HARRISBURG--NEW YORK--BOSTON--CANADA.
Departure from Washington -- Harper's Ferry -- The State
Capital -- Rats on the Rampage -- Pennsylvania Farming.
Next day (May 5th), at 10 o'clock, we left by the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, sorry we had not more time to enjoy the hospitalities of our
friends, and to see more of the interesting people and scenes with
which we made such a short acquaintance; but, indeed, the number of
attractions presented for the time that we had at our disposal was
quite embarrassing enough, and whilst we were at Washington the party,
broken up in detachments under the care of various friends, lost no
time, but went to racecourses, galleries, and national institutions,
crossed the Potomac to the heights of Arlington, and visited the
cemeteries where tens of thousands of stone memorials, placed, as the
dead men beneath them once stood, in orderly array, attest the
severity of the tremendous conflict in which the first shots were
fired, not very far from the spot, more than twenty years ago. It is
said that there are about 15,000 bodies buried in one enclosure; even
in death the white and the black are divided--the former are buried
near Arlington House, the coloured men's remains lie half a mile or
more away. Another cemetery, containing 5400 soldier's bodies, is near
the Soldiers' Home. These and many other places were visited; but we
must leave Washington at last, and were carried at express speed to
the Shenandoah Junction. We are on our way to Harrisburg. Fortunately
the day is bright and clear, and the sun not too warm, so that we can
enjoy the charming scenery through which the railway passes, and we
are interested in observing that the canal, in spite of the
competition of the iron road, still keeps up navigation, and that
strings of gaily-painted barges with the national flag are passing to
and fro close at hand. The course of the Potomac, to which we now and
then come near, is marked by the wooded heights which once formed the
skirmish-ground of two great armies. It would not have been safe at
one time for a man to have shown his head above the cutting of the
canal, or to have ridden by the river-banks, for in all probability a
Secesh bullet would have found him out or dismounted him, as there was
fighting-ground all about; and the peaceful scene seemed strange to me
when I contrasted it with the sight it presented as I saw it after the
battle in which Senator Baker was killed and many Union men with him,
and great gloom reigned at Washington--when General McClennan led all
the troops that could be spared, who were pouring out in a long column
on this road, and the country-side was alive with armed men in order
to counteract the menaced invasion of Maryland. At the Shenandoah
Junction, six miles west of Harper's Ferry, we halted for a while. It
seemed to me as if it had not quite recovered from the ravages of war,
and Harper's Ferry appeared as if the storm of battle that had passed
over it--taken and retaken as it was so many times--had left an
indelible mark of wreck and ruin about it. Nothing, however, can
destroy the charm of the scenery of the beautiful valley in which the
Potomac and the Shenandoah meet. We got out on the platform and walked
a little way to look at the ruin of the Arsenal which was occupied by
John Brown when he led his forlorn hope, "shouting the battle-cry of
freedom," little deeming that the hills and valleys would re-echo with
the hymn-song which so often heralded the Federal soldiers on their
march to battle, to defeat or victory.
As we stood on the bridge surveying the scene, a decrepit and not very
cleanly-looking old man, who was regaling himself with a use of
tobacco of which the issues were visible around him, came up to have a
look at the strangers. He knew every inch of the place; had been here
all during the war. Sometimes the Secesh had it, and then the
Federalists would drive them out; then the Confeds would take it, and
so on. "There was pretty considerable fighting all round. See them
hills? That one there had a Federal fort on top of it; that other one
the Confeds used to hold." Why, he remembered old John Brown's scare
as if it was yesterday. "Yes, sir! But they hanged him pretty smart!
He and his people could make no fight of it when Uncle Sam's reg'lars
came up." And in front of us were the walls of the burned armoury of
the Government, and the name of the United States officer in command
still visible over the doorway--the gaunt ruin, roofless, windowless,
of a time which seemed so remote and which was not a generation gone
by.
After our short stay there we went on to Hagerstown, where Colonel
Kennedy, the President, and Judge Watts, one of the Directors, of the
Cumberland Valley Railroad, joined us, after a divergence to the
junction of the two rivers to get a sight of the country.
The Cumberland Valley is one of the most fruitful tracts in the United
States. It presented in its substantial farmhouses, clean well-tilled
fields and kempt fences, strong contrast to the untidy-looking farms
in Maryland and Virginia on the road to Richmond; we heard that the
soil had somewhat suffered from incessant cropping, and that the
competition of the Western States is causing the cultivation of corn
to be neglected. The towns appeared to be numerous and thriving, and
the people well-to-do. It had been arranged that we should pay a visit
on our way to a very interesting establishment, as it proved, at Fort
Carlisle, and I give elsewhere a detailed account of what we saw in
connection with a subject which appears to me to be of great, if
somewhat sentimental, interest--the condition and future of the Indian
race. The Duke's address to the Red children seemed to give them
great satisfaction, and he said with truth that nothing we had seen
since we had arrived in the United States interested us so much as the
establishment where they were the objects of a philanthropic
experiment, to which every one all over the world will, I am sure,
wish success.
