UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES

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DOMESTIC MANNERS

OP

THE AMERICANS.

BY MRS. TROLLOPE.

" On me dit que pounm qua je ne parle ni de 1'autonte, ni du culie, ni do la poluiquf, ni de la morale, ni des gens en place, ni de 1'opera, ni den autrea spec- i ..Irs, MI il»: ptTwuiiif -nil titnnc 4 quelquo cboee, je puis lout imprimcr libreracnt."— MAKIAUK ut FIUAKU.

FOURTH EDITION.

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LONDON:

I'ULNTKl) FUU \\I1ITTAKKK, TliKACHKK, A < o

NEW- YORK :

KLPRlNlKt) FOR THE BOOKSLLLIR'

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I ft 3 1.

. A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO THE REAL NAME AND CHARACTER Oy THE AUTHOR OF THIS BOOK.

W BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

IN presenting to the American public the following work, the publishers cannot refrain from congratulating their coun- trymen on the appearance of so just and happy a delineation of American character and manners. Moderate, conciliating, and good-humoured, it cannot but astonish us with the dis- play of our own virtues, and fill us with a proud gratification at finding ourselves so much better than we expected. Coming from the source it does,- we had reason to anticipate the usual quantity of prejudice, ignorance, and misrepresentation which has heretofore distinguished most English travellers in the United States ; but the reader will be surprised and delighted to find that the good-natured author has actually, on several occasions, omitted some capital opportunities of introducing various picturesque incidents, such as dirkings, gougings, and the like, on wliich Mr. Fawkes, Mr. Fearon, and others have dwelt with such singular satisfaction. Had the author cherished the least spark of ill-will towards the good people of this country, instead of contenting herself with merely making every man in the United States a chewer of tobacco, and spitter .of tobacco-juice in people's faces, she might with almost equal truth have extended the practice to women and children, the latter of whom, from a feeling of friendly commiseration, she has neglected to tell her readers begin to use tobacco by the time they are a week old, and some of them still earlier. The good-natured author has also neglected to apprize the English public, that it is the universal practice in the United States for gentlemen, as soon as they have finished their dinner, to call for a pitchfork or a chesnut-rail, where- with to pick their teeth. Some prefer one, some the other ; but on the whole, the pitchfork is the favourite. We might instance various other particulars in which the spirit of Chris-

iv EDITOR S PREFACE.

tian moderation appears with such lustre in the work ; but the omission to notice practices so unseemly as those just specified, and so notorious to all, will, I think, be quite suf- ficient evidence of the character of the writer.

There are, however, various portions of the book of a na- ture strongly to excite my suspicions that the author is not what she pretends to be, an English lady. These suspicions, together with the universal curiosity exhibited by the Ameri- can public, as to the history, character, and identity of a per- son to whom we -are so highly indebted for this singularly complimentary notice, have induced me to investigate the matter with all the care and pains its importance merited ; and I shall now lay before the reader the result.

The first doubt which occurred to me originated in certain mysterious indications which accompany the first vision of this person before the reader. ' She makes her appear- ance sailing up the Mississippi. Nobody knows where she comes from, where she is going, or what brought her to this country. By-and-by, however, she pretends that she came to visit an old friend, of whose residence she was profoundly ignorant. This old friend lives somewhere in Maryland or Virginia, and, by way of a short cut, the author sails up to Cincinnati, voyages to Wheeling, and crosses over to the city of Washington. At one time we find her consorting with Fanny Wright at Nashoba ; at another, she is at Cincinnati sharing the hospitality of the good folks, and taking memorandums, I suppose, to repay her debt of gratitude ; and at another, going to tea-parties in Maryland, to gain materials for making her entertainers ridiculous. She pretends to have a husband ; but him she despatches forthwith to England, to put his son to college, and we hear no more of the gentleman. Whom she1 afterward travelled with, or why she travelled at all, is an inscrutable mystery. She must, admitting her to be what she pretends — she must have had a protector, for certainly she could not have trusted herself alone with the " spitting free- borns," who -(eat their dinners in five minutes, the barbarians ! and pick their teeth with pitchforks, the monsters ! These doubts were strengthened by degrees, and finally concentrated upon a single conclusion which I shall now proceed to develop to the world.

In the first place, I have satisfied myself of the impossi- bility of the book being the production of an English lady,

EDITOR'S PREFACE. v

It bears intrinsic evidence to the contrary, and though the enlightened reader will doubtless think it a work of superero- gation, I shall proceed to state some of the grounds on which I have come to this conclusion.

I think it quite impossible that an English lady, even with the best and kindest intentions in the world, should conde- scend to become a spy into the domestic habits and economy of the females of any country with the view of exposing them to the world ; although, as we observed before, she has been quite moderate, having the examples of Messrs. Fearon, Fawks, and, above all, the famous Baron Munchausen be- fore her. A sensible, well-bred English lady would feel too much for the reputation of that sex in whose estimation she was so deeply interested, to become the instrument of cheap- ening and degrading it in the eyes of mankind. She would rather give them credit for their domestic habits than ridi- cule them for what she might be pleased to call their stupidity, in preferring to be useful at home rather than notorious abroad ; nor do I believe any respectable, well principled English lady would laugh at their propensity to make them- selves useful by attending to the duties of charity, or more than useful by an observance of the offices of religion.

An English lady, doubtless, would scarcely descend to that singular minutiae of painting in which our author so frequently indulges herself. I allude to the stories of the " bugs ;" the curious description and innuendoes of the camp-meeting scene ; the episode of the amorous parson; the dialogue between Miss Clarissa and Mr. Smith, illustrated so happily by the accompanying plate ; and, above all, the representation of the scene at the theatre, and the young lady half-dressed at her toilet. It will be seen that this last is sketched by a Mr. Hervieu, who of course must have been present in the lady's dress ing-room, while the operation was going on, or like an- other peeping Tom, looked through the key-hole. The Eng- lish ladies are not what I believe them to be, if. they, or any one of them, would so far forget what was due to themselves and the character of their country, as to lend their name and sanction to a gross violation of the common decorums of life, and an exposure in itself not only treacherous, but indecent. No lady, I will venture to say, of any nation, would stand godmother to a book embellished with such illustrations as accompany the " Domestic Manners of the Ameri-

VI EDITOR 3 PREFACE.

cans ;" and I owe it to the publishers to state that they had some scruples about perpetuating these gross and indelicate caricatures, but were at length induced to waive their mod- esty on the occasion, from a desire to initiate their American readers into an idea of the refinement and delicacy of this travelling lady.

It would appear from the frequent accidental disclosures of this pretended English lady, that she was received with kind- ness and hospitality wherever she went ; that she was fre- quently invited to social parties, where, with the frank open- ness which characterizes the people of this country, she was permitted to hear and see all that was going forward, all the minutiae of domestic economy ; and that she was domesticated for a long time in the family of an old lady, where she was treated with all the kindness of a daughter. I should be sorry to believe that under such circumstances any English lady would make use of the opportunities which this uni- form friendly and familiar intercourse afforded her, for the purpose of disclosing to the world those hallowed mysteries which delicacy, and 1 will say gratitude, forbid the stranger who is welcomed within our gates from proclaiming abroad on the housetops, and everywhere. This is a gross breach of that confidence we repose in every guest ; and while on the subject, I will observe, that such has been the frequent repetition of these outrages on the sacred compact between the stranger and his guest, by scribbling hirelings, that an American gentleman is now rather shy of admitting an Englishman to his dinners or his fireside, lest he should be entertaining a spy, who, when he returns to his own country, will pay the expenses of his voyage and travels by endea- vouring to hold up his host and family to the ridicule of his ignorant or prejudiced countrymen. They may place this neglect to the account of national antipathy, but it is the re- sult of a long series of hospitalities repaid by ingratitude. I say, ingratitude ; because when a man comes into a strange country where he has neither relatives nor friends, and on whose hospitality he has no claim except that of the stranger, he should be grateful for every kindness and attention he receives.

To complete the proofs which this work everywhere ex- hibits of the utter impossibility of its being written by an English lady, I shall merely advert generally to the entire

EDITOR'S TREFACK. vii

absence of all the characteristics of it-male writing which it exhibits. There is A total want of delicacy in style and sentiment ; a coarse disregard of all those nice decorums which are sacred in the eyes of a well-bred lady ; a flippant ignorance of genteel life ; and, above all, a daring reckless meddling with scenes and topics which, we hope, for the honour of old England, precludes the possibility of any Eng- lish lady having the least agency in its production.

As, however, the world at large, and the American public most especially, cannot but feel an interest in identifying the author of a work praised by the London Quarterly Review, after having satisfied myself of the foregoing fact, I set indus- triously about ascertaining the real author. In this pursuit I have been eminently successful. I have ascertained beyond all reasonable doubt, that the real author is no less a person than Captain Basil Hall, or All, as he is called in the literary circles of London, where he moves with such distinction. Should the reader start at this bold annunciation, I only ask his serious attention to the proofs I shall presently adduce. If after pondering over them all, with the deep interest such u momentous subject naturally inspires, he is not made a con- vert to my opinion, I denounce him as fit company for those unbelieving sinners, who doubt that " ipse is he," that Basil All is Basil All, and that a flea in a blanket is the same as a flea everywhere else.

In the first place, gentle reader, I shall point thy attention to the positive unqualified assertion of the pretended Mrs. Trollope, — I wonder the captain did not choose a likelier nomme de guerre, — that she " Happens to know that neither Captain Hall nor Mrs. Hall ever entered the ladies' cabin of the steamboat during the whole voyage." This is in order to disprove the story of the worthy inditer of logbooks hav- ing been set ashore, like the babes in the wood, in a cane- brake on th» Mississippi, on account of his perseverance in violating the regulations of the steamboat. Now I would ask how the pretended Mrs. Trollope could " happen" to know all this ? She does not presume to have been present at the same time ; her language is riot that of hearsay ; and I again ask how <-ould she know this unless she had been, as I maintain she is, Captain All himself? The thing is so plain that 1 would i.'ot waste another won! on the subject, were it not that 1 am determined to make assurance doubly sine, and to detect ihis impostor who has dishonoured the character of

Vlll EDITORS PREFACE.

the English ladies. For my part, I am astonished at the captain's persevering denial of this fact, since it is notorious to the world that he was set ashore, in a cane-brake, where he was found by the captain of the broad-horn Alligator, be- longing to Bob Ruly on the Mississippi, solacing his discon- solate fancies by eating a bit of sugar-cane, and making memorandums for his travels.

Secondly, the account given by the pretended Mrs. Trol- lope of the sensation created in the United States by the publication of the captain's logbook, furnishes another crying proof of the identity of these two persons. If we believe the story, it was felt like the shock of an earthquake from one extremity of the United States to the other ; the earth trembled, the graves gave up their dead, the mountains groaned, the caves yawned — which was very natural, — the rivers murmured, the men swore, the women scolded, the children cried, the calves bleated, the hens cackled, the dogs barked, and the very dumb-fish essayed to express their indig- nation. There is no doubt that if they could have spoken, it would have been the worse for Captain Hall, of whom it hath been written,

" By Captain Hall We sinned all."

I .would ask, could any human being except an author whose brain had been eaten up with self-conceit, and who mistook contemptuous indignation for fame, have so lauded and pampered his own little logbook ? Could any English lady have possibly so deceived herself with regard to the vast importance of the said logbook, as to imagine that the good people of the United States looked upon it in any other light than as a compilation of ignorance and concei', or gave it a higher consequence than a gnat or mosquito wi'ose buzzing impertinence sometimes irritates one to brushing il. away with a fan or a feather ? The conceit of this notion of his vast influence and consequence could only proceed from the doting vanity of a parent hanging over his latest offspring, and fan- cying it the most perfect of beings, because it is so like himself.

Thirdly, the various quotations introduced by the pretended Mrs. Trollope furnish additional evidence of identify in this case, by showing an intimacy with the logbook, which I verily believe has not fallen to the lot of any human

EDITOR S PREFACE. ix

being but the captain himself. I challenge the world to pro- duce an instance of the captain's logbook having ever been quoted by any respectable writer except with a view of re- proving his vanity, correcting his presumption, or establishing his ignorance. In addition to this, any person who compares the logbook with the work of the pretended Mrs. Trollope, will detect a thousand marks of identity. The same flippant pertness ; the same rare and happy talent of drawing conclu- sions from premises that contradict them ; the same curious felicity in rendering himself ridiculous ; the same laughable assumption of superiority ; the same melancholy jests, and desperate vivacity ; the same cant about religion, to wit, the established church of England ; and the same disregard of its precepts of good-will to all mankind. In short, if there really are two such distinct individuals as Captain All and Mrs. Trollope, I congratulate the English nation on possess- ing another pair of Siamese twins.

Some persons, of no contemptible sagacity, have hinted to me the possibility of Captain All being Mrs. Trollope, instead of Mrs. Trollope being Captain All. The idea is feasible, and deserves a passing examination, although the result is of little or no consequence to us ; for whether the captain is Mrs. Trollope, or Mrs. Trollope the captain, concerns only the English ladies, who will doubtless be grateful to me for attempting this vindication of their manners and character. That they are one and the same is certain, but I confess there is some difficulty in ascertaining the sex of these twin gos- sips. When I listen to the garrulous foppery of the captain, I feel irresistibly inclined to pronounce him to be Mrs. Trol- lope, or some such ugly old woman in the disguise of a man ; but when I ponder over the coarse delineations, the indelicate allusions, and bug and spitting stories of Mrs. Trollope, I am as irresistibly drawn to the conviction that it is some conceited ignorant Jack tar, breaking his forecastle jests, with a quid of tobacco in his mouth, and his canvass hat knowingly adjusted on one side of his head. Thus am I again brought back to the region of doubt, and thus am I obliged to leave the subject to the industry of some future inquirer. Enough I trust however hath been said to prove to the satisfaction of every impartial reader, either that Captain Basil All is Mrs. Trol- lope in breeches, or that Mrs. Trollope is Captain Basil All in petticoats.

New-York, June, 1832.

TO THE PUBLIC.

The preceding advertisement by the American Editor may possibly lead the reader to suppose that some alterations have been made in Mrs. Trollope's History. — This is not the case. The work has been reprinted verbatim with^ the English edition.

PREFACE.

IN offering to the public this volume on America, its author would rather be considered as endeavouring to excite fresh attention on a very important subject, than as pretending to furnish complete information upon it.

Although much has already been written on the great experiment, as it has been called, now making in govern- ment on the other side of the Atlantic, there appears to be still room for many interesting details on the influ- ence which the political system of the country has produced on the principles, tastes, and manners of its domestic life.

The author of the following pages has endeavoured, in some degree, to supply this deficiency, by carefully recording the observations she had an opportunity of making during a residence of three years and six months in different parts of the United States.

She leaves to abler pens the more ambitious task of commenting on the democratic form of the American government; while, by describing faithfully the daily aspect of ordinary life, she has endeavoured to show how greatly the advantage is on the side of those who are governed by the few, instead of the many. The chief object she has had in view is to encourage her country- men to hold fast by the constitution that ensures all the blessings which flow from established habits and solid principles. If they forego these, they will incur the fearful risk of breaking up their repose by introducing the jarring tumult and universal degradation which inva- riably follow the wild scheme of placing all the power of the state in the hands of the populace.

tT PREFACE.

The United States of America contain a considerable Tariety of interesting objects in most branches of natural science, besides much that is new, a good deal that is beautiful, and some things that are wonderful. Never- theless, as it is the moral and religious condition of the people which, beyond every thing else, demands the attention of the philosophical inquirer, the author would consider her work as completely successful, could she but awaken a more general interest on this subject.

H Allow, Mtr;b, 1832.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Entrance of the Mississippi— Balize 26

CHAPTER II.

New-Orleans — Society— Creoles and Quadroons — Voy- age up the Mississippi 28

CHAPTER HI.

Company on board the Steamboat — Scenery of the • . Mississippi — Crocodiles — Arrival at Memphis — Na- shoba ^. 35

CHAPTER IV.

Departure from Memphis — Ohio River — Louisville — Cincinnati 46

CHAPTER V. Cincinnati— Forest Farm— Mr. Bullock £4

CHAPTER VI. Servants — Society — Evening Parties 61

CHAPTER VII.

Market — Museum — Picture Gallery — Academy of Fine Arts — Drawing School — Phrenological Society — Miss Wright's Lecture €6

CHAPTER VHI.

Absence of public and private Amusement — Churches and Chapels — Influence of the Clergy — A Revival . 74

yl CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

Schools — Climats — Watermelons — Fourth of July — Storms--»Pigs— Moving Houses — Mr. Flint — Litera- ture ^ . 61

CHAPTER X.

Removal to the Country — Walk in the Forest— Equality 90 CHAPTER XI.

^Religion 98

CHAPTER XII.

* Peasantry, compared to that of England — Early Mar- riages— Charity — Independence and Equality — Cot- tage Prayer-meeting 104

CHAPTER XIII.

' Theatre — Fine Arts — Delicacy — Shaking Quakers —

Big Bone Lick— Visit of the President 114

CHAPTER XIV.

American Spring — Controversy between Messrs. Owen and Campbell — Public Ball — Separation of the Sexes — American Freedom — ExecutionrT'TT 7 . .124

CHAPTER XV. Camp-meeting 139

CHAPTER XVI.

Danger of rural Excursions — Sickness 146

CHAPTER XVII.

Departure from Cincinnati — Society on board the Steam- boat— Arrival at Wheeling— Bel Esprit . . . . 1 50

CHAPTER XVIII.

Departure for the Mountains in the Stage — Scenery of the Alleghany — Haggerstown 157

CHAPTER XIX.

Baltimore — Catholic Cathedral — St. Mary's College — Sermons — Infant School 166

CHAPTER XX.

Voyage to Washington — Capitol — City of Washington — Congress — Indians — Funeral of a Member of Con- gress *{•>»••*.'• . . .174

CHAPTER XXI.

Stonington— Great Falls of the Potomac . ' V . ':'*'. . 190

CHAPTER XXII. Small Landed Proprietors — Slavery ... . . .194

CHAPTER XXIII.

Fruits and Flowers of Maryland and Virginia — Copper- head Snake-^Insectsj— Elections 203

CHAPTER XXIV.

Journey to Philadelphia — Chesapeake and Delaware Canal — City of Philadelphia — Miss Wright's Lecture 209

CHAPTER XXV.

Washington Square — American Beauty — Gallery of Fine Arts — Antiques — Theatres — Museum 213

CHAPTER XXVI.

Quakers— Presbyterians — Itinerant Methodist Preacher — Market — Influence of Females in Society . . . 220

CHAPTER XXVII.

Return to Stonington — Thunder-storm — Emigrants — Illness — Alexandria 23 J

CHAPTER XXVIII.

AmericanCooking — EveningPartiei— Dress — Sleighing —Money-getting Habits— Tax-gaUieTeT's Notice —In-

yiii CONTENTS.

dian Summer — Anecdote of the Duke of Saxe Wei- mar 238

CHAPTER XXIX.

Literature— Extracts— Fine Arts — Education . . . 249 CHAPTER XXX.

Journey to New-York — Delaware River — Stage-coach — City of New- York — Collegiate Institute for Young Lad ies — Theatres— P u bl ic Garden — Churches — Mor- ris Canal — Fashions — Carriages 265

CHAPTER XXXI.

Reception of Captain Basil Hall's Book in the United States 282

CHAPTER XXXII.

Journey to Niagara — Hudson— West Point — Hyde Park — Albany — Yankees — Trenton Falls — Rochester — Genesee Falls — Lockport 291

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Niagara — Arrival at Forsythe's— First sight of the Fall — Goatlsland— The Rapids— Buffalo— Lake Erie— Can- andaigua — Stage-coach Adventures 302

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Return to New- York— Conclusion . .318

DOMESTIC MANNERS

or THE AMERICANS.

CHAPTER I.

Entrance of the Mississippi — Balize.

ON the 4th of November, 1827. 1 sailed from London* accompanied by my son and two daughters ; and after a favourable 1 hough somewhat tedious voyage, arrived on Christmas-day at the mouth of the Mississippi.

