The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-04 00:00:00

THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA,

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
SARATOGA, NEW YORK, Aug. 21.
" Well, sir, do you see any traces of the war
here ?" Such is the question with which I am
greeted after the very first words I exchange with
strangers or acquaintances. No ; certainly I have
left all warlike pomp and circumstance behind me.
Albany was a lready free from the untidy and some-
what truculerAt aspect of the Union soldiers, and
bore all the appearance of a well-behaved, contented
respectable Aenerican city of the good old times.
Saratoga Springs is at this season a community of
happy idlers, and suffers not the odour of the battle.
field to come between the wind and its nobility.
Saratoga is full and labours to be gay. It is fuller
than it has been at any season for a long course of
years, as mine host of the United States Hotel as-
sures me—mine host, an intelligent and obliging
landlord, who has lately been returned as a member
of Congress, and who I have no doubt, will fill his
place greatly to his own credit and to that of his
craft, seeing that in America the management of a
great hotel is looked upon as a task fully as ar-
duous as the government of a republic,—that, in
very fact, a hotel is a republic, a polychrome re-
public, with several hundred officials of every
variety of complexion, and that worthy Mr. Marrin
has conducted the United States Hotel to the satis-
faction of a choice company and to the construction
of his own private fortune. Who more fit to be a
public man than a publican ?
Saratoga is fuller and, I am told, gayer than
usual. A perfect stranger as I am to the spot, I can,
however, answer to the fact of its being as full as it
can possibly be. The visitors jostle one another as
they lounge under the wide, spacious colonnades;
they sit at dinner round tables which, if laid
out on a single line, would stretch beyond one
mile in length. Nor is this hotel, although the best,
the most crowded house in the town. Congress hall,
the Union, the Clarendon, and many others are all
turning the late arrivals from their doors, and the
private houses, which are made at a pinch to do
duty as succursales to the main caravanserais, are
thronged from the callers to the garrets. Eight
divers at the Spring are straining every nerve to
fill the goblets which are held out to them by thou-
sands of eager hands early in the morning for a
draught at the health-giving Congress water, and
five-and-twenty fiddlers in the evening are racking
the air for the benefit of frequenters of dress and
undress balls, kicking up the dust of every hotel
saloon in time or out of time. " The Alpha and the
Omega of the daily Saratoga programme," says
Appleton's Handbook, "is to drink and to dance—
the one in the earliest possible morning, and the
other at the latest possible night." Harmless pas-
times, no doubt; and it is greatly to the credit of
the Americans that if they have chosen a Baden-
Baden without the hills, the woods, and the castles
of the Black Forest, they at least manage to kill
their time without boisterous champagne picnics,
and without the exciting chances of the roulette.
Drunkenness and gambling are kept altogether out
of sight.
Fall, I repeat, Saratoga undoubtedly is; gayer
than in former seasons it must be allowed to be on
the strength, I suppose, of " the more the merrier"
principle. Whether this comparative loveliness con-
stitutes positive enjoyment I am the least compe-
tent judge in the world to decide, as cne day at a
watering-place is sufficient to crush, and one week
would kill me. That these people pacing the piazzas
and corridors from morning to night are amusing
themselves I ought to have no reason to doubt, as
they assemble here from the four quarters of the
globe with that avowed purpose. Some of them
do not look jolly; indeed, rather dull and list-
less, I should say. They would pass for a party of
patients or prisoners out for a holyday in the open
air of a hospital or penitentiary; reclining in their
arm chairs, with their feet in the air, silent and
contemplative, poring over the New York papers of
the eve, staring at the passers-by, in the hopeless
task of making out an acquaintance; or, if grouped
in small knots, exchanging words with a languid
effort, cackling at a stale joke, yawning, yawning.
A long August day at a watering-place takes a
great deal of killing. The ladies, indeed, are very
industrious about their morning, noon, and evening
toilets. Flirting would be business to them, indeed,
and so would dancing ; but the best partners and
admirers are away at the war; and the "last beaux
of the village" are hardly worth the strife by which
they may be secured.
If gay dresses could make a gay season, however,
no doubt the fair dwellers at Saratoga would turn this
summer into a Carnival. Something bewitching there
is, too, about this American sex. The complexion,
if not always rich, is clear, and the hair is glossy and
profuse. Thin arms and sharpish shoulders are to
be met now and then on a close inspection, in spite
of the prodigious amount of broiled chickens, mashed
potatoes, corn, and squash consumed by these active
charmers at their three or four hotel meals. Plumpe
ness, high blood, roundness of form, not even all
the virtues of the world-renowned Congress water
can impart where nature has denied; but the dresses
are full and flowing, and the hair falls down like a
stream of gold from the highly jeweled combs. The
figures, though thin, are often elegant, and the
girls in their teens have rows of pearls of dazzling
whiteness, the consciousness of which keeps their
giggling faculties on a perpetual stretch. These
darling creatures live here in a sort of family sister.
hood. They are seen flitting and glancing not only
about the hotel piazzas, but in the streets, unena-
cumbered with wrappers or head gear, without
mother or chaperon, tripping about in small bevies
from shop to shop, safe in the consciousness of their
sexal superiority and in the chivalrous reverence
and good behaviour of the men.
As to these latter, they spend their time in a
round of what I should call unrelieved dullness,
The best class of Americana are here, and a traveller
has some respite from the rudeness and offensive-
ness which makes him loathe the very names of
steamboats and railway cars. But the American,
to his praise be it spoken, is made for business. It
is hard work for him to take his ease at his Spa,
even for a few days of inevitable repose. The men
look worn and dispirited; many of them, doubtless,
out of health, have come to this place to recruit it,
But, on the whole, at no time of the year, in no
Part of the States, do you see anything like very
robust and blooming health in this American con-
tinent. The complexion, which is only pale in the
women, is generally dingy and sallow in the men.
An eminent statesman, to whom I communicated
my impressions
yabout the unwashed look of the
Northern soldier assured me that the men were
"clean enough for the
Angio.se Americans." It is the pecu-
liarity of the
to assume
blood, as affected by this
climate," he said, {{tarsts.tinme a dirty, earthy look.
Under the slightest exertion," he added, " the taint
of innate biliousness comes to the surface. This is
the climate which blended the copper hues of our
wild Indian, and its tendency is
intono less to deepen
the milk and rose of the
an ashy and
leaden mixture than to blanch the ebony of the
negro into a faded and sickly walnut
brow
extremes of heat and cold are equally n. Our
unfriendly to
the genuine colour of primitive races."
"Grattez le Russe et roes trouser le Tare t,
are is a
saying which I have heard a diplomatist apply to
this country, saying,
" Scratch the Yankee and you
will find the Red Indian." The tendency of the
American face, after several generations, is, in the
opinion of this distinguished foreigner, " to assume
the elongated shade, the high cheek bones, the deep-
set eyes of the savage who originally lorded it over
this continent. Tao cold-blooded courage, the wiry
muscular strength, the imp _wive look, the un wearied
power of endurance, are also Indian attributes; nor
is there wanting that truculent resolve, that un-
sparing vindictiveness, that contempt for human life
which forbids the Indian to come to terms with an
enemy, and which makes the extermination of an
adversary a matter of cold, calculating policy."
I am amused, as I look about me, tutored by so
shrewd an observer, by gazing into the countenance
of every man I meet, and indulging those physiog-
nomicel speculations to which every man is more or
less consciously addicted from earliest childhood.
There is certainly something striking about the pre•
veiling Ael erican type. That leegdank,fleshless form,
that straight hair, that stoop in the shoulders,
that
Yet somewhat
colourless face, those by no raraue

