TO THE WEST.
Buffalo -- Cleveland -- Magnificent Muldoon -- Euclid
Avenue -- Toledo -- Detroit -- Chicago -- Jefferson Davis
-- A Terrible Moment -- Pullman -- Milwaukee -- St. Paul
-- Minneapolis -- Le Mars -- Sioux City -- Kansas City --
The Parting.
Although there is now only one attendant with the party--the
omniscient Edward--the baggage-master does his work so well, the
conductor of the train is so active, and the service so perfect, that
there is never any hitch about luggage arriving or leaving. Every one
is sure to find his property in his room, and to find it at the
station in time.
The line of the New York Central Railroad was in very good order, and
our special, preceded by the "Pony" engine of Mr. Burrows, the
Superintendent of the Division, on which the Duke, Lady Green, and I
travelled for a time, arrived at Buffalo at half-past 12 o'clock.
Between Magna and a station named Tonawanda, I think, which is more
than eleven miles, the "Pony" trotted us over the line in ten minutes.
I cannot do justice to the kindness of all the gentlemen, representing
the New York Central and Hudson Railway, and the Lake Shore and
Michigan Railway, who accompanied us, because I do not recollect
their names; but they were so anxious that we should see everything
they considered worthy of notice, that no sooner had the train arrived
at the Buffalo station than we were driven off in four carriages,
under the control of Mr. Caldwell, who was described as General
Manager of the Red River Transportation Company, to visit the streets,
avenues, and manufactories, which are the main attractions, and could
do no more than look at the lunch which was laid out for us in the
Central Dining Rooms. I say "us"; but I am bound to admit that the
charms of Buffalo did not tempt some of the party to go out. A stove
factory exhibited so many excellent contrivances, that the Duke gave
an order for some of the sort we saw at Clifton House, which rejoice,
as I have said, in the name of "Crowning Glory," and other members of
the party followed his example. The Roscoe, Conkling and Platt storm
was now raging furiously. One would have thought the Union was in the
death-throes. Wherever men met it was the main topic of conversation,
the papers teemed with articles and telegrams, and we were constantly
asked what we thought about it, and we as constantly declined to say
we thought at all. Whilst Mr. Bickersteth and I sat reading the papers
in the palace car, awaiting the Duke, a smart lad came in on us _sans
cérémonie_, and introduced himself as the representative of a Buffalo
paper. He hungered exceedingly for the Duke, but meantime fell upon
us; and next day I was astonished to find I had declared "Roscoe was
undoubtedly a statesman, but he had gone beyond his boundary." Poor
Mr. Bickersteth fared worse, for he was accused of want of "respect
for American reporters," as the following report of the conversation
with him will show:
_Reporter._--"Mr. Bickersteth, will you please give me your full name
and special title?"
_Mr. B._--"I do not know that I am obliged to."
_Reporter._--"Of course not. Just as you feel about it."
_Mr. B._--"Well" (putting a third eye on the interrogator), "you
American reporters are devilishly fresh, you know." (Buffalo paper.)
Our friends escaped the inquisitor. At 3 o'clock they returned to the
Buffalo station, and we continued our career by the Lake Shore Railway
to Cleveland. A new set of acquaintances, guardians, officials, and
friends in the form of directors, railway engineers, and local
authorities accompanied the Duke. Dinner was served in one of the
carriages as we travelled. The little side-tables between the centre
thoroughfare accommodate two persons very comfortably, and the manner
in which the coloured waiters attended was irreproachable.
At 6 o'clock we reached Cleveland, and the Duke and his party were
undignified enough to walk to Kennard House, instead of taking the
carriages which were in readiness for us. One disadvantage of dining
in the train was experienced when we arrived at the hotel. There was
nothing to do; so the Duke and I took a stroll down the main street,
and were surprised to find one side of it lighted by electricity, and
to see several large shops illuminated on the Brush system in the same
way. On our return to the hotel, a gentleman in the hall suggested
that we should go and see an exhibition of sparring by "Muldoon--the
most magnificent specimen of humanity ever born of woman!" and not
wishing to lose such a chance, and animated moreover by the promise
that we should see Muldoon go through his famous performances as a
"Classical Athlete," we set out under the guidance of a coloured
domestic of the hotel to the scene of these enjoyments, the rooms of a
gymnasium, which proved to be up a long flight of stairs, in a dingy
house, in a back street. Our dark guide, who was sent in advance to
secure places, met us on the steps with the news that "Muldoon" had
gone, but that we might see the gymnasium if we pleased. Without our
"Classical Athlete" there was no attraction for us, and we turned to
go home; but, passing by the entrance to a building with an
illuminated announcement that it was the "Theatre Comique," and
assured by our _valet de place_ that it was "a very nice place," we
turned in, passed a bar, paid fifty cents, or two shillings, for a
private box, and were conducted over a shaky floor behind the scenes
to our _loge_, from which we surveyed such an audience as one might
find in a "penny gaff" nearer home. Our attendant, on leaving, advised
us to bolt the door inside. The reason for the precaution was soon
evident, for the ladies whose presence was not needed on the stage at
the time, in pursuance, it would seem, of the recognised custom at
the Theatre Comique, came thundering at the door, and were only
appeased by economical libations of beer--and so we escaped to Kennard
House, and to bed.
