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GRAND TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 IN 
 
 THE UNITED STATES. 
 
GRAND TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 
 GLIMPSES OF HOME AFTER THIRTEEN YEARS 
 ABROAD. 
 
 Hy FULLER, 
 
 EDITOR OF THE COSMOPOLITAN; 
 
 Author of ^* Bdle Brittan's Letters," '^Sparks from a Locomotive, 
 
 ^' North and South," "■The Flag of Truce," 
 
 ^'The White Republican Papers" in '^ Fraser's Magazine," 
 
 dx. dx. dx. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 G. W, Car let on & Co,^ Publishers. 
 
 LONDON : THE COSMOPOLITAN, 111 STRAND. 
 1875. 
 
^:>%l. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 TRANSFORMATION SCENES. 
 
 THE VOYAGE . 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 PAGK 
 1 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 
 . 
 
 6 
 
 POLITICS 
 
 
 
 
 13 
 
 FEDERAL UNION 
 
 
 
 
 20 
 
 HOTELS 
 
 
 
 
 . 27 
 
 BUSINESS 
 
 
 
 
 . 31 
 
 CHANGES 
 
 
 
 
 37 
 
 THE PARK 
 
 
 
 
 45 
 
 HEALTH 
 
 
 
 
 51 
 
 TRUTH 
 
 
 
 
 58 
 
 MONEY 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 . 64 
 
 CONGRESS 
 
 
 
 
 71 
 
 DOGS 
 
 
 
 
 80 
 
 THE BRANCH . 
 
 
 
 
 88 
 
 THE COSMOPOLITAN . 
 
 
 
 
 96 
 
 ELECTRICITY . 
 
 
 
 
 105 
 
 GRANT 
 
 
 
 
 111 
 
 SARATOGA 
 
 
 
 
 116 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTiS. 
 
 BEECHER 
 PROVIDENCE 
 THE DRAMA 
 
 PAGE 
 
 128 
 139 
 149 
 
 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES . . . 157 
 
 IF IT PLEASES THEM . . . . .167 
 
 THE POLICY OP INSURANCE . . . .170 
 
 AMERICAN PRESS SCANDALS . . .173 
 
 INTERNATIONAL INHUMANITY . . .177 
 
 ROMANISM AND MASONRY . . . .181 
 
 ENGLISH GIRLS IN LONDON .... 188 
 
 THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY .... 191 
 
 END OF THE PRETENDER . . . .199 
 
 THE devil's INVENTION .... 201 
 
 THE DREAMLAND OF THE PACIFIC . . . 205 
 
 AMERICAN BONDS AND ENGLISH CONSOLS . .211 
 
 STOCK EXCHANGE GAMBLERS . . .218 
 
 MONEY, BRAINS, AND MANNERS . . . 223 
 
 THE BIRD ...... 227 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE MODOCS .... 231 
 
 DISPOSAL OF DEAD BODIES .... 235 
 
 CHURCH AND THEATRE .... 239 
 
 THE SOLAR SYSTEM A SUCCESS . . . 241 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Vll 
 
 
 PAGB^ 
 
 THE GILDED AGE 
 
 . 247 
 
 LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD 
 
 . 251 
 
 INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM . 
 
 . 254 
 
 GERMAN OCTOPUS . . . . 
 
 . 257 
 
 PULLMAN ON THE MIDLAND . 
 
 . 261 
 
 AMERICAN CENTENNIAL 
 
 . 268 
 
 EGYPT .... 
 
 . 271 
 
 COSMOPOLITAN ENTERPRISE . 
 
 . 274 
 
 A RIGHTEOUS VERDICT 
 
 . 278 
 
 THE FUR COUNTRY . 
 
 . 284 
 
 TALES OF THE STREET 
 
 . 289 
 
 LAW V. JUSTICE 
 
 . 291 
 
 A CHALLENGE TO JACK FROST 
 
 . 295 
 
 RETURN OF THE TIDAL WAVE 
 
 . 298 
 
 GOOD WISHES 
 
 . 304 
 
 DULCE DOMUM 
 
 309 
 
I 
 
 THE VOYAGE. 
 
 On the 17tli day of August 1861, leaning over 
 the stern-rail of the steamship Fulton^ I saw the 
 last line of American land sink below the western 
 horizon. On the 18th day of May 1874, at about 
 two o'clock in the afternoon, peering from the 
 upper deck of the steamship Baltic^ I saw the 
 same streak of land re-appear, after being lost to 
 sight for nearly thirteen years. Within this long 
 parenthesis of time many momentous things have 
 happened, and many changes have taken place, 
 both in the Old World and in the New, to say 
 nothing of the changes we ourselves have under- 
 gone. But on these I do not propose to dwell. 
 I commence this series of Transatlantic communi- 
 cations to The Cosmopolitan^ not so much for the 
 purpose of reviewing the past, as for describing 
 the present condition, and, to some extent, 
 forecasting the future, of the ^^reconstructed" 
 Hepublic ; and having heard so much from 
 Americans abroad of the marvellous changes that 
 
 A 
 
2 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 have taken place in most of the cities of the 
 North, and especially of the West, since the War, 
 I was fully prepared to witness what I have 
 deemed it no exaggeration to call '^ Transformation 
 Scenes " in the United States. On walking last 
 evening up Broadway, from Chambers Street to 
 Union Square, I foimd the magic of the ^' Trans- 
 formation" complete. This noble street, which 
 for more than twenty years I daily traversed, in 
 all seasons and at all times, did not present one 
 familiar object. Was it a dream, or was it a new 
 city? All the old landmarks are gone. The 
 little shops have given place to immense "stores" 
 and business palaces ; while of the few old 
 conservative mansions that for half a century 
 stubbornly refused to " move up town " not 
 oue remained. The trees in the Parks are 
 thirteen years taller, and even the flagstones on 
 the sidewalks have more than doubled in size. 
 Everything has grown, not only older and larger, 
 but, paradoxical as it sounds, fresher and newer. 
 At the "way things are going od," London will 
 not change as much, materially, in the next 
 hundred years as New York has changed in the 
 last thirteen. But then London is pretty nearly 
 "finished." It can continue to spread; but, in a 
 certain sense, there is not much room for it to 
 grow. The reader may pick an idea out of this 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 3 
 
 ^^ conundrum" if he can. To return to the 
 ship. I must not pass lightly over what has 
 brought me over so safely and so comfortably. 
 The Baltic, of the White Star Line, is a splendid 
 vessel. It is the only steamer on which I have 
 never felt the jar of the machinery, nor smelt a 
 ^^ sea-sick" smell. Not a single pulsation or 
 throb from her powerful engine is perceptible, 
 while the atmosphere of the ship is absolutely in- 
 odorous. The table is better than that of most 
 ^^first-class hotels," and the dining-room is 
 almost as large as the Langham's. The coffee 
 might and should be better ; but this may be said 
 of almost every public and even private table out 
 of France. And there is no more excuse for 
 vending bad coffee than for bad cigars. The best 
 quality of both ca7i be had, and Americans, of all 
 people in the world, are willing to pay the price, 
 as they are good judges of the article. Captain 
 Kennedy, of the Baltic, is a ^'perfect brick," who 
 minds his ship, and leaves his gallant doctors, 
 pm*ser, and steward, to look after the passengers. 
 In a recent stormy passage he never left the bridge 
 for three consecutive days and nights, having all 
 his meals sent to him at his post. In ^'answering 
 a fool according to his folly," Captain Kennedy is 
 only equalled by the venerable Commodore Judkius. 
 Captain Kennedy never drinks a drop of wine or 
 
4 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 spirits, and only occasionally comforts himself with 
 a cigar or pipe. He gives you a curt " bob " on 
 going on board, and an honest grip of the hand 
 when you go on shore. And this is quite as much 
 " attention " as passengers deserve from the cap- 
 tain. We were a little over eleven days in cross- 
 ing, four of which were very rough, the balance of 
 the time a pleasure-trip. Out of the one hundred 
 so-called " first-class " passengers, there was about 
 the average proportion of pleasant, companionable 
 people, both ladies and gentlemen ; and there was 
 the usual tendency to flirtation. Only one case, 
 however, became at all serious, threatening to end 
 fatally — that is, in matrimony. One hoary old 
 sinner made a fool of himself by entering two or 
 three times the wrong state-room, which drew on 
 him a sharp and well-deserved reprimand from 
 the captain, and the general contempt of the in- 
 dignantly virtuous passengers. But we had other 
 incidents by the way, of a somewhat graver char- 
 acter, including a birth, a burial, and a christening. 
 Among the seven hundred steerage j)assengers a 
 Norwegian mother took it into her head to give 
 birth to a boy ; and as she was wholly unj)repared 
 for the event, and as the child was born utterly 
 naked, we made up a purse of £5, by shilling 
 contributions, to purchase a layette for the little 
 nudity. And then, having a parson on board — 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 5 
 
 who, by the way, preached most inoffensive ser- 
 mons, never obtruding his " stock-in-trade " upon 
 the passengers — the baby was duly christened, 
 to the great delight of several young matrons, 
 one of whom acted as godmother. But ah I there 
 was sadness on the sea when a little ^^steerage" 
 boy of six died, and was dropped overboard. 
 The ship's carpenter made the little coffin, added 
 ninety pounds of weight to sink it, and, after 
 early morning and burial prayers were read, there 
 was a splash in the water, a gasp from the poor 
 mother's heart, and the " funeral " was over. But 
 there was such a mist that morning that many an 
 eye could scarcely read the breakfast bill-of-fare. 
 The path of life has its terrible passages, both on 
 the land and on the sea. 
 
TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 The Americans are an expansive people, and the 
 reason is obvious. They are accustomed to rapid 
 growth. The farmer is continually " pulling down 
 his barns and building greater," and the merchant 
 is perpetually enlarging his "stores." Business 
 accommodations can hardly keep pace with the 
 necessities of trade. Hence the magnitude and 
 the splendour of those transformation scenes which 
 meet the eye at every turn in the once-familiar 
 city of New York. Broadway has no longer its 
 cheap side, where the " lame ducks " used to 
 sneak home after "bursting" in Wall Street. 
 From the Battery all the way to Union Square, 
 the noble thoroughfare is lined with magnificent 
 business edifices, largely devoted to Banks, In- 
 surance and Eailway Companies. Oyster-cellars 
 and confectionary saloons are no longer where they 
 were, or what they were. Even bivalves and bon- 
 bons are now served in princely palaces ; and 
 wholesale clothing-shops have grown into huge 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 7 
 
 establisliments occupj'ing entire blocks. Theatres 
 have only multiplied, and not increased in size. 
 But Barnum, the perennial and ever-expanding 
 flower of showmen, has literally outgrown all 
 competition and all tradition. In vastness, as in 
 enterprise and audacity, Barnum beats the world. 
 Between his old " Museum " on the corner of Ann 
 Street and Broadway, and his new up-town 
 " Hippodrome," there are whole centuries of 
 progress. It is unquestionably the grandest and 
 most bewildering ^^ place of amusement" the 
 world has ever seen. Just now it eclipses all 
 other entertainments, and promises to be a great 
 pecuniary success. The Roman Coliseum was 
 but a mere hint to this '^ almighty spread " of the 
 great showman in his fifth act. But in no class 
 of buildings are the transformations more striking 
 than in what used to be called newspaper '' offices." 
 In New York the Press has nobly asserted its 
 dignity by the grandeur of its edifices. Instead 
 of dirty, subterranean holes for press-rooms and 
 publication offices, with miserable closets and 
 garrets for editorial and composition rooms, all 
 the first-class successful journals and magazines 
 have risen, expanded, bloomed out, and become 
 transformed into magnificent, regal-looking build- 
 ings, endowed with all modern improvements and 
 luxuries in the way of light, warmth, ventilation, 
 
8 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 &c., &c. Even the traditional "printer's devil" 
 has been cared for in these "reconstructed" 
 establishments, and water, soap, and towels snp- 
 j)lied ad libitum for the benefit of his inky face 
 and fingers. In fact, the dirty little imp of the 
 newspaper office no longer exists. As for King 
 Editor's throne-room, it is simply sumptuous. 
 Sofas, easy- chairs — with tJie chair appropriately 
 on a pivot — elegant cases filled with books of 
 reference, speakiDg-tubes, electric bells, telegraph 
 instruments, &c., &c., are all provided for the use 
 of His Potency who commands the columns and 
 assumes the imperial " We " of the Daily Press 
 of New York. Something of a transformation 
 this, since Bennet began to write his " shocking " 
 leaders thirty-five years ago, with a cellar for 
 his "sanctum," a board, resting upon two empty 
 barrels, for a table, and a three-legged stool for 
 his editorial chair. The Herald is now issued from 
 a marble palace, and the son of the founder, whose 
 birth was the text for a witty leader written by 
 the happy father, headed, "Arrival of le Jeune 
 Editeur," is now Prince of the Press, with a 
 fortune of ten millions of dollars, more or less. 
 These changes are truly amazing, and the more I 
 see of what has been done here in the last thir- 
 teen years, the more convinced I am of the 
 propriety of heading these observations — " Trans- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 9 
 
 formation Scenes." And, as yet, I have seen 
 comparatively nothing. This is my fourth day in 
 New York, and most of the time I have been 
 immersed in Turkish Baths, of which I shall have 
 more to say hereafter. The good doctor who 
 presides over this beneficent institution assures 
 me that he is saving me from a severe, if not 
 fatal, case of cerebral and gastric fever, and that 
 in ten days he will send me forth completely 
 " reconstructed." The event of the day, or rather 
 of yesterday, is the '^ Royal Marriage " at 
 Washington. Miss Nellie Grant, daughter of 
 the President, was married on the 21st inst., with 
 most undemocratic pomp and ceremony, to Mr 
 Sartoris, an Englishman, and the ^^ happy pair " 
 will depart to-morrow in the good ship Baltic for 
 England. The leading journals of New York, with 
 their customary competitive " enterprise," devote 
 from six to eight columns to the joyful event. 
 Truly the " Republican Court " has its courtiers, 
 not to say toadies. To the parties immediately 
 concerned in the '^ contract," this marriage of the 
 Princess of the White House is of just as much 
 importance as the marriage of the Grand Duchess 
 of Russia to a son of the Queen of England ; but, 
 as a public or political event, it is hardly de- 
 serving of the ink that has been shed over it. 
 Still it is better to throw " slippers " and bouquets 
 
I O TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 after the ^^ bridled pair " than anything that 
 might hit harder or hurt more. And so let us 
 join in the general hon voyage that wafts the 
 beautiful Baltic on her homeward trip. Another 
 feather in the '^ "White Star's" cap — that is. Cap. 
 Kennedy's, who has had his office on deck trans- 
 formed for the occasion into a nuptial bower, but 
 alas ! not warranted proof against sea-sickness. 
 And this reminds us of a philosophical con- 
 clusion very deliberately formed during our recent 
 *^ crossing." A couple seriously inclined to marry 
 should make a trip together across the Atlantic 
 before the inexorable knot is tied. If both parties 
 can stand the disillusionising effects of sea-sick- 
 ness, they will have a better chance of sticking to- 
 gether through life. As I am again back in the 
 ship — I don't mean that I am ^^ going back on " 
 the White Star Line — I am reminded of a touch 
 of the Custom-House plague on landing. A friend, 
 and a free-trader, who did not need this "protec- 
 tion" persecution to convert him to the true 
 gospel of Commerce, was compelled to pay 288 
 dollars as " duties " on a few presents he was 
 taking home to his family ; while I was punished 
 to the extent of twelve dollars on a little parcel 
 which I had " the kindness to take " from a gen- 
 tleman for his sister. Let me repeat for the thou- 
 sandth time, and with renewed emphasis, that pro- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. II 
 
 tection is a fraud, and the Custom House a nuisance. 
 The only honest and legitimate tax for the sup- 
 port of Government is a direct tax on property. 
 One word in regard to business matters. Trade 
 is dull, and bankers are blue. Wall Street 
 '^ operators " tell me they are not making their 
 rents. Only that accursed '' Gold Eoom," the 
 great Gambling Hell of New York, keeps up the 
 game of buying and selling at fluctuations of an 
 eighth or a sixteenth a day, by which one wins a 
 little, another loses, and nobody is benefited. I 
 am looking into " Erie," and shall soon be able 
 to report as thoroughly on the affairs of the 
 Company as Captain Tyler, the outcoming man. 
 I will only say to-day that the Erie will lease the 
 Atlantic and Great Western for ninety-nine years, 
 that President Watson will retire, and that Mr 
 James McHenry will return to England next 
 week perfectly satisfied with matters and things 
 generally. Mr McHenry is regarded here as the 
 reigning ^' Railway King " of America. On leav- 
 ing this week for a trip to Niagara, the venerable 
 Commodore Yanderbilt met him at the station 
 at an early hour in the morning, and placed a 
 Palace Car at his service. The Commodore has 
 passed his eightieth year, and still loves his big 
 stock game in Wall Street, and his little game 
 of '^ Boston " at the club. When this old man's 
 
1 2 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 many -wintered snow melts, there will come a 
 deluge. The wealth now dammed up in that 
 weak old reservoir is stupendous ; and in this 
 case the transformation scene cannot be long 
 delayed. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 3 
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 Political changes in America transcend even 
 material transformations. Within a decade Negro 
 Slavery in the South has been abolished, and the 
 once ^' Sovereign and Independent States " have 
 been deprived of all their original ^^ rights." This 
 radical revolution is the result of the great Seces- 
 sion War, which has left society, and the '' body 
 politic/' in a very unsettled condition. When 
 the negroes were suddenly emancipated by the 
 accident of Northern victory, the Federal Congress, 
 in which the Southern States had no representa- 
 tive, bestowed on the '^ freedman " the privilege 
 of citizenship, thereby conferring on the ignorant 
 blacks of the South the balance of political power. 
 Time will illustrate the folly of this indiscrimin- 
 ate enfranchisement. Already it has introduced 
 a new word to the criminal vocabulary; and 
 '^ carpet-baggism" is the acknowledged curse of 
 the country. It has brought upon the subjugated 
 South more debt than the Rebellion, and more 
 
14 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 disgrace tlian Secession. No sooner had the Act 
 passed Congress, giving to all negroes of the age 
 of twenty-one the right to vote, than a hungry 
 horde of political adventurers, carpet-bag in hand, 
 rushed down South to '^ take charge of the elec- 
 tions." Calling themselves "■ Original Abolition- 
 ists " they assumed to be the negro's friend and 
 liberator, and of course had things all their 
 own way. Getting control of the local Legisla- 
 tures, they soon feathered their own nests by 
 issuing State Bonds without limit and without 
 record. Hence the hopeless bankruptcy of most 
 of the "" States lately in rebellion." South 
 Carolina is being sold by Sheriffs to pay the taxes 
 on these fraudulent bonds. These observations 
 are apropos of the so-called '^ Civil Rights Bill," 
 which has just passed the Senate at Washington 
 by a strictly party vote, only three Republicans 
 having the courage to protest against the mon- 
 strous measure. This ^^Bill" is Mr Sumner's 
 dying legacy — I will call it insult — to his country. 
 The following '' First Clause " contains its prin- 
 cipal ^' provisions." The rest of the Act is made 
 up chiefly of pains and penalties for violation of 
 this preposterous and most offensive law : — " That 
 all citizens and other persons within the jurisdic- 
 tion of the United States shall be entitled to the 
 full and equal enjoyment of the accommodations, 
 
/A' THE UNITED STATES. 1 5 
 
 advantages, facilities, and privileges of inns, public 
 conveyances on land or water, theatres and other 
 places of public amusement, and also of common 
 schools and public institutions of learning and 
 benevolence supported in whole or in part by 
 general taxation, and of cemeteries so supported, 
 and also the institutions known as agricultural 
 colleges, endowed by the United States, subject 
 only to the conditions and limitations established 
 by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every 
 race and colour, regardless of any previous condi- 
 tion of servitude." The New York Herald of the 
 24th of May has an able and justly indignant 
 leader on the subject, from which I quote the fol- 
 lowing pithy extract : — ^' In the first section of 
 this Bill for Civil Rights, Congress pretends to 
 lay down rules for the hotel-keepers, to say who 
 shall travel in public convej^ances, and to govern 
 the theatres and places of amusement generally 
 to legislate for our common schools, colleges, 
 hospitals, insane asylums, and charitable institu- 
 tions generally ; nay, even to declare who shall be 
 buried in our potters' fields — for we believe those 
 are the only graveyards we have that are not 
 private property. Further than all this. Congress 
 proceeds to declare who shall sit on the grand 
 juries in the several States, who shall serve as 
 petit jurors, and to lay down penalties for the 
 
1 6 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 misconduct of the Commissioners of Juries and 
 similar strictly local officials. All this is not 
 merely unconstitutional, it is absurd and non- 
 sensical. It does not merely transcend the power 
 of Congress, but it goes beyond the point up to 
 which people can contemplate the law with re- 
 spect, and, at least, with straight faces." This 
 reckless party Act sweeps away the last vestige 
 of State Eights, and utterly extinguishes State 
 autonomy. Will the House pass it ? and if so, 
 will the President sanction it? are the questions 
 on every tongue. It is vain to predict what time 
 will so soon decide ; but the chances are all iu 
 favour of this measure of nonsense becoming the 
 supreme law of the land. In the first place, it is 
 a strictly party measure, and the party has a large 
 majority in the House. This secures the passage 
 of the Bill. And there is not the slightest hope 
 for a veto from Grant, who is bej^ond doubt 
 again in the field for re-election. It is now said 
 that men seeking favours at the White House 
 must either mollify Grant with the prospect of a 
 third term, or menace him with impeachment. 
 Therefore he will not veto the Bill which makes 
 the negro, jperforce^ the social equal of the white 
 man, as the negro vote controls the South, and is 
 the balance of power in the Presidential election. 
 Only two primary laws govern the Universe — 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 1/ 
 
 gravitation and self-interest. It is tlie interest 
 of Presidential aspirants to truckle to niggerdom. 
 Having weakened himself in the "West and South 
 by his brave veto of ^^ Inflation," Grant will now 
 hedge on the niggers. Lest some casual reader 
 of the Cosmopolitan should misinterpret my 
 views in regard to the social and political status 
 of " our coloured brethren," I will here state that, 
 while naturally and honestly preferring white 
 skins to black, I would not disfranchise a man 
 for the mere accident of colonr : I would only 
 restrict the privilege of suffrage to men who 
 possess the requisite moral, intellectual, and 
 property qualifications. On the firm basis of 
 equal suffrage Republics may endure for centuries; 
 but on the rotten foundation of universal suffrage 
 the inevitable downfall is only a question of time. 
 As a race the African is in its nonage, and not 
 half as much entitled to vote as the average white 
 boy of twelve. Under the illogical " Fourteenth 
 Amendment " to the Federal Constitution every 
 American white man, less than twenty-one years 
 of age, is every black man's political inferior ; 
 and now the '' Civil Eights " enactment makes 
 the very lowest darkey the social equal of the 
 very highest white. When the President has put 
 his name to this infamous law, the most offensive 
 nigger, in the hottest of the dog-days, can 
 
 B 
 
1 8 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 demand a seat at the table dlwte of tlie most 
 aristocratic hotel, and the refusal of his demand, 
 or the ejectment of his person, would subject the 
 hotel-keeper to a fine of 1000 dollars. The 
 effect of this enforced association, in violation 
 of the great law of ^' natural selection," will be 
 a war of races, and the final extirpation of the 
 blacks. And j^et the New York Tribune says the 
 law is but the enactment of the Golden Rule, 
 and that Sumner,* like the Campeador, has gained 
 his greatest victory after death ! As I have 
 already intimated. Grant, playing for a third term, 
 will sign the Bill. One word in regard to this 
 much deprecated third-term movement. What is 
 the particular objection to it ? There is no j)re- 
 cedent for it, the Opposition newspapers daily 
 iterate. True, but there is no precedent for 
 many things that have been done in Washing- 
 ton since the Black Republican party came into 
 power in 1861. And if* the President is a good 
 one, and his administration is beneficent, the 
 longer he remains in office the better. Only, let 
 him be elected for a longer term — say ten or 
 twelve years, or even for life — to avoid the de- 
 moralising effects of quadrennial elections. There 
 is no better reason than precedent for not elect- 
 ing the Chief Magistrate, like the Judges of the 
 Supreme Court, for life, instead of four years. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 9 
 
 Given a good Executive, and the longer he 
 remains in office the better will he be qualified to 
 discharge its duties. Therefore we see no in- 
 superable objection to a third term for Grant. 
 He has been tried, and the people have confidence 
 in the general policy of his administration. There 
 is a homely old proverb applicable to the situation — 
 " One may go farther and fare worse." Sporting- 
 politicians are now betting that the only possible 
 alternatives for the next Presidency are Grant and 
 Butler. The mere menace is rapidly reconciling 
 thousands to the idea of a third term. 
 
20 TRANSFORM A TION SCENES 
 
 FEDERAL UNION. 
 
 Since my arrival in New York a new State lias 
 been added to the Federal Union. To the general 
 surprise of the public, the Territory of New Mexico 
 comes in ahead of Colorado, as number thirty-eight. 
 After a somewhat animated debate, the Bill of 
 Admission passed the Lower House by a vote of 
 160 to 76. It was stated in the course of the dis- 
 cussion that New Mexico, which has an area three 
 times as large as Ohio, had in 1850 a population 
 of 61,547, and in 1860 a population of 93,516. 
 But in 1870 the advocates of the Bill were forced 
 to admit there had been, according to the census, 
 an actual decrease, for the population was then 
 shown to be only 91,971. The decrease was de- 
 clared to be " apparent " only, and Mr Elkins, the 
 delegate from New Mexico, devoted much of his 
 time to explaining it away. He asserted that the 
 present population is at least 135,000, and he 
 showed that fifteen of the twenty-four States 
 admitted since the original thirteen had an average 
 
JN THE UNITED STATES. 21 
 
 population of 63,000 at the date of admission. 
 The geographical position and agricultural and 
 mineral resources of the infant State are already 
 exciting a lively interest. The population is 
 chiefly Mexican, and the business of the Territorial 
 Legislature has been carried on through an inter- 
 preter. Great progress has been made within the 
 last five years, no less than 133 public schools 
 having been established, and the mineral pro- 
 ductions have risen to over 2,000,000 dollars a 
 year. A Bill admitting Colorado into the Union 
 has just passed the Territorial Committee of the 
 House of Hepresentatives, and before Congress 
 adjourns on the 22d of June the Federation will 
 consist of thirty-nine States, just three times the 
 original number. The only valid ground of 
 opposition to the admission of new States is the 
 undeserved power it gives them in the Senate. 
 On the next meeting of Congress, New Mexico, 
 which has two senators, will have just as much 
 voting strength in the Upper House as New York. 
 Considering that the population of the former is 
 only a little over 100,000, most of whom can 
 neither read, write, nor speak the English lan- 
 guage, while the latter numbers about 5,000,000, 
 embracing the most intelligent and wealthy citi- 
 zens of the Union, the injustice of the Constitu- 
 tional '^ provision " becomes strikingly apparent. 
 
2 2 TRANSFORMA TION S CENES 
 
 But SO long as the law exists, Territories have 
 the absolute right of admission whenever they can 
 show the requisite number of inhabitants, including 
 Niggers, Indians, Mexicans, hybrids, and all other 
 bipeds belonging to the genus Jiomo. It is given 
 out that before 1876, the Centennial Birthday of 
 the great Kepublic, the Federal Union will con- 
 sist of forty States, and the Senate of eighty mem- 
 bers. To check this rapid increase of States an 
 ^^amendment" may possibly be passed raising 
 the population standard to 500,000 or 1,000,000. 
 Congress has long since ceased to regard the 
 Constitution as an instrument too sacred to be 
 altered, amended, or even violated. At this 
 very moment a Washington telegram brings us 
 the following proposition, introduced to the Senate 
 by Mr Stewart, of Nevada, in the shape of a 
 Sixteenth Amendment: — "Article 16: If any 
 State shall fail to maintain a common school 
 system, under which all persons between the ages 
 of -^-WQ and eighteen years, not incapacitated for the 
 same, shall receive, free of charge, such elementary 
 education as Congress may prescribe, the Congress 
 shall have power to establish therein such a system, 
 and cause the same to be maintained at the ex- 
 pense of such State." Anything in favour of 
 public education is sure to meet the general 
 approbation of the American people ; but this 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 23 
 
 Amendment is another blow at State Rights, of 
 which the less said hereafter the better. The 
 very phrase sounds like burlesque, and reminds 
 one of the ironical Yankee shoemaker who adver- 
 tises ^^ Women's Rights and Lefts." In the eye of 
 Congress — that is, of the dominant party — the 
 individual States, once '' sovereign and independ- 
 ent," are reduced to mere municipalities, and their 
 respective Legislatures might as well be abolished, 
 and all the '' State-Houses" converted into school- 
 houses or Turkish-bath establishments. Here is 
 a transformation, indeed, since the good old days 
 when Massachusetts and South Carolina held their 
 heads high and defiant — one the first to threaten 
 Secession through a " Hartford Convention," and 
 the other to inaugurate the '^ Sovereign " idea by 
 an attack on Fort Sumter. Is it possible that 
 the spirits of Webster and Hayne are cognisant of 
 the present condition of these proud old States, of 
 which, a brief generation ago, they were the 
 respective and eloquent champions ? I am here 
 reminded of certain questions frequently asked in 
 Europe. Has the general condition of the Ameri- 
 can people been improved by the war? Has the 
 emancipation of the blacks increased the liberty of 
 the whites ? Have a few gigantic shoddy fortunes 
 benefited the masses of the people ? All these 
 questions I must answer emphatically in the 
 
24 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 negative. War is tlie sum of all crime, and its 
 fruits are only evil. And tliere never was a more 
 wicked war waged on earth than the great fratri- 
 cidal war between the North and the South. But 
 it is past, and I do not propose to discuss it, only 
 to " cuss it " now and for ever. As for apportion- 
 ing the blame among parties, sections, and in- 
 dividuals who brought the Red Deluge upon the 
 country, that is a matter for the Court of Last 
 Appeal, before whom, according to orthodox creed, 
 all motives and men must be finally judged and 
 sentenced. As my pen runs in apolitical vein to- 
 day, it catches somewhat eagerly at the Cuban 
 news of recent date. There is a great pressure on 
 Congress at this moment for the ofiicial recognition 
 of the " patriots " as belligerents. A leading arti- 
 cle in the Cosmopolitan of the 7th of May, apro- 
 pos of Senator Carpenter's Recognition Motion, 
 was conspicuously quoted by the Washington 
 Chronicle^ the organ of the Administration. This 
 prominent indication of Presidential support 
 gave the friends of Cuba renewed hope, and they 
 have gone to work in earnest to induce Congress 
 to act before adjournment. It is a singular fact 
 that the New York Times, the organ of Secretary 
 Fish, is very angry at the Cuban movement, and 
 calls on the Government to repudiate the course 
 of the Chronicle, whose editor is grossly abused 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 2^ 
 
 for his "sympathies." But the Times is edited 
 by an EngiishmaD, who has the impudence, in his 
 issue of this morning, to blackguard the venerable 
 and respectable Mayor Havemeyer in the following 
 words, and for the simple reason that the Mayor 
 has signed the ordinance for muzzling dogs : — 
 " We have known many a dog far more intelligent, 
 and far more fit to be Mayor of New York, than 
 Mr Havemeyer — and doubtless not a few of our 
 readers can say the same." Suppose an American 
 journalist in London should write thus insolently 
 of the Lord Mayor ! The Spanish despotism in 
 Cuba is really helping the cause of the "pa- 
 triots " more effectively than all the sympathies 
 at Washiugton. Here is an item that touches 
 the Americans in a tender spot : — A letter from 
 Havana, of the 22d of May, says that the 
 " merchants exporting goods to the United States 
 from Cuba are already adding the income-tax of 
 ten per cent, levied by General Concha to the 
 invoices which they remit to their correspondents 
 in the United States. The plan is exceedingly 
 simple on their part, takes no money out of their 
 pockets, nor out of those of the people of the island 
 — the people of the United States thus almost 
 directly paying the income-tax of the Cubans." 
 This one little fact will do more to bring about 
 the recognition of the Cuban Eepublic than all 
 
26 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 other causes combined. Brother Jonathan is a- 
 sensible fellow, and most " sensible " of all in his 
 pocket. Just now there is a general complaint 
 of stagnation in business. The bankers are blue, 
 and railroad men are '^far, far from gay." New 
 York has too many magnificent stores to let. The 
 merchants wear long and anxious as well as 
 meagre faces. The recognition of Cuba will 
 create a new sensation, and make things lively 
 generally. Mr Secretary Fish fears a war with 
 Spain. None but old fogies are afraid of ghosts. 
 Spain has her hands full of war at home. It 
 would be a positive blessing to the Mother Coun- 
 try to get rid of her Cuban troubles. But the 
 question for the United States to consider is, not 
 the pleasure or pride of Spain, nor one of mere 
 commercial benefits to herself and to the world at 
 large, but a question of human freedom and of 
 human right. A people who appeal to " higher 
 laws " whenever it suits their interests to override 
 the Constitution, should not hesitate to act under 
 the same code when the cause of human liberty is 
 at stake. In spite of the powerful Spanish influ- 
 ence in Washington, chiefly exercised through the 
 office of the Secretary of State, or Prime Minister, 
 I have strong assurances from headquarters that 
 the hour of Cuban deliverance is at hand. • 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 2/ 
 
 HO TELS. 
 
 There has been a large increase in the number of 
 hotels in New York in the last ten years, but the 
 rage for ^^ mammoth hotels " no longer exists. The 
 ambition for magnitude seems to have culminated 
 in the '' St Nicholas," and the '' Fifth Avenue." 
 Hotels about one-half the size of these enormous 
 establishments are now considered quite as com- 
 fortable, and even more fashionable. A few years 
 ago American travellers, both at home and abroad, 
 thought it a ^'big thing," and the only "correct 
 thing," to stop at the "biggest bouse." But 
 European ideas, which are continually modify- 
 ing "'Yankee notions," have corrected the popular 
 fallacy that a man's personal importance depends 
 on the magnitude or the magnificence of his domi- 
 cile. After making acquaintance with the big town 
 of London, the great reservoir of wealth and hotbed 
 of aristocracy, the American loses something of 
 his worship of vastness, and comes to the conclusion 
 that quality is even more desirable than quantity. 
 
2 8 TRA NS FORMA TION S CENES 
 
 A small diamond is worth more than a big rock, 
 and a single drop of ^' attar" than a whole acre 
 of roses. Among the hotel guests of London we 
 generally find the most fastidious and ^^ exclusive " 
 visitants at such " one-horse concerns " as Long's, 
 Limmer's, Claridge's, and Fenton's, rather than 
 at those very grand hotels, the Langham, the 
 Grosvenor, the Charing Cross, and the Midland. 
 This ^^ fashion " has reached New York, which is 
 sufficiently cosmopolitan to adopt good ideas from 
 abroad, even if they come from England. There 
 are several comparatively small hotels up town 
 kept on the " European plan," which come about 
 as near to perfection in the way of comfort as any 
 hotels I have seen in any part of the world. They 
 have a fixed price for rooms, and the meals are 
 served a la carte ; the cost of every dish is given, 
 so that no one need be surprised or vexed at the 
 amount of his bill. In the United States the hotel 
 is literally an " institution." The system, initiated 
 here some forty years ago, has revolutionised the 
 hotel system throughout the world. I can give its 
 origin by indulging in a little egotism. At the 
 age of twelve, in passing through Boston, on my 
 way to school at Newhampton, N.H., I had to 
 pass a night at the Tremont House, then newly 
 opened, which was the first ^' grand hotel" ever 
 built in America, or in Europe. Behind the office 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 29 
 
 counter of that hotel I sav\^ a remarkably handsome 
 bo}', about my own age, who was affectionately 
 called ^^ Charley." A few years later this pro- 
 mising lad, Charles A. Stetson, in connection with 
 Robert B. Coleman, became proprietor of the Astor 
 House in New York, then the " mammoth hotel " 
 of the world. During my first year's residence in 
 New York, as Editor of the Evening Mirror, it was 
 my good fortune to be a guest at the Astor. Last 
 week, in the vestibule of the Astor, I met my old 
 friend, and sometime host, Stetson. We are both 
 not a little metamorphosed by Time, but have not 
 lost our identity. We recognised each other. While 
 on the subject of hotels, I have an important an- 
 nouncement to make. My good old friend Hiram 
 Cranston, at whose beautiful country seat, 150 
 miles north of New York, I am now writing, pro- 
 poses to build the grandest hotel in London the 
 world has ever seen. His drawings, put in shape 
 by Arthur Gilman, the celebrated, architect, give 
 us an ideal hotel. The '^ Grand," in Paris, where 
 I have resided for four years, and which I used to 
 think was, in every respect, the ne plus ultra of 
 hotels, is simply ^^ nowhere " in comparison with 
 these plans, which have cost Mr Cranston some 
 ten thousand dollars. I shall not undertake to 
 describe them. I only hope the old Coliseum lot, 
 fronting Regent's Park, can be obtained for the 
 
30 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 erection of this super-grand hotel, the embodiment 
 of Mr Cranston's idea. Is there room for another 
 grand hotel in London, I am asked? My answer 
 to this is a practical one. The Langham, which 
 pays 18 per cent, dividends, is turning away hun- 
 dreds daily. And the Langham does not give its 
 American guests an '^ American Bar," nor Ameri- 
 can dishes — corn bread, hominy, cod-fish balls, 
 buckwheat cakes, pickled oysters, succotash, &c. 
 Yes, there is not only room for, but a great want 
 of, an American hotel in London ; that is, not an 
 exclusively American hotel, but one in which both 
 the English and American sj^stems are combined ; 
 and this Mr Cranston, who is acknowledged to 
 be the king of American hotel-directors, proposes 
 to do. I have heard several parties of " elegant 
 leisure" say, '^ If Cranston opens a hotel in Lon- 
 don, we will go there to spend the remainder of 
 our days." Let Cranston, of the famous " New 
 York," and Curtis, of the excellent " Limmer's," 
 unite their "experiences," and London will have 
 such a hotel as the world has never seen. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 3 I 
 
 BUSINESS. 
 
 Business affairs in New York are reposing in a 
 salutary state of inactivity. This is the effect of 
 the last September panic. So many bankers and 
 railway speculators of the paper millionaire class 
 were suddenly jerked up and laid on their backs, 
 that retrenchment and economy have become the 
 fashion of the day. Diamond studs have vanished 
 from the shirts of Fifth Avenue '^ swells," and 
 now scintillate chiefly on the " fronts " and fingers 
 of nigger minstrels. Spreading and splurging, to 
 use vernacular phrases, are played out, and there 
 is little ambition to do a fictitious business. The 
 building trade is almost at a standstill, and there 
 are many magnificent stores to let in the most 
 active business streets of the city. Dealers in 
 bonds, shares, and promises to pay of every de- 
 scription, are all droning the same dull tune — 
 '' Nothing doing." And yet I regard this state of 
 suspended animation, popularly called " stagnation 
 of trade," as one of the most healthful signs of the 
 
3 2 TRANSFORM A TION SCENES 
 
 times. The simple triitli is, the Americans, and 
 particularly the New Yorkers, were going ahead 
 too fast, on the delusive current of paper money. 
 Everything after the war was couleur de rose. 
 Everybody was expansive, and everything inflated. 
 The multiplication of banks, the increase of rail- 
 roads, and the unlimited issues of the Federal 
 Treasury, inundated the community with a '' cir- 
 culating medium " that passed for money, and 
 which, piled up in the banker's safe, was regarded 
 as actual wealth. When the panic came, beginning 
 with the collapse of Jay Cooke & Co., the great 
 Government banking-house, these redundant pro- 
 mises to pay suddenly shrivelled, and were of no 
 more avail than " filthy rags." Wall Street dealers 
 in ^' paper " instantly lost confidence in their own 
 '' stock-in-trade," and more especially in each 
 other. The effects of this wholesome check are now 
 apparent in the utter absence of the usual spirit of 
 speculation, and in what is called the '^ deadness 
 of the street." In the mercantile world there is 
 more life. The average weekly exports from New 
 York exceed 5,000,000 of dollars, and this alone 
 involves a good deal of business ; while the imports 
 are considerably less than this amount — an excel- 
 lent indication for the prosperity of the future, and 
 that too not a remote future. The business world of 
 New York may reasonably look for a great revival 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 33 
 
 of trade in the autumn. In the mean time, econ- 
 omy, following in the wake of extravagance, like 
 Ruth gleaning in the field of Boaz, is daily making 
 the people richer, and thousands who have been 
 for years living beyond their legitimate incomes 
 are now struggling to live within them — the only 
 sure way to domestic comfort and pecuniary in- 
 dependence. Emigration from Europe is adding 
 enormously to the aggregate wealth of the country. 
 An average of one thousand a day of imported 
 '^ citizens " continue to land at Castle Garden, 
 and straggle through New York on their sad 
 yet hopeful way to the unlimited West, where 
 ^^ there's bread and work for alL" In spite of 
 illogical legislation and corrupt officials — in spite 
 of the great fraud of a protective tariff, there is no 
 reason to croak over future bankruptcy or popular 
 repudiation in the United States. It is true, the 
 aggregate debt of Federal, State, and City Govern- 
 ments, to say nothing of Railway corporations, and 
 merchants' outstanding bills, is enough to make 
 one's head swim ; but there is always to be taken 
 into account a set-off in the unlimited resources 
 of the country to meet this Olympian obligation. 
 Within ^YQ years from this date the United States 
 will almost cease to be importers of Iron and Wine, 
 and become large exporters of these costly com- 
 modities. The same will be true, in a great degree, 
 
 c 
 
34 TRA NSFORMA TION S CENES 
 
 of Coffee, Tea, and Silk. Witliin five years, also, 
 railways built with European capital, many of 
 wliich. are now in a very unsatisfactory pecuniary 
 condition, will be able to pay dividends and divide 
 bonuses on their shares. These are not mere san- 
 guine prophecies, but simple mathematical calcu- 
 lations based on positive facts. Take the ratio of 
 increase at the most moderate figure, and cipher 
 out the results. Aj^fropos of railways, I am aware 
 that many European readers of the Cosmopolitan 
 are anxiously waiting to hear something positive 
 and reliable in regard to the ^^ state of Erie." 
 This information I am diligently seeking, quite 
 independently of Captain Tyler, and the brace of 
 London accountants, who are just now up to their 
 eyes in the Erie books. But I am not prepared to 
 report to-day. Immediately on my arrival in New 
 York, two weeks ago, I wrote that Mr Watson 
 would resign his position as President of the 
 Company. To-day this item of ^^ news " appears, 
 with comments, in all the daily papers. There is 
 a grand '' operation " going on between the Erie 
 and the Atlantic and Great Western, which it was 
 the object of Mr McHenry's visit here to initiate, 
 and which he has gone back to London to con- 
 summate by obtaining the assent of the shareholders. 
 Mr McHenry is regarded here as '^ master of the 
 situation." Combining his indomitable energies 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 35 
 
 and great financial abilities with sucli '^Powers" 
 as Commodore Yanderbilt and Colonel Tom Scott, 
 who has just been elected President of the Penn- 
 sjlvanian Eoad, and with whom he is in cordial 
 and active alliance, Mr McHenry has the game 
 all in his own hands. These three vast railway 
 consolidations, controlled by McHenry, Yanderbilt, 
 and Scott, represent a capital of over 500,000,000 
 of dollars ! I fully believe this entire investment 
 will ultimately average a twenty per cent, dividend. 
 •All that these great American enterprises want is 
 time and confidence to pay splendidly. We have 
 news here to-day of the arrival of the Faraday at 
 Nova Scotia with the new Direct Cable on board. 
 Everybody is asking — AYhy was it not laid in 
 coming across ? Are they going to begin on this 
 side to pay out? A telegram has just come in 
 announcing that the shore-end is being laid from 
 Nova Scotia to Eye Beach, New Hampshire, and 
 there are vague mutterings from Washington that 
 Mr Secretary Fish will not allow the cable to land. 
 How is this ? The English Company bought the 
 right to land, conceded by Congress in 1867 to Mr 
 Cornell Jewett and his associates, and surely Mr 
 Fish will not undertake to annul the Act of Con- 
 gress ! The public need not be surprised to learn 
 that this threatened interference on the part of the 
 Government may be used as a sort of thumbscrew 
 
3 6 TRA NSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 to force the "^ Direct Cable Company " to sell out 
 to the old monopoly. And thus our dream of cheap 
 cablegrams may again be disappointed. But we 
 have still another hope, a well-grounded one, for 
 the fulfilment of this most desirable object : Yan 
 Choate's Atlantic Cable Company is formed, with 
 the requisite concessions from no less than five 
 European Governments, and the capital to lay it 
 (£2,500,000) is already raised. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 37 
 
 CHANGES. 
 
