworks and block 
 houses, and at every few hundred yards were 
 subsequently gathered the mangled remains of 
 the Northern soldiers. Sixteen thousand were 
 buried together on one smooth round hill, where 
 the sunshine seemed to linger a small piece of 
 wood indicating the number of their regiment, 
 their names very rarely being known. 
 
 The vulture and carrion-eagle abound in this 
 locality as though they scented more carnage 
 afar off. Upon a single ridge of hills, which 
 seemed low by comparison with the tiers upon 
 tiers that rose above them, and where we 
 could see the timber all destroyed and broken, 
 was fought one of the most bloody and decisive 
 battles of the war. Sherman, marching from 
 Chattanooga, attacked the forces of General 
 Johnson posted on Missionary Ridge and 
 after a fierce encounter, succeeded in dislodging 
 him, capturing ninety pieces of cannon, and 
 compelling him to commence his final and fatal 
 retreat. Sherman followed up his triumph from 
 that time forward, devastating the country on 
 all sides, thus leaving it entirely open for other 
 
234 A CITY IN ADAMANT. 
 
 Northern invaders, and speedily bringing about 
 Lee s surrender. 
 
 Away beyond two or three mountain ridges 
 lies the valley of Chickamanga, where, some 
 months before the battle of Missionary Ridge, 
 the Northerners met with a terrible repulse, and 
 retired on Chattanooga, where they fortified 
 themselves. From the results of this battle, 
 another pleasant rising ground has been turned 
 into a cemetery, filled with fifteen thousand 
 graves. 
 
 As we passed up the mountain, a man stood 
 there with folded arms and knitted brows. " Is 
 that Look-out Mountain ?" he inquired, indi 
 cating it with his hand. He was answered in 
 the affirmative. " I have a brother lies bleach 
 ing up yonder ; I reckon I shouldn t know him 
 if I found him." There was a sense of desola 
 tion in the words, which told the tale of many 
 an aching heart in the country. 
 
 Our guide told us there had been quite a 
 traffic carried on in searching out the dead 
 among the brushwood in the mountains, the 
 friends being willing to give any reward for 
 traces of their relatives supposed to have fallen 
 thereabouts. The bodies found were generally 
 those who had been on picket duty, picked off, 
 and no one the wiser, the dense undergrowth 
 concealing them from all but the piercing eyes of 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 235 
 
 the buzzards, constantly sailing over wherever 
 an army was encamped. Look-out Mountain 
 changed hands more than once, and the hotel 
 buildings were made use of as a hospital a de 
 lightful situation for invalids when once they 
 were up there, but it must have been a terrible 
 ordeal for sick and wounded to ascend that jolt 
 ing rocky road. If it was no better then than at 
 the time of my visit, when our sound whole bones 
 were nearly dislocated in the process of climbing 
 it, what must it have been for broken ones ? 
 
 Nearly at the top of the mountain is a college, 
 finely situated on a jutting point of rock. It 
 was built by a benevolent gentleman, who still 
 contributes several thousand dollars a year for 
 the support and education of the boys and girls. 
 Some of the scholars (those who can afford it) 
 pay a fee, and the others receive their education 
 gratis. Just where the mountain slopes down 
 and forms a rocky ridge (called The Point) there 
 is a curious piece of rock resembling a reading- 
 desk or pulpit. From this natural rostrum, one 
 of the Confederate generals harangued his troops 
 previous to a battle, which took place on these 
 rocky ledges. The pickets and companies of the 
 contending armies both had possession of parts 
 of Look-out Mountain, and were constantly pop 
 ping at each other from behind projecting rocks- 
 and trees. When an engagement took place in. 
 
236 A CITY IN ADAMANT. 
 
 which the Federals were repulsed, some facetious 
 Yankee officer telegraphed to Washington that 
 an engagement had taken place in the air that 
 the Confederate General - had fought 
 
 above the clouds, and was still in the ascendant. 
 And this might have been literally true, the 
 clouds frequently lying below the mountain. 
 Occasionally, and when it is moonlight, the whole 
 of the vale and lower mountains are covered with 
 cloud, leaving the higher peaks clear. The moon 
 shining on the mist gives it the appearance of 
 water, and the illusion is so complete, that a 
 lady who had arrived at twilight could not be 
 lieve that it was not a lake, and wished to test 
 it. The mountains seemed to rise as clearly and 
 distinctly out of the sea of mist as they do from 
 the actual ocean. It frequently rains in the 
 valleys below when it is fair on the mountain. 
 
 Look-out Mountain is the highest peak of this 
 chain. The whole is historical as the geogra 
 phical centre of the Confederacy, and the spot 
 where its fate was virtually decided. Here, 
 among these verdure-clad mountains, where the 
 wild thyme blooms to the very summit, and in 
 these valleys enamelled with flowers, lay opposed 
 to each other for more than a year, two of the 
 greatest armies that the world has ever seen 
 engaged in civil war. 
 
 Upon another portion of the mountain may 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 237 
 
 be seen a curious freak of nature; " The Eock 
 City." This natural formation perfectly re 
 sembles a city built in solid rock, or rather a 
 petrified city. There are the streets with, seem 
 ingly, rows of houses on either side. There is 
 the main street or Broadway with tall city gates 
 at the end, formed by two solid masses of rock, 
 very much resembling the entrance to an ancient 
 fortified city. There is the old castle and 
 round tower, like a prison ; the old Norman 
 church and conical spire. There are also smaller 
 streets intersecting the main one, and smaller 
 houses in them, and on the slope of the hill 
 behind, are scattered blocks of rock-like suburban 
 villas. There are monuments also ; one rock is 
 a miniature sphinx with a handsomely cut 
 profile, another a mighty elephant. It is a 
 marvellous ramble through this petrified sem 
 blance of a city, all overgrown with the most 
 luxuriant verdure, wild flowers, creepers, and 
 vines of every kind. Here are found also most 
 beautiful varieties of fungus resembling large 
 branches of white coral, requiring to be crushed 
 to discover that they are only fungi, bright- 
 scarlet cups, clear and polished as carved red 
 coral ; the same in yellow ; but they drooped 
 before we got them out of the city. Pink, 
 orange, and brown were also there in every 
 variety of shade and shape. All were ex- 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 
 
 quisitely moulded, and the colouring of the 
 fungus was as brilliant as that of the autumn 
 leaves ; indeed, if the fairies use them for their 
 dinner-service, as they tell us in fairy legends, 
 no monarch is served on a more dainty. 
 
 There was something awe-inspiring in the 
 lonely giant rocks, standing like warning sen 
 tinels over the sunshiny valley that spread in 
 waving verdant beauty beneath. It seemed as 
 though some arrogant, defying beings had built 
 a splendid city here in days of yore, and that 
 for its wickedness and folly, a petrifying rain 
 had fallen upon it and turned it into stone as it 
 stood. Stiff, frozen, and cold it remains, a 
 monument for wondering eyes to gaze at and 
 for wondering hearts to pause over, and consider 
 how many living cities are turning to stone for 
 lack of " Christian charity," and how many 
 living hearts are petrifying for want of love and 
 kindness. Geologists will perhaps tell us that 
 mighty waters rushing with rapid wave, have 
 quarried and cut these thoroughfares of rock, 
 and formed the streets and shaped the rocks 
 into such familiar forms. But " how long ? 
 how long ?" we cry, since the great floods were 
 up here, three thousand feet above the sea and 
 five hundred miles away from it. Was it at 
 the deluge or before ? Perhaps they will say it 
 was in some mighty upheaving of the earth, 
 
A CITY IN ADAMANT. 239 
 
 when fire and rocks were tossed into the air 
 and stand now as they fell. Geologists no 
 doubt have their theory, but whatever the 
 scheme may be, the facts are none the less 
 marvellous, grand and mysterious. 
 
 Travellers should also visit the mouth of a 
 cavern which extends under the mountain. 
 Already five miles of it have been explored, and 
 its outlet is said to be twenty miles away in 
 Georgia. It is very similar to the Mammoth 
 Cave, Kentucky, although not yet so fully 
 explored or so accessible. Thirty years ago this 
 mountain was the home of the Eed Indian ; he 
 is now far back beyond the Mississippi. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FHOM CHATTANOOGA TO NASHVILLE. 
 
 HE route from Chattanooga to Nash- 
 
 o 
 
 ville lay through most exquisite 
 scenery; the rail skirting the river 
 and running close under Look-out Mountain ; 
 so close, indeed, that you might almost touch 
 the rocks with your hand on one side, whilst on 
 the other you might drop a stone from the 
 carriage- window into the river. From the 
 banks rose other ranges of mountains, from 
 which a large supply of soft coal is obtained. 
 Several of the shafts were visible. So pre 
 cipitous were the mountains that hemmed us in, 
 that it was difficult to understand where we 
 were going to find a road out of them ; for there 
 w r ere mountains on the right, mountains on the 
 left, mountains sloping away behind us, and 
 mountains rising perpendicularly before us. 
 Yet there were not many tunnels, as in Eng- 
 
FROM CHATTANOOGA TO NASHVILLE. 241 
 
 land ; we appeared always to make a detour, 
 except once, when we ran under a mountain 
 with three hundred feet of rock above us. 
 Another time we crossed a bridge, a hundred 
 and fifty feet above the stream, and formed 
 only of wooden trestle-work. It looked terrific, 
 and the more so as there was not the slightest 
 parapet to the bridge. 
 
 Sometimes the train would scramble through 
 a gorge in the rocks, so narrow-looking in the 
 distance it seemed impossible that we could get 
 through ; but on reaching it we accomplished 
 the feat, not, however, without almost scraping 
 the sides. It felt like running into Dante s 
 Inferno, where the solid rock closes in nearer 
 and nearer, until the victim is wedged fast and 
 the breath is crushed out of him. But that 
 victim was not an American locomotive, which 
 would assuredly go ahead through all creation, 
 Dante s Inferno not excepted. We ran along a 
 creek for about twenty miles, crossing and re- 
 crossing it thirteen times. By-and-by the sun 
 set in crimson glory, and the light faded away 
 into silver moonlight. 
 
 There is something marvellously fascinating 
 in travelling through a mountainous country by 
 moonlight, in gazing on the dark shadows and 
 silvery tints, the ghostly grey of the trees and 
 the glitter of the dimpling water, the soft 
 VOL. i. 16 
 
242 FROM CHATTANOOGA TO NASHVILLE. 
 
 gleamy white of the cottages, and the ruddy 
 glow within, when for a moment the door stands 
 ajar. The mountains take a dim, shadowy out 
 line, towering higher and higher, until they 
 .seem to reach the very stars in heaven. 
 
 We struggled up a portion of the Cumberland 
 Mountains, at an acclivity of a hundred feet to 
 the mile, when our engine appeared to become 
 quite exhausted with puffing and blowing, and, 
 unable to climb any farther, dived straight into 
 the centre of the mountain for about half a mile. 
 When we emerged into the open air, we had 
 left the mountains fairly behind us. Our engine 
 then stopped, wiped the dew from its brow, and 
 took a long drink ; for American engines, like 
 American men, are often wanting a " drink," 
 and when they get it both make a somewhat 
 similar noise or sigh of complacency. 
 
 Sometimes, on these cars, the conductor will 
 come and entertain himself and others (that is, 
 if the study of human nature under various 
 phases should please you) by a little conver 
 sation. He usually begins by " concluding" 
 you are from England. He " guesses" so from 
 your complexion. 
 
 Then commence his interrogatories, which are 
 very much after the style of a Scotch " precogni- 
 tiori." If you bear all this amiably you may 
 subsequently obtain a good deal of information 
 
FROM CHATTANOOGA TO NASHVILLE. 243 
 
 by " precognizing " him. Having served my 
 apprenticeship to Scotch law, I naturally put 
 it in practice, and turn it to account when op 
 portunity affords. 
 
 The conductor on the railroad cars in America 
 is a totally different functionary from the Eng 
 lish guard, although doing the same duty, with 
 the exception of sometimes collecting the fares. 
 They are invariably civil and obliging to ladies, 
 and it is quite customary to receive a formal 
 introduction to them, as to the captain of a 
 vessel. And indeed they occupy very much 
 the same position on board the cars, taking 
 command and exercising the same sort of 
 .authority. 
 
 162 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE HIDDEN BEHIND THE. 
 DOOR. 
 
 NE of the prettiest cities of the 
 South if South it can properly 
 be called is Nashville, Tennessee. 
 It is built on a rocky plain, surrounded 
 by pleasant wooded hills at the distance 
 of some five or six miles. The immediate 
 neighbourhood was not picturesque, for the 
 trees had all been cut down to make fortifica 
 tions, and facilitate the movements of the army 
 encamped around the city during the war. It 
 also supplied firewood for six months for an 
 army of twenty thousand men. The prettiness 
 of the suburbs was therefore greatly diminished, 
 and one had to ride several miles out of the 
 city, before the hills presented themselves in 
 wooded beauty. 
 
 The glory of Nashville is its capitol, a chaste 
 and classical building, constructed entirely of 
 
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 245 
 
 very white limestone, almost rivalling marble. 
 It is an oblong structure, surrounded by a colon 
 nade with Corinthian fluted columns, reached 
 by a flight of steps. The capitol is built on a 
 rocky eminence in the centre of the city, pre 
 senting from all parts a most striking and im 
 posing appearance, but particularly so from the 
 r i ver __the Cumberland. The centre of the 
 building is a square tower, surmounted by a 
 cupola. The interior arrangements are carried 
 out on the same handsome scale. The Senate 
 and Representative chambers are of solid stone, 
 quarried within a quarter of a mile of the city ; 
 the columns are of a beautiful porphyry, found 
 in Tennessee. There is a library, and the usual 
 chambers for the use of the senators. A mag 
 nificent hall or vestibule extends the whole 
 length of the building, and there is a splendid 
 Staircase, also of porphyry marble. The reading- 
 desk, or dais, of the speaker in the senate cham 
 ber is, like the columns of red marble, intersected 
 with white. The building was in perfect good 
 taste throughout, a rare circumstance in America, 
 where display is almost everywhere the domi 
 nating feature. 
 
 We were astonished to observe, placed in a 
 straight line down the centre of the magnificent 
 hall, and quite out of keeping with it, about two 
 hundred small ugly wooden boxes. The explana- 
 
246 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 tion was, that even on that classic floor visitors- 
 could not refrain from the very unclassical habit 
 of squirting tobacco-juice about, and these boxes; 
 
 were to preserve the cleanliness of the floor as 
 
 a notice, drawing visitors attention to the only 
 too obvious boxes, set forth. 
 
 It had been originally intended to build a low 
 stone balustrade round the slope of the emi 
 nence on which the capitol stands, and to lay 
 out the rugged rocks in gardens and parterres. 
 But war inexorable war intervened, and the 
 space was used for fortifications, while the -tower 
 became a look-out station. The whole sur 
 roundings are in a rough, dilapidated condition, 
 very much as the army had left them. This 
 is a great pity, as the situation is fine. The 
 building is equally so, and is worthy of a pro 
 minent place among the architectural achieve 
 ments of America. 
 
 The architect was a Mr. Strickland, who has- 
 since died, and is buried in a niche which he 
 had himself contrived for the purpose, in the 
 glorious monument he thus erected to his own 
 genius. The view of the country from any part 
 of the building is very pleasing, overlooking the 
 town and the Cumberland River, winch, like 
 nearly all American rivers, is picturesque and 
 winding, taking a snake-like course through 
 the surrounding country, and the hills em 
 
HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR. 247 
 
 circling the rocky plateau on which the town is 
 built. 
 