Early in the forenoon (April 19th), before we had well done breakfast,
the Mayor, Mr. Herrick, Messrs. Mason, Stone, Wade, Colonel Wilson,
and a goodly company of Cleveland citizens of repute, called on the
Duke to take him and those of the party who were so minded to visit
the oil-works, elevators, and the city generally, to drive up Euclid
Avenue, and inspect one or two of the fine houses of which they were
with reason proud. The Mayor had evidently something on his mind--he
had the air of a man with a care of State affecting him--and after a
time the truth was known. His Worship, or His Honour, was as well
informed as a Sous-Préfet or a Commissaire of Bureau III.--a very
Howard Vincent--and he had heard of our visit to the theatre, and was
anxious to explain that it was not one of the regular orthodox Temples
of Thespis; that, in fact, it was a blot on the purity of Cleveland,
and on the powers of the executive. But "the Forest City," as
Cleveland is termed, can tolerate a great deal of imputation, and yet
lift up its head proudly as a beautiful and almost unique creation of
the American genius--the fairy who turns turnips into coaches and
four, mice into _valets de place_, and dreary marshes into the sites
of noble towns, replete with all the developments of the most refined
civilisation (in which, however, I do not include our magnificent
muscular Classical but Christian athlete Muldoon and the reprobate
theatre we had visited).
The Cleveland papers were not all very civil--some of them, indeed,
were not only uncivil, but untruthful in their accounts of the Duke's
party. There were "imaginary conversations" reported, that in all but
wit and interest would have done credit to Walter Savage Landor.
At the beginning of this century there were but a few wooden houses to
justify the selection of the site of a city laid out in 1794. Fifty
years ago there were 1000 souls in Cleveland. But the Canal opened to
it the fountains of life, and there are now about 170,000 people in
this handsome, well-to-do city.
I hope that other people bear the souvenirs of their disasters in
characters of paint, brass, and iron, in monuments of stone and the
_ære perennius_ records of history, as well as the normal Briton, who
is met in the United States with "_Io triumphes_" over his race in all
kinds of metals and forms. I turned me out of Kennard Hotel, and found
myself in a fine square, surrounded by shops and important edifices,
and, gravitating towards a statue, I was obliged to recognise the
effigies of Commodore Perry, who swept Lake Erie as clear of King
George's flotilla as erst did Van Tromp "_balaye_" the Channel of the
ships of the Stuart. Then I recoiled against a cannon, and was brought
up all standing by the inscription which recorded another disaster of
my countrymen. Finally I wandered off into Euclid Avenue to recover my
peace of mind, only wondering whether Frenchmen in England are so
heavenly minded under the infliction of innumerable Waterloo and
Wellington squares, streets, places, and bridges, and if Russians feel
as little the wrongs of Boulevards Sébastopol in Paris, and cannon
plantations in every town in England. Now, Euclid Avenue is a street
without parallel as far as I know. It is not quite a street, but it is
not easy to draw a line between a street and an avenue. The American
Euclid drew his line straight enough for more miles than I could go,
and then he built on either side spruce, trim villas of very various
architecture, shapes, and sizes, each in its plot of ground, with
lawns, trees, and gardens, often open and unfenced to the roadway,
which is lined with trees in a grand boulevard--a kind of Clapham or
Balham frontage, with ideas taken from the Avenue de l'Impératrice, or
the suburbs of Versailles--any way, the people who lived in these
abodes were well lodged, and must have a fair share of the world's
goods. They ought to be very good people, too. Wherever I looked there
were church steeples pointing with their silent fingers to heaven.
There are, I am told, nearly one hundred churches--to be
guide-bookishly accurate, ninety-six--in Cleveland, and, as extremes
touch, the Methodists and Presbyterians affect the Gothic style as
well as the Episcopalians and Roman Catholics. On hearsay mainly, but
in some measure on the evidence of eyesight, I aver that the city
literally abounds in edifices of beauty devoted to the highest objects
of education, science, learning, and charity. I felt, as I walked
along the Avenue of Euclid, and beheld so many evidences of enterprise
and prosperity, that (if I could do it in the dark) I ought to go and
put a wreath at the foot of Commodore Perry's statue. What would it
all have been, had the General in the red coat and the old Commodore
on the other side had the best of it? Did any of the people in the
nice houses think that an elderly gentleman who was dawdling under the
shade of their beautiful trees was rather anxious that he should not
be recognised as a compatriot of the degenerate descendants of their
common ancestors who failed to prove that they were the better for not
having been transplanted? I suppose not, but I was not in the least
ashamed, somehow. I walked on mile after mile admiring the scene, and
not the less interested in it because it so happened that I seemed to
have hit off the witching hour of day when school-mistresses yawn and
schools give up their young ladies to dinner, for I encountered
processions of young ladies with books and bags, and nods and becks
and wreathed smiles for their fellows, some of whom, mounted on their
irresistible wheel skates, more terrible than Boadicea in her chariot,
swept me off into the road as clean as the great Perry did the
Britishers. If ever I see a large American box with "Miss S. Spriggs,
Cleveland, Ohio," on it outside any hotel in the world, I shall stand
on guard till I see the owner. "Sally! I say, Sally Spriggs! If I
don't tell Mrs. Minerva I saw you blow a kiss at that ma-an" (I beg
leave to say, alas! I was not the man) "I hope I shan't get my tea."
