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LAST WINTER
IN
THE UNITED STATES
BEING
TABLE TALK
COLLECTED DURING A TOUR THROUGH
THE LATE SOUTHERN CONFEDERATION, THE FAR WEST,
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS, &c.
BY F. BARHAM ZINCKE
VICAR OF WHERSTEAD AND CHAPLAIN IN ORDINARY TO THE QUEEN
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1868
_The right of translation is reserved_
TO MY WIFE
I Dedicate these Pages
BECAUSE, WHILE OF ALL WOMEN I AM ACQUAINTED WITH SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN
MOST CAPABLE OF ENTERING INTO THE INTEREST OF THE SCENES AND OF THE
STATE OF SOCIETY THEY DESCRIBE, SHE DETERMINED, FOR THE SAKE OF HER
ONLY CHILD, TO FOREGO THAT PLEASURE; AND URGED ME NOT TO LOSE, FROM
CONSIDERATION FOR HER, AN OPPORTUNITY FOR CARRYING OUT A LONG-CHERISHED
WISH TO VISIT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
WHERSTEAD VICARAGE:
_Nov. 24, 1868_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Winter Voyage recommended—A Cabin to oneself may then
be had at no additional cost—Advantages of Travelling in America
in Winter—A Feeling in a Gale—The Americans on board
the Steamer—Divine Service on Board 1
CHAPTER II.
New York—_Menu_ at Fifth Avenue Hotel—How Travel in the
States may be arranged for a Winter Tour—The Queen’s Book
in America—External Appearance of New York—Ignorance of
English Immigrants—Industrial Schools—Children’s Aid Society—Number
of Churches—Broad Views general—A Service
at the Rev. H. W. Beecher’s Church—Episcopalian Broad Church
Club—Chapels in poor Districts annexed to Episcopal Churches
in rich ones—American Churches worked at High Pressure—An
American Divine’s Opinion of a Minister’s Duty 8
CHAPTER III.
Why an unreasonable Fancy was acted on—The History of the
Cause of American Progressiveness—What passes in America
important to us—The Northern States sown broadcast with
Houses 24
CHAPTER IV.
The Locomotive in the Streets—In Baltimore Public Opinion first
becomes Southern—Growth and Prospects of Baltimore—On
Trading Politicians and Ill-will to England—Why an American
Tutor thought necessary for an Englishman—Repudiation—The
Masses and Middle Class in favour of it—Arguments in favour
of it—An Argument used 2,000 Miles from Wall Street—Why
Republicans bound to repudiate—Americans addicted to Abstract
Reasoning—Instances 32
CHAPTER V.
Washington—Style of Speaking in Congress—Congress no Nursery
for Statesmen—Society in Washington—Episcopal Church in
Washington—Some Opinions of an American Bishop—Commissioner
of Agriculture—Use of the Department—Its Museum
gives an Idea of the Vastness of the Country—Its Natural
Advantages—What Variety of Productions has done for England
will be repeated in America—Special Excellence of Californian
Productions—The Californian himself—California compared
with Italy—Why Coloured Waiters preferable to White—Negro
Funeral with Masonic Honours—American Birds’ Nests—Bill
for making Education compulsory—Coloured Schools—Comparative
Intelligence of the Negro—Vulgar Errors about Americans—Night
Attendants at Hotel read ‘Oliver Twist’—Capitol—Treasury—Patent
Office—What our Diplomacy in America
should be—Use of Iced Water 44
CHAPTER VI.
Richmond—Way by the Battle-fields—Handiness of American
Soldiers—Effect of Slavery on the Virginian Landscape—Appearance
of American Forest—Republican Relations of Father
and Son—State of Feeling in Virginia—Billiards in America—Why
Richmond Millers undersold by Californian—Why American
Cities are Large—American Living—Prospects of Richmond—Indications
of Southern Climate in Richmond—Church-matters
in Richmond—Interest that attaches to Richmond, and to the
Heroism of the South 67
CHAPTER VII.
How Southerners describe their own Condition—Each State must
be taken separately—Missouri—Tennessee—Kentucky—Texas—Virginia—
Georgia—Florida—North Carolina—Arkansas—South
Carolina—Louisiana—Mississippi—Will the Blacks get
the Franchise?—No party considers them fit—They will have
it for a time—This will weaken the repudiating party—Also
the party hostile to this country—The Blacks will not all be
republican—The South should have been left alone to settle the
Labour Question—The Bureau suggested false ideas—There will
be no war of races—What will kill out the Blacks—The rate of
this—Fusion physically impossible—Means of Communication
in the South indicate its condition 91
CHAPTER VIII.