 A FEW remarkable instauces of individual trans- 
 formations rise before me to-day. I will mention 
 no names, as tbe features will be readily recog- 
 nised by at least all American readers. In the 
 year 18 — , ante helium^ a certain lieutenant in the 
 army, wlio had graduated at the wrong end of his 
 class at West Point, being stationed in the city 
 of New York, was giving his friends a good deal 
 of anxiety and trouble by his habits of intem- 
 perance. That same man, to-day, occupies the 
 highest pinnacle of political power, and sits 
 enthroned in the temple of Eepublican glory ! 
 At about the same epoch — ante helium — a certain 
 lad, sitting by the driver of one of Adams & 
 Co.'s Express teams, was in the habit of calling 
 every afternoon at the Evening Mirror office for 
 copies of the paper to distribute " along the 
 lines." To-day, I find that active and intelligent 
 '' Express-boy " one of the millionaires of New 
 
38 TRANSFORMATION SCEXES 
 
 York, the bosom friend and favourite liost of 
 the President of the United States ! Darino- 
 
 o 
 
 the same period there might have been seen, 
 for six years, at the ^' compositor's case " in 
 the Mirror office, a most industrious young man, 
 earnino: from six to twelve dollars a week, savino: 
 half of that, by type-setting. That thrifty youth, 
 and model " typo," is now the proprietor of a 
 newspaper that yields him an annual profit of 
 some £50,000, and is the owner of the finest 
 and fastest stud of horses in the world, whose 
 stables are palaces ! But there is another side 
 to these transformation pictures. Men — and 
 alas ! women too — have fallen as well as risen 
 in the world during these tumultuous times of 
 war and change, of victory and defeat, of gain 
 and loss, of glory and disgrace. But I have 
 no heart to sketch these pictures of sadness, of 
 misfortune, of ruin, and of death. It is enough 
 to make one's heart weep to meet old friends, 
 especially of the gentler and better sex, who, 
 one short decade ago, were in the fullest enjoy- 
 ment of all the blessings of health and wealth, 
 now reduced to abject want, unable to work, 
 ashamed to beg, and whose only hope is in 
 death to relieve them of the insupportable 
 burthen of existence. I will quote the words 
 of a lady, who shall be nameless — a well-known 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 39 
 
 ante-bellum belle of tlie Sunny South — addressed 
 to an old friend at a chance meeting yesterday 
 in Union Square. " You do not recognise me ? 
 
 I am the sad remains of Madame S , of 
 
 Alabama. My Northern husband spent all my 
 fortune; then committed a crime, for which he 
 was sentenced to five years travaux forces in 
 France. I am penniless. My poor old mother 
 is confined to her bed. I obtained a situation 
 among the dancers at Niblo's, at one dollar 
 a week, to get a little bread. The theatre is 
 now closed, and that last resource is lost." 
 And this poor lady, when I last saw her, 
 thirteen years ago, was radiant in beauty and 
 sparkling with jewels ! I know well the history 
 of the brute this unhappy woman called her 
 husband. I shall never forget one outrageous 
 letter he had the impudence to address to 
 General John 0. Breckinridge, in London, 
 abusing the Ex-Yice-President of the United 
 States for '^ treason." The writer of that in- 
 solent and self-complacent letter assumed infinite 
 credit for being '^ truly loyal," while at the 
 same time he was ^^ splurging " all over Europe 
 on the proceeds of the very robberies for which he 
 is now undergoing his ^\Q years' term of penal 
 servitude in France. Our sense of justice is 
 satisfied in the punishment inflicted upon the 
 
40 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 rascal husband, while the sentiment of pity 
 weeps over the still harder punishment endured 
 by the innocent wife. In the sententious and 
 often iterated refrain of Horace, ^^such is life." 
 Dropping the curtain on these liviDg cldaro- 
 ^scuros, a minor chord of memory being touched, 
 let us for a moment descend into '^ the Valley 
 of the Shadow of Death." Here the transfor- 
 mation scene may well '' give us pause." It 
 literally takes away one's breath. '' Every old 
 friend I meet is either dead or busted," was 
 the Hibernian remark that escaped my lips in 
 reply to the question, " How do you find New 
 York ? " At a certain farewell dinner, given 
 at the New York Hotel on the eve of my de- 
 parture for Europe in 1861, out of the twenty- 
 four guests at the table nine are in their graves. 
 The pleasant and familiar faces of Judge Whiting, 
 Judge Robertson, John Yau Buren, Henry J. 
 Raymond, Charley May, Horace Clarke, Isaac 
 Fowler, James T. Brady, I meet no more at 
 the clubs, in the streets, or at the convivial 
 board; while scores of others of less note, and 
 fewer years, are sleeping in '' Greenwood " or 
 in " Woodlawn " the sleep that knows no waking. 
 And yet in both of these sweet cities of the dead 
 I hear the same joyous music of the birds, and 
 inhale the same delicious aroma of the flowers. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 4 1 
 
 Man dies, but Nature lives ; and we recall tlie 
 sad lament of Mrs Hemans — 
 
 " Woe that the Linden and the Vine should bloom, 
 And a just man be gathered to the tomb." 
 
 Of all my senior contemporaries, the venerable 
 poet Bryant, the " Last Minstrel," alone remains 
 at his post. Thurlow Weed and Watson Webb 
 '^ still live," but off duty, on full pay. Noah, 
 Hale, Halleck, Croswell, Ritchie, Gales, King, 
 Bennett, Greeley, Brooks — all are at rest. 
 
 " Green be the turf above them, 
 Friends of my better days ! " 
 
 And Fitzgreene Halleck, too, author of the above 
 lines, and of the immortal " Marco Bozzaris " — 
 he, too, is gone ; and Louis Gaylord Clarke, with 
 his inseparable and ^^boon" companion, Charley 
 Elliott, the greatest portrait-painter of modern 
 times. And Morris and Willis, old friends and 
 editorial partners, a brace of brilliant poets, who 
 enjoyed life so thoroughly that one could not help 
 wishing they might live for ever, were in the very 
 heyday flush of existence — their visiting cards, 
 also, are tombstones now. But this will not do. 
 I am getting blue. The " dead sleep well." 
 They need neither sympathy nor tears, and regrets 
 are unavailing. As for old friends " busted," 
 God help them, in a city where the ^^ almighty 
 
42 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 dollar " is of more consequence to personal con- 
 sideration than in any other city in the world. 
 A " dead beat " is a nnisance anywhere, but in 
 money-worshipping New York he is worse off 
 than a "stump-tail bull in fly-time," to use the 
 forcible dialect of the country. I have just met 
 a well-known citizen, whose charitable donations 
 exceed 300,000 dollars during the last fifteen 
 years, upon whose character there has never 
 been a spot, blemish, or wrinkle, who, under a 
 momentary eclipse of fortune, declares he " does 
 not know where he could borrow one hundred 
 dollars." Truly "Fortune is blind" as well as 
 fickle, and much given to making "misdeals." 
 There sat behind me at the Hippodrome last 
 night an exceedingly vulgar-looking woman, 
 whose coarse, unamiable, and ungrammatical 
 talk with her little boy, whom she called " Jim 
 Fiske," attracted my attention, and her fingers 
 were covered with diamonds that a Duchess 
 might envy! One word touching Eochefort's 
 meteoric fiasco. A compound rabble of French 
 refugees, including Communists, Eed Republicans, 
 Internationalists, et id Jioc genus^ attempted, by 
 exhibiting the infamous editor of the scurrilous 
 Lanterne as a "lion," to raise money, ostensibly 
 for the "poor ill-treated convicts of New Caledonia." 
 A long rigmarole of abuse of all the better classes 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 43 
 
 in France, got up by Rocliefort, appeared in the 
 Herald, by way of advertising the performance 
 at the Academy of Music. There were not ^\q 
 hundred persons in the house, including '^ dead- 
 heads," and Rochefort was so chagrined at his 
 lack of attraction to the New York public, that 
 he left at an early hour the next morning for 
 England, under the false pretence of having re- 
 ceived a "pressing telegram from his daughter." 
 Arrangements to lecture in Philadelphia and 
 Boston, where halls had been engaged, and 
 posters issued, were countermanded. Instead 
 of raising ^^ aid and comfort " for his fellow- 
 convicts, the net proceeds of the "show" at 
 the Academy was not enough to pay the " Lion's" 
 hotel bill. America has no sympath}^ with French 
 iconoclasts, and, least of all, with the bloodthirsty 
 incendiaries of the Commune. Rochefort has 
 disgusted the entire press of New York by his 
 lying statement that "the war of 1870 was a war 
 of personal aggrandisement, and that Napoleon 
 III. knowingly determined to sacrifice the lives 
 of 200,000 men in order to secure the privilege 
 of banishing 500 ! " This malignant and con- 
 ceited agitator will, no doubt, attempt to organise 
 mischief, either in England or in Switzerland. 
 If there is no extradition law to reach such whole- 
 sale criminals as he, there ought to be one passed 
 
44 TRANSFORM A TION SCENES 
 
 without delay. In regard to the political situa- 
 tion in France, untravelled Americans are hopeful 
 for the Eepublic ; while the better-informed class, 
 who know something of the French people from 
 personal observation, are predicting and praying 
 for the restoration of the Empire. The candidate 
 is ready, and the people are more than willing. 
 The grandson of Hortense, the great-grandson of 
 Josephine, has a lineage and a legend dear to the 
 heart of France. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. ■ 45 
 
 THE PARK. 
 
 The New Yorkers may well boast of their Central 
 Park. Its beauties are simply superlative, and 
 cannot be exaggerated. The natural advantages 
 of these superb pleasure-grounds — embracing some 
 eight hundred acres — are unequalled in any city of 
 Europe, while good taste in embellishment brings 
 the Park within the domain of the Fine Arts. 
 Excellent roads, flourishing trees, sparkling foun- 
 tains, placid lakes, a profusion of flowers, with 
 here and there a statue to some cosmopolitan 
 demigod, make up a panorama equally pleasant to 
 look upon and to reflect upon. I know not what 
 this great luxury has cost the taxpayers of New 
 York; but its benefits to the people cannot be 
 estimated in dollars and cents, and the blessings 
 of posterity will flow, like an ever-deepening 
 river, upon the memory of its originators. As 
 Sancho Panza ^^ blessed the man who invented 
 sleep," I cannot refrain from a passing benedic- 
 tion on the sweet air which I breathed there 
 
46 TRANSFORM A TION SCENES 
 
 yesterday, redolent of new-mown hay and the 
 balm of a thousand flowers. With few excep- 
 tions, the equipages one sees in the Park have a 
 fast, ambitious, pretentious appearance, altogether 
 unlike the quiet dignity of Hyde Park and other 
 Old World drives. Everybody is trying to pass 
 everybody, and both carriages and horses seem to be 
 made for show and speed, rather than for comfort 
 and endurance. The public caution against driving 
 in the Park at a rate of over seven miles an hour, 
 like too many other laws and ordinances in this 
 country, is evidently a ^^ dead letter." Two ideas 
 seem to have taken possession of the American 
 mind during the past decade — size and speed ; 
 vastness and rapidity. For universal exponents 
 of these ideas, observe the horses, the houses, the 
 women, and the churches. The latter present a 
 most striking feature in these transformation 
 scenes. All the little old down-town churches, 
 built in the latter half of the last century and the 
 first half of the present, have been transplanted to 
 the upper part of the city, mostly in the Fifth 
 Avenue, w^here they now stand in grand expansion 
 and in full bloom. Notwithstanding the high 
 price of lots in this fashionable locality, to use the 
 popular phrase, congregations of all denominations 
 have stuck at no cost to secure a site for their 
 temples to in the street of palaces, which 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 4/ 
 
 seems to be regarded as the only avenue to 
 Paradise — and " good society." Here the Roman 
 Catholics are building a marvellously fine marble 
 Cathedral, which has more the air of an '' effete 
 Old World institution " than anything we have 
 ever seen in America. And here, too, we find the 
 old ^* Dutch Reformed Church," disguised in such 
 a magnificent pile of ^' frozen music " as to suggest 
 the propriety of changing its name to the ^' Dutch 
 Transformed Church." On almost every block 
 from Murray Hill to Central Park there towers 
 a lofty, ornate ^' House of God," some of whose 
 spires reach as far towards heaven as the law of 
 gravitation will permit. '' The children cry for 
 bread, and yQ give them stones," in the shape of 
 sumptuous churches. We are complacently told 
 that not less than 700,000,000 of dollars are 
 invested in the various institutions and denomina- 
 tions of Religion in the United States. And yet 
 the Almshouses are full, and Prisons too — crime 
 being the natural offspring of poverty. Certain 
 brave heretics, of '^ advanced ideas," are beginning 
 to have the courage to ask if it would not be wise 
 to devote a little more attention to the wants of 
 man, and a little less pomp and circumstance to 
 the " glory of God," who needs nothing from 
 human hands, not even the poor lip-service and 
 pious ^^ praises" of miserable sinners! Instead 
 
48 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 of more ostentatious cliurches, more costly temples 
 dedicated to ^^ Him who dwelletli not in temples 
 made with hands," the common welfare of man 
 demands a multiplication of soup-houses, bath- 
 houses, and school-houses. To catch the little 
 street Arab, wash him, feed him, and educate him, 
 is the first duty of every community to its pauper 
 children. The " wicked " proprietor of the New 
 York Herald^ who gave 30,000 dollars last winter 
 to feed the starving poor of New York, did more 
 real good than all the prayers of all the churches. 
 It is high time that the mythologies and traditions 
 of musty ^' Religions," based on ignorance and 
 superstition, should be exploded. The most culti- 
 vated intellect of the world is logical, rational, 
 and has faith only in the religion of practical 
 charity, the tangible religion of the soup-house, 
 instead of the empty ceremonies of the church. 
 But I am venturing on a transformation scene of 
 the future, and perhaps a little too remote a future, 
 even for my most cosmopolitan reader. The time 
 will come, however, when these "temples of God" 
 will be pointed to as the follies of man, and when 
 temples to humanity shall be everywhere erected 
 instead. In those " better days " for the coming 
 race, disease and deformity will not be allowed to 
 multiply, and " replenish the earth " with criminals ; 
 but there will be at least as much attention paid 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 49 
 
 to improving the breed of man as the breed of 
 horses and the " lower animals." The world 
 moves — the moral as well as the physical world. 
 Only last Sunday the Kev. Henry Ward Beecher 
 rose to the courage of his convictions, and de- 
 clared his disbelief in the Book of Genesis, 
 including the Garden of Eden fable, and the 
 Mosaic account of the Creation. To come down 
 to minor observations. Tobacco-chewing and 
 squirting among gentlemen is subsiding. The 
 sidewalks and marble steps are no longer covered 
 with disgusting splashes of the yellow fluid, and 
 the everlasting spittoon is seldom inundated. 
 European intercourse, doubtless, has something 
 to do with this reformation. I have been some- 
 what surprised to see so many double-breasted 
 women in New York ; and that, too, with very 
 petite figures. But on reflection — not investiga- 
 tion — I am reminded that this is " the land of 
 cotton." The ladies persist in the dirty and 
 extravagant habit of trailing the skirts of their 
 rich silk dresses on the filthy sidewalks. Why 
 indulge in this objectionable and uncomfortable 
 fashion ? Celebrated for their small feet, and 
 always Men chaussee, it surely cannot be modesty 
 that prevents their showing them ! La belle 
 Amdricaine has not yet learned the Parisienne's 
 bewitching coquetterie du pied. Rachel used to 
 
 D 
 
5 O TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 say she could talk with her feet. Another 
 feminine caprice puzzles me. With the mercury 
 among the upper tens, even in the nineties, nine 
 out of every ten ladies I meet are dressed in heavy 
 black silk, which gives them anything but an ice- 
 creamy appearance. In the good old ante-helium 
 days, if ^' Belle Brittan's " jottings can be relied 
 on. Fifth Avenue dames and demoiselles used to 
 promenade in light, diaphanous robes, looking as 
 cool, as graceful, and as willing to be wooed as 
 zephyrs. But times have changed, and fashions 
 too ; and men and women most of all. The Tur- 
 kish Bath has become a ^^ great institution " in 
 New York, of which, and my experience therein, 
 I shall have something to say in my next. 
 
AV THE UNITED STATES. 5 I 
 
 HEALTH. 
 
 The subject in which all of us are most deeply 
 interested is summed up in the word health, which 
 happens to rhyme with the kindred word wealth, 
 representing the next '^ good thing " which all the 
 world is struggling to possess. Probably the two 
 greatest evils of life, always taking a material view 
 of things, are sickness and poverty, the antitheses 
 of the two supreme blessings. And when poor 
 human nature is compelled to make the pilgrimage 
 of life between these dismal, ill-matched companions 
 of suffering and penury, existence is but a perpetual 
 penance, and the grave a longed-for bed of rest. 
 Of the two "popular evils," sickness is worse 
 than poverty. Many a man of envied fortune — 
 even the miser who worships gold — would gladly 
 exchange all he possesses in houses, lands, and 
 " securities," for the robust health, savage appe- 
 tite, good digestion, and dreamless sleep of his 
 poorest servant. Yes, not wealth, but health, 
 is the summum honum of human existence. The 
 
52 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 athlete of the Hippodrome is a happier man than 
 the octogenarian of Wall Street, whose income is 
 '' calculated " at eight millions of dollars a year. 
 Would not the veteran '^ Commodore," whose life- 
 long fight for gold is nearly finished, give, not 
 only all his income, but his '' principal " with it, 
 to be set back in years and health to the condition 
 in which I first knew him, thirty-five years ago, 
 as the captain of a small river steamboat? And 
 would any young Hercules of the Hippodrome 
 exchange his moderate ^^ living" for Yanderbilt's 
 hundred millions and eighty years ? There is 
 nothing the world can give in compensation for 
 health and youth. These are Nature's most pre- 
 cious gifts, but only appreciated when irrevocably 
 lost. 
 
 " Like birds whose beauties languish half-concealed, 
 When mounted on the wing, resplendent shine in azure, 
 
 green, and gold, 
 So blessings brighten as they take their flight." 
 
 My good old friend, John Carter Brown, of 
 Providence, died yesterday, leaving forty millions 
 of dollars. All the wealth of Brown and Ives 
 could not purchase him a substitute when drafted 
 by that universal recruiting-ofiicer who knocks at 
 every door. No man can preserve his youth, nor 
 escape the marks of '^ Time's effacing fingers." 
 
 We cannot, as dear Charles Lamb lamented. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 53 
 
 ^' lay our ineffectual fingers upon the spokes of 
 the great wheel," and stop where we are. Grow- 
 ing old is a part of the inevitable programme of 
 life. It belongs to the natural process of grada- 
 tion by which Nature accomplishes all her work, 
 never doing anything abruptly. Men grow, and 
 bud, and blossom, and bear fruit, or live barren, 
 like the trees, and then, also like the trees, fade, 
 and fall, and disappear. We have only to accept 
 the situation ; or, as Margaret Fuller said to 
 Carlyle, ^^ accept the universe." But while youth, 
 the beauty of efilorescence, cannot be long re- 
 tained — the flowers of spring must give place to 
 the fruits of autumn — health is a perennial plant 
 that may be conserved even to a ^^ green old age." 
 And yet, how rarely do we see men, advanced in 
 life, like the veterans of the forest, in a state of 
 healthy decay, to use a paradox, dying gracefully, 
 leaf by leaf ! The world is full of doctors, and 
 the cities reek with drug-shops. Hence the 
 universal sickness, the innumerable " complaints," 
 with which the distressed atmosphere is thickened 
 and infected. Man was not made to be sick, nor 
 to spend his life in groaning and mourning. 
 What was he made for then, to repeat the ever- 
 lasting conundrum of the ages ? I suppose man 
 was made, like all other organised beings, both 
 animal and vegetable, for the simple gratification 
 
54 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 of tlie Creative Power. Here I will hold up, and 
 come to tlie practical question of liealth, which 
 greatly concerns us all, especially those who have 
 abused it, neglected it, lost it, and are now run- 
 ning all over the world seeking to regain it. 
 No one's testimony in the witness-box is of any 
 value unless he speaks of what he actually knows 
 from experience and observation. Therefore, in 
 what I have to say on the subject of health I must 
 be personal. I left London one month ago, feel- 
 ing miserably ill, after nine years of "hard labour 
 and close confinement" on the treadmill of a 
 weekly newspaper. For nearly three years I had 
 not even inhaled a breath of country or sea-air. 
 The result of all this over-work and incessant 
 care was, naturally enough, torpidity of the 
 liver, loss of appetite, a dull pain in the head, 
 feverish dreams, depression of spirits, and a sort 
 of disagreeable all-overness, (Many a reader 
 knows how it is himself.) The only alternative 
 was to break away, or break down. My good 
 friends insisted on the former as the wiser con- 
 clusion, consoling me with the assurance that 
 change of scene and comparative rest would 
 soon repair the " editorial machine," and enable 
 it to "work all the better for indefinite years to 
 come." The rest on board ship, and the pure, 
 invigorating ozone of the sea, proved a most 
 
hV THE UNITED STATES. 55 
 
 beneficent medicine. But something more was 
 wanting, something radical and revolutionary, and 
 this I have found in the Turkish Bath. Scarcely 
 had I arrived in New York, when that marvellous 
 specimen of humanity, George Francis Train, 
 called with a kind invitation from Dr Miller, 
 of West Twenty-sixth Street, to come and try 
 his "water cure," endorsed with what I may call 
 a peremptory mandate from Mr Train himself, 
 who claims to have the power of "pschycologising " 
 people, and curing all who yield their " wills " 
 to his in childlike obedience and faith. " Two 
 Turkish Baths a day," said Train, with absolute 
 imperiousness, " or you are a dead man within 
 thirty days. Do as I say, and you will get well 
 in that time. I care enough for you to cure you, 
 and you are about the only man I care as much 
 for. I have outgrown all limitations, all 
 interests, all associations, all intellects. / am 
 above the dictatorship ; great enough to refuse it 
 if offered me to-day. Health is the only good. 
 Cleanliness, if next to godliness, is next above that 
 sham virtue. I have taken two Turkish Baths a 
 day for seven months, three Electric Baths a 
 week, and have eaten no meat in all this time. 
 I am the healthiest man in the nation, the onli/ 
 absolutely healthy man." And certainly Train's 
 
5 6 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 splendid physical conditioiij and perfect ^^form," 
 as they say in England, fully endorse all his 
 encomiums on the Bath. I tried the Miller 
 panacea — two a day, at six o'clock a.m., and 
 at five o'clock p.m. — for seven days, and since 
 then one a day for two weeks, in all some thirty 
 baths. The effect has been highly beneficial ; but 
 I attribnte as much of the *^ improvement " to the 
 rigid regimen as to the regular bathing. Farina- 
 ceous food, with no wine or spirits, persistently 
 adhered to for three or four weeks, is change 
 enough to revolutionise almost any one's ^^ depart- 
 ment of the interior." It requires some courage 
 during this hot weather to enter a room at 160^ 
 Fahrenheit, and while pouring down ice-water by 
 the quart to pour out an equal quantity of tepid 
 water through the five millions of pores in the 
 cuticle ; yet after the '"'' grooming," a delicious 
 sense of coolness, cleanness, and drowsiness, more 
 than compensates for the brief purgatory we have 
 to pass in order to reach this Turkish paradise. 
 Dr Miller's establishment is in great vogue in 
 New York. People here seem to be recognising 
 the Eeligion of Health as the newest and best of 
 all the Gospels, with Miller for its priest and 
 Train for its prophet. I will close with two 
 questions of cosmopolitan interest : Is there any 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 57 
 
 blessing equal to health ? Can there be health 
 without cleanness ? As one of our own poets has 
 said — 
 
 " Even from the body's purity 
 The miud receives a kindly, sympathetic aid." 
 
5 8 TRA NSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 TR U TH. 
 
 Associated with Miller's Religion of Health there 
 has recently arisen, to use an Orientalism, a new 
 Apostle of Truth. William Henry Swartwout is 
 the name of which the world is destined to hear 
 much in the present age, and still more in the 
 future. Mr Swartwout; until lately, was an active 
 and successful business man, a manufacturer, but 
 who, like Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, 
 has suddenly encountered a great awakening light 
 " above the brightness of the sun," and now claims 
 to be inspired by the infinite and eternal Soul of 
 Truth, which compels him to speak the words of 
 Truth and obey the voice of Truth, at all times, in 
 all places, and on all occasions, and he is about to 
 solve the problem whether a man can do so and 
 live in these electro-plated days of shams, hypo- 
 crisies, and false pretences. It is a comparatively 
 easy thing to utter the truth, and nothing but the 
 truth ; but when it comes to the whole truth — the 
 time has not yet come for that — crucifixion of both 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 59 
 
 body and soul is the penalty of the present, as well 
 as the past, for all who dare to publish the " naked 
 truth." Mr Swartwout is a member of Dr Adams' 
 Presbyterian Church, one of the fashionable con- 
 gregations of New York, and they have already 
 taken steps to oust this dangerous disciple of Truth 
 from their consecrated fold. No fault can be found 
 with his life, his ^' good works," his strictly tem- 
 perate habits; but the simple truths he speaks, 
 upsetting all the old traditions and superstitions 
 of orthodoxy, these good '^ Church members " 
 cannot bear. '' Christianity in its primitive purity 
 is a good thing," says Swartwout; " let us practise 
 it." And the simple proposition sets the Church 
 on fire with indignation. '^ Away with him, away 
 with him ! " is the sentence of the pious pastor, and 
 the whole congregation join in the chorus. But 
 this emancipated Christian, whom the Church to- 
 day rejects, may yet become the chief corner-stone 
 in the Church of the future, on whose temples, 
 dedicated to Humanity, shall be engraved, in two 
 words, the one omnipotent creed that redeems the 
 world and solves all enigmas — Love and Truth. 
 In proof that he is ^' not disobedient unto the 
 heavenly vision," this new Minister of the new 
 Gospel has sold all he possessed and renounced 
 all social considerations to follow Truth. In pre- 
 paration for his great mission he does not seek the 
 
60 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 solitude of the mountain nor the sadness of the 
 desert, but proposes to arm himself with practical 
 knowledge by making a trip around the world, in 
 order to obtain a comprehensive idea of the great 
 family of man in all its present conditions and 
 past epochs. Mr Swartwout is a thorough cos- 
 mopolitan, having outgrown the limitations and 
 the prejudices of nationalities, races, and sects, as 
 well as all mere social accidents, which rank men 
 in tiers and classes one above another. To ac- 
 company him in his expedition of observation and 
 note-taking, Mr Swartwout has selected the follow- 
 ing ^'assistants:" — George Francis Train, the 
 greatest traveller of this or any other age, as 
 Courier; E. P. Miller, Philosopher of Health; 
 W. E. McMaster, the well-known portrait-painter 
 and journalist as Artist ; Col. Fuller, Editor of 
 the Cosmopolitan, as Historiographer. A some- 
 what remarkable book may be looked for as the re- 
 sult of this extraordinary ^'combination of talent." 
 Mr Swartwout proposes to start on his spheroidal 
 voyage about the middle of July, journeying with 
 the sun, from New York to San Francisco, thence 
 to Japan, China, India, Asia, Europe, arriving in 
 England about the first of November next. The 
 journey of 25,000 miles can be accomplished in 
 100 days, at the average rate of 250 miles a day, 
 and, according to Jules Yerne, the trip has been 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 6 1 
 
 made in 80 days, or rather in 79, a day being 
 gained by travelling against the snn. Having an- 
 nounced the discovery of a new risen star in the 
 West to our readers of both hemispheres, and 
 intimated the possibility of a new Round the 
 World Book for the coming Christmas, I have a 
 few more words to say of Miller's Bath Hotel, the 
 birthplace of the New Dispensation. Mr Train 
 imputes to the Miller system of health an entire 
 revolution in his own feelings, character, politics, 
 and purposes. This exuberant, eloquent, epigram- 
 matic, and loquacious lusus of humanity has become, 
 under the subduing influence of two Turkish Baths 
 a day, thoughtful, silent, and contented. Having 
 abstained all his life from indulgence in wine, 
 spirits, and tobacco, '' his purified system," now 
 rejects all animal food, including even eggs and 
 fish. And yet on a diet of farinaceous food and 
 fruits he is all the while gaining physical strength. 
 '^ Horses," says Train, '' eat no meat." That the 
 Turkish Bath does not make man physically weaker 
 we have abundant proof in the " experts" who 
 pass ten to twelve hours a day, most of the time 
 in rooms at a temperature of 150° to 160° Fah- 
 renheit. One of Miller's experts, a young English- 
 man, rather below the medium size, who during 
 the last ten years has manipulated some 70,000 
 persons, enjoys perfect health, and can lift 700 lbs. 
 
62 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 The female experts, who also serve as table-waiters, 
 are the purest and healthiest-looking women I have 
 seen in America. "With all these living testimo- 
 nials in favour of the Turkish Bath, I wish to 
 withdraw a remonstrance I once made to a lady 
 in London, who wrote me '' she was taking a 
 Turkish Bath every day," that ^^she would wash 
 all the sweetness out of her." Tout au contraire^ 
 it is only the impurities of the system that eva- 
 porate under this sweltering temperature. The 
 average number of bathers at Miller's is about one 
 hundred a day, and the luxury only costs 5s., 
 which is better than paying a guinea to the 
 ''' doctor," who looks at your tongue, feels your 
 pulse, and orders a dose of purgative poison for 
 the benefit of his pharmaceutical friend. I believe 
 a discount is made to the guests residing in the 
 hotel, which embraces three first-class houses in 
 West Twenty-sixth Street, and is one of the cheap- 
 est and best hotels in New York. The proprietor 
 contemplates a building of great magnitude, con- 
 structed solely for health and comfort. It would 
 not be a bad idea for A. T. Stewart to convert his 
 unfinished ^'Asylum" in the Fourth Avenue into 
 an immense Free Bath establishment. This sug- 
 gestion may also be commended to Mr James Lick, 
 who has recently executed his own Will by giving 
 millions to the Charities of San Francisco. Mr 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 6^ 
 
 Stewart's magnificent marble pile is a standing 
 mystery to the people of New York, no progress 
 having been made towards its completion for the 
 last two or three years. But Mr Stewart is doing 
 a work of glorious fame at his Garden City on 
 Long Island, which ought to be called Stewartville 
 in honour of the founder. The houses are of three 
 uniform classes — for men of wealth, for men of 
 moderate incomes, and for the poor who have to 
 work for daily bread. The streets of this ideal 
 City are broad boulevards, lined with trees, and 
 twenty-five years hence it will no doubt be one of 
 the most attractive places in America. This is a 
 sort of monument worthy of the noblest ambition. 
 Mr Stewart, who has reached the allotted mile- 
 stone of threescore and ten, is estimated to be 
 worth from £10,000,000 to £20,000,000, and has 
 no children. Why not, like the California mil- 
 lionaire, ** administer " his own estate ? How much 
 "good" he might accomplish by bestowing a 
 million or two on some brave, high-toned news- 
 paper, devoted to the propagation of cosmopolitan 
 ideas ; and what a grand obituary he would have I 
 
64 TRANS FORMA TION SCENES 
 
 MONEY, 
 
 The suspension of the old conservative banking- 
 house of Turner Brothers has created equal surprise 
 and regret in Wall Street. This eminently respect- 
 able firm, consisting of six industrious brothers, 
 was established in 1844, and has sustained a high 
 character for integrity, prudence, and solidity, for 
 thirty years, having passed through many panics 
 unshaken. After the financial tornado of last 
 autumn it was generally believed that all the Wall 
 Street firms left standing were '' good " for many 
 years to come, and none were regarded with more 
 confidence than the name of Turner Brothers. 
 That they should be compelled to stop payment 
 when money was '^ a drug in the market," at 2 
 per cent, a year, "" at call," took the street by sur- 
 prise. The firm has not yet made any ofiicial state- 
 ment of their affairs, but it is generally understood 
 that " advances " to a Western Railroad Company, 
 to the amount of some 1,500,000 dols., is the cause 
 of their collapse — a repetition of the law of cause 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 6$ 
 
 and effect which brought down Jay Cooke & Co., 
 Henry Clews & Co., and Fisk & Hatch. This 
 latter firm are now paying off their debts in an- 
 ticipation of the time fixed in their " extension 
 agreement." Although there is a great '^ tendency 
 downwards" in Wall Street, yet with the approach- 
 ing adjournment of Congress, when tinkering at 
 finance laws will be suspended for a few months, a 
 general revival of business is expected. The crops 
 of all descriptions, and in all sections of the 
 country, are full of promise. It is estimated that 
 the surplus wheat crop of California this year will 
 exceed the average wheat export of Russia. There 
 is great agricultural prosperity also in Texas, which 
 I have long regarded as the most attractive State 
 in the Union for European emigration. It has no 
 debt, and can easily supply the world with cotton, 
 corn, and cattle. Therefore, although business is 
 dull, I have no sympathy with the croakers who 
 are all the time predicting financial disasters. 
 The United States possess exceptional and unlimited 
 resources. The people are not confined to the 
 ordinary products of agriculture and manufactures, 
 as in France and most other countries ; but they 
 dig no end of material wealth out of the earth in 
 the form of precious metals. From statistics now 
 before me, I find that the aggregate yield of the 
 last quarter of a century reaches the stupendous 
 
66 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 sum of 1,583,644,934 dollars. Of this, California 
 produced about three-fourths, or 1,094,919,098, 
 nearly all of which was in gold. Nevada has pro- 
 duced in gold and silver, but chiefly in the latter, 
 221,402,412 dollars. Most of this has come from 
 the wonderful Comstock lode. Utah, which has 
 but recently begun to be developed, is credited 
 with 18,527,537 dollars, Montana with 119,308,147 
 dollars. Idaho has contributed 57,249,117 dollars, 
 and Colorado 30,000,000 dollars. Oregon and 
 Washington territories have given 25,504,250 dol- 
 lars, and British Columbia 9,000,000 dollars. 
 Arizona, which is just beginning to be worked, 
 will probably prove the richest region of all. The 
 increased yield last year was about 14 per cent., 
 being 80,287,436 against 70,236,914 dollars in 1872. 
 A country with these immense resources is not 
 likely to have much difficulty in paying the 
 " balance of trade ;" and as this balance is now 
 turning in favour of the United States, there is a 
 good prospect of paying off the entire National 
 Debt within the next twenty years. The whole 
 amount of the debt, some 2,200,000,000 of dollars, 
 will, no doubt, be gathered from the various gold 
 and silver mines of the West before another ten 
 years come round. While, therefore, it is the duty 
 of the publicist and the economist to protest 
 against public corruption and private extravagance 
 
IN THE UNITED ST A TES. 6/ 
 
 in money matters, there is no lack of good and 
 substantial reasons for taking a hopeful view of 
 the financial future of the Republic. The popu- 
 lation and wealth of the country are rapidly 
 increasino;', and the National Debt is diminishino- 
 at the rate of 50,000,000 dollars a year. George 
 Francis Train, who, in his present taciturn mood, 
 represents one of the most remarkable '' Trans- 
 formation Scenes " I have met in America, still 
 insists, when he deigns to speak, that evil days 
 are coming. In a state of general disgust, with 
 himself, and everything else, he finds rottenness 
 and corruption everywhere. And yet he has a 
 practical eye to the future, as the following letter, 
 just posted to the forty-eight New York Savings 
 Banks, will show. I am inclined to think that the 
 American Eagle is only moulting, and that when 
 new fledged with his Omaha feathers he will scream 
 louder than ever : — 
 
 " To the Savings Banhs of New York and Brooklyn. 
 
 " The two hundred millions deposited in the names of half a 
 million working-men in the New York and Brooklyn Savings 
 Banks I ana afraid is more or less locked up. A thousand 
 Turkish Baths have put me in savage health, by eradicating 
 the miasma and poison of the Tombs. I am besieged by the 
 bears and speculators to lecture at the Academy and through- 
 out the country, at dollar tickets, on these questions : — 1. 
 Does the money on deposit really belong to the working men 
 and women ? 2. In time of panic, financial disaster, and par- 
 
6S l^RANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 alysed industry, have depositors a right to draw out their 
 own money ? 3. Should they call for it on my portraying the 
 condition of affairs on a black-board in the lecture-halls, what 
 would be the chances of their finding the money available ? 
 4. In case it was not forthcoming, and Grant having peremp- 
 torily shut off all relief in case of another crisis, would there 
 be any danger from a Communistic rising of enraged depositors, 
 of burning the city, or resorting to personal violence against 
 those who had squandered their hard-earned wages ? I have 
 never spoken since the Tombs outrage on liberty, although I 
 suppose I could take thirty thousand dollars the coming 
 season in arousing the people to the coming disasters of 
 plague, panic, repudiation, and civil war ; but you will see by 
 the enclosed that I wish to leave the country for my fourth 
 trip round the world. Before starting, as money is quoted at 
 2 and 3 per cent., I wish to negotiate a mortgage on my Omaha 
 property. I own betw^een four and five hundred acres of city 
 lots — say five thousand (N.Y. size) — within the city limits, on 
 which I will give you a first mortgage, and an undisputed 
 title, for a loan, for a term of years, for one hundred thousand 
 dollars. The property, properly advertised, should sell, even 
 in these days of stagnation, for several times that. As I do 
 not wish to speak again, I write this to ask at what rate you 
 will advance the sum stated. I shall not require any portion 
 of it before the 1st of next January, and the balance will not 
 be wanted before January 1st, 1876. My Wall Street bankers 
 will show you the record of a clear title, and any Omaha 
 capitalist will certify as to the value of the security. Will 
 you oblige me with an early answer] 
 
 Geo. Francis Train. 
 
 " Miller's Turkish Bath Hotel, 
 
 41 W. 26th St., N.Y. 
 
 June 18, 1874.'^ 
 
 Apropos of his extraordinary '^ evolutions " in 
 body and mind, which Train attributes to Miller's 
 Baths and farinaceous food, tho following capital 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 69 
 
 letter of remonstrance from his legal adviser, 
 Clark Bell, one of tlie leading lawyers of New 
 York, contains enough of both wit and argument 
 to entitle it to a permanent record in the columns 
 of the Cosmopolitan : — • 
 
 "Dear George Francis Train, — I look upon your attempt 
 to make yourself fat with no little interest, and shall watch your 
 progress to triumphant obesity without concern or dismay. 
 Your feet not being divided or cloven, you are not naturally 
 a granivorous animal. Vegetables and grains soonest make 
 fat and fill up the cellular tissue. If we wish a fat ox, we 
 confine him wholly to vegetable food and grains ; ditto of 
 the swine. When I saw you yesterday, you had commenced 
 growing fat. I never saw you with so much of the super- 
 fluous. Eat largely of bread and sugar, and you will grow fat 
 sooner. Read Bantam, and he will teach you many things in 
 this rare struggle. The lion living on meat never grows fat, 
 and is emblematic of courage and strength. The whole feline 
 family develop muscle, tenacity, and even ferocity, without 
 adipose matter, hating grains, and only tasting vegetables as 
 a medicine, or a preventative. In agriculture we place our 
 prize animals in close quarters, give them little exercise, and 
 only grain and vegetables to eat. They soon generate 
 carbon, and become puffed up with fatness. In all roles you 
 have won distinction and commanded success. How it will 
 be in this race for ponderosity I do not know ; but I doubt 
 not you will win as before. You must not, however, always 
 be saddened by the reflection that while you may become a 
 second Daniel Lambert, you cannot make of yourself the first 
 fat man. There is a Fat Man's Club, to which I shall soon 
 expect you to clamour for executive honours. I do not know 
 how long you have been cramming, but I can see, and did 
 see, the enormous change in you yesterday. You must be 
 gaining in fat alone from 2| lbs. to 5 lbs. a week. The scales 
 are near you ; try them, and record your progress. Fatness is 
 
70 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 not necessary to human greatness, for you are already great 
 without it. It is not an accessory or aid even to genius. For 
 a man who has become ennuied of all the successes of life, 
 hlase of the world, bilious of the hour, degoUte of time and 
 denies eternity, I know no more fit refuge than the otium cum 
 cUgnitate of laughing and growing fat. Go on, granivorous 
 and vegetable seeker after truth, quiet, and repose. Build up 
 the cellular, lay on the adipose, so that if cremation comes, 
 you will make a good fire and burn with a blaze, without 
 either kindling or kerosene. — I remain, watching, faithfully 
 yours, Clark Bell. 
 
 "New York, Mai/ 18, 1874." 
 
 The point of the joke is to be picked from the 
 fact that Train has a horror of growing fat. 
 According to the weighing record of the Bath 
 Hotel, when he entered the establishment seven 
 months ago, his weight was 217 lbs. To-day he 
 rejoices in 203 lbs., a decrease of 14 lbs. But this 
 falling off in ^' adipose matter " he attributes to 
 other causes than abstinence from animal food. 
 On this question Mr Bell has decidedly the best 
 of the argument. There is no doubt that a 
 carnivorous diet will make men lean, and that 
 granivorous food will make them fat. Neither 
 is there any doubt that Nature made man an 
 omnivorous animal ; and Nature is wiser than 
 the doctors. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 7 1 
 
 CONGRESS. 
 