It was evening when the train reached the end of our day's journey,
and the party drove in a shower of rain to their quarters at the
hotel.
Harrisburg has apparently seen its best days without having ever
witnessed very good ones, but our means of judging were meagre indeed.
The weather was bad, and our visit was very brief. It must be
understood that I write of places as I see or find them, and the
contrast between Philadelphia and the capital of the State of
Pennsylvania, as we beheld it in the drive from the station to our
hotel, was very marked in favour of the former. The shops in the main
street belonged to the old country rather than to the new, and there
was an aspect of "want of flourishing," as a friend said, which was
not in keeping with the surroundings. And yet when John Harris, after
his rescue from the Indians who were about to torture him and did not,
though they did not foresee that they were about to be disposed of
without torture, founded the city, less than a hundred years ago, on
the banks of the Susquehanna, he had a very fine eye for a situation,
and had fair grounds for thinking he had done a very good thing. But
why was it made the State capital in 1812? Surely Philadelphia even
then deserved the honour. We were told we should have put up at the
Lochiel House (something to do with Simon Cameron who lives here, I
suppose), but we did not, and that which was selected for the party
was not of the first or second class. The sewers of the city were
open, or only partially covered. The rats which played about in view
of our sitting-room window were of a size of which Harrisburg may be
justly proud, and I observed from the windows of the hotel many fine
animals come up to take the air and see what was going on, with the
style of well-to-do citizens, meaning no harm and fearing none. They
were, perhaps, a little too numerous for the comfort of nervous
people, though I will not aver that there is not plenty for them to
do. The market-place across the way was ancient and dilapidated, or,
as it was of wood, delignified.
It was not till a year before the Civil War Harrisburg received a
charter, and at the moment of our visit the population did not number
80,000. A State House and Library, a State Arsenal, a State Lunatic
Asylum, a County Prison, Opera houses, Masonic Hall, churches, Harris
Park and Cemetery, and great ironworks, all unvisited, but duly
enumerated by citizens zealous of the honour of their city, haunted
conscientious tourists as things which ought to be seen, but they were
not in the programme--we could not find them in the bond--and so they
were taken for granted; not so the substantial interviews which had to
be attended to, and the arrangements for visiting the Baldwin Iron
and Steel Works, and Colonel Long's farm at Middleton, which were to
be taken on our way to New York.
On the 6th we left Harrisburg, at 9 o'clock in the morning, for New
York, visiting the famous Iron Works on our way, and halting at
Middleton to inspect the farm of Colonel Long, which is one of the
sights of the country, and which all the agriculturalists of the party
declared was an exceedingly well-managed display of agricultural
skill; an admirable exhibition of what may be done in the States to
emulate the best establishments of the old country. The produce of the
farm was pronounced to be excellent, the fields clean and well
apportioned, beautiful pasture for stock, and fine arable for various
crops, but the result of conversation with Colonel Long led some of
the party to the conclusion that a farmer with good land in England
can, at present prices, hold his own with any farmer in the Eastern
States. The most interesting fact connected with the investigation was
the discovery that the cultivation of tobacco is making great way in
Pennsylvania, and that wheat has been abundant in consequence of the
impossibility of competing with the West. Heavy manuring is requisite;
nevertheless large tracts of Pennsylvania are passing under
cultivation for tobacco-growing, and are stated to produce a weed
almost equal to the best Maryland or Virginia.
