Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
On page 59, "ever kind" should possibly be "every kind".
References on pages 157 and 163 to dates in April should perhaps be
to dates in May.
On page 208, words seem to be missing from the phrase starting
"probably a warrior of renown".
On page 234, "drave" should possibly be "drove".
HESPEROTHEN;
NOTES FROM THE WEST:
A RECORD OF A
RAMBLE IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA
IN THE SPRING AND SUMMER OF 1881.
BY
W. H. RUSSELL, LL. D.
BARRISTER-AT-LAW.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
1882.
[All rights reserved.]
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
TO
HER GRACE
THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND
(COUNTESS OF CROMARTY),
THIS RECORD OF THE RECENT VISIT OF THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND
TO AMERICA,
IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
BY
WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL.
LONDON, Dec. 1881.
PREFACE.
On the 16th of April last, in pursuance of an arrangement to that
effect which was entered into some months earlier with the Duke of
Sutherland,[1] a small party of gentlemen and one lady left Liverpool
in the Cunard Company's steamer "_Gallia_," with the object of making
a tour in the United States. Previous to their departure, Mr. Henry
Crosfield, the Auditor of the London and North-Western Railway
Company, had been in communication with friends in America, and had in
concert with them sketched out a general scheme to enable the visitors
to traverse the Atlantic States, to extend their journey westwards and
to obtain the best possible view of the country in the limited space
of time at their disposal. Although all were "on pleasure bent,"
those of the tourists who had interests in railways on this side of
the world were naturally anxious to study the modes of management
which were practised on the principal lines as closely as such a
hurried journey would allow them; but the main object of the
travellers was "to see the States"--to behold with their own eyes the
natural features of the vast continent which is exercising a rapidly
increasing influence on Great Britain and Europe itself, and to view
the manners and customs of the great nation which even in its present
enormous development gives only the indications of a lusty youth,
promising a manhood of irresistible vigour and strength in time to
come if the body politic fulfils its early hope. To be sure, the
inspection could not be very close, minute, or protracted. Shooting
flying is not an art given to all people, and the contemplation of man
at a hotel or in a street, as one looks around in the dining-room or
out of a railway train, does not afford satisfactory foundation for
solid knowledge or comfortable conviction. But we had to do the best
we could. There were for most of us the attractions in the journey
which novelty possesses. There were pleasures in anticipation in the
sight of the wonderful cities which man has made and of the grand
natural spectacles which God has created, and these pleasures were, I
may say now, enjoyed most fully. For my own part, having no railway
interests except those I share with so many others in being carried
safely, swiftly, and cheaply, by the lines to which I entrust myself
for conveyance, and having formerly been in the United States, my
chief desire was to revive, if not the pleasures of memory, at least
the recollections of a country in which I had spent many months of the
deepest interest and excitement, and where I made friends whose
affection and support were of invaluable assistance and comfort to me
when I much needed them at a period of terrible trial. I was also
eager to observe what changes had been effected since the close of the
Civil War, of one great incident of which I had an unfortunate
experience, and to revisit scenes the chief features of which had not
been effaced from my recollection by the lapse of nigh twenty years.
The expedition was undertaken under excellent auspices. From all
quarters of the United States, as soon as our intention was made
known, there had come not only expressions of satisfaction and offers
of assistance, but an actual competition in good offices, and amid the
friendly requests of the great Railway Corporations on the other side
of the Atlantic that the visitors would avail themselves of the
resources of their Companies the only difficulty lay in the choice of
contending routes. Tenders of palace cars and special trains, of
receptions and banquets, poured in on all sides; but the programme for
our journey was drawn up with a due regard to the number of hours at
the disposal of the travellers, and ere they set out from England, the
very day of their return from New York had been determined.
