The Press. — London, England, 1855-07-07 00:00:00

JUNE 7,1855. It is characteristic of the great public build ings of France that each one is, to some extent, characteristic of the mutations of the nation. The Louvre is no exception to the rule, and Mr. St. John in describing its present state has pleasantly brought before us the traditions which connect it with the progress of the French nation. AMERICA AND THE AMERICANS. The Wabash; or, Adventures of an English Gentle. man's Family in the Interior of America. By J. Richard Bests, Esq. London : Hurst and Blacken. America and the Americans. By W. E. Baxter, Esq., M.P. London: Routledge. A Vacation Tour in the United States and Canada. By C. R. Weld. London : Longmans. A Few Months in America. By James Robertson. London : Longmans. OF all countries in the world, [none has fur nished such a constant succession of books of travel, by British authors, as the United States of America. The fact is the more remarkable as the number of travellers is by no means large. For every one who makes the passage of the Atlantic there are twenty who cross the British Channel, and yet France and Spain, Italy and Germany, provoke much less remark. Ve all feel an interest in this rival nation, of the same race and language with ourselves, and yet so dif ferent in all its habits and sympathies. Its progress is more rapid than our own, its power and wealth are wonderfully increasing, and there larks in our breasts a sentiment of apprehension lest we should be outstripped by our own offshoot, and have to yield the supremacy we so long have proudly claimed. Yet we cannot conceal our cunosity to know what is their polity, and what the tendency of their institutions and characzer. The tour accomplished by each of the four gentlemen whose books are bet ore us was nearly the same. Landing at New York, they visited Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, from thence proceeded to the southern and slave States, and returning by the great lakes to Niagara, Montreal, and Quebec, and crossing the frontier between Canada and the States, they once more reached Boston and New York en route to England. Upon the whole, these tourists differ but little in Vietir descriptions and opinions of America and the Americans. They appear to state their impres sions with candour and accuracy, and only to have arrived at their conclusions after a fair consideration of the facts. Mr. Weld, perhaps, in his " Vacation Tour," is too willing to pass over the faults and pecu liarities of our transatlantic cousins, and only willing to see what is pleasant; but in a " Vacation Tour" that may be pardoned. The great questions of commerce, education, policy, manners, and slavery, are all spoken of impartially, and every credit given to the energy, vigour, and mental activity of the Americans, and to the immense natural resources of the country. Yet the peculiarities of the People, the deficiencies of their system, both political and com mercial, and the diversities of the country and its climate, are not the less remarked. In "The Wabash" we have as good a sketch of the people, their manners, and their country—fresh, racy, and natural—as could be desired. Mr. Bests writes with spirit and distinctness ; his book, moreover, is full of incident and abounds in lively anecdotes. Mr. Baxter, in his "America and the Americans," is sensible and concise. He travelled all over the country, and mixed in every society, with the object of seeing with his own eyes what so many observers of American manners and progress have either mis represented or caricatured, and he relates his ob servations in a series of pleasant sketches, at once lively and instructive. Mr. Robertson's book, in contradistinction to these, is the very carefully-pre pared and accurately-written survey of the practical commercial man who has thoroughly mastered the principles of American commerce. With tables and statistical returns of the trade of every State, his book is valuable for reference, and gives in a simple form an insight to the trade of the country, and that vast commercial system which is at least one of the wonders of the world. Of Mr. Weld's book we can say no more than that it is a lively-sketch of his tour through the States. • The two great things which appear to strike a man most upon his first landing in America are the uni versality of trade as a means of living, wholesale and retail, and the complete absence of religious distinc tions. To these must be added a third—the per petual presence of expectoration in all forms and places : A stranger voyaging in a Mississippian steamboat might well arrive at the conclusion that expectoration was a ne cessity of existence with the natives of that region. The deck, paddle•boxes, railings, cabins, stoves, and chairs THE PRESS. of the vessels are often so besmeared with brown juice, that you cannot distinguish their colour. 