But the coal and iron and the manufactures of this favoured region
must ensure it a long continuance of the extraordinary prosperity
which was visible on all sides, if the asses in their fatness do not
kick over the traces. For many miles of the country over which we
travelled yesterday the storm of war had rolled heavily, and every
town near at hand had some record of suffering or lucky escape from
Lee's invading host. The Confederates had come within six miles of
Harrisburg. Martinsburg, Frederic--in fact, every town near at hand
had felt the hand of the South at its throat, till at Gettysburg the
blow was struck which paralysed it for ever. At Carlisle one of our
friends mentioned incidentally that his house had been "shelled by
that confounded Fitzhugh Lee"--our travelling companion of a few days
before. There were strong expressions uttered by others concerning the
partition of Virginia and the State debt, but these were mysteries to
us, and all we could see was that, in spite of past sufferings, there
was now a vigorous, healthy, wealthy life in the land, of which the
signs and tokens were visible as far as the eye could reach in our
long day's travel. Our railway directors studied maps and asked
questions and made notes indefatigably, and they no doubt comprehended
the connections and arms of the railroads which were spread over the
country--a mighty range, and all _with_ a plan--but I cannot pretend
to share any of their knowledge, and can only say that we had a very
pleasant, if somewhat warm, journey to New York, which we reached at
4.30 o'clock. Here we found a new wonder awaiting us in the aspect of
the Falls River boat, on which we embarked for Boston at one of the
piers on the North River. It was the happy idea of Mr. Crosfield that
we ought to leave the iron road for a few hours and take to the
water, and for it and much besides the members of the party were
indebted to him. The service of the steamboat line is admirable. To
begin with, the steamers (of which there are two, the "_Bristol_" and
"_Providence_") are floating palaces for King Populus, of such vast
dimensions that we could scarcely "take in" all at once that in which
we were to make our voyage as it lay at the pier; its bright white
side towering far above the roof of the wharf shed, with tiers of
windows lighted up as if _en fête_, like an old three-decker at the
least. Our surprise did not diminish when we got on board and found
ourselves in a vast sort of gilt and painted courtyard, surrounded by
galleries with many hundreds of passengers--a band playing, electric
lights, a book-stall, newspapers, a restaurant, hairdresser's
establishment, boot-cleaning corner, bar and liquor saloon, hot baths,
cold baths--I should not like to say what that marine monster did
_not_ contain. There were waiters in neat, clean dresses, in swarms,
and clerks and officers of the service in much gold lace and brass
buttons--formidable as admirals, and civil as dancing-masters. The
sleeping-saloons were perfectly arranged; and when the dinner or
supper bell rang, and the streams of people were set in motion, it was
if some small city was on the tramp. The great creature was moving! Up
went the vast walking-beam on high, with the polished piston smoothly
gliding from its case, and then, trembling in every airy plank to the
beat of the mighty paddles, the steamer backed off into the stream,
and with that indescribable tumult of creaks, squeaks, rattles and
clatters, which may be taken as the breathing of this sort of thing,
set off on its way rejoicing as a giant to run its course, and far
better able to do it. There was light enough for us to see the city of
New York, and the forest of steeples and towers above the serried
lines of illimitable roofs, the fringe of masts and chimneys on one
side, and the interesting islands where the Law, Medicine, and Charity
have their palaces--Penitentiaries, Hospitals, Asylums, Nurseries,
Refuges--and where Crime, Smallpox, Typhus, Idiotcy, and incurable
Disease hold their separate courts in granite cells, and the Brooklyn
shore, as the steamer threaded her way through the ruck of tugs,
flats, coasters, ferry-boats, and steamers, big and little, to the
great boil of waters well-named Hell Gate, in Long Island Sound--a
veritable Maelstrom, which the engineers are blasting, boring, and
blowing up and down as hard as they can. As we bore down the adverse
fury of the swirling tideway with our irresistible wheels, the mighty
vessel trembled with the strain, but we prevailed, and went through
the Gate past the dredges, which were shovelling up the rocks from the
bottom, and had time to enjoy the scenery of Long Island glorified by
a fine sunset, ere darkness shut out all but the lights on shore, and
those which marked out what to seek and avoid for the toiler on the
seas. The course of the steamer for the greater part of the night lay
in tranquil waters, for Long Island was on our right, and on our left
was the shore of Connecticut; but after midnight I awoke, and had no
doubt as to what the wild waves were saying, and looking out of my
window saw a confused sea, to the lively forces of which our steamer
was making unmistakable submission. A less confidence-inspiring craft
for rough weather than our palace I thought I never had been in, and I
was not dissatisfied when the trial of her powers was at an end, and
the tyranny of the seas was overpast as we approached Newport and got
under the shelter of Martha's Vineyard at some early hour in the
morning. Says I to a nautical gentleman on the staff of the noble
ship, "Would she cross the Atlantic, do you think?" "Certainly," quoth
he, "if it wasn't bad weather." "Well! but how would she do in a
gale?" "It would just be as well not to try, but if we could keep her
head right to it there would not be much harm--no forcing, though--no,
sir!" At Newport there was a great exodus of passengers and baggage
about 3 o'clock, and some two hours later the steamer, passing up
Narraganset Bay, arrived at Fall River, where we landed, and took our
places in a train of the Old Colony Railroad for Boston. Fall River,
which one might take to be a cascading stream, turned out to be an
enormous manufacturing town of some 50,000 people, all factories,
chimneys, and storehouses, and what we saw of Massachusetts as we ran
through it gave us a higher idea of its commercial activity and
manufacturing industry than of its natural advantages. I cannot say
how many towns of note we skirted or ran through in our two hours'
