Across the Ferry FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF America & its People byD^Macaulay ^■m—m* ■». • ^ III I II — |p>^^ | for books, the A: arc still 1.: ibc old countr)*. The .' w A a good reputation, but the Z... . .// ^ ^^'^ the Quttrtnlw and several other Britisii levicws and |>^ rly n-prinled in thr Sutc5. This tacit ^ncni of cicnc)' docs not, howcvci, .»i»ply to theological works. There is the BiUtot' ^ • • V anJ philosop! as well . . is s As to the liook tr iherc AMERICAN REPRINTS. 133 published in the States in 1870 about 2,000 work^, including new editions. Of these 1,250 were original or compiled in America, 585 reprints of English works, and the remainder were reprints or translations of foreign books. 134 ACROSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XII. RAILWAY TRAVELLING STEAM-BOATS GAME LAWS SCENERY. TT is scarcely forty years since the first rail- ^ way in the United States was opened. Ten years after, in 1840, 2,000 miles of line had been laid; in 1850, nearly 9,000 miles ; in i860, 31,000; and in 1870, above 50,000. The rapid progress is stated in other forms, as when we are told that in 1851 the railways of the States did not exceed 5,000,000 tons, and the total earnings from freight and passengers did not exceed 20,000,000 dollars. In 1869 the tonnage of all the lines exceeded 100,000,000 tons, and the earnings from freight and passengers had risen to 300,000,000 dollars. In that period, while the increase of tonnage was twentyfold, the increase of earnings was only fifteenfold, showing that, though there has been a general rise in all values, there has been a decrease in the cost of railway transportation. The new lines planned, or in course of formation, exceed APPLETON'S GUIDES. 135 In extent those of any other country, except it may be Russia or British India. **Appleton's Guide," the "Bradshaw" of America, gives a wonderful idea of the vastness of the railway system of the States. There are about four hundred distinct lines or companies, and above five hundred and fifty including branch lines. The number of stations in the index is above 4,300. Besides the general railway map of the whole country, Appleton gives about seventy distinct maps of various lines. There is an ingenious method of econo- mising space in the time-tables, the names of places being printed only once, in the centre of each page, for what we call the Up and the Down trains, thus :— a.m. p.m. miles. 8.30 12.3 9- I. 9' 11.50 4.10 90 3.35 8.15 189 5.15 10.10 228 ■miles. Leave Arrive New York Newark Philadelphia Baltimore Washington Arrive Leave 228 218 138 39 o p.m. p.m. 4.10 10.20 3.20 9.45 12.40 6.49 9. 2.40 7.25 12.45 a.m. p.m. The American railway cars differ from the English carriages in internal arrangement as well as in size and make. They are long, hold- ing fifty or sixty passengers, instead of ten or twelve as with us. Some of our second and third-class carriages hold as many, when there 136 ACROSS THE FERRY. are open partitions, and seats on which some sitters are with their faces, others their backs, to the engine, or, in some cases, with benches running sideways. In the American cars all the seats face the engine, and are arranged in rows of two seats on each side, like an arm-chair of double width, with a passage in the middle. In some cars the backs of the seats are revers- ible, so that a party of four can make a com- partment for themselves face to face. There is no locking of doors, but free ingress or egress, with passage from one car to another, from end to end of the train, a bridged iron platform with handrail being over the coupling of the cars. The average speed on the American lines is about twenty miles an hour. The express trains rarely exceed thirty miles. On the old lines there is as much security, as well as regu- larity, as on any English railroad. Communi- cation with the guard and the engine-driver is effected by a cord passing inside the roof of the cars. Nominally, there is but one class of passen- gers, and one scale of fares. Every traveller takes his place where he has a fancy, except that a car is reserved for ladies and for gentle- men accompanying ladies. But, though in theor}^ all are equal, there are practically J^ AIL WAY CARS. 137 various classes of passengers. On the main lines there are cheap trains for emigrants. There are attached to most of the trains " drawing-room cars," " reclining-chair cars," and " sleeping-cars," or night-cars, for which additional charge is made. Some of these se- lect cars belong to speculating builders or com- panies, who purchase the privilege of attaching them to the trains, and make their profit by the extra charges. The most notable of these speculations are the Pullman " Palace Hotel cars." In one of these I travelled from Niagara to Chicago, leaving in the forenoon and ar- riving on the morning of the next day. Two of us chartered a compartment, like the cabin of a ship, with a comfortable sofa, above which a board was fixed at night, so as to form a second sleeping-berth. The beds were regu- larly made, boots put outside the door for cleaning, and hot water brought in the morning by an active black boy. Meals were served on a table carried into the cabin. The bill of fare contained more variety than in many English hotels, and at moderate charges. For lamb chop or mutton chop and tomato sauce the price was seventy-five cents ; fresh mackerel, fifty cents ; omelet, with ham, forty; a spring chicken, a dollar. There was ample choice of vegetables, fruits, and relishes, with five or 138 ACROSS THE FERRY. _ , » six kinds of wine, in the carte. A cup of French coffee, tea, or chocolate was fifteen cents. The kitchen, clean and commodious, had every appliance for cooking, and the dressing compartment was equally convenient. In trains not having these luxurious append- ages, the meals are provided at regular stations, as used to be the case in the old coaching days. Some of the drawing-room cars are as luxurious as those of royal or imperial car- riages on European lines, with mirrors, lounges, chandeliers, piano, and bookcases. A novelty in some of the cars on the Pacific line is an outside balcony, from which the scenery can be surveyed. The whole system of the American railways in regard to passengers' luggage (or " bag- gage," as it is called,) is admirable, both for safety and convenience. In England, luggage is a constant encumbrance and cause of anxiety, except for the few who have a valet or courier to take it in charge. There is trouble in seeing it ticketed ; trouble in looking after it ; trouble in finding it when the journey is over. In the scramble of the crowd on arrival, mistakes are numerous, and frauds frequent. Gangs of thieves live by stealing luggage at the stations. A few years ago, in a street near the Edgware Road there was a house purporting BAGGAGE TICKETS. 139 to have apartments to let, and at which piles of lug-gage seemed to be arriving at all hours of the day and night. For months this went on to the growing surprise of the neighbours, who were also annoyed by the noisy and dis- orderly conduct of the lodgers or tenants of the house. A friend living next door described to me the peals of laughter and loud revelry overheard after new arrivals of baggage. The robbers were overhauling the contents of the trunks and portmanteaus which had been seized by members of the gang, female and male, at the arrival of a train, and transported to this receiving house. Suspicions were at last aroused, and, on the police being set to watch, the gang dispersed. There is nothing, however, to prevent similar depredations being carried on ; and they are still carried on, though on a smaller scale, on all our railroads. In America, nothing of this kind is possible. On arriving at a railway depot the passenger goes straight to the baggage office, where a metal badge, stamped with the place of destina- tion, is attached to each article of luggage. Duplicate numbered checks are given to the passenger, who is then relieved from all care of impedhnenta. The articles are deposited in the baggage cars under custody of the guard. It is not even necessary on arriving at his desti- I40 ACROSS THE FERRY. nation to claim the baggage in person. Before reaching the end of the journey, an agent of one of the Baggage Express companies goes through the cars, and undertakes to transport the baggage to any address for a fixed fee. He gives a printed receipt on the checks being handed to him, and the baggage will be found at the hotel or house, sometimes before the passenger's arrival. Why should not a similar . plan be adopted on English railways ? Another nuisance in English railway travel- ling could be easily remedied by following the American example. At our stations, especially in London and the great towns, there is often a dangerous and disagreeable scramble for tickets. The window is not open till a few minutes before the train starts, while the clerks are often heard chatting and laughing behind the screen. In America the tickets can be . purchased at any time, at offices in hotels and throughout the towns. The American tickets are not, as with us, only available for the day of issue, but are good for a long period. For distant places they are divided into coupons, with leave for the passenger to break the journey. They are also transferable, so that the remainder of a ticket can be sold or bought at any agent's office. Everything, in short, is done in Ame- * PASSENGER TRAFFIC. 141 rica for the convenience of travellers, while ever}^thing in England seems contrived to multiply restriction and annoyance. Our di- rectors, with their free passes, have not per- sonal experience of the troubles of travelling, or they could scarcely persist in the stupid and harassing bye-laws of their passenger traffic. The arrangements in England are equally ingenious for the discomfort of travellers on the journey. In cold weather there is no pro- vision for heating the carriages, and in hot weather no sun-blinds, except in the first- class carriages. The second-class and third- class carriages are made as uncomfortable as possible, with the stolid idea of inducing larger numbers to pay the higher fare. Increase of comfort would tempt greater numbers to travel, and so more surely increase the revenue of a line. Except in the occasional excursion trains during the summer season, hardly any one thinks of travelling by rail for pleasure in England. In America, the ingenuity of the directors seems to be exerted for the comfort of the poorest classes, instead of for their dis- comfort, as with us. The carriages are large and well ventilated, with stoves for wintr}^ weather, and Venetian blinds and sun-shades at every window in summer. The seats are roomy and well cushioned. For parcels or 142 ACROSS THE FERRV. small bag-gage there are plenty of pegs and wire racks. There is a barrel of filtered water, iced in summer, at one end of the car, and lavatories and closets at the other. The con- ductor traverses the train at intervals, and sees that all is right. Whatever is within the power of official management is done for the conve- nience and safety of the passengers. Notwithstanding all this, there is room for discussion as to whether railway travelling on the whole is better in America. The jumping and jolting on many of the lines is terrible. The rails are laid upon big wooden sleepers, which seem often of needless irregularity in level. Great is the dust and glare in hot weather, and the draught in cold weather. The unwholesome air of the stove neutralises the advantage of the heat. When the car is crowded, each seat being double, you may be paired for a long period in too close proximity to an ineligible neighbour. In one journey I sat beside a big Irishman, who, when the heat became oppressive, pulled off his coat and sat in his shirt-sleeves. The shirt was clean, however, and the coat better, I'll be bound, than the last he wore in " ould Ireland." There are other discomforts in American cai^s to which one may be exposed, but my remark is not the less true, that the official manage DEPOTS OR STATIONS. 143 ment is in general far better than our own, where the discomfort of the poorer classes of travellers seems a first principle with directors and boards. Except in the larger towns and at the hotel stations, the depots are generally very plain wooden structures, with few ** fixings," and at night cheerless and ill-lighted. The scarcity, or apparent absence, of attendants strikes an Englishman used to our civil station-masters and active porters. No distinguishing dress is worn by the employes in America, except the conductor, and even if you discover an official he is too independent to attend to passengers. The grumpiness or rudeness, however, dis- appears if they are addressed in tones of equality, and not as " servants of the com- pany," and is only part of the repulsive as- good-as-you manner bred by democratic insti tutions. A novelty in the American cars to the English traveller is the trafficking " on board " by the newsboys and other dealers. For the privilege of trading, a sum is paid by speculators, whose agents find profitable sales for newspapers, periodicals, fruit, sweetmeats, and miscel- laneous goods. The stock is deposited in the baggage van, from which the dealer emerges at intervals with a load of articles for sale. 144 ACROSS THE FERRY. The newsboy passes through the cars, handing to every passenger a copy of a paper or maga- zine, and having made his journey he quickly returns to collect the deposited copies or the price from purchasers. Then the same process is gone through with eatables, or bonbons, or other articles for sale. A favourite stock, from which large profits must be made, is pasteboard boxes of sweets, ever}^ one of which is declared to contain an article of jewellery, or a gold or silver coin. The price of these boxes is half a dollar or a dollar. It is, in fact, a sort of lottery. The coins are rare, and the jewellery consists of Brummagem trin- kets, leaving broad profit to the fox, and nar- row benefit to the geese who invest. This trading, except in the newspapers, becomes a nuisance to most travellers. My first railway ride in America has left an indelible impression, so full was it of novelty and interest. It was from New York to Boston, by the ''Shore line," by way of New Haven, New London, and Providence. I started about noon of one of the sultr}^ days in the August of 1870. Depressed and fatigued by the enforced activity of sightseeing in the great city, it was a relief to get on board the cars, and to be passively borne towards fresh fields of observa- tion. At this season the mass of travellers I FJRST RAIL WA Y RIDE. 145 were attracted to the boats which reach Boston by the Long Island Sound. There were few passengers by the train, and the roomy car allowed me to move about from seat to seat, and from window to window, as new objects presented themselves to view. Having reached the depot on the hotel coach, taken my ticket at the hotel office, and got rid of my baggage in return for checks, I could give myself to free enjoyment of the journey. The construction and arrangements of the railway cars I have already described. Among other things different from our own trains, I noted the comfortable sheltered box for the engine-drivers, and wondered why our drivers should not have similar protection. The fuel is wood, stacks of which are in reserve at sta- tions on the line. The railway whistle is not shrill, as with us, but deep-toned like a trumpet. Above the engine is suspended a bell as a signal for passengers, which rings on near- ing crossings or depots. Its sound always reminded me of the line in Milton's " II Penseroso," describing the far-off curfew — " Swinging slow with sullen roar." At the crossings there was seldom any fence or swing gate, but merely a notice, conspicu- ously fixed, " Look out for the engine," the 10 146 ACROSS THE FERRY. approach of which is signalled by the deep- toned bell. After passing the straggling, unfinished northern region of New York, with its new streets laid out up to the 150th, and suburban factor}^ settlements, one of which is that of the sewing machines of Elias Howe, the first in- ventor, we got speedily into scenery " truly rural," among farms and orchards, and trees and fields. Stacks and "shocks" of maize or green corn formed the most novel feature in the agricultural prospect. There are no hedges, but wood rail fences, and here and there loose " stone dykes," as in the northern counties of England or the Scottish lowlands. As we traverse New England the connection of the geology and physical geography with the character of the people is apparent. Poor, shallow soil, with the rock cropping out in the fields, is not the place for indolent husbandmen. The first settlers on such a coast had to work for their living, and so have their descendants. The physical firmness of the race was thus secured, and the moral elements of character are seen in the churches and schools in the villages as we pass. There must be much of old primitive agricultural life still in the New England States. I saw oxen at the plough, and oxen in carts with heavy wooden wheels. Yet jVI:JV YORK TO BOSTON. . 147 the smart speculating enterprise of American city life is ever near. Along the line, the railing and rocky boulders, and all conspicu- ous objects, are painted over with advertise- ments. This I saw ever}^^here throughout the States. Advertising agents have pene- trated every corner of the land, with their paint pots and brushes. As we got farther north, the line often ran close to the sea, creeks of which we crossed by bridges, or the whole train was shipped over by a ferry boat. In winter it must often be a stern coast, stormy and rockbound, but now the sea curled to a pleasant breeze, and the blue waves were dotted with the white (cotton) sails of coasting ships and pleasure yachts. The cars became fuller as we neared Boston. At New London groups came on board from a great camp meeting at Mystic, which had broken up that day. This was about 106 miles from Boston, and at Providence, 44 miles, the new comers filled ever}^ seat in the cars. The whole distance from New York is 230 miles, the train, starting at 12.15, arriving at Boston about 9.30. From the competition of the boats, the fare is low — only six dollars, or less than three cents a mile. My last day in America was devoted to a trip up the Hudson to West Point by river. 148 ACROSS THE FERRY. and back by rail. A brief recollection of this sail will suffice for what is most worth noting about American steamers. In g-eneral con- struction they are much alike, whether on the rivers or lakes. They have two and sometimes three decks, the upper deck surmounted by a canopy, not of canvas, but of sheet iron, for protection from the showers of sparks and dust of the wood used as fuel. On the fore main deck the baggage is stowed, and here are the bureaux of the cashier and other officials of the boat, always including a well-stocked book and newspaper store. On the upper deck the main feature is the great saloon, generally furnished in the most splendid drawing-room style, with mirrors, painted panelling, richest carpets, and every luxurious fitting. "Floating palaces" these American boats are often called, and those which travel long distances are also " floating hotels." Every comfort and luxury can be obtained on board, and it is common in summer for families to live for days or weeks on these steamboats. Bookcases, pianos, work tables, and all conveniences, as in the best hotels, give the aspect of a luxurious home, with the enjoyment of cheerful company, and first-rate living. On some of the boats there are regular concerts and other entertainments given during the voyage. Corridors lead from HUDSON RIVER STEAMERS. 149 the saloons to the state rooms, also splendidly decorated, especially the "bridal state rooms," for newly-married couples. The latter, by the way, seem to abound in America beyond older countries, or the ma- jority of them love to display themselves in a most ostentatious w^ay in their new relationship. I noticed this so often that I note it as a trait of national character. At Niagara I was amused by seeing a string of carriages, in each of which a newly-married couple was posed for being photographed,, with the Falls for a distant back- ground. At the hotel I was told that there were often twenty "newly-married couples" sitting in the public room at dinner. But to return to our Hudson River steamboat. Sitting on the open, airy, but shaded upper deck, I enjoyed the magnificent scenery of "the Rhine of America." It was a lovely day, in early October, when the woods are gorgeous with colour, gold and scarlet and crimson foli- age, contrasted with which the hue of our richest autumnal tints would seem but sober russet. From the commencement of the Pali- sades, the long range of lofty cliffs on the west- ern shore, up to West Point, fifty miles above New York, every spot on either bank is inte- resting, either from natural beauty or historic association. Fort Lee and Fort Washington, ISO ACROSS THE FERRY. Yonkers, Dobbs' Ferry, Verplank's Point, Stony Point, and many places besides, recall the days of Washington and the Revolutionary War. At Tarrytown, where Major Andre was arrested, we are reminded also of more pleasing associations, amidst scenes of poetry and legend — Sunny- side and Sleepy Hollow, Irv^ing and Ichabod Crane. But older ghosts than these haunt the river. It was in 1607 that Hendrick Hudson, in his good Dutch barque the " Half Moon," first sailed up these waters, to the amazement of the Indian natives. Exactly two centurieG after, in 1807, the first steamboat, the "Cler- mont," carried Robert Fulton in the wake of Hendrick Hudson. What a revolution has been wrought in these two centuries ! And with what accelerated speed has been the pro- gress since Fulton's time ! Yet there are places within a few hours of New York as wildly pri- mitive as in Hudson's days, amidst which the summer tourist may forget the busy turmoil of American life. There are many secluded spots and Sleepy Hollows yet, even among the High- lands and the Catskills. And when we get farther away, among the Vermont lakes, or the New Hampshire mountains, the scenery is of the grandest character. In New York State itself, the region of the Adirondack mountains, and the Saranac lakes, west and south of Lake AMERICAN FIELD SPORTS. 151 Champlain, is still a primitive forest, where the wild deer have never been startled by railway whistle, and where, amidst the mountain ravines, the tourist almost expects to find aboriginal Indians resenting the intrusion of "the pale faces." The Adirondacks, and other native tribes, however, have long since disappeared, and the lofty ranges and deep forests are only visited by tourists and sportsmen. Several of the mountain peaks in the district are above 5,000 feet high, and the monarch of the range. Mount ]\Iarcy (or Tehawus, " the cloud-split- ter," in Indian language), is 5,470 feet high. Game is abundant in all the districts, and the lakes and brooks afford capital sport to the lovers of the gentle craft. Speaking of game and sporting, I saw an advertisement of a book on the " Game Laws." Having an idea that there were no game laws in America, I was curious to see this work, and found that in this, as in many matters, legisla- tion is in advance of our own. No code of game laws could be framed more comprehen- sive and concise, at once humane, and having regard to public convenience, than is in force in the State of New York. It is a brief act, divided into thirty-three sections,. of which the following are the most important : — " Deer of every description to be hunted, 152 ACROSS THE FERRY. killed, or exposed for sale, in August, Septem- ber, October, November, December only. ** Not to kill fawns whilst in their spotted coat. *' Rabbits to be killed only in November and December. "No wild pigeon to be killed or disturbed by gun or otherwise in nesting season. *' No wild ducks to be killed between ist February and 15th August. All punt guns, etc., except shoulder guns, prohibited. No w^ild fowl to be disturbed or killed while resting at night. *' Penalties for the above misdemeanours — maximum fine, 50 dols. "No wild birds' nests to be robbed — 5 dols. penalty. " No wild birds to be killed excepting in August, September, October, November, De- cember. Exemption in favour of naturalists and persons preserving fruit from depredation. " Grouse to be killed only on ow^ner s ground — penalty, 10 dols. . "Woodcocks between January i stand July 4th; quail, January 12th and October 20th; partridge, January ist and September ist; prairie chicken, February ist and July ist, not to be killed .or exposed for sale — penalty, 10 dols. Quail and partridge not to be snared at any time — penalty, 5 dols. AMERICAN GAME LA WS. :)) " On Sunday, no hunting, shooting, or trap- ping — penalty, 5 to 25 dols. ; 5 days' to 25 days' gaol. " In special districts — wild fowl of any de- scription not to be killed after sunset, nor the use of engines permitted to take fowl — penalty, 50 dols. " Trespass on land in pursuit of game or fish after a notice as below — penalty, maximum, 2^ dols., and loss of game taken on trespasser. *'The notice requires advertisement in local paper three weeks in April or May in each year ; two sign-boards, i foot square, to be placed in conspicuous places on the lands.'* The above is an epitome of the whole of the game and trespass law of the State of New York, where field sports 'may be said to stand higher in public estimation than in any other part of the Union. The protection that is afforded to every description of bird during the nesting season is a wise piece of legislation, and accords with the feeling of all humanity, that a mother and her young are sacred. As an article of food, as well as a protection against insects, winged or creeping, birds are thus placed in the position assigned them by nature. If in a country whose waste lands represent ten to one of its cultivated, such strenuous laws are passed for the preservation of feathered life, 154 ACROSS THE FERRY. much more ought a country like England, con- sisting chiefly of cultivated grounds, to be amply protected. Wild fowl are specially cared for, and that pernicious evil, the punt gun, is prohibited. Moreover, legislation goes so far as to protect them from disturbance during the night. The question of trespass is as simple as it is effective. The remainder of the act refers to fishing, net and rod, and ob- structions to the passage of fish. Sunday sport is prohibited. Compare this brief and effective code with the complicated machinery and the numerous special acts of our English legislature on the subject, and it confirms what I have stated as to the excellence of American law in matters of social welfare. I have said nearly as much as my space per- mits about travelling. In the densely populated and most civilised parts of the United States there is little to reward the traveller who may be in search of the picturesque. Scenery is another name for physical geography, and of that the main element is geological structure. The vast proportion of the surface in the old States is Tertiary or other recent formation. Here and there older rocks appear, and the scenery rises into grandeur. Get among the White Mountains of New Hampshire, or the AMERICAN SCENERY. 155 Blue Mountains and the Alleghanies of Vir- .i^inia, and there is grand and imposing scener}\ But vast tracts of country are of the tamest and most monotonous aspect. Art has done little to cloak the natural features of the soil. There are no picturesque villages, and few ornamental plantations. Plain wooden rail fences divide the fields, where cultivation has encroached on the forest or w^aste land. Few of the great cities have the advantage of com- mandine or beautiful situations. Vastness is the dominant impression on the mind of the traveller as he passes through the country. The site of Boston is striking, from its seaboard and many isknds. No other city struck me, so far as relates to external scenery. But it was the people, not the country, I w^ent to see, and so I was not disappointed. For exploring the scenery of a continent, more than two or three short months are required ; but briefer time suffices to see the connection of geology and physical geography and climate with the character and pursuits of the people. I saw enough to understand how the New England States, by physical as well as moral constitution, rule the Union, and will determine its destiny. The rapid growth of the West may somewhat shift the centre of political w^eight ; but, come what may, the brain of the giant nation will 156 ACROSS THE FERRY. remain up in the north-east corner. There is a familiar proverb at election time, " As Alaine goes, so goes the Union." Take in the other Northern States, to Massachusetts and Con- necticut, and down, through New Jersey, to Philadelphia, and an Englishman understands the saying in a broader sense — foreseeing that this hardy and well-trained people will deter- mine the future of the great republic. But I have got off the " travelling line." If I have said anything expressing disappointment at American scenery in its ordinary aspects, I conclude with the admission that never in any part of the world have I enjoyed a sail on a river so beautiful as the Hudson, nor a railroad ride so romantic as among the Blue Ridge hills and ravines in Western Virginia, between Marietta and Harper's Ferry. BOSTON. 157 CHAPTER XIII. BOSTON **THE HUB*' HISTORICAL SCENES AND ASSOCIATIONS RELIGIOUS STATISTICS BOS- TON AND EDINBURGH COMPARED COMMON SCHOOLS CIVIC GOVERNMENT CHARITABLE SOCIETIES — THE LADIES OF BOSTON. I SAW Boston with surprise, left it with re- gret, and remember it with admiration. I was surprised at the size and beauty of the city, the culture of its people, and the excel- lence of its government. I was surprised at the number of its churches, schools, libraries, newspapers, book-stores ; its places of amuse- ment as well as instruction ; and, above all, its charitable and philanthropic institutions. To an old traveller who had seen many cities, and had settled down into the nil ad^nirari spirit, it was a new sensation to be roused into admiring enthusiasm as I was at Boston. Far inferior to Edinburgh in picturesque site, to Venice or Rome or Grenada in romantic association, to 158 ACI^OSS THE FERRY. many a city of the Old World in historical fame, I yet felt deeper interest in Boston than in any place I had visited in days of younger and more susceptible emotion. I know not why, except it be that here Christian civilisation has . attained the highest reach I had hitherto wit- nessed, not perhaps in individual advancement, but in the general elevation and well-being of the community. I do not wonder at an English- man like ]\Ir. T. Hughes saying that if he were obliged to leave his own country he would choose Boston as his residence. I thought so too till I had been at Philadelphia, which may contest with Boston among modern cities the capability of securing "the greatest possible well-being of the greatest possible numbers." Both cities are in advance of the best cities of the Old World, in whatever can be effected by free institutions, and educational culture, and Christian civilisation, to ameliorate and elevate the masses. Much remains yet to be accom- plished, and many evils mar the pleasant pic- ture, but I saw here realised more than I had elsewhere seen of the ideal which Dr. Chalmers propounded in his " Civic Economy of Great Towns." As a citizen of the old country^ I felt no humiliation, but rather pride, in the progress of the Anglo-Saxon stock, and of what a tra- veller has happily designated ''Greater Britain." THE ^'HUBr 159 I do not ascribe the advance to political insti- tutions, and think it would have been greater with less of democratic license ; but I ascribe it to the transplantation to fresh soil of the best social and domestic life of the old country, and to the leavening influence of the Bible, the true source at once of individual happiness, and of the " righteousness which exalteth a nation." In bearing this strong testimony I am fully aware of the dark side of Boston life. Nowhere is intellectual pride more arrogant, learned vanity more conceited,'* free thought and free living more daring, vice and immorality more unblushing. The law and police records, the prisons and asylums, show this. But the two statements are quite consistent. Extreme forms of folly and notable cases of crime often appear in the best communities, and the co-existence of great good and great evil seems a common law of social life. What I affirm is, the general elevation of the masses of the people to a higher level than has been elsewhere attained, and the small proportion compared with other ^ The dome of the State House, resembhng the centre of a huge waggon-wheel, is nicknamed " the Hub," and the word is in playful metaphor applied by other American cities to Boston itself, the assumed centre of intellect and learning, " the Hub of the Union," or, as Carlyle would say, "the Hub of the Uni- verse ! " i6o ACROSS THE FERRY. cities, say Glasgow and Edinburgh, or Liver- pool and London, of a degraded and almost heathen substratum of society. I have gone about for days in Boston without hearing the gross and profane language which habitually vexes the ear in our streets, or witnessing by day or night the scenes of repulsive vice so common in our thoroughfares. There is little to be seen also of the squalid, abject poverty of the English courts and alleys, and of the Scot- tish closes and w}mds. The result is partly due, I suppose, to better municipal and sani- tary^ regulations ; but the moral effects must be fairly ascribed to the influence of education and Christian training. Philanthropy has not to deal with the hopeless chaos which intempe- rance and pauperism have produced in our great towns. And still more would be achieved in Boston but for the jealousy of interfering with popular liberty, which thus is allowed to run into license. Hence the growing influence of " the liquor traffic interest," and the circula- tion of criminal literature, and other agencies counteracting the good work of education. The magistrates and respectable citizens of Boston had better check this license with stronger hand, or their city will not continue to hold its claim to admiration for the social and moral character of its people. THE BEGINNING OF BOSTON. i6r I have little to say about those things in Boston which authors have most enlarged upon in their books of travel. At the time of my visit, the literary notables were all absent, and the season of lectures and meetings had not commenced. Boston is rich in scenes and associations be- longing both to English and American history. The name was given in honour of the Rev. John Cotton, who came from Boston in the old country. The first European inhabitant of the peninsula now covered with Boston city was another minister, the Rev. John Blackstone. Here he lived alone till joined by a party of emigrants, headed by John Winthorp, after- wards the first governor of Massachusetts. In 1635 ^^r- Blackstone sold his claim to the whole peninsula for £^0 ! The island on which East Boston is built was the homestead of another solitary settler, Samuel Maverick. Much of the earlier history is ecclesiastical rather than political. The first emigrants carried with them the forms and traditions of Puritan Eng-- land, and laid a solid foundation of Anglo- Saxon institutions. The first American news- paper, the Boston News Letter, was commenced in 1704. In 1760 the population was only 18,000 ; during the revolutionary war it receded to 1 2,000, and only reached 1 8,000 again in 1 789, II 1 62 ACROSS THE FERRY. the year that Washington was elected first Pre- sident of the United States. In the fiftieth year of Independence, in 1826, the population was 50,000; in i860, 190,000; and at the last census had risen to 250,000. Being one of the oldest cities of the Union, its streets are not laid out in neat, dull parallelograms, but have grown with the growth of the population, in an irregular fashion, according to the requirements of site, space, and other circumstances. There are two great lines, Tremont Street, skirting the Common, and Washington Street, roughly parallel to Tremont Street, with Court Street running across the northern extremity of both lines. Beyond Court Street, going north-east towards the Harbour, I more than once lost myself among networks of intricate crooked little streets, with names dating from British times, though the old inn signs of which we read in early Boston annals have long vanished — '' King's Arms," and " Queen's Arms," and " St. Georges," and ^' Red Lions." It is curi- ous to read about one of these ancient hostelries, that " at the ' Ship,' Sir Richard Carr, carous- ing on Saturday night, was arrested by John Mason, constable, who said he would have arrested the king himself if breaking t/ie Sabbath eve.'' The Puritan spirit in its strictness has vanished with the old inn signs. The observ- HISTORICAL SCENES. 163 ance of the Lord's day is still honourably main- tained in Boston, and the churches are well attended, but the large foreign population and the freer customs of modern times have modified the ancient laws and usages as to the Sabbath. My first day in Boston seemed like a long pleasure stroll through a historical gallery or museum. Turning to the right on leaving Tremont House, I passed under a row of fine elm trees, in front of a railed graveyard. These trees, I was told, were just a century old, being planted in 1770 by a loyal Englishman, Colonel Paddock, who left, on the Declaration of Inde- pendence, for Nova Scotia, where his descend- ants remain. The churchyard, now closed, contains, among other notable tombs, that of the parents of Benjamin Franklin. A few paces farther on I found one of the entrances to the Common. Here the chief visible relic of historic times is a venerable elm, familiarly known as *' Liberty Tree," the centre of many a patriotic gathering. The Bostonians are justly proud of their Common, with its shady walks and healthy slopes, and its fresh lake, which is jestingly nicknamed ** the frog pond " by other Americans. I saw the people of Boston gathered on two or three nights in the Common for music. A 1 64 ACROSS THE FERRW powerful and well- trained band occupied a raised orchestra, and a vast multitude sat on the slopes or stood around. The concert did not begin till eight, and the great mass seemed to consist of the working classes. There must have been above 100,000 present, and I was astonished at the order and good conduct of the vast assem- blage. When the programme w^as ended, and the lights of the orchestra extinguished, the crowd quietly and quickly dispersed. In less than half an hour the Common was almost empty. Except a policeman at the gates to prevent crushing, there was nothing to enforce the orderly conduct of the crowd. I could not help contrasting the scene with the assemblage such an entertainment would attract in ourparks. Where are " the roughs " ? one might well ask in Boston. There are plenty of them, no doubt, in the second seaport town of America, yet they form but an insignificant proportion to the well-educated and w^ell-governed population. I saw other signs of the general orderliness and elevation of " the lower orders." There Avere two theatres not far from the hotel, places which here as elsewhere attract the loosest sec- tions of the people, but not many minutes after the hour of closing the street \vas clear, and nothing to be seen or heard of the vice and revelry which disturb and disgrace some of our BOSTON COMMON. 165 London thoroughfares at night. There is in Boston as in New York much immorality and drunkenness, but a stranger to see this must go to the haunts of vice. No impartial witness will deny that in the outward aspect of a well- ordered and well-conducted community, Boston is ahead of British towns of the same popu- lation — far ahead of Edinburgh, for instance, to which in other respects it bears most resem- blance. At one corner of the Common, at the top of Beacon Hill, occupying a most imposing site, is the State House of Massachusetts. Fromi the dome a- magnificent view is obtained of the city and surrounding region of sea and land. Joined to the mainland and Roxbury suburb by a narrow isthmus, called the Neck, the city proper is united to Charlestown, South Boston, and other suburbs, by numerous bridges and broad causeways crossing the salt-water la- goons, and giving a Venice-like appearance to the site. The old Cambridge bridge, across Charles River, to the Cambridge and Harvard Road, is about 2,760 feet in length, with a causeway of 3,422 feet. Another causeway a mile and a half long extends from the foot of Beacon Street across the bay to Sewell's Point in Brookline. From the dome of the State House may also be seen the many quays and 1 66 ACJ^OSS THE FERRY. docks, the channels and islands, and distant landscapes of wonderful beauty, not forgetting- Bunker s Hill, with its monumental obelisk, and the green heights of Mount Auburn Cemetery. The building itself contains many monuments and memorials of the Revolution, especially a sculptured record bearing the dates of the most remarkable events of the War of Inde- pendence, ending with this patriotic appeal, referring to the Beacon Hill on which it was originally placed : " Americans ! while from this eminence scenes of luxuriant fertility, of flourishing commerce, and the abodes of social happiness meet your view, forget- not those who by their exertions have secured to you these blessings." Descending from the State House, I visited the Old State House ; the original building remaining, but now occupied by commercial offices. Thence I went to Faneuil Hall, " the cradle of liberty," as it is popularly called, having been the scene of many a council and assembly in the days of the fathers of the Revolution, who are presented in pictures and statues. Then I went to the City Hall, and many other public buildings notable in Boston annals of earlier or later date. But I have no space to spare for describing places, only referring to them in connection with THE ATHENS OF THE NEW WORLD. 167 my general impressions of the city and its people. - The Americans have a saying which hits off the characteristics of their three great eastern cities. " At New York the question is what a man has, at Philadelphia who a man is, but at Boston what does a man know." In spite of proverbial Yankee * smartness, dollars do not take precedence of books in Boston society. This Athens of the New World is justly proud of her poets, historians, and men of letters. This last conventional phrase sounds ungallant in such a connection, for we might as well say " women of letters." Half the ladies in Boston w^ould be considered "Blue" in many other towns. Even young ladies in their teens are often well versed in science as well as literature, and talk with amazing fluency and self-posses- sion. Sidney Smith's bantering description of the young ladies of another " modern Athens " came to my thought, when he says he overheard the neighbouring couple in a quadrille discus- sing philosophy and "love in the aibstract." The Boston dialect even in best circles some- what grates on English ears, but it is as musical * Yankee is a term applied to the people of all the six north- eastern states, collectively forming New England, Maine, Mas- sachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island ; but in Massachusetts and its capital, Boston, Yankee 'cuteness is ^^\€^(y<^^6. par excellence. i68 ACROSS THE FERRY as the twang- of the Lothian ladles. Both by contrast and resemblance I was frequently — sometimes amusingly, sometimes painfully — re- minded of Edinburgh, as I knew it of old in my college days. I was amused at the general rage for learned and philosophical lectures ; at the enthusiastic talk about favourite preachers; at the ofticial deference paid to professors and other titular representatives of learn- ing ; at the exclusiveness and self-importance of the little coteries of literati. Some of these traits I only gathered from conversation, my visit being at a season of the year when all the lights were out and the benches empty in the Boston W'alhalla. Even at Harvard there w^ere but two or three dons, unknow^n to fame, keeping guard: Longfellow and Lowell, and Holmes, and every notable man, Harvard official or resident at Cambridge, being scattered for the season. I went on Sunday morning to the "Old South Church," a place of many historical as- sociations. Here Franklin was baptized, his birthplace being near. Here George Whitfield preached. Inscribed in the church records, or on the gravestones of the churchyard, are me- morials of Cotton, Winslows, Eliots, and other well-known New England names. The build- ing is plain, but the lofty spire, fine bell, and THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH. 169 conspicuous clock are familiar to all Bostonians, and arrest the notice of strangers as they pass down Washington Street. An inscription tells us when the first church was erected, and when it was rebuilt, and how it was desecrated by the British in the revolutionary war. The pulpit and pews were broken up for fuel, and many books from the librar}^ burned. The body of the church w^as made into a cavalry riding school, hundreds of cartloads of gravel being brought in to raise the level. The galleries used to be filled with spectators, and resounded with the cries of getting liquor and refreshments. When Independence came, the ** Old South" was all the more '* a sanctuary of freedom." Many a ''sermon for the times" has been heard here, and many an "election" sermon, in other sense of the w^ord from that understood by the old Puritan pastors. The present minister is the sixteenth in succession from the first pastor of the church before the middle of the seven- teenth centur}^ There is a venerable air even now about the interior, with its heav}^ pews and lofty pulpit of the "tub" kind, covered by a large old-fashioned sounding-board. In almost all modern churches of the Congregationalists, the broad platform with railing in front takes the place of a pulpit. I went, not knowing to what denomination the " Old South" belonged, 170 ACROSS THE FERRY. but found it a genuine descendant of the early New England Independent Churches. The service was much the same as in similar con- gregations in England. There was a brief extempore invocation prayer; a hymn (per- formed by the organist and choir, most of the people sitting) ; then notices read ; another prayer and hymn ; then the sermon. It was a plain ordinary discourse, not by the regular minister. A short prayer followed, and a hymn, the congregation standing this time, so that probably there is no fixed usage. It was Com- munion Sabbath, and strangers were invited to remain. The elements were distributed to the members in their pews, after the usual prayer and address from the minister. The company of venerable deacons, ranged in twos in front of the Comm.union table, looked exactly like the "douce" solemn elders seen in Scottish churches on such occasions. A coloured female sat near me, and one or two others were in the church, proving that in this community at least there is oneness of Christian fellowship for all complexions, as well as all social grades. The concluding address had some novelty to me, being a special exhortation to prepare for "the yearly campaign of Christian work." " From the Fall (autumn) to the beginning of May," the minister reminded his hearers, " is PURITAN TRADITIONS. 