The first indication of our approach to land was the appearance of this mighty river pouring forth its muddy mass of waters, and mingling with the deep blue of the Mexican Gulf. The shores of this river are so utterly flat, that no object upon them is perceptible at sea, and we gazed with pleasure on the muddy ocean that met us, for it told us we were arrived, and seven weeks of sailing had wearied us ; yet it was not without a feeling like regret that we passed from the bright blue waves, whose varying aspect had so long furnished our chief amusement,, into the murky stream which now received us.

Large flights of pelicans were seen standing upon the long masses of mud which rose above the surface of the waters, and a pilot came to guide us over the bar, long; before any other indication of land was visible.

1 never beheld a scene so utterly desolate as this entrance of the Mississippi. Had Dante seen it, he might have drawn images of another Bolgia from its horrors. One only object rears itself above the eddying, warers ; this is the mast of a vessel long since wrecked, in attempting to cross the bar, and it still stands, a dismal witness of the destruction that has been, and a boding prophet of that which is to come. B

26 DOMESTIC MANNERS

By degrees, bulrushes of enormous growth become visible, and a few more miles of mud brought us within sight of a cluster of huts called the Balize, by far the most miserable station that I ever saw made the dwelling of man ; but I was told that many families of pilots and fishermen lived there.

For several miles above its mouth, the Mississippi pre- sents no objects more interesting than mud banks, mon- strous bulrushes, and now and then a huge crocodile lux- uriating in the slime. Another circumstance that gives to this dreary scene an aspect of desolation, is the inces- sant appearance of vast quantities of drift wood, which is ever finding its way to the different mouths of the Mississippi. Trees of enormous length, sometimes still bearing their branches, and still oftener their uptorn roots entire, the victims of the frequent hurricane, come floating down the stream. Sometimes several of these, entangled together, collect among their boughs a quantity of floating rubbish, that gives the mass the appearance of a moving island, bearing a forest, with its roots mocking the heav- ens ; while the dishonoured branches lash the tide in idle vengeance : this, as it approaches the vessel, and glides swiftly past, looks like the fragment of a world in ruins.

As we advanced, however, we were cheered, notwith- standing the season, by the bright tints of southern vege- tation. The banks continue invariably flat, but a succes- sion of planless villas, sometimes merely a residence, and sometimes surrounded by their sugar grounds and Negro huts, varied the scene. At no one point was there an inch of what painters call a second distance ; and for the length of one hundred and twenty miles, from the Balize to New-Orleans, and one hundred miles above the town, the land is defended from the encroachments of the river by a high embankment, which is called the levee ; with- out which the dwellings would speedily disappear, as the river is evidently higher than the banks would be without it. When we arrived, there had been constant rains, and of long continuance, and this appearance was, therefore, unusually striking, giving to " this great natural feature" the most unnatural appearance imaginable ; and making evident, not only that man had been busy there, but that

OP THE AMERICANS. $7

even the mightiest works of nature might be made to bear his impress ; it recalled, literally, Swift's mock heroic,

" Nature must give way to art ;"

yet, she was looking so mighty, and so unsubdued all the time, that I could not help fancying she would some day take the matter into her own hands again, and if so, fare- well to New-Orleans.

It is easy to imagine the total want of beauty in such a landscape ; but yet the form and hue of the trees and plants, so new to us, added to the long privation we had endured of all sights and sounds of land, made even these swampy shores seem beautiful. We were, however, impatient to touch as well as see the land ; but the navi- gation from the Balize to New-Orleans is difficult and tedious, and the two days that it occupied appeared longer than any we had passed on board.

In truth, to those who have pleasure in contemplating the phenomena of nature, a sea voyage may endure many weeks without wearying. Perhaps some may think that the first glance of ocean and of sky show all they have to offer ; nay, even that that first glance may suggest more of dreariness than sublimity ; but to me, their variety appeared endless, and their beauty unfailing. The attempt to describe scenery, even where the objects are prominent and tangible, is very rarely successful ; but where the effect is so subtle and so varying, it must be vain. The impression, nevertheless, is perhaps deeper than any other; I think it possible I may forget the sen- sations with which I watched the long course of the gigantic Mississippi ; the Ohio and the Potomac may mingle and be confounded with other streams in my memory ; I may even recall with difficulty the blue outline of the Alleghany mountains ; but never, while I remember any thing, can I forget the first and last hour of light on the Atlantic.

The ocean, however, and all its indescribable charm, no longer surrounded us ; we began to feel that our walk on the quarter-deck was very like the exercise of an ass in a mill ; that our books had lost half their pages, and that the other half were known by rote ; that our beef B2

28 DOMESTIC MANNER*

was very salt, and our biscuits very hard ; in short, that having studied the good ship Edward from stem to stern till we knew the name of every sail, and the use of every pulley, we had had enough of her, and as we laid down, head to head, in our tiny beds for the last time, I exclaimed with no small pleasure,

" To-morrow to fresh fields and pastures new."

CHAPTER II.

New-Orleans — Society — Creoles and Quadroons — Voyage up the Mississippi.

ON first touching the soil of a new land, of a new continent, of a new world, it is impossible not to feel considerable excitement and deep interest in almost every object that meets us. New-Orleans presents very little that can gratify the eye of taste, but nevertheless there is much of novelty and interest for a newly-arrived Euro- pean. The large proportion of blacks seen in the streets, all labour being performed by them ; the grace and beauty of the elegant Quadroons ; the occasional groups of wild and savage looking Indians ; the unwonted aspect of the vegetation ; the huge and turbid river, with its low and slimy shore, all help to afford that species of amuse- ment which proceeds from looking at what we never saw before.

The town has much the appearance of a French ville de province, and is, in fact, an old French colony taken from Spain by France. The names of the streets are French, and the language about equally French and English. The market is handsome and well supplied, all produce being conveyed by the river. We were much pleased by the chant with which the Negro boatmen regulate and beguile their labour on the river ; it consists but of very few notes, but they are sweetly harmonious, and the Negro voice is almost always rich and powerful

OF THE AMBKICANS. 29

By far the most agreeable hours I passed at New-Or- leans were those in which I explored with my children the forest near the town. It was our first walk in " the eternal forests of the western world," and we felt rather sublime and poetical. The trees, generally speaking, are much too close to be either large or well grown ; and, moreover, their growth is often stunted by a parasitical plant, for which 1 could learn no other name than " Spa- nish moss ;" it hangs gracefully from the boughs, con- verting the outline of all the trees it hangs upon into that of weeping willows. The chief beauty of the forest in this region is fromtheluxuriantunder-growth of palmettos, which is decidedly the loveliest coloured and most grace- ful plant I know. The pawpaw, too, is a splendid shrub, and in great abundance. We here, for the first time, saw the wild vine, which we afterward found growing so profusely in every part of America, as naturally to suggest the idea that the natives ought to add wine to the numerous productions of their plenty-teeming soil. The strong pendant festoons made safe and commodious swings, which some of our party enjoyed, despite the sublime temperament abovementioned.

Notwithstanding it was mid-winter when we were at New-Orleans, the heat was much more than agreeable, and the attacks of the mosquitoes incessant and most torment- ing ; yet I suspect that for a short time we would rather have endured it, than not to have seen oranges, green peas, and red pepper, growing in the open air at Christmas. In one of our rambles we ventured to enter a garden, whose bright orange hedge attracted our attention ; here we saw green peas fit for the table, and a fine crop of red pepper ripening in the sun. A young Negress was em- ployed on the steps of the house ; that she was a slave made her an object of interest to us. She was the first slave we had ever spoken to, and I believe we all felt we could hardly address her with sufficient gentleness. She little dreamed, poor girl, what deep sympathy she excited ; she answered us civilly and gayly, and seemed amused at our fancying there was something unusual in red pepper pods ; she gave us several of them, and I felt fearful lest a hard mistress might blame her for it. How very childish does ignorance make us ! and how very ignorant

DOMESTIC MANNERS

we are upon almost every subject, where hearsay evi- dence is all we can get !

I left England with feelings so strongly opposed to slavery, that it was not without pain I witnessed its effects around me. At the sight of every Negro man, woman, and child that passed, my fancy wove some little romance of misery, as belonging to each of them ; since I have known more on the subject, and become better acquainted with their real situation in America, I have often smiled at recalling what I then felt.

The first symptoms of American equality that I per- ceived, was my being introduced in form to a milliner ; it was not a boarding-house, under the indistinct outline of " Miss C*** **," nor in the street through the veil of a fashionable toilette, but in the very penetralia of her temple, standing behind her counter, giving laws to rib- and and to wire, and ushering caps and bonnets into existence. She was an English woman, and I was told that she possessed great intellectual endowments, and much information ; I really believe this was true. Her manner was easy and graceful, with a good deal of French tournure ; and the gentleness with which her fine eyes and sweet voice directed the movements of a young female slave, was really touching : the way, too, in which she blended her French talk of modes with her customers, and her English talk of metaphysics with her friends, had a pretty air of indifference in it, that gave her a superiority with both.

I found with her the daughter of a judge, eminent, it was said, both for legal and literary ability, and I heard from many quarters, after I had left New-Orleans, that the society of this lady was highly valued by all persons of talent. Yet were I, traveller-like, to stop here, and set it down as a national peculiarity, or republican custom, that milliners took the lead in the best society, I should greatly falsify facts. I do not remember the same thing happening to me again, and this is one instance among a thousand, of the impression every circumstance makes on entering a new country, and of the propensity, so irre- sistible, to class all things, however accidental, as national and peculiar. On the other hand, however, it is certain

OP THE AMERICANS. 31

that if similar anomalies are unfrequent in America, they are nearly impossible elsewhere.

In the shop of Miss C***** I was introduced to Mr. M'Clure, a venerable personage of gentlemanlike appear- ance, who in the course of five minutes propounded as many axioms, as " Ignorance is the only devil ;" " Man makes his own existence ;" and the like. He was of the New-Harmony school, or rather the New-Harmony school was of him. He was a man of good fortune (a Scotch- man, I believe), who after living a tolerably gay life, had " conceived high thoughts, such as Lycurgus loved, who bade flog the little Spartans," and determined to benefit the species, and immortalize himself, by founding a philo- sophical school at New-Harmony. There was something in the hollow square legislations of Mr. Owen, that struck him as admirable, and he seems, as far as I can under- stand, to have intended aiding his views, by a sort of incipient hollow square drilling ; teaching the young ideas of all he could catch, to shoot into parallelogramic form and order. This venerable philosopher, like all of his school that I ever heard of, loved better to originate lofty imaginings of faultless systems, than to watch their appli- cation to practice. With much liberality he purchased and conveyed to the wilderness a very noble collection of books and scientific instruments ; but not finding among men one whose views were liberal and enlarged as his own, he selected a woman to put into action the machine he had organized. As his acquaintance with this lady had been of long standing, and, as it was said, very inti- mate, he felt sure that no violation of his rules would have place under her sway ; they would act together as one being ; he was to perform the functions of the soul, and will every thing ; she. those of the body, and perform every thing.

The principal feature of the scheme was, that (the first liberal outfit of the institution having been furnished by Mr. M'Clure) the expense of keeping it up should be defrayed by the profits arising from the labours of the pupils, male and female, which were to, be performed at stated intervals of each day, in regular rotation, with learned study and scientific research. But unfortunately the soul of the system found the climate of Indiana un-

33 DOMESTIC MANNERS

congenial to its peculiar formation, and therefore took its flight to Mexico, leaving the body to perform the operations of both, in whatever manner it liked best; and the body, being a French body, found no difficulty in setting actively to work without troubling the soul about it ; and soon becoming conscious that the more simple was a machine, the more perfect were its opera- tions, she threw out all that related to the intellectual part •of the business (which to do poor soul justice, it had laid great stress upon), and stirred herself as effectually as ever body did, to draw wealth from the thews and sinews of the youths they had collected. When last I heard of this philosophical establishment, she, and a nephew-son were said to be reaping a golden harvest, as many of the lads had been sent from a distance by indigent parents, for gratuitous education, and possessed no means of leaving it.

Our stay in New-Orleans was not long enough to permit our entering into society, but I was told that it contained two distinct sets of people, both celebrated, in their way, for their social meetings and elegant entertain- ments. The first of these is composed of Creole families, who are chiefly planters and merchants, with their wives and daughters ; these meet together, eat together, and are very grand and aristocratic ; each of their balls is a little Almack's, and every portly dame of the set is as exclusive, in her principles as a lady patroness. The other set con- sists of the excluded, but amiable Quadroons, and such of the gentlemen of the former class as can by any means escape from the high places, where pure Creole blood swells the veins at the bare mention of any being tainted in the remotest degree with the Negro stain.

Of all the prejudices I have ever witnessed, this appears to me the most violent and the most inveterate. Quad- roon girls, the acknowledged daughters of wealthy American or Creole fathers, educated with all of style and accomplishments which money can procure at New-Or- leans, and with all the decorum that care and affection can give ; exquisitely beautiful, graceful, gentle, and amiable, they are not admitted, nay, are not on any terms admissible into the society of the Creole families of Louisiana. They cannot marry ; that is to say, no ceremony can render

Or TUB AMERICANS. 33

a union with them legal or binding ; yet such is the powerful effect of their very peculiar grace, beauty, and sweetness of manner, that unfortunately they perpetually become the objects of choice and affection. If the Creole ladies have privilege to exercise the awful power of repul- sion, the gentle Quadroon has the sweet but dangerous vengeance of possessing that of attraction. The unions formed with this unfortunate race are said to be often lasting and happy, as far as any unions can be so to which a certain degree of disgrace is attached.

There is a French and an English theatre in the town ; but we were too fresh from Europe to care much for either ; or, indeed, for any other of the town delights of this city, and we soon became eager to commence our voyage up the Mississippi.

Miss Wright, then less known (though the author of more than one clever volume) than she has since become, was the companion of our voyage from Europe ; and it was my purpose to have passed some months with her and her sister at the estate she had purchased in Tennessee. This lady, since become so celebrated as the advocate of opinions that make millions shudder, and some half-score admire, was at the time of my leaving England with her, dedicated to a pursuit widely different from her subse- quent occupations. Instead of becoming a public orator in every town throughout America, she was about, as she said, to seclude herself for life in the deepest forest of the western world, that her fortune, her time, and her talents might be exclusively devoted to aid the cause of the suf- fering Africans. Her first object was to show that nature had made no difference between blacks and whites, ex- cepting in complexion ; and this she expected to prove by giving an education perfectly equal to a class of black and white children. Could this fact be once fully estab- lished, she conceived that the Negro cause would stand on firmer ground than it had yet done, and the degraded rank which they have ever held among civilized nations would be proved to be a gross injustice. This question of the mental equality or inequality between us and the Negro race, in one of great interest, and has certainly never yet been fairly tried ; and I expected for my chil- dren and myself both pleasure and information from B3

34 DOMESTIC MANNERS

risking her establishment, and watching the success of her experiment.

The innumerable steamboats, which are the stage coaches and fly wagons of this land of lakes and rivers, are totally unlike any I had seen in Europe, and greatly superior to them. The fabrics which I think they most resemble in appearance are the floating baths (les bains Vigier) at Paris. The room to which the double line of windows belongs is a very handsome apartment; before each window a neat, little cot is arranged in such a manner as to give its drapery the air of a window cur- tain. This room is called the gentlemen's cabin, and their exclusive right to it is somewhat uncourteously insisted upon. The breakfast, dinner, and supper are laid in this apartment, and the lady passengers are permitted to take their meals there.

On the 1st of January, 1828, we embarked on board the Belvidere, a large and handsome boat ; though not the largest or handsomest of the many which displayed themselves along the wharves ; but she was going to stop at Memphis, the point of the river nearest to Miss Wright's residence, and she was the first that departed after we had got through the custom-house, and finished our sight-see- ing. We found the room destined for the use of the ladies dismal enough, as its only windows were below the stern-gallery ; but both this and the gentlemen's cabin were handsomely fitted up, and the former well carpeted ; but oh ! that carpet ! I will not, I may not describe its condition ; indeed it requires the pen of a Swift to do it justice. Let no one who wishes to receive agreeable impressions of American manners, commence their travels in a Mississippi steamboat ; for myself, it is with all sin- cerity I declare, that 1 would infinitely prefer sharing the apartment of a party of well conditioned pigs to the being confined to its cabin.

I hardly know any annoyance so deeply repugnant to English feelings as the incessant, remorseless spitting of Americans. I feel that I owe my readers an apology for the repeated use of this, and several other odious words ; but I cannot avoid them, without suffering the fidelity of description to escape me. It is possible that in this phrase

OF THE AMERICANS. 35

" Americans," I may be too general. The United States form a continent of almost distinct nations, and I must now, and always, be understood to speak only of that portion of them which I have seen. In conversing with Americans I have constantly found that if I alluded to any thing which they thought I considered as uncouth, they would assure me it was local, and not national ; the accidental peculiarity of a very small part, and by no means a specimen of the whole. " That is because you know so little of America," is a phrase I have listened to a thousand times, and in nearly as many different places. It may be so — and having made this concession, I protest against the charge of injustice in relating what I have seen.

CHAPTER III.

Company on board the Steamboat — Scenery of the Missis- sippi— Crocodiles — Arrival at Memphis — Naskoba.

THE weather was warm and bright, and we found the guard of the boat, as they call the gallery that runs round the cabins, a very agreeable station ; here we all sat as long as light lasted, and sometimes wrapped in our shawls, we enjoyed the clear bright beauty of American moon- light long after every passenger but ourselves had retired. We had a full compliment of passengers on board. The deck, as is usual, was occupied by the Kentucky flat-boat- men, returning from New-Orleans, after having disposed of the boat and cargo which they had conveyed thither, with no other labour than that of steering her, the current bringing her down at the rate of four miles an hour. We had about two hundred of these men on board ; but the part of the vessel occupied by them is so distinct from the cabins, that we never saw them except when we stopped to take in wood ; and then they ran, or rather sprung and vaulted over each other's heads to the shore, whence they all assisted in carrying wood to supply the steam-

36 DOMESTIC MANNERS

engine ; the performance of this duty being a stipulated part of the payment of their passage.

From the account given by a man-servant we had on board, who shared their quarters, they are a most disor- derly set of persons, constantly gambling and wrangling, very seldom sober, and never suffering a night to pass without giving practical proof of the respect in which they hold the doctrines of equality, and community of property. The clerk of the vessel was kind enough to take our man under his protection, and assigned him a berth in his own little nook ; but as this was not inaccessible, he told him by no means to detach his watch or money from his person during the night. Whatever their moral charac- teristics may be, these Kentuckians are a very noble- looking race of men ; their average height considerably exceeds that of Europeans, and their countenances, ex- cepting when disfigured by red hair, which is not unfre- quent, extremely handsome.

The gentlemen in the cabin (we had no ladies) would certainly neither from their language, manners, nor ap- pearance, have received that designation in Europe ; but we soon found their claim to it rested on more substantial ground, for we heard them nearly all addressed by the titles of general, colonel, and major. On mentioning these military dignities to an English friend some time afterward, he told me that he too had made the voyage with the same description of company, but remarking that there was not a single captain among them ; he made the observation to a fellow-passenger, and asked how he ac- counted for it. "Oh, sir, the captains are all on deck," was the reply.

Our honours, however, were not all military, for we had a judge among us. I know it is equally easy and in- vidious to ridicule the peculiarities of appearance and manner in a people of a different nation from ourselves ; we may, too, at the same moment, be undergoing the same ordeal in their estimation ; and, moreover, I am by no means disposed to consider whatever is new to me as therefore objectionable ; but, nevertheless, it was impos- sible not to feel repugnance to many of the novelties that now surrounded me.

The total want of all the usual courtesies of the taWe,

OP THE AMERICANS. 37

the voracious rapidity with which the viands were seized, and devoured ; the strange uncouth phrases and pronun- ciation ; the loathsome spitting, from the contamination of which it was absolutely impossible to protect our dresses ; the frightful manner of feeding with their knives, till the whole blade seemed to enter into the mouth ; and the still more frightful manner of cleaning the teeth afterward with a pocket knife, soon forced us to feel that we were not surrounded by the generals, colonels, and majors of the old world ; and that the dinner hour was to be any thing rather than an hour of enjoyment.