Having said so much by way of explanation of the motives which led to
the excursion, I feel called upon to account for the appearance of
these pages, because I am aware that there was not in the extent of
our journey nor in the nature of its incidents anything to justify my
rushing into print, especially as several very excellent records of
much more extensive and protracted tours in the Western World have
been recently given to the public. My reasons, or perhaps it would be
as well to write my excuses, for publishing this book are, that I was
asked to do so by friends who were desirous of possessing a memorial
of our rambles. When I left England I had not the least intention of
writing anything for publication, but after I had embarked one of my
companions, with whose wishes I was glad to comply, requested me to
send letters now and then to the _Morning Post_, and some of the
materials in them I shall incorporate in the following pages by the
permission of the proprietors. I do not feel quite satisfied that the
reasons I have given, or the excuses I have made, will be held to
exonerate me from presumption in adding to the well-filled shelves of
American travel when I have nothing new to tell of in the way of
exploration, sporting, or scenery, but one favour I beseech of those
who may be inclined to condemn me for dulness or to censure me for
want of novelty, and that is that they will not attribute my faults to
my fellow-travellers, whose originality, good humour, power of
observation, practical knowledge, and kindness cast over our journey a
charm that cannot be transferred in any degree to the pages which
record its progress, and that they will not ascribe to my companions
any responsibility for the opinions I have had occasion to express,
which are entirely and altogether my own.
WILLIAM HOWARD RUSSELL.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] The party consisted of the Duke of Sutherland, the Marquis of
Stafford, M.P., Mr. Knowles, M.P., Directors L. & N. W. R., Mr.
Bickersteth, Deputy Chairman L. & N. W. R., Mr. O. L. Stephen, Mr. G.
Crosfield, Directors L. & N. W. R., Mr. H. Crosfield, Auditor L. & N.
W. R., Mr. Neale, Superintendent L. & N. W. R., and Mr. Wright, the
Duke's Private Secretary. Major-General Sir Henry and Lady Green, who
were about to visit Canada, joined the party on the invitation of the
Duke of Sutherland in London, and I embarked on board the "_Gallia_"
at Queenstown, having left London the previous week to see some
members of my family in the County Cork.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
CHAPTER I.
VOYAGE TO NEW YORK.
Mallow to Queenstown -- The steam tender -- The "_Gallia_"
-- Our fellow-passengers -- The first night at sea --
Observations -- Marine inquiries -- A brilliant run -- A
little stranger -- Approaches to New York -- Sandy Hook --
Friends on Shore -- New York interviewers -- First
impressions Page 1
CHAPTER II.
NEW YORK.
Friends on shore -- The landing -- First impressions --
Brevoort House -- The interviewers -- Aspect of the
streets -- 1861 and 1881 -- Cockades and armorial bearings
-- The Union League Club -- The Fire Brigade 18
CHAPTER III.
DEPARTURE FOR PHILADELPHIA.
Our Special Train -- On the Rail -- Eye-sores -- The
Quaker City -- The Pennsylvania Railroad -- Reminiscences
-- Excursions -- The New Public Buildings -- Mr. Childs
and "The Ledger" -- Mr. Simon Cameron -- Baltimore --
Arrival at Washington 51
CHAPTER IV.
WASHINGTON.
Heroes New and Old -- The Soldiers' Home -- The White
House -- President Garfield -- His Visitors -- The Capitol
-- Mount Vernon -- Mr. Blaine -- "On to Richmond!" --
Fitzhugh Lee -- The Capitol, Return -- The Corcoran
Gallery -- Sight-seeing 70
CHAPTER V.
HARRISBURG -- NEW YORK -- BOSTON -- CANADA.
Departure from Washington -- Harper's Ferry -- The State
Capital -- Rats on the Rampage -- Pennsylvania Farming 103
CHAPTER VI.
CANADA.
Sight-seeing -- The Traffic Strife -- Quebec -- The
Ursulines -- The Electric Light -- The La Chine Rapids --
Sutherland Emigrants -- Toronto -- Niagara -- The Clifton
House -- The Puff Demons -- "Imperial Cæsar Dead" 132
CHAPTER VII.
TO THE WEST.
Buffalo -- Cleveland -- Magnificent Muldoon -- Euclid
Avenue -- Toledo -- Detroit -- Chicago -- Jefferson Davis
-- A Terrible Moment -- Pullman -- Milwaukee 159
CHAPTER VIII.
MINNESOTA.
The Mississippi -- St. Paul -- Minneapolis -- Le Mars --
Sioux City -- Life on the Rail -- Muddy Missouri -- Kansas
City -- Old and New Friends 191
CHAPTER IX.
KANSAS -- COLORADO -- NEW MEXICO.
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad -- Land Grants --
Farming Statistics -- Immigration and Settling -- Colorado
-- New Mexico -- Santa Fé -- Colossal Hotels -- Archbishop
Lamy -- The Rio Grande 211
HESPEROTHEN.