harsh features, that high but flit brow, those pale,
thin, compressed lips, that sad y et shrewd and coldly
humorous expression, remind you at every step of
that complex yet distinct original which the great
Nova-Scotian stereotyped in Sam Slick. To give
the genuine Yankee a family air throughout the
Union the costume at prevent in vogue contributes
in no small degree. Vie fashion has lately sprung
up, and it struck me nil my arrival as an innovation
at variance with all my reminiscences of American
look. The true Yankee shaves his upper lip, and
sometimes the edge of the nether one, allowing the
beard to grow stiff and straight on the chin. It is
the cut of beard that anyone may observe in the
portraits of President Lincoln, and I should not
wonder if it is the First Magistrate who sets
the fashions in this republican laud, as King
Charles I. or Henry IV. did in their respec-
tive Kingdoms; exercising the same spell as the
Empress Eugenie had on the starts of ladies' gowns
and on the frizzled front of ladies' coiffures in
France. Nay, I shrewdly surm'se that the peaked
beard, a la Lincoln, is something like a political
badge and cognisance in this country ; your true
Republican, your: out-and-out Abolitionist is as sure
to strike you by his pantaloon tuft on his chin as
the old Puritan made himself known by his closely
cropped head and thick, bushy moustaches. With-
out any pretension to enter into a dispute about
matters of taste, I may be permitted to say that the
present fashion is, to say the least, an odd one, and
the least becoming the American face that
could
ass
ever sh
loafe hayk ol
rr
very dark, enhances with no
that encumbers the lower face, g
ever have been invented. The deenhs
pleasing effect the
eeramll
a feature by no means
length of the bare upper lip-
-0
the most pleasing in the American countenance,as it
is apt to be heavy, and flat, with the corners of the
mouth drawn deeply down towards the chin ; seen
atadistance, that capuchin-like beard, contrasting
with the blue and white shaven skin, looks like an
unreal appendage, a masquerading disguise; and it
wears rather absurdly with the high shirt-collar,
the long close-buttoned surtout, and the broad-
brimmed hat, which very generally make up with it
the strictly republican garb. These peculiarities of
dress strike the stranger as more familiar in New
York, Washington, and other cities, where the
middle classes constitute the greatest number.
Here, in this select circle, true Yankeedom has
indeed, its few representatives, but the men of the
upper classes, if aged, affect the thoroughly round
hairless face of the fine old English gentleman ; if
young, they sport the thin moustache and imperial
of the Parisian dandy.