 In Nashville the dwelling-houses and shops 
 presented a better appearance than those of 
 other Southern cities. They were in better 
 repair, the paint was fresher, the gardens were 
 neater, and the windows cleaner. Altogether, 
 Nashville had more the well-to-do air of a 
 Northern town. All the houses are built of 
 brick, the building of wooden houses within the 
 city limits being prohibited. Some are stone- 
 fronted, but none are wholly built of the beauti 
 ful stone of which the capitol is constructed. 
 Nature has paved the streets the solid rock 
 having in most of them been merely smoothed 
 down, presenting an appearance very like that 
 of the Via Appia, leading out of Eome. Thus 
 the main street, being on an acclivity, will 
 never wear or require mending. The pathways 
 are formed, like the roadway, out of the solid 
 rock, only raised a little above it. Those streets, 
 however, that run transversely to the slope 
 were fearfully rough and rugged, and a great 
 deal of macadamizing was needed to make them 
 tolerable for walking or driving. 
 
 There are four Catholic churches in Nashville, 
 and three different establishments of nuns, two 
 being Dominican Convents for the education of 
 young ladies and the care of orphans. Both 
 
248 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 had beautiful houses in opposite directions in 
 the environs of the city. The academy of St. 
 Cecilia is a most desirable school for young 
 ladies ; its situation delightful and healthy, the 
 house commodious, the grounds beautiful, the 
 lady superior a benevolent and talented person. 
 The ladies wear the white cashmere dress of the 
 order. They informed us that the vow of se 
 clusion had been absolved, arid they do not now 
 keep any cloister, but visit the town whenever 
 they find it necessary. This is the case with 
 most religious orders in America, where they 
 find it more convenient to lay aside mediaeval 
 discipline for modern utility, and with true 
 charity and devotion to do whatsoever good 
 their hands may find to do. The institution in 
 question has now fifty young ladies, who appear 
 as happy as peace and kindness can make them, 
 autrement " as happy as a convent girl/ There 
 is a home-like feeling about the place which is 
 quite delightful. 
 
 On the opposite side of the town, and on 
 another wooded hill, we visited the orphan 
 asylum, superintended by four sisters of the 
 same order of Dominicans. They had under 
 their care seventy little orphan children, to 
 whom they gave every attention, feeding, cloth 
 ing, and teaching them from morn till eve. One 
 of the sisters remarked to me, " But we put 
 
HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR. 249 
 
 them to bed very early, we find it such a relief 
 when they are all asleep." It certainly must 
 require earnest devotion to spend all one s life 
 with little stranger children, varying in disposi 
 tion and character, but all equally tiresome to 
 manage. Mothers, of course, enjoy the naughti 
 ness of their offspring, but in strangers it must 
 certainly require heaven-born patience to endure 
 it year after year. 
 
 In both these establishments everything was 
 scrupulously clean and well kept. There is 
 nothing to equal the monastic system for neat 
 ness, order, and regularity. When the orphans 
 are old enough, they are placed out in situa 
 tions, according to their ability. The four 
 sisters at the Orphan House had only two ser 
 vants to assist them, and as most of the chil 
 dren were under ten, it will easily be seen how 
 much labour these devoted women must go 
 through in the course of a day. Divine charity 
 is of all climes and seasons, and these sisters 
 represented four different nations German, 
 French, Irish, and American. At St. Cecilia 
 there was a French sister, from whom the young 
 ladies acquired pure French, and a very able 
 German pianist was also engaged from Nashville 
 for the benefit of the more advanced pupils in 
 music. 
 
 In a large brick building near the capitol, 
 
250 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 some sisters of mercy had a poor- school of six 
 hundred children, day scholars; and a large 
 house opposite the Catholic church was held as 
 a hoarding-school for an intermediate class, who 
 paid a small fee. So that the hand of. charity 
 was extended to all ranks and conditions. 
 
 We went to visit the show-place of Nashville, 
 a residence about a couple of miles from the 
 town. In point of situation it was charming, 
 and the grounds tastefully laid out, such as one 
 might see in a thousand English country homes 
 fine green lawn, and pretty flowers, green 
 house, etc., etc. ; but the whole beauty was 
 destroyed by a Cockney display of plaster casts 
 and iron statues. There were two enormous 
 lions at the foot of the steps leading up to the 
 house, and two stags at the top ! My horse 
 took fright at them, and nearly threw me on to 
 their uncomfortable-looking antlers. A couple 
 of yards away there was a plaster cast of a 
 spotted Dalmatian coach dog, and, crouching in 
 the grass, lay a tiger, painted yellow. Dianas, 
 Apollos, Neptunes, etc., abounded ; in fact, a 
 small plaster of Paris mythology was distributed 
 about the grounds, which covered some eight or 
 ten acres. The house was a square brick build 
 ing, moderately large, and painted to represent 
 brown stone. 
 
 The interior was so profoundly dark and so 
 
HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR. 251 
 
 crammed with furniture, that I made a most 
 ungraceful entre e over a petit Samuel at prayer 
 on the floor. Fortunately, as we afterwards 
 discovered, there was no one in the room. The 
 negro servant having left us, we groped about 
 for a seat, afraid of sitting in some one s lap or 
 getting impaled on the antlers of a stag. When 
 the negro returned to announce that his mis 
 tress would be with us directly, he let in for 
 our benefit a glimmer of light through one of 
 the windows, which were richly draped with 
 the heavy Algerian-striped damask, lined and 
 deeply fringed this in June, with the thermo 
 meter at 90! The greater part of the furni 
 ture was in the Louis XIY. style, and had evi 
 dently been brought from Paris. It was fit only 
 for mid- winter, and its stuffiness was painful to- 
 contemplate. The walls were covered with pic 
 tures and family portraits, consisting of the 
 mistress of the house, her various husbands (she 
 was said to have had four), and their children.. 
 Some of the copies of Italian masters were nearly 
 as bad as the family portraits, Beatrice Cenci 
 looking capable of every meanness under the 
 sun. The rooms were rather small, and the pic 
 tures so large and in such tremendous gilt frames, 
 that they had the effect of a house insecurely 
 built of pictures. 
 
 Such was the specimen shown to me of 
 
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 Southern wealth and luxury ; and no doubt a 
 great deal of money had been wasted upon it. 
 It was an attempt to rival the splendour of a 
 nobleman s mansion, the result being only an 
 imitation of a lavishly-bedecked Cockney villa. 
 
 I at once recognized in it the original of a 
 gorgeous dwelling I had just been reading of in 
 a novel, which described the wealth, refinement, 
 and Oriental splendour of Southern homes. The 
 marbles and pictures were said to be in the 
 style of the Borghese Palace, near Rome, or the 
 Dorea Pamphile, or the Corso. But as com 
 pared with these, or any other European man 
 sion, the place I had been visiting was a mere 
 burlesque. Yet, wherever I went in Tennessee, I 
 was sure to hear of this beau ideal of splendour, 
 and until I had seen it, I imagined that the 
 novelist who described it had dealt in the 
 wildest fiction, for which she had not the slight 
 est foundation, or had mistaken her locale, 
 placing it in Southern America instead of South 
 Italy. 
 
 I had traversed most of the Southern States, 
 and was ever onthegia vive for objects which I 
 heard constantly lauded, statuary especially. But 
 until I went to Nashville, I had seen but one 
 really good piece of marble sculpture namely, 
 the bust of Caroline Buonaparte, Queen of 
 Naples. At Savannah they have, on a lofty 
 
HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR. 253 
 
 column, a statue of Pulaski, the famous Polish 
 general, and at Charleston there is one of Chat 
 ham, minus an arm. Walking one day in the 
 streets of Nashville, my attention was directed 
 to a dwelling-house, surrounded by a small gar 
 den of about half an acre. The owner of the 
 place, I was told, was a man of great taste, and 
 had embellished his residence with sculpture. 
 There was little need to tell me this, for in 
 this one half-acre were gathered together about 
 twenty-five casts in plaster and iron lions, 
 tigers, Phyllises, Esmeraldas and their goats, 
 Moseses and their bulrushes, stags, hounds, etc., 
 etc. It looked to me like one of those statuary 
 depots in the New Eoad, London, where such 
 articles are exposed for sale. It struck me that 
 when Tennesseans do get a taste for statuary, 
 they become gluttonous, and are not easily sati 
 ated, but pick up all the trash they can find, 
 perfectly indifferent whether the article be a 
 sham or real. 
 
 The complaints at Nashville of the Northern 
 army were both sad and ridiculous. One lady 
 had lost her velvet cloak, another her best boots, 
 another her jewellery, another some family pic 
 tures, and so on. Of depredators it is often 
 said, " nothing is too hot or heavy for them ;" 
 and so it would appear to have been with the 
 Northern soldiers. For a lady, relating her 
 
254 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 grievances, amongst other things, said that the 
 soldiers came and carried away a new stove, 
 which she was just going to have set up. 
 
 " Oh, that is nothing," exclaimed her friend, 
 " they carried off mine, which was already up, 
 had the fire lit, and the dinner cooking upon 
 it." 
 
 I said that, under the circumstances, I would 
 have asked them to stay to dinner, and got my 
 share of it. 
 
 Another lady told me she had lately been to 
 New York ; whilst there she was invited out to 
 dine, and about to sit down, when she descried 
 her own silver on the tahle, and threatened to 
 -call in the police to her host for possessing stolen 
 property. 
 
 Upon another occasion a lady, not too devout, 
 discovered when at church her own shawl on 
 the shoulders of a Northern lady. One may 
 better imagine than describe the " scrimmage " 
 for the shawl which took place in the church. 
 
 I was amused very much by the description a 
 lady gave me of her flight from home on the 
 approach of the Northern troops. Her husband 
 was in the Confederate army, and she had sent 
 off her children to various places for protection, 
 having resolved to remain on the homestead her 
 self to protect it from the spoliation of the in 
 vadersa plan which was usually successful. 
 
HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR. 255 
 
 She had, however, as she informed me, over 
 rated her courage, for immediately on the sight 
 of the blue coats she determined to abandon the 
 premises, and began to pack up her valuables. 
 Before this was accomplished, the army arrived, 
 and she fled wildly into the pine woods, carrying 
 away with her only the cradle, her guitar, and 
 her father s picture. 
 
 Before she had fled very far, she found the 
 picture so cumbersome, that she tore off the 
 canvas and threw away the frame, and thus, a 
 little relieved, she hoped to gain the Confede 
 rate lines. At nightfall her despair was brought 
 to a climax by encountering a mounted patrol 
 from the enemy s lines. Feeling sure that he 
 would destroy her life, and being unable to 
 escape, she threw herself on her knees, and, 
 guitar in one hand, cradle in the other, implored 
 him for her baby s sake to spare her life. She 
 told me how greatly she was relieved when the 
 horseman, noticing the guitar, said, " Well, give 
 us a tune then." He was not such a demon as 
 he had appeared to her to be. He presented 
 her with some hickory nuts which he had in his 
 pocket, and offered to convey her either to the 
 enemy s head quarters, or to the probable Con 
 federate lines. She chose the latter, and was 
 some time after picked up by Confederate 
 patrols, having had to abandon the cradle en 
 
256 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 route. The baby for whom the cradle was in 
 tended came duly to hand, and was well cared 
 for. 
 
 When the Federal troops marched into the 
 town of Savannah, the inhabitants kept to their 
 houses, and little or no violence of any kind was 
 offered. A friend of mine, who resided in one 
 of the handsomest houses in Savannah, soon 
 received a visit from one of the commanding 
 officers, who coolly requested to be taken in as 
 a border, or that she should give up half of the 
 house. The lady a bitter rebel told him she 
 would not live iinder the same roof with him, 
 though it were of golden shingles, and that if 
 he came in, she would walk out. He expressed 
 his regret at her resolution, but said he intended 
 to stay, and that she could carry away with her 
 whatever she thought proper. 
 
 She had previously, anticipating this invasion, 
 packed all her jewellery and silver into one 
 trunk, which was carefully stowed away behind 
 a door, that when open concealed it as in a 
 closet. A dray was procured, and the lady, 
 praying backwards for the Yankees, departed 
 with her luggage and furniture, to seek a new 
 home. Scarcely had she settled down in her 
 new abode, than she suddenly bethought her of 
 the trunk with all her valuables, which she had 
 left behind the door. She rushed back to her 
 
HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR. 257 
 
 house, but on her way beheld the precious trunk 
 mounted on a military baggage- waggon. In 
 vain she appealed to the escort, in vain she im 
 plored the commanding officer ; he merely bowed 
 his regrets, and said she was, as he had already 
 told her, at liberty to take anything away from 
 the house, but he could not stop baggage-wag 
 gons, that she might select from them any 
 object she had a fancy for. 
 
 When Rosencrantz s army entered Nashville, 
 the best houses were selected for officers quar 
 ters, and the families had so many hours allowed 
 them to go in American vernacular " where 
 they d n pleased." 
 
 One day there would be a levy on all the 
 waggons in the city for ambulance service ; 
 -another, everybody would find himself minus 
 his carriage horses for troop service. A poor 
 woman told me, with tears in her eyes, of the 
 loss of her only steed, Dobbin, by whose aid, in 
 bringing eggs and butter to market, she had 
 contrived to support herself and children during 
 the absence of her husband. She chanced to be 
 in town on the unlucky day when the ukase for 
 horses was issued. Dobbin was meekly stand 
 ing, bearing her stock of provisions, while she 
 was engaged with a customer, when she saw a 
 number of soldiers surround him. She rushed 
 to the rescue, and threw her arms round his 
 
 VOL. I. 17 
 
258 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 neck, entreating to have him spared to her, aa 
 the only support of herself and family. The 
 soldiers only jeered her, and declared that Dob 
 bin was a " d d rebel/ that he must thence 
 forth work in a loyal cause, and bidding her cut 
 short her embraces, they relieved Dobbin of his 
 butter and eggs. She had no heart to attempt 
 to sell them, she said, and trudged home with 
 her load, weeping all the way. 
 
 There is little doubt that although most of 
 the Southern cities were surrendered or evacu 
 ated, they were treated much in the fashion of 
 cities taken by storm. The women and children 
 were invariably respected, to the honour of 
 American men be it said, although a thousand 
 and one instances were brought under my notice 
 of every sort of license imaginable. The soldiers 
 would come and demand their rings, watches,, 
 and brooches, and even frighten them by point 
 ing pistols at them to make them deliver up 
 their valuables, yet their persons always re 
 mained sacred. 
 
 This manliness of feeling towards the weaker 
 sex is characteristic of the American, and in this, 
 he is superior to his British ancestor. One 
 never hears of the horrible brutalities so common 
 in England, of kicking a woman to death, or 
 throwing her down a flight of stairs. Such 
 deeds in America would call forth the Lynch 
 
HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR. 259 
 
 Law. The offender would find himself swung 
 to the first convenient tree or lamp-post, and 
 the authorities would not trouble to ascertain 
 who were the perpetrators of this summary act 
 of justice. Thus, even in a large army, that 
 was under no great discipline, and in which, in 
 the natural course of things, there must have 
 been ruffians of the very lowest type, they yet 
 respected women. Even when General Butler 
 issued his notorious mandate that all women 
 insulting the Union flag or soldiers should be 
 regarded as " common women," it had not much 
 more result than exciting almost universal 
 indignation, and amongst the officers there was 
 not a -man who would have dishonoured himself 
 by taking advantage of such license. 
 