1 made a trip on the Ohio with a young man whom I never saw but once, even at meals, without a quid rolled in his cheek, and who squirted with remarkable regularity, according to my watch, seven times per minute, or 11,040 times in twelve hairs. Another person who sat beside me in a Presby terian church at Cincinnati kept up an incessant fire of liquid tobacco during the service, and on one of my first journeys on American railroads, between New York and Philadelphia, having been incautious enough to lay my writing-desk on the floor of the car, I found it, on rising to leave, in the midst of a pool of, and quite saturated with, the juice of the weed. Nor can I ever forget a scene in the hall of the Virginia Howl at St. Louis, one wet evening in the autumn of 18.53, when the floor was a sea of rain-water and liquid tobacco, while the spitting rendered it impossible for an uninitiated stranger to walk about or read the newspapers. In the street, at the bar rooms, or on the decks of steamers, however, one can generally, by a little dexterity, avoid being spat upon, unless, indeed, he received an unexpected volley at a corner ; but in a railroad-car there is no way of escape. One man spits on the floor between your legs, solo:her out at the window, within an inch of your nose, a third over your shoulder on the side of the carriage, a fourth makes a target of the door by which you wish to make your exit ; you let fall your glove on the floor, it floats in tobacco juice, and your wife's gown is ruined by contact with the filthy boards of the carriage. In matters of delicacy and taste every country under the sun has some favorite points upon which it refines and others upon which it relaxes, but in this matter of expectoration Jonathan, with his European experience, cannot expect us to relax. Why even his daughters have incurred the same habit, ac cording to Mr. Beste, except that they chew pitch in stead of tobacco But this is not the only point upon which we differ so essentially in national habit. We are fond of outdoor sports, and consider them essential to manliness of character; the American, unless on business, seldom stirs outside his door. Of this intense devotion to business every writer bears witness. " Early to bed and early to rise," they are never an hour during the interval sway from their work. "It is one of the worst features of American life," says Mr. Beste : Every man is in business, and the business is never over. Nominally the office may be shut, but, in reality, the merchant, or the lawyer, or the commission agent, is b Rind to be at the beck and call of whoever may want him. From the early morning until late at night he is only per. mitted to snatch s quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, during which be may rush away to swallow his food : that feat accomplished, as Americans only can accomplish it, he must hurry back to his office to await the pleasure of some one who might just as well have called at an earlier hour. Under such a system no domestic feeling, no do mestic establishment, is possible. The man of business can have no mornings and no evenings with his family. I know some in these western States who have attempted to adopt the European plan ; who have given notice that their offices would be really closed at four or five o'clock : they were considered to be presumptuous and impertinent, as setting themselves above their clients, and dictating at what hour they would earn their money ; and others in the same line of business, lacking the honour said to exist among thieves, the esprit de corps, or the spirit of combi nation which actuates Europeans. improved the discontent, and ran off with the business from their more refined and gentlemanly brethren. - - - In such a country, where labour is the highest aim of every man, it is surprising to find that the women are the most superficial , lazy, indolent creatures upon earth, thinking of nothing but their dinners and their dresses, and living mostly in board ing-houses to avoid the trouble of domestic cares, passing their time either over a stove or in a rocking chair, with a fan and a French novel : However (says Mr. Baxter) they may differ in other particulars, European travellers have expressed themselves with wonderful unanimity on this subject. Indeed, the evil is so self-evident, that the most prejudiced cannot fail to notice it. Young ladies who in all other civilised countries would be considered mere boarding-school misses, in whom modesty is regarded as the most essential ac• quirement, in the United States, casting off all restraint, not only act an independent part and display an ease of manner savouring painfully of pertness and pretension, but actually assume the lead in society. Prematurely em barked on the sea of life, they acquire at an early age a self-confidence and a freedom of demeanour by no means feminine or calculated to please an impartial spectator. Forward without genius, and talkative without information, they often render conversation frivolous, and overbear wiser heads by their loud assumption of unnatural dignity. It is repugnant to proper feeling to see married women, though distinguished for beauty and accomplishments, comparatively neglected in company, while girls of sixteen or seventeen, who have nothing to recommend them but thoughtlessness and volubility, are surrounded with listeners. Nor is this abuse confined to the drawing-room and the evening party ; it enters into the daily routine of domestic duties. Instead of assisting her mother, the lovely Miss M laughs at and snubs her, asks whom she pleases to visit at the house, and does nothing all day long but flirt, lounge, and read ncvels My fair transatlantic friends may think these criticisms severe ; but candour compels me to charge them further with the excessive love of dress, and with being so extravagant in this respect that it is the most fertile subject of complaint on the part of husbands and fathers. Nothing is more common than for a lady to incur enormous bills to drapers 647 all over town for silks, satins, and India shawls, without the knowledge of the unfortunate individual who must pay them ; and when she goes to Newport or Saratoga fur a month in summer, she orders a new dress for every morning, and another fur every evening of her sojourn. The extent to which this silly vanity is carried would scarcely be credited, even in the gayest circles of Europe. Nor can I overlook the injury