The name was not Spriggs. But that is a detail. I only know that
"Sally" was a charming person of some fifteen years of age, and that
her vindictive friend, a year younger perhaps, was quite fascinating
enough, should she ask grace of me, to induce me to spare Cleveland
and all its oil-works if ever I lead a victorious army there to
overthrow Perry and carry off those guns. Whatever its early or
ultimate results may be, the United States system developes or creates
an exquisite abandon and naturalness among the girls and women which
they do not share with the men but in a matrimonial way, when they
keep their full share all the same. Euclid Avenue must have an end,
but I did not find it.
My mayor-ridden or driven friends, much pleased with what they had
seen, had reached their hotel before I did, and were singing,
metaphorically, their "_chanson de départ_" for Toledo. As I was busy
packing, "Miss Keerin," the _châtelaine_ of the castle, or at least
the chieftainess of the female helpdom, looked in upon me--a fine
handsome young woman of a Hiberno-Celtic order of beauty, who told me
she was Cleveland born, but that her father and mother were
"Irish--poor people," driven into exile by the Saxons who came over
with Hengist and Horsa. Miss Keerin belonged to the old faith, and
there was a touch of Torquemada in the turn of her pretty mouth as she
informed me "that she, and every maid in the house, was a good Roman
Catholic." So I made my bow in spirit to Mr. MacClosky, the
proprietor, and Miss Keerin, the mistress of the maids, for their
devotion to the Church.
_May 20th._--There is one mystery which never can be revealed to me--I
have no brains for it. In vain has it been explained to me by some of
the clearest-headed men in the world; in vain have they in a kindly,
compassionate way, with maps and time-tables, shown me why it was
desirable, if not necessary or inevitable, that we should halt at
Toledo on this blessed 20th of May and put up at Boody House! I admit
it was in the programme. I have no objection to Toledo in the
abstract, nor to Boody House in the concrete, but the value or nature
of the reasons which dictated the Toledo turn-out must be beyond my
ken for ever. I admit it is on the Maurice river, that it is a port
for Erie navigation, that it "handles" grain largely, that thirty
years ago the population was not 4000, and that to-day it is more than
50,000, that it is the converging point of thirteen railways, and that
the Union depot is an immense, if not, in the words of the guide-book,
"an imposing structure," but I am still as puzzled as I was when I
entered the portals of Boody House why we ever "lay," as the soldiers
say, in that place, considering the violent hurry we were in. One
thing I can answer for--if there be a place more unlike another place
than Toledo in Ohio is to Toledo in Spain, I have yet to travel for
it, and I shall be obliged to any one to tell me where it is, and this
I say after having seen the two Syracuses and the three Romes.
The preparations made in the various towns for the reception of the
party conferred upon it something of an embarrassing character. But,
as they were all in honour of the Duke, the humbler members of the
party do not consider that they are involved in the ceremonies which
await the train on arrival and departure, to signify the high sense
that is entertained of the visit, and the desire upon the part of the
principal inhabitants to do justice to it. It would be unjust to
Toledo not to admit it has great attractions to any student of the
American railway system, arising from the number of railways which
start thence to most points of the compass. The reception committee,
consisting of Mr. Bodmin, Mr. King, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Wells, aided
by the Mayor, Mr. Romeis, appointed by the Produce Exchange, were in
waiting on our arrival. Again dismay was carried into the hearts of
the weaker vessels by hearing the word "Elevators"; but the gentlemen
were kinder in their deeds than in their words, and only some of the
particular points of interest in what is called the "middle ground"
were displayed to those members of the party who did not make the best
of their way to Boody House.
In the evening we went to the theatre, and were interested in a drama
with the title of "One hundred Wives," which had nothing whatever to
do with the play--a piece written for the purpose of bringing into
contempt the practices of the Saints in Utah, full of local incidents
and acted with very considerable spirit. The sentiment of the audience
was shown most unmistakably in the vigorous and sustained applause
which greeted any situation or sentiment in which the Mormon leaders
and their teachings were held up to contempt and hatred, and the
curtain came down, amidst loud cheering, on a fine situation, in which
half-a-dozen soldiers, in the uniform of the United States infantry,
appeared to execute justice and to establish the predominance of the
United States Constitution in the land of the Saints.
There was some friction connected with the arrangements for our
journey from Toledo to Detroit this morning. The general manager of
the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway was anxious that our
train should run over his line instead of the Canada Southern, but Mr.
Snow, passenger agent, who had come from Buffalo, applied to the
customs authorities to pass the Fontaine engine across the border, in
order to take the Duke over the other line. Our train consisted of
what they call the combination baggage and smoking car, the Pullman
hotel car Buckingham, a Pullman saloon belonging to the Pennsylvania
Railway, and there was, moreover, the carriage of the general manager
of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, the whole drawn by
the Fontaine engine, which is a production of the mechanical genius
and intelligence of a gentleman of that name in the Southern States.