 Edgefield, a small village, is a suburb of Nash 
 ville, but on the other side of the river, which 
 is here crossed by a beautiful suspension -bridge 
 of five hundred feet span, also by an iron rail 
 way bridge, which opens to let ships pass 
 through. The centre turns on a pivot, and 
 revolves with the greatest ease, requiring only 
 the strength of one man to turn it. The pedestal 
 or shaft on which it is worked is built on solid 
 rock, in the bed of the river. It is an interesting 
 sight to see the great bridge with its iron frame 
 go slowly sailing round, till it stands " fore and 
 aft " in the middle of the river, like a slender 
 
 172 
 
260 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 rod. There are also some pillars, the remains 
 of the bridge destroyed during the war by the 
 Confederates themselves, in the hope of prevent 
 ing the enemy from crossing. It was, however, 
 unavailing, for before the enemy presented them 
 selves, the importance of the bridge was gone, 
 by the fall of Fort Donaldson, on the Cumber 
 land River. 
 
 The Confederates, having been routed, fell 
 back upon Nashville immediately. The scene 
 must, from all accounts, have been one of the 
 most terrible of the war the panic-struck army 
 rushed into Nashville spreading terror and dis 
 may on all sides, their only endeavour being, to 
 put the city between them and their pursuers. 
 Every horse and conveyance was seized to carry 
 them beyond the city. Some were so desperate 
 .as to propose setting fire to the town, and so 
 destroy it rather than allow it to fall into the 
 hands of the enemy. The unfortunate women 
 and children were alone left in it. Nashville 
 had been the dep6t for commissariat stores, and 
 immense buildings along the river-side were 
 crammed with all kinds of provisions and cloth 
 ing. Upon the approach of the enemy it was 
 thought best, in order to prevent these stores 
 from falling into their hands, to throw them 
 open to the people, who were to come and help 
 themselves to whatever they pleased, and enor- 
 
HIDDEN BEHIND THE DOOR. 261 
 
 raous quantities of edibles were thrown into the 
 river. It must have been curious to see the 
 poor and the rabble of Nashville rushing into 
 these buildings, and carrying off whatever they 
 could lift. One old woman, who had scarcely 
 been able to walk for years, distinguished herself 
 by carrying off a whole pig. Other women stag 
 gered under numberless pairs of pants, doubt 
 less under the hope that their sons or husbands 
 might some day return from the war. Every 
 thing that had a wheel was put in requisition 
 to carry away a load of provisions, and terrible 
 it was for those poor wretches who had been 
 living on short commons for so long, to see them 
 shovelled into the river, when after every effort 
 they could not succeed in carrying them away 
 in time. 
 
 On the other side of Nashville, from a place 
 called Bowling Green, another portion of the 
 Confederate army had to retreat, fearing that 
 they could not maintain their position after the 
 fall of Fort Donaldson. It will be remembered 
 that these "forts" were only earthworks, field- 
 works hastily thrown up, and not like those on 
 Portsdown Hill for instance. General Rosen- 
 crantz came in a few days afterwards, and imme 
 diately threw up fortifications all round the city. 
 No attempt was made to dislodge him, until after 
 the fatal disaster of Missionary Ridge, when 
 
262 NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE. 
 
 Hood made an inroad into Tennessee, hoping to 
 get into the Federal rear. He came within 
 sight of Nashville, which at that time was held 
 by not more than ten thousand troops, and 
 many a weary war-worn soldier caught a glimpse 
 of his home, and it is said that if Hood had 
 marched upon the town at once he would have 
 stood a very good chance of taking it. But he 
 delayed for a week. The Federals had got their 
 reinforcements and marched out to meet him, 
 and one of the most disastrous defeats which 
 the Confederates ever sustained ensued out of 
 thirty thousand troops, only eighteen thousand 
 answered to the muster-call afterwards, and they 
 were ragged, shoeless, and starving. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 AMERICAN CHILDREN. 
 
 l 
 
 MUST here be allowed an Hiberni- 
 cism, as far as the title of this 
 IBS=B==== _ chapter is concerned, for in the whole 
 course of my travels I never discovered that 
 there were any American children. Diminutive 
 men and women in process of growing up into 
 big ones, I have met with ; but the child, in the 
 full sense attached to that word in England a 
 -child with its rosy cheeks and bright joyous 
 laugh, its docile obedience and simplicity, its 
 healthful play and its disciplined work, is a 
 being almost unknown in America. 
 
 The little people of that country dress like 
 .adults, talk like their fathers and grandfathers, 
 eat like their mothers and god-mothers, and 
 keep the same hours as their grown-up brothers 
 ,and sisters. A little American boy, almost 
 before the age when an English child can only 
 lisp (they never lisp in America, for the lisp is 
 
264 AMERICAN CHILDREN. 
 
 too much of a childish attribute) "reckons," 
 "guesses," or "calculates" he ll have five dollars 
 made up by next " Thanksgiving," and he 
 " reckons" by that time " Seth Washington IL 
 Smith will let him have that horse-velocipede 
 he wants seven dollars for now." If you think 
 to amuse him by putting a watch to his ear, he 
 immediately pulls it away and asks what it 
 cost, and why you don t sell it and get a dollar 
 more for it. If you ask him why he does not 
 sell his knife or pencil, he at once jumps at the 
 chance of striking a bargain, and asks " what 
 will you give ?" eager to obtain more than he 
 knows the knife has cost. 
 
 This spirit for over-reaching and taking ad 
 vantage of his neighbour is rather encouraged 
 than otherwise by American parents. He is 
 " right smart," they say, " and will make his 
 way in the world." It seems to me that the 
 principles inculcated (if American parents incul 
 cate any) are those of the Scotchman to his son. 
 " Make money, my son honestly if you can 
 but make money." Never being taught obe 
 dience to their parents, the American children 
 are therefore considerably more ill-mannered and 
 disagreeable than European ones. They show 
 no childish timidity or shyness, and no sense 
 of respect for their elders, or deference to stran- 
 jgers ; but on the contrary, they regard you with 
 
AMERICAN CHILDREN. 265 
 
 considerable suspicion, and frown upon your 
 most amiable endeavours to please them. 
 
 If a sugar-plum be offered to one of these 
 little men, he will snatch it, and eat it up with 
 a jeering laugh, thinking how cleverly he has 
 " sold" you. " I guess I did that pretty smart." 
 One beautiful little fellow with fine dark eyes, 
 who had been standing eyeing me with a frown 
 on his fair soft brow, I endeavoured to pro 
 pitiate by telling him I would show him a pic 
 ture in my book of a little boy just like himself. 
 He turned his fierce little eyes upon me, and 
 said, "I guess I was four years old last Feb 
 ruary, marm, and now I am nearly six yes, 
 marm." And off he marched in high dudgeon 
 at being considered a little boy, kicking my 
 dress out of his way as he went. Presently I 
 heard him talking with another boy somewhat 
 older than himself, and was greatly amused by 
 the tone and style of the conversation. They 
 stood with their hands in their little coat 
 pockets, and with their little legs apart, and 
 addressed each other as " sir," as I had been 
 "marm." The proverbial "extra twopence" is 
 evidently always paid in this country, for the 
 " sir" and "marm" are never omitted. 
 
 " If that locomotive, sir, had dashed into our 
 cars, we should all have been smashed up, sir," 
 said the bigger boy. 
 
cY////ViY-:.Y. 
 
 " No, sir, my mother read in the paper that 
 the cow-catcher dashed into some other cars. It 
 smashed them all to bits, and wasn t hurt it sol I . 
 Yes, sir: 
 
 They continued the argument like two old 
 men, regarding each other with a steadfast 
 seriousness utterly grotesque in two siu-li small 
 children. The very babies have a solemn con 
 templative look, as though already pondering 
 what "ticket" they will vote, and what new 
 amendment to the Constitution they will pro 
 pose in Congress, when they have cut their teeth 
 tind can walk and talk. 
 
 Mere children turn out in the world on their 
 own account ; seek employment, obtain it, and 
 keep the wages. On one occasion I was in a 
 shop where a ticket for "a boy wanted " was 
 -displayed in the window. A boy of nine or ten 
 entered, and, singling out the head of the estab 
 lishment at once, said, "Want a boy?" "Yes." 
 " How much do you give ?" " Two dollars a 
 week." " Oh, you go to h 1 !" was the reply, 
 and he turned on his heel and marched out of 
 the shop. There was no humble setting forth 
 of the services he could render ; no timid but 
 earnest promise of doing his best if taken on 
 trial ; no anxiety as to his services being ac 
 cepted or rejected, but a cool defiant refusal. 
 
 Another child I met with, and whom I shall 
 
AMERICAN CHILDREN. 
 
 never forget, was in speech and manners the 
 reverse of the above picture, though they were 
 equally characteristic of the American small 
 people. He was a boy of twelve, with exqui 
 sitely symmetrical features one of the most 
 beautiful faces I have seen in America. He had 
 large, soft, hazel-brown eyes, and a profusion of 
 silken, wavy hair of the same shade ; his com 
 plexion was a soft, creamy white, and his 
 manners were those of a " yrartd seigneur de la 
 caw in this respect differing from most other 
 American children. But then it was impossible 
 to regard him as a child He introduced him 
 self to me, professing the great interest he took 
 in making rriy acquaintance. Our first conver 
 sation related to the Gulf Stream and the min 
 eral springs of various countries, on which sub 
 jects he seemed to be perfectly informed ; also 
 on Biblical history, quoting from the learned 
 researches of Professor Stowe, and offering to 
 lend me the volume if I had not read it. This 
 charming small personage was living at the 
 hotel, entirely independent, and I should not 
 have been surprised to learn, on his own income 
 for he had bis own room, of which he kept 
 the key like any other man ; hired his own car 
 riage, took his drive, and dressed in the most 
 elaborate extreme of fashion, wearing always 
 the most dainty of cambric shirt- fronts, with 
 
268 AMERICAN CHILDREN. 
 
 diamond studs. His hair was dressed every 
 morning by the hair- dresser ; I cannot say 
 whether he went through the farce of shaving, 
 for his delicate chin was as smooth as mine, 
 He dined at the public table, and ordered his 
 own dinner ; but that was no feat for a boy of 
 twelve years, as I have seen infants of five do 
 the same daily. 
 
 When the gong sounds for a meal, the small 
 people find their way to the dining-room inde 
 pendent of the escort of parents or servants, 
 and order the waiter in the most imperious 
 manner to supply them with pumpkin pie, ice 
 cream, pickled cucumbers, floating island nuts, 
 grapes, and other dainties they may fancy, 
 washing all down with three or four tumblers of 
 iced-water. If these children ever arrive at 
 maturity with a sound liver, it must be by a 
 peculiar dispensation of Providence, as in the 
 supervision of the "lame and lazy." 
 
 But my handsome beau (for he soon began to 
 pay me marked attention, he not seeming to 
 recognize the disparity of years) ate and drank 
 like a reasonable man, took his coffee, and read 
 his newspaper. " No, madam ; I don t smoke," 
 he replied, with a graceful bow, to my query : 
 U I think it a bad habit, that often interferes 
 with a gentleman s cleanliness." The ends of a 
 fine cambric handkerchief peeped gracefully 
 
 *Sv 
 
AMERICAN CHILDREN. 269 
 
 from the pocket of his coat. His cuffs and his 
 hands were speck! ess, and his nails, like those 
 of most Americans, were beautifully shaped and 
 well kept. I have seen numbers of American 
 boys of this class, cest a dire, young dandies of 
 the age of thirteen or fourteen, but none so per 
 fect as my young friend. When I inquired if 
 he had a little pony, he turned upon me a half- 
 amused, tolerant smile (that seemed to say, 
 ~" You Britishers do make awful blunders, but 
 we bear with you"), and replied, si l have not a 
 pony, madam, but I have a very pretty mare. 
 She does not stand very high, and, though a 
 little skittish, I shall be happy to send for her 
 if you are fond of riding." This conversation 
 was of course in an early stage of our acquaint 
 ance. I soon learned to treat him as he desired, 
 viz., on perfect terms of equality of age, which 
 position he sustained admirably. 
 
 How fond I became of this little miniature 
 man I will not say, but I coveted him very 
 much as a charming little companion, and if I 
 had had any right to him, should certainly not 
 have left him in an hotel alone. He was almost 
 the only pleasant specimen I met of American 
 young people, who, as a rule, are insolent, un- 
 ruly, and rude, as young things brought u(p 
 without any discipline must naturally be. From 
 their earliest infancy they follow pretty much 
 
270 AMERICAN CHILDREN. 
 
 their own inclinations, setting the parental 
 authority at complete defiance. 
 
 If a girl of nine or ten chooses to use powder 
 and cosmetics, making a carnival-mask of her 
 face, the mother or teacher have no authority to 
 prevent it. "I am bound to have it," she 
 announces ; and accordingly she has it. If a 
 boy of the same age wishes to smoke or "chaw," 
 he gives if, perchance, rebuked the same 
 reasons, and continues the habit. A child will 
 ask for the breast of the chicken, or the best 
 piece on the table, and refuse to eat anything 
 else the mother merely remarking, " He never 
 would eat any other part." 
 
 In a family where they were always complain 
 ing of biliousness, I suggested that probably 
 eating hot bread three times a day might have 
 something to do with it. " No doubt," replied 
 the lady; "but you cannot persuade a Southern 
 child to eat bread at all unless it is right hot." 
 I remarked that if the child were in an English 
 nursery, we should not even try to " persuade " 
 him. This want of discipline in youth naturally 
 develops itself into ill-mannered selfishness in 
 after-life, for "the boy is father to the man."" 
 " Oh, ma ! I am so tired !" exclaimed a young 
 ster. " I d like you to give me up that rocking- 
 
 d* 5> 
 mir. 
 
 American boys and girls do not amuse them- 
 
AMERICAN CHILDREN. 271 
 
 selves with toys and games, like children in 
 England ; they prefer lounging about, by laying 
 on sofas, or rocking themselves in chairs. Num 
 bers of children, both girls and boys, lie down 
 on their beds after dinner, and take their siesta 
 like any old fogies. No doubt the indigestible 
 food they indulge in makes this lazy habit as 
 essential for them as for adults. But such 
 habits of indolence contracted at that early age, 
 must become almost ineradicable in after life. 
 The duty of self-sacrifice or self-restraint is the 
 last thing impressed on their minds, while to 
 any unpalatable suggestion the unruly offspring 
 generally replies, " Ma, I won t!" Nowhere 
 else in the world, that I am aware of, is it 
 recognized as a settled thing that no effort 
 should be made to correct or improve unruly 
 and vicious children. 
 
 I remember being in an hotel at Brussels,, 
 which was suddenly thrown into a state of 
 horror and dismay by the advent of a family of 
 American children. They smacked long whips, 
 through the house, rode downstairs on the 
 banisters, stood up on their seats at table, 
 and snatched the fruit and flowers from the 
 epergnes ; caught at the table cloths and pulled 
 over the glass and dishes, sat with their feet out 
 side the windows, and threw the whole establish 
 ment into such consternation, that the hotel- 
 
272 AMERICAN CHILDREN. 
 
 keeper was under the necessity of requesting 
 them to vacate. The mother of this lively 
 brood could scarce bend her fingers, so bedizened 
 were they with diamond rings ; so that it was 
 no want of means to educate the children that 
 had produced this terrible state of things. I 
 thought they were some eccentric, exceptional 
 specimens of American children, but have since 
 had to learn that ] such specimens are the rule, 
 not the exception. 
 
