42,000 people. From the natural increase, however, of population, and
the influx of strangers, the number is supposed now to be near 50,000,
notwithstanding the ravages of the yellow fever in 1793, which swept off
4,000 people. The inhabitants consist of English, Irish, Scotch,
Germans, French, and of American born citizens, descended from people of
these different nations, who are of course by far the most numerous
class. The inhabitants are for the most part engaged in some sort of
business; a few, and a few only, live without any ostensible
professions, on the fortunes which they themselves have raised; but
these men are not idle or inattentive to the increase of their property,
being ever on the watch to profit by the sale of lands, which they have
purchased, and to buy more on advantageous terms. It would be a
difficult matter to find a man of any property in the country, who is
not concerned in the buying or selling of land, which may be considered
in America as an article of trade.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
In a large city, like Philadelphia, where people are assembled together
from so many different quarters, there cannot fail to be a great
diversity in the manners of the inhabitants. It is a remark, however,
very generally made, not only by foreigners, but also by persons from
other parts of the United States, that the Philadelphians are extremely
deficient in hospitality and politeness towards strangers. Amongst the
uppermost circles in Philadelphia, pride, haughtiness, and ostentation
are conspicuous; and it seems as if nothing could make them happier than
that an order of nobility should be established, by which they might be
exalted above their fellow citizens, as much as they are in their own
conceit. In the manners of the people in general there is a coldness and
reserve, as if they were suspicious of some designs against them, which
chills to the very heart those who come to visit them. In their private
societies a _tristesse_ is apparent, near which mirth and gaiety can
never approach. It is no unusual thing, in the genteelest houses, to see
a large party of from twenty to thirty persons assembled, and seated
round a room, without partaking of any other amusement than what arises
from the conversation, most frequently in whispers, that passes between
the two persons who are seated next to each other. The party meets
between six and seven in the evening; tea is served with much form; and
at ten, by which time most of the company are wearied with having
remained so long stationary, they return to their own homes. Still,
however, they are not strangers to music, cards, or dancing; their
knowledge of music, indeed, is at a very low ebb; but in dancing, which
appears to be their most favourite amusement, they certainly excel.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
The women, in general, whilst young, are very pretty, but by the time
they become mothers of a little family they lose all their beauty, their
complexions fade away, their teeth begin to decay, and they hardly
appear like the same creatures. In a few instances only it would be
possible to find a fine woman of the age of forty, who has had a large
family. The sudden decay of the teeth is a circumstance which has
engaged the attention of the faculty; both men and women, American born,
losing them very generally at an early age. Some ascribe it to the great
and sudden changes in the weather, from heat to cold; but negroes, who
are exposed to the same transition of climate, are distinguished for the
whiteness and beauty of their teeth; and the Indians also, who are more
exposed than either, preserve their teeth in good order. Others
attribute it to the immoderate use of confectionary. Of confectionary,
the Americans in the towns certainly make an inordinate use; but in the
country, where the people have not an opportunity of getting such
things, the men, but more generally the women, also lose their teeth
very prematurely. Most probably it is owing to the very general use they
make of salted provisions. In the country parts of America in
particular, the people live upon salted pork and salted fish nearly the
whole year round.
It is only within a few years past, since 1779, that any public
amusements have been suffered in this city; the old corporation, which
consisted mostly of the Quakers, and not of the most liberal minded
people in the city, having always opposed the establishment of any place
for the purpose. Now, however, there are two theatres and an
amphitheatre. Little or no use is made of the old theatre, which is of
wood, and a very indifferent building. The new one is built of brick,
and neatly fitted up within; but it is hardly large enough for the town.
A shocking custom obtains here, of smoking tobacco in the house, which
at times is carried to such an excess, that those to whom it is
disagreeable are under the necessity of going away. To the people in the
pit, wine and porter is brought between the acts, precisely as if they
were in a tavern. The actors are procured, with a very few exceptions,
from Great Britain and Ireland; none of them are very eminent
performers, but they are equal to what are usually met with in the
country towns of England. The amphitheatre is built of wood; equestrian
and other exercises are performed there, similar to those at Astley’s.