journey--glimpses of magazines, stores, warehouses, smoke-stacks,
staring placards at intervals here and there, were all we knew of
them; but the land did not seem rich nor the scenery attractive, and
yet there are good crops to be had, and fruit is abundant and
excellent. There is a long hard winter and an ardent summer here, and
some of the weaker vessels among the Pilgrim Fathers (and mothers)
must have often wished themselves back in the clammy East Countree on
the German Ocean, or in their foster-mother Holland, when, like so
many Calibans (for conscience' sake), they were persecuted by Indians,
Witches, Quakers, and the climate, in the days before they were strong
enough to persecute in their turn, and so reconcile themselves to
atmospheric vicissitudes. Among our fellow-passengers in the
"_Gallia_" was Mr. Washburn, ex-Governor of the State, and one of a
very eminent band of brothers who have risen to deserved distinction
in America, and to his kind offices were the Duke of Sutherland and
his friends indebted for the graceful _empressement_ of the leading
men of Boston to do the honours of their city. On our arrival at the
terminus we found every preparation had been made for our reception,
and several gentlemen were in attendance to meet the Duke on the
platform. Well-appointed carriages whirled the party off to one of the
finest hotels in the world--"The Brunswick"--and not only that, but
one of the most comfortable. How these old names hold! It is a long
time since "Braunschweig" had aught to do with the "old Colony"--some
time since the House of Hanover (from which we parted company in 1866)
has had any relation to Massachusetts. There may be some good reason
for the appellation of our excellent hostelry--it is quite enough to
say it could not be sweeter or neater with any other name, and it made
us reflect with some feelings of humiliation on the sort of
accommodation an American would find in a large town in England till
the recent improvements in the establishments which have chiefly
sprung out of the enterprises of the great railways. The British
colours floated above the building beside the Stars and Stripes--a
compliment which was very much appreciated; and the good Bostonians
allowed us fair time for breakfast and a little unpacking and settling
down before they came to take the party in charge and show them over
their noble city. Mr. Rice, formerly Governor of the State, Mr. Fitz,
President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Beard, Collector of the Port,
Alderman O'Brien, came as a committee to tender us all the civilities,
and many more than we could accept, and had a programme, which even
their kindness could not render of easy accomplishment, for the
disposal of our time. First there was a long drive through the
principal quarters of the town--innumerable phoenixes in marble,
granite, iron, and brick, reared out of the ashes of the Great Fire
nine years ago--Sears, Brewer, Franklin, Rialto, Cathedral and other
Buildings, and monumental insurance offices and stores. Then there is
a stately quarter built on land where was once water--on an artificial
foundation made by filling up part of a shallow arm of the harbour
called Back Bay. One peculiarity about the city is the localisation of
trades and professions. If I had not seen their names on the brightest
brass plates in the clearest of engraving, I could not have believed
there were so many doctors and surgeons in any one city in the world.
Surely they must practise on one another? They were in rows up and
down long streets. And yet the citizens and citizenesses did not look
unhealthy--rather otherwise--and the younger people mounted on street
skates were portentously active on the pavements--pretty well-dressed
little ladies doing the _pas des patineurs_ with all their might, and
sweeping resistlessly over the flags on their way from school. I am
not going to describe Boston. There is a refrain in my ears, "All this
was built since the fire!" I can only say the fire was a great
regenerator. I could understand why Boston people are proud of their
work, and I could look up at Bunker Hill without any sense of shame,
as I beheld such a wonderful display of energy and progress in the
fair city, with its monuments, statues, parks, public buildings,
churches, and on the sea furrowed by keels and studded with sunny
canvas. We were taken out on that same sea. The Collector, Mr. Beard,
one of the most courteous of men, had the Government Revenue Cruiser
prepared for a cruise in the harbour, and we examined the Navy Yard,
the wharves, and the extension works, the forts, &c., with an interest
which was enhanced by the intelligent explanations of our guides,
varied with little discussions about Free Trade and Protection, the
future of Boston, projected improvements, and general conversation,
till it was time to return to land and finish with an inspection of
more "objects" on shore. And then, to end the work of the day, there
was an "informal dinner" at the Brunswick, to which the Duke and his
friends were bidden without yea or nay--"it was quite informal." I
presume that means, in Boston, an elaborate banquet. We were told,
however, that it merely meant that we were to dress as we pleased, and
that there were to be no set speeches. Alderman O'Brien presided;
Governor Rice, Mr. Beard, Mr. Choate, President of the Old Colony
Railroad, Genl. Wilson, President of the New York and North-Eastern
Railroad, Mr. E. C. Fitz, Mr. Sears, Mr. Spaulding, Mr. Phillips,
Aldermen Whitten, Haldemann, Slade, Curtis, Frost, Caldwell, &c., were
our hosts, and our party was sandwiched pleasantly between our
American friends--all _point de vice_--evening dress--flowers in
buttonholes, flowers on the table, but "no formality." And then, just
by way of an exception, Alderman O'Brien to do honour to the occasion,
with a facility which showed that he had not lost the _potestas
loquendi_ attributed to his race, made an "informal" speech in
proposing "informally" the health of the Duke, who made an informal
reply, and from that time till the company broke up, towards midnight,
there was a succession of toasts, speeches, speeches and toasts, till
every man had had his turn at one and the other, and informality could
do no more with a very pleasant evening. There was a good deal of
railway talk, in which prophecy was not neglected. It so happened that
among the guests or hosts was a gentleman whom I had met at the St.