171 the season for activity in all good and benefi- cent undertakings," referring, as I afterwards learned, to the general migration of the richer classes to the country or the seaside through- out the summer months. I was told that there is still a valuable library, including many curious pamphlets and manuscripts, belonging to the church. The present edifice was erected in 1730. The last service in the old church was in March, 1729 ; and so decayed was the timber found to be, that it was thought the crowded congregation had a " gracious preser- vation." The first minister of the church was Thomas Thatcher, from Salisbury, England, a doctor of medicine, as well as in holy orders. The fourth in succession from him was " good Dr. Sewell," pastor for fifty years, who, when so feeble as to be carried up to the pulpit, still preached the Gospel with earnest animation. When and how the New England States lapsed from the old Puritan standard of ortho- doxy is not recorded. The declension was pro- bably gradual, as in the old country, where a similar spiritual blight seems to have settled down on the churches both in England and Scotland. The early part of the eighteenth century was the time of this decay. In Eng- land the Presbyterian churches slowly merged into Socinianism, retaining the old name, so 172 ACROSS THE FERRY. honourable in the previous century, only when necessar}^ for the sake of holding endowments and property. The standards of the Church of England secured a greater extent of nominal adherence to orthodoxy, but it was often but the lifeless form of the creed of the Reformers. Infidelity prevailed throughout the nation, so that when Bishop Butler published his " Ana- logy," he wrote these memorable historical words : — " It is come, I know^ not how, to be taken for granted, by many persons, that Christianity is not so much a subject of inquiry; but that it is now, at length, discovered to be fictitious. And accordingly they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment ; and nothing remained but to set it up as a principal subject of mirth and ridicule, as it were by way of reprisals for its having so long interrupted the pleasures of the world." Bishop Butler's book led the way in the learned and able Christian apologetical literature of the country, but it was only in the ''revival" caused b}^ the preaching of Wesley and Whitfield and their followers that the eclipse of faith passed from the face of England. In Scotland, the revival from the dark days of *' moderatism" came later, but was more energetic and thorough, even as, had been the work of reformation in BOSTON UNITARIANS. 173 earlier times. When Chalmers was in the zenith of his fame, the scepticism of the previous centur}^ had utterly disappeared as a national feature, and there are at present in all Scotland not more than two or three congregations of professed Unitarians. Strange to say, this obscuration of Gospel light lasted down to a far later period in New England ; and especially in Boston, where Uni- tarianism is nominally one of the most numer- ous and influential of the denominations. They call themselves Christians, for the number is small of those who avow themselves Deists, or even Socinians. But with a large proportion, the Unitarian profession is only a tribute paid to social position. To deny Christianity would in these times in America be regarded as im- plying want of character, if not of intellect, and the Unitarian churches admit of Christian pro- fession with least disturbance of personal free- dom of thought and action. But the thing is fast degenerating into a hollow sham. Nomi- nally, there are still more Unitarian than any other kind of churches in Boston. They count 25 churches out of about 145 in all; the deno- minations next in number being Congregational Trinitarian, 20; Baptist, 17; Methodist Epis- copal, 17 ; Roman Catholic, 15 ; Episcopal, 15. The Presbyterians, who predominate in 174 ACROSS THE FERRY. Other parts of the Eastern States, have only six churches. But while the Unitarians count twenty- five churches, their relative position has greatly altered within the last twenty years. It is not now as in the time of Channing and his associates. A large section has drifted, under preachers like Parker, into wilder regions of free thought in religion, while other churches have drawn very near to evangelical truth. In fact, the cold cheerless system is fast breaking up. It still stands clear and erect, but it is like an iceberg which has floated into warmer latitudes, and the base being eaten away, it will soon topple over and be dispersed. It is impossible that, amidst the new warmth and life of the churches, in this age of Bible circu- lation and missions, and active works of Chris- tian beneficence, the creed of Unitarianism can long hold its sway in such a city as Boston. It will probably survive longest in the little cliques of literary people, and in the class-rooms of Harvard University, but even there its days are numbered. Let us hope this spiritual cloud that overhangs the grand city of Boston may soon be dispersed, and the old civic motto, in the fulness of its signification, again shine forth, " SicuT PATRiBus SIT Deus nobis." I received an interesting report of a visit paid to Boston the year before by Dr. M*Cosh, CHANNING AND THEODORE PARKER. 175 the distinguished President of Princeton College, New Jersey, the worthy successor of America's greatest metaphysician, Jonathan Edwards. He was invited to give a series of lectures on the Christian evidences. This was a subject not likely to be attractive in the programmes of lectures to which the literati of Boston flock. The place of meeting was, therefore, one of the Methodist Episcopal churches, and the ad- dresses were ostensibly given as a course of instruction to theological students. The high reputation of the lecturer attracted increasing numbers, till at last the place was crowded to the door, and all the intellectual aristocracy of Boston were among the audience. In one of the lectures the President bore high testimony to the eloquence and uprightness of Channing, and to his noble efforts in the cause of freedom. After reading passages from his works, he con- trasted his opinions with those of Parker and others who now profess to be the leaders of Unitarianism, showing that it was impossible to remain in the position at present occupied. There must be either a rapid downward course to infidelity, or the steps of honest inquirers must be retraced toward the solid standing ground of revealed Christian truth. The impression produced by the lectures was great; and Dr. M'Cosh was invited to preach 176 ACROSS THE FERRY. before the University of Harvard — a very handsome and liberal thing, considering his well-known and outspoken views. In the academic chapel he was listened to with marked attention, and w^as thanked by the officials for his discourse. I afterwards at Princeton asked Dr. M'Cosh about his visit to Boston, and, though averse to narrating his own proceedings, he spoke in warm terms of the kindness and courtesy with which he had been received, especially at Harvard University. He said that he there preached a plain gospel sermon, such as he would have addressed to any village congrega- tion. It was this, no doubt, which struck his audience more than if he had delivered a more formal oration. Probably many of those pre- sent had never before heard an evangelical sermon. Dr. iVPCosh seemed much gratified by his visit, and said that the Boston Unitarians only wanted a man of power to rise up among themselves, as Chalmers had in Scotland, to lead them to a higher and nobler platform of thought and feeling. I have extended my remarks on the outward religious aspect of Boston, because it really was one of the things which had puzzled me, and which made most impression in America ; which at a distance seemed most strange, and CHARLES DICKENS AT BOSTON. 177 was only made clear by close inspection. It seemed strange that Unitarianism could pre- vail, to the extent that it was said to do, in the centre of American thought and life. But I found the adherence to it now chiefly tradi- tional. It has not increased with increase of population, nor in the ratio of other religious denominations. In another generation I have no doubt that Boston, as it is the head of intel- lectual, so will be the head of moral and evan- gelical influence in the Union. I was at Boston about two months after the death of Charles Dickens, and everywhere saw marks of the public mourning which the news had caused. His portrait, draped with black or wreathed with immortelles, was in many book- sellers' windows, with pressing announcements of new editions of his works. In the Boston Free Library a department has been formed for collecting every scrap of literature bearing upon the name of Dickens. I was told that on his second visit, so intense was th.e furore for hear- ing his readings, that queues were formed over- night to find places, where these had not been secured by fabulous payments. I was taken to see a window in a publisher's shop opposite the Common, at which groups were reverentially staring, and was told that at this window Dickens used to sit surveying the passing 12 178 ACROSS THE FERRY. crowds. So far as it goes, this tribute to Dickens is very honourable to Boston, all the more after the freedom of his criticisms, in his own style of exaggerated caricature, in the " American Notes," and in " Martin Chuzzle- wit." But the intensity of the admiration of his works was somewhat amusing. One Bos- ton editor said to me seriously that he ranked Shakspeare and Dickens nearly on a level as to humour and the delineation of character. Now, without intruding any re- marks of my own, I take leave to transcribe, for the benefit of Boston readers, and as a small contribution to the Dickens literary museum, the following striking passage from a writer too little known, I fear, in America —Hugh Miller. Hugh Miller was shown the Visitors' Album at Shakspeare' s House in Stratford-on-Avon, by the woman in charge. The first name she turned up was that of Sir Walter Scott; the second that of Charles Dickens. " That will do," he said, " now shut up the book." " It was a curious coincidence. Shakspeare, Scott, Dickens! The scale is a descending one ; so is the scale from the lion to the leopard, and from the leopard to the tiger cat ; but cat, leopard, and lion belong to one great family ; and these three poets belong unequivocally to HUGH MILLER ON DICKENS. 179 one great family also. They are generally one ; masters, each in his own sphere, not simply of the art of exhibiting: character in the truth of nature — for that a Hume or a Tacitus may possess — but of the rarer and more difficult dramatic art of making characters exhibit them- selves. It is not uninstructive to remark how the peculiar ability of portraying character in this form is so exactly proportioned to the general intellectual power of the writer who possesses it. No dramatist, w^hatever he may attempt, ever draws taller men than himself : as water in a bent tube rises to exactlv the same height in the two limbs, so intellect in the character produced rises to but the level of the intellect of the producer. Viewed with refer- ence to this simple rule, the higher characters of Scott, Dickens, and Shakspeare curiously indicate the intellectual stature of the men who produced them. Scott's higher characters possess massive good sense, great shrewdness, much intelligence : they are always very supe- rior if not always great men ; and by a careful arrangement of drapery, and much study of position and attitude, they play their parts wonderfully well. The higher characters of Dickens do not stand by any means so high ; the fluid in the oricrinal tube rests at a lower level ; and no one seems better aware of i8o ACROSS THE FERRY. the fact than Dickens himself. He knows his proper walk ; and, content with expati- ating in a comparatively humble province of human life and character, rarely stands on tiptoe in the vain attempt to portray an intellect taller than his own. The intellectual stature of Shakspeare rises, on the other hand, to the hiehest level of man. There was no human greatness which he could not adequately con- ceive and portray. His range includes the loftiest and lowest characters, and takes in all between." Many other things I noted in the civic or social life of Boston on w^hich I might enlarge, but I have more than filled my space. I must only gather up a few miscellaneous recollec- tions. To the efficiency of the Public School System I have alreadv referred. It is estimated that the number of children in the city between the ages of five and sixteen is 35,000, of which only one-tenth attend no school, one-tenth are in private schools, and eight-tenths are in the public schools. Half this number are in the primary schools, and half in the grammar and higher schools. There are twenty grammar schools, and thirty primary schools, with about 1,100 male and 500 female teachers. The "Public Schools Committee" consists of the BOSTON COMMON SCHOOLS. i8i Mayor and the President of Common Council, with six members elected for each of the sixteen city wards. There is a superintendent, with a salary of 4,000 dols. ; a secretary, 1,800 dols. The salaries of the teachers range from 400 dols. to 800 dols., the head masters of the Latin and English High Schools, the Girls' High School, and Normal Schools having the largest salaries. Among other highly-paid teachers I found that the drawing-masters in the high and grammar schools had 2,500 dols., and the as- sistants 2,000 dols., and that the professor of " vocal and physical culture " had 3,000 dols., and the assistant 2,500 dols., showing the value put upon these special branches of training. Some of the higher schools are of old founda- tion, the City Latin School having been founded in 1635, ^"^ t^^ Roxbury Latin School in 1645. The people of Boston take enlightened inte- rest in the management of the schools, and indeed in the affairs of the city generally, not holding aloof, as in New York, from public life, and so leaving a set of mismanagers and plun- derers to grasp the government. Committees of the Common Council have superintendence of finance, health, markets, bridges and ferries, lighting and paving, charities, and other de- partments. The arrangements for fire alarms are of the most complete kind. The whole of 1 82 ACROSS THE FERRY. the city and suburbs is divided into upwards of 250 numbered sections, each with a hre-alarm box, communicating- by electric wires with the central alarm station in the City Hall. The keys of the boxes are with the police. On an alarm being- given for any district, its locality is at once indicated by the corresponding num- ber being sounded by the alarm clock. Thus, if the fire is in section 213, the alarm strikes 2 blows, with a pause, then i blow, pause, and 3 blows — for 213. The fire watch is on duty in the City Hall dome day and night. The same system of combined signals I afterwards found in use at Chicago and other great towns. It is the only point in which the American fire bri- gade system has advantage over our own. In the population of Boston, the proportion of natives to foreign-born citizens is a little more than double. The number of coloured people is less than I expected, being under 3,oco. The number of voters is about 50,000. Of the sexes, the proportion before the last cen- sus was about 90,000 males to 103,000 females. The last return I have not seen. The average number of persons to a family was 5'o6; to a house 9'3i ; of families to a house i*84. These statistics are useful for comparison with other cities in estimating social or sanitaiy conditions. Water is plentiful, and the rates fixed by the BOSTON CHARITIES. 183 City Council. At present the water-rate for private dwellings is 6 dols. a year for a house of 1,000 dols. rated valuation. Hotels are charged 3 dols. extra for each bed, and shops and stores at various rates, according to sche- dules. The same careful administration extends to other matters under municipal control. But beyond these public departments there is a wide field for the labours of charitable and bene- volent administration. A vast number of so- cieties take up every form of human suffering and want. In regard to spiritual destitution, the labours are almost wholly supported by voluntary contributions, the work of the churches being supplemented, as with us, by City Mission, Young Men's Christian Association, and other agencies. Nor is the religious activity confined to home operations. Bible and Tract Societies are well supported, and the Mission House in Pemberton Square includes the office of the American Board of Foreign Missions, an agency of great influence in various parts of the world, especially in the East. The organisation of benevolent workand charitable relief is somewhat defective, though abundant in resources. There are between sixty and seventy charitable institutions in the city, besides the private charities of the several churches, and those of Freemasons, benefit 1 84 ACROSS THE FERRY. societies, and the like. Upwards of forty of the charitable societies are for the relief of the poor, the sick, and the unfortunate ; of these, twelve or fifteen are for the relief of the poor at large, in addition to the city charity, supported by rates, which expends as much as all the other societies. In so large a number of distinct or- ganisations there must be great waste of re- sources in working expenses, besides the risk of being imposed upon by professional beggars, when there is little communication between the various offices of relief. To meet this, an at- tempt has been made to organise a central relief bureau, the office of which is under the same roof as the City Bureau of Charity, so that the cases of claimants can be readily sifted. This charitable "clearing house" has already been found to work well, and the idea is worth being carried out by our multiform charitable societies in London and other great towns. All denominations, and Roman Catholics as well as Protestants, work harmoniously in Boston, so far as the relief of the poor is concerned. One of the most active managers of the Boston Provident Association told me that but for the constant immigration of new Irish poor, the pauperism of the city could be kept thoroughly under control, a great achievement with a population of 250,000. LADIES OF BOSTON. 185 In looking over this long chapter, I notice I have said not a word about the ladies of Boston, except figuratively as to the colour of their stockings. I must set this down as the last but not least of my impressions — that in brightness and elegance Boston beauty is far above the average ; I never saw fewer plain faces, even in the middle and lower classes. And as to dress, the intermingling of all classes in the schools has led to a general tidiness and taste that must be noticed by evers^ stranger. Education also gives intelligence and expression, which are visible on the countenance. I speak of the masses of the people, not of the upper classes, whose refined style of features has often been celebrated. Ill-natured people say that the beauty is only of the face, is often accompanied with chicken-breasted shape and delicate health, and generally soon passes off. It may be so among girls in New England fashionable life ; but I can only say that in average looks the women are equal to those of any European town of the size ; and as to the beauty being short- lived, I never have seen so many nice-looking old ladies as in Boston. 1 86 ACROSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XIV. NIAGARA. WERE you disappointed with .Niagara? The question was so frequently asked that I began to think some feeling of disap- pointment was almost expected. Well, I was disappointed, and I was not disappointed. The first sight of the Falls was something quite dif- ferent from what imagination had ideally fore- cast; but the actual impression remaining far surpasses even the vastest anticipation of what was to be seen. My first sight of Niagara was at a distance of three or four miles, from the raihvav-car on approaching the suspension bridge by the Grand Trunk line. I was unprepared, and on looking out from the window, suddenly saw the whole range of the Falls, with the overhanging cloud of mist, lighted up by the clear sunshine. The view was only for a few short minutes, being soon hidden again, but this first sight remains as a picture rather of beauty than of sublimity. FIRST SIGHT OF NIAGARA. 187 Again, from the bridge there was a nearer view, but still it seemed like a beautiful picture, in which the Falls formed only part of the broad sweep of landscape, set in a bright blue sky. The country for many miles before approach- ing Niagara is tame and flat, the line passing between rail-fenced nelds, dotted with stunted and often charred trees, and with patches of forest at intervals. Nothing else breaks the monotony of the prospect. Looking in the direction of Niagara, there is no lofty range visible, and no scenery that might indicate or give expectation of the grand spectacle to which 'we are hastening. The noise of the train also conceals the roar of the " thundering water," as Niagara means in Indian language. In the stillness of night the sound is said to be audible at more than thirty miles distance, but this element of grandeur was also absent from the first introduction to the Falls. I went to the International Hotel, one of the two great houses on the American side. The other, the Cataract Hotel, is higher up, on the brink of the Rapids. The International is nearer the Yerry House, and the Grove, one part of which, Mew Point, is always crowded with wondering gazers and sketchers. This is certainly the place for obtaining the finest near view of the Falls. The eye looks across the 1 88 ACROSS THE FERRY. whole breadth of the nearer division of the river, at the end of the Rapids, just as the water is about to sw^eep over in the long" line of the American Fall. The breadth of this division is here about 800 feet. On the other side is Goat Island, densely covered with trees, and beyond is seen the Canadian or Horseshoe Fall, about 1,800 feet in width. From the Great Fall there constantly rises a column of spray, spread- ing like a cloud before the wind, and in sun- shine sparkling- or iridescent. Gazing on the scene from this spot, the grandeur of Niagara "grows upon you." From the first near view every feeling "of dis- appointment has vanished. Long hours I stayed at this spot, fascinated by the scene. Looking from the Falls to the river below, I was struck with the strange stillness oi the water. It seemed hardly to be in motion. Long streaks of foam floated here and there, in fantastic shapes, and with scarce perceptible progress. A little ferry boat was passing to and fro, row^ed leisurely b}^ a single oarsman, within pistol-shot of the descending cataract. There used to be a small steamer, the " Maid of the Mist," which took passengers up amidst the spray of the Horseshoe Fall, so little dis- turbed is the surface of the water after the great plunge, I suppose the motion is intenser at THE RAPIDS. 189 greater depth, for the river less than a mile farther down shows tumultuous agitation. Some miles lower there are rapids again. When the erection of the suspension bridge rendered the trade of the steamer less profit- able, she was sold to a Montreal speculator, and in a wonderful way escaped being dashed to pieces in passing this point of the river, and in a shattered condition at length reached her destination. The strange stillness of the water below the Falls is more striking on returning from a ram- ble along the margin of the Rapids, where the water is seen wildly careering towards the great plunge. There is a footpath close to the stream, behind the International and Cataract Hotels. Many will think the Rapids a more impressive sight than the Falls. Certainly there is more sense of active power in the swift, resistless course of the hastening torrent, before it comes to its passive, mechanical descent at the Fall. I met an old man who was one of the party actively engaged in the attempt to rescue a poor fellow who had been carried down from a boat which had upset. He clung to some tim- ber which got fixed in a little islet in the midst of the Rapids. Twice a boat was launched, but the rope of one got entangled in the rocks, and the other was rolled over by the torrent. A IQO ACROSS THE FERRY. raft was formed, and floated towards him. All efforts were useless, and he was at last hurried away by the surging torrent into the abyss. Many tragic narratives and legends of this sort are told at Niagara. A light bridge across the. Rapids leads to Goat Island, with its wonderful sights, the "Cave of the Winds," " Biddle's Stairs," the "Terrapin Tower," and other often-described scenes. There is rather too much of the arti- ficial in Goat Island, but the sight of the Great Fall surpasses in sublimity all that has been anticipated. At the " Horseshoe" centre of the Fall, the colour is bright green in sunshine and dark green in shade, the volume of water being estimated here at about twenty feet in thickness. At shallower parts of the Fall the water is broken into white foam as it curls over to its plunge. The vastness of the volume of water can now be realised, and we better under- stand the estimate that " every hour ninety mil- lions of tons are poured over the precipice, or twenty-five millions of cubic feet every minute! " The total area of the great lakes, Superior, Mi- chigan, Huron, St. Clair, and Erie, is said to exceed 80,000 square miles, and all the surplus water of these vast inland seas has to pass by this small outlet towards the ocean. "What a waste of water power!" was the NIAGARA TOWN. 191 exclamation of a practical American after sur- veying the Falls. In a small way the power is utilised, the stream of the Rapids being used for a paper mill on Goat Island, and other minor factories ; but all such utilities tend to disturb the grandeur of the natural scenery. The same disturbance of enjoyment is effected by the obtrusive guides, and touters, and sel- lers of relics and curiosities who infest Niagara. The little town which has grown up beside the Falls is a busy bazaar during the season. Rows of " curiosity shops" attract the visitors, some with real and others with sham Indians, engaged in manufacturing the objects for sale. Excepting the articles cut out of the limestone rock of the place, and the photographic views, none of these objects have any special connec- tion with Niagara. The bazaars are filled with trinkets and fans and ornaments, sold by smart shop-girls, as in the Broadway or in our Bur- lington Arcade. In winter the shops are shut up, and the sellers go back to the cities, leav- ing but a small resident population. The hotels are also shut up for the winter. I was told by one of the residents, whose house was among those nearest to the Falls, that the grandeur of the scene in winter is indescrib- able. Huge masses of ice borne down the Rapids add to the wild tumult of the cataract. 192 ACROSS THE FERRY. He told me that, before a tempest, either of rain or snow, the noise of the Fall is intensi- fied, and the ground is shaken so that the lamps and movables in the house vibrate with the motion. For some months the country round is covered with deep snow. Crossing by the suspension bridge to the Canadian side, I saw the magnificent view from the Clifton House Hotel, which commands the whole range of both Falls. A little above the hotel is a small inn, with a museum, the pro- prietor of which reaps a rich harvest during the season. On one day during my stay a monster excursion train of Freemasons came down to Niagara, with band and banners. Five or six hundred half-dollars paid as entry money to the museum, besides the purchase- money for curiosities, must have been a good haul for the sagacious showman who exhibits his Indians, and moose deer, and other animate and inanimate wonders. I enjoyed most the early morning and late night strolls, when the place was free from crowds of visitors. It was the full moon of September on one of the nights when I was there, and I witnessed the beautiful scene of a lunar rainbow on the American Fall. The roar of the cataract could be best heard at some distance. In the Grove near the Ferry FIRST DISCOVERY OF NIAGARA. 193 House, the sound was overpowered by the croaking- of bull-frogs, and the ceaseless chirp- ing of the Katidid crickets. I never heard, even amid Italian marshes, such a riotous uproar of batrachian and insect voices. I have written more than I intended of my own impressions of Niagara, but will make up for the triteness of the remarks by presenting to my readers a most interesting extract from the '' Travels of Father Hennepin," the first European who ever saw, at least the first who ever described, the Falls. I found a copy of his book in the library of the Historical Society of Boston. He was a Franciscan missionary, in Canada in the last part of the seventeenth centur}^, and made a journey towards the region of the Great Lakes.* Here is the passage in which he describes Niagara : — " Betwixt the Lake Ontario and Erie there is a vast and prodigious cadence of water which falls down after a surprising and astonishing manner, insomuch that the universe does not afford its parallel. 'Tis true Italy and Svveed- land boast of some such things ; but we may well * His book was first published in France in 1678, and was translated into English. An abstract of it is given in the first volume of the " Transactions of the American Archaeological Society." The French edition is very rare. There is a copy of the English translation in the British Museum. 13 194 ACROSS THE FERRY. say they are but sorry patterns, when compared to this of which we now speak. At the foot of this horrible precipice, we meet with the river Niagara, which is not above half a quarter of a league broad, but it is wonderfully deep in some places. It is so rapid above the descent, that it violently hurries down the wild beasts while endeavouring to pass it to feed on the other side, they not being able to withstand the force of its current, which inevitably casts them down headlong, above 600 feet. " This wonderful downfall is compounded of two great cross-streams of water, and two Falls, with an isle sloping along the middle of it. The waters which fall from this vast height do foam and boil after the most hideous man- ner imaginable, making an outrageous noise, more terrible than that of thunder ; for when the wind blows from off the south, their dismal roaring may be heard above fifteen leagues off. "The river Niagara having thrown itself down this incredible precipice, continues its impetuous course for two leagues together to the great rock above mentioned, with an in- expressible rapidity; but having passed that, its impetuosity relents, gliding along more gently for two leagues, till it arrives at the Lake Ontario or Frontenac. " Any barque or great vessel may pass from FATHER HENNEPIN'S DESCRIPTION. 195 the fort to the foot of this huge rock above mentioned. This rock lies to the westward, and is cut off from the land by the river Niagara, about two leagues farther down than the Great Fall ; for which two leagues the people are obliged to carr}^ their goods over- land, but the way is very good, and the trees are but few, and they chiefly firs and oaks. "From the Great Fall unto this rock, which is to the west of the river, the two brinks of it are so prodigious high that it would make one tremble to look steadily upon the water, roll- ing along with a rapidity not to be imagined. Were it not for this vast cataract, which inter- rupts navigation, they might sail with barques or greater vessels above four hundred and fifty leagues farther, cross the lake of Huron, and up to the farther end of the Lake Illinois ; which two lakes we may well say are little seas of fresh water." Then he tells how Sieur de la Salle* intended to build a fort, to keep in check the Iroquese and other savage nations, and to form a com- merce in skins of elks, beavers, and other beasts for the English and Dutch in New York. The title-page of the book is worth tran- scribing : — " A new discovery of a vast country in 196 ACROSS THE FERRY. America, extending about four thousand miles between New France and New Mexico ; with a description of the great lakes, cataracts, rivers, plants, and animals : also the manners, cus- toms, and languages of the several native Indians, and the advantages of commerce with those different nations ; with a continuation giving an account of the attempts of Sieur de la Salle upon the mines of St. Barbe, etc. The taking of Quebec by the English ; with the advantages of a shorter cut to China and Japan. Both parts illustrated with maps and figures, and dedicated to His Majesty King William. By Lewis Hennepin, now resident in Holland. To which are added several new discoveries in North America, not published in the French edition. London : Printed for M. Bentley, J. Tonson, H. Borwick, O. Goodwin, and S. Manship, 1698." The frontispiece of Father Hennepin's book is a view of the Falls as he and his com- panions saw them. It is to be observed that the line of the Great Fall is straight, not curved as now into the form which has given it the name of the *' Horseshoe Fall." The form of the cataract is slowly but constantly changing. The reason is to be found in the geological formation — the rocks being partly shale and partly limestone. The shale is more readily CHANGE IN FORM OF THE FALLS. 197 worn by the water and the frosts, and moulders away more rapidly than the harder limestone. The rate of recession has been calculated, and the time must come sooner or later when the cataract will approach the upper lakes and the length of the Rapids diminish. As it is, there are from time to time huge avalanches of falling rock, which already ac- cumulate at the base of the Falls, especially on the American side. At some places the debris rises nearly a third of the height of the water, reducing greatly the apparent size of the Fall. Father Hennepin exaggerated the height when he guessed it at six hundred feet. It scarcely exceeds a fourth of this height. The Victoria Falls, on the Zambesi river in Africa, and the recently discovered Falls in British Guiana, exceed Niagara in depth of fall ; but the vast volume of water, and the beauty as well as grandeur of the scene, still keep Niagara at an immeasurable distance as the greatest of waterfalls. 198 ACROSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XV. CHICAGO — EARLY HISTORY AND RAPID PRO- GRESS STATISTICS OF POPULATION, TRADE, AND COMMERCE CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS UNIVERSITY, OBSERVATORY, AND LIBRARY PUBLIC WORKS CHICAGO THE AVONDER OF THE NEW WORLD. CHICAGO was the place of all others in America I was most curious to see, and which has left the deepest impression. It was certainly to me the wonder of the New World. Here is a city scarcely forty years old, with 300,000 inhabitants, enjoying all the advantages of the oldest and most civilized communities. In trade, commerce, and wealth, as well as population, it is already one of the first cities of the Union. It is the centre of the greatest railway traffic in the world. The average number of trains arriving at and leaving the depots of the twelve main lines is estimated at two hundred and fifty daily through the year. In 1850 was laid the first railroad, with forty CHICAGO. 199 miles of track ; now there are more than forty different railroads having direct connection with the city. Nor is Chicago wonderful only or chiefly for material progress. Its schools equal in number and efficiency those of the oldest States. It has a flourishing univer- sity, possessing the most unique library and the most powerful telescope in America. There are five seminaries of different religious de- nominations, ahead of any similar institutions in the country. There are nearly two hundred churches. Sunday-schools and the multiform agencies of Christian usefulness assist in the religious training and spiritual oversight of the people of all ages and nationalities. The newspaper press is second to none in the Union for enterprise and ability. In a city so vast and so new, only crystallising, as it were, into shape and order, and into which immi- grants are constantly pouring, there will be found many rough and troublesome elements : but the power of good government and of Christian influence prevails, and will secure a high and healthy standard of public opinion. To those who feel that " the proper study of mankind is man," there is deeper interest in witnessing so remarkable an instance of human progress, than in beholding the grandest natural scenery or the most venerable monuments of 200 ACROSS THE FERRY. antiquity. It is worth crossing the Atlantic to see Niagara. It is more worth crossing the Atlantic to see Chicago. Forty years ago the name of Chicago did not appear on the best maps of America. It is not in the Atlas of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, published in 1831. In some maps there is a small creek marked Chi- caque, which a French exploring party from Canada (in the days of Louis XIV.) entered when coasting the shore of Lake Michigan. This is the first record of the name said to be given by the natives to the river and creek. Hennepin and La Salle afterwards visited the same district. We hear nothing more till, in a treaty between the United States Government and the Indian tribes near Lake Michigan, mention is made of " a tract of land six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago river." The object of obtaining this and other localities in the West was for the establishment of trading stations and forts for the protection of the traders. In ] 804 Fort Dearborn was erected, a rough block-house, round which a few fur- traders, Indians and half-breeds, squatted. The first white man who settled on the site was John Kenzie, who came across the Lake from De- troit or St. Joseph. In August, 1812, when war with Great Britain broke out, the fort was EARLY HISTORY OF CHICAGO. ' 201 abandoned. The provisions and clothing were distributed among the Indians, but the "fire- water" and gunpowder were thrown into the lake. This exasperated the Indians, and led to the fearful massacre of the retreating garrison and settlers, which forms a dark page in the early annals of Chicago. In 1816, at the close of the war, the fort was rebuilt, and garrisoned until 1832, when it served as a refuge for above 700 persons during an inroad of hostile Indians upon the settlers in Northern Illinois. The Indians being routed, and their chief, Black Hawk, taken prisoner, the whites remained in undisputed possession of the territory. The Indians were removed beyond the Missouri river, farther west, in 1835; ^.nd in 1837 the fort was finally abandoned, as no longer necessary. During these times successive detachments of traders had settled in the district, all of them engaged in the fur trade with the Indians. A more permanent purpose of colonization origi- nated in the plan of connecting the great chain of lakes with the Mississippi. As early as 1 814 the Illinois and Michigan Canal was pro- jected; but it was not till 1829 that an official surveyor, James Thompson, proceeded to form the canal and to lay out a town near Fort Dearborn. The only white residents then were 202 ACROSS THE FERRY. John Kenzie, his son-in-law, Dr. Woolcott, Indian agent, and a few traders living- in log cabins west of the river. The first map, from Mr. Thompson's official survey, bears date August 3rd, 1830. The first religious services on record were held during the following winter in the fort, conducted by Mark Noble, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first tax list and first treasurer's report date in the year 1832 ; the first street being also then laid out, and the first Sunday-school begun, attended by thirteen children. The first postmaster was appointed in 1833, and on November 26 of the same year the first newspaper was started, " The Democrat," edited by John Calhoun. Already in August of the same year, the great event occurred of the incorporation of Chicago as a town, with a board of trustees. Not till March, 1837, was a formal City Charter granted, when the first municipal election was held, and W. B. Ogden chosen mayor. The first State Census, taken on July ist of that year, showed 3,989 whites, of whom 518 were under five years of age ; 77 coloured ; and 104 sailors belonging to vessels owned in the port, making a total of 4, 1 70. Since that time the growth of the city has been continuously progressive, though checked in rapidity by various calamities, especially by PROGRESS OF ILLINOIS STATE. 203 a severe visitation of cholera. In 1830 the population was 170, many of whom were Indians and half-breeds; in 1840, 4,853; in 1845, 12,088; in 1850, 29,963; in i860, 110,973; in 1865, 178,900; and in 1870, 299,227. The reader will be amused by the following account of the " chief towns in Illinois," given in a large work in two quarto volumes, " The History and Topography of the United States, edited by J. Howard Hinton, M.A., assisted by eminent men in America and England. London, 1832." '' Illinois was admitted into the Union in 1 818, and contained that year 35,220 inhabit- ants.* Kaskaskia, lately the seat of govern- ment, is on the right bank of the Kaskaskia river, eleven miles from its mouth. It contains a land office, a printing office, and about a hundred and sixty houses scattered over an ex- tensive plain. The town was settled upwards of one hundred years ago by emigrants from Lower Canada, and about one-half of the in- habitants are French. The surrounding country is under good cultivation. Cahokia is a French settlement on the Mississippi, fifty-two miles * The decennial census of Illinois State gives the following numbers :— 1 8 10, 12,280; 1820, 55,162; 1830, 157,445; 1840, 476,183; 1850,851,470; 1860,1,711,951; 1870,2,537,910. 204 ACROSS THE FERRY. north-north-west of Kaskaskia, and about five miles below St. Louis. Shawneetown is on the north bank of the Ohio, twelve miles from the mouth of the Wabash, and twelve miles east of the salt-works belonging to the State, or Saline Creek. The inhabitants are supported princi- pally by the profits of the salt trade. Edwards- ville is a flourishing town on the Cahokia river, twenty-two miles north-east of St. Louis. Vandalia, fifty miles north-east of Edwards- ville, is now the seat of government." Chicago is not even mentioned in this summarv ! From the last annual "Report of the Trade and Commerce of Chicago " (the 13th Report, 1871),* I take a few extracts, showing the commercial growth and prosperity of the city. The receipts of wheat for the year 1870 were 17.394,409 bushels, being 500,000 bushels in excess of 1869, and the largest quantity re- ceived in any year. Of corn or maize", the receipts were 20,189,775 bushels; of oats, t I am indebted to a fellow-passenger in the "Scotia" Colonel John Mason Loomis, merchant, formerly of the 26th Illinois Regiment, for sending the last statistical reports of Public Works, Board of Health, Trade and Commerce, Schools and Education. If Colonel Loomis reads this note he will forgive the apparent incredulity with which some of his statements were received before the writer had visited the Queen City of the West. COMMERCE OF CHIC A GO. 205 10,472,000 bushels ; of rye, 1,093,500; of bar- ley» 3»335»653 bushels. Most of the Indian corn was for home consumption, a considerable quantity being also used for distilling. Of hogs, the number received, live or dressed, was 1,953,372. The receipts of cattle were 532,964 head. The latter branch of the provision trade is diminishing, many cattle being now slaughtered b}^ the packers at Kansas city, and other places nearer the pasturage grounds. Produce of the forest, in form of timber or of shingles, wool and hides, and spirit known by the trade name of " highwines," form a large portion of the commerce of Chicago. The production of highwines was above seven millions of gallons, very little of which is ex- ported. Of these various industries the most notable is that of pork-packing. In fact, this is one of the chief sources of wealth in the whole of the Mississippi valley, the States of Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, and lov/a all presenting large returns in the trade. But Chicago has far outstripped the older centres. Cincinnati was long the chief pro- vision mart — Porkopolis par excellence', but in 1870 the number of hogs dressed in Chicago was 688,140, against 337,330 in Cincinnati. 