First Sight of a Cotton-field—Spanish Moss—A Night on the
Rails—Many kinds of sameness in America—Maize—Order of
Succession in the Forest—Its extent—Evergreens in the Southern
Forest—Poor land in the South may be more profitable than
rich land in the West—Deadness of Charleston—Its Hotels—A
Charleston Sam Weller—The Naples of the United States—Few
English Travellers—Sufferings of Southern Families—Want
of schools—How the deficiency is being supplied—Blacks should
be put on same footing as Whites—Dialogue with Black Member
of Convention—Another Convention—Able Black Member—South
Carolina Orphan Asylum 109
CHAPTER IX.
Cold in South Carolina and Georgia—Curious appearance of Ice—Time
not valued in the South—Why Americans will not cultivate
the Olive—Tea might grow in Georgia—Atlanta bound to
be great—Cattle badly off in winter—A Virginian’s Recollection
of the War—His Position and Prospects—Approach to Mobile
by the Alabama River—Mobile—The Harbour—Why no American
Ships there—A Day on the Gulf—Ponchatrain—New
Orleans—French Sunday Market—French appearance of Town—A
New Orleans Gentleman on the Episcopal Church—Bishop
Elect of Georgia—Mississippi—The Cemeteries—Expensiveness
of everything—Transatlantic News—Fusion of North and South—French
Half-breeds—Roads—The best in the World—Approach
to New Orleans by land—Sugar Plantations—A
Prayer for a Brother Minister 126
CHAPTER X.
My only Delay on an American Railway—No concealing one’s
Nationality—Railway Cow-plough—Pistols—Memphis—Emigration
from the South deprecated—True Method of Resuscitation—The
Minister’s Study—Conversation with two Ministers—Invitation
to ‘go to Church’ 150 Miles off—Luxury does not
sap the Military Spirit—Mrs. Read—Entry into Eden—Share a
Bed-room with a Californian—How California was civilised—How
a Site upon the Swamp was created for Cairo—Decline the
fourth part of a Bed-room at Odin—‘Be good to yourself’ 146
CHAPTER XI.
Mississippi frozen over at St. Louis—Why the Bridge at St. Louis
is built by Chicago Men—General Sherman—Ideas about Education
at St. Louis—Liberal Bequests for Educational Purposes—How
New Englandism leavens the whole Lump—The German
Invasion will not Germanise America—St. Louis—Its rapid
Growth—Its Church Architecture—An Idea on Mental Culture
from the West Bank of the Mississippi—A Thought suggested
by hearing the Skaters on the Mississippi talking English 164
CHAPTER XII.
Instance of American Kindliness—Red-skins and Half-breeds on
the Rails—Cincinnati and its Inhabitants—What may be
made of Pigs—The influence of its Pork-crop—Machinery
for Killing and Curing—Improving effect American Equality
has on the highest and lowest Class—Churches only unprosaic
Buildings in American Towns—Schools—Merits of Philadelphian
style of City-building not obvious—In what it consists—America
has but one City—No. 24, G Street, corner of 25th Street 172
CHAPTER XIII.
The Valley of the Ohio—Much of the United States will produce
Wine—Illinois at Night—First View of Lake Michigan—Chicago—A
Sign of outward Religion—‘Small-pox here’—Fire
Alarm—Liberality of Chicago Merchants—The Dollar not all-in-all—A
Church lighted from the Roof—A handsome American—America
has developed a new type of Features—Chicago Schools—An
exception to the American way of denouncing the official
Class—Chicago Sunday Schools—Programme of one I attended—Excellence
of Water at Chicago—How supplied—Lifting up
the City—Post Office Arrangements—A disadvantage of frequent
change of Clerks—Americans on Aristocracy—How the Germans,
the masses of the people, and the upper class feel towards it 182
CHAPTER XIV.
Prairie from Chicago to Omaha—Plains from North Platte to the
Mountains—Omaha, the intersection of the Pacific Railway
and the Missouri—Temporary Bridge over the Missouri—Indifference
to Risks affecting Life—A Prairie Fire—The Forest on
the Mountains on Fire—Fire the cause of the Treelessness of the
Prairies—First found Animal Life abounding in the Valley of the
Platte—‘The hardest place, Sir, on this Continent’—Its
Predecessor—How it is possible to establish Lynch Law at Shyenne—My
first Night in Shyenne—A second Night in Shyenne—Necessity
and advantages of Lynch Law—‘The use of the Pistol’—A
Man shot because ‘he might have done some mischief’—Newness
of Aspects both of Society and of Nature 202
CHAPTER XV.
