America, any more than in France, we sallied forth to see the town, and
were exceedingly pleased with its appearance. Nothing could be brighter
or fresher than it looked, and the flags and streamers across the
street, and general lighting up, were foreign-looking and picturesque.
Although the town is but small compared with those we had just left, the
shops were spacious and well filled, and the things in them of a good
quality. Hearing that there was a meeting at the City Hall, we went to
it, little expecting to find such a splendid room. In order to reach it,
we had to pass through a corridor, where the names of the officers of
the corporation were painted over doors on each side, and were struck
with amazement, when, at the end of this, we entered a hall, as light
and bright-looking as St. James' Hall in London, and though not perhaps
so large, still of considerable dimensions, and well proportioned. The
walls were stone-colour, and the wood-work of the roof and light
galleries were buff, picked out with the brightest scarlet. On a
platform at one end of the room were seated the Mayor of Springfield,
and many guests whom he introduced one by one to the audience in short
speeches. These worthies delivered harangues on the subject of horses
and their uses; and the speeches were really very respectable, and not
too long, but were delivered in general with a strong nasal twang.
There were persons from all parts of America; Ohio, Carolina, &c. &c.
We made out our night tolerably well, and next morning went to look at
the arsenal, and depôt of arms, and were shown over the place by a
person connected with the establishment, who was most civil and obliging
in explaining the nature of all we saw. The view from the tower was most
lovely. The panorama was encircled by high hills, clothed with wood; and
the town, and many villages and churches, all of dazzling whiteness, lay
scattered before the eye. We drove next to the Horse Fair, which was
very well arranged. There was a circus of half a mile, forming a wide
carriage road, on which horses were ridden or driven, to show off their
merits. The quickest trotted at the rate of twenty miles an hour. When
the horses were driven in pairs, the driver held a rein in each hand.
There was a platform at one end filled with well-conducted people, and a
judge's seat near it. The horses in single-harness went faster even than
those in pairs: one horse, called Ethan Allen, performing about
twenty-four miles an hour; though Edward may arrive nearer than this
"about," by calculating at the rate of two minutes and thirty-seven
seconds, in which it went twice round this circle. The owner of this
horse has refused $15,000 or 3000_l._ for it. It is said to be the
fastest horse in America, and a beautiful animal, but most of the horses
were very fine. The people seemed to enjoy themselves much, and all
appeared most quiet and decorous, but the whole population surprised us
in this respect. We have seen but one drunken man since we landed. Even
in our new cabaret, the opening of which might have given occasion for a
carousal, every thing was most orderly. Our landlord, however, seemed
very full of the importance of his position, and could think and talk of
nothing but of this said cabaret. Their phraseology, is often very odd.
In the evening, he said, "Now, will you like your dinner _right away_?"
As we walked along the streets, and tried to get a room elsewhere, a man
said, smacking his hands together, "No, they are already _threbled_ in
every room."
But I must now tell you of our journey from Springfield to Albany: the
distance between the two is exactly 100 miles; Boston being 200 from
Albany. We left Springfield by train at twelve o'clock, and reached
Pittsfield, a distance of fifty miles, at half-past two. This part of
the road presented a succession of beautiful views. Your sisters will
remember that part of the road near Chaudes Fontaines, where it runs
through the valley, and crosses the Vesdre every five minutes. If they
can imagine this part of it extended for fifty miles, and on a much
larger scale, they may form some notion of what we saw. The railway
crossed the river at least thirty times, so we had it on the right hand
and left hand alternately, as on that little bit in Belgium. The river,
called the Westfield, was very rapid in places, and the water, when
deep, almost of a rich coffee colour. At Pittsfield we got on to the
plateau which separates the Connecticut River and the Hudson. The plain
is elevated more than 1000 feet above the sea. We then began rapidly to
descend. The country was still as pretty as before, but more open, with
hills in the back-ground, for till we reached Pittsfield these were
close to us, and beautifully wooded to the top. At Pittsfield, in the
centre of the town, there is a very large elm tree, the elm being the
great tree of the country, but this surpassed all its neighbours, its
height being 120 feet, and the stem 90 feet before any branches sprang
from it.