2o6 ACROSS THE FERRY. wSt. Louis, in Missouri, ranks next, with 241,316; Louisville, in Kentucky, 182,000; Mihvaukie, in Wisconsin, 172,626; St. Joseph, in Mis- souri, 61,300; Keokuk, in Iowa, 47,400. The whole amount of hogs used in pork-packing in the Mississippi valley during 1870 was above two millions and a half. Chicago has become the metropolis of this trade, rising by rapid ad- vance from 22,036, the number packed in 1850, to 271,805 in i860, and 688,141 in 1870. The increase of wheat and corn having been in like ratio, there is no fear of lack of food for any number of mouths that the increase of popula- tion may bring, either by births or immigration. Malthus and the political economists are not wanted for some generations in the far west, so far as questions of food and population are concerned. The same astonishing progress appears in regard to railway and canal traffic, ships and steamers on the lake, and all matters depend- ing on commercial enterprise and manufactur- ing industry. There would be little satisfaction in recording material progress alone. But the development has not been less remarkable in mental and moral statistics. The churches in Chicago I have stated to be nearly two hundred. This number I give on the authority of a letter CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS. 207 lately received. Some of these " churches," I suspect, must be only " stations," or small congregations. At the time of my visit the number was under 170. The denominations most largely represented were — Methodist i:^^, Presbyterian 22, Episcopal 21, Baptist 20, Roman Catholic 19, Congregational 13. Among the other places of worship were five Jewish synagogues, two African Methodist Episcopal, and a Scotch Presbyterian church. The educational progress is not less notable, the common schools and the Sunday-schools being proportionally numerous and efficient. Nor is this activity confined to primary educa- tion. I knew there was a university at Chicago, for a friend in London had a degree of LL.D. lately sent to him. The reception of a degree from this remotecity of the west, chiefly known to Londoners as a "pig-sticking and pork- curing, emporium," had been the cause of much banter, characteristic of English igno- rance of America. I thought I would visit the university, in order to convey to my friend a report of his abna mater, little expecting to find anything w^orth seeing, apart from this private motive. I was rewarded by one of the greatest of ma.ny surprises experienced in my travels, and by here spending one of the plea- santest of my days in America. 2o8 ACROSS THE FERRY. In the morning- daily papers I saw the fol- lowing advertisement : — UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. Year opens Sept. lo, 1870. I. Law Department. — Dean, Judge Henry Booth. II. College WITH THREE COURSES. — i, Classical. 2, Scientific. 3, Special ; including the option of Chemistn,-, Astronomy, Civil Engineering, or any studies of the college course. HI, Academy. — Boys above twelve years admitted to pre- pare for any college, or to acquire a good business education. The buildings and situation, on the shores of Lake Michigan, are unsurpassed in beauty, convenience, and healthfulness. Apparatus includes the great Clarke Telescope, the largest refractor in the country ; Chemical, Philosophical, and Engi- neering Instruments, Cabinets, etc. Libraries, 25,000 volumes. Expenses. — Board, 2.50 dols. to 4.00 dols. per week. Tuition, 50 dols. a year. Total necessary expenses, 200 dols. to 250 dols, Money is loaned or given to young men who lack means to pursue their studies. Address, J. C. BURROUGHS, President. I was directed to take " Cottage Grove cars," a line of tramway or horse railroad. The route was aloncr the shore of the lake for four miles — houses, and shops, and villas reaching the whole of the way. The university buildings stand in a fine piece of ground, " donated," I was told, by the late Senator S. A. Douglas, to whose memory a monument is erected on a commanding site overlooking the lake. The university was founded in 1855, and the build- ings commenced in 1858. The main central UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 209 building was completed in 1868, at a cost of 110,000 dols. Attached to the university is an observatory, the cost of building which was 30,000 dols. The chief feature is a massive octagonal tower, the ''Dearborn tower, "founded on solid stonework, containing among other valuable instruments the Clarke telescope. This instrument had been ordered by a Louisianian college, but not being taken, on account of the war, was secured for Chicago. It is a magni- ficent instrument, the focal length of object- glass being twenty-three feet, and the aperture of object-glass eighteen inches and a half; diameter of declination circle thirty inches, of hour-circle twenty-two inches. The circles are read by two microscopes each, the hour circle to seconds of time, and the declination circle to ten seconds of space. The possession of the refracting telescope, under the charge of Professor T. H. Safford, has obtained for Chicago the honour of taking part in the new survey of the heavens and catalogue of the stars, the formation of which is divided among four or five of the chief observatories in the world. There are other instruments, the value of which would be appreciated by scientific visitors, especially a meridian circle of the first class, with ingenious arrangement for illumi- nating the field and the wires, and for record- 14 2IO ACROSS THE FERRY. ing declination, invented by the makers, Messrs. Repsold and Sons, of Hamburg. From these scientific sights I passed to the literary departments, where I had even greater surprise. My courteous conductor, Mr. Howe, the head of the classical department, took me to a part of the main building, and introduced me to Mr. Everts, the curator of the *' Hengs- tenberg Library." Mr. W. W. Everts, son of the minister of the first Baptist church in Chi- cago, was a student in Berlin in 1869, when Hengstenberg, the learned scholar and theolo- gian, died. His library, rich especially in Patristic and Ecclesiastical works, and Rabbi- nical and Oriental literature, was to be sold. It was proposed to be purchased for the Uni- versity Library of Berlin, but the Minister of Instruction refused the funds required to com- plete the purchase. Other movements were made to secure so valuable and unique a col- lection for Germany. Meanwhile young Everts wrote to Chicago an account of the prize that was within reach. His public spirit was re- warded by the return of a telegraphic message to secure the library. Before the end of the year the books were packed in forty-one huge boxes, and shipped off to the new world for the University of Chicago. Of this library Mr. Everts has been appointed the secretary. I THE HENGSTENBERG LIBRARY. 211 found him busy among- the unpacked but yet half- arranged literary treasures. At a recent counting- there were found 10,000 bound volumes, with several thousand paper-covered books and pamphlets still strewn on the floor. The larger divisions number 2,400 for theology, dogmatic and practical; 1,700 for Old Testa- ment Hebraistic literature; 1,400 for Church history. Under classics are ranged about 800 volumes, histories 400, commentaries on New Testament 750, Oriental books 500, Church Fathers 320, including a complete set of the folio Benedictine edition. The cases including philosophy, geography, general literature, books of travel, and miscellaneous, contain about 1,500 volumes, Most of these are Ger- man books, but there are between 200 and 300 standard English works. Of the early writings and editions of the Reformers there is a large collection, including some rare volumes, such as the first editions of *' Melancthon's Loci Communes." I was shown many ancient curiosities and rarities, and some modern trea- sures, such as Neander's own copy of his Church History, presented by the author " to his dear colleague, Dr. Hengstenberg." It was a place to spend days instead of hours. I parted from the librarian admiringhis intelligent enthusiasm, and grateful for his patient courtesy. 212 ACROSS THE FERRY. It was curious to come unexpectedly upon this bit of the Old World transplanted to the New, and the contrast was the greater in such a bustling place as Chicago. The possession of this library is an honour to the city, as well as to all concerned in its purchase. Besides his various gatherings of rare and valuable volumes as a book collector for forty years, it was Hengstenberg's custom to purchase every book which he had occasion to consult as Pro- fessor of Theology, Commentator on the Scrip- tures, or Editor of the ** Evangelical Gazette." His ample means admitted of this expenditure, and he rarely availed himself of the abundant resources of the Royal Library or other Berlin collections. Hence his library will prove a treasury for scholars engaged in studying or illustrating the Holy Scriptures. It is a library of reference which Boston, or Philadelphia, or Princeton might covet. Dr. Koner, of the Royal University Library, Berlin, in a report he was requested to make, with view to pur- chase, said : "It offers, in a rich assortment of exegetical commentaries, means for the study of the text, and explanation of the con- tents of 'the books of the Bible, as proposed by the learned of all times ; in a costly treasure of works on church history, dogmatics, symbolics, ethics, and philosophy, it presents all-sufficient THE BOARD OF TRADE. 213 instruction upon the principles and systems of doctors of the Church. In short, it satisfies all demands that are now made upon a thorough knowledge of theology.'* Such is the collection which forms the nucleus of the Free Theological Library, attached to the University of Chicago, but available for students of the various theological seminaries of the State of Illinois,* and for scholars from all parts of the Union. I have dwelt at some length on this University and its library, because it illustrates the public spirit of the American people in the highest matters of culture. It is one of many proofs that the energy of the West is not all expended on the pursuit of wealth and of material progress, as is too commonly believed. To the majority of travellers, however, the chief impression conveyed at Chicago is that of bustling commercial and trading activity. The scene at noon on 'Change in the great hall of the Board of Trade is one which will not readily be forgotten. The sides of the hall are lined with tables, with samples of wheat and other produce, and the floor is crowded with noisy traders and speculators. As the clock ■^ I have since heard that the Methodist College, theological seminary at Chicago, has obtained the library of Schultz, another well-known book-lover of Berlin. Well done, Chicago I 214 ACI^OSS THE FERRY. Strikes twelve, the rap of the president's ham- mer commands silence, when the latest prices of produce and of stocks at New York, London, and other places, as conveyed by telegraph, are announced. I have already mentioned the strange effect produced by hearing the closing prices at Mark Lane proclaimed at Chicago at noon of the same day. The grain, of which samples are shown, is stored in immense gra- naries called elevators. Seventeen of these warehouses receive from various railroads and canals, and have capacity of storage for above ii,ooo,ooo| bushels of grain. One of them stores 1,600,000 bushels, and the storing capacity of three others is 1,250,000 bushels each. The Board of Trade has stringent rules for the inspection, weighing, and transfer of grain ; but it is not to be supposed that a purchaser obtains in bulk the exact produce of which he has seen the sample. Produce of nearly the same value from many different sources is stored in the same elevator, just as in the warehouses of our London docks wines from many vineyards are mixed in vast reser- voirs, in rough approximation of strength and quality, to be drawn therefrom for retail wine merchants. One of the worst features of commercial life in Chicago I observed in the grain-trade specu- GRAIN AND PROVISION TRADE. 215 lation. The storing of the grain is entirely under the control of the inspectors, who allot the consignments to the various classes of grain in the elevators, where it is stored for twenty days, giving to the storers certificates of quality. There is often unfairness in the classification ; but, supposing this to be all right, these certificates become the objects of unlimited speculation by the "operators" in the grain market. Millions of dollars are gambled for every day on 'Change with these paper certificates, without the transfer of a single bushel of actual produce. The effect of this gambling is most demoralising, and the grain operators include as worthless adven- turers as the worst bears and bulls of our own Stock Exchange. It is a rotten system, and it is difficult to see how the honest farmers who grow the grain, and honest purchasers, can again be brought into communication. without the intervention of the gamblers in grain certificates. Provisions, especially pork, cured in various forms for the markets of the world, form the other chief trading feature at Chicago. There are nearly fifty firms engaged in the pork-pack- ing business, receiving for this purpose not far from two millions of hogs annually. The live- stock yards, as well as the curing and packing 2i6 ACROSS THE FERRY. establishments, are worthy of inspection. The Great Union Stock Yards cover a space of 345 acres, with accommodation for nearly 120,000 animals — cattle, hogs, and sheep. There are said to be in these yards thirty-one miles of drainage, seven miles of streets and alleys, three miles of water troughs, ten miles of food troughs, 2,300 gates, 1,500 open pens, and 800 covered pens. In the construction 22,000,000 feet of timber were used, at a cost of 1,675,000 dols. The water is supplied by an artesian well 1,100 feet in depth. The vast animal as well as human popula- tion of Chicago renders the good drainage of the city the more important. The accomplish- ment of this is one of the perplexities of the place. The site is low ; in fact, the ground was a mere swamp where now stand buildings of solidity and architectural taste unsurpassed in the older cities of the Union. Still, there is necessity for securing efficient drainage, and plans are made for artificial currents by canals and steam machinery to aid the natural sewer- age towards the lake. The flatness of the site and the nature of the soil enhance our admira- tion of the engineering skill displayed in ren- dering the city habitable for so vast a popula- tion. The same engineering skill has solved the problem of water-supply. The impurity CHICAGO WATER-WORKS. 217 of the lake water near the shore forbade its use as the population increased. A tunnel has accordingly been bored under the stiff blue clay bed of the lake, two miles long, of solid brick masonry, having a clear width of five feet, and a height of five feet two inches. A gigantic wooden structure, called the Crib, marks the end of the tunnel, with a lighthouse, serving the double purpose of a guide to the harbour entrance and a protection to the Crib. By powerful pumping engines the water is raised in a lofty iron column overtopping the highest house in the city. The supply is at present about 20,000,000 gallons daily, for about 25,000 houses. The city engineer, E. S. Chesborough, the projector of the Lake Tunnel, deserves honourable mention for the great work. Some parts of the city are still, however, ill supplied with water, and entirely undrained. I examined some statistical returns of the Board of Health, showing in a striking manner the influence of sanitary conditions on the health and death rate of different localities. Even with these disadvantages, the total rate of mortality was far below that of our great towns. The main streets, on some of which there is prodigious traffic, such as Clark Street, are paved with wooden blocks, Nicholson's patent, 2i8 ACROSS THE FERRY which has been adopted in many other Ameri- can cities. It is found more serviceable and durable than stone blocks or macadamised roads, provided the filling and pressing of the subsoil is carefully done. The side walks of the main streets are stone, but the largest part of the city has still only plank side walks. Pro- bably not more than thirty miles out of above six hundred of side walk or foot pavement are stone. Fifteen years ago, there were only about 150 miles of side walk, all plank. The whole of the city, and for miles out, is traversed by horse railways, of which about fifty miles are laid, with about 150 cars, employing 550 men and 900 horses. This convenience of locomotion marks the streets of all the great American cities, and might put to shame our backwardness in this respect, the extension of tramways even in London being retarded by the stupidity of English vestries and the apathy of the public. I was at Chicago soon after a great fire, which will long be remembered, the whole of the magnificent block of buildings on Wabash Avenue, corner of Washington Street, known as Drake's Block, being demolished. The fire broke out on Sunday afternoon, September 4th, in a paper store. I saw the ruins still smoking, and the water playing on the hot debris. There MIXED POPULATION. 219 was a lamentable loss of life, and property was destroyed to the value of three million of dollars, only about half of which was insured. Every exertion was made, but the materials in the stores were of a kind which could not be saved. Lafiin's paper store contained 250,000 dollars of stock, Farwell's dry goods store 180,000 dollars, and Smith and Nixon's piano and music store 150,000 dollars. A boot and shoe store lost 250,000 dollars. These amounts show the magnitude of retail business in the city. The arrangements for hre signals resemble those which I have already described at Boston. The telegraph wires from the various districts centre in the signal room in the lofty tower of the Town Hall. Wandering about the city, I found some dis- tricts to be occupied almost wholly by emi- grants and inhabitants of separate nationalities. Thus on the northern side I saw a large colony of Norwegians and other Scandinavian settlers. Near one of the bridges almost every name on the stores and houses was German. South- west from the City Hall I reached a quarter entirely occupied by coloured people, who, in most of the cities in what used to be Free States, are led, by practical experience of social inferiority, though possessing political equality, to congregate together. The Irish also tend 220 ACROSS THE FERRY. to dwell apart, and I am sorry to add that this segregation is encouraged by the Romish Church, which establishes separate schools from those of the community. The poor Irish are thus losing the best of the advantages which they used to derive from emigration to America. Their children at the common schools had some chance of acquiring inde- pendence of character as well as useful learning. Now they are trained, like their fathers before them, in degraded submission to poper}^ and the priesthood. The zeal and energy of the Romish Church ought to stir emulation in the Protestant Churches to look more carefully after the emigrants professing the faith of the Reformation. The completion of a ship canal from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, the tapping of the Indian coal-fields by opening a line of railway, and the formation of a canal between the lake and the north river to secure constant sanitary current, seem the works most promising for the aggrandisement and convenience of the city. By the residents it is often called the " Garden City," apparently on the litciis a non liicendo principle, for gardens and parks are as yet in a rudimentary condition. It is more worthy of the titles, also claimed for it, of " Queen City of the Lakes," or '* Queen City of the West." PROSPERITY OF CHICAGO, 221 I should like to have said much more about Chicago — its monster stores and hotels, its ave- nues and public parks, its docks and shipping, its trades and manufactures, its banks and in- surance offices, its hospitals and charitable in- stitutions. The insurance business seems to flourish, and I was told that the law of the State of Illinois requires every company to deposit a large sum for security, and to publish annually its list of members and detailed statement of accounts for examination by official auditors. I should like also to have spoken of the news- papers, some of which are admirably conducted, and exert wide influence. But further details would only serve to illustrate the one point of the wonderful growth and prosperity of the place. The inhabitants themselves have no hesitation in boasting that Chicago is destined to outstrip every city in the New World, and that it ought to be made the capital of the Union. It is possible that it may yet double its size and population and commerce. So marvellous has been the progress within a brief time, that future historians may say of Chicago that it " rose like an exhalation." Some already say that it resembles Pandemo- nium in other respects than in the rapidity of its growth. I often heard it spoken of as a fearfully wicked city. That many rough and 222 ACROSS THE FERRY lawless characters are amonc^ its immiirrants may well be expected ; but that stronger influ- ences are busy on the side of order and law, of education and religion, is attested by the good municipal government, and by the number of schools, churches, and charitable institutions. The vast and rapidly increasing population and wealth might cause feelings of depression rather than exultation if viewed alone ; but with this growth and activity there is also greater growth and greater activity in all good and beneficent w^orks. Some travellers may like to parade statistics of crime, or to quote the large num- ber of divorces in the State of Illinois, but more generous visitors will prefer to note what gives promise of a happy and well-ordered common - w^ealth. In this spirit I would conclude my recollections of Chicago, by referring to one scene which left a deep impression. From the busy tumult of the Chamber of Commerce, one day soon after noon, I was taken by my kind guide, Mr. Glen Wood, to a public building in a side street, not far off. I was not told what I w^as going to see or hear ; but found myself in a large hall crowded to the door, the vast majority being men. It was a religious assembly, "the noonday prayer- meeting " it was called, an institution which has been known for some years in most of NOON PRAYER-MEETING. 223 the laree American cities. I had attended a similar meeting- in Boston, but it was a formal affair compared with the hearty and animated meeting at Chicago. An address was being delivered when I entered by an earnest and energetic evangelist, D. L. Moody. Other brief addresses and prayers followed, one stranger from the old country, the Rev. Henry Allon, of Islington, expressing the great plea- sure he had in assisting on such an occasion. The singing was the heartiest I heard in America, as lively as in any Methodist meet- ing. The fact of such a service being kept up in the centre of the city, at the busiest time of the day, was a striking proof of spiritual life being active in the midst of an atmosphere of worldly influence. It is true that religion shows itself in the common duties and daily occupations of life ; but the best men feel refreshed and strengthened by a brief midday season of prayer and Christian communion. It used to be so in the city of London in the time of good old Mr. Watts Wilkinson, when St. Margaret's, Lothbury, every day at noon, was crowded with bankers and brokers and merchants ; and in some degree similar scenes have been witnessed in more recent years. To witness such a scene in Chicago was a pleasant surprise, even after hearing of the number of 224 ACJ^OSS THE FERRY. places of Sabbath-day worship. The aggres- sive ao-ency of these *' revival " meetings reaches many who do not attend regular services at church, while the most respectable church-goers are none the worse for the quickening sometimes obtained in hours of devotion such as are experienced at the Noon Prayer Meeting. Feverish hurry is the most disagreeable fea- ture of public and commercial life in Chicago. New York is slow in comparison. The people walk faster, eat faster, talk faster, live faster in the western city. Business is all carried on at express speed. I w^as sorry to find also that the newspapers are published on Sundays as on w^eek-days. Even on the lower grounds of health and political economy, the benefit would be found of a better observance of the beneficent '*day of rest." I think I have given a fair sketch of the condition of Chicago, both in its material and moral aspects. The general impression left on my mind was of the most favourable kind. Admitting all the worst that can be said of the place, the influence of good over evil is marked and progressive, and I end as I began by describing this great western city as the pride and wonder of the New World. COMMON SCHOOLS IN CHICAGO. 225 CHAPTER XVI. COMMON SCHOOLS IN CHICAGO. THE common school system of education in Chicago is so admirable that we give a special account of it, prepared for this work by a London clergyman, the Rev. R. Demaus, well versed in educational questions. It is ear- nestly commended to the attention of members of school-boards, and all who are interested in educational movements in England. We have before us the last " Annual Report of the Board of Education for the City of Chicago," and we propose to select from it what may enable the reader to appreciate the grand and comprehensive spirit in which the subject of education has been treated in this " Capital of the Lakes," and also what may serve at the present time as topics not un- worthy of being considered by all to whom the proceedings of school-boards are matters of interest. Chicago, it may be premised, is precisely one of those places where the ques- 15 226 ACROSS THE FERRY. tion was surrounded by special difficulties. The city is only forty years old, and its growth, as we have already shown, is without parallel in the world. Twenty years ago it was a town of the size of Dover, and the reader will probably look in vain for it in most English atlases published before i860; but its population has increased with a rapidity which will probably outstrip Manchester or Liverpool before the completion of another decade. In such a place the education ques- tion presented most formidable difficulties; the population w^as not only multiplying at a ratio which seemed to defy any adequate educa- tional provision, but it was of a most hetero- geneous description, including almost every creed and nationality under the sun. The inhabitants, however, who thought nothing of lifting huge piles of buildings into the air and raising their level, were just the men to relish the difficulty of providing education for the swarms of children in their streets. They set to work, therefore, to devise a scheme of education, acting upon the principles which are expressed in the opening sentences of the Report. • ** The common school system of education, supported and liberally endowed by the State, free from sectarian and other pernicious in- NUMBER OF SCHOOLS. 227 fluences, is the best system ever devised by man. " The instruction of the children in the public schools, such as is furnished in the primary, grammar, and high schools, consti- tutes the bulwark of American civilisation and independence. *' The foundation of our institutions, and of political, civil, and religious liberty, rests and depends upon the education and intelligence of the people. "It is the duty of the State to educate its children, and any State which neglects the performance of that duty, inflicts upon itself an- irreparable injury. Chicago is performing her part of that duty faithfully and well." In pursuance of these principles, it was enacted that '' all children living within the limits of the city who are upwards of six years of age shall be entitled to attend the public schools of the city ; " and efforts were forth- with made to provide at the public expense the necessary school buildings and teachers. Suitable sites were procured, and school build- ings were erected in a substantial manner, the provision being annually extended so as to meet the growing dimensions of the juvenile population. The number of public schools has doubled within six years, and amounted in 228 ACROSS THE FERRY. 1870 to thirty-six; and these, it must be re- membered, like everything else in the States, are on a scale of grandeur to which in England we are utter strangers. Some of them have nearly thirteen hundred children in daily attendance ; and the whole number of pupils enrolled in the year 1870 amounted to very nearly forty thousajid^ or one-eighth of the entire population. This, it must be noted, is independent of a ver}^ considerable number of private schools, and seminaries of various kinds, which are in no way interfered with by the public schools. The value of the school buildings erected since the commencement of the scheme is estimated at considerably up- wards of a million of dollars, or nearly a quarter of a million sterling ; and the annual educa- tional expenditure during the last year for teachers' salaries, cost of superintendence, fuel, furniture, and repairs, was 607,396 dollars, or a hundred and twenty thousand pounds ster- ling. There has been no "cheeseparing" in providing what was recognised as a great public advantage ; nor, on the other hand, has there been any lavish expenditure on merely ornamental adjuncts. "School buildings," says the President of the Board, " in which our children are educated should be convenient, comfortable, pleasant, LIBERALITY TO TEACHERS. 229 and attractive. Schools which are unsuitable for tiie education of the children of the wealthiest citi- zens are equally unsuitable for the education of the children of the poorest'' With this republican equality there has been conjoined admirable republican simplicity. The school buildings, while excellently adapted for their purpose, are all "perfectly plain in design," built of brick with *' stone window caps and sills." The teachers are dealt with on the same sen- sible principles. " There is no economy," says the president, " in employing poor or ordinary teachers ; any price, however small, is too large for a poor or indifterent teacher." The teach- ers are accordingly remunerated on a scale which might almost tempt our national teachers to emigrate in a body; the head masters are paid two thousand two hundred dollars, or up- wards of four hundred pou7ids a year, and no assistant receives less than a hundred and twoity pounds. In return, however, all the teachers are kept strictly to their work by a most efficient system of superintendence ; and they are abso- lutely debarred from any petty system of levy- ing illegitimate profits from their scholars by the sale of books and school stationery. It is not unimportant, as illustrating the peculiar character of the educational difficulties that existed in Chicago, to observe that, except the 230 ACROSS THE FERRY. head masters, all the teachers are females. In a country where there is boundless scope for energetic men of education, it is found impos- sible to procure masters in sufficient numbers, and mistresses are therefore employed ; the same expedient has been suggested by some of the ablest English Inspectors, but has never been adopted here. The necessary funds for meeting this expen- diture are provided partly from the rents of property given for this purpose from the city estates, but chiefly by an educational rate, which amounted in 1870 to 454,902 dols., or ^90,000, being at the rate of six shillings a head on the entire population of the city. In this country it has been calculated that the average cost of the elementary education of the lower classes amounts to nearly thirty shillings per scholar ; in Chicago the expenditure is on a vastly larger scale, and reaches twenty -five dollars, or a hun- dred shillings, for each child in average attend- ance, being more than three times the cost of similar education in England. Of course there are many circumstances which must be taken into consideration in comparing the cost in the two countries ; but after allowing due weight to them all, it seems impossible to doubt that in Chicago the cost is actually as well as rela- tively greater than with us. THE RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTY SOLVED. 231 The religious difficulty, of which we have heard so much lately, has been settled in Chi- cago by two provisions : (i) it is absolutely pro- hibited to make any appropriation, "or to pay from public funds anything to help, support, or sustain any school controlled by any religious denomination whatever," so that there are no denominational schools assisted with public money; and (2) it is enacted that "the morn- ing exercises of each department of the several schools shall commence with reading the Scrip- tures, without note or comment, and this exer- cise may be followed by repeating the Lord's Prayer and by appropriate singing."* The education is entirely gratuitous ; the chil- dren pay no fees whatever ; they are, however, compelled to provide themselves with books. No compulsion is resorted to : all children may attend and enjoy what the State provides ; none are compelled to be present. Such a system, it is often asserted, is sure to lead to irregular at- tendance on the part of the pupils ; in Chicago, however, the average attendance is far better than has ever been realised in this country. There are various points in the Report which seem worthy of consideration in England at * Similar rules are found in the educational codes of all the States. In some of the New York schools alone, under Irish and Popish influence, is the reading of the Bible omitted. 232 ACROSS THE FERRY. present, and to which we shall briefly direct attention. I. The small proportion of the expenditure which is allocated to official purposes is well worthy of note. The whole sum expended on inspection and what may be called office ex- penses scarcely amounts to one-tvceiitidh of the total expenditure ; and the salaries of the officials, inspector, and clerks, instead of being- as with us five or six times as large as those of the teachers, are never in any case twice as large. The " Clerk of the Board of Education of Chicago," instead of being paid, as in Lon- don, six times the salar}^ of a teacher, is actually paid ^40 a year less than any head master em- ployed by the Board. Some such economy is urgently required in this country, where the probable cost of administration is certain to prove a formidable obstacle to any attempt at a truly national educational system. 2, The Chicago system of education, like that established in Scotland three centuries ago, is complete, and for all classes : in Eng- land we have never aimed at anything- more than a rudimentary education for the poorer classes alone. In Chicago, as in Scotland, the rich and poor ''are received and taught on terms of perfect equality;" they are not only treated alike, they are educated alike. The PRIMARY AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 233 primary schools provide for all alike a sound elementary education somewhat more advanced than that of our national schools ; and the pupils pass from them, by examination, into the high school (also maintained at the public expense), where they are taught the classics, mathematics, and modern languages. In short, that system which has for centuries contributed so wonderfully to the success of Scotchmen, by throwing the avenues to knowledge freely open to all classes, has been adopted in Chicago, doubtless with equally good results, though these, of course, remain as yet to be manifested in the future. It was, it will be admitted, a noble ambition on the part of these bustling citizens of the far West thus to provide a sys- tem by which the poorest child might have the way open to the university. We should like to see English boards of education following their example, and not expending their whole ener- gies in devising a scheme of education that is *'good enough for the working classes." 3. In Chicago, instead of trusting to the annual visit of an inspector, and a mechanical system of "payment by results," as checks against carelessness on the part of teachers, a system of constant and efficient superintend- ence has been adopted which ensures the re- ward of all who are diligent. The process of 234 ACROSS THE FERRY. "payment by results" which we have devised has such a specious air of practical good sense that it will probably take a whole generation to convince the English people that it is ex- tremely unfriendly to the real interests of edu- cation ; but the Scotch have all along known better, and the Yankees were too 'cute to be deceived by it. The direct tendency of ** pay- ment by results," as practised in England, is to lower and retard all education ; it sacri- fices the clever in a school for the sake of the dunces ; and its results are sufficiently important to deserve a brief explanation of the merits of the two rival systems. The object of all parents, and especially of all poor parents, in sending their children to school, is that they may as quickly as possible acquire such education as is wanted, whatever the amount of it may be, or for whatever pur- pose it is required. This object the system adopted in Chicago exactly meets. A child on entering school is placed in the "grade" for which its attainments adapt it ; and according to its ability it is promoted after examination from grade to grade, till it passes from the primary to the grammar department, and from the latter to the higJi school, where, if an apt scholar, it may be prepared for the universi- ties, or for any educated profession. A clever CONTRASTS WITH THE ENGLISH SYSTEM. 235 boy is promoted rapidly, sometimes passing through a grade in a couple of months ; while a stupid boy lumbers on slowly, and perhaps requires fourteen months to secure a single step in advance. The English system of " pay- ment by results" works in a very different way ; it compels all pupils to move through the school at a uniform rate, and as the pace must of course be accommodated to the slow locomotion of the dunces, those whose abilities are above the average are necessarily sacrificed, and are, in fact, not properly taught. This natu- rally operates very unfavourably in retarding the progress of education in England ; and in an age like the present this is a matter deserving of the most serious consideration. It is quite certain that English children at the age of thirteen are, not from any want of sharpness, but from a faulty system of education, two years behind children of the same age edu- cated on the more natural system adopted elsewhere ; and this conclusion is confirmed by the examination papers contained in the Report of the Chicago School Board. The question, which of these systems possesses the greatest advantage on the whole, is one of far greater importance than most of the educational ques- tions which have been discussed at such length amongst us. As yet, the English public has 236 ACROSS THE FERRY. paid little heed to it, but thoughtful men have not overlooked it; and when English education has risen above the sphere of political and sectarian polemics, this matter will doubtless receive due attention. Did space permit, there are many other points in the Report to which we should gladly direct attention. It contains an admirable code of rules and regulations for teachers and pupils, characterised by excellent sense and an evident desire to secure that everything shall be done in the most thorough and yet most economical manner. England has now fairly awakened to the necessity of devising some national educa- tional system, and all over the country school boards are discussing schemes for carrying into execution the work that has been so long, neglected ; but if all this is not to end in the mere promulgation of impracticable theories, and the perpetration of a gigantic and expen- sive failure, it will be necessary to depart a little from our own narrow routine, and to con- sult the experience of other nations who have successfully solved the difficulties of this great problem. We should be exceedingly sanguine of good results here, if we were told that the members and officials of our school boards are in the habit of carefully reading and digesting such invaluable records of experience as the THE GREAT FIRE. 237 Annual Reports of the Department of Public Instruction of the City of Chicago. THE GREAT FIRE AT CHICAGO. To the recollections of Chicago in its pros- perity a painful interest is added by the disaster of this year. On Monday, Oct. 11, the start- ling news reached London by telegraph that Chicago was almost utterly destroyed by fire ! General Sheridan, telegraphing to the Secretary of War at Washington, on the 9th October, said : " The fire last night and to-day has de- stroyed almost all that was very valuable in this city. There is not a business-house, bank, or hotel left. Most of the best part of the city is in ruins. I think not less than 100,000 people are houseless, and those who had the most wealth are now poor. It seems to me such a terrible misfortune that it may with propriety be considered a national calamity." The fire began on Sunday evening, about eight o'clock ; and a strong south wind blowing, by mid- night raged beyond control. By three o'clock it reached the heart of the city, and the next day sun set on three square miles of smoking ruins. The fire exceeded in devastation the great fire of London. These ruins, from the Tower to 238 ACROSS THE FERRY. the Temple, did not cover more than 440 acres. About the same number of houses, 12,000 to 13,000, were destroyed, and as many families made homeless as in the London fire. Three- fourths of the city being- built of wood, the roofs generally being of asphalted wood, sixty out of six hundred miles of sideway being plank-ways, all this rendered the efforts to check the flames hopeless. The blazing fuel was swept by the wind through the air to great distances, over- leaping the gaps which the firemen made by gunpowder in the attempt to circumscribe the limit of the conflagration. The loss of property is incalculable, and of lives deplorable. The generous and practical help sent from all parts of America, from England, and other lands, served to relieve the immediate desolation. As to Chicago itself, its prosperity has only received a temporary check. If there was any drawback to the admiration which every stranger felt in visiting the wonderful city, it was the pride of the inhabitants, too much in the vaunt- ing spirit of the old king, — *' Is not this great Babylon which I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?'' Chicago will rise from this desolation humbled and chastened, and therefore nobler and greater than before. On the day after the fire, an article in one of the journals expressed the CHICAGO REBUILT. 239 prevailing feeling of all classes of the com- munity: " In the midst of a calamity without parallel in the world's history, looking upon the ashes of thirty years' accumulation, the people of this once beautiful city have resolved that Chicago shall rise again. . . . The losses we have suffered must be borne ; but the place, the time, and the men are here, to commence at the bottom and work up again ; not at the bottom either, for we have credit in every land, and the experience of our rebuilding of Chicago to help , us. Let us all cheer up, save what is left, and and we shall come out all right. The worst is already over. In a few days all the dangers will be past, and we can resume the battle of life with Christian faith and Western grit. Let us all cheer up." Such was the universal spirit which animated the people, and with this spirit there is no fear as to the future of Chicago. 