 Mothers in general exercise some sort of sur 
 veillance over the health of their children ; but 
 not much of that with an American mother. If 
 ii child should choose to eat green plums, butter 
 milk, and pickled mackerel, she would merely 
 remonstrate, but would not prevent him. If 
 she saw him standing on the brink of a well or 
 precipice, she might wrangle the point with 
 him, but, having no authority to - restrain him, 
 would remark, " I guess he will stand there. " 
 Tops, hoops, skipping-ropes, football, hockey, 
 skittles, are little known to or appreciated by 
 the young folk of America. They lack the 
 energy which such games need, or, if they have 
 any, display it in a more old-fashioned way. 
 Many will cultivate vegetables or fruit, and sell 
 them at a large profit ; in fact, they begin to 
 trade and make money as soon as they can 
 understand anything. This gives them the 
 
AMERICAN CHILDREN. 273 
 
 serious and careworn look which the getting of 
 money, I have observed, ever produces on old 
 and young. A want of energy is easily ac 
 counted for in Southern children. From their 
 babyhood they have been surrounded by slaves, 
 who crawl about them, ready to flatter, cringe, 
 and toady them to their full bent, with a view 
 to currying favour and avoiding punishment. 
 A domestic scene more saddening and revolting 
 ould scarce be conceived, than that of two or 
 three children surrounded by their special slaves, 
 over whom they have supreme control beating 
 and cutting them, rating at and venting all 
 their evil passions upon them, without the least 
 check to their tyranny, or any attempt of their 
 parents to restrain the bad passions which spring 
 up even in the earliest childhood. A number 
 of young negroes were always crouching around, 
 ready to relieve these children from, and to 
 supply them with, a butt for every ill humour. 
 Thus pampered and enervated from infancy, 
 instead of growing up robust, earnest, self- 
 reliant, energetic men and women, they became 
 demoralized before they had really attained the 
 use of reason contaminated by the close inter 
 course with the depraved and bestial natures of 
 their black dependants. 
 
 To some Southern youngsters the war was a 
 godsend in bringing them to their senses, and 
 
 VOL. i. IS 
 
274 AMERICAN CHILDREN. 
 
 teaching them the hard lesson of how each 
 human being must depend on himself. Many,, 
 however, were too old to learn it, too selfish to 
 grow wise, too inert for steady self-sacrifice,, 
 without which no great cause ever prospered. 
 The heroism displayed was in most cases a dash, 
 not sustained endurance. The exception to 
 this was shown by the few graduates of the 
 military school at West Point, who chanced to- 
 be in the Southern army. 
 
 I was told by one of the most sterling general 
 officers of the Confederate army, that recruits 
 joined from most of the families as privates. 
 (being ignorant of military affairs), bringing 
 with them trunks containing every imaginable 
 comfort and convenience, also a servant to 
 wait upon them ; so that to one regiment of ten 
 companies there would be, at first, two hundred 
 waggons, and as many serving-men as so]diers. 
 Of dash and enthusiasm the young planters had 
 enough and to spare. All were eager to leave 
 their homes and stake their lives for the great 
 cause, but few had the sustained courage to 
 remain and to stand by that cause, let the time 
 and sacrifice needed be what they might. 
 
 There was much of inconsiderate valour with 
 little of steadfast purpose. Some brought their 
 wives and families with them, intending to fight 
 their battles during the day, and pass the night 
 
AMERICAN CHILDREN. 275 
 
 in domestic comfort. All were eager to meet 
 the enemy in the field, but loth to take a spade 
 to dig trenches and throw up earthworks. They 
 were willing to carry a knapsack and gun, but 
 indignant at having to cook their own rations. 
 
 The Southern army was composed of thou 
 sands of gentlemen (or at least of those so de 
 signated in America) occupying the position of 
 private soldiers ; and it became, therefore, a pro 
 blem with the army, as difficult to solve as that 
 of the Spanish grandees saved in a boat from a 
 wreck. "/ seiior, you senor who, diavolo, is to 
 row the boat ashore?" The Southern youth 
 had never been taught to bear any inconveni 
 ence or accident, much less real privations and 
 trials, with fortitude. The war discipline made 
 men of the best of them, but these were too few 
 to sustain so great a cause ; of the greater part 
 it made rowdies. The negroes were the only 
 really disciplined class in the South, and they 
 could not then be made use of; and when the 
 North had succeeded in disciplining her merce 
 nary troops and mercenary troops frequently 
 make the best soldiers the balance was not 
 long in turning in favour of discipline against 
 erratic bravery. 
 
 182 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 AMERICAN HOTELS, AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 
 
 HE American hotel is a peculiar insti 
 tution, occupying a position in the 
 country totally different from that con- 
 ceded to hotels in Europe. The hotel proprietor 
 also holds a rank in American society not ac 
 corded, in other countries, to landlords of similar 
 establishments. In the United States a man of 
 education, fortune, and good position for in 
 stance, a general, a doctor, or lawyer (" solicitor- 
 general " perhaps), would think it no disparage 
 ment to go into the hotel line, at the same time 
 retaining his former rank, his official or other 
 title. It is not unusual when a stranger in 
 quires at the hotel for Major-general So-and-so 
 to whom he has letters of introduction for 
 the gallant major-general himself to step out 
 from behind his own bar to receive his guest. 
 
 I was once introduced to a gentleman, said 
 to be of high culture but fallen fortunes, who 
 
AMERICAN HOTELS. 277 
 
 spoke with bitterness of the vicissitudes of life, 
 telling me of his former wealth, his carriages, 
 horses, plate, and innumerable servants. ^ Not 
 having met with any one living in that princely 
 style, I was beginning to regret this one lost 
 opportunity of seeing an American grand sei 
 gneur in full glory, when he observed, as a 
 climax, " I assure you, madam, I kept one of 
 the largest hotels in the United States !" 
 
 I sincerely trust that he did not observe the 
 shade of British prejudice which must have 
 passed across my face ; for no doubt it was a 
 prejudice, like that which excites the conven 
 tional sneer when a wealthy tailor or tallow- 
 chandler is mentioned. Very little of this pre 
 judice exists in America. Being a tailor was 
 very rarely rated against President Johnson, 
 and the having worked as a tanner never against 
 President Grant; indeed, all the societies or 
 ganized to support the candidature of the latter 
 adopted the leather apron as a badge of honour. 
 To keep a hotel (they aspirate that h) is con 
 sidered, then, quite comme il faut ; to live in 
 one is a mark of fashion ; as it denotes a cer 
 tain degree of wealth and recklessness in its 
 expenditure two qualifications indispensable 
 for those who would rank with the haut ton of 
 America. 
 
 In Europe, hotels are establishments for the 
 
278 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 accommodation of travellers, whether bent on 
 business or pleasure. In America, they are in 
 stitutions for the accommodation of the wealthy 
 inhabitants, to enable them to display their 
 riches to the greatest advantage, and make as 
 much show as possible for their money. These 
 hotels are always large, in proportion to the 
 city, and every place with any pretensions to 
 the name of city has one or two monster speci 
 mens, containing several hundred rooms. When 
 a settler aspires to the dignity and fame of 
 founding a city, he commences operations by 
 building a monster hotel, which generally fails, 
 and buries his hopes in its ruin. The system 
 of living in hotels, though vaunted as the ne 
 plus ultra method, must be qualified with cha- 
 cun a son gout, the, two portions of the globe 
 differing very widely as to this one. 
 
 To a European, American hotel life savours 
 too much of school discipline. Nailed up behind 
 your door, you find a yard and a half of printed 
 regulations, prescribing every movement of 
 domestic life. This, surely, is utterly opposed 
 to British notions of liberty, and would be in 
 dignantly rejected by every Frenchman. 
 
 To have the hours for sleeping and waking 
 pre-arranged by your landlord or the pro 
 prietor, as he must be called is very hard, 
 when you pay for your bed and your room 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 270 
 
 exactly what he demands. To be made to eat 
 when you are not hungry, and to fast when you 
 are famishing, paying all the time torzrechercM 
 .cuisine and an amply-spread board, is very con 
 ducive to unevenness of temper. If you do not 
 eat your meals at the hour and place fixed by 
 the regulations, you must go without, but pay 
 for them all the same. No matter what your 
 appetite or habits may be, you must pay for 
 eatiDg fifteen dishes for breakfast, whether you 
 like it or not. But should you have no inclina 
 tion for rising by gaslight to eat before seven 
 your breakfast of succotash steak, onions, bacon, 
 beans, Irish stew, apples, eggs (broken into 
 wine-glasses, no egg-cups having been yet im 
 ported to this country), pickles, treacle, and 
 iced rain-water, your neighbour probably suck 
 ing his fingers after manipulating each and every 
 ine of these savoury morsels, you can remain in 
 your own room. Then, by patiently pulling at 
 the bell (if there is one), you may attract, if you 
 can, the attention of two negroes one called 
 the "bell boy," the other, more briefly, "boy," 
 without the "bell." One or the other will 
 bring you, after waiting an hour or so, a cup of 
 coff ee-cold, or, if hot, in a tea-pot, which com 
 municates to it a flavour more strange than 
 agreeable. And this one cup of coffee is charged 
 in your bill of extras one dollar, as " meal m 
 room." 
 
280 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 The rule of the hotel is, as written up behind 
 your door, " Food on table at a certain hour." 
 You navigate your way down among a crowd of 
 people, and eat your food, if you are successful 
 in the scramble and like it. But if you do not 
 like what is there, you may not choose anything 
 else. If you fancy a boiled egg for breakfast, 
 and the chef de cuisine has ordered the eggs that 
 morning to be "scrambled," as they call the 
 mess, then you must, like a refractory school 
 boy, eat them " scrambled " or go without. 
 
 If it is the hotel rule to give tea instead of 
 coffee, or coffee instead of tea, your fancies on 
 this point are of no shadow of consequence. If 
 you venture any remonstrance about not liking 
 tea, the generalissimo of the establishment tells 
 you sententiously, and with his hands thrust 
 into his pockets, " We drink tea in this house." 
 ^ Dinner is equally according to law. In most 
 cities, with the exception of New York, the 
 dinner hour is from twelve to one. At some 
 places they insist upon your swallowing that 
 meal at half-past eleven. In one of these hotels 
 I confess to having incited the boarders to re 
 bellion by the banner-cry" In England we eat 
 when we please, if we pay for it." The first day 
 of the revolt the gong sounded in vain ; no one 
 went to the dining-room until one o clock, when 
 we found the door locked, and the cook and all 
 
AND WHA1 OCCURS THEREIN. 281 
 
 the negroes gone home. The second day of the 
 insurrection we got into the dining-room at one 
 o clock ; but as the dinner had been standing 
 there since a little after eleven, and the negroes 
 were all asleep, the result was anything but 
 successful or comfortable. We then resolved 
 unanimously that the eleven o clock meal should 
 be considered dejeuner a la fourcliette, and din 
 ner a myth. 
 
 Dining one day at the same table with an 
 English gentleman, he said to me, in a confiding 
 tone 
 
 " These people are barbarians !" 
 
 " In what respect ?" feeling sure he had made 
 some dreadful discovery in the culinary line. 
 
 " Do you not perceive they always cut off the 
 head and root of the celery, and bring the 
 branches only to table ?" 
 
 I had already noticed this, and wondered 
 at it frequently. Resolving to ascertain the 
 reason of it, I spoke to a negro, whose hand 
 was always open for douceurs, 
 
 " What do they do with the heads of the . 
 celery ?" I said. 
 
 " He cook, he chop dem off; trows dem away 
 good for him hogs, ma am !" 
 
 " Well, can you get me a few V 
 
 " Quite easy. Ma am like to eat pig s meat !" 
 
 And he presently brought us a plateful of the 
 
282 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 roots, which he sat down, grinning broadly, for 
 every Yankee eye near regarded us and the 
 celery roots with amazement, and every Yankee 
 mind " concluded " within itself 
 
 " These people must be Britishers ; they are 
 eating the wrong end of the celery. What bar 
 barians 1" 
 
 Indeed, with the exception of a cup of coffee, 
 I have never had breakfast but three times 
 during the eighteen months of my travels, the 
 dinner serving me as dejeuner a la fourchette, 
 especially when they would give me coffee 
 with it. 
 
 Dinner, socially and scientifically understood, 
 with its courses, conversation, wine, and dessert, 
 is one of those organizations which I had great 
 pleasure in once more realizing. I may have 
 dined in twelve months at most six times, 
 always excepting three or four delightful weeks 
 I spent with an English lady in Georgia. 
 
 An American dinner so called is a curiosity of 
 indigestion, so much so that Americans have 
 nearly always to retire to their beds after eating 
 it, and bear unmistakable tokens of it in their 
 sallow, lean persons. The manner of serving it, 
 and the multiplicity of bits and scraps, resembles 
 more the Turkish style of dinner, than anything 
 I know in Europe. You are served with one 
 plate, knife and fork, and around are placed 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 283 
 
 from one to two or more score of small dishes or 
 saucers, resembling those in a child s toy dinner 
 set. In each dish there is a bit of something a 
 spoonful of turnip, a boiled potato, ditto mashed, 
 a sweet potato, a parsnip, a few leaves of cab 
 bage, a stewed tomato, ditto unstewed, a slice 
 of beet-root, onions raw, onions cooked, cold 
 cabbage, and warm sauer kraut, pickled beets, 
 boiled beets, and celery ; in short, an endless 
 variety of vegetables, all cuit a Veau. 
 
 The fish, flesh, and fowl, are as various as the 
 vegetables, and as badly cooked, but they make 
 a grand bill of fare for the eye, there being a list 
 of from sixty to one hundred different dishes, 
 said to be all cooked with various sauces, but to 
 the palate all owning a close relationship to each 
 other. It requires frequently a good deal of 
 discrimination to distinguish beef from veal, 
 pork from mutton, turkey from " chicken," 
 " Ham, with champagne sauce !" is one of the 
 delicacies set forth, the ham being somewhat 
 less tender than Wiltshire, while the champagne 
 might have remained in its native country for 
 all the ham has seen of it. 
 
 " Cocoa-nut pudding with wine sauce," 
 "Sherry wine jelly," and "Brandy pudding," 
 so called, are in reality compounded on the 
 strictest teatotal principles, and repudiate the 
 approach of intoxicating liquors of any de- 
 
284 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 scription. These dishes all being set down 
 together, and not " to follow/ 7 are necessarily 
 (all but one) cold before you can eat them. 
 
 Americans make the best speed they can, and 
 with knife and fork (alternately) literally shovel 
 down the various viands indiscriminately, termi 
 nating their repast in about ten minutes, and 
 saving themselves from immediate suffocation 
 by copious draughts of iced water. 
 
 The discipline of the hotel does not allow of 
 any beverage more generous, and would frown 
 down severely any apparent leaning towards ale 
 or wine. 
 
 In England or France we should as soon seat 
 a person down to a repast of dry bread as cold 
 water, but in America, and especially in the 
 east, there is a very determined make believe 
 of total abstinence. I say " make believe/ be 
 cause there can be no doubt that there is more 
 drunkenness in America than in any other 
 country. I can safely say that I have seen 
 there in one twelvemonth more men, in a re 
 spectable position of life, intoxicated, than in 
 all the twelvemonths of the rest of my life put 
 together. (Police statistics do not touch the 
 question at all.) 
 
 In a country where grapes, rye, and barley 
 abound, it is false policy to make men drink 
 muddy river water or sooty rain water caught 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 285 
 
 from the roof. In St. John s the water placed 
 upon the table is so thick and yellow, that on 
 my arrival I believed all the company to be 
 drinking cafe"-au-lait in tumblers. 
 
 Hotel prices vary from ten to twenty shillings 
 a day for board and lodging. The price varies 
 not according to accommodation, but according 
 to the size of the hotel ; in fact, the amount ot 
 dollars charged per diem is according to the 
 .amount of dollars it has taken to build the 
 house. I have as frequently had to put coals 
 on the fire with my hands, and stir it with my 
 umbrella, when I have been paying three and 
 sixpence a day for coal, as when I have been 
 paying one and sixpence for the same. Fire- 
 irons do not seem to have been largely imported 
 into this country, and are rarely to be met with. 
 The hotels differ only in the number of dishes 
 they give, and the size of the entertaining rooms. 
 If a dining-room exceeds fifty feet in length, 
 the probability is that you will have to pay over 
 four dollars a day ; if under fifty feet, the charges 
 will be moderated to three or three and a half, 
 .and there will be only about fifty dishes to 
 choose from and to partake of if you please, 
 provided always you can succeed in devouring 
 them in a given space of time. 
 