We reached Albany at five o'clock; and a most beautiful town it is. The
great street, as well as one at right angles to it leading up to the
Capitol, is wider, I think, than any street we ever saw; and the shops
on both sides are very splendid. The hotel is very large and good; but,
alas! instead of our dear darkies at Newport, we had some twenty
pale-faced damsels to wait at table, all dressed alike in pink cottons,
their bare necks much displayed in front, with large white collars, two
little frills to form the short sleeves, large, bare, clean, white arms,
and short white aprons not reaching to the knees. They had no caps, and
such a circumference of hoops! quite Yankeeish in their style; and most
careless, flirtatious-looking and impertinent in their manners. We were
quite disgusted with them; and even papa could not defend any one of
them. We were naturally very badly waited upon; they sailing
majestically about the room instead of rushing to get what we wanted, as
the niggers at Newport did. Men-servants answered the bed-room bells,
and brought our hot water; the ladies being employed only as waiters.
This morning the fine weather we had hitherto enjoyed began to fail us,
as it rained in torrents. Notwithstanding this, we started at half-past
seven; passing through what in sunshine must be a lovely country, to
Utica on the New York Central Railway, and thence by a branch railway of
fifteen miles to Trenton Falls. The country was much more cultivated
than any we have yet seen. There were large fields of Indian corn, and
many of another kind, called broom corn, being grown only to make
brooms. We passed many fields of a brilliant orange-red pumpkin, which,
when cooked, looks something like mashed turnips, and is called squash:
it is very delicate and nice. But beautiful as the country was, even in
the rain, we soon found out that we had left New England and its
bright-looking wooden houses. The material of which the houses are built
remains the same; but instead of being painted, and looking trim and
neat as in New England, they consisted of the natural unpainted wood;
though twelve hours of pouring rain may have made them more
melancholy-looking than usual; for they were all of a dingy brown, and
had a look bordering on poverty and dilapidation in some instances, to
which we were quite unaccustomed.
On reaching this place we found the hotel was closed for the season; but
rooms had been secured in a very fair country inn, where we had a
tolerable dinner. We were glad to see the rain gradually cease; and the
promise of a fine afternoon caused us to sally out as soon after dinner
as we could to see the falls. These are very beautiful: they are formed
by a tributary of the Mohawk River, along the banks of which (of the
Mohawk itself I mean) our railway this morning passed for about forty
miles. The Erie Canal, a most celebrated work, is carried along the
other bank of the river; so that, during all this distance, the river,
the railway, and the canal were running parallel to each other, and not
a pistol shot across the three.[3] We had been warned by some Swiss
friends at Newport against carelessness and rashness in walking along
the narrow ledge cut in the face of the rock, so we took a guide and
found the pass very slippery from the heavy rain. The amiable young
guide took possession of me, and for a time I got on tolerably well,
clinging to the chain which in places was fastened against the face of
the rock; but as the path narrowed, my head began to spin, and as the
guide discouraged me, under these circumstances, from going any further,
I turned back with Thrower and regained _dry land_, while the rest of
the party were accomplishing their difficult task. They returned much
sooner than we expected, delighted with all they had seen, though papa
said I was right not to have pursued the narrow ledge. He then took me
through a delightful wood to the head of the falls, where a seat in a
little summer-house enabled me to enjoy the lovely scene. The river
takes three leaps over rocks, the highest about 40 feet; though in two
miles the descent is 312 feet. Beautifully wooded rocks rise up on
either side; and the sunshine this afternoon lighting up the wet leaves
added to the beauty of the scene. We scrambled down from the
summer-house to the bed of the river, and walked on to the foot of the
upper fall; which, though not so high as the others, was very pretty. In
returning home we had glimpses of the falls through the trees. Many of
the firs and maples are of a great height, rising an immense way without
any branches, reminding us of the oaks at Fontainebleau.
