LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
0001840274"=^
Qass K.lAfl
Book 1^^
/
CEISTTS.
A. bAilV yuBLlC>Tlor/ Of TKE Qg^ CU^K^^/V e^.^TA^<JMT<I> 1-iTERj^TUR.e
•^ Vol. 5, No.
210, Sept. 17,1883, Annual Subsci-iptlon, $50.0
Sf
AMERICAN
CHARLES DICKENS.
iterwl at the Post Office, N. Y., ag second-class matter. iM§ Copyright, 1883, by John W. I.ovklu Co. ••
NEV</ VORKc=
IE
i
sUf -■- z, ,: :. ■ 1 -^14.6^16 V^EY STREET
iMt CLOTH BIKBING for (his volumt im t-e obtalNvd from any booksetlor or newsdoafer, prico Id
LOVELL'S LIBRARYl-CATALOGUE.
^>i
Hyperion, "by H. W, Lonpfellow. .20 62. Outre-Mur, by U. W. LoiigfeiJow.J^O
The Happy Boy, by BjOrusoii 10
Arne, by BjOruffon 10 63.
Ffankonstciu, by Mrs. Shelley. ..10 64.
The Laf^t of the Mohicans 20
Clytie, by Joseph Hatton 20 65.
TheMooDstoae.by <-olUn8,P'tI.Te 66, TheMooii(;i<jne,byColliue,P'tn.lO 67, Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickentj.liO
The Coining Race, by Lytton 10
Leila, by Lord LyttOD 10
The Three Si^aniarda, by Walker. 20 70. ThuTricksofthcGreeksUnveiled.aO 71 L'Abbe Constantiu, by Halevy,.20 72. Freckles, by R. F Redcliffi.. ..20 7.3. The Dark Colieeu, by Harriett Jay.20 74 They Were Married! by Waller
Besant and .Tameg Rice. J 10
Seekers afar God, by Farrat 20
The Spanish Nnu. byDeQiliucey.lO
The Green Mountain Boys 20
Fleurette. by Eugene Scribe 20
Second Thoughts, by Broughton.20 80. The New Magdalen, by Collins. .20 81
Di voree, by Margaret Lee 20 82.
Life of Wasrhiugton, by Henley. .20 83. Social Etiquette, by Mrs. Saville.15 .Single Heart and Double Face.. 10 84.
Irene, hf Carl Belief ^.0 j
\'ioe Vere'i, by P. Anstey 20 8r
P>ueet Maltjravers, by Lord Lytton20 8b. The Haunted House and Cuiderou 8'.
the Courtier, bv Lord Lytton.. 10 John Halifax, by'Miss Mulock. ..20
800 Leagues on the Amazon 10 I DO.
The Crypto;^'ra:n, by Jules A^erne.lO ; l»i .
Life of Marion, by'Horry 20
P.iui and Virginia 10; 'M.
Tale of Two Cities, by Dickens. .2 "• ; l>3.
The Hermits, by Kiugsley 20 94.
An Adventure in Thule, and Mar- '
riage of Moira Fergus, Black .10 ! 95.
A'Marriage in High Life 20 i
liobin, by Mrn. Parr. 20 1 9fi.
Two on a Tower, byThoo. Hardy.20 I 97.
Itasselas, by Samuel Johneon 10 { 98.
Alice; or, the Mysteries, being j 99.
Part IL of Ernest Multravers. .20 100. Duke of Kandos. by A. Mathey...20
Barf)n Munchausen 10 101.
A l^rincesa of Thule, by Black.. 20 102. The Secret Bcppatch, by Grant, 20 Early Days of Christianity, by 103.
Canon Farrar. D L>., Part I 20
Early Days of Christianity, Pt. 11.20 104. Vicar of Wakefield, by Goldsmith. 10 Progress and Poverty, by Henry 105,
George 20
The Spy, by Cooper 20 106,
Ea-t Lynnc. by Mr^. Wood... 20
A Srrantre Story, Dy Lord Lvtton.. .20 107.
Adam Bede, by Eliot, Parti 15
Ad.jm Bede, Part II 15 108,
The Golden Shaft, by Gibbon. . . .20 } 109.
Portia, by The Duchess 20 i 110.
Last Days of Pompeii by Lytton, .20 111. The Two Duchesses, by Maihey. .'>0 ' 112. Tom BrowuB School Da-
The Wooing O't, by Mrs. Alex- ander, Parti 15
The Wooing O't, Partll 15
The Vendetta, by Balzac 90
Hypatia.byChas.King^ley,P'tI.15 Hypatia, by Kingsley, Part II — 15
Selma, by Mrs. J.G.Smith 15
Margaret and her Bridesmaids. .60 Horse Shoe Robinson, Part I — 15 Horse Shoe Robinson, Part II. . . 15 Gulliver's Travels, by Swift.... .26 Amos Barton, by George Eliot... 10
TheBerber, by W. E.Mayo 20
Silas Mamer, by George Eliot. . . 10
The Queen of the County 20
Life of Cromv.ell, by Hood... 15 Jane Evra, by Charlotte Bronte. 20
Child's'History of England 20
Molly Lawn, by The Duchess. . .20
Pillone, bv William BergsOe 15
Phyllis, by The Duchess 20
Romola, by Geo. Eliot, Part I. . .15 Romola, by*Geo. Eliot, Part II.. .15 Sciencfe in Short Chapters... .v. 20
Zanoni, by Lord Ly Uoh 20
A Daughter of Heth .20
The Right and Wrong Uses of C the Bible, R. Heber Newton. ..20
Night and Mornine:. Pt. 1 15
Night and Morning, Part II 15
Shandon Bells, by Wm. Black. .20
Monica, by the Duchess 10
Heart and Science, bv Collins. . .20 The Golden Calf, by Braddon. . .20
The Dean's Daughter 20
Mrs. Geoffrey, by I'he Duchess.. 20
Pickwick Papers, Part 1 20
Pickwick Papers, Part 11 20
Airy. Fairy Lilian, The Duchess. 80 McLeod of Dare, by Wm. Black.20 Tempe.«t Tossed, by Tilton. P'tl.20 Tempest Tossed, by Tilton, P'tllSO ^ Letters from High Latitudes, by ^
Lord Dufferin ' 20
Gideon Flevce, by Lucy 20
India and Ceylon, by E. Hieckel . .20
The Gypsy Q.ueen 20
The Admirars Ward 20
Nimport, by E. L. Byuner, P't I . .15 Mimport. by E. L Bynner, P't 11.15
Harrv Holbrooke 20
Tritons, by E.L. Bvnner,P'tl. ..15 ■ Tritons, by E. L. Bynner, P til. .15 Let Nothing You Dismay, by
Walter Be,>-ant 10 '
LadyAudley's Secret, by Miss i
M. E. Braddon 20 1
Woman's Place To-day, by Mrs. |
Lillie.Devereux Blake 20 |
Dunallan, by Kennedy, Parti... 1.1 • Dunallan, by Kennedy, Part II. . ]5 Housekeeping and Home-mak- ing, by Marion Ilarland 15
No New Thing, by W. E. Norris. 20 !
The Spoopendyke Papers 20 I
False Hopes, bvGoldwin Smith. 15
Labor and Capital 20
Wanda, by Ouida, Part 1 15
Wanda, bv Ouida, Partll 15
American Notes
CH/RLES DICKENS,
NEW YORK:
JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 14 AND 16 Vesey Street.
PREFACE
My readers have opportunities of judging for themselves whether the influences and tendencies which I distrusted in America had, at that time, any existence but in my imagina- tion. They can examine for themselves whether there has been anything in the public career of that country since, at home or abroad, which suggests that those influences and tendencies really did exist. As they find the fact, they will judge me. If they discern any evidences of wrong-going, in any direction that I have indicated, they will acknowledge that I had reason in what I wrote. If they discern no such indications, they will consider me altogether mistaken — but not wilfully.
Prejudiced, I am not, and never have been, otherwise than in favor of the United States. I have many friends in America, I feel a grateful interest in the country, I hope and believe it will successfully work out a problem of the highest importance to the whole human race. To represent me as viewing x\merica with ill-nature, coldness, or animosity, is merely to do a very foolish thing : which is always a very easy one.
/
rLE:a]E:isrT3L.-^ ftjbx^isi-ieid.
Attractive nev/ oditions of the following celebrated works of Sir Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton,
By LORD LYTTON.
1 vol., 12-Qo., large type, good paper, well bound, cloth, gilt, $1.00; also in LovelPs Library, handtiome paper cover, 20 cents.
This work is happily conceived and ably executed. It is flowing and grace- ful in style and both piques and reivards the curiosity of the reader.
THE COMING RACE;
Or, THE NEW UTOPIA.
By LORD LYTTON. 1 vol., 12mo., large, clear type, good paper, attractive cover, 10 cents.
Without deciding on the comparative share of imagination and memory in the concoction of ihe work, Ave may pronounce it one of the most attractive books of the many interesting volumes of thi.s populra- author.
A STBANGB STORY.
By LORD LYTTON.
1 vol., 12mo., cloth, gilt, $1.00.; also in Lovell's Library, handsome cover 20 cents.
The plot shov.-s discriiHination of judgment as well as force of expression, and its vigor of conception and brilliancy of description makes it one of uis most readable novels.
THE HAUNTED HOUSE;
Or, Thb House and the Brain, to which is added, Caldekon, the Courtier.
By LORD LYTTON.
1 vol., 12mo., large type, good paper, handsome cover, 10 cents. This is a weird imaginative creation of singalar power, showing intensity of conception and a knowledge of the remarkable effects of spiritual influences. Full Descriptive Catalogue sent on application.
JOH.-N W. LOVELL CO., Publishers,
14 & 16 Vesey Street, New York.
SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS
By W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS, F.R.A.S. F.C.S.
AutJwr of " The Fuel of the Swi,'" " A Simple Treatise on Heat,'''' t£c.
BHIIVO No. 80 OK I^OVEl^Iv'S I.IB1RARY,
12mo, handsome paper covers, Price, 20 Cents.
"Mr. Mattieu Williams is undoubtedly able to present scientific subjects to tbe popular mind with much clearness and force : and these essays may t^e read with advantage by those, who, without having had special training, are yet eufhciently intelligent to take interest in the movement of events in the scientific world. ' ' — Academy.
"The title of Mr. Mattieu Williams' 'Science in Short Chapters' exactly explains its subject. Clear and simple, these brief reprints from all sorts of periodicals are just w'hut Angelina may profitably read to Edwin while he is sorting his papers, or trimming the lamps, if (like some highly domesticated Edwins) he insists on doing that ticklish bitof house-work himself." — Graj)hic.
"The papers are not mere rechauffes of common knowledge. Almost all of them are marked by original thought, and many of them contain demonstrations or apercus of considerable scientific value."— Pa/^ Mall Gazette,
"Thechaptess range from such subjects as science and spiritualism to the consumption of smoke. They include a dissertation on iron filings in tea, and they discuss the action of frost on water-pipes and on building materials. The volume begins with an article on the fuel of the sun, and before it is concluded it deals with Count Rumford's cooking stoves. All these subjects, and a great many more, are treated in a pleasant, informative manner. Mr. Williams knows what he is talking about, and he says what he ha-' to say in such a way as to prevent any possible misconception. The book will be prized by all who desire to have flound information on such subjects as those with which it deals."— Scotsman.
" To the scientific world Mr. Williams is best known by his soLar studies, but here lie is not writing so much for scientists as for the general public. It has been the aim of his life to popularise science, and his articles are so treated that his readers may become interested in them and find in their peruijal a mental recreation. " — Su ad ay -school Chron<kie.
" We highly recommend this most entertaining and vauable collection of papers. They combine clearness and simplicity, and are not wanting in philoso- phy likewise."— Tablet.
LIFE OF OLIVER OROIMWELL,
His Life, Times, Battlefields, and Contemporaries, by
PAXTON HOOD,
Author of " Chnstynas Evans,'''' " Thomas Carlyle,'''' '■'■ Bomance of B'lography,'''' dec.
OBelixg- iTo- 73 o:f LO"VEI_.L'S XjIBI^.A.I^'^S',
12mo, handsome paper covers, 1 S CENTS.
Tliis is a popular biography of the career of Oliver Cromwell, which will be •welcomed by those who are unable ro pursue the stirring history of his life and times, in the elaborate volumes to which the student is at present ref errcc].
For sale by all booksellers and newsdealers, or sent free of postage on receipt of price by the publishers.
JOHN W. LOVELL CO.,
14 and 16 Vesey St., New Vork.
LOVELL'S LIBRARY ADVERTISER.
KECENTLY PUBLISHED:
UNDERaROUND RUSSIA:
Revolutionary Profiles and Sketches from Life. By STEPNIAK, formerly Editor of " Zemlia i Volia" (Land and Liberty). With a Preface by PETER LAVROFF. Translated from tht Italian. 1 vol. 12mo., paper cover, Lovelies Library, No. 173 price 20 cents. ' The book is as yet unique in literature; it is a priceless contribution to our knovviedirc of Russian thought and feeling; as a true and faUhfnl reflection of certain asp cts of, perhaps, the most tremendous poJilicial movement m history, it Bi'.ms destined to become a standard work."— Athen^um.
An Outline of the History of Ireland,
From the Earliest Times to the present day. By JUSTIN H. McCARTHY. 1 vol, 13mo., Lovell's Library No. 115, price 10 cents.
"A tirar'ly and exceedingly vigorous and interesting little volume. The book is worthy of attentive perueai, and will be all the more interesting becaus^e it involves in it>! production the warm sympathies, the passionate enthusiasm, and the vivid :)riHiancy of style which one is glad to welcome from the son of the distinguished journalist and author."— Christian World.
"All IrishmcB who love their country, and all candid Englishmen, ought to welcome Mr. Justin H. McCarthy's Utile volume— 'An Outline of Irish History." Those who v,'ant to know how it has come about that, as John Stuart Mill long ago pointed out, fill cries for the remedy of specific Irish grievances are now merged in the dangerous demand for nationality, will do well to read Mr. McCarthy s little book. It is eloquently written, and carries us from the earlie^t legends to the autumn of 1682. The charm of the t-tyle and the impetuousness in the fl-»w of the narrative are refreshing and stimulating, and, as regards his- toric impartiality. Mr.McCarthy is far more just than is Mr.Froude.''— Graphic.
"A brightly written and intelligent account of the leading events m Ins'h annals. .... Mr. McCarthy has performed a difficult task with commendable good spirit and impartiality."— Whitehall Review.
•To those who enjoy exceptionally brilliai.t and vigorous writing, as wpII as to those who desire to post themselves up in the Iri^h question, we cordially recommeml Mr. McCarthy's little book."— Evening News.
ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS.
Edited by JOHN MORLEY. Published in 12mo. vols., paper covers, price 10 cents each.
Johnson. By Leslie Stephen. Scott. Bv R H Button. Gibbon. By J C. Morison. Shelley. By J. A. Symonds. Hume. By Prof Huxley, P.RS. Goldsmith. By William Black. Depoe. By W. Minto. Burns. By Princijial Shairp. Spenser. By the Very Rev. the Dean of St. Paul's.
Thackeray. By A. Trollope. Burke. By John Mor'ey. Bunyan. By J. a. Froude. Pope. By Loslie Stephen. Byron. By Profes>-or Nichol. Cowper. Bv Gold win Smith. Locke. By Prof es.sor Fowler. Wordsworth. By F.W H. Myers. Milton. Bv Mark Pattison. Southey. JBy Profe.-sor Dowden. Chaucer. By Prof. A. W. Ward.
New York: JOHN W. L,OVEL.I. COMPANY.
KEYSTOUE ORGAi«.
The frxGStor^an in the
Market. Price reduccd
from $175 to $125. Acclimatized case. Ar.ti-Shoddy and Anti-r-Ionopoly. Kot all case, etops, top and rdvertisemcnt. V/arrantod for 6 years. Has the Excelsior 13-Stop Combination, embracin- : Diapason, Flute, T,:ciodia-Portc, Violina, Aeolina, Viola, Flute-Forte, Celeste, Dulcet, Echo, irelodia, Celcstina, Octave Coupler, Tremclo, Ciib-Cass, Cello, Grrand-Orc-an Air Bra,ke, Grand-Org-an Swell. Two Knee- Stops. This is a A, alnut case, with Music Balcony, Slidin- Desk, .Side Handles, &c. dimensions : irei2;ht, 75 inches; Length, 48 inches; Depth, 21 inches. T.xis S-Octavc Or^--n, ^vilI^ Stool, Book and Music, wo will bos and deliver r.t dock :n ICew Ycrl^ for SIC" Dend by express, prepaid, check, or registered letter to
DICZmSOH & CO., Pianos ana Organs,
19 V/est !ifh Street, Now York.
LOVELL's library;-catalogue
113. More Words About the Bible,
by Bev. Jas. S. Bush .^0
114. Monsieur Lecoq, GuboriauPt.I. .20 Monsieur Lecoq, Pt. II 20
115. An Outline of Irish History, by
Justin H. McCarthy " .10
116. The Lero nge Case, by (jiaboriau. . 'JO
117. Paul Clifford, by Lord Lytton. . .20
118. A New Lease of Life, by About. .20 110. Bourbon Lilies -^'0
120. Other People's Money, Gaboriaii.iJO
121. The Lady of Lyons, Lytton. ..10
122. Ameline deBourg 15
123. A Sea Queen, by W. Russell. . ..^.^
124. The Ladies Lindores, by Mrs.
Oliphant iO
12.'). Haunted Heart?, by Siv
126. Loys, Lord Beresford,
Duchess
127. Under Two Fla^s, Ouid' Under Two Flags, Pt. !
128. Money, by Lord Lytton . .
VZ9. In Peril of His Lif.\ by Gauorii.u.^JO
13u. India, by Max Miiller 20
181. Jets and Fla.she>< .- 20
132. Moonshine and Marguerites, by
The Duchess ^. . . .10
lo3. Mr Scarborough's Fixmily, by
Anthony Trollope. Part I ". .15
Mr Scarborough'sFainily. PtII 1.5 134. Arden, by A. Mary F. Kobinsou.l5
185. The Tower of Per'.-eraoat 20
1:jG. Volande, by Wm. Black 20
lo7. Oruei London, by Jot'eph riatton.20
138. The Gilded ClMHie, by Oaboriau.20
139. Pike County Folk?, E. H. Mott. .20 :
140. Criclcec on the Hearth 10
141. Henry Esmond, by Thackeray. .20
142. Strange Adventures of a Phae- '
ton. by Wm. Black. •?0
1 43 Den is Duval , by Th-i clio i
144. Old Curiosity Shop,Dirl.- Old Curiosity Sliop, Pan ■
145. Ivanhoe, by Scott, Part i i.o ,
Ivanhoe, by Scott, Part 11 25
146. White Wings, by W^m. Black. .20
147. The Skoich Book, by Irvii,g 20 i
14S. Catherine, by W. M. Th;;( keray.lO ;
149. Janet's Kepentance. by Eliot... 10
150. Barnaby Ruilge. Dicken.-, Pt I . . 15 BarnaViy Kud!,'e, Part II 15 .
151. Felix Holt, by Geor<,ni Eliot. .. .20 !
3 "i . nichelieu, by Lord I^ytton lO i
1.' :. Sunrise, by Wm. Hlnck. Part l..l.»i i
Sunrise, by Wm. Black. Part II. LS ' 151. Tour ot' the World in 80 Days 1.55. Mystery of Orcival. Gaborlau. . 15ti. Lovel. the Widower, by W. ls\ .
Thackeray ! 10
157. Boinantic Adventun-s of a Milk- ;
maid, by Thomas Hardy 10 *
158. David Copperfield. 3)icken-i,Pt 1.20 i David Copperfield. i 'art IT 20 I
160. Hienzi, by Lord Lytton, Part I. .15 j Pie-izi, by Lord Lytton, Part II. 15
161. PrO'nise of Marriage, Gaboriau..lO
162. Faith and Unfaith. bv The
Duchess ., " .20
1 16;3.
• 164.
165.
, i6G.
108. 169.
1 ;o.
171. 172. 173. 174.
175 170
179.
J 80. 181. 1S2. 1H3. 1S4.
185.
186.
187. 188. 189.
100. 131. 102. 193.
194. 195.
105. 197.
198. 199.
200.
201 .
204. 205.
206. 207.
208.
209.