 Upon one occasion a party of us dining to 
 gether, and attempting to make a European 
 
286 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 dinner, by taking an hour to discuss it, the 
 waiters turned down the gas, and began to fold 
 up the cloths and sweep the room. Such 
 vagaries as sitting over dinner could not be 
 tolerated under hotel discipline. 
 
 Tea or supper whichever they think fit to 
 call it is generally what is termed in Scotland 
 " a heavy tea/ consisting of tea or coffee and 
 cold meat ; sometimes hot steak and sweets, 
 with an infinity of hot cakes and hot bread, 
 such as whofHes and muffins, dough-nuts and 
 crumpets, pikelets and buck-wheat cakes, bis 
 cuits and rolls (which are not rolled, but are 
 square, doughy substances), corn-cakes and pan 
 cakes, bread-cakes and fritters in fact, an ava 
 lanche. 
 
 Americans never eat cold bread if they can 
 avoid it, and if you are resolved not to become 
 dyspeptic, as they are, you have to ask for cold 
 bread. If you said " bread " alone, you would 
 bring around you a shower of the above-named 
 varieties. 
 
 It is noticeable that when the meal is called 
 "tea," you cannot get coffee, but when it is 
 called " supper," you may have either or both. 
 The hours vary from half-past five to six and 
 seven, according to the prevailing fashion. As 
 in the old country, the latest meals are the most 
 fashionable, and the provinces regard New York 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 28? 
 
 with something like veneration and awe, because 
 the New Yorkers are so fashionable as to dine- 
 at five. New York is quite as much the ideal 
 of all that is grand to the American, as Paris is 
 to the Frenchman. 
 
 Much as I approve of discipline, regularity, 
 and exactitude, yet T must confess that my very 
 soul revolts from the sound of the gong of an 
 American hotel. How terrifically does it burst 
 upon one in that mysterious time between 
 waking and sleeping, startling the happy slum- 
 berer from delightful morning dreams, and lead 
 ing her to suppose that the town is on fire. 
 Infinitely, also, do I abhor that persistent 
 chamber-maid, who with the most doggedly 
 impertinent of raps, expresses her wish every 
 half hour from six till nine, to "get through 
 your bed." 
 
 During these morning hours there is neither 
 peace nor comfort. If a train is about to start 
 you are rapped up, whether you want to go or not. 
 If your door is not carefully bolted it flies open 
 with a dull thud and a splash like the entrance 
 of a small cutter or gig, and an individual 
 appears under a yoke, with two large buckets . 
 of water. "Want water?" he growls, "con 
 cluding" you have drunk the two gallons he 
 left you the day before. Next comes a rattling 
 and scraping ; this time it is to take up the 
 
288 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 ashes, a portion of which you are under the 
 necessity of swallowing, unless you prefer suffo 
 cation under the bed-clothes. You are ponder 
 ing the question, whether you will rise and 
 dress or take another nap, when " knock, 
 knock, knock" (imperatively this time). It 
 is the " fireman" as he is called; but his busi 
 ness is not to put out fires, but to light them. 
 I had noticed that these "firemen" were dash 
 ing, dirty, devil-may-care sort of individuals, 
 very much above their business, and generally 
 fresh out from the old country. Building a fire 
 is no doubt the first step towards building a 
 fortune. I have often seen men lighting my 
 fire who had worn dress-boots in their own 
 country. Once, in particular, I asked the fire 
 man if he had ever lighted a fire in England. 
 He said, " Not often." I then asked what had 
 been his position. He coloured and answered, 
 " A valet." I made no reply, feeling that he 
 had spoken falsely. " You do not believe me ?" 
 he inquired. " No." " I thought you would riot. 
 Good morning," and he left the room with the 
 air of a high-bred gentleman, with a coal-box 
 in his hand. 
 
 You will probably receive yet another visit ; 
 this time from the laundress, or from a waiter 
 seeking stray dishes and cups. Having been 
 your own porter and attended to these indi- 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 289 
 
 viduals various requirements, you think you 
 may as well get up and attend to your own 
 dressing. 
 
 But the American beau monde having by this 
 time finished its breakfast, goes paying visits, 
 and long before your toilette is accomplished, 
 " rap, tap, tap" at your door, and like the worried 
 porter in Macbeth, you are inclined to say 
 " Who cornes there, in the devil s name ?" It is 
 a gentleman s card. Not knowing his name, 
 and not being dressed, you desire him to call 
 again or make known his business. You then 
 proceed with the arrangement of your back 
 hair ; but before it is settled into the legitimate 
 chignon, " rap, tap, tap" again, and the bell-boy 
 shouts through the key-hole, " Gent wants to 
 take your photograph." " Tell him he cannot." 
 Or perhaps it is the chambermaid with a lady s 
 card. " Say I am sorry, but I am dressing." 
 Chambermaid returns with message from 
 stranger lady, " No consequence, she will come 
 up all the same ; she has read a good deal about 
 you in the newspapers, and wants to see you." 
 Answer again, " Tell her she cannot." 
 
 Hotel bedrooms are furnished with no regard 
 to comfort, but altogether with a view to effect. 
 Most things required in a bed-room are want 
 ing ; several things not required are there in 
 great state. An immense mirror, placed so that 
 
 VOL. i. 19 
 
290 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 you can only see one half of your face, the 
 other being thrown into quite Rembrandt shade. 
 As it is impossible to dress your hair alike on 
 both sides, when you have to use the sense of 
 sight for one side and are entirely dependent on 
 that of touch for the other, I comforted myself 
 greatly under these circumstances, upon being 
 informed by a French artiste en cheveux that 
 "for the present mode the hair need not be 
 coiffee alike on both sides," a fortunate coinci 
 dence, indeed. 
 
 Your bedroom constitutes the whole of your 
 private establishment ; your sitting as well as 
 dining-room being open to the public. It must 
 also be understood that once a lady or gentle 
 man is cast into one of these bedrooms, he or 
 she is thrown entirely and completely on his or 
 her own resources. You need not expect help 
 from any member of the establishment, either 
 to brush your boots,, your coat, your dress, 
 unfasten hooks and untie the string of your 
 veil, fastened in your hair, or any of those little 
 civilities ladies usually require, and so much 
 appreciate. You are in a republican country, 
 where no one will give you a pin unless you pay 
 so many cents for it. 
 
 Servants are beings unheard of, and good 
 nature in any one very scarce. All repudiate 
 the notion of being servants. They will tell 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 291 
 
 you, " My business, or profession, is to sweep 
 rooms, or make beds, or attend to the table ; 
 and if you want any one to brush your dress you 
 must find some one whose business it is to do 
 it." I have never known a lady have a maid 
 or a gentleman a valet. Gentlemen get their 
 boots blacked by professional shoe-blaoks, and 
 ladies have their hair dressed by professional 
 hairdressers. But if any accident happens to 
 shoes or hair you will have to remedy it your 
 self, as you best can. As American ladies only 
 occasionally wear their hair in a style artistic 
 or tidy, I dare say they are generally reduced 
 to dressing it themselves. 
 
 Amongst other regulations nailed on your 
 door, you will find : 
 
 " Ladies occupying this room are strictly prohibited from 
 doing any washing in it. 
 
 " Gentlemen are requested to spit in the spittoon and 
 not on the carpet. 
 
 " It is positively disallowed for visitors to carry away 
 this album. 
 
 " Persons occupying this room are desired to turn oft the 
 gas each time they leave their room, or an extra charge will 
 be enforced. 
 
 " Breakfast is at 7 o clock, dinner at 1 o clock, tea at G" 
 {as the case may be), " any meals outside of these hours 
 will be charged extra. 
 
 " Visitors asking for anything not on the bill of fare will 
 be charged extra. 
 
 192 
 
292 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 " Ladies taking fruit from the table will be charged one 
 dollar. 
 
 "By act of congress, etc., etc., etc. The proprietor is 
 not responsible for any article stolen from this apartment. 
 Those occupying it are therefore desired to place all their 
 valuables and money in the charge of the clerk in the 
 office." 
 
 The gas, to begin with, is usually suspended 
 from the ceiling beyond any natural arm s 
 length, and to reach it you have to mount a 
 chair, and often the table. Then, having plunged 
 yourself into darkness, you must scramble from 
 your elevation and grope among rocking-chairs, 
 spittoons, and marble-topped tables (usually 
 with about eight very hard sharp corners) to 
 find your bed or the door. Upon returning to 
 your dark room from the bright light without, 
 you have again to practise a little gymnastics ; 
 to mount your table and grope for the gas-pipe, 
 like a benighted Macbeth, the difference being 
 that you neither " see" nor "have" what you 
 want. All this time you must not forget 
 another of the rules behind your door/ "Visitors 
 are earnestly desired not to strike their matches, 
 against the wall," although, no doubt, they may 
 strike their heads against it in the dark as often 
 as they like. 
 
 Then, for a lady to place all her valuables 
 and jewellery in the charge of the clerk, would be 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 293 
 
 rather like living with your trunks across the 
 street. When a lady takes off her jewellery in 
 the evening, how is she to carry them to the 
 " gentlemanly clerk" in a public office surrounded 
 by the loafers of the city, smoking and spitting ? 
 How is she to regain them in the morning 
 .Such is the idea of accommodation and comfort 
 in an American hotel. 
 
 At Cincinnati I was unfortunate enough to 
 comply with part of the regulations, by placing 
 my money with the proprietor. When the bill 
 had to be paid he helped himself to what he 
 thought he would like, and sent me up the re 
 mainder of my money with the bill receipted. 
 It turned out to be double the amount that, 
 according to his own prices, he had the right to 
 charge, or I would have paid. But with the 
 money in his pocket, and his receipt in mine, 
 there was an end of the matter. This sharp 
 practice showed clearly why travellers were ad 
 vised to place their money and valuables under 
 the care of the proprietor, especially when he is 
 the proprietor of the Burnet House, Cincinnati. 
 I need not say that for the future I preferred 
 taking care of my money myself ! 
 
 The " parlour" is also furnished with immense 
 mirrors, where you may see yourself at full 
 length. Sometimes half as large again, some 
 times half as broad again, so that really, to 
 
294 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 know your natural size in America, you have to 
 get weighed. 
 
 You never feel free or at home in an American 
 hotel, for you are always under surveillance, 
 always under discipline. If you receive a 
 guest, a friend, or man of business, it is with 
 great difficulty that you can have any private 
 conversation with them. People who are stran 
 gers to you have no hesitation in walking up 
 and standing near to listen to what you are 
 saying, whether on business or friendship. They 
 will even take a seat near enough to hear, arid 
 if they lose a word, will stretch out their necks, 
 to listen. 
 
 Your conversation must therefore necessarily 
 be confined to such phrases as could safely be 
 uttered on the market-place, or repeated to 
 the whole parish. Thus all social chit-chats, 
 all the happy friendly communions, all the 
 pleasant hours passed in genial society, are 
 discarded from this hotel and boarding-house 
 life. For boarding-houses, which abound, are 
 merely small hotels, where the mirrors are 
 smaller and still more defective, the carpets a 
 little more worn, and the prices somewhat less;, 
 but the discipline system is the same, gong in 
 cluded. 
 
 In Great Britain every man s house is said to 
 be his castle, although it consists only of a garret. 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 
 
 No such independence exists in free America, 
 for, as I have said, you never can call a room- 
 not even a bedroom your own, whatever you 
 pay for it. Everybody expects to be allowed to 
 come in at all times and seasons. To exclude 
 them is to be sent to Coventry for a disagree 
 able Britisher. Your chambermaid walks in 
 (without knocking, of course) and takes a seat, 
 examines your books, or whatever you have on 
 your table. Your laundress opens your door, 
 declares it is a warm day, throws herself into 
 your rocking-chair, and fans herself with your 
 
 fan. 
 
 Arbitrary rule and custom in America forbid 
 you to assert your right to the exclusive use of 
 your own property. But Americans will say, 
 " Oh, we don t pretend to be governed by^ the 
 rules and regulations of so-called polite society. 
 We are a free people, and do as we like." But 
 there is the mistake. There never was a 
 country under any despotism where people could 
 do so little as they like as in America. The 
 discipline is stricter than in any boarding-school 
 except a convent worse than in any regiment 
 not governed by a thorough Martinet. Every 
 body is bound to do a certain thing at a certain 
 time, or be cashiered au diable. 
 
 If you wear a boot or hat of a different shape 
 or colour to that in vogue, every eye will fix 
 
296 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 upon you, and dismiss you then and there for 
 your intolerable audacity. If you do not see 
 any one calling for wine at dinner, have a care, 
 it would be better for you to choke than ask 
 for it, for you will be stared at, and perhaps 
 talked at, until you rush to your mirror to 
 see if you are growing incipient horns or a 
 whisker. 
 
 " If you wish to indulge your disgusting habit, 
 confine yourself to your own room," is tele 
 graphed at you from a dozen pair of eyes, as 
 you modestly sip your claret or cider. 
 
 I may conclude this sketch of hotel life with 
 an anecdote, which does not much exaggerat-e 
 the inexorable determination of hotel-keepers in 
 this country to extort, with or without reason, 
 all the money they can from their guests. 
 
 A foreign prince was travelling through the 
 country, and of course "a sensation" was got 
 up, for which he was made to pay. Arriving at 
 a small town, where he was merely to change 
 horses and take some slight refreshment, the 
 landlord, in great trouble about what he ought 
 to charge for entertaining a prince, applied to 
 the driver to inquire what was charged at the 
 last hotel. One hundred dollars was the answer. 
 He returned to his books, but by no ingenuity 
 could make out a bill over fifty. He had put 
 down 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 297 
 
 To preparing parlour for Prince - - $10 
 
 To lighting fire in same - x 5 
 
 To sending message to Mayor and Corporation of arrival 
 
 of Prince - , - .? 
 
 To saddling horse for messenger - - 5 
 
 To buttering toast on both sides for Prince, thinking 
 
 he would like it - 
 Eefreshments as pea-nuts, etc. - 
 
 To whiskey-punch supplied to Prince instead of wine - 5 
 To stabling Prince s horses 
 
 Vainly he sought for the other fifty ; but at 
 last, scratching his head, a bright thought oc 
 curred to him. " There has been," he said, " a 
 mighty fuss made about this prince in the coun 
 try, and I have done my part in it." So he 
 seized his pen and wrote down 
 To raising the devil in general - - $50 
 
 Then, as he presented his modest account, he 
 felt himself worthy of being an American and an 
 hotel-keeper. The bill was paid, devil s ex 
 penses and all. 
 
 If an individual should be taken ill in an 
 American caravansary misnamed an hotel he 
 will be left to himself to die or get better, as 
 though sickness had overtaken him in the desert 
 of Sahara, He pays four or five dollars a day 
 for his room and his board. If he can manage 
 to walk down to the great trough and wash at 
 
298 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 stated hours, he may do so, but if he feels too ill 
 to rise, tant pis pour lui, the chambermaid will 
 make her daily inroad upon him with a view to 
 " getting through the bed," as she terms it, but 
 as to rendering him any service, no matter how 
 trifling, " it is not her business," as she speedily 
 informs him. If he is fortunate enough to pos 
 sess a bell in his room that will ring, it will- 
 assuredly be placed in the remotest corner of 
 the room, but by perseverance, hard pulling, 
 and patience, he may possibly bring the bell 
 boy to his door. 
 