240 ACROSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XVII. CINCINNATI ITS HISTORY AND STATISTICS A PUBLIC MEETING AMERICAN NATIONAL AND PARTY POLITICS. ' I "O a traveller going westward, Cincinnati ■^ may appear a half- grown, half- settled, recent city, but coming back upon it as I did from Chicago, it has a staid, compact, and almost venerable look. Smoke has helped to impart this aspect of premature antiquity. It is one of the smokiest and '' Auld Reekie "-like cities in America. The brick-built streets have a sombre appearance in the older districts. The main part of the city is in a hollow, sur- rounded by a cordon of heights, except on the side of the Ohio. The river is crossed by a splendid bridge,* connecting the city with Covington and Newport in Kentucky. Above the steep incline of the river channel stretches a flat plateau, which gradually rises to a second * The architect, John Rocbling, was also the engineer of the Niagara Suspension Bridge. CI NCI NN A TL 241 plateau, or older river bank, beyond which the ascent is rapid towards Mount Auburn, Mount Adams, Spring Grove, and other ridges, crowned with beautiful suburban houses and villas. From these heights we look down upon the densely-occupied and smoke-enveloped streets of the business part of the town. Cincinnati w^as long the great commercial emporium of the West — next to New Orleans the largest city beyond the Alleghanies. Forty years ago, when Chicago was beginning its existence, Cincinnati had its court-house, gaol, college, medical school, museum, public library, five classical schools, forty-seven common schools, and twenty-five churches, and was a place of great trade and extensive manufactures. It was about that time Mrs. Trollope gave her amusing account of the city in her book on the " Domestic Manners of the Americans." The town was first laid out in 1789, on the site of Fort Washington, a frontier outpost oc- cupied for defence against the Indians, just as Fort Dearborn had been on the site of the great Illinois city. The first church was built in 1792, the first newspaper published in 1793. The population was only 500 in 1795, besides the troops in garrison. In 18 19 it was first made a city, the census of the next year showing nearly 10,000 inhabitants. In 1830 it had risen 16 242 ACROSS THE FERRY. to near 25,000; in 1840, 46,000; in 1850, 115,000; and in 1870, the number was 218,900. It now stands eighth on the list of cities in number of people. There would not be the same interest to a reader in seeing- detailed statistics of Cincinnati as in the newer city of Chicago. It will suffice for comparison with the 2 5 -churched city of 183 1 to say that there are now about 120 churches, the Roman Catho- lics alone having 25 churches or stations. The other denominations most largely represented are Methodist Episcopal, 20; Presbyterian, 18, including two United Presbyterian and three Presbyterian Reformed; Baptist, 10; Congre- gational, or Independent, 4; German Evan- gelical and Reformed, 7 ; Lutheran, 3 ; German Episcopal Methodist, 3. The Moravians, or United Brethren, have 3 churches ; the Friends, 2 meeting-houses ; the Jews, 5 synagogues ; while the Unitarians, Universalists, and various sects of divers names and opinions have about a dozen places of worship among them. The number of newspapers and periodicals is also a fair test of an American citv, and there are in Cincinnati 8 daily papers, 40 weekly, 2 semi-monthly, and 18 monthly publications. The Cincinnati Conuncrcial, the Cincinnati Gazette, the Cincinnati Inquirer, and Cincinjiati Times, have all large circulations, and most A REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN CITY. 243 of the journals are conducted with ability and respectability. The schools and educational institutions of Cincinnati have long been noted. There are many charitable and benevolent societies, and the people may be justly proud of their new infirmary, which in its whole arrangements and management is equal to the best and newest of European hospitals. But I must not stay to describe places, passing on to communicate my own first impressions. I consider Cincinnati at the present time one of the most *' representative " and fairly average of the great cities of the StE.tes. It is equally removed from the condition of the older cities of the East and the South, and of the newer cities of the West, such as Chicago of San Francisco. Boston and Philadelphia, Charleston and New Orleans, date from old British times, and, with republican institutions, retain the continuity of social life and historical tradition from before the War of Independence. Cincinnati has sprung up since American na- tionality began, but has existed longenough to acquire all the distinctive features of American life and character, both social and political. The foreign or immigrant element, both Irish and Continental, in its population is large, and influences the affairs of the city in the same 244 ACROSS THE FERRY. ways, and much in the same proportion, as throughout the Union. The difficulties which American statesmen have to encounter, in political and social life, from diversities of na- tionality and of religion, here present themselves in a marked manner. Observing this, I saw that in Cincinnati I could study the present position and future prospects of the American republic better than in most other cities, and therefore prolonged my stay beyond the pro- portion of time required for mere sight-seeing ; in which, indeed, there is not much to attract the traveller. I found the city in political excitement, the electioneering campaign having begun. The Republican party prevails in Ohio ; but various causes had conduced to secure the Democrats a majority in some districts. A meeting was advertised to be held in Mozart Hall to hear addresses from the Hon. Job Stevenson and Aaron F. Perry, Republican candidates for Con- gress, a meeting of the opposite party having been held in the same hall a few evenings before. Eight o'clock was the time. For about an hour previously a splendid band occupied an outside balcony, discoursing lively music to the vast crowd assembled in the street. On ap- proaching, I was not a little astonished to hear the familiar, and, to British ears, spirit-stirring A POLITICAL MEETING. 245 strains of " God save the Oueen." But be- fore I had time to speculate on the cause of this loyal outburst, the notes were gradually growing feebler, while the confused undertone of another melody struck in, growing in clear- ness and strength, till " Yankee Doodle " triumphed over the National Anthem. Pre- sently the revolutionary strains in their turn died away, and, with a prelude of irregular notes like gun-shots, the strains of " Rule Britannia" swelled forth. But again the grand old melody died away before the increasing sound of " Hail Columbia," which closed the piece, amidst tumultuous cheering and clapping of hands. Similar musical effects used to be heard in M. Jullien's monster concerts ; but this was an interesting illustration of American national feeling. Shortly before the hour of meeting the band took its place in the orchestra, and entertained the audience, which by this time filled the hall. Exactly as the clock struck, a secretary came alone on the stage, paper in hand, and read a brief programme of the proceedings, asking If the meeting approved of the same. With a shout of " agreed " and applause, approval was signified, and the secretary, retiring, ushered in the chairman and the speakers, attended by their committee. This orderly commencement 246 ACROSS THE FERRY. of the meeting was characteristic of the pro- ceedings throughout. The body of the hall was densely crowded, and many forei^rners and coloured men were among the audience. There were no reserved seats — working men, store- keepers, and aristocrats sitting together. There were a few women among the spectators in the amphitheatre stalls, or gallery. The chairman, the Hon. Benjamin Eggleston, spoke only a few sentences, acknowledging the honour of being called to preside, and giving pithy reasons for belonging to the Republican party, "the party of freedom and the party of progress." He then introduced Job E. Steven- son as one " who was going to whip Sam Gary (the Democrat candidate) out of his boots." Amid cheers and rounds of applause. Air. Stevenson advanced. A brief notice of some points of his speech will exhibit the existing state of American politics, and the chief subjects which divide public opinion, since the conquest of the South by the North and the suppression of the slaveholders' influence. The first part of the speech referred in tones of congratulation to the fact that " Reconstruc- tion " was finished, and that the amendments of the Constitution, especially the giving equality of political rights to every citizen, were accepted by patriotic men of all parties, in the THE REPUBLICAN PLATFORM. 247 South as well as the North. If only lawless and violent men would cease from the spilling of Union blood (referring to the Ku-Klux as- sassinations), a general amnesty might be pro- claimed, and the whole republic would be not only united and free, but happy in all its bor- ders. Although no attempt to interfere with " Re- construction " arrangements would succeed, it is to be expected that much discontent and ill-feeling will remain for a time in the South. It will not be easy for the planters to meet coloured men on a footing of political equality, far less to submit with patience to the domi- nation of their former slaves. But this humilia- tion they have brought upon themselves. Next came the subject of Finance. The desire to diminish the national debt led to pressure of taxation, but it was only temporary, and the object was worth the inconvenience and self-denial. The most difficult part of the speech was in touching on the " high Tariff." The speaker was cautious in avoiding advocacy of " protec- tion " to native industry, though that has cer- tainly been an incidental result of the policy of the Government since the war. In the great agricultural districts of the West it is a hard thing that the produce of the soil cannot be 248 ACROSS THE FERRY. exchanged for British Imports, but that the farmers have to pay Immense prices for the inferior manufactures of New England and the Eastern States. The Democrats are gaining largely In Influence by this feeling of antago- nism to the Government In their high-tariff system. In fact, this is the greatest danger to be feared by the Republican party in coming years, a division of interest between East and West, as before between North and South. For a liberal party to oppose free trade and advocate protection would be strange, and therefore it was put to the electors of Cincinnati as a ques- tion of patriotism, the reduction of the national debt being the point aimed at. " I myself," said Mr. Stevenson, "would have preferred some other arrangements, but you have to take things sometimes as you can get them, and if you get enough you should be satisfied. So we have made this reduction, and that is the state of finance — the receipts increasing, the debts decreasing, the expenses decreasing, the ac- count running well both w^ays. Taxation re- duced, people ought to be satisfied. Hereafter it will be our task to remodel laws laying taxes on the people, and so to reform them as, so far as possible, to equalise the burdens of taxation between different localities and different classes ; and, if it. so be that we cannot equalise, then let THE PUBLIC DEBT. 249 the heavier burdens fall on those better able to bear them, remembering this, that the Republi- can party never has, never will, and never can, knowingly, either establish, foster, or maintain any monopoly, either domestic or foreign. In seventeen months since Ulysses S. Grant ' the Silent ' sat down in the Presidential chair, his administration has paid of the public debt one hundred and seventy-five millions. And at this rate, which is over one hundred millions a year, the debt would be paid, according to my calculations, abating the interest as you pay, in about fifteen years. The interest alone upon what has been already paid, now amounts to ten millions a year in gold saved perpetually until the debt is obliterated. We are all anxi- ous to see the debt paid, and I hope to live to see it, and I know my young Democratic friends, many of them, will live to see it. If you let the present taxes alone, they would pay it in fifteen years. You may ask me why then we reducee thes taxes ; why do we not let them alone. I say that we have preserved this Union at countless cost of blood and treasure, not only for ourselves, but for our children and our children's children's children's children to the last generation of time, and we do not pro- pose to bear all the burden. We propose to fund the greater part of the debt, and let it go 2 50 ACROSS THE FERRY. over for twenty or thirty years, and let the rich and prosperous and glorious republic of that day pay it and not feel it. In thirty years the people of this republic will probably number one hundred millions. Cannot they afford to pay a part of that debt ? It seems so to me, for when there are one hundred millions of people, they wdll have one hundred billions of money. Therefore, we have reduced the taxes, and I, for one, humble as I am, w^ould not willingly release the part I have taken in that work. We have reduced the burden of the people's taxes eighty millions per annum, and yet we shall have a surplus, and we can pay twenty or thirty millions per year, and support the Government." After discussing the question of land grants and subsidies to railroads, for the abuses of which both parties, Democrat and Republic, had equally the responsibility, and the Home- stead Law, which required amelioration, Mr. Stevenson spoke in defence of President Grant, especially in regard to his foreign policy. '' It is very fashionable to denounce Grant as a failure because he does not say anything. We are such a talking people that when we approach a public man, if he does not get up and spout at us, we think he is a failure. The silent men win these days. How was it across GENERAL GRANT. 25 r the water ? They say Grant talks ' horse,' and that sort of talk. Well, I am told that the Chief of Staff of Prussia (Moltke) is silent. They say that he is silent in seven languages, but he speaks loudly in the language of gun- powder. When the campaign was about open- ing-, after that theatrical exhibition at Saar- brucken where the French Prince was baptized in fire, as Moltke was walking the town with brow depressed, considering, no doubt, that grand strategy v/hich has struck the w^orld with amazement, a busybody — perhaps, some Yankee — approached him, determined to have something out of him anyhow, and so he said, ' How are matters coming on. General ? * Well,' said the General, ' my cabbages are doing very well, but my potatoes want rain.' No doubt that man thought he was a failure ; didn't know anything because he wouldn't tell it. Now, that is something like General Grant's manner. But if , you want to know whether there is a man in his clothes, go to him and try to do something he does not want you to do — try to keep an office he is determined to put you out of; try to get an office when he is determined you shan't; try to turn him from his conscience and his judgment, and you will find there is a man in his clothes who is enough for you, whoever you are. 252 ACROSS THE FERRY. " Now what is his foreign policy ? What is it ? It is just no policy at all, and that is just what we want in foreign affairs. Almighty God when He made the world and set apart America for this free people, put the oceans round her to keep the world away. And it never was wise for us to entangle our destinies in the web of foreign affairs. Let it alone, and let them let us alone. We will affect them ; we will govern them very much without their will — and, it may be, without their knowledge ; but it will be by our example, and by the attrac- tions of our matchless institutions and our unexampled prosperity. " We govern them now more than they know of. As the sun governs the snow on the moun- tain millions of miles away, so the light and glow of our free institutions governs and melts the crowns and thrones and imperial dynasties of the Old World. " So let us govern them. I know some hun- ger and thirst after Cuba — and Cuba will be ours some day : but then if we get her, we must not first dabble her with blood or stain her with wrong. She will come to us finally by force of attraction, and when she comes she will come freely, and we will receive her righteously ; and if we would be blessed in Cuba, or have Cuba blessed in us, we should NON-INTER VENT I ON. 253 righteously make the union between us. Wrong cannot prosper." The Alabama claims having been referred to, the speaker gave his opinion regarding the sympathy for France, which led at that time manv to desire interference in her behalf. " But what now shall we do ? Rush in to save the shattered armies of France ? Suppose we did, is not Prussia there ? And how shall we meet that power ? " But does anybody want us to help Prussia ? Prussia does not need our assistance just now, I think, and there is no need for us to entangle our affairs with theirs. Let us not, in our sym- pathy for nominal republican institutions, or for real republican institutions anwhere, forget first principles, and one first principle is, that when a war is righteously commenced, it may be righteously prosecuted to a righteous peace, and a righteous peace may well include ' in- demnity for the past and security for the future.' And if the victor on the fields of Europe was right in defending his countr}^ against invasion, he is right in fighting on until he gets just terms of peace. But they tell us he recognises his God as the source of his power, and, therefore, we should have him put down. I am not so sure. I do most heartily deny that any ruler rules by any right except that given by the 2 54 ACROSS THE FERRY. people ; and yet I had much rather see a man who believes himself such bv the erace of God, than see one on the throne who believes and knows himself to rule by the machinations of the devil. So much for foreign affairs. They are foreign. Thank God they are not ours, and let us keep out of them." Other points of public policy being discussed, the speech closed with reference to local or non- partisan questions : "I want to present to the people of Cincinnati some material considera- tions for them to reflect upon. Cincinnati is pe- culiarly situated as to communication. Some wonder why she does not grow more rapidly. Let such go down to the wharf at the foot of Main Street, and look out to the front and to the right and to the left, and reflect on the con- dition of that countr}% and they will understand. What does Cincinnati want ? She wants a free river from Pittsburgh to the Gulf. What else does she want ? She wants a broad high rail- way leading down from Cincinnati to Chatta- nooga. And what else does she want ? She wants an outlet by water to Norfolk. Give her these three lines, and she will plume her wings anew and soar into regions of prosperity far beyond her rivals. With them she wants a per- fected system of port of entry, by which her goods may come from foreign countries without "A TIGER FOR THE TICKET r 255 delay in New York or elsewhere. Now the country is safe, and the Democratic party is safe too ; one safe on the road to prosperity and glory, unexampled in the past, unrivalled in the histor}^ of the world, and the other is on the broad downward road." JMr. Aaron Perr}^'s address also went over the various points dividing the two parties, with a peroration appealing to the patriotic feeling of the audience, who were proud of Ohio and its great city : " Let us advance ! Casting our eyes to the surrounding hills, we find them, from hill to hill throughout the entire circle, adorned with institutions of learning, like jewels in the diadem of our valley queen. They speak of the future. Tracing the rich valleys which concentrate here, we see them obviously des- tined to become the seat of a vast population. They speak of the future. Looking abroad upon our noble State, to its history, its influence, its capacity, they suggest a future of incompar- able happiness. Yet among all there is nothing so bright and glorious as the untroubled peace, the rooted liberty, which fill our whole twenty degrees of latitude and extend from sea to sea." At the close of Mr. Perry's speech the *' meeting adjourned, with three cheers and a tiger for the ticket," the tiger being a strange compound of shout and howl. 256 ACROSS THE FERRY. I have given some space to my recollection of this meeting, both because it gives opportu- nity of referring to some of the chief questions of American political controversy, and because of the impression made by the meeting itself. The same orderly and intelligent conduct marks political life throughout the Northern States, out of New York. There may be strong hos- tility and even violent antagonism ; but the opponents speak and act from personal con- viction, and as influenced by appeals to their reason and interest through the platform or the press. There is nothing of the hired ruffianism of our English electioneering mob, when be- sotted and ignorant "lambs" fight for the mere colours of the candidate whose agent has hired them. In nothing is the superiority of the American over the English " lower orders ' more evident than in the conduct of their poli- tical elections. Since the settlement of the slavery question, and the reconstruction of the Union, there is no national problem more important than the management of the vast and increasing foreign population. If the emigrants were fewer, or if they all came from Protestant lands, there would be no difficulty. In earlier times all foreigners, even the Irish papists, were absorbed and assi- milated, their children going to the common FOREIGX ELEMENTS OF DISTURBANCE. 257 schools, and growing up intelligent and orderly members of the community. But latterly the number of these emigrants has so increased, that not in New York alone, but in all the larger cities, they are forming separate organi- sations, both under political and religious leaders, and causing much trouble and anxiety. The German element is also large and well organised, but its influence is to be considered more in relation to party questions than to those which affect the general welfare and progress of the commonwealth. Before many years another element of disturbance may be ex- pected in the increase of Chinese emigration, interfering with wages and labour, and other social arrangements. But the most important and pressing difficulty is in connection with the system of common schools and education. In the States of New York and of Ohio this question has already vexed and disturbed the community. Although attracting less notice than the party controversies which divide Ameri- cans, this is really of deeper importance, as threatening to interfere with arrangements af- fecting the national welfare. All patriotic Americans, whether Republicans or Democrats, are interested in maintaining their institutions against this element of disturbance. 17 258 ACI^OSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XVIII. COMMON SCHOOLS CONTROVERSY AS TO USE OF THE BIBLE '* OPENING EXERCISES" — FOREIGN SETTLERS — SPRING GROVE CEMETERY AME- RICAN FUNERALS. AN important case, as to the exclusion of the Bible from the common schools of Cin- cinnati, was decided in the Superior Court of that city a few months before I was there. A brief report of this case will clearly explain the difficulty to which I before referred, the difficulty of uniting- various creeds and nation- alities under American institutions. In one of the Articles of the Constitution of Ohio State, after declaring religious equality and the rights of conscience, it is added, " Religious morality and knowledge, however, being essential to good government, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to pass suitable laws, to pro- tect every religious denomination in the peace- able enjoyment of its own mode of worship, and to encourage schools, and the means of THE BIBLE IN THE COMMON SCHOOLS. 259 instruction." — (Art. VII. of Bill of Rights.) Under a law of 1829 the common schools of Cincinnati were first organised, and for forty years it was the usage to read the Holy Scrip- tures, without note or comment, in the schools, a portion being read either by the teachers or scholars as an opening exercise. In the year 1842, at a meeting of the trustees, it being suggested, among other things, that the Catholic children were required to read the Protestant Testament and Bible, it was resolved that " no pupil of the common schools shall be required to read the Testament or Bible, if its parents or guardian desire that it may be ex- cused from that exercise." This resolution was afterwards discussed by the trustees and visitors of the school then com- posing the Board of Education, in 1852, when it was again determined that " the opening exercises in every department shall commence by reading a portion of the Bible, by or under the direction of the teachers, and appropriate singing by the pupils ; the pupils of the com- mon schools may read such versions of the Scriptures as their parents and guardians may prefer ; provided that such preference of any version, except the one now in use, be commu- nicated by the parents and guardians to the principal teachers, and that no notes or marginal 26o ACROSS THE FERRY. readings be allowed in the schools, or comments made by the teachers on the text or any version that is or may be introduced." This was the rule, to which no exception seems to have been taken until November, 1869, when a majority of the Board of Education passed these resolutions: First, "that religious instruction and the reading of religious books, including the Holy Bible, are prohibited in the common schools of Cincinnati, it being the true object and intent of this rule to allow the children of the parents of all sects and opinion in matters of faith and worship to enjoy alike the benefits of the common school fund." Second, "that so much of the regulations in the course of study and text-books in the inter- mediate and district schools as reads as follows : The opening exercises in ever}^ department shall commence by reading a portion of the Bible, by or under the direction of the teachers, and appropriate singing by the pupils — be re- pealed." These resolutions of the majority of the School Board were passed by a combination of infidels with Jews and Roman Catholics, strengthened so far by the declared opinion of some good men, that religious instruction could best be given apart from secular teaching. There is no doubt, however, that the resolu- •CONTROVERSY IN THE SCHOOL BOARD. 261 tions were in the main the result of hostility to revealed truth, and to Christian influence in education. The minority of the Board filed a petition for an injunction against the promulga- tion, enforcement, or putting in operation of the resolutions. The argument of the case before the full bench of the Superior Court lasted five days, and the decision of the majority of the Court, delivered by Judge Bellamy Storer, was to the effect that the resolutions were opposed to the constitution of the State of Ohio, and were therefore invalid. The use of the Bible was restored, the parents disap- proving of the use of the Bible still having the liberty of restraining their children from attend- ance during the time the Scripture was read. This liberty exists everywhere throughout the Union, but is hardly ever taken advantage of except in circumstances of public agitation, as in Cincinnati. The children of all creeds and nationalities join in the opening exercises, just as we find in India little objection made by parents to the use of the Bible in mission schools, unless when it is put into their heads to murmur by mischievous people, under pre- text of guarding against proselytising. The published opinion of Judge Storer, in giving his decision, was a lucid and masterly statement both of law and principle. He showed 262 ACJ?OSS THE FERRY. how the Legislature of the State in a variety of instances recognised the Bible as the foundation of religion : — " We find in the class of exemptions of per- sonal property from execution, the family Bible is especially named, and this, too, before the homestead and the present privilege of the debtor were secured by law. So, in the Ap- prentice law, one of the conditions in the indenture binding on the master is that he shall give to the apprentice, at the close of his term, a new Bible ; and in the statute regulat- ing county jails, each prisoner is to be supplied with a copy of the Bible. By the 19th section of the Penitentiary law, it is made the duty of the warden to furnish each criminal with a Bible — who shall permit, as often as he may think proper, regular ministers of the gospel to preach to such convicts ; and we are assured the same rule is adopted in the government of all our benevolent institutions, including the House of Refuge and Reform School. Now it must be recollected that all these institutions are sustained at the public expense, the pro- perty of every person in the State being taxed to furnish the necessary means. And yet, while .the Scriptures are made indispensable for every penal, reformatory, and benevolent institution, it is claimed they cannot be intro- ARGUMENTS IN THE SUPREME COURT. 263 duced into the common schools, and if found there, either used or read, shall thereafter be prohibited. "Nay, more, while that volume is found in ever}^ court of justice, and the two houses of the General Assembly, upon which we, the Judges of this Court, have been sworn to ad- minister justice and uphold the constitution and laws, it is expelled from our common schools, thus making it the only exception to its recognition as an exponent of religion and morality. There is, then, no prohibition of the Bible, by law, as a book to be read or used in the education of our youth, nor do we think that it can be implied from the letter or the spirit of our organic law. " But it is said by one of the counsel who has so ably argued for the defendants, ' that when the constitution says religion and morality and knowledge are essential to good government, it simply means that the intuitive sense of right and wrong shall be brought out by exercise and developed ; the only religion that it considers vital to the preservation of the State is that which is written upon human nature.' This is a bold proposition, and one that is, it seems to us, most difficult to sustain upon any other 264 ACROSS THE FERRY. ground than that which would justify the devo- tee to be crushed beneath the car of Juggernaut, the Hindoostan widow to cast herself upon the funeral pile of her husband, or the revolting cannibalism that once prevailed in the islands of the South Sea. Nay, further, on this hypo- thesis we may vindicate the orgies of the hea- then temples in the most enlightened ages of the past, when the Roman could utter the ex- clamation, ' O dii, iimnortales,' and yet sacrifice to Venus, to Bacchus, and to Mars. " To our apprehension it does not appear probable that our law-makers would have sanc- tioned such a rule, if it had ever been proposed ; and their silence as to such a suggestion is ra- tionally conclusive that they never could have seriously entertained it. Without the teachings of the Holy Scriptures there is, we believe, no unvarying standard of moral duty, no code of ethics which inculcates willing obedience to law, and establishes human governments upon the broad foundation of the will of God. Hence, it was the great purpose of the clause in the Bill of Rights, to which we have already referred, to announce the deep conviction — we might say, the authoritative opinion — that religion was necessary to good government, not the sha- dowy view of man's duty which lets in upon the vision a faint ray of light to make the surround- DECISION OF JUDGE STOKER. 265 ing- darkness more visible, but the recognition of an Almighty power, demonstrable, it is true, by what meets our vision, but alone subjectively taught by His revealed will. "Yet, it is said, the natural conscience is to be taught, the instinctive sense of right and wrong is to be brought out by exercise and developed ; but we are not told what is to be the exercise, or how the development is to be effected. What is to be the process by which the minds of the young are to be cast into the crucible and refined from any innate or acquired impurity ? What high and holy motive is to be addressed to the pupil, when his origin, the purpose of his probation on earth, and all knowledge of a hereafter, are not only to be withheld, but the volume which discloses them is ostracised as one not only unfit to be read, but as conflicting with the conscience that has never yet, perhaps, been enlightened by its truth ? ** It cannot be claimed that good government can exist where there is no religion which embodies the idea of obedience to God ; but, on the contrar}^ the will of ever}^ man may be the true arbiter of his conduct and the measure of his responsibility ; for if such a dogma should be allowed, all restraint upon human passion, every check upon the oppression of the few by 266 ACROSS THE FERRY. the despotism of the many, would cease, every individual being- a law unto himself, defending his conduct by the assumption that he con- scientiously believed he had the right to do so. In such a war of conflicting elements the strife of opinion would be uncontrolled, and the moral power of our republic be made to depend upon individual caprice, precipitating, at no distant day, the now freest and happiest government on earth into remediless ruin." These are weighty words, and if space allowed I would gladly quote more of the learned judge's opinion, as applicable to discussions arising in our own School Boards. It is pos- sible that the agitation in America will continue, and modifications may be made in the organi- sation of schools in some places ; but ewery well-wisher of America will rejoice in the defeat of these attempts to separate religion from education. Judge Storer clearly laid down the distinc- tion between "religion" and "religious de- nominations;" the latter including all shades of theoretic as well as practical belief, but the former being essential as the foundation of morality and order in a Christian common- wealth. Failing to exclude the Bible and religious teaching from the schools, an attempt has been OPENING EXERCISES IN SCHOOLS. 267 made in New York and elsewhere to divide the school rate, and apportion it to schools of vari- ous creeds and principles. This also has been successfully resisted, and the Roman Catholics and other malcontents have to provide funds for their own separate schools. It is to be hoped that all true Americans will keep united and firm in maintaining the Common School System,* which is the greatest strength and glory of their commonwealth. It may be well to mention what is the "use of the Bible," about which so much ado has been made. This is what I saw in the Ninth District School of Cincinnati, one of the largest and best-ordered schools of the city, except that there is no playground or space of any kind for amusements. And I may remark, in passing, that there is too commonly a deficiency in physical training in the schools. Much work and little play is the rule, and the health of the children suffers from over-study and "competition." But to proceed. The school meets at nine, and commences with what are * It may be necessary to inform some readers that there is no national system of education in America — that is, under the Central Government. Every State has its own educational laws and usages, varying in many respects, but agreeing as yet, in using the Bible, In the Southern States, before the war, Com- mon Schools were almost unknown ; but they have been since established, and are rapidly multiplying. 268 ACROSS THE FERRY. called the "opening" exercises." There are numerous rooms, in pairs, for boys and girls of various ages, from five or six to fourteen years, and various stages of advancement. In the girls' schoolroom, when I was present, the German master took his place at a piano, and folding or sliding doors being opened, the boys from the adjoining room marched in to the notes of a cheery strain, accompanied by their teachers. A hymn was then sung, and capi- tally sung, too ; then the senior master read a portion of the New Testament, without com- ment. This was followed by another hymn, after which the boys marched back in the same orderly way to their own class-room. There was nothing in this to touch the prejudices or susceptibilities of the most bigoted parent or proselytiser. The uniting in familiar words of praise and thanksgiving, and the reverential use of God's revealed word, cannot but have a good influence on the feelings and habits of the young ; and the formal exclusion of the Bible thus used can only be sought by those who are opposed to all acknowledgment of Divine power and goodness. A blessing is sought, and may be expected from the official recognition of religion in the "opening exercises." But in reality the controversy about the detention or the removal of the Bible can have little influ- THE SCHOOLMASTER MAKES THE SCHOOL. 269 ence in a practical way. A godly teacher could instil principles of piety and virtue if the use of the Bible were interdicted, while an ungodly teacher could injure the minds of his pupils, even if creeds as well as the word of God were required to be taught. In America, as well as with us in England, the vital point is to have teachers of the right stamp, both of head and heart. It would be a disgrace to the State of Ohio, and the School Board of Cincinnati, if the Bible were expelled ; but if the training schools for teachers do their duty, all will be well. It is the schoolmaster that makes the school. At Cincinnati I found a good many Scotch residents, more in proportion than in other cities. A firm of brewers, three brothers from Edinburgh, were said to brew the best beer in these regions, and Cincinnati is famous for its beer. The Germans are numerous, and are great consumers of malt liquors. The chief bookseller in the place, Robert Clarke, is a Scotchman. From another Scotchman, Mr. James Macgregor, who had known the city for forty years, I obtained much interesting infor- mation about its history and progress, and feel grateful for his generous and unwearied atten- tion. At Mount Auburn I went to visit a veteran of the British army. Colonel Lachlan, 270 ACROSS THE FERRY infirm in health, but with mind clear and active. He was a native of Edinburgh, and I remember him coming back there with his regiment, the 17th, after serving in India and Burmah. On retiring from the army he had emigrated to America, first residing in Canada and afterwards at Cincinnati. It was pleasant to have a talk about Edinburgh scenes and people in his retreat at Mount Auburn. I have since heard of his death, in his ninetieth year. I went one day with my aged friend to the funeral of the daughter of a neighbour on Mount Auburn. The parents being much re- spected, and the girl much beloved, a great company had assembled, friends of the family, and members of the church, in the Sunday- school of which she had been a teacher. The two large rooms on a ground-floor were densely filled, and numbers also sat in the hall and on the steps of the staircase. The coffin, with glass top, stood on trestles in the room in which the service was conducted by the offici- ating minister. The service resembled that in use in Scotland — prayer, reading the Scripture, and an address. The latter was as long as a sermon, but the minister may have thought more than usual was expected from him, as he had been invited alb the way from New Eng- land, being an old friend of the family. The SPRING GROVE CEMETERY. 271 most unreal part of the service was the singing of a set anthem by a quartette choir, brought for the purpose and seated in the hall. These quartette choirs were already too familiar to me as performing by proxy the service of song in the churches, but their intrusion at a funeral startled me. After the service, the whole of the guests passed round the coffin to take a last view of the deceased. The coffin was car- ried to the ornamental hearse outside by eight or ten young ladies, fellow-teachers at the Sunday-school. This custom, I suppose, has been introduced by the Germans. The body was richlv attired, the coffin strewed with myrtle wreaths, and the bearers dressed in white. I have alreadv described the orna- mental hearses used in America, and the ab- sence of general mourning, whether in dress or in the appearance of the coaches. Of these there was a large number, as upwards of a hun- dred people went to the place of burial in Spring Grove Cemetery, three or four miles distant. I find it is the custom to have im- posing funerals, a custom often entailing need- lessly heavy expense. But at such seasons be- reaved families are as helplessly at the mercy of ''funeral fashion" as in our own country. There appears also to be an immense amount of ostentation and emulation in the monuments i 272 ACJ^OSS THE FERRY. of the cemeteries. I noticed this elsewhere, but had more time at Cincinnati to make observa- tions and inquiries. There are many monu- ments at Spring Grove Cemetery which cost thousands of dollars each. I saw several of Peterhead granite, which had been brought across the Atlantic to New Orleans, and thence up the Mississippi and the Ohio to Cincinnati. Some of these polished granite monuments must have cost at least 5,000 dollars. Marble pyramids or columns surmounted by an angel seemed a favourite design. By far the most striking monument in the cemetery is that over the bodies of soldiers who fell in the war of the rebellion, — the bronze figure of a sentinel, armed as on duty, watching the burial-place, — a monu- ment grand in design and in execution. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 273 CHAPTER XIX. COLUMBIA DISTRICT WASHINGTON CITY — THE CAPITOL THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON YOUNG men's christian ASSOCIATION THE freedmen's bureau. nrHE "District of Columbia" is a tract of ^ country with an area of sixty square miles, set apart as the seat of the Federal Government. It is neither State nor Territory, but a neutral soil appropriated to the Commonwealth. The land was ceded by Maryland State, which bounds it on three sides, the fourth side being bounded by the Potomac, which separates it from Virginia. Originally, the District occu- pied one hundred square miles ; but forty, ceded by Virginia, were restored to that State in 1846. Columbia District is under the direct government of Congress, its inhabitants having no representatives, and no voice in the Federal elections. The object in setting apart this District was to secure a site free from the influence of any j8 274 ACROSS THE FERRY. particular State. Proposals have been made to transfer the seat of government to one of the larger cities. Washington, it is said, is situated in a cul-de-sac, " in the foot of a stock- ing," as one of its people described it to me, off the great highways of travel, and "leading nowhere particular." So much the better for Washino-ton and for the Federal Government. If Congress were held in New York, or any great city either of the North or South, or in St. Louis or Chicago, the latest claimants for metropolitan dignity, the advantages of seclu- sion and independence would be lost. The choice of the founders of the Republic was prudent and far-seeing, and it is well that both the supreme legislative and judicial courts sit in the serene atmosphere of Columbia District. It was Washington himself who chose the site, and who laid the corner-stone of the Capi- tol, and approved the plan of the metropolitan city. This was in 1793, seven years before the removal of the seat of government from Phila- delphia.* Though intended to be free from the influence of any of the State capitals, the hope was cherished of the metropolis of the * In 18 14, the Capitol, with the President's house and other buildings, was burnt by the British. It was repaired in 181 8 ; and not till 1851 was the foundation-stone laid, by President Fillmore, of the new buildings, by which the original design was enlarged to more than double its size. WASHINGTON CITY. 275 Union becoming- itself a great city. The ground was laid out, and the avenues and streets planned, on a vast scale. Only a small part of the design has yet been completed, and hence the sarcastic epithet of "the city of mag.- niiicent distances." It is a city of magnificent edifices, at all events. Besides the Capitol, the grandeur of which surpasses expectation, the Patent Office, the Post Office, and above all the Treasury, are worthy of the great Republic. The President's mansion, or the White House, the Smithsonian Institute, and several of the hotels, are also imposing buildings. The city has certainly an unfinished aspect, and is a place of prospective rather than pre- sent grandeur, like the huge truncated struc- ture — looking now like a gigantic milestone — intended to be *' the Washington Monument." But I did not find Washington so desolate a place as I had been led to expect from the ex- aggerated statements of travellers. Some of the streets were alive with traffic and business, and the splendid Pennsylvania Avenue always cheery and animated. I was there in Septem- ber, the dullest season of the year, when few carriages or equipages are to be seen, but the omnibuses and cars were well filled. Few cities present greater contrast at different seasons. During the session of Congress, the population 276 ACROSS THE FERRY. is largely increased. But even without this accession there is an air of healthy progress about the place. The census of 1850 gave the population about 40,000 ; in i860 it had reached 61,000, and in 1870 the number was 109,388. Chicago and St. Louis alone of all the great cities showed a larger ratio of increase in the last decennial period. I stayed at Ebbitt House, near the Treasury, one of the most comfortable of the many great hotels with which Washington abounds. It is a house frequented by government officials and others who have to pass much time in the city, and I have pleasant recollections of the cour- tesy and companionship of men I met there. It was an agreeable change and quiet resting- place from the caravanserais, with their ever- shifting multitudes, in the great commercial towns. Street cars from the railway depot pass the door, and Pennsylvania Avenue is only a few paces distant. I see that the Avenue, one of the grandest thoroughfares in the world, a mile long and over a hundred feet broad, has been lately paved with wood, an improvement much needed and long spoken of. The citizens had a regular " carnival " on the occasion, with music and all sorts of sports, including burlesque masquerades, parades, and processions, in which public personages were cleverly " taken off." GEORGETOWN. 