The little conversation that went forward while we re- mained in the room was entirely political, and the respective claims of Adams and Jackson to the presidency were argued with more oaths and more vehemence than it had ever been my lot to hear. "Once a colonel appeared on the verge of assaulting a major, when a huge seven-foot Kentuckian gentleman horse-dealer, asked of the heavens to confound them both, and bade them sit still and be d — d. We too thought we should share this sentence ; at least sitting still in the cabin seemed very nearly to include the rest of it, and we never tarried there a moment longer than was absolutely necessary to eat.

The unbroken flatness of the banks of the Mississippi continued unvaried for many miles above New-Orleans ; but the graceful and luxuriant palmetto, the dark and noble ilex, and the bright orange, were everywhere to be seen, and it was many days before we were weary of looking at them. We occasionally used the opportunity of the boat's stopping to take in wood for a ten minutes' visit to the shore ; we in this manner explored a field of sugar-canes, and ' loaded ourselves with as much of the sweet spoil as we could carry. Many of the passengers seemed fond of the luscious juice that is easily expressed from the canes, but it was too sweet for my palate. We also visited, in the same rapid manner, a cotton plantation. A handsome spacious building was pointed out to us as a convent, where a considerable number of young ladies were educated by the nuns.

At one or two points the wearisome level line of forest is relieved by bluffs, as they call the short intervals of high ground. The town of Natches is beautifully situ-

38 DOMESTIC MANNERS

ated on one of those high spots ; the climate here, in the warm season, is as fatal as that of New-Orleans ; were it not for this, Natches would have great attractions to new settlers. The beautiful contrast that its bright green hill forms with the dismal line of black forest that stretches on every side, the abundant growth of the pawpaw, pal- metto and orange, the copious variety of sweet-scented flowers that flourish there, all make it appear like an oasis in the desert. Natches is the furthest point to the north at which oranges ripen in the open air, or endure the winter without shelter. With the exception of this sweet spot, I thought all the little towns and villages we passed wretched looking in the extreme. As the distance from New-Orleans increased, the air of wealth and comfort exhibited in its immediate neighbourhood disappeared, and but for one or two clusters of wooden houses, calling themselves towns, and borrowing some pompous name, generally from Greece or Rome, we might have thought ourselves the first of the human race who had ever pene- trated into this territory of bears and alligators. But still from time to time appeared the hut of the woodcutter, who supplies the steamboats with fuel, at the risk or rather with the assurance of early death, in exchange for dollars and whiskey. These sad dwellings are nearly all of them inundated during the winter, and the best of them are constructed on piles, which permit the water to reach its highest level without drowning the wretched inhabitants. These unhappy beings are invariably the victims of ague, which they meet recklessly, sustained by the incessant use of ardent spirits. The squalid look of the miserable wives and children of these men was dreadful, and often as the spectacle was renewed I could never look at it with indifference. Their complexion is of a bluish white, that suggests the idea of dropsy ; this is invariable, and the poor little ones wear exactly the same ghastly hue. A miserable cow and a few pigs standing knee- deep in water, distinguish the more prosperous of these dwellings, and on the whole I should say that I never witnessed human nature reduced so low, as it appeared in the woodcutters' huts on the unwholesome banks of the Mississippi.

It is said that at some points of this dismal river, croco-

OF THE AMERICANS. 39

diles are so abundant as to add the terror of their at- tacks to the other sufferings of a dwelling there. We were told a story of a squatter, who having " located" himself close to the river's edge, proceeded to build his cabin. This operation is soon performed, for social feel- ing and the love of whiskey bring all the scanty neigh- bourhood round a new comer, to aid him in cutting down trees, and in rolling up the logs, till the mansion is com- plete. This was done ; the wife and five young children were put in possession of their new home, and slept soundly after a long march. Towards day-break the husband and father was awakened by a faint cry, and looking up, beheld relics of three of his children scattered over the floor, and an enormous crocodile, with several young ones around her, occupied in devouring the rem- nants of their horrid meal. He looked round for a wea- pon, but finding none, and aware that unarmed he could do nothing, he raised himself gently on his bed, and con- trived to crawl from thence through a window, hoping that his wife, whom he left sleeping, might with the remaining children rest undiscovered till his return. He flew to his nearest neighbour and besought his aid ; in less than half an hour two men returned with him, all three well armed ; but alas ! they were too late ! the wife and her two babes lay mangled on their bloody bed. The gorged reptiles fell an easy prey to their assailants, who, upon examining the place, found the hut had been constructed close to the mouth of a large hole, almost a cavern, where the monster had hatched her hateful brood. Among other sights of desolation which mark this region, condemned of nature, the lurid glare of a burning forest was almost constantly visible after sunset, and when the wind so willed, the smoke arising from it floated in heavy vapour over our heads. Not all the novelty of the scene, not all its vastness, could prevent its heavy horror wearying the spirits. Perhaps the dinners and suppers I have described may help to account for this ; but certain it is, that when we had wondered for a week at the ceaseless continuity of forest ; had first admired, and then wearied of the festooned drapery of Spanish moss ; when we had learned to distinguish the different masses of timber that passed us, or that we passed, as a

40 DOMESTIC MANNERS

" snag," a " log," or a " sawyer ;" when we had finally made up our minds that the gentlemen of the Kentucky and Ohio military establishments were not of the same genus as those of the Tuileries and St. James's, we began to wish that we could sleep more hours away. As we advanced to the northward we were no longer cheered by the beautiful border of palmettos ; and even the amusement of occasionally spying out a sleeping croco- dile was over.

Just in this state, when we would have fain believed that every mile we went carried us two towards Mem- phis, a sudden and violent shock startled us frightfully.

" It is a sawyer !" said one.

" It is a snag !" cried another.

" We are aground !" exclaimed the captain.

" Aground ? Good heavens ! and how long shall we stay here ?"

" The Lord in his providence can only tell, but long enough to tire my patience, I expect."

And the poor English ladies, how fared they the while ?

Two breakfasts, two dinners, and a supper did they eat, with the Ohio and Kentucky gentlemen, before they moved an inch. Several steamboats passed while we were thus enthralled ; but some were not strong enough to attempt drawing us off, and some attempted it, but were not strong enough to succeed ; at length a vast and mighty " thing of life" approached, threw out grappling irons, and in three minutes the business was done ; again we saw the trees and mud slide swiftly past us ; and a hearty shout from every passenger on deck declared their joy.

At length we had the pleasure of being told that we had arrived at Memphis ; but this pleasure was consider- ably abated by the hour of our arrival, which was mid- night, and by the rain, which was falling in torrents.

Memphis stands on a high bluff, and at the time of our arrival was nearly inaccessible. The heavy rain which had been falling for many hours would have made any steep ascent difficult, but unfortunately a new road had been recently marked out, which beguiled us into its almost bottomless mud, from the firmer footing of the

OF THE AMERICANS.

41

unbroken cliff. Shoes and gloves were lost in the mire, for we were glad to avail ourselves of all our limbs, and we reached the grand hotel in a most deplorable state.

Miss Wright was well known there, and as soon as her arrival was announced, every one seemed on the alert to receive her, and we soon ibund ourselves in pos- session of the best rooms in the hotel. The house was new, and in what appeared to me a very comfortless condition, but I was then new to Western America, and unaccustomed to their mode of " getting along," as they term it. This phrase is eternally in use among them, and seems to mean existing with as few of the comforts of life as possible.

We slept soundly, however, and rose in the hope of soon changing our mortar-smelling quarters for Miss Wright's Nashoba.

But we presently found that the rain which had fallen during the night would make it hazardous to venture through the forests of Tennessee in any sort of carriage ; we therefore had to pass the day at our queer, comfort- less hotel. The steamboat had wearied me of social meals, and I should have been thankful to have eaten our dinner of hard venison and peach-sauce in a private room ; but this Miss Wright said was impossible ; the lady of the house would consider the proposal as a per- sonal affront, and, moreover, it would be assuredly refused. This latter argument carried weight with it, and when the great bell was sounded from an upper window of the house, we proceeded to the dining-room. The table was laid for fifty persons, and was already nearly full. Our party had the honour of sitting near " the lady," but to check the proud feelings to which such distinction might give birth, my servant William sat very nearly opposite to me. The company consisted of all the shop-keepers (store-keepers as they are called throughout the United States) of the little town. The mayor also, who was a friend of Miss Wright's, was of the party ; he is a pleasing, gentlemanlike man, and seems strangely misplaced in a little town on the Mississippi. We were told that since the erection of this hotel, it has been the custom for all the male inhabitants of the town to dine and breakfast there. They ate in perfect silence,

The remainder of the day passed pleasantly enough ii rambling round the little town, which is situated at th(

42 DOMESTIC MANNERS

and with such astonishing rapidity that their dinner was over literally before ours was begun ; the instant they ceased to eat, they darted from the table in the same moody silence which they had preserved since they entered the room, and a second set took their places, who performed their silent parts in the same manner. The only sounds heard were those produced by the knives and forks, with the unceasing chorus of coughing, &c. No women were present except ourselves and the hostess ; the good women of Memphis being well content to let their lords partake of Mrs. Anderson's turkeys and venison (without their having the trouble of cooking for them), while they regale themselves on mush and milk at home.

in the

most beautiful point of the Mississippi ; the river is here so wide as to give it the appearance of a noble lake ; an island, covered with lofty forest trees divides it, and relieves by its broad mass of shadow the uniformity of its waters. The town stretches in a rambling, irregular manner along the cliff, from the Wolf River, one of the innumerable tributaries to the Mississippi, to about a mile below it. Half a mile more of the cliff beyond the town is cleared of trees, and produces good pasture for horses, cows, and pigs ; sheep they had none. At either end of this space the forest again rears its dark wall, and seems to say to man, " so far shalt thou come, and no farther !" Courage and industry, however, have braved the warning. Behind this long street the town straggles back into the forest, and the rude path that leads to the more distant log dwellings becomes wilder at every step. The ground is broken by frequent watercourses, and the bridges that lead across them are formed by trunks of trees thrown over the stream, which support others of smaller growth, that are laid across them. These bridges are not very pleasant to pass, for they totter under the tread of a man, and tremble most frightfully beneath a horse or a wagon ; they are, however, very picturesque. The great height of the trees, the quantity of pendant vine branches that hang among them ; and the variety of gay plumaged birds, particularly the small green parrot, made us feel we were

OF THE AMERICANS. 43

in a new world ; and a repetition of our walk the next morning would have pleased us well, but Miss Wright was anxious to get home, and we were scarcely less so to see her Nashoba. A clumsy sort of caravan, drawn by two horses, was prepared for us ; and we set off" in high spirits for an expedition of fifteen miles through the forest. To avoid passing one of the bridges above described, which was thought insecure, our Negro driver took us through a piece of water, which he assured us was not deep " to matter ;" however we soon lost sight of our pole, and as we were evidently descending, we gently remon- strated with him on the danger of proceeding, but he only grinned, and flogged in- reply ; we soon saw the front wheels disappear, and the horses began to plunge and kick most alarmingly, but still without his looking at all dis- turbed. At length the splinter-bar gave way, upon which the black philosopher said very composedly, " I expect you'll best be riding out upon the horses, as we've got into an unhandsome fix here." Miss Wright, who sat composedly smiling at the scene, said, " Yes, Jacob, that is what we must do ;" and with some difficulty, we in this manner reached the shore, and soon found ourselves again assembled round Mrs. Anderson's fire.

It was soon settled that we must delay our departure till the waters had subsided ; but Miss Wright was too anxious to reach home to endure this delay, and she set off again on horseback, accompanied by our man-servant, who told me afterward that they rode through places that might have daunted the boldest hunter, but that " Miss Wright took it quite easy."

The next day we started again, and the clear air, the bright sun, the novel wildness of the dark forest, and our keenly awakened curiosity, made the excursion delightful, and enabled us to bear without shrinking the bumps and bruises we encountered. We soon lost all trace of a road, at least so it appeared to us, for the stumps of the trees, which had been cut away to open a passage, were left standing three feet high. Over these, the high-hung Dear- born, as our carriage was called, passed safely ; but it required some miles of experience to convince us that every stump would not be our last ; it was amusing to watch the cool and easy skill with which the driver wound

44 DOMESTIC MANNERS

his horses and wheels among these stumps. I thought he might have been imported to Bond-street with great advantage. The forest became thicker and more dreary- looking every mile we advanced, but our ever-grinning Negro declared it was a right good road, and that we should be sure to get to Nashoba.

And so we did and one

glance sufficed to convince me that every idea I had formed of the place was far as possible from the truth. Desolation was the only feeling — the only word that pre- sented itself; but it was not spoken. I think, however, that Miss Wright was aware of the painful impression the sight of her forest home produced on me, and I doubt not that the conviction reached us both at the same moment, that we had erred in thinking that a few months passed together at this spot could be productive of pleasure to either. But to do her justice, I believe her mind was so exclusively occupied by the object she had then in view, that all things else were worthless, or indifferent to her. I never heard or read of any enthusiasm approaching hers, except in some few instances, in ages past, of reli- gious fanaticism.

It must have been some feeling equally powerful which enabled Miss Wright, accustomed to all the comfort and refinement of Europe, to imagine not only that she her- self could exist in this wilderness, but that her European friends could enter there, and not feel dismayed at the savage aspect of the scene. Each building in the settle- ment consisted of two large rooms, furnished in the most simple manner ; nor had they as yet collected round them any of those minor comforts which ordinary minds class among the necessaries of life. But in this our philoso- phical friend seemed to see no evil ; nor was there any mixture of affectation in this indifference ; it was a cir- cumstance really and truly beneath her notice. Her whole heart and soul were occupied by the hopes of rais- ing the African to the level of European intellect ; and even now, that I have seen this favourite fabric of her imagination fall to pieces beneath her feet, I cannot recall the self-devotion with which she gave herself to it without admiration.

The only white persons we found at Nashoba were

OF THE AMERICANS. 45

my amiable friend, Mrs. W****, the sister of Miss Wrighf, and her husband. I think they had between thirty and forty slaves, including children ; but when I was there no school had been established. Books and other materials for the great experiment had been collected, and one or two professors engaged, but nothing was yet organized. I found my friend Mrs. W****in very bad health, which she confessed she attributed to the climate. This natu- rally so much alarmed me for my children, that I decided upon leaving the place with as little delay as possible, and did so at the end of ten days.

I do not exactly know what was the immediate cause which induced Miss Wright to abandon a scheme which had taken such possession of her imagination, and on which she had expended so much money ; but many months had not elapsed before I learned, with much plea- sure, that she and her sister had also left it. I think it probable that she became aware, upon returning to Nashoba, that the climate was too hostile to their health. All 1 know farther of Nashoba is, that Miss Wright having found (from some cause or other) that it was impossible to pursue her object, herself accompanied her slaves to Hayti, and left them there, free, and under the protection of the president.

1 found no beauty in the scenery round Nashoba, nor can I conceive that it would possess any even in summer. The trees were so close to each other as not to permit the growth of underwood, the great ornament of the forest at New-Orleans, and still less of our seeing any openings, where the varying effects of toght and shade might atone for the absence of other objects. The clearing round the settlement appeared to me inconsiderable and imperfect ; but I was told that they had grown good crops of cotton and Indian corn. The weather was dry and agreeable, and the aspect of the heavens by night surprisingly beau- tiful. I never saw moonlight so clear, so pure, so pow- erful.

We returned to Memphis on the 26th of January, 1828, and found ourselves obliged to pass five days there, await- ing a steamboat for Cincinnati, to which metropolis of the west I was now determined to proceed with my family to await the arrival of Mr. Trollope. We were

told by every one we spoke to at Memphis, that it in aH respects the finest situation west of the Aliegha We found many lovelv walks among the broken forest

glades around Memphis, which, together with a morning and evening enjoyment of the enacts of a glowing hori- zon on the river, enabled us to wait patiently for the boat that was to bear us away.

CHAPTER IV.

Depart** from Mcmpki*-Olno Ksrer— Lwrwr2k-C«-

Om the 1st of February, 1838, we embarked on board the Criterion, and once more began to float on the " father of waters," as the poor banished Indians were wont to cafl the Mississippi. The company on board was wonder- fully like what we had met in coming from New-Orleans ; 1 think they must have all been first cousins ; and what was singular, they too had all arrived at high rank in the army. For many a wearisome mile above the Wolf River the only scenery was still forest — forest — forest ; the only variety was produced by the receding of the river at some 'points, and its encroaching on the opposite shore. These changes are continually going on, but from what cause none could satisfactorily explain to me. Where the river is encroaching, the trees are seen growing in water many feet deep ; after some time, the water under- mines their roots, and they become the easy victims of the first hurricane that blows. This is one source of the immense quantities of drift wood that float into the Gulf of Mexico. Where the river has receded, a young growth of cane-brake is soon seen starting up with the rapid vegetation of the climate : these two circumstances in some degree relieve the sameness of the thousand miles of vegetable wall. But we were now approaching the river winch is emphatically called • the beauthW La Belle Riviere of the New-Orleans French; and a few

Or THE AMERICANS. 47

days took us, I trust for ever, out of that murky stream which is as emphatically called " the deadly ;" and well does it seem to merit the title : the air of its shores is mephitic, and it is said that nothing that ever sunk beneath its muddy surface was known to rise again. As truly does " La Belle Riviere" deserve its name ; the Ohio is bright and clear ; its banks are continually varied, as it flows through what is called a rolling country, which seems to mean a district that cannot show a dozen paces of level ground at a time. The primeval forest still occupies a considerable portion of the ground, and hangs in solemn grandeur from the cliffs ; but it is broken by frequent settlements, where we were cheered by the sight of herds and flocks. I imagine that this river presents almost every variety of river scenery ; sometimes its clear wave waters a meadow of level turf; sometimes it is bounded by perpendicular rocks ; pretty dwellings, with their gay porticoes are seen, alternately with wild intervals of forest, where the tangled bear-break plainly enough indicates what inhabitants are native there. Often a mountain tor- rent conies pouring its silver tribute to the stream, and were there occasionally a ruined abbey, or feudal castle, to mix the romance of real life with that of nature, the Ohio would be perfect.

So powerful was the effect of this sweet scenery, that we ceased to grumble at our dinners and suppers ; nay, we almost learned to rival our neighbours at table in their voracious rapidity of swallowing, so eager were we to place ourselves again on the guard, lest we might lose sight of the beauty that was passing away from us.

Yet these fair shores are still unhealthy. More than once we landed, and conversed with the families of the woodcutters, and scarcely was there one in which we did not hear of some member who had " lately died of the fever." They are all subject to ague, and though their dwellings are infinitely better than those on the Mississippi, the inhabitants still look like a race that are selling their lives for gold.

Louisville is a considerable town, prettily situated on the Kentucky, or south side of the Ohio ; we spent some hours in seeing all it had to show ; and had I not been told that a bad fever often rages there during the warm

48 DO HE STIC MAJSNEHS

season, I should have liked to pass some months there for the purpose of exploring the beautiful country in its vicinity. Frankfort and Lexington are both towns worth visiting, though from their being out of the way places, I never got to either. The first is the seat of the state gov- ernment of Kentucky, and the last is, I was told, the resi- dence of several independent families, who, with more leisure than is usually enjoyed in America, have its natural accompaniment, more refinement.

The foils of the Ohio are about a mile below Louisville, and produce a rapid too sudden for the boats to pass, ex- cept in the rainy season. The passengers are obliged to get out below them, and travel by land to Louisville, •where they find other vessels ready to receive them for the remainder of the voyage. We were spared this in- convenience by the water being too high for the rapid to be much felt, and it will soon be altogether removed by the Louisville canal coming into operation, which will permit the steamboats to continue their progress from below the falls to the town.