Patrick's dinner, New York, in 1861, and we had an agreeable
conversation respecting the events of that time. I could not help
thinking how very much changed was the tone in which slavery was
discussed then from that in which it is now mentioned. On that
occasion the American gentleman (one of the first men in New York, and
by no means Irish except in name and descent) inveighed against Boston
with something like ferocity. He declared that Mr. George Thompson,
who had lectured on slavery long ago, was the most diabolical
scoundrel who ever trod the earth, that the people of Boston ought to
have hanged or burned him and Garrison and his accomplices in 1835, as
the authors of the fearful war which was inevitable--the sure
precursor of the disruption of the Union--for which Boston,
represented by Mr. Sumner, was responsible, and he indignantly
denounced the Bostonians--they who had fattened on the slave-trade and
on the South--for their anti-slavery proclivities. There are not many
who hold such opinions now. Bristol and Liverpool forget they ever
made money out of "black ivory," and Boston has an equal right to take
its share of the waters of Lethe. And so to bed.
_May 8th._--By the kindness of Mr. Sears, seats were obtained for the
whole party at the morning service in Trinity Church, a vast and
highly ornate structure, of fine proportions externally, alight with
gilding, profuse in mosaic, lavish in stained glass, and exquisite
woodwork inside; a very noble temple, in good truth, if somewhat
theatrical in effect, Romish, or more correctly Byzantine, producing
the same sort of feeling that a Russian or Greek Church does on
strangers not to the manner born; but still grand, rich, and
luxurious. And the congregation, which filled every part of the sacred
edifice, was suitable unto it. It was obviously composed of the great
ones of the city--the cream of the Episcopalian flock--satined,
silked, fine feathered, Paris bonneted, sleek hatted, glisteningly
black, delicately perfumed--a very goodly company. The musical part of
the service was evidently what might be called a feature of the
attractions, though they be considered to culminate in the person of
the pastor of the fold. The organ, an instrument of extraordinary
size, power, and richness, was moved by skilful fingers to interpret
passages which led one to imagine that the selector had acted on John
Wesley's advice, "not to let the Evil one have all the good music to
himself," and that he had invaded the repertoires of secular enjoyment
in that way, and the choir delivered psalm and hymn with an artistic
finish which at once gave rise to suspicions that it was not "wild
warbling nature all beyond the reach of art." "Professional," I asked
on a proper opportunity; "is it not?" "Not all; the tenor and the bass
are, I think, and one or two others, perhaps." Well, the harmony was
full and fine, and I preferred it to the unassisted efforts in that
matter of rural religionists. It is mainly to the impetus of the
personal character of the Rev. Phillips Brooks that the erection of
this magnificent edifice and the maintenance of the service in such
Christian state are due. The Book of Common Prayer was used with
trifling variations--some small sacrifices to prudery or decency, or
whatever words you will array them in; but to me the most interesting
portion of the service was the part in it of the pastor--a man of
great corpulence and stature, with a massive head cast in a mould to
match, and features with a resemblance to those of Sydney Smith, or
perhaps more nearly those of Charles James Fox. He was attired in
black silk gown and bands, but did not, I think, show any academic
badge. The sermon, which had for its text "Bow down the heavens, O
Lord! touch the mountains, and they shall smoke!" delivered with
extraordinary rapidity--sometimes, in fact, approaching to the verge
of jumble--flowed on in a stream of language, often beautiful and
occasionally grand, with a great clatter of metaphor, and a rolling
noise of poetical images of a very pleasing character, for a long
half-hour or more, without causing any desire for the preacher to
desist; and indeed the ingenuity with which he illustrated and dragged
in his unpromising text occasioned a series of intellectual shocks.