277 One of the groups was " the first female Presi- dent of the United States," with a cabinet of ladies, and a body-guard of female voters, a ludicrous illustration of the contempt in which the advocacy of *' woman's rights" is held in the American capital. At the same time, the Government sets a good example in providing legitimate occupa- tion for females, by largely employing them in the public offices. These close early in the afternoon, and several times when at the door of Ebbitt House I saw squads of '* the Treasury regiment" pass, on their way home from work, and smart, cheerful, independent-looking girls they were. All over the union, in post offices, telegraph offices, and other public institutions, female einployces are found, to far larger extent than with us in England. Georgetown, the only other town in Columbia District, is a place of some interest. Dating from old British times, there is an air of anti- quity about it, compared with the modern capi- tal. The surrounding heights are covered with fine mansions and villas, and Oak Hill ceme- tery is a beautiful spot. From the Capitol to Georgetown there is a tramway, and the three or four miles of road seemed always busy with traffic. On seeing the historical fresco paintings on 278 ACROSS THE FERRY. the walls of the Rotunda in the Capitol, I re- cognised scenes already familiar to me from their being engraved on the dollar bills and paper currency of a higher value. The Ame- rican bank notes have always been famous for the excellence of their pictorial work. The drawing and engraving being the best that the country can yield, attempts at forgery are easily detected. The artistic skill necessary for pro- ducing these pictures is rarer than the mecha- nical skill by which frauds in paper marks, or in printing, could be executed. Imitations of unpictured notes of smaller value are more frequent. Of the eight pictures, the early scenes, such as that of Columbus in sight of the New World, and De Soto discovering the Mississippi, repre- sent historical events in which all spectators have a common interest. The later scenes, such as the surrender of the British troops to General Washington, are not flattering to Bri- tish visitors, some of whom describe the humi- liation and vexation with which they view them. I confess I had nothing of this feeling, but rather regarded them with as much pride and pleasure as any native American. Washington and the other founders of the Republic were true Englishmen, British colonists of the right stamp ; and the victories they won were victo- THE CAPITOL. 279 ries of freedom and right over tyranny and wrong. They maintained on the soil of the New World the same principles which the people of England held in opposition to the Court. They were the successors of Pym and Hampden, of the puritan heroes and pilgrim fathers of the seventeenth century. Every liberal Englishman now condemns, as much as the great Chatham did, the blundering policy which lost America to the British Crown. Though the nations are divided, the people ought to be again united in sympathy and friendship, as they are one in origin, in lan- guage, and in faith. The time is past for speaking disparagingly of American institu- tions. These English over the sea will be soon before us in population and in power, as they are already before us in education and in most things that make the well-being of a great commonwealth. In the troublous times that are coming upon Europe we may need the alliance of their strong power, as many may have to seek the sanctuary of their free soil amidst the calamities that are to come on the Old World " in the latter day." Washington was almost a blank at the time of my visit, so far as political life is concerned. The Senate Chamber and Hall of Representa- tives were both under repair, the benches all 28o ACROSS THE FERRY. pulled to pieces for rearrangement. Workmen were busy in other places, both outside and inside the Capitol. The White House was also in the hands of painters and decorators. The President was at the seaside, at Long Branch, and all the Cabinet and officials dispersed. Mr. Fish, the Secretary of State, was alone at his post, the only visible sign of Government of any sort. He was literally alone, living en oar^07i, his family being absent. All the foreign ministers and ambassadors were enjoy- ing the holiday season, except Sir Edward Thornton, who was alone, like Mr. Fish, de- tained by his important duties. Through the private introduction of a friend, I had the privilege of a long interview with the Secretary of State. I took the opportunity of speaking of the strong and general feeling of respect and affection for America which pervaded the British people — a feeling which was not fairly represented, especially during the war, by our Government or by the Press. The Ti??ies, and the journals misled by it, did not then express the real state of public opinion on the Alabama claims, or on any of the great questions which continue to cause international irritation. Mr. Fish expressed himself with so much frankness and earnestness as to his desire to have a speedy settlement, that I could not help writing THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 281 to our Foreign Office a memorandum of his conversation. The generous spirit shown by American statesmen, and their readiness to forget the undoubted wrong done to their coun- try by British sympathy with the Southern rebels, required concession on our part, and with men of high honour and noble character like Lord Granville and Mr. Gladstone, this was not difficult. The Treatv of Washino-ton, whatever may be its results in details, is honourable to both nations, and the feeling on each side the Atlantic is widely different now ' from what it was but a year ago. Even the British minister at Washington was at that time not sanguine as to a peaceful solution, judging by the diplomatic situation. But Government and the Press, in this as in other great ques- tions, had to follow public opinion, which happily was pronouncing with increasing ur- gency for peace and goodwill between the two nations. In reviewing the debate in the House of Lords on Earl Russell's motion on the Treaty, the 7}>;2^5 admits that " the expression in the pre- amble of the treaty of regret at the escape of the Alabama, ' under whatever circumstances,' is 'without precedent, and eminently calculated to shock the sentiment of diplomatic propriety.' But then, we fear it is without precedent for 282 ACROSS THE FERRY. two nations to resolve upon making up differ- ences so grave without resort to arms, in the manner prescribed by Christianity, and con- stantly adopted in private life. If this noble resolve be called national humiliation, let us glory in the reproach ; and if saying now what ought to have been said ten years ago lowers us in the estimation of Europe, let us hope that Europe will before long rise to a higher con- ception of international fellowship." These are truly noble sentiments, and make some amends for the evil done by the Ti7?ies when lending its influence to the Southern rebels during the war. The Young Men's Christian Association at Washington has a handsome building and com- modious rooms at the corner of Ninth and D streets. The American Young Men's Associa- tion has its head quarters, and its finest esta- blishment, like a London club-house, at New York, and branches in almost every town in the Union. It is an institution of far more influence than the similar associations in England. An annual meeting of representatives from the various associations throughout the country is held at different cities. Foreign delegates are also present, so that the meeting is really an international convention. The meeting of this year (187 1) at Washington has been one of the YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 283 largest and most Important Christian gatherings ever held in the States. The Association is not confined to young men, as the name might imply ; at least the term, like the Irish one of "boys," covers all ages. The president of the Washington Asso- ciation is a veteran soldier, Major-General Oliver Howard, from whom I had a hearty reception as a stranger from the old country. They may well be proud of having such a man at their head. He was one of the most distin- guished officers during the war. He was present in many of the hardest-fought fields, and lost his right arm at the battle of Fair Oaks. It was he who received the last charge of Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville. Alas, that two such men should have met in hostile array ! He helped materially to gain the victory at Gettys- burg, which finally turned the tide of the war. And in Sherman's grand march through Georgia to the sea, it was Howard who commanded the right wing of the army. To some of my friends of the Peace Society these may seem sinister topics for praise, but if ever a war was justifi- able, it was that into which the American Government was unwillingly compelled in self- defence against the armed violence of the Southern rebels — a war which preserved the Union, and brought freedom to the slave. 284 ACROSS THE FERRY. Happily, General Howard lived to achieve more noble triumphs on peaceful fields. Ap- pointed chief of the Freedmen's Bureau, he con- ducted with admirable skill, tact, and temper the most difficult business that arose out of the war. Of the four millions and a half of coloured people suddenly emancipated by the collapse of the South, vast numbers were exposed to privation and peril. Arrangements had to be made for" receiving and sheltering fugitives and exiles, for feeding the hungr}', tending the sick and aged, providing work for the able-bodied, and for education. All this and more was ac- complished by the Freedmen's Bureau, and the success was largely due to the energy, ability, and Christian philanthropy of General Howard. A work so beneficent, being done in behalf of the oppressed negro race, could not escape bitter opposition from the friends of slavery. Attacks were even made on the Chief Commis- sioner as having engaged in the work from interested motives. A committee of Congress having been appointed to inquire into these charges, declared them to be ** groundless and causeless slanders," and the House passed a resolution that "the great trust committed to General Howard had been performed wisely, disinterestedly, economically, and success- fully," and that '' he is deserving of the grati- THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU. 285 tude of the whole American people." *' With God on its side," added the report, " the Freed- men's Bureau, though encountering the bitterest opposition and the most unrelenting hate, has triumphed ; civilization has received a new im- pulse, and the friends of humanity may well rejoice." An American journalist, Sidney Andrews, thus summed up the work in behalf of the freedmen : — *' Of the thousand things that the Bureau has done, no balance-sheet can ever be made. How it helped the ministries of the church, saved the blacks from robbery and persecution, enforced respect for the negro's rights, instructed all the people in the meaning of the law, threw itself against the strongholds of intemperance, settled neighbourhood quarrels, brought about ami- cable relations between employer and employed, comforted the sorrowful, raised up the down- hearted, corrected bad habits among whites and blacks, restored order, sustained contracts for work, compelled attention to the statute books, collected claims, furthered local educational movements, gave sanctity to the marriage rela- tion, dignified labour, strengthened men and women in good resolutions, rooted out old pre- judices, ennobled the home, assisted the freed- men to become landowners, brought offenders 286 ACROSS THE FERRY. to justice, broke up bands of outlaws, over- turned the class-rule of ignorance, led bitter hearts into brighter ways, shamed strong hearts into charity and forgiveness, promulgated the new doctrine of equal rights, destroyed the seeds of mistrust and antagonism, cheered the despondent, set idlers at work, aided in the reorganisation of society, carried the light of the North into dark places of the South, steadied the negro in his struggle with novel ideas, in- culcated kindly feeling, checked the passion of whites and blacks, opened the blind eyes of judges and jurors, taught the gospel of forbear- ance, encouraged human sympathy, distributed the generous charities of the benevolent, up- held loyalty, assisted in creating a sentiment of nationality — how it did all this, and a hundred- fold more, who shall ever tell ? what pen shall ever record ? " These are warm and generous words. They are eloquent. But the facts they state are still more eloquent. The territory embraced by the operations of the Bureau comprised the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Kan- sas, Delaware, Mar)'land, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The colossal pro- EMANCIPATION AND ITS RESULTS. 287 portions of the work of the Bureau will be seen at a glance. Its operations extended over 300,000 square miles of territory devastated by the greatest war of modern times, more than four millions of its people sunk in the lowest depths of ignorance by two centuries of slavery, and suddenly set free amid the fierce animosities of war — free, but poor, helpless, and starving. Here, truly, was a most appalling condition of things. Not only the destiny of the liberated race was in the balance, but the life of the nation itself depended upon the correct solution of this intricate problem. But it has been solved. At the close of the war famine looked the South in the face. There was a cry for bread throughout the southern country. It was sneeringly said by the enemies of emanci- pation that the negro would not labour. Satis- fied by the Bureau that contracts would be enforced, that justice would be administered, with words of encouragement whispered in his ear, the negro went to work. The battle- ploughed, trampled fields of the South yielded a wealth of production that seemed not the result of human labour, but as if "earth had again grown quick with God's creating breath," — for the crops in the South have been larger, proportionately, since the war than at any previous time. 288 ACROSS THE FERRY. It was not only or chiefly the means of exist- ence, and fields for labour, that the friends of the freedmen sought to provide. The work of education had to be commenced. Before the attention of the Government or of Congress had been called to this matter, private associations had already been formed in the different States. The Society of Friends, as usual, took a promi- nent part in this good work. But it was a cause which touched all Christian hearts. We have pleasure in giving an extract from the official report sent by a Frenchman, M. Hip- peau, to the Minister of Public Instruction of France : — " It would be impossible to convey an idea of the energy and friendly rivalry^ displayed by the women of America in this truly Christian work. In the year 1862 public meetings were held in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia', and soon were formed, under the double influence of humanity and religion, the ' Association for the Aid of Freedmen ' and the ' Missionary Association' in New York ; the ' Committee of Fducation' in Boston; the 'Societies of Educa- tion' of Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and Chicago. Several periodicals were established to publish the results achieved by each of these societies, to announce the voluntary donations collected by the committees, and to publish the letters M. HIPPEAU'S REPORT. 289 and reports from all the different places where- in the protectors of the blacks were exercising their beneficent functions. In one year 1,500 schools for coloured pupils were opened. No sooner had the Northern army captured a new city, than a host of devoted teachers of both sexes also entered it. In incorporating negroes into the Northern armies, the Union generals formed regimental schools for them ; and Sher- man in Georgia, Banks in Louisiana, and Howard in Tennessee, evinced, in forwarding this great work of humanity, no less interest and energy than in the prosecution of the war. *' And it should be here stated, to the honour of a race so long disinherited, so long condemned to degradation, to brutality, to ignorance (a law of the South punishing with death any one convicted of teaching a slave to read or write), that no spectacle could be more touching than that offered by these helpless, unfortunate men, old and young, women and children, as eager to rush to the schools esta- blished for the regeneration of their minds and souls as to the places where they were pro- vided with food and shelter. Never did a famished man pounce more eagerly upon food placed before him than did these poor fugitives upon the bread of knowledge, a sublime instinct 19 !90 ACROSS THE FERRY. causing them to regard education as the first condition of their regeneration. " The beneficent Peabody consecrated five million francs to the schools of the South. One association, the American Missionary Associa- tion, received more than 45,000 francs per month ; but this sum was insufficient to alle- viate to a great extent the vast amount of physical and moral suffering which x existed. Congress gave forty-five millions of francs to the Freedmen's Bureau, the presidency of which was confided by Lincoln to General Howard. What this Bureau has accomplished since the day of his installation is incredible. The unfortunates out of whom men and citizens were to be made required all kinds of assistance. They not only needed schools, but hospitals ; and these latter were esta- blished for them. From 1861 to 1866, nearly four hundred thousand freedmen had filled the forty-eight hospitals created for them, and in which twenty thousand succumbed to misery, fatigue, and wounds received in fighting for the cause which assured to their race liberty and independence. '* Such was the devotion of the men and women occupied in the education of children, that the number of schools increased so rapidly (there were four thousand at the commence- EDUCATION OF THE COLOURED RACE. 291 ment of 1 868) that more teachers were required than the North and West could supply. The i^enerals and superintendents of the Freed- men's Bureau partially supplied this want by creating normal schools for the blacks, and by confiding- to them, as soon as they acquired the rudiments of reading, writing, and arith- metic, the responsibility of communicating their knowledge to others. Admirable pupils, they became excellent professors. They themselves were then able to found schools, no one knows at the price of what sacrifices and what pri- vations. In 1868, they supported at their own cost twelve hundred schools, and owned three hundred and ninety-one school buildings. " One fact alone goes to show the im- portance attached by them to education. In 1863, Louisiana had schools enough, supported by taxation, to furnish instruction to 9o,ooo freed persons. Pressing needs having caused the abolishment of the tax, they were at first disheartened, but they soon regained their courage. They held meetings. Already they were paying, like the whites, a tax levied for public instruction, but which was employed entirely to sustain schools for the whites, and from which the blacks were excluded. Not- withstanding this injustice, they demanded to be authorized to furnish a special contribution 292 ACROSS THE FERRY. for the education of their children, and, at the same time, were willing to pay the general school tax, and maintain their own schools themselves. In a few years the emancipated race had already elevated itself to the level of the civilizing race. " Surely the American people are entitled to admiration and thanks for the generous ardour with which they have lavished their gold and employed their noble and powerful initiative in giving to their new brethren all the advantages which accrue from education." It was in Washington that the first schools for the education of the children of freedmen were established. Not satisfied with primary schools, General Howard planned schools of higher grade, and a university, with faculties of literature, law, medicine, and other depart- ments. The design has been carried out, and Howard University will remain as the noblest monument of its distinguished founder. The university buildings occupy a fine site two or three miles north-east of the capital. The college session had not commenced when I was at Washington, but I had the pleasure of visiting the preparatory and normal schools. The opening exercises at 8 a.m. were con- ducted by General Howard, who takes the most zealous and watchful supervision over the FREEDMEX'S SCHOOLS. 293 whole course of training. The largest class- room was crowded on every bench with happy, healthy young " darkies." I never saw an array of more attentive, intelligent faces, and never heard sweeter and heartier voices than in that school, when the hymns were sung, after reading the Holy Scriptures, and prayer. It was one of the brightest scenes, altogether, that I witnessed in America, and the more so that I knew it was but a sample of what the Freedmen's Bureau has accomplished in hun- dreds of places in the Southern States. As to the intellectual capacity of coloured children, I prefer quoting testimonies of more weight than my own. The Rev. Mr. Zincke says : "I must confess my astonishment at the intellectual acuteness displayed by a class of coloured pupils. They had acquired, in a short space of time, an amount of knowledge truly remarkable ; never in any school in England, and I have visited many, have I found the pupils able to comprehend so readily the sense of their lessons ; never have I heard pupils ask questions which showed a clearer comprehension of the subject they were study- ing." Nor is this intelligence mere "quick- ness at the uptake," as the Scotch call it, or precocious acuteness in acquiring knowledge soon to be forgotten. M. Hippeau visited 294 ACROSS THE FERRY. Oberlin Colle2"e, and what he saw entirely confirmed the opinions formed in the schools of the South. " The coloured girls in the highest classes," he says, *' appeared in no way inferior to their white companions of the same age." In 1868 the degree of B.A. was conferred upon fifteen young coloured men, and ten young coloured women. The prin- cipal of the college, in his address to the students, stated that in literary taste and ability these coloured pupils were unexcelled by any of their white fellow-graduates. The professors all gave the same testimony as to their pupils, and with regard to moral cha- racter, M. Hippeau was assured that the negro race formed a fifth of the whole population of Oberlin, and that " the most peaceable, well- behaved, and studious citizens of the place belonp-ed to the coloured race." Having given these testimonies, I need not express my own opinion, as formed by a visit to the Howard University. Whatever may be the inferiority from natural constitution, or from the effects of centuries of oppression and wrong, there is the same capacity in the co- loured race as in the white for indefinite im- provement by intellectual and moral culture. Above all, the power of Divine truth and grace can bring men of all races to the same HOWARD UNIVERSITY. 295 high standard of Christian excellence, of which many noble examples are found in the United States, both in Church and State. I have devoted a large proportion of space in my chapter on Washington to this subject of the coloured people and the Freedmen's Bureau. Mere descriptions of the city and its sights are found in every guide-book and journal of travels. The condition of the people has a far deeper and enduring in- terest. I found myself at Washington for the first time in a place where the coloured race forms a large proportion of the popu- lation, and had an opportunity of studying their position and prospects. If the work of the Freedmen's Schools and the Howard Uni- versity is well sustained, there is no risk of weakness, but rather the certainty of increased strength and power to the Republic from the accession of the coloured race to equal civil and political rights. 296 ACROSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XX. AMERICAN POLITICS. t ^^ • A yr Y visit to Washing-ton being at the dull ^^^ season, I had no opportunity of seeing notable politicians * or hearing party debates. But I had time to make some observations on the general principles of the United States Government. I spent one morning in looking through the published acts of Congress, the national statute law of the Republic. The whole are com- prised in a series of about twenty volumes octavo. One volume is wholly occupied with Indian affairs, and the historian and ethnolo- gist will find here ample materials for studying * I heard from good sources many proofs of the corruption and venality of public men, strange anecdotes also about wire- pullers and office-seekers, not only at Washington, but in various State legislatures. But I refrain from dwelling on these abuses. They are things not peculiar to American institutions, though certainly too prevalent in the United States, owing to the strifes of party, and the leaving so much to the management of pro- fessed " politicians," a larger class than the electioneering '' agents •' with us. AMERICAN STATUTE LAW. 297 the relations of the Red and White men from the beginning till now. Another volume re- cords all financial transactions, including grants of money or land; and in turning over its pages I found interesting records about Wash- ington, and Lafayette, and Kosciusko, and Kossuth, and other historical notables. But apart from matters of curious interest, the inspection of the Acts of Congress showed me how small a part the central power holds in the actual history and life of the American nation. The basis of social and political life is the "township," or ''commune,'' with local independent government. The legislation for these communities belongs to the State go- vernments, and the State laws represent local customs and usages, on the foundation of Eng- lish Common Law. The good old Anglo- Saxon institutions thus flourish on American soil, and the hosts of immigrants, of all creeds and nationalities, have to conform in civil and municipal life to the good and free institutions of the country, a wonderful transformation to many of them. Excluding all the legislation that has arisen out of slavery, and out of war, and out of tariffs and other interferences with free trade, the Acts of Congress shrink into small dimen- sions. If the good times could come of uni- 298 ACROSS THE FERRY. versal peace and universal freedom, including- freedom of commerce, the central g-overnment of the Republic would have comparatively little work to do. For individual happiness and for social well-being, the separate communities and the State governments could provide, with- out any Congress at Washington, the elections for which bring disturbance throughout the Union, and must often be found a bore instead of an advantage. But that good time is not yet. Besides mat- ters of common interest, such as judicial and postal arrangements, there are questions that require united force, for which the separate States would not have enough power. For in- stance, the Northern free States might have saved themselves vast expenditure of money and of precious lives if they had left the South- ern States to regulate their own institutions. On selfish grounds many might gladly dispense with central or federal government ; but for the welfare of the whole nation, and for the progress of truth and right, the stronger the national government is, the better for America and for all the world. There must be a central power, and a standing army to enforce obe- dience to that power, whether against rebellious States, as in the great war, or against Mormon or Indian lawlessness, and other contingencies. STATES' RIGHTS AND FEDERAL RULE. 299 .^ t. A Southern gentleman told me that the Confederates were all surprised at the patriotic enthusiasm evoked in defence of the national flas" when the war of secession was declared. They thought that the advocacy of States' rights would have neutralised this feeling. But now more than ever Federal union is a first principle, and the national flag has more power than before. And well for the world that it has. With the British Union flag may the "Stars and Stripes" ever be in close alliance ! There may be need for their joint action in China and the East, if nowhere else. The alliance with France is an unnatural one compared with this. The Crimean war, for instance, arose out of squabbles between the Greek Church and the Romish Church about the Holy Places, and never had any higher principle than maintaining the Mohammedan empire of the Turks. We have wasted count- less lives, and incurred vast debt, in vain at- tempts to maintain "the balance of power," or to uphold ungrateful dynasties in Europe. The alliance of America and England can never be for such miserable purposes, but for worthy objects -of freedom and civilization through the world. Therefore, though the predominance of States' rights over central government might be better for the Americans 300 ACROSS THE FERRY alone, for the good of the world we hope for increase of the federal power of the Union. This leads me to say a few words about political parties in the Union. There now are really only two great political parties, the Ins and the Outs. At each quadrennial election there is a universal scramble for office, includ- ing ** loaves and fishes," as well as honours. For it must be remembered that each new government implies the removal of scores of thousands of office-holders, from the highest to the lowest functionaries, at home and abroad.. This is the worst and weakest point in the whole American system as now worked. It makes all people strive for party instead of the Commonwealth. It is not an essential part of the Constitution, dating only from the time of President Jackson. Nominally, the Democrats and Republicans are at present the candi- dates for office. But there is no sharp division between these opponents. Many Democrats hold the same principles as the Republicans on some points, and not a question can be raised that has not advocates amone either side. The Republicans of the West do not like the high tariff and protection ticket of the Republicans of the East. The Democrats of the West, lovers of Union and of freedom, have nothing in common with the Democrats of THE INS AND THE OUTS. 301 New York and the Border States, who sympa- thised with the slaveholders, and carried the disastrous slavery compromises. These com- promises involved the free States in the calam- ities and "judgments" of the war. The Re- publican party saved the country by its high principles, and it is sad now to see it opposed by Democrats, many of whom were with it in defending the Union, merely because they must have their turn of office. If the good men of both the Republican and Democratic parties were allied, they could form a great and strong government, on a broader platform than the old "native American," comprising the best statesmen and administrators of the nation, and be able to resist the evil .influences which weaken the Commonwealth. There would be progress then in all matters of social and poli- tical welfare, whereas now there is sheer waste of power in the party strife of the Ins and Outs. After the great fire in Chicago, the leading politicians met, and said that a party contest would be unseemly, in the presence of common calamity and danger. Why should not this principle be carried out through the nation ? There are perils against which good men should unite ; and it will be a happy time in England, as well as America, when party strife is merged in patriotic coalition. 302 ACROSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XXI. PHILADELPHIA ASSOCIATIONS OF PENN AND FRANKLIN THE STATE HOUSE HOMES OF THE WORKING CLASSES PHILADELPHIA AND GLASGOW COMPARED CHURCHES THE PRESS • — THE PHILADELPHIA LEDGER. A T Philadelphia, as at Boston, I was upon -^^- old classical and historical ground. The memories of William Penn and Benjamin Frank- lin, of the Founders of Pennsylvania and the Fathers of the Republic, haunt the place. The first English settlement here was not, as else- where, achieved by violence and treachery, but by amicable arrangement with the Indian pos- sessors of the soil, and a blessing seems to have descended upon the successors of the early peaceful settlers. Even during the troubles of the Revolution the city escaped the horrors of war. Except the brief occupation by the British troops after the battle of Germantown, the patriots retained possession of Philadelphia, the centre of their influence and the seat of their PHIL A DELPHI A . 303 Councils. It was in the State House that the Declaration of Independence was drawn up and the first Congresses held. The venerable building- remains, one of the consecrated shrines of which Americans and liberal Englishmen are justly proud. I lingered long and mused much in this room, and gazed with delight on the relics which are preserved in it. It is fitted as a sort of historical museum, with portraits, and maps, and other records of the early times of the city and of the Republic. Going through the central hall, we emerge on Independence Square, to the crowd assembled in which the " Declaration " was read, from the steps of the Court House, on the 4th of July, 1776. My first stroll in Philadelphia was in company with the ghost of Benjamin Franklin. I remem- bered his account of his landing in Market Street Wharf, in his working dress, '* unac quainted with a single soul in the place, and not knowing where to seek for a lodging." Walking from the w^harf to Market Street, " I asked," he says, " in a baker's shop for some biscuits, ex- pecting to find such as w^e had at Boston ; but they made none of the sort. I then asked for a threepenny loaf. They made no loaf of that price. He gave me three large rolls. I was surprised at receiving so much. I took them, however, and having no room in my pocket, I '304 ACROSS THE FERRY. walked on with a roll under each arm, eatino- the third. In this manner I went through Mar- ket Street, to Fourth Street, and passed the house of Mr. Read, the father of my future wife. She was standing at the door, observed me, and thought with reason that I made a very singular and grotesque appearance." This is the first peep of Franklin's Deborah, whose portrait may be seen in the State House among people more truly great than kings and queens. The two spare loaves went to a poor woman on the quay, and then, says Franklin, " I joined a number of well-dressed people all going one way, and was thus led to a large Quakers' meeting-house near the market-place. I sat down with the rest, and after looking round me for some time, hearing nothing, and being drowsy from my last night's labour and want of rest, I fell into a sound sleep. In this state I continued till the assembly dis- persed, when one of the congregation had the goodness to awake me. This was consequently the first house I entered, or in which I slept, in Philadelphia." Another kind Quaker recom- mended him to a house of good repute, the *' Crooked Billet" in Water Street, his first landing-place. The voyage had been made in consequence of William Bradford in New York saying his son George, the printer in Philadel- phia, might probably give him employment. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. 305 George had no need then for a journeyman, and recommended him to the only other printer in the place, one Keimer, whose " printing mate- rials consisted of an old damaged press and a small fount of worn-out English letters." Such was Franklin's first start in Phila- delphia, and such the condition of " printing and the press " a hundred and fifty years ago ! Long afterwards Franklin often referred to these days, and when prosperity began to dawn on the town he thus wrote : " When I first paraded- the streets of Philadelphia, eating my roll, the majority of houses in Walnut Street, Second Street, Fourth Street, as well as a great number in Chestnut Street, had papers in them signifying that they were to be let, which made me think at the time that the inhabitants of the town were all deserting it one after an- other.'' How strangely this reads now! and more strange to think that this friendless printer lad rose to be not only the first man in Philadelphia, but is coupled with Washington as one of the chief founders of the Republic, and has left a name honoured through all the world among the great and good. This is not the place to say more of Franklin's life. I suspect his writings, and especially his *' Autobiography,"' are not known as much as 20 3o6 ■ ACROSS THE FERRY. they ought to be among English working men, although his name is so often quoted. One thing only I must mention — above all his lite- ral-}^ and scientific, and political fame — in his old age he was president of two societies esta- blished in Philadelphia, one a "society for alleviating the miseries of public prisons," and the other a " society for promoting the aboli- tion of slavery, the relief of free negroes unlaw- fully held in bondage, and the improvement of the condition of the African race." His last public act was signing a memorial, 12th Feb., 1789, to the House of Representatives of the United States for discouraging the slave trade. I need scarcely say that I beheld with vene- ration all the scenes and localities associated with his name. His grave, a plain, unadorned spot, is visited with reverence by all strangers. 1 went to it with a fellow-passenger in the " Scotia," a native of Philadelphia, Mr. Scull, a name unusual, but not new to me, his ancestor, Nicolas Scull, surveyor-general of Pennsylvania, being one of Franklin's early friends, and an associate in the club called the " Junto." Mr. Scull introduced me to the Librarian of the Philadelphia Library, the descendant of the secretary of William Penn, and custodian of the Logan Library, which occupies part of the same building with a Public Library of which FIRST SIGHT OF PHILADELPHIA. 307 Franklin was founder and president. In this venerable place I spent a pleasant morning, examining- many of the old treasures of histo- rical and literary interest. But I must dwell no longer on the antiquarian associations of the place, but proceed to describe my own first im- pressions of the modern city. It [was in the gloaming of a fine autumn evening I entered Philadelphia from Baltimore. On nearing the city there were signs of busy life in the ironworks and huge factory-like buildings, among which I remember was a wall-paper factory, said to be the largest in the Union. But the sight that impressed itself most that evening was the succession of rows of clean, 'neat, comfortable houses in the out- skirts of the city. Jt was a striking contrast with the dingy, squalid tenements that fringe most of our English great towns. Entering London from almost any quarter, the comfort- less, cheerless aspect of the ** homes of the working classes '.' leaves a feeling of sadness on the mind. Remembering the scenes of poverty that meet the eye as the train approaches the terminus of the Great Eastern, South-East- ern, or other of our metropolitan railways, I was struck with the bright and cheery look of the approach to Philadelphia. This first im- pression remained with me, and was confirmed 3o8 ACROSS THE FERRY. by after-inspection of the homes of the working- classes in this great American city. It is the one feature above all others which impressed me with satisfaction in Philadelphia. In tra- versino- the citv from end to end in the various street cars, and strolling in every direction, I always observed this as the marked character- istic of the place, that the operative class is better housed and lodged than in our cities. I found that this was the result of well-planned and well-carried-out " building associations." I was told by the master of one great establish- ment, employing about three hundred workmen, that a large majority of them belonged to a building club. In due time they would all, or nearly all, become proprietors of well-built and well-fitted four or six roomed freehold houses, with every convenience and comfort. IMuch has been said about the "distressing neatness and S3'mmetry" of the city. The streets are laid out in parallelogram blocks, forming rectangles like the squares of a chess- board. They are numbered from the Delaware River on the east, toward the Schuylkill River on the' west, beginning with Front Street, Second Street, Third Street, and so on, up to Twenty-third Street. The parallel streets run- ning from west to east are chiefly named after trees, Chestnut Street, Walnut Street, Spruce HOMES OF THE WORKING CLASSES. 309 Street, Cherry Street, and so on. Special names occasionally intervene, such as Market Street, Library Street, Washington Street, and in the newer parts of the city the street nomen- clature is more irregular. From the centre of the town, Market Street, the numeral streets are divided, as into North Tenth and South Tenth streets. The numbering of the houses is also irregular, odd and even on opposite sides, a hundred in each block or square, so that the first number, in Walnut Street, beyond Thirteenth Street, is 1301 ; the fifth beyond Ninth Street is 905. All this may be very "distressing" to artists and non-commercial travellers ; but the inhabitants are the best judges, and the regularity is very convenient and useful, not only for sanitar}^ supervision, but for postal, police, and other civic and mu- nicipal arrangements. As a general rule, it is with towns as with individual houses or cottages, the most picturesque to an artist's eye are often the least healthy and serviceable for residence. The flat, level site of Philadelphia has been used to the best advantage for the health and comfort of the vast population. Nor are the long rows of brick houses so monotonous-look- ing as might be anticipated, all the windows in the good streets having cheerful green outside shutters, and the doorways being white, often 310 ACROSS THE FERRY. of beautiful marble. Many of the streets are also thickly lined with well-trained trees, and frequent squares and open places break the uni- formity of brickwork. In the chief streets, especially Chestnut Street, one of the finest streets in America, the crowded pavements and magnificent shops leave little leisure for notic- ing- the prosaic regularity of the place. The only fault is the narrowness of the roadways, admitting only a single line of tramway, the cars running up one street and returning down another. The beauty of the heights on the western and northern skirts of the town makes up for the unpicturesqueness of the older dis- tricts ; compensating also (in the health returns), by their salubrious sites, for the dense and un- w^holesome crowding in the Northern Liberties and other parts inhabited by the Irish and by the poorer classes, native and foreign. The Irish Roman Catholics seem to swell in undue proportion the poverty of whatever place they inhabit. I made inquiries about pauperism, and about the agencies, both public and volun- tary, for its relief. Intemperance and indiscri- minate charity are here as elsewhere the chief feeders of pauperism and mendicancy. Even wdth these drawbacks, the condition of the poor in Philadelphia is satisfactory compared with • our own great cities. The whole is well under PHILADELPHIA &- GLASGOW CONTRASTED. 311 the control of the authorities and of the bene- volent societies. Except in two or three local- ities, I saw nothing- approaching to the hopeless, squalid poverty of our great towns — of Glas- gow, for instance, the city most fairly to be compared with Philadelphia, as Edinburgh is with Boston. . It would be useful to institute a comparison in detail, from the Census reports, of the rela- tive condition of these great cities of the Old and the New World, The comparison ought to include sanitary and social as well as educa- tional and religious statistics. My inquiries w^ere too brief to venture on details, but the measureless superiority of Philadelphia over Glasgow in regard to the general well-being of the masses is evident to any observant stranger who knows both places. The death-rate of Glasgow in 1869 was 34, that of Philadelphia 19. Of the 82,000 families composing the pcpulation of Glasgow, above 60,000 occupy dwellings of one or two apartments only ! At the census of 1861, 28,000 families lived in single-roomed houses, and 32,000 in houses of two rooms. In Philadelphia there is scarcely such a thing known as a workman's family herding in this miserable way. It is idle to say that there is vast difference in the conditions of cities in America, where 312 ACROSS THE FERRY. all is comparatively new, and where there is plenty of room for the population. Neither Boston nor Philadelphia are new cities, and in the latter especially there is not much room to spare for building- improvements. If the existing rights of ground-landlordism, or any other legal arrangements, hinder necessary amelioration of the working classes with us, it might be well to alter these things before the whole social structure is overthrown by the up- heaval of Communism. But no violent changes are required. It has been demonstrated, even in crowded London, that decent and healthy homes for the working classes will pay at least five per cent, to builders, and far larger efforts ought to be made in this direction. Instead of leaving the matter to the speculation of in- dividuals or companies, various public boards could effect much, not only to the benefit of the industrious poor, but to the advantage of all classes, as the poor-rates, police-rates, and other imposts could be lessened, and a vast amount saved to the whole community by improving " the domiciliary condition of the masses." Commissioners have been sent to foreign countries to report on far less important subjects, and it would be a wise and truly economical thing if some of our public bodies in London or Glasgow or elsewhere would send SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. 