characteristic nonchalance, _to the lake_ for his answer! Spite of the
poets, I found no beauty among these people, save in the bright eyes
of one little child, who was playing outside the door of a wigwam, on
the shore of that lovely Sault River, so rich in its clustering
islands, so beautiful with its foaming rapids; miniaturing those of
Niagara. The Indians dart over and about these rapids in their
egg-shell boats with startling fearlessness. I am sorry to inform you,
by the way, that the "_nymph-like Indian maid_" wears a hoop! In this
vicinity--for one instant--I wished that I were a squaw; particularly
as she was a chief's widow, and was being rowed in a pretty canoe by
fourteen Indians, whose voices "kept tune as their oars kept time." A
nearer inspection of her opulent ladyship might have disinclined me to
the exchange, but at that distance, as her picturesque little canoe
safely coquetted with the foaming, sparkling rapids, her position
seemed enchanting.
Homeward bound! and now we must leave all these beautiful scenes, and
say Farewell to the kind faces which greeted us so many happy "good
mornings" and "good nights." There are mementoes now before me:
mignonnette from the bright-eyed girl of "Marquette;" specimens of
"ore" from "the Doctor," of sterling value as himself; and
recollections of at least one member of the press, glad, like
ourselves, to escape from pen and ink. Ah! who has not hated to say
Farewell?
"We must come again next summer," said we all--so said the Captain.
Ah! the poor Captain. My eyes fill--my heart aches, as if I had known
him years, instead of those few bright, fairy days. Poor Captain Jack
Wilson, with his handsome, sunshiny face, cheery voice, and manly
ways! How little I thought there would be no "next summer" for him,
when he so kindly helped me up on the hurricane deck, and into the
cosy little pilot-house, to look about; who was always sending me word
to come "forward," or "aft," because he knew I so much enjoyed seeing
all beautiful things; who was all goodness, all kindness, and yet, in
a few hours after we left him, found a grave in that cruel surf!
The _afternoon of the day_ we had said our _last_ "Good-bye" to him,
on the Chicago pier; we had taken a carriage to drive round the city,
and reined up at the "draw," for a boat to pass through. It was the
"_Lady Elgin_," going forth to meet her doom! We kissed our hands
gaily to her in the bright sunshine "for auld lang syne," and that
night, as we slept safely in our beds at the hotel, that brave heart,
with a wailing babe prest to it, had only that treacherous raft
between him and eternity. The poor captain! How can we give him up? As
_his_ strong arm sustained the helpless on that fearful night, may God
support his own gentle ones, or whom our hearts ache, in this their
direst need.
* * * * *
I never fancied going up and down stairs, nor did I like to see only
the _ankles_ of the Chicago people on a level with the carriage
windows, while riding through their streets. How any mortal gets about
those breakneck localities in the evening, with the present
insufficient means of illumination, (I except of course, the lighting
of the principal thoroughfare,) I am at a loss to conjecture. I advise
all young doctors to emigrate to Chicago; stumbling strangers at least
must yield them a rich harvest. Having lightened my conscience on this
point, I wish to add that I was delighted with Chicago; delighted with
the fine architectural taste displayed in the new buildings already
finished and in process of building. I very much admired one of the
churches in Michigan Avenue, composed of variegated stone. Some of the
private residences may safely challenge competition with any in New
York, on the score of magnificence. The principal stores are narrow,
but of an immense length, and full of choice goods; they only differ
from ours of the same class, in the fact that a little of everything
may be purchased in _each one_; instead of the usual "dry goods"
limitation. Religion and tobacco seem to be the staple products of
Chicago; the shops for the sale of the latter, having a wonderful
prominence and attractiveness, and as to churches, their name is
legion. The handsome mammoth hotel now being built, we only hoped
might be monopolized by the landlord who made _our_ stay so
comfortable.
Notwithstanding a persistent rain, our ride through alternate woods
and prairies, from Chicago to Cleveland was quite delightful. The
luxuriance of vegetation was a constant source of pleasure to me.