The influence of Mr. Brooks must be, I think, as beneficial as it is
powerful, and he has at all events given the world a splendid
demonstration of what can be done by the voluntary principle in a
wealthy democracy. It was not to his detriment, in the eyes of his
stern Republican flock, that, on the occasion of a recent visit to
Europe, he was received with favour in high places; or that "Your
Queen Victoria had him to stay with her at Windsor Palace."
I was doomed to a great disappointment to-day after our return from
church. A little excursion had been planned for the party by Mr. Sears
to visit Harvard University and a pilgrimage to Longfellow, at
Cambridge, and I was up in my room waiting for a summons to join the
party, when it was said by some one he believed I had gone out, or
would not go, and so they drove out without me, and I "was left
lamenting." Had I been a revengeful person, I might have taken
pleasure in the thought that they had an utterly abominable drive, for
there was a bitter wind and clouds of the finest and most choking
dust, but I was very sorry indeed. The "old man eloquent" was
delighted to welcome the Duke, whom, as a boy, he remembered well at
the time of his lengthened visit to England, when he was a frequent
and honoured guest at Stafford House, where he was held in great
esteem by the gracious lady who presided. He was courteous to all the
other visitors; but they did not place a heavy tax on his patience,
for they had to go over Harvard, where they were received by some of
the authorities and conducted over the University, and then the
inevitable drive through the city had to be accomplished. As for me,
despite the dust and wind, I walked through some of the staid,
discreet, and sombre streets and squares of opulent merchantdom, all
very quiet and decorous, with fair faces at the windows, and groups of
prettily dressed children in the balconies, and went to the Somerset
Club and to the Union Club, which had extended their courtesies to the
strangers, and left cards. I had the fortune to foregather for a while
with Mr. L. Curtis, an old acquaintance of the time of the Prussian
occupation of Versailles, when his venerable father--a veteran of the
United States navy--and family, were caught there by the flood of
invaders, as they were about to escape from Paris. We had an early
dinner, and then had to prepare for another flitting, about which some
of us were much exercised, for it was to take us back to New York
again! I must confess to a sense of shame at such a hurried visit to
the "hubbiest" of American cities. The excuse was, that there was an
imperious desire on the part of our directors to see the Hudson River
Line, and Albany, the capital of the State of New York, and so at 10
P.M. we were "all on board" and rattling in a Wagner palace-car over
rather a rough line down South; needless to say, we did not see much
of the country, though it was not easy to sleep, owing to the
jumpiness of the carriages.
_May 9th._--Next morning before 6 o'clock, after a journey of 230
miles, we were delivered on the platform of the station in New York.
All our roads lead to it apparently! We walked through the silent
streets to Sherwood House, in Fifth Avenue, where a welcome and
excellent breakfast had been ordered. The arrangements, the air, and
the perfect repose of the place produced a most agreeable impression.
The landlord informed us that it was almost exclusively frequented as
a family hotel, and that when the New York season was over he closed
his doors, shut up his windows, and went off for his holiday. At 9.30
A.M. we were on our way to Albany accompanied by Mr. Vanderbilt,
junior, and several of the directors of the New York Central and
Hudson River Railroad Company. Americans are justly proud of the
Hudson; it delights the eye of every traveller, and in some respects,
particularly in the beauty of the autumn foliage, it excels the most
famous rivers of Europe. All the more ought they to wage war against
the disgusting outrages on the face of nature which are permitted to
disfigure its banks. The very stones prate of the whereabouts of some
loathsome quack or some ludicrous nostrum, and aggravating repetitions
of the same names and specifics, painted in staring colours, mile
after mile, force the philanthropic traveller to sigh for a measure of
dynamite, and to thirst for the ruin of the miscreants who so disturb
his peace. The Hudson river-side close to the capital is not very
inviting; the works of the Elevated Railway, which is preparing for a
tremendous spring over its Harlem tributary, do not appeal to one's
sense of the beautiful; and a squatter population in what one of my
friends called "very squattery shanties" does not prepare the
traveller for the long stretch of _maisons de plaisance_, country
houses, airy villages, and flourishing townlets which greet his eye as
the train speeds in close to the edge of the left, or east, bank. The
sheer, precipitous downfall of rock, at the opposite side, called the
Palisades, soon comes in view. It may be dimly thought out that the
appearance of the trap rock, which is ranged in perpendicular columns,
suggested the name. The formation continues for nearly twenty miles,
at an elevation of from 200 to 300 feet, and the summit is fringed
with trees. Needless to say, with such a city as New York below, and
with densely populated banks above, the broad sweeps of the beautiful
Hudson displayed an infinity of navigating craft--steamers, ships,
trim coasters, fishing-boats, net-poles and buoys near the banks
marked the haunts of the much-prized and inexhaustible shad.