313 intelligent and practical men to report on the condition of Philadelphia. I repeat here my first impression, that in no city of the world have the great masses of the people, and espe- cially the operative classes, attained a higher average of well-being, in sanitary and social as well as in educational and religious life. Of possible disasters from Communism and other upheavals from below, such as have con- vulsed Paris and may threaten London, there is no fear in Philadelphia, a larger city than any in Europe, except London and Paris. The lower strata are sound there, the dregs at bottom and the froth at top forming but a small proportion of the vast mass of social life. These two facts of the great death-rate and the overcrowded dwellings suggest all other contrasts, both of a physical and moral kind. Lord Shaftesbury, speaking of London, — and the remarks apply to Glasgow and all large towns, — said : "I maintain that the grave and leading mischief is the domiciliary condition of the large masses of the people. I have seen as many as twenty persons living in a single room ; and is it possible, I ask, when such cases not only exist, but abound, to institute purity of life, of thought, of action, or observe any of the demands of domestic duty ? This 314 ACROSS THE FERRY. is the besetting- evil that surrounds us all ; this is the great and overwhelming mischief that is bring-ing corruption upon the population, which is one great cause of that which is the main curse of our country, habits of drinking and inebriety. The filthy physical state, the de- pression of the nervous system, the misery brought on by that mode of life, drive people to find artificial stimulants in the beerhouses and the ginshops." There is no doubt that much of the prevailing intemperance is due to these physical causes, and it is too true that the habit, with all its deteriorating conse- quences, becomes hereditar}^ in the children of drunkards. It is also unquestionable that to intemperance is due a vast proportion of the crime and the pauperism of overcrowded cities. Education and religion fail to effect their due amount of good influence, in the presence of causes tending physically and so- cially to degrade the masses. But really, after all, the condition of the working classes depends less on what is done for them than upon what they do for them- selves. By the common schools, by the Sunday schools, by the numerous churches, all volun- tary, and to a large extent supported by the working people, by the cheap press, and free libraries, the American workmen of Philadelphia CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS. 315 have raised themselves as a body to a higher standard than in any great city I have ever visited. Whether this well-being is progressive, or whether it will last, I have no idea, speaking only from what I witnessed. To the old agri- cultural wealth of Pennsylvania, the finest farming and breeding ground in the Union, great mineral resources — coal, iron, and oil — have now been added. The trial of people by sudden increase of wealth is always severe, and there may be a risk of Philadelphia losing its staid, sober, solid character, as compared with New York, for example. With wealth and luxury come many evils, which descend from the rich to other classes of society. If there is danger in this respect, I see equal watchfulness and activity for maintaining and extending what is good. There is no city more abundant in churches and schools, and in all useful and beneficent institutions. There are about 450 churches, though some of these can only be small stations. The Presbyterians, in- cluding Old and New Schools, Reformed and United, number no churches, the Episco- palians 80, the Methodist Episcopalians 70, and the Baptists 40. The Roman Catholics return 40 churches and chapels, the Lutherans 30, besides 15 German churches, 6 Dutch 3i6 ACROSS THE FERRY Reformed, and 4 IMoravian. The Friends, Hicksites, and Orthodox, between them have 15 meeting houses, and the Jews 7 synagogues. The orthodox Cong regationalists are not strong as in New England, having only 4 churches. The remaining churches belong toUniversalists, New Jerusalemites, Unitarians, and other sects, all of whom form an insignificant proportion of the Philadelphia worshippers. In like force appear the other great trainers of national character — the Schools and the Press. The Common Schools are all that could be expected in a State like Pennsylvania ; and as to newspapers and journals, the number in the State is above six hundred, Philadelphia alone producing about two hundred periodicals of all kinds, class magazines and religious magazines, as well as newspapers. The book trade also of Philadelphia is flourishing — at least if I may judge by what I saw and heard at the store of Lippincott and Sons, one of the largest book firms in the Union. Messrs. Claxton, Remsen, and Haffilfinger, in Market Street, are also extensive publishers and book- dealers. Philadelphia is the head-quarters of the Presbyterian Board, of Publication. The Sun- day School Union has its own large sphere of usefulness in publishing books for the young, THE PRESS. 317 as well as occasional works of a higher class, in the preparation of which the committee have the advantage of the aid of Dr. Allibone, (author of the "Dictionary of Authors," and other standard books,) one of the best respected literary men of America. Of the United States Mint, of the Girard College, the Fairmount Waterworks, and other stock sights of Philadelphia, I have nothing special to say, and must refer for description of these, and of other public institutions, to the gazetteers and guide-books. The Park, three thousand acres of most varied surface, already promises to be the finest demesne of the kind in the world. Some of the buildings and esta- blishments, both public and private, are on a scale of vastness which has given rise to a gentle Pennsylvanian joke, which speaks of " seeing the elephants," instead of " the lions," as elsewhere. One mammoth establishment I select for notice, not only for its ow^n attractions, but because it is full of interest, as illustrating the history of American journalism, and as showing the career open to industrial enterprise, even in these days of keen competition. Among the most conspicuous and imposing edifices in Philadelphia is the "Public Ledger Building," at the corner of Chestnut and 3i8 ACROSS THE FERRY. Sixth Streets. I found it a common thing in the great towns for a successful newspaper to have a block of buildings bearing its name, part of the premises being occupied for its own use, and the remainder let off in offices and stores. The publicity of the site in such cases is sure to command high rents for such annexes to the main establishment. Several of these buildings in New York and Chicago I had in- spected, but none of them approached in vast- ness and completeness that of the Philadel- phia Ledger. I have no space to enter into details, but retain a lively impression of what is one of the largest and among the most perfect printing and publishing offices in the world. The machinery, the presses, the offices, the fittings, are all of the most perfect kind that modern skill has contrived. But beyond the mechanical wonders of the place, I was struck with the provision made for the health and the comfort of the workers. As an editor, I looked with admiration and envy at the commodious and well-furnished rooms in the editorial depart- ments ; and, as to the composing room, no compositors in England work in such comfort- able and wholesome quarters. Not only is there plenty of space and air, but in the very colouring of the walls to relieve the sight, and in the providing of bath-rooms and other com- THE PUBLIC LEDGER. 319 forts, every care is taken of the health of the workmen. I am not surprised that the opening of such an estabHshment was celebrated by a public banquet at the Continental Hotel, when the Mayors of Philadelphia and New York, and many of the most distinguished public men in Church and State from all parts of the Union, assembled to do honour to the proprietor of the Ledger, about whom and his paper a few brief notes will be read with interest. The Public Ledger has long been known in this countr}^ as one of the most remarkable papers in America, remarkable in its origin and in its history. It was started in 1836 by three working printers — Swain, Abell, and Simmons, who clubbed together their savings, and worked with their ow^n hands. It was not the first, but it was one of the earliest experiments towards a cheap press. The "opening address to the public" had in it the ring of success. Ap- pealing to "the intelligence and love of im- provement which pervade the population of Philadelphia," stating its claims on the mer- cantile and manufacturing community, and affirming its freedom from partisan principles, the Ledger proclaimed that " the common good is its object; and in seeking this object it will have especial regard to the moral and intel- lectual improvement of the labouring classes 320 AO^OSS THE FERRY. — the great sinew of all civilised communities." A clever New England barrister, Mr. Russell Jarvis, was engaged as editor, whose tact in taking advantage of current topics, and able leading articles, secured public attention. By the end of the first year the success of the paper was secured. The size was increased from a sheet 15^ by 21^, with four columns in the page, to 18 by 24, with ^v^ columns. The hand-press with w^hich the work began was succeeded by a double-cylinder "pony" press. Several other cheap journals were now started, and the higher priced press was affected by a movement at first ridiculed and despised. The Ledger continued, however, to keep the lead. In the following years some exciting events, such as the "Abolition Riots of 1838," and the " Native American " movement, cul- minating in 1844, brought the Ledger into increased prominence. On both of these ques- tions the sympathies of the paper seemed rather on the side of the turbulent agitators, but, when actual riots occurred, its strong support of the supremacy of law and authority against mob rule gained the approval of all friends of order. Its influence at that time was so great that the despised "penny press" took a new position in public estimation. From this date the prosperity of the Ledger was progressive. THE CHEAP PRESS. 321 In 1847 3. four-cylinder rotary press was intro- duced, one of the first applications of Colonel Hoe's wonderful invention. The size of the paper had been gradually enlarged to four seven-columned pages, 22\ by 34 inches. So it went on till 1864, when the high price of paper and of labour during the war brought financial trouble. Unable to agree as to in- creasing the price of the paper or the rates of advertising, the two surviving partners, Messrs. Swain and Abell, sold the property to Mr. George W. Childs, already well known as an enterprising book publisher. Mr. Childs proved himself equal to the crisis. The price of the paper was advanced to twelve cents weekly, and reduced after a short time to ten cents, the present price. The advertising rates were also advanced, and though there was at first a falling- off of subscribers, the defection was soon repaired, new elements of strength and popularity introduced, and the prosperity ot the paper again secured. It has now reached a circulation of 75,000, and is acknowledged to be one of the ablest and best conducted, as well as the most prosperous paper in Phila- delphia. Its highest merit is having mainly helped to establish the cheap press among the great powers of public opinion throughout the Union. 21 322 ACROSS 7 BE FERRY. As the Ledger is one of the most remark- able papers, its chief proprietor, George W. Childs, is among- the most remarkable men in America. A native of Baltimore, he went to Philadelphia early in his teens, without a Iriend in the place, and with a few cents in his pocket. Beginning life as a boy in a book- seller's shop, by industry and frugality he gradually raised himself, till, before he had reached forty years of age, he was one of the largest publishers, and proprietor of one of the richest newspapers, in the world. For the goodwill, machinery, and whole "plant" of the Ledger he paid down a large sum in cash, and the property has fructified in his hands. The character of the paper has also improved, of which one proof may be given in the exclusion of all doubtful advertisements, however lucrative, and the insertion of which defaces too many of the leading American journals. There would be little satisfaction in recording the success of Mr. Childs if he were merely one of the many examples of successful millionaires. Fortunes are rapidly made in the States, but not often accumulated by plodding industry and self-denying thrift. Nor is it usual, though happily not uncommon, for such wealth to be used for unselfish and generous objects. One of his benefactions is G. W. CHILDS. 323 the singular but sensible and practically useful g-ift of a burial-ground, in Woodland Cemetery, for the printers of Philadelphia. Mr. Childs has gained for himself a good repute, and the respect of his countrymen, by his public spirit and beneficence, 324 ACROSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XXII. ON LANDSCAPE GARDENING HORTICULTURE FLOWERS AND FRUIT THE EVERGREEN TRADE. 9 THE public parks in New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and other great cities, while they are admirable specimens of landscape gar- dening, are still more interesting as showing ad- vance in aesthetic culture and in provision for the health and enjoyment of the people. The civic rulers and authorities are displaying public spirit and good sense in this direction. When I was in Philadelphia, the Board of Direction of the Public Park heard that Mr. Robinson, author of the work on French Gardens, and a high authority on landscape-gardening, was in the States, and they made a very handsome offer of securing his professional aid for im- proving their fine demesne. In Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and the Central Park, New York, no expense is spared to improve the ground. In the latter park, Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins w^s USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL GARDENLNG. 325 employed in setting up some of his wonderful restorations of ancient animals, on the plan so skilfully exhibited in our Crystal Palace at Sydenham. The example of these public places will exert good influence throughout the Union, and will help to diffuse a love for landscape gardening, and the improvement of popular taste in horticulture, in its ornamental as well as useful departments. There is ample room for such improvement. I did not think much of the gardening in those parts of the States which I visited. In many country houses and villas there are, no doubt, fine gardens and conservatories, while a few florists' and fruiterers' shops in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other great towns, showed that the luxuries of vegetable life are supplied for the wealthy. The market gar- deners of New Jersey and Western New York must also be well up to their trade. But I speak of the culture of flowers among the people. Ornamental horticulture is an art that does not flourish in the early life of a nation. In some suburban regions, such as the upper part of Brooklyn, Philadelphia near the park, and at Mount Auburn, Cincinnati, I saw rows of villas with elegant ornamental flower-plots. The sight struck me from its rarity. In the small towns I noticed few signs of floriculture. 326 ACROSS THE FERRY. or even of window-gardening, and in villages seldom a house with the cheerful adornments of our English cottages. The cemeteries were, in this respect, better kept and more ornamental than other public places; certainly better than the parks and pleasure-grounds. The grounds even of the Capitol, and of the White House at Washington, have an uncultivated look. I was astonished at the desolation in the grounds of Harvard College, all overrun with weeds and thistles. An old historical place like this might show some aesthetic emulation of the well-kept grounds of the English colleges. At Washington I found a small but well- stocked botanical garden, the superintendent, Mr. Smith, trained at Edinburgh and at Kew. At Boston I went to a flower and fruit show. To the Boston Horticultural Society is due the ornamental laying out of the Mount Auburn Cemetery, of which the Bostonians are justly proud. At the show prizes were gained by some excellent pears, melons of various sorts, cherry tomatoes, hybrid corn, and egg plants. The latter is a favourite fruit ; but a Scotch gardener, who kindly pointed out the notable things in the Boston exhibition, said to me, *' When you have sliced the egg plant, and fried it, and buttered it, what's it good for? Only to throw out of the window." American THE EVERGREEN TRADE. 327 apples are too well known to be here described. The peaches are very inferior, at least in the Eastern States. As to grapes, the best of them, and the varieties are now numerous, are tough as raisins, and have a strong foxy taste. I do not believe they can ever attain to any worth, except by hothouse cultivation. I was disappointed also with the Catawba wines of Ohio, of which so much has been written. In all departments of flower and fruit culture there is room for improvement, and good gardeners will yet be a class of emigrants appreciated as America advances in the luxuries of civilised life. There is one branch of cultivation w^hich has grown to large dimensions in the Eastern States, *' the evergreen trade." The Christmas before my visit I was told that upwards of 1 20,000 Christmas trees had been sold in the New York markets, and " more than 200,000 yards of evergreen wreathing." The German popula- tion for their homes, and the recently intro duced fashion of decorating the churches, have created the demand for this trade. Every Ger- man home has its Christmas tree, and the Americans are adopting this cheerful usage. But the expansion of the evergreen trade for ecclesiastical uses is more remarkable. Several churches expend 500 dollars, or above ^100, 328 ACROSS THE FERRY. for Christmas decoration. Nor is this confined now to Episcopal churches, the puritanism of other denominations relenting at this festive season. For a few days before Christmas the Hudson mountain forests seem (Birnam-wood fashion) to have migrated to Washington market and its neighbourhood in New York. Alleys of cypress and cedar divide spaces filled with vines, and holly, and fir-trees, and fes- tooned with evergreen wreathing or '* rope." This rope, made in the mountain district by girls, is sold for about five cents a yard. Stars, crosses, and other devices, are formed of the same material, and the result on the whole is a busv and profitable industry. RIDING AND DRIVING. 329 CHAPTER XXIII. SPORTS AND PASTIMES RIDING AND DRIVING TROTTING MATCHES FIELD SPORTS BASE BALL, THE NATIONAL GAME. RETURNING to the parks, one might ex- pect to see there, if anywhere, American equestrianism. But riding does not seem a national enjoyment. On any June morning in Hyde Park there may be seen a finer display of well-mounted equestrians, especially of the fair sex, than can be witnessed in all the American parks through the whole season. The New England people do not seem to take kindly to the saddle. The northern papers admitted during, the late war that this fact gave to the Southern cavalr}^ so de- cided a superiority, and will ahvays leave the army deficient in this branch of the service. The establishment of racing parks may give an impulse to equestrianism in some aspects, but these not of a kind promotive of the best features of national character. There are now 330 ACROSS THE FERRY. four racing grounds within reach of New York — Jerome, Prospect, and Monmouth* Parks, and the track at Saratoga, Great crowds resort to these meetings, but few native Americans have any special love for the races apart from their beine the occasion of an- outinsr and holidav. So much the better for the national taste and for public morality. It would be a baleful influence for them, if this branch of sport extended as it has in the old countr}^ If they do not excel in riding, the Americans are "thunder at driving." The popular taste in this art has run into wild extravagance. Four-in-hands, and even six-in-hands, with showy harness and gay liveries, are the pride of the vulgar rich. In the parks and on the roads it is amusing to behold the variety of equipages, and pleasant also to see the number of plebeian, square-framed "buggies" mingling in the course. But the greatest specialty of American driving is the fast trotting horse, with its spider-like iron bicycle. Portraits of famous trotters and pictures of trotting matches * In the programme of ihc Monmouth Races I noticed a curious proclamation of Lynch law : ^^ Resolved, that any thief or pickpocket caught on the grounds shall be brought before the Board handcuffed, then taken before the Grand Stand and pub- licly horsewhipped, and a placard placed upon his back, and paraded around the track. Resolved, that any persons misbe- having themselves on the racecourse during the meeting shall be immediately expelled." FIELD SPORTS. 331 are common in the smoking rooms and drinking saloons, such as the celebrated match between *' Hero " and " Flora Temple," when three two- mile heats were run, each heat within live minutes ! Wonderful trotting horses may be seen in the morning on the roads, or in the Central Park of New York. A few well- appointed English drags, and other imported carriages of various build, may be seen ; but the great mass of the vehicles are the old- fashioned native buggy, and carts wdt'h light wooden and leather framework for shade and shelter. Even in the rural districts the American farmer rarely walks or rides, but " hitches up " his buggy for any little distance. The American field sports do not much differ from our own, so far as "the rod and the gun " are concerned. Of the Game Laws in the State of New York I have already spoken {ante, p. 272), and these afford a glimpse into the public opinion on the subject in the older parts of the Union. In the Far West there is ample scope for sport of a more adventurous kind, and many Englishmen every year go to share in these adventures. The fashionable battues and matches of English amateur sports- men are, as might be expected, held in great contempt by Americans. A leading article in one of their papers on the pigeon matches of 332 ACROSS THE FERRY. some of the English aristocratic gun clubs thus concluded: "The primitive and true idea of the chase is a direct conflict between man and certain savage elements in the world which must be overcome and disappear before civiliza- tion. Bear, deer, or buffalo shooting seem not unmanly work, nor unsuited to a certain degree of culture and enlightenment. There is at least fatigue to be endured and danger to be incurred. The idea, however, of unlimited mem- bers of parliament, hatted and gloved ^ la mode, driving out to the enclosure at Hurlingham to butcher some dozen caged frightened pigeons, while their lady friends look on exultant, is to us indescribably absurd. But w^hen we consider that out of this occupation this remarkable peo- ple hopefully assert their expectation of deriving strength for their legislative duties and religious enlightenment, our wonder can find no w^ords. We can only look on in silence and perplexity." On one of my first mornings in New York, I saw, among the bustling crowd in the Metro- politan Hotel Hall, a group of athletic young fellows in light flannel dress. At first I thought they were cricketers, but the bats and balls were not those of our i^ame. I was told it was a " Base Ball Club." These clubs I afterwards found wherever I went. Base Ball being recog- nised as "the national game" of America. BASE BALL. 333 Throughout August and September matches were going on, and the newspapers had a column, and often several columns, headed " The National Game," and filled with reports of the play. City against city, county against county, amateurs against professionals, all sorts of matches were going on, like cricket matches among ourselves in the season. At Chicago, at the time of my visit, there was great excite- ment on account of the victory of the "White Stockings " of that city over the *' Red Stockings" of Cincinnati. The " conquering heroes" were met at the railway depot by an enormous procession, with music and banners, and paraded in carriages through the town. The "White Stockings" also beat another crack club, the "Eagles" of Louisville, and for the time were the champion players, though they had yet to meet the " Atlantics," "Athletics," and one or two other famous clubs. After hearing and reading so much about the National Game, I was surprised to find it only a development of our own homely game of " rounders." There are nine on each side — centre field, left field, right field, first base, second base, third base, catcher, short stop, and pitcher. There is room for considerable skill in pitching, batting, catching, and fielding ; but 34 ACROSS THE FERRY. (jn the whole the game appeared to me be a hobbledehoy affair compared with cricket. It is immensely popular, however, among all classes and ages, from lads at school up to "old boys" of business. I saw the report of one match between two corporations in the West, including several "aldermen " ! Like too many sports, the game has got into the hands of betting and gambling fraternities, and the most celebrated clubs are now the property of " stockholders," whose speculations and ar- ran^-ements are made for gain more than for honour. The grand jury of Baltimore actually reported Base Ball as '' one of the gradations of crime," alluding to the temptations to gambling which it has introduced. This is the abuse of the thing, however ; the love of the game is credit- able to " Young America," and affords a healthy athletic out-of-door sport. Except at Baltimore and Philadelphia, I heard nothing about cricket. There is said to be a good club at Germantown, but I suspect the game is comparatively un- •known in the States. Of indoor amusements and pastimes I saw little, and therefore can say little. Public amusements, whether dramatic or musical, seem much the same as our own, with balls, concerts, and masquerades, as in Europe. The masque- rades are only recognised by professed lovers of FASHIONABLE LIFE. 335 such scenes, and are mainly got up by theatri- cal managers and hotel proprietors. In the list of costumes in the great masquerade of last season, at Saratoga, I noticed, among various public characters from New York and other cities, the names of at least seven of a well- known hotel-keeping family, at one of whose houses the affair came off. The amusements of "fashionable life" are very much alike in all countries, and are not worth mentioning among special features of national character or usage. The world of fashion — the world which dresses, dances, sings, plays, bets, and lives only to amuse itself — is not greatly different in New York and Paris, Newport and Scarborough, Philadelphia and Milan, Saratoga and Baden. These people count little in the estimate of what makes a nation, and in America the proportion of idle pleasure-seekers is less than in any other country I have visited. At the same time it is to be feared that this annual resort to great watering-places will come to affect perceptibly the national life and man- ners. It is a new social feature, and on a scale of vastness unknown in the old country. Before the end of the season last summer, I saw an estimate in the papers that there had been above 100,000 visitors at Saratoga, 150,000 336 ACROSS THE FERRY. at Cape May, 150,000 at Atlantic City, 100,000 at Newport, and 200,000 at Long Branch. Now these visitors come from all parts of the country. They meet people from New York, who are far more likely to influence them for evil than to be influenced by them for good. It is not as in our great English watering- places, where the home life and home customs of the visitors, whether grave or gay, for health or recreation, can be maintained at choice. The monster-hotel system of America compels all classes to intermingle. The whole life of these places is public, and not of the best sort of publicity. Of course there are quiet boarding-houses and homes, even in the most crowded summer resorts ; but the general tone of life is a tone of relaxation — not relaxation in the eood sense of relaxation from hard work, but relaxation of good habits and homely ways, and relaxation of good morals too often. I'he rich American paterfamilias takes his wife and daughters into scenes from which an English gentleman with his family would shrink. *' Life at Saratoga" will not improve the national character any more than "Life in Paris," which many Americans regard as the acme of felicity. In fact, the word has become pro- verbial that such Americans expect to go when they die to the Champs Elysees ! There is SARATOGA AND NEWPORT. 337 too much of the Parisian influence apparent at Saratoga, not improved by filtering through New York. At the marine watering-places there is less of stagey-looking life, but there is also there too much publicity for those who wish to see the best features of the national character retained. Last season at Newport it was the fashion rather to affect " cottage'' life instead of the hotels, though not with less gaiety of public amusements. I remained at Boston, finding more to see there than I could overtake, when some friendjs preferred to have a look at Newport. They came back open- mouthed about the gaiety of the place, and es- pecially at the beauty of the women. It was sad to read a few weeks after of the death of the acknowledged belle of the Ocean House. She died of a low but rapid fever — a scourge which will make itself terribly felt in these watering-places, with their huge caravanserais and crowded population. The difficulty is already felt with us in England, some of our watering-places being nests of fever during summer, and yet drainage sparingly used for fear of polluting the sea for bathing. The practical conclusion of all which is, that it would be better both for health and morals to diminish the rush to huge watering-places, and occupy more numerous summer stations, 22 338 ACROSS THE FERRY. whether inland or on the coast. As with hos- pitals for the sick, so with resorts for health, the detached system has many advantages over the crowding into great hospitals or hotels. RURAL AMUSEMENTS. 339 CHAPTER XXIV. SPORTS AND AMUSEMENTS {continued) IN THE COUNTRY ON THE SEA YACHTING. THE Americans have various rural sports and amusements handed down from generation to generation among the rustic folk. The reader will be pleased with the following extract from a genial book on "American Society," by Mr. G. M. Towle, of Boston, formerly U.S. Consul at Nantes, and at Bradford. "In the autumn, at harvest time, there are numerous merr}^ gatherings, in which useful tasks are joined with hearty amusement. When the Indian corn is gathered, it is the custom to have, at many of the farmhouses, what is called a ' husking.' The object is, to get the corn husked : the neighbours are invited to assemble on a certain afternoon at the barn of the farmer whose corn is to be husked. Here are great piles of the just-gathered ears. The guests sit about on the barn floor and the haymows, and proceed to strip the husks and silk from 340 ACROSS THE FERRY. the corn and deposit it clean and bare at one side. Meanwhile there Is plenty of talking and laughing ; the farmer's home-brewed cider and ale are passed frequently about, and dough- nuts, pies, and cakes of all sorts are plentifully provided. After a while the husking Is sus- pended, the barn floor cleared of the rubbish ; one of the boys mounts the haymow and strikes up a lively tune on his fiddle, and the barn fairlv shakes with the rolllckino- dance or the lusty game w^hlch ensues. Whatever young man finds In his pile a red ear of corn, is entitled to kiss any girl he chooses ; If a lass finds one, she must submit to be kissed, and must choose the lad whom she prefers to per- form the operation. Another autumn custom is called an ' apple bee.' Several barrels of apples are collected In the farmhouse, the neighbours are Invited In, and all set to work paring them. After the outer skin is taken off, the apples are divided Into small sections, the core taken out, and the pieces are hung on a string. These are afterwards put In the sun to dry, and are then laid away, with which to make ' apple sauce ' or dried apple pies In the ensuing winter. " The people reciprocate with each other in doing these tasks. When a farm dame needs an additional quilt for one of her beds, she THE MAPLE SUGAR HARVEST. 341 calls in her neighbours, and they set to work making one, patching it together with odd pieces of cloth ; this is a party at first confined to the women ; tea-drinking and gossip com- prise the pleasures which relieve the task ; in the evening the ' men-folks ' drop in. " A famous time in some of the Northern States is that when the maple-trees are tapped, and the delicious maple sugar made. The sugar maple- trees are very^ profitable, and often add materially to the income of the farmer. Early in the spring these are tapped ; the sweet juice is collected in tubs ; great fires are built ; huge iron kettles are hung over them ; the maple sap poured in, and boiled down to a thick syrup. It is of a rich brown colour, and nothing can be nicer, especially if eaten on hot cakes or waffles. In the evening, when the syrup has grown quite thick and ready for the * sugaring off,' the lasses and lads gather at the ' camps,' in the wood, to partake of it. A favourite method is to dip snowballs into the yet warm syrup, and, thus coated, to eat them ; these are very delicious. The froth, or ' wat,' of the syrup is also very palatable. The fes- tivities end with dances, games, and ditties. ** In the Fall, almost every town has its Agri- cultural Fair, which is, to the rustic population, one of the great events of the year. It is held 342 ACROSS THE FERRY. not seldom in the spacious airy town -hall ; the farmers for miles round have been preparing for it the summer long ; the farmer who takes a prize for the heaviest pig or the biggest pears is like the politician who has won an election, like an author whose book is a ' success,' like a lawyer who has gained a famous case, like a parson made a bishop. These Agricultural Fairs are truly interesting and curious shows. Within the hall long tables have been set against the walls and in the middle of the floor; the walls have been decorated by the young women with all varieties of evergreen festoons, fantastic flower designs, pictures, and deftly-fashioned embroidery or worsted work. The tables display every kind of fruit and vege- table, all of the largest, ripest, and most lus- cious, with little cards on the plates, informing the uninitiated of the particular species, and the name of its contributor. Pyramids of pears, peaches, and apples are followed by monster pumpkins and cabbages, mammoth beets, melons, and turnips, great tempting clusters of grapes, wonderful potatoes, beans, and tomatoes. Farther on you will see speci- mens of the women's handiwork — wax flowers, pictures made of hair, embroidery, crochet work, odd examples of aptitude with the needle, pen, or penknife. On other tables appear AGRICULTURAL FAIRS. 343 specimens of domestic cookery — specimen loaves of bread and cake, preserves, pickles, hams, and pies. Outside the building are rows of pens where are kept the oxen, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens, goats — the dumb competitors for the prizes ; placards announcing the various kinds are tacked to the pens, and groups of farmers are gathered about them, discussing the merits of this hog or that big-headed bull. " On the open spaces round about are all sorts of small shows and pedlars' waggons drawn up in eligible places. Tents, covered with large gaudy pictures of giantesses and bearded women, wonderful dwarfs and living skeletons, are thickly set on the sward ; and the showmen at the tent openings are talking themselves hoarse, jingling their money boxes the while, and describing with oratorical flourishes the wonders to be seen for a trifle within. The pedlars are driving brisk bargains with their astonishingly cheap penknives, their patent knife-sharpeners and axe-grinders, their little bottled balms for every- human ill, their mar- vellous writing apparatus, making half-a-dozen simultaneous copies, their soaps, confectionery, and imposing silver ware. A perambulating photographer has drawn up his portable saloon in a convenient corner, and offers to produce 344 ACROSS THE FERRY. perfect likenesses of loving couples and rough old farmers for small prices. The country people are there in multitudes, dressed primly, and deeply interested in all that is going on ; the city people, too, have driven out, and mingle in the concourse which is grouped about the tables and on the green. The fair usually lasts two days ; the second day is the best attended. In one of the upper rooms a boun- tiful collation is spread ; on the platform at the farther end is a table, at which sit the dig- nitaries — the president of the agricultural society, the orator of the day, and any notable visitors who are present. Just below them is a table for the reporters, who have come out from the city to take notes for the ' evening edition.' A fee of fifty cents or a dollar is demanded of those who wish to partake of the collation ; it consists of cold meats, vegetables, pies, and fruits. The repast over, the orator of the day is introduced, and, rising behind the platform table, he proceeds to deliver an address on some agricultural subject. Other speeches are made ; the prizes are announced by a committee appointed for the purpose ; and then the productions on exhibition are taken away by their various owners. Some- times, in the evening, a dance at the town hotel concludes the affair. Every one competes SLEIGHING. 345 for the prizes who so chooses, these being- offered by the agricultural societies. " The countr}' people practise many robust out-door games. There are shooting matches and quoit matches, base-ball contests and foot races. Nearly every boy has his gun, and early becomes an adept in shooting at targets and hunting in the free forests. Every boy, too, learns to swim and to row ; for every^W'here in rural America, there are, near by the farms, lakes and rivers where aquatic sports may be enjoyed without fear of molestation. Of course the countr^^ boy sits on his horse, without a saddle, as easily as if he had grown there ; and when he is very young, is sent to mill wdth a load of corn, or w'heat, sometimes several miles distant from home, returning with the flour after it has been ground. '* In the wdnter time, the farmers having little to do — their fields being thickly covered with layer after layer of crusted snow — they stay much at home, attending to the cattle in the sheds, reading, and leisurely lounging about. Then it is that the sleighs — long processions of them — may be seen gliding over the roads, full of hilarious parties. The young men of the neighbourhood get together, and arrange to give their sweethearts en masse the treat of a sleigh ride. The village tavern is doubtless 346 ACROSS THE FERRY. supplied with a bouncing great sleigh, a barge- like vehicle on runners, which the landlord is readily induced, for a modest sum, to lend ; and there is besides a general muster of all the farm sleighs for miles around. The horses are decked wdth bells, and after the accidental slippings and fallings-down, screaming and joking, the party starts off, echoing some familiar song. The broad landscape is exery- where white and shining ; the fences and walls are half concealed beneath the high drifts, the rails and stones peeping out here and there at intervals ; the farmhouses seem imbedded in the flaky mounds ; the narrow beaten paths from the doors leads through snow walls often five or six feet high ; the road is crusted with a coat of snow frozen into ice ; the tree-boughs bend low beneath their accumulated burden ; everywhere the snow-particles glisten and glitter ; as far as eye can reach, hill-top and valley, house and tree are shrouded in the monotonous and long-enduring robe of white. The procession of sleighs glides rapidly over the frozen roads ; the joyous jingling of hundreds of little bells mingles with the shouts and laughter of the happy-hearted party, who are wrapt and bundled almost out of sight by capacious blankets, quilts, shawls. " To relieve the desolate monotony of winter, YACHTING. 347 * sociables ' are often formed. Once a fort- night gatherings take place at the houses in turn, which are all the jollier because the people have so few chances to see each other. In many of the villages concerts are given by choral societies, and lectures, either by the parson or schoolmaster, or some neighbouring notability. The boys and girls have as much skating as they please. The lakes and rivers remain frozen for several months, and moon- light skating parties are among the pleasantest of the winter season." The taste for yachting has grown recently, and the number of yachtsmen on the eastern coast increases every year. Of some of the crack American yachts we have heard much of late years, and the international races across the ocean have become renowned. But, apart from these public displays and competitions, the passion for yachting is on the increase. And no wonder, with so splendid a coast, from New York up to New Brunswick, a stretch of seven hundred miles, or the length of the British Islands. For those who like quiet water there is Long Island Sound, a lovely sheet of sheltered water, with many pleasant ports of call. Many families spend the most of the summer months on board these Long 348 ACROSS THE FERRY. Island Sound yachts, and cheery healthful homes they are for men of business. Then there is the run to Portland and Boston, round Cape Cod, the great part open ocean, and with safe harbours and anchorages at various intervals. Except the Mediterranean, no cruis- ing ground can compare with this, however it may be in winter, or in the poetic description by Airs. Hemans of " the stern and rock- bound coast." There are no better sailors in the world than the pilots and fishermen and yachtsmen of the New England seas. In the love of the ocean, both for work and pleasure, the Americans are "true chips of the old block." CAMP MEETINGS. 349 CHAPTER XXV. CAMP MEETINGS FIRE BRIGADES. BEFORE passing from the subject of Ame- rican sports and pastimes, I must set down my impressions on two subjects, which may seem odd in such connection, but which, in addition to their original and higher uses, have come to be regarded very much in the light of amusements. Few readers would guess that I mean "Camp Meetings" and "Fire Bri gades." * The Methodist Camp Meetings, which origi- nated in religious uses, when population was * Before the war I might have added " soldiering,'' the mihtia of the different States being analogous to "volunteers" among us ; but the terrible reahties of that struggle, the greatest war of modern times, great beyond any European war, forbid the least reference to vanity and display in wearing uniforms. Unprepared and undisciplined at the opening of the war, before its close the youth and manhood of the Northern States displayed a heroism and endurance which compelled the admiration of the world. The South were better prepared at first and better commanded, and at last were moved by the strength of despair, but the issue of the contest was never doubtful to those who knew the history and resources of the Free and the Slave States. 350 ACROSS THE FERRY. Sparse, and ordinances few and far between, have greatly altered their character in later times. In some places it is true that the chief object is to encourage the " revival" spirit, by meetings for prayer and preaching. In out-of- the-way new districts this may be still the main purpose. But I am uttering no scandal in saying that the camp meetings in the older States have come to be merely or chiefly plea- sant annual rural gatherings. At Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, one of the most noted and important, the newspaper report says that " there was nothing ascetic or gloomy, but, on the other hand, a great deal that was cheerful and enlivening. If there was no dancing, there was at least croquet. The cottages, occupied by their owners, are pleasant residences, although the affair seems to have taken the shape of a serious rural fete. What John Wesley would have said to all this it is needless to inquire." We should think so ; nor should we be surprised to find the camp meeting, as an institution, become the theme of satire akin to that of Robert Burns in his " Holy Fair." Much has been said by travellers in praise of the American fire establishments, the pride of the young men in American cities. I have already described the excellent system of watch- ing, and of signalling by electric communica- FIRE BRIGADES. 351 tions between the stations. But when we pass from these arrangements to the materiel and perso7inel of the force, I think the efficiency of the American system has been exaggerated. Their engines are splendid constructions, but too ponderous to manage, except on great occasions. They are almost wholly steam-power engines, hand-engines being disused in the large towns. The brigades have as thorough organisation as the militia or the army, and are constantly parading and marching through the streets in showy uniform, with music and deco- rated engines. All this looks very imposing, and the young men take pride in belonging to a fire brio-ade. The officers, moreover, are appointed by election, and it is said that poli- tical influence largely enters into the affairs of the force. Social vanity and political feeling thus combine to lessen the efficiency of what ought to be purely a department of public safety and of civic police. Two or three years ago. Captain Shaw, the able and energetic chief officer of the London Fire Brigade, visited the States on purpose to study the American system. His report was reassuring as to the greater efficiency of our own fire establishment. While admitting the merit of the signalling system, and admiring the beauty and power of the engines, Captain 352 ACROSS THE FERRY. Shaw decidedly objects to the semi-military discipline of the force in the States, the result of which is to foster public display at the ex- pense of individual skill and self-reliance. The occasions are few when firemen have to attack a conflagration in parade order of companies and regiments. Every fireman must be trained to perform any part of the duty of the depart- ment, and ample scope must be left to personal skill, daring, and endurance. Our English system effects this, and is therefore on the whole more useful, though less show, than the Ame- rican system. Captain Shaw also thinks it is a mistake to allow hand-engines to get into disuse. A manual can be got into play in thirty seconds, whilst a steamer requires four or five minutes. I saw the engines at work in Chicago, and wit- nessed magnificent processions of firemen in Boston and New York ; but with all my admira- tion of many things American, I think they are far behind our own " Metropolitan Fire Bri- gade." TRADE UNIONS. 