We were bound by schedule to go forty-five miles an hour, and Mr.
Fontaine explained the mechanism and the advantages which he claimed
for his engine to the party. The Duke got upon the engine with him
and proceeded out of the station, with a confidence which it turned
out was quite justified, although I admit some persons, not quite so
experienced, were rather uneasy at the experiment. We should have gone
to pieces in very good company, and there would not have been wanting
representatives of the Press, of the Detroit and Toledo papers, to
have shared or to have recorded the ruin. The Duke drove the engine to
the great satisfaction of the engineer, Mr. Fontaine. Mr. Cornelius
Vanderbilt, informed of the proceedings, sent a telegram to know how
the party were getting on just as we were leaving Toledo. At 2 o'clock
we arrived safely in Detroit, where the mayor and several railway
officials, Ex-senator Baldwin, Mr. Lord, and others were waiting to
accompany the Duke and his friends in the "_Truant_" steam-yacht,
belonging to Mr. Macmillan, in which we took a cruise upon the
beautiful river that separates Canada from the United States.
There can be no comparison between the activity and commercial
development of towns on the American and on the Canadian side of the
great lakes, although Montreal prospers and Toronto has increased
greatly in importance and in wealth, but still the credit and
resources of the Dominion are more than respectable, and Canadian
firms are extending their business in the United States very
remarkably and rapidly. In the course of a charming excursion we had
occasion to contrast the aspect of the American city with Canadian
Windsor, just opposite; the towering elevators, lofty church steeples,
smoking factory chimneys, crowded quays, piers, and stores, and the
suburbs bright with gay villas, were in strong opposition to the air
of rather amateur repose on the British side, which was only
remarkable for an enormous whisky distillery vomiting masses of smoke
into the sky. But on the American side we were somewhat comforted,
whether our solace was derived from sound bases or not, by seeing that
Canadian banks and insurance offices were installed in handsome
well-appointed offices. Detroit proved a most agreeable surprise to
us; there was a pleasant air about it, and an unassuming perkiness
very agreeable.
It is the fashion to consider Canada as the Sleepy Hollow of the
American continent; but if the giant Progress who is going to devour
the East, and who is feeding it meanwhile to make it fat and plump,
does not advance with leaps and bounds north of the St. Lawrence (as
he does down south), his march is assured and his footsteps are on
solid ground.
"Lands divided by a narrow strait abhor each other," sang Cowper. The
St. Lawrence (Detroit River) is deep, full, and strong at the town--a
very potent stream, but it is not quite broad enough. Windsor was a
favourite retreat for Secesh enemies in the Civil War. Detroit is not
quite innocent of Fenian enterprise. Windsor, too, makes bad but cheap
whiskey--Detroit has a protective tariff, and so there is some little
bickering and occasionally a threat of "eating up" the Canadians.
There are, perhaps, many more Englishmen prejudiced and unfair towards
things and persons American than there are Americans perverse in their
opinions regarding the Old World and their British ancestors, and the
Americans are I think remarkable for their abstinence from allusions
to the great Civil War in ordinary conversation, nor do they obtrude
their party views generally on strangers. A pompous gentleman, a
harmless little Dogberry enough, who held civic office at Detroit,
considered it right to express some strong opinions about the Battle
of Bull Run, at which he had not been. I have remarked that
expressions of political feeling relative to the great conflict of
1861-5 were most forcible in the mouths of men who had not ventured
their legs, heads, or bodies in the fray, and of such was our
bourgeois Boanerges. He was desirous of astonishing the Duke by
exhibiting "our society" and "our young ladies," of whom he talked as
if they were his private property. Judging by what we saw, Detroit may
be proud with reason and without the help of the Mayor, of both, but
he probably did not mean what he said and meant to be patronising
only. The gentlemen of Detroit were most courteous and agreeable, and
full of the desire to please and to show their city, without missing
one feature of it, but our programme did not permit us to dally on the
way, and we had to continue our journey to Chicago in the afternoon,
resign the pleasure of Russell House and reject the blandishments of
our kindly conductors. Throughout the whole of our tour the only
offensive remark concerning the only lady of our party appeared in a
Detroit paper, and I am bound to say no one expressed greater disgust
and indignation at the attack, which was after all only some coarse
criticism on a travelling costume, than the American gentlemen who
spoke of it. We dined at the Russell House and drove to the Michigan
Central railroad station after midnight, having been ten hours in
Detroit.
There had been lately a general revision of the programme, but, after
all, Chicago was not so much out. The first idea was to arrive on the
20th: we actually arrived on the 21st, and that before 6 o'clock in
the morning.
_May 21st._--The special train scrambled into the Chicago terminus, or
depot (which has not yet done Phoenix from its ruination in the
great fire) at some unpleasantly early hour this morning. (We have
been subjected to three, if not four, distinct alterations in
time-keeping as we travelled west. New York time rules up to the State
borders; Columbia time regulates watches and clocks till Chicago is
reached, and then westward the time changes again.)