The scenery on the Kentucky side is much finer than on that of Indiana or Ohio. The State of Kentucky was the darling spotof many tribes of Indians, and wasrescrved among them as a common hunting-ground ; it is said that they cannot yet name it without emotion, and that they have a sad and wild lament that they still chant to its memory. But their exclusion thence is of no recent date ; Kentucky has been longer settled than the Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio, and it appears not only more highly cultivated, but more fertile and more picturesque than either. I have rarely seen richer pastures than those of Kentucky. The forest trees, where not too crowded, are of magnificent growth, and the crops are gloriously abundant where the thriftless husbandry has not worn out the soil by an unvary- ing succession of exhausting crops. We were shown ground which had borne abundant crops of wheat for twenty successive years; but a much shorter period suffices to exhaust the ground, if it were made to produce tobacco without the intermission of some other crop.

We reached Cincinnati on the 10th of February. It is finely situated on the south side of a hill that rises gently from the water's edge ; yet it is by no means a city of

OP THE AMERICANS. 49

•J

striking appearance ; it wants domes, towers,and steeples; but its landing-place is noble, extending for more than a quarter of a mile ; it is well paved, and surrounded by neat, though not handsome buildings. I have seen fifteen steamboats lying there at once, and still half the wharf was unoccupied.

On arriving we repaired to the Washington Hotel, and thought ourselves fortunate when we were told that we were just in time for dinner at the table d'hote ; but when the dining-room door was opened, we retreated with a feeling of dismay at seeing between sixty and seventy men already at table. We took our dinner with the family, and then went forth to seek a house for our per- manent accommodation.

We went to the office of an advertising agent, who professed to keep a register of all such information, and described the dwelling we wanted. He made no diffi- culty, but told us his boy should be our guide through the city, and show us what we sought ; we accordingly set out with him, and he led us up one street and down another, but evidently without any determinate object ; I therefore stopped, and asked him whereabout the houses were which we were going to see.

" I am looking for bills," was the reply.

I thought we could have looked for bills as well with- out him, and I told him so ; upon which he assumed an air of great activity, and began knocking regularly at every door we passed, inquiring if the house was to be let. It was impossible to endure this long, and our guide was dismissed, though I was afterward obliged to pay him a dollar for his services.

We had the good fortune, however, to find a dwelling before long, and we returned to our hotel, having deter- mined upon taking possession of it as soon as it could be got ready. Not wishing to take our evening meal either with the threescore and ten gentlemen of the dining-room, nor yet with the half dozen ladies of the bar-room, I ordered tea in my own chamber. A good-humoured Irish woman came forward with a sort of patronising manner, took my hand, and said, " Och, my honey, ye'll be from the old country. I'll see you will have your tay all to yourselves, honey." With this assurance we retired C

$0 DOMESTIC MANNERS

to my room, which was a handsome one as to its size and bed furniture, but it had no carpet, and was darkened by blinds of paper, such as rooms are hung with, which required to be rolled up, and then fastened with strings awkwardly attached to the window-frames, whenever light or air were wished for. I afterward met with these same uncomfortable blinds in every part of America.

Our Irish friend soon reappeared, and brought us tea, together with the never- failing accompaniments of Ameri- can tea-drinking, hung beef, " chipped up"raw,and sundry sweetmeats of brown sugar hue and flavour. We took our tea, and were enjoying our family talk, relative to our future arrangements, when a loud sharp knocking was heard at our door. My " come in" was answered by the appearance of a portly personage, who proclaimed him- self our landlord.

" Are any of you ill ?" he began.

" No, thank you, sir ; we are all quite well," was my reply.

" Then, madam, I must tell you, that I cannot accom- modate you on these terms ; we have no family tea-drink- ings here, and you must either live with me or my wife, or not at all in my house."

This was said with an air of authority that almost pre- cluded reply, but I ventured a sort of apologistic hint, that we were strangers and unaccustomed to the manners of the country.

" Our manners are very good manners, and we don't wish any changes from England."

I thought of mine host of the Washington afterward, when reading Scott's " Anne of Geierstein ;" he, in truth, strongly resembled the innkeeper therein immortalized, who made his guests eat, drink, and sleep, just where, when, and how he pleased. I made no farther remon- strance, but determined to hasten my removal. This we achieved the next day to our great satisfaction.

We were soon settled in our newdwelling, which looked neat and comfortable enough, but we speedily found that it was devoid of nearly all the accommodations that Europeans conceive necessary to decency and comfort. No pump, no cistern, no drain of any kind, no dustman's cart, or any other visible means of getting rid of the rub-

OF THE AMERICANS. 51

bish, which vanishes with such celerity in London, that one has no time to think of its existence ; but which accu- mulated so rapidly at Cincinnati, that I sent for my land- lord to know in what manner refuse of all kinds was to be disposed of.

" Your help will just have to fix them all into the middle of the street, but you must mind, old woman, that it is the middle. I expect you don't know as we have got a lavr what forbids throwing such things at the sides of the streets ; they must just all be cast right into the middle, and the pigs soon takes them off."

In truth, the pigs are constantly seen doing Herculean service in this way through every quarter of the city ; and though it is not very agreeable to live surrounded by herds of these unsavoury animals, it is well they are so numer- ous, and so active in their capacity of scavengers, for without them the streets would soon be choked up with all sorts of substances in every stage of decomposition.

We had heard so much of Cincinnati, its beauty, wealth, and unequalled prosperity, that when we left Memphis to go thither, we almost felt the delight of Rousseau's novice, " un voyage a faire, et Paris au bout !" — As soon, there- fore, as our little domestic arrangements were completed, we set forth to view this " wonder of the west," — this " prophet's gourd of magic growth," — this " infant Her- cules ;" and surely no travellers ever paraded a city under circumstances more favourable to their finding it fair to the sight. Three dreary months had elapsed since we had left the glories of London behind us ; for nearly the whole of that time we had beheld no other architecture than what our ships and steamboats had furnished, and excepting at New-Orleans, had seen hardly a trace of human habitations. The sight of bricks and mortar was really refreshing, and a house of three "stories looked splendid. Of this splendour we saw repeated specimens, and moreover a brick church, which, from its two little peaked spires, is called the two-horned church. But, alas ! the flatness of reality after the imagination has been busy ! I hardly know what I expected to find in this city, fresh risen from the bosom of the wilderness, but certainly it was not a little town, about the size of Salis- bury, without even an attempt at beauty in any of its C2

52 DOMESTIC MANNERS

edifices, and with only just enough of the air of a city to make it noisy and bustling. The population is greater than the appearance of the town would lead one to expect. This is partly owing to the number of free Negroes who herd together in an obscure part of the city, called Little Africa ; and partly to the density of the population round the paper-mills and other manufactories. I believe the number of inhabitants exceeds twenty thousand.

We arrived in Cincinnati in February, 1828, and I speak of the town as it was then ; several small churches have been built since, whose towers agreeably relieve its uninteresting mass of buildings. At that time I think Main-street, which is the principal avenue (and runs through the whole town, answering to the High-street of our old cities), was the only one entirely paved. The troittoir is of brick, tolerably well laid, but it is inundated by every shower, as Cincinnati has no drains whatever. What makes this omission the more remarkable is, that the situation of the place is calculated both to facilitate their construction and to render them necessary. Cincin- nati is built on the side of a hill that begins to rise at the river's edge, and wrere it furnished with drains of the sim- plest arrangement, the heavy showers of the climate would keep them constantly clean ; as it is, these showers wash the higher streets, only to deposite their filth in the first level spot ; and this happens to be in the street second in importance to Main-street, running at right angles to it, and containing most of the large warehouses of the town. This deposite is a dreadful nuisance, and must be produc- tive of miasma during the hot weather.

The town is built, as I believe most American towns are, in squares, as they call them ; but these squares are the reverse of ours, being solid instead of hollow. Each consists, or is intended to consist, when the plan of the city is completed, of a block of buildings fronting north, east, west, and south ; each house communicating with an alley, furnishing a back entrance. This plan would not be a bad one were the town properly drained, but as it is, these alleys are horrible abominations, and must, I conceive, become worse with every passing year.

To the north, Cincinnati is bounded by a range of forest- corered hills, sufficiently steep and rugged to prevent their

OF THE AMERICANS. 53

being built upon, or easily cultivated, but not sufficiently high to command from their summits a view of any con- siderable extent. Deep and narrow watercourses, dry in summer, but bringing down heavy streams in winter, divide these hills into many separate heights, and this fur- nishes the only variety the landscape offers for many miles round the town. The lovely Ohio is a beautiful feature wherever it is visible, but the only part of the city that has the advantage of its beauty is the street nearest to its bank. The hills of "Kentucky, which rise at about the same dis- tance from the river, on the opposite side, form the south- ern boundary to the basin in which Cincinnati is built.

On first arriving, I thought the many tree-covered hills around very beautiful, but long before my departure, I felt so weary of the confined view, that Salisbury Plain would have been an agreeable variety. I doubt if any inhabitant of Cincinnati ever mounted these hills so often as myself and my children ; but it was rather for the enjoy- ment of a freer air than for any beauty of prospect, that we took our daily climb. These hills afforded neither shrubs nor flowers, but furnish the finest specimens of millepore in the world ; and the watercourses are full of fossil productions.

The forest trees are neither large nor well grown, and so close as to be nearly knotted together at top ; even the wild vine here loses its beauty, for its graceful festoons bear leaves only when they reach the higher branches of the tree that supports them, both air and light being too scantily found below to admit of their doing more than climbing with a bare stem till they reach a better atmo- sphere. The herb we call pennyroyal was the only one I found in abundance, and that only on the brows, where the ground had been partially cleared ; vegetation is impossible elsewhere, and it is this circumstance which makes the " eternal forests" of America so detestable. Near New-Orleans the undergrowth of palmetto and paw- paw is highly beautiful, but in Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio, I never found the slightest beauty in the forest scenery. Fallen trees in every possible stage of decay, and congeries of leaves that have been rotting since the flood, cover the ground and infect the air. The beautiful variety of foliage afforded by evergreens never occurs,

54 DOMESTIC MANNERS

and in Tennessee, and that part of Ohio that surrounds Cincinnati, even the steril beauty of rocks is wanting. On crossing the water to Kentucky the scene is greatly improved ; beech and chestnut, of magnificent growth, border the beautiful river; the ground has been well cleared, and the herbage is excellent ; the pawpaw grows abundantly, and is a splendid shrub, though it bears neither fruit nor flowers so far north. The noble tulip-tree flour- ishes here, and blooms profusely.

The river Licking flows into the Ohio nearly opposite Cincinnati ; it is a pretty winding stream, and two or three miles from its mouth has a brisk rapid, dancing among white stones, which, in the absence of better rocks, we found very picturesque.

CHAPTER V.

Cincinnati — Forest Farm — Mr. Buttock.

THOUGH I do not quite sympathise with those who con- sider Cincinnati as one of thp wonders of the earth, I cer- tainly think it a city of extraordinary size and importance, •when it is remembered that thirty years ago the aborigi- nal forest occupied the ground where it stands ; and every month appears to extend its limits and its wealth.

Some of the native political economists assert that this rapid conversion of a bear-brake into a prosperous city, is the result of free political institutions : not being very deep in such matters, a more obvious cause suggested itself to me, in the unceasing goad which necessity applies to industry in this country, and in the absence of alt resource for the idle. During nearly two years that I resided in Cincinnati or its neighbourhood, I neither saw a beggar, nor a man of sufficient fortune to permit his ceasing his efforts to increase it ; thus every bee in the hive is actively employed in search of that honey of Hybla, vulgarly called money ; neither art, science, learn- ing, nor pleasure can seduce them from its pursuit. This

OP THE AMERICANS. 55

unity of purpose, backed by the spirit of enterprise, and joined with an acuteness and total absence of probity, where interest is concerned, which might set canny York- shire at defiance, may well go far towards obtaining its purpose.

The low rate of taxation, too, unquestionably permits a more rapid accumulation of individual wealth than with us ; but till I had travelled through America, I had no idea how much of the money collected in taxes returns among the people, not only in the purchase of what their industry furnishes, but in the actual enjoyment of what is furnished. Were I an English legislator, instead of send- ing sedition to the Tower, I would send her to make a tour of the United States. I had a little leaning towards sedition myself when I set out, but before I had half com- pleted my tour I was quite cured.

I have read much of the " few and simple wants of rational man," and I used to give a sort of dreamy acqui- escence to the reasoning that went to prove each added want an added wo. Those who reason in a comfort- able London drawing-room know little about the matter.. Were the aliments which sustain life all that we wanted, the faculties of the hog might suffice us ; but if we analyze an hour of enjoyment, we shall find that it is made up of agreeable sensations occasioned by a thousand delicate impressions on almost as many nerves ; where these nerves are sluggish from never having been awakened, external objects are less important, for they are less per- ceived ; but where the whole machine of the human frame is in full activity, where every sense brings home to con- sciousness its touch of pleasure or of pain, then every object that meets the senses is important as a vehicle of happiness or misery. But let no frames so tempered visit the United States, or if they do, let it be with no longer pausing than will store the memory with images, which, by the force of contrast, shall sweeten the future.

" Guarda e passa (a poi) ragiam di lor."

The " simple" manner of living in Western America was more distasteful to me from its levelling effects on the manners of the people, than from the personal priva-

56 DOMESTIC MANNERS

tions that it rendered necessary ; and yet, till I was with- out them, I was in no degree aware of the many pleasur- able sensations derived from the little elegancies and refinements enjoyed by the middle classes in Europe. There were many circumstances, too trifling even for my gossiping pages, which pressed themselves daily and hourly upon us, and which forced us to remember pain- fully that we were not at home. It requires an abler pen than mine to trace the connexion which I am persuaded exists between these deficiencies and the minds and man- ners of the people. All animal wants are supplied pro- fusely at Cincinnati, and at a very easy rate ; but, alas ! these go but a little way in the history of a day's enjoy- ment. The total and universal want of manners, both in males and females, is so remarkable, that I was constantly endeavouring to account for it. It certainly does not pro- ceed from want of intellect. I have listened to much dull and heavy conversation in America, but rarely to any that I could strictly call silly (if I except the everywhere privileged class of very young ladies). They appear to me to have clear heads and active intellects ; are more ignorant of subjects that are only of conventional value, than on such as are of intrinsic importance ; but there is no charm, no grace in their conversation. I very seldom during my whole stay in the country heard a sentence elegantly turned, and correctly pronounced from the lips of an American. There is always something either in the expression or the accent that jars the feelings and shocks the taste.

I will not pretend to decide whether man is better or worse off for requiring refinement in the manners and customs of the society that surrounds him, and for being incapable of enjoyment without them ; but in America, that polish which removes the coarser and rougher parts of our nature is unknown and undreamed of. There is much substantial comfort, and some display in the larger cities ; in many of the more obvious features they are as Paris or as London, being all large assemblies of active and intelligent human beings — but yet they are wonder- fully unlike in nearly all their moral features. Now God forbid that any reasonable American (of whom there are so many millions), should ever come to ask me what

OF THE AMERICANS. 57

I mean ; I should find it very difficult, nay, perhaps ut- terly impossible, to explain myself; but, on the other hand, no European who has visited the Union, will find the least difficulty in understanding me. I am in no way competent to judge of the political institutions of Ame- rica ; and if I should occasionally make an observation on their effects, as they meet my superficial glance, they will be made in the spirit, and with the feelings of a woman, who is apt to tell what her first impressions may be, but unapt to reason back from effects to their causes. Such observations, if they be unworthy of much attention, are also obnoxious to little reproof: but there are points of which women may judge as ably as men, — all that constitutes the external of society may be fairly trusted to us.

Captain Hall, when asked what appeared to him to constitute the greatest difference between England and America, replied, like a gallant sailor, " the want of loy- alty." Were the same question put to me, I should answer, " the want of refinement."

Were Americans, indeed, disposed to assume the plain unpretending deportment of the Switzer in the days of his picturesque simplicity (when, however, he never chewed tobacco)^ it would be in bad taste to censure him ; but this is not the case. Jonathan will be a fine gentle- man, but it must be in his own way. Is he not a free- born American ? Jonathan, however, must remember, that if he will challenge competition with the old world, the old world will now and then look out to see how he supports his pretensions.

With their hours of business, whether judicial or mer- cantile, civil or military, I have nothing to do ; I doubt not they are all spent wisely and profitably ; but what are their hours of recreation ? Those hours that with us are passed in the enjoyment of all that art can win from nature ; when, if the elaborate repast be more deeply relished than sages might approve, it is redeemed from sensuality by the presence of elegance and beauty. What is the American pendant to this? I will not draw any comparisons between a good dinner-party in the two countries ; I have heard American gentlemen say, that they could perceive no difference between them; C 3

58 DOMESTIC MANNERS

but in speaking of general manners, I may observe, that it is rarely they dine in society, except in taverns and boarding-houses. Then they eat with the greatest pos- sible rapidity, and in total silence ; I have heard it said by American ladies, that the hours of the greatest enjoy- ment to the gentlemen were those in which a glass of gin cock-tail, or egging, receives its highest relish from the absence of all restraint whatever ; and when there were no ladies to trouble them.

Notwithstanding all this, the country is a very fine country, well worth visiting for a thousand reasons ; nine hundred and ninety-nine of these are reasons founded on admiration and respect ; the thousandth is, that we shall feel the more contented with our own. The more unlike a country through which we travel is to all we have left, the more we are likely to be amused ; every thing in Cin- cinnati had this newness, and I should have thought it a place delightful to visit, but to tarry there was not to feel at home.

My home, however, for a time it was to be. We heard on every side, that of all the known places on * the globe called earth," Cincinnati was the most favour- able for a young man to settle in ; and I only awaited the arrival of Mr. T. to fix our son there, intending to con- tinue with him till he should feel himself sufficiently es- tablished. We accordingly determined upon making ourselves as comfortable as possible. I took a larger house, which, howrever, I did not obtain without consid- erable difficulty, as, notwithstanding fourteen hundred new dwellings had been erected the present year, the demand for houses greatly exceeded the supply. We became acquainted with several amiable people, and we beguiled the anxious interval that preceded Mr. T*s joining us by frequent excursions in the neighbourhood, which not only afforded us amusement, but gave us an opportunity of observing the mode of life of the country people.

We visited one farm, which interested us particularly from its wild and lonely situation, and from the enlire dependence of the inhabitants upon their own resources. It was a partial clearing in the very heart of the forest. The house was built on the side of a hill, so steep that a

OF THE AMERICANS. 59

high ladder was necessary to enter the front door, while the back one opened against the hill -side ; at the foot of this sudden eminence ran a clear stream, whose bed had been deepened into a little reservoir, just opposite the house. A noble field of Indian-corn stretched away into the forest on one side, and a few half-cleared acres, with a shed or two upon them, occupied the other, giving ac- commodations to cows, horses, pigs, and chickens innu- merable. Immediately before the house was a small potato garden, with a few peach and apple trees. The house was built of logs, and consisted of two rooms, be- sides a little shanty or lean-to, that was used as a kitchen. Both rooms were comfortably furnished with good beds, drawers, &c. The farmer's wife, and a young woman who looked like her sister, were spinning, and three little children were playing about. The woman told me that they spun and wove all the cotton arid woollen garments of the family, and knit all the stockings ; her husband, though not a shoemaker by trade, made all the shoes. She manufactured all the soap and candles they used, and prepared her sugar from the sugar-trees on their farm. All she wanted with money, she said, was to buy coffee and tea, and whiskey, and she could " get enough any day by sending a batch of butter and chicken to market." They used no wheat, nor sold any of their corn, which, though it appeared a very large quantity, was not more than they required to make their bread and cakes of va- rious kinds, and to feed all their live-stock during the winter. She did not look in health, and said they had all had the ague in " the fall ;" but she seemed contented, and proud of her independence ; though it was in somewhat a mournful accent that she said, " Tis strange to us to see company; I expect the sun may rise and set a hundred times before I shall see another human that does not belong to the family."

I have been minute in the description of this forest farm, as 1 think it the best specimen I saw of the back- wood's independence, of which so much is said in Amer- ica. These people were indeed independent, Robinson Crusoe was hardly more so, and they eat and drink abund- antly ; but yet it seemed to me that there was something awful and almost unnatural in their loneliness. No vil-

60 DOMESTIC MANNERS

lage bell ever summoned them to prayer, where they might meet the friendly greeting of their fellow-men. When they die, no spot sacred by ancient reverence will receive their bones — Religion will not breathe her sweet and solemn farewell upon the grave ; the husband or the father will dig the pit that is to hold them, beneath the nearest tree ; he will himself deposite them within it, and the wind that whispers through the boughs will be their only requiem. But then they pay neither taxes nor tythes, are never expected to pull off a hat or to make a courtesy, and will live and die without hearing or uttering the dread- ful words, " God save the king."

********

About two miles below Cincinnati, on the Kentucky side of the river, Mr. Bullock, the well-known proprietor of the Egyptian Hall, has bought a large estate, with a noble house upon it. He and his amiable wife were de- voting themselves to the embellishment of the house and grounds ; and certainly there is more taste and art lav- ished on one of their beautiful saloons than all Western America can show elsewhere. It is impossible to help feeling that Mr. Bullock is rather out of his element in this remote spot, and the gems of art he has brought with him show as strangely there as would a bower of roses in Siberia, or a Cincinnati fashionable at Almack's. The exquisite beauty of the spot, commanding one of the finest reaches of the Ohio, the extensive gardens, and the large and handsome mansion, have tempted Mr. Bullock to spend a large sum in the purchase of this place, and if any one who has passed his life in London, could endure such a change, the active mind and sanguine spirit of Mr. Bullock might enable him to do it ; but his frank, and truly English hospitality, and his enlightened and inquiring mind, seemed sadly wasted there. I have since heard with pleasure that Mr. Bullock has parted with this beautiful, but secluded mansion.

OF THE AMERICANS. 61

CHAPTER VI.

Servants — Society — Evening Parties.

THE greatest difficulty in organizing a family establish- ment in Ohio, is getting servants, or, as it is there called, " getting help," for it is more than petty treason to the republic to call a free citizen a servant. The whole class of young women, whose bread depends upon their labour, are taught to believe that the most abject poverty is pre- ferable to domestic service. Hundreds of half-naked girls work in the paper-mills, or in any other manufactory, for less than half the wages they would receive in ser- vice ; but they think their equality is compromised by the latter, and nothing but the wish to obtain some particular article of finery will ever induce them to submit to it. A kind friend, however, exerted herself so effectually for me, that a tall stately lass soon presented herself, saying, " J be come to help you." The intelligence was very agreeable, and I welcomed her in the most gracious manner possible, and asked what I should give her by the year.

" Oh gimini !" exclaimed the damsel, with a loud laugh, " you be a downright Englisher, sure enough. I should like to see a young lady engage by the year in America ! I hope I shall get a husband before many months, or I expect I shall be an outright old maid, for I be 'most seventeen already ; besides, mayhap I may want to go to school. You must just give me a dollar and half a week, and mother's slave, Phillis, must come over once a week, I expect, from t'other side the water, to help me clean."

I agreed to the bargain, of course, with all dutiful sub- mission ; and seeing she was preparing to set to work in a yellow dress parseme with red roses, I gently hinted that I thought it was a pity to spoil so fine a gown, and that she had better change it.

" 'Tis just my best and my worst," she answered, " for I've got no other."

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And in truth I found that this young lady had left the paternal mansion with no more clothes of any kind than what she had on. I immediately gave her money to pur- chase what was necessary for cleanliness and decency, and set to work with my daughters to make her a gown. She grinned applause when our labour was completed, but never uttered the slightest expressions of gratitude for that, or any thing else we could do for her. She was constantly asking us to lend her different articles of dress, and when we declined it, she said, " Well, I never seed such grumpy folks as you be ; there is several young ladies of my acquaintance what goes to live out now and then with the old women about the town, and they and their gurls always lends them what they ask for; 1 guess you Inglish thinks we should poison your things, just as bad as if we was Negurs." And here I beg to assure the reader, that whenever I give conversations they were not made d loisir, but were written down immediately after they occurred, with all the verbal fidelity my memory permitted.

This young lady left me at the end of two months, because I refused to lend her money enough to buy a silk dress to go to a ball, saying, " Then 'tis not worth my while to stay any longer."

I cannot imagine it possible that such a state of things can be desirable, or beneficial to any of the parties con- cerned. I might occupy a hundred pages on the subject, and yet fail to give an adequate idea of the sore, angry, ever wakeful pride that seemed to torment these poor wretches. In many of them it was so excessive, that all feeling of displeasure, or even of ridicule, was lost in pity. One of these was a pretty girl, whose natural disposition must have been gentle and kind ; but her good feelings were soured, and her gentleness turned to morbid sensi- tiveness, by having heard a thousand and a thousand times that she was as good as any other lady, that all men were equal, and women too, and that it was a sin and a shame for a free-born American to be treated like a servant.

When she found she was to dine in the kitchen, she

turned up her pretty lip, and said, " I guess that's 'c you don't think I'm good enough to eat with you. You'll

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find that won't do here." I found afterward that she rarely ate any dinner at all, and generally passed the time in tears. I did every thing in my power to conciliate and make her happy, but I am sure she hated me. I gave her very high wages, and she staid till she had obtained several expensive articles of dress, and then, un beau matin, she came to me full dressed, and said, "I must go." " When shall we see you return, Charlotte ?" " I expect you'll see no more of me." And so we parted. Her sister was also living with me, but her wardrobe was not yet completed, and she remained some weeks longer, till it was.

I fear it may be called bad taste to say so much concern- ing my domestics, but nevertheless, the circumstances are so characteristic of America that I must recount another history relating to them. A few days after the departure of my ambitious belle, rny cries for " Help" had been so effectual that another young lady presented herself, with the usual preface, " I'm come to help you." I had been cautioned never to ask for a reference for character, as it would not only rob me of that help, but entirely prevent my ever getting another ; so, five minutes after she entered she was installed, bundle and all, as a member of the family. She was by no means handsome, but there was an air of simple frankness in her manner that won us all. For my own part, I thought I had got a second Jeanie Deans ; for she recounted to me histories of her early youth, wherein her plain good sense and strong mind had enabled her to win her way through a host of cruel step-mothers, faithless lovers, and cheating brothers. Among other things, she told me, with the appearance of much emotion, that she had found, since she came to town, a cure for all her sorrows, "Thanks and praise for it, I have got religion !" and then she asked if I would spare her to go to meeting every Tuesday and Thursday evening ; « You shall not have to want me, Mrs. Trollope, for our minister knows we have all our duties to perform to man, as well as to God, and he makes the meetings late in the evening that they may not cross one another." Who could refuse ? Not I : and Nancy had leave to go to meeting two evenings in the week, besides Sundays.

One night, that the mosquitoes had found their way

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under my net and prevented my sleeping, I heard some one enter the house very late ; I got up, went to the top of the stairs, and by the help of a bright moon, recognised Nancy's best bonnet. I called to her ; " You are very late," said I, " what isj the reason of it ?" " Oh, Mrs. Trollope,'" she replied, " I am late indeed ! We have this night had seventeen souls added to our flock. May they live to bless this night ! But it has been a long sitting, and very warm ; I'll just take a drink of water and get to bed ; you shan't find me later in the morning for it." Nor did I. She was an excellent servant, and performed more than was expected from her ; moreover, she always found time to read the Bible several times in the day, and I seldom saw her occupied about any thing without observing that she had placed it near her.

At last she fell sick with the cholera, and her life was despaired of. I nursed her with great care, and sat up the greatest part of two nights with her. She was often delirious, and all her wandering thoughts seemed to ramble to heaven. " I have been a sinner," she said, " but I am safe in the Lord Jesus." When she recovered, she asked me to let her go into the country for a few days, to change the air, and begged me to lend her three dollars.

While she was absent a lady called on me, and inquired, with some agitation, if my servant, Nancy Fletcher, were at home. I replied that she was gone into the country. " Thank God," she exclaimed, "never let her enter your doors again ; she is the most abandoned woman in the town : a gentleman who knows you, has been told that she lives with you, and that she boasts of having the power of entering your house at any hour of the night." She told me many other circumstances, unnecessary to repeat, but all tending to prove that she was a very dangerous inmate.

I expected her home the next evening, and I believe I passed the evening in meditating how to get rid of her without an eclaircissement. At length she arrived, and all my study having failed to supply me with any other reason than the real one for dismissing her, I stated it at once. Not the slightest change passed over her coun- tenance, but she looked steadily at me, and said, in a

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very civil tone, " I should like to know who told you." I replied that it could be of no advantage to her to know, and that I wished her to go immediately. " I am ready to go," she said, in the same quiet tone, " but what will you do for your three dollars?" "I must do without them, Nancy ; good morning to you." " I must just put up my things," she said, and left" the room. About half an hour afterward, when we were all assembled at din- ner, she entered with her usual civil composed air, " Well, I am come to wish you all good-by," and with a friendly good-humoured smile she left us.

This adventure frightened me so heartily, that, notwith- standing I had the dread of cooking my own dinner before my eyes, I would not take any more young ladies into my family without receiving some slight sketch of their former history. At length I met with a very worthy French woman, and soon after with a tidy English girl to assist her ; and I had the good fortune to keep them till a short time before my departure : so, happily, I have no more misfortunes of this nature to relate.

Such being the difficulties respecting domestic arrange- ments, it is obvious, that the ladies who are brought up among them cannot have leisure for any great develop- ment of the mind : it is in fact out of the question ; and, remembering this, it is more surprising that some among them should be very pleasing, than that none should be highly instructed.

Had I passed as many evenings in company in any other town that I ever visited as I did in Cincinnati, I should have been able to give some little account of the conversation I had listened to ; but, upon reading over my notes, and then taxing my memory to the utmost to supply the deficiency, I can scarcely find a trace of any thing that deserves the name. Such as I have shall be given in their place. But, whatever may be the talents of the persons who meet together in society, the very shape, form, and arrangement of the meeting is sufficient to paralyze conversation. The women invariably herd together at one part of the room, and the men at the other ; but in justice to Cincinnati, I must acknowledge that this arrangement is by no means peculiar to that city, or to the western side of the Alleghanies. Some-

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times a small attempt at music produces a partial reunion ; a few of the most daring youths, animated by the con- sciousness of curled hair and smart waistcoats, approach the piano-forte, and begin to mutter a little to the half- grown pretty things, who are comparing with one another "how many quarters' music they have had." Where the mansion is of sufficient dignity to have two drawing- rooms, the piano, the little ladies, and the slender gentle- men are left to themselves, and on such occasions the sound of laughter is often heard to issue from among them. But the fate of the more dignified personages, wlio are left in the other room, is extremely dismal. The gentle- men spit, talk of elections and the price of produce, and spit again. The ladies look at each other's dresses till they know every pin by heart ; talk of parson somebody's last sermon on the day of judgment, on Dr. t'otherbody's new pills for dyspepsia, till the " tea" is announced, when they all console themselves together for whatever they may have suffered in keeping awake, by taking more tea, coffee, hot cake and custard, hoe cake, johnny cake, waffle cake, and dodger cake, pickled peaches, and preserved cucumbers, ham, turkey, hung beef, apple sauce, and pickled oysters than ever were prepared in any other country of the known world. After this massive meal is over, they return to the drawing-room, and it always appeared to me that they remained together as long as they could bear it, and then they rise en masse, cloak, bonnet, shawl, and exit.

CHAPTER VII.

Market — Museum — Picture Gallery — Academy of Fine Art* — Dr arcing School— Phrenological Society—Miss Wright'* Lecture.

PERHAPS the most advantageous feature in Cincinnati is its market, which, for excellence, abundance, and cheap- ness, can hardly, I should think, be surpassed in any part

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of the world, if I except the luxury of fruits, which are very inferior to any I have seen in Europe. There are no butchers, or indeed any shops for eatables, except bakeries, as they are called^ in the town ; every thing must be purchased at market ; and to accomplish this, the busy housewife must be stirring betimes, or, spite of the abundant supply, she will find her hopes of breakfast, dinner, and supper for the day defeated, the market being pretty well over by eight o'clock.

The beef is excellent, and the highest price when we were there, four cents (abbut two-pence) the pound. The mutton was inferior, and so was the veal to the eye, but it ate well, though not very fat ; the price was about the same. The poultry was excellent ; fowls or full-sized chickens, ready for table, twelve cents, but much less if bought alive, and not quite fat ; turkeys about fifty cents, and geese the same. The Ohio furnishes several sorts of fish, some of them very good, and always to be found cheap and abundant in the market. Eggs, butter, nearly all kinds of vegetables, excellent, and at moderate prices. From June till December tomatoes (the great luxury of the American table in the opinion of most Europeans) may be found in the highest perfection in the market for about sixpence the peck. They have a great variety of beans unknown in England, particularly the lima-bean, the seed of which is dressed like the French harrico ; it furnishes a very abundant crop, and is a most delicious vegetable: could it be naturalized with us it would be a valuable acquisition. The Windsor, or broad-bean, will not do well there : Mr. Bullock had them in his garden, where they were cultivated with much care ; they grew about a foot high and blossomed, but the pod never ripened. All the fruit I saw exposed for sale in Cincin- nati was most miserable. I passed two summers there, but never tasted a peach worth eating. Of apricots and nectarines I saw none ; strawberries very small ; rasp- berries much worse ; gooseberries very few, and quite uneatable ; currants about half the size of ours, and about double the price ; grapes too sour for tarts ; apples abundant, but very indifferent, none that would be thought good enough for an English table ; pears, cherries, and plums most miserably bad. The flowers of these regions

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were at least equally inferior; whether this proceeds from want of cultivation or from peculiarity of soil I know- not, but after leaving Cincinnati, I was told by a gentle- man who seemed to understand the subject, that the state of Ohio had no indigenous flowers or fruits. The water- melons, which in that warm climate furnish a delightful refreshment, were abundant and cheap ; but all other melons very inferior to those of France or even of Eng- land, when ripened in a common hot-bed.

From the almost total want of pasturage near the city, it is difficult for a stranger to divine how milk is furnished for its supply, but we soon learned that there are more ways than one of keeping a cow. A large proportion of the families in the town, particularly of the poorer class, have one, though apparently without any accommodation whatever for it. These animals are fed morning and evening at the door of the house, with a good mess of Indian corn, boiled with water : while they eat they are milked, and when the operation is completed the milk- pail and the meal-tub retreat into the dwelling, leaving the republican cow to walk away, to take her pleasure on the hills, or in the gutters, as may suit her fancy best. They generally return very regularly to give and take the morning and evening meal ; though it more than once happened to us, before we were supplied by a regular milk cart, to have our jug sent home empty, with the sad news that " the cow was not come home, and it was too late to look for her to breakfast now." Once, I remember, the good woman told us that she had overslept herself, and that the cow had come and gone again, " not liking, I expect, to hanker about by herself for nothing, poor thing."

Cincinnati has not many lions to boast, but among them are two museums of natural history ; both of these con- tain many respectable specimens, particularly that of Mr. Dorfeuille, who has, moreover, some highly interesting Indian antiquities. He is a man of taste and science, but a collection formed strictly according to their dictates, would by no means satisfy the western metropolis. The people have a most extravagant passion for wax figures, and the two museums vie with each other in displaying specimens of this barbarous branch of art. As Mr. Dor-

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feuille cannot trust to his science for attracting the citi- zens, he has put his ingenuity into requisition, and this has proved to him the surer aid of the two. He has con- structed a pandasmonium in an upper story of his museum, in which he has congregated all the images of horror that his fertile fancy could devise : dwarfs that by machinery grow into giants before the eyes of the spectator ; imps of ebony with eyes of flame ; monstrous reptiles devour- ing youth and beauty ; lakes of fire, and mountains of ice ; in short, wax, paint, and springs have done wonders. " To give the scheme some more effect," he makes it visi- ble only through a grate of massive iron bars, among which are arranged wires connected with an electrical machine in a neighbouring chamber ; should any daring hand or foot obtrude itself within the bars, it receives a smart shock, that often passes through many of the crowd, and the cause being unknown, the effect is exceedingly comic ; terror, astonishment, curiosity, are all set in ac- tion, and all contribute to make " Dorfeuille's Hell" one of the most amusing exhibitions imaginable.

There is also a picture gallery at Cincinnati, and this was a circumstance of much interest to us, as our friend Mr. H., who had accompanied Miss Wright to America in the expectation of finding a good opening in the line of historical painting, intended commencing his experiment at Cincinnati. It would be invidious to describe the picture gallery ; I have no doubt, that some years hence it will present a very different appearance. Mr. H. was very kindly received by many of the gentlemen of the city, and though the state of the fine arts there gave him but little hope that he should meet with much success, he immediately occupied himself in painting a noble histori- cal picture of the landing of General Lafayette at Cin- cinnati.

Perhaps the clearest proof of the little feeling for art that existed at that time in Cincinnati, may be drawn from the result of an experiment originated by a German, who taught drawing there. He conceived the project of form- ing a chartered academy of fine arts ; and he succeeded in the beginning to his utmost wish, or rather, " they fooled him to the top of his bent." Three thousand dol- lars were subscribed, that is to say, names were written

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against different sums to that amount, a house was chosen, and finally, application was made to the state government, and the charter obtained, rehearsing formally the names of the subscribing members, the professors, and the offi- cers. So far did the steam of their zeal impel them, but at this point it was let off ; the affair stood still, and I never heard the academy of fine arts mentioned after- ward.

This same German gentleman, on seeing Mr. H.'s sketches, was so well pleased with them, that he imme- diately proposed his joining him in his drawing school, with an agreement, I believe, that his payment from it should be five hundred dollars a year. Mr. H. accepted the proposal, but the union did not last long, and the cause of its dissolution was too American to be omitted. Mr. H. prepared his models, and attended the class, which was numerous, consisting both of boys and girls. He soon found that the " sage called Decipline" was not one of the assistants, and he remonstrated against the constant talking, and running from one part of the room to another, but in vain ; finding, however, that he could do nothing till this was discontinued, he wrote some rules, enforcing order, for the purpose of placing them at the door of the academy. When he showed them to his colleague, he shook his head, and said, " Very goot, very goot in Europe, but America boys and gals vill not bear it ; dey vill do just vat dey please ; Suur, dey vould all go avay next day." " And you will not enforce these regulations si necessaires, Monsieur ?" " O lar ! not for de vorld." " Eh bicn, Monsieur, I must leave the young republicans to your management."

I heard another anecdote that will help to show the state of art at this time in the west. Mr. Bullock was showing to some gentlemen of the first standing, the very elite of Cincinnati, his beautiful collection of engravings, when one among them exclaimed, " Have you really done all these since you came here ? How hard you must have worked !"

I was also told of a gentleman of high Cincinnati ton, and critical in his taste for the fine arts, who, having a drawing put into his hands, representing Hebe and the bird, umquhile sacred to Jupiter, demanded in a satirical

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tone, " What is this T " Hebe," replied the alarmed col- lector. " Hebe," sneered the man of taste, " What the devil has Hebe to do with the American eagle ?"

We had not been long at Cincinnati when Dr. Cald- well, the Spurzheim of America, arrived there for the purpose of delivering lectures on phrenology. I attended his lectures, and was introduced to him. He has studied Spurzheim and Combe diligently, and seems to understand the science to which he has devoted himself; but neither his lectures nor his conversation had that delightful truth of genuine enthusiasm, which makes listening to Dr. Spurzheim so great a treat. His lectures, however, pro- duced considerable effect. Between twenty and thirty of the most erudite citizens decided upon forming a phre- nological society. A meeting was called, and fully at- tended ; a respectable number of subscribers' names was registered, the payment of subscriptions being arranged for a future day. President, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary were chosen ; and the first meeting dis- solved with every appearance of energetic perseverance in scientific research.

The second meeting brought together one-half of this learned body, and they enacted rules and laws, and passed resolutions, sufficient, it was said, to have filled three folios.

A third day of meeting arrived, which was an impor- tant one, as on this occasion the subscriptions were to be paid. The treasurer came punctually, but found himself alone. With patient hope, he waited two hours for the wise men of the west, but he waited in vain : and so ex- pired the Phrenological Society of Cincinnati.