There is much of the interest of American history connected with the
Hudson, and there is the wider interest of all English-speaking races
attached to it by the associations with the scenery of Washington
Irving and his charming creations. An Englishman can forgive the death
of André for the sake of Sunnyside and Tarrytown. We pass the Convent
of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, who would have been roused out
pretty quickly by the Pilgrim Fathers and their children--the wide
expanse of the Tappan Zee, where Henry Hudson's galliots found great
comfort and much astonished the Red-man--"Sing Sing"; the vast state
prison, connected in my mind with a joke, too good to be lost, of the
time of the (United States) civil war. It was made _à propos_ of a
certain Prince of Salm-Salm, who came to offer his sword to the
Federal Government at Washington. His title puzzled Mr. Seward.
"Psalm-Psalm!" he exclaimed. "Where on earth does _he_ come from, I
wonder." "Very probably from 'Sing Sing,'" replied the person whom he
addressed. But the gallant German Prince, it needs not to be said, was
a soldier of unblemished name and honour.
The Croton Aqueduct, at the other side, which supplies New York, forty
miles away, with water, commences at the lake some miles higher up
than the station, and we were obliged to hear that the quality of its
water was not strained, and that it needed boiling; but that may be a
calumny, and I do not think any of us made even one trial to disprove
the fact. The scenery beyond Peekskill, at the stretch of river called
the Highlands, made me make a mental vow, which will, I fear, never be
kept, that I would return and vegetate in one of the hotels of which
we caught glimpses in the trees on the slopes of the mountains, which
in grand and varied outlines tower over the stream.
Probably since its creation, in no two hundred and seventy years which
have rolled over the world has a greater change been effected in the
condition of a country than that which has taken place on the banks of
the Hudson since the intrepid and unfortunate Englishman from whom it
derives its name explored its waters and anchored opposite Pigskill.
"This is a very good land to fall in with, a pleasant land to see," he
says, under the date of September 2nd, 1609, "the waters abound with
salmons, mullets and rayes, very great. The people of the country came
aboard of us, seeming very glad of our coming, and brought green
tobacco and gave us of it for knives and beads. They go in loose
deer-skins, well dressed, and mantles of feathers, skins and divers
sort of good furs. They have yellow copper, and use red copper tobacco
pipes." And when his men landed he says they found "great store of
men, women and children, and good oysters, grapes and pumpkins, beaver
and other skins." Then out of the grossness of the time and of the
race the Whites wrought the great wrong which, ever continuing, has
marked the course of civilisation on their side and of degradation on
that of the Red men. Captain Waymouth, who had been on the coast four
or five years before, kidnapped natives as a matter of course.
Verazzano, the Italian, who really discovered the Hudson eighty-five
years before "Hendrick" entered it, had also kidnapped natives, but
Hudson's men made them drunk, and the memory of the carouse is still
perpetuated, they say, in the word Manhattan.[7] On the shores of this
river, now so populous with many towns and villages and joyous country
seats, there is not a trace of the Red man, and at West Point there is
the great Military Academy for the education of officers whose
principal military service will probably consist in the extermination
of the few Red men left within the borders of the Great Republic,
thousands of miles to the west.
There was but a glimpse of West Point as the train flew past. Places
less known to fame, or to us, were seen and carried off down the river
ere we could well learn their names and the number of the population;
but Newburgh fixed itself on my notes, and Poughkeepsie on my memory;
for I saw on the platform of the last-named station the wisest-looking
woman I ever beheld. I was informed she was a famous Professor at
Vassar College, where young ladies are fitted to be the mothers of
heroes by a long course of study--a prodigy of learning, and
especially versed in dangerous isms and ologies--so men told me. She
had curls, steel-like and lustrous, "an eye like Mars to threaten and
command," scarce adumbrated by the light-blue glasses of a pair of
spectacles, a Roman nose, and straight-cut lips, and wore a severely
classical garment which seemed to have been cut out of Minerva's
peplum, and as she moved I expected to hear the clatter of armour
beneath her surcoat of lutestring. And yet she was single!