The Happy Man, by Lover... 10 Barry Lyndon, by Thackeray. ... 20
Eyre's Acquitt-al lO
Twenty Thousand Leagues Un- der the Sea, by Jule» Verne 20
Anti-Slavery Days, by James
Freeman Clarke oq
Beauty's Daughter.'], by The
Duchess ' 20
Beyond the Sunri^^p oq
Hard Times, by Charles Dickens. 20 Tom Crintrlft's Lnc, byM. Scott.. 20 Vanity Fair, by W.M.'Thackeray.20 Under£ro;uid Russia, Stepniak..20 Middleraarch, bv Elliot, Pt I.. . .20
Middleraarcb. Part ,11 20
Sir Tom, by Mrs. Oliphant -.'o
Pclhani, by Lord Lytton Ji/
The Story of Ida .'. ■;>
Madca'p Violet, by Wm. Black, .-.'u
Tho; Little Pilgrim ] , :
Kilmeny, by W'm. Black .'(i
Whist, or Buniblcpi^pyy 1(»
The Bcautifui Wretch . Black .... 20 Her 'Mother's Sin, byJJ. M. Cl.Hy.2u Ca'cn Pastures and i^iccadiilv,'
by V/m . Black ..'...' ! . -jo
Tlie Mysterious Island, by J nie*
Venie, Part I....: • 15
The Mysterious' Island, Part II . . ] r. The Mysterious Island, Part III.].'; Tom Brown at Oxford, Part I. . .15 Tom Brown at Oxford. Part 11. .15 Thicker than W^*ter, by J. Payn.2u In Silk Attire, by Wm. Black. . .20 Scottish Chiefs.Jaue Porter, Pt.1.20
Scottish Chiefs, Part II 20
Willy Reilly, by Will Carleton. .20 The KautE Family, by Shelley.20 Great Expectation;*, by Dickens. 20 Pendennis,by Thackf fay, Part 1.20 Pondennis,by Thackeray, Part 1 1.20
Widow Bedott Papers .'it
Daniel Deronda,Gco.Eli<,v Daniel Deronda, Part II. AltioraPcfy. by Olipbai;; By the Gate of tbc Sea, by D.uvi
Christie Murray ' \j
Tales of a Travt-'lier, by Irvii'g. . r^u Life and Voy;!c;os of Columbus,
by Washington Irvine. Part I v) Life and'Vo\ ages of (.'olumbus,
by Washington Irving, Part 11.20
The i^ilgrim'n Progrew 20
Martin Chu7;^levv;i, ].v Cluirit-."
nickens, Psf
L irtm Chuz: "iieophrastn- ;
Disarmed, M. Bctham-iuiwards..::. L'Jigene Aram, by Lord Lytton. 20 The Spanish Gyp.sy and Cither
Poems, by George Eliot 20
Cast Up by the Sea. Baker 20
Mill on the Floss, Eliot. Pt. i. ..15
Mill on the Flops, Part II 15
Brother Jacob, and Mr. Gilfil's
Love Story, by George Eliot. . .10 Wrecks in the Sea of Life 20
BEAUr AITD ITEEVE FOOD.
VitaJ^ed Phos-phites
.op TUE KE^ferGIVING PRINCIPLES OF
OX-BHAIK/A^ WHEAT-GERM.
. L%!fesSP^^5lt^ 0 eniargy lost by Nervousness or Indigestion ; relieves lJiss?iKrU§^#WeuraIgia; refreshes the nerves tired by worry, excite- raertt'"^^xc^sive brain fatigue; strengthens a faiiing memory, and gives renewed vigor In all diseases of Nervous Exhaustion or Debility. It is the only PREVENTIVE FOR CONSUiVlPTION.
It aids iconderfully in the mental and bodily growth of infants and children. Under its use the teeth come easier, the bones grow better, the skin plumper and smoother; the brain acquires more readily,. and rests and sleeps m,ore sweetly. An ill-fed brain learns no lessons, and is excusable if peevish. It gives a happier and better childhood.
"It is ■witli tlie utmost confidence that I recommend this excellent pre- paration for the relief of indigestion and for general debility; nay, I do more than recommend, 1 really urge all invalids to put it to the test, for in sev- eral cases personally known to me signal benefits have been derived from its use, 1 have recently watched its efEects on a young friend who has suffered from indigestion all her life. After taking the Vitalized Phos- PUITES for a fortnight she said to me; ' I feel another person; it is a pleas- ure to live.' Many hard-working men and women — especially those engaged in brain work — would be saved from the fatal resort to chloral and other destructive stimulants, if they would have recourse to a remedy so simple and so efficacious. "
Emily Faithflt^l.
Physicians have prescribed over 600,000 Packages because thky KNOW ITS Composition, that it is not a secret remedy, and
THAT THE FORMLTL,A 13 PRINTED ON EVERY LABEL
For Sale tiy Drusrsrists or by lUCall, |li.
F. CROSBY CO., 664 and 666 Sixth Avenue, New York.
AMERICAN NOTES.
CHAPTER I.
GOING AWAY.
I SHALL never forget the one-fourth serious and three fourths comical astonishment, with which, on the morning o\' the third of January eighteen-hundred-and-forty-two, I opened the door of, and put my head into, a " state-room " on board the Britannia steam-packet, twelve hundred tons burthen per register, bound for Halifax and Boston, and carrjdng Her Majesty's mails.
That this state-room had been specially engaged for " Charles Dickens, Esquire, and Lady," was rendered suffi- ciently clear even to my scared intellect by a very small manu- script, announcing the fact, which was pinned on a very flat quilt, covering a very thin mattress, spread like a surgical plaster on a most inaccessible shelf. But that this was the state-room concerning which Charles Dickens, Esquire, and Lady, had held daily and nightly conferences for at least four months preceding : that this could by any possibility be that small snug chamber of the imagination, which Charles Dickens, Esquire, with the spirit of prophecy strong upon him, had always foretold would contain at least one little sofa, and which his lady, with a modest yet most magnificent sense of its limited dimensions, had from the first opined would not hold more than two enormous portmanteaus in some odd corner out of sight (portmanteaus which could now no more be got in at the door, not to say stowed away, than a giraffe could be persuaded or forced into a flower-pot) : that this utterly
(S8S)
^86 AMERICAN NOTES.
imi^racticable, thoroughly hopeless, and profoundly preposter- ous box, had the remotest reference to, or connection with, those chaste and pretty, not to say gorgeous little bowers, sketched by a masterly hand, in the highly varnished litho- graphic plan hanging up in the agent's counting-house in the city of London : that this room of state, in short, could be anything but a pleasant fiction and cheerful jest of the cap- tain's, invented and put in practice for the better relish and enjoyment of the real state-rooln presently to be disclosed : — ■ these were truths which I. really could not, forihe moment, bring my mind at all to bear upon or comprehend. And I sat down upon a kind of horsehair slab, or perch, of which there were two within ; and looked, without any expression of countenance whatever, at some friends who had come on board with us, and who were crushing their faces into all manner of shajDCs by endeavoring to squeeze them through the small doorway.
We had experienced a pretty smart shock before coming below, which, but that we were the most sanguine people liv- ing, might have prepared us for the worst. The imaginative artist to whom I have already made allusion, has depicted in the same great work, a chamber of almost interminable per- spective, furnished, as Mr. Robins would say, in a style of more than Eastern splendor, and filled (but not inconveniently so) with groups of ladies and gentlemen, in the very highest state of enjoyment and vivacity. Before descending into the bowels of the ship, we had passed from the deck into a long narrow apartment, not unlike a gigantic hearse with windows in the sides ; having at the upper end a melancholy stove, at v.'hich three or four chilly stewards were warming their hands ; while on either side, extending down its whole dreary length, was a long, long table, over each of which a rack, fixed to the low roof, and stuck full of drinking-glasses and cruet-stands, hinted dismally at rolling seas and heavy weather. I had not at that time seen the ideal presentiment of this chamber which has since gratified me so much, but I observed that one of our friends who had made the arrangements for our voyage, turned pale on entering, retreated on the friend behind him, smote his forehead involuntarily, and said below his breath, " Impossible ! it cannot be ! " or words to that effect. He recovered himself however by a great effort, and after a pre- paratory cough or two, cried, with a ghastly smile which is still before me, looking at the same time round the walls.
GOING A WA v. rSj
" Ha ! the breakfast-room, steward— eh ? " We all foresaw what the answer must be : we knew the agony hx suffered. He had often spoke of f/ie saloon ; had taken in and lived upon the pictorial idea ; had usually given us to understand, at home, that tp form a just conception of it, it v;ould be neces- sary to multiply the size and furniture of an ordinary drawing- room by seven, and then fall short of the reality. When tlie man in reply avowed the truth ; the blunt, remorseless, naked truth ; " This is the saloon, sir "—he actually reeled beneath the blow.
In persons who Avere so soon to part, and interpose be- tween their else daily communication the formidable barrier of many thousand miles of stormy space, and who were for that reason anxious to cast no other cloud, not even the pass- ing shadow of a moment's disappointment, or discomfiture, apon the short interval of happy companionship that yet re- mained to them — in persons so situated, the natural transition from these first surprises was obviously into peals of hearty laughter, and I can report that I, for one, being still seated upon the slab or perch before-mentioned, roared outright until the vessel rang again. Thus, in less than two minutes after coming upon it for the first time, we all by common consent agreed that this state-room was the pleasantest and most iacetious and capital contrivance possible ; and that to have had it one inch larger, would have been quite a disagreeable nnd. deplorable state of things. And with this ; and with showing how, — by very nearly closing the door, and twining in and out like serpents, and by counting the little washing slab as _ standing-room,^-we could manage to insinuate four people into it, all at one time ; and entreating each other to cbierve how very airy it was (in dock), and how there was a beautiful port-hole which could be kept open all day (weather permitting), and how there was quite a large bull's-eye just over the looking-glass which would render shaving a perfectly easy and delightful process (when the ship didn't roll too much) ; we arrived, at last, at the unanimous conclusion that it was rather spacious than otherwise : though I do verily believe that, deducting the two berths, one above the other, than which nothing smaller for sleeping in was ever made except cofiins, it was no bigger than one of those hackney cabriolets vdiich have the door behind, and shoot their fares out, like sacks of coals, upon the pavement.
Having settled this point to the perfect satisfaction of al]
^88 AMER/CAX XOTKS.
parties, concerned and unconcerned, we sat down round the fire in tl' ^ ladies' cabin — just to try the effect. It was rather dark, certainly ; but somebody said, " of course it would be light, at sea," a proposition to which we all assented ; echoing " of course, of course ; " though it would be exceedingly diffi- cult to say why we thought so. I remember, too, when we had discovered and exhausted another topic of consolation in the circumstance of this ladies' cabin adjoining our state-room, and the consequently immense feasibility of sitting there at all times and seasons, and had fallen into a momentary silence, leaning our faces on our hands and looking at the fire, one cf our party said, with the solemn air of a man who had made a discovery, " What a relish mulled claret will have down here ! '"' which appeared to strike us all most forcibly ; as though then* were something spicy and high-flavored in cabins, which essentially improved that composition, and rendered it quitii incapable of perfection anywhere else.
There was a stewardess, too, actively engaged in produc- ing clean sheets and tablecloths from the very entrails of the. sofas, and from unexpected lockers, of such artful mechanism, that it made one's head ache to see thepi opened one after another, and rendered it quite a distracting circumstance tc» follow her proceedings, and to find that every nook and corner and individual piece of furniture was something else besides what it pretended to be, and was a mere trap and deception and place of secret stowage, whose ostensible purpose was itr least useful one.
God bless that stewardess for her piously fraudulent ac count of January voyages ! God bless her for her clear recol • lection of the companion passage of last year, when nobody was ill, and everybody dancing from morning to night, and it was " a run " of twelve days, and a piece of the purest frolic, and delight, and jollity ! 'All happiness be with her for her bright face and her pleasant Scotch tongue, vv'hich had sounds of old Home in it for my fellow-traveller ; and for her predic tions of fair winds and line weather (all Avrong, or I shouldn't be half so fond of her) : and for the ten thousand small frag- ments of genuine womanly tact, by which, without piecing them elaborately together, and patching them up into shape and form and case and pointed application, she nevertheless did plainly show that all young mothers on one side of the Atlantic were near and close at hand to their little children left upon the other ; and that what seemed to the uninitiated
GOING A IVA Y.
589
a serious journey, was, to those who were in the secret, a mere frolic, to be sung about and whistled at ! Light be her heart, and gay her merry eyes, for years !
The state-room had grown pretty fast ; but by this time it had expanded into something quite bulky, and almost boasted a bay-window to view the sea from. So we went upon deck again in high spirits ; and there, everything was in such a state of bustle and active preparation, that the blood quick- ened its pace, and whirled through one's veins on that clear frosty morning with involuntary mirthfulness. For every gal- lant ship was riding slowly up and down, and every little boat was splashing noisily in the water ; and knots of people stood upon the wharf, gazing with a kind of "dread delight" on the far-famed fast American steamer ; and one party of men were " taking in the milk," or, in other words, getting the cow on board ; and another were filling the icehouses to the very throat with fresh provisions ; with butchers'-meat and garden- stuff, pale sucking-pigs, calves' heads in scores, beef, veal, and pork, and poultry out of all proportion ; and others were coil- ing ropes and busy with oakum yarns' ; and others were lowei ■ ing heavy packages into the hold ; and the purser's head wa:? barely visible as it loomed in a state of exquisite perplexity from the midst of a vast pile of passengers' luggage; and there seemed to be nothing going on anywhere, or uppermost in the mind of anybody, but preparations for this mighty voy- age. This, with the bright cold sun, the bracing air, the crisply-curling water, the thin white crust of morning ice upor. the decks which crackled with a sharp and cheerful sound beneath the lightest tread, was irresistible. And when, again upon the shore, we turned and saw from the vessel's mast her name signalled in flags of joyous colors, and fluttering by their side the beautiful American banner with its stars and stripes, — the long three thousand miles and more, and, longer still, the six whole months of absence, so dwindled and faded, that the ship had gone out and come home again, and it was broad spring already in the Coburg Dock at Liverpool.
I have not inquired among my medical acquaintance, whether Turtle, and cold Punch, with Hock, Champagne, and Claret, and all the slight et cetera usually included in an un- limited order for a good dinner — especially when it is left to the liberal construction of my faultless friend, Mr. Radley, of the Adelphi Hotel — are peculiarly calculated to suffer a sea- change ; or whether a plain mutton-chop, and a glass or two
5 9 o A ME RICA N NO TES.
of sherry, would be less likely of conversion into foreign and disconcerting material. My own opinion is, that whether one is discreet or indiscreet in these particulars, on the eve of a sea-voyage, is a matter of little consequence ; and that, to use a common phrase, "it comes to very much the same thing in the end." Be this as it may, I know that the dinner of that day was undeniably perfect ; that it comprehended all these items, and a great many more ; and that we all did ample justice to it. And I know too, that, bating a certain tacit avoidance of any allusion to to-morrow ; such as may be sup- posed to prevail between delicate-minded turnkeys, and a sensitive prisoner who is to be hanged next morning ; we got on very well, and, all things considered, v/ere merry enough.
When the morning — the morning — came, and we met at breakfast, it was curious to see how eager we all were to pre- vent a moment's pause in the conversation, and how astound- ingly gay everybody was : the. forced sjDirits of each member of the liLtle party having as much likeness to his natural mirth, as hot-house peas at five guineas the quart, resemble in flavor the growth of the dews, and air, and rain of Heaven. But as one o'clock, the hour for going aboard, drew near, this volu- bility dwindled away by little and little, despite the most per- severing efforts to the contrary, until at last, the matter being now quite desperate, we threw off all disguise ; openly specu- lated upon where we should be this time to-morrow, this time next day, and so forth ; and entrusted a vast number of mes- sages to those who intended returning to town that night, which were to be delivered at home and elsewhere without fail, within the very shortest possible space of time after the arrival of the railway train at Euston Square. And commis- sions and remembrances do so crowd upon one at such a time, that we were still busied with this employment when we found ourselves fused, as it were, into a clense conglomeration of passengers and passengers' friends and passengers' luggage, all jumbled together on the deck of a small steamboat, and panting and snorting off to the packet, which had worked out of dock yesterday afternoon and was now lying at her moor- ings in the river.
And there she is ! all eyes are turned to where she lies, dimly discernible through the gathering fog of the early win- ter afternoon ; every finger is pointed in the same direction ; and murmurs of interest and admiration — as " How beautiful she looks ! " " How trim she is ! " — are heard on every side.
GOING AWAY. ^gi
Even the lazy gentleman with his hat on one side and his hands in his pockets, who has dispensed so much consolation by mquiring with a yawn of another gentleman whether he is "going across " — as if it were a ferry — CA^en he condescends to look that way, and nod his head, as who should say, " No mistake about that: " and not even the sage Lord Burleigh in his nod,_ included half so much as this lazy gentleman of might who has made the passage (as everybody on board has found out already ; it's impossible to say how) thirteen times with- out a single accident ! There is another passenger very much wrapped-up, who has been frowned down by the rest, and morally trampled upon and crushed, for presuming to inquire with a timid interest how long it is since the poor President went down. He is standing close to the lazy gentleman, and says with a faint smile that he believes She is a very strong Ship ; to which the lazy gentleman, looking first in his ques- tioner's eye and then very hard in the wind's, answers unex- pectedly and ominously, that She need be. Upon this the lazy gentleman instantly falls very low in the popular. estima- tion, and the passengers, with looks of defiance, whisper to each other that he is an ass, and an impostor, and clearjy don't know anything at all about it.
But we are made fast alongside the packet, whose huge red funnel is smoking bravely, giving rich promise of serious intentions. Packing-cases, portmanteaus, carpet bags, and boxes, are already passed from hand to hand, and hauled on board with breathless rapidity. The officers, smartly dressed, are at the gangway handing the passengers up the side, and hurrying the men. In five minutes' time, the little steamer is utterly deserted, and the packet is beset and over-run by its late freight, who instantly pervade the whole ship, and are to be met with by the dozen in every nook and corner ; swarming down below with their own baggage, and stumbling over other people's ; disposing themselves comfortably in wrong cabins, and creating a most horrible confusion by having to turn out again ; madly bent upon opening locked doors, and on forcing a passage into all liinds of ou'.-of-the- way places where there is no thoroughfare ; sending wild stewards, with elfin hair, to and fro upon the breezy docks on unintelligible errands, impossible of execution : and in bhort, creating the most extraordinary and bewildering tumul:. In the midst of all this, the 4-azy gentleman, who seems to have no luggage of any kind — not so much as a friend, c. en — ■
i93
AMERICAN NOTES.
lounges up and clown the hurricane deck, coolly puffing a cigar ; and, as this unconcerned demeanor again exalts him in the opinion of those who have leisure to observe his pro- ceedings, every time he looks up at the masts, or down at the decks, or over the side, they look there too, as wondering whether he sees anything wrong anywhere, and hoping that, in case he should, he will have the goodness to mention it.
What have we here? The captain's boat! and 'yonder the captain himself. Now, by all our hopes and wishes, the very man he ought to be ! A well-made, tight-built, dapper little fellow ; with a ruddy face, which is a letter of invitation to shake him by both hands at once ; and with a clear, blue, honest eye, that it does one good to see one's sparkling image in. " Ring the bell ! " " Ding, ding, ding ! " the very bell is in a hurry. ''Now for the shore — who's for ths shore?" — "These gentlemen, 1 am sorry to say." They ar.e away, and never said, Good-b'ye. Ah ! now they wave it from the little boat. "Good-b'ye! Good-b'ye!" Three cheers from them ; three more from us ; three more from them : and they are gone.
To* and fro, to and fro, to and fro again a hundred tim^es ! This waiting for the latest mail-bags is worse than all. If we could have gone off in the midst of that last burst, we should have started triumphantly : but to lie here, two hours and more in the damp fog, neither staying at home nor going abroad, is letting one gradually down into the very depths of dulness and low spirits. A speck in the mist, at last ! Tliat's something. It is the boat we wait for! That's more to the purpose. The captain appears on the paddle-box with his speaking trumpet ; the officers take their stations ; all hands are on the alert ; the flagging hopes of the jDassengers revive ; the cooks pause in their savory work, and look out with faces full of interest. The boat comes alongside ; the bags are dragged in anyhow, and flung down for the moment anywhere. Three clieers more : and as the first one rings upon our ears, the vessel throbs like a strong giant that has just received the breath of life ; the two great v/heels turn fiercely round for the first time ; and the noble ship, with wind and tide astern, breaks proudly through the lashed and foaming water.
THE PASSAGE OUT 553
CHAPTER 11.
THE PASSAGE OUT.
We all dined together that day ; and 'a rather formidable party we were : no fewer than eighty-six strong. The vessel being pretty deep in the water, with all her coals on board and so many passengers, and the weather being calm and quiet, there was but little motion ; so that before the dinner was half over, even those passengers who were most distrust- ful of themselves plucked up amazingly \ and those who in the morning had returned to the universal question, " Are you a good sailor t " a very decided negative, now either parried the inquiry with the evasive reply, " Oh ! I suppose I'm no worse than anybody else ; " or, reckless of all moral obligations, answered boldly '^ Yes : " and with some irrita- tion too, as though they would add, " I should like to know what you see in fiie^ sir, particularly, to justify suspicion ! "
Notwithstanding this high tone of courage and confidence, ] could not but observe that ver}- few remained long over \ heir wine ; and that everybody had an unusual love of the (pen air j and that the favorite and most coveted seats were invariably those nearest to the door. The tea-table, too, was liy no means as well attended as the dinner-table ; and there v/as less whist-playing than might have been expected. Still, with the exception of one lady, who had retired with some precipitation at dinner-time, immediately after being assisted to the finest cut of a ver}^ yellow boiled leg of mutton with very green capers, there were no invalids as yet ; and walk- ing, and smoking, and drinking of brandy-and-water (but always in the open air), went on with unabated spirit, until eleven o'clock or thereabouts, when "turning in" — no sailor of seven hours' experience talks of going to bed — became the order of the night. The perpetual tramp of boot-heels on the decks gave place to a heavy silence, and the whole human freight was stowed away below, excepting a very few stragglers, like myself, who were probably, like me, afraid to go there.