353 CHAPTER XXVI. TRADE AND LABOUR UNIONS CONFLICT OF LABOUR AND CAPITAL STRIKES CO-OPE-. RATIVE LABOUR. UNTIL recent years, the questions which most agitate the working classes in Europe have been little mooted in America. When all kind of industrial work was abundant, la- bourers comparatively few, and wages high, the workmen were prosperous and contented. It is so in the new and thinly-peopled regions still. But in the older States and in the cities, where the population presses on the means of subsistence, and where the cost of living is high, the relations of employer and employed, of capital and labour, are less harmonious, and trades unions, or " labour unions" as they are termed, interfere with the ordinary conditions of work and wages. The principle of labour unions is sound enough. If men can obtain by combination advantages not to be obtained by individual effort, they are right to combine. 23 354 ACROSS THE FERRY They may unite in order to obtain increase of wages or decrease of working time, as well as for any other purpose of mutual benefit. But the power of law and of public opinion is too strono- in America to admit of the alarm which trades unions in England have exhibited. When I was at Boston there was a strike among the operatives at the Fall River factories. An attempt was made to coerce, at the instiga- tion, it was said, of some English trade unionists of the Sheffield type. The militia was promptly called out, and the unionists were told that " whatever they might do in England, interfer- ence with the right of free labour would not for an hour be tolerated in America." There was a strike some time afterwards among the col- liers in Pennsylvania. This also was traced to foreisrn workmen, few of the native Americans taking part in it. The combinations of working men, however, are increasing throughout the Union, and may cause political as well as social troubles. We have heard already of a labour league threatening to make a separate organi- zation in view of the next presidential election. The prospect of political influences from such combination is small, the mass of the people being well leavened with sound views of politi- cal economy through the press. In illustration of this, and as presenting a clear and forcible LABOUR CONVENTION. 355 Statement of truths worthy of being weighed by working men in England as well as America, I quote a leading article which appeared in the Cincinnati Gazette v^hen a "Labour Convention" was being held in that city. " The Labour Convention descended a mo- ment from the airy height of perfecting the condition of the labourer by using him for a political party, and by making money of paper, to resolve in favour of two things which seem to have a direct and practical bearing on the con- ditions of labour ; these were eight hours for a day's work, and the co-operation of labourers to carry on business without the medium of the capitalist. Passing by for the present the eight-hour question with the general remark that we have an abiding faith that whatever is good for the labourer is good for the whole, we may say of co-operative industrial enterprise that it is a thing to which all will bid good speed, save perhaps a few owners of great establishments who have possession of some monopoly by combination of capital and by government favouritism. The influence of these, though strong, in affecting legislation bearing on their privileges, would be small in any case where it was plain that they were in opposition to the labourer ; therefore we may say that practically the sympathies of the whole com- 356 ACROSS THE FERRY. munity will be in favour of intelligent co-ope- rative industrial enterprises. " These enterprises require in the co-opera- tive workmen the same steadiness in the pur- suit, the same self-denial, the same willingness to forego present indulgence to lay up capital, which have enabled the labourer to become the capitalist and employer ; and the same patience and pluck under the adversities which occa- sionally come upon all industries that the single capitalist must have to carry the business through these periods of depression and loss. In times of prosperity these co-operative work- men must have the providence to forego large dividends and an expanded scale of family ex- penditure, in order to accumulate ready capital to carry them through the intervals of adver- sity. From the beginning they must be content to allow a part of their earnings to accumulate in stock. Like the capitalists, they must be content to receive for their work only their food and clothes, while their savings go to increase their capital and their stock of machinery and materials. And they must have the patience to continue the same industrious co-operation in the periods when there are no profits, and when they have to see the savings of their former earnings diminished. '' This is no more than to say that the co CO-OPERATIVE WORKMEN. 357 operative workmen who are their own capitalists must have the same qualities of providence, steadiness, patience, and pluck, that the single capitalist and employer must have. Co-opera- tion, therefore, requires workmen of the best qualities ; such qualities as will generally raise the single workman to the employer and capi- talist. Society in general will bid good speed to co-operation which fosters these qualities in the workmen, and to all efforts to elevate the qualities of the labourers so as to make co-ope- ration practicable. For to say that the impro- vident, indolent, and unskilful labourers, who are content to live from hand to mouth, and whose highest aim is a contest with employers to cheat them out of a fair return for their wages, can carry on any co-operative enter- prise, is to say what no workman will believe. These are drones who abuse the present labour unions, and tend to drag down all workmen to their level. Co-operative industry would find them its worst competitors, because in time of industrial depression their improvidence would leave them subject to any terms that capital^ might impose. "As, for successful co-operative enterprise, each individual workman will need to have the provident and stable qualities of the successful capitalist employer, so the interest of the co- 358 ACROSS THE FERRY. operative workmen becomes the same as the single capitalist employer. Therefore, when the Labour Convention assumes that labour is in conflict with capital, and then resolves in favour of co-operation, it simply resolves that the workmen of the best qualities shall go over to the enemy. This is an inconsistency, how- ever, which can be removed by correcting the erroneous notion that labour is in conflict with capital. We will instance some of the things in which the interests of co-operative establish- ments will be in conflict with what the labour unions assume to be the interests of labourers, and will be on the side of what they call the hostile interests of capital. " Co-operative enterprise will at once make a breach in the eight-hour system, which the Labour Convention assumes to be the interest of the labourer against the employer. The object of the eight hours scheme is to get as much wages for eight hours' work as for a whole day. Workmen who have the ordinar}^ ambition to improve their condition will not be limited to eight hours' work in a day, if they can get pay in proportion for working ten or twelve. The profit of co-operative industr}- will be in proportion to its productiveness ; therefore the co-operative can make more by working ten or twelve hours, and he will do it ; PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS. 359 and therefore all co-operative enterprises are breaches in the eight-hour system. ** The eight-hour scheme also expects to square the results of paying ten hours' wages for eight hours' work by making the con- sumer pay the increased cost, and by limiting production so as to compel him to. But it becomes the interest of the co-operative workmen to cheapen the cost of materials and subsistence and production in every way, to increase the consumption and their own profits. Thus generally the interests of the co-operative workmen become antagonistic to the interests of the labourer in general, if it be true, as seemed to be assumed by the Labour Conven- tion, that labour is in conflict with capital. "When the co-operative workmen become interested in all the results of the manufacture of a particular article, it becomes their interest to have all other processes cheapened which in any way enter into the cost of their production ; and to have its market increase by increasing consumption. For example, the co-operative enterprise may be engaged in the manufacture of furniture. It then becomes the interest of the co-operative workmen to have all things that enter into their expenses furnished as cheaply as possible, in order that by reducing the cost of production they may extend their ^60 ACROSS THE FERRY. market and increase their profits. It becomes their interest to have all their materials, and their dwellings, subsistence, and clothes, at a low cost. To this end they want cheap lumber, shops, machinery, paints, varnishes, etc., cheap building materials, cheap transportation, cheap building, cheap fuel, cheap provisions, and so on through all the articles of living and all the materials and elements of the cost of the article they are producing. *' Therefore the co-operative workmen will find all combinations to raise the price of mate- rials, machinery, lumber, brick, brick-laying, plastering, carpentering, painting, plumbing, food, fuel, clothes, and so on, by raising the wages of workmen in all these things, contrary to his own interest, which is to buy cheaply everything that he has to buy, and to sell dearly everything he has to sell. Thus a resolution to encourage co-operative industrial enterprise is a resolution to create among workmen an inte- rest hostile to the leading policy of labour unions, namely, to raise all wages and the cost of all production. One of these, therefore, must be an erroneous view of the interests of labourers. But this conflict of inconsiderate declarations brings into view the fact which is palpable to every workman who ever thinks, namely, that combinations to raise wages uni- CAPITAL AND LABOUR. 361 versally, neutralise themselves by raising every workman's cost of living in proportion to the advance of wages, and that no labour protective association can be effectual except when partial. When these protective associations become ex- tended so as to embrace all labourers, then the protection is neutralised, and the result is that all have raised their expenses of living in pro- portion to their wages. This is the natural law to which all schemes of labour protection are subject. " The working of this interest of co-operative industry may enable us to come at a clearer view of the true interests of labour, and its re- lation to capital. The Labour Convention does not see that it declares for an interest antago- nistic to the labourer, when it declares for co- operative enterprise, and we maintain that it does not. But it is • plain that co-operative workmen are simply combined capitalists, and that their interests are identical with those of all capital engaged in that branch of industry. This seems to show that the notion of an irre- pressible conflict between capital and labour is an error. If we look at the thing, we shall see that capital is the savings of labour, and that in general the capitalist, like the provident co- operative workman, has little but his food and clothes for his share, while the increase of his 362 ACROSS THE FERRY. capital from further savings goes to extend his enterprises and thus to furnish more employment to labour. *' If there be no increase of capital, there can be no increase of employment, and thus the increase of labourers would steadily depress their condition. A warfare upon capital, there- fore, which aims to prevent its increase, and to restrict production, is a direct warfare on the labourer's employment. Thus it will be seen that the interests of capital invested in industrial enterprise and the interests of the labourer are identical. If the employer gets ten per cent, increase on his capital, his workmen have all the use and benefit of his capital, save the frac- tion of ten per cent. If he invests this increase in extending his enterprise, the workmen have the use and benefit of all his capital. He has only his board and clothes. He may live in a little better style than they, but he dies and carries nothing away with him ; and if his capital remains in the industrial enterprise, the workmen enjoy it, while he has gone where it cannot follow him. " And this will make plain that combinations to raise universally the cost of production, and to restrict production, are simply combinations of labourers against themselves. We will sup- pose that the labourer is as successful and pro- CAPITA LIST A XI) LABOURER. 363 vident as the averag-e capitalist and employer, and that he saves ten per cent, of his wac^es — a savini:^- which will put him on the road to be- come a capitalist and employer. Then go per cent, of his wao^es qroes for his consumption, to pay for dwellincr, fuel, food, clothes comforts, and so on ; all of which are products of labour. Therefore, all the combinations he enters into to raise the wao^es of the work that produces these things are combinations to raise the cost of his own consumption and diminish the portion that he can save. *' The same benevolence that exhorts the labourer to co-operative enterprise will exhort him also to the skill, energy, stability, and fru- gality that enable workmen to become capit- alists and employers. The notion that there is an antagonism between capital and labour assumes that the line between the capitalist and the labourer is fixed and impassable, and that the object of each class is to plunder the other. But co-operative workmen become capitalists, with interests the same as single capitalists and employers; therefore, when the Lal)our Con- vention declares for co-operation it virtually admits that it is wrong in the notion that capitalists and workmen are in antagonism. And the skilled, industrious, and frugal work- man becomes singly a capitalist and employer ; 364 ACROSS THE FERRY. therefore, the just compensation of capital, instead of being antagonistic to him, holds out to him an object of ambition, and a chance to better his condition. The theor^^ that labour is at war with capital assumes that capitalists and labourers are two distinct and fixed classes. It throws away the opportunities of superior indi- vidual skill, energy, and economy, and consents to accept the position and destiny of the ave- rage of all sorts, including the indolent, igno- rant, and improvident, and to be held down by them, instead of rising by superior qualities. It consents to forego the individual ambition that is the right of all men, and to be tied down to the improvident masses ; and then it joins them in combinations to raise the cost of their own consumption, in the foolish notion that it is waging warfare on capital." RELIGION IN THE NEW WORLD. 3^5 CHAPTER XXVII. RELIGION THE CHURCHES CHURCH AND STATE PREACHING. IT has been a puzzle to some minds, and has even been used as a sceptical argument against the Bible, that sacred prophecy seems not to include in its range the history of the New World. The field of view is there so large, and the development of events so great, that it is strange to find America occupying little, if any, place in what purports to be a vision of human history to the end of time. I once mentioned this difficulty to the greatest student and expositor of prophecy, Dr. Keith, and his reply was prompt and satisfactory. The brief prophecies of the latter day refer to principles, operating alike in the Old World and the New. In America the principles of Popery and Infidelity, and what- ever opposes the truth of God, are at work in the same way as in Europe. The same spiritual conflicts are wao^ed on both continents. Pro- 366 ACROSS THE FERRY. phecy deals with political events and with human developments only as these bear upon the great history of the kingdom of Christ. That kingdom has no geographical scenes or limits, but reaches from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. We call it the New World, but we find there only new forms and new illustrations of old- world religions, as well as of social and political life. The negro is there with his charms and Fetish worship, the "heathen Chinee" with his joss-house. The Hebrew synagogue is there, and the Popish mass-house. There is nothing new in any of the wild sects that have sprung up: the wonder is that wilder and more numerous forms of free thought and free living have not appeared in a land where liberty passes into licence. By public opinion, more than by law or force, are extravagances of creed and conduct kept within bounds. I have already stated that these are only slight specks on the broad surface of American life. Sensational bookmakers give the impression that the country is overrun by Shakers and Spiritualists, and all sorts of fanatical sects. The whole of these combined form an insig- nificant fraction in the religious census. The vast mass of the population profess the same creeds, and belong to the same communions STATISTICS OF CHURCHES. 367 known among ourselves — Episcopal, Methodist (Episcopal), Presbyterian, Congregational, and Baptist. With differences of organisation, all these hold in common the leading truths of Protestant Christianity. The Roman Catholics number between four and five millions, the vast majority Irish. Among the Southern Germans and other continental emigrants there are also many Roman Catholics, but the great body of the North German and Scandinavian emigrants are Protestants. It was pleasant to see together in many a German home in the West the portraits of Luther and Washington. 1 have given the relative statistics of churches and denominations in several of the large cities. In the smaller towns, and throughout the country, the great bulk of the people belong to the leading Protestant denominations already enumerated. The Methodists and Baptists are the most numerous, taking the whole Union ; but the Presbyterians prevail in some of the older States, both of the North and South. It would be difficult to say which of the denomina- tions includes the largest number of the educated and wealthy classes. In the large cities it is very probable that the Episcopal communion will increase in a larger ratio among the rich, and that it will become the church of the higher social grades, as in England. It is said 368 ACROSS THE FERRY. that this is because discipline is laxer, and the members of the Episcopal churches are less under the control of such public opinion as the church membership of other communities maintains. This may be partly true, but it is not the whole truth. It is certainly not true of the large masses of good people who belong to the communion of such men as Mcllvaine, Tyng, and others, whose names are honoured in all Evangelical churches. It may be well for the leading men in Presbyterian and other churches to consider how far the spiritual instincts and educated tastes of their people can be met, without driving many to find else- where what is lacking in their own services. I am afraid to say more, in case of treading on the toes of any one behind me; but it is vexing to an overlooker to witness the strange vagaries of those who are in the thick of ecch'siastical controversies having no reference to things essential. The same questions also appear so different under different circumstances. For instance, one of the leading clergymen of Scotland wrote a book to prove that the use of instrumental music is a denial of the Gospel system, and a return to the Jewish dispensation of types and bondage ! In America nearly all the churches have organs and choirs. On the other hand, G. H. Stuart, of Philadelphia, the CHURCH AND STATE. 369 President of the Christian Commission during the war, one of the best and most respected citizens of America, has been excommunicated by the "Reformed Presbyterian Synod" for singing Christian hymns, instead of Rouse's old version of the Psalms of David, "the only ht medium for tuneful praise "' ! The greatest contrast that strikes a stranger from the old country is the absence of an Established Church. There are no such names known as Churchmen and Dissenters, with all the unseemly divisions of social and religious life associated with the names among ourselves. There is no union of Church and State as in Europe, — whether, as in England, by one de- nomination being established, or, as in France, by all denominations receiving State pay. All denominations are equal before the law in the United States ; all are free from State control, and obtain no State assistance. The idea of one denomination being selected from others for establishment or endowment, and the others being tolerated, is inconceivable in America. The whole circumstances and conditions of civil and religious life are different there, and the statement of this fact of the separation oi Church and State may be made, without any reference to our own ecclesiastical arrange- ments in England, which date from a time 24 370 ACROSS THE FERRY. when the Church had visible unity, and which were continued at the Reformation, when sepa- ratists from the Established Church were few in number and of little influence. Some who have not visited America may imagine that the absence of an Established Church implies a low state of public religious feeling. There could not be a greater mistake. Religion pervades the nation to a far greater extent than in any country of the Old World, • and Christianity is far more honoured and in- fluential in every department of public and social as well as domestic life. Not only are the sessions of Congress opened with prayer, as are our Houses of Parliament ; but all courts of law are also opened by prayer. In legis- lation and government, whether of the Re- public or of the separate States, there is more frequent reference to religion than with our- selves. But most of all is this manifest in the system of common school education, which is the pride and strength, decus et tiitcwien, of the American Commonwealth. Notwithstanding: diversities of sects and of opinions in minor matters, it was a grand sight to see the children of all denominations meeting in the same schools, opened every day by prayer or praise and reading the Bible. I could not but think, with sorrow and humiliation, of the miserable SABBATH OBSERVANCE. 37i squabbles and jealousies of our School Board constituencies, and the inefficient patchwork educational system alone possible with us. If any other illustration is needed of the prevalent national respect for religion, I might refer to the appointment of days of humiliation or of thanksgiving on special occasions. No authority is recognised as compulsory in such matters, but the issuing of a recommendation, signed by the President and the Secretar}^ of State, is responded to heartily throughout the nation. Every year "Thanksgiving Day" is a time of special assembly for public worship, when national mercies are devoutly acknow- ledged in fifty thousand churches, and the in- cense of praise rises from millions of thankful, reverential hearts. Sabbath observance is another fair test of the amount of religious feeling pervading a nation. The day is far better kept than in ^ England, or even in Scotland. I remember hearing the late Robert Chambers, a man not ver}^ sensitive or very demonstrative on such subjects, speaking with the warmest admiration of the way in which the day of rest was ob- served. He was surprised at the extent to which labour and traffic were suspended, and at the large attendance at churches and Sunday schools. The scene struck him the more from 372 ACROSS THE FERRY. his knowledcre of the " traditions" of Scotland on this matter. In the large cities of America, in some of which the native population is actually in the minority, the observance of the Sabbath may be expected to be more lax; but taking the whole Union, tow^n and country together, " the Lord's day," whether as a day of rest or a season of Christian worship, is better observed and more honoured than any- where in the Old World. I may add that the increase of churches and church members is far beyond even the rapid ratio of the increase of population. I am glad to confirm my statements as to the influence of religion among the masses of the people, by the testimony of an English clergyman, well known for his shrewdness and liberality — the Rev. Harry Jones — who thus wrote to the Guardian newspaper : "I was not prepared to find such strong evidences of popular respect for religion, as met me every- where during my tour. I found them not only in the city and the country, but in the forest, the steamboat, and the railway station There is little in America corresponding to the provision of the means of divine worship for the ' poor ' of which we hear in England. I have heard this brought as a charge against American Churches. But the real answer, to NATIONAL INFLUENCE OF RELIGION. 373 Speak generally, is that there are few poor, as we understand the word. Large numbers of the working classes who might be loosely classed as ' poor' with us, are in the habit of attending some place of worship. Moreover, we are ready to form an opinion on the general re- ligious provision for the ' masses ' in America from what w^e see in the cities. The city poor are mainly Irish Roman Catholics, who are looked after by their own priests. The bulk of the real American working people are found in the country. Look at the little wooden church in every village. See how the spire or tower, staring with paint and sesthetically ugly as possible, shows itself in a new settlement, and ask who build these — who attend them ? The real ' working men ' of America. " The people have reversed the process with which we are familiar in England. Instead of having money begged for them by others for a church, they build it themselves ; and instead of having a parson set among them, they look about, and call some one to be their minister. It is the same in education." I observed little that was special in the preaching of American ministers. My Sundays were not many, but I made the most of them for observation, if not for edification. The majority of the sermons, or parts of sermons, 374 ACROSS THE FERRY. which I heard were very much like what would be preached in our English pulpits, whether church or chapel The Presbyterians pay more attention than other communities to the theolo- gical training of their ministers ; and in their churches, I heard expository and textual preaching more than in other churches, where the customary text was given out chiefly' as a motto or peg upon which to hang the discourse. It may partly have been from the heat of the weather, and the absence of stated ministers from their posts ; but I confess that the majority of preachers were of the heavy-and- dry sort. Men of genius and eloquence are wondered after and wandered after there as with us. Ministers of solid learning and sober speech a!bound as with us. A minister of great spiritual fervour and earnest feeling — one who preaches " as a dying man to dying men " — is rare there as here. There is much that is conventional and professional in all the churches, but there must be a large amount of true spiritual life to sustain the active and energetic Christian work ever}^where apparent. In the Episcopal church Ritualism is not often obtrusive, though there are full-blown specimens of it. New York has a St. Alban's as London has, and there are clergymen who believe baptism to be regeneration, as indeed it is the ECCLESIASTICAL COMMUNITIES. 375 only regeneration they know or understand. The Roman Catholic churches into which I went were crowded with zealous worshippers, and I found the pew-rent system among them thoroughly worked ; plans of the church, with the prices of sittings, being suspended in the lobbies. The clergy of all denominations are, on the whole, treated with great respect. It is a common thing to make deduction in prices of trayelling, hotel charges, and even trade purchases to ministers. It is also a common thing for congregations to present their pas- tors with a purse to defray the cost of a trip in the summer, which partly accounts for the large proportion of ministers met with among American tourists in Europe. As to the regular stipends, there are a few " pets " and popular preachers who haye salaries like English bishops. Below them there are large numbers with sufficient salaries ; but below these, again, a yast number can barely subsist and rear their families in the position to which their services entitle them. There is no " Common Fund," as with the Free Church of Scotland or the Wesleyans of England, to secure a competency for all, leaving the few in richer stations to be supplemented by local gifts. A very large proportion of ministers 376 ACROSS THE FERRY. seem to be "unattached," and to take engage- ments by the year, or even shorter terms. An unpopular preacher, or incompetent minister, has no provision made for him ; still less can he obtain a living by purchase as with us. The "Voluntary" system thus is pushed to its extreme development, though one advan- tage is that many are prevented entering the ministry from mere worldly motives. Some change is wanted, similar to the system of the Free Church Sustentation Fund, to secure the ministers from too direct dependence on the tyranny of deacons or managers, or the caprice and temper of the people. But the real spiritual work of " Home Missions " to new or poor districts is not practically hindered, the missionary Boards of the several churches euaranteeino- salaries for a certain time to the agents who undertake to break up waste .or fallow ofround. Hence new settlements in the remotest regions are gladdened by the Gospel sound, and blessed with the civilising and saving influence of Christianity. In a former article I gave a detailed notice of the Sabbath services at Plymouth Church of which the Rev. Henr}^ A\'ard Beecher is the minister. The onlv other sermon that I heard of an unusual kind was in a Methodist Episco- pal Church at W^ashington. The preacher, THE AMERICAN PULPIT. 377 Dr. Gibson, is a man of some mark in that community, and has reputation as an eloquent preacher. The subject was the parable of the prodigal son, and when the text was given out, my first passing thought was one of satisfaction at hearing the old Bible truths in every land, having heard the same text not long before given out by good Mr. Miiller, at Bristol. But in two minutes I was wakened up to a surprise. Whether the preacher took for granted the usual exposition of the parable as accepted by his hearers, or w^hether he rejected the spiritual in- terpretation commonly given, there was not a word about the wandering of the soul from God, and its sins and sorrows ; not a word about its awaking and return to the merciful and forgiv- ing Father. The younger son wished to leave home, to see the world and make his w^ay in the world. " If his motive was enterprise and inde- pendence, and not merely a desire to be free from the wholesome restraints of the parental roof, his desire was laudable and exemplar)^ Shame upon the young man who remains tied to his mother's apron-strings, and a burden upon his father, when able to go out into the world, and in a spirit of enterprise and independence make for himself a living and a home ! The younger son is far more worthy of honour and imitation than the stav-at-home, selfish, idle. 378 ACROSS THE FERRY. elder brother. He said to his father, divide the living. There is nothing of the abominable law of primogeniture here, as in some countries ot the Old World. Equal rights and fair division for freemen ! " And so on, in racy and original style, the commentary proceeded, the preacher giving an eloquent and effective description of the perils from intemperance and evil com- pany that beset a young man's path in life, and the nobility of overcoming temptation by indus- try and temperance, and good principle. Of the corruption of the heart, and the necessity of restoring grace, little was said, and little about the divine and spiritual lessons of the parable. I do not say that the preacher rejected these, nor do I refer to his sermon as a representative one of the country or of the denomination to which he belongs, but it proved that " broad " views are not unknown in the Evangelical churches of the States, and the whole discourse was racy of the soil, and could have been delivered to none but an American audience. The sermon, I should say, was specially addressed " to young men." Is Popery on the increase in America ? Counting heads, and counting priests, churches, chapels, seminaries, convents, and the other "plant" of the Roman C:itholic Church in the United States, there seems at first glance a POPERY IX THE NEW WORLD. 379 wonderful increase at each successive census. Cathedrals of imposing magnitude are rising in all the great cities, and the churches equal in numbers those of the laro^est Protestant denomi- nations. But this is only in places where the Irish and other Popish immigrants are congre- gated. Compared with the general increase of population in the States, the increase of Roman Catholics is of little account, and is really of no account among the native Americans. And if we extend the survey to the whole of the Xew World, the decline of the Papacy is far more marked than in the Old World. A century ago, with the exception of the New England colonies, the Roman Catholic Church bore supreme sway in the New World, from Canada down to Cape Horn. All the lands under French, Spanish, and Portuguese rule were covered w4th gross spiritual darkness. The progress of the great American Republic, as of free States every- where, means the progress of Protestantism, and the steady and sure decline of Popery. 38o ACROSS THE FERRY. CHAPTER XXVIII. EMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES. THERE is a remarkable letter on emigra- tion, written by George Washington in 1796, which contains information as correct, and advice as valuable, at the present time as it was then. It was written in reply to a letter of ' inquiry from Sir John Sinclair, Bart., the well- known political economist, and author of " The Statistical Survey of Scotland." Depressed by the gloomy aspect of public affairs towards the close of the eighteenth centur}% Sir John had thoughts of seeking a refuge and a home in the New World. The circumstances out of which the correspondence arose were narrated by him in publishing the letters as long after- wards as 1 82 1. In the quarter of a century which had elapsed, Great Britain had passed safely through all her perils, and peace had been restored to Europe. The power of France, which had culminated under Napoleon, was no loneer a terror and menace. The home ad- EMIGRATION TO AMERICA. 381 ministration of England was as tyrannical and impolitic as ever; but the safety and honour of Great Britain had been restored by the victories of Nelson and Wellington, and the other gallant defenders of our country. Sir John Sinclair lived to a good old age in peace and quietness, and his sons and sons' sons have seen England greater and more influential than ever. Though no danger from abroad, not even a Teutonic invasion and "Battle of Dorking," may ever compel the rich to seek a transatlantic sanctuary, there may be social revolutions in the future that may raise similar alarms ; and always the pressure of increased population must compel the relief which emigration alone can afford. Domestic anxieties, the resangusta domi, still prompt the inquiries which Sir John Sinclair made under the foreboding of public calamities. Here is an extract from his expla- nation of the correspondence with General Washington: "At the commencement of the year 1796, the aspect of affairs in Great Britain became of the gloomiest description. Such was the success of the arms of France, and such the terror which they inspired, that the Continent seemed to be completely subdued, while the affairs of Great Britain itself were so unsuccessfully conducted as to give rise to the 382 ACROSS THE FERRY. most serious apprehension in the minds of many that it could not much longer continue the contest." After expressing his strong dis- satisfaction with Pitt for his course and policy, feeling that it would ruin the countr}% Sir John Sinclair says : " Seeing but little prospect that the countr}^ would be extricated from the difficulties in which it was involved, unless a different course was pursued, which was not probable, I naturally thought it necessary to look out for an asylum for myself and family, where we might live at a distance from the calamities of Europe, which seemed more likely to increase than to diminish. I was thus in- duced to apply to a most respectable corre- spondent, the President of the United States, to know what part of America was the most desirable place for a British emigrant." The whole of General Washington's letters have been republished in a little book by Elihu Burritt,* well worthy of being studied by in- tendine emig-rants. A few sentences will suffice in this place : — , ''The United States, as you well know, are very extensive — more than 1,500 miles between *'' Washington's Words to Intending English Emigrants to America," with Introduction and Appendix by Elihu Burritt : Sampson Low, Son, and Marston. (The Appendix contains useful information about all the States of the Union, and their inducements tor various classes of emigrants.) WASHIXGTOX'S WORD TO EMIGRANTS. 383 the north-eastern and south-western extremities, — all parts of which, from the seaboard to the Appalachian Mountains (which divide the eastern from the western waters), are entirely settled, though not as completely as they are capable of, and settlements are rapidly pro- gressing beyond them. Within so great a space, you are not to be told that there is a great variety of climates ; and you will readily suppose, too, that there are all sorts of land, differently improved and of various prices, according to the quality of the soil, its con- tiguity to or remoteness from navigation, the nature of improvements, and other local cir- cumstances. " The rise in the value of landed property In this country has been progressive ever since m}' attention has been turned to the subject, now more than forty years ; but for the last three or four years of that period it has in- creased beyond all calculation, owing in part to the attachment to, and the confidence which the people are beginning to place in, their form of government, and to the prosperity of the country from a variety of causes, none more than to the high prices of its produce." After giving details about the "New England States, Pennsylvania, and other Northern and Eastern States, and A^irglnia, he says : " The 384 ACROSS THE FERRY. uplands of North and South Carolina and Georo-ia are not dissimilar in soil, but as they approach the lower latitudes, are less conge- nial to wheat, and are supposed to be propor- tionately unhealthy. Toward the seaboard of all the Southern States (and the farther south the more so) the country is low, sandy, and unhealthy, for w^hich reason I shall say little concerning them ; for as I should 7iot choose to be a7i inhabitafit of them myself, I ought not to say anythiyig that would induce others to be so^ *'If all," says Elihu Burritt, "who have written glowing descriptions of certain sections of the country had followed this conscientious rule and principle, thousands of credulous and honest emigrants from Old England would have been saved a sad and bitter experience. Persons who have a special interest in some particular district may truthfully set forth the cheapness, the fertility, and the rich and varied productions of the soil. All they say may be true; but, withholding one vital fact from the description, it may be delusive and disastrous to those who trust to its statements." Following this principle, and keeping in view a certain health-line as the southern boundary for English emigration, Mr. Burritt goes over the whole of the Republic, including the vast regions of the West, which in Washington's GOVERNMENT LAND OFFICES. 385 days were unexplored, or only traversed by wandering Indians. For details we must refer to his little volume, or to other more extended works, only mentioning that the emigrant will obtain from any of the Government land offices* reports, with maps of any unsold lands in the district which that special office represents. A large proportion of emigrants are determined in their choice of locality by the communica- tions of friends who have already settled there, and those who leave the decision till their arrival in America will receive every help and advice at the offices of the Emigration Com- missioners, and at the " Labour Exchange " at the landing-place in New York. Of this landing-place, and the arrangements for the reception and disposal of emigrants, a brief notice may now be given. Until a few years ago, the arrival of emigrants of the poorer classes was a scene of painful confusion and misery. Those who had no relatives or * There are in England various American agencies where in- formation can be obtained, especially " The International Land and Labour Agency," Town Hall Chambers, Birmingham. This agency was established by Elihu Burritt, late U. S. Consul, and other gentlemen, and is worthy of confidence. Lists are kept of all investments in land and other property, and the Labour De- partment undertakes to find situations and employment for per- sons of any trade or occupation for a moderate commission. The secretary of the agency will furnish every information. 2^ 386 ACROSS THE FERRY. friends waiting to welcome them, were at the mercy of the New York land-sharks and other devourers of body and soul, as well as of what little substance they brought with them. The hapless and helpless state of the large propor- tion of emigrants induced many benevolent people to form an association for their assist- ance, and the Government was induced to establish a Board of Emigration Commis- sioners. The old Fort, with the surrounding area known as the Castle Gardens, was given over for their use as a receiving-house. Off this the emigrant ships lie, sending their freight ashore in steam tenders to the landing-stage, from which there is a passage to the interior of the Castle, or " the Rotunda," a place of which we used to hear as the scene of great public assemblages, such as political meetings, and entertainments. It was here that Jenny Lind's concerts, for example, were given. The space is now fitted up with various offices or counters, at which all sorts of entries are made and in- formation given. On the arrival of a cargo of emigrants, the names and places of birth, em- barkation, and so on, are entered in a registry. The place of destination is asked, and those who know this, and have money to pay for their passage, are furnished with tickets for the cheap emigrant trains. All being registered, EMIGRANTS' LAX DING-PLACE AT NEW YORK. 387 a clerk reads out the names of those who had letters or money-orders addressed to them, which they receive ; and of those who have friends waiting for them, to whom they are taken. Of the remainder, without friends or fixed destination, but with sufficient money, those who choose to remain in New York are introduced to lodging-house keepers licensed by the authorities, so as to protect the new comers from the places of plunder, and taverns for drinking and gambling near the water-side.- Others, who are anxious for employment at once and anywhere, are taken to the "Labour Exchange," where clerks are ready to engage labour of every kind, a record being kept of all the engagements. The wages appear high,, but to quote examples would be useless, aS' they vary constantly, and as the value of money depends on the expense of the locality. Rent in the towns is high, and clothing, and all manner of provisions beyond bread and water. Those emigrants without friends, letters, or money, and not capable of being employed by the labour agents, remain at the Rotunda a night or two, till they can be forwarded to Ward's Island, up the River Hudson, where are buildings for their reception, with hospitals 388 ACROSS THE FERRY, for the slclv, schools for the young, and other establishments, under charge of the Commis- sioners. From ten to fifteen thousand may be thus stranded on Ward's Island each season, the largest number of whom are disposed of before the close of the year. A few are permanently employed on a farm and in work on the island ; the hospital and lunatic asylum retain others ; and the death-rate is large after all the able- bodied and healthy have been drafted off. The Commissioners are bound to keep regis- tries, and to have supervision of emigrants for five years, maintaining correspondence for this purpose with distant branches and agencies. The necessary funds are obtained from the owners of the emigrant ships, who have to pay five shillings a head for every passenger, so that virtually the fund comes from the pas- sage money, and is in fact a mutual insurance fee paid by the emigrants themselves. Besides the official Board of Commissioners, there is an association of benevolent persons, including clergy of all denominations, for the assistance of friendless emigrants arriving at New York. There need, therefore, be little anxiety about the welfare of those who arrive there, and it is no uncommon thing for unpro- tected females, and invalids, and little children to be consigned to the New Word, with or •< STATISTICS OF IMMIGRATIOX. 