The Armament and Experience of a German Herdmaster—A Stage
Coach on the Plains—The Party in the Coach—The only
Colonel I met in the United States—The Colonel’s Wife—A
Colorado Herdmaster—A Philadelphian Graduate—Two jocose
Denver Storekeepers—Advantage of having one’s Rifle in the
Coach—A Californian’s account of a Skirmish with Indians—Manners
and Life at a house on the Plains—A Lady of the
Plains—American Society judges Men fairly—Between Shyenne
and Denver 221
CHAPTER XVI.
The City of Denver—The Ladies give a Ball—Manners of Denver—‘Quite
our finest Gentleman’—The Plains will be to America
an improved Australia—The advantages they offer for Flocks
and Herds—Will soon be clear of Indians—Markets now opened
to them—Size of the Runs—Wealth of the Region 233
CHAPTER XVII.
The Rocky Mountains—Golden City—Golden Gates—Mining
Towns—Neighbouring Mountains stripped of every Tree—What
grows on the Mountains—American Horses—Roads and Bridges
they have to pass—How, six-in-hand, we went down a Hillside
in the Mountains—A nice Distinction as to Accidents on this
Hill—Climate—Wind-storms—Birds—Dogs 241
CHAPTER XVIII.
Rocky Mountains a Field for Sporting—Great variety and abundance
of Game—Wild Fruit—Excellence of Climate in the
shooting season—How the Mountains may be reached, and how
much seen by the way, in 15 days from Liverpool—Cost of the
Expedition—The best Camping Ground is the South Park at
foot of Pike’s Peak—The Route by Chicago and Denver
recommended—Other Route by St. Louis and Leavenworth—Route
into the Park—The North Park easier work—The more enterprising
may go to Laramie Plains—Will deteriorate every year 249
CHAPTER XIX.
Hotel Cars, real First-class Carriages—An Editor on his Countrymen’s
Knowledge—American Grandiloquence—Of whom this
is said—Necessary to repeat some of what one hears—‘Have
you seen our Forest?’—‘The Pacific Rails will carry the commerce
of the world’—Large Acquaintance Americans have—An
American on Letters of Introduction—Niagara—The American
and Canadian Falls—What is in the mind magnifies what one
sees—The Stone Trough it has chipped out—Ice Bridge—How
Niagara is pronounced—A Week of Canadian Weather—A
Snow-bound Party at Niagara 258
CHAPTER XX.
Educational Department at Toronto—Canadian Arguments against
Common Schools—A Canadian’s Opinion on Secular Schools in
England—How the Canadians’ Objections are met in the United
States—Upper Canadians not yet a People—Advantages possessed
by Upper Canada—Service at the Romanist and Anglican
Cathedrals—Unmannerly Behaviour permitted on Canadian
Railways—Badness of their Carriages—Why Canada is not ‘the
Land of Freedom’—Yankee Smartness in Train-driving—Picturesqueness
of Vermont—Travelling on American Railways
not fatiguing 269
CHAPTER XXI.
Boston is the Hub of America—Mr. Ticknor—Professor Rogers
and the Technological—Mr. Norton—Professor Agassiz—Mr.
Appleton and Mr. Longfellow—Mr. Philbrick—A Grammar
School Commemoration—Humility of the better Literary Men of
Boston—Regret at leaving Boston 279
CHAPTER XXII.
American Hotels—Why some People in America travel without
any Luggage—Conversation at Tables-d’hôte should be encouraged—The
Irish, the African, and the Chinese—Can a Republic
do without a Servile Class?—What will be the ultimate Fate of
these three races in America—No Children—Motives—Means—
Consequences—Why many young Men and young Women make
Shipwreck of Happiness in America—The course many Families
run—America the Hub of the World 286
CHAPTER XXIII.
On American Common Schools—Conclusion 299
INTRODUCTION.
No one would now think of writing a continuous narrative of travel in
the United States of America. The only alternative hitherto adopted
has been that of Essays on American subjects. But towards these the
opinion of the reading public has not been so favourable as to make
one desirous of adding to their number. There appears, however, to be
another form, as yet, I believe, untried, in which he who has travelled
in a country, about which people know much, but from which they are
still desirous of hearing something more, may present to the reader
what he has to say. He may write, I mean, somewhat in the fashion of a
book of table-talk. This he may do by confining himself just to what he
knows would be listened to with interest in a company of intelligent
persons who had some acquaintance with the subject; and by putting what
he has to say of this kind with the conciseness, and, if possible, with
the point, required in conversation. This would render it necessary
that the book should consist rather of paragraphs than of chapters; and
that these should frequently have little or no connection; many of them
being very brief, because they will contain merely some observation, or
the notice of some fact, for which half a dozen lines will suffice. It
is in this way that I now propose to write about America, trusting that
by so doing I shall spare my readers’ time and patience.
