Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

would admirably supplement the accommodation afforded by the metropolitan lines, which cannot be multiplied.

When I had spent a day or two in New York I accepted the kind invitation of Mr. O- to visit his place on the Hudson River, near West Point, but on the opposite side. I had a most agreeable visit, and was charmed with the country I saw. I had expected to find the city of New York a fine place, but had hardly looked for the charming country which I found in the neighbourhood. We went up by railway, and immediately on getting clear of the city came upon a very pretty, undulating, and green country, abounding in summer residences. I understand, however, that this is an unusually green season, and that in most years the grass is a good deal burnt up for a few weeks in summer. However, grass is very much the characteristic of the country near New York. It is mostly a dairy country-not flat, but abounding in pretty hills and undulations. In the country within easy reach of New York the wealthy citizens have beautiful places-not exactly of the nature of country seats in our style, but rather like large cottages, with abundance of pretty grounds about them. Mr. O- 's place is really a beautiful one, as are some other places in the neighbourhood. I never saw anywhere a prettier country or nicer houses. In the afternoon Mr. O took me over to the West Point Military Academy-very pleasantly situated. It seems that the cadets go through a very long and very scientific course of education for the American army, and are turned out accomplished officers to a far greater degree than can be the case under our military arrangements, where a boy is hardly a year at Sandhurst. The next day Mr. O took me a drive through a pretty country, very undulating, and even hilly. I enjoyed it very much indeed, as I did my visit in every way. In the morning I returned to New York by the steamer on the Hudson River. The river is very pretty indeed, and is much more in the style of a Scotch loch than a river. I again occupied myself for a day or two doing the sights of New York, and among them one of the magnificent steamers, which runs to Providence. It is impossible to imagine anything more luxurious than the American steamers made for inland waters. They are enormous buildings, with cabins tier upon tier; and things are generally so arranged that you go on board, have supper, go

to bed as comfortably as if you were in your own house, and arrive at your destination in the morning.

I was invited to pay another visit, in the country near New York, to Mr. II- a distinguished member of the American Legislature, who lives there with his charming family, and has something much more like a great English estate than you often find in America. It is an old property, on which many free blacks have been settled for generations. Mr. H- took me about the place, and I had my first sight of the labouring population of America at home, both white and coloured. The latter were, however, of more or less mixed blood, and several of them have Indian blood, being a cross between negroes and Indians. All seemed fairly wellto-do, the coloured people, perhaps, of a somewhat lower class than the whites, but not very much so; and they seem to live quite sociably together, the white and black children running into one another's houses; only they do not intermarry. This is, however, a very exceptional estate. We drove a considerable distance into the country, and saw some of the farms and farmers. There is little but dairy farming in this part of the country. Mr. H— and others have also some good trotting stock, and part of the New York country produces this stock, I understand, largely. The farmers whom we saw universally owned their own farms, although a good many have mortgages upon them. The farms seemed to average about one hundred acres, mostly pasture, with some woodland attached to each. There is a great deal of wood all about this part of the country. The farmers seem a very good, plain, hard-working style of men. One farm was a

good deal larger than the average, and the people seemed superior, the daughter of the house quite ladylike. The farmers principally live by selling butter, and also some pigs and apples. Apples are excessively abundant in all this country, but I did not gather that much cider is made. They raise corn enough for their own consumption, but not for sale. I was struck by the quiet, respectable, handsome look of some tradesmen assisting a farmer to repair his house. They looked quite like the best artisans in England; there was nothing American about them,

A SCAMPER THROUGH THE NORTH AND WEST.

I now returned to New York, in order to start for Boston by the New York Central Railway. I travelled in a Wagner drawing-room car. On each of the main lines a contractor, generally either Pullman or Wagner, supplies drawing-room and sleeping-cars. There is not much difference between the contractors' cars; there seemed rather a want of variety. The railway seemed to be well managed, and the country, as we went out of New York, much like what I had seen before in the other direction. We ran along the shore across the estuaries and harbours, and then passed through Providence and other New England places, where there seemed to be much population and traffic, and all the signs of a manufacturing district. It was dark before I got to Boston, where I went to the Brunswick Hotel, which I found comfortable, but very expensive-a good deal more so than the New York hotels.