Dancing assemblies are held regularly every fortnight through the
winter, and occasionally there are public concerts.
During summer, the people that can make it convenient retire to country
houses in the neighbourhood of the town, and all public and private
amusements cease; winter is the season for them, the Congress being then
assembled, and trade not being so closely attended to, as the navigation
of the river is then commonly impeded by ice.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
The president finds it necessary, in general, to come to Philadelphia
preparatory to the meeting of congress, and resides there during the
whole of the session. Once in the week, during his stay in the city, he
has levees, between the hours of three and four in the afternoon. At
these he always appears himself in a court dress, and it is expected
that the foreign ministers should always attend in the same style; this
they constantly do, excepting the French minister, who makes a point of
going in dishabille, not to say worse of it. Other persons are at
liberty to go as they think proper. Mrs. Washington, also, has a drawing
room once every week. On this occasion the ladies are seated in great
form round the apartment, and tea, coffee, &c. served[4].
Footnote 4:
Whether the levee is kept up by the present president, or not, I have
not heard. Many objections were made to it by the democratic party
during the administration of General Washington, as being inconsistent
with the spirit of a republican government, and destructive of that
equality which ought to reign amongst the citizens of every class.
Philadelphia is the grand residence of the Quakers in America, but their
number does not bear the same proportion now to that of the other
citizens which it did formerly. At present they form about one fourth
only of the inhabitants. This does not arise from any diminution of the
number of Quakers, on the contrary they have considerably increased, but
from the great influx into the city of persons of a different
persuasion. Belonging to the Quakers there are five places for public
worship; to the Presbyterians and Seceders six; to the English
Episcopalians three; to German Lutherans two; to the Roman Catholics
four; and one respectively to the Swedish Lutherans, Moravians,
Baptists, Universal Baptists, Methodists, and Jews. On a Sunday every
citizen appears well dressed; the lower classes of the people in
particular are remarkably well clothed. This is a great day also for
little excursions into the country.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
The carriages made use of in Philadelphia consist of coaches, chariots,
chaises, coachees, and light waggons, the greater part of which are
built in Philadelphia. The equipages of a few individuals are extremely
ostentatious; nor does there appear in any that neatness and elegance
which might be expected amongst a set of people that are desirous of
imitating the fashions of England, and that are continually getting
models over from that country. The coachee is a carriage peculiar, I
believe, to America; the body of it is rather longer than that of a
coach, but of the same shape. In the front it is left quite open down to
the bottom, and the driver sits on a bench under the roof of the
carriage. There are two seats in it for the passengers, who sit with
their faces towards the horses. The roof is supported by small props,
which are placed at the corners. On each side of the doors, above the
pannels, it is quite open, and to guard against bad weather there are
curtains, which are made to let down from the roof, and fasten to
buttons placed for the purpose on the outside. There is also a leathern
curtain to hang occasionally between the driver and passengers.
The light waggons are on the same construction, and are calculated to
accommodate from four to twelve people. The only difference between a
small waggon and a coachee is, that the latter is better finished, has
varnished pannels, and doors at the side. The former has no doors, but
the passengers scramble in the best way they can, over the seat of the
driver. The waggons are used universally for stage carriages.
[Illustration:
AMERICAN STAGE WAGGON.