I had often occasion to remark that the spirit of enter- prise or improvement seldom glowed with sufficient ardour to resist the smothering effect of a demand for dollars. The Americans love talking. All great works, however, that promise a profitable result, are sure to meet support from men who have enterprise and capital suffi- cient to await the return ; but where there is nothing but glory, or the gratification of taste to be expected, it is, I believe, very rarely that they give any thing beyond " their most sweet voices."

Perhaps they are right. In Europe we see fortunes

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crippled by a passion for statues, or for pictures, or for books, or for gems ; for all and every of the artificial wants that give grace to life, and tend to make man forget that he is a thing of clay. They are wiser in their gene- ration on the other side the Atlantic : I rarely saw any thing that led to such oblivion there.

Soon after Dr. CaldwelPs departure, another lecturer appeared upon the scene, whose purpose of publicly addressing the people was no sooner made known, than ""• the most violent sensation was excited.

That a lady of fortune, family, and education, whose youth had been passed in the most refined circles of pri- vate life, should present herself to the people as a public lecturer, would naturally excite surprise anywhere, and the nil admirari of the old world itself would hardly be sustained before such a spectacle ; but in America, where women are guarded by a sevenfold shield of habitual insignificance, it caused an effect that can hardly be de- scribed. " Miss Wright, of Nashoba, is going to lecture at the court-house," sounded from street to street, and from house to house. I shared the surprise, but not the wonder : I knew her extraordinary gift of eloquence, her almost unequalled command of words, and the wonder- ful power of her rich and thrilling voice ; and I doubted not that if it was her will to do it, she had the power of commanding the attention, and enchanting the ear of any audience before whom it was her pleasure to appear. I was most anxious to hear her, but was almost deterred from attempting it, by the reports that reached me of the immense crowd that was expected. After many con- sultations, and hearing that many other ladies intended going, my friend Mrs. P****, and myself, decided upon making the attempt, accompanied by a party of gentle- men, and found the difficulty less than we anticipated, though the building was crowded in every part. We congratulated ourselves that we had had the courage to be among the number, for all my expectations fell far short of the splendour, the brilliance, the overwhelming eloquence of this extraordinary orator.

Her lecture was upon the nature of true knowledge, and it contained little that could be objected to by any sect or party ; it was intended as an introduction to the

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strange and startling theories contained in her subsequent lectures, and could alarm only by the hints it contained that the fabric of human wisdom could rest securely on no other base than that of human knowledge.

There was, however, one passage from which com- mon sense revolted ; it was one wherein she quoted that phrase of mischievous sophistry, " all men are born free and equal."

This false and futile axiom, which has done, is doing, and will do so much harm to this fine country, came from Jefferson ; and truly his life was a glorious commentary upon it. I pretend not to criticise his written works, but common sense enables me to pronounce this, his favourite maxim, false.

Few names are held in higher estimation in America than that of Jefferson ; it is the touchstone of the demo- cratic party, and all seem to agree that he was one of the greatest of men ; yet I have heard his name coupled with deeds which would make the sons of Europe shud- der. The facts I allude to are spoken openly by all, not whispered privately by a few ; and in a country where religion is the tea-table talk, and its strict observance a fashionable distinction, these facts are recorded and list- ened to without horror, nay, without emotion.

Mr. Jefferson is said to have been the father of chil- dren by almost all his numerous gang of female slaves. These wretched offspring were also the lawful slaves of their father, and worked in his house and plantations as such ; in particular, it is recorded that it was his especial pleasure to be waited upon by them at table, and the hospitable orgies for which his Monticello was so cele- brated, were incomplete, unless the goblet he quaffed were tendered by the trembling hand of his own slavish offspring.

I once heard it stated by a dejnocratical adorer of this great man, that when, as it sometimes happened, his chil- dren by Quadroon slaves were white enough to escape suspicion of their origin, he did not pursue them if they attempted to escape, saying laughingly, " Let the rogues get off, if they can ; I will not hinder them." This was stated in a large party, as a proof of his kind and noble nature, and was received by all with approving smiles.

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If I know any thing of right or wrong, if virtue and rice be indeed something more than words, then was this great American an unprincipled tyrant and most heart- less libertine.

But to return to Miss Wright, — it is impossible to im- agine any thing more striking than her appearance. Her tall and majestic figure, the deep and almost solemn ex- pression of her eyes, the simple contour of her finely formed head, unadorned, excepting by its own natural ringlets; her garment of plain white muslin, which hung around her in folds that recalled the drapery of a Grecian statue, all contributed to produce an effect, unlike any thing 1 had ever seen before, or ever expect to see again.

CHAPTER VIII.

Absence of public and private Amusement— Churches and CtMpels — Influence of the Clergy — A Revival.

I NEVER saw any people who appeared to live so much without amusement as the Cincinnatians. Billiards are forbidden by law, so are cards. To sell a pack of cards in Ohio subjects the seller to a penalty of fifty dollars. They have no public balls, excepting, I think, six during the Christmas holydays. They have no concerts. They have no dinner-parties.

They have a theatre, which is, in fact, the only public amusement of this triste little town ; but they seem to ?* care little about it, and either from economy or distaste, ! it is very poorly attended. Ladies are rarely seen there, and by far the larger proportion of females deem it an offence against religion to witness the representation of a play. It is in the churches and chapels of the town that the ladies are to be seen in full costume ; and I am ^empted to believe that a stranger from the Continent of Ipurope would be inclined, on first reconnoitring the city, to suppose that the places of worship were the thea- tres and cafes of the place. No evening in the week but

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brings throngs of the young and beautiful to the chapels and meeting-houses, all dressed with care, and sometimes with great pretension ; it is there that all display is made, and all fashionable distinction sought. The proportion of gentlemen attending these evening meetings is very small, but often, as might be expected, a sprinkling of smart young clerks makes this sedulous display of ribands and ringlets intelligible and natural. Were it not for the churches, indeed, I think there might be a general bonfire of best bonnets, for I never could discover any other use for them.

The ladies are too actively employed in the interior of their houses to permit much parading in full dress f jr morning visits. There are no public gardens or loungi ig shops of fashionable resort, and were it not for pub ic worship, and private tea-drinkings, all the ladies in C.n- cinnati would be in danger of becoming perfect recluses.

The influence which the ministers of al the innumer- able religious sects throughout America have on the fe- males of their respective congregations, approaches very nearly to what we read of in Spain, or in other strictly Roman Catholic countries. There are many causes for this particular influence. (Where equality of rank is af- fectedly acknowledged by the rich, and clamorously- claimed by the poor, distinction and pre-eminence are allowed to the clergy only. This gives them high im- portance in the eyes of the ladies. I think, also, that it is from the clergy only that the women of America re- ceive that sort m attention which is so dearly valued by every female heart throughout the world.j With the priests of America, the women hold that deg'ree of influ- ential importance which, in the countries of Europe, is allowed them throughout all orders and ranks of society, except, perhaps, the very lowest ; and in return for this they seem to give their hearts and souls into their keep- ing. I never saw, or read of any country where religion had so strong a hold upon the women, or a slighter hold upon the men.

I mean not to assert that I met with no men of sin- cerely religious feelings, or with no women of no reli- gious feelings at all ; but 1 feel perfectly secure of being

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correct as to the great majority in the statement I have made.

We had not been many months in Cincinnati when our curiosity was excited by hearing the " revival" talked of by every one we met throughout the town. " The revival will be very full" — " We shall be constantly en- gaged during the revival" — were the phrases we constantly heard repeated, and for a long time without in the least comprehending what was meant /but at length I learned that the un-national church of America required to be roused, at regular intervals,to greater energy and exertion. At these seasons the most enthusiastic of the clergy travel the country, and enter the cities and towns by scores, or by hundreds, as the accommodation of the place may admit, and for a week or fortnight, or, if the population be large, for a month ; they preach all day, and often for a consider- able portion of the night, in the various churches and chapels of the place. This is called a revival.

I took considerable pains to obtain information on this subject ; but in detailing what I learned I fear that it is probable I shall be accused of exaggeration ; all I can do is cautiously to avoid deserving it. The subject is highly interesting, and it would be a fault of no trifling nature to treat it with levity.

These itinerant clergymen are of all persuasions, I believe, except the Episcopalian, Catholic, Unitarian, and Quaker. I heard of Presbyterians of all varieties ; of Baptists of I know not how many divisions; and of Methodists of more denominations than I can remember ; whose innumerable shades of varying belief it would require much time to explain, and more to comprehend. They enter all the cities, towns, and villages of the Union in succession ; I could not learn with sufficient certainty to repeat, what the interval generally is between their visits. These itinerants are, for the most part, lodged in the houses of their respective followers, and every eve- ning that is not spent in the churches and meeting-houses, is devoted to what would be called parties by others, but •which they designate as prayer-meetings. Here they eat, drink, pray, sing, hear confessions, and make converts. To these meetings I never got invited, and therefore I have nothing but hearsay evidence to offer, but my

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information comes from an eyewitness, and one on whom I believe I may depend. If one-half of what I heard may be believed, these social prayer-meetings are by no means the most curious, or the least important part of the business.

It is impossible not to smile at the close resemblance to be traced between the feelings of a first-rate Presby- terian or Methodist lady, fortunate enough to have secured a favourite itinerant for her meeting, and those of a first rate London blue, equally blest in the presence of a fashionable poet. There is a strong family likeness ajnong us all the world over.

( The best rooms, the best dresses, the choicest refresh- ments solemnize the meeting.) While the party is assem- bling, the load-star of the hour is occupied in whispering conversations with the guests as they arrive. They are called brothers and sisters, and the greetings are very affectionate. When the room is full, the company, of whom a vast majority is always women, are invited, en- treated, and coaxed to confess before their brothers and sisters all their thoughts, faults, and follies.

These confessions are strange scenes ; the more they confess, the more invariably are they encouraged and caressed. When this is over, they all kneel, and the itine- rant prays extempore. They then eat and drink ; and then they sing hymns, pray, exhort, sing, and pray again, till the excitement reaches a very high pitch indeed. These scenes are going on at some house or other every evening during the revival, nay, at many at the same time, for the churches and meeting-houses cannot give occupation to half the itinerants, though they are all open throughout the day, and till a late hour in the night, and the officiating ministers succeed each other in the occu- pation of them.

It was at the principal of the Presbyterian churches that I was twice witness to scenes that made me shudder ; in describing one I describe both, and every one ; the same thing is constantly repeated.

It was in the middle of summer, but the service we were recommended to attend did not begin till it was dark. The church was well lighted, and crowded almost to suffocation. On entering we found three priests

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standing side by side, in a sort of tribune, placed where the altar usually is, handsomely fitted up with crimson curtains, and elevated about as high as our pulpits. We took our places in a pew close to the rail which sur- rounded it.

The priest who stood in the middle was praying ; the prayer was extravagantly vehement, and offensively familiar in expression ; when this ended, a hymn was sung, and then another priest took the centre place, and preached. The sermon had considerable eloquence, but of a frightful kind. The preacher described, with ghastly minuteness, the last feeble fainting moments of human life, and then the gradual progress of decay after death, •which he followed through every process up to the last loathsome stage of decomposition. Suddenly changing his tone, which had been that of sober accurate descrip- tion, into the shrill voice of horror, he bent forward his head, as if to gaze on some object beneath the pulpit. And as Rebecca made known to Ivanhoe what she saw through the window, so the preacher made known to us what he saw in the pit that seemed to open before him. The device was certainly a happy one for giving effect to his description of hell. No image that fire, flame, brimstone, molten lead, or red-hot pincers could supply ; with flesh, nerves, and sinews quivering under them, was omitted. The perspiration ran in streams from the face of the preacher ; his eyes rolled, his lips were covered •with foam, and every feature had the deep expression of horror it would have borne had he in truth been gazing at the scene he described. The acting was excellent. At length he gave a languishing look to his supporters on each side, as if to express his feeble state, and then sat down, and wiped the drops of agony from his brow.

The other two priests arose, and began to sing a hymn. It was some seconds before the congregation could join as usual ; every up-turned face looked pale and horror- struck. When the singing ended, another took the centre place, and began in a sort of coaxing, affectionate tone, to ask the congregation if what their dear brother had spoken had reached their hearts ? Whether they would avoid the hell he had made them see ? " Come, then !" he continued, stretching out his arms towards them,

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" come to us, and tell us so, and we will make you see Jesus, the dear gentle Jesus, who shall save you from it. But you must come to him ! You must not be ashamed to come to him ! This night you shall tell him that you are not ashamed of him ; we will make way for you ; we will clear the bench for anxious sinners to sit upon. Corne, then ! come to the anxious bench, and we will show you Jesus ! Come ! Come ! Come !"

Again a hymn was sung, and while it continued, one of the three was employed in clearing one or two long benches that went across the rail, sending the people back to the lower part of the church. The singing ceased, and again the people were invited, and exhorted not to be ashamed of Jesus, but to put themselves upon " the anx- ious benches," and lay their heads on his bosom. " Once more we will sing," he concluded, " that we may give you time." And again they sung a hymn.

And now in every part of the church a movement was perceptible, slight at first, but by degrees becoming more decided. Young girls arose, and sat down, and rose again ; and then the pews opened, and several came tot- tering out, their hands clasped, their heads hanging on their bosoms, and every limb trembling, and still the hymn went on ; but as the poor creatures approached the rail their sobs and groans became audible. They seated themselves on the " anxious benches ;" the hymn ceased, and two of the three priests walked down from the tri- bune, and going, one to the right, and the other to the left, began whispering to the poor tremblers seated there. These whispers were inaudible to us, but the sobs and groans increased to a frightful excess. Young creatures, with features pale and distorted, fell on their knees on the pavement, and soon sunk forward on their faces ; the most violent cries and shrieks followed, while from time to time a voice was heard in convulsive accents, exclaim- ing, « Oh Lord !" " Oh Lord Jesus !" " Help me, Je- sus !" and the like.

Meanwhile the two priests continued to walk among them ; they repeatedly mounted on the benches, and trumpet- mouthed proclaimed to the whole congregation " the tidings of salvation," and then from every corner of the building arose in reply, short, sharp cries of

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« Amen !" " Glory !" " Amen !" while the prostrate penitents continued to receive whispered comfortings, and from time to time a mystic caress. More than once I saw a young neck encircled by a reverend arm. Vio- lent hysterics and convulsions seized many of them, and when the tumult was at the highest, the priest who re- mained above again gave out a hymn, as if to drown it.

It was a frightful sight to behold innocent young crea- tures, in the gay morning of existence, thus seized upon, horror-struck, and rendered feeble and enervated for ever. One young girl, apparently not more than fourteen, was supported in the arms of another, some years older ; her face was pale as death ; her eyes wide open, and perfectly devoid of meaning ; her chin and bosom wet with slaver ; she had every appearance of idiotism. I saw a priest approach her ; he took her delicate hands, " Jesus is with her ! Bless the Lord !" he said, and passed on.

Did the men of America value their women as men ought to value their wives and daughters, would such scenes be permitted among them ?

It is hardly necessary to say that all who obeyed the call to place themselves on the " anxious benches" were women, and by far the greater number, very young wo- men. The congregation was, in general, extremely well dressed, and the smartest and most fashionable ladies of the town were there ; during the whole revival the churches and meeting-houses were every day crowded with well-dressed people.

It is thus the ladies of Cincinnati amuse themselves ; to attend the theatre is forbidden ; to play cards is un- lawful ; but they work hard in their families, and must have some relaxation. For myself, I confess that I think the coarsest comedy ever written would be a less detes- table exhibition for 'the eyes of youth and innocence than such a scene.

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CHAPTER IX.

Schools— Climate— Water-melons — Fourth of July— Storms — Pigs — Moving Houses — Mr. Flint — Literature.

CINCINNATI contains many schools, but of their rank or merit I had very little opportunity of judging ; the only one which I visited was kept by Dr. Lock, a gentleman who appears to have liberal and enlarged opinions on the subject of female education. Should his system produce practical results proportionably excellent, the ladies of Cincinnati will probably some years hence be much im- proved in their powers of companionship. I attended the annual public exhibition at this school, and perceived, with some surprise, that the higher branches of science were among the studies of the pretty creatures I saw assembled there. One lovely girl of sixteen took her degree in mathe- matics, and another was examined in moral philosophy. They blushed so sweetly, and looked so beautifully puz- zled and confounded, that it might have been difficult for an abler judge than I was to decide how far they merited the diploma they received.

This method of letting young ladies graduate, and granting them diplomas on quitting the establishment, was quite new to me ; at least, I do not remember to have heard of any thing similar elsewhere. I should fear that the time allowed to the fair graduates of Cincinnati for the acquirement of these various branches of education would seldom be sufficient to permit their reaching the eminence in each which their enlightened instructer anti- cipates. " A quarter's" mathematics, or " two quarters' " political economy, moral philosophy, algebra, and quad- ratic equations, would seldom, I should think, enable the teacher and the scholar, by their joint efforts, to lay in such a stock of these sciences as would stand the wear and tear of half a score of children, and one help.

Towards the end of May we began to feel that we D3

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•were in a climate warmer than any we had been accus- tomed to, and my son suffered severely from the effects of it. A bilious complaint, attended by a frightful degree of fever, seized him, and for some days we feared for his life. The treatment he received was, I have no doubt, judicious, but the quantity of calomel prescribed was enor- mous. I asked one day how many grains I should prepare, and was toid to give half a teaspoonful. The difference of climate must, I imagine, make a difference in the effect of this drug, or the practice of the old and new world could hardly differ so widely as it does in the use of it. Anstey, speaking of the Bath physicians, says,

" No one e'er viewed Any one of the medical gentlemen stewed."

But I can vouch, upon my own experience, that no similar imputation lies against the gentlemen who pre«- scribe large quantities of calomel in America. To give one instance in proof of this : when I was afterward in Montgomery county, near Washington, a physician at- tended one of our neighbours, and complained that he was himself unwell. "You must take care of yourself, doctor," said the patient : " I do so," he replied ; " I took forty grains of calomel yesterday, and I feel better than I did." Repeated and violent bleeding was also had re- course to in the case of my son, and in a few days he was able to leave his room, but he was dreadfully ema- ciated, and it was many weeks before he recovered his strength.

As the heat of the weather increased we heard of much sickness around us. The city is full of physicians, and they were all to be seen driving about in their cabs at a very alarming rate. One of these gentlemen told us, that when a medical man intended settling in a new situation, he always, if he knew his business, walked through the streets at night before he decided. If he saw the dismal twinkle of the watch-light from many windows he might be sure that disease was busy, and that the " location" might suit him well. Judging by this criterion Cincinnati was far from healthy, I began to fear for our health, and determined to leave the city ; but, for

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a considerable time, I found it impossible to procure a dwelling out of it. There were many boarding-houses in the vicinity, but they were all overflowing with guests. We were advised to avoid, as much as possible, walking out in the heat of the day ; but the mornings and evenings were delightful, particularly the former, if taken sufficiently early. For several weeks I was never in bed after four o'clock ; and at this hour I almost daily accompanied my " help" to market, where the busy novelty of the scene afforded me much amusement.

Many wagon-loads of enormous water-melons were brought to market every day, and I was sure to see groups of men, women, and children seated on the pavement round the spot where they were sold, sticking in prodi- gious quantities of this watery fruit. Their manner of devouring them is extremely unpleasant : the huge fruit is cut into half a dozen sections, of about a foot long, and then, dripping as it is with water, applied to the mouth, from either side of which pour copious streams of the fluid, while ever and anon a mouthful of the hard black seeds are shot out in all directions, to the great annoyance of all within reach. When I first tasted this fruit 1 thought it very vile stuff indeed, but before the end of the season we all learned to like it. When taken with claret and sugar it makes delicious wine and water.

It is the custom for the gentlemen to go to market at Cincinnati : the smartest men in the place, and those of the " highest standing," do not scruple to leave their beds with the sun six days in the week, and, prepared with a mighty basket, to sally forth in search of meat, butter, eggs, and vegetables. I have continually seen them returning, with their weighty basket on one arm and an enormous ham depending from the other.

And now arrived the fourth of July, that greatest of all American festivals. On the 4th of July, 1776, the decla- ration of their independence was signed, at the state-house in Philadelphia.