 But the bell-boy is sure to be an imp of mis- 
 chief, after the Flibbertigibbet style, and will 
 bounce away before the sick man has half 
 finished his message, reappearing in a short 
 space, with as many quarts of ice-water as his 
 size will permit him to carry. Having done 
 this, the sum total of his duty, it will require 
 considerable force of character to make him do 
 anything else. If hot tea, coffee, bouillon, or 
 any other invalid preparation, be needed, this 
 Flibbertigibbet of the New World will recite 
 at what hours fodder can be had below. 
 
 In despair, the sick person desires him to in 
 form the housekeeper that he is ill, and that 
 she will oblige him by stepping to his room. 
 Away goes the imp, leaving the door open, and 
 as it opens on a public passage, every passer-by 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 29& 
 
 curiously looks in, surveys the invalid, " reckons 
 that he or she is real sick," and goes on. 
 
 Meanwhile every approaching footstep is sup 
 posed to be that of the housekeeper hastening 
 to render assistance. Yain delusion ! Ex 
 hausted and suffering, nevertheless for the tenth 
 time an effort must be made to crawl out of 
 bed and shut that door, that is (if in the South), 
 the nigger chambermaid, not caring to take the 
 trouble to turn the handle, has not forced the 
 lock, by putting her shoulder to the door. Some 
 time in the course of the evening the house 
 keeper may perhaps walk in. Her first inquiry 
 is, as to whether it is correct that she was sent 
 for, her face and whole demeanour expressing 
 the utmost astonishment at such audacity. If 
 the chambermaid was indifferent, the boy im 
 practicable, the housekeeper is utterly callous ; 
 and when the sick person, greatly humiliated 
 by this treatment, and weakened by long fasting, 
 meekly states how ill he has been all night and 
 all day, she refuses to interfere in the case, says 
 that a doctor and nurse can be sent for, or that 
 the bell-boy will bring up the waiter, to whom 
 the orders can be given, and that all extras will 
 be charged for one dollar. For my own part, I 
 never succeeded in inducing a chambermaid to 
 bring me either a cup of tea or even hot water. 
 The hotel " parlours" are spacious according 
 
300 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 to the prices fixed at the hotel. At four or 
 five dollars a day, there will be a drawing-room 
 and a dining-room capable of seating four or 
 five hundred persons. In these rooms one may 
 study men, women, and manners, and under a 
 very novel aspect to those accustomed to the 
 refined usages of society. 
 
 A lady takes her seat near you on the velvet 
 sofa, and forthwith enters into conversation. 
 
 " Do you calculate to stop here any long 
 spell ?" she asks. 
 
 " A short time/ I reply. 
 
 " You are a stranger, a Britisher, I calculate, 
 from your queer trunks ? I saw you arrive this 
 morning. Why, one of them looked to me like 
 a coffin." 
 
 I respond affirmatively. 
 
 " What are you going to do with that trunk ?" 
 
 " Have myself put into it if I die ; but while 
 I live, put in my dresses at full length, to avoid 
 creases." 
 
 " Is that so ?" she exclaims. " Well, if that 
 isn t a notion !" 
 
 I bow acquiescence to the implied compliment. 
 My inquisitor surveys me from head to foot, and 
 then remarks 
 
 " I calculate your hair is uncommon heavy ?" 
 
 "No," I respond, " very light," supposing she 
 means the texture. 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 301 
 
 " Why," she exclaims, nodding significantly ; 
 " why, I thought so ; I thought it was all false. 
 
 "Indeed, madam, it is my own," I reply, 
 rather stiffly. 
 
 " Why, certainly, if you have paid for it," she 
 replies, laughing. 
 
 I withdraw one of the main hair-pins, and 
 hold out the lock to its full length, with a little 
 defiant jerk. 
 
 " Why," she exclaims, " it is right heavy ; 
 just what I said at first." 
 
 " You mean thick," I said. 
 
 " Thick you may call it ; I say it is a right 
 heavy head of hair, and I don t know how you 
 manage to keep it. What do you do to it ?" 
 
 " Nothing," I answer, and turn away. 
 
 There is always music in these " parlours ;" 
 often a great deal of flirting ; little girls begin 
 ning at the age of ten and twelve card-playing 
 and dancing, so that it is like going a great deal 
 into society, except that you pay so much a day 
 for it, instead of taking it by invitation, and 
 also that when you are tired of it you have no 
 HOME to retire to except your bedroom. 
 
 These " parlours" are a]so the stages on which 
 are enacted some comical scenes. I had arrived 
 in a city, neither Southern or Northern, in the 
 debatable land of Kentucky, and was busily 
 engaged in settling my wearables and papers in 
 
302 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 Convenient position ray packing, in fact when 
 the black chambermaid appeared, and handed 
 me the following letter : 
 
 "ADORABLE MADAM, 
 
 " Do not bid me despair ! I am trans 
 fixed with love at first sight under the awning 
 at the drug-store opposite. I have watched 
 you ever since you arrived this morning, when 
 ever I could see you, though you keep walking 
 about. What is the trouble ? Pray tell me to 
 hope. Look out of the window. I am the gent 
 who has been standing all day against the drug 
 store dressed in a black frock-coat, blue tie, 
 white pants, embroidered front, coral studs, and 
 -a cluster diamond ring on the little finger of his 
 left hand. 
 
 " He is your most devoted slave, 
 
 "B. P. S." 
 
 The girl stood, grinning from ear to ear, wait 
 ing an answer. Feeling half amused and half 
 indignant, I replied, " There is no answer ; I 
 do not know to what it alludes. Leave the 
 
 room." 
 
 I chanced to be very much occupied during 
 that day, and soon forgot the matter. I had 
 sent out a great number of letters of introduc 
 tion through the clerk of the hotel, who had 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 303 
 
 favoured me with a short biography of the 
 various personages to whom they were addressed. 
 
 On the following morning a card was brought 
 to me B. P. Smith. I remembered at once 
 that this was the editor of a newspaper to 
 whom I had brought letters ; I therefore went 
 down to the parlour, and accosted my visitor 
 with my most gracious bow and smile. He re 
 sponded with equal empressement, and we got 
 .seated. He was a tall and exceedingly hand 
 some man, with those dark grey, bewitching 
 Southern eyes, shoulders fit for a dragoon, and 
 & bearing which would have been remarkable in 
 any salon. 
 
 We chatted pleasantly about all sorts of 
 things, and I was becoming quite satisfied with 
 my editor, when 
 
 " You arrived yesterday morning by the nine 
 o clock train," he said. " What have you been 
 doing with yourself ever since ?" 
 
 " Nothing at all but unpacking my things," I 
 replied. 
 
 "Oh! that accounts for it/ he said. "Do 
 you admire diamonds ?" he then asked, and 
 held out his hand, on the little finger of which 
 was a splendid cluster ring ; the finger had also 
 .an exquisite filbert nail. 
 
 I noted both, and said, "Beautiful !" 
 
 " Don t you want it ?" he said, insinuatingly. 
 
304 AMERICAN HOTELS, 
 
 I shook my head. 
 
 "I do not covet such valuables." 
 
 " You are coy," he said ; " but you won t re 
 fuse a buggy ride ?" 
 
 As that is the proper thing to do in America, 
 I at once assented, and we were just arranging 
 time and place, when the waiter came in and 
 gave me a card. B. V. Smith had called to see 
 me. 
 
 " How is this ?" I exclaimed aloud. c I had 
 only one, Smith in my letter of introduction. 
 Who can B. V. Smith be ?" 
 
 " A darned scalawag !" growled my guest, 
 
 " and the editor of the M . I would 
 
 shoot him if I met him on the stair." 
 
 " Oh " I cried, " I thought you were the 
 editor r 
 
 " You did ?" he exclaimed, with a laugh ; 
 then taking up his hat he bowed, and made hi& 
 exit as B. V. Smith entered the parlour. Then 
 for the first time flashed across my vision " black 
 coat, white pants, blue tie, broidered front, 
 cluster ring !" It was my lover from under the 
 drug store awning, to whom I had been making 
 myself amiable. 
 
 If ever a patient woman felt inclined to stamp, 
 I did at that moment, as the other Smith walked 
 in, looking sourly on the owner of the cluster 
 riro\ The real B. V. Smith was a short, thick- 
 
AND WHAT OCCURS THEREIN. 305 
 
 set man, without any attractions whatsoever. 
 He had a brown tie, a drab coat, and grey un 
 mentionables. His first remark after we were 
 seated, was, 
 
 16 That cuss who has just left you is the 
 greatest rebel unhung. I would like to see him 
 strung up to-morrow." 
 
 " I was under the impression, until just now, 
 when your card was brought in, that he was the 
 
 Editor of the M . I mistook the initial 
 
 letters, P. and V." 
 
 He looked upon me with as much contemp 
 tuous pity as his Southern rival had done. 
 
 "I tell you, madam," he said, solemnly, 
 " there s a mighty difference between P. and V. 
 If you travel much in our country you ll have 
 to learn that. Now, are you disposed to take 
 a buggy ride, for that is what I came to ask 
 
 0" 
 
 you? 
 
 I was disposed, so I went off in the buggy 
 with B. V. instead of B. P. Smith. I noticed, 
 as we drove away, that no one was under the 
 awning at the drug store opposite. 
 
 VOL. I. 20 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MAN S GALLANTRY AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 
 
 MEEICAN men are certainly the most 
 civil and obliging in the world to 
 women, though they have not the 
 politeness of Frenchmen, nor the real veneration 
 for the sex that may be found amongst English 
 men. A woman is secure in America from any 
 unforeseen insult, at all hours and in all places. 
 I believe that a woman might traverse the 
 wildest as well as the most civilized parts of 
 America, with as perfect safety as she could 
 walk in her own grounds, if only she had common 
 sense and virtuous principles to protect her. 
 Without them a lone woman would very soon 
 meet with trouble, as American morals are pe 
 culiarly lax. 
 
 If a woman were lost in a forest at nightfall, 
 and should meet an American, he would, with 
 the greatest gallantry, escort her to her own 
 
MAN S GALLANTRY. 307 
 
 door, carry all her belongings, and her, too, if 
 necessary, without one word or look to offend 
 the most timid and modest of her sex. But 
 it is quite within the range of possibility that if 
 she expressed her gratitude to him, or rewarded 
 him with smiling approval, the same chivalrous 
 individual would not scruple to endeavour to 
 penetrate to her room at an undue hour, though 
 she had given him no encouragement beyond 
 thanks for his civilities. But such an intrusion 
 would not certainly be regarded in America with 
 the horror it would inspire in Europe. 
 
 A lady complained to her hostess that the 
 plaster on the ceiling of her room had given way, 
 and that the gentleman overhead stamped about 
 so heavily, she expected every moment to see 
 his feet come through. The landlady shook her 
 head and replied, 
 
 " You will be far more likely to see him come 
 through the door, if you don t bolt it, for I ob 
 serve he sits next you at table, and pays you 
 great attention." 
 
 This bolting the door seems to be absolutely 
 necessary, for there is usually a printed notice in 
 every bedroom, " Be careful to bolt your door," 
 which means that chambermaids have duplicate 
 keys, that may be exchanged for dollars, and as 
 this renders the locking inside of no avail, the 
 bolt has to be used. 
 
 202 
 
308 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 On one occasion we had quite a " White 
 Horse " Pickwick scene, with the exception of 
 the ladies (there were two of them) being young 
 and fair, and without yellow curl-papers, and 
 that the gentleman did not mistake his door, but 
 entered by the window on the balcony. 
 
 I occupied the adjoining room, and my slum 
 bers being disturbed one night by terrific shrieks, 
 I jumped up, unlocked the Venetian shutter, 
 rushed out on the verandah, and was just enter 
 ing my neighbour s apartment by the window, 
 when I came violently in contact with a male 
 being, who was as hurriedly rushing out of it. 
 He dashed past me without uttering a word, 
 whilst I, exclaiming, " What is the matter ?" 
 bounded in. 
 
 "A man ! a man !" was all the reply I could 
 obtain for some time. A man I knew it was to 
 my cost. 
 
 " What has he done ? stolen your watches ?" 
 No ! the watches and jewels were safe ; no 
 thing was taken. The whole house, however, 
 had been aroused by the screams, and women 
 and men, in toilettes de nuit, poured in by door 
 and window. "No," was the answer to all 
 questioners. They were not murdered ! and no 
 thing was stolen ! They had seen a man enter 
 the room, and were frightened, that was all, and 
 the two girls began to laugh. Strange to say, 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 309 
 
 there was no investigation of the matter, and it 
 never transpired who was the Pickwick of the 
 situation. No further notice was taken ; no one 
 was ejected. 
 
 In a fashionable hotel in New York, a gentle 
 man was actually locked into the room of a lady 
 moving in "first-class society," by a mischievous 
 friend, and kept there until a late hour the next 
 morning, when the whole hotel became aware of 
 the fact. There was a good deal of joking and 
 talking about the affair ; but the lady s reputa 
 tion I believe did not suffer in consequence. 
 
 It is curious that in America scandal should 
 set a less venomed mark on the capital offence 
 against morality than upon some minor trans 
 gressions. You will rarely hear in society of a 
 woman being tabooed for an indiscretion, mag 
 nified by whispering tongues into a crime. A 
 lady will declare that she believes her friend 
 Mrs. So-and-so got her diamond solitaire from 
 
 Mr. , while her husband was away ; yet 
 
 she has no idea of dropping her acquaintance 
 for that. 
 
 A certain gentleman one of the leading men 
 of America who was tried for murdering his 
 wife s lover, and acquitted on the ground of the 
 terrible provocation received, some time after, 
 having received his wife back again, took her as 
 before into society! It appeared to be the 
 
310 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 general opinion that the principal misfortune in 
 the case was, that the husband discovered the 
 intrigue. The eleventh commandment "Never 
 be found out " seems to be the one most highly 
 venerated in this country. It is equally cer 
 tain that if the conventionalities of English 
 society are too arbitrary and cruel, and that 
 many an innocent woman has been " done to 
 death by slanderous tongues," many a sensitive, 
 pure-minded one, incapable of the misdeeds im 
 puted to her, is driven mad 
 
 " Mad from life s history, 
 Glad to death s mystery, 
 Swift to be hurled, 
 Anywhere, anywhere, 
 Out of the world " 
 
 they are too much the reverse of this m 
 America. 
 
 The splendid steamers, making from ten to 
 twenty hours passage on the rivers and round 
 the coast, have tastefully-fitted private cabins 
 for the use of lady and gentleman ; these can 
 be secured, and no questions asked, by paying 
 a trifle extra. By this means many an intrigue 
 is carried on. Only when some accident occurs 
 the ship being burnt, or some such catas 
 trophedoes this state of things come to- 
 light. 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 311 
 
 The railroad cars have also, on many lines, 
 set up private sleeping cars, for which also an 
 extra charge is made. The hotel system, too, 
 conduces as little to purity of morals as to good 
 manners. The wife is left alone for the greater 
 part of her time, with no occupation but that of 
 dressing and displaying her various toilettes. 
 Most of the rooms communicate with each other 
 by folding-doors, which are rarely found fas 
 tened, and conversation can be distinctly heard 
 and carried on even when they are closed. 
 
 A lady is under the necessity of going into 
 the public dining-room at least three times a day, 
 and has each time to make an elaborate toilette. 
 Naturally enough, she likes to be observed. 
 Probably the gentleman sitting at the next 
 table does observe it, and admires it too ; for 
 gentlemen in America usually admire a lady s 
 dress as much as the lady herself, and American 
 husbands never grudge any amount their wives 
 may spend on dress. 
 