_Published Dec. 21. 1798, by J. Stockdale, Piccadilly._
]
The accommodations at the taverns, by which name they call all inns, &c.
are very indifferent in Philadelphia, as indeed they are, with a very
few exceptions, throughout the country. The mode of conducting them is
nearly the same every where. The traveller is shewn, on arrival, into a
room which is common to every person in the house, and which is
generally the one set apart for breakfast, dinner, and supper. All the
strangers that happen to be in the house sit down to these meals
promiscuously, and, excepting in the large towns, the family of the
house also forms a part of the company. It is seldom that a private
parlour or drawing room can be procured at any of the taverns, even in
the towns; and it is always with reluctance that breakfast or dinner is
served up separately to any individual. If a single bed room can be
procured, more ought not to be looked for; but it is not always that
even this is to be had, and those who travel through the country must
often submit to be crammed into rooms where there is scarcely sufficient
space to walk between the beds.[5] Strangers who remain for any length
of time in the large towns most usually go to private boarding houses,
of which great numbers are to be met with. It is always a difficult
matter to procure furnished lodgings without paying for board.
Footnote 5:
Having stopped one night at Elkton, on my journey to Baltimore in the
public carriage, my first enquiries from the landlord, on alighting,
as there were many passengers in the stage, were to know what
accommodation his house afforded. He seemed much surprized that any
enquiries should be made on such a subject, and with much consequence
told me, I need not give myself any trouble about the extent of his
accommodations, as he had no less than _eleven_ beds in _one_ of his
rooms.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
At all the taverns, both in town and country, but particularly in the
latter, the attendance is very bad; indeed, excepting in the southern
states, where there are such great numbers of negroes, it is a matter of
the utmost difficulty to procure domestic servants of any description.
The generality of servants that are met with in Philadelphia are
emigrant Europeans; they, however, for the most part, only remain in
service until they can save a little money, when they constantly quit
their masters, being led to do so by that desire for independence which
is so natural to the mind of man, and which every person in America may
enjoy that will be industrious. The few that remain steady to those who
have hired them are retained at most exorbitant wages. As for the
Americans, none but those of the most indifferent characters ever enter
into service, which they consider as suitable only to negroes; the
negroes again, in Pennsylvania and in the other states where steps have
been taken for the gradual abolition of slavery, are taught by the
Quakers to look upon themselves in every respect as equal to their white
brethren, and they endeavour to imitate them by being saucy. It is the
same both with males and females. I must here observe, that amongst the
generality of the lower sort of people in the United States, and
particularly amongst those of Philadelphia, there is a want of good
manners which excites the surprize of almost every foreigner; I wish
also that it may not be thought that this remark has been made, merely
because the same deference and the same respectful attention, which we
see so commonly paid by the lower orders of people in Great Britain and
Ireland to those who are in a situation somewhat superior to themselves,
is not also paid in America to persons in the same station; it is the
want of common civility I complain of, which it is always desirable to
behold between man and man, let their situations in life be what they
may, and which is not contrary to the dictates of nature, or to the
spirit of genuine liberty, as it is observable in the behaviour of the
wild Indians that wander through the forests of this vast continent, the
most free and independent of all human beings. In the United States,
however, the lower classes of people will return rude and impertinent
answers to questions couched in the most civil terms, and will insult a
person that bears the appearance of a gentleman, on purpose to shew how
much they consider themselves upon an equality with him. Civility cannot
be purchased from them on any terms; they seem to think that it is
incompatible with freedom, and that there is no other way of convincing
a stranger that he is really in a land of liberty, but by being surly
and ill mannered in his presence.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
+LETTER + III.
_Journey to Baltimore.—Description of the Country about
Philadelphia.—Floating Bridges over the Schuylkill, how
constructed.—Mills in Brandy-wine Creek.—Improvement in
the Machinery of Flour Mills in America.—Town of Wilmington.—Log
Houses.—Bad Roads.—Fine Prospects.—How relished by
Americans.—Taverns.—Susquehannah River.—Town of Baltimore.—Plan of the
Town.—Harbour.—Public and private Buildings.—Inhabitants.—Country
between Baltimore and Washington.—Execrable Roads._
MY DEAR SIR, Washington, November.
[Sidenote: JOURNEY TO BALTIMORE.]
