The _Times_ recently published a series of ten articles on the "Negro
Question in the United States," and from them it appears that the
position of that country is very serious in this relation. These
articles commenced after I had started on my journey, so that I only saw
one or two of the concluding ones and the _Times_ leader upon the whole,
but I was not surprised to see them, because in passing through the
States which are principally peopled by negroes, I heard something
about the matter from a thoughtful man, who regarded the subject with
great gravity. The _Times_ has shown that the attitude of one race to
the other is that of "antagonism, discontent, and perpetual danger."
The negroes have the same constitutional privileges as the whites, and
their overpowering numbers in certain places give the power into their
hands, which, regarded in relation to racial hatred, renders them to be
an object of danger to the country. It is proposed to emigrate the
negroes to some part of Africa. It would be more consistent for certain
Americans to interest themselves in solving this problem of their own
rather than encouraging Irish agitators, and so assisting to prevent
England solving her dark problem across St. George's Channel.
The proportion of coloured people to white in the three states of
Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama, is about equal, that is, there are as
many coloured people as white. The population of coloured people
throughout the whole of the United States is about 7,000,000 of coloured
people to 59,000,000 of white people, but it is a sad fact, as stated in
the _Times_ of March 7th last, that a Government return, dated June
1st, 1890, showed that there were 45,233 convicts in the prisons of the
United States, and that of this number no less than 14,687, or one-third
were coloured people, and that out of these coloured people only 237
were Chinese, 3 Japanese, and 180 Indians, so that 14,267 were negroes.
As the whites, counting all the States, are eight times as numerous as
the coloured people, and yet the coloured convicts are one-third of the
whole, it speaks badly for the morals of the negro race in America.
I was much struck with the immense development of electricity. Steamers,
railway carriages, tramcars, hotels, shops, towns, villages, and railway
stations, even those in remote places, with scarcely a building near to
them, were all well lighted by electricity.
Railways run on scaffoldings down the centre of the streets, and horses
with their vehicles run underneath them. The railway trains are well
heated throughout by hot water pipes (every class), and reflect a grave
reproach on our country, where, in the severest weather, it is difficult
to get a foot warmer, except by certain main line trains, and, even
then, one is expected to "tip" the attendant. Poor persons travelling in
thin garments and poorly fed, in severe weather, scarcely ever dare to
ask for a foot warmer unless they are prepared to fee someone, and,
whether rich or poor, no one can get a foot warmer at any of our country
stations. When we consider that railways originated in this country, and
that some of the parts of America I passed through were, some 50, some
40, and some even 30 years ago, only known to the trapper and the
Indian, it shows the increase of enterprise exhibited by our cousins
over the Atlantic.
Tramcars are worked by electricity, by steam, by horses and mules, and
by revolving endless cables. Telephones are everywhere. The railway
journeys in America often occupying several days, the tickets are a kind
of succession of coupons, parts of which have to be given up at various
stages. Caution is exercised in selling railway tickets for long
journeys--thus, you are required to sign the ticket, and observations
are made of you, such as your height, probable age, colour of your eyes,
hair, etc. Some of the lines of railway are not fenced in, not even in
towns, so that the train runs through a town as openly as does an
omnibus. I may convey some idea of some of the large American systems
of agriculture, by referring to the estate of one of my clients, Mr.
C.H. Huffman, of Merced, California. This gentleman has fields ranging
from 1,000 to 15,000 acres each. He can plough 400 to 500 acres a day.
By his traction engine he can strike 12 furrows at a time. He can put 70
teams (of eight mules or horses each) to work at one time. Each
harvester will cut, thrash, and sack an average of 50 acres a day. The
front part of the machine faces the standing wheat in the field, in the
centre of the machine it is thrashed and winnowed, and at the rear it is
thrown out in sacks ready for market. Mr. Huffman can sit in his study
at home, and by his telephone talk to his clerks at Merced (he is the
banker there), as well as to the foremen at his various ranches for 25
miles round the country. I particularly noticed one of his fields of
wheat, comprising 2,000 acres, as level and clean as a well-kept lady's
flower garden in England.
The Americans have a greater variety of foods served at their meals than
we do, but I never got the flavour of meat cut from a joint to equal
that which, when really well roasted and served, we get in England. As
to bread, I never tasted bread worth the name, from the time I left
London to the time I returned to it. Alike on the Cunard steamers, cars,
hotels, etc., you can get no wholemeal bread. French and Vienna breads,
and other very white abortions of that kind are obtainable in abundance,
and even a kind of brown bread, and "Graham's" bread, but good honest
wholemeal bread, containing all the properties of the full kernel of the
wheat, it is impossible to get, and this to me was a very great
deprivation, as my _principal_ article of food is _real_ wholemeal
bread.
