knowledge of our best authors, though neither of them has ever been in
England. Miss Chase is much interested in a new conservatory, took me
over it, and gave me several very pretty things to dry. I shall
endeavour to get cuttings or seeds of them. I was generous enough to
allow papa afterwards to go over the conservatory alone with her. She is
longing to come and see England, but her father is too busy at present
to leave the country. She expressed such sorrow not to know more of us,
that we promised to call this morning after our "asylum" work was done,
when she showed us over the house, which is very pretty, and nicely
arranged throughout.
I think I have nothing more to say of Columbus, except that we heard two
sermons and _saw_ one on Sunday; for, besides the morning sermon at the
Episcopal Church, and the _sign_ one to the deaf and dumb, we looked in
at another where a negro was preaching to his fellow niggers with great
energy and life; but the ladies were quiet, and restrained their agonies
and their "glory."
_Cincinnati, Oct. 27th._--We left Columbus at forty minutes past twelve
yesterday. Mr. Dennison and Mr. Neil's son met us at the station, and
Mr. Neil gave me some dried red leaves he had promised me, which have
kept their colour tolerably well. Mr. D. is president of the railroad
on which we were about to travel, and wished to give us free tickets to
this place, but papa declined with many thanks. Papa has no sort of
claim or connection with this railway, and I only mention the
circumstance to show the extreme kindness and liberality of these
gentlemen, who knew nothing of us, and probably had never heard our
names until they had received letters of introduction about us from
others, who were themselves equally strangers to us a few days ago. They
introduced us to the freight agent of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway,
who travelled with us, as did also a clever handsome widow. She seemed
to be well connected, being related to General Cass and other people of
note. She reminds me a little of Mrs. B. in style and manner, and it is
pleasant to have some one to talk to, for we do not find people in
general communicative in travelling, though papa says the fault may be
ours.
There was nothing particularly pretty on the road, as the trees are, I
grieve to say, losing their leaves in this neighbourhood; but on
approaching this great city, "the Queen of the West," we came again on
the Ohio. The water is now very low, but the bed of the river shows how
great its width is when full; and even now there is a perfect navy of
splendid steamers floating on its waters, many of which we saw as our
train drove through the suburban streets of the city. Unhappily the rain
poured down upon us as we got into the omnibus, but we were soon
consoled by finding ourselves in this most magnificent hotel, the finest
I have yet seen. The drawing room, is I should think, unsurpassed in
beauty by any hotel anywhere, and I shall endeavour to make a drawing of
it before I leave. The hotel at Columbus was tolerably large, as you may
suppose, when I tell you that our dining room there was about ninety
feet by thirty. This one, however, has two dining rooms of at least
equal dimensions, which together can dine 1000 persons, and it makes up
600 beds. We sat in the drawing room yesterday evening, for we could not
reconcile ourselves to leave it, even to write this journal. There were
various ladies and gentlemen laughing and talking together, but no
evening dresses, and nothing of any importance to remark about them. One
young lady only was rather grandly dressed in a drab silk; she
afterwards sat down to the piano, and began the usual American jingle,
for I cannot call it music; and I have since been told she was the
daughter of the master of the house. "Egalité" is certainly the order of
the day here, and this young lady was treated quite on an equality with
the other ladies in the room. The food is excellent, and we are very
thankful to have so luxurious a resting place if we are at all detained
here. We have several friends in the hotel, who are here to meet papa on
business.
This morning we have had a visit from Mr. Mitchell, the astronomer, and
author of the work on Astronomy, which I remember reading with pleasure
just before I left England. His daughter is to call on me and drive us
out, and we are to pay a visit to his observatory. We went this
afternoon to leave some letters, which Mr. Dennison had given us for Mr.
Rufus King and Mr. Lars Anderson. We found Mrs. King at home; her
husband is much devoted to educational subjects and to the fine arts.
There were some very good pictures and engravings in the drawing room,
and amongst the latter two of Sir Robert Strange's performances. We
found both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson at home; they live in a splendid house,
but as it was getting dark we could not see the details. We sent in our
cards with our letter, and the room being full of people, Mr. Anderson
introduced papa to each one separately, and me as Mrs. S----. As these
guests went out others came in, and fresh introductions took place, but
still always Mr. T---- and Mrs. S----, and he so addressed me during the
visit. As we were going away papa said that he was making some strange
mistake about my name, but he insisted upon it that we had so announced
it; and on looking at our cards I found the card of a very vulgar lady
at New York, which I had given by mistake as my own.
As we were leaving the room, a very amiable and pleasing person asked me
if I would not call upon Mr. Longworth, the most celebrated character in
this country, who she said was her father and the father of Mrs.
Anderson. I said that we had letters to him from Mr. Jared Sparks, and
that we had meant to call on him the next day, but she said we had
better return with her then. We accordingly accompanied her through Mr.
Anderson's garden, and through an adjoining one which led to her
father's house, likewise a very large one, though not presenting such an
architectural appearance as Mr. Anderson's. The old gentleman soon made
his appearance, and afterwards Mrs. Longworth. They were a most
venerable couple, who had a twelve-month ago celebrated their golden
marriage, or fiftieth anniversary of their wedding day. We were invited
to stay and drink tea, which we did, and met a large assemblage of
children and grand-children; a great-grand-child who had been present
at the golden wedding, was in its nursery.
Mr. Longworth, among other things remarkable about him, is the
proprietor of the vineyards from which the sparkling champagne is
produced, known, from the name of the grape, as the sparkling Catawba;
but he seems no less remarkable from the immense extent of his
strawberry beds, which cover, I think he said, 60 acres of ground. He
told us the number of bushels of fruit they daily produce in the season;
but the number is legion, and I dare not set it down from memory. He
showed papa a book he had written about his grapes and strawberries, and
is very incredulous as to any in the world being better than his. This
led to a discussion upon the relative size of trees and plants on the
two sides of the Atlantic; and in speaking of the Indian corn, he tells
us he has seen it standing, in Ohio, eighteen feet high, and he says it
has been known, in Kentucky, to reach as high as twenty-five feet, and
the ear eighteen inches long.
The old gentleman is a diminutive-looking person, with a coat so shabby
that one would be tempted to offer him a sixpence if we met him in the
streets; indeed a story is told of a stranger, who, going into his
garden, and being shown round it by Mr. Longworth, gave him a dollar,
which the latter good-humouredly put into his pocket, and it was not
till he was asked to go into the house that the stranger discovered him
to be the owner.[10] He is, however, delightfully vivacious, and full of
agricultural hobbies. His wife is a very pleasing, primitive-looking
person. We tasted at their house some of the ham for which this city,
called by the wits Porkopolis, is so remarkable. The maple sugar is used
in curing it, and improves the flavour very much.
_October 28th._--I must bring this letter to a rapid close, for it must
be posted a day earlier than we expected. We intend to start in two days
for St. Louis, and there I will finish my account of Cincinnati. To-day
we have seen a great many schools, which have given us considerable
insight into the state of education in America. My next letter will
probably bring us to our most western point, though we have not yet
quite settled whether we shall go to the Falls of St. Anthony, or to
Chicago. Papa says I must close, and I must obey.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Though this description of the Senate was meant as a good-humoured
satire on the absence of etiquette in their assemblies, it is probably
no very exaggerated account of what is sometimes seen there; but it
would be most unfair to draw any conclusion from this as to the
behaviour in general society of well-educated gentlemen in America,
there being as much real courtesy among these as is found in any other
country, though certainly not always accompanied by the refinements of
polished society in Europe.
[9] It is not meant here to obtrude special views of politics, or to
maintain that democratic principles have naturally this tendency; but it
may help to explain why so little is heard or known in England of the
better class of Americans. Their unobtrusive mode of life entirely
accounts for this, and it is to be regretted that it is the noisy
demagogue who forms the type of the American as known to the generality
of the European public.
[10] I should not have taken the liberty of printing this account of Mr.
Longworth were he not, in a manner, a public character, well known
throughout the length and breadth of the land, and his eccentricities
are as familiar to every one at Cincinnati as his goodness of heart. In
speaking, too, of his family, it is most gratifying to be able to record
the patriarchal way in which we found him and Mrs. Longworth, surrounded
by their descendants to the third generation.
If any apology is required, the same excuse--of his being a well-known
public character--may be made for saying so much of Governor Chase and
of his family.
LETTER X.
CINCINNATI.--MR. LONGWORTH.--GERMAN POPULATION---"OVER THE
RHINE."--ENVIRONS OF CINCINNATI.--GARDENS.--FRUITS.--COMMON
SCHOOLS.--JOURNEY TO ST. LOUIS.
Vincennes, Indiana, Nov. 1st, 1858.
My last letter brought us up to our arrival at Cincinnati, and our
passing the evening at Mr. Longworth's on the following day. Next day,
Wednesday the 27th, Mrs. Anderson, Mr. Longworth's daughter, called and
asked us to spend that evening also at her mother's house. She took me
out in her carriage in the morning to see some of the best shops, which
were equal to some of our best London ones in extent and in the value of
the goods; and in the course of the day we called at Monsieur Raschig's;
he not being at home, we made an appointment to call there late in the
evening.
The party at the Longworths was confined to the members of their large
family, all of whom are very agreeable. There were two married
daughters, Mrs. Flagg and Mrs. Anderson, and the grandson and his
wife, Mr. and Mrs. Stettinius; and we also saw the little
great-grand-daughter, who is a pretty child of eighteen months. The
dining-room not being long enough to accommodate us all at tea, the
table was placed diagonally across the room, and it was surprising to
see Mrs. Longworth pouring out tea and coffee for the whole party as
vigorously as if she were eighteen years old, her age being seventy-two.
She is remarkably pretty, with a fair complexion, and a very attractive
and gentle manner and face.
We had quails and Cincinnati hams, also oysters served in three
different ways--stewed, fried in butter, and in their natural state, but
taken out of their shells and served _en masse_ in a large dish. Our
friends were astonished that we did not like these famous oysters of
theirs in any form, which we did not, they being very huge in size and
strong in flavour. We said, too, we did not like making two bites of an
oyster; they pitied our want of taste, and lamented over our miserably
small ones in England. After tea we saw some sea-weed and autumnal
leaves beautifully dried and preserved by Mrs. Flagg, and we also
looked over an illustrated poem on the subject of Mr. and Mrs.
Longworth's golden wedding, the poem being the composition of Mr. Flagg.
Towards ten o'clock a table was laid out in the drawing-room with their
Catawba champagne, which was handed round in tumblers, followed by piles
of Vanilla ice a foot and a half high. There were two of these towers of
Babel on the table, and each person was given a supply that would have
served for half a dozen in England; the cream however is so light in
this country that a great deal more can be taken of it than in England;
ices are extremely good and cheap all over America; even in very small
towns they are to be had as good as in the large ones. Water ices or
fruit ices are rare; they are almost always of Vanilla cream. In summer
a stewed peach is sometimes added.
We left the Longworths that evening in a down pour of rain, so that papa
only got out for a minute at the door of Miss Raschig's uncle, and asked
him to breakfast with us next morning. He accordingly came; we found him
a most quick, lively, and excellent man, full of intelligence, and he
received us with the warmth and ardour of an old friend, having during
the twenty-five years he has been in America scarcely ever seen any one
who knew any of his relatives. He is a Lutheran minister, and has a
large congregation of Germans. He said a good deal had been going on
during the revivals at Cincinnati, and he thought the feeling shown was
of a satisfactory kind; there had been preaching in tents opposite his
church.
The part of the town where he resides beyond the Miami Canal, which
divides it into two portions, is known by the name of "Over the Rhine,"
and is inhabited almost entirely by Germans, of whom there are no less
than 60,000 in the town. Mr. Raschig's own family consists of nine sons
and one daughter, the youngest child being a fortnight old. We went to
see them before we left the place, and found the mother as excellent and
agreeable as himself, with her fine little baby in her arms. She said
that boys were much easier disposed of than girls in this country, and
their three eldest sons are already getting their livelihood, the eldest
of all being married. We saw the third son, a very intelligent youth,
who is a teacher in one of the schools in the town, and the daughter, a
pleasing girl of fourteen, sung to us. She promises to have a good
voice, though it will never equal her cousin's.
On the evening of the 28th we went by invitation to Mr. and Mrs.
King's. He is a lawyer, and they are connected by marriage with the
Neils of Columbus and with the Longworths. The Andersons were there, and
we again had a liberal supply of ices. The following evening, the 29th,
we went to the Andersons, where there was a large party consisting of
the Directors of the Ohio and Mississippi Railway, with whom, by the
bye, I had dined that day at the hotel, there being ten gentlemen and
myself, the only lady, at table. The party at the Andersons was also an
assemblage of some of the beau monde of Cincinnati. The ladies were all
dressed in high silk dresses remarkably well made, and looking as if
they all had come straight from Paris. I never saw a large party of
prettier or better chosen toilettes. The dresses were generally of rich
brocaded silk, but there was nothing to criticise, and all were in
perfect taste. We assembled in a long drawing-room carpeted, and
sufficiently supplied with chairs, but there being neither tables nor
curtains, the room had rather a bare appearance, though it was well
lighted and looked brilliant. Towards ten o'clock we were handed into
the dining-room, where there was a standing supper of oysters,--the
"institution" of oysters as they justly call it,--hot quails, ham, ices,
and most copious supplies of their beloved Catawba champagne, which we
do not love, for it tastes, to our uninitiated palates, little better
than cider. It was served in a large red punch-bowl of Bohemian glass in
the form of Catawba cobbler, which I thought improved it; but between
the wine and the quails, which, from over hospitable kindness, were
forced on poor papa, he awoke the next morning with a bad headache, and
did not get rid of it all day.
The weather during our stay at Cincinnati was so wet that, with the
exception of a drive which Mr. Anderson took us to some little distance
on the heights above, and a long visit which we paid to the school under
Mr. King's auspices, we had little out-door work to occupy us. I once,
however, and papa twice, crossed the Ohio in a steamboat, and took a
walk in the opposite slave state of Kentucky. The view thence of the
town and its fleet of steamboats is very striking. The opposite hills,
with the observatory perched on the highest summit, were very fine.
Mr. Anderson one day took us a long drive to the top of these hills; the
whole country, especially near a village called Clifton, about six miles
from the town, is studded with villas. We drove through the grounds of
two which overlooked splendid views of the neighbouring country; each of
them being situated at the end of a sort of natural terrace projecting
into the valley, and thus commanding a panoramic view all round.
The grounds attached to these villas are of considerable extent, but
nothing has surprised us more than the poverty of the gardens in
America. It may, however, be accounted for by the difficulty and expense
of obtaining labour in this country, and by the consequent facility with
which men who show any talent, and are really industrious, can advance
themselves. A scientific gardener, therefore, if any such there be,
would not long remain in that capacity. One of the houses had a really
fine-looking conservatory attached to it, but, like others we have seen
in the course of our travels, it was almost entirely given up to rockery
and ferns. This is a degree better than when the owners indulge in
statuary. We were made by the driver on another occasion to stop at a
garden ornamented in this way, but certainly Hiram Power's talents had
not been called into request, and the statues were of the most
common-place order.
It is not only in their gardens, however, but in the general ornamental
cultivation of their grounds, that the Americans are deficient, for
even at Newport, where we greatly admired, as I think I mentioned, the
greenness of the grass, it was coarse in quality, and bore no sort of
resemblance to a well-trimmed English lawn. Nor have we ever seen any
fruit, with the exception of their apples, to compare to ours in
England. These are certainly very fine. I hardly know the weight of an
English apple, but at Columbus we got some which were brought from the
borders of Lake Erie which are called the twenty-ounce apple. The one we
ate weighed about sixteen ounces, and measured thirteen inches round.