ON the 16th of November I left Philadelphia for Baltimore. The only mode
of conveyance which offers for a traveller, who is not provided with his
own horses or carriage, is the public stage waggon; it is possible,
indeed, to procure a private carriage at Philadelphia to go on to
Baltimore, for which a great price is always demanded; but there is no
such thing as hiring a carriage or horses from stage to stage. The
country about Philadelphia is well cultivated, and it abounds with neat
country houses; but it has a bare appearance, being almost totally
stripped of the trees, which have been cut down without mercy for
firing, and to make way for the plough; neither are there any hedges, an
idea prevailing that they impoverish the land wherever they are planted.
The fences are all of the common post and rail, or of the angular kind.
These last are made of rails about eight or nine feet long, roughly
split out of trees, and placed horizontally above one another, as the
bars of a gate; but each tier of rails, or gate as it were, instead of
being on a straight line with the one next to it, is put in a different
direction, so as to form an angle sufficient to permit the ends of the
rails of one tier to rest steadily on those of the next. As these
fences, from their serpentine course, occupy at least six times as much
ground as a common post and rail fence, and require also a great deal
more wood, they are mostly laid aside whenever land and timber become
objects of importance, as they soon do in the neighbourhood of large
towns.
[Sidenote: FLOATING BRIDGES.]
The road to Baltimore is over the lowest of three floating bridges,
which have been thrown across the river Schuylkill, in the neighbourhood
of Philadelphia. The view on passing this river, which is about two
hundred and fifty yards wide, is beautiful. The banks on each side are
high, and for many miles above afford the most delightful situations for
villas. A very elegant one, laid out in the English taste, is seen on
passing the river just above the bridge. Adjoining to it are public
gardens, and a house of entertainment, with several good rooms, to which
the citizens of Philadelphia resort in great numbers during the summer
season.
The floating bridges are formed of large trees, which are placed in the
water transversely, and chained together; beams are then laid lengthways
upon these, and the whole boarded over, to render the way convenient for
passengers. On each side there is a railing. When very heavy carriages
go across these bridges, they sink a few inches below the surface of the
water; but the passage is by no means dangerous. They are kept in an
even direction across the river, by means of chains and anchors in
different parts, and are also strongly secured on both shores. Over that
part of the river where the channel lies, they are so contrived that a
piece can be removed to allow vessels to pass through. These bridges are
frequently damaged, and sometimes entirely carried away, during floods,
at the breaking up of winter, especially if there happens to be much ice
floating in the river. To guard against this, when danger is apprehended
and the flood does not come on too rapidly, they unfasten all the chains
by which the bridge is confined in its proper place, and then let the
whole float down with the stream to a convenient part of the shore,
where it can be hauled up and secured.
The country, after passing the Schuylkill, is pleasingly diversified
with rising grounds and woods, and appears to be in a good state of
cultivation. The first town of any note which you come to is Chester,
fifteen miles from Philadelphia; this town contains about sixty
dwellings, and is remarkable for being the place where the first
colonian assembly sat. From the neighbourhood of this town there is a
very grand view of the river Delaware.
[Sidenote: FLOUR MILLS.]
About half a mile before you come to Wilmington is Brandy-wine River,
remarkable for its mills, no less than thirteen being built almost close
to each other upon it. The water, just above the bridge which is thrown
over it, comes tumbling down with great violence over a bed of rocks;
and seats, at a very trifling expense, could be made for three times the
number of mills already built. Vessels carrying 1,000 bushels of wheat
can come close up to them, and by means of machinery their cargoes are
received from, or delivered to them in a very expeditious manner. Among
the mills, some are for flour, some for sawing of wood, and others for
stone. The improvements which have been made in the machinery of the
flour mills in America are very great. The chief of these consist in a
new application of the screw, and the introduction of what are called
elevators, the idea of which was evidently borrowed from the chain pump.