To one unaccustomed to such scenes, this is a very strik- ing time on shipboard. Aften^ards, and when its novelty
594
AMERICAN no:
had long worn off, it never ceased to have a peculiar interest and charm for me. The gloom through which the great black mass holds its direct and certain course ; the rushing water, plainly heard, but dimly seen ; the broad, white, glis- tening track, that follows in the vessel's wake ; the men on the look-out forward, who would be scarcely visible against the dark sky, but for their blotting out some score of glisten- ing stars ; the helmsman at the wheel, with the illuminated card before him, shining, a speck of light amidst the darkness, like something sentient and of Divine intelligence ; the mel- ancholy sighing of the wind through block, and rope, and chain ; the gleaming forth of light from every crevice, nook, and tiny piece of glass about the decks, as though the ship were filled with fire in hiding, ready to burst through any out- let, wild with its resistless power of death and ruin. At first, too, and even when the hour, and all the objects it exalts, have come to be familiar, it is difficult, alone and thoughtful, to hold them to their proper shapes and forms. They change with the wandering fancy ; assume the semblance of things left far away ; put on the well-remembered aspect of favorite places dearly loved; and even people them with shadows. Streets, houses, rooms ; figures so like their usual occupants, that they have startled me by their reality, which far exceeded, as it seemed to me, all power of mine to conjure up the ab- sent ; have, many and many a time, at such an hour, grown suddenly out of objects with whose real look, and use, and purpose, I was as well acquainted as Avith my own two hands. My own two hands, and feet likewise, being very cold, however, on this particular occasion, I crept below at mid- night. It was not exactly comfortable below. It was decicj- edly close ; and it was impossible to be unconscious of the presence of that extraordinary compound of strange smells, which is to be found nowhere but on board ship, and which is such a subtle perfume that it seems to enter at every pore of the skin, and whisper of the hold. Two passengers' wives (one of them my own) lay already in silent agonies on the sofa ; and one lady's maid {tny lady's) was a mere bundle on the floor, execrating lier destiny, and pounding her curl-papers among the stray boxes. Everything sloped the wrong way : which in itself was an aggravation scarcely to be borne. I had left the door open, a moment before, in the bosom of a gentle declivity, and, when I turned to shut it, it was on the summit of a lofty eminence. Now every plank and timber
THE PASSAGE OUT.
595
creaked, as if the ship were made of wicker-work ; and now crackled, hke an enormous fire of the driest possible twigs. There was nothing for it but bed ; so I went to bed.
It was pretty much the same for the next two days, with a tolerably fair wind and dry weather. I read in bed (but to this hour I don't know what) a good deal ; and reeled on deck a little ; drank cold brandy-and-water with an unspeak- able disgust, and ate hard biscuit perseveringly ; not ill, but going to be.
It is the third morning. I am awakened out of my sleep by a dismal shriek from my wife, who demands to know whether there's any danger. I rouse myself, and look out of bed. The water-jug is plunging and leaping like a lively dolphin ; all the small articles are afloat, except my shoes, which are stranded on a carpet-bag, high and dry, like a couple of coal-barges. Suddenly I see them spring into the' uir, and behold the looking-glass, which is nailed to the wall, sticking fast upon the ceiling. At the same time the door entirely disappears, and a new one is opened in the floor. Then I begin to comprehend that the state-room is standing on its head.
Before it is possible to make any arrangement at all com • patible with this novel state of things, the ship rights. Before one can say " Thank Heaven ! " she wrongs again. Before owQ. can cry she is wrong, she seems to have started forward, and to be a creature actually running of its own accord, with, broken knees and failing legs, through every variety of hok and pitfall, and stumbling constantly. Before one can sc much as wonder, she takes a high leap into the air. Before she has well done that, she takes a deep dive into the water. Before she has gained the surface, she throws a summerset. The instant she is on her legs, she rushes backward. And so she goes on staggering, heaving, wrestling, leaping, diving, jumping, pitching, throbbing, rolling, and rocking : and going through all these movements, sometimes by turns, and some- times altogether : until one feels disposed to roar for mercy.
A steward passes. " Steward ! " " Sir 1 " " What ts the matter ? what do you call this ? " " Rather a heavy sea on, sir, and a head-wind."
A head-wind ! Imagine a human face upon the vessel's prow, with fifteen thousand Samsons in one bent upon driving her back, and hitting her exactly between the eyes whenever she attempts to advance an inch. Imagine the ship herself,
£596 AMEKfCAX XOJ'ES.
with every pulse and arter}' of her huge body swollen and bursting under this maltreatment, sworn to go on or die. Imagine the wind howling, the sea roaring, the rain beating ; all in furious array against her. Picture the sky both dark and wild, and the clouds, in fearful sympathy with the waves, making another ocean in the air. Add to all this, the clatter- ing on deck and down below ; the tread of hurried feet ; the loud hoarse shouts of seamen ; the gurgling in and out of water through the scuppers ; with, every now and then, the striking of a heavy sea upon the planks above, with the deep, dead, heavy sound of thunder heard within a vault ; — and there is the head-wind of that January morning.
I say nothing of what may be called the domestic noises of the ship : such as the breaking of glass and crocker\% the tumbling down of stewards, the gambols, overhead, of loose casks and truant dozens of bottled porter, and the ver}^ re- markable and far from exhilarating sounds raised in their various state-rooms by the seventy passengers who were too ill to get up to breakfast. I say nothing of them : for although I lay listening to this concert for three or four clays, I don't think I heard it for more than a quarter of a minute, at the expiration of which term, I lay down again, excessively sea- sick.
Not sea-sick, be it understood, in the ordinary acceptation of the term : I wish I had been : but in a form which I have •never seen or heard described, though I have no doubt it is very common. I lay there, all the day long, quite coolly, and contentedly; with no sense of weariness, with no desire to get up, or get better, or take the air ; with no curiosity, or care, or regret, of any sort or degree, saving that I think I can remember, in this universal indifference, having a kind of lazy joy — of fiendish delight, if anything so lethargic can be dignified with the title — in the fact of my wife being too ill to talk to me. If I may be allowed to illustrate my state of mind by such an example, I should say that I was exactly in the condition of the elder Mr. Willet, after the in- cursion of the rioters into his bar at Chigwell. Nothing would have surprised me. If, in the momentaiy illumination of any ray of intelligence that may have come upon me in the way of thoughts of Home, a goblin postman, with a scar- let coat and bell, had come into that little kennel before me, broad awake in broad day, and, apologizing for being damp through walking in the sea, had handed me a letter directed
THE PA SSA GE ■ O UT. ^ ^ ^
to myself, in familiar characters, I am certain I should not have felt one atom of astonishment : I should have been per- fectly satisfied. If Neptune himself had walked in, with a toasted shark on his trident, I should have looked upon the event as one of the very commonest everyday occurrences.
Once — once — I found myself on deck. I don't know how I got there, or what possessed me to go there, but there I was ; and completely dressed too, with a huge pea-coat on, and a pair of boots such as no weak man in his senses could ever have got into. I found myself standing, when a gleam of consciousness came upon me, holding on to something. I don't know what. I think it was the boatswain ; or it may have been the pump : or possibly the cow. I can't say how long I had been there ; whether a day or a minute. I recol- lect trying to think about something (about anything in the whole wide world, I was not particular) without the smallest effect. I could not even make out which was the sea, and which the sky, for the horizon seemed drunk, and was flying wildly about in all directions. Even in that incapable state, however, I recognized the lazy gentleman standing before me : nautically clad in a suit of shaggy blue, with an oilskin hat. But I was too imbecile, although I knew it to be he, to separate him from his dress ; and tried to call him, I remem- ber. Pilot. After another interval of total unconsciousness, I found he had gone, and recognized another figure in its place. It seemed to wave and fluctuate before me as though I saw it reflected in an unsteady looking-glass ; but I knew it for the captain ; and such was the cheerful influence of his face, that I tried to smile : yes, even then I tried to smile. I saw by his gestures that he addressed me ; but it was a long time before I could make out that he remonstrated against my standing up to my knees in water — as I was; of course I don't know why. I tried to thank him, but couldn't. I could only point to my boots — or wherever I supposed my boots to be — and say in a plaintive voice, " Cork soles : " at the same time endeavoring, I am told, to sit down in the pool. Finding that I was quite insensible, and for the time a maniac, he humanely conducted me below^
There I remained until I got better : suffering, whenever I w^as recommended to eat anything, an amount of anguish only second to that which is said to be endured by the ap- parently drowned, in the process of restoration to life. One gentleman on board had a letter of introduction to me from a
598
A ME RICA N NO TES.
mutual friend in London. He sent it below with his card, on the morning of the head-wind ; and I was long troubled with the idea that he might be up, and well, and a hundred times a day expecting me to call upon him in the saloon. I im- agined him one of those cast-iron images — I will not call them men— who ask, with red faces, and lusty voices, what sea-sick- ness means, and whether it really is as bad as it is repre- sented to be. This was very torturing indeed ; and I don't think I ever felt such perfect gratification and gratitude of heart, as I did when I heard from the ship's doctor that he had been obliged to put a large mustard poultice on this very gentleman's stomach. I date my recovery from the receipt of that intelligence.
It was materially assisted though, I have no doubt, by a heavy gale of wind, which came slowly up at sunset, when we were about ten days out, and raged with gradually increasing fury until morning, saving that it lulled for an hour a little before midnight. There was something in the unnatural re- pose of that hour, and in the after gathering of the storm, so inconceivably awful and tremendous, that its bursting into full violence was almost a relief.
The laboring of the ship in the troubled sea on this night I shall never forget. " Will it ever be worse than this ? " was a question I had often heard asked, when everything was sliding and bumping about, and when it certainly did seem difficult to comprehend the possibility of anything afloat being more disturbed without toppling over and going down. But ivhat the agitation of a steam vessel is, on a bad winter's night in the wild Atlantic, it is impossible for the most vivid imagination to conceive. To say that she is flung down on her side in the waves, with her masts dipping into them, and that, springing up again, she rolls over on the other side, until a heavy sea strikes her with the noise of a hundred great guns and hurls her back — that she stops, and staggers, and shivers, as though stunned, and then, with a violent throbbing at her heart, darts onward like a monster goaded into madness, to be beaten down, and battered, and crushed, and leaped on by the angry sea — that thunder, lightning, hail, and rain, and wind, arc all in fierce contention for the mastery — that every plank has its groan, every nail its shriek, and every drop of water in the great ocean its howling voice — is nothing. To say that all is grand, and all appalling and horrible in the last degree, is nothing. Words cannot express it. Thoughts
THE PASSAGE OUT. ^cjc,
cannot convey it. Only a dream can call it up again, in all its fur}-, rage, and passion.
And yet, in the very midst of these terrors, I was placed in a situation so exquisitely ridiculous, that even then I had as stronge a sense of its absurdity as I have now, and could no more help laughing than I can at any other comical inci- dent, happening under circumstances the most favorable to its enjoyment. About midnight we shipped a sea, which forced its way through the skylights, burst open the doors above, and came raging and roaring down into the ladies' cabin, to the unspeakable consternation of my wife and a lit- tle Scotch lady — who, by the way, had previously sent a mes- sage to the captain by the stewardess, requesting him, with her compliments, to have a steel conductor immediately at- tached to the top of every mast, and to the chimney, in order that the ship might not be struck by lightning. They and' the handmaid before-mentioned, being in such ecstasies of fear that I scarcely knew what to do with them, I naturally bethought myself of some restorative or . comfortable cordial; and nothing better occurring to me, at the moment, than hot brandy-and-water, I procured a tumbler full without delay. It being impossible to stand or sit without holding on, th(^y were all heaped together in one corner of a long sofa — a fix- ture extending entirely across the cabin — where they clung to each other in momentary expectation of being drowned. When I approached this place with my specific, and w;ts about to administer it with many consolatory expressions to the nearest sufferer, what was my dismay to see them all roll slowly down to the other end. And when I staggered to that end, and held out the glass once more, how immensely baffled were my good intentions by the ship giving another lurch, and their all rolling back again ! I suppose I dodged them up and down this sofa for at' least a quarter of an hour, with- out reaching them once ; and by the time I did catch them, the brandy-and-water was diminished by constant spilling, to a teaspoonful. To complete the group, it is necessary to recognize in this disconcerted dodger, an individual v^rj pale from sea-sickness, who had shaved his beard and brushed his hair, last, at Liverpool : and whose only article of dress (linen not included) were a pair of dreadnought trousers ; a blue jacket, formerly admired upon the Thames at Richmond j no stockings ; and one sUpper.
Of the outrageous antics performed by that ship next
6 oo A ME RICA .V yO TES.
morning ; which made bed a practical joke, and getting up, by . any process short of falling out, an impossibility ; I say no-: thing. But anything like the utter dreariness and desolation that met my eyes when I, literally " tumbled up " on deck at noon, I never saw. Ocean and sky were all of one dull, heavy, uniform, lead color. There was no extent of prospect even over the dreary waste that lay around us, for the sea ran high, and the horizon encompassed us like a large black hoop. Viewed from the air, or some tall bluff on shore, it would have been imposing and stupendous, no doubt j but seen from the wet and rolling decks, it only impressed one giddily and painfully. In the gale of last night the life-boat had been crushed by one blow of the sea like a walnut-shell ; and there it hung dangling in the air : a mere faggot of crazy boards. The planking of the paddle-boxes had been torn ■sheer away. The wheels were exposed and bare ; and they whirled and dashed their spray about the decks at random. Chimney, white with crusted salt; topmasts struck; storm- s^iils set ; rigging all knotted, tangled, wet, and drooping : a gloomier picture it would be hard to look upon.
I was now comfortably established by courtesy in the ladies' cabin, where, besides ourselves, there were only four other passengers. First, the little Scotch lady before mentioned, on her way to join her husband at New York, who had settled there three years before. Secondly and thirdly, an honest young Yorkshireman connected with some American house ; domiciled in that same city, and carrying thither his beautiful }/oung wife to whom he had been married but a fortnight, and who was the fairest specimen of a comely English country g;irl I have ever seen. Fourthly, fifthly, and lastly, another couple : newly married too, if one might judge from the endearments they frequently interchanged : of whom I laiow no more than that they were rather a mysterious, run-away kind of couple ; that the lady had great personal attractions also ; and that the gentleman carried more guns with him than Robinson Crusoe, v;ore a shooting-coat, and had two great dogs on board. On further consideration, I re- member that he tried hot roast pig and bottled ale as a cure for sea-sickness ; and that he took these remedies (usually in bed) day after day, with astonishing perseverance. I may add, foB the information of the curious, that they decidedly failed.
Th(£ v/eather continuing obstinately and almost i.nprecc-
( THE PASSAGE OUT. 6oi
dentedly bad, we usually straggled into this cabin, more or less faint and miserable, about an hour before noon, and lay down on the sofas to recover ; during which interval, the captain would look in to communicate the state of the wind, the moral certainty of its changing to-morrow (the weather" is always going to impro^'e to-morrow, at sea), the vessel's rate of sailing, and so forth. Observations there were none to tell us of, for there was no sun to take them by. But a description of one day will serve for all the rest. Here it is. The captain being gone, we compose ourselves to read, if the place be light enough ; and if not, we doze and talk alter- nately. At one, a bell rings, and the stewardess comes down with a steaming dish of baked potatoes, and another of roasted apples ; and plates of pig's face, cold ham, salt beef ; or per- haps a smoking mess of rare hot collops. We fall to upon these dainties ; eat as much as we can (we have great appe- tites now) ; and are as long as possible about it. If the fire will burn (it zuill sometimes) we are pretty cheerful. If it won't, we all remark to each other that it's very cold, rub our hands, cover ourselves with coats and cloaks, and lie down again to doze, talk, and read (provided as aforesaid), until dinner-time. At five, another bell rings, and the stewardess reappears with another dish of potatoes — boiled this time — and store of hot meat of various kinds : not forgetting the roast pig, to be 'taken medicinally. We sit down at table again (rather more cheerfully than before) ; prolong the meal with a rather mouldy dessert of apples, grapes, and oranges ; and drink our wine and brandy-and-water. The bottles and glasses are still upon the table and the oranges and so forth are rolling about according to their fancy and the ship's way, when the doctor comes down, by special nightly invitation, to join our evening rubber : immediately on whose arrival we make a party at whist, and as it is a rough night and the cards will not lie on the cloth, we put the tricks in our pock- ets as we take them. At whist we remain with exemplary gravity (deducting a short time for tea and toast) until eleven o'clock, or thereabouts ; when the captain comes down again, in a sou'-wester hat tied under his chin, and a pilot-coat ; making the ground wet v/here he stands. By this time the card-playing is over, and the bottles and glasses are again upon the table ; and after an hour's pleasant conversatioD about the ship, the passengers, and things in general, the cap- tain (v/ho never goes to bed, and is never out ot humor; turns
6 o 2 A ^ '/^ A' /CA N . \ O TES.
up his coat collar for the deck again ; shakes hands all round; and goes laughing out into the weather as merrily as to a birthday party.
As to daily news, there is no dearth of that commodity. This passenger is reported to have lost fourteen pounds at Vingt-et-un in the saloon yesterday ; and that passenger drinks his bottle of champagne every day, and how he does it (being only a clerk), nobody knows. The head engineer has distinctly said that there never was such times — meaning weather — and four good hands are ill, and have given in, dead beat. Several berths are full of water, and all the cabins are leaky. The ship's cook, secretl}^ swigging damaged whiskey, has been found drunk ; and has been played upon by the fire-engine until quite sober. All the stewards have fallen down stairs at various dinner-times, and go about with plasters in various places. The baker is ill, and so is the pastry-cook. A new man, horribly indisposed, has been required to fill the place of the latter officer ; and has been propped and jammed up with empt}^ casks in a little house upon deck, and commanded to roll out pie-crust, which he protests (being highly bilious) it is death to him to look at. News ! A dozen murders on shore would lack the interest of these slight incidents at sea.
Divided between our rubber and such topics as these^ we were running (as we thought) into Halifax Harbor, on the fifteenth night, with little wind and a bright moon — indeed, we had made the Light at its outer entrance, and put the pilot in charge — when suddenly the ship struck upon a bank of mud. An immediate rush on deck took place of course ; the sides were crowded in an instant ; and for a few minutes we were in as lively a state of confusion as the greatest lover of disorder would desire to see. The passengers, and guns, and water-casks, and other heavy matters, being all huddled togetlier aft, hov\^ever, to lighten her in the head, she was soon got off ; and after some driving on towards an uncomfortable line of objects (whose vicinity had been announced very early in the disaster by a loud cry of " Breakers-a-head ! "') and much backing of paddles, and heaving of the lead into a con- stantly decreasing depth of water, we dropped anchor in a strange outlandish-looking nook which nobody on board could recognize, although there was land all about us, and so close that we could plainly see the waving branches of the trees.
It was strange enough, in the silence of midnight, arid the dead stillness that seemed to be created by the sudden and
THE PASSAGE OUT.
603
anexpectecl stoppage of the engine which had been clanking and blasting in our ears incessantly for so many days, to watch the look of blank astonishment expressed in every face : beginning with the officers, tracing it through all the passen- gers, and descending to the very stokers and furnacemen, who emerged from below, one by one, and clustered together in a smoky group about the hatchway of the engine-room, compar- ing notes in whispers. After throwing up a few rockets and firing signal guns in the hope of being hailed from the land, or at least of seeing a light — but without any other sight or sound presenting itself — it was determined to send a boat on shore. It was amusing to observe how very kind some of the passengers were, in volunteering to go ashore in this same boat : for the general good, of course : not by any means be- cause they thought the ship in an unsafe position, or contem- plated the possibility of her heeling over in case the tide were running out. Nor was it less amusing to remark how desper- ately unpopular the poor pilot became in one short minute. He had had his passage out from Liverpool, and during the whole voyage had been quite a notorious character, as a teller of anecdotes and cracker of jokes. Yet here were the very men who had laughed the loudest at his jests, now flourishing their lists in his face, loading him with imprecations, and de- fying him to his teeth as a villain.
The boat soon shoved off, with a lantern and sundry blue lights on board ; and in less than an hour returned ; the offi- cer in command bringing with him a tolerably tall young tree, vdiich he had plucked up by the roots, to satisfy certain dis- taistful passengers whose minds misgave them that they were to be imposed upon and shipwrecked, and v/ho would on no other terms believe that he had been ashore, or had done any- thing but fraudulently row a little way into the mist, specially to deceive them and compass their deaths. Our captain had foreseen from the first that we must be in a place called the Eastern passage ; and so we were. It was about the last place in the world in which we had any business or reason to be, but a sudden fog, and some error on the pilot's part, were the cause. We were surrounded by banks, and rocks, and shoals of all kinds, but had happily drifted, it seemed, upon the only safe speck that was to be found thereabouts. Eased by this report, and by the assurance that the tide was past the ebb, we turned in at three o'clock in the morning.