 On Monday, June 21st, President Grant signed 
 the Currency Bill, the most important Act of the 
 last Session of Congress, and stocks in Wall Street 
 instantly jumped from 2 to 5 per cent. The reason 
 of the rise was owing, not so much to approbation 
 of the measure, as to the general satisfaction that 
 the volume of currency was finally '' fixed," and 
 that the question of expansion or contraction was 
 no longer left to the caprice of the Treasury 
 Department. The Bill is by no means in accord- 
 ance with the President's famous ^'Memorandum" 
 addressed to Senator Jones, which was regarded as 
 a Veto in advance ; but it gives the business public 
 a definite basis to stand on, at least until the 
 meeting of Congress in December. And this 
 positive benefit is everywhere hailed with satisfac- 
 tion. The " Bulls " of the Stock Exchange, for 
 the first time in ten months, are particularly hope- 
 ful and happy. Only a few weak and obstinate 
 ''Bears," in attempting to resist the ^'upward 
 
72 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 tendency," have succumbed. Altogether, the 
 change in the street during the last three or four 
 days amounts to a veritable transformation. On 
 the 22d June Congress adjourned, and the nation 
 drew a long breath. This and all other countries 
 suffer more from over-legislation than from lack of 
 leo:islation. Half-a-dozen fundamental laws are 
 quite enough for the government of men, and of 
 empires ; and if all the statute-books in existence 
 were burned, and only the Golden Eule left, there 
 would be more justice, if less law, in the admini- 
 stration of affairs, both public and private. On 
 the whole, the people seem well contented with 
 what Congress has done, still more so with what 
 it has not done. There has been an aggregate 
 diminution of 27,000,000 dollars in the general 
 '^ appropriations," which may be credited to the 
 account of national economy, a gratifying item for 
 the taxpayer. The District of Columbia Ring 
 has been broken up, although the debts of the 
 District, which the nation will have to pay, are 
 something like 30,000,000 dollars. Strange to say, 
 under the new law, providing for three Com- 
 missioners to govern the Capital Territory of ten 
 miles square, the President had the audacity to 
 nominate " Boss Shepherd," the deposed King- 
 leader, as Chairman ! No Presidential act in the 
 whole history of the Government has ever so 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 73 
 
 sliocked and surprised tlie people as tliis. The 
 Senate, composed of a large majority of tlie 
 President's political friends, indignantly rejected 
 the nomination by a vote of 36 to 6. The 
 President's motive for thus insulting the common 
 sense of the country is variously conjectured. 
 Grant's personal friends attribute it to a sort of 
 dogged devotion to a bosom crony against a 
 perfect deluge of popular obloquy. And with this 
 best of all possible excuses for the outrageous 
 nomination, I will leave the matter, to be revived 
 with telling efi'ect when the question of a Third 
 Term comes up. In calling Mr Hale into his 
 Cabinet, as Postmaster-General, in place of Mr 
 Creswell, resigned, the President bas given great 
 satisfaction to all parties ; and this may be said, 
 also, of the nomination of Mr Cattell, in place of 
 Shepherd, rejected, which was unanimously con- 
 firmed by the Senate. Mr Cattell, late United 
 States Senator from New Jersey, is favourably 
 known in London as Government agent for the 
 conversion of United States 6's into 5's. For some 
 two months there will be a lull in politics ; and 
 yet every watering-place will be a sort of caucus 
 for settling the preliminaries of the '^fall campaign" 
 for the election of representatives to the next 
 Congress. It is generally predicted, even by the 
 Republicans, that the Democrats, or Conservatives, 
 
74 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 will have a decided majority in the Congress of 
 1876. If Grant is really ^^ laying pipe" for a 
 Third Term, it is very evident he intends to break 
 with the Black Republicans, and throw himself into 
 the hands of a new party — a party which proposes 
 to win under the banner of Free Trade and Heal 
 Money — that is, specie payment. But I have yet 
 to find here, as in England, the first indication of 
 an out-and-out Free Trade party. As I have often 
 published, without fear of contradiction, or, I 
 should rather say, with no hope of contradiction, 
 the Cosmojoolitan is the only absolute, logical Free 
 Trade newspaper in either hemisphere. All the 
 so-called Free Trade journals on this side, as on 
 the other, advocate *^ strictly revenue tariffs " — 
 approximate Free Trade. This is all nonsense; 
 as well advocate approximate honesty. Any mea- 
 sures that stop short of the immediate abolition 
 of Custom-Houses are mere half-measures, and 
 worse than none. Let the whole thieving army of 
 Custom-House agents, spies, and informers be at 
 once disbanded, and put to some honest occupation 
 whereby to earn their daily bread, instead of steal- 
 ing it, and the commerce of the world would get 
 rid of an incubus that makes trade a trick and a 
 struggle, and business a penance instead of a 
 pleasure. The resources, the labour, the enter- 
 prise, and the ingenuity of America need no 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 75 
 
 protection, other than the broad Atlantic, to com- 
 pete successfully with any other nation on the 
 globe. The tide of exchange is beginning to turn 
 in favour of the United States, and the people are 
 beginning to see and to feel, in their pockets, that 
 the tax on foreign importations robs millions of 
 poor consumers to enrich a few hundreds of 
 millionaire manufacturers. Besides, it is esti- 
 mated that not more than one-half of the " tolls " 
 taken at the Custom -House ever reaches the 
 Treasury of the United States. Therefore, abolish 
 the whole system of fraud and corruption, and 
 come down to the only honest and legitimate tax 
 for the support of Government — a direct tax on 
 property. Under this latter just, simple, econo- 
 mical policy, we should never see a repetition of 
 the disgraceful scene witnessed in the House of 
 Eepresentatives on Friday night last, wlien, with 
 the mercury bubbling among the '' upper tens," 
 the Hall was packed with thousands of men, 
 women, and niggers to hear ^^ Old Cock-eye 
 Butler" defend the Custom-House spy system, and 
 denounce the eminent firm of Phelps, Dodge, & 
 Co., of New York, and Phelps, James, & Co., of 
 Liverpool, for defrauding the Government — in 
 other words, for stealing millions by swearing to 
 false invoices. This firm has imported, mostly in 
 metals, during the last forty years, goods amount- 
 
7 6 TRA NSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 ing to 400,000,000 of dollars. Mr W. E. Dodge, 
 the venerable head of the firm, is Chairman of the 
 New York Chamber of Commerce, and President 
 of the Young Men's Christian Association, a man 
 of large wealth and high social position. General 
 Butler accuses him of obtaining his vast wealth, 
 and, consequently, his social position — to use plain 
 English — by theft 2i\idi perjury f And the galleries 
 applaud him to the echo. But the press, of all 
 parties and sections, is pouring multitudinous vials 
 of hot indignation upon the bald head of the 
 heartless " Beast." But why did Phelps, Dodge, 
 & Co., if entirely innocent, pay the Government 
 some 270,000 dollars to ^'compromise" a claim 
 for millions ? Because we suppose a lawsuit would 
 have cost them a much greater sum. Jordan, 
 Marsh, & Co., of Boston, against whom a similar 
 charge is pending for a very large amount, are 
 showing fight and showing pluck. As a matter of 
 principle^ the man who pays an unjust claim con- 
 dones a fraud ; but the world, especially the busi- 
 ness world, is governed by interest, not principle. 
 The merchant's motto is, of two evils choose the 
 least ; a woman's, of two ofi'ers accept the first. 
 " The Plymouth Church Scandal " is again the 
 uppermost topic of the day; and although the 
 Cosmopolitan has little stomach for such garbage, 
 to ignore the matter entirely would be unfaithful 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. // 
 
 to tlie history of current events. Briefly, then, as 
 possible, the scandal is this : — The Rev. Henry 
 Ward Beecher, who for the last twenty-five years 
 has played a star role at the Brooklyn Plymouth 
 Church, where his religious merchandise brings 
 him a revenue of £10,000 a year, was accused some 
 four or ^-^0, years ago, by his bosom friend and 
 Christian Church brother, Theodore Tilton, of the 
 greatest crime that man can possibly commit 
 against man. I need not name it to cosmopolitan 
 readers. At the same time Mr Tilton withdrew 
 from the Church, whose ^^ unco guid " pastor he 
 could not but regard as a hypocrite, pure and 
 simple. The scandal got wind, but, except through 
 the columns of a certain disreputable sheet, the 
 Press, giving the ^^ great and good man " the 
 benefit of its doubt, had but little to say on the 
 subject. In the meantime there was a melting 
 meeting between the accused and his accuser, 
 which resulted in apparent penitence on one hand, 
 forgiveness on the other, and everlasting silence on 
 both. But a certain meddlesome body, called the 
 " Church Council," composed of a synod of 
 Presbyterian Churches, affiliated with Beecher's, 
 under the lead of the Rev. Leonard Bacon, raked 
 open the buried off'al, for the purpose of white- 
 washing Beecher and blacksmearing Tilton ; where- 
 upon the latter comes out in his newspaper — the 
 
78 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 Golden Age — with a minute history of the whole 
 infamous affair. And the columns of all the 
 newspapers are to - day regaling the prurient 
 appetites of their myriads of readers with the 
 ''great sensation scandal." Beecher and his 
 '' followers," it is announced, have resolved to treat 
 Tilton's charges with silent contempt. This is a 
 very cheap and easy way of meeting evidence 
 directed against the '' Lord's anointed." But 
 the blind and foolish world is slow to believe 
 anything against its cherished idols. Pious 
 people, who have been taught from their cradles to 
 sing the praises of good King David, never think 
 of the wicked passion that got rid of Gen. Uriah, 
 in order to get possession of his beautiful wife. 
 The Saints of the Ancient Bible, and the Saints 
 of the Modern Church, like Kings, '' can do no 
 wrong" in the eyes of their infatuated believers. 
 The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, who, by talking 
 religion two or three hours in the week, enjoys an 
 income that enables him to keep fast horses, a 
 mansion in town, a summer residence in the coun- 
 try, and to live on the fat of the land, is morally 
 infallible in the eyes of Plymouth Church, not- 
 withstanding his sensuous mouth and dominant 
 cerebellum. But here is an extract from his own 
 written confession to his outraged ''brother in 
 Christ." There is but one construction to be 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 79 
 
 given to it by any one wlio pretends to an average 
 share of common sense : — 
 
 " I ask Theodore Tilton's forgiveness, and humble myself 
 before him as I do before my God. He would have been a 
 better man in my circumstances than I have been. I can ask 
 nothing except that he will remember all the other breasts 
 that would ache. I will not plead for myself. I even wish 
 that I were dead. H. W. Beecher. 
 
 " Brooklyn, January 1, 1871." 
 
 If this is not a forgery, and its genuineness has 
 not been questioned, the great jury of the public 
 will regard it as the abject confession of a guilty 
 man ; and that, too, of an outrage intensified a 
 thousand times by the intimate and sacred relation 
 of the parties ; and again, ten thousand times 
 more by the garb of hypocrisy which cloaks and 
 seeks to conceal the sin. 
 
80 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 DOGS, 
 
 *^ Every dog has his day," says the old adage. 
 Just now in New York every day is having at 
 least a hundred dogs sacrificed to the hydrophobia 
 panic; and not without reason. In spite of all 
 the scepticism on the subject of canine poison or 
 rabies, three deaths have recently occurred in this 
 city from dog-bites, which have caused universal 
 alarm, and raised the war-cry of ^' Death to dogs ! " 
 without regard to race, variety, or value. Miss 
 Ada Clare, well known as a critic, an actress, and 
 a bel esprit, was slightly bitten last winter by the 
 pet poodle of a friend, and died in a few weeks, a 
 victim to the subtle poison. Last week a Brooklyn 
 dog-fancier and dealer, by the name of Butler, 
 died a terrible death from the same cause ; and 
 this week the papers are full of the details of the 
 horrors and agonies of M^Cormick, the butcher, 
 who also died from the bite of a pet dog, a mere 
 scratch on the first knuckle of the forefinger of 
 the right hand. The physical sufierings of Mr 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 8 1 
 
 M^Cormick, as described in the Tribune, are too 
 painful for jDublication. The half-a-dozen doctors 
 who stood by the bed of the poor man, writhing 
 in agony, foaming at the mouth, biting his tongue, 
 and doubling himself up, even in his straight- 
 jacket, should have put an end to his intolerable 
 torture by instant death. The case was utterly 
 hopeless. It is said no patient has ever recovered 
 from a well-pronounced attack of hydrophobia. 
 It would be an act of mercy, therefore, to kill the 
 victim and spare his mortal agonies — quite as 
 much so as it is the humane duty of the public 
 executioner to finish his horrible work as swiftly 
 as possible. Strange to say, we hear less sympathy 
 expressed for these mad-dog victims than for the 
 " poor dogs " themselves ; and this morbid pheno- 
 menon is chiefly owing to the great activity and 
 philanthropy — if the word may be used in this 
 connection — of the '' Society for the Prevention 
 of Cruelty to Animals," at the head of which Mr 
 Henry Bergh has conspicuously figured for some 
 years past. And, like all hobby-riders, Mr Bergh 
 has ridden this tenderness to the brute creation 
 hobby down to the very reductio ad absurdum. 
 When the City Council passed an ordinance 
 offering a bribe of fifty cents for every stray 
 unmuzzled dog caught and brought to the 
 ''Pound," or Dog Prison, to be put to death, 
 
8 2 TRA NSFORMA TION S CENES 
 
 if not claimed and redeemed in forty- eight hours, 
 Mr Bergh proposed that the sentence shoukl be 
 inflicted by means of carbonic acid gas. And so 
 this sentimental lover of his poor dumb brothers 
 protracts their mortal agony some thirty minutes, 
 while less than three minutes suffices to drown a 
 dog, or aoy other quadruped or biped ; and the 
 latter mode of death is conceded by all who have 
 attempted it, and almost succeeded, to be rather 
 pleasant than painful, after the first gasp of 
 suffocation is over. The real ^^ cruelty" of this 
 canine phobia consists in the brutal hunt after 
 the poor creatures in the streets by heartless men 
 and boys, who bring them, half dead, in cart-loads 
 to the '* Pound" for the sake of the reward. It 
 would be much more humane to appoint a squad 
 of policemen to scour the streets, and catch the 
 stray dogs with tempting food, or words of 
 delusive kindness. In Philadelphia, where the 
 same anti*dog mania is raging, no less than 2500 
 dogs were slaughtered last week on the altar of 
 Public Safety. And this dog-war is becoming a 
 burning question in society, causing endless 
 *^ differences " in family circles. The ladies 
 of a certain class, notoriously fond of poodles, 
 and tolerant of ^'puppies," plead eloquently for 
 the innocence of their pets, in spite of the un- 
 answerable and alarming fact that, in each of 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 8^ 
 
 the above fatal cases, it was the little j>?^^ do^ 
 that inflicted the mortal wound. Naturally 
 enough all this excitement is developing no 
 end of medical theories on the rabies question. 
 On this, as on all other questions, '^ doctors 
 differ," and that, too, so verj^ widely, that it is 
 safe only to draw conclusions from facts. Mere 
 medical '' opinions " do not amount to much ; 
 while the deductions of science and reason are 
 of infinite importance. In the first place, the 
 question is raised why dogs go mad ? In Havana, 
 a city which contains more dogs than owners, we 
 hear little of hydrophobia ; and in Constantinople, 
 where it is considered sacrilege to kill a dog, the 
 fear of the disease does not exist. It seems to 
 be a well-established fact that the canine race 
 in " a state of nature,'' as distinguished from 
 the condition of dogs in '' civilised society," is 
 never afflicted with rabies. The reason is obvious, 
 and need not be given. Again, the popular fallacy 
 that mad dogs have a horror of water is exploded. 
 On the contrary, they are fond of putting their 
 noses into water when the fever is on them, and 
 biting at it as they bite at everything else, animate 
 or inanimate ; so the term '^ hydrophobia " is 
 altogether a misnomer, and must be dropped 
 from the medical dictionary. That the victims 
 of the bite imitate in their mortal agonies the 
 
84 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 barking of dogs is explained by the spasmodic 
 effort to eject the foam and saliva constantly 
 flowing from the mouth, as in the case of the 
 stalwart butcher, M'Cormick. It is simply a 
 choking sound, resembling the short, muffled 
 bark of a dog asleep. Having devoted sufficient 
 space to the subject of dog-madness to induce 
 a little precautionary reflection, the reader will 
 doubtless appreciate the following : — 
 
 Directions for the Prevention of Hydrophobia. — 1. A 
 dog that is sick from any cause should be watched and treated 
 carefully until his recovery. 2. A dog that is sick and rest- 
 less is an object of suspicion. This is the earliest peculiar 
 symptom of hydrophobia. 3. A dog that is sick and restless, 
 and has a depressed appetite, gnawing and swallowing bits of 
 cloth, wood, coal, brick, mortar, or his own dung, is a dan- 
 gerous animal. He should be at once chained up, and kept 
 in confinement until his condition be clearly ascertained. 4. 
 If, in addition to any or all of the foregoing symptoms, the 
 dog has delusion of the senses, appearing to see or hear 
 imaginary sights or sounds, trying to pass through a closed 
 door, catching at flies in the air when there are none, or 
 searching for something which does not exist, there is a great 
 probabihty that he is, or is becoming, hydrophobic. He should 
 be secured and confined without delay. 5. In case any one is 
 bitten by a dog whose condition is suspicious, the most effec- 
 tive and beneficial treatment is to cauterise the wound at 
 once with a stick of silver nitrate, commonly called " lunar 
 caustic." The stick of caustic should be sharpened to a 
 pencil-point, introduced quite to the bottom of the wound, 
 and held in contact with every part of the wounded surface 
 until it is thoroughly cauterised and insensible. This destroys 
 the virus by which the disease would be communicated. 
 
AV THE UNITED STATES. 85 
 
 These ^* Directions " are to be publicly posted 
 throughout the city. In case there should be no 
 lunar caustic at hand, sucking the wound, and 
 burning it with a hot iron is recommended, at the 
 same time binding the limb tightly, above and 
 below the bite, to prevent the poison from cir- 
 culating in the blood. It is also recommended, 
 that when a dog bites a person, the life of the 
 animal should be spared, in order to know whether 
 he is mad or not. No less than seven dogs, 
 suspected of madness, were killed in New York 
 yesterday, and thirty during the last month. In 
 regard to the suggestion I have made in connec- 
 tion with this subject, that the victim of the 
 poison should be instantly relieved by death at 
 the hands of his medical attendant, I am aware 
 that it will shock the moral sense even of 
 cosmopolitan readers. It shocks my own to make 
 it. And yet, where recovery is utterly hope- 
 less, to inflict instant death becomes a most 
 humane and sacred duty. Aj^ropos of '' shocking '' 
 suggestions, what shall we say of the pamphlet 
 recently published in England in vindication of 
 suicide ? The title of the brochure is " Euthanasia," 
 the name of the author S. D. Williams, jun., and 
 the endorser, who has given it vogue, is Mrs 
 Crawshay, wife of the Iron millionaire of Wales. 
 The Saturday Review, the Spectator, and the 
 
S6 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 Fortnightly '^ notice " this startling production. 
 The penal law against suicide we have always 
 regarded as a most asinine act of legislation — a 
 disgrace to the statutes of civilised nations. In 
 the first place, the man who commits the ^^ crime " 
 of self-murder is beyond the reach of human 
 punishment. In cases of unsuccessful attempt, the 
 poor '' felon " has already suffered enough with- 
 out undergoing the penalties of the prison or the 
 treadmill. So far as human laws are concerned, 
 the right of self-destruction is absolute. In nine 
 cases out of ten, self-inflicted death is no loss, 
 neither to the suicide nor to society. It is occur- 
 ring here in New York daily — pistols, Paris green, 
 leaping from high windows, hanging and drown- 
 ing being the popular modes of self- extinction. 
 The causes are : — Rum, Religion, Poverty, and 
 Love — that is, too much Rum, too much Poverty, 
 not enough Religion, and not enough Love. As 
 a general rule, the friends and relations of these 
 ^•'rashly importunate" death-seekers are great 
 gainers by the loss of such encumbrances. There 
 is no danger that the defence of suicide will ever 
 make the cause popular or fashionable. Love of 
 life is almost as strong as the law of gravitation 
 or self-interest, and '' everything that hath breath" 
 will cling to life and light even when every breath 
 is a sigh, and every sunbeam a tear. It is only the 
 
AV THE UNITED STATES. 8/ 
 
 guilty coward who shirks tlie battle of life by 
 voluntary death. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 
 rolling in wealth, and revelling in the luxury of 
 fame, writes to his injured brother Tilton in a 
 j)aroxysm of remorse, '' I even wish I were dead." 
 It is recorded of a romantic case of suicide in one 
 of Goethe's celebrated fictions, that it caused an 
 extraordinary popping of solitary pistols in the 
 Black Forest. We do not think such is likely to 
 be the effect of this new Eutha7iasian creed in 
 favour of suicide. But if any ^'poor devils" are 
 at all that way inclined, in order to punish some 
 false friend or faithless lover, on the "you'll- 
 miss-me-when-I-am-gone " threat, we advise them 
 to do it and be done with it. The sun will con- 
 tinue to rise and set as before, while the universal 
 epitaph for the tombstone of all self-destructives 
 is — '•' Good riddance." 
 
8S TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 THE BRANCH, 
 
 Long Branch is called the seaside capital of the 
 United States. This is owing to the fact that 
 President Grant has chosen the place for his 
 summer residence, and established here a sort of 
 country Court. In this the President has shown 
 good sense and good taste. As a watering-place, 
 " The Branch," as it is popularly called, possesses 
 unrivalled attractions. In the first place, Nature 
 has endowed it with all the essential elements of 
 a city of pleasure. The coast, to the extent of 
 some six miles, could not have been more perfectly 
 adapted to watering-place wants and comforts had 
 it been planned by a civil engineer familiar with 
 all the modern improvements for the promotion 
 of human happiness in the hours of leisure and 
 relaxation. It is the only point on all the coast, 
 from Maine to Florida, where the soft sandy shore 
 rises abruptly to a level plateau, with beautiful 
 house lots, all prepared for building, on the very 
 brink of the sea, with dry foundations, and 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 89 
 
 perfectly safe from tlie " breaking waves " of the 
 broad Atlantic, with all their mighty momentum 
 of three thousand miles — 
 
 " Wide rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the shore." 
 
 The background is rich and highly cultivated, 
 the roads level, in good condition, and the atmo- 
 sphere a delicious mixture of the ozone of the sea 
 and the odour of new-mown hay. With these 
 outdoor fascinations, no wonder driving is the 
 great amusement of the place ; and President 
 Grant, with his fast trotters, leads the fashion. 
 Having passed the "glorious Fourth" at "The 
 Branch " — a day once synonymous with noisy 
 crowds — I was particularly struck with the sobriety 
 and decorum of the town; and that, too, under 
 the additional excitement of the Monmouth Park 
 Races, which drew together all the leading sports- 
 men of the Union. I saw no drunkenness, heard 
 no shouting or " patriotic " singing, and only one 
 solitary and faint fire-cracker. Another trans- 
 formation from former years, which made me feel 
 all " abroad : " that is, anywhere but in " the 
 land of the free and the home of the brave," on 
 this 98th Anniversary of the Declaration of 
 American Independence, a day that used to be 
 celebrated with the most vociferous demonstra- 
 tions of patriotic joy, with guns and drums, with 
 
90 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 bells and banners, with glowing orations and 
 deep potations, with exultations, conflagrations, 
 hallucinations, pistols, and fire-crackers. Of 
 course the Stars and Stripes could be seen " by 
 the dawn's rosy light " floating from every mast 
 and spire ; but not one strain, even from a hurdy- 
 gurdy, of the " Star-Spangled Banner," the 
 '' Marseillaise " of America, beat the heavenward 
 flame of devotion in the air. But, in o^azino^ at 
 the blue sea, and the great blue Bohemian bowl 
 above it, I recalled the lofty, mystic words in which 
 Emerson salutes the " Natal Day " of American 
 Liberty — 
 
 " Oh, tenderly the haughty Day 
 Fills his blue urn with fire, 
 One morn is in the mighty heaven, 
 And one in our desire." 
 
 What that '^ one " thing is which represents the 
 universal '' desire " of this, or any other people, 
 perhaps the sage of Concord, and perhaps future 
 Rector of Glasgow, can explain. The ^^one 
 desire " at Long Branch seemed to be to get a 
 good seat in the grand stand, or bet on the right 
 horse at the Races. On arriving at the West 
 End Hotel the evening before, where long queues 
 of anxious ^' arrivals " were waiting for rooms, a 
 pleasant voice, which I recognised as one of the 
 proprietors, said, '' Keep quiet, Colonel, you will 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 9 1 
 
 "be taken care of." And so I was abundantly 
 cared for, and Grant himself could not have been 
 made more comfortable. That same hospitable 
 voice first welcomed me to the St Charles in New 
 Orleans, many and many a year ago, and intro- 
 duced me to the Pompanoo. Did Jules Yernes 
 ever have the good luck to fall in with this deli- 
 cious fish in his twenty thousand leagues under the 
 sea? If not, let him take another trip for the 
 express purpose of making a most agreeable ac- 
 quaintance. Reassured that I would be ^Haken 
 care of," also, for the Races, I sat quietly looking 
 at the departing crowd until half-past one, when 
 a handsome carriage and pair drove up with a 
 friend from the New Dominion, to take me out. 
 The drive to the Course, about three miles, is 
 very pleasant. The old familiar fields of Indian 
 corn, golden wheat, and orchards bending with 
 apples, pears, and peaches, gladdened both eye and 
 heart. The words of a long-forgotten old song, 
 like water bursting from a choked-up fountain, 
 came gushing unaware — 
 
 '' Our Mother, the Earth, a good Mother is she, 
 And to toil is to welcome her care ; 
 Some bounty she hangs us on every tree, 
 And blesses us in the free air." 
 
 The Races, four in number, were well conducted 
 and well contested, giving great satisfaction to an 
 
9 2 TRA NSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 immense crowd, especially to tlie winners. Only 
 in the steeplechase, resulting in the death of two 
 valuable mares, and the serious injury of one of 
 the riders, was there anything to mar the sport of 
 the opening day at Monmouth Park. Fortunately 
 these accidents occurred at the end of the last 
 ^^ event" on the programme. The crowd within 
 the enclosure was as quiet and orderly as those 
 proverbially well-behaved crowds at the races in 
 the Bois du Boulogne. This, considering the pre- 
 sence of more or less of Fourth-of-Julyism, struck 
 me as remarkable. But I have noticed a gener- 
 ally subdued feeling among the people here, of 
 all classes. They are less noisy, less boastful, and 
 less exuberant than formerly. Whether the pre- 
 sence of the comet, or the recent panic, has thrown 
 them into what pious people call ^^ a concern of 
 mind," I do not know. The fact is apparent, what- 
 ever may be the cause. Last evening, at a grand 
 display of fireworks in Union Square, postponed 
 from the 4th, on account of the rain, among a 
 dense crowd of fifty thousand people there was no 
 noise, not even in the way of applause. It is 
 hardly necessary to say that the West-End Hotel 
 at Long Branch, under the management of Messrs 
 Presbury and Hildreth, is admirably kept. The 
 table cVhote is perfectly bewildering in the bountiful 
 superfluity and variety of its dishes. Seventy-four 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 93 
 
 items on the dinner bill-of-fare, and sixty- three 
 in the breakfast bill, are enough to make one's 
 head swim. The system is a most pernicious and 
 dyspeptic one, but about as difficult to get rid of 
 as universal suffrage or a vicious currency. Dainty 
 eaters, who have some respect for the chemical 
 condition of their stomachs, and select their simple 
 food with sole reference to health, have to pay for 
 gormandisers who ^^pack their cylinders" with 
 everything on the programme, alike regardless of 
 quantity, quality, or the laws of chemical affinity. 
 As a general rule, men do not learn to live until 
 the last decade of life, and then only when ex- 
 hausted nature lacks the force to resist abuses. 
 One word more of this delightful place before 
 leaving it, probably for ever. It is already a city 
 of villas, with I do not know how many summer 
 inhabitants. But the place is destined to grow 
 in favour and in fame. We hear it sometimes 
 called the Brighton of America. There is not the 
 slightest resemblance between the two towns. 
 Brighton is an old, compactly-built city — a pocket 
 edition of London. In Long Branch no house 
 touches its neighbour. Like Washington, it is a 
 " city of magnificent distances," and of possibilities 
 also. Heal estate is rising rapidly in value, and 
 unimproved acres are doubling in market prices 
 every five years. The AYest-End Hotel property. 
 
94 ^^^ NSFORMA TION S CEASES 
 
 jointly owned by Messrs Presbury and Hildreth, 
 which embraces sixty acres, and originally cost, 
 with all the fine buildings erected for hotel pur- 
 poses, half a million of dollars, will doubtless be 
 worth double this amount in 1880. John Hoey's 
 splendid estate of three hundred acres, with the 
 finest pleasure-grounds in the United States, not- 
 withstanding the enormous sum spent on it, rises 
 in annual value, equal to its annual cost. Twenty 
 years hence, with a wealthy population of 100,000, 
 the present real-estate owners of Long Branch, if 
 they hold on to their property and to life, will all 
 be millionaires. The great and growing cities of 
 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washing- 
 ton, will always make this their favourite summer 
 resort ; while President Grant, with an indefinite 
 number of '^ terms " before him, will continue to 
 attract thousands of courtiers, politicians, and 
 office-seekers, who, in the absence of mosquitoes, 
 we must regard as the only bores of the place. 
 The President's cottage is all that can be desired 
 in the way of a summer residence, and the same 
 may be said of G. W. Childs's, Grant's ^^ next 
 friend " and nearest neighbour. In the immediate 
 vicinity of these charming villas Mr George Pull- 
 man, of Palace-car fame and fortune, is proposing 
 to build something that will "beat Grant." The 
 " Branch " has an institution of civilisation which 
 
JN THE UNITED STATES. 95 
 
 many a visitor lias cause to remember — a few with 
 satisfaction, many more with regret. Chamber- 
 lain's Club House is one of the most beautiful 
 " gambling Hells " in America. It is sumptu- 
 ously furnished, and the visitors are treated to 
 everything they can wish to eat, drink, or smoke, 
 and for which they generally pay dearly. In 
 looking at the game of roulette the other evening, 
 I saw lots of money lost, and very little won, ex- 
 cept by " the Bank," which the proprietor frankly 
 stated had 9 per cent, in its favour, at the same 
 time bluntly adding,^' If a man plays long enough, 
 he is sure to lose all his money." But even this 
 prediction did not seem to cool the ardour of the 
 players, ^' Greenbacks " of high denominations be- 
 ing staked and lost by the handful. Apropos of 
 gambling, I have a story to tell by way of caution 
 to the public, but have not space for it to-day. I 
 will only say, beware of sharpers who accost you 
 in Broadway as old acquaintances, and invite you 
 to step around the corner and see them get the 
 cash for a prize just drawn in the Havana lottery. 
 
g6 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 THE COSMOPOLITAN. 
 
 Having " located," to use the local word, the 
 American office of the Cosmopolitan at 21 Park 
 Row, New York, I propose, what the Imperialists 
 of France are so anxious to make, a brief '^ appeal 
 to the people." In this case, perhaps explanation 
 would be the more appropriate word, especially as 
 the ultra-Free Tradeism of the Cosino2:>olitan is 
 persistently misrepresented by the Protectionists. 
 " Your paper is altogether devoted to British 
 interests," said an anti-Free Trade journalist 
 last evening. Without going into the old argu- 
 ment, I will only repeat that practical Free Trade 
 is not for the exclusive '' interests " of any one 
 country, but for the greatest possible good of all. 
 With this conviction the Cosmopolitan looks to 
 the Free Trade party, if such a party exists, for 
 an increasing subscription list on this side of the 
 Atlantic. In doubtiDg the reality of an American 
 Free Trade party — that is, as a political organisa- 
 tion — we have only to recall the action of Demo- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 97 
 
 cratic Free Traders in Pennsylvania, Massacliusetts, 
 Louisiana, or any other State where local interests 
 override principles, and whose representatives in 
 Congress vote for high tariffs for the special benefit 
 of their constituents. Outside of mere politics, I 
 find no lack of intelligent business men, engaged 
 in all the various industries, agricultural and 
 mechanical, who are ready to adopt the proud 
 and honest motto — Free Trade and Specie Pay- 
 ment — a fair field and no favour. To ask for 
 protection, like a child that cannot walk alone, 
 is a most humiliating confession of weakness. It 
 is true that the great workshops of England and 
 France, with their cheap labour, can underbid 
 the American manufacturers in certain products. 
 But what nation on the earth can compete with 
 the United States in the great and fundamental 
 necessities of cotton, corn, sugar, gold, silver, 
 &c., &c. ? In wine, spirits, and coffee, America will 
 also soon become an exporting country. D. M. 
 Hildreth, President of the ^' Gold Seal Wine 
 Company," informs me that they bottled 150,000 
 dozen of champagne last year, which is in great 
 demand here at two dollars a bottle, and that he 
 has just had an order for ten cases from London. 
 This is but one straw on the current of trade that 
 shows which way the tide is flowing. Another 
 item : Mr Appleton, of the American Watch 
 
98 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 Company, tells me tbat they have recently 
 opened a house in Hatton Garden, London, for 
 the pm'pose of supplying the United Kingdom 
 with perfect time-keepers, much cheaper than 
 they can be made by any of the old manufac- 
 turers, either in Liverpool, Geneva, or anywhere 
 else in Europe. These watches are made mostly 
 by machinery, and are so absolutely accurate as 
 almost to justify the boast of "regulating the 
 sun." Having been governed in our own 
 personal "movements" by one of these Waltham 
 chronometers for the last fifteen years, our 
 confidence in its veracity is infinitely greater 
 than our faith in the infallibility of the Pope, 
 or any other man — or woman. Mr Appleton, of 
 course, is an advocate for free trade in watches ; 
 but there is no import tax imposed by the Govern- 
 ment of England on watches, and the American 
 Watch will soon be "all the go" in London. 
 The building, at the corner of Broadway and 
 Bond Street, in which the gold cases for these 
 watches are made by the hundred thousand, is 
 one of the largest and handsomest in New York. 
 The topmost story, filled with machinery, and 
 " operatives " of both sexes, is as neat and clean 
 as a drawing-room. Skilled workmen, imported 
 from the dingy and dirty workshops of England 
 and Switzerland, open their eyes, and mouths 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 99 
 
 too, at these transformation scenes. The ^^move- 
 ments" or '' works " are manufactured in Waltham, 
 Massachusetts, where some 600 operatives are em- 
 ployed. One more illustration of the progress 
 of Free Trade, not as a party principle, but as 
 the result of practical experience. A. T. Stewart, 
 the greatest merchant and the greatest importer 
 in the world, is a strong advocate of absolute Free 
 Trade. On this question Mr Stewart's individual 
 opinion is worth more than all the crude theories 
 of professional politicians, and all the fallacies 
 of protection philosophers of the Tribune School. 
 It may be said that Mr Stewart's interest lies in 
 the direction of Free Trade, and that the hundreds 
 of millions he has paid into the Federal Treasury 
 as " duties " during the last forty years weigh 
 heavily in his argument. Admit it to be so. 
 All men reason from their pockets. But these 
 untold millions do not represent the importer's 
 losses, only the mountain of taxes levied on 
 consumers. Free Trade would greatly increase 
 the business of the importer and the transporter 
 of foreign goods, while lowering the selling price 
 to the full amount of the tariff. This, with the 
 immediate abolition of all Custom-Houses, and 
 the instant dismissal of the great army of Custom- 
 House thieves and '' suckers," is the first plank 
 in the Cosmopolitan' s platform. And on this 
 
ICO TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 account, chiefly, we feel justified in appealing to 
 the genuine, honest Free Traders of America to 
 give us their support in this great cause, the true 
 Gospel of Commerce, by sending their names — 
 and cheques — to our American Bureau, 21 Park 
 Row, New York. For nine years we have been 
 pulling at this uphill load in Loudon, endeavour- 
 ing to solve the problem whether it is possible 
 to establish a paying newspaper in any city of 
 the world, independent of sect, party, clique, or 
 nationality. We have outlived a good deal of 
 latent prejudice, and not a little active opposition, 
 both open and covert. The question of success is 
 now reduced to one of health, and in that regard 
 we have cause to be hopeful. With the fall of 
 the Empire the Cosmopolitan lost its best friend 
 and most powerful support. The Emperor of the 
 French cordially endorsed every plank in our 
 platform; and ^^what can I do to assist you?" 
 were the generous and encouraging words with 
 which His Majesty received our earliest issue. 
 '^ The gods help those who strive to help them- 
 selves ; " and Hercules at last gives a lift to the 
 poor man who has struggled hard to raise his 
 load, '^ But why do you publish it in London? " 
 1 am asked. " The Cosmopolitan^ with its liberal, 
 world-wide views of things, might just as well, 
 in this age of electric affinities, be issued in any 
 
AV THE UNITED STATES. 1 01 
 
 other city." This would be quite true, were it 
 not that London is such an admirable and 
 economical workshop. Printing, paper, rent, and 
 clerks, cost fifty per cent, more in New York. 
 Besides, London is the largest city in the civilised 
 world, and contains the best and the worst of 
 everything, not even excepting the climate. 
 Therefore, the " Great Metropolis " is the fittest 
 locality for a cosmopolitan newspaper; and we 
 believe our American readers, as a general rule, 
 prefer their weekly rdsumd of Old World afiairs, 
 as they do their current literature and fashions, 
 *' fresh from abroad." Henceforth, news from 
 Europe for Americans, and news from America 
 for Europeans, will be the ruling motive in the 
 ^^ make-up " of the Cosmopolitan, With a regular 
 correspondent in the capital of American com- 
 merce, literature, fashion, and finance, who has 
 had large experience in journalism, associated 
 with an active business agent, we may reasonably 
 hope for a largely-increased circulation in the 
 United States, the New Dominion, the West 
 Indies, Mexico, and throughout the '' whole 
 boundless Continent." We also propose to 
 establish agencies in all the large cities of 
 the United Kingdom and on the Continent. 
 With the broadest and best name for a news- 
 paper to be fouud in any lexicon or language, 
 
1 02 TRA NSFORMA TION S CENES 
 
 the Cosmopolita7i is ambitious to embrace the 
 entire globe. [No allusion to our Conservative 
 pink-faced contemporary next door.] While on 
 the interesting subject of '' ourselves," I deem it 
 nothing more than justice to the ^' truth of 
 history " to call attention to the statement 
 repeatedly made by the London correspondent 
 of the New York Tribune, that a certain weekly 
 in London, not yet three months old, ^' is the 
 only news]3aper in Europe owned and edited by 
 an American." The writer of this paltry false- 
 hood knows that he is publishing an untruth. 
 If being born near Plymouth Rock, a lineal 
 descendant of Thomas Fuller, ^^ the Shakespeare 
 of the pulpit," and living forty years in America, 
 does not make a man a ^^ native," pray what 
 does? But I attach not the slightest importance 
 to the accident of parentage or birthplace. None 
 of us are permitted to select either. Only these 
 spiteful and persistent falsehoods, like certain 
 offensive insects, may as well be stamped out of 
 existence. The slightest bite sometimes conveys 
 the deadliest venom. The friends of Mr Moran, 
 among whom I claim to be one of the oldest and 
 warmest, are far from being satisfied at his re- 
 moval as First Secretary of the Legation in 
 London, and appointed to a third clerkship in 
 the State Department at Washington. Mr Moran 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I03 
 
 lias filled the important post at London, often 
 acting as Chargd cr Affaires in the absence of 
 Ministers, for some twenty years, and he should 
 long since have been raised to a full mission. 
 He is the best-educated American diplomatist 
 in Europe, and his '^ promotion downwards " is 
 • — well, I will only say, Fish-3^ Mr Moran's 
 acceptance has not yet been announced, and we 
 hope it will not be, unless the salary is very 
 heavy and the work very light. In the meantime 
 the newspapers, on both sides of the Atlantic, 
 are ^^ breaking his fall" with the softest words 
 and the sweetest compliments. Since writing 
 this sentence, I learn from an M. C» that the 
 salary of the Third Assistant Secretary of State 
 is only £900 a year. Another victim of the Fish 
 torpedo is now sitting at my side. Mr C. H. 
 Branscombe, for many years American Consul 
 at Manchester, has just been recalled, and no 
 reason assigned. At a farewell banquet given 
 him by the leading merchants and citizens, Mr 
 Branscombe was smothered with commendations 
 of his personal and official character, filling 
 columns in the Manchester papers. The ex- 
 Consul goes to Long Branch to-night to ask 
 the President ^^what it means?" Apropos of 
 President Grant, whom I saw for the first time 
 last Sunday, sitting on the piazza of his pleasant 
 
1 04 TRA NSFOKMA TION S CENES 
 
 seaside cottage, enjoying his Havana, I am glad 
 to learn from one of his intimate friends that 
 the stories told of the President's excessive in- 
 dulgence in whisky are '' political exaggerations." 
 Henry Clews, the banker, says he has never seen 
 Grant " the worse for liquor ; " that his favourite 
 drink is champagne ; and that he does not indulge 
 over-freely in that comparatively harmless beverage. 
 Regard for the high office he holds, which men 
 of all parties and all nations entertain, makes 
 this a very welcome fact. Justice to the President 
 should be the maxim, even of his enemies. 
 
JN THE UNITED STATES. 10$ 
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 Ill health, intense heat, ''' Indians on the war- 
 path," detain me in New York equally against 
 my wishes and my will. But no one in this world 
 is a '' free agent." Therefore ilfaut etre rHignL 
 In regard to health, the first of all blessings, fifty- 
 five Turkish and Electric baths are telling favour- 
 abl3^ As for the heat, when the mercury touches 
 102° in the shade, locomotion is irksome, not 
 to say dangerous. " Sunstrokes " are daily in- 
 creasing the catalogue of mortality. Suicides are 
 also of frequent occurrence, no doubt owing to 
 fever of the brain caused by the torrid atmosphere 
 and the general collapse of the nervous system. 
 And yet for the last two weeks scarcely a day has 
 passed without terrific thunder-showers, which 
 seem to hang over us for an hour or two for the 
 express purpose of hurling their fiery bolts upon 
 the devoted city. Not even in the tropics have I 
 ever witnessed such awful exhibitions of electric 
 combustion as during the last two weeks. Even 
 
1 06 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 at this instant, mid-day, the sheet on which I 
 write is momently illuminated by fitful flashes of 
 lightning, while '^ the rain falls in torrents, and 
 the thunder rolls deep." My old reverence for 
 Electricity, the Prime Minister of the Almighty, 
 increases every hour. Night before last a '^ spark " 
 fell, seeming as large as the sun, into the great 
 Oil Tanks of Weehaken, at the Erie Railway 
 station, opposite New York, and suddenly millions 
 of gallons were in flame. The explosion was 
 terrific ; and the illumination, with a dense, jet- 
 black cloud of smoke for background, was inde- 
 scribably grand. This fearful calamity was eagerly 
 used by the " Bears " to depress Erie, but on the 
 ofiicial announcement that the Company's insurance 
 exceeded their losses, the stock went up instead of 
 down. Poor Bears ! they remind me of the satiri- 
 cal old distich on the medical doctor — 
 
 1,.^ " Like Death himself, unhappy elf, 
 
 He lives by others dying." 
 
 I have spoken of Electricity as the dread destroyer 
 of life, and as the gentle restorer of life — as a 
 Power to be both feared and adored. Omnipotent 
 as this power appears to us, it is destined to be 
 the slave, and not the master, of man. The 
 lightning of heaven yielded to the philosophy of 
 Franklin when he sent up his kite in the midst 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 10/ 
 
 of the tempest, drew the electric fluid from the 
 cloud, and '' bottled up the thunder." 
 
 '•'Twas Franklin who first caught the horse, 
 'Twas harnessed by Professor Morse." 
 
 And now, *^ swift as thoughts of love," it has be- 
 come the world's messenger at everj^body's com- 
 mand. In the coming generations it will supersede 
 all coarser elements for producing light, heat, and 
 locomotion, and take the place of both doctor and 
 druggist as healer of the sick. As yet the power 
 and the uses of Electricity are but little under- 
 stood. Millions of men in all ages of the world 
 have naturally and devoutly worshipped the Sun, 
 as the brightest and grandest representative of 
 Creative Power. Science teaches us that the Sun 
 himself, and the whole infinite system of suns, 
 are but the visible, atomic manifestations of their 
 Great Electric Cause — that subtle, omnipotent. 
 Thought which we have reverently called the 
 Prime Minister of the Deity. Consider this new 
 and marvellous discovery just announced in Ame- 
 rica. Musical melodies transmitted over electric 
 wires a distance of 2400 miles, and reproduced, 
 note for note, on a violin, or any other suitable 
 instrument ! The time is near, we are assured, 
 when messages across seas and continents will be 
 sent viva voce without the use of any interlocutory 
 
I08 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 apparatus. Even now tliere are telegraphic experts 
 in New York whose ears are so acute that they 
 can tell us the name of the person who is operat- 
 inof at the other end of the line, thousands of miles 
 distant, by the peculiarity of touch or ^' click." 
 It has become a common thing for Wall Street 
 operators to go into a telegraph-station and ask 
 to have a friend called to the station in Washing- 
 ton, when a conversation may be carried on for 
 hours, without a written word passing between 
 them. " I have had half-an-hour's chat with our 
 friend Col. X. to-day," said a friend to me yester- 
 day. '' I thought he was in San Francisco," was 
 my reply. " So he is ; but I sent for him to come 
 to the telegraph-office there, and we monopolised 
 the wire, until an important operation in wheat 
 was made, by which, after selling by cable to de- 
 liver in Liverpool, I have made 60,000 dollars ^ 
 thanks to the telegraph." Who would have be- 
 lieved a prophecy to this effect twenty-five years 
 ago? And yet we are only beginning to learn 
 the alphabet of science, especially the mysteries 
 of— 
 
 " That electric chain 
 Wherewith we are darkly bound." 
 
 Spiritualism, or moral electricity, is receiving a 
 new impetus just now in New York from the 
 presence of a Mr Brown, '' the thought-reader." 
 
AV THE UNITED STATES. I09 
 
 This extraordinary public ''' Medium," who is giving 
 illustrations of his miraculous talent, will find 
 any article, no matter where or how occultly hidden, 
 by placing the hand of the person who hid it on 
 his own forehead, and, by this connection, reading 
 the secret. Perhaps Dr Lynn, of the Egyptian 
 Hall, could tell us '•'- how it is done." But the 
 people here ^^ don't see it." Why not employ 
 Brown as detective for the recovery of stolen goods ? 
 He professes to be able to read a murderer's 
 thoughts, when he can get hold of one, and give 
 all the details in regard to the victim. Why not 
 submit the Beecher case to this infallible test? 
 With the Parson's hand on the '' Medium's " brow 
 there might be a revelation as conclusive as that 
 made by the guilty Queen in the '^ play scene" of 
 *^ Hamlet." What will be the effect on Society 
 when it comes to this that finely-organised men 
 and women can read each other's thoughts ^^like 
 books," may be more easily imagined than described. 
 In the meantime, we are compelled to believe that 
 there is one mind in the universe, if not more, that 
 can read our thoughts as easily as we read our al- 
 phabet. Let us drop these abstrusities, and quit 
 fancies for facts. On Saturday, the 11th of July, 
 no less than six steamships left New York for 
 Liverpool, Glasgow, and Plymouth, taking out 
 about one thousand first-class passengers. The 
 
I lO TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 new Britannic^ of the White Star Line, had every 
 berth occupied, and was accompanied down the 
 Bay by a large crowd of friends and admirers. 
 The Britannic has made a great sensation in New 
 York; and, like a belle at a ball, she is fully en- 
 gaged a long way ahead. That is, from this side. 
 Two classes of people are going to Europe for the 
 summer, instead of to the watering-places at home 
 — pleasure-seekers, and merchants engaged in 
 foreign trade. The latter generally take their 
 families, or two or three of them at least. This 
 increasing international intercourse produces only 
 good results on both sides of the Atlantic. These 
 gigantic steamers, flying to and fro between Europe 
 and America, like shuttles in a loom, are weaving 
 the nations closer and closer together. Trade is 
 benefited, opinions are modified, manners are im- 
 proved, and minds are expanded and cosmopoli- 
 tanised. Yes, travel is the very best means of 
 education ; and yet something besides travel is 
 essential to that vara avis in terris, a ^^ finished" 
 gentleman or lady. 
 