they do to their own health and the health of the nation by not taking exercise. Not only in the towns, but in country quarters, they often sit from sunrise to sunset in rockiug•chairs ; the idea of walk ing appears shocking to them, and as to roaming in the woods or climbing hills, they would regard any one who proposed such a thing as a madman. Round a suffocating stove during winter, and diligently fanning themselves all summer, they lead a sort of butterfly life, which may yet tell most unfavorably on the succeeding generations. Mr. Beste is still more severe. Speaking of the conceit and affectation of American women, he con tinues : Whether it take the tone of sentimentality or indifference, the affectation is always there. The nasal whine, which Englishmen feel to be so revolting, is, I really believe, in great part affected; the most commonplace observations are thought to be rendered touching and full of meaning when drawled forth at the rate of five words an hour in that languidly-sentimental or rigidly-precise twang. I have remarked on the excessive politeness of all American men to all females, whether in the saloons of steamers or elsewhere: I have remarked upon the elegant dress of the American women : I have remarked upon the lounging and rocking-chairs in which they rock and fan themselves in cessantly : but I have not remarked upon their care of their children on those occasions; I have not remarked on any wish to inform their minds, shown by the books car ried with them ; I have not remarked upon any endeavour to amuse and employ their fingers with fancy-work—l have not remarked on these, because, in no saloon through out America, did I ever see any female even momentarily employed with children, with books, or with needlework. Let it not be said that I came direct to the backwoods, and had no opportunity of forming an opinion. I came by fashionable steam-boats and large towns ; and I so returned. I lingered at fashionable watering-places. Everywhere I saw the same listless, whining apathy : the same idleness and affectation of helpless fine•ladyiam. Where an Eng- lishwoman, of whatever class, would have had her embroidery frame or her crochet-work, or even her novel, the American woman, whether rich or poor, had her rocking-chair and her fan ; her simper and her sigh, her whine and her finery. One striking peculiarity of the Americans is their utter disregard for life. Mr. Weld upon this point gives some entertaining anecdotes. Being anxious to see the cemetery at Cincinnati, he hired a buggy, and was driven off as usual at a break-neck rate : I am not a nervous man, so, although we went at a breakneck rate, careering over stones and through deep ruts, I made no remonstrance, having faith in the springs. But when, on turning a corner, we came suddenly in sight of a board with the well known notice. " Look out for the locomotive when the bell rings," which was made more impressive by hearing the signal, and seeing the line of steam announcing the proximity of a train, I was some what anxious, as my driver did not manifest the slightest disposition to stop. As usual, the road and railway crossed on the same level, which did not lessen my anxiety. " Hold hard ! stop, stop !" I cried; and, as these words received no attention, 1 rose from my seat and grasped the driver's arm for the purpose of arresting our progress, but in vain. Lashing the home with redoubled energy, he replied to my intreaties to stop by the assurance he would go ahead of the en-gine ; and to my horror on we went, buggy and train approximating rapidly at right angles, the locomo tive's bell meanwhile ringing furiously what seemed to be my death-knell. Finding all my efforts to avert an antici pated collision were futile, I resumed my seat, and re signed myself to my fate. What I did or said during the next few moments I know not; but I remember a feeling of sickness came over me as we dashed across the line, and I beheld the iron horse rushing onwards, and almost felt the hot blast of its steam jets. "There, I told you I'd clear the darn'ol thing," said my drivet, chuckling over the achievement, " but 'twits a close shave.' This little adventure added to my experience of the ex traordinary disregard of human life in America; buts more striking example was in store for me, as will be seen here after. It is indeed impossible to travel far or long without meeting with cases illustrating the fact, and the traveller should deem himself fortunate if he be not included in the list of killed or wounded. I heard a pithy anecdote bear ing on this subject, which we must hope is only truthful in its moral. "Jack," said a man to a lad just entering his teens, " your father's drowned." " Darn it," replied the young hopeful, " and he's got my knife in his pocket." As Administrative Reform is a popular topic at present in this country, it is worth while examining how things go on under a democratic Government in America : " Political corruption ( says a late article in Harper's Maga sine,the Quarterly of the Statesl—why has it become a jest and a bye-word amongst na—a settled phrase denoting a fixed fact in our history—a fact now conceded by all parties, and which no intelligent man ever thinks of deny• ing ? We hear it from all sides. There is political cor ruption, and that too on the broadest scale—corruption in all parties—corruption in leading partisans—corruption in political measures --corruption in political services —corruption in the dispensation of offices—corruptioa in the management of the press—corruption among almost the entire class of those wh o may be called politicians by profession—agrowing corruption, or, what is equally bad, a