389 without lalxjis and directions, in the certainty that all care will be taken of them that Christian j)hi]anthroj)y can devise. The total arrivals of emigrants in the United States in 1870 was 353,287. In 1869 the number was 385,287, lx?ing the largest in any year except 1854, when 427,833 landed in the New World. Taking several years, the average may have been 365,000, or a thousand a day. It is estimated that the average value to the country of ever}' immigrant is a thousand dollars, so that this is no unimjjortant element in the increase of national wealth as well as of population. The great majority of the immigrants are from I^urope, and New York is the chief place of arrival. The chief port of embarkation is Liverpool, from which, in round numbers, alx)Ut 200,000 annually are shipped. Of the nation- alities, Germany and Ireland are most largely represented, then I^ngland and the Scandina- vian races. Many thousand Chinese land every year at San Francisco, a flow of emigra- tion having commenced from Asia as well as from I^urope. The inlluence of this new dis- turbing element in the labour market, when the "celestials'* make their way east of the Mississippi, as they have already begun to do, is one of the difficult and troublesome political 390 ACROSS THE FERRY. problems with which the Americans will have to deal. They are -not regarded with the same favour as other emigrants, though their labour is invaluable in developing the wealth of the States on the Pacific side. It will be long, however, before they interfere with the Euro- pean emigrants. For the present most of them come with no intention of settling, but only to make money by their industrial labour, and return with it to their own land. The European emigrants go to find permanent homes in the New World, and most of them become citizens of the United States. I have before me an official pamphlet or Circular from the General Land Office, issued from the Department at AVashington a few weeks before I was there last autumn. It con- tains the various Acts of Congress as to the sale and occupation of public lands, and de- scribes the manner of proceeding (with forms and schedules) in order to obtain title to pos- session. Some of the Acts are of a special kind, such as giving privileges, or relaxing rules, in the case of those who have served in the United States army or navy ; but the main enactment of interest to emigrants is "the Homestead Act," which gives to every citizen of the States, or to those who declare their in- tention to become such, the right to a home- NA TURALISA TION LA IV. 391 Stead on surveyed lands. An affidavit has to be made before the Registrar or Receiver at a land office, that the applicant is over twenty- one years of age, or is the head of a family, and that the land is for actual settlement and cultivation. The right of purchase is then conceded to the extent of one quarter sec- tion, or 160 acres, at i dollar 25 cents per acre, or 80 acres at 2 dollars 50 cents. There are two classes of public lands, the one class at I dollar 25 cents, which is designated as ?;ii?ii- mu?n, and the other at 2 dollars 50 cents per acre, or double 7nini7nu7n. The circular, which contains directions and regulations as to the required forms of applica- tion, fees, commissions, and other charges, can be obtained at any of the public land offices in various parts of the Union, where also maps are exhibited of the surveyed lands in sec- tions. In regard to naturalisation the law differs in different States. The usual law is that the alien shall be able to read a clause in the con- stitution of the State, and declare his intention of becoming a citizen, taking at the same time an oath to support the constitution of that State, aud the constitution of the United States. One year after this declaration and oath, the settler is entitled to vote for State officers, and in five 3g2 ACROSS THE FERRY. years to vote In the election for President of the Republic. Without naturalisation, any alien can hold property, and is entitled to all rights and pro- tection under the laws, unless found bearing arms against the State. Almost every new comer so soon becomes interested in the politi- cal and social and still more in the educational matters of his neighbourhood, that It Is very rare to meet with a person who has resided one year In any community who has not been naturalised. What has been said hitherto only relates to public lands. Those who have money to go Into the open market have a wider range. ** There are farms always and everywhere for sale," Washington wrote to Sir John Sinclair; * ' If, therefore, events should induce you to cast an eye toward America, there need be no ap- prehension of your being accommodated to your liking." The same Is true now, not of farms and land only, but of all manner of real property, in town or country, In every part of the Union. In the Middle and Southern States the collapse of the Confederate rebellion, and the ruin of many of the old slave-holding pro- prietors, have thrown great tracts of land into the market, which are rapidly being taken up by Northern colonists and speculators. Abundant CHOICE OF HOMES FOR EMIGRANTS. 393 choice remains for English purchasers, who are hailed as more welcome neighbours by the Southerners than the still hateful "Yankees." Professor Goldwin Smith visited Virginia last summer, and after speaking of the magnificence of that State in point of resources, and capa- bilities, and climate, says: "The people are the most English of all Americans. They are very friendly to the mother- country, and very anxious that their States should be filled up by English emigrants." Labour is cheap, coloured labourers being hired at ^2 a month, with pro- visions supplied. All local taxes do not exceed about twopence in the pound, the direct income tax being two and a half per cent, all over the Union. Even in the Old States east of the Hudson, the flow of native emigration to the West has left ample choice of cultivated farms, which can now be bought for from £1 to ^12 an acre, including house, barns, and all other buildings necessar}- for such an estate. " In New England," says Elihu Burritt, "a man with ^400 or ^500 may buy a farm of one hundred acres, and be able to stock it, and bring his tools, and set to work, within an hour's- ride of the capital of the State. His ^500 English gold, turned into United States or Massachu- setts bonds in England, and then into Ameri- can paper money at the current exchange, will 394 ACROSS THE FERRY. yield him 3,500 dollars of lawful tender for the purchase at 25 dollars per acre, leaving him 1,000 dollars for stocking the farm. If he is a married man, and has already furniture sufficient for his new house, he may take it with him free of duty. If his farm should be nearer a large market town, or more valuable in soil or build- ing, so that 50 dollars per acre should be de- manded for the hundred, he might obtain it by giving his note, payable at the end of one or two years, with interest at six per cent., for the balance. In this case, also, he would have 1,000 dollars left out of his 3,500 dollars for stocking his farm and other expenses." This case is supposed in the older Eastern States. In the Middle and Western States the purchase-money is at a lower rate ; labour, also, is cheaper, and expenses less. In Virginia, for instance, there were last year more than a thou- sand cultivated farms for sale, at prices from £2 to £12 an acre. A hundred may be bought within two or three hours from Washington City, at an average of ^3 per acre. The resi- dences, indeed, are only old-fashioned log houses-, but an English farmer and his family could live comfortably in them till he had time to build a house more in accordance with his habits. Then there is Missouri, which aspires to be the central empire State of the Union, FORMS AND COST OF CONVEYANCING. 395 and to make its great city of St. Louis the capital of the Republic. Missouri contains forty-three millions of acres, an area as large as all England, with fertile soil and splendid climate, rich in mineral as well as agricultural wealth. Hundreds of farms may here be bought from los. to 405. an acre, and millions of acres of Government lands may also be entered under the Homestead Act by those capable of the rougher work of clearing the land. £ver>^ State has its special claims, its advantages and drawbacks, all of which must be well weighed by the intending emigrant. One point is worthy of separate and special notice in regard to the possession of land or other real property in America, the cost of con- veyancing. The legal expense of getting good deeds or titles is merely nominal. For the safe transfer of an ordinar}' farm the cost will not exceed a dollar in almost any of the States. And in fact in all matters of legal expense the customs of America form a striking contrast to the heavy amounts of " lawyers bills " in Eng- land, where the people seem to exist for the benefit of lawyers, rather than lawyers for the benefit of the people. There remains the essential practical ques- tion, Who ought to emigrate ? Leaving out of view what may be called involuntary or com- 396 ACROSS THE FERRY. pulsor}^ emigration, which applies to the poorest classes, as in the time of the Irish famine^ and in the case of Highland ''clearings," or the decline of special branches of manufacture and industr}', there is always a large and yearly in- creasing multitude, from pressure of over-popu- lation and competition, who are straitened in the means of subsistence. Some who can sup- port themselves have anxiety about the up- bringing of their families in the same social .position. Others are dissatisfied at spending their strength and passing their years in a bare struggle for existence, with little prospect of laying by provision for infirmity or old age. These, and many other cases, arising out of the simple motive of "the means of living," may turn to emigration as a ready remedy. If wil- ling and able to work, none need be disap- pointed if they decide on going to the United States. There is room for millions of homes to all who can handle the axe and plough, the hoe and spade. There is also employment for men of every handicraft in all departments of me- chanical labour. The mineral wealth of the Union is waiting for workers. One thing we may be sure of, that so many States would not clamorously invite and compete for emigrants, if they feared that any number of them would be thrown on their hands as helpless paupers. WHO OUGHT TO EMIGRATE. 397 As long, therefore, as the Americans Invite emi- grants to come, those who have a struggle for life at home may feel it safe and advisable to go. In what Is here said about the United States, there Is no Intention of disparaging Canada, or any of our own colonies, as fields of emigration. They may offer the same, or even stronger In- ducements, but my present object Is to convey the Imipresslons formed by what I saw and heard In the States. But over and above the advantages as to "means of living," there are inducements of no unimportant kind to settling in the United States. Not, Indeed, for the wealthy and well- to-do classes, " the upper ten thousand," to whom emigration Is only known as a way of getting rid of the surplusage of " the lower orders." People accustomed to the amenities and amusements of aristocratic and plutocratic life in the Old Country would be like fish out of water In America. Jeames de la Plush and Carolina AVilhelmina Amelia Skeggs would think It a 'orrld place. Lord Dundrear)' would wonder what a fellow could do there. Yet even among the highest orders of rank and intellect there are many who would enjoy life In the States ; whether men like Goldwin Smith, who admire the political institutions of the country, or like Principal M'Cosh, In sympathy with the 398 ACROSS THE FERRY. academic culture and high moral tone of the seats of learning-, or like the late accomplished and lamented Earl of Aberdeen, who regretted having to leave what he called a *' land of free- dom and common sense." But for the great middle class of Englishmen, and for the opera- tive classes, whether in town or country, there are many points which they would admire and enjoy in the States more than even in England. Always excepting New York and the slavery- blighted States, there is as high social and moral tone throughout the Union as in the best parts of the Old Country. Education is more diffused, religion is more influential, the Sabbath is better observed, and Christian ordi- nances more honoured among the whole body of the people. There is a spirit of manly self- reliance and sturdy independence, which al- though at first repulsive from the brusqueness of manner which it induces, comes to be re- spected. The poor serf-like clodhopper of our Enoflish counties soon holds his head erect as a well-paid and free labourer. And the farmers remind one of the yeomen freeholders who once formed an influential portion of the British Commonwealth. Now that slavery is extin- guished — the last legacy of misrule bequeathed by the mother-country — the emigrants as well as the native population more than ever exhibit • JVHO OUGHT NOT TO EMIGRATE. 399 what Washington described as '' attachment to and confidence in their form of government and the prosperity of the country." And this applies to the manufacturing as well as agricul- tural classes of emigrants ; they are as a rule better paid, better housed, better clothed, better fed, better educated, more contented, and more independent ; in short, in moral as well as phy- sical condition superior to the same class in the Old Country. It is certainly not true, as has been said, that decreasing means and an in- creasing family are the only conceivable induce- ments to think of settling in America. We must not conclude, however, without saying a few words as to who oug-ht not to emigrate to the United States. All classes of professional men, those who work chiefly with the head rather than with the hands, will find few openings. Commercial men and speculators of all sorts, with little or no capital, are not wanted. Capitalists can make their profitable American investments at home. Mercantile clerks are in no request. An advertisement in any American newspaper will bring as great a crowd of applicants as one in the Times or any English paper. Even of the operative classes, none but the industrious, frugal and temperate can expect to prosper in America. The chief engineer of one of the large steamers 4O0 ACROSS THE FERRY. told me that he seldom made a return voyage without some disappointed emigrants working their passage home as stokers and cindermen. I saw some of these poor fellows, and their ex- perience is that of many. The only occup^ion that could be obtained by them was in^ agricul- tural work, for which health and strength are essential.* There are very^few of the clerks or shop assistants in England who could stand the fatieue and climate of backwoods life in the West, or of common agricultural life m any other part of the Union, any more than they would be fit for it at home. Even to farmers, Elihu Burritt says, " I would advise all of them who are over forty years of age, and can command /500 capital, to settle down in some of the old States of the Union, where a century of cultivation has not only sub- dued the soil to their hands, but subdued those raw conditions of its wild nature that generate ailments of a serious character to its first occu- pants. Not only for their physical comfort, but for their social enjoyment, would I commend to them this choice of residence. Young, vigorous * Here is a sample advertisement : " Wanted. Live men everywhere. Permanent employment. Able-bodied men to go into the country. Prompt pay, and plenty to eat. Also reliable girls for household work.'' At the " Intelligence Offices," as ser- vants registries are called, the rawest Irish girls are offered twelve dollars a month. FEMALE EMIGRATION. 401 men can more safely and comfortably run the hazards not only of " the bush," but of the rich and level prairie, as yet unbroken by the plough. The febrile affections, the chills or bilious ten- dencies of such a region of country, and all the other discomforts which they will at first expe- rience, do not sap the vigour of their constitu- tions, as in those past middle life. Such may go to any of the New States of the Great West, and make homes for themselves and their children, which they may all the more enjoy for the rough experience of the first few years." Nor is there any opening for female emigra- tion, except for domestic service. The native supply exceeds the demand for teachers, shop assistants, and workwomen of all grades. The "employment of females" question is quite as pressing there as with us. The post-office, telegraph service, and other public institutions employ many, but the proportion of unemployed and unprotected females, above the servile grade, is as great as at home, at least in the old, settled States. Beyond the emigration question there are others at which I can only glance, but must not touch, as they lead to political ground. It is clear that the vast majority of emigrants leave their native land not by choice, but from neces- sity. Few are attracted by anything in the in- 26 402 ACROSS THE FERRY. stitutions of America, and fewer still from any motive so lofty as the Pilgrim Fathers had. Most go because they cannot subsist at home. Is it then a necessity that so many should thus be unwilling exiles ? Does Great Britain sup- port all the population of which she is easily capable ? The question will one day become a practical one. The time must come when other countries- may decline to take an unlimited number of emigrants. The people also may not always remain content to be jostled out of the country into the towns, or thrust forth from the land of their birth, if they think it is able to support them. It is the part of a good govern- ment to render social revolution impossible, by timely legislation for the many as well as for the few, on the safe principle that " property has its duties as well as its rights." A special commission for the United States is now in Europe, with instructions to examine the whole subject, and to report, with a view to legislation by Congress, upon existing abuses of emigration and their remedies. PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY. 403 CHAPTER XXIX. princeton, new jersey back to new york — farragut's funeral. AT Philadelphia I received a note from Dr. M*Cosh, President of Princeton College, New Jersey, inviting me to visit " the noble institution " over which he presides. It lay in my way back to N'ew York, and was reached by a small branch railway from the main line. The winter session at the college was just com- mencing, and I was the more glad of the op- portunity of having this peep at American academic life that I had passed Yale and Harvard during the vacation. I must confess, however, that my chief inte- rest in Princeton was not educational, and that I longed to see it most for its historical associations. It was connected in my mind with great names, above all with the name of the greatest thinker, and one of the greatest writers, that America has produced, Jonathan Edwards. It was at Princeton he died and 404 ACROSS THE FERRY. was buried. The college has no higher histo- rical distinction than having had him for its President. I remembered what Dugald Stewart said : " In the New World the state of society and of manners has not hitherto been so favourable to abstract science as to pursuits which come home directly to the business of human life. There is, however, one metaphy- sician of whom America has to boast, who in logical acuteness and subtlety does not yield to any disputant bred in the universities of Eu- rope. I need not say that I allude to Jonathan Edwards." I remembered, too, what Sir James Mackintosh said, in his celebrated sketch of the " History of Ethical Philosophy," of "this remarkable man, the metaphysician of Ame- rica." " His power of subtle argument — per- haps unmatched, certainly unsurpassed, among men — was joined, as in some of the ancient Mystics, with a character which raised his piety to fervour." I remembered also the enthusiasm with which Dr. Chalmers, in his lectures, used to comment on the great works of President Edwards, " On the Freedom of the Will," on " Original Sin," and on the " Reli- gious Affections." The story of his life was familiar to me ; — the ministry at Northampton, with its remarkable seasons of revival, and its long years of trial, amidst a people who could JONATHAN EDWARDS. 405 not appreciate the divine seer who was among" them ; — the retirement to Stockbridge, where he went to be pastor of a few scattered settlers, and missionary to the Indians still residing in these regions. He seemed to be thrown away in such a place, like a broken potsherd, but it was the good providence of God that sent him there to have leisure for preparing the works which have made his name immortal. These being completed, he was summoned to preside- over Princeton College, on the death of hi^ son-in-law. President Aaron Burr. Soon after his arrival, he died from the consequences of being inoculated for protection from smallpox. He was only in his fifty-fourth year when he died, March 22, 1758. The scenes of his life were vividly recalled as I sat in his study and stood by his grave. There is another great name associated with Princeton, and whose influence' in the early history of the American Republic has not been duly estimated — John Witherspoon. In the history of literature he is known as the author of ** Ecclesiastical Characteristics," a work which for keen wit, racy humour, and delicate satire, applied to the noblest uses, ranks with the "Provincial Letters" of Pascal. It was written when Witherspoon was a minister of the Kirk of Scotland, and was directed against 4o6 ACROSS THE FERRY. the growing scepticism and " moderatism" of the eighteenth century. Bishop Warburton was delighted with the book, and only wished the English Church had such a counsellor and corrector. The publication of the " Charac- teristics " raised a host of enemies ; and, saddened by the hopeless state of affairs at home, the author emigrated to the New World. The College of Princeton was proud to obtain such a man as its President, in which office he continued till the outbreak of war with the mother-country. Many of the men who took the leading part in public affairs at that crisis had been trained as his pupils at Princeton. The citizens of New Jersey appointed him a delegate to the Convention which formed their State Constitution. In 1776 he w^as sent as representative of New Jersey to the first Con- gress of United America. He served for seven years in Congress, and though less known than some others of the fathers of the Republic, there was no one whose advice was more weighty, and whose influence was more felt. In face of danger he was always firm, and in the gloomiest times always hopeful and cheerful. He lived to see the Republic safe and prosperous, dying in 1794, in his seventy- third year. Many abuses were removed through his influence, and good measures carried. His PRESIDENT WITHERSPOON. 407 political sagacity appeared in the warnings he gave as to the internal dangers that might arise from the conflicting interests of the separate States of the Union, and he urgently advocated the strengthening of the authority of the Cen tral Government. I have dwelt on these old names the more because they are not much noticed by common historians, or by travellers who describe only what they see. It is not by increase of popu- lation and growth of material wealth alone that America has attained its greatness. " What constitutes a State?" Soemthing more than broad acres and steam-power, dollars and ballot-boxes. It is not easy to estimate the influence on national life and character exerted by such men as Jonathan Edwards and John Witherspoon. They worthily maintained in the eighteenth century the cause of religion and truth, of freedom and virtue, established in the seventeenth century on the shores of New England by the Pilgrim Eathers. I am de- lighted to find the same idea expressed by a recent traveller in the States, the Rev. W. G. Blaikie, who says '* Edwards had eleven chil- dren, and their descendants now count by thousands. There can be little doubt that as his descendants penetrated the various strata of New England society, and carried with them 4o8 ' ACROSS THE FERRY. much of the vigour of mind and fervour of spirit which belonged to both parents, they contributed to give it a considerable share of the tone or stamp which it now bears." There was a gathering last summer at Stockbridge of above two hundred of the descendants and con- nections of the family, including names of high mark, and the speeches showed how the old traditions are kept up to our own day. The influence of President Witherspoon was greater than even that of Jonathan Edwards in the direction given to American national life and character. The part taken by himself and those who had been his pupils in the foundation of the Republic has already been noted. The spirit of his teaching has been preserved in the Princeton College, and is worthily sustained by the distinguished President who now fills his chair. It was a pity to allow a man like Dr. M'Cosh, the first of our metaphysicians since Sir William Hamilton, to leave his native land; but he holds an office second to none in the New World for moral and social as w^ell as in- tellectual influence. I do not know the number of students at Princeton ; but there are among them, even in greater proportion than at Yale or Harvard, the sons of senators, judges, and highest public men in the Union. If ever Dr. M'Cosh turns a look of regret towards the old PRINCETON COLLEGE. 409 country, of which I saw no sign, he may rather glory in the office he fills, training the minds and forming the characters of those who will here- after guide the destinies of the great^Republic. I have little to report about the College or its studies. I saw the students assembled in the Chapel for worship, conducted by the Pre- sident, and remember their devout demeanour and hearty volume of praise. I saw them at gymnastics in a hall fitted for indoor- sports, and at base-ball in the grounds, and thought them a fine athletic set of fellows. I examined their course of studv, and found it as thorough as in our own universities. I was witness to the quietness and order of the College and the town, giving proof of good discipline on the side of the governors, and hig'h character in the governed. In fact, the discipline seemed almost overstrained, and the tone such as could not be easily kept up. But altogether, my impressions of Princeton as a place of study, and of the learning and ability of its professors, were of the most gratifying kind. But I carried away with still deeper feeling the impressions of the hallowed memories of the place. I went in the evening with the President to the cemetery of Princeton, and linorered there till licfht failed to read the in- scriptions. It is a true Campo Santo, enclosing 410 ACROSS THE FERRY. the remains of more great and good men than any burying-place of the size in America. The graves of Aaron Burr and of Jonathan Ed- wards, two of the first Presidents, are side by side, and there is the tomb of another Aaron Burr, whose life brought dishonour to the name he bore, but in whose tardy penitence there was hope, and who desired that his body might be laid at the feet of his father and grandfather. Near at hand are the tombs of the other Presi- dents whose portraits I had seen in the College Library and Hall, which, like the cemetery, contains many precious relics and records of past times. The College is not the only great institution at Princeton. Here, too, is the chief seminary and training school for the ministry of the Pres- byterian Church, one of the most numerous, and certainly the most influential. Christian denomination in the States. Among my pleasant recollections of the place is the hour spent under the roof of the venerable Dr. Hodge, President of the Seminary, long the editor of the Princeton Review, and author of writings which have made his name honoured in all the churches. Whatever truth there may be as to the stern and repulsive tone of Calvinism on paper, I seldom have seen a man more genial and attractive than this representative BACK TO NEW YORK. 411 of the American Presbyterians. Clear light does not interfere with warm love in good old Dr. Hodge ; and I remember his parlour-study as one of the cheeriest glimpses I had of an American interior. It was with regret I left quiet, studious Princeton to return to the bustle and crowd of New York. In my second visit I saw little that is worth reporting to my patient reader. One memorable event I was fortunate in witnessing, the public obsequies of Admiral Farragut, a pageant more imposing than any that has been seen since the funeral of our Wellington. He died at Portsmouth Navy Yard, but his embalmed body w^as removed to New York for interment in Woodlawn Ceme- tery. The occasion was seized for a great public ceremony, and I saw, in the words of the newspaper placards, "The Empire City IN MOURNING FOR THE DEAD SEA-KING." A few sentences from the Ahiv York Herald will explain why Farragut was thus honoured, while affording a parting example of the spread-eagle style w^hich too much characterises American journalism : — " It was exceedingly appropriate that the Empire State should receive the nation's Ad- miral into her bosom, and that New York city should bear him to his tomb. An empire in 412 ACROSS THE FERRY. herself, resplendent with battle-fields won In the cause of independence and liberty, glorified by the heroism of four hundred thousand men who foug-ht in defence of the Union, queenly in commerce and science and art, the grand old State is a proper mausoleum for so grand a hero. New York city, throned upon the islands of the sea, crowned with intelligence, wealth, and splendour, whose brain conceives the progress of the New World, whose heart throbs with every pulsation of the nation, whose ships whiten every ocean, and whose skill has given so many frigates to the battle and the breeze, was the best, the only Commonw^ealth to take him whose only flag had so long and gloriously defended her prosperity and happi- ness, and lay him away to his last long sleep. As the minute guns boomed, and the magni- ficent pageant moved along through the sor- rowful city, what thoughts and memories were stirred up ! How the mind went back through the darkness and smoke of the rebellion far down a beautiful vista of peace and grandeur to the conflict of 1812, and lingered about that scene on the gallant Essex's deck in her death struggle with overpowering numbers, where Farragut's name first began to shine. It followed the young officer as he rose step by step in the navy, until it found him, in 1861, ADMIRAL FARRAGUTS FUNERAL. 413 at Norfolk, steadfast to his country in the midst of desertion and treason. On through doubts and disasters the retrospect accompanied him, ever finding him true and brave, until at New Orleans he leaped into the full stature of his being, and emerged from the appalling scene a calm, victorious hero. Again he looms up, lashed to the masthead, in the cetnre of shot and shell and flames, and ramming iron-clads at Mobile ; and, following him across the seas, memory revisited the fleets that hailed him great, and the palaces where royalty loaded him with favours. Through all these grand vicissitudes those who yesterday followed him to his grave chiefly recognised the noble qualities of the man, Farragut. To them he was not only all that is heroic — the peer of Nelson and the Admiral of the present age — but he was the model and pride of America, the type of everything that is frank and genial and generous." The day of the funeral w^as the last of Sep- tember, a day of rain and storm. The miser- able weather interfered with .the splendour of the pageant, but did not prevent almost the whole of the population from witnessing the scene. The houses all along the line were festooned with strips of black and white cotton, many of the public buildings having mottoes 414 ACROSS THE FERRY. and sentiments, or transparencies to be illu- minated at night. One of these, at Niblo's Theatre, had a portrait with the words '* D. Farragut, born 1801, died August 14, 1870," and on either side inscriptions, " The noblest Roman of them all," and "After life's fitful fever he sleeps well." On each side of the street were unbroken lines of people, patiently waiting, with or without umbrellas. At the crossings there were dense blocks of vehicles of all sorts ; but the police kept good order, and the mounted troopers stationed at long intervals had no trouble in keeping the centre of the. streets clear. The windows and balconies of the houses were crowded with spectators. Had the weather been fine, the spectacle would have been more interesting ; but the long array of carriages, containing the most distinguished notables, from the President of the United States down to the Mayor of New York, were all closed. Besides the public functionaries of New York City and State, many other cities and public bodies sent representatives, even from the Ohio and the Mississipi. For the first time I saw a detachment of the Federal Army. The Navy and Marines were also represented. Many thousands of the National Guards of the City and State were conspicu- ous, the passing of certain crack regiments, GOVERNMENT OF NEW YORK. 415 at the head of one of which rode the notorious *' Colonel Jim Fisk," being greeted by in- structive comments from the crowd. I had also a good opportunity of seeing the police of New York, and the fire brigades, who turned out in full array w4th their engines and accou- trements. The booming of minute guns, and the strains of the successive bands of music, made solemn sound; but the whole pageant had an artificial air, and was a patriotic rather than a personal tribute. As the Admiral had been dead rather more than six weeks, few but his comrades in arms and friends could feel much more than I did, as a stranger w^itnessing a great national spectacle. I must not conclude my notes on New York without expressing the satisfaction which many feel at the movement, too tardily made, to throw off the yoke which has burdened and disgraced the city. The organised gang of robbers which has long controlled the civic institutions and political influence of the Em- pire City, has at length been arraigned at the bar of public opinion, and the Government of New York, it is to be hoped, will now be more in keeping with the honour and credit of American institutions. 4i6 ACROSS THE FERRY CHAPTER XXX. CONCLUSION. 'T^O the reader who has followed me thus far ^ it is scarcely necessary^ to g-ive any general result of my observations ; yet I cannot con- clude without stating in few words the sum of my impressions. In spite of the difficulties of a new country into which the stream of Euro- pean emigration is constantly flowing, in spite of political disadvantages which none are so ready to admit as intelligent Americans, they are in advance of us in many of the things that constitute the true welfare of a nation. They have solved problems that baffle the rulers and philanthropists of Europe. In the education of the people by their Common School system, in the management of pauper- ism, in the home comfort of the working classes, in the relations of capital and labour, and in many points of civic and municipal government, the legislators and magistrates of England could learn much from the great THE TRUE GREATNESS OF AMERICA. 417 towns of the United States. New York may be excepted, but this is because the govern- ment there is so much under the control, not of Americans, but of Irish. In the highest of all elements in national w^elfare, the contrast is in favour of America. The number of churches and of Sunday-schools is far in advance of the proportion with us. Lord Shaftesbury stated lately that the num- ber of working men in England who belong to any church can scarcely be reckoned at fifteen per cent. In America I believe that the great majority of working men do attend public worship and contribute to its support. Education and the general diffusion of Bible teaching have so leavened the nation, that it has been able, up to this time, to bring under the institutions of the land the vast hordes of foreign immigrants, and to maintain the posi- tion of a ofreat Christian and Protestant state^ Attempts to overturn the Common School system have been made in New York and Cincinnati, and, having proved unsuccessful there, are not likely to succeed elsewhere. The curse of slavery and of slave institutions being removed from the Southern States, education and evangelisation will now have free course throughout the Union, and there is nothing to hinder the unlimited progress of the nation in 27 41 8 ACROSS THE FERRY, all that marks the highest Christian civilisa- tion. The prophetic words of good Bishop Berkeley have fair prospect of being realized : " Westward the course of empire takes its way : The four first acts already past, A fifth shall close the drama of th^ day : Time's noblest offspring is the last." I must say that my admiration does not extend to the distinctive political system of America. The suffrage is too extended even for a country of such widely diffused education. The effect is that in some places the American voters are swamped by the hordes of easily naturalized immigrants. In other places men of the highest position and character keep aloof from all public affairs. Then the chief magistrate of the state has more power than is fitting in a country professing to be ruled by public opinion. He is like an autocrat during his term of office. By his veto he can obstruct good measures, and at his will can involve the nation in trouble. In talking with Americans I always affirmed that ours is a truer republic. Ours is only a monarchy in name, not an autocracy, the Queen having comparatively little political power, and being the head of institutions which are absent in America, where there is no court, no established church, no titled aristocracy, and no hereditary legislature. REPUBLIC OR MONARCHY? 419 The real comparison should be between their President and our Premier. A vote of the House of Commons, expressing the popular voice, can control or displace the government, which is not the case in America. It is an ad- mitted disadvantage, too, in the United States, that at every change of government the whole administration of the country, from ambas- sadors down to village postmasters, may have to vacate their posts. The change affects the position and income of hundreds of thousands of the population. The effect is that no sooner is one government established than agitation and plotting commence for the next term of office. The judges of the Supreme Court alone are free from this perpetual political agitation. I never met an American, not a placeman, or aspiring to be a placeman, who did not acknowledge the fault of this part of their system. The loss of time, the disturbance of trade, the unsettlement of credit caused by every Presidential election, makes the real cost of the Republic tenfold the expense of any monarchy. Were it only the saving to the nation by the quiet constitutional way in which a change of government is effected, the supe- riority of the English over the American sys- tem is apparent. Yet, I repeat, in spite of these political disadvantages, such is the healthy 420 ACROSS THE FERRY. power of public opinion, and such the love of law and order diffused through the nation, that the machinery of State and Municipal legisla- tion and government works wonderful results. Public opinion, trained by the school, the press, and the pulpit, is everywhere in advance of the law. When a thing is seen to be for the public weal it is done, promptly and effectually. Some may think that these local measures are carried to an extreme, as in the case of the Maine Liquor Law. But on such questions the people themselves are the best judges, and legislation is easy when it is in harmony with educated public opinion. True of every government, emphatically true in America, is the sentiment beautifully ex- pressed by Goldsmith in the *' Traveller" : — " How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure I Still to ourselves in every place consigned Our own felicity we make or find : With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy." Frederika Bremer, the amiable and intelli- 'jent Swedish writer, entitled her book on o America, " Homes in the New World." This was to me the one best and most satisfying impression received as to America, its limitless capacity for the multiplying of free, peaceful, HOMES IN THE NEIV WORLD. 421 and comfortable homes. There are millions of acres of surveyed lands yet unoccupied, and above a thousand million of acres remain un- surveyed. Nor do the emigrants settle down in mere animal existence in these wild re- gions. Far aw^ay in the forest clearings, often as soon as twenty or thirty log houses have been set up, a wooden schoolhouse is built, and used for Divine service on Sundays. When two or three hundred homes are made, there is sure to be seen the spire of a wooden church, or even two churches. A newspaper soon follow^s, and all the appliances of Anglo-Saxon civilisation. If the first settlers are not such as carry re- ligion with them, they are soon followed by Christian and benevolent agencies, home mis- sionary societies sending their colporteurs and evangelists to the remotest settlements. There may be personal hardships, and the absence of some social privileges, in the vast new regions yet thinly peopled ; but in the old settled parts of the country, life is the same as with us, and for the labouring classes better. No industrious w^orking man need be without employment, or without protection of law for himself and his labour. No child is without the means of good secular and religious educa- tion. Poverty there may be, but pauperism is almost unknown, except as the fruit of idleness, 422 ACROSS THE FERRY. intemperance, or vice. The boundless regions of the West are ready to receive the super- fluous working population. The same regions are open to us, as well as Canada and our own colonies, as fields of emigration ; and, helped by the experience of America, the sad condition of our great towns might surely be amelio- rated. The majority of Englishmen who have been in America have gone for amusement or for gain. I only wish that more would go In order to gather useful hints for the improve- ment of our own country. There is more to get than to give by increased intercourse with America, which can hardly be said of travel on the Continent, or In any other country of the world. Here I adopt the language of a distinguished Englishman, whose unpublished journal of a recent visit to the States I have seen : *' Thus ended our American tour — the most Interesting and Instructive one I ever made, and which I heartily recommend to any of my friends who may care more to speculate on the future des- tinies of our race than to ruminate on the past. America must be seen to be understood ; and those who visit It will probably return with mixed feelings — of pride, at the thought that the great work of civilisation which Is rapidly overspreading that continent is being carried ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 423 on by men of our own race and language ; and of grave reflection, I will not say of sorrow, at the thought that half a century hence America will be the most powerful country^ on the face of th^ earth, and that, as all greatness is rela- tive, our own star will be on the decline." I too returned with these mixed feelings, but with pride far prevailing over sadness. The interest felt in the prosperity and progress of America is utterly different from the superficial cosmo- politanism which makes light of one's own country. I never felt as if among strangers in America, and I believe that many Americans share this feeling. They rejoice in the welfare of the island home of the common race, the birthplace of great thoughts and glorious deeds of which both nations are alike proud. I am aware that I saw only a small portion of the most prosperous part of the United States. I did not see that part of the Union so lately overrun by contending armies, reduced to poverty by the war, and by the sudden emancipation of the slaves. The country is still in a transition state, and it will take years for the nation thoroughly to accommodate itself to the new state of affairs. But this revolution was essential to the future welfare and safety of the Republic. The influence of the better elements of the Comimonwealth had 4=4 ACRO:i.\ iJih J'KKRV. I)een kept out of those States impoverished and degraded by slave institutions. The South must now follow where the North leads, and will no lon<;er be a drag on the nation's ad- vance. It is a great jjroblem whether the intluence of the \ew Hngland States will he able to as- similate the vast immigrant population, or how tar the social and political as well as religious life of America will be overborne or modified. 1 have no doubt of the result. I Ulieve that the common school system ever)'where ex- tended, and the influence of the old common law of Hngland, and of the I^nglish Hlble, will leaven the whole nation, and that a glorious tuture is destined for the Great Republic. There is no peril possible .so great as has been successfully pa.s.sed thrr>ugh in the ci\ il war ; and now that the Washington Treaty has re- stored the fulness of international good feeling, I'-ngland and America, united in frirndship. will secure the world's progress in freedom and good government. 4 J I i Mntmumm ' -i m m m mmmtm mm t m m*im t iif<»>ii»i>ipww»t<>MiW)WWi|iiiiBiiawwWMWW^ ; ttMmmmMmmmmmmmmmmammmmmntmmaMmmk