I was dressing about half-past nine next day, when the
6o4
AMERICAN NOTES.
noise above hurried me on deck. When I had left it over- night, it was dark, foggy, and damp, and there were bleak hills all round us. Now, we were gliding down a smooth, broad stream, at the rate of eleven miles an hour ; our colors flying gayly ; our crew rigged out in their smartest clothes • our officers in uniform again ; the sun shining as on a brilliant April day in England ; the land stretched out on either side, streaked with light patches of snow ; white wooden houses ; people at their doors ; telegraphs working ; flags hoisted ; wharfs appearing ; ships ; quays crowded with people ; dis- tant noises ; shouts ; men and boys running down steep places towards the pier : all more bright and gay and fresh to our unused eyes than words can paint them. We came to a wharf, p^ved with uplifted faces ; got alongside, and were made fast, after some shouting and straining of cables ; darted, a score of us along the gangway, almost as soon a.s it was thrust out to meet us, and before it had reached the ship — and leaped upon the firm glad earth again !
I suppose this Halifax would have appeared an Elysium, though it had been a curiosity of ugly dulness. But I carried away with me a most pleasant impression of the town and its inhabitants, and have preserved it to this hour. Nor was it without regret that I came home, without having found an opportunity of returning thither, and once more shaking hands with the friends I made that day.
It happened to be the opening of the Legislative Council and General Assembly, at which ceremonial the forms ob- served on the commencement of a new Session of Parliament in England were so closely copied, and so gravely presented on a small scale, that it was like looking at Westminster through the wrong end of a telescope. The governor, as her Majesty's repieseiitative, delivered what may be called the Speech from the Throne. Ele said what he had to say man- fully and well. The military band outside the,buildmg struck up " God save the Queen " with great vigor before his Ex- cellency had quite finished ; the people shouted ; the in's rubbed their hands; the out's shook their heads; the Govern- ment party said there never was such a good speech ; the Opposition declared there never was such a. bad one; the Speaker and members of the Elouse of Assembly withdrew from the bar to say a great deal among themselves and do a little : and, in short, everything went on, and promised to go on, just as it does at home upon the like occasions.
THE PASSAGE OUT 605
The town is built on the side of a hill, the highest point being commanded by a strong fortress, nor yet quite finished. Several streets of good breadth and appearance extend from its summit to the water-side, and are intersected by cross streets running parallel with the river. The houses are chiefly of wood. The market is abundantly supplied ; and provisions are exceedingly cheap. The weather being un- usually mild at that time for the season of the year, there was no sleighing: but there were plenty of those vehicles in yards and by-places, and some of them, from the gorgeous quality of their decorations, might have "gone on" without altera- tion as triumphal cars in a melo-drama at Astley's. The day was uncommonly fine ; the air bracing and healthful ; the whole aspect of the town cheerful, thriving, and industrious, v
We lay there seven hours, to deliver and exchange the' mails. At length, having collected all our bags and all our passengers (including two or three choice spirits, who, having indulged too freely in oysters and champagne, were found lying insensible on their backs in unfrequented streets), the engines were again put in motion, and we stood off for Boston.
Encountering squally weather again in the Bay of Fundy, we tumbled and rolled about as usual all that night and all next day. On the next afternoon, that is to say, on Saturda\', the twenty-second of Januar}^, an American pilot-boat came alongside, and soon afterwards the Britannia steam-packe:, from Liverpool, eigl]teen days out, was telegraphed at Bostor ..
The indescribable interest with which I strained my eyes as the first patches of American soil peeped like molehills from the green sea, and followed them, as they swelled, by slow and almost imperceptible degrees, into a continuous line of coast, can hardly be exaggerated. A sharp keen wind blew dead against us ; a hard frost prevailed on the shore ; and the cold was most severe. Yet the air was so intensely clear, and dry, and bright, that the temperature was not only endurable, but delicious.
How I remained on deck, staring about me, until we came alongside the dock, and how, though I had had as many eyes as Argus, I should have had them all wide open, and all employed on new objects — are topics which I will not prolong this chapter to discuss. Neither v/ill I more than hint at my foreigner-like-mistake, in supposing that a party of most active persons, wdio scrambled on board at the peril of their lives as we approached the wharf, were newsmen, answering to that
6o6 AMERICAN NOTES.
industrious class at home ; whereas, despite the leathern wallets of news slung about the necks of some, and the broad sheets in the hands of all, they were Editors, who boarded ships in person (as one gentleman in a worsted comforter informed me), "because they liked the excitement of it." Suffice it in this place to say, that one of these invaders, with a ready courtesy for which I thank him here most gratefully, went on before to order rooms at the hotel ; and that when I followed, as I soon did, I found myself rolling through the long passages with an involuntary imitation of the gait of Mr. T. P. Cooke, in a new nautical melo-drama.
" Dinner, if you please," said I to the waiter.
" When ? " said the waiter.
" As quick as possible," said I.
" Right away ? " said the waiter.
After a moment's hesitation, I answered "No," at hazard.
"iV^^'Z right away?" cried the waiter, with an amount of surprise that made me start.
I looked at him doubtfully, and returned, " No ; I would rather have it in this private room, I like it very much."
At this, I really thought the waiter must have gone out of his mind : as I believe he would have done, but for the inter- position of another man, who whispered in his ear, " Directl}'."
"Well ! and that's a fact ! " said the waiter, looking help- lessly at me : " Right away."
I saw now that " Right away " and ". Directly " were one and the same thing. So I reversed my previous answer, and 3at down to dinner in ten minutes afterwards ; and a capital dinner it was.
The hotel (a very excellent one) is called the Tremont House. It has more galleries, colonnades, piazzas, and pas- sages than I can remember,' or the reader would believe.
CHAPTER HI.
BOSTON.
In all the public establishments of America, the utmost courtesy prevails. Most of our Departments are susceptible of considerable improvement in this respect, but the Custom-
BOSTON. 607
house above all others would do well to take example from the United States and render itself somewhat less odious and offensive to foreigners. The servile rapacity of the French officials is sufficiently contemptible ; but there is a surly boorish incivility about our men, alike disgusting to all persons who fall into their hands, and discreditable to the nation that keeps such ill-conditioned curs snarling about its gates.
When I landed in America, I could not help being strongly impressed with the contrast their Custom-house presented, and the attention, politeness and good-humor with which its officers discharged their duty.
As we did not land at Boston, in consequence of some detention at the wharf, until after dark, I received my first impressions of the city in walking down to the Custom-house on the morning after our arrival, which was Sunday. I am. afraid to say, by the way, how many offers of pews and seats in church for that morning were made to us, by formal rote of invitation, before we had half finished our first dinner iin America, but if I may be allowed to make a moderate guess, without going into nicer calculation, I should say that at least as many sittings were proffered us, as would have accommo- dated a score or two of grown-up families. The number of creeds and forms of religion to which the pleasure of our com pany was requested, was in very fair proportion.
Not being able, in the absence of any change of clothes, to go to church that day, we were compelled to decline these kindnesses, one and all ; and I was reluctantly obliged to forego the delight of hearing Dr. Channing, who happened to preach that morning for the first time in a very long interval. I men- tion the name of this distinguished and accomplished man (with whom I soon afterwards had the pleasure of becoming personally acquainted), that I may have the gratification of recording my humble tribute of admiration and respect for his high abilities and character; and for the bold philanthropy with which he has ever opposed himself to that most hideous blot and foul disgrace — Slavery.
To return to Boston. When I got into the streets upon this Sunday morning, the air was so clear, the houses were so bright and ga}^ ; the signboards were painted in such gaudy colors ; the gilded letters were so very golden ; the bricks were so very red, the stone was so very white, the blinds and area railings were so very green, the knobs and plates upon the street doors' so marvellously bright and twinkling ; and all
6oS AMERICAN .\ X) TES.
SO slight and unsubstantial in appearance — that every thor« oughfare in the city looked exactly like a scene in a panto- mime. It rarely happens in the business streets that a trades- man, if I may venture to call an3^body a tradesman, vv'here everybody is a merchant, resides above his store ; so that many occupations are often carried on in one house, and the whole front is covered with boards and inscriptions. As I walked along, I kept glancing up at these boards, confidently expect- ing to see a few of them change into something ; and I never turned a corner suddenly without looking out for the clown and pantaloon, who, I had no doubt, were hiding in a doorway or behind some pillar close at hand. As to Harlequin and Columbine, I discovered immediately that they lodged (the}^ are always looking after lodgings in a pantomime) at a very small clockmaker's one story high, near the hotel ; which, in addition to various symbols and devices, almost covering the whole front, had a great dial hanging out — to be jumped through, of course.
The suburbs are, if possible, even more unsubstantial- looking than the city. The white wooden houses (so. white that it makes one wink to look at them), with their green jalou- sie blinds, are so sprinkled and dropped about in all direc- tions, without seeming to have any root at all in the ground ; and the small churches and chapels are so prim, and bright, and highly varnished ; that I almost believed the whole affair could be taken up piecemeal like a child's to}^, and crammed into a little box.
The city is a beautiful one, and cannot fail, I should im- agine, to impress all strangers very favorably. The private dwelling-houses are, for the most part, large and elegant ; the shops extremely good ; and the public buildings handsome. The State House is built upon the summit of a hill, which rises gradually at first, and afterwards by a steep ascent, almost from the water's edge. In front is a green enclosure, called the Common. The site is beautiful : and from the top there is a charming panoramic view of the whole town and neighbor- hood. In addition to a variety of commodious offices, it con- tains two handsome chambers ; in one the House of Represen- tatives of the State hold their meetings : in the other, the Sen- ate. Such proceedings as I saw here, were conducted with perfect gravity and decorum ; and were certainly calculated to inspire attention and respect.
There is no doubt that much of the intellectual refinement
BOSTON. 609
and superioriiy of Boston, is referaule to the quiet inliuence of the University of Cambridge, which is within three or four miles of the city. The resident professors at that university are gentlemen of learning-^and varied attainments ; and are, without one exception that I can call to mind, men who would shed a grace upon, and do honor to, any society in the civil- ized world. Many of the resident gentry in Boston and its neighborhood, and I think I am not mistaken in adding, a large majority of those who are attached to the liberal pro- fessions there, have been educated at the same school. What- ever the defects of American universities may be, they dis- seminate no prejudices ; rear no bigots ; dig up the buried ashes of no old superstitions ; never interpose between the people and their improvement ; exclude no man because of his religious opinions ; above all, in their whole course of study and instruction, recognize a v*?orld, and a broad one too, lying beyond the college walls.
It was a source of inexpressible pleasure to me to observe the almost imperceptible, but not less certain effect, wrought by this institution among the small community of Boston ; and to note at every turn the humanizing tastes and desires it has engendered ; the affectionate friendships to which it has given rise; the amount of vanity and prejudice it has dis- pelled. The golden calf they worship at Boston is a pigmy compared with the giant effigies set up in other parts of that vast counting-house which lies beyond the Atlantic ; and the almighty dollar sinks into something comparatively insignifi- cant, amidst a whole Pantheon of better gods.
Above all, I sincerely believe that the public institutions and charities of this capital of Massachijsetts are as nearly perfect, as the most considerate wisdom, benevolence, and humanity, can make them. I never in my life was more af- fected by the contemplation of happiness, under circumstances of privation and bereavement, than in my visits to these establishments.
It is a great and pleasant feature of all such institutions in America, that they are either supported by the State or as- sisted by the State ; or (in the event of their not needing its helping hand) that they act in conce'rt with it, and are emphati- cally the people's. I cannot but think, with a view to the principle and its tendency to elevate or depress the character of the industrious classes, that a Public Charity is immeasur- ably better than a Private Foundation, no matter hov/ m.unifi-
6 1 o A A/ ERICA A' NO TES.
cenlly the latter may be endowed. In our own country, where it has not, until within these later days, been a very popular fashion with governments to display any extraordinary regard for the great mass of the people or to recognize their exist- ence as improveable creatures, private charities, unexampled in the history of the earth, have arisen to do an incalculable amount of good among the destitute and afflicted. But the government of the country, having neither act nor part in them, is not in the receipt of any portion of the gratitude they inspire ; and, offering very little shelter or relief beyond that which is to be found in the workhouse and the jail, has come, not unnaturally, to be looked upon by the poor rather as a stern master, quick to correct and punish, than a kind protector, merciful and vigilant in their hour of need.
The maxim that out of evil cometh good, is strongly illus- trated by these establishments at home ; as the records of the Prerogative Office in Doctors' Commons can abundantly prove. Some immensely rich old gentleman or lady, surrounded by needy relatives, makes, upon a low average, a will a-week. The old gentleman or lady, never very remarkable in the best of times for good temper, is full of aches and pains from head to foot ; full of fancies and caprices ; full of spleen, distrust, suspicion, and dislike. To cancel old wills, and invent new ones, is at last the sole business of such a testator's existence ; and relations and friends (some of whom have been bred up distinctly to inherit a large share of the property, and have been, from their cradles, specially disqualified from devoting themselves to any useful pursuit, on that account) are so often and so unexpectedly and summarily cut off, and re-instated, and cut off again, that the whole family, dov*'n to the remotest cousin, is kept in a perpetual fever. At length it becomes plain that the old lady or gentleman has not long to live ; and the plainer this becomes, the more clearly the old lady or gentleman perceives that everybody is in a conspiracy against their poor old dying relative ; wherefore the old lady or gen- tleman makes another last will — positively the last this time — conceals the same in a china tea-pot, and expires next day. Then it turns out, that the whole of the real and personal estate is divided between half-a-dozen charities ; and ihat the dead and gone testator has in pure spite helped to do a great deal of good, at the cost of an immense amount of evil passion and misery.
The Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for
BOSTON. 6il
the Blind, at Boston, is superintended by a body of trustees who make an annual report to the corporation. The indigent blind of that State are admitted gratuitously. Those from the adjoining State of Connecticut, or from the States of Maine, Vermont, or New Hampshire, are admitted by a warrant from the State to which they respectively belong ; or, failing that must find security among their friends, for the payment ot about twenty pounds English for their first year's board and instruction, and ten for the second, " After the first year," say the trustees, " an account current will be opened with each pupil ; he will be charged with the actual cost of his board, which will not exceed two dollars per week j " a triflti more than eight shillings English ; " and he will be credited with the amount paid for him by the State, or by his friends ; also with his earnings over and above the cost of the stock which he uses; so that all his earnings over one dollar per week will be his own. By the third year it will be known whether his earnings will more than pay the actual cost of his board ; if they should, he will have it at his option to remain and receive his earnings, or not. Those w^ho prove unable to earn their own livelihood will not be retained ; as it is not desirable to convert the establishment into an almshouse, or to retain any but working bees in the hive. Those who by physical or mental imbecility are disqualified from work, are thereby disqualified from being members of an industrious community ; and they can be better provided for in establish- ments fitted for the infirm."
I went to see this place one very fine winter morning : an Italian sky above, and the air so clear and bright on every side, that even my eyes, which are none of the best, could follow the minute lines and scraps of tracery in distant build- ings. Like most other public institutions in America, of the same class, it stands a mile or two without the town, in a cheerful healthy spot ; and is an airy, spacious, handsome edifice. It is built upon a height, commanding the harbor. When I paused for a moment at the door, and marked how fresh and free the whole scene was — what sparkling bubbles glanced upon the waves, and welled up every moment to the surface, as though the world below, like that above, were radiant with the bright day, and gushing over in its fulness of light : when I gazed from sail to sail away upon a ship at sea, a tiny speck of shining white, the only cloud upon the still, deep, distant blue — and, turning, saw a blind boy v/itb
6 1 2 ^ M ERICA N NO TES.
liis sightless face addressed that way, as though he too had some sense within him of the glorious distance : I felt a kind of sorrow that the place should be so very light, and a strange wish that for his sake it were darker. It was but momentary, of course, and a mere fancy, but I felt it keenly for all that.
The children were at their daily tasks in different rooms, except a few who were already dismissed, and were at play. Here, as in many institutions, no uniform is worn ; and I was very glad of it, for two reasons. Firstly, because I am sure that nothing but senseless custom and want of thought would reconcile us to the liveries and badges we are so fond of at home. Secondly, because the absence of these things presents each child to the visitor in his or her own proper character, with its individuality unimpaired ; not lost in a dull, ugly, monotonous repetition of the same unmeaning garb : which is really an important consideration. The wisdom of encourag- ing a little harmless pride in personal appearance even among the blind, or the whimsical absurdity of considering charity and leather breeches inseparable companions, as we do, re- quires no comment.
Good order, cleanliness, and comfort, pervaded ever}^ corner of the building. The various classes, who ^^cere gathered round their teachers, answered the questions put to them with readiness and intelligence, and in a spirit of cheer- ful contest for precedence which pleased me very much. Those who were at play, were gleesome and noisy as other children. More spiritual and affectionate friendships appeared to exist among them, than would be found among other young persons suffering under no deprivation ; but this I expected and was prepared to find. It is a part of the great scheme of Heaven's merciful consideration for the afflicted.
In a portion of the building, set apart for that purpose, are workshops for blind persons whose education is finished, and who have acquired a trade, but who cannot pursue it in an ordinary manufactory because of their deprivation. Several people were at work here ; making brushes, mattresses, and so forth ; and the cheerfulness, industry, and good order dis- cernible in every other part of the building, extended to this department also.
On the ringing of a bell, the pupils all repaired, v/ithout any guide or leader, to a spacious music-hall, where they took their seats in an orchestra erected for that purpose, and listened with manifest delight to a voluntary on the organ
BOSTON. 613
played by one of themselves. At its conclusion, the per- former, a boy of nineteen or twenty, gave place to a girl ; and to her accompaniment they all sang a hymn, and afterwards a sort of chorus. It was very sad to look upon and hear them, happy though their condition unquestionably was ; and I sav/ that one blind girl, who (being for the time dejDrived of the use of her limbs, by illness) sat close beside me with her face towards them, wept silently the while she listened.
It is strange to v/atch the faces of the blind, and see how free they are from all concealment of what is passing in their thoughts ; observing which, a man with eyes may blush to contemplate the mask he wears. Allowing for one shade of anxious exjDression which is never absent from their counte- nances, and the like of which we may readily detect in our own faces if we try to feel our way in the dark, every idea, as it rises within them, is expressed with the lightning's speed and nature's truth. If the company at a rout, or drawing-room at court, c^uld only for one time be as unconscious of the eyes upon them as blind men and women are, what secrets v/ould come out, and what a worker of h3^pocrisy this sight, the loss of Vv'hich we so much pity, would appear to be !
The thought occurred to me as I sat down in another room, before a girl, blind, deaf, and dumb ; destitute of smell ; and nearly so of taste : before a fair young creature with every Iiuman faculty, and hope, and power of goodness and affection, inclosed within her delicate frame, and but one outward sense ■ — the sense of touch. There she was, before me : built up, as it were, in a marble cell, impervious to any ray of light, or particle of sound ; with her poor white hand peeping through a chink in the wall, beckoning to some good man for help, that an Immortal soul might be awakened.
Long before I looked ujDon her, the help had come. Her face was radiant with intelligence and pleasure. Her hair, braided by her own hands, was bound about her head, whose intellectual capacity and development were beautifully ex- pressed in its graceful outline, and its broad open brew; her dress, arranged by herself, was a pattern of neatness and' simplicity; the work she had knitted, lay beside her; hei writing book v/as on the desk she leaned upon. — From the mournful ruin of such bereavement, there had slowly risen up this gentle, tender, guileless, grateful-hearted being.
Like other inmates of that house, she had a green ribbon bound round her eyelids. A doll she had dressed lay near
6 1 4 '^ M ERIC AN NO TES.
upon the ground. I took it up, and saw that she had made a green fillet such as she wore herself, and fastened it about its mimic eyes.
She was seated in a little enclosure, made by school-desks and forms, v/riting her daily journal. But soon finishing this pursuit, she engaged in an animated communication with a teacher who sat beside her. This was a favorite mistress with the poor pupil. If she could see the face of her fair in- structress, she v/ould not love her less, I am sure.
I have extracted a few disjointed fragments of her history, from an account, written by that one man who has made her what she is. It is a very beautiful and touching narrative ; and I wish I could present it entire.
Her name is Laura Bridgman. '' She was born in Han- over, New Hampshire, on the twenty-first of December, 1829. She is described as having been a very sprightly and pretty infant, with bright blue eyes. She was, however, so puny and feeble until she was a year and a half old, that he* parents hardly hoped to rear her. She was subject to severe fits, which seemed to rack her frame almost beyond her power of 'endurance : and life M'as held by the feeblest tenure : but when a year and a half old, she seemed to rally ; the danger- ous symptoms subsided ; and at twenty months old, she was perfectly well.
" Then her mental powers, hitherto stinted in their growth, rapidly developed themselves ; and during the four months of health which she enjoyed, she appears (making due allowance for a fond mother's account), to have displayed a consider- able degree of intelligence.
" But suddenly she sickened again j her disease raged with great violence during five weeks, when her eyes and ears were iniiamed, suppurated, and their contents were discharged. But though sight and hearing w-ere gone for ever, the pool child's sufferings were not ended. The fever raged during seven weeks ; for five months she was kept in bed in a dark- ened room ; it was a year before she could walk unsupported, and two years before she could sit up all day. It was now observed that her sense of smell was almost entirely destroyed, and, consequently, that her taste was much blunted.