CHAPTER I.
VOYAGE TO NEW YORK.
Mallow to Queenstown -- The steam tender -- The "_Gallia_"
-- Our fellow-passengers -- The first night at sea --
Observations -- Marine inquiries -- A brilliant run -- A
little stranger -- Approaches to New York -- Sandy Hook --
Friends on shore -- New York interviewers --First
impressions.
On Easter Day I was picked up by the mail--the very limited mail-train
at Mallow. There were few passengers in it, some half-dozen Americans
and English, all told, for the "_Gallia_." The Borough, lying snugly
in the wooded valley of the Blackwater, of the "Rakes" (who seem to
have sown their wild oats and cut them and their sticks long ago), did
not contribute so much as one spectator to the little official
group--stationmaster, police, and porters--on the platform; perhaps
the population generally was engulfed in the churches and chapels of
the district; and the half-hour or so which sufficed to reach "the
beautiful city called Cork" was passed in observation of external
objects--the trout-stream; the umbrageous glens; the fields
indifferently cultivated in the rare cases where they are not devoted
to pasturage; the ruined abbey; the ridiculous mock Round Tower; the
Hydropathic Sanitarium; the "Groves of Blarney"--chiefly of that hazy
sort, where familiar scenes are associated with the dim speculation,
"Shall I ever see them again?" which occupies the place of thought in
the mind of people on the eve of a long expedition of this kind. It is
a languid interest. But nevertheless it has its uses, which is more
than can be said of the delay on the Cork platform graciously accorded
to passengers ere the train starts for Queenstown. Every door is fast
shut, and indeed if the observance of the Sabbath were less strict,
there would not be any advantage gained by the hungry traveller, for
there is only a wilderness of small shops, all closed too, in the
dreary street which leads from the station of the Great Midland to the
city, and there is no refreshment-room at the Cork Terminus. The
directors of this well-managed line seek to combine the inculcation of
temperance and the development of habits of meditation over the flight
of time with the exercise of self-denial and patience. They do not
allow the sale of any sort of spirits, unless they be called "port,"
"sherry," or "cordial," and they have a little Maine Liquor Law of
their own at the railway stations. But our meditations on the Cork
platform on the vanity of human wishes were at last dispelled by the
ringing of the bell of the train for Queenstown, and in the prescribed
time we were duly delivered over there to the "carboys" and the
general outlawry of the agents of commerce who await the arrival of
passengers for the States--a swarm of ragged boys with newspapers
devoted to politics racy of the soil; vendors of the most primitive
bouquets of heather, hollyhocks, sweet-brier, and the like; merchants
with ragged and rugged sticks offered as genuine shillelaghs; women
with baskets of fruit of suspicious aspect--all urged on the notice of
the public with great clamour of voice. It is a quaint trade; and
wonderful was it to see the number of good Americans who invested in
these memorials, relics of European travel, bearing them on board the
steam tender with grave solicitude. The steam tender aforesaid was
already duly crammed with mail bags, passengers, and a fair proportion
of juvenile Americans revelling in the freedom and perfect
self-control proper to the race, conspicuous among whom was a pretty
little lady of some twelve or thirteen years of age, who had all the
airs and graces of "une demoiselle de la vieille Cour." The "_Gallia_"
had made a quick passage from Liverpool, and had been fuming about the
moorings off Roche's Point since 5.30 A.M. Many of her passengers had
landed and gone, some to church, others to chapel, or to the "grand
cathedral," and some to stroll about the uninviting streets, and these
were now waiting for us in the tender, but the majority of the
voyagers were on board writing letters or abusing the post-office and
the authorities generally which enforced such a waste of the time they
found so heavy on their hands. I found two acquaintances--one indeed
an old friend--among the passengers in the tender, and with them I
divided the cares of looking after my two married daughters who came
"to see me off," thereby obtaining an opportunity for a dash to "see
after" my luggage, for I am too old a traveller to trust to the
assurances of porters--"It's all right, your honour!" In twenty
minutes more the tender, inspected by hundreds of eyes from over the
bulwarks, was alongside the slim vast hull of the great Cunarder. I
looked up as the eyes looked down, and saw most of my party above, and
in a few seconds more was on deck shaking hands with them all round;
finding out my State Room--what a noble appellation for the cubicle,
"that heritage of woe," of which I was lord!--exhibiting the charms
and conveniences of the same to my anxious daughters, who with
feminine enthusiasm declared it was "delightful! so snug!" &c., and
distributing my property in its angles and covert retreats. "All on
board for the shore!" The bell is ringing for the third time! And as
the last adieux are spoken, the last kiss, the last shake of the hand,
given, and the outward and visible signs of friendship or of love are
relegated to tearful eyes and waving kerchiefs, those who are going to
sea think perhaps how pleasant it would be to return to the solid
earth, and those who are bound for road or pavement struggle with the
thought, "I wish I were going too!" Any stick will do to beat a dog!