 " A man may have studied and travelled abroad, 
 May sing like Apollo, and paint like a Claud, 
 May speak all the languages under the Pole, 
 And have every gift in the world but a Soul." 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I I 
 
 GRANT, 
 
 Third-term talk is a chimera of the New York 
 Herald ; a mere scarecrow set up as a target for 
 the sharpshooters of the Press to practise on. As 
 yet Grant has not given any public intimation of 
 a desire to extend his Administration from eight 
 years to twelve, and I have yet to find the politician 
 or journalist who has openly and clearly declared 
 himself in favour of a third-term candidate. The 
 whole people are opposed to it as a violation of an 
 unwritten clause in the Constitution. Washington, 
 Adams, Jefferson, and all the early Presidents 
 deprecated a third-term election as a dangerous 
 consolidation of executive powers, and a preliminary 
 step towards despotism. Perhaps the very best 
 thing Congress could do, before the Presidential 
 election of 1876, would be to extend the term 
 from four years to eight, or ten, and prohibit 
 re-election. This would tend to elevate the 
 Administration above all party influences and 
 considerations, while relieving the country from 
 
1 1 2 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 the quadrennial debauch of a Presidential cam- 
 paign. It would also ensure a more settled policy 
 in Federal legislation. As a new House is to be 
 elected in the coming autumn, this question of 
 extending the Presidential term demands im- 
 mediate attention. Although Grant is silent as 
 a sphinx on the subject, it is by no means 
 certain that he is not contemplating a new lease 
 of power. It would, no doubt, be regarded by 
 this ^^ happy accident " of political ambition as 
 a *^big thing" to beat his illustrious predecessors 
 in the White House by four years, while, for the 
 greater portion of the period, enjoying a doubled 
 salary. Besides, the most sanguine Republicans 
 aj^pear to give up all hope of electing any other 
 candidate hut Grant. This consideration may 
 compel his re-nomination. Mr Speaker Blaine, 
 who is about the only Republican spoken of as 
 Grant's successor, is an extreme New Englander, 
 with not the least chance of success. On the 
 Democratic side there are several ^' Richmonds in 
 the field ; " but the big potatoes will only come to 
 the top after the jolting of the Fall elections. At 
 this present writing Senator Thurman, of Ohio, 
 looms up largest, and, so far as talent and 
 character are concerned, Mr Thurman deserves to 
 be regarded as Chief of the Conservative party. 
 Thurman and Lamar would make a strong ticket. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. II3 
 
 But I will venture no more political forecastings 
 to-day. I have just been told wlio will succeed 
 Mr Jewell as Minister at St Petersburg, but I 
 promised not to tell. I am authorised, however, 
 to state that it will not be ex- Senator Nye, nor 
 an ex-Confederate General, although the former is 
 urged by Silver Senator Jones of Nevada, and 
 the latter is a bosom friend of Grant. Senator 
 Jones, by the way, is now a guest at the '' Everett 
 House," and, with his snug little income of 
 250,000 dollars a month, has no end of *' friends." 
 But for the unfortunate accident of being a born 
 Englishman, the silver-coated Senator would 
 stand a good chance of becoming President of the 
 United States. The Constitution makes Ameri- 
 can nativity a sine qua non qualification for the 
 Presidency ; although certain heretic writers con- 
 tend that George Washington was born in 
 England, while Andrew Jackson's Irish emigrant 
 mother arrived only just in time to save him 
 from being debarred by the alien law. In a 
 recent article we noticed the conspicuous absence 
 of great men in the present Senate of the 
 United States. Almost an equal degeneration 
 may be found both in the profession of literature 
 and in the ranks of journalism. In our own day 
 we have personally known and admired such 
 world-famous editors as Bennett, of the Herald ; 
 
 H 
 
I 1 4 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 Greeley, of the Tribune ; Raymond, of the Times ; 
 Croswell, of the Argus ; Ritchie, of the Union ; 
 Gales, of the Intelligencer; Prentice, of the 
 Louisville Journal^ &c., &c. ^^All are gone, the 
 old familiar faces." And whom have we left 
 worthily to fill their places ? Bryant, of the 
 Post ; Brooks, of the Express ; and who can name 
 another ? There are, no doubt, many good writers 
 now connected with the American Press, but 
 none of striking individuality, who stand out 
 in bold relief, like the veteran knights of the 
 quill we have named, who filled the field of jour- 
 nalism during the last quarter of a century. As 
 for American poets and novelists, they seem to 
 be rapidly diminishing, both in number and 
 in celebrity. After Longfellow, the American 
 Tennyson ; Bryant, the minstrel of the Past ; 
 and Joaquin Miller, the Swinburne of the West, 
 what American poet is there to-day that commits 
 himself to memory ? Even N. P. Willis, as a 
 writer of vers de societe, has left no successor. 
 In the graver field of historical lore, America 
 may boast of two living writers second to none 
 in Europe — Bancroft and Motley. The latter we 
 do not hesitate to pronounce the greatest historian 
 of the age. A thorough scholar, an accomplished 
 gentleman — none but a gentleman can write pure 
 classics — Motley's works are more truly monu- 
 
• IN THE UNITED STATES. I I 5 
 
 mental than anything in the way of literature the 
 New World has yet produced. I have not for- 
 gotten in this category Prescott and Irving, 
 the pure historian, and the delightful essayist 
 and hiographer. Among the humorists, or funny- 
 graphers of the day, America rejoices in three 
 who have suddenly risen to the top wave of 
 popularity — Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and John 
 Hay. As an illustration of how this talent called 
 wit pays, it is announced that Mark Twain has 
 built a 100,000 dollars' villa, Bret Harte receives 
 500 dollars for a one-page story in the Times, 
 written at a sitting, and Hay has " possessed him- 
 self" of a precious stone worth several millions. 
 
I 1 6 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 SARA TOGA. 
 
 The e3'es and the thoughts of young America, 
 masculine and feminine, have been concentrated 
 on Saratoga during the past week. On the 16th 
 of July the Intercollegiate Regatta was announced 
 to come off on Saratoga Lake, a beautiful sheet 
 of water, about three miles from the '^ Springs," 
 which seems to have been expressly prepared for 
 pleasure purposes. Nine colleges entered for the 
 race, and we will name them in the order in which 
 they passed the '' stake boat " — Columbia, Wes- 
 leyan, Harvard, Williams, Cornell, Dartmouth, 
 Princeton, Trinity, Yale. The rowing Regatta is 
 a new '^ institution " on this side of the Atlantic ; 
 and, like the principles of Magna Charta, and 
 many other good things, is imported from Eng- 
 land. Judging from the universal interest, I may 
 say intense excitement, caused by this rowing 
 match, we may well conclude that Boating has 
 already become the most popular item in the 
 curriculum of American colleo^e " exercises." A 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I 1/ 
 
 few facts in connection with this contest will best 
 illustrate the furore it has created. The famous 
 Spa, known as Saratoga Springs, I must inform 
 European readers, is situated some 180 miles north 
 of New York, and for the last half-century it 
 has been the grand resort of health and pleasure 
 seekers from all parts of the Union ; but the 
 *^ season " is brief, lasting only from the 1st of 
 July to the 1st of September. Within the last 
 decade Saratoga has added to its natural attrac- 
 tions of pure air and medicinal waters such arti- 
 ficial stimulants as horse-racing, boat-racing, and 
 card-gambling. In these fascinating concomitants 
 of advanced civilisation, the place has become 
 almost as bewitchingly wicked as the delightful 
 " Hells " of Homburg, Baden, and Monaco. But 
 in the still more dangerous accessories of what 
 Paris now calls '' cocottes, or Ladies of the Lake," 
 Saratoga is simply '^ nowhere." It is ironically 
 said that these inverted angels would stand no 
 chance here in competition with the more respect- 
 able or " honest " class of women. But I do not 
 believe a word of it. I did not see or hear any- 
 thing in all this vast assemblage that was in the 
 slightest degree shocking, improper, or unvirtuous ; 
 and why should we ever be so uncharitable as to 
 infer the existence thereof? But I suppose in 
 this, as in all things else, " he that seeketh findeth " 
 
I 1 8 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 — and findetli 7vhat lie seeketh. The glorious old 
 Hudson, or North River, has not changed in all 
 these changeful years, only its banks have become 
 dotted with villages, and embroidered with villas. 
 Although the majestic stream is perpetually empty- 
 ing itself into the beautiful Bay of New York, 
 yet the full fresh flood seems always the same, 
 while the tide still ebbs and flows with the long 
 and lazy pulsation of the sea. Is it the mystic 
 influence of the moon, or the diurnal motion of 
 the earth, that causes this mathematical movement 
 of the waters ? The latter, no doubt. We left 
 the hot city on Tuesday evening, the 14tli of 
 July, at six o'clock, in the immense and really 
 magnificent steamer St John for Albany. The 
 Regatta was advertised for the 16th, and from all 
 parts of the country, and all points of the com- 
 pass, the tide of travel was rushing towards the 
 Springs. Our "' floating palace " carried nearly 
 two thousand passengers, all '' first class," but of 
 a most motley mixture. When fairly out in the 
 stream, a delicious moist-winged breeze came 
 down the River, fanning the panting crowd into 
 a mood of momentary happiness. People are 
 always amiable, and generally gay, when suddenly 
 relieved from sufi'ering. I have known the most 
 morose men to dance on having a tooth out, on 
 hearing of a mother-in-law's departure for a better 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. II9 
 
 world, or any other stroke of good fortune tliat 
 "put them out of misery." And so when the 
 cool of the evening came waltzing down from the 
 Highlands, our happy little party partook of the 
 general joy. Yonkers, a few miles up the River, 
 which we knew almost before it wore trousers, is 
 now a considerable city, planted in the midst of 
 a forest. Barring the mosquitoes, if there are any 
 of those intolerable little bores there, no town in 
 the vicinity of New York looks more inviting than 
 this same Yonkers with its awkward, gawky 
 name. Why not do as young ladies sometimes 
 do — change it? Speaking of mosquitoes, I will 
 confess to a little weakness. On hearing the 
 old familiar music of these devoted serenaders 
 for the first time in many years — the tune has not 
 varied in the least — the same monotonous cry for 
 blood — I was overcome for a moment by sad and 
 painful reminiscences. I remembered all the 
 battles I had fought from childhood up with this 
 diminutive but most formidable enemy, and re- 
 called the child's puzzling question — '^ Mamma, 
 you say nothing is made in vain. What were 
 mosquitoes made for ? '^ And mamma, I am sorrow 
 to say, never gave a satisfactory answer to the 
 earnest inquiry. English readers can hardly 
 realise that these almost invisible insects make 
 certain localities in this countrv uninhabitable 
 
1 20 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 during certain months of the year, and the first 
 question I would advise an emigrant to settle 
 before settling himself in any particular spot in 
 America, is the all-important mosquito question. 
 Grasshopper and locust devastations are terrible 
 calamities, but nothing in comparison to the 
 visitation of the mosquito bore, which means, 
 '^ sleep no more " to all the house. I have already 
 confessed to a little touch of sentimentality on 
 hearing the first mosquito chant his welcome home 
 after so long an absence ; but the enemy greatly 
 outnumbers me ; fighting is useless ; and I feel 
 inclined to beat a hasty retreat out of the enemy's 
 country. England, with all her faults, has no 
 mosquitoes. After passing a few restless hours 
 in one of the St Jolm's numberless '' Bridal 
 State-rooms," with its spacious and sumptuous 
 bed, *' not made for slumber," we reached Albany, 
 the State capital, 150 miles from New York, at 
 five o'clock A.M., and at seven o'clock took the 
 cars for Saratoga, arriving at half-past nine 
 o'clock. And here was a transformation scene 
 indeed ! Four new hotels, capable of accommodat- 
 ing an aggregate of 6000 guests, with their beau- 
 tiful gardens, seem to have crowded everything 
 out of town, occupying the whole space of the old 
 village. With rooms engaged in advance at the 
 ^' United States," the newest and the grandest of 
 
A'V THE UNITED ST A TES. I 2 I 
 
 all these grand hotels, the long queue at ^^ the 
 office " of ardent room-seekers did not alarm us. 
 Breakfast was ready, and so were we. The din- 
 ing-room covers half an acre, seats 1000 persons 
 at table, who are received by an army of 200 
 ''' coloured gentlemen," but not, as formerly, 
 dressed in the cool, clean white linen uniform. 
 Considering that the hotel had just been opened, 
 that its forces had not had sufficient time for 
 organisation and drill, and that there were no 
 less than 1500 persons to room and feed, the 
 administration was wonderfully efficient and gene- 
 rally satisfactory. The " United States " occupies 
 the site of the old hotel of the same name, 
 which was destroyed by fire nine years ago, and 
 the phoenix that has recently risen from the ashes, 
 at a cost of a million of dollars, is hailed by the 
 public as a favourite work revised, and improved 
 in type, and greatly enlarged in margin. There is 
 no w^atering-place hotel that I have seen, or heard 
 of, either in Europe or America, that equals it in 
 size,' accommodation, and comfort. Saratoga has 
 one principal street, Broadway, on which the 
 hotel has a frontage of 230 feet. It is built in 
 the form of a hollow parallelogram, the sides 
 extending 715 feet, embracing a garden, hand- 
 somely laid out in walks, and lined with trees and 
 plants. When enlivened with playing fountains, 
 
1 2 2 TRANSFORM A TION SCENES 
 
 and illuminated with gas jets, the garden of the 
 ^' United States " will look as gay as a little 
 Mabille. There are 768 sleeping-rooms, besides 
 65 suites, each of which has from one to seven 
 connecting rooms, with baths, &c. The dining- 
 hall measures 212 by 52 feet, with a ceiling of 26 
 feet; has eight chandeliers, which, with the 38 
 side-brackets, give a total of 276 burners. The 
 drawing-room is 87 by 50 ; ceiling, 26 feet ; has 
 14 windows, and 75 gas-burners. It is most 
 elaborately furnished in blue, gold, and water- 
 coloured silks, with heavy lambrequins of light- 
 blue silk. The furniture of this room cost 20,000 
 dollars. The ball-room is 112 by 52 feet ; has three 
 chandeliers, 83 burners, and 30 windows. The 
 Enunciator is 20 feet in height, and cost 10,000 
 dollars. It registers 916 rooms. The carpets were 
 furnished by A. T. Stewart & Co. The parlour 
 carpet is an Axminster of 500 yards, and cost four 
 dollars per yard. There are two passenger eleva- 
 tors in the hotel. The piazzas measure 2700 feet 
 in length, and the lawn covers three acres, on the 
 south margin of which are located 63 hotel cot- 
 tages. The firm which manages this magnificent 
 establishment is Ains worth, Perry, Tompkins, & 
 Co. Mr Marvin, who has been connected with 
 the hotel business in Saratoga since 1830, and 
 who for some years represented the district in 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 123 
 
 CoDgresSj is the principal stockholder iu the Dew 
 concern, and still keeps his eye on the manage- 
 ment from the force of habit ; while Major Field, 
 who has been the popular ^'room clerk" of the 
 hotel ever since he was three feet high, is still at 
 his post, with pen behind his ear, and the same 
 cordial '^ glad to see you" on his lips. The 
 sewage and ^^ w. c. " improvements of the ^^ United 
 States," a matter of fundamental importance, 
 hitherto shamefully overlooked in Saratoga hotels, 
 are worthy of all praise. But we are a long time 
 in getting to the Regatta, which, by the way, I 
 shall leave to the sporting papers to describe. It 
 was announced to take place at 4 p.m. on the 16th, 
 and not less than 20,000 people, perhaps twice 
 this number, gathered on the borders of the Lake 
 as eager spectators of the contest. Owing to a 
 little roughness of the surface of the water, the 
 race was postponed until the following day at five 
 o'clock, and again postponed, for the same reason, 
 until the third day at ten a.m., when the ^^ event" 
 actually took place, but in presence of a greatly 
 diminished crowd of '' assistants." The result 
 was a general disappointment ; at the same time, 
 it created a whirlwind of rejoicing, Columbia — the 
 New York City College crew — having only taken 
 to the water within the last two years. There was 
 a great deal of betting on the match ; even the 
 
1 24 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 New York Stock Exchange suspended the regular 
 business for pool transactions on the Eegatta. 
 The '' fouling," and consequent unpleasantness 
 between Harvard and Yale, were the only clouds 
 in this brilliant Z^?'^. The moral effect of all this 
 excitement I do not propose to discuss ; but leave 
 that to parents, guardians, and college professors. 
 No doubt '^ muscular Christianity " is a good 
 thing ; but the habit of betting is not a good 
 thing. There is also a possibility of over-training 
 and over-straining. One of the rowers in the 
 victorious boat fainted on passing the winning- 
 point, and had to be carried ashore. I cannot 
 leave the Regatta without contributing my modi- 
 cum of thanks to Mr and Mrs Frank Leslie — who, 
 by the way, were united in holy wedlock last week 
 — for the generous hospitality extended to a large 
 number of friends at their charming Swiss cottage 
 — '' Interlaken " — on the border of the Lake, from 
 which we enjoyed a " proscenium " view of the 
 whole performance in a large and pleasant com- 
 pany of distinguished persons, including Mrs Ann 
 S. Stephens, the authoress ; Hon. Fernando 
 Wood, Hon. Augustus Schell, George Francis 
 Train, W. H. Yanderbilt, and many others not 
 unknown to fame. The grand Balls, in com- 
 memoration of the '' event," simultaneously in 
 motion at the four great hotels, commenced at 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 12$ 
 
 six P.M. on Saturday, and closed at midnight, the 
 good orthodox Saratogans not daring, as in Paris 
 and other cosmopolitan cities, to borrow a few 
 hours of the Lord on Sunday morning. The 
 difficulty, however, might have been got over by 
 stopping the clock before twelve. The daily papers 
 of the following Monday were largely occupied in 
 descriptions of the belles, and the items and 
 fashions of their toilettes. As the clothes line is 
 not exactly in mine, I will only quote one or two 
 ''■ cases " from other journals, and these only 
 because they are Cosmopolitan subscribers, and 
 therefore deserve especial recognition. Among 
 the young belles, the rising stars of American 
 society, none sparkled more brilliantly than Sue 
 Train, the only daughter of George Francis, who 
 was '' engaged ahead " for dances enough to last 
 through the season. As this gifted and accom- 
 plished young lady is a special pet of the Pre- 
 sidente of our " Ladies' Club," there was more 
 than one wish expressed that ^^ The Countess " 
 could have been present to have sketched this 
 graceful Train in motion. But the father's con- 
 stant devotion to his beautiful " photograph," 
 like a blacksmith's leather apron, keeps off the 
 " sparks ; " and Mdlle Sue-belle, with her exigeant 
 standard of manhood, will not be easily suited. 
 The next on our list is Mrs Judge Smith, a charm- 
 
1 26 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 ing matron of Chicago, long resident in Europe, 
 and a tiiorougli cosmopolitan. The gems she 
 wears, and the '^ jewels " that follow in her train, 
 three sons and one daughter, make her presence 
 everywhere luminous and delightful, while the 
 smiling partner of all her joys and treasures makes 
 every one he meets happy by the magnetic grasp 
 of his cordial and generous hand. Another cos- 
 mopolitan belle is thus '• touched up" by the 
 Herald:—'' Mrs 0. H. Blood, of New York, one 
 of the belles of the ball, was dressed in rich white 
 gros grain, the train trimmed with plaited ruffles 
 of the same material, and the front braid arranged 
 in puffs ; a white blonde overdress, caught up 
 with clusters of roses ; low corsage and short 
 sleeves, trimmed with lace in plaits. She wore 
 rich diamonds, and her hair was arranged in chate- 
 lain braids, with clusters of curls, looking very 
 becoming." In naming the celebrities at Sara- 
 toga, it might be deemed a little invidious if no 
 mention was made of the presence of Commodore 
 Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, and President Grant. 
 Mr Gould happened to be seated near me in a 
 " Drawing-room " car down to New York. He 
 is a small, sharp, dark, bright-eyed man, who can 
 *' see " his antagonist's game, and '' go him 
 better " quicker tlian any other gambler in Wall 
 
'IN THE UNITED STATES. 12 J 
 
 Street. He does not look more than forty years 
 of age ; but men of his ^^ calling " sometimes 
 live years in minutes, and grow old very fast. 
 Vanderbilt has " lived " more in eighty years than 
 most men would in a hundred and sixty. 
 
1 2 8 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 BEECH ER. 
 
 The newspapers of the day are again filled witli 
 the ^' Beecher Scandal," the formal, circumstan- 
 tial, sworn statement of Theodore Tilton, and 
 everybody is discussing the comparative merits of 
 saints and sinners. So far as my own experience 
 of the world goes, the greatest saints are the 
 greatest sinners, simply because, while arrogating 
 to themselves all the virtues, they practise, under 
 the garb of sanctity, all the vices of humanity. 
 Men who boast of having ^^got" religion, as if it 
 were something in the shape of a first-class rail- 
 way ticket to heaven, are never to be trusted. 
 The very profession is a falsehood and a fraud. 
 An honest man, one who will not lie to save, I 
 will not say his soul, but his fortune — a man of 
 integrity and of honour has all the " religion " 
 necessary for this world, or any other. Such a 
 man would not steal his friend's purse, much less 
 the afi'ections of his friend's wife, even though he 
 belonged to no ^^ church," and was denounced by 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 29 
 
 all the saints as a ^^ wicked man of the world." 
 '' You are very beautiful and sorely tempting," 
 said Joseph to Mrs Potiphar, ^^ but you are the 
 consecrated wife of one who calls me his friend, 
 and confides in my honour. You would despise 
 me if I were to rob your husband's bank, and 
 assist by your testimony in sending me to prison. 
 How much more should I despise myself if I were 
 to rob him of his wife's honour, the ^ immediate 
 jewel of the soul ! ' " We are not quoting the 
 words of the Rev. Artemus Ward Beecher, ad- 
 dressed to the wife of his dear friend Tilton ; only 
 the words that every honourable " sinner " would 
 use under the trying circumstances. Without 
 going into the repulsive details of this infamous 
 story of ^^ religious " seduction, we cannot altogether 
 ignore a revelation that brings out in bold relief 
 '^ the devil's pet sin, hypocrisy." The New York 
 Tribune says — '^ Unless this frightful exposition 
 is answered promptly and fully, the most famous 
 pulpit the world has ever seen since Paul preached 
 on the Hill of Mars is silenced, the life of the 
 greatest preacher in the world is ended. It is 
 useless to fall back upon the record of a spotless 
 and glorious career. There is no longer safety or 
 dignity in the proud silence which would have so 
 well become the great pastor if there were no 
 words of his own to be explained." We do not 
 
 I 
 
1 30 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 agree with the Tribune in regard to Beecher's 
 "greatness." Eccentricity is not greatness. 
 Beecher is certainly a man of talent, and of 
 cultivation, and in this respect he may even out- 
 rank the preacher of Mars Hill. But he is simply 
 a pulpit orator and actor, always speaking and 
 posing for effect. All his sermons and speeches 
 are pregnant with " amativeness." Hence full 
 liouses, and a revenue of 50,000 dollars a year. 
 Beecher for thirty years has lived the life of a 
 Sybarite, and knows nothing practically of the 
 self-sacrificing doctrines of Christianity. He is 
 simply a " pious fraud," and no man knows it 
 better than himself. And this is more or less 
 true of all the " saints " of the I-am-holier-than- 
 thou persuasion. The last time I saw his Kever- 
 ence he was sitting in the Champs Elysees, with 
 a very red face, beside a pretty cocotte, and a 
 glass in his hand that, destined to any " sinner's " 
 lips, would have naturally and honestly passed for 
 a glass of " B. and S." Mr Theodore Tilton's 
 statement of his charges and proof against Mr 
 Beecher, as read to the Committee of Beecher's 
 particular friends, has been published. It is, in 
 terms, a specific allegation of adultery, committed 
 by Mr Beecher with Mrs Til ton, first at Mr 
 Beecher's own house on the eveniDg of October 
 10, 1868, and frequently thereafter at the resid- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I3I 
 
 ences of both, and elsewliere, until the spring of 
 1870. It alleges Mr Tilton's discovery of Mr 
 Beecher locked up with Mrs Tilton in her bed- 
 room : his seeing improper liberties taken with 
 her by Mr Beecher in his library; Mrs Tilton's 
 own confession to him of her guilt, and her ex- 
 planations of it, on July 3, 1870; that this con- 
 fession was subsequently put in writing by her, 
 and was shown by Mr F. D. Moulton to Mr 
 Beecher; that Mr Beecher first procured from 
 Mrs Tilton a written retraction of the whole 
 story, and then confessed to Mr Moulton his own 
 guilt, returned to the latter Mrs Tilton's retrac- 
 tion, and threatened suicide in case of exposure. 
 The full text of Mr Beecher's apology is given, 
 with parts of several other letters by him, ad- 
 dressed, like it, to Mr Moulton, all expressing 
 remorse and contrition for some great but unnamed 
 wrong done Mr and Mrs Tilton. A letter from 
 Mr Beecher to Mr Tilton eulogises Moulton as the 
 friend who had tied up the storm ready to burst 
 on their heads. A letter from Mrs Tilton to her 
 husband, naming no one, says she first saw that 
 the love she felt and received was sinful on read- 
 ing ^' Griffith Gaunt," and assures her husband 
 now of a purified and restored love whenever he 
 turns towards her with true feeling. The latter 
 part of the statement deals with the provocations 
 
1 3 2 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 given for this exposure by both Mr Moulton and 
 Mr Tilton; and with the happiness and quiet of 
 the family life thus destroyed for ever. We have 
 little respect for poor Tilton, notwithstanding the 
 cruel wrong he has received from the " Pastor " 
 whom he worshipped, the priest who married him, 
 and the " friend " who offered to " share with 
 him his fortune." Once satisfied of the terrible 
 fact, Tilton should either have killed Beecher or 
 quit his wife. If there is any sincerity in Beecher's 
 "longing for death," this would have been the 
 greatest possible favour to the Seducer. The fol- 
 lowing letter is the cry of a guilty conscience, 
 after the crime is detected. 
 
 " My dear Friend Moulton, — I ask, through you, Theodore 
 Tilton's forgiveness, and I humble myself before him as I do 
 before my God. He would have been a better man in my 
 circumstances than I have been. I can ask nothing, except 
 that he will remember all the other breasts that would ache. 
 I will not plead for myself. I even wish that I were dead. 
 But others must live to suffer. I will die before any one but 
 myself shall be inculpated. All my thoughts are running out 
 toward my friends, and toward the poor child lying there, and 
 praying with her folded hands. She is guiltless, sinned 
 against, bearing the transgression of another. Her forgiveness 
 I have. I humbly pray to God to put it into the heart of her 
 husband to forgive me. I have trusted this to Moulton in 
 confidence. H. W. Beecher." 
 
 An innocent man, falsely calumniated, is bold, 
 proud, defiant, and does not drop on his knees 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I 33 
 
 wliimpering for ^^forgiveness." The next letter 
 is addressed to Mrs Tilton by her husband's per- 
 mission : — 
 
 "Brooklyn, February 7, 1871. 
 " My dear Mrs Tilton, — When I saw you last, I did not ex- 
 pect ever to see you again, or to be ahve many days. God was 
 kinder to me than were my own thoughts. The friend whom 
 God sent to me, Mr Moulton, has proved, above all friends 
 that I ever had, able and willing to help me in this terrible 
 emergency of my life. His hand it was that tied up the 
 storm that was ready to burst on our heads. You have no 
 friend (Theodore excepted) who has it in his power to serve 
 you so vitally, and who will do it with such delicacy and 
 honour. It does my sore heart good to see in Mr Moulton an 
 unfeigned respect and honour for you. It would kill me if I 
 thought otherwise. He will be as true a friend to your honour 
 and happiness as a brother could be to a sister's. In him we 
 have a common ground. You and I may meet in him. The 
 past is ended. But is there no future ? No wiser, higher, 
 holier future 1 May not this friend stand as a priest in the 
 new sanctuary of reconciliation, and mediate and bless 
 Theodore and my most unhappy self? Do not let my 
 earnestness fail of its end. You believe in my judgment. I 
 have put myself wholly and gladly in Moulton's hand. And 
 there I must meet you. This is sent with Theodore's consent, 
 but he has not read it. Will you return it to me by his own 
 hand ? I am very earnest in this wish, for all our sakes, as 
 such a letter ought not to be submitted to even a chance of 
 miscarriage. — Your unhappy friend, H. W. Beecher." 
 
 The following letter to Moulton is fall of con- 
 fession, especially in what may be read between 
 
 the lines : — 
 
 « Februarij 7, 1871. 
 " My dear Friend Moulton, — I am glad to send you a book, 
 &c. ... Many, many friends has God raised up to me, but 
 
134 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 to no one of them has He ever given the opportunity and the 
 wisdom so to serve me as you have. You have also proved 
 Theodore's friend and Elizabeth's. Does God look down from 
 heaven on three unhappier creatures that more need a friend 
 than these ? Is it not an intimation of God's intent of 
 mercy to all that each one of these ^has in you a tried and 
 proved friend % But only in you are we thus united. Would 
 to God, who orders all hearts, that by His kind mediation 
 Theodore, Elizabeth, and I could be made friends again. 
 Theodore will have the hardest task in such a case ; but has 
 he not proved himself capable of the noblest things 1 I 
 wonder if Elizabeth knows how generously he has carried 
 himself toward me. Of course I can never speak with her 
 again without his permission, and I do not know that even 
 then it would be best " 
 
 To show the feeling entertained by Mrs Heloise 
 Tilton towards her Abelard before the ^' pastoral 
 visits " and ^' nest hiding " game of her seducer, 
 we quote the following warm and gushing effu- 
 sions : — 
 
 " Tuesday Morning, January 28, 1868. 
 " My Beloved, — Don't you know the peculiar phase of 
 Christ's character as a lover is so precious to me because of 
 my consecration and devotion to you 1 I learn to love you 
 from my love to Him. Nor do I feel one whit irreverent. 
 And as every day I adorn myself, consciously, as a bride to 
 meet her bridegroom, so in like manner I lift imploring hands 
 that my soul's love may be prepared. I, with the little girls» 
 after you left us, with overflowing eyes and hearts, conse- 
 crated ourselves to our work and to you. My waking thoughts 
 last night were of you. My rising thoughts this morning 
 were of you. I bless you ; I honour you ; I love you. God 
 sustain us, and help us both to keep our vows." 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I 35 
 
 " SoLturday Evening, February 1, 1868. 
 " Oh ! well I know, as far as I am capable, I love you. Now 
 to keep this fire high and, generous is the ideal before me. I 
 am only perfectly contented and restful when you are with 
 me. These latter months I have thought, looked, and yearned 
 for the hour when you would be at home with longings un- 
 utterable." 
 
 " Monday, February 3, 1868 — 9 o'clock a.m. 
 " What may I bring to my beloved this bright morning ? A 
 large throbbing heart full of love, single in its aim and purpose 
 to bless and cheer him ? Is it acceptable, sweet one ? " 
 
 '' Monday Morning, February 24, 1868. 
 " Do you wonder that I couple your love, your presence, and 
 relation to me with the Saviour's ? I lift you up sacredly, and 
 keep you in that exalted and holy place where I reverence, 
 respect, and love, with the fervency of my whole being. "What- 
 ever capacity I have, I offer it to you. The closing lines of your 
 letter are these words — ' I shall hardly venture again upon a 
 great friendship — your love shall be enough for the remaining 
 days.' That word ' enough ' seems a stoicism on which you 
 have resolved to live your Hf e— but I pray God He will supply 
 you with friendships pure, and with wifely love which your 
 great heart demands, withholding not Himself as the Chief 
 Love which consumeth not though it burn, and whose effects 
 are always perfect rest and peace. Again, in one of your 
 letters you close with ' Faithfully yours '—that word Faith- 
 ful means a great deal. Yes, darling, I beheve it, trust it 
 and give you the same surety with regard to myself. I am 
 faithful to you, have been always, and shall for ever be, world 
 without end. Call not this assurance impious ; there are 
 some things we know. Blessed be God." 
 
 '^ HomCf February 29, 1868 — Saturday Eveniiig. 
 
 " Ah ! did ever man ever love so grandly as my Beloved 1 
 
 Other friendships, pubHc affairs, all 'fall to nought' when I come 
 
 to you. Though you are in Dacotah to-night, yet I have felt 
 
 your love, and am very grateful for it. I had not received a 
 
1 3 6 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 line since Monday, and was so hungry and lonesome, that I 
 . took out all your letters and indulged myself as at a feast, but 
 without satiety. And now I long to pour out into your 
 heart of my abundance. I am conscious of three jets to the 
 fountain of my soul — to the Great Lover and yourself — to 
 whom as one I am eternally wedded ; my children ; and the 
 dear friends who trust and love me. I do not want another 
 long separation. While we are in the flesh let us abide 
 together." 
 
 " Saturday Morning, March 1868. 
 " Oh, how almost perfectly could I minister to you this 
 winter, my heart glows so perpetually ! I am conscious of 
 great inward awakening toward you. If I live, I shall teach 
 my children to begin their loves where now I am. I cannot 
 conceive of anything more delicious than a life consecrated 
 to a faithful love. I insist that I miss you more than you 
 do me, but soon I shall see my beloved. 
 
 " Your Own Dear Wife." 
 
 And the " dear wife," who dipped her pen in her 
 heart when writing the above, is now in " battle 
 array" against her own Theodore, adding the crime 
 of perjury to the sin of adultery, in order to save 
 Plymouth Church and its " popular pastor ! " 
 frailty, thy name is — Elizabeth ! Here let us pass 
 the great " Eeligious Scandal " over to the judg- 
 ment of history, which, in the end, is sure to be 
 just. The minor sensations of the day are the 
 kidnapping of a four-year-old boy in Philadelphia, 
 and the '' boy murderer " in Boston. In the 
 former heartrending outrage the child-thieves are 
 negotiating through the Press with the agonised 
 parents for the surrender of the boy, 20,000 dollars 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I 37 
 
 having been raised for the ransom. The city should 
 offer at least 100,000 dollars for the arrest of the 
 perpetrators of the atrocious crime. Jesse Pomeroy, 
 the boy brute, who murdered little Katie Curran 
 from pure '^ cussedness," is the lion of Boston. 
 He is the son of a butcher, and the amiable theory 
 has been started that he inherited the love of kill- 
 ing, and that the natural propensity is irresistible. 
 But the mother of the young monster has come 
 out with a denial of the inherited theory, and says 
 his father was not actually a butcher of animals, 
 but only served the dead meat. She also pub- 
 lishes a statement that will be ^^ nuts " to our 
 anti-vaccination friends. We quote from Mrs 
 Pomeroy's letter to the Boston journals : — " I have 
 frequently received letters from persons in all parts 
 of the country, principally in the West, asking for 
 some of Jesse's hair, and other absurd requests, 
 that I have not paid any attention to. The 
 story of Jesse sticking knives into raw flesh 
 is also false. I think his vaccination had more 
 effect on him than anything else. He was 
 vaccinated when he was four weeks old, and shortly 
 after his face broke out, and had the appearance 
 of raw flesh, and some fluid issued from the wounds 
 that burned my arm when it dropped on it, from 
 which fact I judged the fluid was poison. This 
 lasted until he was six months old, when his whole 
 
I 3 8 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 body was covered with abscesses, one of which was 
 over his eye, and occasioned the cast or fallen 
 appearance that he wears at present. At the time 
 it was thought he would die, but he recovered 
 slowly, and Dr Lane, who attended him, stated 
 that all the sickness was occasioned by vaccina- 
 tion." After this, let those who will vaccinate 
 their children ; but against the law that makes 
 this disgusting superstition " compulsory " we feel 
 it our duty to stoutly and persistently rebel. 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 1 39 
 
 PROVIDENCE, 
 
 It was a tedious ten hours' rail-ride from Stephen- 
 town, N.Y., to Boston; but one that I shall not 
 soon forget, on account of a most murderous acci- 
 dent that happened to a fellow-passenger. Accident 
 is not the word for the atrocity I am about to re- 
 late. Just before arriving at the Palmer Station, 
 between Springfield and Worcester, a sharp, jagged 
 stone, about the size of a man's fist, was hurled 
 with great force through the left front window of 
 the car, inflicting a fearful, if not fatal, wound on 
 the head of a lady sitting directly in front of me. 
 A deep gash was made in the scalp about an inch 
 above the temple, from which the blood flowed pro- 
 fusely over the lady and the infant in her arms. 
 At the same instant a still larger stone was thrown 
 into the smoking-car forward, also badly wounding 
 a gentleman in the head. Both victims were left 
 at the station, the lady in a state of insensibility 
 On the succeeding evening, when that same train, 
 the Albany and Boston Express, was approaching 
 
140 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 tlie same station, a rail was discovered across the 
 track, whicli, not being fastened, was thrown off 
 by the ^^cow-catcher." A large reward has been 
 offered by the Railway Company for these repeated 
 outrages, and one or two vagabonds have been 
 arrested on suspicion. It is a singular coincidence 
 that this same train, in charge of the same con- 
 ductor, was fired into near Natick some two months 
 ago, and a gentleman sitting near me when the 
 lady was hit most narrowly escaped the bullet of 
 the indiscriminate assassin. I will relate another 
 incident in connection with this affair, for the special 
 gratification of superstitious believers in ^^ signs 
 and warnings." When this lady, predestined to 
 be wounded, entered the car at Springfield, she 
 was accompanied by her husband, a little girl of 
 about three years, and an infant of, perhaps, as 
 many months. Among the luggage brought into 
 the car was a large looking-glass, which was placed 
 upright in the corner, in front of the family party. 
 Soon after leaving the station, by a sudden lurch 
 of the car the looking-glass fell with a crash, 
 breaking into a thousand pieces, which seemed 
 greatly to disconcert the young wife, and to cause 
 an animated conversation on the subject with her 
 husband. At the very moment the missile struck 
 the poor lady senseless, I was " wondering " what 
 accident would befall the party in consequence ^of 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I4I 
 
 this small calamity. And I am not superstitious. 
 Fifteen years ago, in travelling by rail through a 
 dense forest in South Carolina in a pitch-dark 
 night, in company with Charles Mackay, the poet, 
 as we were sitting side by side, a bullet crashed 
 through the window and whizzed before our noses. 
 But this bullet had not its ^^ billet" for either of 
 us. No accident can forestall destiny ; and, admit- 
 ting God's omniscience — and without omniscience 
 God is not infinite — each man's exit from the world 
 is just as fixed as his entrance. This ^^ belief" is 
 denounced as "fatalism." It is simply absolute 
 faith and confidence in the Deity, a perfect faith 
 that " casteth out fear." All along through Mas- 
 sachusetts the country has become populous with 
 villages, while the large towns are doubling every 
 ten years, and nearly all the land is under cultiva- 
 tion. Although only settled 250 years, the " Old 
 Bay State " really begins to look like an old country. 
 Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, have grown into 
 places of great wealth and importance, and the 
 cheering word thrift is written on farms, fences, 
 houses, and manufactories all tlie way from Berk- 
 shire to Bunker's Hill. In no State are the various 
 industries which make up the wealth and happiness 
 of a people cultivated more thoroughly, economi- 
 cally, and intelligently, than in the Mother State 
 of the Union by the descendants of the " Old 
 
1 42 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 Colonies " of Plymouth, Salem, and Boston. ^^ But 
 I shall offer no encomium on Massachusetts ; there 
 she is, and there is her history." I found Boston 
 immensely expanded, and vastly improved by time, 
 fire, and reconstruction. But Webster, Everett, 
 Choate, Lawrence, Prescott, are no longer there 
 to gild the fair city with the lustre of their glori- 
 ous names. Yet they ^^ still live" in grateful 
 memories, and, like the immortal authors and 
 orators of Greece, crown our *^ modern Athens " 
 with the unfading halo of immortal genius. Boston 
 has something more than material wealth to boast 
 of. Of all New England towns Providence appears 
 to be the most substantially prosperous. Since 
 1840 the population of the city has quintupled, 
 having risen from 20,000 to 100,000, and the 
 wealth of the inhabitants has increased in, perhaps, 
 even a greater ratio. Nowhere have I met more 
 striking " transformation scenes " than in the once 
 familiar streets of the ^^ City of Eoger Williams," 
 where, in 1836, when a very '^ young youth," I 
 wrote the " Anonymous Ode " commemorative of 
 the second centennial anniversary of the landing 
 of the Baptist pilgrim in Mooshasick, at the head 
 of Narragansett Bay, where the piously-named city 
 of Providence now stands. The Rev. Charles W. 
 Upham, of Salem, introduces this Ode in his 
 ^^ Life of Roger Williams ; " but the authorship, 
 
IN THE UNI TED S TA TES. 1 4 3 
 
 I believej has never before been publicly mentioned. 
 It was set to music for the " patriotic occasion " by 
 Professor Hansen, a Dane, then a celebrated teacher 
 in Providence, and performed, under his direction, 
 by the choir of the First Baptist Church. In now 
 acknowledging the parentage of this offspring of 
 youthful indiscretion, I may, without vanity, quote 
 the words of Douglas Jerrold in reclaiming one of 
 his stray intellectual children — ^^A small thing, 
 but mine own." In walking up Westminster 
 Street, where ^^ Butler's Arcade" stands almost 
 alone among the monuments of the past, the face 
 of ex- Mayor Knight was the only one recognised, 
 and that but dimly at first, among the fresh tide 
 of life flowing up and down that well-worn and 
 fashionable thoroughfare, devoted to business and 
 promenade. In Green Street, where stood my 
 little " Grecian Temple," dedicated by Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson, and consecrated and graced by the teach- 
 ings of Margaret Fuller and Georgina Nias, and 
 where a charming nursery of the beautiful Spring 
 buds and twigs of Providence, of both sexes, were 
 carefully and tenderly unfolded and ^^bent," not 
 a vestige remains of that garden of innocence and 
 " seminary of learning." All those pretty little 
 girls, not dead, are mothers now, some even grand- 
 mothers; while the lively little boys are trans- 
 formed into grave bank presidents, eminent lawyers, 
 
1 44 TRA NSFORMA TION S CENES 
 
 rich manufacturers J distinguislied authors, &c., &c., 
 with grey whiskers and careworn faces. And the 
 fathers and mothers of this new generation, where 
 are they? One short, hard, sad word tells the 
 gtory — dead. Such is the ever-flowing tide of 
 human life: all go out with the ebb, and none 
 return with the flood. And thus the world keeps 
 ever young and fresh and new — 
 
 " Men may come and men may go, 
 But life flows on for ever." 
 
 Among the finest architectural improvements of 
 Providence, the magnificent building opposite the 
 ^'Arcade," erected by W. Butler Duncan, Esq., 
 the wealthy New York banker, who is indebted to 
 Providence for his fortune, stands out in bold 
 relief. It compares favourably with the splendid 
 ^^ Drexel Building " in New York. The new 
 Post-office is also a fine edifice ; but there is an- 
 other ^^ going up" that has long been greatly 
 needed — a first-class hotel. The foundations are 
 being laid, covering a large area in Weybosset 
 Street, adjoining the Opera House. It will cost 
 half a million of dollars, and supply a real want, 
 the city having long since outgrown all its old 
 hotels. On both sides of the beautiful blue Nar- 
 ragansett Bay, new villages, cottages, towns, and 
 watering-places have blossomed all the way from 
 
IN THE UNI TED STATES. 1 4 5 
 
 Providence to Newport. The trip on board the 
 steamer is a most delightful one, charming to the 
 eye and exhilarating to the lungs. It is seldom 
 that a traveller finds himself too soon at his jour- 
 ney's end ; but we would gladly have extended 
 the two hours between the two Rhode Island Cap- 
 itals of Providence and Newport to ten. The 
 bright blue Bay, reflecting the softer blue sky; 
 the richly variegated shores, waving with the 
 growing grain, and dotted with white homes where 
 peace and plenty seem to dwell, make up one of 
 those pleasant panoramas with which we hate to 
 part, as from a charming ^' passing acquaintance." 
 Rhode Island is one of the least of all the States 
 in territory, but one of the greatest in all the ele- 
 ments essential to social and political happiness. 
 Free from debt, free from pauperism, rich in agri- 
 culture and manufactures, with a salubrious climate, 
 a school system unsurpassed, Newport for a summer 
 resort, the Providence Journal for a daily news- 
 paper, and its clever editor to represent them for 
 life in the United States Senate, what more can 
 a rational people desire ! And this is Newport of 
 blessed memory ! TVe recognise the name of the 
 town, its moist, cool atmosphere, that so quickly re- 
 moves the dry varnish from the skin, and puts one 
 to sleep like an anodyne ; and also the old familiar 
 faces of ^^ Weaver," the excellent host, and " John," 
 
 K 
 
146 TRANSFORMATION SCENES 
 
 the venerable waiter, at ^' The Ocean." And that's 
 all. How the trees have grown, and the villas 
 multiplied during these fourteen years of absence, 
 while other lips and other eyes have sung the praise, 
 and feasted on the beauties of this sweet city by 
 the sea ! I dare not indulge in reminiscences. It 
 was here that " Belle Brittan " made her debut in 
 the literary world, and so befogged and befooled 
 the critics who wrote love letters by the bushel to 
 the fair incognita. The " Ocean House " is not 
 crowded, the cottages take the cream of the visitors. 
 The hotel is greatly improved in many particulars ; 
 but the old habituds are sadly missed, and the Band, 
 three times a day, treats us to the most melancholy 
 music, as if expressly devoted to dirges for the 
 Past. If the people now here feel gay they certain- 
 ly have a sad way of showing it. ''It is all owing 
 to the panic," I hear on every hand; but surely 
 the fearful "• shrinkage " of last Autumn has not 
 made everybody bankrupt. It is estimated that 
 the loss on stocks in New York within the past 
 twelve months is over 200,000,000 dollars, and 
 that all second and third mortgages in real estate 
 in that city are ''wiped out; " but most of these 
 Newport cottagers must be rich, nevertheless. 
 And, pray, why should they partake of the gene- 
 ral gloom ? There seems to be something in the 
 universal atmosphere that oppresses all classes of 
 
AV THE UNITED STATES. 1 4/ 
 
 society. Whether it is the '^ shrinkage " that has 
 bursted thousands, who are not yet fully aware of 
 the fact, or the fall of Beecher, which, like Samp- 
 son among the Philistines, is bringing down the 
 pillars of the Christian temple, or a ^^ fearful 
 looking for oi judgments to come," I do not know ; 
 but possibly it may be a combination of all these 
 evil influences, together with the comet, that is 
 making things, as Bill Nye, of Heathen- Chinee 
 fame, in reply to the question, ^' How goes it. 
 Truthful? " said, " It is far, far from gay." Al- 
 together the most charming villa in Newport, con- 
 sidering location, stables, billiard-rooms, bowling- 
 alleys, bathing-houses, flower-gardens, &c., belongs 
 to George Francis Train, designed, built, and fur- 
 nished by his accomplished wife during her errant 
 lord's confinement in an Irish Bastille. But the 
 eccentric owner of this charming, costly place says 
 he prefers his Turkish Bath and dolce far niente 
 at " Miller's Hotel," in town, to keeping a livery 
 stable and an Irish boarding-house in Newport, 
 as it took ten horses and as many servants to run 
 the establi&hment. '' There is no accounting for 
 tastes." Mrs Train's father, Col. G. T. M. Davis, 
 has a bijou cottage adjoining his daughter's. The 
 only '' celebrity " I have seen here worth noticing 
 is James Gordon Bennett, of the New York 
 Herald^ who, instead of splurging with a swell 
 
1 4 8 TRANSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 fonr-in-liancl, drives a modest one-horse turn-out, 
 "but English perfect in all its appointments. 
 When I reflect on what this young journalist has 
 done for Livingstone, for the poor of New York, 
 for Arctic explorations, and, again, for his new 
 African Expedition, and, most of all, the higher 
 tone and broader enterprise he has given the New 
 York Herald, there are few men in either hemi- 
 sphere who command higher praise or a more 
 cosmopolitan admiration. 
 