" It was not until four years of age that the poor child's bodily health seemed restored, and she v/as able to enter upon her apprenticeship of life and the world.
" But what a situation was hers ! Hie darkness and the
BOSTOiV. 615
silence of the tomb were around her : no mother's smile called forth her answering smile, no father's voice taught her to imi- tate his sounds : — they, brothers and sisters, were but forms of matter which resisted her touch, but which differed not from the fumiture of the house, save 'in warmth, and in the power of locomotion 3 and not even in these respects from the clog and the cat.
" But the iron-iortal spirit which had been implanted within her could not die, nor be maimed nor mutilated ; and though most of its avenues of communication with the world were cut off, it began to manifest itself through the others. As soon as she could walk, she began to explore the room, and then the house ; she became familiar with the form, density, weight, and heat, of ever}^ article she could lay her hands upon. She followed her mother, and felt her hands and arms as she v/as occupied about the house ; and her disposition to imitate, led her to repeat everything herself. She even learned to sew a little, and to knit."
The reader will scarcely need to be told, however, that the opportunities of communicating with her, were very, very lim- ited ; and that the moral effects of her wretched state soon began to appear. Those who cannot be enlightened by reason, can only be controlled by force ; and this, coupled with her great privations, must soon have reduced her to a worse condition than that of the beasts that perish, but for timely and unhoped- for aid.
" At this time, I was so fortunate as to hear of the child, and immediately hastened to Hanover to see her, I found her with a well-formed figure ; a strongly-marked, nervous- sanguine temperament ; a large and beautifully-shaped head ; and the whole system in healthy action. The parents were easily induced to consent to her coming to Boston, and on the 4th of October, 1S37, they brought her to the Institution.
" For a while, she was much bewildered ; and after wait- ing about two weeks, until she became acquainted with her new locality, and somewhat familiar with the inmates, the at- tempt was made to give her knowledge of arbitrary signs, by which she could interchange thoughts with others.
" There v/as one of two ways to be adopted ; either to go on to build up a language of signs on the basis of the natural language which she had already commenced herself, or to teach her the purely arbitrary lanijuage in common use : that is, to give her a sign for every individual thing, or to give her
6 1 6 ^ ME/UCA iV A'O TKS.
a knowledge of letters by combination of which she might express her idea of the existence, and the mode and condition of existence, of any thing. The former would have been easy, but very ineffectual ; the latter seemed very difficult, but, if accomplished, very eiiectual. I determined therefore to try the latter.
" The first experiments w-ere made by taking articles in common use, such as knives, forks, spoons, keys, &:c., and pasting upon them labels with jtheir names printed in raised letters. These she felt very carefully, and soon, of course, distinguished that the crooked lines spoon, differed as much from the crooked lines key, as the spoon differed from the key in form.
" Then small detached labels, with the same v/ords printed upon them, were put into her hands ; and she soon observed that they were similar to the ones pasted on the articles. She showed her perception of this similarity by laying the label keyvc^QW the key, and the label spoon upon the spoon. She was encouraged here by the natural sign of approbation, pat- ting on the liead.
" The same process was then repeated wdth all the articles which she could handle ; and she very easily learned to place the proper labels upon them. It was evident, however, that the only intellectual exercise w-as that of imitation and mem- ory. She recollected that the label book v/as placed upon a l^ook, and she repeated the process first from imitation, next from memory, with only the motive of love of approbation, but apparently v/ithout the intellectual perception of any rela- tion between the things.
"After a while, instead of labels, the individual letters were given to her on detached bits of paper ; they were ar- ranged side by side so as to spell book, key, &c. ; then they v.ere mixed up in a heap and a sign was made for her to ar- range them lierself so as to express the Vv^ords book, key, &c. ; and she did so.
" Hitherto, the process had been mechanical, and the sue- cess about as great as teaching a very knowing dog a variety of tricks. The poor child had sat in mute amazement, and patiently imitated everything her teacher did ; but now the truth began to flash upon her : her intellect began to work : she perceived that here wms a way by which siie could herself make up a sign of anything that was in htr own mind, and shov/ it to another mind ; and at once her countenance lighted
/I OS TON.
6i,
up with a human expression : it was no longer a dog, or parrot : it was an immortal spirit, eagerly seizing upon a new link of union with other spirits ! I could almost fix upon the momerit when this truth dawned upon her mind, and spread its light to her countenance ; I saw that the great obstacJe was over- come ; and that henceforward nothing but patient and perse- vering, but plain and straightforward, efforts were to be used.
" The result thus far, is quickly related, and easily con- ceived ; but not so was the process ; for many weeks of ap- parently unprofitable labor were passed before it was effected.
" When it was said above, that a sign was made, it was in- tended to say, that the action was performed by her teacher, she feeling his hands, and then imitating the motion.
" The next step was to procure a set of metal types, v/ith the different letters of the alphabet cast upon their ends ; also a board, in which were square holes, into which holes slie could set the types ; so that the letters on their ends could alone be felt above the surface.
"Then, on any article being handed to her, for instance, a pencil, or a watch, she would select the component letters, and arrange'them on her board, and read them with apparent ])leasure.
" She was exercised for several weeks in this way, until her vocabulary became extensive ; and then the important step was taken of teaching her how to represent the different letters by the position of her fingers, instead of the cumbrous apparatus of the board and types. She accomplished this speedily and easily, for her intellect had begun to work in aid of her teacher, and her progress was rapid.
" This was the period, about three months after she had commenced, that the first report of her case was made, in wliTch it was stated that ' she has just learned the manual alphabet, as used by the deaf mutes, and it is a subject of de- light and wonder to see how rapidly, correctly, and eagerly, she goes on with her labors. Her teacher gives her a new object, for instance, a pencil, first lets her examine it, and get an idea of its use, then teaches her how to spell it by mak- ing the signs for the letters with her own fingers : the child grasps her hand, and feels her fingers, as the different letters are formed ; she turns her head a little on one side like a per- son listening closely ; her lips are apart ; she seems scarcely to breathe ; and her countenance, at first anxious, gradually changes to a smile, as she comprehends the lesson. She then
6 1 8 AMERICA X XO TES.
holds up her tiny fingers, and spells the word in the manual alphabet ; next, she takes her types and arranges her letters \ and last, to make sure that she is right, she takes the whole of the types composing the word, and places them upon or in contact with the pencil, or whatever the object may be.'
" The whole of the succeeding year was passed in gratify- ing her eager inquiries for the names of every object which she could possibly handle ; in exercising her in the use of the manual alphabet ; in extending in every possible way her knowledge of the j^hysical relations of things ; and in proper care of her health.
"At the end of the year a report of her case was made, from which the following is an extract.
" ' It has been ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt, that she cannot see a ray of light, cannot hear the least sound, and never exercises her sense of smell, if she have any. Thus her mind dwells in darkness and stillness, as profound as that of a closed tomb at midnight. Of beautiful sights, and sweet sounds, and pleasant odors, she has no conception ; never- theless, she seems as happy and playful as a bird or a lamb ; and the employment of her intellectual faculties, or the ac- quirement of a new idea, gives her a vivid pleasure, which is plainly marked in her expressive features. She never seems to repine, but has all the buoyancy and gayety of childhood. She is fond of fun and frolic, and when playing with the rest of the children, her shrill laugh sounds loudest of the group.
" ' When left alone, she seems very happy if she have her ' knitting or sewing, and will busy herself for hours ; if she have no occupation, she evidently amuses herself by imaginary dialogues, or by recalling past impressions ; she counts with her fingers, or spells out names of things which she has re- cently learned, in the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes. "In this lonely self-communion she seems to reason, reflect, and argue ; if she spell a word wrong with the fingers of her right hand, she instantly strikes it with her left, as her teacher does, in sign of disapprobation ; if right, then she pats her- self upon the head, and looks pleased. She sometimes pur- posely spells a word wrong with the left hand, looks roguish for a moment and laughs, and then with the right hand strikes the left, as if to correct it.
" * During the year she has attained great dexterity in the use of the manual alphabet of the deaf mutes ; and she spells out the words and sentences which she knows, so fast and so
BOSTON. 619
deftly, that only those accustomed to this language can fol- low with the eye the rapid motions of her fingers.
" 'But wonderful as is the rapidity with which she writes her thoughts upon the air, still more so is the ease and ac- curacy with which she reads the words thus written by another ; grasping their hands in hers, and following ever}^ movement of their fingers, as letter after letter conveys their meaning to her mind. It is in this way that she converses with her blind playmates, and nothing can more forcibly show the power of mind in forcing matter to its purpose than a meeting between them. For if great talent and skill are necessary for two pantomimes to paint their thoughts and feelings by the movements of the body, and the expression of the counte- nance, how much greater the difficulty when darkness shrouds them both, and the one can hear no sound.
*' ' When Laura is walking through a passage-way, with her hands spread before her, she knows instantly every one she m.eets, and passes them with a sign of recognition : but if it be a girl of her own age, and especially if it be one of her favorites, there is instantly a bright sm.ile of recognition, i?, twining of arms, a grasping of hands, and a swift telegraph^ ing upon the tiny fingers ; whose rapid evolutions convey thv; thoughts and feelings from the outposts of one mind to those of the other. There are questions and answers, exchanges of joy or sorrow, there are hissings and partings, just as be- tween little children with all their senses.'
" During this year, and six months after she had left home, her mother came to visit her, and the scene of their meeting was an interesting one.
" The mother stood some time, gazing with overflowing eyes upon her unfortunate child, who, all unconscious of her presence, was playing about the room. Presently Laura ran against her, and at once began feeling her hands, examining her dress, and trying to find out if she knew her ; but not succeeding in this, she turned away as from a stranger, and the poor woman could not conceal the pang she felt, at find- ing that her beloved child did not know her.
" She then gave Laura a string of beads which she used to wear at home, which were recognized by the child at once, who, with much joy, put thenj around her neck, and sought me eagerly to say she understood the-String was from her home.
" The mother now sought to caress her, but poor Laura repelled her, preferring to be v/ith her acquaintances.
6 2 o ^ M ERICA N NQ TES.
" Another article from home was nov/ given her, and she began to look much interested ; she examined the stranger much closer, and gave me to understand tliat she knew she came from Hanover ; she even endured her caresses, but v\^ould leave her with indifference at the slightest signal. The distress of the mother was now painful to behold ; for, al- though she had feared that she should not be recognized, the painful reality of being treated with cold indifference by a darling child, was too much for woman's nature to bear.
" After a while, on the mother taking hold of her again, a vague idea seemed to flit across Laura's mind, th^t this could not be a stranger ; she therefore felt her hands very eagerly, while her countenance assumed an expression of intense in- terest ; she became very pale ; and then suddenly red ; hope seemed struggling with doubt and anxiety, and never were contending emotions more strongly painted upon the human face : at this moment of painful uncertainty, the mother drew her close to her side, and kissed her fondly, when at once the truth flashed upon the child, and all mistrust and anxiety disappeared from her face, as with an expression of exceed- ing joy she eagerly nestled to the bosom of her parent, and yielded herself to her fond embraces.
" After this, the beads were all unheeded ; the playthings wliich were offered to her were utterly disregarded ; lier play- mates, for whom but a moment before she gladly left the stranger, now vainly strove to pull her from her mother ; and though she yielded her usual instantaneous obedience to my signal to follow me, it was evidently with painful reluctance. She clung close to me, as if bewildered and fearful ; and when, after a moment, I took her to her mother, she sprang to her arms, and clung to her with eager joy.
" The subsequent parting between them, showed alike the affection, the intelligence, and the resolution of the child.
" Laura accompanied her mother to the door, clinging, close to her all the wa3% until they arri\ed at the threshold, where she paused, and felt around, to ascertain who was near her. Perceiving the matron, of whom she is very fond, she grasped her with one hand, holding on convulsively to her mother with the other; and thus she stood for a moment : tlien she dropped her mother's hand ; put her handkerchief to her eyes ; and turning round, clung sobbing to the matron ; while her mother departed, with emotions as deep as those of her child
>>
BO.STCV. 621
"It has been remarked in former reports, that she can dis- tmguish different degrees of intellect in others, and that she soon regarded, almost with contempt, a newcomer, when, after a few days, she discovered her weakness of mind. This unamiable part of her character has been more strongly de- veloped during the past year.
" She chooses for her friends and companions, those chil- dren who are intelligent, and can talk best with her ; and she evidently dislikes to be with those who are deficient in intel- lect, unless, indeed, she can make them serve her purposes, which she is evidently inclined to do. She takes advantage of them, and makes them v/ait upon her, in a manner that she knows she could not exact of others ; and in various ways shows her Saxon blood.
" She is fond of having other children noticed and caressed by the teachers, and those whom she respects ; but this must not be carried too far, or she becomes jealous. She wants to have her share, which, if not the lion's, is the greater part ; and if she does not get it, she says, ' My mother will love ■me.''
" Her tendency to imitation is so strong, that it leads her to actions which must be entirely incomprehensible to her, and which can give her no other pleasure than the gratification of an internal faculty. She has been known to sit for half an hour, holding a book before her sightless eyes, and moving her lips, as she has observed seeing people do when reading.
" She one clay pretended that her doll was sick ; and went through all the motions of tending it, and giving it medicine ; she then put it carefully to bed, and placed a bottle of hot water to its feet, laughing all the time most heartily. When I came home, she insisted upon my going to see it, and feel its pulse ; and when I told her to put a blister on its back, she seemed to enjpy it amazingly, and almost screamed Vv-ith de- light. ^. . . "
" Her social feelings, and her affections, are very strong; and when she is sitting at v/ork, or at her studies, by the side of one of her little friends, she will break off from her task every few moments, to hug and kiss them with an earnestness and warmth that is toucliing to behold.
''When left alone, she occupies and apparently amuses herself, and seems quite contented ; and so strong seems to be the natural tendency of thought to put on the garb of lan- guage, that she often soliloquizes in the/tjiger language^ slow and tedious as it is But it is onlv when alone, that she is 27
522 AMER/CAA .\ O n-.S.
quiet : for if she becomes sensible of the presence of any one near her, she is restless until she can sit close beside them, hold their hand, and converse with them by signs.
'■' In her intellectual character it is pleasing to observe an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and a quick perception of the relations of things. In her moral character, it is beautiful to behold her continual gladness, her keen enjoyment of exist- ence, her expansive love, her unhesitating confidence, her svmpathy with suffering, her conscientiousness, truthfulness, and hopefulness."
Such are a few fragments from the simple but most inter- esting and instructive history of Laura Bridgman. The name of her great benefactor and friend, who writes it, is Doctor Howe. There are not many persons, I hope and believe, who, after reading these passages, can ever hear that name with indifference.
A further account has been published by Dr. Howe, since tlie report from which I have just quoted. It describes her rajDid mental growth and improvement during twelve months more, and brings her little history down to the end of last year. It is very remarkable, that as we dream in words, and carry on imaginary conversations, in which we speak both for ourselves and for the shadows who appear, to us in those vis- ions of the night, so she, having no words, uses her finger alphabet in her sleep. And it has been ascertained that when her slumber is broken, and is much disturbed by dreams, she expresses her thoughts in an irregular and confused manner on her lingers : just as we should murmur and mutter them indistinctly, in the like circumstances.
I turned over the leaves of her Diary, and found it written in a fair legible square hand, and expressed in terms which were quite intelligible without any explanation. On my say- ing that I should like to see her write again, tlie teacher wlio sat beside her, bade her, in their language, sign her name upon a slip of paper, twice or thrice. In doing so, I observed that she kept her left hand always touching, and following up, her right, in which, of course, she held the pen. No line v/as indicated by any contrivance, but she wrote straight and freely.
She had, until now, been quite unconscious of the presence of visitors ; but, having her hand placed in that of the gentle- man who accompanied me, she immediately expressed his name upon her teacher's palm. Indeed her sense of touch is
BOSTOX.
f5^3
now so exquisite, that having been acquainted with a person once, she can recognize him or her after ahiiost any interval. This gentleman had been in her company, I iDelieve, but very seldom, and certainly had not seen her for many months. My hand she rejected at once, as she does that of any man who is a stranger to her. But she retained my wife's with evident pleasure, kissed her, and examined her dress with a girl's curiosity and interest.
She v/as merry and cheerful, and showed much innocent playfulness in her intercourse with her teacher. Her delight on recognizing a favorite playfellow and companion — herself a blind girl — who silently, and with an equal enjoyment of the coming surprise, took a seat beside her, was beautiful to v.'it- ness. It elici!:ed from her at first, as other slight circum- stances did twice or thrice during my visit, an uncouth noise which was rather painful to hear. But on her teacher touch- ing her lips, she immediately desisted, and embraced her laugh- ingly and affectionately.
I had previously been into another chamber, where a number of blind boys were swinging, and climbing, and en- gaged in various sports. They all clamored, as we entered, to the assistant-master, who accompanied us, " Look at me, Mr. Hart ! Please, Mr. Hart, look at me ! " evincing, I thought, even in this, an anxiety peculiar to their condition, that their little feats of agility should be see^i. Among them was a small laughing fellow, who stood aloof, entertaining himself with a gymnastic exercise for bringing the arms and chest into play; which he enjoyed mightily; especially when, in thrusting out his right arm, he brought it into contact with another boy. Like Laura Bridgman, this young child was deaf, and dumb, and blind.
Dr. Howe's account of this pupil's first instruction is so ver)^ striking, and so intimately connected with Laura herself, that I cannot refrain from a short extract. I may premise that the poor boy's name is Oliver Caswell ; that he is thir- te&n years of age ; and that he was in full possession of all his faculties, until three years and four months old. He was then attacked by scarlet fever ; in four weeks became deaf ; in a few weeks more, blind ; in six months, dumb. Lie showed his anxious sense of this last deprivation, by often feeling the the lips of other persons when they were talking, and then putting his hand upon his own, as if to assume himself that he had them in the right position.
624
A ME RICA A ' A'O TES.
" His thirst for Imowledge," says Dr. Ho\ve, "proclaimed itself as soon as he entered the house, by his eager examina- tion of every thing he could feel or smell in his new location. For instance, treading upon the register of a furnace, lie in- stantly stooped dov/n, and began to feel it, and soon dis- covered the way in which the upper plate moved upon the lower one ; but this was not enough for him, so lying down upon his face, he applied his tongue first to one, then to the other, and seemed to discover that they were of different kinds of metal.
" His signs were expressive : and the strictly natural lan- guage, laughing, crying, sighing, kissing, embracing, &c., was perfect.
" Some of the analogical signs which (guided by his faculty of imitation) he had contrived, were comprehensible ; such as the waving motion of his hand. for the motion of a boat, the circular one for a wheel, &c.
" The first object was to break up the use of these signs and to substitute for them the use of purely arbitrary ones.
" Profiting by the experience I had gained in the other cases, I omitted several steps of the process before employed, and commenced at once with the finger language. Taking therefore, several articles having short names, such as key, cup, mug, &c., and with Laura for an auxiliary, I sat down, and taking his hand, placed it upon one of them, and then v.'ith my own, made the letters k ey. He felt my hands eagerly with both of his, and on nry repeating the process, he evi- dently tried to imitate the motions of my fingers. In a few minutes he contrived to feel the motions of my fingers with ,one hand, .and holding out the other he tried to imitate them, laughing most heartily when he succeeded. Laura was by, interested even to agitation ; and the two presented a singular sight : her face was flushed and anxious, and her fingers twin- ing in among ours so closely as to follow every motion, but so lightly as not to embarrass them ; while Oliver stood atten- tive, his head a little aside, his face turned up, his left hand grasping mine, and his right held out : at every motion of my fingers his countenance betokened keen attention ; there was an expression of anxiety as he tried to imitate the motions ; then a smile came stealing out as he thought he could do so, and spread into a joyous laugh the moment he succeeded, and felt me pat his head, and Laura clap him heartily upon the back, and jump up and down in her joy.
BOS TO AT.
625
" He learned more than a half-dozen letters in half an hour, and seemed delighted with his success, at least in gaining ap- probation. His attention then began to flag, and I com- menced playing with him. It was evident that in all this he had merely been imitating the motions of my fingers, and placing his hand upon the key, cup, &c., as part of the pro- cess, without any perception of the relation between the sign and the object.
" When he was tired with jDlay I took him back to the table, and he was quite ready to begin again his process of imitation. He soon learned to make the letters for key, pen, pin ; and by having the object repeatedly placed in his hand, he at last perceived the relation i wished to establish between them. This was evident, because, when I made the letters pin, or pen, or cup, he v/ould select the article.
" The perception of this relation was not accompanied by that radiant flash of intelligence, and that glow of joy, which marked the delightful moment when Laura first perceived it. I then placed all the articles on the table, and going away a little distance with the children, placed Oliver's fingers in the positions to spell key, on which Laura went and brought the article : the little fellow seemed much amused by this, and looked very attentive and smiling. I then caused him to make the letters bread, and in an instant Laura went and brought him a piece : he smelled at it ; put it to his lips ; cocked up his head with" a most knowing look ; seemed to reflect a mo- ment ; and the laughed outright, as much as to say, ' Aha ! I understand nov/ how something may be made out of this.'