 Young girls are brought up in these hotels, 
 and even little baby-girls commence the system 
 of display ere they can lisp their own names. 
 A little girl s time and thoughts are almost as 
 much occupied with "what she shall wear down 
 to the dining-room; or "ladies parlour," as 
 those of her coquettish mamma, who conducts 
 her thither, and makes her fussy chaperonage a 
 
312 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 means for the greater display of her own attrac 
 tions. 
 
 Nevertheless, there is a code of honour which 
 protects a woman, if she wishes to be protected, 
 more effectually than all our laws and actions 
 for breach of promise. If a man should bring 
 about a girl s ruin under promise of marriage, 
 and afterwards refuse to marry her, her brother, 
 or nearest male relative, would track the offender 
 for days and months, and, without warning or 
 compunction, would shoot him down like a dog 
 wherever he met him. Even though tried for 
 murder, the jury, under the circumstances, 
 would certainly bring it in, "justifiable homi 
 cide." Under this system of summary justice, 
 i the crime of seduction and reckless abandon- 
 iment is not so common in America as in Eno-- 
 
 O 
 
 land. The man acts there in a more manly 
 spirit, and does his best to shield his unfortu 
 nate victim. Indeed, it is only in cases where 
 the offender is a married man that any tragedy 
 occurs. For it is rare that a woman turns on 
 her lover, even when he has ruined her life for 
 ever, and very few indeed will avenge them 
 selves by putting the bloodhounds on his 
 track. 
 
 American newspapers contain most startling 
 reading to strangers, unaccustomed in Europe 
 to such public exposes. In England or France 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 313 
 
 they would soon be suppressed by law. Their 
 effect on young minds must be most pernicious, 
 and destructive to all purity and innocence. I 
 was informed that an Act of Congress was in 
 progress to restrain this wholesale exposure of 
 vice. Notwithstanding all this, ladies pretend 
 to faint if they hear the words " bull" or " don 
 key." There are houses, certainly, where news 
 papers are not admitted into the family, but 
 these are exceptional cases. 
 
 American ladies scruple as little to display 
 their legs as do the Boulogne matelottes ; but to 
 mention them greatly shocks their sensibilities. 
 They are particular even to straitlacedness in 
 what they say, but not often in what they do. 
 There is scarcely a poem in my repertoire which 
 in some portions was not considered unfit for 
 public utterance. I was gravely asked if it 
 was not to be supposed that Tennyson s " May 
 Queen " was talking from her bed, and, if so, 
 the situation was objectionable. Longfellow s 
 " Wreck of the Hesperus " was demurred to on 
 account of the word "bull," which I was advised 
 to omit, substituting the words "gentleman cow!" 
 Let my readers essay the purified edition 
 
 " She struck where the white and fleecy waves 
 Looked soft as carded wool ; 
 But the cruel rocks they gored her side, 
 Like the horns of a gentleman cow /" 
 
314 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 "What the noble-minded poet would say to this 
 interpolation I do not know ; but I repeat the 
 words of one of the Lord High Chancellors of 
 England when I say that a more high-toned and 
 pure poet never put pen to paper. Yet these 
 would-be Dianas absolutely revelled .in Mrs. 
 Stowe s account of the Byron scandal ; and that 
 clever authoress knew they would, or she would 
 never have set it forth. 
 
 There are no lines of social demarcation in 
 America, no status, no rank, no society in which 
 refinement and education exclusively hold sway. 
 I have visited in a few dozen cities, and have 
 met with many refined and educated people, 
 both ladies and gentlemen, but with no society 
 where vulgarity and coarseness would necessarily 
 be excluded. It is the terrible mixture which 
 destroys in America any attempt at society. 
 The uneducated ill-bred woman displays her 
 bad taste, and lords it over the intellectual 
 lady. The commonplace "shoddy" mingles 
 with, and takes precedence of, his more culti 
 vated fellow-citizen. If a vulgarian creeps into 
 good society in England, he has to observe a 
 good deal of reticence, after the fashion of the 
 man with the Shaksperian head, who had suc 
 ceeded in getting an invitation to the table of 
 Lady J., on the condition that he would not 
 open his lips. He was very much admired by 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 315- 
 
 the company, who imagined him to be some 
 great philosopher, until, in an unlucky moment, 
 some dumplings were brought on the table, and 
 he exclaimed, " Them is the boys for me." This 
 would have elicited no astonishment in American 
 society, though the Americans pique themselves 
 on speaking the English language in all^ its 
 purity, both as to grammar and accent. They 
 find great fault with English travellers and 
 public speakers, such as Dickens, Thackeray, 
 Sketchley, Siddons, and others. According to- 
 the Americans, they only speak pure English, 
 and the English a Cockney dialect. We on this 
 side of the Atlantic return the compliment by 
 supposing that all Americans speak with a nasal 
 twang, which is no more the case than that all 
 the English misplace their h s. 
 
 In the South, and even in some parts of the 
 North, I observed no trace of the nasal sound. 
 Well-educated persons speak as pure English aa 
 the same class of persons in England. Yet on 
 joining in their conversation your ears will be 
 tortured with the most execrable of accents, and 
 with grammar to which "them dumplins" is 
 nothing. The Southerners particularly pique 
 themselves on their pronunciation. One of 
 them told me of a Virginian who met with an 
 Englishman travelling, and after some conversa 
 tion, remarked, " You are from Virginia I pre- 
 
316 MAWS GALLANTRY 
 
 sume." "No/ replied the Englishman, "I am 
 from England/ " Indeed," said the other, "that 
 is curious. You speak the English with so much 
 fluency arid purity of accent, that I should have 
 said you were from my country." I once made 
 a similar mistake ; the gentleman was a South 
 Carolinian, and it inadvertently slipped out that 
 I had taken him for an Englishman. He evi 
 dently felt and accepted my mistake as a com 
 pliment. 
 
 Americans have an infelicitous way of fixing 
 upon vulgar, unharmonious words, such as 
 " skedaddle," " luggie," "squash," "skunk," 
 "sink" (for a lake), "fire-bug," "fire-fly," and 
 so on. Slang phrases are in fashion everywhere, 
 and I have rarely heard any one speak without 
 this vicious habit, which gives a plebeian tone 
 to the most intellectual ideas. 
 
 The American press also indulges in low vitu 
 perative language, such as could not be met with 
 in the lowest publication in London. Actions 
 for libel are not nearly so frequent, nor are the 
 laws on that point so stringent as in England. 
 But this latitude tells both ways. A scoundrel 
 is not so free to carry on his villainies uriex- 
 posed, but it breeds in the press a greater laxity 
 and carelessness of phraseology. 
 
 Personalities, too, are freely indulged in, both 
 complimentary and otherwise. When com- 
 
AND WOMAJSTS FREEDOM. 317 
 
 plirnentary, the adulation is fulsome, and the 
 flattery coarse. I wonder what Belgravia would 
 think to have itself described in the following 
 style, copied verbatim from a New York Sunday 
 newspaper, in which some three hundred ladies, 
 married and single, can each Sunday have their 
 charms advertised for the benefit of those who 
 have not seen them. The wonder is that so 
 very little beauty is seen in New York : 
 
 " Miss Mount, of Philadelphia, at present 
 staying with Mrs. Appleton, is the reigning 
 belle of that city. She is a splendid girl in 
 appearance, of medium height, with bright 
 laughing eyes, rosy cheeks, and pearly teeth; 
 her wealth of hair allows her to arrange her 
 coiffure in an endless variety of styles. Her 
 neck and shoulders would serve as a model for 
 a sculptor. She was greatly admired at a recent 
 
 ball." 
 
 "Miss McCarthy, of Syracuse, spends her 
 winters in New York. She is a little above the 
 medium height, with light brown hair, liquid 
 blue eyes, and fair complexion. Her contour is 
 very fine, though she barely escapes embon 
 point." 
 
 " Miss Westcott, of Thirty-second Street, is a 
 beautiful girl. Her complexion is very clear, 
 and her lustrous eyes flash like diamonds. She 
 has a magnificent head of hair, and when dressed 
 
318 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 in full evening costume, she is positively be 
 witching." 
 
 "Miss Higgins, of Fifth Avenue, is no less 
 noted for beauty than for varied talents. She 
 belongs to an extremely fashionable set, and the 
 elegance of her wardrobe has attracted much 
 attention." 
 
 " Miss Jones, of Ninth Street, is one of the 
 brilliant beauties whose portrait adorns the gal 
 lery of Kelly, on Broadway. She is a magnifi 
 cent blonde, with peach-like cheeks, a mar 
 vellously beautiful nose, a mouth like a crimson 
 shell, a luxuriant contour of chin," (query double 
 or treble) " a swan-like neck, most exquisitely- 
 pencilled eyebrows, a form modelled in the most 
 symmetrical proportions, animated grey eyes, 
 and an expression at once dreamy and intelli 
 gent. Arrayed in all the sovereignty of her 
 charms, Miss Jones is a most lovely and attrac 
 tive creature." 
 
 The names above quoted are genuine, as copied 
 from the journal, and the ring of them will 
 strike every one as eminently patrician, no doubt 
 appertaining to the "first families." 
 
 The vaunted accomplishments of these ladies 
 strike me as being equally mythical as the charms 
 they are in such good taste credited with, for 
 though I mixed for two years among the better 
 educated Americans, I never met with a really 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 319 
 
 good lady pianist, nor even a tolerable artist. 
 They excel more as vocalists good voices being 
 nob at all uncommon. Their voices, which in 
 speaking are shrill and loud, in singing are fine- 
 toned, clear, and powerful, though not sweet. 
 A young American debutante, whom I heard at 
 the academy of music at New York, had a clear, 
 penetrating soprano, which with due cultivation 
 would no doubt become brilliant and sparkling. 
 They usually shout at the full pitch of their 
 voices, without modulation, pathos, or artistic 
 effect. They make a dash at the most difficult 
 passages like an untrained hunter at a fence, 
 and scramble "through somehow," as they 
 phrase it. 
 
 As linguists they do not excel, few speaking 
 with any fluency French, German, or Italian, 
 unless where members of the family are natives 
 of one of those countries, or that they have been 
 sent to Europe to be educated. It is rather 
 astonishing that the Americans should be such 
 poor linguists, in a country whose inhabitants 
 derive their origin from so many different 
 nations. 
 
 The American ladies are very indifferent em- 
 broideresses, and poor horsewomen, and, on the 
 whole, though possessing an equal amount of 
 intelligence, are far below the average European 
 women in accomplishments. English women 
 
320 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 
 
 are, at least, excellent horsewomen, good lin 
 guists, and often splendid musicians, but on the 
 other hand, there are more ladies in America 
 who know something of Greek, Latin, Euclid, 
 Algebra, than could be found in England. So 
 much for the vaunting of accomplishments in 
 Sunday newspapers. 
 
 To return to the matter of beauty, as above 
 . set forth, I think it will be freely granted that 
 Americans, as a rule, have not good com 
 plexions. It is rare to meet with either a de 
 cided blonde or a decided brunette. They are 
 invariably sallow, and only the very young girls, 
 up to fifteen or sixteen, have any pretensions to 
 freshness. The ladies of Baltimore alone form a 
 singular exception to this rule. 
 
 They are, except what the mantua maker 
 accomplishes for them, poor figures angular 
 and flat. Many of them are so diminutive, as 
 not to exceed in size children of twelve years 
 old. Their shoulders are narrow and spare in 
 flesh. Girls of eighteen or twenty have lean, 
 lantern jaws, the skin stretched over them like 
 parchment, and as if to enhance their plainness, 
 they had one and all adopted the male Chinese 
 style of dressing the hair, in other words, scrap 
 ing it up to the top of the head. 
 
 Few faces, however beautiful and symmetrical, 
 could bear such treatment, and only an exceed- 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 321 
 
 ingly small round face could look well with a 
 cone or pyramid on the top of the head, adding 
 eight or ten inches to the length of it from the 
 chin upwards, which, when the face and chin are 
 actually long, amounts to a positive deformity. 
 Many of the children have a bilious, unhealthy 
 look, probably from the unnatural life they lead, 
 as well as injurious food and late hours. 
 
 At about thirteen a girl begins to exercise her 
 vocation as a young lady, to devote herself to 
 dress, to look out for flirtations, to promenade 
 with gentlemen, and to read novels. It is al 
 most needless to say that when once this state 
 of things has struck in, learning and accom 
 plishments are struck out. They are courting 
 and marrying, whilst English girls are deep in 
 the mysteries of German, Algebra, and Beet 
 hoven. They do not give themselves sufficient 
 time to complete a thorough education, however 
 solidly it may have been begun. 
 
 The highest perfection in music and painting 
 can only be obtained after the mind is somewhat 
 matured. A child, up to the age of fifteen, may 
 have all the mechanical skill necessary for a com 
 plete artiste, but she can infuse into her per 
 formance neither soul nor depth of pathos, until 
 her own feelings are more matured, hence the 
 want of finish observable in all American lady 
 musicians. 
 
 VOL. I. 21 
 
322 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 A girl marries so young, that she has no time 
 for the cultivation of her mind, and her good 
 looks fade proportionately early. There is 
 among them little of that matronly beauty so 
 common in England, but they are wizened and 
 haggard before they are even of matronly age, 
 so that the advertising of personal charms, which 
 all must know do not exist, and the self-assert 
 ing of accomplished perfection, which they know 
 they have not attained, are merely characteristic 
 of American manners and customs, but may 
 well lead observers astray as to their general 
 vulgarity. 
 
 The expression " finely modelled," or 
 "moulded," is very a propos, considering the 
 great variety of finely "moulded" appendages 
 of every part of the female form exposed for 
 sale in " dry goods stores." If " finely mo 
 delled" forms can be purchased, there can be 
 no impediment to these ladies possessing them, 
 and surely no credit in wearing them. In the 
 Old World we have been under the impression 
 that beauty was a gift of nature ; in the New 
 World it has become an article of commerce. 
 
 All those to whom these remarks apply will 
 no doubt deny their correctness. The many to 
 whom they do not apply will admit their truth 
 fulness. 
 
 An author writing of men and manners holds 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 323 
 
 up the mirror to nature, but human nature sel 
 dom cares to see itself reflected therein, unless 
 the glass flatters a little. Burns would have few 
 to join him in the wish 
 
 " Oh, would some power the giftie gie us, 
 To see ourselves as ithers see us." 
 
 If Americans do not prize suavity of manner, 
 do not let them be offended when told that they 
 do not possess it. If they think it comme il 
 faut to sit with their feet out of window or on 
 the table, to chew tobacco and squirt it across a 
 lady, for heaven s sake let them indulge their 
 preference in their own " free country," leaving 
 others free to rejoice that such manners are not 
 etiquette in Europe. 
 
 If , ladies also in a " free country " deem it 
 womanly to advertise in public newspapers the 
 brilliancy of their complexions, and the exquisite 
 contour of their forms, a traveller must be allowed 
 to remark that such publicity given to their 
 charms would not be considered feminine in 
 England, and would be looked upon as ires 
 mauvais gout in France. 
 
 Charles Dickens was almost universally con 
 demned because he drew life-pictures of men 
 and manners. It was strongly argued that he 
 had received so much hospitality, eaten so many 
 good dinners (to the goodness I demur), and 
 
 212 
 
324 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 that the Americans generally had made such a 
 fuss about him, that it was black ingratitude to 
 go home and narrate their short-comings. I 
 think that any dispassionate person will admit 
 that, as a writer, he was bound to narrate faith 
 fully and without disguise what he saw and 
 heard ; and no one can doubt that in point of 
 policy, Dickens made what is called a decided 
 
 hit. 
 