We had to change our damp clothes on our return to the inn; and after
partaking of tea-cakes, stewed pears, and honey, I am now sitting in the
public room in my white dressing-gown. This toilette, I have no doubt,
is thought quite _en régle_, for white dresses are much worn in America;
and the company here this evening is not very refined or capable of
appreciating the points in which mine may be deficient. There is dancing
at the great hotel every night in the season; but that is now over. Some
sad accidents have happened here, by falls over the precipice into the
river. The last occurred this year, when a young boy of eight, a twin
son of a family staying here, from New York, was drowned: but these
accidents, we are told, generally happen in the safest places from
carelessness. We go on, to-morrow, probably to Rochester, where there
are some pretty small falls; and on Saturday, the 17th, we hope to reach
Niagara, from whence this letter is to be posted for England.
A nigger, and our guide of this afternoon, have just seated themselves
in the corner of the drawing room where I am writing, and are playing,
one the fiddle, and the other the guitar. Perhaps they are trying to get
up a "hop," later, but there do not seem materials enough for it, and
their tune is at present squeaky--jerky--with an attempt at an adagio.
The nigger is now playing "Comin' thro' the Rye," with much expression,
both of face and fiddle! Oh, such, squeaks! I wish Louisa heard them.
Here come the variations with accompaniment of guitar.--Later.--The
nigger is now singing plaintive love ditties!
_International Hotel, Niagara Falls, September 18th._--We had gone from
the station at Trenton to Trenton Falls in a close, lumbering, heavy
coach, which is of very ordinary use in America. But yesterday morning
we went over the same ground in an omnibus, which allowed us to see the
great beauty of the country to perfection; and, although we had
occasional heavy showers, the day was, on the whole, much more
propitious for travelling, as the atmosphere was very clear, and the
sandy dust was laid. We returned to Utica, or "Utikay," as they call it,
and, having an hour to spare, went and saw the State Lunatic Asylum; but
there was not much to remark upon it, although everything, as seems
generally the case in this country, was very orderly and well kept.
The building, however, was not seen to advantage, as a very large
portion of it was burnt down last year, and the new buildings were not
entirely finished. The gentleman who showed us round was very attentive,
and gave us a report of the establishment, which shows how creditably
every one acted in the trying emergency of the fire. He gave us, also,
two numbers of a little periodical, which is written and published by
the inmates.
We left Utica soon after eleven, and came on to Syracuse, through a
well wooded and better cultivated country than we have yet passed. The
aspect of the country is varied by fields of Indian corn, and tracts of
burnt and charred stumps of trees, the remains of burnt forests. These
stumps are left for some time to rot in the ground, and a few taller
stems, without branches, are left standing, giving the whole a forlorn
appearance but for the thought that the land will soon be cultivated and
return a great produce; were it not for this, one would regret the loss
of the trees, which are turned everywhere here to good account. The
houses and cottages are all wood. The hurdles, used everywhere instead
of hedges, are wood. The floorings of both the large and small stations
are wood, worn to shreds, sometimes, by the tramp of feet. The engine
burns wood. The forests are burnt to get rid of the wood. Long and
enormous stacks of wood line the road continually, and often obstruct
the view. All this made our journey to Syracuse, though interesting,
much tamer than on the preceding days. An accident happened to the
boiler, which detained us at _Rome_, but, as we were luckily near the
station, we soon got another engine. On the whole, one travels with
quite as great a feeling of security as in England.
From Syracuse to Rochester there are two roads, one short and direct,
and another, which, by taking a southern direction, passes through
Auburn, Cayuga, Geneva, and Canandaigua. We were well repaid by taking
the longer route, as the road went round the heads of the lakes, and in
one case, indeed, crossed the head of the lake where these beautiful
little towns are situated. The views of all these lakes, but especially
of lake Cayuga, and of lake Seneca on which Geneva is situated, are very
lovely. They stretch "right away" between high banks, varying from two
to five miles apart, each forming a beautiful vista, closed up by
distant blue hills at the further end. These lakes vary from thirty to
forty miles in length, and by means of steamboats form an easy
communication, though a more tedious one than the railways, between this
and the southern part of the State of New York. We had a capital
cicerone to explain all that we saw as we went along, in a Yankee, who
told us he was "raised" in these parts, though he lived in "Virginny."