The cars underwent the shocks that railway flesh is heir to at shunting
time, till it was necessary to get up and go forth. Whilst the baggage
was being taken out of the train, the Duke and I set out to find our
way to the hotel. The ancient landmarks, however, such as I remembered
them, had been ruthlessly swept away by the great fire; but it is not
easy for a man to lose himself in an American city, where the streets
are at right angles to each other, cutting the buildings into
rectangular blocks. And so we wandered on through the crowds of early
workmen and people going to their various places of business in
straight lines, and saw street life in the morning--coffee-stands and
shops in full play, crowds round the barbers' doors and saloons, and
coloured men and women--a large element--shuffling to and fro along to
the scene of their labours. Vast piles of masonry now tower above the
broad thoroughfares, bearing the usual striking and disfiguring
notices which the traders stick up to "differentiate" their
establishments--very wonderful indeed when one reflected that they had
all been raised on the area of the recent conflagration, one of the
greatest the world has ever seen. Over a large proportion of the shops
German names were inscribed; here and there over the cellars figured
the styles and titles of Chinese washermen; and small establishments
where groceries and drinks and the feebler kinds of commerce were
carried on, displayed Hibernian patronymics.
Noble edifices, public and private, challenged admiration from time to
time, especially the Post Office and Custom House; and as I read the
inscription on the monument to "G. B. Armstrong, a native of Co.
Antrim, Ireland, the founder of the Railway Mail Service," I could not
but wonder what he could have founded had he remained at home.
Our walk through the streets to the Grand Pacific Hotel gave us the
idea that the authorities did not turn much of their attention to
sanitary measures.
There is reason to be proud of the activity and energy which came
forth to reconstruct the city out of the ashes on grander lines than
ever. But, oh! the filth of the streets! refuse in masses by the
kerbstones, orange and apple peels, pea-nuts, oyster shells, feathers,
paper, mud, dirt, on the flags. As such a state of things was felt to
be a slur on the administration, it was explained to us that it was,
to say the least, unusual, and it is only fair to say that it was
accounted for in some measure by the exceedingly severe and protracted
winter which filled the streets with snow, and only ended before our
arrival. Five thousand men and more had been employed in clearing away
the mess and slush; but they had not by any means done the work. The
Mayor, Mr. Harrison, was, as we had occasion to perceive, a man of
great energy, and he was grappling with the dirt and with official
abuses in public administration and elsewhere very vigorously. If he
comes out of the struggle with success and unbegrimed, Chicago and he
may be proud of each other, and I heartily wish him a safe
deliverance.
The Grand Pacific Hotel was involved in the common ruin ere it was
completed; but it is now ready for any possible demand on its space
and resources.
A little incident of the following morning afforded an illustration of
the conditions under which the Venice of the West has grown up. Soon
after breakfast Mr. Drake, the landlord, sent up word that General
Jefferson Davis was below, and would be glad to pay his respects to
the Duke of Sutherland, if his grace would receive him. He had only
arrived that morning from New Orleans, which he had left on Monday
evening. Nine hundred miles is a long way for an old man to travel at
a stretch, but he did not complain of fatigue, and he was going on to
Montreal, where he had business that night. The ex-President of the
Confederate States--the man who was pronounced by Mr. Gladstone to
have "made a nation"--was seated in the crowded hall smoking a cigar
alongside of General Wright, who had fought against him on the Federal
side, but who had not forgotten the old days when he and Jefferson
Davis were cadets together. He is now grey, almost white-headed,
wearing a closely-cut beard and moustaches, his features thinner and
sharper than of yore, but his eye is as bright and as clear as ever.
But it struck me that he had what is called "aged" very much within
the last few years, and his step had lost a great deal of the springy
lightness which distinguished his walk at the time of the Great War.
He sat with the Duke of Sutherland for some time, talking of railway
travelling and the improvements in it and other matters in the States;
and mentioned with regret that he had been informed of a serious
accident to Mr. Benjamin, of whom he spoke in high praise. "The last
time I was in Chicago," he said, "I was in command of the post we had
here, and the Indians disputed our right to cross the river. That was
fifty years ago." How history makes itself in the Western World! This
day they are going to place a memorial on the site of the block-house
which then contained the little frontier garrison that Jeff Davis
commanded, and whose control the red man refused to accept! When he
went away every one of the party--and there were some among them who
certainly had no sympathy with the lost cause he had championed so
valiantly, and to which he still adheres with indomitable courage and
affection--expressed the admiration which was inspired by his dignity
and charming manner. _Diis placuit_, &c. A little later the Duke, Sir
H. Green, Mr. Stephens, and Mr. Wright visited General Sheridan, and
were presented to the members of the Head-Quarters Staff of the
immense region over which his command is exercised, and amongst them
General Forsyth, who had been in India at the time of the Prince of
Wales's visit, and was known to the Duke of Sutherland. General
Sheridan promised us every assistance we would require, and held out
great temptations to the sporting weaknesses of the travellers could
they but stay a little longer; nay, more, he sorely tried the
domesticity of Sir H. Green by telling him of an expedition which is
to come off on Indian territory never yet trodden by the white man's
foot or seen by white man's eye; but a programme is a Procrustean bed
which men make for themselves, and these joys had to be foregone like
many another by reason of previous engagements. The Duke and most of
the party were borne off to visit the slaughter and packing-houses,
and so we missed the speeches and the parade which celebrated the
erection of a memorial of Fort Dearborn, the frontier post, just fifty
years ago, of the United States on Lake Michigan.