To me, the dreary coldness and want of enthusiasm in \ American manners is one of their greatest defects, and I \ therefore hailed the demonstrations of general feeling which this day elicits with real pleasure. On the 4th of July, the hearts of the people seem to awaken from a

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three hundred and sixty-four days' sleep ; they appear high-spirited, gay, animated, social, generous, or at least liberal in expense; and would they but refrain from spitting on that hallowed day, I should say, that on the 4th of July, at least, they appeared to be an amiable people. It is true that the women hare but little to do with the pageantry, the splendour, or the gayety of the day ; but, setting this defect aside, it was indeed a glorious sight to behold a jubilee so heartfelt as this ; and had they not the bad taste and bad feeling to utter an annual oration, with unvarying abuse of the mother country, to say nothing of the warlike manifesto called the Declaration of Indepen- dence, our gracious king himself might look upon the scene, and say that it was good ; nay, even rejoice, that twelve millions of bustling bodies, at four thousand miles distance from his throne and his altars, should make their own laws, and drink their own tea, after the fashion that pleased them best.

One source of deep interest to us in this new clime, was the frequent recurrence of thunder-storms. Those who have only listened to thunder in England have but a faint idea of the language which the gods speak when they are angry. Thomson's description, however, will do: it is hardly possible that words can better paint the spec- tacle, or more truly echo to the sound, than his do. The only point he does not reach is the vast blaze of rose- coloured light that ever and anon sets the landscape on fire.

In reading this celebrated description in America, and observing how admirably true it was to nature there, I seemed to get a glimpse at a poet's machinery, and to perceive, that in order to produce effect, he must give his images more vast than he finds them in nature ; but the proportions must be just, and the colouring true. Every thing seems colossal on this great continent ; if it rains, if it blows, if it thunders, it is all done fortissimo ; but I often felt terror yield to wonder and delight, so grand, so glorious were the scenes a storm exhibited. Accidents are certainly more frequent than with us, but not so much so as reasonably to bring terror home to one's

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bosom every time a mass of lurid clouds is seen rolling up against the wind.

It seems hardly fair to quarrel with a place because its staple commodity is not pretty, but I am sure I should have liked Cincinnati much better if the people had not dealt so very largely in hogs. The immense quantity of business done in this line would hardly be believed by those who had not witnessed it. I never saw a news- paper without remarking such advertisements as the fol- lowing :

" Wanted immediately, 4,000 fat hogs." " For sale, 2,000 barrels of prime pork." But the annoyance came nearer than this ; if I deter- mined upon a walk up Main-street, the chances were five hundred to one against my reaching the shady side without brushing by a snout fresh dipping from the kennel ; when we had screwed our courage to the enterprise of mount- ing a certain noble-looking sugar-loaf hill, that promised pure air and a fine view, we found the brook we had to cross, at its foot, red with the stream from a pig slaughter- house ; while our noses, instead of meeting " the thyme that loves the green hill's breast," were greeted by odours that I will not describe, and which I heartily hope my readers cannot imagine ; our feet, that on leaving the city had expected to press the flowery sod, literally got en- tangled in pigs'-tails and jawbones ; and thus the pret- tiest walk in the neighbourhood was interdicted for ever. *#******

One of the sights to stare at in America is that of houses moving from place to place. We were often amused by watching this exhibition of mechanical skill in the streets. They make no difficulty of moving dwellings from one part of the town to another. Those I saw travelling were all of them frame-houses, that is, built wholly of wood, except the chimneys ; but it is said that brick buildings are sometimes treated in the same manner. The largest dwelling that I saw in motion was one con- taining two stories of four rooms each ; forty oxen were yoked to it. The first few yards brought down the two stacks of chimneys, but it afterward went on well. The great difficulties were the first getting it in motion and

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the stopping exactly in the right place. This locomotive power was extremely convenient at Cincinnati, as the constant improvements going on there made it often desirable to change a wooden dwelling for one of brick ; and whenever this happened, we were sure to see the ex No. 100 of Main-street or the ex No. 55 of Second- street creeping quietly out of town to take possession of an humble suburban station on the common above it.

The most agreeable acquaintance I made in Cincin- nati, and indeed one of the most talented men I ever met, was Mr. Flint, the author of several extremely clever volumes, and the editor of the Western Monthly Review. His conversational powers are of the highest order; he is the only person I remember to have known with first- rate powers of satire, and even of sarcasm, whose kind- ness of nature and of manner remained perfectly unin- jured. In some of his critical notices there is a strength and keenness second to nothing of the kind I have ever read. He is a warm patriot, and so true-hearted an American, that he could not always be of the same opinion on all the subjects we discussed ; but whether it were the force and brilliancy of his language, his genuine and manly sincerity of feeling, or his bland and gentleman- like manner that beguiled me, I know not, but certainly lie is the only American I ever listened to whose unquali- fied praise of his country did not appear to me somewhat overstrained and ridiculous.

, On one occasion, but not at the house of Mr. Flint, I passed an evening in company with a gentleman said to be a scholar and a man of reading ; he was also what is called a serions gentleman, and he appeared to have pleasure in feeling that his claim to distinction was acknowledged in both capacities. There was a very amiable serious lady in the company, to whom he seemed to trust for the development of his celestial pretensions, and to me he did the honour of addressing most of his terrestrial superiority. The difference between us was, that when he spoke to hlr, he spoke as to a being who, if not his equal, was at least deserving high distinction ; and he gave her smiles, such as Michael might have

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vouchsafed to Eve. To me he spoke as Paul to the offending Jews ; he did not, indeed, shake his raiment at me, but he used his pocket-handkerchief so as to answer the purpose ; and if every sentence did not end with " I am clean," pronounced by his lips, — his tone, his look, his action fully supplied the deficiency.

Our poor Lord Byron, as may be supposed, was the bull's-eye against which every dart in his black little quiver was aimed. I had never heard any serious gentleman talk of Lord Byron at full length before, and I listened attentively. It was evident that the noble passages which are graven on the hearts of the genuine lovers of poetry had altogether escaped the serious gentleman's attention ; and it was equally evident that he knew by rote all those that they wish the mighty master had never written. I told him so, and I shall not soon forget the look he gave me.

Of other authors his knowledge was very imperfect, but his criticisms very amusing. Of Pope, he said, " He is so entirely gone by, that in our country it is considered quite fustian to speak of him."

But I persevered, and named " the Rape of the Lock" as evincing some little talent, and being in a tone that might still hope for admittance in the drawing-room ; but on the mention of this poem the serious gentleman became almost as strongly agitated as when he talked of Don Juan, and I was unfeigned ly at a loss to comprehend the nature of his feelings, till he muttered, with an indignant shake of the handkerchief, " The very title !" * *

At the name of Dryden he smiled, and the smile spoke as plainly as a smile could speak, " How the old woman twaddles !"

" We only know Dryden by quotations, madam, and these, indeed, are found only in books that have long since had their day."

"And Shakspeare, sir V

" Shakspeare, madam, is obscene, and, thank God, WE are sufficiently advanced to have found it out ! If we must have the abomination of stage plays, let them at least be marked by the refinement of the age in which we live."

This was certainly being au courant du jour.

Of Massinger he knew nothing. Of Ford he had never

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heard. Gray had had his day. Prior he had never read, but understood he was a very childish writer. Chaucer and Spenser he tied in a couple, and dismissed by saying that he thought it was neither more nor less than affecta- tion to talk of authors who wrote in a tongue no longer intelligible.

This was the most literary conversation I was ever present at in Cincinnati.*

In truth, there are many reasons which render a very general diffusion of literature impossible in America. I can scarcely class the universal reading of newspapers as an exception to this remark ; if I could, my statement would be exactly the reverse, and I should say that America beat the world in letters. The fact is, that throughout all ranks of society, from the successful mer- chant, which is the highest, to the domestic serving-man, which is the lowest, they are all too actively employed to read, except at such broken moments as may suffice for a peep at a newspaper. It is for this reason, I presume, that every American newspaper is more or less a maga- zine, wherein the merchant may scan, while he holds out his hand for an invoice, " Stanzas by Mrs. Hemans," or a garbled extract from " Moore's Life of Byron :" the lawyer may study his brief faithfully, and yet contrive to pick up the valuable dictum of some American critic, that "Bulwer's novels are decidedly superior to Sir Wal- ter Scott's ;" nay, even the auctioneer may find time, as he bustles to his tub, or his tribune, to support his preten- sions to polite learning, by glancing his quick eye over the columns, and reading that "Miss Mitford's descriptions are indescribable." If you buy a yard of riband, the shopkeeper lays down his newspaper, perhaps two or three, to measure it. I have seen a brewer's drayman perched on the shaft of his dray and reading one news- paper, while another was tucked under his arm ; and I once went into the cottage of a country shoemaker, of the name of Harris, where I saw a newspaper half-full of "original" poetry, directed to Madison F. Harris. To be sure of the fact, I asked the man if his name were Madi-

* The pleasant, easy, unpretending talk on all subjects, which I enjoyed in Mr. Flint's family, was an exception to every thing else I met at Cincinnati.

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son. "Yes, madam, Madison Franklin Harris is my name." The last and the lyre divided his time, 1 fear, too equally, for he looked pale and poor. .

This, I presume, is what is meant by the general diffu- sion of knowledge, so boasted of in the United States ; such as it is, the diffusion of it is general enough, certainly; but 1 greatly doubt its being advantageous to the popu- lation.

The only reading men I met with were those who made letters their profession ; and of these, there were some who would hold a higher rank in the great republic (not of America, but of letters), did they write for persons less given to the study of magazines and newspapers ; and they might hold a higher rank still, did they write for the few and not for the many. I was always drawing a parallel, perhaps a childish one, between the external and internal deficiency of polish and of elegance in the native volumes of the country. Their compositions have not that condensation of thought, or that elaborate finish, which the consciousness of writing for the scholar and the man of taste is calculated to give ; nor have their dirty blue paper and slovenly types* the polished elegance that fits a volume for the hand or the eye of the fastidious epicure in literary enjoyment. The first book I bought in America was the " Chronicles of the Canongate." On asking the price, I was agreeably surprised to hear a dollar and a half named, being about one-sixth of what I used to pay for its fellows in England ; but on opening the grim pages, it was long before I could again call them cheap. To be sure the pleasure of a bright well-printed page ought to be quite lost sight of in the glowing, gallop- ing, bewitching course that the imagination sets out upon with a new Waverley novel ; and so it was with me till I felt the want of it ; and then I am almost ashamed to confess how often, in turning the thin dusky pages, my poor earth-born spirit paused in its pleasure, to sigh for hot-pressed wire-wove.

* I must make an exception in favour of the American Quarterly Review. To the eye of the body it is in all respects exactly the same thing as the English Quarterly Review.

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CHAPTER X.

Removal to the Country— Walk in the Forest— Equality.

AT length my wish of obtaining a house in the country vras gratified. A very pretty cottage, the residence of a gentleman who was removing into town, for the conve- nience of his business as a lawyer, was to let, and I imme- diately secured it. It was situated in a little village about a mile and a half from the town, close to the foot of the hi Is formerly mentioned as the northern boundary of it. We found ourselves much more comfortable here than in the city. The house was pretty and commodious, our sitting-rooms were cool and airy ; we had got rid of the detestable mosquitoes, and we had an ice-house that never failed. Besides all this, we had the pleasure of gathering our tomatoes from our own garden, and receiving our milk from our own cow. Our manner of life was infinitely more to my taste than before ; it gave us all the privileges of rusticity, which are fully as incompatible with a resi- dence in a little town of Western America as with a residence in London. We lived on terms of primeval intimacy with our cow, for if we lay down on our lawn she did not scruple to take a sniff at the book we were reading, but then she gave us her own sweet breath in return. The verge of the cool-looking forest that rose opposite our windows was so near, that we often used it as an extra drawing-room, and there was no one to wonder if we went out with noother preparation than our parasols, carrying books and work enough to while away a long summer day in the shade ; the meadow that divided us from it was covered with a fine short grass, that continued for a little way under the trees, making a beautiful carpet, while sundry logs and stumps furnished our sofas and tables. But even this was not enough to satisfy us when we first escaped from the city, and we determined upon having a day's enjoyment of the wildest forest scenery we could find. So we packed up books, albums, pencils,

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and sandwiches, and, despite a burning sun, dragged up a hill so steep that we sometimes fancied we could rest ourselves against it by only leaning forward a little. In panting and in groaning we reached the top, hoping to be refreshed by the purest breath of heaven ; but to have tasted the breath of heaven we must have climbed yet farther, even to the tops of the trees themselves, for we soon found that the air beneath them stirred not, nor ever had stirred, as it seemed to us, since first it settled there, so heavily did it weigh upon our lungs.

Still we were determined to enjoy ourselves, and for- ward we went, crunching knee deep through aboriginal leaves, hoping to reach some spot less perfectly air-tight than our landing-place. Wearied with the fruitless search we decided on reposing awhile on the trunk of a fallen tree ; being all considerably exhausted, the idea of sitting down on this tempting log was conceived and executed simultaneously by the whole party, and the whole party sunk together through its treacherous surface into a mass of rotten rubbish that had formed part of the pith and marrow of the eternal forest a hundred years before.

We were by no means the only sufferers by the accident; frogs, lizards, locusts, katiedids, beetles, and hornets had the whole of their various tenements disturbed, and tes- tified their displeasure very naturally by annoying us as much as possible in return ; we were bit, we were stung, we were scratched ; when at last we succeeded in rais- ing ourselves from the venerable ruin, we presented as woful a spectacle as can well be imagined. We shook our (not ambrosial) garments, and panting with heat, stings, and vexation, moved a few paces from the scene of our misfortune, and again sat down ; but this time it was upon the solid earth.

We had no sooner began to " chew the cud" of the bitter fancy that had beguiled us to these mountain soli- tudes than a new annoyance assailed us. A cloud of mosquitoes gathered round, and while each sharp probos- cis sucked our blood, they teased us with their humming chorus, till we lost all patience, and started again on our feet, pretty firmly resolved never to try the alfresco joys of an American forest again. The sun was now in its meridian splendour, but our homeward path was short,

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and down hill, so again packing up our preparations for felicity, we started homeward, or more properly speaking we started, for in looking for an agreeable spot in this dungeon forest, we had advanced so far from the verge of the hill that we had lost all traces of the precise spot where we had entered it. Nothing was to be seen but multitudes of tall, slender, melancholy stems, as like as peas, and standing within a foot of each other. The ground, as far as the eye could reach (which certainly was not far), was covered with an unvaried bed of dried leaves; no trace, no track, no trail, as Mr. Cooper would call it, gave us a hint which way to turn ; and having paused for a moment to meditate, we remembered that chance must decide for us at last, so we set forward, in no very good mood to encounter new misfortunes. We walked about a quarter of a mile, and coming to a steep descent, we thought ourselves extremely fortunate, and began to scramble down, nothing doubting that it was the same we had scrambled up. In truth, nothing could be more like, but, alas ! things that are like are not the same ; when we had slipped and stumbled down to the edge of the woo'd, and were able to look beyond it, we saw no pretty cottage with the shadow of its beautiful acacias coming forward to meet us : all was different ; and, what was worse, all was distant from the spot where we had hoped to be. We had come down the opposite side of the ridge, and had now to win our weary way a distance of three miles round its base. I believe we shall none of us ever forget that walk. The bright, glowing fur- nace-like heat of the atmosphere seems to scorch as I recall it. It was painful to tread, it was painful to breathe, it was painful to look round : every object glowed with the reflection of the fierce tyrant that glared upon us from above.

We got home alive, which agreeably surprised us ; and when our parched tongues again found power of ut- terance, we promised each other faithfully never to pro- pose any more parties of pleasure in the grim store-like forests of Ohio.

We were now in daily expectation of the arrival of Mr. T. ; but day after day, and week after week passed by, till we began to fear some untoward circumstance

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might delay his coming till the spring : at last, when we had almost ceased to look out for him on the road which led from the town, he arrived late at night by that which leads across the country from Pittsburgh. The pleasure we felt at seeing him was greatly increased by his bring- ing with him our eldest son, which was a happiness we had not hoped for. Our walks and drives now became doubly interesting. The young men, fresh from a public school, found America so totally unlike all the nations with which their reading had made them acquainted, that it was indeed a new world to them. Had they visited Greece or Rome they would have encountered objects with whose images their minds had been long acquainted ; or had they travelled to France or Italy they would have seen only what daily conversation had already rendered familiar ; but at our public schools America (except per- haps as to her geographical position) is hardly better known than Fairy Land ; and the American character has not been much more deeply studied than that of the Anthropophagi : all, therefore, was new, and every thing amusing.

The extraordinary familiarity of our poor neighbours startled us at first, and we hardly knew how to receive their uncouth advances, or what was expected of us in return : however, it sometimes produced very laughable scenes. Upon one occasion two of my children set off upon an exploring walk up the hills : they were absent rather longer than we expected, and the rest of our party determined upon going out to meet them : we knew the direction they had taken, but thought it would be as well to inquire at a little public-house at the bottom of the hill, if such a pair had been seen to pass. A woman, whose appearance more resembled a Covent Garden market-woman than any thing else I can remember, came out and answered my question with the most jovial good humour in the affirmative, and prepared to join us in our search. Her look, her voice, her manner, were so ex- ceedingly coarse and vehement, that she almost frightened me : she passed her arm within mine, and to the inex- pressible amusement of my young people, she dragged me on, talking and questioning me without ceasing. She lived but a short distance from us, and I am sure intended

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to be a very good neighbour ; but her violent intimacy made me dread to pass her door ; my children, including my sons, she always addressed by their Christian names, excepting when she substituted the word " honey :" this familiarity of address, however, I afterward found was universal throughout all ranks in the United States.

My general appellation among my neighbours was "the English old woman," but in mentioning each other they constantly employed the term " lady ;" and they evi- dently had a pleasure in using it, for I repeatedly ob- served, that in speaking of a neighbour, instead of saying Mrs. Such-a-one, they described her as "the lady over the way what takes in washing," or as " that there lady, out by the gully, what is making dip-candles." Mr. Trollope was as constantly called " the old man," while draymen, butchers' boys, and the labourers on the canal were invariably denominated "them gentlemen." Nay, we once saw one of the most gentlemanlike men in Cin- cinnati introduce a fellow in dirty shirt-sleeves, and all sorts of detestable et cetera, to one of his friends, with this formula, " D*****, let me introduce this gentleman , to you."

j Our respective titles certainly were not very important ;

I but the eternal shaking hands with these ladies and gen-

I tlemen was really an annoyance, and the more so, as the

fi near approach of the gentlemen was always redolent of

If whiskey and tobacco.

But the point where this republican equality was the most distressing was in the long and frequent visitations that it produced. No one dreams of fastening a door in Western America ; I was told that it would be considered as an affront by the whole neighbourhood. I was thus exposed to perpetual and most vexatious interruptions from people whom I had often never seen, and whose names still oftener were unknown to me.

Those who are native there, and to the manner born, seem to pass over these annoyances with more skill than I could ever acquire. More than once I have seen some

1 of my acquaintance beset in the same way, without ap- \\ pearing at all distressed by it : they continued their em-

* ployment or conversation with me, much as if no such

OF THE AMERICANS. 95

interruption had taken place ; when the visiter entered, they would say, " How do you do ?" and shake hands.

" Tolerable, I thank ye, how be you ?" was the reply.

If it was a female, she took off her hat ; if a male, he kept it on, and then taking possession of the first chair in their way, they would retain it for an hour together, with- out uttering another word ; at length, rising abruptly, they would again shake hands, with, " Well, now I must be going, I guess," and so take themselves off, apparently well contented with their reception.

I could never attain this philosophical composure ; I could neither write nor read, and I always fancied 1 must talk to them. I will give the minutes of a conversation which I once set down after one of their visits, as a spe- cimen of their tone and manner of speaking and thinking. My visiter was a milkman.

" Well now, so you be from the old country ? Ay — you'll see sights here, 1 guess."

" I hope I shall see many."

" That's a fact. I expect your little place of an island don't grow such dreadful fine corn as you sees here?"

" It grows no corn at all, sir."*

" Possible ! no wonder, then, that we reads such awful stories in the papers of your poor people being starved to death"

" We have wheat, however."