A WINTER
IN
THE UNITED STATES.
CHAPTER I.
THE WINTER VOYAGE RECOMMENDED—A CABIN TO ONE’S SELF MAY THEN BE HAD
AT NO ADDITIONAL COST—ADVANTAGES OF TRAVELLING IN AMERICA IN WINTER—A
FEELING IN A GALE—THE AMERICANS ON BOARD THE STEAMER—DIVINE SERVICE ON
BOARD.
I would recommend the man who begins to feel the effects of
long-continued professional labour, or of an idle and luxurious life,
if his constitution is still capable of amendment, to try what may be
gained by a voyage across the Atlantic, and back again, in winter; with
such an interval between the two as he might be able to allow for a
tour in the United States. In the summer the weather is likely to be so
fine that the only benefit he would derive from his two voyages would
be that of breathing the air of the ocean for as many days as he would
spend in making them; but in winter there would be almost a certainty
of some rough weather; and if after a few days he should prove capable
of resisting the usual disturbing effects of such weather at sea,
and come to take a pleasure in facing and battling against boisterous
winds and tossing waves, I do not know what could more rapidly brace
up within him what had begun to fail. Even the mere finding of one’s
sea-legs, and the subsequent use of them under difficulties, would
not be unattended with advantage, for I suppose it would bring into
action and develope muscles not much used at other times. In winter,
too, the air would be cool (it is not at all necessarily cold at that
season on the track between England and America, except when one nears
the American coast), and this coolness of the air would of itself have
with many constitutions an invigorating effect. But be the process what
it may by which your two ocean voyages bring about their renovating
result, that result is that you return to your home a stronger and a
hungrier man than you were before you left it.
[Sidenote: _Advantages of Travelling in Winter._]
There is always much inconvenience and discomfort in sharing at sea the
few square feet a cabin contains with another man, however gentlemanly
he may be; and it is not improbable that one taken promiscuously
from a hundred and fifty Transatlantic travellers would possess some
habit or infirmity which would render such close companionship almost
insufferable. In summer you cannot avoid this misery except at a great
cost. To be alone at that season you must pay the fare of the one
or two additional berths in your cabin which you wish should remain
unoccupied. But in winter the number of passengers being always less
than the number of berths, you can stipulate for a cabin to yourself
without being put to any additional expense. There are now so many
competing lines of steamers to America, that neither on the outward nor
homeward voyage will you find any difficulty on this head. And you need
not scruple about asking for this accommodation, for it may be granted
to you without at all lessening either the profits of the owners of the
ship, or the comforts of any one of the passengers.
Travelling also on the _terra firma_ of America in winter has its
advantages. At this season of the year you find everybody at home; and
if your object is rather to see the people than the country in which
they live, this will alone outweigh all other considerations. The
Americans being the most locomotive people in the world, are seldom
to be found at home in summer. I travelled through the States in the
winter and the early spring, and had letters of introduction to persons
in every city I stayed at, and in no instance did I find anyone absent
from home, with the single exception of a gentleman who happened to
be just at that time discharging his duties as Member of Congress at
Washington, whereas the letter which had been given me was directed to
him at his house at Chicago, where I presented it. In winter, also, one
escapes the persecutions of the mosquitoes, and of the creeping things
that bite in beds, of the withering heat, and tormenting dust—those
inevitable concomitants of travel under an American summer sun.
What is lost by confining one’s travels in America to the (botanically)
dead season of the year is, that nothing is seen of the summer and
autumn aspects of the vegetation of the country. Its winter aspect,
however, is not without interest to the Englishman, whose eye is
accustomed to the perennial green of his own parks and meadows, which
are generally, indeed, even greener at Christmas than at Mid-summer.
While in America I did not see in the winter and early spring a blade
of grass that was even faintly tinted with green, from Canada to the
Gulf of Mexico, or from New York to the Rocky Mountains. I was told
that the blue grass of parts of Kentucky and Virginia is an exception,
but of this I saw nothing myself. I found the roadsides, pastures, and
prairies everywhere clothed in unrelieved drab.
To look out from one of the Cunard Company’s magnificent steam-ships,
where everything is going on with the precision of clockwork, while
a gale is raging on the ocean around you, and to see that in the
Mid-Atlantic you are master of the winds and waves, makes you feel that
it is something to be a man.