JN THE UNITED STATES. 1 49 
 
 THE BRA AT A. 
 
 The Americau drama, if such a thing exists, does 
 not appear to have made much progress during 
 the last decade, either in respect to plays or actors. 
 Since Forrest, no '^ great American tragedian " has 
 arisen to '^ drown the stage in tears," and to fill 
 the world with the fame of his name. As for 
 actors and actresses, " native and to the manor 
 born," who can name one that deserves to be called 
 '' great,'' or who has won a cosmopolitan reputa- 
 tion ? Jefferson is a perfect artist, one may even 
 say genius, in his peculiar line, and that line is 
 limited to almost a single role. But Jefferson, we 
 believe, was born in England; at all events of 
 English parents. Owen is a capital comedian, but 
 not a newly-risen star. He may in truth be 
 called a veteran, whose glory culminated a quarter 
 of a century ago ; but still it may not yet be said of 
 him, '' superfluous lags the veteran on the stage." 
 And yet, with a million of honestly-won dollars 
 for his fortune, Owen might retire with grace and 
 
I 5 O TRANSFORM A TION SCENES 
 
 comfortj and with no detriment to his reputation. 
 Matilda Heron, of ^^ Camille " fame, has too long 
 been "sick to doomsday with eclipse." Domestic 
 troubles cruelly crushed the lamp of life, but the 
 fire of her genius kept on burning. She is now 
 reconstructing at Miller's Turkish Bath Hotel, and 
 promises soon to re-appear in all her original 
 splendour. With the single exception of " Meg 
 Merrilees" Cushman, America has never produced 
 so great a theatrical genius as Matilda Heron. 
 And she, like " Our Charlotte," shone pre-eminent 
 only in a single role. We hence conclude that life 
 is too short for perfection in more than one " part," 
 either on the mimic or the real stage. The greatest 
 theatrical production in America to-day is the little 
 " Bijou Heron," a truly legitimate one, the child 
 of Matilda, born of Love and Sorrow. This super- 
 natural artiste of ten years has made ^furore on 
 the stage, and fills the eyes and hearts of all who 
 behold her with " special wonder." Matilda, in 
 her wild way, declares the child has no father but 
 God, and she certainly seems filled with the divine 
 afflatus. This little baby-woman, for she is a rare 
 compound of grace and wisdom, simplicity and 
 dignity, innocence and intelligence, has been my 
 vis-d-vis several times at dinner, and her beauty 
 does not, like Wordsworth's "Lucy," "make me 
 glad," but sad Truly, 
 
/JV THE UNITED STATES. I51 
 
 " A lovely apparition, sent 
 To be a moment's ornament." 
 
 Bijou Heron would make a great sensation in 
 London. She is altogether the most remarkable 
 phenomenon, the most attractive star, in America. 
 The heartless husband and father, in abandoning 
 his wife and little one for a yellow-haired ballet- 
 girl, like the base Judean, 
 
 " Threw a pearl away 
 Richer than all his tribe." 
 
 I have heard much of Clara Morris, but did not 
 see her. Her photograph indicates tragic fire. 
 Lester Wallack is the same well-dressed, self-con- 
 scious, level actor as of old. Successful manage- 
 ment, yachting, trotting, and high-living have not 
 intensified his personation of '' High Art." If poets 
 must '^ learn in suffering what they teach in song," 
 so the dramatic artist must experience the emotions 
 he attempts to portray, else all is but '^ sounding 
 brass and a tinkling cymbal." On Monday even- 
 ing last there was a notable attempt to inaugurate 
 a genuine American drama, although the play was 
 written by an Englishman, or a Frenchman, for 
 Boucicault's origin, like that of all great geniuses, 
 is somewhat mythical. It was the opening night 
 at Booth's Theatre, and " Belle Lamar," a drama 
 founded on incidents of the late Civil War, was 
 
152 TRA NSFORMA TION SCENES 
 
 the title of the piece. There was an overflowing 
 house ; every inch of standing room being occupied, 
 with the thermometer somewhere in the nineties. 
 For several days the newspapers had piqued public 
 curiosity with the rare dramatic sensation prepared 
 for them by the greatest of living dramatists. So 
 far as the crowd, the aj^plause, and the next day's 
 criticisms go, the play was a great success. It 
 was admirably mounted, and the leading parts 
 were well acted ; but I shall venture to call it a 
 failure nevertheless. The events re2:)roduced in 
 the play have not yet ripened into history, and it 
 was positively painful to see the heroic Stonewall 
 Jackson, whose '' body is still green in earth,'* 
 caricatured by a stick of an actor. ^^ Belle Lamar," 
 whose sad career is not unlike that of poor Belle 
 Boyd, will be more acceptable as a play half a 
 century hence, when the late unpleasantness be- 
 tween the North and the South has melted away in 
 the calm, dim haze of history. On board the 
 Britannic^ '^ bound for Liverpool," we had, among 
 many other pleasant passengers, Mr Sothern and 
 his two sons, en route for Edinburgh. Mr Sothern 
 is altogether the most remarkable and the most 
 successful actor of this or any other age. Since 
 I had the pleasure of ^^ assisting" at his first per- 
 formance of '^ Lord Dundreary," at Laura Keene's 
 theatre in New York, some sixteen years ago, he 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I 53 
 
 lias played this part over four thousand times, for 
 which alone he has received about 07ie million and 
 a quarter of dollars. In all the history of the 
 drama there is no record of a success like this. 
 On the 10th of October, after an absence of nearly 
 three years, Mr Sothern will re-appear at the Hay- 
 market as '' Lord Dundreary" in " Our American 
 Cousin," but with scarcely a single line of the 
 original part. Mr Sothern will be supported by a 
 charming Australian, Minnie Walton, new to the 
 metropolitan stage. A few w^ords touching my 
 return voyage will close these locomotive observa- 
 tions, although matters of a more didactic nature 
 may follow. The new White Star steamer Britan- 
 nic is a splendid vessel \ but if I were going to 
 cross to-morrow, and the Baltic and Britannic were 
 to start at the same hour I should take the former. 
 It is true the newer ship has some important im- 
 provements, as every newest ship ought to have. 
 The Britannic has an electric bell attached to every 
 berth, and revolving chairs at the dining tables, 
 with several other little conveniences which her 
 elder sister has not. It also has a pleasant, gentle- 
 voiced Bell for stewardess, pronounced a jewel by 
 the ladies ; and yet, and yet — well, we prefer the 
 Baltic. The sea was smooth, the skies were clear, 
 the passengers were jolly, and we reached our old 
 home at the Laiio'ham Hotel on the evening of the 
 
I 5 4 TRANSFORMA TION S CENES 
 
 tenth day. Among the hundred first-chiss passen- 
 gers there were half-a-dozen bridal couples, some 
 of them tied for life, or until death or divorce parts 
 them, on the very morning of our departure. The 
 billiug and cooing of these love-sick couples made 
 several passengers see-^iok.. One pair in particu- 
 lar were so desperately loving as to feed each other, 
 on deck, with the same spoon, a honeymoon habit, 
 which, we suppose, must have been the origin of 
 '^ spooning." Another couple incurred the indig- 
 nation of all on board by utterly neglecting a 
 charming little four-year old boy, who was left to 
 run all over the ship, and whom we named '' Charley 
 Ross," thinking he might be ih-O^ stolen child of 
 Philadelphia. The father of this darling little boy, 
 who became everybody's pet, and my own favourite 
 companion, married a second wife just before leav- 
 ing New York, and the newly-spliced pair were so 
 deeply involved in their new happiuess, so closely 
 locked in each other's arms, that this poor 
 little son, and stepson, was left entirely to the 
 care of the passengers and stewards. '^ Oh, that 
 this dear little boy's mother could see how her 
 child is neglected," said a kind-hearted Ohio lady. 
 " Thank Heaven she cannot," was my reply. On 
 arriving at the Bar in the Mersey, when the pas- 
 sengers were scrambling on board the *' Tug," I 
 took the little fellow along with me, and his " nat- 
 
IN THE UNITED STATES. I55 
 
 ural protectors " did not seem to discover liim imtil 
 he was landed with the luggage at the Company's 
 wharf in Liverpool. Why did they not ticket him 
 through and send him below ? I cannot quit the 
 good ship without a good word for the officers and 
 servants, who spare no eiforts to promote the com- 
 fort and entertainment of passengers. Other pens 
 will praise the table, and with good reason. Let 
 me thank the Company for the well-selected library. 
 It only lacks the ten bound volumes of the Cosmo- 
 politan, which I propose to present to them. With 
 no disrespect to my fellow-passengers, among whom 
 were some very charming and intelligent persons, 
 I found the society of Hood, Jerrold, Thackeray, 
 and Dickens still more agreeable ; and when these 
 classics were all read, and re-read, I found a very 
 pleasant companion in ^' The Anecdotes of Public 
 Men," by my old friend and confrere Col. J. W. 
 Forney, whose reminiscences of the past twenty- 
 five years are exceedingly pleasant reading. Col. 
 Forney has for thirty j^ears been one of the lead- 
 ing journalists and politicians of America, besides 
 having occupied for eight years the important post 
 of Secretary of the Senate at Washington. Few 
 writers have had so large and familiar an acquain- 
 tance with the leading public men of the United 
 States as the editor of the Philadelphia Press, 
 Col. Forney is now in Europe, for the purpose of 
 
156 TRANSFORMA HON SCENES. 
 
 waking up the Powers and tlie People to the grand 
 event of the century, the ^' Centennial of 1876." 
 We venture to predict that he will be the next 
 United States Senator from Pennsylvania. Forney's 
 volume of ^^ Anecdotes" is worthy of a place in 
 European libraries. It is already in the Cosmo- 
 jjolitaji's. 
 
COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ENGLAND AND THE UNITED 
 STATES, 
 
 '^ Which country do you prefer to live in, Eng- 
 land or America?" This was the first and last 
 question asked by all classes of people during our 
 recent visit to the United States. After thirteen 
 years abroad, more than two-thirds of the time 
 spent in London, it was naturally supposed that a 
 comparative answer would be easy to give. On 
 the contrary, it is a difficult question to decide, 
 and still more difficult to give satisfactory reasons 
 for the decision. The man who has emigrated to 
 California or Utah, and made a ^' big pile," comes 
 back with glowing descriptions of the beauty, the 
 salubrity, and the richness of the country ; while 
 the unfortunate adventurer who, having toiled and 
 " prospected" in vain for years, returns in poverty 
 
158 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 and sickness to the home of his childhood to die, 
 gives a very different picture of '^life out West." 
 The place we like the best is that in which we have 
 been the happiest — that is, the most successful in 
 receiving all those ^^ good things of this world," 
 which constitute the sum total of the ^^ blessings 
 of life." Exceptional Americans, who, like Pea- 
 body, Sturgis, Morgan, and a few others, have 
 easily and rapidly acquired large fortunes in 
 England, are, naturally enough, in love with the 
 land of their adoption ; while ninety-nine out of 
 every hundred Americans, fighting for a living on 
 this side of the Atlantic, remain abroad by stress 
 of necessit3\ From neither of these ^^ types " of 
 the Anglo-American should we look for a just 
 comparison of the intrinsic merits of the two coun- 
 tries. The successful American sees everything 
 couleur de rose ; the unsuccessful, tout au contraire. 
 And so with Englishmen. John Bull praises and 
 curses America according to the results of his 
 investments. Capitalists who have lost money by 
 American railway and mining companies, and by 
 defaulting States, are loud and liberal in their 
 denunciations of the American Republic and 
 American '^honour." On the other hand, we now 
 and then come across some lucky Englishman who 
 has doubled his income by American ^^ specula- 
 tions/' and who is profuse in his laudations of the 
 
ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. I 59 
 
 people, the country, and the institutions on the 
 other side of the Atlantic. When the opinions, the 
 judgments, and the feelings of men are governed 
 by the mere caprice of fortune, they are hardly 
 worth quoting. That reverend and sarcastic wag, 
 Sidney Smith, having dabbled in Pennsylvania 
 stocks, which did not pay so well as he hoped, 
 could never do justice to the citizens of that State, 
 or to any other State of the Union. The victims 
 of Erlanger's Confederate Loan have to-day a very 
 bad opinion of the Confederate cause. There is an 
 American lady now in London, a very rich widow, 
 and a Roman Catholic, courted and feted by all 
 the Romanist nobility of the United Kingdom, 
 who thinks the English people are the best, the 
 noblest, and the most hospitable in the world. 
 Naturellemenf. But, as we have said, exceptional 
 opinions, based on adventitious circumstances, are 
 of little value. And it is the same with persons 
 as with places. X ... is lovely to me and hate- 
 ful to you — and vice versa. The journalist, the 
 publicist, the critic, and the historian should have 
 no prejudices. It is very natural to speak well of 
 the bridges that carry us safely over, and ill of 
 those that bring us to grief. And yet one may do 
 justice to the bridge without either praise or cen- 
 sure. It was no fault of the steamer Atlantic 
 that she was wrecked on the rocks of Kova Scotia. 
 
l60 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 TravellerSj who write books, are very silly to allow 
 dirty inns and indigestible food to colour tlieir 
 opinions of the countries they visit. But such is 
 the universal fallibility of man. Many a play has 
 been " damned " by critics who have been seated 
 uncomfortably in a theatre. An engineer, recently 
 sent out to New York to survey a Railway property, 
 took a letter of introduction, in a sealed envelope, 
 to a certain Wall Street magnate, containing these 
 words : — " The Eeport must be good^ or there'll 
 be a murder." The engineer was received and 
 feted comme un ji^rf;?^^, and the Report will be 
 good. To return to the question of the comparative 
 merits and attractions of England and America as 
 countries to live in. We profess to have become 
 completely denationalised, to belong to no country, 
 no party, no sect ; only to the planet we live in, 
 and to humanity. One must outgrow all these 
 limitations in order to be thoroughly cosmopolitan. 
 Therefore we do not judge of places or peoples by 
 the mode of treatment we receive. A man may 
 possibly fall sick in the healthiest country, and, 
 through misunderstanding, receive ill-treatment at 
 the hands of the best of people. To give a just 
 and intelligent estimate of different nations many 
 things must be taken into consideration. In the 
 first place, the climate and the physical qualities 
 and conditions of the country are of the most vital 
 
ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. l6l 
 
 importance. Then come the laws, the government, 
 the institutions, which constitute the political con- 
 ditions of a people. So far as personal freedom 
 and civil liberty are concerned, there is little to 
 choose between the Monarchy of England and the 
 Eepublic of America. Liberty, protected by law, 
 is the great problem of both countries, and in both 
 there is no lack of law or of freedom for the 
 general happiness and welfare. Neither in London 
 nor New York does an honest man find his personal 
 freedom impinged by the force of statute law, 
 although the " law of the land " is as omnipresent 
 as the air. Put your foot in it, and it trips you 
 lip ; violate it, and you are in chains and slavery. 
 The common laws of the two countries are mainlj^ 
 the same. America derived her laws from Eng- 
 land ; England from Judea ; and Judea from 
 the first principles of human nature, the funda- 
 mental laws of property and self-preservation, 
 including matrimony, which is but a refined ver- 
 sion of property law, although conferring superior 
 rights on the stronger party. This, of course, 
 is owing to the fact that the stronger party 
 established the code ; and this is the special 
 grievance of '^ women's rights " women. The 
 jurisprudence of England and the United States 
 being almost identical, we come to the autonomy 
 of the older and the younger nations. One is a 
 
1 62 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Monarch}', the other a Republic, both essentially 
 democratic, and both having peculiar merits and 
 defects to balance against each other. ^' Give us 
 an angel from heaven and despotism," said Tom 
 Hood. England, in the person of her good Queen 
 Victoria, has an approach to the ^^ angel," but 
 lacks the benevolent despotism to inaugurate the 
 angelic era. By granting a liberal though a con- 
 ditional franchise to the masses, the Government of 
 England is essentially a popular Government ; that 
 is, a government by the people — in theory at least. 
 Hereditary sovereignty is one of the best features 
 of the British Constitution, while the hereditary 
 Senate is its very worst. The chances are that a 
 *• Ruler," born and educated to the Throne, will be 
 a far more graceful and respectable figure-head for 
 the nation than one elected every four years by the 
 capricious choice of universal suffrage, including 
 niggers, chimpanzees, and ignorant ^^ white trash." 
 But a born Senate, like the British House of 
 Lords, is an abomination, an insult to the common 
 sense of civilisation. In the United States, the 
 frequently recurring re-election of President is the 
 greatest of all political evils. Better elect for ten 
 years, or, indeed, for life, and prohibit re-election 
 by an amendment of the Constitution. Unpaid 
 legislation, as in England, might also be adopted 
 in America with salutary results. Law-makers 
 
ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. 1 63 
 
 should be men of economy, of thrift, and of 
 pecuniary independence. Solons of the lapstone 
 or goose, who " run for Congress " for the loaves 
 and fishes, had better ^' stick to their lasts," and 
 allow men of education and of wealth, who have 
 an interest in the State, to serve as '' lawgivers " 
 pro bono publico. Weighing the two political 
 Constitutions of the old Monarchy and the young 
 Eepublic in the impartial scales of justice, we leave 
 to each individual reader to declare his own pre- 
 ference. One of the greatest attractions in the 
 United States to free-minded, liberty-loving men is 
 the absolute freedom the people enjoy in regard to 
 " matters of conscience " or religion. There is 
 not only no Established Church in America, but 
 the Federal Constitution recognises no G-od. As 
 no two minds have the same idea of God, this 
 non -recognition of any particular God- Phantom 
 leaves the intellect of the nation gloriously free 
 from cripplii]g creeds and theological dogmas. At 
 the same time it does not make the people 
 ostensibly irreligious. While they do not bow to 
 the aristocratic God of England, to the more 
 amiable Deity of France, or to the semi-savage 
 Jehovah of the Jews, they quite as generally, 
 and perhaps as devotedly, worship the " unseen and 
 eternal Spirit" as any other people on earth. 
 Indeed, such is the fanaticism of the popular faith, 
 
164 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 that they boast of havhig invested seven hundred 
 millions of dollars in churches and religious insti- 
 tutions of all denominations, sects, and creeds — - 
 including the sterile '' Shakers " and the prolific 
 ^' Mormons " — that priestcraft has ever invented 
 for the subjugation and slavery of the people. 
 This magnificent investment, mostly ^^ in Houses 
 of God " and ^^ parsonages," is almost equal to the 
 amount spent by American ladies during the last 
 five years in silks and diamonds. What a blessed 
 number of bath-houses, soup-houses, and school- 
 houses these millions would have established ! 
 But then the great army of priests would have 
 been as ill-fed, as poorlj^-clothed, and as utterly 
 houseless as Christ Himself. And, pray, what 
 were the people made for but to support priests, 
 soldiers, and the ^' liberal professions ! " The 
 comparative intelligence, refinement, and morality 
 of the two countries is rather a delicate subject of 
 discussion. AVe purpose to skip it with the safe 
 remark, often repeated in these columns, that 
 London contains the best and the worst of every- 
 thing to be found in any city on the globe. This 
 applies to men, women, and things, including 
 horses, asses, flowers, fruit, and vegetables. 
 America has more land, brighter skies, and a 
 broader '^ area of freedom," but no more freedom, 
 except on the Church question, than England. 
 
ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES. 165 
 
 It is altogetlier an error to say that in the old 
 country society has been forming, progressing, and 
 refining for a thousand years, while in the new 
 country everything is 3'oung, crude, and unsettled. 
 America is simply an extension of England. All 
 the elements of English social and political life 
 were carried to New England in the Mayflower^ 
 and that, too, by the very flower of English 
 civilisation. The " Pilgrim Fathers " were the 
 best-educated men of the epoch, most of whom, 
 forty-one adults, kept their diaries in Latin, as 
 the records of the " Old Colony Society " in Ply- 
 mouth bear evidence. Nor can we forget the 
 highly-educated followers of Penn, the founder 
 of the State that bears his name, the noble Cal- 
 vert of Maryland, Fairfax of Virginia, or the 
 accomplished Cavaliers of Carolina and Georgia. 
 In many respects New England sloughed off the 
 hide-bound creeds and impediments of Old Eng- 
 land, and the brave citizens of the wilderness rose 
 to a newer, purer, and freer civilisation. The 
 grand idea of a Church without a bishop and a 
 State without a king, gave a new dignity to man- 
 hood, and a new inspiration to ambition. Then 
 came the long struggle for independence, which 
 made every man a patriot and every soldier a 
 hero. The " days that tried men's souls " left 
 the young Republic a pure and simple people. 
 
1 66 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Altliougli sadly degenerated by time, prosperity, 
 and the ^^ admixture of all nations," yet America 
 still retains a full average of national energy 
 and honour; and so far as mere material wealth 
 is concerned, the United States is, beyond all 
 question, the richest nation in the world. With 
 a population of 40,000,000, and more rapidly 
 increasing than any other country, with every 
 variety of climate, soil, and production, it passes 
 the imagination of man to limit its future wealth 
 and power. Therefore, to the young and enter- 
 prising, of both sexes and of all classes, who 
 would woo the angel of prosperity in the Future, 
 we say there is no ^' land of promise " like the 
 land beyond the sea — the land of the free and 
 boundless West, where there is bread, and work, 
 and wealth for all — 
 
 " And the sun shines always there." 
 
 As for hospitality as a national characteristic, 
 Canon Kingsley will endorse the assertion that the 
 Americans treat their visitors better, and oftener^ 
 than any other people. 
 
IF IT PLEASES THEM. l6y 
 
 IF IT PLEASES THEM. 
 
 A GREAT many English persons and papers are 
 very much exercised by the Pilgrimage to Pontigny, 
 in France. Some five hundred Roman Catholic 
 subjects of Her Most Protestant Majesty Queen 
 Victoria, including such aristocratic names as 
 Lord Edmund Howard, Lord Gainsborough, Lord 
 Archibald Douglas, the Hon. Mrs Douglas, the 
 Hon. Miss Petrie, Mr Petrie, Miss Hope John- 
 stone, &c., under the lead of Archbishop Manning, 
 have been doing the penance of sea-sickness, and 
 visiting the tomb of St Edmund, who was Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury in the thirteenth century. 
 This ancient priest was canonised by the Pope, 
 and is therefore called a '^ Saint." It is repre- 
 sented to the ignorant and superstitious that St 
 Edmund's holy corpse has not decayed, but is 
 miraculously preserved, and they profess to be- 
 lieve it ! Can such intelligent men as Manning, 
 Howard, and Douglas pretend to believe in such 
 monstrous nonsense ? T/ie Cosmoj^olitan, with 
 
1 68 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 the profoundest reverence for Nature and Truth, 
 but with no respect for priestcraft, will bet all 
 Lombard Street to a picayune that the remains 
 of St Edmund, like those of any other mortal 
 organism six hundred years dead, are undistin- 
 guishable dust. The laws of Nature are never 
 suspended or abrogated even for the '' benefit of 
 the clergy." The only real objection to these 
 "Pilgrimages" on "boiled peas" is, that they 
 promulgate falsehood in order to prop a rotten 
 system of religion. The priests, knowingly and 
 wickedly, tell the people lies. But this has been 
 their role from the beginning, and will continue 
 to be, perhaps, for another century or two to come. 
 As for the saintship of Archbishop Edmund, who 
 claims merit for having worn a horse-hair shirt, 
 perhaps over a silk one, are there not men living 
 to-day lives as holy as he ? We know a man who 
 has never defiled his body with wine, tobacco, or 
 alcohol, and who lives purely, on cereals, veget- 
 ables, and fruits ; a man who has never shed 
 blood, nor wronged or ruined a woman, nor told 
 a lie. Why not make pious pilgrimages to the 
 home of this living Saint, worth a thousand dead 
 ones, and touch the hem of his garment in pious 
 homage to his chastity and " holiness ? " Must a 
 man lie in the earth six hundred years before his 
 virtues are recognised and honoured? But let 
 
IF IT PLEASES THEM. 1 69 
 
 these Pilgrims go to France, if it pleases them, 
 and draw inspiration from the dead dust of a half- 
 mythical priest, instead of sitting at the feet of 
 living teachers, whose words of wisdom and truth 
 are so hard to hear and obey. It benefits the 
 Railway Companies, and brings grist to Cooke's 
 Excursion Mill. Besides, a little sea-sickness 
 does no harm to over-loaded stomachs, and pious 
 people are even more pious when less bilious. 
 And may not these five hundred devout pilgrims 
 to the shrine of holy dust in unholy France, return 
 to their homes enveloped with an ^^ odour of 
 sanctity " that will sweeten, enrich, and sanctify 
 the murky and ungodly atmosphere of all Eng- 
 land? So may it be. 
 
COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 THE POLICY OF INSURANCE, 
 
 It is beginning to be a serious question with 
 philosophical economists whether the inestimable 
 sums of money invested in Life, Fire, and Marine 
 Insurance, also in Savings Banks, might not be 
 better employed. We should like to have some 
 clever hand at figures, some expert actuary, to 
 give us the sum total, not only of the amount of 
 capital held by these Companies in the United 
 Kingdom and the United States, but also the 
 annual amounts paid for conducting them, under 
 the head of rents, salaries, and commissions. 
 Nothing impressed us more during a recent visit 
 to the cities of New York, Boston, and Providence, 
 than the multitudinous ^' palaces " dedicated to 
 Banking, Kailway, and Insurance business, and 
 more especially to the latter. The lower part of 
 Broadway is little else than a double row of 
 Insurance buildings, each containing numerous 
 offices, each office filled with a large staff of 
 clerks. And all these Companies pay their 
 
THE POLICY OF INSURANCE, I /I 
 
 presidents, directors, managers, and book-keepers 
 enormous salaries. We hear of hundreds of these 
 officials who receive from 5000 dollars to 20,000 
 dollars a year. Where does all the money come 
 from to support these costly and magnificent 
 establishments ? Oat of the insured, of course. 
 The question arises — Would it not be better for 
 the commonwealth if every man was his own 
 insurer and his own savings bank? We are not 
 yet prepared to answer this question of vital 
 interest, and it would take volumes to exhaust the 
 arguments />r^ and con. We can only hint at 
 one or two. Insurance offers a premium to crime 
 and dishonesty. Mr Plimsoll has demonstrated 
 beyond all doubt the damning fact that thousands 
 of unseaworthy ships, over-insured, are sent to 
 sea for the purpose of being lost, as a pecuniary 
 speculation, while Fire Insurance records abun- 
 dantly show that about one-half the fires on 
 insured property are the result of deliberate and 
 diabolic incendiarism. Worse than this, many 
 murders have been committed both by men and 
 women, and that, too, by near relatives, inspired 
 by the hellish thirst of gold to be obtained on 
 Life Insurance policies. ^^ Where will you go 
 when I am dead ? " said an anxious dying husband 
 to the wife of his bosom. ^^ Go I why to the Life 
 Insurance Office, of course ! " was the cool reply. 
 
1/2 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 A man who has pinched and saved to pay his 
 premium on a £1000 policy for fifty years, cer- 
 tainly deserves credit for providing for his heirs, 
 although they may neither need the money nor 
 thank him for his loving providence. But suppose 
 a sudden blow of adversity compels him to omit the 
 fiftieth payment, and his policy lapses. His heirs 
 get nothing, and all his life-long savings have 
 gone to pay Insurance salaries and to enrich 
 Insurance shareholders. It is this consideration 
 that is turning the attention of thinking men to 
 the general subject of Insurance economy. In 
 the case we have just supposed, a cautious, 
 prudent, thrifty man might have made out of the 
 money invested in his policy ten times the amount 
 insured. Again, he might have speculated un- 
 fortunately and lost it all. There is much to be 
 said on both sides of this great question, and we 
 invite a full discussion of the subject in the 
 columns of The Cosmopolita7i. Meantime the 
 public cannot be too cautious of the character of 
 the Companies to which they trust their sacred 
 savings for post-mortem purposes. Rotten Insur- 
 ance Companies and bogus Savings Banks exist in 
 all countries, and the managers of these frauds 
 are criminals of the blackest dve. 
 
AMERICAN PRESS SCANDALS. 1 73 
 
 AMERICAN PRESS SCANDALS. 
 
 Truly we have fallen upon an age of Iconoclasm. 
 " Rien n'est sacre pour un sapeur/' and the 
 '• sapeurs " of the Church are everywhere at work. 
 And not only is the Church being insidiously 
 undermined, but reverence for the State, for the 
 '' divinity that doth hedge a King " no longer 
 exists. Even the good and gracious Queen Vic- 
 toria, the model Mother of England, does not escape 
 the slings and arrows of outrageous criticism. We 
 have before us a copy of the New York Times, 
 containing a letter from its London correspondent, 
 giving an account of the Royal Servants' Ball at 
 Balmoral, where Her Majesty is depicted, not only 
 as romping in a dance with her grandchildren — 
 all very proper — but as rollicking in a reel with 
 John Brown, ^'her favourite gillie," which is 
 positively shocking ! The correspondent adds, that 
 this unseemly exhibition of Her Majesty is making 
 a great talk in London. The Times is owned by 
 a company — that is, by a corporation, witli ''no 
 
1/4 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 soul" — and edited by an imported an ti- American 
 Englishman. Tliis is a standing marvel to the 
 American people, as the Times assumes to be the 
 leader of the Republican party, and the ^^ organ" 
 of the Grant Administration. Our English readers 
 may get a tolerably just idea of the awkwardness 
 of the situation by '^ supposing " the Standard^ 
 the organ of the Disraeli Administration, to be 
 edited by a freshly-imported Yankee. One of 
 the main objects of the Times seems to be to 
 convince the public that the Tribune is falling oif 
 in circulation. The editor is continually proposing 
 to bet that he knows more about his neighbours' 
 business than they themselves know. This may 
 be deemed 'Hionourable competition" by the 
 Times concern, but it is decidedly e^?e-English. 
 Whether the Tribune prints less or more copies 
 since the loss of Greeley, its immortal founder, 
 it has certainly greatly improved in character by 
 its noble emancipation from the Procrustean bonds 
 and bandages of partisanship. Like the Herald — 
 the greatest /z^r^j^-paper in the world — the course 
 of the Tribune is now as free and refreshing as 
 the river that " windeth at its own sweet will." 
 And no paper that is not free is worth buying or 
 reading. Party newspapers are filled with personal 
 puffs and political tirades, unjust to their objects 
 and insulting to the intelligence of the reader. 
 
AMERICAN PRESS SCANDALS. I 75 
 
 Praise and abuse of public men, by a partisan 
 press, is simply a question of politics. And tlie 
 sectarian criticisms of the so-called '^ Religious 
 Press," are equally indiscriminate and unjust. 
 " Orthodoxy is my doxy, and your doxy is 
 heterodoxy," sums up the whole philosophy of 
 sectarian intolerance, which forces upon us the 
 sad conclusion that Christianity, instead of uniting 
 the great Family of Man, divides it into hundreds 
 of hostile camps and fierce antagonisms. The 
 only remedy for these universal and obstructive 
 differences is the harmonising influence and all- 
 embracing philosophy of cosmopolitanism. As a 
 sample of the more generous sentiments of the 
 American press, we find the following tribute to 
 the ^' Powers that be," in a leading article of the 
 New York Herald-, — ^^ Queen Victoria yesterday 
 commenced the thirty-seventh year of her reign. 
 The day was celebrated in England by the ringing 
 of bells, the firing of salutes, and other demon- 
 strations suitable to the occasion. It is note- 
 worthy that on Tuesday of last week the Pope 
 completed the twenty-seventh year of his reign. 
 It is not unfair, we think, to say that, of all the 
 European rulers of the time, these two are the most 
 popular. They have ruled during the most 
 momentous years of modern history, and we 
 believe we express the general sentiments of the 
 
176 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 American people when we say that the death of 
 the one or the other would be felt to be a world- 
 wide calamity. In troublous times the Queen has 
 maintained the dignity of the Throne and won the 
 love of her subjects. In times of serious peril the 
 Pope has maintained the authority of the chair of 
 St Peter, and, if the temporal power is gone, the 
 spiritual power is greater than ever. Both have 
 ruled wisely and well, and both have won the 
 respect of the world." Except among that unhappy 
 class who cherish a chronic hatred for all their 
 superiors in character, intellect, wealth, and 
 station, there is no unkind feeling in America 
 towards the Queen or the people of England. On 
 the contrary, there is no city in the world where 
 the Queen, or any member of the Royal Family, 
 would received so cordial a welcome as in New 
 York. And as for ^' Old England," the blessed 
 mother of us all, the Americans unanimously 
 regard it as the greatest country in the world — 
 except their orcn. 
 
INTERNATIONAL INHUMANITY, IJ'J 
 
 INTERNATIONAL INHUMANITY, 
 
 We have good reasons for believing that the 
 American Centennial of 1876 will be honoured by 
 the presence of a representative Prince from each 
 of the reigning dynasties of Europe — the Prince 
 of Wales, or one of his Royal brothers, from 
 England; the Prince Imperial of France; the 
 Prince of the Austrias, from Spain ; Prince Hum- 
 bert or Amadeus, from Italy ; Prince Frederick, 
 from Germany ; and Grand Dukes from Russia, 
 Austria, and other reigning Powers. Will not 
 this great national solemnity be also a fit occasion 
 for convening a *' Congress of Nations " in the 
 interest of peace and humanity ? It is high time 
 that a world calling itself civilised, to say nothing 
 of the boast of being '^ Christianised," ^' evangel- 
 ised," "redeemed," &c., should stay the hand of 
 human slaughter, stop cutting each other's throats, 
 abolish its gun manufactories, " beat its swords 
 into ploughshares, its spears into pruning-hooks, 
 and learn the art of war no more." So long as 
 
1 78 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 men of the uppermost classes, called ^^ officers/' 
 deem it an honour to walk the streets with human- 
 butcher knives dangling at their sides, society 
 cannot honestly pretend to anything but a state 
 of semi-barbarism. The colossal fortunes of the 
 age we live in are made, not by manufacturing 
 trinkets for Diana of the Ephesians, but by imple- 
 ments of death for the bloody Moloch of War. 
 Is not this damnable fact infinitely disgraceful to 
 our so-called civilisation ? And who are respon- 
 sible for this infamous state of things — the rulers 
 of the people, the men who make the laws, or 
 the men who make the law-makers ? Human 
 nature is vicious and perverse, say the Powers 
 at the head of nations. The people must be 
 coerced into duty and justice, and that violently, 
 by bullet and bayonet. Even religious opinions 
 and dogmas must be maintained and propagated 
 at the point of the sword, and millions of inno- 
 cent men must ^' bite the dust " to keep a King 
 on his throne or a Pope in his chair. Such is 
 the record of history, the fallacy of tradition. 
 And the whole theory and j^ractice of govern- 
 ment is a fraud and a lie. Individuals, as a 
 rule, settle their disputes without coming to 
 blows, much less to murder, and it would be 
 vastly easier for nations to arrange their affairs 
 reasonably and amicably than for individuals, as the 
 passion involved in the controversy loses its intens- 
 
INTERNATIONAL INHUMANITY. 1 79 
 
 ity and bitterness in proportion to the numbers that 
 divide and share it. Why, then, is not the Carlist 
 Rebellion in Spain, and the war for Independence 
 in Cuba, summarily settled by the intervention of 
 nations, and an end put to this daily slaughter ? 
 Simply because certain powerful and devilish parties 
 have a direct interest in continuing the destructive 
 strife. Gun-makers, powder-makers, and cartridge- 
 makers are all enriched by these wars ; while, in 
 Spain, the Priesthood — an institution that professes 
 to represent the ^^ Prince of Peace," and to preach a 
 religion that condemns the shedding of human blood 
 as the greatest of all crimes — is the very source and 
 soul of the Rebellion. And yet the neighbouring 
 Powers look on the bloody carnage with their hands 
 in their pockets ! Yes, literally, with their hands in 
 their pockets, clinking the guineas coined from the 
 blood of the people — the victims of sectarian and 
 political ambition! Prince Alfonso, by the law of 
 Spain, is the rightful heir to the Throne. If Spain 
 has not the power to place him there, let the nations, 
 in the name of Humanity, jointly come to her 
 assistance. If the people of Spain, after a full 
 and fair plebiscite^ do not wish their young Prince 
 to reign over them as Alfonso XL, then let them 
 choose whom they will. And so of France, al- 
 though so long as the Provisional Government 
 of M^Mahon is able to ^^ keep the peace," the 
 question of Restoration is not so urgent as in 
 
l80 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Spain. As for poor Cuba, the United States 
 alone is responsible for the long suffering of the 
 '^ patriots " in their brave and desperate struggle 
 for liberty. But this charge against the United 
 States is altogether too vague, and does great 
 injustice to the American people. AYe shall 
 narrow it down, and bring it directly home to 
 the Government at Washington. Still closer, 
 and more pointedly, we charge the Secretary of 
 State, Hamilton Fish, as solely responsible for 
 the disastrous continuance of this six years' war 
 in the island of Cuba. Mr Fish alone has 
 stood between that patriotic band and Cuban 
 Independence. President Grant is for interven- 
 tion, the whole American people are for inter- 
 vention, but Prime Minister Fish is permitted 
 by an " unscrupulous Providence " to restrain, 
 through the omnipotence of an iron-clad statute, 
 the sympathetic impulses of 40,000,000 of people ! 
 " There is not water enough in all great Neptune's 
 ocean to wash this blood clean from his hands." 
 Let us have a Peace and Humanity Congress at 
 Philadelphia — the Beautiful City of Brotherly 
 Love — in 1876, and put an end to this brutal 
 war trade and international inhumanity. Let the 
 murder-munition men howl till Hell echoes. There 
 will be a new anthem of joy heard in the Heavens 
 in glad response to this Centennial Song of Peace. 
 
ROMANISM AND MASONRY. l8l 
 
 ROMANISM AND MASONRY, 
 
 Rome rejoices. Lord Ripon, with his £60,000 
 a year, has joined the Catholic Church, and His 
 Holiness the Pope is about to present the noble 
 *' pervert " with a sacred souvenir. The Prince of 
 Wales succeeds his late '^ Grand Superior " as 
 Head-Centre of British Freemasonry. These 
 ** changes " are regarded by the public generally, 
 and by the Times particularly, as very important 
 events, big with the fate of men and empires. 
 Cosmopolitanism, which has passed all sectarian 
 limits, all political stations, all social organisa- 
 tions, looks upon these ^^ great events " as the 
 merest trifles, the falling of a leaf, the evolution 
 of a cloud, the apparition of a vapour. Lord 
 Ripon has gone over to Rome, and the sun 
 continues to rise and set. Lord Ripon is an 
 apostate from the Church of his fathers, the 
 Established Church of England; and the rivers 
 still flow on to the sea. Lord Ripon accepts the 
 dogma of Immaculate Conception and human 
 
1 82 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 infallibility, and Mother Nature inexorably fulfils 
 the great law of her existence, as it was in the 
 beginning, is now, and shall be for evermore ! 
 The difference between Ritualism and Romanism 
 is the difference between mock turtle and real 
 turtle. Some prefer to swallow the genuine 
 article, without questioning ; others, the simulated 
 preparation, with more or less of hesitation and 
 doubt. In joining the Roman Church, a man 
 surrenders his reason, and blindly gulps the 
 *^ Syllabus." To be a "good Catholic," there 
 must be no more free thinking, no more logic, 
 no more philosophy. All that is required is the 
 old " fides Carbonaria " — that is, to believe what 
 the Church believes, no matter how preposterous, 
 how monstrous the creed may be. The Church 
 assumes to be wiser than science, greater than 
 Nature, and less fallible than the motions and 
 the mathematics of the solar system. The 
 Protestant Church, while professing to reject 
 these tyrannous assumptions of the Roman Hier- 
 archy, and reserving to itself the inalienable birth- 
 right of reason and freedom, fails to embody, 
 either in faith or practice, the very first principles 
 it professes. Protestantism, as represented by 
 the Established Church of England, is neither 
 liberal, logical, nor tolerant. Both Churches 
 have made of Christianity a religion of mysticism 
 
ROMANISM AND MASONRY. I 83 
 
 and mythology, and tlie '' members " of both 
 sects are mainly hypocrites, although the great 
 majority, it is charity to believe, have not the 
 intelligence to know it. In the first place, we 
 insist that no intelligent, educated mind of the 
 present century really believes in the miraculous 
 absurdities which the Roman Church, the English 
 Church, or any other Church, teach and preach 
 as doctrines ^'essential to salvation." They all 
 pretend to believe that the Author of Christian- 
 ity was supernaturally begotten, and that the 
 Palestine peasant girl who gave him birth is 
 the veritable Mother of God ! The statement of 
 this impossible dogma is sufficient for its refuta- 
 tion. But it is no use to argue with men who 
 assert that water runs uphill, or that the sun 
 revolves round the earth. The great practical 
 error of all the Churches, and of all Religions, 
 is, that they profess to save men after they are 
 dead, and not to make them good and happy while 
 living. What mean all these costly ^' Houses of 
 God," all these funeral prayers and burning 
 candles ? Is it to comfort and benefit the living? 
 Not at all. It is the future salvation of miserable 
 sinners that the Church is always looking after, 
 not the present welfare of sick and sufiering 
 humanity. In ninety-nine cases out of every 
 hundred, if men could be made comfortable for 
 
1 84 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 this life, they would willingly ^^ jump the life to 
 come." When the saints come together weekly 
 to pray that poor men's souls may be kept out 
 of Hell throughout Eternity, let them interpolate 
 in their ^^ petitions" an earnest wish that these 
 " perishing sinners " may find the bread of life 
 to-day and means to pay their rent. Further- 
 more, they might prove their sincerity, and add 
 efficacy to their prayers, by taking up contribu- 
 tions for this very purpose, instead of carrying- 
 round the hat for the " poor heathen abroad," 
 which means for the salaries of Foreign Missionary 
 Societies. Practical charity is what poor sinners 
 are dying for, not for lack of prayers and precepts. 
 To help a suffering fellow-man through the real 
 troubles of to-day is a thousand times better than 
 praying that he may escape some doubtful danger 
 to-morrow. A man dying of starvation will gladly 
 accept a loaf of life-saving bread instead of prayers 
 for his soul's repose after death. This is a world 
 of realities, not illusions. We know what we are, 
 and what we want to-day ; we know not where 
 we shall be, or what we may need, to-morrow. 
 In fact, we positively know absolutely nothing 
 beyond the grave. It is the present life, not the 
 future, that concerns us most. If the Cliurches 
 of all sects and creeds would take this practical, 
 cosmopolitan view of their duties, there would be 
 
ROMANISM AND MASONRY. 1 85 
 
 a Keligion of Humanity far above all these petty 
 and petulant ecclesiastical divisions of Rome, and 
 Greece, and England. The world would then 
 consist of but one harmonious Family of Nations, 
 with one Church and one State at the head of all. 
 The ostracism of the secret society of Freemasons 
 by the Roman Church is characteristic of the 
 intolerance of that ancient, moss-grown, worm- 
 eaten, ivy-bound Hierarchy. It is the policy of 
 the Church to allow its members the possession 
 of no secrets, especially its female members. The 
 Confessional must know all. If a woman has 
 ^'sinned," she must unbosom the delicate secret 
 to her ''• Father Confessor," who, of course, 
 administers ghostly admonition, at the same 
 time assuring the fair penitent that, having 
 discovered a worm in the fruit, there is no harm 
 in taking a bite himself. The Roman Priests 
 manage these "pastoral relations" and "nest- 
 hiding " scenes much better than bungling 
 Protestants — Beecher, for instance, over whose 
 imprudent tilt on Elizabeth more noise is made 
 than at any similar chute since the " Fall of 
 Adam." But the Rev. Beecher is only following 
 in the footsteps of the Saints of Old, whom he 
 and all his craft are constantly holding up to 
 admiring congregations as models worthy of all 
 imitation. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses, 
 
I 86 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 David and Solomon, were all, according to the 
 *' Sacred AYord," more or less guilty of Brigliam 
 Youngamy. And Beeclier is probably neither 
 better nor worse than his "holy examples." As 
 for the great battle between the Old Catholics 
 and the Reformers, it is growing hotter and hotter, 
 and promises to be the great event of the close of 
 the century. The Masons, and all Secret Societies, 
 will now take active part against Mother Church, 
 and when Pio Nono closes his eyes, there will be 
 an earthquake in the Vatican. In the meantime 
 it may be interesting to refer to a letter from the 
 Pope — addressed to the Archbishop of Paris — on 
 the subject of Masonry some years ago. In this 
 letter all Secret Societies are denounced as " sects 
 of impiety, bound only by complicity in odious 
 crimes, full of perverse manoeuvres and diabolical 
 crimes ; corrupters of morals, and destroyers of 
 every idea of honour, truth, and justice ; propa- 
 gators of monstrous opinions ; disseminators of 
 abominable vices and unheard-of wickedness, and 
 capable, if possible, of driving God from Heaven." 
 This is pretty strong. It should, however, be 
 remembered that it is admitted by Masonic writers 
 that not the Papacy, but the States-General of 
 Holland, had the discredit of beginning the 
 persecutions of Masons. Not until 1738 did 
 Clement XII. fulminate his bull a^ifainst Masonrv. 
 