" Tl vv^as now clear that he had the capacity and inclina- tion to learn, that he was a proper subject for instruction, and needed only persevering attention. I therefore put him in the hands of an intelligent teacher, nothing doubting of his rapid progress."
Well may this gentleman call thai; a delightful moment, in which some distant promise of her present state first gleamed upon the darkened mind of Laura Bridgman. Throughout his life, the recollection of that moment Vvill be to him a source of pure, unfading happiness ; nor will it shine less brightly on the evening of his days of Noble Usefulness.
The affection v/hich exists between these two — the master and the pupil — is as far removed from all ordinary care and regard, as the circumstances in which it has had its growth, arc apart from the common occurrences of life. He is occu-.
40
626 AMERICAiV NOTES.
pied now, in devising means of imparting to her, higher knowl- edge ; and of conveying to her some adequate idea of the Great Creator of that universe in which, dark and silent and scentless though it be to her, she has such deep delight and glad enjoyment.
Ye who have eyes and see not, and have ears and hear not ; ye who are as the hypocrites of sad countenances, and disfigure your faces that ye may seem unto men to fast ; learn healthy cheerfulness, and mild contentment, from the deaf, and dumb, and blind ! Self-elected saints with gloomy brows, this sightless, earless, voiceless child may teach you lessons you will do well to follow. Let that poor hand of hers lie gently on your hearts ; for there may be som.ething in its heal- ing touch akin .to that of the Great Master whose precepts you misconstrue, whose lessons you prevent, of whose charity and sympathy with all the world, not one among you in his daily practice knows as much as many of the worst among those fallen sinners, to whom you are liberal in nothing but the preachment of perdition !
As I rose to quit the room, a pretty little child of one of the attendants came running in to greet its father. For the moment, a child with eyes, among the sightless crowd, im- pressed me almost as painfully as the blind boy in the porch had done, tv/o hours ago. Ah ! how much brighter and more deeply blue, glowing and rich though it had been before, was the scene without, contrasting with the darkness of so many youthful lives within !
At South Boston, as it is called, in a situation excellently adapted for the purpose, several charitable institutions are clustered together. One of these, is the State Hospital for the insane ; admirably conducted on those enlightened prin- ciples of conciliation and kindness, which twenty years ago would have been worse than heretical, and which have been acted upon with so much success in our ov/n pauper Asylum at Hanwell. " Evince a desire to show some confidence, and repose some trust, even in mad people," said the resident physician, as we walked along the galleries, his patients flock- ing round us unrestrained. Of those who deny or doubt the wisdom of this maxim after witnessing its effects, if there be such people still alive, I can only say that I hope I may never be summoned as a Juryman on a Commission of Lunacy whereof they are the subjects ; for I should certainly find them out of their senses, on sucli evidence aldne.
boston:
C27
Each ward in tliis institution is shaped like a long gallery or hall, with the dormitories of the patients opening from it on either hand. Here they work, read, play at skittles, and other games ; and when the weather does not admit of theii taking exercise out of doors, pass the day together. In one of these rooms, seated, calmly, and quite as a matter of course, among a throng of mad-women, black and white, were the physician's wife and another lady, with a couple oi children. These ladies were graceful and handsome ; and it was not difficult to perceive at a glance that even their pres- ence there, had a highly beneficial influence on the patients who were grouped about them.
Leaning her head against the chimney-piece, with a great assumption of dignity and refinement of manner, sat an elderly female, in as many scraps of finery as Madge Wildfire herself. Her head in particular was so strewn with scraps of gauze and co,tton and bits of paper, and had so many queer odds and ends stuck all about it, that it looked like a bird's- nest. She was radiant with imaginary jewels ; wore a rich pair of undoubted gold spectacles ; and gracefully dropped upon her lap, as we approached, a very old greasy newspaper, in which I dare say she had been reading an account of her own presentation at some Foreign Court.
I have been thus particular in describing her, because she will serve to exemplify the physician's manner of acquiring and retaining the confidence of his patients.
^' This," he said aloud, taking me by the hand, and ad- vancing to the fantastic figure with great politeness — ncC raising her suspicions by the slightest look or whisper, or any kind of aside, to me : " This lady is the hostess of this man- sion, sir. It belongs to her. Nobody else has anything whatever to do with it. It is a large establishment, as yoq see, and requires a great number of attendants. She lives, you observe, in the veiy first style. She is kind enough to receive my visits, and to permit my wife and family to reside here ; for which it is hardly necessary to say, we are much indebted to her. She is exceedingly courteous, you per- ceive," on this hint she bowed condescendingly, " and will penmit me to have the pleasure of introducing you : a gentle- man from England, Ma'am : newly arrived from England, after a very tempestuous passage : Mr. Dickens, — the lady of the house ! "
We exchanged the most dignified salutations with pro-
(,2S ''^' VI ERICA A ' A 'O 7 'ES.
found gravity and respect, and so went on. The rest of the madwomen seemed to understand the joke perfectly (not only in this case, but in all the others, except their own), and be highly amused by it. The nature of their several kinds of insanity was made known to me in the same way, and we left each of them in high good-humor. Not only is a thorough confidence established, by those means, between the physician and patient, in respect of the nature and extent of their hallucinations, but it is easy to understand that op- portunities are afforded for seizing any moment of reason, to startle them by placing their own delusion before them in its most incongruous and ridiculous light.
Every patient in this asylum sits down to dinner every day with a knife and fork ; and in the midst of them sits the gentleman, whose manner of dealing Avith his charges, I have just described. At every meal, moral influence alone re- strains the more violent among them from cutting the throats of the rest ; but the effect of that influence is reduced to an absolute certainty, and is found, even as a means of restraint, to say nothing of it as a means of cure, a hundred times more efficacious than all the strait-waistcoats, fetters,"^ and hand-cuffs, that ignorance, prejudice, and cruelty have manu- factured since the creation of the world.
In the labor department, every patient is as freely trust.ed with the tools of his trade as if he were a sane man. In the gaiden, and on the farm, they work with spades, rakes and hoes. For amusement, they walk, run, fish, paint, read, and ride out to take the air in carriages provided for the purpose. They have among themselves a sewing society to make clothes for the poor, which holds meetings, passes resolu- tions, never comes to iisty-cuffs or bowie-knives as sane as- semblies ha\e been known to do elsewhere ; and conducts all its proceedings with the greatest decorum. The irritability, v/hich would otlierwise be expended on their own flesh, clothes, and furniture, is dissipated in these pursuits. They are cheer- fui, tranquil, and healthy.
Once a week they ha\ e a ball, in which the Doctor and his fannly, with all the nurses and attendants, take an active paiu Dances and marches are performed alternately, to the enli\ening strains of a piano; and now and then some gentle- man or lady (whose proficiency has been previously ascer- tained) obliges the company with a song : nor does it ever degenerate, at a tender crisis, into a screech or howl ; wherein,
BOSjX^X. 629
1 must confess, I should have tliought the danger lay. At an early hour they all meet together for these festive pur- poses ; at eight o'clock refreshments are served ; and at nine they separate.
Immense politeness and good -breeding are observed throughout. They all take their tone from the Doctor ; and he moves a very Chesterfield among the company. Like other assemblies, these entertainments afford a fruitful topic of conversation among the ladies for some days ; and the gentlemen are so anxious to shine on these occasions, that they have been sometimes found " practising their steps " in private, to cut a more distinguished figure in the dance.
It is obvious that one great feature of this system, is the inculcation and encouragement, even among such unhappy persons, of a decent self-respect. Something of the same spirit pervades all the Institutions at South Boston.
There is the House of Industry. In that branch of it, which is devoted to the reception of old or otherwise helpless paupers, these words are painted on the walls : *' Worthy of Notice. Self-Government, Quietude, and Peace, are Blessings." It is not assumed and taken for granted that being there they mxust be evil-disposed and wicked people, before whose vicious eyes it is necessary to flourish threats and harsh restraints. They are met at the very threshold with this mild appeal. All within-doors is very plain and simple, as it ought to be, but arranged with a view to peace and comfort. It costs no more than any other plan of ar- rangement, but it speaks an amount of consideration for those who are reduced to seek a shelter there, which puts them at once upon, their gratitude and good behavior. In- stead of being parcelled out in great, long rambling wards where a certain amount of weazen life may mope, and pine, and shiver, all day long, the building is divided into separate rooms, each with its share of light and air. In these, the better kind of paupers live. They have a motive for exertion and becoming pride, in the desire to make these little cham- bers comfortable and decent.
I do not remember one but it was clean and neat, and had its plant or two upon the window-sill, or row of crockery upon the shelf, or small display of colored prints upon the whitewashed wall, or, perhaps, its wooden clock behind the door.
The orphans and young children are in an adjoining
630 AMERFCAX XOTES.
building ; separate from this, but a part of the same Institu- tion. Some are such little creatures, that the stairs of Lilli- putian measurement, fitted to their tiny strides. The same consideration for their years and weakness is expressed in their very seats, which are perfect curiosities, and look like articles of furntuire for a pauper doll's, house. I can imagine the glee of our Poor Law Commissioners at the notion of these seats having arms and backs ; but small spines being of older date than their occupation of the Board-room at Som- erset House, I thought even this provision verv merciful and kind.
Here again, I was greatly j^leased with the inscriptions on the wall, which were scraps of plain moralit}', easily remem- bered and understood : such as " Love one another " — " God remembers the smallest creature in his creation : " and straight- forward advice of that nature. The books and tasks of these smallest of scholars, were adapted, in the same judicious m^an- ner, to their childish powers. Vv'hen we had examined these lessons, four morsels of girls (of whom one v/as blind) sang a little song, about the merry month of Ma}-, which I thought (being extremely dismal) would have suited an English iVo- vember better. That done, we went to see the sleeping-rooms on the floor above^ in which the arrangements were no less excellent and gentle than those we had seen below. And after observing that the teachers were of a class and character well suited to the spirit of the place, I took leave of the infants with a lighter heart than ever I have taken leave of pauper infants yet.
Connected with the House of Industry, there is also an Hospital, which was in the best order, and had, I am glad to say, many beds unoccupied. It had one fault, however, which is common to all American interiors : the presence of the eternal, accursed, suffocating, red-hot demon of a stove, whose breath would blight the purest air under Heaven.
There are two establishments for boys in this same neigh- borhood. One is called the Boylston school, and is an asylum for neglected and indigent boys who have committed no crime, but who in the ordinary course of things would very soon be purged of that distinction if they were not taken from the hun- gry streets and sent here. The other is a House of Reforma- tion for Juvenile Offenders. They are both under the same roof, but the two classes of boys never come in contact.
Tlie Boylston boys-,- as may be readily supposed, have very
SOSTO.V. 631
much the advantage of the others in point of personal appear- ance. They were in their school-room when I came upon them, and answered correctly, v/ithout book, such questions as where was England ; how far was it ; what was its population ; its capital city ; its form of government ; and so fortn. They sang a song too, about a farmer sowing his seed : with corre- sponding action at such parts as "'tis thus he sows," "he turns him round," "he claps his hands ;" which gave it greater interest for them, and accustomed them to act together, in an orderly manner. They appeared exceedingly well-taught, and not better taught than fed ; for a more chubby-looking fuU-waistcoated set of boys, I never saw.
The juvenile offenders had not such pleasant faces by a great deal, and in this establishment there were many boys of color. I saw them first at their work (basket-making, and the manufacture of palm-leaf hats), afterwards in their school, where they sang a chorus in praise of Liberty : an odd, and, one would think, rather aggravating, theme for prisoners. These boys are divided into four classes, each denoted by a numeral, Vv^orn on a badge upon the arm. On the arrival of a newcomer, he is put into the fourth or lowest class, and left, by good behavior, to work his way up into the first. The de- sign and object of this Institution is to reclaim the youthful criminal by firm but kind and judicious treatment ; to make his prison a place of purification and improvement, not of demoralization and corruption ; to impress upon him that there is but one path, and that one sober industry, which can ever lead him to happiness ; to teach him how it may be trodden, if his footsteps have never yet been led that way ; and to lure him back to it if they have strayed : in a word, to snatch him from destruction, and restore him to society a pen- itent and useful member. The importance of such an estab- lishment, in every point of view, and with reference to every consideration cf humanity and social policy, requires no com- ment.
One other establishment closes the catalogue. It is the House of Correction for the State, in which silence is strictly maintained, but where the prisoners have the comfort and mental relief of seeing each other, and of working together. This is the improved system of Prison Discipline which we have imported into England, and which has been in successful operation among us for some years past.
America, as a new and ndt over-pbpXilated country, has in
632
A ME RICA N NO TES.
all her prisons, the one great advantage, of being enabled to find useful and profitable work for the inmates ; whereas, with us the prejudice against prison labor is naturally very strong, and almost insurmountable, when honest men who have not offended against the laws are frequently doomed to seek em- ployment in vain. Even in the United States, the principle of bringing convict labor and free labor into a competition which must obviously be to the disadvantage of the latter, has already found many opponents, whose number is not likely to diminish with access of years.
For this very reason though, our best prisons would seem at the first glance to be better conducted than those of America. The treadmill is conducted with little or no noise ; five hun- dred men may pick oakum in the same room, without a sound ; and both kinds of labor admit of such keen and vigilant super- intendence, as will render even a word of personal communi- cation amongst the prisoners almost impossible. On the other hand, the noise of the loom, the forge, the carpenter's hammer, or the stonemason's saw, greatly favor those oppor- tunities of intercourse — hurried and brief no doubt, but oppor- tunities still — which these several kinds of work, by rendering it necessary for men to be employed very near to each other, and often side by side, without any barrier or partition between them, in their very nature present. A visitor, too, requires to reason and reflect a little, before the sight of a number of men engaged in ordinary labor, such as he is accustomed to out of doors, will impress him half as strongly as the contemplation of the same persons in the same place and garb would, if they were occupied in some task, marked and degraded everywhere as belonging only to felons in jails. In an American State prison or house of correction, I found it difficult at first to persuade myself that I was really in a jail : a place of ignomin- ious punishment and endurance. And to this hour I very much question whether the humane boast that it is not like one, has its root in the true wisdom or philosophy of the matter.
I hope I may not be misunderstood on this subject, for it is one in which I take a strong and deep interest. I incline as little to the sickly feeling which makes every canting lie or maudlin speech of a notorious criminal a subject of newspaper report and general sympathy, as I do to those good old cus- toms of the good old times which made England, even so recently as in the reign of the Third King George, in respect
BOSTON. 633
of her criminal code and her prison regulations, one of the most bloody-minded and barbarous countries on the earth. If I thought it would do any good to the rising generation, I would cheerfully give mv consent to the disinterment of the bones of any genteel Iiighwayman (the more genteel, the more cheerfully), and to their exposure, piecemeal, on any sign-post, gate, or gibbet, that might be deemed a good elevation for the purpose. My reason is as well convinced that these gentry were as utterly worthless and debauched villains, as it is that the laws and jails hardened them in their evil courses, or that their wonderful escapes were effected by the prison-turnkeys who, in those admirable days, had always been felons them^ selves, and were, to the last, their bosom friends and pot-com- panions. At the same time I know, as all men do or should, that the subject of Prison Discipline is one of the highest im- portance to any community ; and that in her sweeping reform and bright example to other countries on this head, America has shown great wisdom, great benevolence, and exalted policy. In contrasting her system with that which we have modelled upon it, I merely seek to shov/ that with all its drawbacks, ours has some advantages of its own.
The House of Correction which has led to these remarks, is not walled, like other prisons, but is palisaded round about with tall rough stakes, something after the manner of an en^ closure for keeping elephants in, as we see it represented in Eastern prints and pictures. The prisoners wear a parti- colored dress \ and those who are sentenced to hard labor, work at nail-making, or stone-cutting. When I was there, the latter class of laborers were employed upon the stone for a new custom-house in course of erection at Boston. They appeared to shape it skilfully and with expedition, though there were very few among them (if any) who had not acquired the art within the prison gates.
The women, all in one large room, were employed in making liglit clothing, for New Orleans and the Southern States. They did their work in silence like the men j and Jike them were overlooked by the person contracting for their labor, or by some agent of his appointment. In addition to this, they are every moment liable to be visited by the prison officers appointed for that purpose.
The arrangements for cooking, washing of clothes, and so forth, are much upon the plan of those I have seen at home. ^ Their mode of bestowing the prisoners at night (which is of
634 AMERICAN XOTES.
general adoption) cUiTers from ours, and is both simple and effective. In the centre of a lofty area, lighted by windows in the four walls, are five tiers of cells, one above the other; each tier having before it a light iron gallery, attainable by stairs of the same construction and material : excepting the lower one, which is on the ground. Behind these, back to back with them and facing the opposite wall, are five corre- sponding rows of cells, accessible by similar means : so that supposing the prisoners locked up in their cells, an officer stationed on the ground, with his back to the wall, has half their number under his eye at once ; the remaining half being equally under the observation of another officer on the oppo- site side ; and all in one great apartment. Unless this watch be corrupted or sleeping on his post, it is impossible for a man to escape ; for even in the event of his forcing the iron door of his cell without noise (which is exceedingly improba- ble), the moment he appears outside, and steps into that one of the five galleries on which it is situated, he must be plainly and fully visible to the officer below^ Each of these cells holds a small truckle bed, in which one prisoner sleeps ; never more. It is small, of course '; and the door being not solid, but grated, and without blind or curtain, the prisoner within is at all times exposed to the observation and inspec- tion of any guard who may pass along that tier at any hour or minute of the night. Every day, the prisoners receive their dinner, singly, through a trap in the kitchen wall ; and each man carries his to his sleeping cell to eat it, where he is locked up, alone, for that purpose, one hour. The whole of this arrangement struck me as being admirable ; and I hope that the next new prison we erect in England may be built on this plan.
I was given to understand that in this prison no swords or lire-arms, or even cudgels, are kept; nor is it probable that, so long as its present excellent management continues, any weapon, offensive or defensive, will ever be required within its bounds.
Such are the Institutions at South Boston ! In all of them, the unfortunate or degenerate citizens of the State are care- fully instructed in their duties both to God and man ; are surrounded by all reasonable means of comfort and happiness that their condition will admit of ; are appealed to, as menv bers of the great human family, however afflicted, indigent, or tallen ; are ruled by the - strong Heart, and not by the strong
BOSTON. 635
(though immeasurably weaker) Hand. I have described them at some length ; firstly, because their worth demanded it ; and secondly, because I mean to take them for a model, and to content myself with saying of others we may come to, whose design and purpose are the same, that in this or that respect they practically fail, or differ.
T wish by. this account of them, imperfect in its execution, but in its just intention, honest, I could hope to convey to my readers one-hundredth part of the gratification, the sights I have described, afforded me.
lb an Englishman, accustomed to the paraphernalia of Westminster Hall, an American Court of Law, is as odd a sight as, I suppose, an English Court of Law would be to an American. Except in the Supreme Court at Washington (where the judges wear a plain black robe), there is no such thing as a wig or gown connected with the administration of justice. The gen- tleman of the bar being barristers and attorneys too (for there is no division of those functions as in England) are no more removed from their clients than attorneys in our Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors are, from theirs. The jury are quite at home, and make themselves as comfortable as cir- cumstances will permit. The witness is so little elevated above, or put aloof from, the crowd in the court, that a stranger entering during a pause in the proceedings would find it difficult to pick him out from the rest. And if it chanced to be a criminal trial, his eyes, in nine cases out of ten, would wander to the dock in search of the prisoner, in vain ; for that gentleman would most likely be lounging among the most distinguished ornaments of the legal profes- sion, whispering suggestions in his counsePs ear, or making a toothpick out of an old quill with his penknife.
I could not but notice these differences, when I visited the courts at Boston. I was much surprised at first, too, to observe that the counsel who interrogated the witness under examination at the time, did so sitting. But seeing that lie was also occupied in writing down the answers, and remem- bering that he was alone and had no "junior," I quickly con- soled myself with the refiection that law was not quite so expensive an article here, as at home ; and that the absence of sundr)^ formalities whicii we regard as indispensable, had doubtless a very favorable influence upon the bill of costs.
In ever}' Court, ample and commodious provision is made
636 'i M ERICA X N07 ES.
for the accommodation of the citizens. This is the case all through America. In every Public Institution, the right of the people to attend, and to have an interest in the proceed- ings, is most fully and distinctly recognized. There are no grim door-keepers to dole out their tardy civility by the six- penny-worth ; nor is there, I sincerely believe, any insolence of office of any kind. Nothing national is exhibited for money ; and no public officer is a showman. We have begun of late years to imitate this good example. I hope we shall continue to do so ; and that in the fulness of time, even deans and chapters may be converted.
In the civil court an action was trying, for damages sus- tained in some accident upon a railway. The witnesses had been examined, and counsel was addressing the jury. The learned gentleman (like a few of his English brethren) was desperately long-winded, and had a remarkable capacity of saying the same thing over and over again. His great theme was " Warren the hAgine driver," whom he pressed into the service of every sentence he uttered. I listened to him for about a quarter of an hour ; and, coming out of court at the expiration of that time, without the faintest ray of enlightenment as to the merits of the case, felt as if I were at home again.