The system of the custody of letters at the large American hotels
appeared to me rather unsafe. A visitor asks for letters, whereupon
there are handed to him all the letters in the pigeon-hole marked with
the initial of which the visitor's name commences. The visitor then
proceeds to look through them, and takes what he chooses, and hands the
rest back. The official is too busy, or it is not customary for him, to
look through them for the visitor, or even to watch the visitor in his
process of selection. I noticed one gentleman with a packet of letters,
I should think considerably over a hundred, every now and then slip one
into his breast pocket and give a furtive glance, which did not inspire
confidence, but probably this is a well accustomed habit of the people,
and the letters, perhaps, are as safe as the newspapers I frequently saw
deposited on the tops of the street letter boxes (outside the boxes),
because they were too large to be put inside; of course anyone could
have taken them, but the custom not to touch them is probably honourably
recognized. The street letter boxes are quite small square boxes, not
large pillar boxes as are ours in this country.
I should like to have remarked more generally on America, but both time
and space fail me. Of course, as most people know, the (to us)
disgusting practice of spitting is common in America; spittoons are
universally provided in public and private places. At Merced Court House
is this notice: "Gentlemen will not, and others should not spit upon the
floors." Huge spittoons are provided there.
The awful guttural which precedes the constant expectoration of
Americans is most trying. It excites in persons near them and who are
unaccustomed to it, a sensation of necessity to vomit, as it conveys a
fear that your neighbour is about to vomit over you. It is not the
excusable expectoration arising from an accumalation in the air
passages, but a continuous fusilade of saliva. It is a disgusting
practice, and I believe will die out in America as its citizens travel
more in the old countries and become used to manners more refined than
such a one as this. I observed that my clients in California, who have
travelled in Europe, and other travelled Americans, are not guilty of
this odious practice.
I would say to Englishmen travelling in America, don't condescend to the
"guessing" and other loose styles of expression, and don't affect the
nasal twang. Americans, with all their boast of one man being as good as
another, are greatly pleased to entertain or travel with Englishmen
having a title, and they pay a marked respect to Britishers who speak in
a classical style, and who, while being devoid of foppishness, bounce,
or vulgarity, conduct themselves with a genial dignity.
=California.=
I will now say something about California, and then proceed to describe
the lands for sale, and the prospects of those who will settle upon
them.
California lies on the genial coast of the Pacific Ocean, midway between
the too cold regions of the North and the too hot regions of the South.
To be exact, the mean temperature in San Francisco in the month of
January, averages about 49°. It has varied from 53° to 39°. The record
of 32 years shows that between sunrise and sunset it has not been so low
as 32° on more than 10 days. Snow is sometimes seen to fall, but it
melts immediately.
California has a bright, genial climate, and is described as
"pre-eminently a sunny land." The early spring, commencing about the
middle of February and lasting about six weeks, is a very pleasant part
of the year, but April is described as the "cheeriest." December and
January are the least pleasant, because it is the rainy and winter
season.
Thunderstorms are rare, and no hurricane has ever been known there. The
rainfall of California is about twenty inches, and the rainy days number
about sixty in the year, or about half the number of rainy days
experienced in the Atlantic States or Central Europe.
Amongst the fruits grown in abundance are the orange, grape, peach,
apricot, plum, cherry, apple, nectarine, fig, lemon, lime, olive, date,
and all the berries of value.
Besides the immense growth of choice and luscious Fruits, for which
California is famous all over the globe, it claims to have the largest
milk, butter, and cheese dairies in the world. It is also renowned for
its mineral riches, its immense mercantile business, its manufacturing
industries, its production of wool, its gigantic timber, its wealth of
beauty in flowers, its fast horses, its grand scenery, embracing lofty
mountains, deep valleys, expansive fertile plains, and all the
variations of a beautiful country, with many rivers, and a magnificent
sea coast, whilst the "coast range" and the slopes of the "Sierra" offer
to the sportsman such game in abundance as grizzly and cinnamon bears
and Californian lions. There are also deer, hare, rabbit, quail, large
flocks of wild ducks and geese, and the rivers afford such fish as
salmon and trout, and the deep sea splendid fishing.
San Francisco has been called "a city of 100 hills." It has a population
of nearly 300,000 inhabitants, amongst whom are no less than 50
_millionaires_. Its harbour is known all over the globe as the "Golden
Gate," and it has answered well to its name, for an entrance to its vast
resources has made the fortune of multitudes of people, and many going
there now are laying the foundations for future wealth.
The lands of California have the two essentials for successful
culture--a rich soil and genial climate, with plenty of sun, yet never
too hot and never too cold for out-door work, and most of its domestic
animals are never housed, and require no food but wild herbage.