Next morning I did part of Boston. It seemed a fine, substantial town, with good stone buildings and churches. After breakfast I took a steamer to Nahant, a small wateringplace, frequented by the Boston people, where I made the acquaintance of a delightful family, from among whom a distinguished member of the late Liberal Administration was almost in the act of taking to himself a wife, who will be a great acquisition to our country. I was pleased with this little American watering-place and the style of life there. The cottages seemed to be real cottages, with verandahs and creeping flowers and all sorts of pretty things. I was the more glad to see this, as I had not time to go to Newport, the fashionable seaside watering-place of the New York and New England people. I am told that it is really a beautiful place, and that many of the rich Americans have very fine houses of their own there. In short, I gathered that the place must be much superior to any of our watering-places-putting aside Brighton, which is a great town, and not a wateringplace, and as ugly as Newport is said to be pretty. Americans seem to go to the seaside a good deal more than we do; it is almost a necessity to them in the hot summer months, when the sea-breezes seem wonderfully to temper the heat. In point of society Newport seems to stand far above any

At

other place; but I gather that there is a great want of occupation for men. The season only lasts through the summer. The famous Saratoga is an inland place, and has, I understand, become far less select than Newport. In the latter part of the season, however, Saratoga has become a great resort for politicians' and their families. All sorts of conventions are held there; and it might be a very likely place at that time for visitors who want to learn something of American politics and institutions from very able men-and many of the American politicians' are very able men. Boston I was kindly and hospitably admitted to the Somerset Club, a very comfortable institution. Clubs have become very much an American institution; I found them at all the considerable towns that I visited, and the members are always most kind in admitting strangers. Thus admitted one has both many social advantages and the run of English books and magazines; sometimes even English newspapers, and that is a great treat, for throughout the United States there is nothing so difficult as to get an English newspaper of any sort or kind. I sometimes suffered for weeks together from a sort of news-famine;' that is, as regards everything excepting the sensational paragraphs telegraphed to the American

papers.

Boston and Boston Common and all about them have been so often described that I need not dwell upon the place. I shall only say that I found the character which it has for English-like people and English-like hospitality and kindness fully maintained. I went out by tram to Cambridge, to see the Harvard College there. The students have rooms in college, but are not compelled to dine there, and their discipline altogether does not seem to be very strict. Boston Free Library is a wonderful institution-by far the largest in the world, I believe and said to be very successful. All over New England the free library is a great institution; but I found that in Pennsylvania and other parts of the country they do not seem to see the advantage in the same light. I am told that almost all the mills and manufacturing establishments in New England are joint-stock concerns. They are said to be successfully managed, and to be afflicted by few frauds. They continue to divide about 5 per cent. even in bad times. They say that the best and most thrifty working people are Irish and French Canadians. Americans are

neither so strong nor so industrious; they want to live by the head, and not by the hand. I think, however, that this chiefly applies to the non-agricultural Americans. The American farmer is a very good, hard-working man.

There are a large number of distinguished literary men resident in and about Boston and Cambridge. The wealth of the Boston people is also large. So, combining brains and money as it does, no wonder it is a pleasant place. The climate, however, is, I believe, very cold in winter. I was only able to glance at the place, and must hope to return to it another time.

These Eastern cities have a great advantage in using only anthracite coal, which burns without blacks; and so, from a combination of climate and coal, they are very clean and bright.

I left Boston for the West by the early express train through Massachusetts. The country seemed hilly, and not very fertile, but pretty and pleasant-looking, with many villages and factories. Connecticut, I am told, is a good agricultural country; Maine is also a good farming State. At present all is excitement in Maine, on account of the majority given to the Greenbackers. General Butler, the great Greenback hero, is stumping Massachusetts, and alarming all the solid, old-fashioned people. I saw him on the stump-a wild-looking man.. As we got on Massachusetts becomes quite highland and picturesque. The highland country seems to be of much the same character all the way from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico; the only difference is that in the Southern States there is a large belt of flat, swampy country between the hilly country and the sea; whereas in New England the hills come down almost to the sea. As we pass through Massachusetts and get into the New York State, approaching Albany, the country becomes more flat and agricultural. Beyond Albany are the 'Sandy Plains-poor and sandy, but well settled. Hereabouts was the old Dutch settlement. Further on, the sandy plains change suddenly for a fertile and green country, near Schenectady; and from here up the Valley of the Mohawk is the finest country in the New York State, and the seat of the great cheese manufacture. The cheese is all made on the factory system, the factories generally being on a very large scale. The milk is raised by the farmers around, who bring

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »