about seven o'clock. The road, the whole way from Lexington, 100 miles,
is very pretty, following the course of the Licking for a long way, with
high steep banks on both sides, sometimes rising into high hills, but
opening occasionally into wide valleys, with distant views of great
beauty. In many places the trees here have still their red, or rather
brown leaves, which formed a strange contrast with the thick snow
covering their branches and the ground beneath. The snow storm last
night, of which we had but the tail at Lexington, was very heavy
further north, and the snow on the ground lighted up by the moon,
enabled us to see and enjoy the beauty of the scenery as we approached
Covington, at which place we embarked on board the steamboat to cross
the Ohio. I omitted, when we were here before, to mention that in our
Sunday walk at Covington, when we first crossed over to Kentucky, we
witnessed on the banks of the river a baptism by immersion, though the
attending crowd was so large that we could not distinctly see what was
going on. We are told, that on these occasions, the minister takes the
candidate for baptism so far into the river, that they are frequently
drowned. I forget if I mentioned before that Covington is built
immediately opposite Cincinnati, at the junction of the Ohio and the
Licking, which is here a considerable river, about 100 yards wide, and
navigable for steamboats sixty miles further up. The streets of
Covington are all laid out in a direct line with the corresponding
streets in Cincinnati, and as the streets on both sides mount up the
hills on which the towns are built, the effect is very pretty,
especially at night, when the line of lamps, interrupted only by the
river, appears of immense length. When the river is frozen over, the
streets of the two cities may be said to form but one, as carts and
carriages can then pass uninterruptedly from the streets of Cincinnati,
to those on the opposite side, and _vice versâ_. This snow storm, which
has made us beat a rapid retreat from the cold and draughty hotels in
Kentucky, makes us feel very glad to be back in this comfortable hotel.
_Pittsburgh, Nov. 17th._--Lord Radstock made his appearance at
Cincinnati yesterday, having come from Louisville in a steamer. The day
was very bright and beautiful, though intensely cold; and as papa was
very anxious to show Lord Radstock the view of Clifton from the heights
above, we hired a carriage and went there. We were, however, somewhat
disappointed, for the trees were entirely stripped of the beautiful
foliage which clothed them when we saw them three weeks ago, and were
laden with snow, with which the ground also was deeply covered; and
although the effect was still pretty, this gave a harshness to the
scene, the details being brought out too much in relief. The same cause
detracted, no doubt, from the beauty of the scenery we passed through to
day on our way here, and greatly spoilt the appearance of the hills
which surround Pittsburgh.
But I must not anticipate a description of our journey here, but first
tell you of our further proceedings at Cincinnati. Lord Radstock is much
interested in reformatories and houses of refuge, and we were glad to
visit with him the one situated at about three miles from the town, the
exterior only of which we had seen in our drive with Mr. Anderson. The
building is very large and capacious, having cost 2700_l._ It is capable
of holding 200 boys and 80 girls, and the complement of boys is
generally filled up; but there are seldom above 60 girls. The whole
establishment seems admirably conducted. The boys and girls are kept
apart, and each one has a very nice, clean bed-room, arranged in prison
fashion, and opening on to long galleries; but with nothing to give the
idea of a cell, so perfectly light and airy is each room. There is an
hospital for the boys and one for the girls, large and well ventilated
rooms; that of the girls is beautifully cheerful, with six or eight nice
clean beds; but it says a good deal for the attention paid to their
health, that out of the whole number of boys and girls, there was only
one boy on the sick list, and he did not appear to have much amiss with
him. This is somewhat surprising, as the rooms in which they work are
heated by warm water, to a temperature which we should have thought must
be very prejudicial to their health, but with this exception, they have
every advantage. A large playground, a very large chapel, where they
meet for prayers and reading the Bible, the boys below, and the girls in
a gallery, and large airy schoolrooms. The children are admitted from
the age of 7 up to 16, and the boys are usually kept till 21, and the
girls till they are 18. The girls are taught needlework and household
work, or rather are employed in this way, independently of two hours and
a half daily instruction in the school, and the boys are brought up to a
variety of trades, either as tailors, shoemakers, workers of various
articles in wire, or the like. The proceeds of their work go in part to
pay the expenses of the establishment, but the cost is, with this small
exception, defrayed by the town, and amounts to about 20_l._ annually
for each boy. These poor children are generally sent there by the
magistrates on conviction of some crime or misdemeanour, but are often
sent by parents when they have troublesome or refractory children, and
the result is, in most cases, very satisfactory. They all seemed very
happy, and the whole had much more the appearance of a large school,
than of anything partaking of the character of a prison. Having called
in the afternoon and taken leave of the Longworths, Andersons, and
others, who had shown us so much kindness when we were last here, we
started at half-past ten at night for this place.
As we were already acquainted with the first part of the road to
Columbus, we thought we should not lose much by this plan, and we wished
besides to try the sleeping cars, which has not proved altogether a
successful experiment as far as papa is concerned, for he had very
little sleep, and is very headachy to-day in consequence. Thrower, too,
was quite knocked up by it; my powers of sleeping at all times and
places prevented my suffering in the same way, and I found these
sleeping cars very comfortable. They are ingeniously contrived to be
like an ordinary car by day; but by means of cushions spread between the
seats and a flat board let down half way from the ceiling, two tiers of
very comfortable beds are made on each side of the car, with a passage
between. The whole looks so like a cabin of a ship, that it is difficult
not to imagine oneself on board a steamboat. Twenty-four beds, each
large enough to hold two persons, can be made up in the cars, and the
strange jumble of ladies and gentlemen all huddled together was rather
ludicrous, and caused peals of laughter from some of the laughter-loving
American damsels. The cots are provided with pillows and warm quilted
counter-panes and curtains, which are all neatly packed away under the
seats in the daytime. The resemblance to the steamboat in papa's
half-waking moments seemed too much for his brain to be quite clear on
the subject of where he was. Thrower, who had shared my couch, got up
_sea sick_ at about four in the morning, the motion of the carriage not
suiting her while in a recumbent position, and retired to a seat at one
end of the carriage. As we neared Columbus, papa became very restless,
and made a descent from over my head, declaring the heat was
intolerable. "Where," said I, "is your cloth cap?" "Oh!" he answered, "I
have thrown that away long ago; that's gone to the fishes." He said he
had so tossed himself about, that he did not think he had a button left
on his coat; things were not, however, quite so bad as this, and on
finding my couch too cold for him, I at last succeeded in making your
dear restless fidgetty papa mount up again to his own place, where, to
my comfort, and no doubt to his own also, he soon fell asleep. I got up
at five and sat by poor Thrower, and watched the lights of the rising
sun on hills, valleys, and rivers for an hour; when in came the
conductor, and thrusting his lamp into the face of the sleepers, and
giving them a shake, told them to get up, a quarter of an hour being
allowed them for breakfast. In one second the whole place was alive;
down came gentlemen without their boots, and ladies with their night
caps, and in a few minutes all were busily employed in the inn,
breakfasting. I had said we did not care about missing the first part of
the road which we had seen before; but the joint light of a brilliant
full moon and the snow on the hills, made us see the dear old Ohio and
the bold Kentucky banks as clearly, almost, as if it had been daylight,
till we retired to our beds; and, even then, I could not help lying
awake to view the glorious scene out of my cabin window.
When we got up this morning we were entering a new country, and for many
miles went along a beautiful valley of one of the tributaries of the
Ohio. We again fell in with the Ohio at Steubenville, having traced the
tributary down to its mouth. Our road then lay along the bank of the
Ohio for about seventy miles, and anything more perfect in river scenery
it would be difficult to imagine. Many large tributaries fell into it,
the mouths of which we crossed over long bridges, and from these bridges
had long vistas up their valleys. For about thirty miles we had the bold
banks of Virginia opposite to us; but, after that, we quitted the state
of Ohio, and for forty miles the course of the river was through the
state of Pennsylvania. A number of steamboats enlivened the scene, with
their huge stern wheels making a great commotion in the water. The river
too was studded with islands, and the continuous bend, the river taking
one prolonged curve from Steubenville to Pittsburg, added greatly to the
beauty of the scene. On approaching Pittsburg we crossed the Alleghany,
which is a fine broad stream. The Monongahela, which here meets it, is a
still finer one, and the two together, after their junction, constitute
the noble river which then, for the first time, takes the name of the
Ohio, or, as it is most appropriately called by the French, "La belle
rivière"--for anything more beautiful than the seventy miles of it which
we saw to-day it would be difficult to imagine.
We are lodged here at a very comfortable hotel, facing the Alleghany
river. The town forms a triangle, situated between this river and the
Monongahela, and after dinner, having arrived here early, we took a walk
from the hotel, across the town, until we arrived at the latter river.
The opposite bank here is of great height, and we crossed a bridge, 1500
feet long, with the magnanimous intention of going to the top of the
hill to see the magnificent prospect which the summit is said to
afford. But our strength, and breath, and courage failed us before we
had ascended a third of the height, although there is a good carriage
road up and in good condition, from the hard frost which still prevails.
The view, however, even at that height, was very fine, although it was
greatly marred by the smoky atmosphere which hangs over the city. After
recrossing the bridge we went to the point forming the apex of the
triangle, to see the confluence of the two rivers, and, as we could from
there look up both rivers and down the Ohio, the view is very
remarkable. The town itself disappointed us; but, perhaps, we expected
more than we ought reasonably to have done from a great and dirty
manufacturing town.
_Harrisburgh, Nov. 18th._--We started this morning by the six o'clock
train in order to see the wonderful Pennsylvania railroad by daylight.
It is the great rival of the Baltimore and Ohio railway, on which we
travelled with Mr. Tyson, and we were rather anxious to have an
opportunity of comparing the two, which, having now seen them both, we
feel competent to do. The great change which nature presents now, to
what it did when the leaves were in full foliage, may make us underrate
the beauties of the road we passed over to-day, but, notwithstanding
this, we think there can be no doubt that the Baltimore and Ohio, taken
as a whole, is by far the most picturesque and beautiful. The length of
the two roads is very nearly the same; but, while the whole of the
Baltimore and Ohio was beautiful, one side of the mountain being as much
so as the other, the first part of the road to-day, till we reached the
summit level, was very much of the same character as many other mountain
regions we have passed. For many miles the road followed the course of
the Conemaugh, crossing and recrossing the river, but without any very
striking feature. But the moment we had passed through a tunnel, 3612
feet long, and began the descent of 2200 feet, on the eastern side of
the Alleghany chain, the scene quite baffled description. The summit
level of the Baltimore and Ohio is 500 feet higher; but the descent
occupies a distance of seventeen miles, while the descent to-day was
effected in eleven, so that, with all our partiality for the Baltimore
and Ohio, it must be confessed there is nothing on it so wonderful and
sublime as this. One curve was quite appalling, and it was rendered more
so by the slow rate at which the train moved--not more, I should think,
than at the rate of two miles an hour--certainly not nearly so fast as
we could have walked, so that we had full leisure to contemplate the
chasm into which we should have been plunged headlong had the slightest
slip of the wheels occurred. How they can ever venture to pass it at
night is quite surprising. The curve is like a horse shoe, and goes
round the face of a rock which has been cut away to make room for the
road. Another superiority in the road we travelled to-day is the much
greater height of the surrounding mountains, and the extent of the
distant views;--but the greater height of the mountains had the
attendant disadvantage of the trees being chiefly pines, instead of the
lovely forest trees, of every description, which adorned the hills
amongst which we travelled in Maryland and Virginia, by the Baltimore
and Ohio railway.
I must, however, do justice here to the eastern side of the mountains.
For more than 100 miles we closely followed the course of the Juniata,
from its source to where it ends its career by falling, quite a
magnificent river, into the Susquehanna, about twenty-two miles above
this place. After the junction, the noble Susquehanna was our companion
for that distance, this town being situated upon it. The source of the
Juniata is seen very soon after passing Altamont, and perhaps we were
more disposed to do justice to the beauty of the river, from the happy
frame of body and mind we were in, owing to the excellent dinner we had
just partaken of at that place, consisting of roast beef, roast turkey,
apple tart, cranberry preserve, and a most superlative Charlotte
Russe--pretty good fare for an hotel in a mountain pass! No wine or
stimulants of any kind were allowed, or what the consequence might have
been on papa's restless state of mind it would be difficult to say; as
it was, I counted that he rose from his seat to look at the view from
the other side of the car, thirty times in the space of an hour and a
half, making a move, therefore, upon an average, of once in every three
minutes; and this he afterwards continued to do as often as the road
crossed the river. I foolishly, at first, partook of his locomotive
propensities, but my exhausted frame soon gave way, so that he declares
I only saw one half of its beauties, namely, the half on the side where
I was seated; but this half was ample to satisfy any reasonable mortal.
I am at a loss to imagine what our fellow-travellers could have thought
of him, as they lounged on their seats, and scarcely ever condescended
to look out of window.
We arrived here, not the least tired with our long journey, though it
occupied twelve hours, and were so fresh afterwards, that we started
after tea, this being the great annual Thanksgiving-day, to the nearest
place of worship we could find, which turned out to be a Baptist
"Church," as it is called here, where we heard a most admirable sermon,
and felt we had reason to offer up our thanks with as much earnestness
as any one of the congregation, for having been spared to make this
journey to the Far West, and to have returned to civilised life, without
encountering a single difficulty or drawback of any kind. I may as well
state, that this Thanksgiving-day was established by the Puritans, and
is still kept up throughout the whole of the United States, its object
being to return thanks for the blessings of the year, and more
especially for the harvest. There are services in all the churches, and
we much regretted not finding out till late yesterday, that this was the
day set apart for it, for had we known this, we should not have
travelled to-day; but once on our journey, with the fear of snow
accumulating in the mountains, we were afraid of stopping on the road,
and we were very glad to be able to attend the service this evening.
There is something very beautiful, I think, in thus setting apart one
day in the year for such a purpose, and it is interesting too, as being
a relic left by the Puritans.
_November 19th._--We are quite charmed with this place, which is a rare
exception to all the other capitals we have seen, inasmuch as more has
not been undertaken than has been carried out; in fact, it has much more
the appearance of a village than of a large city. The beauty of the
river surpasses all description. It is a mile wide, and bends gracefully
towards the direction of the mountains through the gorge from which it
issues forth in its course towards Chesapeake Bay, and here, where the
hills recede to a distance, it expands into a great width, and its face
is covered with islands. The only drawback to its being a grand river is
its shallowness, and want of adaptation, therefore, to the purpose of
navigation. There are no splendid steamboats to be seen here as on the
Ohio, which make one feel that river, at the distance of more than 2000
miles from the sea, to be a noble highway of commerce, linking together
with a common interest distant portions of this vast continent. In the
Susquehanna, one feels that there is nothing but its beauty to admire,
but this _is_ perfect.
Two bridges connect the town with the opposite shore, each of them being
about a mile long. The weather is so piercingly cold, that we did not
venture across, but we took a long walk up the banks, of the river. The
town of Harrisburgh is very small, consisting of only three or four
streets parallel to the river, intersected by about a dozen others at
right angles to it. The centre one of these is a fine broad street,
closed in at the further end by the Capitol. This is a handsome, but
unpretending building of red brick, adorned by a portico, and, as usual,
surmounted by a dome. On entering at the top of a flight of stairs,
there is a circular area, covered in by the dome. Out of this, on one
side, is a very neat Senate House, and on the opposite side is the House
of Representatives. The State library, a very good one, is upstairs. The
flight of stairs up to this, which is continued up to the dome, is wide
and handsome, and of such easy ascent, that I ventured up to the top, in
order to take a bird's-eye view of the scenery we so much enjoyed below.
We were very well repaid for the trouble, especially as the gallery was
glazed, so that we could see the view without being exposed to the
cutting wind which was blowing outside.
The houses here are generally of brick, painted a deep red colour,
which, not being in too great masses, and picked out with a good deal of
white, has a very good effect. Some few houses, however, especially
towards the outskirts of the town, were of wood, painted white. We
yesterday passed many villages and towns of these pretty houses, but
with the snow lying around them, scarcely whiter than the houses
themselves, they had a very chilly appearance, and looked far less
tempting than the houses of this description in New England when we
first saw them, each in its pretty clean lawn, and surrounded by a
lovely foliage. To return to this town--and, as a climax to its
perfection, it has, out and out, the most comfortable hotel we have seen
in America. It is quite a bijou, with a very pretty façade, and, being
new last year, everything is in the best style. The ground floor, as is
generally the case in this country, consists, like the Hôtel du Louvre
in Paris, of good shops, which gives a gayer appearance to the whole
than if it were one mass of dwelling rooms. We find it so comfortable
that, instead of going on this afternoon to Philadelphia, we mean to
remain here to-night, and to go on to-morrow to New York.
_New York, Nov. 22nd._--We took one more walk at Harrisburgh, before
starting on Saturday. The morning was lovely, and from the hill above
the town, which we had time to reach, the view was very beautiful. But,
of all the picturesque things that I have lately seen, I think the scene
which presented itself this morning, when I opened our bedroom shutters
at six o'clock, was the most striking. The night, on which I had looked
out before going to bed, was clear and most beautiful; but a few stars
now only remained as the day had begun to dawn, and the east was
reddened by the approaching sunrise. Below the window was a very large
market-place, lighted up and crowded with buyers and sellers. The women
all had on the usual bonnet worn by the lower classes in this
country,--a sun-bonnet, made of coloured cotton, with a very deep
curtain hanging down the back. They wore besides warm cloaks and
coloured shawls, and the men large wide-awakes. I have already described
the brilliantly red houses, and the day being sufficiently advanced to
bring out the colour very conspicuously, I think I never saw a prettier
or busier scene, nor one which I could have wished more to have drawn,
but there was no time even to attempt it.