Any umbrella or hat will do to wave at a friend. And so, at 3.30 that
afternoon, the "_Gallia_" made a graceful curtsy to an incoming wave,
screwed herself out of the roadstead, and turned her stem to the Far
West, towards the sun "which, by the bright track of his fiery car,
gave token of a goodly day to-morrow." How green and fresh seemed the
land where the fields swelled to the edge of the cliffs dotted with
whitewashed cottages! Forward, leaning over forecastle bulwarks, the
poor Irish emigrants and Irish-Americans were watching the coast-lines
and listening to the experts who were pointing out the "Killies" and
"Bailies" which adorned them. But the bell soon sounded again, this
time to prepare for dinner, and in half an hour more, from the
recesses of many cabins the multitude came trooping to the banqueting
hall, which was at the time just gently yielding to the blandishments
of the sea-nymphs to desert the line of strict propriety, and to leave
off doing its level best. The "party" had a table all to itself on the
right of the Saloon, but at the end there were two places left which
we could not occupy, and these were filled by two American gentlemen,
one of whom developed a marked talent for salads and anecdote, and the
other equal gifts in the way of silence. The Cunard cuisine is copious
at all events, and the cellar--albeit vexed by various temperatures
and altitudes--commendable. The show of strength at table was
creditable to our seagoing powers, and our first night with the
expeditionary forces was passed pleasantly in discussing plans and the
like till bed-time, when our grim chamberlain put out our candles, and
left the inmates of the cabins to rest as best they might. On the
second day people began to look more at each other at meal-times--to
take notice, as the nurses say--but a strong easterly breeze
introduced elements of discomfort and unsociability, and impeded
friendly communion even in the smoking-room for a day or two. It was
evident that the majority of the living freight of the "_Gallia_" were
returning to their native land. There is always something or other
cropping up out of the sad sea wave for those who are not absorbed in
their own sufferings from the _mal de mer_; and though I have been
fortunate enough to have escaped the slightest inconvenience in my
marine experiences, I have had that share in the misery of others
which is derived from sympathy. I have sometimes doubted whether
exemption from sea-sickness, in bad weather, is such a boon, till I
duly considered the state of those who were its victims. To be quite
well, and yet to be unable to read or to write--to sit or to stand, or
to lie down--without some sort of tension--is very aggravating. If you
go on deck you are wet by sea or spray, and can do nothing but "hold
on"; and if you go below you are half suffocated by the close air, and
altogether tortured by the cries of distress around you. My cabin was
on the main deck forward--large, airy, and, when the ports were open,
well lighted--and the only inconvenience attendant on the situation
was that it lay some distance from the bath-rooms, which are never
numerous enough for the wants of the passengers even in the most
liberally-appointed steamers. The knowing ones make a rush for the
bath-room steward and inscribe their names at once for their quarter
of an hour as soon as they come on board, and the unfortunates who
neglect that precaution are obliged to take their chance later in the
morning, and sometimes fare but badly. It was my fate once to be a
passenger on board one of the steamers of the Messagéries Impériales
to Marseilles from the East, at the close of the Crimean War. There
was an immense crowd of officers and soldiers on board, and the
weather was very hot, but the only bath-room was closed, and it was
from a conclusive answer to the demands for admission which were made
to the persecuted steward that we learned the reason why--"the bath
was occupied." It contained the body of an officer which had been
embalmed, and which was being taken to France for burial in some
martial cemetery!