[Sidenote: _American Fellow-Passengers._]
As I was going to America to see the Americans, I took the first
opportunity which presented itself—that of the voyage to America—for
weighing and measuring the specimens of that very compound race who
happened to be on board the ship in which I was sailing. About half the
passengers, forty-five in all, were of German extraction; and about
half of this half were of the Hebrew persuasion. One young fellow among
these latter, who I suppose might be regarded as a representative
of the broad synagogue, delivered it as his opinion, that the time
had come when the Jews should give up all their peculiar practices
which modern knowledge had proved to be founded in misconceptions
and mistakes. He instanced their abstinence from pork, and from the
blood of the animals they used for food, and their method of killing
animals. One of these Teutonic Americans, a youth with such a width
of shoulder, and massiveness of neck and head, that no one could look
upon him without being reminded of a buffalo, was an Indian trader
from the borders of Kansas. His practice was to give the Indians four
dollars’ worth of goods for such a buffalo robe as sells in London for
fifty or sixty shillings. It was his opinion that Indians were vermin
which should on every opportunity have a dose of lead administered to
them. When asked if this was justifiable, ‘Well,’ he replied, ‘they
are a set of bloodthirsty, treacherous skunks; and they must all die
out, or be shot down, and it can’t matter much to them which it is. It
comes to much the same in the end. They shot my brother, and my plan
is to take a shot at them whenever I have a chance.’ All these German
Americans spoke English as fluently as they did German. Their most
prominent idea appeared to be hatred of all aristocracies. That of the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland they regarded with their
purest hatred, because it seemed to them the most developed and the
most powerful. The best mannered people of the party were the Yankee
and New York traders; some of these were buyers for large wholesale
and retail houses, others on their own account. There were about a
dozen of them on board. They were very careful about their dress,
and their conversation was pleasing and intelligent. The majority of
them were entirely free from the Yankee tone of voice. They were the
very reverse of pushing, and they never guessed. In appearance and
manners they would have passed amongst ourselves for gentlemen. We had,
however, among the passengers one genuine Yankee of the received type.
He had been a successful inventor of improvements in machinery, though
medicine, not mechanics or engineering, was his business. He thought
that anything by which he could make money was as much his business
as his profession was. He was always talking, and ready to argue on
any subject: if unacquainted with it, that made no difference—he
still had a right to express his opinion. His favourite idea was that
discussion led to knowledge, and that books came after knowledge, and
that therefore they were not of much value. This dictum he fearlessly
applied to everything—to history, to science, and to religion.
Theoretically he was a strong Negrophilist. He believed that the
patriarchs and prophets, that the Saviour of the world and His apostles
were all Negroes. He thought that the amount of wealth a man had been
able to accumulate was the true measure of a man, because all pursued
wealth, and employed in the pursuit the whole of their power. If a man
was idle or stupid, he employed what power was left him, after so much
had been cancelled by his idleness or stupidity. And therefore—for this
was his conclusion—if he could produce several blacks, which he was
sure he could do, who had accumulated more wealth than anyone present,
then they were better men than any of the present company. I say he was
theoretically a Negrophilist, because, although he liked the Negro, he
liked him best at a distance. In politics, he held that clever men,
and men with ideas, were the bane of the country. They had already got
their constitution and their laws. The people did not want a letter of
either altered, or anything added to either. All officers, therefore,
elected by the people, whether for the general or the local government,
were in the position of servants with written instructions. No one
would tolerate a domestic servant who, in the face of his instructions,
thought for himself; nor ought the people ever to re-elect a public
servant who acted in this way. Indeed he held that no man should ever
be re-elected, but that all public offices should be made ‘to go as
far as possible’ in bringing into notice deserving young men, and in
helping them on a little, and in rewarding in a temporary way those
who had exerted themselves on behalf of their party. He was always
joking; his jokes consisting of grotesque impossibilities and laughable
exaggerations. But his unconscious and unfailing conceit, and his
assumptions of omniscience, were as ridiculous as his jokes.
[Sidenote: _American Fellow-Passengers._]
On Sunday Divine Service was celebrated in the saloon. The service was
that of the Established Church. The Germans absented themselves. The
Americans were all present, and behaved very well, many of them making
the responses audibly. The Bishop of Ontario read the prayers, and an
English clergyman preached. Some of the Americans proposed to him that
he should, as they expressed it, ‘hold another meeting’ in the evening;
but it would not have been right to drive the Germans a second time on
to the deck.