_Armor porcosque cano!_ Of the slaughter-yards and packing-houses of
Messrs. Armour and Co., five miles from Chicago, I need not say much,
for they have been described in every detail of killing, scalding,
skinning, cutting, and preserving, by many visitors. The sight and the
smell were too much for some of the weaker vessels, and they returned
to the special train by which they had journeyed to the yards, whilst
the others supped full of horrors and statistics. And how these
statistics did rain upon us! Millions of pounds weight, millions of
dollars, millions of cubic feet--figures in millions and tens of
millions everywhere--everything the biggest, the tallest, the deepest,
the broadest in the world. What human brain could bear the weight of
that multiplication table gone mad? Fortunately it is all down in
little books neatly tabulated. I confess the greatest wonder to me was
not that so many living things should be slaughtered, and that so much
food should be grown and garnered and carried, but that there were
over the world so many millions of devouring creatures having stomachs
for them all.
I have called Chicago the Venice of the American lakes, or something
of the kind. In one respect indeed it excels the Queen of the
Adriatic--the odours of the canal-like river to which it owes so much
of its extraordinary prosperity. But these odours are to be deodorised
some day, and the energies which have raised a city up twice in little
more than a generation from ashes and muddy waters, will no doubt
accomplish greater works than that.
The mayor (twice elected to that high office), Mr. Harrison, took the
Duke out to see the "Crib," as it is termed, whence the waters of the
lake are conducted by two iron tunnels, two miles long, to supply the
city. On our way he stopped his carriage in an obscure and ill-looking
quarter to show us the working of the ingenious system by which 400
police are supposed to be enabled to do the work usually allotted to
1000 men in other cities. Against a dead wall there was affixed a
wooden box about 3 ft. square. The mayor took a key out of his pocket
and opened it. The key was at once fixed in the lock and could not be
removed till the patrol came from the station. This station was a mile
and a quarter away. Then the mayor pulled down a small lever inside
the box and gave the signal for the patrol to come up at once. Whilst
we were waiting he showed us the telephone apparatus by which detailed
information can be given to the police of what is required in cases of
burglary, assault, fire, &c., and explained that keys similar to those
he used are given to trustworthy householders who desire them, so that
in case of need they can summon the police at once, and as these keys
are numbered and cannot be withdrawn from the lock there is no risk of
practical joking, and offenders are heavily fined. In 2½ minutes there
came tearing along the street at full speed, driven by a policeman, a
light cart with two horses, with two of the force in the vehicle.
Inside were stretchers and appliances for removing prisoners, and,
that the alarm might not be fruitless, the mayor directed the police
to pick up a "drunky" whom we had passed on the way, amusing a group
of children by his innocent but ill-regulated gambols. A little crowd
assembled round the mayor and the strangers as he explained the
devices by which the authorities battled with the crime and excesses
of the hybrid population of the city, and I was amused by the
expression of disgust on the faces of some of them at the laudations
his honour bestowed on the ingenuity and effectiveness of the means he
was developing to restrain the lawless desire of gain or the love of a
free fight which distinguish some of the citizens.
The proprietor of the grand hotel in which we lodged displayed an
amount of energy in directing our movements, for which we were
scarcely prepared. He was evidently master in his own house, and in
America a man who can keep an hotel is able to do anything, and is
certainly a peer of any duke in the world. After dinner, wishing to go
to a theatre, a request was made at the bar to procure places. And as
we humbly walked off to the place of entertainment, the hotel
proprietor accompanied us, and we were joined on our way by an
agreeable young gentleman who had introduced himself to us in the
early part of the day as Chairman of the Committee of Reception of the
Press. I had certain uneasy suspicions that there was going to be some
kind of show made of the unostentatious, quiet gentleman who was
sauntering along, smoking his cigar, side by side with the spirited
hotel-keeper. These were not appeased when, on entering the theatre, I
perceived unmistakable officials, managers, box-keepers, and the like,
drawn up in the manner of a deputation. It was half an hour behind
time, but the play had not yet commenced--they were waiting for the
Duke. As he passed along by the pit tier to the stage-box reserved for
his use, every eye was directed upon him; and when he entered--awful
moment--the orchestra struck up, amidst applause from the gallery and
thumping of umbrellas and sticks, and clapping of hands, "God Save the
Queen." What it was expected his Grace should do I know not. It was
exceedingly embarrassing, and all we could do was to sit tight and
take no notice. No doubt it was intended as a compliment, and very
kindly meant, but it was most trying, and only the hotel proprietor
and the Chairman of the Reception Committee of the Press were at all
at their ease at that moment. The play proved an exceedingly
interesting national piece; not very probable in all the incidents,
but still giving a very fair idea of the general attitude of the
American mind in its relation to Mormonism, and tending to bring into
deserved contempt the disciples and practices of that most outrageous
creed.