Washington Irving wrote long ago that "the sea is all monotony,"
though he claimed leave to correct the expression, and if it were a
monotony of fair winds and smooth water, and eighteen miles an hour,
it would be very tolerable indeed. But surely there is no monotony in
a sea voyage in an Atlantic liner! Look at the different phases of
character exhibited on board day after day! Observe the ups and downs
of its life; watch the microcosm of the crowded deck, where every
chair holds its little Areopagus and pronounces judgment on the world
around it.
There were brave men among us who resorted to ignoble artifices, and
went by devious ways to their cabins to escape the masked batteries,
and the spectacles and glasses _en barbette_ of the long lines of
cushioned bastions where the enemy were lying in vigilant scrutiny of
every movement.
And then the Babel of tongues at times--the variety of topics one
hears discussed. Hark to that trumpet tone! It is not Jeremiah warning
the nations to flee from the wrath to come! No! it is merely a gallant
officer of a scientific corps who is expounding to some admiring
Americans a few articles of his faith, and proving that Mr. Gladstone
is the "Man of Sin" specially intended for the destruction of the
British army and Empire. And there, in a cozy nook by the wheel-house,
an earnest Democrat is holding forth to his English auditors on the
evils of democracy as illustrated by the conduct of the Republicans in
the exercise of political power, the manipulation of ballot-boxes and
public bullion; and a sturdy Briton near at hand is enlarging on the
absolute necessity of restoring the worn-out lands of the Eastern
States and Canada to fertility by the use of manures of which he is
the manufacturer. Among the Americans there were not wanting signs and
tokens that the traditions of a great war and the influence of party
politics were as powerful as social distinctions, and their cliques
were as marked as if each represented a different "set" in one of the
old countries.
There is the unfailing anxiety about the weather--and there are
remarks on its behaviour, past, present, and future, at every meal,
and there must be incessant vigilance respecting the proceedings of
the ship. The 9 o'clock observation is regarded with an interest which
culminates at noon in the proceedings of the officers engaged in
"catching the sun," and then comes the anxious waiting about of the
passengers whilst the calculations are being worked out, till the run
is announced and the result fixed over the companion. In some vessels
a chart is laid out, on which the course of the ship is marked down
daily. I have seen an expression of much comfort diffused over the
countenances of suspicious voyagers by the inspection of the final
remarks which show them "exactly where we are, you know." They are not
quite aware of the tricks of the trade, and it is perhaps just as
well. Then all operations aloft are attractive--taking in sail or
shaking out a reef, or "taking a haul on the weather braces," which
seems necessary when nothing else is to be done--and there is the
wonderful problem to study of why it is that, no matter where you put
yourself away on the deck of a ship, a "hand" comes to you at once to
pull the particular rope you are sitting or standing on, or to
otherwise civilly molest you! All these common interests bind
passengers together. The smoking-room becomes conversational after a
time, and "sets" are enlarged. The energies of life, however, are
concentrated on but a few objects on board ship, and the general
conversation and attitude of the passengers are largely regulated by
the vehicle in which they are borne. And that was the course of life
in the "_Gallia_." A flying-fish, a petrel, a porpoise, the glinting
of a sail, the smoke of a steamer, became a subject for general
conversation, if not an object of universal attraction; and when
porpoises or flying-fish came close in shoals, and the "sails" were
near, and the steamer's number, or better still, her name, could be
read, why, there was quite enough of incident to carry one through the
not very long intervals which divided the times for eating and
drinking. I have not mentioned the gulls, because I think they are
becoming decidedly demoralised and disreputable, and ought not to be
noticed. Instead of getting their subsistence and living cleanly by
honest labour, as decent gulls should do, they have become mere ocean
scavengers, and follow the steamers to and fro across the Atlantic;
some, I dare say, preferring the Cunard, others the Inman; and the
White Star, Guion, &c., lines, probably having clientelles of their
own. It is possible indeed that each vessel has its own _habitués_,
just like a club or a hotel; but this is merely a theory. I am sorry
to say that I have observed a tendency on the part of the solan geese
to be led away to following these wakes, and if that goes on, the
gulls will be driven to farming, for which, in ignorance of the
ruinous nature of the occupation they are indeed showing an increasing
predilection.