There were giant trees, festooned with wild vines, and beautiful
spikes of purple and yellow flowers, tantalizing my itching fingers as
we shot past; the cars always stopping, of course, where nothing but
"Groceries" was to be seen, except in one instance, where "_Groceries
and Boarding_" made a pleasing variety. Quantities of prairie-hens
fluttered out of the long grass, as we passed, safe enough from any
gunpowder tendencies of mine, while wonderfully prolific families of
spotted pigs "took their time" to pay attention to our shrieking
whistle. _Abundance_, indeed, seemed to be written on everything, even
to the jetty coronal of hair on the head of a young, barefooted girl
of eighteen, who, alas! was smoking a long-nine in the doorway of her
log-hut. I dare say, though, that the poor thing did it in
self-defence, as I am convinced all women in this country will be
obliged to--sooner or later,--as men grow more and more selfish in
regard to the tobacco-nuisance, the _churches_ at present being the
only place where one is sure of escaping it, and I am expecting every
Sabbath to see the "curling incense" rise there.
Political meetings had been held that day, all along our route, and
a great multitude of the unwashed, uncombed, and, for all I could
see, unshirted men, entered the cars at the various stopping-places,
shaking the rain from their manes like so many shaggy Newfoundlands;
"fust-rate fellows"--fearful at spitting and the quill-toothpick
exercise!--evidently unused to the curly specimen of female,
judging by the looks of blank astonishment with which they
regarded--open-mouthed--your humble servant. Of course, we did not
see a "rolling prairie" on this route; however, as we had just done
a little extra "rolling" on Lake Superior, perhaps it was as well
deferred till another summer.
There is no person who has such rigid "go-to-meetin" ideas of
propriety, according to her own formula of expounding it, as your
countrywoman who seldom ventures beyond the smoke of her own chimney;
I had the misfortune to shock one irretrievably by transferring from
one of our scrambling way-station dinners an ear of corn, upon which
to regale at my leisure in the cars. If eyes turned inside out, in
holy horror could have moved me, then would that ear of corn never
been eaten; but alas! I was both hungry and independent, and Mrs.
Grundy could only turn her back and weep over one more unfortunate,
lost to all sense of decorum. A little salt however, with one's corn,
is not amiss; so I lived to chronicle it.
It would, and did, keep on raining till we reached Cleveland, at ten
on Saturday evening. On the following Monday, unfortunately for
belated travellers, was to take place the inauguration of the Perry
monument, to which all the country for miles round were flocking, not
to mention any number of military companies and strangers from a
distance, bound on the same patriotic errand. Every hotel, and even
private residences, were crammed to the last possible extent; this, of
course, we did not know till our trunks were dumped on the wet
sidewalk, and the hackman had made his grinning exit. Ladies, wet,
hungry ladies, sat eying each other like vampires, (bless 'em!) in the
hotel parlors, while despairing cavaliers, brothers, lovers and
husbands, mopped their damp brows in the halls, after vain appeals to
demented landlords, who had turned billiard tables into couches, and
shutters into cots. These agonized fair ones, at each fresh
disappointment, could only ejaculate, faintly, "Good gracious, what's
to be done?" as they flattened their noses against the window-panes,
and took one more look into the muddy streets; and another train _yet_
to arrive at that late hour, with four hundred more moist, hungry
wretches! Thanks, then, to the landlord, who immediately turned, for
us, his own private parlor into a bed-room, and surrounded us with
every possible comfort.
The sun shone out brilliantly on Monday upon the beautiful city of
Cleveland, swarming with red coats, and rustics, and civilians, to see
the statue, of which they may well be proud, both on account of its
intrinsic merit, and because it is the work of a native artist. It
stands conspicuously in "Olive Park," its fine proportions in
beautiful relief against the dense foliage. We saw Cleveland in
holiday attire, it is true, but apart from that it impressed me most
agreeably, with its gigantic shade trees and pretty streets and
gardens. It is said that women surrender their hearts easily to a
military uniform. If so, it is because it stands to them as an
indorsement of the wearer's bravery and chivalry, qualities in men
which all women adore. I must confess, at any rate, to the pleasure of
looking on a large, well-filled hall of red-coats, at dinner, in our
hotel, the evening before we left. The "wait--a--a--h--s," to be sure,
seemed of the flying-artillery order, but even they seemed to take a
glorified pleasure in wearing out shoe-leather in such service! Truth
to tell, the inevitable suit of _solemn black_ worn by the universal
American masculine in this country, is getting monotonous. I noticed,
speaking of this, that every countryman who came to the show had
caught the infection, and had apparelled himself in the same
sacerdotal manner, although a suit of that color is not only uglier
and more expensive than any other, but looks infinitely worse when
dusty or worn. Who shall arise to deliver our American male population
from this funereal frenzy.