In the prisoners' cell, waiting to be examined by the magistrate on a charge of theft, was a boy. This lad, instead of being committed to a common jail, would be sent to the asylum at South Boston, and there taught a trade ; and in the course of time he would be bound apprentice to some respectable master. Thus, his detection in this offence, instead of being the prelude to a life of infamy and a misera- ble death, would lead, there v/as a reasonable hope, to his being reclaimed from vice, and becoming a \vorthy member of society.
I am by no means a v/holesale admirer of our legal solemnities, many of which impress me as being exceedingly ludicrous. wStrange as it may seem too, there is undoubtedly a degree of protection in the Vv^ig and gown — a dismissal of individual responsibility in dressing for the part — which en- courages that insolent bearing and language, and that gross perversion of the office of a pleader for The Truth, so fre- quent in our courts of law. Still, I cannot help doubting whether America, in her desire to shake off the absurdities and abuses of the old system, may not have gone too far into the opposite extreme ; and whether it is not desirable, espe*
BOSTON. 637
cially in the small community of a city like this, where each man knows the other, to surround the administration of jus- tice with some artificial barriers against the " Hail fellow, well met " deportment of everyday life. All the aid it can have in the very high character and ability of the Bench, not only here but elsewhere, it has, and well deserves to have; but it may need something more : not to impress the tbought- ful and the v/ell-informed, but the ignorant and heedless ; a class which includes some prisoners and many v/itnesses. These institutions were established, no doubt, upon the prin- ciple that those who had so large a share in making the laws, would certainly respect them. But experience has proved this hope to be fallacious ; for no men know better than the Judges of America, that on the occasion of any great popular excitement the law is powerless, and cannot, for the time, assert its own supremacy.
The tone of society in Boston is one of perfect politeness, courtesy, and good breeding. The ladies are unquestionably very beautiful — in face ; but there I am compelled to stop. Their education is much as with us ; neither better nor worse. I had heard some very marvellous stories in this respect ; but not believing them, was not disappointed. Blue ladies there are, in Boston ; but like philosophers of that color and sex in most other latitudes, they rather desire to be thought superior than to be so. Evangelical ladies there are, likewise, whose attachment to the forms of religion, and horror of theatrical entertainments, are most exemplary. Ladies who have a passion for attending lectures are to be found among all classes and all conditions. In the kind of provincial life which prevails in cities such as this, the Pulpit has great in- fluence. The peculiar province of the Pulpit in New England (always excepting the Unitarian ministry) Avould appear to be the denouncement of all innocent and rational amusements. The church, the chapel, and the lecture-room, are the only means of excitement excepted ; and to the church, the chapel, and the lecture-room, the ladies resort in crowds.
Wherever religion is resorted to, as a strong drink, and as an escape from the dull monotonous round of home, those of its ministers who pepper the highest will be the surest to please. They who strew the Eternal Path with the greatest amount of brimstone, and who most ruthlessly tread down the flowers and leaves that grow by the way-side, will be voted the most righteous \ and they who enlarge with the
638 AMERICA A' A'OTES.
greatest pertinacity on the difficulty of getting into heaven, will be considered by all true believers certain of going there : though it v/ould be hard to say by what process of reasoning this conclusion is arrived at. It is so at home, and it is so abroad. With regard to the other means of excitement, the Lecture, it has at least the merit of being always new. One lecture treads so quickly on the heels of another, that none are remembered ; and the course of this month may be safely repeated next, with its charm of novelty unbroken, and its interest unabated.
The fruits of the earth have their growth in corruption. Out of the rottenness of these things, there has sprung up in Boston a sect of philosophers known as Transcendentalists. On inquiring v^'hat this appellation might be supposed to signify, I was given to understand that whatever was unin- telligible would be certainly transcendental. Not deriving much comfort from this elucidation, I pursued the inquiry still further, and found that the Transcendentalists are fol- lowers oi my friend Mr. Carlyle, or I should rather say, of a follower of his, Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson. This gentleman has written a volume of Essays, in which, among much that is dreamy and fanciful (if he will pardon me for saying so), there is much more that is true and manly, honest and bold. Transcendentalism has its occasional vagaries (what school has not ?), but it has good healthful qualities in spite of them ; not least among the number a hearty disgust of Cant, and aji aptitude to detect her in all the million varieties of her ever- lasting wardrobe. And therefore if I were a Bostonian, I think I would be a Transcendentalist.
The only preacher I heard in Boston was Mr. Taylor, who addresses himself peculiarly to seamen, and who was once a mariner himself. I found his chapel down among the ship- ping, in one of the narrow, old, water-side streets, with a gay blue flag waving freely from its roof. In the gallery opposite to the pulpit were a little choir of male and female singers, a violoncello, and a violin. The preacher already sat- in the pulpit, v/hich was raised on pillars, and ornamented behind him with painted drapery of a lively and somewhat theatrical appearance. Ele looked a weather-beaten hard-featured m.an, of about six or eight and fifty ; witli deep lines graven as it were into his face, dark hair, and a stern, keen eye. Yet the general character of his countenance was pleasant and agree- able. The service commenced with a hymn, to which sue-
BOSTOiY.
639
ceecled an extemporary prayer. It had the fault of frequent repetition, incidental to all such prayers ; but it was plain and comprehensive in its doctrines, and breathed a tone of general sympathy and charity, which is not so commonly a characteristic of this form of address to the Deity as it might be. That done he opened his discourse, taking for his text a passage from the Songs of Solomon, laid upon the desk before the comm.encement of the service by some unknown member of the congregation: "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on the arm of her beloved ! "
He handled his text in all kinds of ways, and twisted it into all manner of shapes; but always ingeniously, and with a rude eloquence, well-adapted to the comprehension of his hearers. Indeed if I be not mistaken, he studied their sym- pathies and understandings much more than the display of his own powers. His imager}' was all drawn from the sea, and from the incidents of a seaman's life ; and was often re- markably good. He spoke to them of '' that glorious man, Lord Nelson," and of Collingwood ; and drew nothing in, as the saying is, by the head and shoulders, but brought it to bear upon his purpose, naturally, and with a sharp mind to its effect. Sometimes, when much excited with his subject, he had an odd way — compounded of John Bunyan, and Bal- four of Burley — of taking his great quarto Bible under his arm and pacing up and down the pulpit with it ; looking steadily down, meantime, into the midst of the congregation. Thus, when he applied his text to the first assemblage of his hearers, and pictured the wonder of the church at their pre- sumption in forming a congregation among themselves, he stopped short with his Bible under his arm in the manner I have described, and pursued his discourse after this manner :
" Who are these — who are they — who are these fellows .'* where do they come from ! Where are they going to ? — Come from ! What's the answer ? " — leaning out of the pulpit, and poniting downward with his right hand : " From belov/ ! " — starting back again, and looking at the sailors before him : " From below, my brethren. From under the hatches of sin, bat- tened down above you by the evil one. That's Vv'here you came from ! " — a walk up and down the pulpit : " and where are you going " — stopping abruptly : "where are you going ? Aloft ! " — very softly, and pointing upward : " Aloft ! "' — louder : "aloft!" — louder still. "That's where you are going — with a fair wind — all taut and trim, steering direct for Heaven in
640 ^4 M ERICA N jVO TES
its gloiy, where there are no storms or foul weather, and where the wicked cease from troubUng, and the weary are at rest." — Another walk : " That's where yo're going to, my friends. That's it. That's the place. That's the port. That's the haven. It's a blessed harbor — still water there, in all changes of the winds and tides ; no driving ashore upon the rocks, or slipping your cables and running out to sea, there ; Peace — Peace — Peace — all peace ! " — Another walk, and pat- ting the Bible under his left arm : " What ! These fellows are coming from the wilderness, are they ? Yes. From the dreary, blighted wilderness of Iniquity, whose only crop is Death. But do they lean upon anything — do they lean upon nothing, these poor seamen ? " — Three raps upon the Bible : " Oh yes. — Yes. — They lean upon the arm of their Beloved " — three more raps : "upon the arm of their Beloved " — three more, and a walk : " Pilot, guiding-star, and compass, all in one, to all hands — here it is " — three more : " Here it is. They can d« their seaman's duty manfully, and be easy in their minds in the utmost peril and danger, with this " — two more : " They can come, even these poor fellows can com.e, from the wilderness leaning on the arm of their Beloved, and go up — up — up ! " — raising his hand higher, and higher, at every repetition of the word, so that he stood with it at last stretched above his head, regarding them in a strange, rapt manner, and pressing the book triumphantly to his breast, until he gradually subsided into some other portion of his dis- course.
I have cited this, rather as an instance of the preacher's eccentricities than his merits, though taken in connection with his look and manner, and the character of his audience, even this was striking. It is possible, however, that my favorable impression of him may have been greatly influenced and strengthened, firstly, by his impressing upon his hearers that the true observance of religion v\'as not inconsistent with a cheerful deportment and an exact discharge of the duties of their station, v/hich, indeed, it scrupulously required of them ; and secondly, by his cautioning them not to set up any monop- oly in Paradise and its mercies. I never heard these two points so wisely touched (if indeed I have ever heard them touched at all), by any preacher of that kind before.
Having passed the time I spent in Boston, in making my- self acquainted with these things, in settling the course I should take in my future travels, and in mixing constantly
BOSTOiW 641
with its society, I am not aware tiiat I have any occasion to prolong this chapter. Such of its social customs as I have not mentioned, however, may be told in a very few Vvords.
The usual dinner-hour is two o'clock. A dinner party takes place at five ; and at an evening party, they seldom sup later than eleven ; so that it goes hard but one gets home, even from a rout, by midnight. I never could find out any difference between a party at Boston and a part}^ in London, saving that at the former place all assemblies are held at more rational hours ; that the conversation may possibly be a little louder and more cheerful ; and a guest is usually expected to ascend to the very top of the house to take his cloak off ; that he is certain to see, at every dinner, an unusual amount of poultry on the table ; and at every supper, at least two mighty bowls of hot stewed oysters, in any one of which a half-grown Duke of Clarence might be smothered easily.
There are two theatres in Boston^ of good size and con- struction, but sadly in vvant of patronage. The few ladies who resort to them, sit, as of right, in the front rows of the boxes.
The bar is a large room with a stone floor, and there people stand and smoke, and lounge about, all the evening ; dropping in and out as the humor takes them. There too the stranger is initiated into the mysteries of Gin-sling, Cock-tail, Sangaree, Mint Julep, Sherry-cobbler, Timber Doodle, and other rare drinks. The house is full of boarders, both married and single, many of whom sleep upon the premises, and contract by the week for their board and lodging : the charge for which diminishes as they go nearer the sky to roost. A public table is laid in a very handsome hall for breakfast, and for dinner, and for supper. The party sitting down together to these meals will vary in number from one to two hundred : sometimes more. The advent of each of these epochs in the day is proclaimed by an awful gong, which shakes the very window-frames as it reverberates through the house, and horriblydisturbs nervous foreigners. There is an ordinary for ladies, and an ordinary for gentlem.en.
In our private room the cloth could not, for any earthly consideration, have been laid for dinner without a huge glass dish of cranberries in the middle of the table ; and breakfast would have been no breakfast unless the principal dish were a deformed beef-steak v;ith a great flat bone in the centre, swimming in hot butter, and sprinkled with the very blackest of all possible pepper. Our bedroom was spacious and airy,
41 .
642 ^i M ERIC A .V XO TES.
but (like ever)' bedroom on this side of the Atlantic) very bare of furniture, having no curtains to the French bedstead or to the window. It had one unusual luxury however, in the shape of a wardrobe of painted wood, something smaller than an English watch-box ; or if this comparison should be insufficient to convey a just idea of its dimensions, they maybe estimated from the fact of my having lived for fourteen days and nights in the firm belief that it was a shower-bath.
CHAPTER IV.
AN AMERICAN RAILROAD. LOWELL AND ITS FACTORY SYSTEM.
Before leaving Boston, I devoted one day to an excursion to Lowell. I assign a separate chapter to this visit ; not because I am about to describe it at any great length, but because I remember it as a thing by itself, and am desirous that my readers should do the same.
I made acquaintance with an American railroad, on this occasion, for the first time. As these works are pretty much alike all through the States, their general characteristics are easily described.
There are no first and second class carriages as with us ; but there is a gentlemen's car and a ladies' car : the main distinction between which is that in the first, everybody smokes ; and in the second, nobody does. As a black man never travels with a white one, there is also a negro car ; which is a great blundering clumsy chest, such as Gulliver put to sea in, from the kingdom of Brobdingnag. There is a great deal of jolting, a great deal of noise, a great deal of wall, not much window, a locomotive engine, a shriek, and a bell.
The cars are like shabby omnibuses, but larger : holding thirt}^, forty, fifty, people. The seats, instead of stretching froin end to end, are placed crosswise. Each seat holds two per- sons. There is a long row of them on each side of the caravan, a narrow passage up the middle, and a door at both ends. In the centre of the carriage there is usually a stove, fed with charcoal or anthracite coal ; wdiich is for the most part red-hot. It is insufferably close ; and you see the hot
A,V AMERICAN RAILROAD, ETC.. 643
air fluttering between yourself and any other object you may happen to look at, like the ghost of smoke.
In the ladies' car, there are a great many gentlemen who have ladies with them. , There are also a great many ladies who have nobody with them : for any lady may travel alone, from one end of the United States to the other, and be cer- tain of the most courteous and considerate treatment every- where. The conductor or check-taker, or guard, or whatever he may be, wears no uniform. He walks up and down the car, and in and out of it, as his fancy dictates ; leans against the door with his hands in his pockets and stares at you, if you chance to be a stranger ; or enters into conversation with the passengers about him. A great many newspapers are pulled out, and a few of them are read. Everybody talks to you, or to anybody else who hits his fancy. If you are an Englishman, he expects that that railroad is pretty much like an English railroad. If you say "No," he says " Yes 1 " (in- terrogatively), and asks in what respect they differ. You enumerate the heads of difference, one by one, and he says " Yes ? " (still interrogatively) to each. Then he guesses that you don't travel faster in England ; and on your replying that you do, says " Yes 1 " again (still interrogatively), and it is quite evi'dent, don't believe it. After a long pause he re- marks, partly to you, and partly to the knob on the top of his stick, that "Yankees are reckoned to be considerable of a go-ahead people too ; " upon \^\{\q\\ you say " Yes," and then he says "Yes" again (affirmatively this time); and upon your looking out of window, tells you that behind that hill, and some three miles from the next station, there is a clever town in a smart lo-ca-tion, where he expects you have con- cluded to stop. Your answer in the negative naturally leads to more questions in reference to your intended route (always pronounced rout) ; and wherever you are going, you invaria- bly learn that you can't get there without immense difficulty and danger, and that all the great sights are somewhere else.
If a lady take a fancy to any male passenger's seat, the gentleman who accompanies her gives him notice of the fact, and he immediately vacates it with great politeness. Politics are much discussed, so are banks, so is cotton. Quiet people avoid the question of the Presidency, for there will be a new election in three years and a half, and party feeling runs very high : the great constitutional feature of this instit-ution being, that directly the acrimony of the last election is over, the
644 ^^ MEKICA N NO TES.
acrimony of the next one begins j whicii is an unspeakable comfort to all strong politicians and true lovers of their coun- try : that is to say, to ninety-nine men and boys out of every ninety-nine and a quarter.
Except when a branch road joins the main one, there is seldom more than one track of rails ; so that the road is very narrow, and the view, where there is a deep cutting, by no means extensive. When there is not, the character of the scenery is always the same. Mile after inile of stunted trees ; some hewn down by the axe, some blovni down by the wind, some half fallen and resting on their neighbors, many mere logs half hidden in the swamp, others m.ouldered away to spongy chips. The very soil of the earth is made up of min- ute fragments such as these ; each pool of stagnant Y,ater has its crust of vegetable rottenness ; on every side there are the boughs, and trunks, and stumps of trees, in every possible stage of decay, decomposition, and neglect. Now you emerge for a few brief minutes on an open country, glittering with some bright lake or pool, .broad as many an English river, but so small here that it scarcely has a name ; now catch hasty glimpses of a distant town, with its clean white houses and their cool piazzas, its prim New England church and school- house ; when whir-r-r-r ! almost before you have seen th.em, comes the same dark screen; the stunted trees, the stumps, the logs, the stagnant water — all so like the last that you seem to have been transported back again by magic.
The train calls at stations in the v,-oods, wliere the wild impossibility of anybody having the smallest reason to get out, is only to be ecjualled by the apparently desperate hope- lessness of there being anybody to get in. It rushes across the turnpike road, where there is no gate, no policeman, no signal : nothing but a rough wooden arch, on v/hich is painted " When the bell rings, look out for the Locomotive." pn it whirls headlong, dives through the woods again, emer- ges in the light, clatters over frail arches, rumbles upon the heavy ground, shoots beneath a wooden bridge which inter- cepts the light for a second like a v/ink, suddenly awakens all the slumbering echoes in the main street of a large town, and dashes on haphazard, pell-mell, neck-or-nothing, dov/n the middle of the road. There — with mechanics working at their trades, and people leaning from their doors and win- dows, and boys flying kites and playing marbles, and men smoking, and women talking, and children crawling, and pigs
AX AM ERIC AX RAILROAD, ETC. 645
burrowing, and iiiiaccustoraecl liorses plunging and rearing, close to the very rails — there — on, on, on — tears the mad dragon of an engine with its train of cars ; scattering in all directions a shower of burning sparks from its wood fire ; screeching, hissing, yelling, panting ; until at last the thirsty monster stops beneath a covered way to drink, tlie people cluster round, and you have time to breatlie again.
I was met at the station at Lowell by a gentleman inti- matel}'' connected with the management of the factories tiiere ; and gladly putting myself under his guidance, drove off at once to that quarter of the towai in which the works, the ob- ject of my visit, were situated. Although only just of age — for if my recollection serve me, it has been a manufacturing town barely one-and-tw^enty years — Lowell is a large, popu- lous, thriving place. Those indications of its youth which first attract the eye, give it a quaintness and oddity of character v/hich, to a visitor from the old country, is amusing enough. It was a very dirty winter's day, and nothing in the whole town looked old to me, except the mud, which in some parts, was almost knee-deep, and might have been deposited there on the subsiding of the waters after the Deluge. In one place, there was a new wooden church, which, having no steeple, and being yet unpainted, looked like an enormous packing-case without any direction upon it. In another there was a large hotel, whose walls and colonnades were so crisp, and thin, and slight, that it had exactly the appearance of being built v/ith cards. I was careful not to draw my breath as we passed, and trembled when I saw a v/orkman come out upon the roof, lest v/ith one thoughtless stamp of liis foot he should crush the structure beneath him, and bring it rattling down. The very river that moves the machinery in the mills (for they are all worked by water power), seems to acquire a new character from the fresh buildings of bright red brick and painted wood among which it takes its course ; and to be as light-headed, thoughtless, and brisk a young river, in its mur- mur] ngs and tumblings, as one would desire to see. One would .swear that every " Bakery,'' " Grocery," and " Book- bindery," and other kind of store, took its shutters down for thfr first time, and started in business yesterday. The golden pestles and mortars fixed as signs upon the sun-blind frames outside the Druggists', appear to have been just turned out of the United States' Mint ; and when I saw a l^aby of some week or ten davs old in a vroman's arms at a 28 ' ■ ■
6 46 ^ MERICA N XO TES.
street corner, I found myself unconsciously wondering where it came from : never supposing for an instant, that it could have been born in such a young town as that.
There are several factories in Lowell, each of which be- longs to whajt we should term a Company of Proprietors, but what they call in America a Corporation. I went over several of these ; such as a woollen factory, a carpet factory, and a cotton factory ; examined them in every part ; and saw them in their ordinary working aspect, with no preparation of any kind, or departure from their ordinary every-day proceedings. I may add tliat I am well acquainted with our manufacturing towns in England, and have visited many mills in Manchester and elsewhere in the same manner.
I happened to arrive at the first factory just as the dinner hour was over, and the girls were returning to their work ; in- deed the stairs of the mill were thronged with them as I as- cended. They were all well-dressed, but not to my thinking above their condition ; for I like to see the humbler classes of society careful of their dress and appearance, and even, if they please, decorated with such little trinkets as come within the compass of their means. Supposing it confined Vv'ithin reason- able limits, I v.'ould always encourage this kind of pride, as a worthy element of self-respect, in any person I employed ; and should no more be deterred from doing so, because some wretched female referred her fall to a love of dress, than I would allow my construction of the real intent and meaning of the Sabbath to be influenced by any warning to the well- disposed, founded on his backslidings on that particular day, which might emanate from tlie ratber doubtful authority of a murderer in Newgate.
These girls, as I have said, were ail well dressed : and that phrase necessarily includes extreme cleanlmess. They had sendceable bonnets, good v,'arm cloaks, and shawls ; and were not above clogs and pattens. Moreover, there were places in the mill in which they could deposit these things without injury; and there were conveniences for washing. They were healthy in appearance, many of them remarkably so, and had the manners and deportment of young women : not of degraded brutes of burden. If I had seen in one of those mills (but I did not, though I looked for something of this kind with a sharp eye), i\\(t most lisping, mincing, affected, and ridiculous young creature tliat my imaiiination could ^w^- gest, I shotild ha\e thought of the careles>, moping, sl.ittemly,
AN- AMERICAN RAILROAD, ETC- 647
degraded, dull reverse (I Jiai:e seen that), and siiould have been still well pleased to look upon her.