But it is full time I should vouchsafe an answer
to the question propounded at the beginning of this
letter--" Do I see any traces of war in this place ?"
Truly, the din of clashing swords reaches us not
' here, nor are there any symptoms of distress to be
seen in the brilliant equipages, sleek cattle, and
sumptuous dresses that dazzle the eye all around.
Saratoga, like Newport, is only a suburb of New
York; it is only a second edition of Fifa; Avenue,
with the additional vanities and frivolities of al
watering place. To the Atlantic cities it is well
known the war has been a golden harvest. Its glit-
ter
is nowhere more bewildering than here, where
the elite of each town come for a brief season of
emulous extravagance. My friends, however, would
fain persuade me that the welfare which I see
about me is as solid as it is widespread, no less real
than it is apparent; that, in short, all is gold that
glitters. " The Union is safe," they say, " and
confusion is sure to seize those croakers, be they
foreign or domestic, who entertained or expressed
any doubt as to its durability. The Northern armies
are everywhere victorious ; the South is exhausted,
discordant, despondent; worn out by famine and
high prices, disheartened by the downfall of all its
illasione about foreign aid and alliances. The con-
scription, however false and improvident a measure,
was a necessary one, and will work good, owing to
the loyalty, docility, and long endurance of the
people. Taxes aro paid cheerfully, eagerly (as I
may bear witness myself from personal observation,
as far at least as the Eastern cities are concerned),
free labour comes in like a fertilising tide, from
Europe ; the gaps made by enlistment and draughts
are filled up by new arrivals, agriculture and industry
ere kept up to the utmost strttch of activity. The
inexhaustible resources of the country allow produe
tion to keep pace with consumption ; the armament
of a million and a quarter of men, the equipment of
land and sea forces, weigh-no more on the strength
of America than a child on a giant's arms. The
peoyle here have faith in the destinies of the coun-
try; they value its paper currency as if it were
gold; nay, they would never again give it up for
very gold. They have no horror of a national debt
—nay, they look upon it as the greatest of blessings
—inasmuch as it affords them the means of safe in-
vestments, and rids them of the necessity they
hitherto laboured under of venturing their money
on every variety of private bubbles. Gold has been
falling in price for the last month or two; it will
be at par before we are many months older ; it will
be held of no greater value than mere dross. The
people will identify their destinies with those of the
State ; they will put up with the issue of greenbacks
to any amount. Nay, was there not an instance of
a man at Buffalo who refused to give up a forged
10 dol. note the other day, as the faith he had in the
Government was so great that he thought it would
honour all the paper issued in its name, whether it
was spurious or genuine ? " This civil war, which
threatened to be the ruin of the country, has turned
out the greatest of blessings, inasmuch as it has not
only brought all the energies of the country into
activity, and put the nation on its metal, but it has
placed the public credit on a basis which no panic
can affect, as
any loss arising from it must and will
actually be sustained by
the whole mass of the peo
ple." " Suppose " ,they say by way of explanation
of their theory,
"suppose the possibility of a rush
on the national Treasury. The panic as to the solidity
of one's own country cannot r
ate
rise
as suddenly
which might affect a venterprise.T ashe that
man
p
who happened to have his
hands fall of Government
Stock might, on a first suspicion
h of brewing mis-
chief, find it expedient to rid
loss say of 5 per cent. The man who pur-
chased of bim might also in turn
t be driven
b
to sell it at a further sacrifice,
this second
sale, were it even at a sacrifice of 10 but
cent., would
inflict upon him only the loss of 5, and so on ; even
were the stock to fall down to 10 or 51 it would be
fennd in the hands of people who would have
•
chased it at gradually reduced prices, and on whomr
the final loss would fall as lightly as it had done on
the previous holders."
These theories are not mine; nay, they come so
strange and novel upon me that I am sure I must
most imperfectly have expounded them ; the drift,
however, of all reasoning here is merely to prove
that war has hitherto wrought—that it is sureto work
—nothing but good to the con y,
ntr and that its up.
shot will be the reconstruction of the Union on a
more compact, satisfactory, and unshaken a basis
than it was before.
This conviction seems, to tell the plain truth, to
have struck very deep roots into the minds and
hearts of 99 out of every 100 individuals I happen
to meet here. There may be a vast amount of self-
delusion in all I hear ; there may be a great deal of
affectation and humbug, but such is the strain in
which people delight to talk here, not only the men
who declare themselves friendly to the Government,
but even those Democrats who think, or pretend to
think, that the conduct of Mr, Lincoln and his Cabi•
net since the opening of the war has been only one
tissue of the biggest blunders. " Many of those blun-
ders are
irreparable," they think, " Many will only
find a renitdy at the next general I t
e when
moderate and Conservative
from the brain-cracked
men shall take the power
fanatics who now wield it,
or influence the resolutionseßut the safety cf the country lies not in any set of
ableness to she law, in their epeople, on its amen-
almost superstitions inve
of
th sound, nnmcvable, and
e Constitution."