* * * * *
If our entrance to Cleveland just before the Perry celebration was
fraught with peril, our exit, on the day after, was a little more so.
The wise ones foreseeing the rush, anticipated it; the unwise, among
whom we were of course numbered, slept on it, and started on the
following morning, just as if nothing had happened. As a natural
consequence, when we reached the depot with our baggage there was
scarcely even standing-room, either in the long train of cars just
leaving, or in those preparing to do so. Now it is bad enough to get
up and put on your clothes inside out by gas-light. It is still worse
to eat, not because you have an appetite, but for fear you _shall_
have, but after being "put through" this experience, and taking a last
shivering farewell of the warm bed, where you _should_ have "cuddled"
for hours, to crawl into a dark car, in a dismal depot, and tumble
over women who are already seated on portmanteaus on the car floor,
and find barely a place to stand, why it----_is_ trying? Not the
whispered consolation--"wait till the _light_ shines into the car, and
_you'll_ have a seat fast enough," (from a male friend, well versed in
railroad travel, from a masculine point of view) consoled me for the
weary five minutes I poised on one foot, at that early hour, with not
a hook to hang my basket or my hopes on. Good fortune came at the end
of that time, through annexation, in the shape of two more cars, into
one of which I was hurried, with a haste more necessary than decorous.
Ominous muttering of "half an hour behind time," met my ear, from male
mal-contents. Happy in the possession of a seat at last, and
thoroughly disgusted with such "hot haste" at daylight, I faintly
remarked that I should be content, did they not pull my seat from
under me, to sit there till doomsday. It is not the first time I've
made a rash remark: _nettle_-rash this turned out! But how was I--a
woman--to know that "half an hour behind time," meant "no right to the
road?" that it meant subservience to freight trains and every other
train, from seven o'clock that morning, to seven that blessed
evening?--that it meant, we were to sit weary hours and half-hours at
a time, in some Sahara of a country road, sucking our thumbs because
there was nothing else to suck; the previous overcrowded train having,
like locusts, devoured not "every green thing," alas! but every other
munchable edible? How did I know that, to crown the horror, the rain
would pour down in torrents at just those compulsory stopping times,
thus cutting us off even from the poor consolation of stretching our
limbs? How did I know, when I madly rejected transporting food from
the hotel, that a branch of "rum-cherries" from the hill-side, would
be my only bill of fare on that road? Ah, the babies on that train had
the best of it, on the dinner question! I borrowed one, and played
with it awhile, not with any cannibal ideas, though it was wonderfully
plump. A strange gentleman who had strayed off into the woods while we
were waiting, came in and graciously offered me "a posy for my baby;"
I glanced at the mother; her eye was on me! so I replied as I took
the posy, "It is not my baby, it is borrowed, sir;" which was a pity,
for it really was a miraculous bit of baby-flesh!
Meantime, as there was no food for the body, and no prospect of any,
till evening, I tried to improve my mind by listening to the
conversation of two old farmers near, by which I learned how to choose
"a caow;" and how, even with the greatest caution, the buyer may be
awfully taken in on the milk question; also I learned "how to treat
_medder_ land," and "how to keep _them_ skippers from getting into
cheese;" after which, I heard the speaker's touching experience, in
escaping, after many year's captivity, from the thraldom of king
_Tobacco_--which came about in this wise: that "when his _woman_ did
him up a clean shirt, the bosom would allers be spiled after the first
mouthful;" also "that his neighbors' wimmen-folks, didn't like to have
their carpets spotted up, and were not overglad to see him come into
their houses, on that account; and so it came that he got disgusted
with himself, and _giv_ it up altogether"; and "it was _his_ opinion
that it was all nonsense for any feller to say he _couldn't_ break
off, when the fact was that he _wouldn't_."