I'he rooms in which they worked, were as well ordered as themselves. In the v/indows of some, there were green plants, W'hich were trained to shade the glass ; in all, there was as much fresh air, cleanliness, and comfort, as the nature of the occupation would possibly admit of. Out of so large a number of females, many of whom were only then just verging upon w^omanhood, it may be reasonably supposed that some were delicate and fragile in appearance : no doubt there were. But I solemnly declare, that from all the crovvd I saw- in the different factories that day, I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression ; not one )oung girl whom, assuming it to be matter of necessity that she should gain her daily bread by the labor of her hands, I would have removed from those works if I had had the power.
They reside in various boarding-houses near at hand. The owners of the mills are i3articularly careful to allow no per- sons to enter upon the possession of these houses, whose characters have not undergone the most searching and thor- ough inquir}-. Any complaint that is made against them, by the boarders, or by any one else, is fully investigated ; and if r:^ood ground of complaint be shown to exist against them, the)' are removed, and their occupation is handed over to some more deserving person. There are a few children employed in these factories, but not many. The law^s of the State for- bid their working more than nine months in the year, and re- quire that they be educated during the other three. For this purpose there are schools in Lowell ; and there are churches and chapels of various persuasions, in which the young women may observe that form of v/orship in which they have been educated.
At some distance from the factories, and on the highest and pleasantest ground in the neighborhood, stands their hospital, or boarding-house for the sick: it is the best house in those parts, and w^as built by an eminent merchant for his own residence. Like that institu_tion at Boston, which I have before described, it is not parcelled out into wards, but is di- vided into convenient chambers, each of which lias all the comforts of a very comfortable home. The principal medical attendant resides under the same roof; and vrere the patients members of his own familv, thev could not be better cared
648 AMEKICAX XOIE.
for, or attended with greater gentleness and consideration. The weekly charge in this establishment for each female patient is three dollars, or twelve shillings English \ but no girl employed by any of the corporations is ever excluded for want of the means of payment. That they do not very often want the means, may be gathered from the fact, that in July, 1841, no fewer than nine hundred and seventy-eight of these girls were depositors in the Lowell Savings Bank : the amount of whose joint savings was estimated at one hundred thou- sand dollars, or twenty thousand P^nglish pounds.
I am now going to state three facts, which will startle a large class of readers on this side of the Atlantic, very much.
Firstly, there is a joint-stock piano in a great many of the boarding-houses. Secondly, nearly all these young ladies sub- scribe to circulating libraries. Thirdly, they have got up among themselves a periodical called The Lowell Offering, " A repository of original articles, written exclusively by females actively employed in the mills," — which is duly printed, published, and sold : and whereof I l^rought away from Lowell four hundred good solid pages, which I have read from l^e- ginning to end.
The large class of readers, startled by these facts, will ex- claim, with one voice. '• How very preposterous ! " On my deferentially inquiring why, they will answer, " These things are above their station." In reply to that objection, I would beg to ask what their station is.
It is their station to work. And they do work. They labor in these mills, upon an average, twelve hours a da}', which is unquestionably work, and pretty tight work too. Per- haps it is above their station to indulge in such amusements, on any terms. Are we quite sure that we in England have not formed our ideas of the '.'station" of working people, from accustoming ourselves to the contemplation of that class as they are, and not as they might be 1 I think that if v/e ex- amine our own feelings, we shall find that the pianos, and the circulating libraries, and even the Lowell Offering, startle us by their novelty, and not by their bearing upon any abstract question of right or wrong.
For myself, I know no station in which, the occupation of to-day cheerfully done and the occupation of to-morrovv cheer- fully looked to, any one of these pursuits is not most human- izing and laudable. I know' no station which is rendered more endurable to the person in it, or more safe to the person out
A iV A ME RICA N RA ILROA D, E TC. 649
of it, by having ignorance for its associate. I know no sta~ tion which has a right to monopolize the means of mutual instruction, improvement, and rational entertainment; or vv^hich has ever continued to be a station very long, after seek- ing to do so.
Of the merits of the Lowell Offering as a literary produc- tion, I will only observe, putting entirely out of sight the fact of the articles having been written by these girls after the ar- duous labors of the day, that it will compare advantageously v/ith a great many English Annuals. It is pleasant to find that many of its Tales are of the Mills and of those who work in them ; that they inculcate habits of self-denial and contentment, and teach good doctrines of enlarged be- nevolence. A strong feeling for the beauties of nature, as displayed in the solitudes the writers have left at home, breathes through its pages like wholesome village air; and though a circulating library is a favorable school for the study of such toj^ics, it has very scant allusion to fine clothes, fine marriages, fine houses, or fine life. Some persons might object to the papers being signed occasionally with rather fine names, but this is an American fashion. One of the provinces of the state legislature of Massachusetts is to alter ugly names into pretty ones, as the children improve upon the tastes of their parents. These changes costing little or nothing, scores of Mary Annes are solemnly converted into Bevelinas every session.
It is said that on the occasion of a visit from General Jackson or General Harrison to this town (I forget which, but it is not to the purpose), he walked through three miles and a half of these young ladies dressed out with parasols and silk stockings. But as I am not aware that any worse consequence ensued, than a sudden looking-up of all the parasols and silk stockings in the market; and perhaps the bankruptcy of some speculative New Englander who bought them all up at any price, in expectation of a demand that never came ; I set no great store by the circumstance.
In this brief account of Lowell, and inadequate exjDres- sion of the gratification it yielded me, and cannot fail to afford to any foreigner to whom the condition of such people at home is a subject of interest and anxious speculation, I have carefully abstained from drawing a comparison between these factories and those of our own land. Many of the cir- cumstances whose strong influence has been at work foi
650 AM ERIC AX XOTc.S.
years \\\ our maniU.aclurlng towns have not ari-.en here ; and there is no manufacturing i^opulation in Lowell, so to speak : for these girls (often the daughters of small farmers (come from other States, remain a few years in the mills, and then go home for good.
The contrast would be a strong one, for it would be be- tween the Good and Evil, the living light and deepest shadow. I abstain from it, because I deem it just to do so. But I only the more earnestly adjure ail those whose eyes may rest on these pages, to pause and reflect upon the difference be- tween this town and those great haunts of desperate misery : to call to mind, if they can in the midst of party strife and squabble, the efforts that must be made to purge them of their suffering and danger : and last, and foremost, to remember how^ the precious Time is rushing by.
I returned at night by the same railroad and in the same kind of car. One of the passengers being exceedingly anx- ious to expound at great length to my companion (not to me, of course) the true principles on w4iich books of travel in America should be written by Englishmen, I feigned to fall asleep. But glancing all the way out at window from the corners of my eyes, I found abundance of entertainment for the rest of the ride in watching the effects of the wood fire, wdiichhad been invisible in the morning but were now brought out in full relief by the darkness : for we ^vere travelling in a whirlwind of bright sparks, which shov/ered about us like a storm of fieiy snow.
CHAPTER V.
WORCESTER. THE CONNECTICUT RIVER. HARTFORD. NEW HA\'EN. TO NEW YORK.
Leaving Boston on the afternoon of Saturday the fifth of February, we proceeded by another railroad to Worcester ; a pretty New England town, where we had arranged to remain under the hospitable roof of the Governor of the State, until Monday morning.
These towns and cities of New England (many of which
fVORCESTEJ^, ETC. 651
would be villages in Old England), are as favorable speci- mens of rural America, as tlieir people are of rural Ameri- cans. The well-trimmed lawns and green meadows of home are not there ; and the grass, compared with our ornamental plots and pastures, is rank and rough, and wild : but delicate slopes of land, gently-swelling hills, wooded valle3^s, and slender streams, abound. Every little colony of houses has its church and school-house peeping from among the white roofs and shady trees ; every house is the whitest of the white ; every Venetian blind the greenest of the green ; every fine day's sky the bluest of the blue. A sharp dry wind and a slight frost had so hardened the roads when v/e alighted at Worcester, that their furrowed tracks were like ridges of granite. There was the usual aspect of newness on every object, of course. All the buildings looked as if they had been built and painted that morning, and could be taken down on Monday with very little trouble. In the keen even- ing air, every sharp outline looked a hundred times sharper than ever. The clean cardboard colonnades had no more perspective than a Chinese bridge on a tea-cup, and appeared equally well calculated for use. The razor-like edges of the detached cottages seemed to cut the very wind as it whistled against them, and to send it smarting on its way with a shriller ciy than before. Those slightly-built wooden dwell- ings behind which the sun was setting with a brilliant lustre, could be so looked through and through, that the idea of any inhabitant being able to hide himself from the public gaze, or to have any secrets from the public eye, was not entertainable for a moment. Even where a blazing fire shone through the uncurtained windows of some distant house, it had the air of being newly lighted, and of lacking warmth ; and instead of awakening thoughts of a snug chamber, bright with faces that first saw the light round that same hearth, and ruddy with warm hangings, it came upon one suggestive of the smell of new mortar and damp walls.
So I thought, at least, that evening. Next morning when the sun was shining brightly, and the clear church bells were ringing, and sedate people in their best clothes enlivened the pathv^^ay near at hand and dotted the distant thread of road, there was a pleasant Sabbath peacefulness on everything, ' which it was good to feel. It would have been the better for an old church : better still for some old graves ; but as it was, a wholesome repose and tranquillity per^•aded the scene.
652 AMER/CA.\ NOTES.
which after the restless ocean and the hurried city, had a doubly grateful influence on the spirits.
We v/ent on next morning, still by railroad, to Springfield. From that place to Hartford, whither we were bound, is a distance of only five-and-twenty miles, but at that time of the year the roads were so bad that the journey would JDrobably have occupied ten or twelve hours. Fortunately, however, the winter having been unusually mild, the Connecticut River was ''open," or, in other words, not frozen. The cap- tain of a small steamboat was going to make his first trip for the season that day (the second February trip, I believe, within the memory of man), and only waited for us to go on board. Accordingly, we went on board, with as little delay as might be. He was as good as his word, and started directly.
It certainly was not called a small steamboat without reason. I omitted to ask the question, but I should think it must have been of about half a pony power. Mr. Paap, the celebrated Dwarf, might have lived and died happily in the cabin, which was fitted with common sash-windows like an ordinary dwelling-house. These windows had bright-red cur- tains, too, hung on slack strings across the lower panes ; so that it looked like the parlor of a Lilliputian public-house, which had got afloat in a flood or some other water accident, and was drifting nobody knew where. But even in this cham- ber there was a rocking-chair. It would be impossible to get on anywhere, in America, without a rocking-chair.
I am afraid to tell how many feet short this vessel was, or how many feet narrow ; to apply the words length and width to such measurement would be a contradiction in terms. But I may state that we all kept the middle of the deck, lest the boat should unexpectedly tip over ; and that the machinery, by some surprising process of condensation, worked between it and the keel : the whole forming a warm sandwich, about three feet thick.-
It rained all day as I once thought it never did rain any- where, but in the Highlands of Scotland. The river was full of floating blocks of ice, which were constantly crunching and cracking under us ; and the depth of water, in the course we •took to avoid the larger masses, carried down the middle of the river by the current, did not exceed a few inches. Neverthe- less, we moved onward, dexterously ; and being well wrapped up, bade defiance to the weather, and enjoyed the journey. The
* WORCESTER, ETC. 653
Connecticut River is a line stream; and the banks in summei- time are, I have no doubt, beautiful : at all events, 1 was told so by a young lady in the cabin ; and she should be a judge of beauty, if the possession of a quality include the ap- preciation of it, for a more beautiful creature I never looked upon.
After two hours and a half of this odd travelling (including a stoppage at a small town, where we were saluted by a gun considerably bigger than our own chimney), we reached Hart- ford, and straightway repaired to an extremely comfortable hotel : except, as usual, in the article of bedrooms, which, in almost every place vv^e visited, were very conducive to early rising.
We tarried here, four days. The town is beautifully sit- uated in a basin of green hills ; the soil -is rich, well-wooded, and carefully improved. It is the seat of the local legislature of Connecticut, which sage body enacted, in bygone times, the renowned code of " Blue Laws," in virtue whereof, among other enlightened provisions, any citizen who could be proved to have kissed his wife on Sunday, was punishable, I believe, with the stocks. Too much of the old Puritan spirit exists in these parts to the present hour ; but its influence has not tended, that I know, to make the people less hard in their bargains, or more equal in their dealings. As I never heard of its working that effect anywhere else, I infer that it never will, here. Indeed, I am accustomed, with reference to great professions and severe faces, to judge of the goods of the other world pretty much as I judge of the goods of this ; and whenever I see a dealer in such commodities with too great a display of them in his window, I doubt the quality of the article within.
In Hartford stands the famous oak in which the charter of King Charles was hidden. It is now inclosed in a gentle- man's garden. In the State House is the charter itself. I found the courts of law here, just the same as at Boston ; the public institutions almost as good. The Insane Asylum is admirably conducted, and so is the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.
I very much questioned within myself, as I walked through the Insane Asylum, whether I should have known the attend- dants from the patients, but for the few words which passed between the former, and the Doctor, in reference to the per- sons under their charse. Of course I limit this remark merely
6 j; 4 .-/ MKR TCA .V ,\ \ i / 7-:.b . "^
to their books ; for the conversation of tlie mad people was mad enough.
Tiiere was one little prim old lady, of very smiling and good-humored appearance, who came sidling up to me from the end of a long passage, and with a curtsey of inexpressible condescension, propounded this unaccountable inquiry :
'• Does Pontefract still flourish, sir, upon the soil of Eng- land?"'
" He does, ma'am," i rejoined,
*' When you last saw him, sir, he was — "
'' Well, ma'am," said I, " extremely well. He begged me to present his compliments. I never saw him looking better."
At this, the old lady was very much delighted. After glancing at me for a moment, as if to be quite sure that 1 was serious in my respectful air, she sidled back some paces ; sidled forward again ; made a sudden skip (at which I precipi- tately retreated a step or two) ; and said :
"/am an antediluvian, sir."
I thought the best thing to say was, that 1 had suspected as much from the first. Therefore I said so.
" It is an extremely proud and pleasantthing, sir, to be an antediluvian," said the old lady.
"I should think it was, ma'am," I rejoined.
The old lady kissed her hand, gave another skip, smirked and sidled down the gallery in a most extraordinary manner, and ambled gracefully into her own bed-chamber.
In another part of the building, there was a male patient in bed ; very much fiushed and heated.
" Well," said he, starting up, and pulling off his night-cap : " It's all settled at last. I have arranged it with Queen Vic- toria."
" Arranged what ? " asked the Doctor.
"Why, that business," passing his hand wearily across his forehead, " about the siege of New York."
" Oh ! " said I, like a man suddenly enlightened. For he looked at me for an answer.
" Yes. Every house without a signal will be fired upon by the British troops. No harm will be done to the others. No harm at all. Those that v/ant to be safe, must hoist flags. That's all they'll have to do. They must hoist flags."
Even while he was speaking he seemed. I thought, to have some faint idea that his talk was incoherent. Directlvhe had
WORCESTER, ETC. 655
said these words, he lay down again ; gave a kind of a groan ; and covered Jiis hot head with the blankets.
There was another : a young man, whose madness was love and music. After playing on the accordeon a march he had composed, he was very anxious that I should walk into his chamber, v/hich I immediately did.
By way of being very knowing, and humoring him to the top of his bent, I went to the window, which corrimanded a beautiful prospect, and remarked, with an address upon which I greatly plumed myself :
" What a delicious country you have about these lodgings of yours."
" Poh ! " said he, moving his fingers carelessly over the notes of his instrument : '^ Well enough for such an Institution as this ./"
I don't think I was so taken aback in all my life.
"" 1 come here just for a whim," he said coollv. "That's all."
"Oh! That's all" said L
"Yes. That's all. The Doctor's a smart man. He quite enters into it. It's a joke of mine. I like it for a time. You needn't mention it, but I think I shall go out next Tuesday ! "
I assured him that I would consider our interview perfectly conhdential ; and rejoined the Doctor. As we were passing through a gallery on our way out, a well-dressed lady, of quiet and composed manners, came up, and proffering a slip of paper and a pen, begged that I would oblige her with an au- tograph. I complied, and we parted.
" I think I remember having had a few interviews like that, with ladies out of doors. 1 hope she is not mxad ? "
" Yes."
" On what subject ? Autographs ? "
"' No. She hears voices in the air."
" Well ! " thought I. " it would be well if we could shut up a few false prophets of these later times, who have pro- fessed to do the same ; and I should like to try the experi- ment on a Mormonist or two to begin witli."
In this place, there is the best Jail for untried offenders in the world. There is also a very well-ordered State prison, arranged upon the same plan of that at Boston, except that here, there is always a sentry on the wall with a loaded gun. It contained at that time about two hundred prisoners. A spot Vvas shown m.e in the sleeping ward, where a watchman
656 ^ ME RICA N NO TES.
was murdered some years since in the dead of night, in a desperate attempt to escape, made by a prisoner who had broken from his cell. A woman, too, was pointed out to me, who, for the murder of her husband, had been a close prisoner for sixteen years.
" Do you think," I asked of my conductor, " that after so very long an imprisonment, she has any thought or hope of ever regaining her liberty ? "
" Oh dear yes," he answered. " To be sure she has."
** She has no chance of obtaining it, I suppose .'' "
''Well, I don't know;" which, by the bye, is a national answer. " Her friends mistrust her."
" What have they to do with it.-* " I naturally inquired.
"Well, they won't petition."
" But if they did, they couldn't get her out, I suppose ? "
" Well, not the first time, perhaps, nor yet the second, but tiring and wearying for a few years might do it.''
"Does that ever do it ? "
"Why yes, that'll do it sometimes. Political friends '11 do it sometimes. It's pretty often done, one M^ay or an'other."
T shall always entertain a very pleasant and grateful recol- lection of Hartford. It is a lovely place, and I had many friends there, whom I can never remember with indifference. We left it with no little regret on the evening of Friday the nth, and travelled that night by railroad to New Haven. Upon the way, the guard and I were formally introduced to each other (as we usually were on such occasions), and ex- changed a variety of small-talk. We reached New Haven at about eight o'clock, after a journey of three hours, and put up for the night at the best inn.
New Haven, known also as the City of Elms, is a fine town. Many of its streets (as its alias sufficiently imports) are planted with rows of grand old elm-trees ; and the same natural ornaments surround Yale College, an establishment of considerable eminence and reputation. The various de- partments of this Institution are erected in a kind of park or common in the middJe of the town, where they are dimly visible among the shadowing trees. The effect is very like that of an old cathedral yard in England ; and when their branches are in full leaf, must be extremely picturesque. Even in the winter time, these groups of well-grown trees, clustering among the busy streets and houses of a thriving city, have a very quaint appearance : seeming to bring about
WORCESTER, ETC. 657
a kind of compromise between town and country ; as if each had met the other half-way, and shaken hands upon it ; which is at once novel and pleasant.
Aftei: a night's rest, we rose early, and in good time went down to the wharf, and on board the packet New York/^^r New York. This was the first American steamboat of any size that I had seen ; and certainly to an English eye it was infinitely less like a steamboat than a huge floating bath. I could hardly persuade myself, indeed, but that the bathing establishment off Westminster Bridge, which 1 left a baby, had suddenly grown to an enormous size ; run away from home ; and set up in foreign parts as a steamer. Being in America, too, which our vagabonds do so particularly favor, it seemed the more probable.
The great difference in appearance between these packets and ours, is, that there is so much of them out of the water ; the main-deck being enclosed on all sides, and filled with casks and goods, like any second or third floor in a stack of ware-houses ; and the promenade or hurricane-deck being a- top of that again. A part of the machinery is always above this deck ; where the connecting-rod, in a strong and lofty frame, is seen working aw-ay like an iron top-sawyer. There is seldom any mast or tackle : nothing aloft but two tall black chimneys. The man at the helm is shut up in a little house in the fore part of the boat (the wheel being connected with the rudder by iron chains, working the whole length of the deck) ; and the passengers, unless the weather be very fine indeed, usually congregate below. Directly you have left the wharf, all the life, and stir, and bustle of a packet cease. You wonder for a long time how she goes on, for there seems to be nobody in charge of her ; and when another of these dull machines comes splashing by, you feel quite indignant with it, as a sullen, cumbrous, ungraceful, un shiplike levi- athan : quite forgetting that the vessel you are on board of, is its very counterpart.
There is alvvavs a clerk's office on (he lower deck, where you pay your fare ; a ladies' cabin ; baggage and stowage rooms ; engineer's room ; and in short a great variety of per- plexities which render tiie disco\"ery of the gentleman's cabin, a matter of soiriC difficulty, it ofren occupies the whole length of the boat (as it did in this case), and has three or four tiers of berths on each side. When I first descended into the cabin of the New York, ]■; looked, in my unaccustomed eves, about a: Ion-'" ■: • I'le j~rr'i:ir:t^-'- Arcade.
658
AMERICA :V NO TKS.
The Sound which has to be crossed on diis passage, is not ahvays a very safe or pleasant navigation, and has been the scene