ROMANISM AND MASONRY. 1 8/ 
 
 Freemason writers are foud of asserting that the 
 present Pope himself once belonged to the 
 fraternity. And when by his orders the priests 
 of Madrid refused to perform the services of the 
 Church over the body of Prince Henry of Bourbon, 
 they accused him of violation of his Masonic oath, 
 and they asserted that the statements made in 
 his letter to M. Darboy were either calumnies, 
 or were flagrant infringements of the vow which 
 he took on entering the Order. We close with 
 one word for the priests of all denominations : 
 The man who preaches better things than he 
 practises, whose sermon is holier than his life, is 
 a fraud. 
 
1 88 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ENGLISH GIRLS IN LONDON. 
 
 Certain long-siglited philanthropists have been 
 getting up a sympathy meeting in Manchester in 
 behalf of the " poor English girls in Paris," at 
 which the Bishop of Manchester presided. Are 
 these good people aware of the fact that the City 
 of London swarms with poor English girls, who 
 are in quite as wretched a condition as any of 
 their conn try women in Paris ? It is estimated 
 that a hundred thousand prostitutes nightly hunt 
 for bread in the streets of the Great Metropolis, 
 infesting all its highways and byways. We say, 
 deliberately, hunt for bread, or rather for money, 
 as this is the motive of nine out of every ten 
 of these miserable women who haunt the streets 
 in pursuit of their disreputable vocation. And 
 they belong to all classes and conditions of society, 
 including married, unmarried, and widowed. From 
 Pall Mall to Portland Place, and from twilight to 
 midnight, a countless multitude of these sad beg- 
 gars lie in wait for their prey. Bat it is poverty, 
 
ENGLISH GIRLS IN LONDON, 1 89 
 
 not passion, that sends these women into the street 
 to traffic witli strangers in a way repugnant to 
 every instinct of woman's nature. At first they 
 will importune a man to accompany them home, 
 or offer to go home with him, and, on being 
 refused, will beg piteously for a shilling, a glass 
 of beer, or of gin. No doubt drink is the prin- 
 cipal cause of all this miser3\ Excited by drink, 
 a woman commits her first faux pas, and then 
 she goes on drinking to stupefy her sensibilities, 
 and drown her sense of shame. And London is 
 inundated with these miserable sinners. But our 
 philanthropists overlook all this sin and suffering 
 at home, and go over to the gay capital of France 
 to find a field for the exercise of their charities. 
 They want £10,000 to build a " Home " in Paris 
 for English women stranded there. Not less than 
 £1,000,000 is needed here in London to relieve 
 the suffering and starvation of these 100,000 
 street-walkers, who are struggling to live on the 
 " wages of sin," many of whom dare not enter 
 their rooms at night without their " wages " in 
 their pockets. And yet our goody-goody Church- 
 folk pass by all this aiisery on their own door- 
 steps, and hold their '^ regular prayer-meetings," 
 and " take up contributions " for the conversion 
 of the happy heathen of Borrioboolagha ! Aris- 
 tocratic ladies despise these poor Magdalenes 
 
190 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 of the streets, and gather up their immaculate 
 robes whenever one of ''• these women " passes, as 
 if a pestilence approached. At the same time 
 Madame Respectability, assuming a virtue that 
 she does not possess, may be a monster of false- 
 hood, infidelity, and hypocrisy, and a thousand 
 times more guilty in the sight of Infinite Purity 
 than these poor honest prostitutes on whom she 
 casts a withering look of scornful contempt. 
 The judgments of men, and of women too, are 
 sometimes unjust. If we had the purse of a 
 Rothschild or a Coutts, we would not go to 
 Paris or to China for the objects of our charity, 
 but would distribute the " bread of life " freely 
 along Regent Street among the multitude of 
 hungry and unhappy women who nightly haunt 
 that fashionable promenade. 
 
THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY. I9I 
 
 THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY. 
 
 This is the attractive title of an exceedingly fas- 
 cinating book, written by Samuel Woodworth 
 Cozzens, and published by Sampson Low & Co., 
 in a handsome volume of 532 pages, illustrated by 
 over 100 engravings. We have read the work at 
 a single sitting, and with an interest unsurpassed 
 even by the scientific fictions of Jules Yerne. 
 The author has passed three years in the " Marvel- 
 lous Country " of Arizona and New Mexico, and his 
 descriptions, which have the marks of authenticity, 
 are of the most picturesque, romantic, and thrilling 
 character. Mr Cozzens meets and quotes men from 
 whose lips we have often heard of the beautiful 
 scenery, the mountain sublimity, and the mineral 
 marvels which form the subject of his wonderful 
 book. General Gadsden, the American Minister, 
 who negotiated the Mexican Treaty, at whose 
 pleasant plantation in South Carolina we have 
 heard of the inestimable value of the " Gadsden 
 Purchase ; " John R. Bartlett, the United States 
 
192 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Commissioner to settle tlie "' Boundary Question " 
 between Mexico and the United States ; Sjdvester 
 Mowry, one of the earliest American settlers in 
 Arizona, and the first to represent the Territory 
 ut Washington ; J. Koss Browne, who visited the 
 Mines as United States Surveyor ; and Colonel C. 
 D. Boston, also a representative from Arizona 
 at Washington, and who has long lived in that 
 *^ Marvellous Country " as manager of a great 
 Mining Company; from each and all of these 
 actual ^' surveyors of the land " we have had the 
 same general report now more fully and graphi- 
 cally given in the charming volume before us. 
 We should like to give our readers a resume of 
 the contents of this rare work ; but, better still, 
 if we can only induce them to read it, as the 
 perusal cannot fail to turn the footsteps of 
 European travellers towards the ^^ Marvellous 
 Country," many of whom would doubtless be 
 inclined to remain there for life, or at least loner 
 enough to carve their fortunes from the silver 
 mountains of Arizona and Sonora. In 1514, 
 twenty-two years after the discovery of the New 
 World by Columbus, Cortez conquered Mexico, 
 and found the Aztecs, as the people were then 
 called, in possession of immense quantities of 
 gold, silver, and precious stones. Hence the 
 name of El Dorado given to the new country by 
 
THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY. 1 93 
 
 the Spaniards. To the question — " Where did all 
 this treasure come from ? " — Montezuma's only 
 repljj even when put to the torture, was, ^^from 
 the ISTorth-West," from a country known as 
 Cibola, the Buffalo, far beyond the limits of 
 Montezuma^s empire. The Cibola of that day is 
 the Arizona of this, which means ^^ the silver- 
 bearing land." No wonder that the Mexicans 
 were so reluctant to cede this rich territory to the 
 United States for the comparatively insignificant 
 sum of 10,000,000 of dollars. It is confidently 
 predicted that the product of a single Arizona 
 silver mine will reach 100,000,000 dollars in a 
 single year. In the monastery of Dolores, in 
 Zacatecas, there are parchment records of Father 
 Kino, who, in the year 1658, explored this ^^ Mar- 
 vellous Country " alone, in the interest of his 
 Church, *' the Cross his only protection, the 
 wilderness his only purveyor," and found gold and 
 silver utensils more plentiful than iron, No doubt 
 this brave old monk followed the course of the 
 Santa Cruz river, in what is now the province of 
 Sonora, until he reached its junction with the 
 Gila. Father Kino describes the people as primi- 
 tive and patriarchal, whose flocks and herds were 
 immense, whose religion was Sun-worshi]3, and 
 upon whose altars a flame of devotion was, and 
 still is, always burning. From that day to this 
 
194 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 tlie people have changed but little, and the coun- 
 try still less. There are the wonderful silver 
 mines, as rich and as inexhaustible as in the 
 time of the Montezumas ; there is the ^* Organ 
 Mountain," with its forty various-coloured pipes 
 gleaming in the sun ; there are the wonderful 
 cities of natural architecture, rivalling the work 
 of man ; the cactus tree, four feet in diameter, 
 fifty feet high, the trunk fluted like a Corinthian 
 column, and bursting into bloom of indescribable 
 splendour at the top ; and there are curious 
 mounds, enchanting valleys, fragrant forests, 
 flowing streams, innumerable birds of strange 
 bright plumage, and all the varied products of 
 nature and of civilisation in the way of fruits, 
 vegetables, cereals, &c. The book is rightly 
 named. It is indeed a " Marvellous Country." 
 Mr Cozzens gives ns nothing particularly new in 
 regard to the richness of the mines of Arizona and 
 Sonora. We have had all the facts and figures in 
 a more exact form in the ofiicial reports of Browne, 
 Bartlett, Pumpelly, and others. The latter author, 
 who deserves to be called the Humboldt of America, 
 in his " Notes of a Five Years' Journey Round 
 the World," is full of most valuable information 
 in regard to Arizona. To the question why these 
 rich mines have been comparatively neglected 
 since the acquisition of the Territory by the United 
 
THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY. 1 95 
 
 States, two reasons may be given as sufficient 
 answer : — The Civil War and the Apache Indians. 
 The former is at an end, and the Indians are 
 nearly all exterminated. Cochise, the vindictive 
 and revengeful Chief, is dead, and the remnant of 
 his hostile tribe will soon be utterly extinct. The 
 only way to reform an Apache is to kill him. 
 After reading the horrible details of their cruelties, 
 even a *' Quaker Commissioner " would be dis- 
 posed to change his policy of conciliation for one 
 of extermination. Like beasts and birds of prey, 
 rattlesnakes, and other venomous reptiles, the 
 sooner these pestilential ^^Injins "are ^4mproved" 
 from the face of the earth the better for them- 
 selves and the rest of mankind. To return to the 
 natural wonders of this " Marvellous Country." 
 Forty miles west of the Rio Grande is the river 
 Mimbres, which occasionally sinks and disappears 
 in the plains, re-appearing miles below. This is 
 one of the unique wonders of the world. Then 
 there is the '' Ojo Caliente," hot spring, on the 
 top of a mound 962 feet in circumference at the 
 base, and 46 feet in height. The water sustains 
 a perpetual temperature of 135° Fahrenheit, and 
 when cooled is drinkable. For hot bathing it is 
 wonderfully efficacious in all scrofulous complaints. 
 What an attraction for a grand hotel des invalides ! 
 In the Mesilla Valley we have the famous El Paso 
 
196 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 grape, of whicli a liundred tliousand gallons of 
 wine are annually made, equal to tlie finest Port 
 or Burgundy. The El Paso vine was introduced 
 by the priests from Portugal in the year 1680. 
 Among other marvellous customs of the country 
 we give the following '' religious anecdote : " — Our 
 author attends a cock-fight, ^^ after vespers, in the 
 yard of the church, at which silver ounces freely 
 changed hands. Each cock was armed with the 
 old-fashioned Spanish slasher, a long, thin, steel 
 blade, shaped somewhat like a hoop, and most 
 effective in destroying the life of the bird in whose 
 body it is once sheathed. The priest who officiated 
 at vespers was the owner of the winning cock, his 
 opponent having been brought from Tucson. Of 
 course we congratulated him upon his good fortune, 
 and his hearty mil gracias convinced us that his 
 soul was quite as much with his bird as it had 
 been with his service." Mr Cozzens gives the 
 following picture of Tubac, where he found 'Uhe 
 elite of Arizona. It was also the headquarters 
 of the Arizona Mining Company ; and it was here 
 that we met Mr Poston, the agent and superinten- 
 dent of the Company. The town itself was very 
 attractive, with its beautiful groves of acacias, its 
 peach orchards, and its pomegranates, situated, as 
 it is, immediately on the banks of the Santa Cruz, 
 and embowered in the most luxuriant foliage. In 
 
THE MARVELLOUS COUNTRY. 10)1 
 
 close proximity to this town are to be foniicl the 
 Santa Eita, the Heintzlemau, and the Cerro Gordo 
 mines, the richest yet discovered in the Territory." 
 Among* the Custom-House archives of Guaymas, 
 the seaport of Sonora, is found the ^' entry." \\\ 
 1683, of a mass of virgin silver weighing 2800 lbs., 
 which was claimed for the King as a ^' curiosity." 
 Humboldt says that ^^ up to the beginning of the 
 present century, the quantity of silver taken from 
 these mines has exceeded that of gold in the ratio 
 of 46 to 1." When the Southern Pacific Kail- 
 road reaches Tucson, as it is bound to do at no 
 distant date, and a hundred thousand coolies are 
 at work in the Santa Eita Mines, in the lovely 
 Santa Eita Valley, where the thermometer stands 
 at 70° Fahrenheit all the year round, there will be 
 such an influx of the precious metals from that 
 ^^ Marvellous Country " as the world has never 
 seen since the days of Cortez. We have no know- 
 ledge of the author of this " marvellous " book, 
 except that he is an American ; but we must give 
 him credit for one of the most interesting and 
 valuable works of travel and adventure w^e have 
 ever read. Neither Humboldt, Ward, Pumpelly, 
 nor any other author has given us so fascinat- 
 ing a panorama of the Silver Land of Arizona, 
 the Treasure-House of the Montezumas, the El 
 Dorado of Cortez, the rich Mission-field of the 
 
198 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Jesuits, the most "Marvellous Country" in that 
 New World which Columbus gave to the Kingdom 
 of Castille and Leon, a new jewel to the Crown of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 
END OF THE PRETENDER. 1 99 
 
 END OF THE PRETENDER. 
 
 The report of tlie serious wounding of Don Carlos 
 lacks confirmation. We fear it is not true. This 
 sounds cruel, inhuman ; but, considering only tlie 
 greatest good of the greatest number^ the death of 
 this stupid Pretender, the catspaw of the Ultra- 
 montanes, would be a public blessing. The life 
 of this arrant traitor is worth no more than that 
 of tens of thousands who have fallen in his foolish 
 cause ; besides, the crime of treason long since 
 doomed the Pretender to death. Whether he is 
 now mortally wounded or not, the cause of the 
 Carlists, which was a lost cause from the beginning, 
 must soon collapse in a miserable j^^^^?^. It has 
 been kept alive by the Priests, who have squeezed 
 the " sinews of war " from their bigoted and be- 
 nighted followers. No end of blood and treasure 
 has been sacrificed in this wicked and hopeless Re- 
 bellion, which is now approaching the last gasp. 
 Therefore it is not unreasonable nor unjust to de- 
 sire the instant suppression of a great crime by 
 
200 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 the death of the greatest criminal. Carlismhas no 
 sympathy in Europe outside the Roman Chm^ch, 
 and only among those Ultramontanes who abandon 
 reason, common sense, and every attribute of man- 
 hood to obey the dictates of Priestcraft. The war 
 in Spain is a war between Reason and Superstition, 
 between Treason and Legitimacy. The Rightful 
 Heir to the Throne, now a student in England, is 
 naturally regarded by the better classes of the 
 Spanish people just as much their future King as 
 the Prince of Wales is so regarded by the people of 
 England. In either case, an honest popular 7^/6^^/ - 
 scite would only seat the Rightful Heir more firmly 
 on the Throne. We repeat, the death of the Pre- 
 tender and Traitor Carlos, a thick-headed youth 
 with more ambition than brains, would be an event 
 for universal rejoicing, especially to the poor country 
 that has lost by his wicked pretensions so much 
 blood and treasure. 
 
THE DEVILS INVENTION. 201 
 
 THE DEVIL'S INVENTION, 
 
 It is generally believed that gunpowder was in- 
 vented by a ^' Heathen Chinee." We are inclined 
 to doubt the tradition from the fact that the Chin- 
 ese at that epoch had no guns, and did not use 
 explosives for blasting purposes. Considering the 
 destructiveness of this infernal commodity, we must 
 regard gunpowder as the Devil's own invention. 
 Not that we believe in a personal Devil, but we do 
 believe in the existence of men endowed with all 
 diabolical passions and attributes, which practically 
 amounts to the same thing. The number of deaths 
 caused, and the amount of property destroyed, by 
 the use of this ^^ villainous saltpetre" is altogether 
 beyond our arithmetic to calculate. As for any 
 good that has resulted from the invention we leave 
 others to estimate. And now, in addition to this 
 fearful explosive, science has given us dynamite, 
 glycerine, and gun-cotton, and there is more than 
 enough of these deadly agents in the warehouses 
 of London to blow the entire citv to smithereens. 
 
202 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 If the shaking up of the Regent's Park explosion 
 opens the eyes of the authorities to the perils to 
 which we are momently exposed, it will prove a 
 blessing in disguise, considering how few lives 
 were lost. Half-a-million sterling may, perhaps, 
 repair the damages of this disaster, while a hun- 
 dred millions would not cover the possible loss of 
 a similar calamity in the heart of the metropolis. 
 As the losses by the late calamity will principally 
 fall on house-owners, no doubt an energetic effort 
 will be made to guard against a repetition of the 
 catastrophe. In the meantime, somebody in author- 
 ity should instantly banish all these dangerous 
 explosives to a safe distance from all human habi- 
 tations. Parliament is not in session, and, when 
 it meets, red-tape movements are slow. Some time 
 since, we are told, there was a great fire at Bromley 
 Rice Mills, and it was discovered that close under 
 the blazing pile was a barge laden with thirty tons of 
 gunpowder — six times as much as caused the de- 
 struction in St John's Wood. The barrels were 
 covered with tarpaulin ; several pieces of blazing 
 timber fell from the burning building on this cover- 
 ing, but were plucked away by courageous hands, 
 and thus the cargo and the community were saved. 
 The carriage of gunpowder through London is an 
 event of very frequent occurrence. At Blackwall 
 Stairs alone 132 tons were shipped in 1872, and 122 
 
THE DEVILS INVENTION. 203 
 
 tons in 1873 ; other shipments took place at Wap- 
 ping, Bow Creek, and elsewhere. These shipments 
 are made in quantities varying up to twenty tons, 
 and are conducted quite legally ; but Major Majen- 
 die, in stating this to the Select Committee, added 
 these significant words : — " It was carried in open 
 carts, which are, in my opinion, quite unsuitable 
 for the conveyance of powder through populous 
 places ; also, in putting the powder into barges 
 and taking it out of barges, I am told it is a com- 
 mon thing for the barrels to break and the powder 
 to be spilt, and no special precautions are taken 
 by laying down cloths, proper boats, or otherwise ; 
 add to that, that there is no power of interference 
 on the part of the police in the case of people 
 smoking in the neighbourhood. And this is a 
 point to which I wish to call most particular at- 
 tention." During the American Civil War no less 
 than 500 tons of gunpowder were stored in the 
 harbour of New York. A single spark from a 
 careless smoker would have blown the city to atoms. 
 On the whole, except for ^'sporting" purposes, 
 gunpowder might as well be abolished. Its mea- 
 sure of mischief is about filled up. Society can 
 exist without this destructive element, and that, 
 too, more happily and more securely. Is there not, 
 among all the numberless worlds of the Solar 
 System, at least one where there are no guns, or 
 
204 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 swords, or bayonets, nor professional human but- 
 chers called soldiers? Such a world would be a 
 very pleasant one to settle in. One would not 
 object to passing through the Dark Valley in order 
 to reach it. 
 
THE DREAMLAND OF THE PACIFIC. 205 
 
 THE DREAMLAND OF THE 
 PACIFIC. 
 
 The untravelled multitude, among all civilised 
 nations, entertain a vague belief in tlie existence 
 of certain ^^ Islands of the Blest," situated some- 
 where in the South Pacific Ocean, where peace, 
 plenty, and health are the normal condition of 
 man, making life one long dream, or rather reality 
 of happiness. Such is the romantic land of 
 Melville's ^^ Omoo and Typee," the " Navigators' 
 Islands " of the Dutch, the Samoan group of 
 Wilkes, and our latest editions of '' maps of the 
 world." This fair cluster of Polynesians is com- 
 posed of nine islands lying between 13° 27' and 
 14° 18' south of the equator, and between 169° 28' 
 and 172° 48' west longitude. They are of volcanic 
 origin, and onlj^ as recently as 1866 ^' a great col- 
 umn of fire burst forth from the oceai], between 
 Manua and Oloosinga, rising like a pillar to the 
 height of a thousand or more feet, and continuing 
 for a period of two weeks." All the mountains 
 
206 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 of the Samoan Islands are extinct craters ; — another 
 argument in favour of the igneous origin of all 
 things mundane — effects of the one great cause — 
 which always lead us reverently back to the om- 
 nipotent Sun, the Father of Light, and Life, and 
 Motion. Our attention has been freshly called to 
 these beautiful '^Pacific Isles" by an exceediugly 
 interesting Report recently made by Colonel A. B. 
 Steinberger to the Secretary of State at Washing- 
 ton, and communicated to the Senate in a Message 
 from the President on the 21st of April 1874. 
 Colonel Steinberger is a young man of rare ability 
 and promise. When scarcely of age, this brave 
 young pioneer, to protect his little band from a 
 pitiless Rocky Mountain snow-storm, erected the 
 first hut on the site of the flourishing city of Denver. 
 In the early part of 1873 Colonel Steinberger was 
 commissioned by the President to make a survey of 
 the Islands of Samoa, for which duty he embarked 
 from San Francisco in the pilot-boat Fanny, a 
 schooner of forty-three tons, on June 29th of the 
 same year. The Report now before us is an ex- 
 ceedingly valuable contribution to the geograph- 
 ical knowledge of the world, and will doubtless 
 make the intelligent and scientific author an hon- 
 orary member of all the Geographical and Eth- 
 nological Societies of Europe and America. The 
 marvels of those comparatively unknown Islands 
 
THE DREAMLAND OF THE PACIFIC. 20/ 
 
 are stranger than the romantic pictures of Dream- 
 laud to be gathered from the pages of Richard 
 Dana, Ross Browne, Herman Melville, Dr Mayo, 
 or any of the numerous authors who, skirting these 
 *' Islands of the Blest," and scenting their ^' spicy 
 breezes," have thrown around them the iris-hued 
 tints of Paradise. But truth is always more won- 
 derful, more beautiful, and more sublime than 
 fiction. Our surveyor's plain facts are more fas- 
 cinating than the poetic fancies of the novelists. 
 In last week's Cosmopolitan we wrote, con amore^ 
 of ^^ The Marvellous Country " of New Mexico, 
 the wonderful Silver Land of Arizona and Sonora, 
 and our little sketch is already re-appearing in the 
 French press. We now call the attention of our 
 readers to another wonder-land of a very different 
 description, inhabited by people of a very different 
 character, far away in the blue Pacific — 
 
 '•That softer clime that lies 
 In ten degrees of more effulgent skies," 
 
 There we find that sacred bird, the veritable ^^ Dodo," 
 inhabiting the most lonely parts of inaccessible 
 mountains, and only eaten by great chiefs. Col- 
 onel Steinberger brought home a live specimen, 
 which proved to be the ^'tooth-billed pigeon," 
 having three teeth upon either side of the lower 
 mandible. And there, too, although snakes are 
 
208 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 inimerous, none are venomous, and one species 
 {vivimi gatd) crows like a cock ! In 1838 Com- 
 modore Wilkes visited this charming group of 
 Islands, and all who have read his narrative will 
 remember the lovely little Princess " Emma." 
 Colonel Steinberger found her last j^ear a beautiful 
 woman of fifty. The aggregate population of the 
 group is about 36,000, of whom Upolu has 16,000 
 and Savaii 12,000. The entire area of these Islands, 
 according to Wilkes, is 1650 square miles. The 
 products embrace almost every kind of fruits and 
 vegetables known in the tropics. The magnificent 
 timber-trees are unsurpassed in size, beauty, and 
 variety. Col. Steinberger brought home forty-one 
 different specimens. The banyan flourishes in all 
 its grandeur and glory. The inhabitants are ami- 
 able, meek, and melancholy, of a dark olive com- 
 plexion, resembling polished copper. The male 
 Samoan is tall, erect, proud in bearing, with smooth, 
 straight, and well-rounded limbs. The females 
 are generally slight, especially the young girls ; 
 erect and symmetrical, easy and graceful in their 
 movements, '' the charm of light-heartedness 
 seeming to follow every action." Venereal disease 
 is unknown ; and maidens have to submit to a test 
 of their virginity before the nuptial knot is tied. 
 With even-handed justice, adultery in both sexes 
 is punished with two years of hard labour on the 
 
THE DREAMLAND OF THE PACIFIC. 209 
 
 public roads. Since the year 1830 these innocent 
 and amiable '^ heathen " have all been converted 
 to Christianity, at first through the preaching of 
 " Jimmy the Sweet," who could neither read nor 
 write, and of ^' Dan the Convict," who captured 
 the Roma, murdered the captain, burnt the ship, 
 and landed in Savaii as a volunteer missionary. 
 It w^as then that the Rev. John Williams, now 
 known as '^ the martyr," took up the " Tale of Re- 
 demption," and carried it triumphantly through 
 the Islands. Now every child can read and write, 
 repeat the Catechism, and sing hymns as glibly 
 as any Sunday-scholar in Europe. " With them 
 Sunday is a day of rest and religious devotion. 
 Food is collected on Friday and prepared on Sa- 
 turday. On the Sabbath scarcely a boat is to be 
 seen ; the hunter is never in the woods during its 
 sacred hours. Attendance upon church-meetings 
 affords almost the only sign of life ; even the sports 
 of the children are sacrificed, in a large degree, to 
 the strict observance of the day. To a stranger, 
 the village seems deserted." The laws recently 
 enacted for the government of these Islands are 
 more ^^ advanced "than those of ^Hhe most favoured 
 nations of Europe." The commerce of Samoa is 
 monopolised virtually by Germany, and that by 
 the single mercantile honse of Goddefroy & Co., of 
 Hamburg, represented at Apia, the principal port. 
 
210 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 by Mr Alfred Poppe. During the fifty-five days 
 that Col. Steinberger's schooner was in port, the 
 above firm took away no less than 5230 tons of 
 copra, dried cocoa, worth 95 dollars a ton in Europe, 
 for which they paid the natives about 20 dollars a 
 ton. Coh Steinberger found everywhere the chiefs 
 and the people anxious to come under the pro- 
 tection of the United States, and has so reported 
 to the Powers at Washington. So we may look 
 for the annexation of the Samoan group to the 
 Great Republic at no distant date. If so, we hope 
 that Col. Steinberger will be appointed Governor 
 of these lovely Islands, of which he has given so 
 good a Report. Mr Secretary Fish has shown 
 great sagacity and statesmanship in this Samoan 
 movement. He could not have selected a better 
 Commissioner for the purpose than Col. Steinber- 
 ger, who is already regarded as de facto Chief of 
 the Samoan Islands, as he not only made enthu- 
 siastic friends of the natives, but was also warmly 
 welcomed by the missionaries, of whose benevolent 
 labours he speaks in the strongest terms. 
 
AMERICAN BONDS AND ENGLISH CONSOLS. 211 
 
 AMERICAN BONDS AND ENGLISH 
 CONSOLS. 
 
 While the promises to pay of tlie British Govern- 
 ment yield only three per cent, interest per annum, 
 and the United States Bonds pay five per cent., 
 it is simply a mathematical fact that the latter 
 are forty per cent, better than the former. Witli 
 so great a difference in favom- of American in- 
 vestments, why does not every holder of English 
 Consols convert them at once into American 
 Bonds? Simply because the high rate of interest 
 implies a doubt in regard to the validity of the 
 security. If the man who holds £10,000 in the 
 English Funds, deriving therefrom an income of 
 £300 a 3^ear, had as much confidence in the finan- 
 cial honour and solvency of the American Govern- 
 ment as in the English, he would instantly change 
 his investment into American Five per Cent. 
 Bonds, and swell his income to £500 a year, just 
 forty per cent, more than what he is now receiv- 
 ing. The question, then^ of the absolute securitij 
 
212 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 of American ''Securities'' is one of the utmost 
 importance to all who are living on Consols. It 
 involves many considerations — the form and 
 stability of the Government, the character of the 
 people, and the resources of the country. From 
 the very first issue of the Cosmopolitan^ soon 
 after the close of the Civil War, we have con- 
 stantly insisted that the public debt of the 
 United States was " good ; " that the interest 
 thereon would be promptly paid in gold ; that the 
 Union of the States was assured, at least for the 
 next half century ; and that the National Debt, 
 annually diminishing, might easily be totally ex- 
 tinguished before the year 1900. With this firm 
 faith in the stability of American institutions, in 
 the integrity of the American people, and in tlie 
 infinite resources of American industry, applied 
 to inexhaustible elements of agricultural and 
 mineral wealth, the Cosmopolitan^ nine years 
 ago, began to urge upon the authorities at 
 Washington the feasibility of reducing the 
 interest on the public debt from seven to five 
 per cent., and even to four. Any one who is 
 curious to verify this fact may refer to the files 
 of the paper in this office, or to the bound 
 volumes of the Cosmopolitan in the British 
 Museum. The result of these efforts may be 
 gathered from the fact that the United States 
 
AMERICAN BONDS AND ENGLISH CONSOLS. 213 
 
 Treasury Department lias established an office 
 in London, in the banking-house of the Roths- 
 childs, with John P. Bigelow, Esq., as adminis- 
 trator, for the purpose of exchanging Five per 
 Cent. United States Bonds for those bearing a 
 higher rate of interest, and for selling American 
 Five per Cents, at the rates of premium quoted 
 from day to day in the money markets of Europe. 
 "When we estimate the many millions saved to 
 the American taxpayers by this reduction of 
 interest, may not the Cosmopolitan justly in- 
 dulge in the self-complacent feeling of having 
 '' done the State some service?" The difference 
 between six per cent, and five per cent, a year on 
 £400,000,000 is £4,000,000, or 20,000,000 of 
 dollars. When the American Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer has reduced all his interest-bearing 
 debt to five per cent., he should lose no time in 
 making another 25 per cent, saving by the 
 issue of Four per Cent. Bonds, which even then 
 would be a 25 per cent, better investment than 
 English Consols. The Standard, an ultra-Con- 
 servative, and intensely anti-Eepublican Journal, 
 in a recent article endeavours to frighten capital- 
 ists by the magnitude of the American Debt, and 
 what it is pleased to call '^ democratic extrava- 
 gance." Taking Mr Blaine's estimate of all the 
 National, State, County, and Municipal obliga- 
 
214 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 tions, the Standard chuckles over the fact that 
 the young Republic of America, not yet a century 
 old, has become as deeply involved in debt as the 
 ancient Monarchy of England, whose ^' flag has 
 braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze." 
 In reply to this, we will venture the prediction 
 that, long before the Government of the United 
 States is as old as England, it will have no debt 
 at all. In round numbers the Federal debt of 
 America is £428,000,000, of which £12,800,000 
 has been spent in the construction of the Pacific 
 Railway, and the awful balance in '•'• crushing out 
 the Rebellion." According to Mr Blaine, the aggre- 
 gate of the State debts amounts to £78,000,000, 
 the County debts to £36,000,000, and the Municipal 
 debts to £114,000,000. ^^And Mr Blaine delibe- 
 rately gives it as his opinion " — we are now 
 quoting the Standard — ^' that, so recklessly have 
 the loans been contracted, no town or county 
 has received ten shillings' worth of benefit for 
 each pound raised. But, however that may be, 
 we find, after all the repudiation that has been 
 practised, that the National Debts of the United 
 States still amount to about £508,000,000 
 sterling, while the local debts reach at least 
 £150,000,000. So much for the economy of 
 democratic Government in less than a centurv." 
 
AMERICAN BONDS AND ENGLISH CONSOLS. 215 
 
 The sarcasm is just. AVe have no disposition 
 and no argument to defend tlie extravagance or 
 the corruption of the American Government. 
 At the same time, we insist that the spendthrift 
 will pay his debts to the uttermost fiirthing. 
 Therefore, we have no hesitation in calling the 
 attention of capitalists to the superiority of 
 American Bonds over English Consols as a 
 permanent investment. As a general rule these 
 investments have proved gold mines to Euro- 
 peans. The Rothschilds bought American 
 securities by the bushel at 40 cents on the 
 dollar, and which now ^^ stand them in " less than 
 nothing ; while the great bulk of United States 
 Bonds held in Germany have been paid in full 
 by ten years' interest. So that, as a mere matter 
 of figures, if hundreds of millions of these Bonds 
 were repudiated to-day, original holders would 
 not lose a penny by their investment. In regard 
 to the several State debts, there is now a better 
 prospect than ever of their assumption by the 
 Federal Government. Great Britain used to be 
 the most heavily indebted nation of the world ; 
 but France, since her late war of 1870-71, 
 comes first, England second, and the United 
 States third. The figures are for the years 
 1873-74 :— 
 
2l6 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Aggregate Popula- Debt per 
 
 debt. tion. capita. 
 
 France $4,551,200,000 36,102,921 $126 
 
 Great Britain . . . 3,925,000,000 31,857,338 123 
 
 United States . . . 2,230,000,000 38,558,371 57 
 
 "VVe may measure the burden of public debt by 
 the annual interest wliicli it imposes upon the 
 taxpayers. This is the method of comparison 
 most in vogue on the Continent of Europe, and 
 it is unquestionably a fairer way of estimating 
 it, so far as the current burdens and resources are 
 concerned, than that which looks only at the 
 aggregate amount of the debt. For it must be 
 remembered that the rate per cent, of interest 
 that is paid, varies very widely in different 
 nations and upon different portions of the same 
 nation. While Great Britain pays only three 
 per cent, annual interest on her vast public 
 debt of four thousand millions of dollars, the 
 United States, on the other hand, pays rather 
 more than five per cent, on the larger share of 
 her National Debt. Besides, we must consider, 
 in any estimate of this character, that some 
 national debts (and notably that of Great 
 Britain) are not expected to be paid, but to rest 
 as a permanent charge upon the resources of 
 the country and a method of investment for the 
 capital and savings of all classes. Doubtless 
 
AMERICAN BONDS AND ENGLISH CONSOLS. 21/ 
 
 a debt which is to be liquidated so as to reduce it 
 to nothing in a certain or uncertain number of 
 years, should be estimated as to its aggregate 
 amount rather than as to its annual charge in 
 the shape of interest. But in regard to a debt 
 which it is never destined to liquidate, but to 
 continue paying interest on for a permanent or 
 indefinite period, the interest charge is the 
 factor of most importance in determining its 
 burden upon the people. A debt of 4,000,000,000 
 dollars at three per cent, is less burdensome 
 than a debt of 2,500,000,000 dollars would be 
 at five per cent. A great political revolu- 
 tion is in progress, and the Democratic, Con- 
 servative, specie-paying party are coming into 
 power. Then Uncle Sam may liquidate the 
 debts of his thirty-seven boys, and advertise to 
 all the world that " he will pay no more debts 
 of their contracting." Federal Four per Cent. 
 Bonds of about £80,000,000 will wipe out all 
 these State obligations, which would be worth 
 more than a thousand millions to American 
 credit in Europe. What an era of good feeling 
 such a magnanimous policy would inaugurate ! 
 
I 8 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 STOCK EXCHANGE GAMBLERS. 
 
 Swindling on tlie Stock Exchange has become a 
 science, and men engaged in ''Bulling" and 
 ^' Bearing " rascalities are considered respectable. 
 They live in fine houses, keep costly carriages, 
 own pews in fashionable churclies, mumble ortho- 
 dox creeds, and confess themselves '' miserable 
 sinners," which means that they regard them- 
 selves as the saints of the Lord, born to '' inherit 
 the earth." It is about time that these respect- 
 able criminals should be exposed and held up 
 to the public infamy they so richly merit. The 
 propensit}^ to gamble is an inherent attribute of 
 human nature ; and in no country of the world is 
 the gambling passion more fully developed than 
 in England. Parliament adjourns on the Derby 
 Day, the great national holiday devoted to 
 gambling on horse-speed. But England, with 
 hypocritical inconsistency, will not license a 
 gambling house, nor permit a penny toss-up in 
 the streets, or a bet for a "bob" in a public- 
 
STOCK EXCHANGE GAMBLERS. 2ig 
 
 house, altliongli '^gentlemen" may bet their 
 fortunes at Tattersall's or at the Clubs. In view 
 of the lying and cheating of the Stock Exchange, 
 in which thousands of ^' respectable " men, in- 
 cluding parsons, are daily engaged, the Cosmo- 
 politan has the courage to ^^ take the Bull by the 
 horns," and the Bear by the tail, and denounce 
 this public gambling as the greatest of public 
 crimes. Better go to Monaco or Fontarabia, and 
 sit down in an elegant room, in the company of 
 well-dressed and well-mannered people of both 
 sexes, and risk money on the turn of the roulette 
 or the colour of rouge-et-noir. It is infinitely 
 more pleasant, more honest, and should be con- 
 sidered more respectable, than the ^' cut-throat 
 game " of the Stock Exchange. The most 
 criminal feature of Stock gambling is the 
 ^'selling short" system — that is, selling what 
 one does not possess ; and, in order to get hold 
 of the article cheap, lying becomes a science. 
 These " Bears," who stick at nothing to depress 
 the quotation of the shares they wish to buy, 
 might as well sell a man's house, or his horses, 
 " short " as his shares in a mine or railway. In 
 either case the property must be depreciated by 
 false reports. Until Parliament passes a law 
 prohibiting this iniquity, we see no remedy for it. 
 And Parliament is not likely to pass any such 
 
220 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 wholesome law, as the majority of the members 
 are up to their lips in Stock ^transactions." As 
 long ago as 1732, the evils of ^' time bargains" 
 had become so manifold, that an Act, known as 
 Sir John Bernard's Act, was passed, rendering 
 all such bargains illegal, and enacting that 
 every contract for the purchase and sale of 
 stock which was not made bond fide for that 
 purpose, but was made as a speculation on the 
 fluctuation of the market, was void, and all 
 parties entering into the same were liable to a 
 penalty of £500 for each transaction. This Act 
 was, however, shortly afterwards repealed. The 
 Stock Exchange, like the Bank of England, 
 owes its origin to the embarrassments of the 
 Government shortly after the Revolution of 1688, 
 and grew out of the practice of hawking the 
 Government securities at various rates of discount 
 in Change Alley. This gave rise to ^^stock- 
 jobbing," which gradually became so thriving, 
 that it required a settled place of business, 
 whither those who were occupied in it might 
 resort. From Change Alley the fraternity re- 
 moved in 1773 to Sweeting's Alley, where a room 
 was engaged, which was called the " Stock 
 Exchange," in which any man might transact 
 his business upon payment of the sum of six- 
 pence. But the National Debt grew steadily, 
 
STOCK EXCHANGE GAMBLERS. 221 
 
 other Stocks increased, and the business of 
 stockbrokers was proportionately augmented. At 
 length, in May 1800, the foundation-stone of the 
 first Stock Exchange was laid in Capel Court, 
 where formerly had stood the residence of "William 
 Capel, Lord Mayor of London. From this time 
 none have been admitted but members, who are 
 elected by ballot, and pay an annual subscription 
 of ten guineas. The members do not constitute 
 a corporation of a joint-stock company, but form 
 a voluntary association consisting of brokers and 
 jobbers. The brokers act as agents for the purchase 
 and sale of securities for the public, while the 
 jobbers buy and sell on their own account. Eecent 
 developments in the City, and notably the Abbott- 
 Labouchere fracas, and the ^'Eupion Fuel Fraud," 
 are directing public attention to the enormity of 
 Stock Exchange crimes ; but the press treats the 
 matter gingerly. One of the proprietors of the 
 Daily Xens, a large " operator for a fall " or for 
 " a rise," who swore before the Lord Mayor that 
 he did not know the meaning of the word '^ Bear," 
 doubtless ^'inspires" the money articles of his 
 own newspaper. Hence these articles, written in 
 the interest of an interested party, can have no 
 value to the public. And this is but one specimen 
 of Stock Exchange journalism. '^ City Editors " 
 all get rich, and, Sampson-like, retire to eleo-ant 
 
222 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLAX IBS. 
 
 country seats to spend the '' contingent remainder" 
 of their successful lives. We heard a conspicuous 
 Stock Exchange broker declare the other day that 
 lie would pay the ^^ City Editor " of the Times 
 £3000 a year to dine with him once a week, and to 
 have the fact generally known in the City. Again 
 we advise all honest " speculators," desirous of 
 *' tempting fortune," to quit the Stock Exchange 
 '•' Hell" and pack off to Fontarabia, where, com- 
 fortably seated before the tajns vert of M. Du- 
 pressoir, they may pocket their gains and losses 
 with the satisfaction of knowing that, whichever 
 way the ^^luck" may run, there is no lying or 
 ^'cheating around the board." 
 
MONEY, BRAINS, AND MANNERS. 223 
 
 MONEY, BRAINS, AND MANNERS, 
 
 '' Some people has plenty money and no brains, 
 and some people has plenty brains and no money. "- 
 Such was the shrewd reflection and execrable 
 grammar of the vagabond butcher when medita- 
 ting the most impudent fraud the world has ever 
 witnessed. It suggests, however, the recogni- 
 tion of an universal fact, of which we are constantly 
 reminded — plenty of brains and no money, 
 plenty of money and no brains. The union of 
 these two excellent commodities are but the rare 
 exceptions. We know that men who have suddenly 
 acquired or tumbled into wealth are apt to flatter 
 themselves that '' brains has done it." On the 
 contrary, in nine cases out of ten, the lack of 
 brains may have done it. Men of large intellect, 
 the immaterial product of brains, are generally 
 occupied in the pursuit of something better than 
 mere riches. With their eyes on the stars, they 
 do not see the pennies to be picked up at their 
 feet. The greatest men of all ages have been 
 
224 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 proverbially the poorest men, while the Christian 
 apotheosis of humanity was a houseless, homeless 
 pauper, who ''had not where to lay His head." 
 Far be it from us to deprecate the possession of 
 wealth. Money is a very convenient thing to have 
 in the house, and fortunate is he who has never 
 touched, and never fears to touch, his " bottom 
 dollar." And yet there are many men with un- 
 limited fortunes and very limited brains, who 
 make mere wealth offensive by the ''airs" they 
 take in consequence of its possession. A vulgar, 
 purse-proud man or woman is one of the 
 most contemptible nuisances in existence. In 
 themselves absolutely nothing, they assume enor- 
 mous consequence from the fortuitous accident of 
 a large bank -account. Ill-boru, ill-bred, ill- 
 mannered, and ill-looking, they swell to bursting 
 on the possession of an adventitious attribute which 
 " perishes in the using." How many of these 
 empty-headed, plethoric purses are met in society as 
 *' honoured guests," where, stripped of wealth, they 
 would not be accepted as servants ! Let us " point 
 our moral " with an anecdote in illustration of 
 vulgar wealth. At one of our West End hotels 
 there arrived a few days since a certain American 
 lady, who demanded a room with an air that 
 smacked of " sovereignty." The manager replied 
 that the hotel was full to overflowing. " But I 
 
MONEY, BRAINS, AND MANNERS. 22 5 
 
 will have a room," shouted Madame Shoddy. 
 Somewhat startled by the emphasis with which 
 this declaration was uttered, the manager said 
 he had only one parlour unoccupied, and that 
 belonged to a gentleman who w^ould be out of 
 town for a few days. If the lady would take it 
 on the condition of giving it up when the gentle- 
 man returned, she might do so. The room was 
 accepted. A few days afterwards Mr X., who 
 had occupied the apartments for more than two 
 years, returned, and, on going to his parlour, found 
 Madame in possession, who, with a grand imperi- 
 ous air, forbade his entrance. But, Madame," the 
 gentleman remonstrated, '' there must be some 
 mistake, these rooms are mine ; you will see my 
 monogram on all the books and pictures, and I 
 have occupied them for more than two years." " I 
 don't care if you have occupied them eighty 
 years," said her lad3^ship. " My husband is the 
 richest man in Ne7v York ; and if he were here, he 
 would kick you across the street ! " The gentleman 
 beat a hasty retreat in search of the manager, 
 who came and politely reminded the irate woman 
 of the conditions on which she was permitted to 
 occupy the apartments — only until the return of 
 Mr X. ^'You lief' shrieked Madame, and the 
 curtain fell. But the rightful " claimant " was 
 soon in possession. Is it any wonder that the 
 
226 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Bno"bocracy of America get sometimes severely cri- 
 ticised in Europe, and that money minus brains 
 makes the vulgar millionaire a nuisance ? On 
 the other hand, money and brains, with a little 
 love and beauty thrown in, make the most bliss- 
 ful of all marriages. 
 