" Ay, for your rich folks, but I calculate the poor sel- dom gets a belly full."

" You have certainly much greater abundance here."

" I expect so. Why they do say, that if a poor body contrives to be smart enough to scrape together a few dollars, that your King George always comes down upon 'em, and takes it -all away. Don't he ?"

" I do not rementber hearing of such a transaction."

" I guess they be pretty close about it. Your papers ben't like ourn, I reckon ? Now we says and prints just what we likes."

" You spend a good deal of time in reading the news- papers."

" And I'd like you to tell me how we can spend it bet-

* Corn, always means Indian corn, or maize.

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ter. How should freemen spend their time, but looking after their government, and watching that them fellers as we give offices to, doos their duty, and gives themselves no airs ?"

" But I sometimes think, sir, that your fences might be in more thorough repair, and your roads in better order, if less time was spent in politics."

" The Lord ! to see how little you knows of a free country ! Why, what's the smoothness of a road, put against the freedom of a free-born American? And what does a broken zig-zag signify, comparable to know- ing that the men what we have been pleased to send up to Congress speaks handsome and straight, as we chooses they should?"

" It is from a sense of duty, then, that you all go to the liquor store to read the papers ?"

" To be sure it is, and he'd be no true born American as didn't. I don't say that the father of a family should always be after liquor, but I do say that I'd rather have my son drunk three times in a week, than not to look after the affairs of his country."

Our autumn walks were delightful ; the sun ceased to scorch ; the want of flowers was rid longer peculiar to Ohio ; and the trees took a colouring, which in richness, brilliance, and variety, exceeded all description. I think it is the maple, or sugar-tree, that first sprinkles the forest with rich crimson ; the beech follows, with all its har- mony of golden tints, from pale yellow up to the bright- est orange. The dogwood gives almost the purple co- lour of the mulberry ; the chestnut softens all with its frequent mass of delicate brown, and the sturdy oak carries its deep green into the very lqp bf winter. These tints are too bright for the landscape painter ; the attempt to follow nature in an American autumn scene must be abortive. The colours are in reality extremely brilliant, but the medium through which they are seen increases the effect surprisingly. Of all the points in which Amer- ica has the advantage of England, the one I felt most sensibly was the clearness and brightness of the atmo- sphere. By day and by night this exquisite purity of air gives tenfold beauty to every object. I could hardly be-

OP THE AMERICANS. 97

lieve the stars were the same ; the Great Bear looked like a constellation of suns ; and Jupiter justified all the fine things said of him in those beautiful lines, from I know not what spirited pen, beginning,

"I looked on thee, Jove! till my gaze Shrunk, smote by the pow'r of thy blaze."

I always remarked that the first silver line of the moon's crescent attracted the eye on the first day, in America, as strongly as it does here on the third. I ob- served another phenomenon in the crescent moon of that region, the cause of which I less understood. That ap- pearance which Shakspeare describes as "the new moon, with the old moon in her lap," and which I have heard ingeniously explained as the effect of earth light, was less visible there than here.

Cuyp's clearest landscapes have an atmosphere that approaches nearer to that of America than any I remem- ber on canvass ; but even Cuyp's air cannot reach the lungs, and, therefore, can only give an idea of half the enjoyment ; for it makes itself felt as well as seen, and is indeed a constant source of pleasure.

Our walks were, however, curtailed in several direc- tions by my old Cincinnati enemies, the pigs ; immense droves of them were continually arriving from the coun- try by the road that led to most of our favourite walks ; they were often fed and lodged in the prettiest valleys, and worse still, were slaughtered beside the prettiest streams. Another evil threatened us from the same quarter that was yet heavier. Our cottage had an ample piazza (a luxury almost universal in the country houses of America), which, shaded by a group of acacias, made a delightful sitting-room ; from this favourite spot we one day perceived symptoms of building in a field close to it ; with much anxiety we hastened to the spot, and asked what building was to be erected there.

" 'Tis to be a slaughter-house for hogs,*' was the dread- ful reply. As there were several gentlemen's houses in the neighbourhood, I asked if such an erection might not be indicted as a nuisance.

"A what?"

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" A nuisance," I repeated, and explained what I meant.

" No, no," was the reply, " that may do very well for your tyrannical country, where a rich man's nose is more thought of than a poor man's mouth ; but hogs be profit- able produce here, and we be too free for such a law as that, I guess.*'

During my residence in America, little circumstances like the foregoing often recalled to my mind a conversa- tion I once held in France with an old gentleman on the subject of their active police, and its omnipresent gens d'armerie ; " Croyez rnqi, Madame, il n'y a que ceux, a qui ils ont a faire, qui les trouvent de trop." And the old gentleman was right, not only in speaking of France, but of the whole human family, as philosophers call us. The well disposed, those whose own feeling of justice would prevent their annoying others, will never complain of the restraints of the law. All the freedom enjoyed in America, beyond what is enjoyed in England, is enjoyed solely by the disorderly at the expense of the orderly ; and were I a stout knight, either of the sword or the pen, I would fearlessly throw down my gauntlet, and challenge the whole republic to prove the contrary; but being, as I am, a feeble looker on, with a needle for my spear, and " I talk" for rny device, I must be contented with the power of stating the fact, perfectly certain that I shall be contradicted by one loud shout from Maine to Georgia.

CHAPTER XI.

Religion.

I HAD often heard it observed before I visited America, that one of the great blessings of its constitution was the absence of a national religion, the country being thus exonerated from all obligation of supporting the clergy ; those only contributing to do so whose principles led them to it. My residence in the country has shown me

OF THE AMERICANS. 99

that a religious tyranny may be exerted very effectually without the aid of the government, in a way much more oppressive than the paying of tithe, and without obtain- ing any of the salutary decorum, which I presume no one will deny is the result of an established mode of worship.

As it was impossible to remain many weeks in the country without being struck with the strange anomalies produced by its religious system, my early notes contain many observations on the subject; but as nearly the same scenes recurred in every part of the country, 1 state them here, not as belonging to the west alone, but to the whole Union, the same cause producing the same effect everywhere.

The whole people appear to be divided into an almost endless variety of religious factions, and I was told, that to be well received in society, it was necessary to declare yourself as belonging to some one of these. Let your acknowledged belief be what it may, you are said to be not a Christian, unless you attach yourself to a particular congregation. Besides the broad and well known dis- tinctions of Episcopalian, Catholic, Presbyterian, Calvin- ist, Baptist, Quaker, Swedenborgian, Universalist, Dun- ker, &c. &c. &c. ; there are innumerable others spring- ing out of these, each of which assumes a church govern- ment of its own ; of this, the most intriguing and factious individual is invariably the head ; and in order, as it should seem, to show a reason for this separation, each congregation invests itself with some queer variety of external observance that has the melancholy effect of exposing all religious ceremonies to contempt.

It is impossible, in witnessing all these unseemly vaga- ries, not to recognise the advantages of an established church as a sort of head-quarters for quiet unpresuming Christians, who are contented to serve faithfully, with- out insisting upon having each a little separate banner, embroidered with a device of their own imagining.

The Catholics alone appear exempt from the fury of division and sub-division that has seized every other per- suasion. Having the pope for their common head, regu- lates, I presume, their movements, and prevents the out- rageous display of individual whim which every other sect is permitted.

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I had the pleasure of being introduced to the Catholic bishop of Cincinnati, and have never known in any country a priest of a character and bearing more truly apostolic. He was an American, but I should never have discovered it from his pronunciation or manner. He received his education partly in England, and partly in France. His manners were highly polished ; his piety active and sin- cere, and infinitely more mild and tolerant than that of the factious sectarians who form the great majority of the American priesthood.

I believe I am sufficiently tolerant ; but this does not prevent my seeing that the object of all religious obser- vances is better obtained, when the government of the church is confided to the wisdom and experience of the most venerated among the people, than when it is placed in the hands of every tinker and tailor who chooses to claim a share in it. Nor is this the only evil attending the want of a national religion, supported by the state. As there is no legal and fixed provision for the clergy, it is hardly surprising that their services are confined to those who can pay them. The vehement expressions of insane or hypocritical zeal, such as were exhibited during u the revival," can but ill atone for the want of village worship, any more than the eternal talk of the admirable and unequalled government can atone for the continual contempt of social order. Church and state hobble along, side by side, notwithstanding their boasted independence. Almost every man you meet will tell you, that he is occu- pied in labours most abundant for the good of his coun- try ; and almost every woman will tell you, that besides those things that are within (her house), she has coming upon her daily the care of all the churches. Yet, spite of this universal attention to the government, its laws are half asleep ; and spite of the old women and their Dorcas societies, atheism is awake and thriving.

In the smaller cities and towns, prayer-meetings take the place of almost all other amusements ; but as the thinly scattered population of most villages can give no parties, and pay no priests, they contrive to marry, chris- ten, and bury without them. A stranger taking up his residence in any city in America must think the natives the most religious people upon earth ; but if chance lead

OF THE AMERICANS. 101

him among her western villages, he will rarely find either churches or chapels, prayer or preacher ; except, indeed, at that most terrific saturnalia, "a camp-meeting." I was much struck with the answer of a poor woman, whom I saw ironing on a Sunday. " Do you make no difference in your occupations on a Sunday?" I said. " I beant a Christian, ma'am ; we have got no opportunity," was the reply. It occurred to me that in a country where " all men are equal," the government would be guilty of no great crime, did it so far interfere as to give them all an opportunity of becoming Christians if they wished it. But should the federal government dare to propose building a church, and endowing it, in some village that has never heard " the bringing home of bell and burial," it is per- fectly certain that not only the sovereign state where such an abomination was proposed would rush into the Con- gress to resent the odious interference, but that all th« other states would join the clamour, and such an inter- meddling administration would run great risk of impeach- ment and degradation.

Where there is a church-government so constituted as to deserve human respect, I believe it will always be found to receive it, even from those who may not assent to the dogma of its creed ; and where such respect exists, it produces a decorum in manners and language often found wanting where it does not. Sectarians will not venture to rhapsodise, nor infidels to scoff, in the common intercourse of society. Both are injurious to the cause of rational religion, and to check both must be advantageous.

It is certainly possible that some of the fanciful varia- tions upon the ancient creeds of the Christian church, with which transatlantic religionists amuse themselves, might inspire morbid imaginations in Europe as well as in America; but before they can disturb the solemn harmony here, they must prelude by a defiance, not only to common sense, but what is infinitely more appalling, to common usage. They must at once rank themselves with the low and the illiterate, for only such prefer the eloquence of the tub to that of the pulpit. The aristocracy must ever, as a body, belong to the established church, and it is but a small proportion of the influential classes who would be willing to allow that they do not belong to the

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aristocracy. That such feelings influence the professions of men it were ignorance or hypocrisy to deny ; and that nation is wise who knows how to turn even such feelings into a wholesome stream of popular influence.

As a specimen of the tone in which religion is mixed in the ordinary intercourse of society, I will transcribe the notes I took of a conversation at which I was present at Cincinnati ; I wrote them immediately after the con- versation took place.

Dr. A. — " I wish, Mrs. M., that you would explain to me what a revival is. I hear it talked of all over the city, and I know it means something about Jesus Christ and religion ; but that is all I know : will you instruct me farther?"

Mrs. M. — " I expect, Dr. A., that you want to laugh at me. But that makes no difference. I am firm in my principles, and I fear no one's laughter."

Dr. A. — " Well, but what is a revival ?"

Mrs. M. — " It is difficult, very difficult, to make those aee who have no light ; to make those understand whose eouls are darkened. A revival means just an elegant kindling of the spirit ; it is brought about to the Lord's people by the hands of his saints, and it means salvation in the highest."

Dr. A. — " But what is it the people mean by talking of feeling the revival ? and waiting in spirit for the revi- TE! ? and the ecstasy of the revival ?"

Mrs. M. — " Oh Doctor ! I am afraid that you are too far gone astray to understand all that. It is a glorious assurance, a whispering of the everlasting covenant, it is the bleating of the lamb, it is the welcome of the shepherd, it is the essence of love, it is the fulness of glory, it is being in Jesus, it is Jesus being in us, it is taking the Holy Ghost into our bosoms, it is sitting ourselves down by God, it is being called to the high places, it is eating and drink- ing and sleeping in the Lord, it is becoming a lion in the faith, it is being lowly and meek, and kissing the hand that smites, it is being mighty and powerful, and scorning reproof, it is — "

Dr. A.—" Thank you, Mrs. M.,ffl feel quite satisfied ; and I think I understand a revivaljiow almost as well as you do yourself."

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Mrs. A. — " My ! Where can you have learned all that stuff, Mrs. M.?"

Mrs. M. — " How benighted you are ! From the holy book, from the word of the Lord, from the Holy Ghost, and Jesus Christ themselves."

Mrs. A. — " It does seem so droll to me, to hear you talk of the word of the Lord.' Why, I have been brought up to look upon the Bible as nothing better than an old newspaper."

Mrs. O. — " Surely you only say this for the sake of hearing what Mrs. M. will say in return — you do not mean it ?"

Mrs. A. — " La, yes ! to be sure I do."

Dr. A. — I profess that I by no means wish my wife to read all she might find there. What says the colonel, Mrs. M. r

Mrs. M. — " As to that, I never stop to ask him. I tell him every day that I believe in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and that it is his duty to believe in them too, and then my conscience is clear, and I don't care what he believes. Really I have no notion of one's husband interfering in such matters."

Dr. A. — " You are quite right. I am sure I give my wife leave to believe just what she likes ; but she is a good woman, and does not abuse the liberty ; for she believes nothing."

It was not once, nor twice, nor thrice, but many, many times, during my residence in America, that I was present when subjects which custom as well as principle had taught me to consider as fitter for the closet than the tea- table, were thus lightly discussed. I hardly know whether I was more startled at first hearing, in little dainty namby- pamby tones, a profession of atheism over a teacup, or at having my attention called from a Johnny-cake to a rhapsody on election and the second birth.

But, notwithstanding this revolting license, persecution exists to a degree unknown, I believe, in our well-ordered land since the days of Cromwell. I had the following anecdote from a gentleman perfectly well acquainted with the circumstances. A tailor sold a suit of clothes to a sailor a few moments before he sailed, which was on a Sunday morning. The corporation of New-York prose-

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cuted the tailor, and he was convicted, and sentenced to a fine greatly beyond his means to pay. Mr. F., a lawyer of New- York, defended him with much eloquence, but in vain. His powerful speech, however, was not without effect, for it raised him such a host of Presbyterian ene- mies as sufficed to destroy his practice. Nor was this all : his nephew was at the time preparing for the bar, and soon after the above circumstance occurred his cer- tificates were presented, and refused, with this declaration, *' that no man of the name and family of F. should be admitted." I have met this young man in society; he is a person of very considerable talent, and being thus cruelly robbed of his profession, has become the editor of a newspaper.

CHAPTER XII.

Peasantry, compared to that of England — Early Marriages — Charity — Independence and Equality — Cottage Prayer- meeting.

MOHAWK, as our little village was called, gave us an excellent opportunity of comparing the peasants of the United States with those of England, and of judging the average degree of comfort enjoyed by each. I believe Ohio gives as fair a specimen as any part of the Union ; if they have the roughness and inconveniences of a new state to contend with, they have higher wages and cheaper provisions ; if I err in supposing it a mean state in point of comfort, it certainly is not in taking too low a standard.

Mechanics, if good workmen, are certain of employ- ment, and good wages, rather higher than with us ; the average wages of a labourer throughout the Union is ten dollars a month, with lodging, boarding, washing, and mending ; if he lives at his own expense he has a dollar a day. It appears to me that the necessaries of life, that is to say, meat, bread, butter, tea, and coffee (not to men- tion whiskey), are within the reach of every sober, indus-

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105

trious, and healthy man who chooses to have them ; and yet I think t*hat an English peasant, with the same quali- fications, would, in coming to the United States, change for the worse. He would find wages somewhat higher, and provisions in Western America considerably lower ; but this statement, true as it is, can lead to nothing but delusion if taken apart from other facts, fully as certain, and not less important, but which require more detail in describing, and which perhaps cannot be fully compre- hended, except by an eyewitness. The American poor are accustomed to eat meat three times a day : I never inquired into the habits of any cottagers in Western America where this was not the case. I found after- ward in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and other parts of tha country, where the price of meat was higher, that it was used with more economy ; yet still a much larger portion of the weekly income is thus expended than with us. Ardent spirits, though lamentably cheap,* still cost some- thing, and the use of them among the men, with more or less of discretion, according to the character, is universal. Tobacco also grows at their doors, and is not taxed ; yet this too costs something, and the air of heaven is not in more general use among the men of America than chewing tobacco. I am not now pointing out the evils of dram-drinking, but it is evident that where this prac- tice prevails universally, and often to the most frightful excess, the consequence must be, that the money spent to obtain the dram is less than the money lost by the time consumed in drinking it. Long, disabling, and expensive fits of sickness are incontestibly more frequent in every part of America than in England, and the sufferers have no aid to look to but what they have saved, or what they may be enabled to sell. I have never seen misery exceed what I have witnessed in an American cottage where disease has entered.

But if the condition of the labourer be not superior to that of the English peasant, that of his wife and daugh- ters is incomparably worse. It is they who are indeed the slaves of the soil. One has but to look at the wife

* About a shilling a gallon is the retail price of good whiskey. If bought wholesale, or of inferior quality, it is much cheaper.

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of an American cottager, and ask her age, to be convinced that the life she leads is one of hardship, privation, and labour. It is rare to see a woman in this station who has reached the age of thirty without losing every trace of youth and beauty. You continually see women with infants on their knee, that you feel sure are their grand- children, till some convincing proof of the contrary is displayed. Even the young girls, though often with lovely features, look pale, thin, and haggard. I do not remember to have seen in any single instance among the poor, a specimen of the plump, rosy, laughing physiog- nomy so common among our cottage girls. The horror of domestic service, which the reality of slavery, and the fable of equality, have generated, excludes the young women from that sure and most comfortable resource of decent English girls ; and the consequence is, that with a most irreverend freedom of manner to the parents, the daughters are, to the full extent of the word, domestic slaves. This condition, which no periodical merry-mak- ing, no village fete, ever occurs to cheer, is only changed for the still sadder burdens of a teeming wife. They marry very young : in fact, in no rank of life do you meet with young women in that delightful period of existence between childhood and marriage, wherein, if only toler- ably well spent, so much useful information is gained, and the character takes a sufficient degree of firmness to sup- port with dignity the more important parts of wife and mother. The slender, childish thing, without vigour of mind or body, is made to stem a sea of troubles that dims her young eye and makes her cheek grow pale, even before nature has given it the last beautiful finish of the full-grown woman.

"We shall get along" is the answer in full for all that can be said in way of advice to a boy and girl who take it into their heads to go before a magistrate and " get married." And they do get along, till sickness overtakes them, by means perhaps of borrowing a kettle from one and a teapot from another; but intemperance, idleness, or sickness will, in one week, plunge those who are even getting along well into utter destitution ; and where this happens, they are completely without resource.

The absence of poor-laws is, without doubt, a blessing

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to the country ; but they have not that natural and rea- sonable dependence on the richer classes which, in coun- tries differently constituted, may so well supply their place. I suppose there is less alms-giving in America than in any other Christian country on the face of the globe. It is not in the temper of the people either to give or to receive.

I extract the following pompous passage from a Wash- ington paper of February, 1829 (a season of uncommon severity and distress), which, I think, justifies my obser- vation : — « ," -•'•.

"Among the liberal evidences of sympathy for the suffering poor of this city, two have come to our know- ledge which deserve to be especially noticed : the one a donation by the President of the United States (o the com- mittee of the ward in which he resides, of fifty dollars ; the other a donation by a few of the officers of the war department to the Howard and Dorcas Societies, of seventy-two dollars." When such mention is made of a gift of about nine pounds sterling from the sovereign magistrate of the United States, and of thirteen pounds sterling as a contribution from one of the state depart- ments, the inference is pretty obvious, that the sufferings of the destitute in America are not liberally relieved by individual charity.

I had not been three days at Mohawk-cottage