The screw is made by sticking small thin pieces of board, about three
inches long and two wide, into a cylinder, so as to form the spiral
line. This screw is placed in a horizontal position, and by turning on
its axis it forces wheat or flour from one end of a trough to the other.
For instance, in the trough which receives the meal immediately coming
from the stones, a screw of this kind is placed, by which the meal is
forced on, to the distance of six or eight feet perhaps, into a
reservoir; from thence, without any manual labour, it is conveyed to the
very top of the mill by the elevators, which consist of a number of
small buckets of the size of tea-cups, attached to a long band that goes
round a wheel at the top, and another at the bottom of the mill. As the
band revolves round the wheels, these buckets dip into the reservoir of
wheat or flour below, and take their loads up to the top, where they
empty themselves as they turn round the upper wheel. The elevators are
inclosed in square wooden tubes, to prevent them from catching in any
thing, and also to prevent dust. By means of these two simple
contrivances no manual labour is required from the moment the wheat is
taken to the mill till it is converted into flour, and ready to be
packed, during the various processes of screening, grinding, sifting,
&c.
[Sidenote: MARYLAND.]
Wilmington is the capital of the state of Delaware, and contains about
six hundred houses, which are chiefly of brick. The streets are laid out
on a plan somewhat similar to that of Philadelphia. There is nothing
very interesting in this town, and the country round about it is flat
and insipid. Elkton, twenty-one miles distant from Wilmington, and the
first town in Maryland, contains about ninety indifferent houses, which
are built without any regularity; it is a dirty disagreeable place. In
this neighbourhood I first took notice of log-houses; those which I had
hitherto seen having been built either of brick or stone, or else
constructed with wooden frames, sheathed on the outside with boards. The
log-houses are cheaper than any others in a country where there is
abundance of wood, and generally are the first that are erected on a new
settlement in America. The sides consist of trees just squared, and
placed horizontally one upon the other; the ends of the logs of one side
resting alternately on the ends of those of the adjoining sides, in
notches; the interstices between the logs are stopped with clay; and the
roof is covered with boards or with shingles, which are small pieces of
wood in the shape of slates or tiles, and which are used for that
purpose, with a few exceptions, throughout America. These habitations
are not very sightly, but when well built they are warm and comfortable,
and last for a long time.
A considerable quantity of wheat and Indian corn is raised in this
neighbourhood, to the production of which the soil is favourable; but
the best cultivated parts of the country are not seen from the road,
which passes chiefly over barren and hilly tracts, called “ridges.” The
reason for carrying the road over these is, because it is found to last
longer than if carried over the flat part of the country, where the soil
is deep, a circumstance which the people of Maryland always take into
consideration; for after a road is once cut, they never take pains to
keep it in good repair. The roads in this state are worse than in any
one in the union; indeed so very bad are they, that on going from Elkton
to the Susquehannah ferry, the driver frequently had to call to the
passengers in the stage, to lean out of the carriage first at one side,
then at the other, to prevent it from oversetting in the deep ruts with
which the road abounds: “Now, gentlemen, to the right;” upon which the
passengers all stretched their bodies half way out of the carriage to
balance it on that side: “Now, gentlemen, to the left,” and so on. This
was found absolutely necessary at least a dozen times in half the number
of miles. Whenever they attempt to mend these roads, it is always by
filling the ruts with saplings or bushes, and covering them over with
earth. This, however, is done only when there are fields on each side of
the road. If the road runs contiguous to a wood, then, instead of
mending it where it is bad, they open a new passage through the trees,
which they call making a road. It is very common in Maryland to see six
or seven different roads branching out from one, which all lead to the
same place. A stranger, before he is acquainted with this circumstance,
is frequently puzzled to know which he ought to take. The dexterity with
which the drivers of the stages guide their horses along these new
roads, which are full of stumps of trees, is astonishing, yet to
appearance they are the most awkward drivers possible; it is more by the
different noises which they make, than by their reins, that they manage
their horses.
[Sidenote: ROADS.]