If I didn't pat the old farmer on the back, for the common sense of
that remark, it was not because I didn't fully indorse it; nor did I
fail to sympathize with his chagrin afterwards, when he remarked with
a sigh, as he looked out of the car window, "it is such a pity my farm
aint down this way. I might make my independent fortin now, selling
small notions; for instance, look at them flowers in that
_gardin_--it is astonishing how much money can be made now-a-days,
just selling _bokys_." Our farmer was very human, too, for, just then,
as we stopped for a minute, a young girl rushed up to the car-window
to say a hurried "how d'ye do," to an old man. "That's a very nice
gal, _only to get a shake of the paw_" said he, compassionately. Well,
we worried through that long day as best we might, the poor children
in the company half beside themselves with fatigue and hunger; and the
men talking loudly about "swindling railroad companies," and
threatening "to make a noise about it," when they reached their native
Frog-town. After stopping about dark at a miserable place to get a
miserable supper, we proceeded on the few remaining miles to
Pittsburg. The glowing red lights of the great smelting furnaces,
across the river, as we approached the city, looked very cheerful,
through the fog, and gave promise of the warm reception of which we
stood so greatly in need. Our troubles were over, as soon as we landed
at the principal hotel, where solid, substantial comfort as well as
luxury awaited us; in the shape of immense beds, with pillows whose
sides did not cling together for want of feathers, as is too often the
case in very pretentious hotels; in plenty of towels, in plenty of
bed-clothes, and in a lookout from the window on the "levee" and
across the river, upon the heights of Mount Washington, which we
sleepily remarked we should be sure to explore the next morning.
Fortified by a splendid night's rest, and a luxurious breakfast we
_did_ do it, spite of fog and threatening clouds. Up--up--up--till it
seemed as if, like aerial voyagers, we were leaving the world behind
us. But what a sight when we reached the summit! How like little
birds' nests looked the houses dangerously nested beneath those rocky,
perpendicular cliffs! Nor was "the solitary horseman" wanting,
"winding round the brow of the hill," for there were houses and farms,
and overhanging fruit-trees, and above all, a placard on a fence, with
the announcement that the hours for this school for the young were
from nine till twelve in the morning, and from two till four in the
afternoon. Thank heaven! said I, that there is _one place_ where
health is considered of some importance in education. Seeing a coal
mine near, my companion proposed we should penetrate a little way into
its dark depths. A lad with a donkey-cart had just preceded us, with a
small lamp fastened to his cap in front. He looked doubtfully at my
feet, and mentioned the bugbear word "dirt." I replied by gathering my
skirts in my hand, and following the donkey cart. Smutty enough we
found the reeking pit, as we inhaled the stifling, close atmosphere.
Its black sides seemed closing round me like a tomb, and when the last
ray of daylight from the entrance had quite disappeared, and only the
rumbling of the cart-wheels could be heard, like the roar of some wild
beast, and only the glimmer of the miner's lamp could be seen, like
the glare of its wild eyeball, all the woman came over me, and I
begged humbly "to be taken out!" With what satisfaction I emerged into
the daylight, and greeted the bright sun which just then shone out,
and plucked from the overhanging mouth of the dark pit, which
compassionate nature had draped fantastically with a wild vine, a
pretty blossom, which looked so strangely beautiful _there_, some of
my readers can imagine. With what zest I tried my limbs, scaled
precipices, and jumped from cliff to cliff, to make sure of, and
assert my vitality, both present and to come, in this breathing,
living, sunshiny, above-ground world of flowers and fruits and blue
sky, my astonished fellow traveller, who for the moment doubted my
sanity, will bear witness.
And now, as to Pittsburgh itself, apart from its romantic bluffs and
their surroundings, and out of its principal hotel, which is decidedly
one of the best I ever entered, it is the dismalest, sootiest,
forlornest of cities that I ever stumbled into. Let me do justice to
the enormous peaches and very fine fruits found in its market-place.
Let me do justice to the independence of a female we saw wending her
way there, on horseback, with a basket on each side of the saddle,
beside another on her arm, not to mention a big cotton umbrella and a
horsewhip. We were to rise again, wretched fate! in the middle of that
night, to proceed to Philadelphia, on our way home. On reaching my
room, and glancing into my looking-glass, I perceived the necessity
for the unusual outlay of towels in our bed-room; for what with the
visit to the coal-pit, and general atmospheric sootiness of
Pittsburgh, my most intimate friends would scarcely have recognized
me through the black mask of my complexion. Let me, however, do
Pittsburgh this justice: it is a most picturesque and interesting
town, and well worth the intelligent, or even the curious, traveller's
visit.