They are said to weigh sometimes as much as twenty-seven ounces. It is
what they call a "fall," meaning an autumnal, apple.[11]
Next to their apples their pears deserve notice; but, though better than
ours, they are not superior to those produced in France. The quantity of
fruit, however, is certainly great, for the peaches are standard and
grown in orchards; but they are quite uncultivated, and the greater part
that we met with were hardly fit to eat. They are, notwithstanding,
very proud of their fruit, especially of these said peaches and of their
grapes, which, to our minds, were just as objectionable productions.
There is one kind called the Isabella, which we thought most
disagreeable to eat, for the moment the skin is broken by the teeth and
the grape squeezed the whole inner part pops out in a solid mass into
the mouth. We are past the season of wild flowers; but these must make
the country very beautiful in the early spring, to judge from the
profusion of rhododendron and other shrubs, which were most luxuriant,
especially where we crossed the Alleghanies and along the banks of the
Connecticut. To return, however, to our drive.
After visiting these villas we passed a great number of charitable
institutions for the relief of the poor, who are remarkably well looked
after in this country. One of these institutions was the Reformatory, a
large building, where young boys are sent at whatever age they may prove
delinquents, and are kept and well educated till they are twenty-one.
But the grand mode in which the state provides against crime of all
kinds is the system of education for all classes.
I have said we went under Mr. King's guidance to see the common schools
of Cincinnati. These are divided into three classes, called the
district schools, the intermediate schools, and the high schools; we
went through each grade, and were much pleased with the proficiency of
the pupils. The examinations they went through in mental arithmetic were
very remarkable, and the questions put to the boys of the intermediate
class, who were generally from eleven to thirteen years old, were
answered in a very creditable manner.
In the high school, the teaching is carried on till the pupils reach the
age of sixteen or seventeen, and even eighteen, after which they either
leave school altogether or go to college. They are generally the
children of artisans or mechanics, but boys of all ranks are admitted,
and are moved on from one grade to another. The schools are entirely
free, and girls are admitted as well as boys, and in about equal
numbers. The girls and boys are taught, for the most part, in separate
rooms, but repeat their lessons and are examined together, so that there
is a constant passing in and out from one class-room to another, but
still great order is preserved. This assembling together, however, of
large numbers of boys and girls, for so considerable a portion of the
day, did not strike us as so desirable as it is there said to be. The
advocates of the system say it refines the rough manners of the boys;
but it is more than questionable if the characters of the girls are
improved by it, and if the practice, in its general results, can be
beneficial.
The subjects taught to both boys and girls are invariably the same; and
it was curious to hear girls translating Cicero into excellent English,
and parsing most complicated sentences, just like the boys, and very
often in better style, for they often answered when the boys could not.
They seemed chiefly girls from sixteen to eighteen. They answered, also,
most difficult questions in logic, and they learn a good deal of
astronomy, chemistry, &c., and have beautiful laboratories and
instruments. Music is also taught in a very scientific way, so as to
afford a knowledge of the transpositions of the keys, but in spite of
this, their music and singing are very American. German and French are
also taught in the schools when required.
The teachers, both men and women, have very good salaries; the youngest
women beginning with 60_l._ and rising to 120_l._ a year, while the
men's salaries rise up to 260_l._ a year, and that in the intermediate
or second class schools. This style of education may appear too advanced
for girls in their rank of life, but in this country, where they get
dispersed, and may attain a good position in a distant district, the
tone thus given by education to the people, is of great importance. The
educating of the females in this way must give them great powers, and
open to them a field of great usefulness in becoming teachers themselves
hereafter. The education given is altogether secular, and they profess
to try and govern "by appeals to the nobler principles of their nature,"
as we gather from a report which was put into our hands at leaving.
This is but a weak basis for a sound education, and I cannot but think
its insufficiency is even here practically, and perhaps unconsciously,
acknowledged; for, though no direct religious instruction is professedly
given, a religious tone is nevertheless attempted to be conveyed in the
lessons. At the opening of the school, a portion of the Bible is read
daily in each class; and the pupils are allowed to read such versions of
the Scriptures as their parents may prefer, but no marginal readings are
allowed, nor may any comments be made by the teachers.[12]