He looked like a small farmer, but had a countenance of the keenest
intelligence. He told papa, before he had spoken five minutes with him,
that it was quite right a person of his intelligence should come to this
country. When we came to Auburn, he quoted "'Sweet Auburn, loveliest
village of the plain;' a beautiful poem, sir, written by Goldsmith, one
of your own poets." We told him we thought of going to St. Paul, beyond
the Mississippi, when he said, "Oh yes! that's a new country--that's a
_cold_ country too. If you are there in the winter, it will make you
_snap_."
At Rochester we stopped for an hour to dine. We had intended to sleep
there, but none of us being tired, we changed our plan in order to come
on here last night. During this hour we went to see the Falls of the
Genessee, which in some respects surpassed Trenton, as the river is very
broad, and falls in one sheet, from a height of ninety-six feet, over a
perpendicular wall of rock. We dined, and then papa and I took a rapid
walk to the post office, to post a letter to Alfred O., at Toronto. The
streets, as usual, were very wide, with spacious "stores" running very
far back, as they all seem to do in America. I asked when the letter
would reach Toronto, and the man answered, "It ought to do so to-morrow,
but it is uncertain when it will." Papa asked our guide from the hotel
where he was "raised," (papa is getting quite a Yankee), to which he
replied, "in Ireland." I slept, wonderful to say, through part of our
journey here, in one of those most uncomfortable cars, but woke up as
we approached the station. The night was splendid (we had seen the comet
at Rochester), and the moon was so bright as to make it almost as light
as day; you may imagine our excitement when we saw, in the distance,
rising above the trees, a light cloud of mist from the Falls of
Niagara.?
_Clifton House, September 18th._--Papa got into a melancholy mood at the
International Hotel yesterday evening, on account of the hotel being an
enormous one, and like a huge barrack; half of it we suspect is shut up,
for they gave us small room _au second_, though they acknowledged they
made up four hundred beds, and had only one hundred guests in the house.
The dining room was about one hundred and fifty feet long, and the hotel
was half in darkness from the lateness of the hour, and had no view of
the Falls; so papa got more and more miserable, and I could only comfort
him by reminding him we could be off to this hotel early in the morning;
for as it is the fashion to try first one side for the view, and then
the other, there was no offence in going from the United States to our
own English possessions. On this he cheered up and we went out, and the
first sight we got of this glorious river was at about eleven o'clock,
when he insisted upon my passing over the bridge to Goat Island. It was
the most lovely moonlight night conceivable, and the beams lit up the
crests of the foaming waves as they came boiling over the rapids. It was
a glorious sight, though I was rather frightened, not knowing what
perils might be in store for us.
To-day we made out our move to the Canada side, and are most comfortably
lodged. Before coming to this hotel, we took a long drive down the
river, on the American side. We got out of the carriage to see the
Devil's Hole, a deep ravine, often full of water, but now dry. We stood
on a high precipice, and had a grand view of the river. The _river_ is
generally passed over in silence in all descriptions of Niagara, and yet
it is one of the most lovely parts of the scene. Its colour after it has
left the Falls, and proceeds on its rapid way, full of life and
animation, to Lake Ontario, is a most tender sea green. We drove on
about six miles, and then crossed a slight suspension bridge (_the_
suspension bridge being a ponderous structure for the railroad trains to
pass over); but the one by which we crossed looked like a spider's-web;
and the view midway, whether we looked up or down, was the finest
specimen of river scenery I ever beheld. We then turned up the stream,
and came by the English side to a most wonderful whirlpool, formed by
the river making a rapid bend, and proceeding in a course at right
angles to the one it had been previously pursuing; but the violence of
the stream had caused it to proceed a long way first in the original
direction; and it was evidently not till it had scooped, or hollowed
out, a large basin, that it was forced to yield to the barrier that was
opposed to it. This is the sort of bend it takes.
[Illustration: Whirlpool]
After dinner we went to deliver a letter which papa had brought for Mr.