The 19th April was debited with a brilliant run--390 nautical miles in
the 24 hours, equal to 16-3/8 knots per hour!--and there was an
exceeding clangour of tongues at meal-times, attributable, it would
seem, to the "_Gallia_" having screwed her way through the ocean at
such high speed. On such occasions as these the deck-frequenting
passengers are in high spirits--they in some way unconsciously
attribute to themselves a share in the performance. The Auditor drank
his "Dry Monopole"--a good tap was discovered on board--with unusual
relish; nor was he left to do so single-handed. Mr. Bridgeman
developed a salad of great originality and power; the American
Colonel, filled with thoughts too big for utterance, smiled on society
at large.
By degrees--short and cumulative--acquaintanceship was developing;
familiarity took the place of reserve, and the game of "poker,"
inaugurated by some American experts, enlisted its votaries from
expanding circles, and usurped large sections of the saloon tables,
not only by night, but by day. It is a pity that it takes so long to
bring out or up musical talent at sea, for it is often that sweet
voices are heard warbling, deft fingers wake up the notes of the
piano, and histrionic gifts are made manifest, in unexpected quarters,
only a day or two before the end of the voyage; and just as society
begins to enjoy them it is dispersed for ever as though it were an
exploded shell! We had on board senators and judges, and men of
eminence and women of culture, as we began to find out when we were
about to lose them, and day after day jokes became more
interchangeable and transferable, like the quaint conceits in
"drinks," cocktails, and the like, which were sent round from table to
table by the cognoscenti to their friends. One night there came to me,
at dinner-time, a card with a drawing on it of a gentleman running at
full speed from a suspicion of cavalry in the rear, and underneath
were the words "Russell at Bull Run." There was just room enough on
the card to enable me to draw in front of the figure so described a
pair of legs and part of the body of another fugitive, and writing
below the legs "The last man of the Federal army on that occasion," I
returned it to my American friend, and the burst of laughter which
ensued from the company at the table showed that the _réplique_ had
been appreciated.
And there was a domestic event, soon after our departure, which
excited much interest. A poor woman, who was going out to join her
husband in some distant digging, gave birth to a little girl. Somehow
or other the Auditor became involved in the case, and got up a
subscription for the benefit of the little stranger and its mother,
which compelled him to make many journeys to the steerage, and to make
many acquaintances among the ladies, for which he had a happy knack,
in the interests of charity. A cynical officer of the ship somewhat
damped our benevolence by hinting that "that sort of thing was always
going on," and when he was pressed for information he said that
intending emigrants in the rank of life to which the mother belonged,
frequently deferred their journey to the last moment, when expecting
such events, in anticipation of a subscription from the passengers as
soon as their time had come. Ere we landed the child was baptized in
due form--one of her names being "Gallia"--and a purse of sovereigns
was presented to the grateful mother, who certainly deserved them for
her maternal solicitude and punctuality in such an important
transaction.
And there was a fair face on which we gazed every day with growing
sadness and sympathy. No one knew anything of the story of the
pensive, melancholy girl whose eyes were often suffused with tears,
but we heard that the heavy but not unbenevolent-looking ecclesiastic
in the garb of a Roman Catholic bishop with whom she was travelling
was taking her to America in order to put her into a convent. It was a
prospect which she certainly seemed to regard with grief and despair,
if one might judge from the expression of her sorrowful countenance
and mournful mien. We could pity, and that was all.
Smooth seas and favouring breezes prevailed for the greater part of
our course. Early on the morning of the 25th April land was in sight,
and Sandy Hook was visible right ahead before noon. After breakfast
came that mundane solicitude about baggage, luggage, and the like,
which betokens the end of the voyage. The stewards, always prompt, on
board the "_Gallia_," were almost aggressively attentive as though to
reproach us for going on shore from them so soon.