_May 22nd._--The 'Chicago Times' of Saturday contained the greater
part of the revised New Testament, telegraphed from New York. The
'Chicago Tribune' of Sunday (to-day) presents its readers with the
whole of the Revised Testament, complete from beginning to end.
We had a very pleasant dinner, at which General Sheridan, General
M'Dowell, and General Forsyth assisted. It was a relief to get away
for a little from grain averages and railway statistics, but these are
rare escapades from the study of material interests. The subsidence of
the mass of combatants which the Civil War summoned to the field north
and south from civil life into the ordinary pursuits of citizens was
one of the most wonderful phenomena of the contest. I find my old
friends have beaten their swords into all kinds of peaceful
implements. One day General McClellan writes to me from a railway
office in New Jersey to say he is on the eve of a voyage to Europe.
Now I get a letter from "Bangs and Kirkland, attorneys-at-law, 142, La
Salle St., Chicago," dated May 9th, which puzzled me a little till I
read the text and the well-known signature of "Joseph Kirkland,"
recalling the old days of the army and head-quarters of the Potomac in
1861, and remembered the martial major who was my frequent companion
in excursions about the camps around Washington.
_May 23rd._--The Duke and most of the party started at 8.30 to inspect
the Pullman car factory. The town is called Hyde Park, South Chicago,
Calumet, Grand Crossing, and Kensington--and lies upon the outside of
the great city, nine miles distant. Nine months ago, according to a
Chicago paper, there was not a single trace of an industrial
habitation upon the spot, and for five months of the subsequent time
there was one of the most severe winters on record; but in April the
largest engine in the world, as we were told, was started as the
central motive power of one of the most extensive manufacturing
schemes of the world. The Corliss Centennial Exhibition engine, which
was built at a cost of 25,000_l._, was set to work with its 24,000
horse-power, to give life to the machinery which had been erected by
the enterprise of Colonel Pullman; and since that time a city of
freight shops, hammer shops, equipment buildings, lumber store-houses,
foundries, brickworks, with railway tracks to connect them,
gas-houses, artesian wells, and wide and long ranges of streets round
the central depôt, have sprung up in Pullman; and locomotive works are
also busy in connection with the rolling-mills and iron-dale mills
which are connected with the town of Pullman by water, rail, and
waggon roads. The sentiment of wonder is taxed when one visits this
great American enterprise. It is said that before the year is over ten
thousand people will be comfortably housed and living in this city,
the work of a few weeks. No wonder that the Chicago people are
enthusiastic about their city, though they are apt to be somewhat
tiresome in the details which they give of its greatness. "I have
sometimes tried," said one of them, "when I was travelling about, to
invent some fabulous story to relate about Chicago; but when I woke up
in the morning I always found that the progress made had exceeded the
wildest fabrication I could think of." Twenty-five cars a day will be
turned out when the works are in full swing. The most interesting
operation, perhaps, was the manufacture of the paper wheels intended
to take the place of iron in all railway, and which are already used
by the Pullman cars. The paper is made of wood, which is cut on the
shores of Lake Michigan, is brought to the works, reduced to pulp, and
under hydraulic pressure is made as hard as granite, and perfectly
impenetrable by air or water. It is sheathed with a steel band, which
holds it like a vice, and it is cheaper and more lasting than iron.
The thermometer at 88 degrees in the shade, and the temperometer
higher still. For there are thorns in the flesh, and trials, small
though they be, to vex the spirit. Some there are who can endure
interviewing without wincing, others who laugh at evil or good
reports; but there are people who fret and fume at obstinate
inquisition, and who are indignant at misrepresentation. These latter
should stay at home. If one of these writes a letter marked "private"
to the editor of a newspaper, he may be vexed if he sees it in print,
with the word "private" omitted. It must be admitted that the
peculiarities which invited comment in times past have nearly
disappeared--I mean manners and customs connected with tobacco and its
uses. Not only that--the burning curiosity which proved so troublesome
to thin-skinned strangers appears to have been slaked by copious
indulgence. Americans no longer care to know, or at least, disdain to
ask, "Well, sir; and what do you think of our country?" They feel that
they have a country which travellers must recognise as one of the
first in the world. However, I think an American is not always
pleased when an Englishman, tired out, perhaps, by the strain which a
continual demand upon his power of expressing surprise involves,
meekly intimates that there is something of the same sort to be seen
in the Old Country. The other day, when we were taken out on the lake
at Chicago, and asked to admire the water, which was not particularly
clear, I remarked that the water supply of London, with its three
millions and a half of people, and no lake at all, was rather
creditable. The worthy Mayor was at once antagonistic. "Where do you
get your water?" "From the various water companies--the New River, the
Chelsea," &c. The Mayor next day, at a public meeting, congratulated
the people of Chicago that they were not supplied with such water as
London had to put up with, "where," he said, "I am told it comes from
Chelsea, which is one of the filthiest places in the world."
By this time the whole party has got into working order; Lady Green,
as a soldier's wife, sets an excellent example of punctuality and
ready-packed-up-edness, no matter how early the start may be. It is a
large party, but, by reason of its discipline, very easy to move. And
so, notwithstanding the work in the early morning nine miles away, we
were all ready at the terminus of the Shore Line by noon to strike out
for the West by the rail which runs by Lake Michigan, halting first at
Milwaukee, eighty miles away.