THE BIRD. 227 
 
 THE BIRD. 
 
 This is the simple, yet comprehensive, title of a 
 great work on ornithology, by Jules Michelet. It 
 is beautifully written, delicately and artistically 
 illustrated, and altogether it is one of the most 
 charming books, not only of ^^ the season," but 
 for all seasons, that we have ever read. No one 
 can close this thoughtful volume without being in 
 love with the darling little birds, and Him who 
 made them. Michelet devoutly believes that 
 birds have souls, and, after carefully considering 
 all his arguments, observations, and anecdotes, we 
 are not disposed to dispute the theory, but shall 
 henceforth regard every little bird we see on the 
 earth or in the air as a winged tJiought. Birds 
 certainly love, and plan, and reason. They also 
 have a language of their own, and communicate 
 ideas and emotions to each other. As builders 
 of nests, or homes in which to rear their young, 
 the birds are unsurpassed in ingenuity even by 
 man. AVith nothing but claw and beak and 
 
228 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 breast to procure materials and shape tlieir little 
 cradles, the nest of the ^' humming-bird," for 
 instance, is a marvellous piece of architecture ; 
 and so is the woodpecker's a work both of archi- 
 tecture and sculpture. And when it comes to 
 music, no human ijrima donna has ever yet 
 equalled the rich, voluptuous, and varied song of 
 the nightingale. We deliberately use the word 
 varied, as the miraculous music of this '^ soul of 
 melody " is never the same, but an infinite varia- 
 tion and amplification on the eternal theme of 
 Love, which we take to be the keynote of creation. 
 The highest compliment ever paid to a great 
 singer is to call her a " nightingale." It made 
 one celebrated Italian cantatrice weep to be thus 
 saluted by the peasants of Russia. In teaching 
 their little ones first to fly and then to sing, the 
 bird exhibits something more than what we vaguely 
 call instinct. The patient lessons are given by 
 " precept and example too." In the East, young 
 nightingales, tamed, are taken to a regular sing- 
 ing-school, and placed in a room where a famous 
 old singer gives them practical lessons, and his 
 attentive little pupils soon become experts. But 
 why does this strange bird, of unattractive form 
 and plumage, sing in the night ? Is not the day 
 long enough to exhaust the flood of melody that 
 swells in his little bosom, aching with joyful pain 
 
THE BIRD. 229 
 
 or painful joy ? The lark, that ^^ singing up to 
 heaven^s gate ascends," bursts into music at the 
 first touch of light, and never utters a note in 
 darkness. But the dear little 
 
 " Nightingale, that all day long 
 Has cheered the village with his song ; 
 Nor yet at eve his note suspended, 
 Nor yet when eventide is ended," 
 
 makes even midnight darkness seem luminous 
 with the gushing melody of his sweet-toned 
 music. Is it joy or sorrow that inspires the lay ? 
 Sometimes it makes us weep, sometimes it makes 
 us glad; but that depends not so much on the 
 tones of the singer as on the mood of the listener. 
 ^' There's not a bonnie bird that sings," says 
 Burns, " but minds me 0' my Jean ; " and not 
 only the soul-entrancing music of the nightingale, 
 but the ^^ home-notes " of all other birds are 
 fraught with plaintive associations. The short, 
 sharp notes of the swallow that twittered under 
 the eaves of the old homestead ; the mournful 
 repetitions of the robin that sang and rocked on 
 the willow that wept over a mother's grave — we 
 can never hear these touching tones in any land, 
 or under any circumstances, without a momentary 
 moistening of the eyes, and a wish that we too 
 had wings to fly away from the approaching 
 
230 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 winter, and be at rest. Thank God, since the 
 age of thirteen we have never killed a bird but 
 once, and that was a duck for dinner. And we 
 wish all our little brother and sister birds to know 
 the fact ! 
 
LIFE AMONG THE MO DOCS. 23 I 
 
 LIFE AMONG THE MO DOCS, 
 
 ''Lonely as God, and white as a winter moon, 
 Mount Shasta starts up sudden and solitary from 
 the heart of the great black forests of Northern 
 California." With this lofty sentence, the key- 
 note of a prose poem, well sustained to the end? 
 Joaquin Miller opens his ^' Life Among the Mo- 
 docs," the author of which will not only be known 
 hereafter as the " Poet of the Sierras," but as the 
 friend of the Red Man, as the noble old Indian 
 Chief Logan is known as " the friend of the White 
 Man." The book is fitly dedicated to the Red 
 Men, and we do not hesitate to pronounce it the 
 best work on the North American Indians ever 
 written. The author lived among them, loved 
 them, and understands them better than any 
 ''pale face" who has ever abused or defended 
 them. Near the close of the volume we find this 
 solemn sentence — " When I die, I shall take this 
 book in my hand, and hold it up in the Day of 
 Judgment as a sworn indictment against the rulers 
 
232 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 of my country for the destruction of these people." 
 Miller evidently differs from Bret Harte, who de- 
 clares that ^^ Injins is pisin." Great injustice has 
 always been done to these aboriginal tribes. Neither 
 Cooper's pen nor Catlin's pencil has depicted 
 the " noble savage " as he was and is before his 
 contact with the White Men, before his demorali- 
 sation by fire-water and missionaries. From the 
 day that brave Old Samoset shouted " Welcome 
 Englishmen ! " on the Hill of Plymouth, the poor 
 Indian has been the prey of Anglo-Saxon cupidity. 
 Few figures in history stand out grander or nobler 
 than that of King Philip of the Narragansetts, 
 who fought so bravely and died so gloriously on 
 Mount Hope, in Rhode Island, where his ancestors 
 had reigned for thousands of years. But no sooner 
 is the Indian touched by civilisation than he imbibes 
 all its vices and loses all his virtues. Originally 
 he is proud, brave, and just. He will not turn 
 on his heel to save his life, nor tell a lie to save 
 his empire. But having been once tricked, cheated, 
 and betrayed by his pale-faced enemies, he cheats 
 and betrays in his turn, although he is no match 
 for the subtleties of Christian treachery, for men 
 with whom trade is a swindle and deception a life- 
 long profession. In this ^^ Life " by Miller, who 
 has penetrated farther into the interior of Indian 
 character, customs, and history than any other 
 
LIFE AMONG THE MODOCS. 233 
 
 author we know, we liave quite a new picture of 
 the " noble savage " in his primeval home — pictures 
 of Eed Men who have never seen a missionary, 
 never tasted fire-water, never learned to lie. And 
 these are very unlike those miserable wretches 
 lounging on the borders of civilisation, so graphi- 
 cally described by Train in his famous parody on 
 the Pawnees, who, when they get a pair of old 
 breeches, cut the bottom out and mount them — 
 
 " Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind, 
 Clothes him before, and leaves him bare behind ! " 
 
 These are the ^^ noble specimens " of the vanishing 
 Red Race one sees from the car-window all along 
 the line of the far Western Railways ; but they are 
 very unlike those majestic " lords of the soil " 
 who live under the shadows and ever-changing 
 glories of Mount Shasta. But of all this there is 
 a treat in store for the readers of this great book. 
 While we have no reason to doubt the author's 
 facts, and quite agree in his conclusions, we can- 
 not shut our eyes to the poetic glamour and romance 
 which illumines every sentence and magnifies every 
 act. His heroes are — himself, ^^ the Prince," and 
 a beautiful young Indian girl — Paquita. As for 
 '^ the Prince " — Colonel James Thomas — who hap- 
 pens at this moment to be in London, the author 
 is absolutely in love with him ; and if there is no 
 exaggeration in the good deeds attributed to him, 
 
234 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ^' the Prince " is indeed a rare fellow, and worthy 
 of all admiration. We can only say, from per- 
 sonal acquaintance, that his appearance is *^a 
 combination and a form " to make women mad and 
 men jealous ; and his, also, is a character, as they 
 say out in those wild '^diggins," to tie up to. 
 There is another character in the book, ^'a nearer 
 and a dearer one," about which the author says 
 but little. ^^ Communication is sometimes blas- 
 phemy ; " but he opens his heart just enough to 
 let us see what and whose child occupies it — the 
 beautiful half-breed girl now at school in San 
 Francisco, learning catechism and coquetry among 
 her White sisters. No doubt Tennyson's lines 
 had something to do with Joaquin Miller's flight 
 into the wilderness — 
 
 '•' I will take some savage woman ; 
 She shall rear my dusky race." 
 
 This book is making a great' sensation in England, 
 and will have a wide sale, even at 16s. a copy. It 
 is elegantly issued by Bentley, and is already in 
 the hands of all the dukes and duchesses in the 
 United Kingdom. It has given us one pleasant 
 Sabbath, even in the dreary solitude of a London 
 hotel. We advise everybody to read it. Nothing 
 fresher or more vigorous has yet appeared from the 
 American wilderness. It makes a modern ^^ society 
 novel " seem impertinent. 
 
DISPOSAL OF DEAD BODIES. 235 
 
 DISPOSAL OF DEAD BODIES. 
 
 There is a widespread agitation going on just now 
 as to the wisest mode of disposing of dead bodies. 
 Sir Henry Thompson's recent articles on the sub- 
 ject have excited a profound, and, we may add, 
 a painful interest ; for, to the least sentimental 
 mind, either the burying or the burning of human 
 corpses is a matter of the saddest reflection. 
 Hard as it is, we must treat the question purely as 
 a sanitary and economical one. The eye of the 
 living must not linger on the body of the dead, 
 nor imagination follow the slow and ghastly 
 changes of the tomb. We turn away from the 
 grave of a dear friend with a sigh and a shudder, 
 resolved only to recall the form and features of 
 the dead as they appeared when warm with life 
 and radiant with love. And thus departed friends 
 become sacred and immortal memories ; and the 
 longer we live, the richer is our mental picture gallery. 
 As it matters not to the insensate body whether it 
 is quickly reduced to a handful of ashes, or buried 
 
236 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Leneath the ground, to '^ lie in cold obstruction and 
 to rot " for years and ages, it is the duty of society 
 to consider only two things in disposing of it. The 
 first is a question of public health, and the other one 
 of mere economy in time and money. On these 
 grounds the argument is all on the side of Cre- 
 mation. Graveyards are not pleasant to look at 
 as landscapes, nor to contemplate as receptacles 
 of corruption. There can be no doubt that deadly 
 gases, escaping from shallow graves, have often 
 bred miasmatic fevers. Again, the cost of burial is 
 a serious item in domestic expenditure, especially 
 as extravagance in coffins keeps pace with extrava- 
 gance in everything else, and that, too, with the 
 least possible excuse for such ironical ostentation. 
 We cannot blame a man for liking to live in a 
 fine house, to ride in a comfortable carriage, and 
 to wear nice clothes ; but the money invested on 
 silver-nailed and gold-plated coffins is not only a 
 piece of wanton extravagance, but a dead loss to 
 the world. Therefore, on the score of economy, 
 funerals, coffins, and graveyards should be abolished. 
 Of course the great army of undertakers will fight 
 hard against the innovation, and black plumes and 
 professional ^^ weepers" will be at a discount. In 
 fact, these useless, not to say odious, pageants 
 have been going down ever since Charles Dickens 
 held them up to public ridicule. They encumber 
 
DISPOSAL OF DEAD BODIES. 2'}^J 
 
 the streets with their sable omnibuses that never 
 bring a passenger back, and are altogether hideous. 
 Cremation will do away with all these useless and 
 unsightly spectacles. And then the land in all 
 large cities, always increasing in value, can be 
 put to much better use than by fencing it off into 
 graveyards, where Dives competes with Dives in 
 the costliness of his monument and the falsehood 
 of its inscription. Besides, if the Earth we in- 
 habit should last 50,000 or 100,000 years longer, 
 it will become one huge and pestilential graveyard, 
 and there will be no living in it, while all the 
 riches of the planet will be invested in coffins and 
 tombstones ! But this is a consideration not 
 directly interesting to the present generation, and 
 only remotely concerns posterity; and posterity, 
 always equal to the occasion, will, doubtless, take 
 care of itself In the meantime, there is a burning 
 fever to be burnt simultaneously raging in London, 
 Paris, and New York. In the latter city a public 
 meeting has been held, a Cremation Society orga- 
 nised, and candidates are sending in their names 
 as being desirous of post-mortem submission to the 
 crucible. Various inventions are coming forward 
 as the quickest and cheapest means of reducing 
 corpses to ashes, and we are daily expecting to 
 hear of furnaces in full operation. Urns will also 
 be in great demand for preserving the sacred 
 
2^8 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 cinders. Each family, perhaps, may want a pat- 
 tern of its own, with the customary coat of arms. 
 There is some danger of a little extravagance in 
 this business. Probably a glass vessel, without 
 orifice, on which an epitaph could be neatly en- 
 graved, would be the best receptacle for the ashes. 
 These relics could be kept in the sanctum sanctorum 
 of the household ; and when families emigrate to 
 distant lands, there would be no more lamenting, 
 on leaving the " graves of their ancestors " — 
 
 " And where our fathers' ashes be 
 Our own may never He." 
 
 This is one of the saddest wails in Byron's "Hebrew , 
 Melodies." Cremation will spare the future all 
 such heart-rending reflections. The modus operandi 
 of burning the dead we will not describe to-day. 
 The subject opens a new field for scientific inves- 
 tigation, and changes the occupation of gravedigger 
 to fireman. But no human eye should ever be 
 permitted to look into the oven during the trans- 
 formation of the corpse into ashes. 
 
CHURCH AND THEATRE. 239 
 
 CHURCH AND THE A TRE, 
 
 The Theatres of London are very crowded; the 
 Churches are very thin. In the latter, people 
 often go asleep ; in the former, seldom. Theatres 
 are open six nights in the week; Churches one 
 day in seven. Admission to the Church is free ; 
 to the Theatre one has to pay more or less to 
 enter. It is calculated that about 50,000 per- 
 sons nightly attend the London theatres during 
 nine months in the year. From these facts we 
 infer that the public like the Theatre better 
 than the Church. And yet Eeligion, to which 
 the Church is dedicated, is a universal instinct, 
 almost as strong as the sentiment of love. How, 
 then, shall we account for this popular apathy, 
 this general indifference to the Church? Our 
 answer is, that the Eeligion to which the Church 
 ministers is a sham Eeligion, a counterfeit, which 
 the common instinct of humanity rejects, as 
 naturally and as wisely as the palate rejects in- 
 
240 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 jurious food. The Established Church is an 
 arbitrary institution. It has not life enough in 
 itself to go alone. The Church of England has 
 become a soft asylum for dainty Sybarites. Look 
 at your luxurious Archbishop in palace and purple, 
 with his £10,000 a year. Then think of the 
 character and career of the poor Carpenter's Son, 
 the humble plebeian, the meek and lowly Jesus, 
 who had not where to lay His head ! The State 
 assesses a tax to support the Church, and the 
 people pay because they must. Going to Church 
 is enforced by the priests, who live sumptuously 
 by pleading for the subsidised Establishment as 
 '^ a duty." Some obey the mandate through fear, 
 others because it is deemed respectable or fashion- 
 able, and others still from even less worthy 
 motives — to exhibit their vanities in the shape of 
 fine dresses and grand equipages. They do not go 
 to the Church for instruction, as they always hear 
 the ^^same old story;" nor for amusement and 
 distraction, as to the Theatre. No doubt many 
 " miserable sinners " endeavour to soothe their 
 consciences by trying to believe that by going to 
 Church they have " done a duty," atoned for 
 some sin, or made themselves or somebody else 
 better. But no logical mind can ever be the 
 victim of such childish delusions. Church-going 
 
CHURCH AND THEATRE. 24 1 
 
 is not religion — it is not even moralit3\ On the 
 contrary, as a general rale, it is *^ the Devil's pet 
 sin — hypocrisy." Your inveterate modern Church- 
 goer, who prides himself on his ^^ regular attend- 
 ance on \k!i^ services of the sanctuary/' is generally 
 the very counterpart of the Pharisee of old, who 
 *^ loved to pray standing in the synagogues, and 
 at the corners of the streets, to be seen of men." 
 In nine cases out of ten, you will find him flint- 
 hearted, close-fisted, and self-righteous ^' overmuch." 
 And yet the poor people, the toiling masses, to 
 whom poverty has made life but a pilgrimage of 
 penance, are compelled to pay a large percentage 
 of their earnings to support an Establishment for 
 the benefit of parasites and hypocrites ! Jesus 
 of Nazareth taught no such Religion as this. The 
 founder of Christianity was neither Pope, Bishop, 
 nor Priest, and enjoyed none of the " fat livings " 
 of these pampered minions of the Church. He 
 gloried in penury, and never would have eaten a 
 full meal while his poor brother had none, nor 
 have possessed two suits of clothes while another 
 went naked. Such is the humane and holy 
 religion of Christianity, and it requires no pufis 
 of the priesthood, no bellows-blowing of the 
 Church, to fan the sacred flame. Taxing the 
 people to support Religion is like pinching a 
 
242 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 woman to make her love you. The sentiments of 
 the human heart are not to be forced, neither 
 towards God nor towards man. No offering is 
 acceptable that is not spontaneous. Instead of 
 incense, it is simply an insult. Shock as it may 
 the hirelings of the Establishment, we respectfully 
 suggest that all Churches should be converted into 
 Academies, and all priests into schoolmasters and 
 nurses, with salaries, just sufficient to feed them 
 wholesomely and clothe them comfortably. Then 
 they might with some consistency call themselves 
 the ^'followers of Christ.'* Now they only insult 
 the name by such false pretensions. In the mean- 
 time, we venture to remark, that Temple-building 
 is a relic of heathendom. The time for erecting 
 monuments to the gods is past. All we want now 
 is the school-house, the lecture-room, the laboratory 
 of science; and, we will add, the Theatre. Yes, 
 the much-abused Theatre — abused both by its 
 friends and by its foes, although in different 
 senses of the word. As an institution of instruc- 
 tion and amusement, the Theatre is sadly abused. 
 It is far below what it might be and should be ; 
 and yet it must be regarded as one of the 
 amenities of society, one of the blessings of social 
 life. Many a weary heart and overworked brain 
 finds distraction and consolation in the mimic 
 
CHURCH AND THEATRE. 243 
 
 drama of the stage. In the simulated sorrows of 
 others, we, for the moment, forget our own— 
 
 " When by the mighty actor wrought 
 Illusion's perfect triumphs come, 
 Verse ceases to be airy thought, 
 And sculpture to be dumb." 
 
244 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 THE SOLAR SYSTEM A SUCCESS. 
 
 We have heard chronic grumblers grumble at 
 almost everything, but we have never yet heard the 
 shallowest atheist or the sourest cynic find fault 
 with the Solar System. None of all these human 
 growlers and grunters, who are never satisfied with 
 the weather, or with anything else, unless, perhaps, 
 in the midst of some gluttonous enjoyment, dares 
 to impeach the economy, the accuracy, the noise- 
 lessness, and the beauty of the grand machine we 
 call the Universe, or to impeach the skill and the 
 power of the Great Engineer who " runs " it. All 
 the movements of the heavenly bodies '' come to 
 time," thus proving the Solar System to be a sys- 
 tem of pure mathematics, while the revolutions of 
 planets, stars, and suns accord with musical ex- 
 actness. That the " morning stars sing together" 
 is something more than a figure of speech. Since 
 Time began there has not been a collision, a jar, 
 a discord among all the " heavenly hosts " that 
 pay allegiance to our " Sun," nor among all the 
 
THE SOLAR SYSTEM A SUCCESS. 245 
 
 countless suns or stars that revolve in silent har- 
 mony around a still grander central orb. Truly 
 it has been said, ^^ An undevout astronomer is 
 mad ! " And yet, in the face of all this infinite 
 grandeur, ineffable beauty, and everlasting bene- 
 ficence, we hear of atheism and of atheists ! The 
 idol philosopher of England, John Stuart Mill, 
 with whose eulogiums the newspapers are filled, 
 and to whom a monument is about to be erected, 
 is a confessed atheist ! Here is something we 
 cannot understand. In this pious, church-going, 
 temple-worshipping England, where the Deity is 
 recognised in every breath, and the name of God 
 ^' written on the bells of the horses," the atheist 
 Mill is held up as the greatest thinker, the most 
 logical writer, the model philosopher of the age. 
 Why, even a child, if you show him a watch, or a 
 steam-engine, or a telegraphic apparatus, and tell 
 him the machine made itself, would feel that the 
 first ray of his reason was mocked. It strikes us 
 that an atheist, a denier of a First Cause, supreme 
 in knowledge, power, and beneficence, is simply 
 an impossibility, who can no more frame a logical 
 argument than we can build a pyramid by begin- 
 ning at the top. That no two minds can have the 
 same idea of the Deity we can readily understand, 
 as no two minds are constituted alike, any more 
 than any two bodies. Some admit a Deity pos- 
 
246 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 sessing knowledge and power, but not beneficence. 
 They believe in a great but not in a good God — a 
 Being all intellect and no heart. This is the la- 
 mentable conclusion of misanthropes, with whom 
 *^ everything goes wrong in the world," who curse 
 the day they were born, and who have been goaded 
 into rebellion and defiance by the monstrous, blas- 
 phemous doctrine of ^'eternal damnation." In 
 plain English, men hate God because they have been 
 taught to regard the Creator of the Universe sim- 
 ply as a Being endowed with supreme power and 
 human passion. We hear of the '^ wrath " of God, 
 the ^* anger" of God, the " sword " of God ; and 
 all such blasphemous nonsense is simply an insult 
 to the serene and infinite One — the original and 
 eternal Code of Laws that rules the universe 
 ^^ without variableness or shadow of turning" — 
 One to whom all things are possible but the abro- 
 gation of His own laws. An instant's suspension 
 of the laws of gravitation, and the whole Universe 
 would be a wreck. Who, then, can believe that 
 at the command of that semi-barbarous General, 
 Joshua, the ^' sun stood still," in order that he 
 might prolong his bloody battle in the valley of 
 Ajelon ? It was only a military division carrying 
 the banner of " the Sun " that halted on that me- 
 morable occasion. 
 
THE GILDED AGE, 247 
 
 THE GIL DED AGE, 
 
 We are indebted to Mark Twain and Charles 
 Warner for a work in three volumes, which we 
 have devoured at a sitting. The fiction is founded 
 on fact, and there is a sting of satire in almost 
 every sentence. The characters are not caricatures 
 but realities, and the more prominent ones will be 
 easily recognised. ^' Weed " is Boss Tweed, and 
 *^ Senator Dilworthy " is Senator Pomeroy — ^' Old 
 Subsidy Pom.," as he is familiarly known in Wash- 
 ington. We quite agree with the following criticism 
 in the Stayidard: — "It is a bitter pill for Americans 
 to swallow; but the medicine is, in the judgment 
 of its authors, a necessary one, and it is not for 
 Britishers to disagree with them. Every line of 
 the work can find a parallel in the New York 
 press alone ; every incident seems so real to those 
 who know the States, that it might have been 
 clipped from contemporary records ; and some of 
 the characters are less caricatures than touched 
 photographs, notably those drawn in connection 
 
248 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 with a murder case described in tlie third volume. 
 The object of the authors has been to draw a 
 terrible picture of over-speculation in business, of 
 corruption in the Senate and in the Court-house, 
 and of the rule of the mob ; and they have only 
 too thoroughly succeeded. To call the ^ Gilded 
 Age ' merely a novel is to say little for it. It is 
 a heliotype in which the shadows are hardly 
 blacker than they are in nature, and in which 
 there are very few ^ high lights ' at all. It is a work 
 which, however, every one should read, and which, 
 when read, must make the world wonder how the 
 Americans could have ever objected to a single 
 word in ^ Martin Chuzzlewit.' " We have no 
 doubt the Americans will swallow the "pill" with 
 great avidity, and it will do them good. As they 
 are shown up by their own pet artists, they will, 
 probably, to quote their own language, " acknow- 
 ledge the corn." The speculating, gambling, 
 reckless spirit of the age is depicted to the life ; 
 and all the scenes — the race on the river, the 
 laying out towns in the West, the lobbying 
 at Washington, and the murder trial in New 
 York, read like fresh reports in yesterday's news- 
 paper. The fictitious portion of the book seems 
 the least fictitious of all. Poor " Laura Hawkins," 
 who fascinates everybody who sees her, is another 
 Laura Fair of San Francisco fame. The boat-race 
 
THE GILDED AGE. 249 
 
 and explosion on the Mississippi is but the report, 
 in most graphic language, of an actual occurrence. 
 ^^ Colonel Sellers," a victim of hope, ambition, 
 and j)overty, is a character one meets every day 
 in America, and occasionally in Europe. That 
 dinner he gives out West, when the bill-of-fare is 
 limited to raw turnips and water, is a picture 
 worthy of the pencil of Hogarth. Another touch 
 of nature is given in the description of the burst- 
 ing, patriotic backwoodsman, who always, before 
 going to bed at night, went outside of his cabin 
 door and lifted up his voice to the woods around 
 in the song of " The Star-Spangled Banner." He 
 couldn't " keep" till morning without giving vent 
 to his expansive enthusiasm. But about the best 
 thing in the book is the report given, phonetically, 
 of the old nigger's prayer when he first sees a 
 steamboat rounding a point on the Mississippi 
 Eiver one moonlight night, and thinks ^' God 
 A'mighty's coming for him." The first ejaculation 
 is, ^^ Heah I is, good Lord." And then he pleads 
 stoutly for the ^* innocent chil'n." " Take dis 
 old nigger, deah Lord, but spare dese innocent 
 chil'n." Finally he begins to plead for himself, 
 and suggests that there are other old sinners 
 about, " full of cussedness," which the Lord had 
 better take than himself — " poor old Uncle Daniel, 
 who hasn't long to live, anyhow." There are also 
 
250 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 very serious, very profound, and painftdly pathetic 
 chapters in the book. "Si Hawkin's deathbed" 
 will bring a misty sensation to the eyes of those 
 who have a heart of flesh, and who know what 
 the " first dark day of nothingness " means — 
 when the pleasant voice is hushed, the light of 
 the eye extinguished, and the form we loved to 
 embrace lies cold and still in death. The book 
 is profusely illustrated, which adds vividness and 
 reality to the characters and scenes so powerfully 
 portrayed by the pen. Notwithstanding the high 
 price at which the book sells in England — some 
 seven dollars — it will, doubtless, be in great de- 
 mand at the libraries. In the meantime, per- 
 haps Tauchnitz will give us a cheap edition for the 
 benefit of the million. Personally, we feel grate- 
 ful to the authors of this admirable book. During 
 the twenty-four hours that made up the last 
 Christmas Day, it rendered us oblivious to the vast 
 loneliness of a vast hotel, with all its guests 
 merrymaking in the country; and, better still, 
 relieved us of that — 
 
 " Sorrow's crown of sorrow — 
 The rememb'riDg happier things," 
 
 as our laurelled poet sings. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 25 I 
 
 LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD, 
 
 Another monumental work from tlie industrious 
 pen of John Lothrop Motley. But who was John 
 of Barneveld ? will be asked — a name almost 
 unknown at the present day ? He was Prime 
 Minister of the United States of the Netherlands 
 two hundred and fifty years ago, and king in all 
 but name. James was then on the throne of Eng- 
 land, Henry IV. reigned in France, and Philip in 
 Spain. The Puritan Fathers of the New World 
 were sojourning at Delfthaven, preparing to em- 
 bark in the Mayflower. The epoch was one of 
 extraordinary interest, and John of Barneveld, 
 called the '-'' Advocate " of the Dutch Eepublics, 
 was one of the grandest and most conspicuous 
 diplomatists of his time. Mr Motley, the truly 
 great American historian, with patient, heroic 
 industry, has dug out his materials for these two 
 noble volumes from the time-stained manuscripts, 
 almost illegible, in the archives of Holland, and 
 
252 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 the work forms a fitting sequel to its illustrious 
 predecessors from tlie same pen. We have read it 
 with more interest and satisfaction than we know 
 how to express. The style is simply perfection, 
 and the philosophy is equally admirable. The 
 author, in connection with the biography of his 
 hero, discusses great questions of government, of 
 religion, of war, of diplomacy, and of personal 
 character. In no other book have we found 
 sharper or wiser criticisms of Elizabeth, of James, 
 of Henry lY., of Marie de Medici, the Prince of 
 Orange, and of all the prominent actors in that 
 remarkable era known as the "• Thirty Years' 
 War," but which, in reality, raged for eighty, be- 
 tween Catholics and Protestants, and then between 
 the various quarrelsome divisions of Protestants. 
 In those grim days, men went to war on the ques- 
 tion of Predestination and Infant Damnation, and 
 cut each other's throats in '^ defence of the Faith." 
 King James, who claimed to be sole " Defender 
 of the Faith," and who persecuted the Puritans in 
 England, and those who persecuted Puritans in 
 Holland, insisted that one man w^as born to be 
 saved, another to be damned, and that ^4iell was 
 paved with infants' skulls." And so did Maurice, 
 the warrior Prince of Orange. Hence a century 
 of war, the causes and the consequences of which 
 Mr Motley traces with the most logical lucidity in 
 
LIFE OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD. 253 
 
 his Life of Barneveld. As we have not space 
 enough to quote from this admirable book — a book 
 not for a day but for all time — we can only com- 
 mend it to our readers as a study and a pleasure, 
 worth whole libraries of so-called ^^ modern liter- 
 ature." Motley, Bancroft, and Prescott are the 
 three great historians of the present century — 
 three ^^ immortal names, that were not born to 
 die." 
 
254 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM, 
 
 Independent journalism is as rare as disinterested 
 charity, and far less profitable. Let tlie reader 
 name an English newspaper, if he can, that re- 
 presents anything more than the prejudices, the 
 traditions, the caprices of political parties, religious 
 sects, literary cliques, social circles, and vested 
 interests. In fact, newspapers are generally 
 started for the sole purpose of supporting special 
 objects, social, financial, political, or religious. 
 They must be both partisan and sectarian, out 
 and out, in order to gain the support of some 
 particular sect or party. We look in vain in the 
 one-sided columns of any of the great London 
 newspapers for the spirit of freedom, of in- 
 dependence, of impartiality. To begin with the 
 Times, the great misleader of British public 
 opinion. The syndicate of Printing House 
 Square, w^hich controls the voice of the 
 '' Thunderer," is an organic body of insular 
 prejudice, devoted exclusively to the interests of 
 
INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM. 2$ 5 
 
 the Times ^ and to fhe gratification of personal, 
 political, and national spleen. Let a public man 
 offend it, and his name is tabooed from its 
 columns, no matter how famous the name may be. 
 When Boucicault, the celebrated dramatist and 
 actor, incurred and defied its wrath, his name was 
 ostracised from its columns *^for two years, and 
 those the most prosperous years of his life." And 
 yet the Times claims to be a newspaper ! An- 
 other instance of Times bigotry. A few years ago 
 a certain New York journalist published a book 
 anonymously, which had a large and rapid sale, and, 
 of course, was generally ^' noticed " by the Press. 
 The London Times, having received a copy of the 
 work, ordered it to be reviewed by one of its literary 
 hacks, who gave the book a long and laudatory 
 article, which was '' already in type," when the 
 magnanimous manager, on discovering the real 
 name of the author, ordered the article to be can- 
 celled ! But we have a fresh illustration of the 
 personal spite of the Times. A few weeks ago, 
 when the Cosmopolitan had the courage to apply 
 to the ^' Claimant " the names of the felonies of 
 which he had confessed himself guilty in the wit- 
 ness-stand, complaint was made to the Court 
 against this journal for contempt. While all the 
 other newspapers mentioned the name of the Cos- 
 mopolitan in connection with the case, the Times, 
 
256 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 with its characteristic prejudice, called it ^^ a 
 weekly newspaper." These are trifles, but they 
 illustrate the fact that there is no independence, 
 and very little fairness, in the spirit of British 
 journalism. Every newspaper is the centre of a 
 clique, wdth its pets to applaud, and its enemies 
 to punish. These '^ Rings " of the Press seem to 
 be only watching for an apropos to puff a friend 
 or stab a foe. And when one of the latter cate- 
 gory, w^ho has not ^^ bowled the knee to Baal," 
 dares to write a book, to compose or sing a song, 
 or to set up an independent newspaper, how 
 eagerly and how unitedly they pounce upon him ! 
 He does not belong to our set ; ostracise him. He 
 is not of our political party ; extinguish him. He 
 belongs not to our Church ; crucify him. This 
 is the very essence of English journalism, of Eng- 
 lish criticism, of English justice. And the Cos- 
 mopolitan^ which belongs to no sect, party, clique, 
 or nationality, has the courage to say it. To put 
 the matter a little more strongly, we assert our 
 belief that if Gladstone or Disraeli were to write 
 weekly leaders for the Cosmopolitan^ anonymously ^ 
 not a newspaper in London would notice them. 
 Any old woman who ^^ gives tongue " in the 
 Times or the Saturday Review is listened to as an 
 oracle. 
 
THE GERMAN OCTOPUS. 25/ 
 
 THE GERMAN OCTOPUS, 
 
 Prince Bismarck, the German Octopus, is feeling 
 for a foothold in America. Since his triumphant 
 subjugation and dismemberment of France, the 
 ambitious Prime Minister of the Consolidated 
 German Empire has manifested a disposition to 
 compete for power with Russia in the East and 
 with England in the West. His policy may be 
 summed up in two words — expansion and domina- 
 tion. To this end Germany must become a great 
 Naval Power, contending with England for the 
 supremacy of the sea, and a great Financial Power, 
 converting the bulk of the world's bullion into 
 current coin bearing the " image and superscrip- 
 tion " of Kaiser William. It is also necessary 
 that Germany should emancipate herself from 
 ecclesiastical dominion, looking to Berlin rather 
 than to Rome for laws to govern the Church, as 
 well as to guide the State. This is certainly a 
 magnificent programme ; and, admitting the great 
 primary law of self-interest to be the highest of 
 
258 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 all human inspirations, we do not hesitate to call 
 Bismarck a patriot, a lover of his country, par 
 excellence. As for ability, and what the world 
 calls statesmanship, we have not seen his equal in 
 diplomatic audacity since the days of Talleyrand. 
 And yet, with all his comprehensive cunning and 
 scheming, the Prussian intriguant is in imminent 
 danger of falling a victim to that ^ faulting 
 ambition which o'erleaps itself." Bismarck is 
 provoking hosts of enemies both at home and 
 abroad : most dangerous and most insidious of all 
 are the Jesuits, whose sleepless animosity, the 
 world over, like a woman's vengeance, is all the 
 more fatal from the apparent weakness of the 
 hand that strikes. The German States are con- 
 solidated by force, not welded by love ; and States 
 pinned together by bayonets are not likely to form 
 a lasting Federation. Political discontent and 
 religious antagonisms are seething throughout 
 all the German Empire. It becomes necessary, 
 therefore, to pick a quarrel abroad in order to 
 maintain loyalty at home. As we have said, the 
 German Octopus is now stretching his tentaculce 
 far over the sea to find a jK><9/;e?f cCapjyui in the 
 West. In the lyrical language of Lydia, he is 
 " the octopusest octopus that ever you did see." 
 To become a great Naval Power, a rival to that 
 expansive and heroic Power which for a thousand 
 
THE GERMAN OCTOPUS. 259 
 
 years lias ^' ruled tlie waves," it is absolutely 
 necessary for Germany to have naval stations 
 and harbours in the Carribean Sea or the Pacific 
 Ocean. Overtures have been successively made 
 to St Domingo, to Porto Rico, and to Mexico ; but 
 thus far without success. Having failed to win 
 or bribe any of these petty Powers to yield to his 
 embraces, the Octopus has recently attempted to 
 " accomplish his purpose " by violence on the 
 virgin islands of Samoa, in the South Pacific, the 
 " Dreamland " of which we gave our readers some 
 account in a recent issue of the Cosmopolitaji^ 
 based on the Report of Col. Steinberger to the 
 State Department at Washington. During the 
 last week telegrams have been flying across the 
 Atlantic announcing the attempted rape by the 
 Octopus, or, to drop the figure, of the appearance 
 of the German war-steamer Ancona in Samoan 
 waters, demanding a certain pecuniary indemnity 
 of the natives, while threatening to '^ burn the 
 Islands." The pretence for this hostile demon- 
 stration, as we happen to know, was based on a 
 claim for 18,000 dollars, made by the house of 
 Goddefroy & Co., of Hamburg, who for many 
 years have monopolised the trade of the Samoan 
 Islands, and amassed princely fortunes thereby. 
 Herr Caesar Goddefroy, a member of this firm, is 
 also an influential member of the German Senate. 
 
260 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Hence this recent movement to siiLjugate the 
 SamoanSj and get possession of one of the finest 
 harbours in the world. This little game of the 
 great chess-i:)layer was suddenly checkmated by 
 certain Americans, who paid the Goddefroy claim, 
 when the Octopus pulled himself together and 
 retired. Meantime the United States, who are 
 going to annex these Islands at no distant date, 
 has ordered the war- steamer Tuscarora^ with 
 Commissioner Steinberger on board, to make all 
 possible haste to reach the Bay of Savaii, the 
 capital of Samoa, and there unfurl the Stars and 
 Stripes from the pinnacle of the loftiest mountain, 
 in defence of the " Monroe doctrine." Colonel 
 Steinberger, who has already been accepted by all 
 the native authorities as Chief of the Islands, left 
 Southampton on Saturday last in the Baltimore 
 steamer Ohio, en route for the beautiful family of 
 Nine Islands, forming the Samoan Group, in the 
 Dreamland of the Pacific. Hundreds of millions 
 of new materials will soon be added to the com- 
 merce of the civilised world. 
 
PULLMAN ON THE MIDLAND, 26 1 
 
 PULLMAN ON THE MIDLAND. 
 
 The English people, as a rule, are not much 
 given to innovations. They are eminently con- 
 servative by natm-e and habit. A Government 
 that has existed for a thousand years has edu- 
 cated the people into a general state of content- 
 ment — the state of Apostolic beatitude. ^^What 
 was good enough for our fathers and our grand- 
 fathers is good enough for us," is the practical 
 and comfortable creed of the average English- 
 man, not only in religion, philosophy, and politics, 
 but in all the economies of social, industrial, and 
 domestic life. Hence the proverbial difficulty of 
 introducing a new idea into England. " John 
 Bull don't see it," is the constant complaint of 
 Americans who come here with their new-fangled 
 notions. A very strong prejudice exists against 
 everything new^ no matter how long or how suc- 
 cessfully the invention or discovery may have been 
 in operation elsewhere. But there are excep- 
 
262 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 tions to all rules, and one of the most signal ex- 
 ceptions of recent date is the adoption of the 
 Pullman Car by the Midland Railway Company. 
 These locomotive palaces, which have made tra- 
 velling in America a luxury for the last fifteen 
 years, are now runniog out of London to certain 
 stations on the Midland Road, and will, doubtless, 
 soon be adopted by all the other leading Lines. 
 Twenty additional Cars are now on the way to 
 Liverpool from America, and many more will 
 doubtless follow. For the introduction of this 
 great " improvement " the British public is in- 
 debted to James Allport, Esq., the General 
 Manager of the Midland, of whom one of the 
 leading Railway men in the United States said 
 to us in New York, ^^ He is the most intelligent 
 Railroad man I have ever met." Mr Allport, after 
 travelling extensively on the American Roads in 
 the Pullman Cars, came to the conclusion that 
 England could no longer afford to do without 
 them. Arrangements w^ere immediately made to 
 introduce the Pullman on the Midland, on the 
 same terms as in the United States. But this is 
 not the only American idea adopted by Mr Allport 
 for the comfort and security of the public. He 
 has also introduced the Westinghouse Air-Brake, 
 Miller's Patent Couplings, with improved springs, 
 bogies, &c. : in fact everything which has been 
 
PULLMAN ON THE MIDLAND. 263 
 
 successfully tested on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 In this respect the Midland Manager has shown 
 himself to be a man above all insular prejudices — 
 a thorough Railway cosmopolitan. Twenty-five 
 years ago Mr Allport took charge of the Midland, 
 then a single Line of about forty miles. It has 
 grown up under his enterprising management 
 to a system of Roads covering some twelve hun- 
 dred miles, and the Company is one of the most 
 successful in existence. The London Station at 
 St Pancras, including the Midland Grand Hotel, 
 is a magnificent embodiment of comprehensive 
 ideas. The span of this superb structure is 243 
 feet from wall to wall, the length is 700 feet, and 
 the height 100. The roof is 690 feet long, and 
 the whole ^^ shed " covers a space of nearly ten 
 acres. Every iron rib in the roof weighs fifty 
 tons. But the enterprising spirit of the Midland 
 will not stop here. We understand it is in con- 
 templation to open a ticket-office in London, 
 where passengers, at their leisure, may provide 
 themselves with tickets, good until used, and get 
 their luggage "checked," as in America. The 
 great convenience, and the saving of time and 
 money, by this arrangement, will indeed prove a 
 blessing to the travelling public. As the Company 
 has already done so much in the way of increasing 
 the facilities and comforts of travel on their Line, 
 
264 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 aud sliown sucli rare liberality in the adoption of 
 American ideas, they cannot fail to reap their 
 reward by a large increase of American patronage. 
 It is estimated that not less than one million of 
 dollars per annum is spent by Americans on the 
 Road between Liverpool and London. Most of 
 this money goes into the pocket of the North- 
 Western, because that Line is the most direct, 
 and a few minutes shorter. Having regard only 
 to the pleasure and comfort of the traveller, we 
 advise him to make this journey in a Pullman 
 Palace Car on the Midland, which passes through 
 the most beautiful and the most historically 
 interesting part of England. Let him start, for 
 instance, from London in the morning, and what 
 a charming panorama is unfolded ! The train 
 leaves the ancient churchyard of St Pancras, 
 where reposes the dust of the French Refugees ; 
 then passes the ^'Gospel Oak" of Havers took 
 Hill ; across Finchley Common, where in 1660 
 General Monk massed his forces pending the 
 Restoration of Charles IL ; the famous pleasure 
 resort at Hendon known as the ^' Welsh Harp," 
 and the grave of Jack Sheppard ; the celebrated 
 Harrow School, founded in the reign of Elizabeth 
 by John of Preston, who required each pupil to 
 come provided with a bow and shaft, and where 
 Lord Byron and Sir Robert Peel got their 
 
PULLMAN ON THE MIDLAND. 265 
 
 ^^ rudiments ; " on through St Albans, the ancient 
 Verulam, where great battles were fought in the 
 days of Julius Csesar, and where the martyr 
 Albanus was scourged and beheaded by pagan 
 Britons ; through the straw-plaiting village of 
 Harpenden ; past Luton Old Church, containing 
 the beautiful baptistery presented by Queen Anne 
 Boleyn ; on by Dallow Farm, where, in the time 
 of Charles, the Dissenters held their unlawful 
 ^^ conventicles ; " through Bedford, where, in 
 Elstow Church, John Bunyan ^' pulled the bell- 
 ropes," and where, within the walls of the old 
 gaol, he wrote that immortal book — " Pilgrim's 
 Progress to the Celestial City;" past Oakley 
 House, the seat of the Duke of Bedford ; through 
 Market Harboro', headquarters of the army of 
 Charles I. before the battle of Naseby, and where 
 Cromwell dated his despatches to Parliament 
 announcing the defeat of the Royalists ; A¥istow 
 Hall, where Charles stopped after the battle of 
 Naseby ; the historical town of Leicester, founded 
 by King Lear, and where the great Wolsey died, 
 a prisoner in the hands of the Duke of Northum- 
 berland, in the year 1530; and where, to-day, 
 15,000 stocking-frames are at work, supplying 
 half the world with hosiery ; Kegworth, where 
 Tom Moore wrote some of his best poems, and 
 where Heathcoat invented his bobbinet-machine ; 
 
266 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 on to Derby, a charming town, where we catch a 
 glimpse of the spire of All Saiyits' Churchy 174 feet 
 above the pinnacles, erected in the time of Henry 
 y III., and where the Pullman Cars are put together; 
 Belper, where Messrs Strutt employ more than 
 2000 hands in their cotton - mills ; Wingfield 
 Manor House, built by the Lord Treasurer Ralph 
 Cromwell, in the time of Henry YL, and where 
 Mary, ^'the hapless Queen of Scots," was held 
 a prisoner in 1584; Darfield, in whose church- 
 yard Ebenezer Elliott, the ^' Corn-Law Rhymer," 
 is buried ; Woodlesford, the birthplace of Darnley, 
 husband of Mary Queen of Scots, who was blown 
 to pieces by gunpowder in Edinburgh, two years 
 after the marriage ; Skipton, the home of the 
 Cliffords, immortalised by Wordsworth; Kimbolton, 
 where poor Queen Catherine, after her divorce, 
 retired and died — 
 
 " Shipwrecked upon a kingdom where no pity, 
 No friends, no hope, no kindred weep for me ; 
 Almost no grave allowed me ; like the lily, 
 That once was mistress of the field, and flourished, 
 I'll hang my head and perish." 
 