* * * * *
Oh, the unutterable dreariness of an hotel parlor at two o'clock in
the morning, as you sleepily tumble down stairs at the call of the
inexorable "waitah" to take the midnight train of cars. How your
footsteps echo through the long, wide, empty halls, you thought so
pleasant the evening previous, with their bright lights and flitting
forms--tenanted now only by spectral rows of boots and shoes before
the doors of still happy sleepers, or by the outline form of the
swaggering Hercules who bears your trunk. Shiveringly you draw your
blanket-shawl about your shoulders, and sink down on the drawing-room
sofa, deferring till the last possible moment your egress into the
foggy, out-door air. Julius Cæsar Agrippa enters the drawing room, and
placing upon the cold silver salver a cold silver pitcher of
ice-water, politely offers you a glass. Good heavens! your hair stands
on end at the thought of it. "If it were hot coffee, now!" you faintly
mutter at him, from beneath the folds of your woollen shawl. His
repentant "Yes, ma'am, wish I had it for you," rouses you from the
contemplation of your own pitiable situation, to ask the poor wretch
(confidentially) if he has to stand there on one leg _every_ midnight,
in that way, contemplating cross travellers like yourself. Whereupon
he tells you, with a furtive glance over his shoulder, that "it is
every third night;" and just then you notice that a gentleman in the
hall, with a valise attached, has just slipped something into Julius
Cæsar's hand; and pretty soon you see another gentleman go and do
likewise, and so, gradually, it gets through your curls that it mayn't
be so bad after all, for this perquisited Julius Cæsar "to sit up
every third night:" and humiliated at having been caught the
forty-hundredth time throwing away your sympathy, you sheepishly obey
the summons to "come," and forthwith pitch into the "Black Maria" that
is waiting at the door to jolt your shivering bones to the depot.
Everybody in it looks sullen, and everybody's shoulders seem to be
buttoned on to their ears. Not even a grunt can be extorted from a
mother's son of them, by the roughest pavement. Silent, stoical
endurance is written on every Spartan! And so you are all emptied at
last, pell-mell into the cars, after kicking at offered peanuts and
cold, slimy oranges, and one by one, ties himself (you notice I use
the masculine gender) into double knots on his respective seat.
Daylight creeps gradually on, after weary hours of twisting and
turning. Your strange male vis-á-vis has overslept himself, and you
have been, meanwhile, maliciously watching to enjoy his discomfited
waking from that awkward posture, knowing, as you well do, that vanity
has no sex. He starts, and takes a look at you; then he rubs his
eyes--combs out the pet lock of hair on his forehead with his
fingers, gives his disarranged moustache a scientific twist,
straightens out a wrinkle on his coat, turns down the collar, which
has all night harbored his nose, gets up and gently stamps his pants
down over his boots, settles his hat at the accustomed knowing angle,
draws on his gloves and looks at you, as if to say, Come now, you see
I am not such a bad looking fellow, after all! Of course you don't
notice the varlet; you are very busy just then with the "prospect."
Between our midnight leave of Pittsburg and daylight, I was conscious,
as we darted through the fog, how much we were losing in the way of
scenery. Oh, those sublime Alleghany Mountains, and that lovely
Juniata winding round and through them. I have no words to express my
sense of their beauty, and my unalloyed delight. I trust the coroner's
inquest will be deferred on me till I drink that draught of pleasure
again. Of course, through the narrow limits of the car window, and
where one can only see one side of the way at a time, too, my
tantalization was next door to lunacy. In vain I twisted my neck, and
bobbed my bonnet, and, in child fashion grabbed at so much that I
nearly lost all. Not _all_! for enough is left to dream over with
closed eyes, when the dreary winter snows shall drive against the
windows. Had I not been strictly enjoined by _Mr._ Fern never to jump
a judgment, of a town, from a bird's-eye view out of a car window, I
should quarrel with Harrisburg, situated in that gem of a valley, for
resting so satisfied with nature's work, as to ignore any adornment
of art, as well as with some _other_ places near, and for the same
reason. Come to think of it, I _will_ assert my feminine right to
declare that it is a shabby little town, and a disgrace to those
kingly mountains, and Mr. Fern may like or dislike it.