But there is Albany at last--Queen of the Hudson--gazing up admiringly
on its crowning glory, the Capitol, and there we prepare to descend,
as we are expected to get out for a short visit. Governor Cornell and
some of the State and Municipal authorities were waiting on the
platform to receive the Duke of Sutherland, and carriages were drawn
up outside for the party, in which we were speedily whisked through
the streets of the ancient Capital of the State of New York, up to its
principal pride and ornament. We were led by Governor Cornell over the
Capitol, containing within its walls all the departments and offices
of state, executive and administrative, of the State of New York. I
was, I confess, struck with astonishment at the enormous size, the
vast pretensions, and the profuse expenditure evinced by the work on
the unfinished building, which must be more regarded as a monument of
liberal outlay than as an exhibition of perfect taste. I was not,
however, filled with the burning indignation which animates the
diatribes of a recent writer in the 'North American Review.' "Every
patriotic son of the Empire State," says the reviewer, "should go on
an expiatory pilgrimage, and pass penitential hours in gazing upon the
immeasurable iniquities of the Capitol. Whenever I have the pleasure
of strolling about beautiful Albany, I am drawn to that accursed and
shameful heap of spoil as irresistibly as a floating spar is drawn to
a dirty iceberg. Two millions were shot into the cellar, and its
ultimate cost can only be conjectured. The mere interest of the money
wasted on this unspeakable pile of stone, which it will require two
thousand tons of coal a year to keep warm, would give the city of New
York clean streets for ever." Still, it is grandiose in its way, rich
in decoration, and will probably be commodious.
The State Capital has for some time been rather notorious in the
matter of corruption. Let me not be misunderstood. I do not aver that
the bankers, gentry, merchants, and people of New York State _en bloc_
are corrupt. But it is quite certain that there has been for years
established a caucus of wire-pullers at Albany, who influence or
profess to influence the votes of the legislature or members of the
legislature by the use of money. The community of the Empire City, at
the time of our visit, was distracted by the contentions of rival
parties, which it would be almost impious in me to attempt to analyse,
but as far as we could judge from the accounts in the papers the newly
elected mayor, Mr. Grace, a young Irishman who had acquired a
considerable fortune in South America, was conducting an arduous
investigation into abuses in the matter of street cleaning, police
work, and public contracts generally, which had grown up under his
predecessors, from which good results were expected by one set of
critics, and nothing but evil by an opposite party. "The Augean
stable," shouted some, "was to be cleansed out thoroughly." "This,"
said others, "is but a desperate rush of a new set of people on the
public purse." Above these cries was to be heard the muttering of the
thunderstorm which was so soon to burst over the whole of the
Union--the great Roscoe Conkling and Platt controversy.
The train had travelled over the 143 miles of rail at a rate of 35
miles an hour, and we had yet a long way to go before we reached
Montreal, and so we were obliged to return to the station, where
Governor Cornell, and the courteous gentlemen who had assisted him in
entertaining the visitors, took their leave, and at 2.30 our journey
was resumed towards the Canadian frontier. The pleasure with which we
might have gazed on the delightful scenery through which the railroad
runs, skirting Lake Champlain, and the interest we felt in the scenes
which Cooper's novels had made familiar, were marred by the sultry
heat. We were in a furnace--a heat-wave in which we were like to
drown. The air was thunderous, but the thunder came not. "Pity 'tis,
and pity 'tis 'tis true" that in such a condition of body no scenery
can wean a man from the contemplation of his suffering--for "who can
bear a fire in his hand by thinking of the frosty Caucasus?"--or
looking at the green mountains of Vermont, or the slopes of the
Adirondacks? I was not treated with even moderate civility when I
tried to get up a little enthusiasm about Fort Ticonderaga, and the
name of Plattsburg produced no impression on the perspiring pilgrims;
but, truth to tell, perhaps there were few among us who had ever heard
of Sir G. Prevost's defeat, and of the signal victory of the
Americans; for, as a rule, we are not accurately instructed in the
history of our reverses. And yet the region around was almost as rich
in historic memories of the great struggle between the French and the
English, and their Continental auxiliaries--between French Indians and
English Indians--between the English and the Americans in the two
wars--as it was in natural beauty. But we did wake up a little, for
the approach of evening had wasted the sultry fires of the day, when,
shortly after leaving Rouse's Point, we heard a ringing cheer, and an
attempt at "God Save the Queen," and, looking out, saw a small crowd,
and two British ensigns waving welcome. We were in the Dominion of
Canada.
FOOTNOTE:
[7] "Where they got drunk."