The Americans have many things to be grateful for on the vast
continent of which they own so goodly a share, especially the natural
facilities which they possess for turning the development of their
energies to account; and among these, next, perhaps, to the navigable
rivers opening up the length and breadth of the States to the sea, is
the series of lakes stretching from the Atlantic to the central
mountain ridges, affording the most admirable intercommunication
between the great cities which are growing up on their shores and the
corn-growing and stock-producing regions which extend far away on
either side of them.
Perchance farther out from the shore, under the influence of a
brighter sky, they may be blue, but certainly the waves that broke on
the beach were muddy and the river flowing into the lake at Milwaukee,
which is visible from the train, is exceedingly filthy. Only
comparisons are odious, I would say that it looked as vile as that at
Chicago. It needs a strong sense of the picturesque and beautiful to
tolerate the waters of the Venetian canals in summer time, but here,
without any compensation, there are the odours and the nastiness which
one would more willingly encounter in paying homage to the Queen of
the Adriatic in July or August.
On the lake were many sailing vessels with snowy cotton canvas, the
intermediate belt of land being thickly populated, rich, well
cultivated, and prettily wooded. Now and then a huge steamer came in
view, vomiting masses of smoke, too common a disfigurement of these
pure skies, for neither on shore nor on the river do they burn it.
Chicago is almost as black and smoky as Birmingham. Racine seemed to
have its full share of prosperity and manufacturing industry, but
Milwaukee, which we reached at 2.20 P.M., added one to the many
surprises which our party encountered in the United States. Mr. W.
Mitchell, who came from Aberdeen some forty odd years ago, one of the
chief men of the place, in company with other gentlemen, met the Duke
of Sutherland, and drove us through the city. It contrasted very
favourably in the cleanliness of the streets and the general
appearance of unadulterated well-doing of the population with
Chicago--a crowning glory to Mr. Mitchell, and those like him who
remember the town as a toddling, wee hamlet, and see it now
flourishing and opulent, with its 50,000 inhabitants.
Like many other places in this vast region, the site of Milwaukee owes
its discovery to one of the band of French missionaries, who, with
devotion and courage never surpassed even by the chivalrous explorers
who cast such a glory over the flag of France for nearly two
centuries, made their way amongst hostile Indians, carrying the Cross
in their hands, through forest, prairie, and mountain, descended
rivers and navigated lakes, in the futile attempt to civilise and
Christianise the Red Man. The Indians used the indent in the shore
where Milwaukee stands as the centre of their permanent settlements.
They were established there when the first traders came, and La
Framboise, who left some record of his adventures amongst them, began
his intercourse in the way which has signalised the early relations of
the white to the red man but too often. Nevertheless, the whites and
Indians got on exceedingly well for many years. The former were
French, or French half-breeds. The French generally agree better with
the natives than the British and British-Americans. In 1820, however,
a man named Juneau was the only white settler, and it was not till
1831 that he obtained a grant from the Indians of the whole of the
ground on which Milwaukee now stands. Two gentlemen named Kilbourn and
Walker (names perpetuated in the city) settled and established
commercial relations with the people and traders of the outlying
regions. As an American writer says,--"The town, which has sprung up
like Jonah's gourd, grew up partly on a sand-hill and partly in a
mud-hole, one being cut down to fill the other up, because men found
they could accumulate wealth there." Chicago, down south, had started
in formidable competition, but Milwaukee was not to be beaten. It
built its quays and store-houses, and projects its piers and jetties,
harbour of refuge and docks. You look round and find it hard to
believe that not half a century ago the site of this city was
described as "an utter wilderness, a howling, untutored, worthless
stretch of forest and prairie." Elevators tower aloft; the marsh has
been drained, and is now a maze of canals and slips. The buildings in
the city are in strong contrast, in the air of propriety and exquisite
cleanliness, to the river on which it is built. This appears much due
to the material--a light-coloured brick--largely used in the houses.
There is a coquetry in the local architecture. The genius of the
American architect in woodwork is varied. It deals in pinnacles,
gables, verandahs, porticoes, eaves, and quaintly coloured fronts; and
where the proprietor has not indulged in brick or stone, he has
availed himself of paint, generally blue or slate colour, to decorate
the exterior. The number of detached residences, standing in their own
grounds amidst garden-plots and plantations, suggests wealth and
comfort. The trees of the forest have been spared, and if the axe has
been applied it has been wielded with judgment.
Milwaukee is famous for its beer. More than half a million barrels
were made and sold the year before last, and still the trade is
growing. There appear to be Germans enough to have stomach for it all
in the city and the district round about. A Teutonic soil with a top
dressing of Scotch may be said to constitute the stratum of the
organic formation of the people of Milwaukee.
After a visit to the Soldiers' Home, an asylum for veterans of the
militia and volunteers of Ohio and neighbouring States--a very
interesting establishment two miles from the city--and a look at Mr.
Mitchell's well-ordered, luxurious residence on the outskirts,
Panklinton House received us, and at 10 p.m. we continued our course
westwards towards St. Paul, travelling all night, and sleeping most
comfortably in the Pullman car.