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r
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Numbers of persons who h
properties. .•
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m
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THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.

NEWCASTLE, Thursday.

Although there remain the three interesting excursions
to Cleveland, Allenheads, and Marsden Rock to be made
to-day, the business proper of the Association terminated
with the decree of adjournment to next September, which
was formally pronounced by Sir William Armstrong at the
general meeting of the Association which took place
yesterday.
The Mathematical Section was wholly occupied yesterday
in examining the models of some recent inventions. Three
barometers of peculiar construction were shown by Abbe
Moigno. The same gentleman exhibited some microscopic
crystals, cut by M. Dagron, in the manner proposed by Sir
David Brewster, together with specimens of telegraphic
fac- similes, produced by Casselli's method. Another of the
inventions shown was Professor Thompson's new electro•
meter—an instrument which, if it at all answers expecta-
tion, will be of great scientific value in any future balloon
ascent.
In the Chemical Section Dr. T. Wood read a paper " On
Oxidation by Ozone," showing that ozonised air was capa-
ble of supporting combustion more powerfully than common
air. Dr. M. Thomson submitted some remarks on "New
Zealand Lignites," and Dr. Richter Lead a lengthened paper
" On the Chemical and Physical Principles in connexion
with the Specific Gravity of Liquid and Solid Substances."
The Secretary, Mr. Stevenson, read a report on "Re-
searches on the FormatioL of Minerals. A model of a new
form of gas battery was exhibited by Mr. W. Symons ; and
a paper by Dr. F. L. Phipson, was read by the Secretary,
" On a New Methoi of measuring the Chemical Action of
the Sun's Rays." The Secretary also read another paper
by the same author, "On Musical Sounds produced by
Carbon."

A paper was given in, being the joint production of Dr.
Richardson and Mr. T. W. Bunning, on the "Uses of Fuel
in Marine Boilers." Dr, Richardson and Mr. Bunning had
been appointed to be present at certain experiments made
with Hartley and Welsh coal; and, to represent the dif-
ferent intensities of the smoke, it was found that while the
Hartley made 340 marks and the Welsh 40, an equal mix-
ture of the Hartley and the Welsh made only 1. Since these
experiments, Mr. Bunning has received a letter from the
chief engineer of the Prince Napoleon yacht, belonging to
Prince Jerome, in which that gentleman states, that for
ordinary running they used a mixture of one Hartley and
two of Welsh coal; if they wished to go at a greater speed
they used half Hartley and half Welsh; and when they
wanted to go at their greatest speed they used Hartley
entirely.
In the Geological Section, the first paper read was, "On
the Discovery of Rock Salt, at Middlesbro', in Cleveland,"
by Mr, John Marley. Some other papers of interest were
read.

In the Ethnological Section, papers were read by Mr.
Greenfield, on the " Extinction of Races ;" and by Mr.
Urawfurd, on the " Commixture of Races," and the "Origin
of Gypsies."