 He humorously abused America not all 
 America, only the grotesque side of it, which he 
 was so fully capable of appreciating ; but having 
 piqued American vanity on the first occasion of 
 his visit, they rushed en masse to idolize and 
 lionize him on the second, and stood in the 
 streets all night, with the thermometer at zero, 
 merely to see him, and gave him twenty dollars 
 a seat, when he modestly asked only two. 
 
 Nevertheless, if he was to give a correct ac 
 count of them, could he have said that he never 
 saw a row of square-toed boots, with legs at 
 tached to them, projecting over the balconies ? 
 that he had ever walked Broadway without 
 stepping into pools of tobacco juice, deposited 
 there from the lips of passers by ? or that he had 
 never seen gentlemen, holding high position in 
 the State, in the army, &c., sitting with their 
 hats on in the presence of ladies, and in private 
 rooms ? 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 325 
 
 He no doubt saw individuals helping them 
 selves to preserves with their knives, and the 
 dishes being distant from them a yard or more, 
 dropping some portion of it at each journey to 
 and from their mouths. 
 
 Even in families where the polite usages of 
 society are in vogue, republican liberty precludes 
 the possibility of their being generally practised, 
 for a lady, however refined, cannot exclude from 
 her circle all those who have not good, manners. 
 Her husband s position, political or commercial, 
 may forbid this exclusiveness ; and though Mr. 
 A. would not be guilty of a breach of good 
 manners, yet if his friend Mr. B. should feel 
 inclined to sit with his feet upon instead of 
 under his friend s mahogany, who is to prevent 
 him ? Not society, for he is wealthy. Not 
 public opinion, for that sets forth that every 
 man may do as he likes, and most Americans 
 do like to put their feet on tables and mantel 
 pieces, or in the air, tilting themselves back on 
 the legs of their chairs. 
 
 As public opinion allows the feminine gender 
 to walk about in cloth pantaloons, and unen 
 cumbered by other skirts than that of a paletot, 
 it certainly cannot interfere with the mode of 
 disporting the most in favour with the masculine 
 portion of the community. It is the custom of 
 the country for men to sit with their feet higher 
 
326 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 than their heads, and if they choose to stand on 
 their heads, what then ? would that prove them 
 savages ? If a man chooses to roll his knife in 
 his mouth, and thereby cut his tongue, he does 
 not on that account become a monster. His- 
 heart may be pure, and his head clear, but we 
 should not consider him a polished gentleman, 
 as custom associates great intellect with courtly 
 manners, and superior education with courtesy. 
 
 Social conventionalities must not be grossly 
 infringed as the world stands at present. There 
 fore, Americans who run to France for fashions, 
 for style, for cookery, should not feel so sore 
 and indignant when Europeans observe that 
 they have failed to import also the manners and 
 customs of civilized life. If a " free citizen " 
 condescends to wear a French hat, he ought to 
 know when to take it off, and if a free and inde 
 pendent citizeness submits to cover her arms- 
 with French laces, she might at the same time- 
 contrive to keep her elbows off the dinner- table, 
 arid endeavour to refrain from picking her teeth 
 with her fork. 
 
 If an American lady dresses to look like a Pari- 
 sienne, she should not stand with her arms a- 
 kimbo, or she will more resemble a poissarde. 
 I have met with American ladies who were 
 simple and natural in manner, quiet and lady 
 like in their dress, having bestowed their atten- 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 327 
 
 tion, as it seemed to me, on the cultivation of 
 the intellect rather than the distortion of the 
 body. They reminded me much of Scotch ladies, 
 being frank, unassuming, unpretending, homely. 
 I would not wish to depreciate the polished 
 elegance and courtly refinement of the old French 
 noblesse ; but a burlesque of it in everyday life, 
 morning, noon, and night, becomes exceedingly 
 tiresome. It is better and wiser, therefore, for 
 those who cannot attain it, to be satisfied with the 
 dignity of simplicity, which is within the reach 
 of every well-ordered mind. Though emulous 
 of the pageantry of European royalty which 
 would seem to be somewhat out of place in a 
 republic the solid virtues are neither imitated 
 nor appreciated ; while hospitality they say it 
 once existed is now defunct. Great Britain 
 expends her warmth of heart in good dinners, 
 offered to every stranger, friend, and almost to 
 her foes ; nor does it end with the dinner, for 
 where the guest dines there he must sup, and 
 often sleep. The shelter of the roof-tree is with 
 us an institution only next to the dinner, and 
 there is scarcely a family that is above daily 
 want whose visitors chamber is not the best 
 kept in the house. 
 
 The French display their good nature and 
 good taste in petits diners and petits soupers. 
 The Italians offer wine, fruits, and flowers. The 
 
328 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 Turk sets before you his chibouk, coffee, and 
 sweetmeats. Every nation, almost tribe, of the 
 four quarters of the globe, has its distinctive 
 mode of showing hospitality; but the only people 
 I know of who offer their guests a glass of 
 cold water only as a mark of their friendship 
 and respect for them, are the Americans. 
 
 In very stylish houses, a handsome silver jug 
 filled with water is placed on the table, and 
 from this guests may freely help themselves sans 
 gdne, for the big jug will be replenished when it 
 is empty. Hospitality outdoes itself in the 
 water line ; but no matter how numerous the 
 drinkers, the supply of glasses is limited to two, 
 so that the coral lips of beauty must not be par 
 ticular about obliterating the marks of the 
 bearded lips that chew tobacco. In less stylish 
 establishments a pewter-rimmed wooden ladle 
 does duty for a glass. 
 
 Some ladies give what they call " receptions," 
 and they are neither more nor less than recep 
 tions. The lady of the house receives her guests, 
 and expresses her pleasure at seeing them, after 
 which they are at liberty to return home or to 
 stay, as they feel disposed. This is the whole of 
 the entertainment, unless they choose to examine 
 each others toilets. Balls, too, are not unfre- 
 quently given, at which ladies dance from nine 
 o clock in the evening till three or four in the 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 329 
 
 morning, without any refreshment but iced 
 water. Is it surprising that young girls who 
 indulge in this violent exercise, fasting so long, 
 should at so early an age become cadaverous, 
 lean, and unhealthy ? 
 
 The water-jug is conspicuous even at full 
 dress weddings, which generally take place in 
 the evening, and are followed by a ball ; the 
 Americans having very wisely done away with 
 those restrictions on marriage which the law so 
 vexatiously imposes in Europe. In America 
 marriages can be solemnized any day and at 
 any hour or any place, the license having been 
 procured. They do not even regard it as un- 
 scriptural to bid you to a wedding-feast when 
 the wines are wanting, so completely have they 
 emancipated themselves from forms and cere 
 monies which would trench on their pockets. 
 
 As in France, friends are only invited to join 
 the procession at funerals, wine and cake not 
 being given. Few people, indeed, possess wine 
 glasses ; not needing them at dinner. The few 
 occasions on which wine was offered to me, it 
 was poured into liqueur-glasses, this conveying 
 to a stranger the idea of stint and parsimony, 
 quite opposed to our notions of hospitality. On 
 the other hand, if a gentleman wishes to show 
 particular attention to a lady, on going an ex 
 cursion with her, he offers her champagne ; but 
 
330 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 this is done as a sort of bribe, to win her good 
 opinion of his gallantry and liberality. 
 
 There being few country seats, and the Americans 
 not being sportsmen, gentlemen do not assemble 
 for the shooting or hunting season as in Eng 
 land ; indeed, a pack of hounds or a stud of 
 hunters is not an American institution. Fine 
 bloodhounds there are all through the South, 
 but not in packs, and they were used I fear for 
 a purpose that may sound very shocking to 
 British ears, viz., hunting runaway negroes. 
 
 Another obstacle to visiting in America is, 
 that very few families, comparatively, have 
 houses of their own, and if they have, they take 
 in boarders. 
 
 Ladies visit a great deal amongst each other 
 in their bedrooms, very much in the Turkish 
 fashion ; often spending whole days in gossip 
 ing, eating sweetmeats, and lying on couches 
 or beds. These visits, or visitations, are made 
 at all times and seasons ; before you have 
 risen, during your toilet, and after you have 
 retired for the night, and you are thought very 
 churlish and British if you seem to object to it. 
 Sometimes picnics are given, each person pro 
 viding his or her own basket of provisions. 
 Soirees musicales, or dansantes take place every 
 week at different houses, in rotation, the gentle 
 men guests in turns bringing ice-cream, cakes, 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 33 J 
 
 fruits, etc. ; and this is done commonly in 
 "good" society. However, some of the best- 
 bred people I met in the country assured me, 
 when alluding to this custom, that although it 
 frequently happened to them to be present at 
 such a party, yet they never suffered any guest 
 to bring provisions into their house. Wealthy 
 people delight in living in the monster hotels, 
 where the ladies can dress and display them 
 selves, eat, drink, and do nothing ; but where, 
 as they only rent a bedroom, it would be im 
 possible to entertain guests. The less wealthy 
 prefer to live in boarding-houses, where they 
 can yet enjoy the luxury of gossip and idleness, 
 though on a less extensive scale. The still less 
 fortunate, who cannot afford to board, endeavour 
 to participate in this style of life by taking 
 boarders themselves. Few attempt, or would 
 appreciate, the sociable and comfortable reunions 
 of Great Britain, with the pleasant guest stay 
 ing in the house, for whom each member of the 
 family delights to contribute his quota of amuse 
 ment. 
 
 When it happens that a lady, either for busi 
 ness or other purpose, wishes to go to a certain 
 locality, where she has friends, she will board 
 with them, or go to an hotel in the neighbour 
 hood, a breach of hospitality that would, in 
 England, be regarded with horror. 
 
332 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 I was informed that, before the war, any 
 traveller passing near a plantation in a part of 
 the country where no hotel existed, would be 
 hospitably entertained by the planters. But 
 this custom has been quite broken up, and with 
 it the last remains of hospitality in the United 
 States. It may, perhaps, be again imported 
 from Europe as a luxury, but the real spirit of 
 hospitality, viz., good-nature, does not exist in 
 the country; of real good-nature I met with 
 very few specimens. Making presents is not at 
 -all usual even children " trade" with their 
 playthings ; but it would be difficult, if not im 
 possible, to persuade any of these little urchins 
 to give away anything. Ladies will barter and 
 exchange with each other articles of dress, and 
 the greatest surprise be expressed if the coveted 
 article should be offered as a present. 
 
 The way in which attention is principally 
 shown to a stranger is to call and leave cards, 
 no offer being made to escort the visitor round 
 or to point out the beauties of the place, although 
 the letter of introduction expressly states that 
 the bearer is a traveller seeking information, 
 with the view of writing a work upon the 
 country. 
 
 Possibly here and there one will take the 
 trouble to tell you, "You ought to see the ceme 
 tery," etc. ; " the cars do not go quite so far, 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 33S 
 
 but no doubt you will get there somehow, and 
 it is well worth your while to see it." They 
 will conjure up a dozen excuses as a cover for 
 their inhospitality -they regret that they are 
 only boarding, or they would have asked you to 
 stay with them ; they are thinking of going into 
 the country almost immediately, and their house 
 is all packed up ; they are re-furnishing their 
 house, and are in a state of disorder, and they 
 cannot receive you in the style in which you 
 ought to be received; they have just returned 
 from the country, and have not yet had their 
 house " fixed up ;" their wives are sick, or have 
 just lost relatives ; they cannot get servants to 
 serve the table, etc., in a splendour befitting 
 your position ; they are expecting all their chil 
 dren home from school, and the house will be so 
 noisy, and " of course you would like to be 
 quiet." 
 
 In some sixty or seventy cities which I visited, 
 the exceptions to the general rule were the 
 officers of the United States army, who, one 
 and all, seemed to have a more European notion 
 of treating strangers than the rest of their 
 countrymen. Wherever I had letters of intro 
 duction to them, they took care I should lack 
 no civility it was in their power to show ; and 
 to their courtesy I am indebted for the oppor 
 tunities afforded me for the purposes of this 
 
334 MAN S GALLANTRY 
 
 book. Otherwise, I had to undergo, like other 
 foreigners travelling in the country, the usual 
 amount of victimizing, my abundant letters of 
 introduction not serving as any protection. 
 
 The American maxim is the converse of the 
 French bonne renommee vaut mieux que ceinture 
 doree ; for if you can sport a golden belt, no one 
 will care what sins it encircles. Renown of any 
 kind has little merit in the eyes of Americans, 
 unless it be the renown of being rich. 
 
 When Miss Burdett-Coutts visited America, 
 lier reputation for being the richest woman in 
 England of. course preceded her, and, although 
 she sought no publicity, crowds assembled every 
 where to gaze at her, even to crowding the 
 stairs of the hotel and the entrances to the 
 theatres, to the great discomfort of this unosten 
 tatious lady. So with Mr. Dickens ; when it 
 was understood that he was visiting America to 
 give readings, it was somehow suggestive of 
 needing money, consequently Mr. Dickens was 
 reviled and sneered at everywhere. But when, 
 after due perseverance, and half a dozen read 
 ings, it was boldly and broadly asserted that he 
 had made a hundred thousand dollars, then, for 
 the second time, the whole population fell down 
 and worshipped him, in spite of his satirical 
 quizzing of their smaller foibles. However, it 
 was not really Mr. Dickens or his fine reading 
 
AND WOMAN S FREEDOM. 335 
 
 that they worshipped, but the golden calf in the 
 shape of the hundred thousand green-backs. 
 Wide-awake as Jonathan is supposed to be, he 
 was so fascinated with the ring of "hundred 
 thousand," that he never stopped to calculate 
 .and ascertain that it was beyond the range of 
 possibility that Mr. Dickens could have made 
 more than one thirtieth part of that sum. 
 
 Letters of introduction, therefore, unless they 
 assert boldly that you are a millionnaire, are of 
 little use, the recipients seldom even troubling 
 themselves to call, unless you call on them first, 
 and date your card from a fashionable hotel. 
 On the other hand, it must be said that, with 
 out letters, it is easy for any stranger to be 
 introduced to whomsoever he pleases. No 
 American ever stops to inquire who or what 
 you are, what your position may be, or your ante 
 cedents. In fact, it seems -to be the etiquette to 
 introduce a stranger to all persons within hail. 
 
 Upon one occasion, when stopping in one of 
 the largest and most fashionable hotels in Ken 
 tucky, I was told that a gentleman had called 
 upon me. On entering the room, I saw about 
 twenty persons standing and sitting about. A 
 .gentleman approached and introduced himself 
 to me as the proprietor of the hotel. He then 
 turned to a lady near him "Mrs. T., Mrs. Y.;" 
 then he turned to another, then to a third 
 
336 MAN S GALLANTRY. 
 
 " Mrs. F., Mrs. Y.," " Mrs. G., Mrs. Y.," and so 
 on, until I found myself bowing all round, like 
 a mandarin. I afterwards ascertained that some 
 of these ladies were boarding in the house ; that 
 others were residents of the city, who, hearing 
 of my arrival, had done me the honour to call 
 upon me. I returned the calls in due course, 
 and that was the only result of the introduction. 
 In England, no person would call from simply 
 seeing a stranger s name in a newspaper ; but 
 having once called, the stranger would certainly 
 receive some attentions and civilities, and an 
 endeavour would be made to render her stay 
 interesting and agreeable. When they have 
 left their cards, the Americans believe they have 
 complied with all the duties of hospitality. 
 They rather expect to be lauded for their em- 
 pressement, and are very angry when they dis 
 cover that a stranger, bearing letters from their 
 intimate friends, and accustomed to be received 
 with kindness and attention, is disappointed at 
 finding that an empty compliment is the only 
 result. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 BILLING AND SDKS, PllIMEKS, GUILDFOBD, SUKEEY. 
 
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