Street, who has a house above the Falls. He was not at home; but we went
through the grounds and over a suspension bridge he has built to connect
a large island, also his property, with the mainland. There are, in
fact, not one but many islands, into which one large one has probably,
in the course of time, become divided by the raging torrent. It is just
above the Horse-Shoe Fall, in the midst of the most boisterous part of
the rapids; and it was quite sublime on looking up the river to see the
horizon formed at a considerable level above our heads by the mass of
foaming water. But now for the Falls!
* * * * *
You must fill up this blank with your imagination, for no words can
convey any idea of the scene. They far surpass anything we could have
believed of them. This, however, I write after a thorough study of them
from various points of view; for when we first caught a glimpse, in our
drive to-day, of the Fall on the American side, it disappointed us; but
from the verandah of this hotel, on which our bed-room windows open, we
had the first astounding view of the two Falls, with Goat Island
dividing them; and that sight baffles all description. The Horse-Shoe
Fall is magnificent. The curve is so graceful and beautiful; and the
mist so mysterious, rising, as it does, from the depths below, and
presenting the appearance of a moving veil as it glides past, whether
yielding to every breath of wind, or, as now, when driven quickly by a
gale; then the height of the clouds of light white mist rising above the
trees; and, above all, the delicate emerald green where the curve itself
takes place: all these elements of beauty combined, fill the mind with
wonder, when contemplating so glorious a work of God's hand; so simple,
and yet so striking and magnificent. We can gaze at the whole all day
and all night, if we please, from our own windows. The moon being nearly
full, is a _great_ addition to the beauty of the scene. I have
frequently risen from my seat while writing this, to look first at the
rapids above the American Fall, lit up and shining like the brightest
silver; then at the moon on the mist, illuminating first one part of it
and then another. I must proceed with my description of our doings (if I
can) on Monday, before leaving this for Toronto, which we are to do on
Monday afternoon; but this must be posted here, and I should like to
finish my description of Niagara in this letter. We met a real Indian
to-day. He had somewhat of a Chinese cast of countenance. Perhaps we
shall see more of them. It is said that some of the black waiters in
this hotel are escaped slaves, having come to English ground for safety.
_September 19th._--This being Sunday, we went to a chapel in a village
of native Indians of the Tuscarrara tribe. The chapel was about half
filled with these poor Indians and half with visitors like ourselves.
They have had a missionary among them for about fifty years, and it is
to be hoped that former missionaries talked more sense to them, and
taught them better truths, than the one we heard to-day. His sermon was
both long and tedious, and was interpreted into the Tuscarrara language
sentence by sentence as the preacher, who was a Presbyterian, delivered
it. The burden of it was their ingratitude, not to God, but to the
Government of the United States, which had devoted an untold number of
dollars for their conversion; and he ended by a threat that this
generosity on their part would be withdrawn if they did not alter their
wicked course of life. As we were there for half an hour before the
service began, we had an opportunity of conversing with many of these
poor people, who seemed little to deserve this severe censure, for many
of them had evidently come from a distance, having brought their food
with them, and the people seemed of a quiet and harmless disposition.
Few of them seemed to understand English, and these only the men, as the
women professed, at least, not to understand papa when he tried to talk
to them. They had all of them remarkably piercing and intelligent black
eyes, but were not otherwise good looking. There were two little babies
in their mothers' arms, one in a bright yellow dress. The women wore
handkerchiefs tied over their heads, except one or two who wore round
hats and feathers. Some in hoops and crinolines! All wore bead
necklaces. They are the makers of the well-known mohair and bark and
beadwork. In the churchyard were many tombstones with English
inscriptions. The following is the copy we made of one:--
"SEKWARIHTHICH-DEA WM. CHEW,
GRAND SACHEM OF THE TUSCARRARA NATION OF INDIANS,
WHO DIED DEC. 16, 1857,
In the 61st year of his age.
The memory of his many virtues will be embalmed in the hearts of
his people, and posterity will speak of his praise.
He was a good man, and a just.
He held the office of Grand Sachem 30 years, and was
Missionary Interpreter 29 years."