Outside Sandy Hook we took in a pilot, a grave bearded gentleman in a
black frock coat, tall hat, and satin waistcoat, from one of the
pretty pilot boats, the appearance of which in the distance was
attended with a good deal of anxiety connected with a sum of money in
the lottery, the ownership of which was determined by the figure on
her mainsail. But the news the pilot brought us was startling, and
engrossed every thought for the time. "Lord Beaconsfield is dead!" In
an instant it was known all over the ship. Up to the time of the
"_Gallia_" leaving Queenstown the bulletins had given ground for hope,
indeed almost the assurance, that there was no great reason to fear a
fatal termination to Lord Beaconsfield's illness, and one of us had
received a letter from the best authority, expressing the belief that
the critical period had been passed and that he might be expected to
"pull through all right." The sad intelligence for a while overpowered
all other interests. We had forgotten Europe for eight days, and now
the voice which aroused us announced "Lord Beaconsfield is dead!" The
various objects on the shores we were approaching or passing were for
a time unnoticed. Among our little party were men of different phases
of political feeling, but on one point they were all agreed--that
England had lost a great minister, and the world one of the most
brilliant and original statesmen of the age. Even amongst Americans,
who might not be expected to have much sympathy for the loss of a
statesmen of his Imperial stamp, much regret was expressed for Lord
Beaconsfield's death. "I doubt, sir," said one of them, "if he could
have done it in our country. I guess his novels would have prevented
it, even if he could have got over being a Jew. We cannot run politics
and literature together as you can--that's a fact. The writers who get
places don't amount to much--ministers and consuls, and that sort of
thing, abroad. To succeed they must take to the one line or the
other."
The Health Officer's boat came alongside with friends at the
Quarantine Ground, and Judge Pierrepoint, formerly United States
Minister at the Court of St. James's, boarded the "_Gallia_" to
welcome the Duke of Sutherland, whose guest he had been at Dunrobin
Castle, and to claim the fulfilment of the Duke's promise given in
London to dine with him in New York.
In one sense the attachment of Americans to the land of their birth or
adoption is generally intense; our fellow-passengers gazed on the
shore with delight. "You have before you, sir," said a gentleman
alongside, as I leant over the bulwarks, "the most beautiful bay in
the world!" "The most beautiful bay in the world"! I wonder how many
places there are of that description? Several I know of in Ireland and
in Scotland, some in England, a few in the Mediterranean; and others
there are in Indian and Chinese seas, right away to California, north
and south, and east and west, and in all the isles of the ocean. But,
certainly, the approach to the great city enthroned on the Hudson,
with its wide-stretching arms of river and commingling sea, is very
fine, and, although the scenery around it is not of the very highest
order of beauty, New York is grandly placed.
"Breathes there a man with soul so dead"--
Well! though Sir Walter may have put the thought into very exalted
verse, most of us have felt the sensation he describes, and it does
not require a very remarkable or ancient pedigree among the nations
to cause a country to be beloved of its people. Woman, however, was
occupied at that particular moment on board the "_Gallia_" in devising
means to evade the inquisitorial search of the myrmidons of Uncle
Sam's Custom House, and to reduce the amount of her contributions to
the Imperial Exchequer--for a Republic can be Imperial, I presume--to
the lowest possible figure.
The manners of the Custom House officers were exceedingly bland, and
so were their customs as far as our baggage was concerned, because
they passed it with the greatest readiness on nominal parole, and I
may now declare that there was not in the whole lot a single article
subject to the smallest duty. But there was a fair and charming lady
who was returning with the purchased plunder of, I dare say, the best
milliners and dressmakers in the capitals of Europe, and on these
treasures there would be heavy duty to pay. Feminine sagacity, aided
by masculine depravity, enabled her to achieve a triumph in which most
of the outside accomplices rejoiced exceedingly. "Mrs. A., I see you
have twenty-two packages marked; have you anything to declare?" Mrs.
A. smiled, blushed, and with downcast eyes said, "Yes, sir; I have got
some lace, silk, and other things of the kind in box No. 4." "We will
search box No. 4, if you please, ma'am." The keys were produced, the
articles duly examined and assessed, and the twenty-one unexamined
boxes were marked with the sign of customs emancipation. The box which
was examined contained, as the lady declared subsequently when she got
on shore, the smallest number of articles liable to duty of the whole
number; the others were crammed with them!
I shall not attempt to describe the approaches to New York and the
various objects on shore--the towering Elevators and the antithetical
beauties of the New Jersey hills; the monumental piles of the mammoth
hotels on Coney Island--"where," whispers my American, "from 50,000 to
60,000 people go for dinner every day during the season. Why, if they
spend but 50 cents each, that's £5,000 to £6,000 a day of your money!
Just see!"--but suppose we have worked up the river, and are sidling
in to our berth through the flotillas of the white-sailed coasters and
the huge walking-beam steamers crowded with people, which impress
new-comers perhaps more than any other novelty.