 Old Wisbeach, where William the Conqueror built 
 a castle ; — all these, and many other places of his- 
 torical interest, are to be seen on the road from 
 London to Liverpool from the Car windows on the 
 Midland Line. Our Transatlantic friends should 
 
PULLMAN ON THE MIDLAND. 26/ 
 
 not fail to make this trip by daylight. The fare is 
 the same, the comfort incomparably greater, and the 
 route of such surpassing interest, that, instead of 
 finding the few additional minutes wearisome, the 
 traveller will find himself all too soon at the end 
 of his journey. 
 
268 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 THE AMERICAN CENTENNIAL. 
 
 We consider it the patriotic duty of every man, 
 woman, and cliild in America to contribute to the 
 success of the coming Centennial Anniversary of 
 the national independence of the United States. 
 To preserve the national autonomy for a hundred 
 years, triumphant over foreign foes and domestic 
 rebellions, is certainly a record to be proud of. 
 To have grown within this period from three 
 States to thirty-seven, and from a population of 
 three millions to forty, is a record of national 
 prosperity utterly unequalled in the history of the 
 world. To commemorate all these achievements, 
 to return national thanks for all these blessings, 
 the Americans have fixed on their hundredth 
 anniversary, the year 1876, as a year of jubilee, 
 and are making vast preparations for its appro- 
 priate celebration. Philadelphia, Penn's piously 
 named ^' city of brotherly love," the ^^ cradle of 
 American Liberty," the '' National Mecca of 
 Freedom," is selected for the grand solem- 
 nities. The people throughout the entire Union 
 
THE AMERICAN CENTENNIAL. 269 
 
 have gone to work with an almost rehgious 
 enthusiasm to get up the grandest International 
 Exhibition the world has ever seen, and we do 
 not hesitate to predict for this noble undertaking 
 a success beyond the most sanguine dreams of the 
 projectors. Some five millions of dollars have 
 already been raised for the cause, and as much 
 more will be freely forthcoming. If Congress 
 does not see fit to make the appropriation, the 
 voluntary and eager contributions of the people 
 will provide all the means required to crown 
 the edifice with unbounded success. Over twenty 
 Foreign Powers have responded cordially to the 
 invitation of the Washington Government, and 
 manufacturers and producers from all parts of the 
 civilised world are sending forward applications 
 for space to exhibit their productions. As we 
 announced some weeks ago in the Cosmopolitan^ 
 most of the European Governments will send 
 Royal Commissioners to the Philadelphia Exhi- 
 bition, many of whom will lend their choicest 
 gems of art to grace the walls of the Great 
 Picture Gallery. All that the world knows of 
 science, art, and mechanism, will be concentrated 
 for the benefit of the world in the Centennial 
 Exposition of Philadelphia. The impulse this 
 will give to trade and travel is too obvious for 
 discussion. A hundred steamships will hardly be 
 
2/0 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 sufficient for tlie passengers and traffic across the 
 Atlantic. New York will be inundated with Euro- 
 pean guests, as well as visitors from all parts of 
 the United States, and the Railroad Companies 
 will find the Year of Jubilee a golden harvest. 
 Hotel-keepers within a radius of a hundred miles 
 from Philadelphia are already preparing for the 
 coming flood. There is probably not an American 
 in Europe to-day who is not promising himself 
 the pleasure of a visit to Philadelphia in 1876. 
 The scattered children of the Republic will all flock 
 homewards, like ^^ doves to their windows," to 
 swell the loud huzzas of the Year of Jubilee, the 
 hundredth birthday of American Freedom. 
 
EGYPT. 271 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 The author of the '^ Hans Breitmann Ballads/' 
 who passed last winter in Cairo, has issued a 
 volume entitled " The Egyptian Sketch-Book," 
 but which, with commendable self-appreciation, 
 he characterises, in one of the chapters, as ^^ a 
 Sketch-Book of Nonsense." Such modesty on 
 the author's part may well disarm the critic. 
 Mr Charles G. Leland has long ranked high 
 among the witty writers of America : one of those 
 desperately humorous fellows, who, like the poet 
 Holmes of Boston, " do not dare to be as funny 
 as they can," for fear of bursting the waistbands 
 and corset-strings of their readers. In his Breit- 
 mann lingo of broken Dutch, Mr Leland made 
 a decided hit. The '^Breitmann Party" went 
 the rounds of the Press, and was everywhere 
 read with irrepressible laughter. Nothing more 
 grotesque has ever appeared in that ''line of 
 literature." We have often smiled, all alone in 
 
2/2 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 the dark, at the following graphic description of a 
 scene at that famous " Barty "— 
 
 " I valsit mit Matilda Yane, 
 She weigh two hunder pound ; 
 And every time she gif a joomp, 
 She make der vinder sound." 
 
 There are also touches of genuine pathos in the 
 Ballads, which give Mr Leland the right to be 
 called a poet. In this Egyptian brochure we have 
 one of those serio-comic works which neither 
 make us cry nor laugh; a sort of half-and-half 
 mixture, which satisfies neither the sentiment of 
 fun, nor the affectation of philosophy. The book 
 is written somewhat in the strain of Mark Twain's 
 ^' Innocents Abroad ; " but we refrain from making 
 any comparison between the two-^in fact, there 
 is no comparison. The chapters on Asses and 
 Fleas are written in a vein of solemn research 
 quite worthy of the subjects — one moment amus- 
 ing, the next disgusting. The book is sprinkled 
 with anecdotes, some of which are good, but the 
 majority should be credited to Joseph Miller, 
 Pasquin, or some other ancient party on whom 
 has been pasted the jokes of ages. As a fair 
 specimen of the author's trifling, we quote the 
 following — giving as a key to the wit, that 
 Pelican and Woodcock, who are thus ^^ embalmed 
 in amber," are head-waiters at the Langham : — 
 
EGYPT, 273 
 
 ^' They keep two pelicans at Shepheard's Hotel, in 
 Cairo, while they have only one at the Langham, 
 in London. The two, however, at Shepheard's, 
 though large, are very lazy, while the one at the 
 Langham is small, but very useful and active. 
 The woodcock in Egypt, or what I ate for such, 
 were miserable creatures ; while, per contra^ tbe 
 best woodcock I ever met in my life was at the 
 same hotel in London." The more serious part of 
 the book is devoted to laudation of the Khedive, 
 whom the author regards as the most enlightened 
 Ruler in the world, — an estimation which we 
 heartily endorse. Mr Leland w^ell says — " With 
 its railroads rapidly extending into a fertile country 
 of enormous extent, inhabited by industrious and 
 money-loving races, skilled in manufactures, and 
 with a marvellously shrewd and vigorous man, of 
 extremely liberal views, at its head, Egypt should 
 not long remain a dependency ; and until it is 
 entirely free in every respect, it cannot enter as 
 it should on the great career of progress." Since 
 the death of the Third Napoleon, the Khedive of 
 Egypt is the most advanced monarch living. And 
 we believe the day of Egyptian independence is 
 drawing near. 
 
2/4 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 A GRAND COSMOPOLITAN 
 ENTERPRISE. 
 
 The Paris correspondeui of the Times gave some 
 encouraging and interesting items last week in 
 regard to the proposed Nicaraguan Canal, which 
 will be found reproduced in to-day's Cosmopolitan. 
 It has long been a problem of the greatest interest 
 to the commercial world, and, had it not been for 
 the Civil War in America, no doubt this maritime 
 connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 
 would have been un fait accompli before M. 
 Lessep's kindred undertaking of uniting the Red 
 and Mediterranean Seas. This magnificent enter- 
 prise had a peculiar fascination for the late 
 Emperor Napoleon, whose expansive and generous 
 mind was always occupied with grand ideas ; and 
 we may state, that but for the disastrous German 
 War, the Emperor would have given his powerful 
 aid to the completion of the American Isthmus 
 Canal. The cost of uniting the two great Oceans 
 would be less than that of keeping the army of 
 
A GRAND COSMOPOLITAN ENTERPRISE. 2/5 
 
 France, or of the United States during the 
 Rebellion, sixty days in the field. Peace hath her 
 victories, and here is one in which all nations can 
 unite for the common benefit of mankind. This 
 inter-ocean Canal is not a national enterprise, but 
 a truly cosmopolitan one. When first-class ships 
 can come from San Francisco down the Pacific 
 coast, cross the narrow neck between the two 
 continents of North and South America, then up 
 to New York, or on across the Atlantic, the Medi- 
 terranean, through the Suez Canal into the Red 
 Sea, and out into the waters of the Orient, 
 voyages round the world, for business or pleasure, 
 can be made in less time than the famous '^ eighty 
 days " of Jules Yerne. And nothing is wanting 
 to accomplish all this but one resolute human 
 will. It was De Witt Clinton's will that married 
 the waters of Lake Erie with the Hudson ; it was 
 De Lessep's energy that cut a pathway for ships 
 through the Suez Isthmus ; it was Field's per- 
 severing faith that placed Europe and America in 
 instant electric communication. The will, the 
 faith of one earnest man, can ^'remove mountains." 
 And such a man, we believe, has taken hold of 
 the Nicaraguan Canal question. Judge 0' Sullivan 
 is " the American " alluded to in the Times cor- 
 respondence, who has set his heart and hand to 
 the accomplishment of this great financial, com- 
 
276 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 mercial, and philanthropic work. Judge 0' Sullivan 
 is a man in the prime of life, of large experience 
 in public aiFairSj who has represented the United 
 States in France and in India, and been engaged 
 in many successful undertakings in Mexico, where, 
 during the brief and unhappy reign of the noble 
 Maximilian, he ^' did the State some service." 
 This gigantic engineering work could not be in 
 better hands. The enthusiasm of the ^^ promoter " 
 ensures success. The undertaking is practicable, 
 feasible, and most desirable — infinitely more so 
 than that ^^work of supererogation," the proposed 
 tunnelling of the Channel between England and 
 France. Recent surveys give the length of the 
 Nicaraguan Canal as about 181 miles, of which 
 there is Lake navigation 56 miles, and River 
 navigation of 63 miles, leaving only 61 for the 
 actual cutting of the Canal, with the mean depth 
 above the water of 30 feet. Only fourteen locks 
 would be required to overcome the gradient of 
 some 130 feet. It is proposed to make the Canal 
 72 feet wide, with a depth of 26 feet of water. 
 The supply of water from Lake Nicaragua and the 
 San Juan River is simply inexhaustible. As the 
 San Juan forms a portion of the boundary 
 between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, concessions 
 would have to be obtained from both of these 
 States, which are eager to see the work begun, as 
 
A GRAND COSMOPOLITAN ENTERPRISE. 27/ 
 
 it will be of incalculable benefit, not only to the 
 intersected States, but to the commerce of the 
 whole world. As to the question of funds, we 
 believe the sum total required to complete the 
 work could be '' syndicated " in a single day. 
 
2^8 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 A RIGHTEOUS VERDICT. 
 
 Never has tlie common sense of justice — the 
 noblest element in the human heart — been more 
 profoundly satisfied than by the verdict and 
 sentence given in the Court of Queen's Bench 
 against the Tichborne Claimant, the most stu- 
 pendous fraud the world has ever witnessed. 
 There is only one regret among all intelligent, 
 justice-loving minds, and that is the inadequacy of 
 the punishment inflicted in proportion to the in- 
 jury done. Eternity is not long enough for the 
 full expiation of such a series of capital crimes as 
 are involved in the false pretences, forgeries, libels, 
 and scandals which have been deliberately invented 
 and persistently perpetrated by this infamous, 
 iniquitous, and callous Wapping butcher, who 
 possesses far more of the nature of a hog than the 
 character of a man, and whose infinite wickedness 
 reconciles one to the doctrine of eternal punish- 
 ment, the necessity of an orthodox hell. As the 
 Judge remarked in pronouncing sentence, the law 
 
A RIGHTEOUS VERDICT. 2/9 
 
 contemplated no such crimes as those committed 
 by the Claimant in fixing the penalty for perjurj^ 
 But the scoundrel is now about forty-four years of 
 age, and the sweat of penal servitude for fourteen 
 years, under the weight of such a monstrous mass 
 of adipose matter, is about equal to a life sentence. 
 If he should live through his term, and at the age 
 of fifty-eight the monster should again be let loose 
 on society, he will hardly be able to play another 
 role of perjury and fraud, or to find accomplices, 
 either men or women, to join him in new con- 
 spiracies. That there has been a most wicked and 
 well-organised conspiracy admits not a shadow of 
 doubt. It began in Australia as a money specula- 
 tion, and it culminated in London with the same 
 base motive. Is there no law, no punishment but 
 public opinion, to reach the numerous accomplices 
 of the Claimant ? Kenealy should be disbarred, 
 and the House of Commons should purge itself 
 of Whalley. Onslow's constituents have already 
 settled the question for him. But there are scores 
 of others who took a conspicuous part in this 
 brazen fraud, including Lord Rivers, Captain 
 Brown, Luie, Bulpett, Miss Braine, &c., who 
 deserve to share the punishment of the principal 
 offender. It is no injustice to say that some of the 
 above witnesses kne^v that the Claimant was an 
 arrant impostor, and that they went into the 
 
280 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 witness-box for the deliberate purpose of com- 
 mitting perjmy, and aiding the criminal in the 
 accomplishment of his diabolical crime. The 
 counsel for the defendant knew perfectly well from 
 the opening to the ending of the case that their 
 client was a fraud, and that every word they 
 uttered in vindication of his innocence — to use a 
 strong word — was simply a lie. The trial, extend- 
 ing over 188 days, and costing altogether not less 
 than half a million sterling in cash, to say nothing 
 of time, type, and patience, should not have lasted 
 a week. The positive testimony of scores of 
 witnesses that he was not Roger Tichborne, and 
 that he was Arthur Orton ; that Tichborne was 
 tattooed, and the man was produced in court who 
 tattooed him ; the elegant letters of Tichborne, 
 compared with the vulgar scrawl of Orton — after 
 submitting this indubitable and unanswerable 
 evidence to the jury, the case should have been 
 stopped, either by the jury, the Court, or the 
 counsel for the defendant. The Claimant's con- 
 duct on the very first night of his arrival in London 
 thoroughly identified him conclusively as Orton. 
 With a dog's instinct he rushed back to the place 
 where he was kennelled, and inquired for his old 
 associates. Then he silenced, by bribery, his 
 brother and sisters, inducing the former to change 
 his name and place of residence ; and even after 
 
A RIGHTEOUS VERDICT. 28 1 
 
 gagging them with Bank of England notes, did 
 not dare to bring them into court. Circumstan- 
 tial evidence like this, which is al\yays stronger 
 than direct viva voce testimony, is proof conclusive 
 that the Claimant, now a convict in Newgate, is 
 Arthur Orton and nobody else — a fact of which 
 we have no more doubt than of our own existence. 
 The summing up of the Lord Chief-Justice, already 
 issued in one huge volume, is a monumental work, 
 without an equal in the annals of jurisprudence. 
 In argument, style, and temper, it will become a 
 model of judicial administration, and a monument 
 of judicial genius. The Jmy, who have themselves 
 been sorely tried in this case, have simply done 
 their duty, as England expects every man to do his 
 duty under all circumstances. But they deserve 
 some public recognition for their patience, and the 
 firmness they have shown through the trial, and 
 by the prompt and explicit rendition of their ver- 
 dict. And not the least do we honour them for 
 giving official and emphatic expression to the 
 universal indignation that has long glowed in every 
 manly heart in Christendom at the most atrocious 
 treatment of Lady Radcliffe by this infamous per- 
 jurer, who did his utmost to blast her character 
 and ruin her happiness. As for Kenealy's ^'min- 
 istering angel," Miss Braine, who sat by the bed- 
 
282 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 side and held the hand of this licentious and 
 disgusting brute, after his foul charge against her 
 former pupil ^ we do not think Mr Hawkins was 
 any too harsh in the epithets he applied to her. 
 This '''' angel " — an inverted one, we should say — 
 swore that the Claimant was Sir Roger Tichborne, 
 and that on the night he came of age she was 
 governess in the house ; and, fearing the young- 
 gentleman was getting a little too winey, she went 
 up to his room, sent for him, and when he came 
 to the door, blew out the candle and pushed him in ! 
 Rather presuming on the part of a modest gover- 
 ness, unless she wished to take advantage of Sir 
 Roger's tipsiness. For the Tichborne bondholders, 
 and the sporting crowd who have been betting, 
 begging, and spouting in behalf of the Claimant, 
 caring nothing for the cause of truth and justice, 
 but only hoping to win their ^' odds," the ]3ublic 
 will have no sympathy. Henceforth, we trust, no 
 witness will be allowed to open his mouth in the 
 witness-box who has any pecuniary interest in 
 the result of the trial in progress. The number 
 of men, and women too, who will perjure them- 
 selves for money, as shown in the progress of this 
 Orton fraud, is something appalling. As for the 
 ragamuffin rabble, who have daily rendezvoused in 
 Westminster to ^^ cheer " the guilty Claimant and his 
 
I A RIGHTEOUS VERDICT. 2^2, 
 
 not less guilty counsel, the verdict and sentence will 
 I perhaps convince them of the existence of the 
 power of law and justice in England. The lesson, 
 if duly digested, will prove a wholesome one to all 
 rascaldom. 
 
284 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 THE FUR COUNTRY. 
 
 Another marvellous and exciting mixture of 
 romance and realitjj from the prolific and power- 
 ful pen of Jules Verne, entitled *' The Far 
 Country," has compelled us to read it from be- 
 ginning to end before we could get the story '' off 
 the mind." It is an elegantly printed volume of 
 300 pages, profusely and beautifully illustrated, 
 and containing in about equal proportions scientific 
 knowledge and poetic imagination. Tlie reader is 
 kept on the constant qui vive to draw the line 
 between the two. The scene of '^ Tlie Fur 
 Country " is correctly laid, and the history of the 
 various '' Companies " accurately given. The 
 astronomy, geography, climate, and phenomena 
 of the Arctic regions, including both land and 
 sea, are depicted to the life, and in more vivid 
 colours than we have ever found in the writings 
 of Arctic navigators and discoverers. The Fauna 
 and the Flora, also, of hyperborean latitudes are 
 treated in the most exhaustive manner, and with 
 
THE FUR COUNTRY, 285 
 
 technical precision. The author seems to be 
 perfectly familiar with every star that shines, 
 every flower that blooms, every fish that swims, 
 and every bird that flies on the North American 
 Continent from the Equator to the Pole, and at 
 the same time discusses the habits of all the 
 animals, ruminants, and rodents as thoroughly as 
 if he had lived among them all his life. A 
 wonderful savant is this M. Jules Yerne, and we 
 have to thank him for affording us more instruc- 
 tion and " entertainment " than we have found in 
 books for many years. Nothing, since the adven- 
 tures of poor ^^ Eobinson Crusoe," that jewel of 
 the nursery, first inflamed our imagination, has 
 more absorbingly '' kept up the interest of the 
 reader " — that is, of the writer — than these novel 
 and fascinating productions of M. Verne, com- 
 pounded of wonderful fiction and still more 
 wonderful facts. We can see the little fellow 
 alluded to across the background of fifty years, 
 sitting in the corner of a huge New England fire- 
 place, in the warm light of burning pine-knots, 
 and devouring for the first time the story of 
 Alexander Selkirk, rendered into a prose poem by 
 the immortal pen of Defoe. The eager interest 
 felt by that five-year-old boy in Robinson's 
 romantic adventures is again revived by the still 
 more romantic productions of this grand prose 
 
286 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 poet, who ties up the richest treasures of scientific 
 knowledge with the rainbow ribbon of imagination. 
 We heartily thank him for the transitory oblivion 
 of cares and things around us his works have 
 afforded, and still more for the revival of our child- 
 hood's faith in the "story" told us. And this, 
 "we consider, at once, to be an author's reward, 
 and an author's object — to instruct and entertain 
 his reader. To know that he has accomplished 
 this end is a far higher satisfaction than any mere 
 material compensation. "I sat up all night read- 
 ing your book," said a lady once to an author who 
 shall be nameless, " and it made me forget every- 
 thing unpleasant and remember everything agree- 
 able in my whole life." The author of that book 
 felt that his work had not been entirely useless. 
 But the debt of gratitude w^hich the world owes to 
 the authors of good books is too large a subject to 
 be touched but incidentally. It is a theme worthy 
 of an Academician's pen. To return to our charm- 
 ing " Fur Country," of which, by the waj^, we 
 purposely refrain from giving any description. It 
 is cruel to forestall curiosity in such a feast of 
 surprises. The human characters introduced con- 
 sist of a band of Fur-hunters, with the accidental 
 addition of an English lady travelling for the 
 sake of knowledge, and a Greenwich astronomer 
 who is on his way to the 70th parallel of latitude 
 
THE FUR COUNTRY. 28/ 
 
 to observe the ecli2)se of the sun in 1860. What 
 perilous trials befell the expedition we do not 
 propose to tell. Take the story either as all fact, 
 or all fiction, the reader, who in childhood was 
 thrilled by the adventures of the Scotch sailor in 
 the Island of Juan Fernandez, will be spell-bound 
 by these fearful scenes in the Arctic Regions. 
 But we know that the work is grounded on 
 reality. The '^ Fur Country " exists, and Fur- 
 hunting is a real occupation, a great item of trade. 
 As to the events described, the author is always 
 pushing matters to the verge of the impossible. 
 The long journey made on an island of ice taxes 
 the belief of the most credulous ; and yet, since 
 the book was written, a somewhat similar voyage 
 has been made by a portion of the crew of a 
 late Arctic Exploring Expedition — the crew of 
 the ill-fated Polaris, who floated on an island of 
 ice fifteen hundred miles. And, after all, truth 
 is stranger than fiction, and the realities of the 
 world, both material and spiritual, far trauscend 
 the works of imagination. Whether it is wiser to 
 believe everything or to believe nothing, we shall 
 not venture to decide. The common experiences 
 of life, the sad as well as the happy, may lead to 
 either conclusion. We cannot quit the '^ Fur 
 Country" without a word of admiration for the 
 heroine, Paulina Barnett, a noble and a glorious 
 
288 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 woman. Not only admirablej but adorable. Is 
 it possible that such a 
 
 *' Perfect woman, nobly planned, 
 To warn, to comfort, and command," 
 
 exists only in books ? No, no, no ! Full justice 
 has never yet been done by pen of man to the 
 ^^ perfect woman," the exceptional woman, who, 
 vara avis in terris^ is still to be found in all 
 countries, in all epochs, and under all conditions ; 
 a being in whom the ^'elements are so mixed" 
 that beauty, goodness, sweetness, fidelity, truth, 
 and love are the only possible results. Such is 
 our ideal-real woman, whom Heaven's own angels 
 cannot excel in loveliness — 
 
 " Woman, whom God created with a smile of grace, 
 And left the smile that made her on her face." 
 
TALES OF THE STREETS. 289 
 
 TALES OF THE STREETS, 
 
 We have received a letter from Miss Stride, tlie 
 good Sister of Mercy who devotes her life to the 
 restoration of fallen angels, in which she says, '^ I 
 read the paragraph in your last week's paper, 
 ' Tales of the Streets,' and I now write to ask if 
 you have any objection to my quoting it for a 
 work I have long meditated doing, and which want 
 of funds alone has prevented." Certainly not. 
 Miss Stride continues : ^^ It is my intention to 
 build a large block of buildings, in which we shall 
 be able to receive poor women such as you refer 
 to. I propose keeping their children, and educating 
 the girls for domestic servants, and the boj^s for 
 soldiers or sailors ; the mother to go into some 
 situation as soon as her health permits, and help 
 to support her children. I do not propose letting 
 the father off free if I can find him. I have laid 
 down my plans, but to carry them out I want 
 £10,000. This sum will not do much more than 
 buy the land and build the houses. I propose 
 
290 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 making a strong appeal to tlie people of England 
 on behalf of tbis terribly neglected class of little 
 children." This is truly a most excellent work, 
 and should engage the hearts and hands of all who 
 bear the name of Christians and claim the character 
 of philanthropists. A hundred thousand women, 
 of all classes and conditions of society, includ- 
 ing wives, mothers, widows, and spinsters, nightly 
 tramp the streets of London advertising the sale of 
 their bodies for bread, while the Priests and the 
 Levites go on begging for the rich Churches at 
 home and the happy heathen abroad ! These poor, 
 despised, street-prostitutes are honest women in 
 comparison with those ^^ respectable" hypocrites, 
 who do their '^ nest-hiding " in secret and deny it 
 in public. Not having the good looks, or the good 
 clothes, to exhibit themselves in the pig-market of 
 Windmill Street, they have to wander and beg on 
 the cold pavement. What the curbstone brokers 
 are to the regular members of the Stock Exchange, 
 these poor street-walkers are to the constant 
 habitues of the Argyll Rooms. They manage these 
 things infinitely better in Japan, or even in Paris 
 or Hamburg. 
 
LAW V. JUSTICE. 291 
 
 LAW V. JUSTICE, 
 
 All civilised nations, and England not among 
 the least, are afflicted with a mania for legis- 
 lation. We live in a perfect maze of law. There 
 is no end to it, and it by no means tends to 
 farther the ends of justice. Why not codify and 
 condense the laws of nations into nutshells, into 
 the Ten Commandments — the Code of Moses? 
 There are but a few primary laws essential to the 
 welfare of society, to the conservation of good 
 government. The inalienable right to life, 
 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is suffici- 
 ently protected by the great original laws — 
 " Thou shalt not kill ; " '' Thou shalt not steal." 
 These fundamental prohibitions are the bulwark 
 of all social and governmental rights. The viola- 
 tion of these sacred laws should always be severely 
 punished. It were well if legislation stopped 
 here, or rather restricted all codes and forms of 
 law-making to a mere amplification and applica- 
 
292 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 tion of these ^^ first priuciples." As for tax-laws, 
 we would abolish all but one — a direct pro rata 
 tax on property. There should be no tariffs, no 
 douane, no octroi impediments to trade and travel. 
 But this irrepressible mania for law-making- 
 knows no bounds. Its restrictions are everywhere ; 
 and even Britons, with all their boasted liberty, 
 are abject slaves to their law-makers, who inter- 
 fere with all their domestic, social, and religious 
 concerns. Take the Liquor Laws, Sunday Laws, 
 Church Laws, School Laws, Marriage Laws, &c., 
 for examples of this legal tyranny which justifies 
 revolution. There is no personal freedom in an 
 English Sunday. A stranger must walk the 
 streets of London for hours before he can purchase 
 a chop or a glass of wine. We must also perforce 
 contribute to the support of a Church in which we 
 do not believe, and to the education of other people's 
 children. The Marriage Laws are, perhaps, the 
 most despotic and oppressive of alL Men and 
 women who have made the fatal mistake of select- 
 ing each other as companions for life, must be 
 compelled to live together in spite of mutual 
 repulsion and hatred, until one of the parties 
 commits a crime to sever the knot ! Eepugnant 
 unions lead only to endless wars and infinite 
 miseries. Where the elective afiinities do not 
 
LAW V, JUSTICE. 293 
 
 exist, hell does. Marriage is a civil contract — 
 which concerus only the parties who make it; and 
 they who marry by mutual consent would be 
 much more likely to live happily together to the 
 end of the chapter, if they were free to dissolve the 
 partnership by mutual consent. Of course, the 
 husband should be compelled to support and 
 educate his children, and his wife, too, so long as 
 she remained true to him, whether under the 
 same roof or not. Nothing but the wife's in- 
 fidelity should absolve her husband from the 
 moral and legal obligation to take care of her. 
 The same law and justice should apply to what 
 are termed illegitimate relations. According to 
 the law of England, the father of an illegitimate 
 child is condemned to pay the poor mother two- 
 and-sixpence a week for a certain limited period. 
 It strikes us that this is an outrage on woman, 
 and an insult to justice. The father, in such 
 case, should not only be compelled to support 
 the child until it comes of age, but the mother 
 also, until she find some other protector. But 
 the subject opens too widely for full discussion in 
 a newspaper article. We have rising before us 
 whole catalogues of flagrant cases of law in con- 
 flict with justice, which we have not time even to 
 mention to-day. These hints, how^ever, may set 
 
294 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 some stroDg and earnest reformer to thinking on 
 the m-gent necessity of codifying, simplifying, and 
 clarifying the great mass of laws which only serve 
 to impede, not promote, the course of justice. 
 
A CHALLENGE TO JACK FROST. 2g$ 
 
 A CHALLENGE TO JACK FROST. 
 
 Another new American idea, which proposes to 
 prevent canals from freezing. Mr Robert A. 
 Chesebrough, a scientific New Yorker, has pub- 
 lished a pamphlet giving full details of his plan 
 for keeping the canals open during the winter by 
 the introduction of artificial heat. Startling and 
 impracticable as the proposition first strikes us, 
 we are far from pronouncing the scheme impos- 
 sible, or even visionary ; and if the thing can be 
 done, the importance of the invention can hardly 
 be estimated in figures. It is a well-known fact 
 that a body of water freezes only on the surface, 
 and that it begins to freeze at 32° Fahrenheit. 
 Mr Chesebrough proposes, by the insertion of a 
 pipe filled with hot air running along the inside 
 of the canal, to keep the water on the surface a 
 degree or two above the freezing-point. If this can 
 be done, the problem is solved, and we shall hear 
 of no more commercial constipations by the closing 
 of canals in winter. The great Erie Canal, for 
 
296 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 instance, wliicli connects the Hudson River with 
 Lake Erie, is closed for several months every year, 
 and not uufrequently with millions of dollars' 
 worth of produce locked up in transitu. In 1872 
 the canal transportation exceeded that of all the 
 railroads. During the winter season, while the 
 canals are ice-bound, the railways raise their freight 
 rates some 300 per cent. During the w^inter of 
 1871, no less than four hundred boats, containing 
 3,500,000 bushels of grain, were frozen up 
 in the Erie, the freight on which amounted 
 to 640,000 dollars. Were it not for the ice em- 
 bargo there would be a very great extension of 
 the canal system in the ISTorthern States. The 
 Erie Canal would be extended to the town of Erie, 
 where it would connect wdth the Pennsylvania 
 Canal; thence to Cleveland, wdiere it would con- 
 nect with the Ohio Canal ; thence to Toledo, where 
 it would meet the Miami and Wabash Canals ; 
 and thence across the peninsula of Michigan to 
 Chicago, where it w^ould be united to the Missis- 
 sippi River by the Illinois Canal. No one can for 
 an instant doubt the vast importance of Mr Chese- 
 brough's scheme. The only way to silence scepti- 
 cism is to make an application of the theory on 
 a small scale. If it prove successful, the inven- 
 tor will have no trouble, even in panic times, in 
 raising millions, if required, to keep all the canals, 
 
A CHALLENGE TO JACK FROST. 29/ 
 
 if not all the rivers, of the North open all the 
 winter. The annual cost, as applied to the Erie, 
 350 miles, is estimated at 611,275 dollars — 
 a mere bagatelle in comparison to the loss of 
 freight receipts during the five or six frost- 
 bound months of the year. 
 
298 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 RETURN OF THE TIDAL WA VE. 
 
 The eternal and inexorable law of re-action was 
 never more forcibly illustrated than by the recent 
 elections in the United States. One of the great 
 axioms of physical philosophy asserts that re-action 
 is equal to action ; and the pendulum never fails 
 to swing back to the point from which it started. 
 The mental or moral world seems to be governed 
 by the same universal law. The flood of the tide 
 will be equal to the ebb. Fourteen years ago the 
 Black Republican party made a clean sweep over 
 all the Northern States of the American Union, 
 electing Lincoln President, and thereby causing 
 the Secession War. It is true that Mr Lincoln 
 was a ^^ minority President ; " but, while he re- 
 ceived less votes than Douglas and Breckinridge, 
 the two opposition candidates, he had enough to 
 make him legally President, and the people 
 submitted to the provision of the Constitution 
 '^ in such case made and provided." The South, 
 acting up to the menaces of the Presidential 
 
RETURN OF THE TIDAL WAVE. 299 
 
 campaign of 1860, to secede in the event of the 
 Black Republican party coming into power, con- 
 firmed their words by action, the month after Mr 
 Lincoln's inauguration, by an attack on Fort 
 Sumter, in the harbour of Charleston, — South 
 Carolina being the first of the ^^ wayward sisters " 
 to raise the flag of rebellion, or independence as 
 they called it down in Dixey. They were en- 
 couraged to take this step by a solemn " Resolu- 
 tion " passed by the Democratic Convention of the 
 State of New York, at Albany, in February 1861, 
 that the " Federal Government had no authority 
 to coerce the action of a sovereign State." But 
 for this ^' Resolution," which induced the South 
 to believe that the great body of Northern 
 Democrats would stand by them in the event of 
 Secession, there would have been no War. 
 Breckinridge, their recently- defeated candidate 
 for the Presidency, had grandly declared that 
 ^^ the power to coerce resides nowhere." But we 
 are writing of the solid facts of historj^, and not 
 of the vain prophecies of politicians. In looking 
 back upon the past, through the vanishing vista 
 of three Administrations, and across the sad 
 valley of half-a million of graves, without passion 
 or prejudice, or the least bias of partisan feeling, 
 we hold the Black Republican party responsible 
 for the causes of the War and all its cost in blood 
 
300 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 and treasure, and for the millstone of Debt now 
 weighing upon the neck of the nation. We only 
 draw the indictment, and leave History to argue 
 the case, establish the fact, and render the inevit- 
 able verdict. And now, at last, comes the re- 
 action. The people will no longer be led into 
 debt and destruction by a party of doctrinaires 
 and political speculators. Abolitionism, a mere 
 party shibboleth, a hobby to ride into power, is 
 ^^ played out." The nigger was emancipated 
 through the exigencies of war, not from any 
 conscientious pressure of '^ moral principles," 
 and is now free to work, or beg, or starve. He 
 is also endowed with the dangerous weapon of 
 the franchise, with which to fight his white 
 superior. In the meantime, the party in Power 
 have ridden roughshod over the subjugated 
 South, and '^run the machine of Government" 
 in the interest of the party, and of the particular 
 pets of the party. We need not stop to call the 
 long roll of ^^ beggars on horseback" who, for 
 the last ten years, have been revelling in wealth 
 at the expense of the taxpayers. From the 
 White House down to the smallest Custom- 
 House, party officials have been '' on the make," 
 to use the slang phrase for official robbery and 
 theft. And the stupid, patient masses, knowing 
 all this, have borne it until now ! At last they 
 
RETURN OF THE TIDAL WAVE. 3OI 
 
 liave waked up to a '^ realising sense of the 
 situation," and the tidal wave of indignant re- 
 action has swept mountains high, from Maine 
 to Louisiana. Is it not grand, this' spontaneous 
 and majestic uprising of an oppressed people, 
 determined — 
 
 " To right their wrongs, come weal, come woe, 
 To perish, or o'ercom.e the foe " ? 
 
 From a majority of one hundred against them- 
 in the Federal House of Eepresentatives, the 
 Conservatives have an elected majority of over 
 seventy. The dissolving majority of seven Re- 
 publicans in the Senate will soon be reduced to 
 zero, and a Conservative victory in the Presi- 
 dential election of 1876 is a foregone conclusion. 
 This is the most propitious " smile from the 
 West " that has beamed on us since the dark 
 War cloud shut from us the light of heaven and 
 of home. The revolution is a most beneficent 
 one, not only for the Union, but for " all the 
 rest of mankind." The triumphant party, which 
 is only conservative in comparison with the 
 Radicalism and nigger-equality of Black Repub- 
 licanism, is sufficiently progressive and pacific 
 in its policy. Ostensibly, the Democrats are a 
 free-trade, hard-currency, specie-paying party; 
 but the Free Trade of all countries is a 
 
302 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 mere matter of personal and sectional interest. 
 The American Democracy has its traditions, 
 Jeffersonian, Jacksonian, and Bentonian, to 
 which it still clings with commendable loyalty. 
 It is eminently the friend of agriculture, and 
 will legislate for the toiling million rather than 
 for the luxurious millionaire. It prefers hard 
 dollars, of fixed value, to filthy rags of fluc- 
 tuating value, and of no value. It is not an 
 agrarian party, but at the same time favours 
 the general distribution of wealth, and not the 
 massing of it into mountains for the benefit of 
 *^ a moneyed aristocracy." It is emphatically the 
 people's party, and an advocate of honest men and 
 honest measures. It is not a pro-slavery party. 
 That issue is dead and buried ; but it insists that 
 the white race is superior to the black. It is 
 not an aggressive party, but it will not truckle 
 to the dictates of Foreign Powers, and it will 
 have Spain out of Cuba within thirty days from 
 its installation at Washington ; not to enslave 
 the blacks, but to free them, and also the 
 struggling whites of that always oppressed 
 Island. Now, as a per contra^ we give our 
 readers the following brief sketch of the Demo- 
 cratic party, which appeared in the Philadelphia 
 Press — in the absence of the editor-proprietor, 
 be it understood — on the eve of the late elec- 
 
JiETURN OF THE TIDAL WAVE. 303 
 
 tion : — ''It hung defenceless negroes to lamp- 
 posts, and burned the asylums of innocent negro 
 orphans in New York some ten years ago, and 
 in 1871 the negroes of this city purchased their 
 first ballots at the cost of the blood of their 
 ablest and best leaders." Such electioneering- 
 stuff as this had much to do with the re-action 
 that has overwhelmed the country. There is 
 an eternal sense of justice deep down in the 
 heart of all nations and all epochs, which 
 neither the tyrants of the sword, the sceptre, nor 
 the pen may outrage with impunity. And so 
 the great '' whirligig of Time brings all things 
 
304 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES, 
 
 GOOD WISHES. 
 
 The New Year, as usual, has brought the Cos- 
 mopolitan many good wishes from various parts 
 of the world ; and these are not unfrequently 
 accompanied with friendly suggestions in regard 
 to the business management of the paper. Being 
 unable to answer all these kindly - meant com- 
 munications individually, we propose to give a 
 general reply, w^hich, we trust, will be generally 
 satisfactory. In the first place, let us frankly say 
 that good wishes mean nothing unless backed up by 
 more substantial support in the shape of a cash 
 remittance — that is, from those who have the 
 means. Not that good wishes and friendly sym- 
 pathies are to be despised from those who have 
 nothing else to give. This line of Burns is full 
 of truth : — 
 
 " A man may tak' a neebor's part, 
 And ha'e nae cash to spare him." 
 
 But those who send us ''' good advice," and no- 
 
 a 
 
 \ 
 
 thing else, and who perhaps spend hundreds a year 
 
GOOD WISHES. 305 
 
 on wine, women, and cigars — two of these three 
 luxuries one can live without — but cannot afford 
 to pay twenty shillings for fifty-two visits from 
 the Cosmopolitan, must not expect to be entered 
 in our books under the category of ^^ friends of 
 the paper." We recognise only two classes of 
 people in the world — subscribers and non-sub- 
 scribers ; as poor Ada Menkin recognised only two 
 classes of men — those who had married her and 
 those who hadn't. We regret to say that the 
 non-subscribing portion of the world still represents 
 a considerable majority, although the dispropor- 
 tion is weekly diminishing. In regard to the 
 suggestion from several true and substantial 
 friends of the Cosmopolitan, that the paper should 
 be regularly exposed for sale at all the railway 
 stations and bookstalls in the United Kingdom, 
 the United States, and in all the kiosks of Paris, 
 our answer is brief: We tried it more than eight 
 years ago, and it didn't pay. In the first place, 
 that overgrown newsboy, W. H. Smith, whose 
 rare thrift in his business enables him to attach 
 M.P. to his name, holds a monopoly of all the 
 English railway stations, and demands a price for 
 allowing any newspaper to be sold at his stalls — 
 Tribute, you see, sir, and no pun meant. Besides, 
 he returns and exchanges all unsold copies for new 
 ones, so that the publisher never knows what is 
 
 u 
 
306 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 coming back upon him in tlie shape of "" waste." 
 This is a kind of one-sided trade which we decline 
 to be a party to. The publisher takes all the risk, 
 and the vendor all the profit. No one, who really 
 wants the Cosmopolitan^ either one number or 
 fifty-two numbers, can have the slightest difficulty 
 in obtaining it, either by ordering it of a news- 
 man, or by enclosing stamps or cheque direct to 
 the ofiice. The Cosmopolitan is not a cheap paper, 
 or a trashy paper, or a sensation paper, and, con- 
 sequently, it is not what is called a " popular " 
 paper. We could not make such a one if we would, 
 and would not if we could. The ragamuffins who 
 run after Kenealy to cheer him, and after Hawkins 
 to hiss him, would never buy the Cosmopolitan if 
 it was for sale at every newspaper stall in Eng- 
 land : the Police News or Reynolds suits them 
 infinitely better, especially the one with pictures, 
 as they can read them. Again, the Cosmopolitan 
 has no political or sectarian clientele^ and it never 
 can have. It is the organ of no creed, or class, 
 or clique : — 
 
 " Pledged to no Party's arbitrary sway, 
 We follow Truth where'er she leads the way." 
 
 Men who look into these columns to find their 
 own pet opinions, traditions, beliefs, proverbs, 
 and catechisms reflected, will always be dis- 
 
GOOD WISHES. 307 
 
 appointed. We write to please, or to displease, 
 BO one : only to publish wliat we sincerely believe 
 to be the truth, and nothing but the truth ; but 
 not always the wliole truth. Society would never 
 tolerate that. One more question in relation to 
 ^^ business management," touching which we have 
 a whole pigeon-hole full of friendly communica- 
 tions. ^' How is it,'' we are asked, ^'that certain 
 other weekly journals beat you so conspicuously 
 in the advertising department ? " We reply to 
 this in one word — ^^ Deadheads." A friend, 
 in order to test this question a few days ago, 
 called on a large number of these ^^ advertisers," 
 and in seven cases out of twelve was informed 
 that their advertisements ^^ were inserted without 
 orders," that they would not pay for them, and 
 that, in many instances, their written request 
 to have the advertisements withdrawn had been 
 utterly disregarded. This fully explains the 
 ^^ discrepancy " which has been so frequently 
 remarked by the friends of the Cosmopolitan. 
 We have no space for '^ deadheads," or for 
 "dummies" to make a show, and serve as 
 " decoy ducks." We trust these explanations 
 will prove satisfactory in answer to the sugges- 
 tions that have been so frequently made to us 
 during the last eight or nine years ; and we will 
 
308 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 onlj add, that if any truly cosmopolitan-miuded 
 man or woman wishes to become a regular 
 reader and subscriber of the Cosmopolitan^ there 
 is not a city in Christendom where it cannot be 
 regularly had, at one pound a year, one penny 
 postage included. 
 
'' DULCE DOMUM^ 309 
 
 "DULCE DOMUMr 
 
 " In happy homes he saw the light 
 Of household fires gleam warm and bright," 
 
 But there was no home for the heaven-seeking 
 youth of Longfellow, neither was there for our 
 poor friend, John Howard Payne, who sang so 
 sweetly of the domestic paradise he never himself 
 enjoyed. And perhaps for that very reason, as it 
 is natural to exaggerate the blessings we do not 
 possess. How sweet the thought of food to a man 
 starving of hunger ; how delightful the imaginary 
 glow of fire to one perishing with cold ; how charm- 
 ing the dream of home to the homeless ! The ideal 
 home is heaven on earth. Alas ! that so many 
 households of discord should more nearly represent 
 the other place. At this most gracious season of 
 the year, when the hearts of the whole Christian 
 world are softening and expanding under the holy 
 influences of the Ideal One, whom a large portion 
 of mankind has clothed with all divine and human 
 attributes it is possible to conceive, the household 
 becomes a temple consecrated by love, and sane- 
 
310 COSMOPOLITAN MISCELLANIES. 
 
 tified by devotion to the loved. Husbands and 
 wives, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, 
 are all drawn nearer to each other by the tender 
 cords of family ties and common associations. 
 They feel that they belong to each other ; and in 
 every happy home ^^ wherein our Saviour's birth 
 is celebrated" there are joys with which the 
 *^ stranger intermeddleth not." The sacred word 
 home belongs alone to the English language, while 
 the ideal home itself is almost exclusively confined 
 to the English-speaking race. We do not say 
 that family affections are stronger among the 
 Anglo-Saxons than among other equally cultivated 
 nations ; nor that greater fidelity exists among 
 them between men and women who profess to be, 
 and who ought to be, sacredly and exclusively de- 
 voted to each other. In Germany the domestic 
 relations are perhaps as sacred, as true, and as 
 tender as those of any other people. But, ^mid 
 pleasures and palaces though we may roam, be it 
 ever so humble, there is no place like an English 
 home for the development of all the better elements 
 of the human heart, and the culmination of human 
 happiness. A charm from the skies, as our sweet 
 singer says, seems to hallow us there. Without 
 envy, let us congratulate all the dwellers in those 
 sweet homes x)n this happy Christmas Eve. Since 
 the angels from Heaven sang to the shepherds of 
 
'' DULCE DOMUM. 311 
 
 Bethlehem the glorious song of ^' Peace on earth," 
 there has been no music like the sweet home music, 
 ^^ uttered, or unexpressed," which throbs in every 
 heart around the happy fireside to-night. Let all 
 who join in this sacred choir of domestic love and 
 devotion think themselves happy. Let them also 
 give something more than a pitying thought to 
 those houseless and homeless ones who have not 
 where to lay their heads, but who, nevertheless, 
 may lay their poor hearts on the heart of Him who 
 was as poor and as houseless as themselves. Thank 
 God that beautiful Moon, reflecting the light of 
 the Divine Sun, still shines on the darkness of 
 our human night. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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